Alaskan Magic: Shadows of Alaska Book 1
Page 22
“But I didn’t protect him enough.” I hadn’t had time to deal with my guilt anyway. It welled up in me, and I fought back the tears.
“You can’t think that way. You’re not under investigation for that incident. Stuff happens. It could’ve been you. Is Mason still around? Staying at your place?” Green asked.
I nodded.
“Good. I think you being so solitary is part of why people worried about you. Mitch’s wife. Zel. Lots of people worried about you, but you always seemed to have your stuff together. Until this case,” Green said.
I wanted to argue, but did it matter? “It’s a big ugly spiderweb of a case. You guys want it neat and done.”
“Plays better in the press that way. People don’t have the attention span for a crime web. We got the bad guys, and people can feel safe again—that’s what they want to hear,” he explained.
“I know, but that’s not reality. We can keep the case going, or do connected cases. I understand the concern about resources, but our job is to keep people safe here,” I replied.
“Right now, we’re here to talk about the will. I should’ve met you out of the office, but we’re swamped,” he said.
“I could help. Give it a week and get me off this dumb suspension,” I said.
“No, you can expect to be suspended for a least six months,” he said.
“Six months?” I snapped.
“With pay and benefits. It could be a lot worse,” he said.
“It makes it look like I did something wrong,” I countered.
Green threw his hands up. “What do you want? To be fired?”
I shook my head. “My partner is dead. Wrap up the investigation you claimed to be running to suspend me and put me on an extended leave of absence. It’s logical and makes me look innocent of charges but shook from losing my partner.”
Green shrugged. “It achieves the same thing.”
“Let this all blow over and see how it settles. You can always find something and fire me, or I get my bearings back, and I’m reinstated at some point with a new partner.” I wanted to keep my options open for now.
“Fine. But you’ll need to pass a psych eval to be reinstated.” Green wagged a finger at me.
I nodded. “Fine, grief is a good enough excuse. What about the will?”
“He left you a gun. It belonged to his grandfather in WWII. His wife handed it over this morning. She wasn’t happy about it. Thought it should go to her kids one day.” Green removed a small gun box from his desk drawer and set in front of me.
“Then I should let her keep it,” I said.
“He wanted you to have it. Mitch had a collection of guns. I had to send an agent over there to help her sort out which gun belonged to you. The kids won’t miss one. Take it. Don’t make this a back and forth that upsets people. The combo is 1234,” he advised.
I sighed. “Clever. Secure. Fine.” I opened the box.
It was an old pistol with some papers taped to the top of the box. A small box of ammo was shoved inside as well.
“Sign this, and it’s transferred to you. You’re proficient with guns, so it’s not a safety hazard. If you hang out for a bit, I’ll get the papers for you about the leave. We can sign them and postdate them. It’ll take about a week to get you from suspended to leave. A bureau shrink might contact you for therapy,” he said.
“I don’t need therapy. I just need a break,” I replied.
“That’s the answer to give her. I’ll be right back.” Green went out to get the forms for Zel. So much was computerized now, but some things needed forms and signatures the old way.
That was the government and humans for you.
The leave would protect my reputation, at least. Leave the door to returning open, just in case. But the more I meddled in the full para groups, the more I hated the idea of playing human again. I didn’t belong here anymore.
An hour later, I walked back into my house and found Mason pacing and shouting on the phone.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“She’s not in school? Mom, I told you that you need to keep an eye on Lily,” Mason said.
“Crap.” I put the gun in my gun safe and locked it back up.
Checking my messages, I had one from Lily.
“Mason,” I said.
“Wait, Mom can’t find Lily,” Mason replied.
“She texted me,” I tried to cut in as they were speaking Inuit.
“Damn it.” Mason ended the call. “The villagers are freaking out.”
“She texted me.” I showed him my phone. “I had the ringer off during the meeting.”
Lily: Found a suspicious bear shifter group. I’ll update you later.
“Update us? How? What is she doing?” Mason asked.
I didn’t have those answers. “Did you tell her about the lynx shifters?”
Mason shook his head. “She must be tracking us.”
“Come on. She’s a kid.” But I had sensed she had more magic than her brother gave her credit for.
“She’s good at basic spells. Native magic, and I’m her blood. She can follow me, so she can always find me.” Mason took a few deep breaths. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me. Your mom might want one. I think you need talk to Lily. She can’t chase down random shifter groups. She’ll get herself killed,” I agreed.
“She’s not in the village,” he said.
“Is she here?” I asked.
“No, she’s missing.” Mason took my phone. “Now we need to find out where this damn bear shifter group is.”
“Are you impersonating me? Let me do it.” I grabbed for my phone.
“No, you’ll tip her off,” he snapped. His anger rolled off him like my grief. I understood why, but he couldn’t do it all alone either.
“You won’t? You can’t do this all by yourself either.” I went to the fridge. “Let’s at least have lunch before we go bear hunting. Don’t seem desperate for info, or she’ll know we’re up to something. We need her to tell us where she is. With the bears or somewhere else on this magical joy ride.”
