“Dinner date. We tried your linguine special. It was fabulous, as usual,” Grateful said.
Rick added, “Even I tried a bite. The best I’ve had in centuries.” He gestured toward Grateful’s plate.
“You didn’t want your own?” Logan asked.
Rick shook his head, but it was Grateful who answered. “Rick doesn’t need to eat like we do.”
All at once, Logan remembered. Caretakers didn’t gain nourishment from food. Their witch’s blood and sex were their primary sustenance.
“Did you leave room for dessert?” he asked Grateful. “I have a special tiramisu that couples well with an espresso, or maybe a slice of chocolate cake?”
Grateful groaned and held her stomach. “Are you kidding? I couldn’t eat another bite.”
Rick grinned at her. “She’ll regret passing it up at midnight. One tiramisu and one chocolate cake, boxed to go, please.”
“You got it.” Logan leaned across the table and lifted Lucas from his carrier. “And what about this guy? Did he get something to eat?” Lucas blinked saucer-sized blue eyes at Logan and smiled.
“He’s just on rice cereal for now. He’ll have to wait for chocolate cake,” Grateful said.
Seemingly in response, Lucas began to fuss and then sneezed in Logan’s arms. Flash. The lights blinked. Logan looked up and then at Lucas, who started laughing. Rick cleared his throat.
“You better check your fusebox, Logan,” Grateful said.
Logan’s gaze darted to Rick, who gave one curt shake of his head. Gently, he returned Lucas to his carrier. “Yeah. I’ll do that. Okay. Two desserts, coming up. You know, Polina and I had our first date over chocolate cake.”
He wasn’t sure what made him say it. Maybe it was the awkward pause in conversation after the flashing lights. No. That wasn’t it. He had to share because the joy he housed over his new relationship with Polina was ample enough to spill over the cup of his soul. He wanted to talk about Polina. He wanted everyone to know she was his. That’s how he thought of her. His. He knew it was premature. Sex didn’t mean commitment, but he couldn’t help himself.
“You went on a date with Polina?” Grateful asked.
Logan nodded. “More than one.” Technically they’d never been on a real date, but he considered the cake baking and last night as counting as dates for practical purposes. “I think things are getting serious.” He laughed a little. There was more than a little wishful thinking in his statement.
“Hmm.” Grateful’s eyes shifted to Rick’s. “Logan, can I speak to you alone for a moment? It’s important.”
He didn’t like the sound of that or the timing. “Sure,” he forced himself to say. “In my office.”
He led the way, his stomach sinking. Grateful was a good friend. She’d saved his life more than once. He trusted her. So why was his intuition kicking like a rodeo bull? He took a seat behind his desk.
“What’s going on?” he asked, pretending he didn’t suspect this was about Polina.
Grateful bit her lip. “Polina told me that she helped you after your accident.”
Logan nodded. “She found me on the side of the road and called the ambulance. I guess when she tried to heal me, she had to send my soul to your attic so that I wouldn’t die.”
Grateful nodded. “For lack of a better way to explain it, she moved your soul prematurely into the sorting queue, effectively putting your body into a coma. She wasn’t sure what would happen. She hoped it would give you a few more minutes, time enough for the ambulance to reach you. She also thought you would go to her magical place, her room of reflection, but instead you came to my attic.”
“She saved my life.” Logan nodded. “That was why we seemed familiar to each other the first time we met.”
“Right.” Grateful chewed the corner of her lip again.
“You’re killing me, Grateful. Just spit it out.”
“Remember when you were in my attic, and we had feelings for each other?”
Logan furrowed his brow. “I remember.”
“But those feelings weren’t real.”
“No. They weren’t.”
“We had those feelings because I was responsible for sorting your soul and a witch can’t touch the soul of a human and not share a connection with that human. A strong connection that can be mistaken for love if those involved don’t know any better.”
Logan froze. A wave of nausea washed over him, and he raised a knuckle to his lips.
“It’s just, Polina told me she had feelings for you at the christening party, and I warned her it could be the effects of the magic. I never thought she would act on those feelings.”
“She knew?” Logan asked. “She knew that this could be an issue?”
Grateful winced. “We discussed it. She swore she’d stay away from you.”
Logan felt dizzy. He held his head in his hands.
Grateful bound around the desk and hugged his shoulders. “Logan, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know or I would have warned you earlier. I don’t want to hurt you. I just felt like you had the right to know if she hadn’t told you.”
He nodded. “I should have known. The way it was… it was too perfect. Only magic could be responsible for a feeling like that.” His voice cracked when he spoke.
“Oh… Fuck. You have it bad, huh?”
Logan nodded slowly. “You know what’s the worst part? She knew and didn’t tell me. She used it to get what she wanted from me. She used me.”
Grateful shook her head. “No, Logan. It’s happening to her too. She likely thinks it’s as real as you do.”
“But you told her. You warned her.”
“I did. But maybe she couldn’t resist the temptation.”
Logan balled his hands into fists and shook his head. “I made it clear to her that I detested being manipulated by magic. She had every chance to tell me the risks. No. This is inexcusable.”
