by Noah Harris
Upon entering, Kell had immediately drifted to a far corner of the bar across from the entrance. It was positioned in such a way that they’d be concealed by its position, but Kell sat his back against the wall, giving him the prime spot to have the best view of the rest of the bar. Hardly anyone glanced up when they entered, save for the tired looking woman behind the bar who brought their drinks to them.
They sat in silence as Johnny drank from the bottle the woman had dropped in front of him. It wasn’t the best beer he’d ever had, but he didn’t figure Kell wanted to hear a Brit’s opinion on American beer. Kell seemed perfectly happy with it and it reminded Johnny of the man’s pleasure at the pizza.
“So, have you always been a wanderer?” Kell asked.
Johnny looked up. “No, I did have a home once upon a time. Lived with the Coven when my witch powers manifested.”
“But you’re a werewolf,” Kell said slowly.
“Magic can manifest much earlier, or at least, it’s easier to detect. When mine manifested, I was sent to live with the Coven, where other wayward witches like myself were taught. It wasn’t until after puberty began working its way into my system that my werewolf side manifested,” Johnny explained.
“And then when the werewolf stuff popped up, you had to choose one over the other and you went wolf, right? But what I meant was, is it something you always wanted to do? Be someone who journeyed the world? Or would you have preferred to stay in one place?” Kell asked.
Kell had no way of knowing just how painful the question was. Or, Johnny thought a moment later, he was being a little too dismissive of the man’s intuitive abilities. It was very possible, especially considering what Kell had witnessed in Johnny’s mind, that Kell knew exactly what he was asking.
Kell cocked his head. “Look, I know you don’t want to talk about things and I don’t mean to be pushy—I don’t have much room to talk about not opening up. But I don’t know if you noticed, when we were…having a moment, that’s when I got a peek inside your head.”
“Having a moment huh?” Johnny asked in amusement.
Kell narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, bonding, getting a little closer, whatever you want to call it. Quit being difficult just to try to distract me.”
“Maybe I’m just difficult by nature?” Johnny asked innocently.
Kell leveled a finger his way. “Johnny.”
“Are you saying you think getting to know one another might help your powers grow?” Johnny asked.
Kell shrugged, looking at the bottle of beer before him. “I mean, you’d know more than I do. Earlier you said it was possible that me being around you might have brought out some of my powers, so wouldn’t it make sense that us being closer on a mental level might, I don’t know, make the development go faster?”
Johnny was slow to nod, not wanting to admit it made a great deal of sense. He’d never been in charge of raising or caring for a budding Child of the Moon. Johnny had a spotty reputation at best with the rest of the Children, and even before that, he hadn’t been trusted with the next generation. All he knew about developing powers were from the days when he’d been taught. As far back as he could remember, he wasn’t sure how it happened, nor the best way to guide someone who had, by their reckoning, been human their whole life.
“So, you want us to have another ‘moment’ then,” Johnny continued.
“I want to get to know you,” Kell said bluntly.
Johnny snorted. “To help you get stronger.”
Kell’s expression went blank, shaking his head. “I’ll be honest, I’m using that as motivation for you to tell me about yourself. I want to know about you. I just figure you having a reason besides me being nosy would work best.”
Johnny blinked at him before letting out a bark of laughter too loud for the quiet bar, covering his mouth quickly to suppress the sound of his chuckling. While he might have anticipated a few answers from Kell, that had not been one of them. For someone who considered himself to be slow to warm up, Kell certainly seemed to have gotten the emotional honesty part down.
“I didn’t think I was saying anything funny,” Kell said, sounding a little grumpy.
Johnny shook his head. “You’re not—it was just unexpected. I’m not used to people outright wanting to know me without an ulterior motive.”
“Does you being good looking and interesting count?” Kell asked.
Johnny grinned, holding out his hand. “It’ll do for now.”
Kell looked at Johnny’s offered hand. “What…is that for?”
