Mackenzie handed him his shirt and slid past him to kneel in front of her own bag. Jackson tried to slow his breathing and focus. "I'm already gone. If you don't hear from me in a week, talk to Alec. Tell him I owed you, big time. He'll take care of it."

"Okay, Holt. Just be careful. You pay me too much to end up dead."

"Will do, Dade." He closed the phone with cold fingers and tossed it on the bed while he tugged on his jeans. "How much of that did you catch?"

She'd already pulled on a pair of slacks and was adjusting the strap of her bra. "All of it, I think. Can we get out of here without Alec hearing us?"

"Not likely." He stepped closer and pulled her body to his. "But, since we're going to steal his car, I'd better make it work." Jackson closed his eyes and mumbled the Latin words that comprised one of the first incantations Mahalia had taught him. A wave of magic swept over them both, and he lifted his lids. "Don't scream or slam any doors, and we'll get out." We have to. For all their sakes.

Mackenzie rocked up on her toes and kissed him once, hard. Then she s.n.a.t.c.hed a plain black T-shirt and jerked it over her head. With her shoes in one hand and her duffle bag in the other, she nodded to him. "Let's go."

They crept down the hall, and Jackson took Alec's keys from the hall table. He handed them to Mackenzie. "Go. I need to leave a note, at least. Tell him we're okay."

She nodded, and he grabbed the notepad by the extension phone. It took him only seconds to scribble a few words.

Dade said Talbot was going to kill us all, so gather everyone and be on the lookout. Hopefully, we've fixed it by leaving. Sorry about the car, but this is important.

He left the note on the pad and closed the door gently.

Inside Alec's SUV, he laid his hand on the dash and repeated the charm before starting the engine. "We can get as far away as we can in a couple of hours and do the binding spell."

Mackenzie pulled something out of her bag. It was a small charm, one that looked like the talismans Mich.e.l.le and Mahalia had created to get by Charles's wards. "I brought this too. I remembered how everyone kept talking about how you could track someone. This is the charm Charles made. I thought you could use it to find him."

He tried to smile. "Good thinking. I can use it."

"We can do this, Jackson." She dropped the charm into the console between them and reached out to touch his leg. "We're going to do it."

"Yeah." He headed for I-10 and covered her hand with his. "Yeah, we are."

Chapter Twenty-Five.

Mackenzie dumped the takeout containers on their motel room's tiny, scratched table and stretched her arms over her head. "Okay. Let's eat and you can explain to me how this works."

Jackson double-checked his notepad and the small bags of herbs in front of him. "Not much to explain. Like May said, it's a fairly simple spell. The tricky part is finding someone willing to go along with it."

"Uh-huh." Even though they'd been sitting for the last few hours, she sank into a chair and reached for the box of chicken fingers. "So you're going to do something that sort of makes us one person. But it won't kick in until I shift forms?"

"Right. When you shift, the spell will take effect. You won't be able to shift back until I release you."

She nibbled distractedly on the chicken, but most of her earlier appet.i.te had fled. "But I'll be me, right? I mean, I won't be a wild animal."

"You'd have to stay in cougar form without shifting back for a long, long time before you started to lose touch with your human side like that."

"Okay. So, you hold the spell." She tossed the chicken finger down and said the one thing they'd been avoiding. "And I kill him."

"h.e.l.l, no." Jackson leaned back in his chair. "I do the spell and then shoot his a.s.s. Or give him a convenient heart attack, or any number of cool things I'll probably be able to do as a temporary Seer. You're my backup, sweetie, not the brute force."

Her temper flared and she curled her fingers around the arms of her chair in an attempt to keep from tangling them in his shirt. "Well that just seems downright stupid, Jackson, since I've got a lot more brute force than you do right about now."

"You absolutely do, and we might need it. But unless we do, I want you as far away from this s.h.i.t as possible. I don't know how practiced Talbot is with fighting as a cat. One lucky swipe at you, and he could take us both down."

