by Cheree Alsop
“While I might not believe that you’re a werewolf,” Georgia said, “I do get satisfaction out of the thought of saving your life by eating this pie.” She glanced at Virgo. “Are you sure you’re not a werewolf, too?”
“No,” he replied. “I’m a….” He let the sentence fade away.
I goaded him. “Tell her, Virg. Tell her what you are.”
He shook his head and took another bite of pie.
His silence surprised me. The warlock had never come across as shy in the least bit. He had been plenty enthused to tell her that I was a werewolf. I couldn’t understand why on earth he wanted to keep being a warlock a secret.
Then it occurred to me and my mouth fell open. He liked her! Virgo had been smitten by Safira from my pack, but they hadn’t really gotten anywhere. The thought of the warlock being taken with someone so quickly was an intriguing one to me. I wanted to ask, but Virgo glared at me and shook his head. I closed my mouth again, but couldn’t help the smile that spread across it.
“What is he?” Georgia asked. When I didn’t answer, she looked at him. “Let me guess. A vampire? No, not pale enough.” She gave him a closer look, one that sent him blushing again. “An elf? No, the ears aren’t pointed enough, though your hair might pass.”
He smoothed a self-conscious hand down his ponytail.
“Maybe a golem in hiding, or a woodland pixie, or a witch?” She glanced at me. “What do they call a boy witch? I can’t remember.”
Virgo threw me a wide-eyed look. I didn’t know what to say.
“A warlock,” she finally said with a triumphant grin. “You, my strange friend, are a warlock.”
Virgo’s voice was level when he said, “You’re right.”
She crossed her arms. “Show me a trick, then.”
“I don’t do tricks.”
The warlock sounded very sullen. I wondered why he refused to show her since she had guessed. Instead, he glared at the ground and crossed his arms like a petulant child.
“I don’t do tricks,” Georgia mimicked before taking another bite of pie. She gestured to the dessert. “Well, I’m about to make this disappear, and that’ll be a trick. It’ll be the only magic any of us will see at this table tonight, I promise you that.”
Two sets of footsteps approached. I sat up straighter and turned at the sound.
“You must be Zev,” a tall woman with a sheriff’s badge said. She held out a hand.
I shook it. “I am.”
“Sherriff Scots,” she replied. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions?”
“Not at all,” I told her.
I was about to rise and follow her when she motioned for me to move over.
“Scoot,” she said. “I’ll have Dave bring us a few more pieces of Penny’s award winning pie.”
I had never scooted in my life. Doing so to allow an officer of the law to sit beside me felt entirely wrong. I had spent most of my life acting on the wrong side of that law. The voice in the back of my mind wondered if they could tell by looking at me. I told the voice it was stupid and to be quiet so I could scoot.
I moved as close to the window as I could. I glanced outside, wishing I could sink through the glass and be in the sunshine. The thought of Virgo doing the same for his mother to bring her back from the demon realm made me look at him, but the warlock had already refused to do magic in front of Georgia. I doubted adding the sheriff and whoever else she had brought with her would make him any more willing.
“I’ve already gotten an accounting of what happened from Dave and the others,” she began. She gave a warm chuckle and said, “More than an accounting. Are you sure you aren’t some sort of superhero? They seem to think you flew over there and used x-ray vision and everything.”
Her smile eased my tension. “I just saw trouble and didn’t want it to get out of hand,” I told her honestly.
She nodded and wrote something in her little notebook. “Well, I’m grateful for how quickly you acted. Penny said things were getting tense and she was worried if she did anything wrong, he would shoot her.”
“He wasn’t going to shoot.”
The words slipped out before I could stop myself. I sighed at the inability for me to keep my human side in check. I should stay a wolf. Wolves didn’t blurt out unnecessary information. They wouldn’t be questioning a wolf.
The ironic voice in my head also noted that the sign on the door had denied entrance to animals other than certified service dogs. I would only have been there in wolf form as a service animal to a twitterpated warlock. The thought was cringe-worthy.
“What makes you say that?” The sheriff’s tone had lost some of its casual camaraderie and taken on an interested note that hinged on suspicion. “Do you know him?”
I took care to make sure that I spoke calmly and easily when I replied, “No, Sheriff. I just noticed when I hit the gun with my cane that the safety was still on.”
“I see,” she said. She made a note in her little book. “And do you care if I ask why you have a cane?”
My mind drew a blank. Saying that a tentacled demon four times the size of the diner had thrown me into a subway wall for killing his son didn’t seem as though it would go across well. There could have been any other number of reasons, but at that moment, I couldn’t think of a single one. I looked at Virgo and met his panicked expression.
“Car accident.”
We all looked at Georgia.
“Wasn’t that it?” the girl said.
She gave me a subtle kick under the table to the leg we were discussing; the pain nearly sent me through the window without the warlock’s help.
She nodded her head encouragingly. “You said your leg got crushed in a car accident last week, right?”
“Yes,” I managed to squeak out in a pathetic attempt at breathing and not throwing the table through the window to distract me from the pain.
When Georgia realized what she had done, she mouthed, ‘Sorry’ when the sheriff wasn’t looking.
