by Macy Blake
They weren’t going to stop him. Not now. Not when he was so close to finding answers. Nick bolted up the steps and barreled through the door, shoving it so hard it bounced off the wall and slammed shut behind him. He crashed into the open front room. There was no doubt about it. This was the house. He’d found it!
“Hey! Anyone?” he shouted as he went room to room around the bottom floor. No one was there, and it was just as dusty as it was in his dreams. It was unnaturally quiet. Subconsciously, he could tell no one had lived there for years, maybe even a decade. There was even more dust than the last time he’d been there. There were dishes on the counter. Leftovers from the meager meals they’d been given had dissolved into dust on the plates. He wandered into Mrs. Foote’s office. He shivered as he walked through the door. It was one of the rooms they’d never been allowed in. The desk had been cleaned off, and the drawers emptied. A couple were left open, and one had been pulled out and left on the floor, as if whoever cleaned them out couldn’t be bothered to right them.
He passed the door leading to the basement, but he couldn’t bring himself to even open it, let alone go down there. That was where…. Yeah, he couldn’t think about it. Not here. Not without reliving it.
He rushed up the stairs, looking for answers that might tell him what had happened here, where everyone might have gone. Memories crashed over him as he stepped into the bedroom, forcing him to his knees. Bright lights flashed in his eyes and the faces of the other kids floated in his mind as he looked around. He could still smell them there. He remembered a joke Jenny had once told about Mrs. Foote, but he couldn’t bring himself to laugh about it. Tears spilled down his face as he reached out to the foam-rubber mattress on the floor. So many nights huddled together, trying their best to comfort each other.
He’d have to wait until morning. The darkness kept him from finding any smaller clues. But he would find something to help him. Anything. He wouldn’t stop until he found them.
He heard a noise from outside and ran back downstairs. His body crackled with tension and he glanced down. He had claws for hands and wanted nothing more than to use them. Instead, he held back, looking out the dirty window at the yard.
A ring of fire had appeared between Nick and his truck, and two figures stepped out of it. The first was smaller, and kind of funny looking. He looked like he was wearing furry chaps and a helmet of all things. The other guy had Nick worried. He was huge, his eyes burned a fiery red, and his body was … steaming? His blond mohawk was combed back into a ponytail at the back of his head. The braids in his beard reminded Nick of a Viking.
He turned around and braced himself, prepared to fight. He was ready for it. It was time. He opened the front door, drawing the attention of the two new arrivals.
“Who are you?” the giant Viking demanded. “What business do you have here?”
Nick’s skin prickled, anger like he’d never felt before coursing through him. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you had anything to do with this!”
The Viking’s eyes dimmed, the fiery red glow fading. “Do with this? Of course we did. What do you think we are?”
“Then prepare to die,” Nick growled. He finally had one of the bastards in his hands, and he was ready to exact justice.
Jedrek
Jedrek rolled his shoulders, giving his head a shake to chase away the exhaustion creeping up on him. He couldn’t rest. Not yet. His pack, his family was still in danger and they were surrounded by strangers. No, he wouldn’t rest and neither would the rest of them. They would do their duty and serve both their goddess and alpha well.
Solomon had gone to see the goddess, hoping to get some information for them on the newest attack. The Chosen One and his guardians had arrived, also injured from an attack. The amount of coordination involved scared Jedrek more than he cared to admit. He wasn’t alone.
“I don’t understand,” Calli grumbled quietly beside him. They continued walking the perimeter, sticking close to the wards.
“Nothing makes sense,” Jedrek added.
“If the Chosen One has guardians, why can they not keep him safe?”
Jedrek wondered the same thing. “There are forces at work here that are beyond our abilities.”
Calli shivered. “First the aswangs, now this. When is Meshaq coming back? Or Solomon?”
She knew he didn’t have the answer, so Jed didn’t bother pretending to know. He glanced over the gathered group once more, taking in all of the loners and outcasts. The Jerrick pack had been kind enough to open their home to them all. The young ones were all shaken, Ben especially.
