They spoke for a while longer until Dominic got called away. Meriel was at an evening meeting of this or that committee. He’d gotten used to her being in the club with him and felt her absence sorely. Her schedule was the opposite of his so meshing their time would be a challenge. But one he wasn’t afraid to take on.

It had been several days since the ascension and there’d been no more strange incidences with feeling watched. Nell and Gage were working with the witches down in records to figure out the scrying angle. Meriel had shown him the spell they needed to perform to render anyone invisible to a scry. At least they had that much.

He walked out of his office and headed down the long hall, away from the club. He needed to check the stock. He had staff to do this for him, but he liked to handle it himself too. No one could run the place better than he could.

As evidenced by the low number of full bottles of top-shelf tequila. It was a favorite back in the Others portion of the bar. He made a note and left it on Simon’s desk.

Movement at the back door got his attention. As he moved toward it, alarm slammed into his system. Power built up in his belly and somewhere he knew she felt it too. Knew his alarm raced through her across town at her meeting. He’d have to call her when this was over just to reassure her.

“What the hell are you doing out here?” he asked the man standing near the loading dock. “No employee smoking where clientele can see you.”

The icy claws of someone else’s magick dug into him. A dark, oily energy that slithered through him. Poisonous. It drew his energy from his body. The pain of it like a thousand sharp pins.

Not magick, no, this was not natural at all.

The mage made a very big mistake and stepped in closer to take a better look at Dominic where he’d slumped against the door. And when he got close enough, Dominic whipped his fist out and slammed it into the mage’s jaw, sending him backward, reeling down the steps and onto the asphalt below. His magick might have been crippled by the spell, but his fist hadn’t been.

“You stupid motherfucker.” Dominic kicked the mage in the side and then used his magick to hold him in place. “Simon, out back, now,” he barked into his phone.

But even as he heard the thomp, thomp, thomp of Simon’s boots as he ran toward them, Dominic was hit with a big blast of magic so nasty it tore at his insides.

He threw out a shield and the air stank of ozone from his energy sliding against all that wrong, dark sludge. Shoving the nearest mage back with one hand, Dominic punched him in the nose and then gave him another jab in the eye.

As expected, the fool hit the ground, holding his face. The clawing in his guts began to lessen and his head stopped throbbing. His phone buzzed in his back pocket. He knew it was Meriel and he needed to keep her far, far away from this.

A roar sounded over his left shoulder as Simon leapt over the railing from the loading dock ledge and down where Dominic was. The two injured mages managed to pull back and erect their own shields as three human flunkies joined them and rushed Simon and Dominic.

Simon didn’t need to transform to take his wolf form. He was powerful enough as a man and one fist the size of a rump roast slammed into one of the thugs’ belly so hard he lost his footing.

Dominic let the haze take over. Let the violence rush up and through him, to his fists and into his brain. This was like homecoming. This was where he knew the lay of the land. The law of the fists.

He showed his teeth to the human who’d been edging toward him and rushed him, knocking him to his feet as Dominic delivered a beating while straddling the man.

Someone, most likely the remaining human, hit him from the side, knocking him off his prey.

The clawing began again and his head hurt so much he could barely see. The magick rushed up through the ground and tore from his body, draining away.

And then he knew she was coming. He felt her moving toward where they were. Panic warred with admiration as the well of her fury boiled the air and she was there on the landing.

Dominic managed to wrest his body up from the asphalt of the parking lot and to standing again. Just so he could punch the human one more time.

Still on the landing, Meriel looked like an angry goddess, one arm out, her magick swam past him like a guided missile.

Nell ran around where Dominic managed to choke the thug out and onto his knees. He knew just how long to hold, watched as unconsciousness began to take hold.

“Out,” he whispered and then the man went limp.

Shit. He’d just knocked the guy out with his magick?

Dominic saw Meriel moving toward him. Knew he was yelling at her to get the fuck back. He could only hear the drumming of his heart and briefly wondered if he was having a stroke.

She touched him and spoke, her lips against his temple and the pain was gone. The furious pain of those claws in his gut were gone.

“Get out of here. The mages are here,” he heard himself ordering her some moments later.

“No, they’re gone.” She kissed his knuckles, whispered over them and the throb of the abraded skin eased back.

“It’s not safe. The cops—”

“Are so not coming.” Simon heaved himself to stand and then gently helped Meriel up and finally Dominic. “So much magick out here they won’t see or hear a fucking thing. Want to fill me in on what the hell just happened?”

And then Dominic threw up.

MERIEL unbuttoned his shirt and tried not to wince at the bloom of a bruise over his left side.

Everyone had gone, leaving them alone at his apartment where she’d finally allowed herself to take a good look at the damage he’d sustained. He’d refused a doctor so he’d have to deal with the best she could do.

“I felt it.” She allowed herself those three words as she gently pulled his shirt free and examined his back. He had an abrasion across his shoulders. “Hold on. You’ve got asphalt in there. Gravel. I have to clean it out.”

“There’s no magickal spell to do this?”

“You were siphoned.” She said this as she stood behind him, not wanting him to see her face. Not wanting him to see how scared she was.

“What do you mean siphoned?” He hissed just a bit when she used the alcohol.

“I mean they took some of your magickal energy. That’s very hard on you. A bruise will heal and I can help that along a little. This ugly thing on your back will heal, though it’s going to hurt when I clean it out. I’ll use a spell to numb it a little. I’ll get you cleaned up and taken care of. And then I’m going to use the font to replace what you’ve lost.”

“Is it permanent?”

She breathed out carefully and put her head on his uninjured shoulder for a moment.

He reached up to run his fingers through her hair and she shoved away any thoughts about what might have happened far, far away.

“No. You’re probably going to have a headache for a while, but your stores will fill again. Our bond has stabilized that, closed the wound. No, not wound. Not in the sense of this on your back.” She used a spell to numb his skin and muscle as she’d promised and began to clean him up to keep busy and from freaking out.

“So tell me about it. It’ll keep us both calm.” He put a hand on her thigh as she worked. “And thanks for whatever you did. Just now and back at the club.”

She’d felt the spike in his magick, had known there was trouble and when he didn’t pick up, she ended up running the seven blocks to Heart of Darkness from where she’d been. Nell had been in the building with Gage and they’d seen her dart to the elevators and had come along.

Never had she been so scared.

“You didn’t need me. How many did you take out on your own?” She poked just a little too hard and felt bad when he winced.