Protector (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 5) Read online

  Only because of the way Matías is able to mind-fuck her, Alex thought, and he frowned, turning over onto his back, since trying to fall asleep on his side clearly wasn’t going to work. And what was Matías’ deal with that, anyway, except getting his rocks off in addition to however he was using Danica to fuel his dark magic?

  But Caitlin had said she hadn’t seen any cuts on the Wilcox witch’s arms….

  Alex wasn’t sure what to make of that. Were they draining Roslyn first, and, once she was of no further use to them, would they move on to Danica? Possibly. He didn’t have a clue how that kind of magic worked, not when you got down to the real nuts and bolts of it, and he didn’t want to know. Any power that could be gained by participating in dark magic seemed to be canceled out by the damage it did to the magic-worker’s soul. It just wasn’t worth it.

  Except…Matías apparently thought it was.

  So what was his endgame? Surely he must know that provoking the de la Paz clan on its own territory — and involving the Wilcoxes and the McAllisters, too — wasn’t going to end well. The problem was, too many pieces of the puzzle were still missing. Alex knew that he and Caitlin would never be able to figure it out if they didn’t dig up some more of those pieces.

  Exactly how, he didn’t have a clue.

  * * *

  Bright morning sun peeking around the edges of the blinds told Caitlin that she’d managed to sleep the whole night through. More to the point, she hadn’t had any visions. Not even any dreams she could remember.

  What she did remember was the taste of Alex’s lips, the feel of his arms around her. A thrill ran through her body, warming her, making her positively tingle with need for him.

  Don’t, she told herself. You are not going there now. No way.

  She made herself get out of bed, then rummaged through her suitcase for some clean underwear and a fresh pair of jeans. A hot shower might help to clear her head. At the very least, it would get the day started, and she and Alex could decide what they wanted to do next. Something that didn’t involve jumping into bed together.

  Good luck with that.

  After peeking down the hallway to make sure the coast was clear, she hurried into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The water came on hot almost immediately, so unlike the bathroom she’d had to share with Danica back at their cramped little apartment. The landlords swore up and down that every unit had its own water heater, but Caitlin had her doubts.

  Anyway, it did feel good to shampoo her hair and get clean, not that she’d done much to exert herself the day before. When she emerged from the bathroom, she could smell the scent of coffee drifting down the hallway, and guessed that Alex was already up and dressed as well.

  Sure enough, he was in the kitchen, pouring himself some coffee. “Iced tea?” he asked her.

  “I’ll get it,” she said quickly. This was her second morning here, and she had no idea how long this stay might last. He certainly didn’t need to keep waiting on her hand and foot.

  He didn’t argue, but cradled the mug of coffee in his hands while Caitlin fetched a glass, got some ice out of the freezer door, and then poured some tea from the jug into the glass. After she was done, she glanced out the kitchen window. It seemed to be another bright day, although the sky was speckled here and there with high, thin clouds.

  “So,” she said, not quite able to meet his eyes. Goddess, she hoped this awkwardness would go away soon. How could she and Alex get anything accomplished if they kept trying to dodge what had happened between them the night before? And that had only been a kiss. What would have happened if they’d ended up in bed together?

  She decided she really didn’t want to think about that now.

  “So,” Alex said, and then he shot her an inquiring glance. “I assume there were no visions last night?”

  “Nothing,” she replied, not bothering to keep her disgust at herself out of her voice. “Not even a bad dream. So I don’t have anything new to offer.”

  He didn’t appear all that disappointed. “Well, the day is young. Let’s have some breakfast and worry about dreams and visions after our stomachs are full.”

  Since there didn’t seem to be anything else to do, she went along with him on that plan, nuking another breakfast burrito, grabbing the last banana after Alex insisted she have it. They were sitting at the breakfast bar and finishing the last of their food when the doorbell rang.

  “Are you expecting someone?” Caitlin asked, glancing at the clock on the microwave. Nine forty-five. A little early for visitors, but not horribly so.

