by Tobi Grim
She sighed and looked away. How could she tell him how much Grey had betrayed her? She didn’t really understand it herself. Lupa didn’t dare think about it too much, it was her own fucking fault after all. She should have known not to get fucking involved…
“Thinkin’ I know what you mean. I aint thinkin’ ‘bout that. Just thinkin’ he drew you like you are, real pretty and all… I’ll pick you up at three tomorrow. We drivin’ up to the cabin. ‘Less you changin’ your mind…”
She smiled up at him, “I’ll see you then.” He nodded and got back in the car, she watched him drive away before heading back into the silence of her apartment.
Lupa picked up the tube on the bench and went to throw it in the bin when a note fell out. Fuck. She looked at it on her floor, should she read it? Shit, she knew her curiosity wouldn’t allow her to just throw it out without knowing, she picked it up and read the words.
I dream of you, while I lay in this wretched place, I know you must hate me. But I am sincerely sorry for what I have done to you. My heart aches for my actions.
She ripped it up and threw it away. Yeah fucking right. She threw herself on the couch and stared at the roof. There was still a scorch mark on the ceiling. She glared at it trying to keep her mind off Grey… off his involvement in Karl’s death… she’d let him in, not much, but a little. Sure, they weren’t dating, it had just been sex, but they’d… been friends hadn’t they? Or had that all been a lie for him to use as his defence? Fuck him. Fuck it all.
Lupa rolled over and stared at the wall above the TV cabinet, trying to focus on something else. What the fuck was she going to do about breaking this ward? She couldn’t keep stepping into the second spell, it would surely screw her up forever if she did. How many times could she cope with falling into that unknown place? How many times would Sledge risk touching her when she was in there? How long would it take before the places deep in her soul took over her and she could no longer escape? And how long until the man or men from across the river tried to capture her and use that? Was this man waiting for her? Now that he would have knowledge of her placing her hand into the spell and letting it inside her. He would know, maybe not right this moment, but he would know. And he would know that she was working for Hammer, because he would have had someone watching, and they would have seen Sledge…
She sighed and sat up. She figured she may as well get ready for the evening… and have a drink too, this shit was fucking with her head. Too many damned questions that she didn’t have any answers for.
Chapter seven
“Always trust your bonded other…”
Lupa checked her reflection before going down stairs. She guessed she looked ok; she wore a loose floor length cotton dress and her last hole-less cardigan, a little make up but not too much, these were country folk after all. She pinned the sides of her hair back with the silver arrows that Slasher had given her, usually she only wore them for official Organization things, but she felt like she needed… something.
Walking down the stairs to meet Dameon, she slammed the door, he was leaning against his van smoking. Great, he hadn’t bothered to dress nicely at all. He had on his usual heavy metal shirt and black jeans, had he even brushed his ridiculous hair?
“Shit, think I should have changed?” he asked, eyeing off her outfit.
“Don’t think it really matters, unless you were thinking of getting a better haircut…”
Dameon grinned at her as she opened the door and climbed in his van. “Thought I asked you to be in a better mood?”
“Fuck you. I’m in a great mood,” she grinned back at him as he started driving off.
“Good. So did Hammer have anything useful to say about detecting blood magick?”
Lupa groaned. “Not really, he did…” she bit her tongue, she couldn’t tell him about the spell he did. Dameon had figured that Hammer just knew a lot because he was interested, he had no idea what Hammer really was. “He told me a spell to do, but he didn’t know if it would actually work or if it was just a legend. Either way, I think we are just better off not eating or drinking anything… ok, maybe drinking, but nothing hot. I’ll be able to smell blood in anything uncooked, but if it’s hot I won't be able to tell, cooked blood doesn’t smell as strong.”
Lupa lit a smoke, not wanting to look at Dameon as she lied to him. But the blood thing was true, cooked blood was so dull it was hard to detect. Even for her wolfblood nose. But cold drinks or alcohol would be easy enough, and at least then they could look like they weren’t suspicious… hopefully.
