Before Dawn

by Olivia Hutchinson

“So, what do I pack then?”

  She rendered him speechless. He stared at her, unsure if he heard her correctly. "You're okay with this?"

  “Your stupid Council wants to murder babies and control people. I don’t want to get hurt. Shoot, I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but I know Everleigh. She's a sweet girl, and she was so excited about that baby.” She looked away from him and stared at the row of clothes hanging in her closet. “I was jealous of her. Jealous of the baby and her happiness. She put my hand on her belly a few days before she had Amelia. I felt the little girl kick her and I saw the sheer joy on Everleigh’s face," she confessed softly, but then her voice shook with anger. "I've always wanted that, and it's not right that someone would try to take it from her.”

  “And the warlocks?”

  She looked at him, her mouth a straight line. "They want me dead, and they kidnapped Andrea."

  “You understand the risks?”

  Nodding, she said, “I get it. Pretend to be your girlfriend. Pretend to be a witch, which apparently everyone already believes me to be anyway. Smile and be friendly. Turn on the Southern charm, find out who is under this warlock leader’s control. I don’t know how to do that, but I know how to smile and nod and listen. I reckon that’ll be enough.”

  “No one can find out you’re human.”

  “Then are you going to teach me how to be a witch? Because I sure don’t know a thing about it except that y’all said the warlocks think I am one.”

  “I know someone better than me to teach you,” he said, the corner of his mouth lifting. “Pack for several days. Casual clothes and some dress clothes, if you have any. I’m going to make a phone call.”

  He turned from the door and went down the stairs, finding the name he wanted on his phone. He stood in Natalie's living room, peering out the window as Natalie moved around upstairs. The phone rang twice before connecting.

  “What do you want, Azarov?”

  “Ruby, you owe me a favor.”

  "I owe a lot of people favors, and a lot of people owe me favors," Carey's grandmother said. "Now answer my question. What do you want?"

  “I want you to teach your granddaughter’s human friend how to pass for a witch in front of the Council. Unless you want to ask Carey to do it herself since she’s the one who marked these women as witches to begin with and brought the warlocks to Cantor.”

  Ruby was quiet on the line. He glanced at his phone twice to check to make sure Ruby hadn’t disconnected. Finally, she whispered, “They’re in Cantor?”

  “They kidnapped Andrea Connelly.”

  Ruby sighed through the line. “I figured it would be her.”

  Confused, Declan asked, “What are you talking about?”

  “None of your business, Azarov. Who are you bound to?”

  Bound? “Again, what the hell are you talking about?”

  “Slip of the tongue. Who are you with is what I meant. Who do you want me to teach Magic 101 to?”

  Bound. The word echoed in his head, but he didn’t prod the old witch any more than he already had. “Natalie,” he told her. “Natalie Everhart.”

  Crazy woman. Ruby knew more than she was letting on. Carey was one powerful witch. Stronger than any other he'd ever met, and she also told her grandmother everything. Declan had a strong suspicion Carey knew precisely what she was doing when she convinced the women to cast that spell.

  “Hmm,” she said. “Fine. I’ll be at your place in an hour.”

  “One hour.”

  There was no click on the other end, but when Declan glanced at his phone, he realized Ruby hung up. He waited in the living room for a few more minutes before Natalie came bumping down the stairs with her suitcase behind her.

  “You have more faith in me than you should,” she told him. “I just want to be upfront about that.”

  “I think you’ll do great.”

  “I think I’ll end up getting us killed,” she said with a shake of her head, “but I have a sneaking suspicion that you’ll end up getting yourself killed without my help.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re talking about sneaking me into a council house full of all kinds of things that fill most people’s nightmares. Dragons? Vampires? I hope you have a lot of friends watching your back, Declan.” She stopped in front of him, stood up straight and met him squarely in the eye. “Reckon you just have a death wish?”

