Miranda

by Sherry Foster

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Come on Thomas we gotta go.” Nathaniel flipped his long blond hair away from his face, the sunlight catching the streaks of blue and causing them to shimmer. He shifted from foot to foot as though that would get Thomas in the car any quicker.

  “Well I don’t know what the hurry is, they aren’t going anywhere are they?”

  “I don’t know. I told you Miranda called, I told you what she said. You know clan law. It is illegal to mate with a shifter. Are you going to hurry up or what?”

  “No, you didn’t tell me everything she said. I don’t see why they need us. What’s she gonna do anyway? Live and let live. We leave them alone, they leave us alone, everyone is happy and I don’t have to go anywhere after working all day.”

  “Just come on. You know the law. Get in the car.” Nathaniel strode around the front of the yellow Camero. He had not had the car long and next to Thomas the car was his pride and joy. Well, Thomas and the car ranked pretty close together in his mind if he was honest. Some days the car even outranked his fiance. But he wasn’t going to tell Thomas that bit of news. Besides, as well as Thomas knew him, he already knew how he felt. He felt a momentary pang of guilt about dragging Thomas out right after the man got home from work, but when clan business called the only answer was to go. Especially when you ranked as high up in the clan as Nathaniel.

  The clans were suppose to meet near a pack about two hours away. He wasn’t familiar with the pack, he didn’t keep up with any of the shifters anymore. Not since that day three hundred years ago when his little Merry had been killed. For years afterward he raged and struck out at any shifter he saw. But eventually he had developed an indifference to the shifters. He knew their days were numbered, he helped create the curse that insured they would die out.

  “Nathaniel Green, watch out. I swear you are going to get us killed driving like you do. Are you even looking at the road?”

  He rolled his eyes at Thomas’ bitching. Before he could say anything though a small voice from back spoke up. “Of course he isn’t paying attention to the road. He is thinking of times past.”

  Thomas jerked his attention to the back to see Dean before turning back to Nathaniel. “You brought your dog? Really? Why did you bring one of the dogs with us?”

  “Dean is the best at sniffing out shifters. Besides, he is my familiar, did you think I would leave him at home? We can’t smell them, he can. They won’t be sneaking up on us with him around.”

  Thomas rolled his eyes at Nathaniel’s explanation. “As if you can’t weave the magic to keep them away. You just wanted to aggravate me by bringing one of them with us. Don’t lie. I know you.”

  “That’s not true. Okay, maybe a little true. I was going to bring Bella but she declined the invitation. Dean still remembers Merry, the rest are too young. He wanted a little action and of course, we knew it would aggravate you. We love you.”

  “Sometimes I wonder. So what are you going to do with him while you fight?”

  “You mean while we fight? There will be no fight. We will go in and destroy them and find the witch who set off the alarms Miranda created and once she is destroyed, well, we should have no more problems with witches helping shifters. I still can’t believe after what happened back then any witch would help a shifter much less mate with one. But all indications point to a witch-shifter mating having occurred in the last few weeks. Why would they do that?”

  “I don’t know anymore than you do. Why do you ask me questions you know I can’t answer?”

  “Because you are suppose to know these things.”

  Thomas narrowed his eyes when he saw the direction they were going. “Why are we going through this way? Where exactly are we going? The last time we went this way in the winter you caused an avalanche.”

  Nathaniel snorted, “I did not cause an avalanche, I melted the snow blocking the road. What happened after we passed has nothing to do with me. Besides, the only way to get to where we are going is through dead man’s pass.”

  “Where are we going? Miranda was short on information for most of us. I know she called you directly days ago to arrange things and yet you still haven’t told me the plan. All you said was we go to kill shifters and enforce the law. She does have a plan right?”

  “Sure. Go in, kill everyone, destroy the territory as a lesson to others and leave to meet up with Amanda.”

  “Great plan, does she have a plan for destroying the copper wolf? I mean, come on Nathaniel, I am not stupid, she can not be that stupid either. If Merry had not been killed way back when she never would have destroyed that first pack, you and I both know the power of a witch-shifter mating skews the magic. Why do you think she was so opposed to Merry being happy with Donovan? She couldn’t stand knowing her daughter would be able to wield more power than her. If Merry had lived long enough to figure things out she would be leading the clans instead of Miranda.” Thomas drew a deep breath and waited to hear what the plan was so he could make his own plans. He didn’t like Miranda and if he could figure out a way to get her out of control of the clans he would take his chance. A shifter-witch mating might be the opportunity he had been waiting for all these centuries.

  “I can’t believe I helped her mate with him. She was so happy though. Do you remember her face, how it glowed when she mated that cur?”

  “At one time you liked that cur quite a bit better than you liked the plan for Merry to marry that son of a dung beetle from the McGregor clan.”

  “That was before I knew he was going to get her killed. At the time her happiness meant more than helping Miranda gain more power. You do realize the only way that plan was going to benefit Miranda and give her total control of the clans was for her to take over the child? I couldn’t bear to see Merry lose her child to her mother for a power play. But I think, if I had known she would die, I would have pushed for the marriage. I mean, it isn’t like we would have let the father live and maybe we could have figured out a way to help Merry keep her child.”

