Isaac nodded. “It’s just as well to wait until tomorrow night to go back. Very late.”
“I agree. How long did it take to get there?”
“Hour and a half with traffic.”
“Midnight tomorrow?” Andrew said. “We'll get there in an hour.”
“Okay,” I said. “Then leaving here at midnight sounds about right. What about noise from the bikes?”
“It’s a large town, suburbs,” Isaac said. “We’ll slow down, keep it quiet. No one will think a thing of it. I’m sure they get some traffic all night.”
“Back to the more pressing question, you said you’re not sure you even found Max?” I glanced down at Andrew, his head just about in my lap, and back to Isaac.
Isaac grimaced. “Unfortunately, we’re speculating.”
“Pretty sure,” Andrew said. “But the headstone is damaged. We couldn’t make out all of the dates or surname. And Maximilian is kind of like looking for Frank or Thomas in worm graveyards at home. Not much to go on.”
“There was no groundskeeper on site, no one to ask,” Isaac said. “Andrew and Jason did well asking the locals in case anyone knew the name and that was how we got as far as we did. The cemetery is much larger than I was expecting. We were there a couple hours before we even had a good suspicion.”
“I’m not sure calling attention to the crime scene was all that sensible,” I said slowly. “But sounds like you might not have found him at all. I guess it was good it was a busy day. Cameras?”
Isaac nodded.
“One on the street facing the entrance,” Andrew said. “We couldn’t find anything else. We’ll just go over the wall and avoid it all together.”
“Over the wall?”
“There’s a stone wall around three sides,” Isaac said. “Much of it overgrown with vines and close trees. Even if there was a camera, it couldn’t pick out much in such a tangle in the dark. The front has an iron fence. We’ll avoid that. We compared inside and out. We know a place to come in from the far side of the wall to be near the grave.”
“Can you tell if it’s really him?” Andrew asked, cocking his head against my leg. “We wondered … before digging up the wrong bloke?”
“Yes. I can tell in person by the headstone. I’ll scry what it looked like when it was new. All the letters should be clear.”
“Brilliant.” Nibbling more grass.
I looked at Isaac. “Are we really going to do this?”
I’d been trying not to think of why we were here—doing a damn good job too. But reality seemed to be closing in.
“Do you have another idea for a way forward?” Isaac asked softly.
“No. Or we wouldn’t be here at all. How are you going to dig? Can you transport a shovel on the bikes?”
“Taken care of,” Andrew said smugly. “Why do you think we were gone so long?”
I stared down at him in the torchlight. “You dug up the grave already?”
“Not quite.” Isaac smiled. “Jason bought two shovels at a shop on the other side of town, wearing his bike gloves. He’ll stay out of the cemetery. I don’t think he should go back tomorrow. He was so visible. He hid the shovels under the vines and overgrowth against the wall inside the cemetery. We’ll keep gloves on to use them, put them back, and that’s it. It could be years before they find them. If they do find them, they won’t give out any clues anyway.”
“That’s calculating of you,” I said, disquieted by the ease at which they’d apparently cooked up and carried out this scheme—also by Andrew’s smile. “And I suppose we’ll return everything in place? Try to make it look like nothing was disturbed? So it’s possible the crime will go unnoticed … forever?”
“Let’s hope so,” Isaac said. “It’s easier not to be suspected at all than to evade capture. We hoped you could help with that as well. Can your magic restore the ground? Lichens and grass? Make the spot look worn again after we’ve covered it back over?”
“Of course, that’s no problem.”
One side of Andrew’s mouth turned up even more. “You say that as if we’re thick for wondering, darling, but you might have noticed you never use your magic. How are we supposed to know what you can do?”
“I was trained not to use it in any company or visible capacity. This is … a strange situation for me.” The greatest understatement of my life. “I’m not entirely sure what I can do either. It’s not a comfortable thing for me to use.”