“So, can you do the spell on me?”
Fuck. Lupa hadn’t even thought of that. “Crap, I didn’t even… I didn’t even think to remember the words, he made me do it there…”
Dameon nodded, “Fucking bastard. Shoulda known he wouldn’t let you do it where he couldn’t watch. Probably wanting to know how it goes so he can record it, right?”
“Yeah,” Lupa laughed uneasily. Fuck she was a bitch.
Dameon flicked on the stereo, a band Lupa didn’t know was playing. She closed her eyes and leaned back. She was happy enough to drive with the music washing over her. She hated keeping things from her Protector, but it wasn’t hurting him… besides, she’d be in a lot more fucking trouble if Hammer found out she had shared his secret. She’d probably be dead in about two minutes.
Lupa looked out the window, but it had gotten too dark for her to see much. They were on the road heading for Blackmoars now. How was this all going to go? Was the person who left the note on Dameon’s car going to be there? And was it about her or did they know there was a wolfblood in their town? Or… were there witches transforming themselves and fooling the townspeople?
Dameon slammed his breaks on and put his arm across her chest to stop her from flying forward. “Fuck!” He jumped out of the car.
Lupa jumped out with him, looking around wildly, “What? Did you see something?”
Dameon was standing on the side of the road scanning an open paddock. “Fuck… I swore I saw a wolfblood run out in front of us… but I can’t sense anything… it looked too big to be an actual wolf.”
Lupa peered around, her eyes adjusting to the dark. But she couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t smell anything. And she definitely couldn’t sense anything… her heart was pounding as she kept searching.
“Think we might be in for an interesting night.”
Dameon nodded and looked down at her. “You alright? Sorry about that.”
“I’m fine… should we get going? Standing here just makes us vulnerable if anyone is watching.”
Dameon took one last look around and nodded, walking back to the van and climbing in. Lupa jumped in and closed her door, still peering out into the darkness. What the fuck was going on? Why… well… she could guess why, if it wasn’t wolfblood related, the witches would certainly want them to think it was. And making themselves look like one and run in front of them would be one way of trying to make them believe. Lupa smiled to herself as Dameon took off, these witches didn’t know who they were fucking with if they thought something as stupid as that.
Finally they reached the Corpore’s place, cars were parked everywhere. Lupa could feel her nerves rising. Large groups of people weren’t exactly her thing. She looked over to her Protector seeing he felt the same way.
“Ready, Hawk?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be, Little Red, let’s get this done.”
They walked up the steps to where the front door was open, Dameon knocked but when no one came they figured they’d just to go in. Mrs Corpore was in the kitchen, Lupa noted she looked far better tonight, she had make up on and an old fashioned dress with a big skirt.
“Ah wonderful, you are here at last, we were starting to worry! Everyone is outside, there are drinks out there too, feel free to help yourself.”
Dameon and Lupa smiled politely and wandered through to the outdoor area. Lupa frowned as they got outside. It was set up like a very fancy party. She had only
ever been to a few in her life, but the memories had stayed with her, because they were with Karl’s family...
She looked around her; tables with candles and flower arrangements, fairy lights strung through the trees, champagne glasses being handed out by the twins, who were dressed in matching maid-like outfits… Lupa shuddered. She did not want to be here.
Dameon took her hand and gave it a squeeze, smiling down at her. Right. Time to suck it up. “Should we get a drink then?”
Lupa nodded as Dameon let her hand go. They wandered over to one of the twins, Lupa couldn’t tell which one. She took a champagne glass, downing the whole lot and grabbing another one. The girl looked at her and smiled gently.
“Aint liking these types of things neither,” she squeaked, “Most of the people are out on the grass if you needing to go and see what you people see.”
Lupa smiled at her, “Thanks…”
“Layla. I have the freckle on my nose that Madison doesn’t”
Layla pushed her face over the tray, her eyes wide, Lupa nodded. Like that was going to fucking help. “Thank you, Layla.”