Grateful frowned. She backed to the other side of the desk.
“Thank you, Grateful. It couldn’t have been easy for you to tell me this. I appreciate it.”
Both of her palms hit the desk in front of him with a slap. “Not every relationship has to be the one. If Polina makes you happy, there’s no harm in letting the relationship run its course. She’s single. You’re single. The magic will fade in time. It did between us.”
Logan stared at her, eyes seeing right through her. “After Tabetha, I’d rather avoid prolonging the inevitable. Artificial feelings are no better than artificial ingredients. I don’t use any when I cook. It’s a lie, and in the end the customer gets cheated. I’d rather not cheat myself out of something real when it comes to love. Every moment living the illusion is a moment I’m not moving on to something better.”
The corners of her mouth dipped. “I’m sorry I hurt you once again.”
“Don’t be. This was necessary.”
Grateful stood and moved for the exit. “I better get back to Rick.” She opened the door but paused. “Logan, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Do you think Lucas is, um, normal?”
Red alert! As much as he owed Grateful the truth, this felt like a landmine.
“What do I know?” he said. “I couldn’t tell you what a normal baby is like. Never had one.” He shrugged his shoulders. It was an honest answer.
Grateful nodded. “Thanks.”
She walked out the door, leaving Logan to pull himself together.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bloodright Pack
Some days are magic. As Polina glided through the thickly treed forest of Silver Sparrow mountain, joy surrounded her in a visible golden aura. She felt physically stronger for having spent the night with Logan, like she lived in a world where nothing bad could ever happen.
It was a sunny day. A perfect, beautiful day.
And then the forest opened, and she saw what Hildegard had seen. The Bloodright pack. To her horror, the pack had grown again. No less than thirty werewol
ves milled around the caverns, some in tents, some huddled around small campfires. She scanned the crowd and found Alex talking to a waif of a girl who looked barely eighteen. She was nursing a nasty wound on her shoulder that was still bleeding.
Polina strode up to the alpha from behind and grabbed his upper arm.
He jerked from her grip and turned violently, baring his teeth. Alex advanced on her, human hands swiping at her head.
Polina dodged the attack and raised her wand. “Alex, we need to talk.”
The werewolf took three big breaths before reining in his rage. He turned to the girl. “Give me a sec, Carla. I need to deal with this.” This was Polina. Without another word, he led the witch to the edge of the wood, away from the rest of the pack.
“What do you want?” he asked through his teeth.
“What’s going on here? I warned you about the risk of shifting so close to the new human campsite and instead of taking precautions, you tripled the size of your pack?”
Alex lifted his faded blue Cubs hat and scrubbed his head. “Pack business.”
“Your pack is on my land. Now it’s my business.”
He puffed out his cheeks and blew a mouthful of air in her direction. “The timing isn’t the best, I agree, but it couldn’t be helped. See, my pack had to absorb another pack that lost its alpha family. They had nowhere to go. I gave them sanctuary here.”
Polina frowned. “What happened to their alpha family?”
Alex shifted from foot to foot. “Murdered.”
“Murdered!” After what Logan had told her about the werewolf found dead behind his restaurant, this couldn’t be a coincidence. “Where was their home before this?”
“Catskills, New York.”
“And they couldn’t stay there? There was no one to take over leadership?”
Alex’s expression morphed to something sinister, then recovered. The naive young man act snapped into place fast enough for her to question if she’d been mistaken. Was the darkness ever there at all?
“They were afraid and asked to join us. This place is safer.”
“Because of me. Because of my spell.”
“It’s very possible that a human was responsible for the deaths of their pack royalty.”
“Bullshit. No human could take out a family of werewolves.”
“I’m not sure. Like I said, I was just trying to help. They’ve decided to be sworn into our pack today.”
“Is that why the girl’s shoulder is wounded? Was her pack symbol removed?”
“It’s customary.”
Customarily brutal, Polina thought.
“They’ll be integrated. Every new member will have a sponsor. The men will form families.”
“Families? Like they’ll choose wives?”
He nodded. “Sometimes. Wolves mate for life, but until they’re mated they can have up to five females they, uh, are domestic with. Others become like children. Everyone will be taken care of.”
“How do you plan to keep them away from the humans when they shift tomorrow night? They look young. They’ll have no fear, Alex. Twenty human families are camping down the mountain from you, some with children.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re the witch of the realm. Cast another spell to keep them safe.”
“Cast another—” She balled her hands into fists and rested them on her hips. “You fail to understand where I’m coming from, Alpha. This is my ward. You are allowed to stay here under my good graces. If you don’t bring your pack to heel… if we have another incident with the human police… not only will I send anyone involved to hell, but I will evict you.” The ground under his feet rumbled with her anger. There was a reason Polina made the Green Mountains her home. The mountain rock got its distinctive green color from minerals, minerals that held a high concentration of natural metal.
“You’ll kick us off the mountain?” Alex chuckled under his breath, not at all flustered by the small earthquake going on below him. His eyes flicked up and down her body. “Okay, honey. I understand.” His patronizing tone made her skin crawl.
“If you understand, then tell me what actions you will take to ensure the safety of those humans.”