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Alex replied. He hopped off his stool and headed for the front door, and Caitlin did the same, praying the visitor wasn’t Marie Begonie, returned to give the wayward McAllister witch the chewing-out she should have gotten the day before.

  But no, when Alex opened the door, Caitlin could see at once that the person outside wasn’t Marie. She’d never seen this man before — he looked to be in his late thirties or maybe early forties, Hispanic, not quite as tall as Alex, and definitely not as in shape. His rounded stomach was obvious even under the baggy bowling-style shirt he wore.

  “Miguel?” Alex said.

  Miguel. The private investigator from Mesa that Alex had mentioned the day before. What the heck was he doing here?

  “Morning, Alex.” The man’s dark eyes shifted from Alex to where Caitlin stood behind him. “Caitlin.”

  She started at his casual use of her name, and Miguel seemed to smile at her discomfiture.

  “Luz sent me. Can I come in?”

  “Sure,” Alex said, then stepped aside. Caitlin did the same, moving over so Miguel could enter the house. He went past them and on into the family room, seeming so familiar that she couldn’t help raising her eyebrows at Alex. Shrugging helplessly, he followed his cousin.

  “What’s up, Miguel?”

  The older man dug a piece of paper and a wad of bills out of the baggy khakis he wore, then handed the piece of paper to Caitlin. She blinked down at it in confusion when she realized it was her birth certificate.

  “Where the heck did you get this?”

  “Luz figured you’d like to have your I.D. back, so she contacted your parents and had them fax over a copy. Now you can take that to the motor vehicle office and get a replacement license.”

  Caitlin turned the paper over in her hands. This didn’t look like a fax. It looked like her actual birth certificate, right down to the fancy blue border and the watermark shaped like the state of Arizona.

  Once again, he seemed to detect her astonishment. “All right, so Luz might have cast a minor illusion spell on it so it would look right. But it’ll pass muster with the MVD. Just take care of it today, since the illusion won’t last forever.”

  Since she wasn’t sure what else to do, she nodded. At the same time, he gave her the folded-up wad of money, neatly rubber-banded together so it would be easy to carry.

  “And that’s five hundred dollars. Your parents wired that down as well.”

  She’d been worrying about having Alex pay for everything, but Caitlin hated the thought of her parents having to send her money. They helped out a little with her school costs, but she’d been paying for her own room and board, had supplemented her McAllister clan stipend by tutoring in English part-time and picking up some hours at one of the coffeehouses in downtown Flagstaff. All right, she’d been using money from all those sources and her other side project, the one nobody, not even Roslyn and Danica, knew about.

  “Thanks,” she said, realizing that she really should have called her parents yesterday sometime. Yes, her phone was gone, but she could’ve borrowed Alex’s. Well, the money would help to replace her phone and a few other necessary items, and she’d try to be as sparing as possible with the rest.

  Alex spoke up for the first time. “This is all great, Miguel, but why couldn’t my mother have just brought these things over herself? Why did she have you come all the way from Mesa to do it?”


  Miguel’s expression sobered abruptly. “Well, actually, she’s up in Scottsdale right now. Maya had a stroke last night.”

  “What?” Alex demanded, and Caitlin went very still, a shiver of cold running across her skin, even though it was warm enough in the house. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “Because she had about a hundred other things to take care of?” Miguel answered, his voice seemingly unruffled, although the way his brows pulled together told Caitlin he wasn’t too thrilled with Alex’s tone. “And I’m telling you now.”

  “How is she?”

  “As well as can be expected. Valentina went up to assist Manuela, and the two of them got her stabilized, were able to stop the bleeding in her brain. She’s very weak, though, and doesn’t seem able to speak.”

  Alex let out a small, tortured sound, not even a groan, and Caitlin wished she could go to him, put her arms around him and give him a comforting hug. But since she wasn’t sure how well that would go over with Miguel, instead she stayed where she was, that same icy fear seeming to move inward, snaking its way through every vein. Foreboding…but what was its source? Was it only her worry about what would happen if Maya took a turn for the worse?