Lupa and Dameon wandered out from the patio and onto the grass. Mr Corpore had a whole fucking cow on a spit, and the people were gathered around it talking, little children running around yelling happily. She noticed Mr Corpore wasn’t dressed up, and neither were most of the other town’s people… except the Jay’s, they seemed to be dressed fairly nicely... Lupa wondered who Isabella’s brothers were…
“Oh, Little Red and Hawk, wasn’t it?” Lupa and Dameon nodded and smiled at the plump woman coming over to them, her smile wide and genuine. At least Lupa thought so.
“Hello, Sophie, how are you?”
“I’m good, love me a good get together, good for the soul. Good for the community.”
They both nodded and smiled politely at her, Lupa was unsure what to say next, the woman appeared as though she was expecting something…
“Those cookies were delicious, ma’am, thank you for them.” Dameon said.
“Oh wonderful! So glad you likin’ them. We aint got much, me and my Noah, but we got plenty of love and happiness in our lives. And we like sharin’ it.”
Lupa scanned the crowd whilst Dameon talked, she couldn’t smell or sense any wolfblood around them, and she couldn’t smell any blood or magick either… “Is everyone here?” Lupa asked, interrupting the pair’s conversation.
“Yes, dear, though the teenagers are further up the hill, I suspect they are drinkin’ and stayin’ away from us oldies.” Sophia beamed at Lupa and gave her a wink.
Great. One of them would have to go and talk to them… she looked at Dameon who had a shit eating grin on his face. Right. Seemed like it was her. Sighing to herself, she wandered off, heading for the hill.
It wasn’t that far, but the noise of the party faded quickly, Lupa felt exposed and wary as she heard the teenager’s voices coming through the trees. She stopped when she reached the outskirts of their circle, all of them turning to look at her with glaring eyes. Fan-fucking-tastic.
“Hi guys, I’m Little Red, from The Organization…” She saw Isabella and Sadie amongst the group, wondering why the pretty girl hadn’t been roped into being a waitress too… “I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions, where parents aren’t listening…” She pulled out a smoke and lit it, at least here she could have a one without people watching her.
“What you wantin’ to know?” A boy with black hair got up and stared at her.
“Anything you guys got. Anything strange… any wolfblood sightings… any people acting suspiciously. You know, that sort of thing…”
The boy looked at the others, Lupa counted ten of them. Ugh. “We aint seein’ much. Isabella already tellin’ you what she seen. I’m her brother, I seein’ it once too, runnin’ along the fence, I aint tellin’ our father though. I just runnin’ out and tryin’ to see it. But when I get to the fence, I aint see nothin’. That was when the first cow was found…”
Lupa let her eyes wander over the boy. No. None of these people had a drop of wolfblood in them. Someone felt like they had some witch blood, stronger than what the Corepore’s should have, but if they had tried to enter The Organization they would never have even made it to Protector, let alone a Hunter. Probably would have been offered a desk job…
She smiled at the boy, “Thank you… your name?”
“Lyon Jay. That’s our other brother Roy.”
Lupa studied the other brother, he certainly looked like the others. Neither boy appeared to have a different father. But then, she couldn’t smell anything on them, so it wouldn’t have made a difference if they had.
“Anybody else see or know anything?”
She peered at the teen’s faces, none of them letting their eyes meet hers. Except Sadie, who was staring at her with those big blue eyes like she wanted her to fuck off. She couldn’t really blame her, she wanted to fuck off too.
“Think I might have,” a redhead girl piped up, Lyon giving her a strange look, “I’m Grace, I live over from the Mathews. I saw a creature on the road one night. I never seeing a wolfblood before, but it weren’t no wolf, way too big…”
Lupa nodded, pulling her notebook out and writing the things they had said down. “Anybody else?”
