Claws and Effect

by Amanda Arista

  “You can’t just walk in there.”

  I stared down into my coffee and swirled it around. I couldn’t walk in there without a plan and I couldn’t walk into there without a map because I had no clue where it was.

  “Nash, any way you happen to have all the evil warehouses on a map somewhere?”

  “It exists, but I can’t get a hold of it.”

  “And the plan that you and Jessa had?”

  Jessa scrunched her nose. “Really, it was just me skimming the Veil until I saw something.”

  “You know that I don’t like you messing with the Veil.”

  “Let me worry about the Veil. You worry about Cristina.”

  “And I’m not going in there with my Tucker and Tyler.”

  Nash put his coffee back on the coffee table and his explanation came with expressive hand movements. “According to police procedure, they will probably be taken into custody and then if they feel that charges are warranted, which they will because well, its Tyler who’s got a wrap sheet longer than my arm and Tucker, who is already on suspension for being a dirty cop, and because the owner of the shop won’t be answering her phone, we will probably get a call around one a.m. Bail will be set in court, so they are sitting pretty for about three days?”

  We all just stared at him. He licked his lips and picked up his coffee again. “I read all of Tucker’s police procedure books.”

  “Is there a word for the pack wiseman?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Guess I’ll have to think of something.” I sipped the hot liquid and it made all the aching in my head seep away.

  “I can scan the Veil from here, but I’d rather do it from my house. The mirrors are already set up for maximum refraction.”

  “You know I like it when you use big words.”

  Jessa smiled and Myers chuckled. It was the break in the tension that we all needed.

  “Why don’t we get comfortable? Try to sleep if we can. I’m not going anywhere until I talk to Tucker or Tyler. And it might be the last quiet that we get for a while.”

  “How do you know?” Jessa asked, a deep furrow between her eyes.

  “Because it’s what I would do to my characters. You’ve got to make it worse and then you’ve got to rip the rug out from underneath them and only then can they even attempt to recover.”

  “You’re twisted.” Jess frowned as she took a sip of her coffee.

  I shrugged. “Build in dark side. Now sleep.”

  There was a general consensus. I took my coffee up stairs and Jessa followed.

  “How are you holding up?” she asked as she sat down on my bed.

  I let my façade crack a little. I flopped on the bed next to her, careful of the coffee in her hands. “Three days, Jessa. Do you know what they could do to her in three days? I’m now four allies down. I’m having visions that mean I’m toast, again. And the only thing I can focus on right now is that Chaz wasn’t here to wish me happy birthday.”

  “At least right now, the world crumbling around your ears is purely figurative.”

  I sniffed and rolled my eyes. “Are you trying to jinx me?”

  Jessa smiled. “I really only know one thing.”

  I pushed myself off the bed and unzipped my dress as I walked into the bathroom. “What’s that?”

  “I want to be there when it happens.”

  “What do you think is going to happen?”

  Pulling off the dress was the only moment of complete and utter relaxation I’d imagine I’d get tonight. I took in an easy breath and then changed into jeans and a T-shirt. I really wished it were my flannel PJs, but I had company. Boy company I had to wear PJs for.

  When I came back into the bedroom, Jessa had changed too. I’d forgotten that she had a drawer here, just like I had a drawer at her house. I wondered if the boys were going to want to have clothing space to in my little house. No, my little home.

  “I think that you’re going to do something stupid, and I’d like to be there to stop you since Chaz might not be.”

  “Won’t be.”

  “Might not be, Violet.”

  I watched her as she brushed her hair out. She licked her lips in the mirror and pressed her lips together.

  There was something there in the pressing of her lips like she was keeping something in. “You know something.”

  “I know that he loves you, Violet. You gave him the same thing that you’ve given the mutts. Faith in themselves. They could have taken the easy way out like Spencer or this scraggly guy.”

  “Carlisle?” I offered.

  “Whatever. I’ll try to say this so you will understand. You made Chaz better because you saw him, not what he could do but what he was. The same thing for these mutts. You saw them, not what they shift into to. And I have to admit, that I couldn’t see what you see until tonight.”

  “So I can keep them?” I asked.

  “Just warn me before you start making too many mystical bonds. I was still first, you know.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Jessa licked her lips and put my brush back on the dresser. “I also know that I haven’t been able to see him since that night.”

  A knot tied in my stomach. “Chaz?”

  Jessa twisted her fingers. “I wanted to see if what we saw was real or just a bad spell or a con or something because . . .” Her voice trailed off along with her eyes that seem to find an interesting spot on the carpet. “I can’t find him in the mirror.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s hiding. Maybe he’s lost.”

  My hands clenched into fists. “Chaz can’t get lost.”

  “I know. And I know I’m not supposed to jump to conclusions. That’s what you do. And you always seem to land on your feet.”

  My mouth had gone dry at some point. “So what do you suggest?”

  “Chaz is a big boy, he can handle himself. You, however, have two boys who haven’t proven themselves to be the best at playing nice with others.”

  “Won’t correct you on that one.”

  “Nash seems fairly capable though.”

