“You offered your home to us earlier when you spoke to Faline,” Patricia said in an even and assertive voice. “Which was very kind of you, but I fear that may be dangerous for you and your sisters. Five Hunters were sent to detain a group of possible Wild Women and they never returned to their complex. I wouldn’t want your local authorities to think your kind had anything to do with it.”
Marie snorted. I didn’t even know Marie was capable of snorting. “Returning to your home would be the bigger mistake, much more so than visiting mine.”
Patricia rubbed her temples. I kept my I-told-you-so to myself. “Yes, we’ve already thought of that. But all our records were destroyed in the fire. And as far as them locating us by our last name, we’ve already begun the process of getting that legally changed; one of my aunts knows a guy. Also, where would they detain us? Their complex is gone.”
A long moment of silence hung in the air. The name thing was a big issue for us. Legally changing it would take weeks. Weeks we didn’t have. And the only way to keep this change out of public record was to count on an ex-lover of Renee’s, who happened to be in the FBI and able to pull a few witness protection strings, which was tricky in and of itself. But Marie didn’t need to be privy to our concern.
Marie let out a long sign. “Your coterie isn’t the only non-human visitors in the Portland area.”
“Other Wilds?” I asked.
Marie answered on a heavy breath as though her façade had slipped and she was finally leveling with us. “No.”
I took the phone off speaker and pushed it against my face. “What do you mean, Marie? What type of creature outside of Wild Women and Hunters exists?”
Marcus closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What?” I asked him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I can’t say more over the phone,” Marie answered.
“Fine,” I said. “I can’t speak for the others, but I’ll have them drop me off on their way home.” I’d figure out the next step from there.
I ended the phone call, anxious to hear what Marcus had failed to tell me earlier. I leveled a gaze at him. “Fess up.”
He rubbed his barely-there five-o-clock shadow and let out a groan. “You remember the front door to the cabin where your sister was kept?”
I thought I saw Shawna shiver. She scooted closer to Marcus.
“Yeah.”
“Remember how it had symbols for all the different Wild Women and then some extras you couldn’t quite place?” he went on.
“Mmhm.”
“Yeah, there’s more out there than just the Hunters and the Wild Women.”
“Who? What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Too many to know. We didn’t regulate the male species, only the female.”
My chin dropped. “There’s males out there, like Wilds?”
“Yes and no,” he said. “I don’t know. We had like a day or two of training on them, at best. And it wasn’t something we discussed. We just knew they were out there. We left them alone and they left us alone.”
His exposure baffled me. So many questions ran through my mind. “But what about what you told me in that hotel room before I met with the harpies?”
“Excuse me?” Renee cut in. “You two shared a hotel room?”
I held back a groan. “Not what’s important right now,” I commented, and got back to business. “Marcus, you said the Hunters have always wanted power, and controlling the most powerful kind, Wild Women, gave them that power. So there’s others out there like us, who are just as powerful?”
“No, I didn’t say that. You’re assuming I lied to you.” Marcus turned his body to face me and took my hands in his. The cat was out of the bag now anyway. “I know that look. You’re building walls against me as I speak.”
I ground my teeth and looked away. I hated that he studied me so well, sometimes.
“I didn’t lie,” he continued. “Wild Women are the most powerful non-human species. Period. They create life. They grow baby Wilds. The males can’t do that, males of any species. They need a human woman to carry their offspring, which weakens the bloodline in a way. Some aren’t even sure, when they impregnate a human woman, if their offspring will be human or not. Wild Women have the purest bloodline and are most powerful.”
His ego-boosting words knocked down any semblance of an emotional wall I’d unconsciously tried to build. “Okay,” I said. Because that’s all I could think to say. “Okay.” I allowed him to lean his chin onto my head, despite my coteries’ stares.
I ignored Renee’s gasp.
I pressed my hands into his thighs in resolve. “Okay,” I said again. “Let’s go see what type of male, non-human creatures can rattle the leader of the succubus galere.”
Four
Our goodbyes outside the succubi’s apartment complex didn’t last long. By the time my aunt pulled the minivan to the curb in front of the white brick apartment building everything that needed to be said had already been said. Some good. Some not so good.
On the drive from the restaurant we’d decided throwing Shawna into a building “infested” (their words, not mine) with succubi, would likely pull her two steps back. Of course, during this decision-making session Olivia blew up my phone and Marcus had a few things to say via text too.
Olivia worried that Shawna’s response to the Hunter was a bit over the top—not exactly a step in the right direction as some of the others voiced during the drive. She was definitely pro taking-Shawna-home. But she also didn’t want to accompany her.
Shawna had no input to share as we spoke of her. She sat contently with a half-smile on her face, or maybe a smirk—I couldn’t tell. I assumed she was still riding high from her earlier attack.
Marcus didn’t want to return to Washington without me either. He sat beside me, our arms touching one another, not speaking audibly, but rather through our phones. His texts were fewer and farther between compared to Olivia’s. If he had an opinion about Shawna, he didn’t say so. One thing he did make very clear, though, was his desire to stay with me. A desire I had no say in and I told him as much through text. Shawna didn’t seem to need him too terribly the last couple days, but she was only a week out of her traumatic experience and susceptible to losing ground on her recovery.