It was logical, even reasonable. But every instinct in her body protested that she needed to fight. She needed to protect Jackson, because he was hers. She closed her eyes. Her fingers hurt as she slowly uncurled them from the arms of the chair. "Okay, I'll be backup. But you're not stashing me somewhere. We're doing this together."

When she opened her eyes he gave her a lopsided grin. "Wouldn't do me much good not to bring my backup to the fight, darlin'."

She didn't want to laugh, but she couldn't help it. "Fine. You cast the spell, you shoot him, and we go home before Alec and Mahalia track us down and kill us."

He rubbed a hand over his forehead and stared at the notebook on the table. "At this point, I'm looking forward to the angry yelling. It'll mean we won."

"Yeah, I'll remind you of that when Nick finds out about what we did." Just please be alive to yell at us. She sipped her own soda. It was room temperature and flat, but it helped her suddenly dry mouth. "We should do it. Now. So we can figure out a backup plan in case it doesn't work."

"It'll work." His retort seemed almost automatic. "But we may as well do it. Once we have the spell in place, I can use that talisman to locate Talbot. Then we'll go find the b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Mackenzie closed the box of food, shoved it aside and pushed the table aside for good measure. She rose from her chair and crossed the s.p.a.ce between them in one step. "Kiss me first." In case something happens. "Kiss me, Jackson. Promise me we're going to go home after this and do normal things like go on actual dates."

Jackson pulled her onto his lap. "Dates. Bowling and bad movies and maybe, if Nicky and Gabriel get their s.h.i.t figured out, a couple of double-dates. I promise." He stroked her hair back from her forehead and brushed his lips over hers. "I promise."

"Good." She whispered the word against his lips, tilted her head to kiss him, long and deep and desperate. Jackson met her need with his own, twining his tongue with hers, one hand splayed across her back and the other wrapped in her hair.

Finally, he broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. "Still want to do this?"

No. "Yes. I trust you."

He patted her leg. "All right. Open the window, okay?"

Mackenzie slipped from his lap with one last kiss. The motel they'd found wasn't a high-cla.s.s establishment, had in fact been chosen based on its willingness to accept cash and no names. At some point someone had painted over the window, and she braced herself and shoved as hard as she could.

The window flew up with a dangerous rattle, and a crack webbed across the corner of the gla.s.s. "s.h.i.t. I keep forgetting."

"We'll leave them some extra money when we go." Jackson opened two of the plastic bags and shook some of the dried herbs onto a sheet of aluminum foil. It looked like something out of a Hollywood movie about drugs, especially when he pulled a lighter from his pocket and set the green mounds ablaze. "Come here."

The smell threatened to overwhelm her from ten feet away. She wrinkled her nose and tried to breathe through her mouth. "Okay, that's not going to make me high, is it?"

"It's hyssop and meadowsweet," he murmured, "moistened with a little lavender infusion to make it smudge. You won't get high, but your eyes will burn. It can't be helped."

She watched smoke waft from the pile of herbs on aluminum foil. "So what do I have to do?"

"Just...concentrate on me." He held up his hands, his palms toward her. "Put your hands on mine and focus on me."

In spite of her conviction and trust, her hands trembled. They looked tiny compared to Jackson's, delicate and pale and incapable of containing the kind of strength they held now. She pressed her palms to his and drew in a breath when she felt his energy tickle against her. "I-I can feel the magic-"

"Shh." He closed his eyes with a deep inhalation and whispered, "Geminare." A faint golden light flared between their palms and settled into a steady glow. Jackson looked at her. "Breathe."

She inhaled instinctively, and the light between them disappeared. "Is that-"

"It? Yeah." He dropped his hands and glanced over at the table and the smoldering herbs. "For now. But that was just the groundwork. The real fireworks should happen when we activate the connection."

"Which I do by shifting." She glanced at her T-shirt and slacks. "I'm going to put on something easier to get out of, in case I have to do it in a hurry. I can't forget Steven's cautionary tale of the cougar trapped in underwear."