  I didn’t say anything. She’d taken some huge strides tonight and I didn’t want to jinx anything. I was learning to keep my mouth shut. Its harder to put your foot in it that way.

  “I might have told him that when things settled down, he might want to see my parent’s library of rare books.”

  “Did he actual salivate or was it just figurative?”

  Jessa chuckled. “They’ve done a number on you.”

  “Maybe on my savings account.”

  “No, its there. Outside of the key holder guardian thing, you’ve changed, dare I say grown up?”

  “You may only dare if you let me have that birthday present that you’ve had tucked in your purse.”

  Jessa smiled and reached for her purse across the bed. I pounced on the mattress next to her and waited for my present. It had been so long since I’d gotten any sort of present that wasn’t a knife in a handkerchief.

  She pulled out a flat blue box and I frowned. “Tiffany’s?”

  “It was the only box I had around the house.”

  “Pfft,” I snorted as I untied the ribbon.

  I pulled it off slowly and then rocked the lid off the box.

  It was my picture frame. In silver. With a picture of me and my mother.

  “Just don’t touch it,” Jessa warned.

  Tears filled my eyes immediately. “Is this? I mean . . . how did you . . .”

  “I had the knife melted back into something a little more functional. Even had the guy stamp it with this year to fool the next idiot who tries to kill you with it. This was too dangerous to let out of your sight.”

  Jessa bit her lower lip as she watched me caress the picture of my mother.

  “And the picture?”

  “Your cousin Waylon is a very accommodating man.”

  My jaw dropped. “You talked to cousin Waylon? I haven’t even
spoken to him in years.”

  Jessa pulled a card out of her purse. “He sends his regards and a picture of his daughter.”

  “He’s got a daughter?”

  “And she looks just like you?”

  I set the picture frame down on the bed and took the card. Out of it slipped a photo of a young girl with long dark hair and clear green eyes. Just like mine, just like my mother’s.

  The card simply read “Happy birthday.” It was signed by Waylon and Lexie.

  A tear slipped down my cheek as I looked up at Jessa. Even her eyes were a little watery.

  “I didn’t do this just to make you cry, Violet. I did it to help you celebrate that you have a family here. It’s the birthday gift you gave to yourself this year.”

  I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her until she squeaked in protest and I had to let her go. “Thank you, Jessa.”

  “You are welcome. Though I don’t recommend that you send Waylon a family photo from Dallas.” Jessa got up and walked toward the door.

  “Why?”

  “Because we don’t want him to think you’re part of some culty brother husband thing, do we?”

  I laughed as I looked down at the picture of my mother. I knew exactly where this was going.

  “I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when the boys get their one phone call.” Jessa disappeared around the corner and into the guest bedroom.

  I was exhausted, but told Nash to go to the office and curl up. To sleep if he could. I wouldn’t let him miss out on the good parts.

  Myers was pacing the living room like a long-tailed cat.

  “Something wrong?” I asked.

  As quickly as I could, I pulled the picture frame out of the blue box and set it on the mantle, fingers stinging from the heirloom silver. Once again, it looked perfect, this time setting next to a picture of me and my best friend/fellow crime fighter. I rubbed my singed fingers against my pants and waited for the stinging to stop.

  “There’s just so much going on. I didn’t know,” Myers said as he ran his fingers through his long hair.

  He taken off the button down that I’d loaned him and was back in his dark jeans and T-shirt. Even like this, in his usual garb, I could tell that working out his animal had done a body good. I took a moment to appreciate the sheer manliness that had formed around him in the past month.

  “I did warn you in maybe our second conversation that hanging out with me was dangerous.” I brushed a hair away from my face and raised my eyebrow.

  His eyes trained on me, with thoughts racing through them so fast it made me dizzy just looking at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I am completely in love with you,” he said quickly, softly, like one long exhaled breath.

  In no more than an instant, he curled his hand around my waist and pulled me to him. He caught my lips in a kiss. It was strong and deep, and I felt it in my core.

  I melted against him. Surrounded by his arms, the world, my problems melted away as I fell into the sensation of fur sliding against my bare skin.

  His kiss was wild and deep and so very youth-filled. He tasted like red hots. I could work with this and never have to restrain myself, never have to worry about being careful because he was just like me and for a brief moment, we both wanted the same thing.

  He tightened his arm around my waist and brought his other hand up to cup my face. A tightness ran through my body as I so easily conformed against him, moving ever so slightly to make our bodies fit more perfectly together.

  As the kiss grew more heated, so did the air around us. Only when I smelled brimstone, did I push away and took a few wobbly steps backward. Breathless, I leaned against the mantle. My heart pounded and my skin felt electric as I ran my fingers through my hair.

  Could the Legacy finally be protecting me against myself?

  “Please don’t do that again,” I asked in the strongest voice I could muster.

  “I love you,” he repeated, his pupils blown with pleasure and his lips swollen from our embrace. “They never told me just how amazing you really were.”

  His words struck a chord that vibrated through me. “Who didn’t tell you?”

  “Yasmina. She didn’t tell me about what was happening here in Dallas.”

  I turned to face him. “The white hats have pretty much pulled their brims down to avoid our situation.”

