“No. Confident perhaps, easy to rile up, eager to prove yourself.” Julianne scratched her chin momentarily and looked uncomfortable.
“Really?”
There was a honk of noise in the distance. Julianne turned, a run-down pickup was gradually traversing the broken path towards us. She waved and ran towards it, leaving me to try and figure out exactly what I’d been like back then. I stepped out of the way as a truck, loaded with Julianne in the back, wheeled up.
“Someone order a round trip?” The voice sounded familiar.
“Me?” I questioned. This must be the ride that Julianne had called in for us.
“Alright, this time you get a deluxe ride. No tie downs, no blindfolds, no electric shocks! The whole package I tell you.” The male driving the truck was shouting out the passenger window at me.
“Probably not a good breakfast on the other side either,” Julianne said from her perch in the truck’s bed. I looked at her, then loaded myself into the back. It sunk a little under the weight before the suspension caught up.
“How much did they tell you?” I asked Julianne, pointedly ignoring the other man in the front.
“Oh, bits and pieces. Wait until I tell Kahina how good a woodsman you are.” She was smiling now.
I ignored the commentary and focused on important topics.
“You don’t have those blindfolds still do you? I could use a nap.” And reprieve from Julianne taunting me. She was definitely in a mood. Either because she was with some wolf pack member, or because she was enjoying harassing me.
“Missing them already?” The joker from the driver’s seat had a grin in his voice.
“I want sleep,” I said.
“Alright. It’ll take a few hours to get out there.” Julianne patted me like some five-year-old and then turned to chat through the window into the cab of the truck. I grunted and rolled up my jacket in hopes that it would serve as a pillow.
Chapter 17 – Pretty Good Illusion
The best part about sleep, good sleep, is that time zips by and I would feel great at the other end of it. This occasion was met with no great feeling and time did not zip by. It drug both feet and tripped repeatedly. My brain kept whirling around the events of the last few weeks trying to make sense of it all. Evan had some serious explaining to do.
I half hoped to be woken up by Candy hopping into the back of the truck with us, but no such luck. Candy showing up would mean that this wasn’t betrayal. Instead, Julianne and the joker driving made terrible comments at each other. They were both dedicated to the cause of making puns, dumb jokes about other pack members and who knows what else.
Finally, sleep felt unachievable and I sat up.
“How was your nap, princess?” The mystery man inside the cab said.
“Julianne would be a better princess,” I responded.
“I never saw myself as the princess,” Julianne answered. “Anyway, that’d make you what, the knight, Jay? You don’t seem like the dashing hero type.” Julianne couldn’t resist.
“Maybe he’s the horse.” The driver helped out.
“A horse? Maybe a donkey. Mule?” Julianne went right along with it. She waved one hand towards me and smiled.
“No. He’s not a good horse. They get eaten by the monsters.” The other man said.
“Oh, right. Wouldn’t want that.”
“Besides, we’re not rescuing a princess.” The driver said.
“I don’t know, proper clothes, fixing up his hair, might be hard to tell. Some of those elves are downright feminine.” Julianne said. I was regretting waking up. “What do you think, Jay? We could put little ribbons in his hair for you?”
“Ribbons would sell the image.” The driver said.
“Oh yeah. I can totally see it.” Julianne put both hands up in the air and seemed to gaze towards the heavens. She was yanking my chain, right? “Yeah, you think you’re in trouble now, wait until Kahina finds out you’ve left her for a cross-dressing elf.”
The two of them had nearly identical grins on their faces. Though it was hard to make out the other guy’s face. He was at least keeping his eyes mostly on the road. We were in a forest and deer could leap out at any moment.
“No?” Julianne looked happier than she had been in awhile.
“Come on, man, if she dumps you I’m sure there are some other vampire guys that would love your big slab of meat look. Just grow fuzz on that face and bam, instant success. Everybody wants a vampire loving up on them.” The driver said as the truck bumped along through potholes.
I raised an eyebrow at Julianne. “Who is this guy again?”
“Oh. Thomas, meet Jay. Jay, Thomas. He’s my brother. He used to have a beard.” Her phrasing implied I should remember Thomas from somewhere. I didn’t.
“Julianne is kind of everyone’s little sister in the pack, but I’m the only one related by blood, next to our grandpa,” He said.
“That explains a few things,” I responded. They clearly had been bouncing comments off each other for years. I didn’t envy their family members having to deal with that growing up.
