by Kelly Meding
Noises from inside the garage drew me toward it, more curious than alarmed. The rear compartment door of one of our Explorers was open, facing away, but I caught a flash of pale hair and took a chance.
“Jaxon?”
He peeked around the side of the SUV, nothing about him familiar, not even after yesterday. The guy was just . . . there. Taking up space. “Hey, you’re awake.”
“Sort of.” I tapped my coffee mug, not very good at the whole small-talk with strangers thing. “What are you up to?”
“Okay, don’t get mad, but Novak and I have already put a plan in motion to get to California.”
I blinked at him. “Um, okay. I mean, I was thinking plane tickets?”
He chuckled. “We’d have a difficult time getting our specialty weapons through security, don’t you think?”
“So what do you suggest we do? Drive across the country?”
“No, you and I are driving to the crux near your apartment.”
I nearly asked how the fuck he knew there was a crux of ley lines near my apartment and thought the comment through. If we had worked together, then he knew Novak occasionally used the intense magic of the crux to teleport me to HQ during emergencies. All anyone knew was that my apartment was about an hour’s drive from here, because that’s all I’d told my coworkers. Except Julius, but I wasn’t going there right now.
I hadn’t seen my apartment in over a week, when it had once contained my naked boyfriend. “Bless me, I still haven’t talked to Vincent about all of this.”
“Your mom called while you were still asleep. No messages from Vincent on her phone.”
Fuck.
I tamped down more frustration over that broken relationship and focused. “Why do we need the crux?” Magical cruxes occurred when three or more ley lines crossed over each other. Witches, warlocks, and magic users loved finding cruxes, because they could use them to increase the power of whatever they were attempting to do. The only reason I used the crux was so I could be teleported by—
“Hey, where’s Novak?” I asked.
Jaxon grinned, and he was kind of cute like that. Way better than the wounded puppy eyes I got all day yesterday. “His plane should be touching down in Los Angeles any minute.”
“He’s already there?”
“Yes. I found Chandra’s contact information last night, and I called to see if she could tell us about a local crux for Novak to use in teleporting us.”
“But Novak doesn’t need to be on a crux to teleport someone to him. The person he’s teleporting does.” At least, that’s how it always worked in the past. If I needed to get to HQ from home fast, I’d go to the crux and let him bring me over.
“Normally, no,” Jaxon said. “Except he admitted he’s never pulled two people at once, and not across the country while carrying a lot of weapons. He thought the magic boost would help.”
I eyeballed him as I sipped the steaming coffee. “You probably don’t realize this, but you’re going to land in Los Angeles with a woody. Novak is—”
“An incubus whose power is tied to sex and seduction. I know. He’s teleported me before.”
“Oh.” Duh. Teammate. “Sorry.”
Jaxon rounded the vehicle and stopped within an arm’s reach of me, studying me with a new expression I couldn’t readily identify. “It’s baffling. You look exactly the same. You talk the same, act the same, but I’m not in there anywhere. Not a single part of me is left.”
He sounded so incredibly sad that I nearly reached out and hugged him. “Jaxon, are we a couple?”
“As in lovers? No, not for several years.”
“But we were?”
“Yes, we were. We loved each other, but we couldn’t make it work out romantically. We stayed great friends, though, and teammates.”
“Why didn’t we make it, though? Was I too bossy? I’m super bossy.”
He laughed. “A lot of things, Shiloh, and it wasn’t any one person’s fault. We were both excited about working with Julius and the Para-Marshals. We were also both lonely, unique souls who found comfort in each other for a while. And we were smart enough to end it before things got ugly.”
“I’m glad.” I believed his sincerity, and I was starting to really hate the fact that I’d lost everything of this man I was slowly getting to know.
Maybe the second time was the charm?
Something hung in the air between us, a charge I couldn’t describe, but it was over in seconds. Jaxon looked away first.
