Read Online All Your Wishes by Cat Adams - Free Book Online Page B

ill grace, he continued.
    â€œBeing the Guardian gives me access to certain … reserves of strength and magical power I can call upon in an emergency. I have access to enough power that trapping Hasan should be well within my capabilities.”
    â€œEven with the bad guys running interference?”
    â€œEven so.”
    I didn’t believe him, not after what I’d seen with my own eyes at the casting circle in my parking lot. Granted, his enemies had caught him by surprise. Next time he’d be prepared. But I didn’t like it. Not one itty bitty bit.
    Rahim could tell I was skeptical and that pissed him off, which put paid to my getting any additional information from him—and to any other topic of conversation, for that matter. We ate in record time, in less than amicable silence, and shared an equally quiet trudge back to the jet, where he repeated every step of the preflight inspection that he’d performed before we left California.
    I probably should’ve been reassured when he found nothing wrong and we took off without incident. Instead, I got even more tense. The bad guys weren’t stupid. They were bound to make a move. If they didn’t strike at Midland, then Treasure Island was a safe bet. So I decided to rest up, and dozed for several hours. We were in Florida air space when we hit heavy turbulence. I bounced around in my seat despite the seat belt and had to swallow hard to keep the food I’d eaten from making a second appearance.
    It was only spitting rain in Tampa, but there were heavy gusts of wind, which would make a smooth landing impossible for even the best pilot. Rahim brought us down safely and while I did not kiss the ground upon leaving the plane, I really did think about it. Rahim smirked about that.
    Despite the rain, I made sure to slather myself with sunscreen before climbing down from the plane to check the area. Once that was done, Rahim passed our luggage down before joining me on the tarmac. He folded up the retracting steps, retriggered the latent security spells, and locked the plane in the private hangar he’d rented, while the wind drove the sprinkling of rain so hard that the drops stung as they struck my skin. I could smell the ocean in the distance, even over the scents of oil and gasoline, but didn’t see any gulls dotting the leaden skies. Usually, if I was anywhere near the sea, I quickly accumulated a seagull or two, thanks to my siren heritage. Then again, they might have gone to ground due to the heavy winds.
    Rahim was carrying a large-ish black duffel and his doctor’s bag. I had a weapons bag and a pale blue, wheeled carry-on that had seen better days. It held toiletries, changes of underwear, a couple of fresh blouses, and a couple of pairs of pants. I’d packed a lot of sunscreen. Still, the weapons that really mattered to me were on my person: My guns, and more importantly, my knives.
    Thinking of the knives reminded me of the man who made them. Even though we’d broken up after college, he’d sliced himself every day for five years, shedding blood and working magic, to create weapons that qualified as major magical artifacts. He did that because a clairvoyant had told him they would save my life. They were my most prized possessions and were capable of incredible things. Just a scratch from one of those knives could kill most magical creatures.
    Bruno had put so much of himself into those knives that they were practically a part of him. He could sense when they needed a recharge without even looking at them.
    The blades were beautiful and dangerous—just like the man.
    I missed him. I was worried about him. A big part of me wished I’d insisted on going to New Jersey along with him. If I had, I’d know how he was taking things and I wouldn’t be here, dealing with a case that was an obvious hairball. But when I’d offered, he’d turned me down. If I was being really honest with