  Myers licked his lips. “No, they know what’s going on here. They are just waiting to see who wins.”

  “Who wins?”

  Anger burned through me, and my hand, which was still unfortunately on the mantle, crushed through the brick that it was grasping, crumbling it into red rock onto my grey carpet.

  Myers’s lips parted as he looked at the brick and then at me. His voice was rushed. “But they are wrong about you. You are going to win.”

  I saw the newspapers on the coffee table begin to ruffle as my anger flared around me.

  “And I want to be honest with you, Violet. I’ve seen how hard you fight, and I can’t keep their secrets anymore.”

  “Yeah. Not a fan of secrets.”

  He reached underneath the collar of his T-shirt and pulled out a silver medallion on a black leather necklace. Had I seen that before? Surely in one of the training sessions, I must have seen that. It had an odd sort of marking on it but the moment I looked away from it, I forgot what the symbol was. He loosened the leather strap and pulled the charm from around his neck.

  A tidal wave of energy poured out from him hot, like lava, as it burned across my skin. I knew that power, that sheer force. He wasn’t a newly made panther. He was a pure bred, like Spencer had been pure bred.

  “My name is Myers Freestone. I’m the second son of Lura Freestone and brother to Chieftain.”

  I knew the name. There were three families of panther in the United States: Kye Insert-No-Last-Name-Here, Haverty, and Lura, who I had been told only had one son.

  I took in a deep calming breath as I looked up at him. There was no need to huff and puff and blow my own house down. “What are you doing in my house, Myers Freestone?”

  His power swirled in and out of mine, his panther brushing against me. God it felt good. “I joined the Cause about a year ago when I finally came to terms with never being the Primo of my home pard.”

  “So you were trying to take over Dallas?”

  “No!” he said rushed. “Absolutely not. Yasmina sent me here to see if I could . . .”

  “Strengthen the Cause’s hold on Dallas?”

  Myers licked his lips. “By seducing you.”

  I laughed. It was the only gut reaction that seemed appropriate at this time. “But I’m with Chaz. Was with Chaz.” I hate confusing verb tenses.

  “They didn’t see him as a threat to their plans.”

  I backed away from Myers until I hit the arm of my couch. My anger wanted to rip him to shreds. For two months, I had welcomed him, taught him and it was all a lie. The betrayal sat heavy in my chest as I glared at him.

  “Let me get this straight.” My voice was low and slow and sounded like it reverberated off the walls. “The Cause, the good guys, stand by while I get bitten, stand by and let me kill the master of the city, but now they want to meddle in my love life?”

  Myers nodded.

  I got a sickening thought that churned my stomach. “Did they do something to Chaz?”

  His gaze dropped to the ground and his burning energy went cold. “I think so. The last time I talked to any of them, they said they would take care of it.”

  “Take care of him? Is he dead?”

  “No,” Myer said quickly, but I could read his unassuredness of this answer in his eyes. “We are still the good guys, Violet.”

  “What part of the good guys lies to an old woman, wriggles himself into someone’s life, and then kidnaps her boyfriend?”

  “I couldn’t lie to you anymore. What you’ve done here is amazing. The . . .”

  “Save your breath, kid. No amount of flatte
ry is ever going to . . .”

  My cell phone rang and I darted across the living room, leaving Myers in the lurch. It was an unknown county number. Tucker.

  “Hello?”

  “Violet?”

  My entire body participated in my sigh of relief to hear Tucker’s voice again. “Tell me you’re okay?”

  “A little banged up but fine.”

  “Banged up? Why?”

  “Dirty cops don’t do well in the system.”

  Oh. “And Tyler?”

  “This place is like a high school reunion for him.”

  I closed my eyes and forced my thoughts away from the previous conversation. Saving Chaz’s ass might just have to wait. Kicking Myers ass really didn’t have to. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Tell me what do to, Tucker.”

  “Bail won’t be set until the charges are made. So we are stuck here for the moment.”

  “Are you safe there? Can Carlisle’s men get to you?” I started chewing on my thumbnail and wondered whose bad habit that was that I had inherited.

  “Don’t think so. Most of the guys were beat cops, and frankly no one is smart enough to process the paperwork to get us out.”

  I chuckled. “God bless red tape.”

  “I still don’t think that you should go after Cristina by yourself.”

  “Agreed. And they haven’t made a demand yet.”

  “What?”

  “If they took her to lure me in, they’d need to tell me they’ve got her and they haven’t.”

  “Unless they’ve just killed her.”

  I gasped. “Please tell me you didn’t say that in front of Tyler.”

  “Don’t worry about his feelings.”

  I sighed. “You have to, Tucker. Keeping it all in, letting it fester. That’s how Jovan took hold in the first place.”

  The line was silent for a moment.

  “Tucker?”

  His voice was soft, tender. “I’m gone for five hours and now your Yoda?”

  “You’re gone for five hours and now you talk like me?

  “You might be wearing off on me.”

  “Ditto.”

  I wanted to be there with him, making sure that he was safe and that Tyler wasn’t going to spiral out of control on us because I needed both of them to be strong. Before I knew it I had reached out for them with my power.