“I want to say goodbye in a more private space,” he’d whispered before I opened the car door. It was the first thing he’d said since begrudgingly agreeing to stay with Shawna and head back to Washington. He’s a grown man and could do what he wanted, but he agreed that his presence had probably given Shawna the safety to fight her inner demons and he wanted to help her to continue her fight to emotional stability.
When the decision for my aunts and Shawna to return home was solidified, Marcus said he’d accompany Oliva, Celeste, and me. To which Shawna’s smirk dropped and she wrapped her arm around his bicep and squeezed. Her wide eyes begged him to rethink his decision.
My sister was strong as hell, but everyone needed a helping hand when healing—be it physically, mentally, or emotionally. Ever since Marcus lifted Shawna from the Hunter’s bed and carried her to my aunt’s car amidst the Hunter/Wild battle, Shawna had chosen him to be that helping hand. Her trauma mindset linked Marcus with safety and protection. And the link was of titanium grade. I couldn’t blame her, either. Every minute I spent with Marcus made me want to spend an hour more.
Separating from him and Shawna gave me another reason to be irritated with Marie. I was sure she’d give me ten more reasons within the first few minutes in her home.
Marcus followed me from the car and shut the door behind him, giving us the semblance of privacy. I thought to lead him to the alley beside the apartment complex, but remembered it was a Hunter’s hand I held. Marie wouldn’t be too pleased knowing a Hunter stood within arm’s reach of her home. And we didn’t need more drama today. Another reason he should go with Shawna.
I walked with Marcus, hand-in-hand, to an enclosed bus stop nearby. Thankfully i
t was empty. And due to the rain, if we whispered we were just out of earshot of the car full of huldra. The sun had set hours ago. Orange halos illuminated the ground around the bottom of each streetlight.
Marcus released my hand to wrap his arms around my waist and pull me close. “I don’t like leaving you here to face supernatural males without me.”
“You said we’re stronger than them,” I reminded, partly to ease his worries and partly to ease my own.
“You are, but it doesn’t mean they can’t still do plenty of damage.” He shook his head. “Just the thought of one of them touching you...”
Well, then. I’d never seen this jealous side of Marcus. I kind of liked it.
“I can hold my own,” I said.
“Yeah.” He leaned his chin onto my head. “That doesn’t help.”
I took in Marcus’s scent, wishing I could wrap it around me like a blanket wherever I went. I didn’t have the energy to check in with my heart and my head on this whole Marcus thing, so I promised them we’d do it later. For now, when it came to him, I’d just live in the moment.
His breath on my head and the gentle beating of his heart drew me deeper under his spell. “I’m afraid,” I found myself admitting. I dropped the briefcase I’d taken with me from the car and let it lean against my calf so I could wrap both arms around Marcus’s waist.
He smoothed a hand over my hair. “Of what?”
“Afraid that I won’t be able to keep up. There was no training or election. I just fell into this whole saving the Wilds thing. But there is so many to save, and they’re all so different. It’s like, I’m trying to deal with A while thinking and planning for B and then C, D, and E pop up. The moment I make a mistake, drop a letter, everything will go to shit and it’ll all be my fault.” My confession slipped from my lips and took with it the weight of worlds.
Marcus leaned back and cupped his hands onto my cheeks. His eyes bore into mine. “How did I get so lucky?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
He didn’t crack a smile. “That’s what it is.”
I expected him to say more, to explain his thoughts, but he showed them instead. With his fingertips at my temples and his palm at my jaw, he leaned in and rocked my world with his lips. My hands crawled up his back and pulled him into me with urgency.
I hadn’t expected to leave Marcus again, now that my coterie had accepted his existence, let alone his contribution. I guess I’d always just imagined that he’d be with me every step of the way from here on out, that we’d work together and sleep together, and when this was all over, then we’d decide what came next.
Having to say goodbye so soon, even if for a short time, stabbed at my heart. This concerned me. Huldra don’t marry. Our partners in life are our sisters. We are expected to raise our children together, run a coterie together. Men are not part of the lifelong equation. And yet here I stood, at a bus stop, rain falling around us while streetlights lit the night. Kissing. Not wanting to let go. Not wanting to part.
Words stirred in my heart, words that should never be spoken from my lips. I pulled away from the only male whose embrace made me want to melt into him. I treaded on dangerous territory.
“I’ll keep you updated, let you know what type of creatures we’re dealing with as soon as I find out,” I said, trying to fill the space between us with less dangerous words than those filling my mind. It didn’t work. I grabbed the leather handle of my briefcase and let it hang from my straight arm against my leg.
Marcus nodded and ran a hand through his thick hair. “Yeah, okay.” I didn’t need mind-reading skills to know he felt me pushing my emotions away and assumed I was trying to get rid of him as well.
He turned to walk back to the car, but I caught his hand and held it tightly. I refused to move forward and he turned back to see why.
“My issues about us have nothing to do with you,” I assured him. Since a day or so after he came to stay with us, we’d been discussing the topic of us off and on—more off than on. I gathered that he wanted a label for “us,” and I still wanted to clear my own confusion about what it meant to even be an “us.”