“Car accident,” the sheriff said as she noted it in her pad. “I’m sorry to hear that. Are you from around here?”
I shook my head. It was obvious by her expectant silence that the sheriff wanted my contact information, but I honestly had no idea what to tell her. I didn’t have an address, I carried a burner phone from a government branch she probably had no idea existed and for which I didn’t even have the number, and I had no house.
“Brickwell,” Virgo supplied at my silence. “We’re from Brickwell. We came to visit our friend Georgia, and then we’re heading straight home.”
The sheriff gave me a questioning look. I grabbed my water and gulped down what was left.
“Don’t mind him,” Virgo said. “He was in a coma after the accident.” He tapped his head. “Still getting things back together, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the sheriff said with an understanding nod. “I just need a phone number and an address.”
“I can give them to you,” the warlock told the sheriff.
Chapter Six
“I would say you don’t do well under pressure, but you literally just save everyone’s lives in that diner. If that’s not pressure, I don’t know what is.” I felt Georgia’s gaze on me. “So what’s your deal?”
They had let us leave after we reassured them that we would stick around town for a few hours in case they had other questions for us. Fortunately, Virgo and Georgia’s lie about the accident coincided with a huge pileup on an interstate close enough to Brickwell that the story checked out on surface inspection. Nobody had been hurt by the robber and there were plenty of witnesses, so she doubted they would need more from me.
With no other place to go, Georgia had invited us to her apartment, which ended up being a few blocks from the car dealership. I found myself drinking iced tea on her couch while Virgo used a feather to tease her fat black and white cat.
“I have a friend to save,” I told her. “But our lead in finding Wo
lfsbane is a bust, so we’re back to square one. The problem is that I also don’t know where to find her even if we can track down a cure, which I’m not sure even exists anymore.” I leaned my head in my hands. “We’re running in circles.”
“And someone kicked him,” Virgo supplied helpfully.
“I said I’m sorry,” Georgia replied. “And I really am. I wasn’t thinking.”
“You were,” I told her. I tipped my head to look at her. “You got us out of there with your car accident story. That was quick thinking.”
She smiled at me. “It was obvious you weren’t coming up with anything. So what really happened?” At my hesitant look, she said, “You owe me for bailing you out back there.”
I glanced at the cat Virgo teased. Its ears flattened and it let out an angry hiss.
“Stop looking at the cat,” the warlock said. “He really doesn’t like you.”
I turned back to Georgia. “You know how we keep saying that werewolves, witches, and warlocks exist?” At her nod, I said, “Demons do, too. A big one threw me against a wall before it exploded from the grenade I chucked down its throat.”
“Thanks to me,” Virgo supplied helpfully. “I threw him the grenade.”
“Nice,” Georgia replied in a voice of doubt. “You’re a good friend, obviously.” Her brow furrowed. She was silent for a moment before she said, “This is the weirdest day of my life.”
“Not mine,” I told her honestly. “This is pretty on par lately. I’m sorry we brought this to you. It was unintentional.”
She nodded, then said, “Your friend really is in trouble?”
I nodded. “Serious trouble, but there’s nothing you can do. We’ll catch our ride back as soon as the sheriff gives us the all clear and get out of your way. We never should have come here.”
Virgo and Georgia exchanged a look. Something flitted between them. Was it regret? Worry? I wished I was better at reading human expressions. What was the smile Georgia gave Virgo? Was she actually infatuated with the warlock?
Zev?
All other thoughts fled my mind at the sound of Fray’s voice.
“Fray, where are you?” I spoke out loud and thought at the same time.
“Zev, what’s up?” Virgo asked. “Who are you talking to? Fray’s not here.”
“I can hear her,” I told him.
“I don’t think—”
I held up a hand to cut Virgo off when she spoke again.
Zev, I’m dying.
“I’m trying to find you,” I said. “Where are you?”
I don’t know. She sounded exhausted and afraid. I had never heard the dhampir so weak. But I don’t think you should try to find me.
“Of course I’ll find you,” I replied. “I’ll get you away from the Hunters and find a cure. I promise.”
Zev, they’re coming. Don’t come after me. I won’t be here by the time you do.
“Hold on,” I said, my voice pleading. “Don’t give up. I will find you. I promise.”
Zev? Her voice was fading.
“Fray, Fray!” I called out.
She didn’t answer.
The touch of her voice in my head vanished to leave me feeling empty and alone.
I blinked and focused on Georgia and Virgo staring at me.
“Zev, what was that?” Virgo asked. “Were you really talking to her?”
I nodded. The stark feeling of emptiness remained in my mind where she had been. When my vampire Master or the demons got in my head, it was always scratchy and painful. It left a residue that made me feel tainted and unclean. But when Fray did it, it was different. Her voice, though faint, had been warm and gentle. I felt as if without it, I was missing something I hadn’t known I needed.
“Who?” Georgia asked. “His girl?”
“Fray,” I replied without looking at her. I held my head in both hands in the vain hope of keeping in the feeling of her so that I wouldn’t lose her. “The dhampir we told you about.”