Lifting the corner of his mouth, he said, “In addition to giving them my alpha command, I’ll walk the pack a few miles up the mountain before sunset and string up some chickens. Fresh meat, along with the natural quarry in that area, should keep our wolves more than busy.”
She gave him a curt nod. “Do it. I will reinforce the border. Tell your pack that if one hair on a human’s head is harmed, they will have to answer to me.”
He raised two fingers to his forehead and saluted her, the gesture dripping with sarcasm. Turning, he wandered off toward his pack.
“Asshole,” she said under her breath. She took one last look at the men and women gathered in front of the caverns. Something didn’t add up. The new wolves were young, painfully thin. Surely this wasn’t the entire Catskills wolf pack. But where were the rest of them? And more importantly, who was responsible for killing their alpha?
Moving toward Aurorean House, Polina made a decision. It was time for her to get better acquainted with werewolf society. And her first stop was detective Silas Flynn.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Silas
Polina arrived at the Carlton City Police Department at a quarter till noon the next day. As she walked into the busy station house, a young woman in a blue uniform paused to assess Polina’s appearance. Polina was wearing the same thing she’d worn when she went to see Alex, a sleeveless blue linen gown with silver buttons down the front—Roman denarius coins she’d found on a pirate ship in the 1700s. The dress had two slits, one for each leg, that came to mid-thigh and showed off tall boots.
The young woman assessing Polina wasn’t human, although what she was remained a bit of a mystery. Her aura and the slightest point to her ears suggested elf, but her height and shape bespoke a human or two in her lineage.
“You want office 104A. It’s back there.” She pointed around the corner.
“How did you know?”
She tipped her head and lowered her voice. “Silas is the only supernatural detective that serves your kind on this force.” She said it matter-of-factly, like there was no disputing Polina’s status as a witch. Ah well, she’d never tried particularly hard to fit in. She nodded her head in lieu of thanking the girl and proceeded to Silas’s office.
Silas hunched over his desk, staring into an ancient leather tome with yellowed pages. He was engrossed enough that he didn’t seem to notice when Polina walked in his open door. His wolfish appearance was especially severe today, no doubt due to the forthcoming full moon. He already had a fully developed five o’clock shadow and his nose twitched in a canine sort of way.
“I’m not ignoring you, Polina. Have a seat. Give me two minutes.” He scratched a series of notes on a yellow legal pad. Sitting brought Polina’s face closer to the pages, and she noticed the book was in a different language, one she did not know. With a straight back, she folded her hands in her lap and waited patiently.
He scribbled a few more feverish notes, then sat back and placed the pen down. “What can I do for you?”
“Logan told me about the werewolf that was found murdered behind his restaurant. He said you wished to speak with me about it.”
“I did, at first, until I realized you couldn’t possibly know anything about the murder. The report came back from forensics. Time of death was twelve thirty that afternoon.”
“That was—”
“During Lucas’s baptism. I was sitting right behind you in the church.”
“But then it happened in broad daylight.”
“Strange, right? Very few supernaturals would be bold enough to attack during the day, and fewer still could tear apart a werewolf.”
“Rules out vampires and ghouls. I’d be tempted to think it was a witch, although Grateful or I would likely have sensed the presence of another Hecate. A
n ordinary practitioner of witchcraft might escape our sight. Maybe a type of fae?”
Silas tapped his thumb on the back of his opposite hand. “It’s unusual for someone to come to see me about a case when I haven’t invited them here. Is there something you want to tell me?”
Polina nodded and shifted in her chair. “A pack of werewolves have taken up residence in my territory. They are a young group. Some of them look like they’ve rarely, if ever, shifted before.”
“Not unusual. When werewolves are born, they look and act exactly like humans. Their parents teach them what will happen when they grow up. They tell them they’ll shift. But it doesn’t happen until puberty. Once the teenage hormones kick in, you get the combination of common teenage rebellion and wolfish rage. It leads to a high rate of runaways who tend to join up and support each other.”
“Right. Although I haven’t had many werewolves come through my woods over the centuries, I do know something about your kind. I presumed this was a young, inexperienced group as you suggest. Only, their pack is growing at an alarming rate.”
Silas’s eyebrows shot up, two fuzzy brown caterpillars arching toward his hairline. “Growing? From where? There aren’t that many werewolf families in Vermont.”
“First there were three, then twelve, and now thirty. Their alpha told me they absorbed the members of a pack from the Catskills who lost their alpha family.”
The detective froze, his face paling. “He told you the alpha family of the Catskills is dead?”
Polina nodded. “Yes. He was very clear on that. And the young wolves he took in needed a home.”
“Excuse me.” Silas pulled out his phone and made a call. Polina could hear ringing. When no one picked up, Silas made another call and another, his face growing more and more grim with each unanswered ring. Finally, around call number eight, someone answered. Silas exchanged words in another language and hung up the phone. He covered his mouth as if he might vomit.
“The alpha family of the Catskills leads the Crescent Star pack.” He pulled up his sleeve to reveal a phoenix tattoo. “Do the new wolves have a tattoo like this, only with a crescent moon?”
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