Chapter 18
A break was what we needed. A little space.
I spent a day with Melanie, this time out sightseeing, beach, visiting the grocery store and Boots.
The wolves got to work their day jobs.
Part of me wanted to wake to discover the whole thing had been a bad dream, a scry gone wrong. Part of me was shaking myself, reprimanding me.
Get it together. You are not even the same species. Of course you don’t always understand each other. What did you expect? Move on. You did what you could. If they want to try Germany or vampires or Beeches, they can do it without you.
But most of me held that silky doll’s purse—now with the only two pairs of earrings I’d brought on the trip in it—or ran the gold chain of Isaac’s necklace between my fingers, and I knew I was still a part of this. Knew I still wanted to help them if I could. Of course they had issues. But who didn’t?
After 5:00 p.m., when I hoped Isaac would be getting off work, I called him to ask for a lift back. Not because I couldn’t have gotten a cab up there, but because I wanted to talk first.
Yet, I didn’t get as far as asking.
“Did you hear?” Isaac’s voice was tight. “Did Diana ring you?”
“No. What are you talking about?”
“There’s been another murder.”
Which was what cleared away my own hesitations and got me moving again: to get them moving, to be a good leader, to make Nana, and me, proud.
I met Isaac at Brighton Pier, once more taking my backpack, and walking down there half an hour later.
We stood at the railing, forearms on it, with tourists and screaming seagulls flowing past.
“Another female, mum of one, plus she was pregnant,” Isaac told me. “Susanna. Once Rueben, her son, went to bed last night, after most of the pack had settled or changed to sleep outside, she went for a walk. Nothing unusual about that. Pregnancy is especially hard on our kind and she was restless from being on lockdown for five months and counting. But we’ve also all been warned about staying closer to home, only going out on foot or at night in company. Perhaps she saw something down there, perhaps she just wanted the exercise, or thought there were still Sables close by. Whatever it was, she walked to the end of Ashland Road. We lost the trail there. Tabitha and Jason finally found her this afternoon as part of the search parties. Hanging in a tree just like Abraham. They seem to be in a hurry lately. Any human could have found her, or the blood, but they moved fast, hung her up to bleed out, and took off.”
“All the same? Stake and eyes?”
He nodded, watching behind sunglasses across the pebble beach flooded with colorful towels and umbrellas and swimsuits on the masses of beach-goers.
“And they went out tracking in fur? In broad daylight?”
Isaac sighed. “They were desperate to find her. I would have helped. I didn’t even know anything was wrong until they found her this afternoon and Diana rang to tell me.”
“I’m so sorry, Isaac. She was a friend of yours, wasn’t she? And Rueben, does he have family?”
“Tabitha and Thomas have him—Jason’s parents. He’ll be all right in the long-term. It’s right now that’s…” He stopped for a moment. “I should see him. His father was one of our early losses.”
Orphans in a wolf pack after all, even if the pup had many loving adults to rally around and look after him.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked. “If I can see her, I’ll try to scry again, especially the stake, something they touched.”
“Yes.” Isaac turned to me. He pulled his sunglasses off to look into my eyes. “You can keep investigating with us until you have to go home. I never meant to pressure you about—”
“You don’t need to. I plan to keep looking. Here and, if we need to leave the country, I’m coming with you. I meant to call Rowan yesterday to tell him about London and see if they have any news. I’ll call and scry for Susanna. And I’m going to get information about the Beech Pack out of Jed.” With a breath. “One way or another.”
Isaac watched me. There was more than grief in his eyes, yet I had trouble pinning it down. He took my hand, lowering his head to kiss my knuckles, and shut his eyes.
“Thank you,” he whispered, lips still against my skin, so I could hardly hear past shrieking birds that tourists were feeding.
I followed his face to my hand, feeling the gold necklace move against my neck as I did so, and kissed his cheekbone above the short beard. “We’ll figure this out.” Yet I felt a rush of fear at the words, a lump in my own throat. How could I make that promise?
But how could I not?
Chapter 19
Isaac was in no rush to get home. Much as he wanted to see Rueben, he must have realized he needed space and grounding for himself first. He took me to a historic pub in the heart of town where we could sit for a minute before we had to progress.
I wasn’t hungry but also wasn’t sure what the night ahead might bring. While Isaac had nothing but water, I got a chicken burger and convinced him to take half.
As we ate, he apologized. “I’m sorry if I upset you, or frightened you, last night, Cassia. That was poor judgement on my part in company.”
In our over-bright window seat, I nibbled fries, thinking about his word choice.
It had been a horrible thing to see. I appreciated that he realized that. I would have appreciated it more if he’d realized it before he’d kicked Jed in the face. Yet, after Kage had talked to me, I’d been more upset about Jed than Isaac. A case of two wrongs then.
“But not sorry about what you did?” I looked up from my place.
“No.” He spoke carefully. “I’d do it again. As many times as it takes for him to feel regret, even if he’s not capable of feeling the repulsion he should for what happened to that girl.”
“Was Jed all right?”