  He couldn’t help but be amused at the way she spoke so bluntly to him. He couldn’t remember a time when someone outside of his immediate family did that, especially since taking over District one. “No, no death wish.”

  “My wish is that we get out of this with both our heads intact.”

  Declan took his hands out of his pockets and tucked a strand of Natalie's hair behind her ear. She was going to have to get used to him touching her if they were going to pull this off. She didn't flinch away from him but surprised him further when she leaned into his hand. Her cheek was soft against the roughness of his palm. Her lips parted slightly, and it took everything in him to not lean forward and brush his lips against hers.

  He shook himself. They just met. He dropped his hand and said, “Natalie, I want you to know right here and now, that if shit hits the fan, you’ll get out of Boston with your pretty head intact.”

  Her pupils dilated slightly, her voice low. “And you?”

  He shrugged. “My head is why you’re going to learn how to be a witch.”

  "Ugly game you're playing, Declan," she clucked, taking a jacket from the hook that was mounted next to the front door. She slung her purse over her shoulder, and he followed her outside to the parking lot, waiting for her while she locked the front door.

  “Have everything you need?”

  "Let's hope," she said. "Although it's rather difficult to pack when you don't really know the environment you're heading into." She checked the doorknob, and when the lock held, she turned to face him. "I'm ready."

  He took her suitcase from her and loaded it into the back of the SUV while she climbed into the passenger seat. Sliding behind the wheel, he started the car and pulled out of the parking space. Natalie didn’t look up when he pulled away from her home, too engrossed in her cellphone for the moment.

  “So, where are we going exactly?”

  “Boston.”

  “Yeah, got that part, but where are we staying?”

  “With my parents and my sister. I have a small apartment over their garage that I use when I’m in town.”

  “Can I assume we’re fooling your parents, too?”

  Declan didn’t like doing it, but his parents couldn’t know what he was up to. It was for their own safety as well as that of his sister. “Yup.”

  “They won’t wonder why you never mentioned me to them?”

  He shook his head. “They may ask, but I don’t usually talk about who I’m dating with them. As long as it’s a werewolf, they don’t care.”

  She looked up at him then. “Ooh, so they’re not going to like me one bit, are they?”

  “They’ll be fine.” He glanced over at her after he turned onto the road that would take him to his place. “Hannah will like you and my parents should tolerate you as long as there’s no talk of mating.”

  “Hannah is your sister?”

  “Yeah.”

  She tucked her phone into her pocket. “And I assume ‘mating’ means something important like being married or something?”

  “Something like that.”

  Natalie leaned back in the seat and gazed out the passenger side window. “We need to do some more talking, I think.”

  “We’ll talk tonight and tomorrow on the ride,” he said, moving his hand to give her knee a reassuring squeeze. He yanked his hand back before he made contact and gripped the steering wheel again. “I won’t be able to tell you everything about everything, but you’ll walk in there feeling as comfortable as you can, considering the situation.”

  She nodded, seemingly happy with hi
s statement.

  3

  “Never thought I’d live to see the day when you would be helping out Azarov,” Ruby Tremblay said, lit cigar hanging out of the corner of her mouth as she shrugged her heavy canvas bag higher up on her arm. “Honestly, I’ve always pictured you married to some dull middle-management type with a receding hairline and a 401(k) only to wake up one day, forty-something years after you agreed to be Mrs. Nobody, with two kids who just want their inheritance and the realization you haven’t had an orgasm since Bobby Vincent. Thank god you didn’t go down that road. I would’ve choked you.”

  Natalie stood just inside the door of Declan's house, mouth open and face on fire, almost unbelieving at who she saw on the other side. "Hi, Grandma Ruby."

  They arrived at Declan's without incident. He showed her around the cute little cape cod before leading her upstairs to the bedroom she would be using for the night. It was a quaint room, filled with a double bed and a narrow dresser. It seemed the place that was used once, maybe twice a year, by guests who didn't stay longer than a few days at a time. His office was just across the hall, but when she started to peek her head in, he shut the door.