Jackson's faint smile vanished. "Yeah, probably not the best plan of action."

She watched as he picked up a bottled water and extinguished the herbs. His shoulders were set in a stiff line, and he heaved a sigh before turning to face her. "Did Mahalia make you feel bad? I should have asked before."

"No, she tried real hard not to, but G.o.d, Jackson. Under the circ.u.mstances, I wouldn't blame her if she hated me."

"She doesn't." He sank into the chair again and rubbed his hands over his face. "I think she always thought there'd be time for them. Now she doesn't have that. It's not you."

There was a lesson to be learned from that, too. Mackenzie pulled a pair of loose cotton shorts and a tank top from the duffle, both of which she could wiggle out of in seconds. She shucked the T-shirt and reached back to unhook her bra. "I just hate knowing I'll always be a reminder," she whispered as she pulled on the tank top. "That she'll be unhappy when she sees me."

"She won't." He nodded toward the dresser. "The amulet?"

"Yeah, I dropped it next to the TV." She kicked off her pants and underwear, tugged on the shorts, and tried not to imagine what she'd look like if she changed before she managed to get out of her clothing. A cougar in cute pajamas. Charles can laugh himself to death.

Jackson raised an eyebrow as he snagged the talisman from the scarred surface of the TV stand. "Good thing it's warm out." He sat on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath. "This'll only take a minute."

"Mmm." She folded her clothes haphazardly and shoved them into her bag. "Don't get distracted by how naked I am under my teeny-tiny shorts."

"I'll try," he murmured absently, already intent on his task. After several seconds, his fingers clenched around the wooden disk. A shudder wracked him, and he almost slid off the end of the bed.

"Jackson?" Mackenzie closed her fingers around his shoulder. His entire body had gone stiff, and his muscles trembled under her hand. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

His eyes shot open. "No." He grunted and grabbed his head as magic slashed tangibly through the room, stealing her breath. "He's-"

The door flew open, flew outward as if someone had torn it from its frame. Mackenzie stared in shock as it landed in the parking lot with a deafening crash.

Dust billowed up from the dirty sidewalk, and Charles waved a hand as he stepped through the open doorway. A small smile, devoid of any real feeling, curled his lips as he looked at Jackson. "The backlash from a location spell can be painful if your target happens to be standing outside."

Jackson's eyes locked on hers as he reached for his ankle. "Now, Kenzie."

There wasn't time to take off the clothes. Mackenzie closed her eyes, reached for the power inside her- -and found herself blocked.

Her eyes flew open when Charles laughed again. "Not right now, dear." He flicked his fingers in an absent gesture, and a solid wave of power slammed into her so hard it knocked the wind out of her. She barely realized her feet had left the ground, not until the solid bulk of the wall crashed against her back. Pain arced through her as her head cracked into the aged wallpaper, and the last thing she saw before blackness overtook her was Charles's tiny, chilling smile.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

f.u.c.k.

Jackson watched Mackenzie slump to the floor. His head pounded from the backlash, but he edged off the bed and toward her. If he could reach her, rouse her somehow...

"Did she lose consciousness? That's a pity." Charles walked into the ratty motel room, and a wave of malevolent power washed over Jackson. "I suppose she's not as st.u.r.dy as I thought."

Jackson lunged for Mackenzie's p.r.o.ne body. Charles clucked his tongue and Jackson froze, his muscles shaking and rigid. Rage washed through him, and his trembling worsened. "Let me go, you son of a b.i.t.c.h."

"Temper, temper, Mr. Holt. I don't want to hurt you. Not yet." The invisible force of Charles's magic knocked Jackson back onto the bed. "I'm afraid it's probably inevitable, though. Your death is the only lesson harsh enough to teach Mackenzie her place. Unfortunately she needs to be awake to learn it."