  Looking uncomfortable, Miguel went on, “They’re watching her carefully. If they can’t keep her stabilized, they’re prepared to move her to a hospital. But we’re all hoping that won’t be necessary. Besides, since I was coming down here anyway to check out the neighborhood where the kidnapping took place, ask around a bit, I volunteered to bring these things over to Caitlin.”

  “Thank you,” she said again. “I appreciate it. And I’m very sorry about Maya.”

  “She’s tough. She’s survived worse than this,” Miguel remarked, somewhat cryptically.

  No way was Caitlin going to ask about that comment. Not with Alex looking stricken, and somehow pale and pinched beneath the usual warm brown of his skin. He did seem to gather himself enough to say, “I’m glad you’re following up on that, Miguel. So you’ll call me if you find out anything?”

  “Oh, I’ll find out something,” Miguel said. “Just a question of when. I’ll be in touch.” He looked over at Caitlin and added, “Very nice to meet you, Caitlin.”

  Then he went out. His footsteps seemed to echo on the travertine floors, and then a moment later, she heard the front door shut. She looked over at Alex, who hadn’t moved.

  “Are you okay?” she asked at last. “I’m really sorry — ”

  “It’s all right,” he cut in. His tone was more brusque than she’d ever heard it before, but she thought she understood why. “Miguel was right — Maya is tough. And in the meantime, we’ve got stuff we need to do.”

  All right, so he didn’t want to talk about it. She knew it was probably best not to push things, so she nodded. “Okay. Let’s go to the MVD and get me street-legal.”

  She wished he would smile.

  But he didn’t.

  12

  Things went fairly quickly at the motor vehicle department, all things considered. The whole time they were waiting, Alex tried as hard as he could not to think about his grandmother, about what she must be going through right now. She’d always been so strong, so vital. These last months had been brutal enough, but with this stroke? What if it turned out she couldn’t ever speak again? What if she were paralyzed? What would the clan do then? When a prima passed away, it was one thing. Time-honored mechanisms were in place to ensure a more or less uneventful transfer of power. But when the head of a clan was incapacitated…that made things far more complicated.

  Funny how the more you told yourself not to think about something, the more your brain just kept grinding away at it.

  Caitlin seemed to sense his inner turmoil, but, unlike a lot of girls he knew, she didn’t try to make him talk. That was one thing about Lana that had finally driven him nuts; she’d never been able to leave things alone, always wanted to keep picking at him to find out what he was thinking. His own fault for dating a psych major, he supposed, but it was still annoying as hell. Caitlin, however, couldn’t have been more different. She sat next to him as she waited for her number to be called, but she was quiet, watching the people around them, letting out a soft sigh every once in a while when the toddler with the woman in the next row of chairs let out a particularly ear-piercing scream.

  No, even the most efficient motor-vehicle office wasn’t exactly a day at the playground.

  Eventually, Caitlin’s number was called, and she went off with her magically altered birth certificate and story about how her purse was stolen at a club, and that was why she needed a replacement license. At least she’d be issued a new one right away without having to wait weeks.

  Alex watched her, saw the way she smiled and chatted with the tired-looking woman at the processing window, and despite everything, he found himself falling for her even harder. Caitlin was going through her own hell, and yet there she was, somehow managing to act as if nothing more horrible than a stolen purse had happened to her over the past few days.

  And then she was coming toward him, flashing her new driver’s license and smiling. It was a subdued smile, as if out of respect for the blow he’d just suffered, but he could practically feel the relief pulsing from her.

  “Great photo,” he said, and found a smile of his own tugging at his lips. Might as well find the enjoyment he could in the little things. And she did look great in her photo.

  “You think?” she asked, and angled the license toward herself so she could scrutinize it more closely. “I guess it’s not too bad. I was squinting like hell in my old one, so maybe Matías did me a favor by making me leave my purse behind in that house.”