“I won’t pretend we like it any better, Cassiopeia. But, for now, you might want to learn to love it. Which reminds me.” He pushed himself up on one hand to face me, crowding me and making Zar, who’d not said a word, even more rigid to my left. “Do you mend things?”
“Mend?”
“You see,” Andrew went on sweetly, “a two-faced bastard broke my glasses and almost my bones this morning. I’ve had to have my contacts in all day and I find them irritating. Despite the ridicule and mockery of my companions who are unused to anything short of physical perfection from eyesight to muscle mass, I prefer the glasses as an option.”
I had to consider that, not yielding to giving him ground, though he leaned in too close. “I’m not sure. I can mend broken glass. There’s nothing to that. You need only heat and smooth it with the magic. But your glasses are a prescription. Even if I did fix them to look at, I don’t think they’d work. Or at least not as well.”
“One lens is still intact. At this rate, the other has to be replaced anyway. I’ve nothing to lose if you wouldn’t mind trying. As a special favor, darling?”
“In other words, you’ll owe me one?”
“Of course I will. I’m always fair. Haven’t I showed you as much?”
“Get them. I’ll see what I can do. Then I’m going to bed. Are you all staying out?” I glanced inadvertently at Isaac, still worried for him.
“I have something for you,” Andrew said. “Not a trade. Just a gift. Come with me and I’ll fetch both.”
“Most likely,” Isaac answered me as Andrew stood. “And sleep in the morning. I asked Elisabeth if we could do our share with work around the place since we’d be here one more day anyway, but she says they have everything in order and trying to train extra hands would complicate matters.” He smiled. “They think of us as the urban wolves.”
“Too incompetent to swing a hoe or muck out?” I returned it. “Could be.”
But Andrew was standing between us, offering me his hand.
Chapter 33
I followed Andrew to the guesthouse, illuminated by an outside light, plus one at the house, with Joseph extinguishing torches behind us. Overall, it was very dark out here in the valley. The almost full moon was covered by silver clouds rippling through the sky, though it would soon be revealed again.
Our hosts all headed to bed. Exhausted from their dawn to dusk work day, the family seemed to have no interest in gallivanting about the countryside with their guests.
Jed had already returned to the guesthouse. I hadn’t even noticed him leave, but, as I approached the back door with Andrew, a great, dark shape came out that door and trotted past us.
Andrew paused, guiding me in with a sweep of his arm.
I stopped on the patio. “Go get your glasses.”
“May I not invite a Moon-sent vision into my humble abode?”
I frowned. “Where did you hear that expression?”
But Andrew had shifted his attention past me. “Shove off, lady hair. You don’t have anything needing mending. Or are your balls still broken?”
I hadn’t realized until then that Zar had followed me.
“Want yours broken?” Zar snarled.
“Hey,” I interrupted. “Andrew, go get the glasses or don’t. Up to you.”
He inclined his head and moved through the dark doorway for the stairs.
I turned to Zar. “What?”
He flinched at my tone—which I was already regretting.
“Why are you following me?” Struggling to smooth out my vo
ice. “I’m just over here to fix his glasses.” Which you already know, and not that I’m accountable to you.
“Sorry. You said, before I changed…” He took a step back, gaze downturned.
“That doesn’t mean you supervise everything I do.” But now my tone was gentle. “Give me a minute and I’ll be heading back to my own door. You don’t need to be my shadow.”
He rubbed his right arm with his left hand. “I wondered if you would… We don’t have to stay at the farm all day tomorrow. If we’re not leaving for the cemetery until night. Maybe … we could … hike? I’ll sniff for good trails tonight. Or … dinner? In town?” He sounded confused—trying to guess what I might be interested in from previous observation rather than practical understanding of human dating behavior.
“I can’t, Zar. I’m—”
“Something else? What would you enjoy?”
I remembered him asking about practical gifts, wanting to do something for me that was useful and meaningful. Not merely a random token.
And I felt horrible. Speaking of two-faced…
“Zar … Isaac asked me to dinner tomorrow. If you want to go for a walk, I’d love to see the falls. But I’m not—”
“Right.” He was already walking away and I stopped.
