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a deep breath and held up a hand to stop Mel from speaking further. “You went… back … to his property? And you want me to do a job with you when you’re clearly suicidal!” She spoke the last bit in a harsh whisper.
    “I went back to get my scry stone,” Mel explained, “I had no way of knowing that there would be a hexed teenager on the premises.”
    She watched Krista in silence. The witch didn’t respond, but Mel could see the entire conversation happening behind her eyes. It was one of the benefits of knowing someone for more than twenty years. “What’s my guarantee that he doesn’t throw me in a dungeon or whatever the second we step into his territory?”
    Mel had to stop herself from smiling. Krista was in. “I’ve negotiated safe passage as part of the deal.”
    Krista stood up. “Then we’re wasting daylight.”
    The drive to Eagle Creek passed smoothly, and quietly. Each time Mel tried to start up conversation, Krista would change the radio station or turn up the volume. Except for one request to stop to use the bathroom, Krista kept her silence.
    Maya met the two women and led them inside. “Who is your friend?” she asked Mel.
    “I’m a consultant. My name is Krista, you don’t need to know anything else.” Krista smiled sweetly, and Mel decided to say nothing.
    “Actually, I need a lot more. Krista Anders, right? Witch, 31, daughter of Tina Anders, and suspected thief.” Maya ticked off the facts with a sense of glee.
    “If you knew, why did you ask?” Krista crossed her arms. “I’m here to do the job.”
    “This is my home. I don’t allow strangers.”
    A man cleared his throat. Mel smelled Luke and had to bite her lip to keep from grinning. What a strange reaction. What wasn’t strange was the languid desire that flowed through her. She was getting used to that. “Actually, it’s my home. Let them in, Maya.”
    Maya took a look at her alpha and stepped aside. Luke led them up two flights of stairs and down a hallway. Mel recognized it –  they were right next to his quarters. “Is Cassie alright?” she asked.
    Luke stiffened. “I wish you had come yesterday.”
     
    Luke led Mel and her friend into Cassie’s room. He thought the small woman was a witch. Who else would Mel call to help with a hex? And he couldn’t be certain, but it was a close enough thing. This woman had helped Mel rob him. And she had probably given his thief the teleportation charm that let Mel escape him when he chased her.
    And he had let them both into his house.
    If that made him foolish, so be it. He’d play the fool a hundred times to save Cassie.
    Neither woman reacted when he opened the door, at least, not in the extreme. He thought he saw Mel’s mouth pull tight to one corner, but he blinked and it was gone. There would be no hysterics from these two. They were consummate professionals, even if his only exposure to them involved being their victim.
    That meant they were good.
    “We had to cuff her early this morning.” Luke hadn’t asked where Maya got the fuzzy pink handcuffs. Or why she had a pair of fuzzy handcuffs modified to restrain a shapeshifter. A shapeshifter could have broken out of them with little trouble, but an eighteen year old human didn’t have the strength. And with her hands wrenched above her head she didn’t have the leverage either.
    Sweat plastered Cassie’s blonde hair to her face and her eyes seemed to burn with an almost red inner light. Though she was bound to the bed, she couldn’t stop moving. Right then she was almost calm, only squirming a little and not trying to break the hold of the cuffs. Even with the padding her wrists were bruised. She babbled a little when they came in, but the words made no sense, just random Spanish and English that formed no coherent thought.
    Luke looked at Mel and saw sympathy in her green eyes. That was something. “She stopped talking – well, saying anything that made sense – a few hours ago.”
    Krista took no