“She’s my sister. You don’t need to be involved,” he said.
I snatched the phone from him. “I’m involved. You’re helping me with whatever this case turns into. I’ll help with your rebellious sister. Green is going to close my suspension and put me on leave because of Mitch. We can be partners and solve this.”
Mason threw his hands in the air. “Fine. Find out where she is and if she’s safe.”
“Good. I’ll throw you under the bus. ‘Mason is worried. He’s going to freak out your mom if we can’t put eyes on you today.’” I texted.
“I get to be the jerk.” Mason started working on lunch prep.
“Not the jerk, the concerned big brother who’ll come to the rescue,” I said. “Wish I’d had one of those as a kid.”
“What if she doesn’t reply?” he asked.
“Then we worry. Locate her the same way she tracked you.” I smiled.
“Blood magic is not good,” he said.
“You said it was Native. Natural. You’re related,” I said.
He nodded. “It is, but if you don’t want people to know—there are ways to hide it. She must’ve used blood magic.”
“That doesn’t mean she won’t reply to me and let me know, if she can. She texted me in the first place.” I checked my phone that the ringer was back on.
The girl was stubborn, but so were we. Magically following Lily was a dangerous move. Using up part of my stolen magic to transport us was not my favorite thing either.
Finding ourselves on Kodiak Island down in the Kenai Peninsula was really terrible. Those bears were huge, real or shifter. They were not at all afraid of humans either, the real bears had grown accustomed to tourists.
Mason looked around.
“We need to be careful,” I said.
“You’ll refuel fast. The Fae are big down here because their lines are stronger,” he said.
“Afraid of bears?” he teased.
“Only a little. It’s irrational, I know. My magic could protect me, but we’ve all got something,” I said.
He smiled. “Real bears are hibernating now. The others will have a glamour on the island, so just humans can’t see them.”
“Right. I knew that.” I stepped back and took a deep breath.
“Shifter bears are more dangerous anyway,” he said.
“They have no reason to hurt us,” I argued.
A voice came from behind us. “You have no reason to be here, witch.”
“I’m not exactly a witch, part Fae,” I said.
“No reason to be on our island,” he replied.
The tall man looked like the guy from the Brawny Paper Towels ad with a bit of the Hulk thrown in. A couple others in bear form strolled up.
Fourteen hundred pounds of bears with nasty claws and teeth, they could rip us apart. I pulled magic from the ground and refilled every spot with bulked up magic just in case.
“My sister may have gotten a spell wrong. Gotten lost. She’s a kid. We’re just looking for her,” Mason said.
“Young Native girl called Lily,” I added.
“I haven’t seen any Native girls here. If she got lost here, she could just use her magic to go home. Which means she probably is already gone. Or she took a ferry to the mainland. Either way, no stray girls. You need to leave,” he said.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Saget,” he said.
“Hi, I’m Dot, and this is Mason. Lily is really into testing her magic and pushing the limits. She might’ve injured herself or got herself tangled up where she can’t get help. In which case, she’d try to hide from you for safety. She’s smart but impulsive. Can you help us find her? Maybe tell us where she might be hiding?” I asked.
Saget moved in and towered over me. “She’s not here. We patrol our island well.”
“We’re searching it ourselves.” Mason’s arm muscles tightened like he was ready to fight.
“She is not here. Why would she stay?” Saget asked.
“Do you eat little girls for breakfast?” I asked.
“We eat anything we like. Grizzly bears are the alpha predators here,” he replied.
My stomach flipped in a very bad way. “You’re shifters, and you eat people. Humans or paras—you’d still eat them?”
“You intruded on our island with magic, and you’re still alive. That’s a nice way of treating you given that you’re calling us murderers or kidnappers. Fae or Native—or witch, you don’t belong here.” Saget began to walk away.
They didn’t consider us a real threat.
Mason’s face was frozen with a rage I’d never seen. “She’s here, I can feel it.”
I nodded. “Me too. Stay calm, we’ll find her.”
“Kill him,” Mason said.
“No.” I held up a finger in Mason’s face. “Saget, he’s a Native, and I’m part Native too. We have a right to be anywhere on Alaskan soil. Our people have been here as long as any shifter or bear.”
Saget sniffed the air. “You? Native? Nice try. but at most, you’re a tiny sliver. I don’t care what rights the human treaties give you. We don’t obey laws or borders. Animals don’t have to. People do.”
Saget and his followers wandered off into the tall brush.
“We’re not leaving,” Mason said.
I shook my head. “No, but it was worth a shot to be nice. Not all paras are evil. We’ll find her. I was just hoping they’d help.”
“They have her somewhere.” Mason rocked like a man possessed.
“She barely has any meat on her. Why would they do that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe for her power. Maybe as leverage. They know you’re powerful.” Mason looked at me.