“If she’s real…if you really talked to her…the way you saved that man….” She paused, then said, “If it’s real, I might know someone who can help.”
Her words made hope flicker to life inside of me. I looked at her. “Who?”
“My old professor,” she said. “I took a myths and legends class from him in college. It’s where I learned a lot of what I put in my books.” She glanced at Virgo. “The students always joked that he was part of the mythical world he taught. Maybe we weren’t so far off?”
“Show her.”
Virgo met my gaze. He gave a subtle shake of his head, then tipped it at Georgia.
I couldn’t hold back my anger. “Virgo, show her. If she has any leads, we have to explore them.”
He held up his hands. “Fine, fine,” he said. “Don’t bite my head off.” He winked at Georgia. “That’s werewolf humor.”
“I’m not laughing,” I said flatly.
She looked from one of us to the other in confusion.
Virgo hesitated. His brows pulled together in worry and he said, “Please don’t think differently of me.”
“Virgo!” I barked.
He stood and held out his hands. He whispered several words and the runes on the backs of them began to glow.
Georgia let out a gasp.
At another word, blue fire formed in a ball between his palms. He didn’t touch it; it just hung there inches from his fingers.
Georgia sat back on the couch.
Virgo closed his hands around the ball of fire and I smelled the subtle magic as the fire turned to ice. When he opened them again, a solid ice globe with an ice rose in the middle sat on his palm. He held it out to Georgia.
Her blue eyes were wide with astonishment. She reached out a hand. Her fingers trembled as she stretched them toward the ball. She touched the surface, then yanked her hand back.
Embarrassment washed across her face. “Sorry. It’s cold.”
Virgo nodded. He closed his hands, whispered a few words, then opened them again. The ice had vanished and the blue rose now sat on his palm, its velvet petals soft and real. He held it out to her.
“It’s not cold anymore,” he said quietly.
I felt a small pang of regret at forcing him to reveal his true nature to her. The way he looked at her as he held out the flower let me know that he was really, truly smitten, and that he was afraid he had ruined any chance he had with her. He had admitted in the forest that he wasn’t sure he would ever fall for a girl again. Had I just destroyed his only opportunity?
When she didn’t reach out again, he set the rose gently on her knee. She stared at it without touching it.
“You have every right to run screaming from this apartment,” he told her in a quiet voice.
I had the distinct impression that he had experienced such a reaction before.
Georgia looked from the rose back to him. In a small but graceful gesture, she picked up the flower and brought it to her nose. She inhaled, then looked at him over the top of the petals. “This is my apartment.”
That brought a small, surprised smile from him. “I could run away screaming then, if it would make you feel better.”
A laugh escaped her. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
She lowered her eyelashes as if hiding behind them, then glanced at me without facing me fully. “If he is really a warlock, then you’re….”
I nodded. “I’m a werewolf.”
Her face paled, but she glanced at my cane. “And you can’t change because you hurt your leg?”
I nodded again. “We call it phasing, and to be honest, I’m a much better wolf than human. The leg thing is just a minor inconvenience until it heals.”
That succeeded in bringing another smile to her face. “You’re a pretty good human. You saved lives today.”
I met Virgo’s gaze. “I guess you could say it’s becoming a bit of a habit.”
The cat caught my eye. When I looked directly at it, it hissed again. I growled back.
Embarrassment filled me when I realized what I had done. “I’m so sorry!” I said to Georgia.
“That’s okay. He doesn’t seem to like werewolves.”
I chuckled. “Can’t say I blame him, but he has a really foul vocabulary.”
That made Georgia stare. “Can you really understand him?”
I nodded. “But I won’t repeat the things he said. His opinions are pretty biased.”
The cat’s ears flattened as if he knew we were talking about him and he hissed again.
“Galileo, enough,” Georgia scolded.
The cat stalked from the room, his tail swinging haughtily behind him. I could hear his little huffs of complaint from the bedroom, but chose not to comment.
“We need to hurry,” I told Georgia. “How do we find this professor?”
“He used to teach at the state college. I can see if he’s still there, but it’s been a few years.” She opened a screen on her phone at the same time that mine rang.
I pulled the black object out of my pocket and pressed the only button it had.
“Hello?”
“We have info on Fray’s whereabouts,” Captain Roarsh said. “You’ll be picked up in five.”
“Minutes?” I asked, but the sound on the other end cut off.
“What did they say?” Virgo asked.
“They’re picking us up. He said they know where Fray is.” My heart beat a double staccato when I said the words. The flicker of hope bloomed into a full bonfire. I wouldn’t rest until the dhampir was safe. I would do anything.
“I’m coming with you,” Georgia said.
Virgo and I exchanged a surprised look.
“You can’t go,” he protested.
She crossed her arms. “You can’t expect me to stay here after finding out that werewolves and warlocks are real, can you? You need help! And Professor Blackstone isn’t on the faculty list at the college anymore. I’m the only hope you have of finding him. He’s got to know the cure. His paranormal knowledge was incredible.”
I wanted to say no. I had already refused to let Virgo bring James to the Division. I wasn’t about to involve this stranger in a place so dangerous I lost count of how many times we nearly died being a part of it.