“So the plan,” I said hastily, “is for Novak to teleport us to California ready to rumble with our weapons. Didn’t trust Chandra to get us what we’d need when we got there?”
“To be honest? No. Between Julius and Kathleen, I’m done blindly trusting someone because they ask me to, especially other Paras. There’s too much to lose.”
“Have you always been this cynical?”
“No. Believe me, it’s a renewed trait.”
“Renewed?”
He tilted his head, a little half smile quirking his lips. “I was very much a loner before I met you and Julius. I didn’t trust easily, and being held captive in that traveling freak show didn’t help at all. But meeting you . . . you have this spark of energy that you take everywhere you go. You live every day to its fullest, and you treasure the world around you. It helped me see the good side of people, rather than all the darkness.”
“I’m glad.” My heart hurt in a way I didn’t understand. “Even if I don’t remember any of it.”
“It’s not your fault. We just need to start building new memories together.”
“Like tandem incubus teleportation.”
“Exactly. You want to put that coffee in a to-go mug, so we can hit the road?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I got the travel cup—and Pop-Tarts, because toaster pastry—and then we headed out. Except Jaxon idled right outside of the main gate. “What?” I asked.
“You’ve never told me where you live, so I don’t know where I’m going.”
“Really? I thought we dated.” How had I never invited him back to my place?
“What little off time we had for, uh, activities, usually happened in one of our bedrooms here at HQ.” He gave me a funny look. “I told you yesterday I’ve never been to your place.”
“You did?” I groaned. Sometimes magical side effects really sucked. “Sorry. Hopefully, one day something you say will stick.”
“Not your fault, Shi.”
“Did I ever see your place?”
“I live here at the house. No separate address.”
“That whole loner thing?”
He nodded. “And no commute.”
“Smart man.” I gave him the name of my town, and he started driving again. The crux itself was behind a convenience store, so doing this in the middle of the day was probably going to attract some attention. Couldn’t be helped. The cover of darkness was too far away, and we only had a week to figure this out—probably less if anyone at the Marshals’ Office realized we weren’t exactly “on vacation.”
“So why not pick a place closer to HQ?” Jaxon asked after five minutes of silent driving.
“I never told you why?”
“Well, you never told me your address, remember? I had no idea if you lived down the block or in another state, since Novak teleports you over during emergencies.”
“Oh. Right. I guess I like knowing I’m far enough away that I can compartmentalize what I do as a Para-Marshal and put it away when I’m off the clock.”
“And with Vincent.”
“Yeah.” I looked at Jaxon, whose easy gaze was fixed on the road ahead. “Did you get a chance to speak with Vincent in Baltimore?”
“I saw him from a distance when your mom talked to him, but no, I haven’t spoken to him.”
“Oh.” Maybe waiting to reach out again was a bad idea, considering how we’d left things before Vincent was kidnapped, but I’d tried, bless it. And I had fourteen mated pairs o
f werewolves to find before I could fix my personal life—if there was anything left to fix.
“Changing your mind about going to California?”
My hand jerked at the unexpected question. “No. Vincent I were never serious, and he’s got a lot to think about. It isn’t every day you find out your girlfriend is half djinn, a Para-Marshal, and spends most of her time settling disputes between otherworldly beings.”
“True. I knew about magic from a young age, so it’s always been part of my life. I can’t imagine finding out everything I know now as an adult.”
I couldn’t image it, either, and it was too blessed depressing to keep discussing. Time to focus on work. “So the werewolves. Any thoughts?”
“Not many. When we went to see the Dame Alpha in Florida last week, she didn’t have much to say about her missing wolves. Just that it was an internal matter. She didn’t give any indication she was searching for them, either, though. The only reason we know they’re missing is because of the National Registry.”
All Pack Alphas are required to enter names of any new werewolves—born or forced—into the National Registry, so our government can track their movements and pack sizes. If they’re leaving pack lands for an extended period, they have to report that, too, and if anyone goes missing . . . you get the idea. Since Packs govern themselves, a lot of Alphas probably chafed at the scrutiny, but so far, the federal government had never directly interfered.