  “You really mean you think Miranda was going to end up killing Merry to get the child. Don’t lie.”

  “Fine, yes that possibility did cross our minds. Ira thought the possibility was almost a certainty. We couldn’t let that happen. Better her mate with a shifter and figure out how to keep the power shifts down and Miranda in control than to mate with that McGregor.”

  “Who do you think it was?”

  “Who?”

  “Oh my god Nathaniel, don’t play dumb, who do you think mated with a shifter? It had to be someone from outside the clans. An exile or a hidden child or something?”

  “Not a hidden child. Miranda is aware of every witch child born, for that matter I have enough power to feel them. You know this, where do you get hidden child from? Did you eat today? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “I’m just tired. Can we just drop it?”

  “No, Thomas we can not just drop it. Hidden child? No, it was one of the exiled ones. Amanda headed up yesterday to check on Casey. You remember Casey? Angelica’s misbegotten child who refused to honor the clan laws and was exiled, oh, it musta been a hundred, hundred and fifty years ago. Miranda let her go with an extra geas upon her tongue for Angelica’s sake. Not only can she never tell our secrets without suffering, but she will destroy herself if she does. She can never tell our secrets and she doesn’t know enough to have the information she needs to become more powerful than Miranda but she is the only one who relocated this direction. Most of the clan-less choose to stay in European states or south Africa. No, it is gonna be Casey who mated a shifter, you can bet on it.”

  “So we have to kill her, the entire shifter community she mated into and then what? How is Angelica going to feel about us removing her daughter?”

  “I don’t really care. She should have raised her daughter by clan law. If she had done her job we would not be here now. Amanda called and said she had reached the mountain where Casey lives and she could feel the bit of power coming
from the mountain so she knows Casey is there now. We should hear more this morning after she gathers all the information she can. We take care of the shifters before her and her mate return and then we will head to meet up with Amanda and take care of Casey.” Nathaniel shrugged before continuing, “At a guess I would say they mated and headed for her mountain on their honeymoon. We hit before she can get her mate trained in his power. The only thing I am really concerned with are the books she took. Angelica didn’t bother telling us Casey left with some of our valuable texts until this happened. Shit I really hate when people conceal information from us. Miranda will take care of Angelica after all of this is over. Sadie is in Italy keeping a watch on Angelica to make sure she doesn’t make a move against us before we get everything settled.”

  “Make a move against us? What the hell could she do? I have more power in my pinky than she has in her whole body and you know that isn’t much. Why didn’t I get sent to Italy? I would have been happy to stay at the villa and watch over Angelica.”

  “She could call and warn Casey we are coming. She hasn’t talked to her in forever and a day but she wouldn’t want us killing her only daughter. She never gave up hope that Casey would see sense and come back to us. I never thought that was a remote possibility, she did not leave the clans on good terms. She hates us. I wish you would quit going on about going back to Italy. Maybe when all this is over we will go over there and visit. Sadie has called dibs on the villa though.”

  “Well shit Nathaniel, can you blame her? We had her dad killed because of the ties he had to the McGregor Clan. Miranda keeps up with that shit and she isn’t big on forgiving anyone. She only let Angelica marry the guy cause their child had the potential to bring a power shift and Miranda wanted to make sure that power shift stayed under her control. But the two together didn’t produce the power his background indicated. If they had stayed happy and together Miranda would have let him live I am sure. Once they broke though and he started looking at the Douglas clan for a wife Miranda traced all the bloodlines and saw he could produce a child from that line who would rival her bloodline and welp, that was all she wrote.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter now. She broke clan law in taking the books. She broke clan law in mating a shifter. She broke all kinds of clan laws and she knows what that means. We all felt the power surge a few weeks ago but no one knew what it meant till it surged a few days ago. So she has had a max of three weeks to train her little cur in the ways of the clan and she never had the power to train him like he will need. If we left them alone they would probably destroy each other but we can’t take that chance. Especially considering we aren’t sure which texts she took. If she has the golden book, which we haven’t been able to locate in centuries, we are fucked unless we destroy them before they can figure out the teachings in the book. Assuming they have the book which we doubt. That book has been lost for almost four hundred years.”

  “And if they have the book? Then what?”

  “He told you, we are fucked. Don’t you ever listen?”

  “Shut up Dean.”

  “Don’t tell my dog to shut up.”

  “Fine, whatever. Do what you want, you will anyway. I am just along for the ride.” Thomas muttered.

  Chapter Twenty

  “So the weather is nice this morning, I mean if you like freaking snow, which I don’t. Did Trey say how Casey was doing or did you not get a chance to call yet?”

  “Yes love, I called while you were in the shower. Casey has a bad concussion and two broken ribs along with some massive bruising and a few scrapes. I didn’t get a chance to talk to her but Trey said she did wake up and she demanded he fetch the pack lawyer. After they had some hush hush meeting in her little hospital bay she demanded Trey make arrangements for her to come here. So I am going to get her. We will be back in a few hours. Did you want to ride along or stay with your parents and see what other information you can get from them about what we should expect. I swear if they had told us these things in the beginning I would have trained harder.”