“What? I’m not whatever other people think I am. It’s stolen power or power from the lines. That’s what happens when you’re a hybrid or half something. Powers don’t line up with people’s expectations. No one wants me because they all think I’m some weird threat.” I sat down on the ground.
“Dot, are you taking a nap?” Mason asked.
“Shhhh. You’re a good tracker, get down here and track.” I touched the cold ground and felt for Lily’s magic.
“That’s not how I track. I can pinpoint more with my magic,” he said.
“Try. You never know,” I said.
He sat down and took my hand. “We’re stronger together since she’s my sister.”
With each of us putting a hand on the ground, we tried to get some direction.
The growling from the distance made it hard to focus on Lily. We were being watched and surrounded. When dealing with bears, never run and don’t show fear. If I had to take them all out to save Mason’s sister, I’d find a way to do it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“There are too many here,” I whispered to Mason.
“Too many to fight?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Fight? I’m not fighting a huge pack of anything as a first option. Too many to knock out. Humans would be one thing, but this many bear shifters. I’d be overrun, even with your help. Even with the Fae line. They’re everywhere, and some of them have some magic abilities. Can you fight them?”
“Not like you,” Mason said.
I rolled my eyes. “Please. I’m serious. Can you force them into human form?”
“Not that many. Small groups, but we need a better plan,” he said.
“Change the gravity for the whole island?” I suggested.
Mason shook his head. “It’s too large of a space. We’d be vulnerable if we even tried it.”
“Find Lily and flee, I think I can move us all safely. She had to get here on her own, so she’s strong,” I said.
“But will she have the power to get back?” he asked.
“Too many questions. We need to get our hands on her before they do anything stupid,” I said.
I drew a rough sketch of the island in the dirt. “If we’re here...where is Lily?”
I pulled the Fae line magic through the Earth, and a spot lit up.
On the opposite side of the island, of course. The island wasn’t that huge, but we’d be cut off or rerouted.
“Got enough power to get us there?” Mason asked.
I nodded. “It won’t be exact like a pinpoint, but we can split up—then you’ll need your magic. I can pull from the line.”
“Let’s go. I’m feeling surrounded,” he said.
“You’re not wrong.” I had the same sensation.
I grabbed his hand, and we disappeared.
Turning up on the south end of the island, I looked around for hideouts or anything. There were fewer bears, but I felt even more threatened. They could be invisible and trying to uncover everything would just suck up my magic.
“They’ve got their hideouts hidden from human eyes. We’ll have to feel her out,” I said.
“You think they have her already?” he asked.
I nodded. “She’s worth something to them, or else they’d have handed her over already.”
“At least she’ll be alive,” he said.
I nodded. “Did you tell her about the case? Was she researching them for a reason?”
“Intruders aren’t welcome here,” roared a man.
He was definitely a bear shifter. We turned to him.
“You have Lily here. We just want her back, and we’ll go,” I said.
He shook his head. “Leave.”
“She’s my sister. I can track her. I don’t know what brought her here, but we’ll go once we have her,” Mason said.
“Lily came here willingly. We didn’t take her or force her to come here. You’re in danger. Go,” he said.
“Not going to happen. Hand her over,” I ordered.
The m
an shifted to bear form and charged us.
I looked at Mason. “Gravity?”
“You do it,” he said.
I waved my hand and played with the force of gravity. I’d felt Mason do it enough.
The bear went nose first into the dirt and kept growling and roaring at us while he struggled to get traction with his claws kicking up dirt.
“He’s strong,” I said.
Another much younger man ran out of a magical cave. “Stop!”
“He charged us. We’re not leaving without the girl,” I said.
“I was talking to him. Lily is my mate. She’s not leaving,” the young man said.
“Hell no,” Mason said.
He pointed his fingers at the ground, and the Earth shook.
“She’s too young for anything you’re talking about. We’ll flood this place with cops and take all of you into custody one way or another,” I warned.
The teen laughed. “She’s mine. She found me. It’s fate. We’re mated.”
“I want to hear that from her,” I said.
“I’ll kill them all,” Mason said.
“And I’m the one who’s out of control?” I shot back. “Don’t make it worse.”
The growling grew louder, and I looked around. In the tall grass, bears surrounded us in increasing numbers.
“You can flee or die. Honestly, bring all the humans you want. We’ll eat you anyway,” he said.
“So, she was researching shifters that eat humans. Great,” I said.
“You let her stay for dinner at your house, and she thinks she’s on the case,” Mason said.
“Can we fight about that later? We’re about to be dinner.” I sized up the number of bears, and we were in trouble. “There are too many for the gravity trick. Another earthquake will just rattle us all.”
“I can blot out the sun, but they see better in the dark than we do,” Mason replied.
“Fire?” I suggested.
“We’re flammable too. With my rage, it’ll burn out of control. Could kill Lily. I can’t,” he said.
I nodded. “We can levitate, but I’m not sure I could control a huge fire enough to spare Lily either. Even on an island.”
“Suggestions?” Mason moved closer as the bears advanced, closing ranks on us.
“Call your mom,” I said.