After they waited and I said no more, trying to catch my breath and also not to look like I was having to, Andrew said, “Not ideal. We don’t want to impose on Madison any more, or to leave anyone behind. But It’s going to be a long time before Kage can change and hopefully finish his own healing. Until then, and until we can come back to get him, he needs to stay here if she’ll let him.”
“Which means him and another,” I said, wishing for a glass of water, but eating more spinach instead.
Andrew nodded. No one volunteered.
“That means only four of us going with Cass to Paris,” Zar said, again frowning at his plate. “It’s not safe. What if we just wait until he can change? A couple weeks and—”
“We don’t know when we’ll be able to,” Isaac said. “It could be sooner, but it could be later. He should be able to tell with the pain clearing up and eating again. Also, with the skin sutures out. Before that … I wouldn’t trust it. He could hurt something inside instead of finishing the healing process. So we can’t count on him for any specific time. He needs however long it takes.”
“Sitting around and rushing him would only make him do something rash,” I said. “We have to go on.”
“And you don’t think knowing you’re in Paris without him, looking for crazy-arse mages, is going to help him sleep peacefully, darling?” Andrew arched an eyebrow. He had in his contact lenses.
“What about Madison?” I asked. “What about that one person who stays behind? I’ve warded the place and it’s right in town. But … if someone did know where they were… If someone wanted to come after them…” I stopped, swallowed, visions of Henry on the carousel in Brighton pushing out the weird fear about Jason staying behind.
“Any more warding you can do,” Isaac said, “and keeping in touch. Checking in each day with whoever is here… That’s the best we have, Cassia. We don’t have any other ideas about where to take him. No one knows exactly where we are.”
“Reavers can’t come into town,” Zar said and I glanced at him. “I mean, their masters would never let them. They’ve been a secret now for hundreds of years. They can’t have them around mundanes. The only reason we saw them was because we were supposed to have been killed by them. As to the human face of this, how would they know where to come if you’ve warded?”
“Besides,” Andrew said, “why would they? It’s you they’re after. ‘Stop searching and live.’ They’d like to take out this whole pack because they know we’re hunting them, and they know you’re silver and made it possible with magic in the first place. Knowing where you’re going is what they’re interested in.”
“We could stay just until Kage is on his feet,” Zar suggested. “Then go on with everyone else. So he can be with Madison alone without needing looking after.”
“No, Zar,” I said quietly. “If Kage is staying someone else is staying. We can’t split up any more than that. And apparently can’t split up any less than that either.”
We ate in silence for some time.
Isaac and Andrew cleared their plates and got seconds. Zar tried to give me chicken. I didn’t want it but took more bread. He also finally finished.
Jed came back inside to poke through empty boxes, sniffing, finding extra naan.
“We’ll go in the morning, then,” I said. “Andrew, you have the people skills and phone—”
“I’m not staying.”
I looked up.
Andrew had spoken softly yet he stared back unblinking into my eyes with a chilly look in his own.
“I’m coming with you,” he added.
A new hush, something dangling in the air like a threat, and Jed said, “Staying here?”
“We’re going to have to leave Kage while we go to France and he can heal,” I said. “Someone needs to stay with him.”
Jed scowled. “Jason.”
“Yes … but he needs to come with us.” I spoke carefully, having to invent what to say on the fly, unsure as to rhyme or reason.
“Why?” Jed looked even more irritated.
Since “Because I said so” did not work on a wide array of levels, I said nothing. I didn’t have to justify myself to him. Yet the fact that he wanted me to, that I had no answers, and that he’d been a total asshole recently, made me not want to speak even if I’d had answers.
Chapter 25
We discussed with Madison, packed our bags, and I spent an hour going over the place again, warding inside and out, protecting things of Madison’s and Kage’s that would be here for him.
Then it was late, and we hadn’t gone back to the issue that still pressed.
We had not discussed the matter with Jason. I was pretty sure he hadn’t heard. We’d talked softly, plus the TV had been on and Jason had been upstairs eating and likely talking to Kage.