  She came down the steps when she heard Declan open the front door only to find her best friend’s grandmother, a five-foot-tall powerhouse of a woman, on the other side.

  “Bobby Vincent?” Declan asked, one brow lifted, and with a barely contained grin on his face.

  If she thought she was embarrassed before, her face turned a whole new shade of crimson now. Stupid Carey for telling her grandmother about the one-time tryst she had with the local news anchor. Bobby Vincent had been the answer after a nasty breakup with her college boyfriend, but in the two years since their one-time encounter he came out as gay, gotten married to a prominent television chef, and moved to Los Angeles. She still followed him on social media and every year he sent her a Christmas card.

  He’d always been so considerate.

  "Hi yourself. Are you going to invite me in? Or are you two just going to stand here all day and stare at me like I'm the second coming? I have better things to do, you know." She glanced at her watch. “Tonight is day two of the Poker championship at the senior center, and I intend to take back my money from Magda Little before that old bag spends it all on Depends and Polydent.”

  “Come on in, Ruby,” Declan said, standing back to let the woman into the living room.

  Natalie stepped back as Ruby stepped inside the door and Declan closed it. “Poker? I thought you played Bingo at the senior center? That’s what Carey said.”

  “Bingo, Poker. What’s the difference, really?” Ruby asked before sweeping her eyes over the leather furniture, flat screen TV, and back to the kitchen. When she spotted the white tiled table, she made a beeline for it. Natalie followed her with Declan trailing behind.

  Ruby dumped her bag on the table, smoke billowing out of her nose as she began to sort through some of her books. She sat down in a chair, glanced at Natalie and then stared at the chair across from her expectantly. Natalie sat down and folded her hands in front of her, trying not to cough from the smoke that was irritating her throat.

  “So, you’re playing a witch, huh?” Ruby asked, peering at her with dark eyes.

  “Yeah, that’s the plan anyway.”

  “You’re burning all nice and bright now, so I don’t think you’ll have any issues walking into the Council House. No one should question it.”

  “What do you mean?” Declan asked from where he leaned against the counter behind Natalie.

  "Her aura. She's nice and bright and purple. It's quite stunning, really," Ruby said, squinting through the smoke. "She appears every bit the witch."

  “Well, that’s good,” Natalie said, still unsure. She glanced over her shoulder at Declan and back to Ruby. “Isn’t it?”

  Ruby nodded slowly. "Good. Sure." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, there are going to be certain expectations of you. You're going with the unmated head of a prominent territory and the only son of a faction leader. Declan is werewolf royalty, and you're going to have to act the part. Be careful with your questions. If you don't know the answer, don't ask. If someone asks you what you're doing with him, just tell them you're having a good time. Sowing your wild oats and all that. Got it?"

  “Sure?”

  With a frustrated sigh, Ruby grabbed a small wooden box from her bag and pulled it in front of her. It was carved with squiggles and swirls that most likely had some sort of meaning, none of which Natalie understood. Ruby opened the box, knocked a brown object to the side and picked up a deck of cards. The navy color was slightly faded, the edges yellowed and well-worn.

  Ruby held the cards out to her. “Shuffle and focus on going to Boston.”

  Natalie took them, took a deep breath, and then began to shuffle carefully. The cardstock was thick, bigger than a standard deck of playing cards, and awkward to handle. After a long minute, she stopped and placed the pile on the table in front of her. She could feel Declan's eyes on her back, but he didn't say anything.

  “Three piles,” Ruby instructed, “then pick a pile and hand it to me.”

  She did as she was instructed before sliding the middle pile across the table toward Ruby, who moved two of the books out of the way to give herself some room. One card after another snapped against the smooth tile. She gazed down at the pictures, her lips thin. Taking the cigar from the corner of her mouth, she handed it to Natalie.