Marcus licked his bottom lip and looked up at the streetlight. “I’ll try to force myself to believe that.”
I refused to let go of his hand, but we walked back to the car in silence.
When we neared the minivan, Celeste and Oliva jumped from the car with their travel bags, ready to get to work. I dropped Marcus’s hand. He slipped past my sisters to fold himself into the car and buckled his seat belt. My own suitcase waited for me beside the back tire.
“Don’t worry,” Abigale said from the back seat. “We’ll take care of her. Hold up the fort at home. You girls stay safe down here.”
“Will do,” I said before hugging Shawna goodbye and shutting the car door. “Hopefully this’ll take a day, two at the most, and then we’ll all be flying to the east coast together.”
The three of us stood in the middle of the street watching our coterie and Marcus drive away. When the red tail lights turned a corner and were no more, we headed toward the apartment building, dragging travel bags and rolling suitcases behind us.
“Why are you carrying that thing like it’s handcuffed to you?” Olivia asked, pointing her chin at my brown, soft-leather briefcase. “I noticed you’ve been storing it beside you in the car and not in the back with the other bags.”
I lifted the thing to examine it as I spoke. “I wasn’t planning on working during our wine-tasting trip, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to bring a couple skip files just in case I had a few minutes of down time.” I added another option I’d considered while packing for our Oregon trip. “Or if I ran across one down here.”
“Is it the human-trafficking ring?” Celeste asked, the first to step onto the curb in front of the succubi’s apartment building.
I nodded. “There’s been a couple developments that’ve leaked that may help me make sense of who’s really on top, if I could get some time to work on it.”
Dale had called me the other day, asking why I hadn’t contacted him in a while, although he knew I only check-in when I needed something, so I’d figured he was just checking to make sure I was all right. He’d used rumors that he’d heard Brian was offed by a deal gone wrong as his excuse to call. The same Brian I offed at the Westin in Bellevue, though I didn’t mention as much to the guy who paid me for picking up bail runners.
After I’d assured him I was fine, Dale had told me my early hunches that the human traffickers were targeting the women in online amateur porn had been proven correct. It had been a theory I’d been working on, and even trying to get in front of, until that day in the cabin at the Washington Hunter’s complex when Clarisse mentioned something about Samuel Woodry having ties to the trafficking ring. The victims he’d chosen didn’t fit the profile and threw a huge kink in my chain of a theory. Even if his earlier victims were just for him, and his trafficking involvement was a newer development, that didn’t explain the young barista he’d been trying to snare when I’d caught him. I’d checked and found nothing online that led me to believe she was a secret porn actress.
“I know I promised the Hunter’s daughter, Clarisse, that the rusalki would get their revenge on her for killing their sister, but she’s also a part of the human trafficking ring in Seattle. If I could get some alone time with her, I’m sure she’d point me to the key players and help me find the puzzle pieces I’m missing. Taking them down would ruin the ring and save so many lives. I can’t let it go. She’s a skip I’d make good money on if I took her in, but more than that, I want what she knows.”
“Why?” Celeste asked. “Marcus even said that women within Hunter families aren’t allowed to know or do much outside of the home. How’d she know the ins and outs of a whole damn human trafficking scheme?”
We made it to the apartment building’s door, but didn’t move to open it, or knock to get buzzed in.
“Beca
use,” I answered my sister. “I think she did their book keeping. She had to have. She took the fall for them, claimed to be the leader of the whole thing, which we know she couldn’t have been. But to make those claims and have lawyers and cops believe her, she had to know a lot about their operation, give them enough to bring up charges against her. I’ve been reviewing her file. The stuff she said during interrogations couldn’t have been made up or coached into her. What she shared came from personal experience.”
My sisters grew sullen. “What did she share, exactly?” Olivia asked.
I didn’t have a chance to answer before a red-haired succubus flung the front apartment door open.
“Come in,” she said. “Marie is upstairs in her apartment.”
“Thanks,” I said slowly, shocked that Marie hadn’t sent an entourage to walk me up to her place like last time. Maybe she needed me a little more than I’d thought. But why? She had a whole galere at her disposal.
Succubi stood along the stairwell watching the three huldra ascend the stairs. Some closed their apartment doors, shutting us out. Others peered from their homes. Old ways die hard. You’d think we hadn’t just fought beside these Wilds a week prior.
My sisters stood behind me as we entered Marie’s apartment. Her door had been left open and she lounged on her red couch. Alone. I’d fully expected to see her in a tiny robe, but she wore silk sleep pants and a tight tank top. The pink fabric looked bright against her tan skin.
“Please shut the door behind you,” was her greeting.
I peered around. No succubi flanked her. And she wanted to be left alone in a room, behind a closed door, with three huldra?
“Go ahead,” she urged. “We have a lot to discuss.”
Celeste shut the door and stood to my right. Olivia stood to my left. I didn’t feel any threat, but it was wise to stay alert.
“You’re sad,” Marie said, eyeing me. “Love can do that to a person.”
Her reminder caused my shoulders to slump for half a second before I realized they were giving me away and I righted them again.
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