So I had to break the news. News without rhyme or reason. This flaw was spotted by Jason.
“What?” Staring. “Why?”
“I don’t know, Jason. I’m sorry. It’s not fair. Of course it makes sense for you to stay. I just know you shouldn’t. Think of it as a … scry…”
“You used magic to decide I had to go to Paris?” Mouth open, incredulous. I might as well have told him I’d dreamed he had to join the circus to become a trapeze artist.
Jason sat with Kage on the floor after dinner. He’d been brushing the still woolly parts of Kage’s fur with the wire slicker from Colorado while Kage’s eyes glazed. We had the rope toy there for Kage as well. Something to bite and chew while he couldn’t eat anything that needed biting. He rested his chin on the rope and rolled his eyes to look at Jason and over to myself, just sinking onto the daybed.
Andrew took their dishes downstairs to Isaac, who was cleaning the kitchen. Zar joined me, standing at the desk, rubbing his right arm with his left hand, looking around as if he’d lost something in here.
“No,” I said quietly. “I didn’t exactly use magic. I just know it’s important—”
“You ‘know it’s important’ for me to abandon my mate and take a road trip to Paris tomorrow? Important for someone else to stay with Kage instead of me?” The look, the tone … it wasn’t Jason. Cold, incredulous that I could be so stupid. But the disbelief was more than that. It was the suspicion that he assumed that I assumed he was dumb enough to blindly go along with something like that when it was obvious to him that I just wanted to get him away from Kage.
“There has to be a reason if Cass has a feeling like that,” Zar said. “Just because we’re not casters, or we don’t understand, doesn’t mean warding doesn’t work or scrying doesn’t work, or her instincts aren’t true. She got us this far. We have to trust this journey.”
While he was speaking, Jason never looked at him.
Fixated on me like a hawk plummeting from the sky, Jason stood up slowly. He did not do it in a normal fashion—bending, pushing up on a hand, or so forth. He stood straight up as if pulled from strings in his head and shoulders, with their strength and his own personal elegance, moving like a beautifully animated figurine.
My palms felt sweaty in the room that was now cool—with Kage not needing the extra heat. My heart was pounding again. It was not that it crossed my mind for a second that Jason would harm me. Yet it was still freaky—like that moment when the talking doll’s head turns all the way around.
As much as I was disconcerted, I was more focused on Zar: on wishing Zar would shut up and not have said what he just said. Jason and I could talk about this and work things out. Someone standing beside the fire and tossing in lighter fluid didn’t help.
Sure enough, as he found his feet, Jason answered without ever glancing at Zar. “This far? Where, exactly, did she get us? Weeks of holiday making? Cream teas and social calls? Chance to catch up with the Bavarian relations?”
Zar also stiffened, trying to cut in. “Weeks? Try months. Where would we have been without her? With nothing. Just like we were all winter and spring. She’s the only reason we have anything—”
Jason went on talking over him, dark eyes on mine, never so much as breaking stride in his level words. “Chance to sniff London was a treat. Yorkshire holiday a proper lark. And everyone chuffed to visit America. Been a real posh tour guide, hasn’t she? Of course, we’re all much obliged. Needed a holiday and all. It’s been a laugh and a half. Until someone dies. Which almost happened, but not enough to count so let’s book a ferry to France, take a cruise to the Mediterranean.”
“Jason, that’s enough.” Zar sounded annoyed, but still had no impact.
Andrew was coming back upstairs. Followed by either Isaac or Jed by the sound.
“Now all bets are off,” Jason went on, still watching me, standing in front of Kage, arms crossed. “Time to mix things up, rearrange the itinerary. How about those two? Kage and what’s-his-name? They’re much too cozy. Moon knows her powers got us ‘this far.’ That’s what—”
“You’re tracking a black Moon, Jay,” Andrew said from the doorway, voice quiet but tight.
Jed looked past Andrew to Jason.
