Evershaw watched the battle in brief flashes of lucidity, tempered by clouds of smoke and the odd green strike of Smith’s magic, but his eyes found the witch as she fought. And she fought. Pain still racked through him with each breath, even if whatever the witch had done seemed to improve the pressure in his chest, but that wasn’t enough to distract him from the way his pack closed in around the witch. It was a thing of beauty to watch the witch dodging his pack’s best efforts to confront her, and even his most seasoned fighters hesitated to take her on. Evershaw made a mental note to toughen them the fuck up if they weren’t even brave enough to grab a girl.

Smith warned them about what she might do. He’d even offered some basic protection charms to each of his pack members who were in the warehouse, in anticipation that something wouldn’t go as planned. Evershaw felt bad about it for half a heartbeat before the pain gripped his stomach and made him curl up in agony. The witch shrieked and did something that made the entire warehouse rattle and shake, dust falling and steel groaning. Evershaw ripped his arm free from the other leather strap, irritated anew that Todd insisted on restraining him in case the poison drove him into an uncontrolled shift, and tried to free his legs despite the waves of pain. “Catch her.”

Henry ducked one of the witch’s odd scraps of cloth as it turned into a flash of smoke and a set of darts that tore through his shirt. Todd dove at her legs and the witch leapt at least ten feet in the air, almost reaching a cross-beam far overhead, but Smith held his hands up and chanted something that made green snakes of smoke condense around her.

The witch howled with rage as she stopped short of the beam and the green smoke dragged her back down and into their reach, restraining her like his pack hadn’t been able to manage, and all the hair stood up on Evershaw’s arms. As soon as her feet hit the ground, Todd tossed a black hood over her head while Henry and another wolf bound her arms and legs. Smith released the green snakes and pulled a handful of twisted and knotted cloths out of her pockets, wincing as they ignited in his hand and he dropped them on the floor. “She was well-armed. More so than I expected. I will not underestimate her again, and neither should you.”

Evershaw swung his legs over the side of the table and stood, though he staggered with the disorientation of the smoke and poison and magic and everything else. “Knock her out.”

Smith shook his head slowly as the witch lashed out with her bound hands and started to chant, static crackling in the air, but the ErlKing gently touched her forehead through the hood. She immediately crumpled, though Henry managed to keep her from hitting the floor completely.

Evershaw swayed but stayed on his feet as he headed for the door and the SUVs that would be waiting outside. “It was the coyotes or that damn pack. Todd, figure it out. Call Edgar Chase and see what he can find. Just don’t tell him I was poisoned or how bad it was. Smith, how the hell do we keep the witch cooperative?”

The old man arched his eyebrows. “I’ve placed a geas on her.”

“A what?” Henry frowned as he looked up from throwing the witch over his shoulder, like he wondered if it might get on his clothes or contaminate him in addition to the witch. Evershaw didn’t blame him, since he didn’t know what the fuck a geas was, either.

“It’s a way of binding someone to an oath or obligation. I’ve bound her life to yours, Evershaw. She must save you from this or risk her own self and power.” The old man folded his hands calmly near his waist, unperturbed as he watched Henry and the rest of the pack stare at him.

Evershaw frowned. “That doesn’t seem right.”

“It’s the only way to guarantee she’ll save you, particularly after what happened here.” Smith glanced at his watch. “She will be asleep for maybe twenty minutes, perhaps a little longer, but not by much. I’d advise you put her in a place where she cannot escape.”

Evershaw held his side and grunted, his vision still a little blurry, and limped toward the door. He didn’t like the idea of the witch being forced to help him, since it would have been better if she did it for the money or just because, but he couldn’t argue with Smith about it. It sounded like it was too late to change the geas thing, so they’d all just have to go with it. He’d try not to get killed by anything else before the witch was freed from the binding. “We’ll see. She won’t escape from the pack house. The sooner we figure out who started this, the better. Todd will be in touch.”

The old man smiled with half his mouth, exposing suddenly pointy teeth, then retreated into the shadows. “Be careful, wolf. She is more dangerous than perhaps you know.”

Henry scowled and strode toward the door, the witch still dangling over his shoulder. “She’s heavier than she looks, though, that’s for damn sure. Little thing like her must be all muscle.”

Evershaw growled as he followed, suddenly uneasy with the thought of another male holding the witch so closely, and when he looked back over his shoulder, Smith had disappeared. He ignored the prickle between his shoulder blades and instead focused on placing his feet with care as he picked his way through the mess of torn and twisted steel that fell as a result of the witch’s curses. She’d been impressive, fighting like that, but it was good news for all of them that she wasn’t great at things on the fly. Smith had explained it had something to do with the type of magic she did, but Evershaw understood about every third word of what sounded like the intro to philosophy class he’d been forced to take in college. Good riddance. All he knew was, unless she had more of those little twists of cloth with her, she wasn’t that dangerous.

Henry put the witch on the bench seat in the middle of the SUV, about to slide in next to her to keep her upright, but Evershaw growled and the other wolf retreated quickly to take the front passenger seat. Evershaw got in next to the witch, trying to convince himself it was because she held the key to saving his life and not because she looked delicate and small and kicked his protective instincts into overdrive.

Todd jumped in the driver’s seat, already on the phone with Ruby O’Shea about the coyotes, and Evershaw relaxed, his arm draped across the top of the seat and under the witch’s head. He closed his eyes. He would survive this. He would survive and destroy the guilty parties, and then he’d go ahead and destroy whoever might have been responsible but wasn’t—the coyotes, RedCloud, whomever. They’d all pay.

It did more to calm his racing heart than anything the witch had done.