  “You lie. You refused to even acknowledge a reason to train for the first two weeks.”

  “Fine, I lie. So, ride along on the flight or go to your parents? Tell me something quick cause another front is headed this way and I want that bird back on the ground in this territory before it hits.”

  “I want to ride along with you but I probably should stay and see what other nuggets of horror my parents have been hiding from me my entire life.” The bitterness in her voice hit Craig like a wave. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

  “Baby, please, don’t. We have no idea what lies we would be willing to tell to keep a child of ours safe. Yes, what they did was terrible and maybe they should have told you sooner but sweetheart think about it. They admitted they planned on trying to get you to marry a human if they could in which case none of this ever would have mattered. That trickle of stolen power would have hidden you for your entire life if you had not mated a shifter. They couldn’t know, with the inability of shifters to remember witches, they had no way of knowing or even believing you could mate with one.”

  “Well they should have considered it. I mean it isn’t like shifters couldn’t see us or be friends with us or talk to us, look at Casey. They just didn’t remember the witch part.”

  “Well we can’t change the past and what part would you even change if you could? Could they have trained you to our power before you mated me and gained power? No, so they could have gained nothing by telling you of the past. Sweetheart you have to forgive them. People make mistakes and when your life and the life of your child is on the line you have to err on the side of caution. So sure, they fucked, ow, will you stop hitting me, I am sorry I forgot. Damn woman.” Craig grabbed her hand just before she would have smacked him again and brought it to his lips. He gave it the biggest wettest sloppiest lick he could manage and watched as she struggled to get her hand back and wipe it on him.

  “Eww, don’t lick me. Come on, let me go. If you let me go I will…” She smiled a slow smile and Craig felt himself getting turned on.

  “Woman you are going to be the death of me. Don’t start things we have no time to finish. Now, give me a kiss and let me go get Casey and find out why she seems just as determined to come here as we are to get her.”

  A few moments later, breathless and laughing the two headed out, Craig for the helicopter pad and Kate for her parents. Craig had spoken to Marcus earlier that morning after getting off the phone with Trey. Marcus was upset but not at Craig, or at least not much. Marcus had muttered something about banning all true-mating in his pack until the end of time but Craig knew he couldn’t enforce it even if he had been serious.

  Apparently Marcus had made a few phone calls after leaving Kate’s parent’s yesterday and Gammon would be down when he could arrange things. William also would be flying in within the next few days. Trey was too young to bring much to the table so unless they found a way for his pack to be useful then he would be left out of things. Marcus had mentioned something about sending the females to Trey’s for a few weeks but Craig doubted the mated females would be willing to leave. Santiago was waiting for the weather to clear in his area to get a bird in the air and come back over. Marcus had mentioned renaming the pack Revolving Door since so many Alpha males kept coming through his territory lately.

  The flight was more turbulent than normal so he didn’t reach Trey’s till almost lunch time and he and Casey were back in the air by one. Along with a small overnight bag she held a large golden book but refused to let him hold it while she struggled to board the helicopter and refused to tell him anything about it. He just shrugged and tried to help her get secured in the seat. After she screamed and yanked the book away from him he left her to buckle herself in while he stared at Trey in confusion.

  “Man, don’t look at me. I tried to help her carry it too. She said it can not touch me or the wraths of hell will fall on my head. Not wanting the wrath
s of hell to fall anywhere around me, I am not touching the book.”

  “You didn’t think to warn a fellow shifter?”

  “Look box-boy, you are not a regular shifter anymore so I thought, being a witch and all, hell I didn’t know. Sorry bro, next time a crazy witch tells me the wraths of hell are going to fall on my head if I touch something I will be sure to warn you. Deal?”

  “Oh fuck off.” Craig flinched and ducked as soon as the f word left his lips and then caught himself. Trey stared at him curiously so he muttered, “Kate keeps smacking me when I use words she does not care for and it is fucking driving me fucking nuts. Starting to duck and all that shit.”

  “So, she is training you? Now that is fucking hilarious.”

  “Shut up Trey.” Craig climbed back in the helicopter and he and Casey were soon headed back to his pack.

  When they touched down he grabbed her bag and made sure to stay far from the book. Kate had come to pick them up since Casey was in no shape to walk. When she offered to take the book so Casey could get in the truck Craig jerked her back which caused both Casey and Kate to look at him like he was crazy.

  “Really Craig, do you think she can climb in holding that book. What is wrong with you.”

  “She said we can’t touch it. So we are not touching it. Wraths of hell and all that good stuff.” He muttered.

  Casey handed the book to Kate and turned to Craig, “I said you and Trey could not touch it. Now, please help me in the truck, broken ribs hurt like hell.”

  Craig stared at her, turned to stare at Kate holding the book before he muttered, “Fucking witches.”

  “I heard that. The couch must be really comfortable huh?” Kate laughed at him when he growled at her.