Priceless

“Alex too.”
    Laughing, Dox lifted Alex into a hug, which the werewolf did his best to reciprocate—not an easy task when your limbs are stuck between human and wolf.
    “Can’t say I’ve ever hugged a werewolf before,” Dox said, patting Alex on the head. The werewolf’s tongue lolled out as he stared up at Dox. A sudden thought hit me—hard.
    “If something ever happens to me, Dox, will you take Alex? His pack’ll kill him.”
    The ogre frowned, his piercings clinking together. “I don’t know, Rylee. Just don’t get yourself into trouble, how about that?”
    I nodded and pushed through the door into the brilliant white sunlight that was New Mexico. If only it were as easy as Dox made it out to be. The thing was, when it came to me and trouble, we went together like ice cream and pie.

~14~
    T he drive back to North Dakota took about the same amount of time as heading south, only now I was counting down in my head the time we had until O’Shea would be up and at ‘em. Or more accurate, up and at me.
    First thing, we went to the hospital. I didn’t go in to see Giselle, just had the nurse give me the update. They didn’t think she had swine flu—which I already knew—and she was being evaluated for a respite home.
    “How soon will they know?”
    The nurse flipped through the paperwork. “Looks like we should have everything back by the end of the week.”
    Tapping the counter I bit the edge of my lip. “You’ll keep her in until then?”
    “Yes, we don’t get the final results back from her blood work until then either.” The nurse said as a beeper went off. “Excuse me.”
    At the mention of blood, I fingered the stitches on my arm wrapped with a soft bandage.
    Climbing back into my Jeep, I turned around and headed home to stock up on supplies. I would need flashlights, my climbing harness and rope, and riot gear, to name a few things. Almost three hours later, the place I called home came into sight.
    As we pulled into the driveway, I reached for India and felt a distant pang of loneliness and fear, then a wash of curiosity. That was odd, and not in a good way. If whoever had her was piquing her curiosity, it might be harder to extricate her from them.
    The big, two-story farmhouse needed a paint job, and there were parts of the white picket fence that were down, but it was still a sturdy house that more than did the job. Upstairs was all bedrooms, and I left that to Alex for the most part. My room was on the main floor with the kitchen off one side and the only bathroom in the house on the other.
    The house was cool inside, a breeze blowing through the open windows, keeping the air from going stagnant while I was gone.
    Alex whimpered and clung to my leg. Not a good sign. Waving for him to stay behind, then pressing one finger to my lips for him to stay quiet, I eased two blades out of my boots. The thing was, weapons, guns in particular, didn’t always work around the supernatural. They would misfire, explode and even fall apart for no apparent reason. Knives and blades on the other hand, they always worked just fine.
    Creeping through the house, my ears strained to catch the slightest sound, a breath of air, the shuffle of clothing. The wooden floors didn’t creak under my steps, but still the tension around me rose. Someone— or something—was in the house. I just didn’t know what.
    Looking over my shoulder at Alex, I lifted my eyebrows and pointed up. He nodded.
    Whoever or whatever it was, they were upstairs. Damn. Moving as fast as I could while still staying quiet, I started up the curling staircase. I avoided the fourth step up; I knew it creaked. Just before the bend in the stairs that would expose me to the top floor, I paused.
    Skin tingling, I knew I was in trouble a split second before the wash of magic hit me. Electricity danced over my body, blue and sparking as the spell slammed me into the far wall, and then it dissipated. Round one to Rylee and her magic dissolving abilities. At least I didn’t get the full brunt of the spell.
    “Alex, run!” was all I managed to gasp out before being slammed again, this time with a chair launched at me by another spell. It rarely took the bad guys long to realize they could use other things to smash me rather than using the magic itself. My head snapped against the plaster wall with a solid thud. Black circles spun across my vision; I tried to sit up and failed on the first attempt. Leaning against the wall, I used my legs