It was the safest place Jed knew of, outside of the Chosen One’s home. And yet, even that had been breached. The wards weren’t effective against whatever invisible opponent they faced. The air trembled around them and a portal opened. Every pack member prepared for the worst, but they settled moments later when Meshaq, Drew, and Solomon walked through together.
Calli laughed and Jedrek couldn’t help smiling also. They had a stack of bakery boxes in their arms, and Drew had a very smug smile on his face. Their alpha’s mate had convinced Shaq and Solomon to get doughnuts. He had their entire pack wrapped around his fingers and he knew it. Luckily, he used his powers for baked goods and not evil.
Jedrek and the rest of the pack gathered around. Solomon handed Calli the stack of boxes he held, only holding one back. Of course, he’d have to make sure he took care of Cody, who was still sleeping. The only good thing to come of all of this was that both their alpha and his second in command had found their mates. It shouldn’t have been possible, especially considering that Drew was an omega, and yet… they were the bright spots of hope in all of the fear and confusion. Before he could hear their explanation, though, the sigil on Jedrek’s arm began to burn.
“Really? I don’t even get a doughnut?” Jedrek complained.
“It’s the old farmhouse. Where we found the kids,” Sol said. “Another coincidence?”
“Probably another hiker,” Calli said. She stuffed a jelly doughnut in her mouth and Jedrek scowled her way. Then he turned back to Solomon, confused as to how he knew the details of the sigil. Only Meshaq, their alpha, was able to know what challenges they might face during their mission. How was Solomon able to…?
“Go, Jed. Let me know if you need me, okay?” Solomon added.
An energy he’d only felt from Meshaq before rolled through him. Something had definitely happened while they were with the goddess.
“Yes, alpha,” Jedrek said, finally understanding the change that had occurred during their absence.
Solomon met his gaze and his eyes flared with the flames of their beasts. Jedrek’s flashed in return, before he turned and opened the portal, unable to delay any further. The goddess needed him to do something, and even though he wanted nothing more than to stay behind and find out what had happened, how their pack now had another alpha, he couldn’t wait.
“Champion, wait.”
Jedrek turned and found Cosmo by his side. “You’ll have to speak to the others. I have to go.”
“I will accompany you.”
Jedrek paused at the portal. “Not your job, Cosmo. Stay here and make merry with the others.”
Cosmo scowled. “I heard Solomon say you were going to the old farmhouse. You shouldn’t go alone.”
Before he could stop him, Cosmo skipped through the portal. Jedrek growled and followed him.
“Cosmo,” Jedrek protested. “Get back.”
“Whatever is happening is not over. We cannot risk losing any of our champions. You need someone to have your back.”
Jedrek took a moment to really look at Cosmo. He still held an arm across his stomach, even though he didn’t have to hold his guts in anymore. There was a fresh, pink stripe across his lower abdomen, just above his furry hipline. But his jaw was set in a stubborn jut. And he could handle himself. That move he put on the aswang, spearing it with a horn and flipping it over? Bad. Ass.
“Are y
ou even healed?”
“Ready enough for whatever battle lies ahead of us.”
“You do realize my goddess would never send me alone if backup were required.”
Cosmo huffed and looked around the clearing.
“Seriously, Cosmo, go back to the others. It’s fine.”
“The children still have nightmares about this place, ten years later,” Cosmo said quietly. “Ollie confessed his secret to me not long ago.”
It didn’t surprise him. The things they’d learned about this place after they rescued the Jerrick kids were horrifying. Add to it the fact that they’d never found the magic users responsible, and he couldn’t blame the kids for continuing to fear the place.
Jedrek groaned while taking a glance around. A beat up old truck sat in the driveway, and his senses told him someone was inside the house. Probably looking for a vintage bathtub to steal or something equally idiotic. He caught movement in the front window, and then the door burst open, flying off its hinges and laying on the floor in a cloud of dust and splintered wood. A man stood in the doorway, his breath heaving. Something about him seemed familiar, but not. Jedrek’s senses were confused, which rarely happened. The man was some sort of shifter, though, and it immediately put Jedrek on alert.