“We had no one solving this before Cassia,” Zar said, angry, not nearly as successful at keeping his voice low like the others. “If not for her, we still wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. We’re going to solve this. With her. And because of her. If you think Cassia’s spells—and even just plain instincts—haven’t got us anywhere, you’ve had your head in a den. Just because we can’t see the finished puzzle yet doesn’t mean most of the pieces aren’t already in place. The wolf who denies his instincts is a dead wolf. Have you forgotten that?”
For the first time, Jason looked at him, turning a few inches to fully face Zar. “When did you forget she’s not a wolf? Was it around Cornwall? More like the first night you met by firelight.”
“Jay—” Andrew said.
“We didn’t know the white wolf wasn’t one at all, but at least some of us sniffed what she was,” Jason snarled.
“It makes no difference that she’s human. She’s done nothing but give to us and help us since the moment we met her.” Zar was almost shouting. “Met her because we asked her for help. Not because she showed up to pry. She’s been silver on this whole investigation—a silver we didn’t otherwise have—and you know it. I know you’re upset about Kage and that we have to go on. That’s rough on all of us, splitting up the pack. But it has to be done for—”
“It does!” Jason’s chill voice broke in a shout back at Zar. “And I stay with him!”
“You can’t!” Zar snapped.
“No! She says I need to go to Paris!” Slamming out his left hand to point at me with the force as if to punch someone. “But I’m not going to Moon-cursed Paris—I’m staying with Kage!”
“I’ll stay with him,” Jed said from Andrew’s shoulder, making Andrew step away, across the room and close to me—sitting silently on the daybed.
“You?” Jason sputtered a laugh. “Oh, yes, righto. A few years late but you knew you’d eventually get him. Going to wait until we’re in France to kill him? Or will you go ahead and slit his throat as soon as Sun’s high?”
“What the fuck, Jay?” Andrew said.
“Are you on something?” Jed shot back. “Flip to Moon, I’m trying to help. You think I want to sit here on my arse minding him while the rest of you are in danger?” Eyes darting to me but quickly away like the sight of me burned.
“So you honestly believe that was another Moon? No one’s kept track of the number of times you’ve tried to murder him?” Jason’s tone had gone back to quiet but vicious, a condescending sneer returned. “Think we’ll just go off and leave you here to tend to him? How about minding a lamb with a broken leg and a few baby birds while you’re at it? You reckon no one remembers you hanging off his neck by your teeth? Taking six wolves to separate you? Four in skin and two in fur, wasn’t it? Zar was there. Andrew saw.” Jerking his head at them while his eyes remained fixed on Jed the way they had on me.
Zar looked away. Andrew only watched Jason, who was still talking.
“And what’d he do?” Voice even softer. “Zar? What did Jed do when they pulled him off and everyone was trying to stop the blood pouring out of Kage’s neck and chest and they were scrambling to get Hannah and everyone? What did he do?”
Silence.
Zar swallowed. “This doesn’t have anything to do with—”
“He fought them to get away,” Jason said, still looking at Jed. “He fought them to get back at Kage and finish him off. His fur soaked in Kage’s blood wasn’t enough. He had to finish what he’d started. So what did our silvers offer as punishment for one of Moon’s most evil deeds? For the most appalling attack on one Sable to another in three generations? The cuff for a season. While we waited and prayed, nearly everyone sure Kage would die, they mulled over the murderer, then locked the cuff on him and sent him on his jolly way.
“What if a man walked up to another man on a street corner and shot him in the face? What if the shot man lived? Because he lived, would the human judge say, ‘Oh, well, it was a complicated situation. He’s a fine lad at heart. No harm done in the end.’ Then give him three months’ jail and send him on? No denying the humans can be sharp ice. Bloody mental. But wolves? We manage to go one worse.
“That doesn’t mean we forget. Not when something that sharp happens—again and again. How many times before that did you try to kill him? Or me? Or bite skin for the thrill—?”