“Yeah… I’m Kiara King, I live on the other side of town… I noticed that…” she glanced over the faces of the other teens, tucking her dirty blonde hair behind her ear, “The Scott’s place is next to mine, they moved away about six months ago… but sometimes I see a light on in their place, no one else living there yet. No one believing me neither.”
Lupa raised her eyebrow. Interesting. The others looked at each other nervously, Lupa wrote that down too. An abandoned building was a great place to go as a teenager, she would know, she used to sneak out to go drinking or to meet boys or just to get away from the thoughts in her head… not the time to go down that road.
“Any of you been down there? I’m not here to rat you out, I’m here to get to the bottom of this. I won't be telling your parents.”
“Sometimes,” Sadie spoke, getting up and walking over to her, holding her hand out, “Smoke?” Great. Lupa pulled one out and handed it to her. “We have all gone together though. We thought the place was haunted after Kiara said she saw the lights on,” she pulled out a lighter from her cleavage and lit the cigarette, watching for Lupa to react. She didn’t, she didn’t give a fuck if the kid wanted to smoke, wasn’t her job to enforce the people. “We went down there and tried to have a séance. But it didn’t work.”
Lupa narrowed her eyes. Surely they knew trying something like that was against the law… of course they did, that’s why she was telling her. For effect. Like the Isabella thing. Lupa smiled sickly sweet at the girl.
“If you don’t have magick in your bloodline, a séance aint going to do fuck all for you.”
The girl pouted, and tossed her curls. Lupa looked over at the others who were all hiding smiles. Did they think Sadie was as stuck up as she thought? Wouldn’t surprise her. But they didn’t look like they had anything more to say.
“Thanks guys. You’ve been helpful. I may be seeing you again.”
Lupa turned and started heading down the short hill, the party noise starting to become clearer. She was almost in the light when she stopped. The hairs on the back of her neck standing up. She sniffed the air…not wolfblood… but something. Something… wrong.
Lupa gazed around, but the trees hid too much from her. What should she do? She crouched down, trying to decipher the shadows. Her eyes were fairly good in the dark, compared to humans, but she didn’t know what she was looking for… she couldn’t hear any rustling along the leafy floor. Couldn’t seem to sense anything more.
After five minutes her legs started aching. Fuck it. Lupa stood up and started walking back down again. But before she could take more than two steps something smashed into her body, knocking the wind out of her and sending her sprawling backwards. Fuck. She fel
t the stitches in her side tear. Double fuck.
Lupa lay still, listening. She could hear something breathing hard, she glanced over to see a wolf the size of a bear prowling around her. She smiled, not a mother-fucking wolfblood. It stunk of magick and blood. It put a paw on her leg and she screamed, her wrist where Hammer had cut broke open, blood oozing out of the wound. What the fuck? The animal jumped at her, she rolled away and scrambled to her feet. Shit, why hadn’t she worn pants?
Lupa started to run for the party but something smacked her in the face, she hit the ground again. This was starting to make her angry. She turned around furiously, fine, if they wanted to fucking fight, she’d fight. She pulled the small knife from her bag and stood ready, the black lightning jumping from her fingers and down the blade. Sure, it was mostly used for killing wolfbloods, but it would kill anyone else just as well.
She waited, but she could hear the creature moving away. Dammit. She wanted to run after it… but she needed to stop the bleeding coming from her wrist, it wasn’t an option to let any of her blood be found… not when blood magick was being used. Not when witches were involved. Pulling out her phone she used the light from it to check her wound, it wasn’t bleeding like a fresh cut, it was coming out slow. Good. She checked the ground and only found two leaves with blood on them, she picked them up, shoved them in her bag and headed back for the party, her eyes searching for Dameon.
“Shit! What happened?”
People were turning to look at her as Dameon grabbed her face and examined it. She wondered if they would have heard her scream. She knew she would probably have a black eye developing, but she didn’t give a flying fuck. What Lupa wanted, was for them to stop looking at her; wanted to get away from them all.