“Because, I’m going to take you out there to dance to this lovely music for a little while,” Johnny explained, sliding out of the booth.
Kell chuckled. “I don’t dance.”
“Well, if you want a few of your burning questions answered, you might want to reconsider that stance,” Johnny said, now grinning.
“What does dancing have to do with this?” Kell asked, his eyes darting between Johnny and the dance floor.
“Look, what I’m going to do is going to have us looking a little weird if I reach out and do it over the table. Poor people at the bar are going to think we’re a couple of nutters trying to hold a seance or something. If we’re up and dancing, it will make sense why we’re a little zoned out,” Johnny explained.
“And despite the years of progress and all, you’re not worried about someone taking issue with two men dancing in their bar?” Kell wondered.
“I’ve faced down far scarier things than a few angry drunk people in my lifetime,” Johnny promised him.
Kell looked convinced, not necessarily happy, but convinced. Draining the last of his beer, he slid from his side of the booth and accepted Johnny’s offered hand. Johnny led him to the dance floor, which was lit by one barely-working bulb. It suited Johnny just fine, as it would help conceal what they were doing and not draw further attention to them. A few of the people looked up as they moved, but when they saw no one was coming for them, they resumed their talking or staring at the bar top.
Kell glanced around nervously as Johnny took his other hand. Slowly, Johnny drew him in closer and let him relax. For Johnny, it was a test of trying to keep his rising instincts intact as he was near the source of the smell Kell gave off. If his theory about Kell was correct, there might be enough of various traits from other Children of the moon in him to be messing with Johnny’s senses. Whatever the reason behind it, the scent was distracting and Johnny had to focus intensely on his work.
First came the connection to Kell’s mind, with Johnny reaching mentally through the space to find the humming core of Kell’s thoughts. Gently, Johnny corded his power around Kell’s mind, bridging a connection between them. The power wavered for a moment as Johnny felt the bridge grow in strength, the connection stronger than he’d originally anticipated. Kell’s fingers squeezed Johnny’s hands, and with a sigh, Johnny allowed the bridge to finish its work.
With a surge of emotion, Johnny felt his memories begin to filter across the magic he’d weaved. Johnny had intended to keep the flow controlled, making sure it gave only the memories he intended to share, carefully edited in a way which allowed him to keep some of his secrets. To his dismay, the magic he’d used to connect to Kell quickly grew a life of its own, grabbing hold of the memories which it felt most relevant to whatever it was Kell was curious about. Magic always took the quickest route unless otherwise forced not to, and Johnny fought to stem the flow.
He’d grown up alongside Ash in the Coven, both of them learning magic together, and less important to the young boys, the rules as well. Both of them had been born with the capacity for magic, carrying wolf blood within them. Their early days had been full of laughter and mischief, finding what amusement they could with what little magic they’d known. Ash’s infectious laughter rang through Johnny’s mind, rich and carrying the twang which marked his southern origins. Their world had once been little more than required lessons, followed by hours of play, throwing magicked snowballs in the winter, catc
hing frogs and fish from the stream in spring, conjuring water to cool them in summer. The joy and contentment of those years filled Johnny, even as they followed the magic to Kell’s mind.
Johnny knew it would come but still cringed as he felt the memory’s tone shift when both he and Ash had discovered the truth of their dual natures. Coven law had demanded they choose one of their sides, casting away the other. Johnny had been unable to so casually throw the wolf away, having somehow heard its call his whole life without knowing it. The alpha wolf had demanded to be acknowledged and Johnny had chosen it over the magic of the coven. To his shock, dismay, and utter heartache, Ash had chosen the witch.
There’d been no way around it and Johnny had been forced out of Ash’s life. It felt as if his very soul had been ripped in two on the day he’d been forced to leave. Johnny had no choice after keeping the wolf over the witch and couldn’t have looked back if he’d wanted to. The last memory he’d had of Ash was the sorrowful look on his face as Johnny was marched away, Ash’s pale blond hair glowing red in the light of the sunset. Everything from that point on was different for Johnny—there had been no family, no real friends, and the only person he’d ever trusted completely had willingly chosen a different path.