“I never tried to kill him before that. You’re a verus liar.” Jed barely moved his lips, rigid, seeming to be fighting with himself as if to keep from speaking at all, or keep from going for Jason. His breaths were short, large fists clenching and unclenching, muscles stretched across his neck and arms.
“Is that so?” Jason asked, his own arms crossed once more, facing Jed, tone growing conversational. “That’s the easiest, isn’t it? Jason’s a liar. Jason’s a dark star. Stay away from Jason and his black Moon hunts. Some of our kin even believe you. Hear the same thing enough times and I suppose it’s easy to forget what happened before their own noses. Although some never sniffed what you were up to at all, did they?”
“Diana knew we had problems. I didn’t do anything to Kage that—”
“Nothing to Kage? Do you believe it also? So used to repeating the line you get it stuck in your own head? How about breaking and entering at a worm liquor store? How about the night you were so wasted you ran his bike off the road and could have killed him? Or the time you followed in your sire’s tracks for a sheep and ran out on Kage when you heard the farmer up? Let him take his chances with the shotgun? But surely you must remember pushing him to drink in the first place? When it made him so ill he’d be sick and get migraines for two days after? Lost two jobs because of you?
“I know. You must remember this one. The night you got him drunk and went down to the beach in fur, the two of you? Chased worms around who were out smoking pot in the middle of the night and you figured, well, hunt Moon, why not? We’re pissed, they’re stoned, not like anyone’s going to remember or report two wolves on the beach at Hove. So you had a snap at a few worms and got a stash of dope to carry home for your troubles. Only the cops showed up. You probably hadn’t thought the stoners would risk a call, but they must have been sober enough to ring up anonymously and the force was taking wolf sightings seriously—you and your dad having been spotted through three counties by then.
“Really, you don’t remember? About the police on the beach that night? Oh … right. You don’t remember because you weren’t there. You got enough alcohol flowing through Kage’s system to kill him, took him on a romp to bite worms because sheep weren’t enough fun, then left him. Did you think he’d be dead from alcohol poisoning before he had to face them? Or only that it would be a laugh to watch from a distance while they found him in fur and he went for one, so they would call in a firearm unit to shoot him before he attacked anyone else? One more attempt of yours foiled, wasn’t it?
“He survived because he’d been too far gone
to figure out which way to go and put his skin on instead. They found a naked drunk being sick on the beach and took him in. I’m sure it slipped your mind what all his parents had to say to you about that. But they’ve no idea what you actually tried to do to him.
“Another year or so, none of your schemes having worked, and you gave up on passive attacks. Put on your fur, wait for the moment, then rip his throat out once he’s helpless in skin. Now you stand there and think what? That was another Moon? You don’t remember those troubles? You didn’t keep track of the number of times you tried to kill him, the blood on your paws, the nights you set him up? Fine. You don’t have to. The pack obviously doesn’t mind. You do whatever you bloody want and get a slap on the nose if it gets really bad, then go on back to work as if nothing happened. Not in this Moon.
“I’m not the rest of the pack. Not Diana. I can’t join you in this amnesia game. I remember what happened and what you did to him—and almost did to him. I’m not forgetting anytime soon. So thanks for your offer, Mugraturs. Cheers. But I’ll stay with him. You go to France. Maybe for once in your life you’ll manage to do something useful.”
Chapter 26
Jed had tried to cut in a few times. Shaking, chest rising and falling on quick breaths, he again opened his mouth when Jason stopped. He glanced to Kage on the floor, back to Jason, then looked at the doorframe. I thought he was going to walk out.
At last, he said, “That’s what he told you happened? That I chucked him every chance I got?” His voice had gone weirdly flat.
“He didn’t have to,” Jason said, still fixed on Jed while Jed looked away. “What’s not public knowledge, or I didn’t get a few details from him to piece together, I sniffed for myself.”
Jed gave him a quick look.
“The night he was shot? While you led him out for the sheep, then ran with your tail between your legs while the shooting started, leaving him to be killed? Kage never said a thing about that night. I was there. I’d followed the two of you.”
Moonlight Whispers: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 8) Page 15