“I have no idea.” His eyes flashed and he looked away.
“Kage told me about Brenda. I fully agree with your feelings. Though I won’t say I wasn’t … disturbed by what you did. It shouldn’t be necessary to combat our disagreements with violence. Certainly not straight out of the gate without making an effort any other way. So I don’t agree with what you did. Even under those circumstances.”
“I’m sorry—”
“But we also have greater troubles to be worried about right now.”
Isaac nodded.
By the time we left, we hadn’t said much else. Standing in the medieval archway beyond the front door, I hugged him, leaning into his chest. He held on in return, his nose in my hair. We breathed deeply through many heartbeats, and he felt so solid and unbreakable he offered a blissful stabilizing force. Then we had to return to the pack.
The sun was low as we drove out to the park on Isaac’s motorcycle. In evening traffic, Isaac didn’t speed nearly as much as he had last time. I didn’t mind the slower pace, leaning into him, holding on tighter than I needed to.
The mobile home park was silent when we arrived. No pups running about, no watchful adults, no one in the field. Isaac drove to bike parking and we saw a group around one of the big sliding doors for the workshop, talking together, looking over as we approached.
I climbed off first so Isaac could. The group were strangers to me, aside from Jason, who walked over.
All looked scared, faces drawn, some angry. Watching me, then talking among themselves.
I couldn’t blame them this time. Since last winter, the whole South Coast Cooperative, with three packs involved, had lost seven wolves to murder. Until I’d showed up to “help” and the Sable Pack had relatively instantly lost two more.
As long as no one was bringing this up to my face I wasn’t going to mention it either.
“Where’s Rueben?” Isaac climbed off the bike.
“With Mum,” Jason said. “He doesn’t understand. It'd be a help if you could talk with him.”
“May I see Susanna?” I asked while Isaac was already starting away. “Or just
the stake…?” I didn’t really want to see Susanna. Not after having seen Abraham.
Jason nodded. “We thought you might.”
The others watched in unnerving silence as he led me around the workshop.
They had the body wrapped in a sheet—a great mercy—with the stake, which had surprisingly little blood on it, lying in grass at the feet of the white shroud.
Many different wildflowers and a few roses lay on or about the body. Some had teeth marks in the stems, others had been cut. Besides these, there were wooden beads, a small book, a braided strip of leather with a shell and a feather woven in, a photograph, hand-carved wooden baby blocks with stars and moons on them, and more.
My eyes filled with tears when I saw those mementos gathered about her. I sank to my knees in the shaded grass at her feet.
No drums, no trance, I drew on magic with the power of my own emotion as I had for Abraham. Fingers barely touching the sharp wooden stake, shuddering at the feel of it, I saw at once the dark figures, large and powerful, moving with hoods over their faces, the blood, black by moonlight, the tree. All the same. Not the same as Abraham in the methods the used. All exactly the same. Watching a clip from a movie over again.
Show me Susanna. What happened to Susanna? Show me the killers.
The same.
Not Abraham. Show me Susanna.
I saw her walking, long black hair, belly bulging with her pregnancy, sick and weak. She slumped against a stone wall and turned her face to the moon. I felt her desire for freedom of the change, the ease and power of paws carrying her over fields like a hawk, as strong and demanding as the need for another hit to an addict. Yet she did not do it. She only stood, shaking and sweating with the force it took to remain in skin.
Show me the killers.
Abraham again. All the same. The hooded figures could have been newborn vampires, strong, powerful, deft. They could have been human if they’d been sourced from a football team. Or they could have been shifters in skin.
When I came out of it, Jason was on his knees by me.
A few others hovered uncertainly, well away from us. I saw Rebecca watching, pale and biting her lip, and a couple more looking uneasy.
“Cassia?” His voice was tentative, watching as I blinked. “Did you see anyone? Are you all right?”
The nice wolf.
Why had I asked Andrew anything about him?
If I couldn’t take each at face value, respect each as an individual, I would become just another part of their bickering rivalries.
“Nothing new.” An understatement. But what did it mean? I’d only ever had repeat visions like that in dreams. Not whole scenes playing out in scrying. If I was hung up on a certain vision, did it mean that was the most important one?
“Jason?” I offered him my hand without looking around, weak and cold, as if in shock, needing something to hang onto.
I was a bit surprised when he did take my hand and squeezed, since I knew he was scared of my magic.
“Would you take me to the tree where you found Abraham? And bring a couple other wolves with us?” I looked at him. “I’ll tell Diana also, but I don’t think any of you should be going anywhere alone. You’re used to being independent, including the females, but you’ve got to adjust your thinking. I shouldn’t have asked Rebecca to come out alone. You all need to stop, think, and stay together.”
He nodded. “I can take you there.”
I accepted his help up, not sure why my knees were shaking, and followed him away from the others, only Rebecca coming along, back through the alleys of the park.
I thought he’d ask one of those gathered, but he returned to the double-wide I’d been at the night before with the ice water and cookies from Rebecca. Here, on the built-on porch, sat a few elders, along with Zar, talking over dusty books. Doing a bit of their own research? Did they have more old enemies besides vampires and each other?