  That might be going a little too far, but Alex didn’t bother to contradict her. He could tell she was, like him, trying to make the best of the situation. Getting up from the uncomfortable plastic chair where he’d been sitting, he asked, “Well, now that you’re legal again and have some cash, is there anything else you need? We might as well take care of it while we’re out.”

  She seemed to consider for a few seconds, head tilted to one side. “Probably a new purse and wallet, at least. I tend to overpack, so I brought enough clothes for five days. I suppose I could get a few things, just in case.”

  “You can always do laundry at my house,” he offered, and she sent him a grateful smile.

  “I might have to take you up on that. But in the meantime, if you know someplace to take me shopping that won’t break the bank, that would be great.”

  Actually, he’d already been thinking of taking her to Nordstrom Rack, partly because it was on the way home, and partly because she could get decent stuff there while making her money stretch a little further. He suggested the store, and she nodded.

  “Sounds great.” To his surprise, she got up on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. By then they were out in the parking lot, standing next to the Pathfinder while he dug his keys out of his pocket. A wave of warmth went over him, and in that moment, the world looked just a little bit better than it had a few moments earlier.

  He’d wait to see how long that lasted.

  * * *

  Caitlin hurried as best she could at Nordstrom Rack, which was difficult because she’d never gone on one of her clan’s shopping trips to Phoenix and therefore didn’t have more than a fuzzy idea of what she was getting into. The local Walmart it most definitely was not.

  But Alex had already spent almost an hour with her at the MVD, and so dawdling here while looking at the dizzying array of tops and jeans and sweaters and accessories was not really being fair to him, especially when he’d just gotten such awful news about his grandmother. True, people bounced back from strokes every day, and Maya had not one, but two healers looking after her. Even so, Caitlin had no intention of making things worse by going on a crazy shopping spree. Well, semi-crazy. Five hundred bucks sounded like a lot of money to her, but she knew it could go very quickly if she wasn’t careful.

  So, a c
ute pale blue wallet marked down to ten bucks, and a very cool bone-colored suede purse with silver studs for the unbelievable close-out price of only thirty dollars, and then a couple of extra pairs of underwear and a new bra, just in case. All right, so she chose pretty, flirty pieces in nude satin trimmed with pale pink ribbons, but they were also way marked down, so no one could accuse her of not being practical. And if she was thinking about Alex possibly seeing her in them, well, who could blame her? She hadn’t forgotten about Roslyn and Danica, nor about Maya…but she also hadn’t forgotten that kiss she’d shared with Alex the night before. Might as well be prepared.

  Luckily, he’d gone off to the men’s shoe department, mumbling something about taking a look around. Caitlin sort of doubted he really needed anything. More likely he was making sure he stayed far out of the way, just in case she did end up buying some “unmentionables.” Which she had, so thank the Goddess for his discretion.

  Eventually, he caught up with her just as the clerk was handing over her bag of goodies.

  “Find everything you needed?” he asked, stepping ahead slightly so he could open the door for her.

  “I did — thanks.” When they got to the car, she’d get out the wallet and tuck her new license and what remained of the five hundred dollars into it. For now, they were both just shoved into the pocket of her jeans.

  They stopped at the rear of the SUV so Alex could open it up and stow her bag inside. Just as she was handing it to him, a strange droning sound seemed to pound through her head. At the same time, the busy parking lot around them tilted, flickered, and then shifted, changing into another scene entirely. Caitlin retained just enough of herself to put out a hand and lay it on the Pathfinder’s side, the metal the only thing anchoring her to the here and now.

  Because she could feel the vehicle, but she couldn’t see it. Instead, she was in another small, dim room. Daylight tried to peek around the cheap roller blind that blocked the window but wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Caitlin could see her arms, but they weren’t her arms — these arms had a faint tan, whereas she had the true redhead skin, the kind that burned and then peeled, and stayed ferociously pale. More than that, the arms she saw now wore bandages in various places, and in between those bandages were the long, angry red lines of scabbed-over cuts.