With a knot in my stomach, feeling sick, I didn’t have to wait long for Andrew’s return.
He held out the broken glasses in one hand, plus a little paper bag.
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked him, taking neither but gesturing around to the broader collection of the pack.
Jed had vanished. Zar walked around the side of the building and out of sight in the dark. Isaac strode toward us and the guesthouse from the dispersed gathering. Kage and Jason still sat on the grass, dark outlines taking their clothes off.
Andrew cocked his head, one corner of his mouth curving up. “Asking advice? And I thought you only wanted information.”
“I can’t do this right now.” I snatched the glasses from him. “I’ll try to fix them in the morning. When my head’s clear.”
“That’s all the time it will take?” He proffered the little paper package and I took that too.
“Is this normal?” I dropped my voice. “What would wolf females do about all this?”
“Do?” Andrew chuckled. “They’d wait to see who won, darling. You are trying to ‘do’ far too much. That’s why you’re unhappy.”
“Who won? But you all fighting is one of the things that’s driving me crazy. Not just about me, fighting about everything.”
“Winning isn’t only about fighting. Winners and losers can be spotted by the bloke who’s got what he wants and the bloke who hasn’t.”
I looked back into his eyes by the outside light over the door, not answering as I heard Isaac’s steps on the stone patio behind me.
“All right, snowy?” Andrew asked solicitously, stepping out of Isaac’s way with exaggerated courtesy.
Isaac ignored him, facing me. “Did it work?”
“What?” I glanced down to follow his gaze to the glasses. “Oh, I’ll try tomorrow. Good night, Isaac. Thank you for scouting today. You were right—I enjoyed the break to feel like I was on vacation.”
“I’m glad.” Isaac was smiling, calm and firm in his presence.
“Sure, jolly clever of him to do that all on his own,” Andrew said.
I wanted to tell him to shut up, but followed Isaac’s example.
“Moon bless,” Isaac said. “Are you comfortable?”
“Yes, it’s a lovely room. Have a good night. Sleep in. We must be ready for tomorrow night. And decide who’s going.”
He nodded. “No rush.” He took my hand and kissed my knuckles before I repeated my good night and headed for the main house.
I was across the patio when I remembered Andrew. By then, I felt too self-conscious to tell him good night as well and I walked on without looking back.
One of the two white dogs was barking off in the distance to the east, beyond the goat pens.
Kage and Jason were changing into their fur. There wasn’t much to see with nothing but patio lights, but the sounds were sharp and painful.
Was it true, or only another ancient myth, that wolves could stop in between? That there was such a thing as a wolf-man?
Something I’d have asked Zar. If I hadn’t ripped out his heart and punted it across the yard.
I’d just opened the back door when a fleet, black blur in the night caught my eye.
Jed was belting past the chicken coop and through the back yard, beyond the fire pit, having come from the east—where he wasn’t supposed to be. And there was either something wrong with his head or he was holding something substantial in his mouth.
“Jed!” I shouted.
He streaked past Jason and Kage while they were still staggering and shaking themselves. Past the benches and flower arch, then I lost sight of him in the dark as he headed on past the guesthouse, making for greenhouses.
“No!” Dropping glasses and parcel at the door, I sprinted after him. “Jed!”
Chapter 34
Kage and Jason turned at my first yell and took off after him much faster than I could go.
Ahead of them, the pure white wolf burst out of the back guesthouse door. Isaac had already changed and, despite his bulk, his long legs swallowed the ground. As fast as he moved, he may still not have caught Jed if not for myself having tipped the scales. I think Jed had stopped and looked around at my shouting. With half the pack after him, he ran again—yet with barely a head start.
Isaac crashed into him behind the greenhouses, sending both flying in a tumbling, snarling heap of black and white, now visible by gleaming moonlight as clouds slid away.