Humans? But what humans? Why? How? It was too much to even contemplate. As Rebecca had noted, humans were everywhere. There were just too many of us.
Kage was coming down the steps to the weedy pathway as we walked up. He crossed his arms, but his glare was aimed at his sister, not me. At least for a moment. Then it seemed all eyes turned to me.
Zar jumped off the porch. “Cassia, I didn’t know you were here. Did you get in with Isaac? We heard his bike.”
“I’ve just seen Susanna. And Jason’s going to show me the tree where they found Abraham.”
“I’ll come with you—”
“I’ll come.” Rebecca was at my shoulder.
“I think—” I started.
“No,” Kage snapped.
An argument was averted because a middle-aged female, the only one on the porch with soft brown instead of black or silver hair, called Rebecca back.
“Mum, what do you think I’m going to do?” Rebecca demanded. “Never leave home again?”
So they’d already been having the conversation I’d started with Jason.
I looked around to those on the porch, all female besides an old male with a gray beard and several books in his lap.
“Whatever measures you’re thinking you need to implement to keep your people together and safe, especially females in groups or home, you should do more,” I said. “Much more. Right now, you’re the prey. That’s no way to live. No healthy mindset when you need to stay strong and watch out for each other. But a little dose of living like rabbits, not wolves, will help you survive right now. Not a pack where anyone can slip off and wander. A warren, with safety in numbers and safety underground. I’m sorry, Rebecca. We’ll be right back.” I left my bag there on the porch.
Jason, Kage, and Zar accompanied me to the woods with the night birds busy singing in every tree, traffic sounds only distant, and the sun setting through the wood that we walked into.
Heading south, Jason led me to the tree, which took only minutes, a fraction of the time I was expecting. The wood was awfully small, a visual thing more than a place wolves could run about free.
I tried to settle and focus, but it was harder now, struggling for the magic.
Jason, still watching me anxiously, asked if I wanted them to sing. “The Thirty Day Prayer? It’s a sort of chant in English. If that helps you?”
“Please.” I let out a breath. “It probably would.”
They stood around me at the tree trunk, a little back, and turned a prayer into a song, their three voices eerie and mournful. Like stray wolves missing their pack.
Moon whole
Moon fade
Moon half
Moon claw
Moon dark
Moon fang
Moon half
Moon grow
Moon whole.
Guide my steps
Guide my breaths
Guide my spirit.
My steps are yours
My breaths are yours
My spirit is yours.
So I follow you
So I hold you
So I love you.
So you follow me
So you hold me
So you love me.
It started again with the full moon. And again, until I was in a light trance state without having had intention behind it at all. Only listening.
Show me the killers. Please, guide my path to their door.
Again: Abraham, the tree, the blood by moonlight. The hooded hunters after wolves.
But wolves aren’t rabbits. The voice came clear, new, nothing to do with the vision, nothing from my own inner thoughts. Wolves can hunt back.
We’re trying. What should we do?
I saw wolves running across a great, open horizon, dozens of them, free.
I saw the shriveled wreck of a vampire below London running his tongue over his black gums, murmuring, “Mind the gap.”
And I saw myself radiating powerful white and blue light like heat lightening at twilight. Not hiding and careful, occasionally using my magic, but bursting with it like
a goddess.
The wolves themselves, yes. And I’d seen Dieter before as an answer. But I’d never seen myself in a scry before. I’d never seen myself as an answer. And I’d never seen magic like that.
I shuddered and drew myself from the trance, back into the chanting voices, so cold and dizzy I pulled my knees up to rest my head on, arms around my legs.
Their voices faded and Zar gently touched my shoulder.
“Cassia?” He sank to his knees on brittle mulch beside me. “It’s almost moonrise. Let’s go back.”
“Any answers?” Kage also sounded worried.
“No,” I murmured. I lifted my face and pushed back my hair. “Always more questions. Zar? Where is your brother?”
None of them looked even remotely pleased that I was asking.
Chapter 20
That night, they built a bonfire, dug a grave in a plot they had that I suspected was illegal, and the pack gathered in their field, singing, praying, honoring the dead in their own ways.
I did not stay for long in the dark to find out what all they did.
Zar had only said Jed wasn’t home and Zar hadn’t seen him that evening. I walked among their homes and found my way to a light in the workshop.
I dragged the door open without knocking, the rollers grating both above and below as the heavy wood slid in its tracks.
Jed did not look up from his workbench, lit with a single desk lamp while the rest of the building was dark and still. He would have heard my approach on the gravel, of course.
“Jed? Did your mouth heal? From last night?”
He didn’t answer. It was hard to tell if there was bruising by this soft light and black stubble back on his face. I liked this more than his clean look, I realized then. Maybe I was only used to it, but he’d pulled off the alluring three-day beard perfectly. And I liked the curly black hair. It was just too bad about the wolf behind this sexy “man.”
Moonlight Hunters: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 2) Page 13
