Courts and Cabals 2 by G.S. D'Moore (warren buffett book recommendations TXT) 📗

Even more unique to the man inhaling the scent of the Mercedes’ driver was that he was also a mage. Not a very powerful mage, but the physical prowess of his shifter species, mixed with the versatility of the arcane arts, made him a very dangerous man. Much more dangerous than the other man on the scene. A thought that made Vernon grin.

“Becky!” yelled Connor Wood, Becky Wood’s brother, US Fish and Wildlife Ranger, and much less common mountain lion shifter. “Becky!” his voice was tinged with panic.

“The Mercedes is clear,” Vernon’s calm Texas accent did nothing to ease Connor’s fear as he moved on to Becky’s jeep. Vernon could tell by the scent that she’d been in it recently, but the leaking gasoline was making her difficult to track.

Where the Mercedes was totaled, the sheriff’s jeep only had some rear panel damage. That did nothing to alleviate the knot of anxiety in his gut. Becky was his girlfriend, the girl he’d given up drinking and whoring for; which was saying a lot for the twenty-four-year-old who’d sampled booze and women from most of the continental United States, and several other countries.

It helped that Becky was one hell of a woman. A woman that was currently missing. Vernon walked out into the intersection and took a deep breath. Connor’s panic was clouding his judgement. The scent of fear was thickening the air, but Vernon wasn’t going to let his emotions get the best of him. He let his training take over.

“She was here,” he ignored Connor’s frantic pacing. Plenty of shell casings littered the ground in the middle of the intersection.

He studied the ground, and reverse engineered the crime scene. His eyes tracked the streaks of rubber on the ground, the scent of his girlfriend, and the other scents that mixed in the air.

“They were here less than ten minutes ago,” he concluded.

“Kidnapping?” was his first thought before quickly dismissing it. Becky was a hell of a woman for a reason. It didn’t matter who took her, she was more trouble than she was worth. An eight-foot-tall, half-lion, half-human killing machine was not something you could stuff in your trunk and drive off with.

“They could have executed her,” he dismissed that thought even quicker than the first.

Not only did he not want to think about her dead in a ditch somewhere, but he knew the people they were searching for. They might be powerful, but they were kids. Kids didn’t kill in cold blood; at least, most of them didn’t. The evidence in the interdimensional pocket he’d just investigate was filled with charred, dead bodies.

“Lying dead in a ditch,” he replayed the thought in his mind. Not for the dead part, but the ditch part.

He inhaled again. Becky’s scent suddenly disappeared from the mix, and judging by the Mercedes’ front end, it was perfectly reasonable that Becky’s massive shifted form could have caused the damage.

“Check the field,” he ordered.

He was moving, but Connor was closer. They both practically blurred into the field and found her in seconds.

“Silver,” Vernon hissed as he smelled the ancient curse of his species. “Not silverbane,” he breathed a sigh of relief.

The difference between silverbane and silver was critical. Plain silver was harmful, and even debilitating to weakened shifters, but their bodies would gradually sweat it out. Silverbane was enchanted silver, and it was deadly. It would work its way through their bloodstream, destroy their internal organs, and kill them quickly; but not quickly enough for them to avoid the agonizing torture of the substance burning them alive from the inside. The difference between silver and silverbane was a few days of miserable healing versus death.

Becky lay crumpled on the ground, badly injured. Just looking at her, he could tell the right side of her body was shattered: shoulder, ribs, hip, leg, all were deformed and crumpled. She was taking quick, shallow breaths as her body fought the silver and tried to heal. She wasn’t dead, but she was way too close for comfort.

“Don’t move her,” Vernon snapped as Connor tried to pick her up. The whimper that escaped her lips broke both men’s hearts.

Vernon got on his radio and called for an ambulance just as the rush of rotors announced the arrival of the Blackhawk. The military chopper, complete with protective wards and twin missile pods, carried the elite UN echelon team that was supposed to provide overwatch so the kids couldn’t escape. They did a piss-poor job.

Vernon made sure to get his anger in check as the chopper set down and the echelon team’s commander strode over to him. Vernon might be a special agent; an investigator and one-man SWAT team the UN used to take out low-to-mid level threats across the world; but he wasn’t echelon material. The UN called in echelon to take down warlords using magic to create drought and famine. The teams fought rogue mages who animated the dead to create armies of feral zombies. People who thought they were above the law got a visit from Vernon, people who knew they were above the law, and could flaunt it, got a visit from people like Commander Feng. Him and his people could knock them down a peg or two.

Vernon still had no idea what the hell the Commander was, but he watched the man’s fist phase out of reality, glow as hot as molten lava, and punch an interdimensional doorway like he was serving a no-knock warrant. He was way out of Vernon’s league, which was why Vernon was glad to have him on their side.

He might not be able to identify the Commander, but he did know what Charlotte was. The massive bear-shifter woman toted around a fucking minigun like it was her pride and joy, and she did it easier than most humans carried a pistol. They were the only two to exit