“Who are you?” Jedrek demanded. “What business do you have here?”
The man partially shifted, and he seemed barely in control.
“I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you had anything to do with this!”
Did this idiot think the hellhounds weren’t responsible for the wards on this place? Could he not feel their presence?
“Do with this? Of course we did. What do you think we are?”
“Then prepare to die.”
It actually took Jedrek a second to process. His exhaustion had clearly given him some sort of brain fog, because this guy had not just threatened to—
“Malfeasant!” Cosmo shrieked as he charged toward the man, driving him to the ground in an impressive move. He really needed to remember to tell Shaq about Cosmo’s skill in battle. He wondered if his alpha— his other alpha now that he had two— would think about it.
The grass in the yard was severely overgrown and shielded most of them from Jedrek’s view, but he could see Cosmo’s horns when he bobbed his head up and down as he tried his best to whale on the guy. Jedrek sighed and squashed the urge to send Cosmo off to the top of some mountain in the middle of nowhere.
“Okay, killer. Bring it in,” Jedrek said as he grabbed Cosmo by the horns to pull him off the man.
“We must kill the interloper!” Cosmo squawked as he squirmed in Jedrek’s hands, continuing to kick and scream in some grandiose plan to exact retribution on the trespasser.
“Cosmo. Enough,” Jedrek grunted when one of flailing hooves smacked him in the leg.
The stranger smelled like some kind of shifter, but it was off, like the magic that surrounded the notwolves they tangled with at this very house. Jedrek had never smelled anything like it, and hadn’t since. Hadn’t felt anything like it either. But this was different. And … enticing? Jedrek shook his head. Where the fuck did that thought come from?
He took a moment to consider him. Judging by his long legs and arms, he’d be nearly as tall as him when he stood. His longish hair spread out wildly around his head like some kind of mane. Honestly, he was beautiful. Jedrek wanted. That was what threw him the most. He’d never felt the ache he felt now. The need to just pull someone close and shut the world away for a while. But the faun wriggling in his grip reminded him of the task at hand. Interrogate now, process it later.
Jedrek pulled himself to his full height and allowed his eyes to burn bright. His skin heated up in the early morning sun as the power of the goddess flowed through him. “Who are you?” Jedrek demanded. “What business do you have here?”
“Get out of my way,” the shifter snapped as he defiantly pushed himself up on his knees. Something was definitely wrong with this guy. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you had anything to do with this!”
The crazy beautiful stranger was clearly insane along with his more obvious physical problems. “You need to get out of here. This place is none of your concern,” Jedrek snarled.
He only had time to toss Cosmo aside before the shifter sprung, swiping at him with his claws. He wasn’t steady on his feet, and something was very wrong with his change. He seemed stuck, trapped in an inbetween. Half man, half lion, but neither side of him fully in control. Jedrek had no idea what to do, but he managed to get a grip around the shifter’s neck.
“Get him Jedrek! He hurt Henry and the others!” Cosmo’s cheer enraged the shifter further, and he swiped at Jedrek with his claws.
“Cosmo—”
But Cosmo wasn’t in any mood to listen.
“That does it.” Cosmo stamped his feet and huffed loudly as he geared up to attack the man again. Jedrek let him get two steps in before he opened a portal between them and Cosmo ran into it, sending him back to the Jerrick’s place. Hopefully he wouldn’t take out any tents as he ran through the clearing or trample any of the refugees. Of course, his distraction meant that the shifter managed to jerk free. The man roared in his face before running back into the house. Jedrek could just make out what he was saying.
“I have to save them. It’s been too long. I need to help them,” he kept repeating as he smashed into the door full-force, splintering it as it slammed open.