Johnny could feel the memories threatening to boil over and spill completely into Kell’s mind. Instinctively, he knew there was no way the other man would be able to mentally withstand the onslaught of memories and emotions that weren’t his own. Johnny grabbed hold of the magical connection between them, giving it a sharp mental cut and ending it before it could finish what it had intended.
Kell rocked back from him, held up only by Johnny’s tightening grip. His brown eyes were almost black, a product of the magic widening his pupils and the low light of the bar. They were staring up at Johnny with wonder and weak confusion. Kell’s lips were parted, and Johnny wanted to bend forward and press his own against them. The sudden urge to take Kell back to their temporary lodgings and find out what lay beneath his well-worn clothes filled Johnny with an intensity that unnerved him.
The confusion snapped from Kell’s expression, replaced by a spike of fear and alertness. Johnny tensed, looking up from Kell as he realized they were no longer alone on the dance floor. The smell of ozone surrounding them, which had nothing to do with the intimate spell he’d worked, told Johnny that their new company was witches. A woman, with hard green eyes and tattoos all over her body stood just behind Kell. Behind her Johnny noticed a far older man with the bushiest brows he’d ever seen, and a huge man with scars running up and down his face.
Before Johnny could say anything, his arms were grabbed and forced behind his back. The ugly smell of wolfsbane assaulted Johnny’s senses, right before the burn of silver met his flesh. Kell gave a startled yelp as the woman pulled him away from Johnny, her grip looking about as strong as the one which held Johnny in place.
“I see you came prepared,” Johnny grunted, feeling the hair on his arm singe on contact with the silver bands around his wrists.
Johnny had been so busy trying to keep control of the spell, he hadn’t sensed any danger walking through the doors. The bar itself was empty, save for him and Keller, the three witches, and one lone man sitting in the corner. Johnny wasn’t sure why the spell which had obviously convinced the others to leave hadn’t worked on him, but instead seemed to keep him locked in one place. When he caught sight of the man’s baleful glare toward them, he realized that the witches weren’t the only faction to have found them.
“Johnny, who are these people?” Kell asked calmly, only the slightest hint of fear in his voice.
“These are the fine men and women of the Coven. The collective of witches I told you about. Apparently, they were more aware of what was happening than I originally thought,” Johnny said, watching the woman’s eyes shift between the two of them with a harsh flick.
It was she who spoke, pulling Kell’s hands behind his back as well. “You, both of you, will be coming with us. The Coven has need of you Ward, and you, wolf, are going to have a very long conversation about what you’ve been up to. Don’t think we didn’t notice what you were up to when we came in. You shouldn’t be capable of it.”
Kell pulled at his arms, making the woman’s grip slip. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Let me go.”
The woman’s lip curled. “You’ll go where we say. You’re too young and undeveloped to start thinking you’ll make decisions on your own, Ward.”
“Let go!” Kell barked, giving his arms another yank.
Johnny saw the expression on the woman’s face grow nasty and he braced for what was to come. Kell’s eyes widened as her movements became sharp and the man gave a cry of genuine pain. Before Johnny could do much more than feel the first roar of rage from the wolf inside him, Kell’s eyes went black. The woman was flung back with enough force to send her flying almost a dozen feet away, smacking into the wall with a hard thud.
Power reverberated from Kell, shattering glass and wood alike in a wave of energy. The building shook and the old timber crumpled. The men holding Johnny still gave a cry, releasing him as the ceiling caved. Johnny leapt toward Kell, pressing himself close to the man and into the eye of the storm as the building creaked and groaned, turning into a thunderous crash.
Dust filled the air, choking Johnny as he tried to see through the hazy cloud. The woman was still slumped against the wall, stirring feebly but untouched by the collapsing ceiling. The two men were separated behind them, with a huge pile of plaster and wood keeping them isolated to one corner.