Isaac grabbed him by the neck and shook him in his teeth while Jed fell back, got his paws under him, then reared onto his hind legs, trying to force Isaac over. The white wolf was a match for him in weight and held on.
In the next instant, as I was still far back from the horrible snarling, almost roaring, Kage and Jason had reached them.
But they didn’t attack the sneaking, murdering Jed who’d been running with what I guessed to be a chicken in his mouth. They went for Isaac.
Jason hit him first, a lithe black shadow crashing into his hips and sending both Isaac and Jed flying again. Then Kage leapt on his back, burying his teeth in the white ruff behind the skull, where fur was thinner and he could sink in, throwing his weight into Isaac’s head and ripping the latter’s hold loose from Jed. Jed reacted by slamming into Isaac with Kage and, this time, driving him to the ground.
As fast as I ran, I was nothing compared to them. A creature like a greyhound shot past me. It was Andrew, the light, red and cream canine with larger ears and shorter coat. He hit Isaac in the ribs while Isaac twisted like a cat against his three attackers, almost back on his feet.
Then Zar sped past. Like Kage, he was a classic wolf with buffs, grays, blacks, and lighter underparts. Much easier to see in moonlight than the black blurs of Jed and Jason.
Zar went for the white wolf’s limbs, clamping down on a thick foreleg.
I knew at once he was trying to break it. Jason had told me a long time ago that a wolf couldn’t change if injuries were bad enough. Cuts and scrapes would heal with the change. Deeper damage would at least start to mend. But there came a point, gaping wounds, broken bones, internal injuries, when a wolf couldn’t change. Whatever shape he was in, he had to stay that way until he healed enough that the transformation wouldn’t cause worse harm while the body didn’t know where to put itself—or even cause death.
If Isaac had broken bones while he was in fur, if he couldn’t change, he couldn’t come home with us. There was surely no way we could legally transport an Arctic wolf from France to England with a day’s notice.
Isaac was fighting to protect his legs, thrashing free of two or three at once to gain his footing before being dragged down again with hundreds of pounds of wolf crushing him.
Zar’
s hold was torn loose, leaving a huge gash across Isaac’s right foreleg. Jed fell into him, inadvertently knocking Zar away, and Zar jumped for a hind leg instead.
By the time I reached them, I wasn’t worried about a broken leg. I was far too busy being terrified they would kill him—as it seemed the pack was intent upon.
When I’d said I didn’t know exactly what I could do with magic, I’d meant it. My mother had taught me we could do with magic what we believed we could. We could make happen what we needed when we needed it—when we believed in its being there. The magic—like earth, fire, water, air—was always with us. Always part of us. When we took in the middle world power and spirit and harnessed magic, the limit of our abilities came with the limit of our perceptions. Nothing more. Or less.
I knew certain things I could do and was good at. Viewing remote locations, for example. Manipulating wind, as well as fire, always friends of mine. And there were things with magic that came up and I could find when I needed. Smoothing a dent in my car door with a touch. Or things that surprised me. I’d once dried my hair in an instant when I’d had a date I’d almost forgotten about and rushed to get ready. There’d been singed ends and I hadn’t done it again. But I could.
So I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know what I could do. I knew the elements and the magic and the focus to save a life and end this. I knew I was going to stop it. I didn’t care how.
Anger and fear are not the most powerful emotions, even though they may seem to be at the time. Either can be crushed by a husband taking a bullet for his wife or a mother shifting a car off her child.
I suppose in the time I’d been spending with Isaac, I’d fallen more in love than I’d realized. Because I was counting on the force of the anger and fear and the five elements—fire, water, earth, air, spirit—bringing my magic and stopping the fight. I wasn’t counting on the shockwave. Or the light.
As I reached the fight and threw my energy into it, hurling out both palms as if to halt a train, the earth rippled beneath my feet. At the point of the battle, it buckled, jutting upward like a fang. From this point, a ball of blue light energy exploded, bursting off of the white wolf as if he was the source, myself only the guide.
Moonlight Hunters: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 2) Page 21
