Page 38 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Oh, right.

I bet Nelson’s case held a plethora—what a great word, that—of gadgets. James Bond had Q, so SC agents had to have some amazing witch-y inventor too.

Nelson followed my gaze toward his suitcase. “What exactly would we do with my luggage?”

“Don’t you have stuff?”

“Stuff?”

“Like a bug!” I nodded. “That’s what they call them, right? You can shift into your super-amazing shadow form and drop it in someone’s pocket.”

“I don’t have a bug.”

“A tracking device?” When he didn’t immediately dismiss that idea, I knew I was on to something. “You have one of those, don’t you?”

“Yes, but…”

“No. This will be great.” I bounced a little, warming to my plan. “I’ll distract them, then you can sweep in and plant it on them. In fact, a tracker will be even better than a listening device, because they’ll lead us right to their evil lair.”

Nelson gnawed on his bottom lip as he considered my plan. Finally, he said, “I’ll talk to Gage about it.”

“Perfect.”

This was turning into an epic weekend! So much better than I’d anticipated, and I’d had high expectations ever since I’d found out about it.

I would finally get my hands on the crystal, we were orchestrating a devastating blow to our enemies by exposing their villainous headquarters, and best of all, I had acquired a sexy sidekick.

This was one of those win-win moments.

Except in my head, it went more like win—shimmy—win.

13

MORGAN’S VERY SNEAKY PLAN

NELSON

I didn’tneedto check in with Gage on this change in plans, but I trusted him to point out any flaws I hadn’t considered yet.

Morgan’s suggestion, which he now called his “Very Sneaky Plan,” appealed to me. Any opportunity to learn more about the hunters was worth consideration. But I also knew I couldn’t trust my own thoughts on this, because everything in me wanted to please Morgan. To see him smile. To make him wiggle around like he had after I agreed to consider his idea.

If Gage thought pleasing Morgan would jeopardize his safety, I wouldn’t do it. So, while Morgan called his cousin, I contacted Gage.

“Tell me what’s happening,” the demon said as soon as he answered, not bothering with a greeting.

“I found the unicorn,” I said. He’d have already heard that from Ogden, but I needed to say the words. I still couldn’t believe how easy it had been. After looking for Morgan for so many months, finding him so easily felt anticlimactic. “The hunters are here too.”

“Is it that woman? Tammy?”

“Yeah. And she’s with three others.” I paused to glance at Morgan, just to make sure he was busy with his own conversation and not listening to mine.

“What?” Gage asked, sensing I had something else on my mind.

“Venus had wanted me to protect a Rudy Tada, right?” I whispered. “The thing is… That’s Morgan’s alias. And two supes were trying to get a powerful artifact to him. Something is going on that we don’t know about.” I didn’t bother telling him which crystal it was. He’d find out soon enough.

“Get back to Willow Lake ASAP. With Morgan.” I don’t know why he tacked on that last bit. As if I’d leave the unicorn behind now that I’d found him.

“I know,” I agreed. “You know that tracker Van gave me? I’m thinking of planting it on the hunters before we leave.”