Kell gazed up at Johnny, eyes wide and his pupils normal once again. “Holy shit.”
“That is…a very succinct and accurate way of putting it,” Johnny said as he looked around the ruined bar.
Kell’s eyes were on something else when Johnny looked back. Johnny followed his gaze, a drop of ice hitting his gut when he saw a bloody shoe beneath a pile of rubble by the bar. The man, who Johnny had suspected was a Vigil member, had not been so quick in his escape, or perhaps had been unable to move due to the effects of the Coven’s spell. Either way, Kell’s outburst had cost the man his life, and Johnny could see the dawning horror on Kell’s face.
Johnny turned, offering his bound hands. “Quickly, undo these restraints. Those two aren’t going to be held back for long and she’s bound to wake up. We need to get out of here while we have the chance.”
Having a task at hand snapped Kell out of his trance, forcing him to take hold of Johnny’s wrists, fighting with the cuffs. “I can’t. They’re locked.”
A whistle caught his attention, and Johnny looked to the entrance of the bar. Through the fading cloud of dust and debris, Johnny could make out a woman’s shape. She gave them a wave, gesturing them over urgently.
“Uh, Johnny?” Kell asked from behind him.
“I think we’re okay,” Johnny said, taking the first steps toward the door.
When they emerged onto the street, the woman was standing beneath the nearby street light. It had been years, but Johnny recognized Alyssa on sight. The gangly yet almost beautiful teenager had grown into a stunning woman. Somewhere in the years between running around occasionally with Ash and Johnny, Alyssa had gained a liking for leather. The snug fabric was only slightly darker than her ebony skin, marked by the occasional pattern of white lace. Her hair had been pulled back into a practical bun and she was watching them with amusement glinting in her eyes.
“I see your flair for the dramatic hasn’t lessened with the years,” Johnny said with a wide grin.
Alyssa cocked her head, tossing something through the air. “And I see your penchant for getting yourself into trouble hasn’t gone away.”
Kell caught the shiny object that had sailed through the air toward them. Holding them up, they could see it was the keys they needed. Without saying anything to Alyssa, Kell busied himself with unlocking the cuffs. Johnny’s fingers were steadier and the burning sensation around his wrists disappeared in an instant. A moment
later, his old strength and the familiar close feeling of his wolf returned, widening Johnny’s smile.
“Much obliged. However, I have to wonder why,” Johnny said to her.
Alyssa shook her head. “The Coven has been getting…darker lately. They’re getting to be as ruthless and cruel as the Vigil. I don’t like it, and I’m not going to stand around and follow their orders when it comes to you.”
Johnny cocked his head. “While I appreciate the sentimentality…”
Alyssa snorted. “Good, appreciate it, because my ass will be finished if they hear about this one. I don’t know if this is the right thing. They’ve insisted the bounty on you is for your own good.”
Johnny sighed, glancing at Kell. “As I said, apparently they knew more than I suspected.”
“And a second price on my head,” Kell muttered.
“Our heads,” Johnny corrected, earning him a small smile.
“I was told you were to be brought in unharmed, in the interest of making sure the Ward doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Personally, it didn’t feel right to me. I was always fond of you and Ash both, and I can’t stand the idea of you being in their control with the way things have been lately,” Alyssa told him, her amusement vanishing.
Johnny felt a twinge at Ash’s name but pushed it away. “Is he in any danger?”
Alyssa shook her head. “No, he’s…well, he’s doing what he does, and he’ll be okay for the moment. The Coven hasn’t set their eyes on him, but you know Ash, he draws attention.”
“Always has,” Johnny muttered.
Alyssa strode forward. “The best thing you can do now is to keep moving. Don’t stay in one place for too long and don’t do your normal hiding routine. I’m pretty sure they’ve figured you out by now Johnny, and I really don’t want to see you get captured a few days from now because you decided to stay a creature of habit.”