This…creature…had fought him. Bravely, if stupidly. Jedrek stood there, half-shifted, in all his fiery hellhound glory, and this sort of half-shifter, who smelled amazing, was not stepping down. He had roared back at him, of all things. Jedrek had never seen that. Usually when a hellhound showed up, the person knew they were in deep shit. Most times, there were tears. Groveling was normally involved, along with a lot of snot and pissing of pants. Either that, or he was faced with an evil he had to immediately put down or deliver to the gates for the goddess to pass judgment.
This. This was something else. Something different. And the shifter had turned his back on Jedrek, not to run away. But to run back into the house of horrors. It took Jedrek a moment longer to make the only connection he had left: he must have lived there, as a child. Or, more accurately, he’d been kept there, having his magic tampered with, just like the others. No wonder he smelled faintly of the bad magic they’d found ten years ago. It must have clung to him, preventing his full shift, and marking him with dark witchcraft. That was the familiar smell. He’d been surrounded by it for so long, from Ben and the others, that he hadn’t made the connection. But this shifter had another layer of magic on him as well. Who was he, and where had he come from?
Ben had told them about others, kids who lived there before, ones that hadn’t made it. Only this one got away. Somehow, he managed to get out of the nightmarish house and survive. Jedrek didn’t understand how that was possible. How had he stayed hidden for so long? Meshaq had an entire network of shifters and magic users scouring the world for any traces of the sorcery they’d encountered, yet this shifter came to them, stumbling across their wards on his own.
He let the shifter go on ahead. He could hear him running from room to room, shouting as he went. No one answered, and he was becoming more frantic as he pounded up the stairs. They’d all been gone for more than ten years, but there was no way this shifter could have known that. He couldn’t imagine what he must be going through, being back here. Willingly going into that nightmare factory, even after so many years, couldn’t be easy. Yet, he didn’t give it a second thought before he crashed through the door.
He considered calling in reinforcements, but decided against it. If this man really was who Jedrek thought he might be, the roller coaster of emotions could trigger an all-out war. As it was, he was probably in for a fight on his own. The sobs he heard from the house tugged at his heart and took him back to those early days after they’d rescued Ben, Henry, and the others. They’d been broken, too, but Sam and Vaughn ha
d carefully helped them come to terms with their past and build a future as a family.
This man clearly hadn’t had that opportunity. But it didn’t mean Jedrek could just let him go on a tear through the house. They kept the wards around the place for a reason.
“No time like the present,” Jedrek mumbled to himself as he decided it was time to intervene. He made sure to make noise as he climbed the stairs and stepped up onto the porch. Sneaking up on a shifter in distress was idiotic, even if he was pretty sure he could take him. He carefully stepped over the remnants of the door and quickly surveyed the damage. He only made it two steps before he had a partially shifted— lion? Jedrek wasn’t sure. The guy’s magic was really screwed up—flying at him, claws out and ready for battle. He blocked the swipe and caught him in mid-air before shoving him against the wall.
“Where is he?” the shifter shouted frantically.
“Who?”
“You know who! Where is he?” He thrashed in Jedrek’s arms, fighting back almost hard enough to dislodge himself until Jedrek had to set him back on the floor or risk seriously harming him. “Where are they? What did you do to them?”
“Now just hold on. I think we need to talk.” Jedrek held his hands up in front of himself to try to placate him.
“Why? So I can listen to your lies? I’m not listening anymore.” His words were slightly slurred because of the fangs. He pounced again, obviously intending to slash Jedrek’s throat, leaving Jedrek no choice but to defend himself.
“Sorry,” Jedrek whispered as he slammed his fist into the side of the shifter’s head. He went down like a ton of bricks. This close, Jedrek could tell he was definitely a lion shifter, and a powerful one at that, but his shift was definitely fucked up in a major way. The power coming from the guy was immense, though. Probably an alpha, which just made him that much more dangerous if he was out of control.
He checked the lion’s pockets and found his wallet. Nick Smith, the ID said. “Nice to meet you, Nick.” The address was about forty-five minutes away. “Goddess, kid. Who the hell are you?”