And we didn’t plan on doing that now. Our mission was simply to find the missing werewolves and report their location to their Alphas—and also take down whatever shadow agency had probably taken them for Iblis knew what purpose. After the whole vampire/necromancy thing, nothing would surprise me about this case.
“The only similarity with the missing couples is their history of infertility,” Jaxon said. “So it’s likely whoever took them is doing fertility experimentation. Maybe trying to find a way to turn humans into werewolves without the horrid bites and near-death experience forced wolves go through.”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t sure how infertility played into making forced wolves transition more easily, but I also wasn’t a geneticist, and forced wolves were already infertile.
The majority of Pack members were born wolves, and they were considered the only true werewolves by the Pack and its leadership. But if a shifted wolf bit, mangled, and nearly killed a human—and that human survived—they became what was called a “forced wolf.” All the same hypersenses, reflexes, and strength of a born werewolf. The main difference was born wolves responded more readily to their beast nature, while forced wolves were often better able to control the animal within.
I’d only met two forced werewolves in my life—that I know of—and that was six years ago. Will and Kale both lived on a ranch in Colorado, its lands protected by magical wards that had been a gift to Will from my father for helping rescue him from Balthazar’s traveling freak show.
Actually, calling Will wasn’t a bad idea. He might have some thoughts on the missing pairs we hadn’t come up with yet. The problem was I didn’t have his number, and I couldn’t use our internal computer to find it. That would only put attention on a rogue wolf trying to lay low. And I had a funny feeling he wasn’t listed.
“What are you thinking about so hard?” Jaxon asked.
“Someone I used to know. And if what everyone is telling me is true, you knew him briefly, too.”
“And who’s that?”
“Will Carson.”
Jaxon tilted his head slightly, as if pondering the name. If he had no idea who Will was, then maybe Jaxon wasn’t actually part of my past like everyone kept telling me, and I wasn’t crazy or—
“Oh, yes, the werewolf you and Julius worked with to free us from Balthazar’s prison.”
Bless it.
“Why do you think he’d know anything?” Jaxon asked.
“A hunch,” I replied.
“Because of his and Kale’s ranch?”
“Exactly,” I said. “He must have a finger on the pulse of the werewolf world. Colorado isn’t a Pack state, but he still helps werewolves out.”
“Yeah. Did you ever ask about that?”
“I tried, but he wasn’t a particularly talkative guy the whole time I worked with him. And then he and Julius parted ways, and we haven’t really had an opportunity to talk since.”
“We’ll put getting in touch with him on the To-Do List,” Jaxon said. He took a breath, as if he had something else to say, and before I could prompt him, said, “Sorry—I hate to keep calling attention to this, but it’s so strange listening to you talk about events we’ve experienced together—hell, the night we first met—and you have no recollection of my involvement.”
“It’s weird for me, too. It’s like, I know there was a sixth cage, a sixth prisoner, but I don’t know who it was. All I know is you telling me it was you, and it’s so fucking frustrating.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not you that has to be sorry.”
Not that it was necessarily me. But, despite only having known him for a day, I liked Jaxon. He was easy to talk to, if a little snippy thanks to his dose of vampire blood, and he seemed incredibly capable, if hatching this plan overnight with Novak was any indication. I could see why I liked working with him. It wasn’t exactly fun to be with someone who was so sad just being around you, but in some ways he’d lost a lot more than I had.
We listened to the radio for the rest of the drive, and I gave him directions to the convenience store. The power of the crux danced beneath my breastbone and tickled across my skin, and I was surprised when Jaxon parked exactly on top of it.
He winked at my openmouthed self. “I use magic, too, remember?”
Skin-walker. Big deer. Duh.
Sweet Iblis, I need to start taking notes or something.