  Natalie pinched the nearly spent cigar between her thumb and index finger, unsure what to do with it. Declan reached over her shoulder and plucked it from her fingers before running it under the sink to put it out. Natalie waved her hands in front of her face to clear the smoke away as she choked on it.

  Ruby waited, an annoyed look on her face until Natalie stopped hacking. When she was quiet again, the witch said, "You're not going to run into too much trouble. At least nothing you can't get out of. People are going to be more focused on your relationship with Azarov than anything else, from what it looks like here."

  “So there’s nothing to worry about?” Natalie asked, hopeful.

  “Now I didn’t say that.”

  Ruby held her hand out and nodded toward the two other piles in front of Natalie. Natalie picked up the one on the right and handed it to her before Ruby began laying them out on top of the cards she already interpreted.

  “Azarov, you’re going to have problems,” Ruby said, not looking up. Natalie turned in her chair to see Declan watching without a hint of his thoughts on his face. “Big problems.” Ruby looked up at him. “I hope you’re ready.”

  “What kind of problems?” Natalie asked when it was apparent he wasn’t going to.

  “The kind that gets you killed. Silly werewolf,” Ruby clucked, putting down one card after another in rapid succession until the remainder of the pile was spent. “You’ve been working with someone. Another werewolf. A mentor. Someone in a position of power and not Malcolm. Make sure they’re aware of what you’re doing before you go. And before you stand there like some boring statue instead of asking the question that you want to know, yes you can trust him with this. Those stories he tells? They’re all true.”

  There was a flash in Declan’s eyes and a small twitch of his lip, but that was the only indication he recognized what Ruby was talking about. Natalie hoped he’d share it with her as well, but she got the impression that he would keep that tidbit of information to himself for now.

  Ruby tossed her long, thin gray braid over her shoulder and peered down at the cards before tapping her rounded nail on the picture of the devil sitting on top of his throne, two people – a man and woman – at his feet. With a sigh, she reached across the table and grabbed Natalie’s hand, giving her a squeeze. “You’re going to have to do things that are outside of your normal comfort zone, but it’s okay to open up a little bit. You won’t regret it. No one in this room will betray you or judge you.”

  Natalie frowned and glanced from Ruby over her shoulder to De
clan and then back again. When Ruby let go of her hand a moment later, she gathered the cards back up into a neat pile and placed them back into the box.

  "That's all I got for you," she said, pushing the box to the side. "I'm going to leave you some books with basic spells to glance through. I want them back later, but I tagged the pages that I think you'll get the most benefit from."

  “Wait,” Natalie said. “Can I perform them?”

  Ruby snorted. “No. You may have some of Carey’s blood in you – enough to mark you – but not enough to give you that capability. Oh, and steer clear of vampires. One bite and they’ll know what you are. You may look like a witch and smell like a witch, but trust me when I say you won’t taste like a witch.”

  Yuck.

  Everything was happening too quickly; she doubted she’d be able to get a grip on the changes in her life before they left for Boston in the morning. With Ruby's help, she felt slightly better about her impulsive decision to help Declan.

  "As for your dealings with the other witches when you're there, Celeste especially, you can use my name if you're asked about your associations, but do not mention Carey. Ever. For any reason," Ruby said vehemently.

  “Why not?”

  “Because according to the Council, Carey doesn’t exist. She hasn’t existed since they ordered her extermination twenty-five years ago.”

  Shock reverberated through her. She glanced to Declan, but the grim look on his face told her he already knew. Unfortunately for her, there were a lot of things he was aware of that she was entirely in the dark over. "Does Carey know?"

  “Of course she does.” Ruby sighed. “You want to know why I’m here, Natalie? Really here?”

  Natalie nodded.

  “If this one thinks you need to understand magic to sneak into the Council House, he's wrong, but you do need to understand the Council and know that no one sitting on it is your friend.” She darted her eyes at Declan. “They've been crooked for years. Before the magic-wielders split into the warlocks and the witches. Before Dis began his power trip. I'm not here because Azarov called in a favor.”