Mad Stone

“This is a bad idea,” David said, his tone as flat as the gunmetal grey his eyes had gone. We were both in the back seat of Zach’s car, now parked at our destination. A limo would’ve been too out of place at biker bar.

“I don’t like it much myself, but we’re short on time and options,” I pointed out. I adjusted the zipper on my black leather jacket and flexed my feet in the steel-toed boots I wore. I’d already tested the give in my jeans by doing a couple of high kicks before getting in the car; pants that were too restrictive to fight in no longer belonged in my wardrobe.

“She said she’d talk to Chandra if she came in alone,” Zach said from the driver’s seat. “If one of us goes with her, we might not only lose a shot at the stone, we could find ourselves with a new set of enemies. We don’t want to provoke them by seeming aggressive on their home turf.”

“What you said,” I nodded at Zach, and tried to project confidence at David. “Besides, compared to psychotic rogue shapeshifters, how bad can a few hairy guys with leather fetishes be?”

“Bad,” David stated.

“I have a black belt in Kenpo,” I said, as much to make myself feel better as to reassure David. I sent a silent thanks to my adoptive father for enrolling me in martial arts at age five.

“Which will not help you against bullets.”

“No, but unless they’re packing silver, I’ll live.” I twisted to peer at Zach. “Do you think they’re packing silver?”

Zach was silent for a beat longer than I expected. “Probably not.”

I ran my fingers through my hair and bit back curses. “How does a biker gang know about us, anyway?” Angelica had known exactly who I was when she returned my call, and our first conversation hadn’t led me to expect the beginning of a beautiful friendship when I showed up to meet her at the bar.

“She is a witch,” Zach reminded me.

“I thought she was probably a fake.”

“Look on the bright side. Since she’s the real thing, she’s much more likely to have a powerful stone.”

“Yes, but will she give it to us?” That was the big question, and we weren’t going to get an answer until I got out of the car and went inside.

“I guess that depends on you.” Zach’s eyes met mine, and I knew he hated that every bit as much as David did. Maybe more, since it went against his alpha nature to sit and wait while his mate went into danger. When this was all over, I was going to have some major beast-soothing to do.