We’d all been reissued work phones, which had Wi-Fi and fun stuff like that, but they weren’t the same as the special model phones that had once interfaced with the Knowledge Interface Matrix (which we all just called K.I.M.) back at the office. And with her offline, we had to go about things the old-fashioned way. Jaxon whipped out a burner and made the call to Novak . . .
. . . except the blessed crux played havoc with reception, so Jaxon had to back up a few yards to tell Novak we would be in position in exactly ten seconds, and then hung up. Moved the car back in place. And we waited . . .
I always hate this part.
Novak called to me a second later, his voice a distant bass in my head, as seductive as any fully powered incubus. It caressed my mind, my heart, and my body, then sent a flare of arousal between my thighs. His power was in his ability to arouse and claim a person, man or woman, and in order to teleport me to him, I had to want him.
So did poor Jaxon, and I closed my eyes so he wasn’t too embarrassed by the erection he’d be sporting by now. Intense heat surrounded me, followed by the sensation of falling. I fell for a lot longer than usual, probably because of the distance, and the heat fluctuated a few times in intensity. Beside me, Jaxon moaned—a super sexy sound that only fueled my own arousal and powered the incubus pulling us through, using the natural power of multiple ley lines.
Instead of a gentle arrival, I kind of crashed in the sense of a hard landing somewhere, but we didn’t actually hit anything. Only appeared in the parking lot of some defunct department store with yellow caution tape around the main entrance. I wanted desperately to give in to the urge to cross my legs and help with the horniness problem, but Jaxon and I weren’t alone.
Novak stood a few feet away, his dark skin covered in sweat, and gleaming in the sunshine. Next to him was Chandra herself, and she wasn’t quite what I expected. Instead of the flowy robes and shimmering skin, Chandra wore jeans and a leather jacket, and her hair was twisted up into dozens of black braids. She was still pretty, but didn’t shine and looked . . . normal.
Chandra laughed. “Your friend Novak had the same reaction when I picked him up from the airport
,” she said, her voice as normal as her appearance. “It’s much easier to blend in like this than how I appear in your minds.”
“I bet,” I replied. I climbed out of our Explorer with still slightly quaking knees to shake Chandra’s hand. Her skin buzzed warmly with the power of her magic. “Nice to see you again.”
“Likewise.”
I glanced over at Jaxon, whose forehead was resting against the steering wheel. “I’m sure he’ll join us when his problem goes down.”
Novak smirked.
Giving Jaxon his privacy, I looked around to get my bearings. The decrepit neighborhood didn’t offer any clues, though, and I really should have asked before we teleported. Novak had flown into Siskiyou County Airport, the closest one to the Pack lands, which was about a million acres of forestry and mountains north of Six Rivers National Forest, and not far from the Oregon border.
“Where exactly are we?” I asked.
“Etna, California,” Chandra replied. “Population about seven hundred humans. With the crux and all the ley lines, though, I’ve sensed quite a few Paras who aren’t showing themselves.”
Something buzzed across the empty street, and I turned to see a pixie cloud disappear behind a brick building. Chandra wasn’t wrong.
“So now that we’re here, what’s next?” I said. “Do we talk to the Homme Alpha?”
“Hopefully, yes.”
“Hopefully?”
Chandra shrugged. “When we first became aware of the missing wolves last week, we tried to get an audience with the Alpha, but he only said it was an internal matter. My hope is that with you three here, he’ll change his mind.”
“And why would he?” Jaxon asked in his faintly lilting voice. He’d finally joined our group on the pavement.
“Because you assisted in stopping a powerful necromancer, and you freed the missing vampires. If we’re lucky, he’ll see the value in our assistance and give us any information he or his people have.”
“Sounds like a solid plan to me,” Novak said. “We couldn’t get anywhere with the Dame Alpha of Florida, but that was before we discovered the traitors in our midst. Perhaps the fact that we are not blindly standing by our fellow disgraced Marshals will prove good faith on our part.”
