Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up 4)

Austin pulled into a spot directly in front, next to the sign reading “owner.” “The larger ones. Kingsley and Sebastian both said mages often think shifters are the animals they turn into. That we live in filth, don’t have money, don’t have a sense of status or the ability to play politics, don’t have class…”

“You’re going to rub their faces in it.”

“Yes, I am.” He grinned at me before grabbing the door handle. “And I’m going to scare the ever-loving shit out of them while I’m at it.”

I pulled a vial of pink revealing potion from my clutch and drank it. “Do you want one?”

“Not at the moment. I’ll let you know if I think I need it.”

“Did the other shifters take it?”

“Those who’ve already shifted have, but Kingsley wanted to see if his people that are out in plain view could sense the lurkers. They all have a vial on their person, though, so if they need it, they have it.”

In the weeks leading up to this visit, Sebastian had been testing the shifters in every way he could think of. His findings had made him even warier of shifters, something that, conversely, increased his delight in them. With a superior ability to hear and smell, and sometimes even a preternatural sense for foreign presences, the shifters weren’t hindered by most concealing spells. Not all shifters were created equal, of course, but Kingsley’s team and those Austin had selected to help with this endeavor were better than most. Still, shifters already in their animal form would have a hard time taking a potion without hands. Better to be safe than sorry.

Austin exited the car and adjusted his suit jacket before sauntering around to my door. After opening it, he bent to help me out of the car. He shut the door behind me and slipped his hand into his pocket, bending his other arm for me. His face was stern as his gaze zipped around the edges of the parking lot.

Figures stood near the trees, still as statues, silent as the grave. I couldn’t see their faces within the shadow.

“Vampires,” Austin murmured, escorting me to the top of the red carpet and stopping. Kingsley’s eyes darted over. His very slight movements communicated something. Austin made no movements to answer that I saw or felt. “Younger ones, by the smell of it. Cheap labor. Not as dangerous.”

The limos transporting my team stopped in front of the walkway, one at a time. The driver of the first opened the door, and Cyra climbed out, stumbling a little. The driver held out his hand, but she waved him away. She stepped to the side, sucked in a breath, and then sneezed, throwing her hands wide as she did so. Fire blew out of her mouth and nose. A shock wave of heat shed from her skin, not bothering her dress.

“Cover your mouth,” Hollace said, standing beside and a little behind her, clasping his hands in front of him like the shifters were doing.

“I don’t spread germs.”

“Fire snot is still gross.”

Niamh took her place beside and a little behind Hollace, forming the beginnings of a diagonal line. She was uncharacteristically quiet, staring straight ahead with her hands at her sides. She didn’t have a quip for her neighbors or even seem to notice the lurkers around the area. I’d given the revealing potions to everyone, so she’d see them all, but she didn’t appear to notice or care.

“What’s wrong with Niamh?” I asked, feeling anticipation through the link.

My vision wobbled and hazed over, the potion taking effect, and a few more figures popped into the area, one out near the limos, a couple milling around in the open spaces between the building and the trees, and a few waiting off to the left, on the other side of the walkway from the shifters, giving Austin and me a wide berth. Only one invisible mage waited near the line of shifters, near the front corner of the building. He shifted and fidgeted often, and I wondered if he’d managed to deaden his noise and smell as well as his visual footprint. If not, he was not even close to invisible to that line of lethal shifters. Nor could he run fast enough if they decided to attack.

“Niamh’s playing a role, like all of us.” Austin continued to wait patiently, no longer looking around the area. “Well…” He looked down at me, smiling. “Maybe not like you.”

“You’re going to allow yourself to smile?” I whispered.

“To you? Yes. To this visiting party? Only if I am silently promising to kill them.”

Edgar was the last out of the second limo, and upon seeing the vampires waiting around the restaurant at the tree line, he puffed into a swarm of insects and zipped to his position behind them.

“Even Edgar has a role to play, and he just showed that he is the most lethal vampire on these grounds,” Austin murmured, his voice so low that I barely made out the words. “Hopefully he remembers not to speak and ruin the illusion.”