Jackson reached inside, but his ready supply of magic had been drained by the joining spell and the fouled-up locator spell. Not that it would do a d.a.m.n bit of good, Holt. He inched his hand toward his ankle holster. "Her place in what, Talbot? Carrying on your life's work? Marcus is long gone."

"Do you think he'll be any harder to find than you were?"

Jackson shook his head. "I wasn't talking about geography. He won't go along with it. Not anymore."

A crack appeared in Charles's calm facade, revealing a hint of madness. His hands shook as he curled them into fists, and the power in the room swelled. "He won't have a choice. If he refuses..." He smiled suddenly. "Mackenzie is indispensable. Marcus is not."

Realization stunned Jackson. "Another kid made it." Anger gripped him, along with a fresh wave of what he'd known in his gut even before he'd watched Steven die. He won't stop. He won't ever stop.

"We got two boys before our sweet little Jessica came along." Charles looked at Mackenzie again and all the man's barriers fell away, showing a terrifying pride and possessiveness. "She's my greatest accomplishment. And you can't have her."

Jackson bit the inside of his cheek to hold back his retort. As long as the old man's attention remained on Mackenzie, he had a chance. His fingers again crept toward his holster. Don't blow it, Holt- Mackenzie groaned softly, a pained noise that made his chest tighten. Charles took a step forward, his gaze locked on her. "I'm sorry it has to be this way," he murmured. "You forced me, Jessica. Forced me to do this to you."

With Charles's back to him, Jackson took the opportunity to s.n.a.t.c.h his gun from its holster with numb, nerveless fingers. He thought he might drop it, but his arm didn't waver as he aimed at the broad expanse between Charles's shoulders and fired.

Light and magic flared even as the muzzle flash faded, and searing pain tore through Jackson's leg. "f.u.c.k!"

Charles glanced over his shoulder at the bullet wound in Jackson's thigh, and sighed as if Jackson had done something terribly inconvenient. "Why do you persist in these ineffectual shows of defiance? Your wolves couldn't stop me. Your Seer couldn't stop me. What advantage do you think you have they didn't?"

Through the haze of pain, Jackson saw Mackenzie's eyes flutter open. She met his gaze and dug her teeth into her lower lip as her face screwed up in concentration. She shimmered, and for a brief second he caught a glimpse of a cat tangled in the skimpy clothes she'd pulled on.

The power hit him.

The wave of sheer strength that washed over him was staggering. It dwarfed everything magical he'd ever felt, from the smallest glamour to the most involved, multilayered spell, and he laughed. The blood welling between his fingers seemed inconsequential, meaningless.

A bullet can't kill me.

Another laugh bubbled out of him, and he looked at Charles. "I think the odds just evened out."

Charles blinked at him, confused incomprehension fading into shocked realization and, for just a moment, a hint of fear.

Even with Mich.e.l.le's halting description of what it felt like to force a change on someone, it should have been harder. Jackson shouldn't have been able to so easily command the magic racing through him, to turn and focus it on Charles Talbot. To use it against him.

But it was terrifyingly simple.

The Seer glinted, blurred as the magic curled around him. For several tense seconds Charles battled it, but the power of the spell plowed through the Seer's attempts at resistance with an ease that left Jackson breathless. Charles's human form slid away, leaving an aged, angry cougar in its place. He fought the confines of his clothing, and Jackson slumped back against the wall as nausea swept over him. A wall of misery stronger than any magic hangover he'd ever had crashed in on him, obnoxious and suffocating, and he struggled to stay conscious as a snarl of challenge echoed through the room.

Mackenzie sent her most heartfelt thanks to Steven for his parable of the underwear-entangled cougar as she tore free of her tank top and lunged across the room. Charles struggled, his front legs tangled in his ripped shirt. She barreled into his side and knocked him over, but a quick twist of his body sent her tumbling past him before she could pin him down.

She scrambled to regain her footing and found him biting at the tattered shirt. He was wiggling out of the clothing more quickly than she'd thought possible, destroying her initial advantage.