“We’re almost there. Only about two hours out.” Julianne said. There was no choice but to listen to them making fun of me for the next hour.
“Shit,” Thomas complained about something.
“What is it?” Julianne asked.
“Downed tree. Big one too.”
“How big?” She said.
“Big enough that I can’t see myself lifting it.”
“Big, strong guy like you, admitting you can’t lift a simple tree?” Julianne remained in teasing mode. I must have been getting the watered down version at the bar all these years.
“How long would the rest of it take to walk?” I asked.
“With you two? Another…” He paused for a bit. “Forty miles or so? Hours easily, if we push it, maybe seven or so?”
“I didn’t bring my hiking boots,” Julianne complained.
I hopped out and looked at the tree in front of us. There was a rather large log that looked like it had broken off most of its branches on the way down. If you looked carefully the path of damage could be seen from the side of the road. Somehow it managed to find the perfect path between other trees and end up in our way.
“Can we carve it up?” I asked.
“Didn’t bring a saw.” Julianne sighed. We stared at it for a little bit longer and tried to figure out what to do.
“Aren’t you a wolf?” I finally asked.
“Sure.” Thomas smiled.
“Use claws?” Why was I the one pointing this out?
“Duh. Hold on.” He vanished behind the truck for a moment. There was a shuffle of movement.
“Your brother modest?” I asked Julianne.
“Nah, he only cares about the clothes,” Julianne said. Sure enough, Thomas threw his clothes into the front of the truck. A moment later and out came her brother in the half-wolf form. I resisted an urge to reach out and feel what he was feeling. There were no grounds for me to think of him in that manner anyway. It was just impressive.
Human form, wolf form, vampires, elves, you got used to them to some extent. But seeing a wolf in their halfway mode? Without getting into a fight? It was nice to be in the audience for once.
“Get the edge so we can move a part big enough for the truck,” Julianne said.
The wolf-man nodded. His face held the same patch of darker fur that I had seen in these woods the last time. It was as good a confirmation as any that he was the one that had followed me before. Also the same one that had run back to tell their Alpha that I was doing something weird.
Thomas headed over to the fallen log. His lip lifted to the side in an almost perfect replica of a puzzled human face. A huge clawed hand came out towards the log.
“What’s he doing?” I asked.
Julianne shrugged. Her arms were crossed in confusion as she watched her brother. Thomas’ hand fell through the log like it wasn’t actually there.
I cur
sed.
“What is it?” She asked me.
“Someone’s messing with us.” I responded. That tree was no tree. It was an illusion. Only elves could pull off such a trick.
“What do you mean?” Julianne hadn’t quite caught on yet. I jerked my head towards Thomas, where he was happily slashing through a visual image of a log that wasn’t real.
“That’s here to delay us,” I said.
“Who’d want to do that? Evan wants to meet you, and the only other elf in the area is Candy.” She managed to say the name and attach a few pounds of guilt to it for good measure.
“Yeah.” I agreed.
“Isn’t she on your side or something?”
“Don’t know.” She was the type to honor the deal, but beyond that? Who knows. All I had made Candy promise was a ride to the forest and silence to her clan.
“Then we keep driving?” Julianne suggested. We loaded back into the car, Julianne drove, and Thomas sat in the back. I got into the passenger’s seat. The two of us in the small truck bed would have been uncomfortable. Especially since he was easily bigger than I was and that was saying something. Shotgun was better than another hour curled up on the truck bed.
I glanced out the side mirror and watched the fake tree fade from eyesight. It was a pretty good illusion. Though Julianne had mostly kept me to people who had little in the way of clever tricks.
“Another one?” As soon as we lost sight of the one behind us, a new one appeared further down the path. Julianne idled the engine while Thomas got out and checked it. It was another fake. Twenty minutes later we’d made it another six miles and found six false trees.
Someone was unquestionably working to slow us down.
It was worth checking each one, though. Just driving through was a terrible idea. As long as the downed trees kept being fake we’d probably still make it to Evan before Candy.
As if proving me wrong, something connected hard with the truck. We slammed into the unknown object with enough force to send me and Julianne into the dashboard and steering wheel. There was a muffled yelp from the back as Thomas’ solid form slid into the cab. Vision blurred. One hand fumbled for the door in a struggle to get out. Neither of us had a seat belt on. Julianne had the presence of mind to shut off the engine and hop out. There was a small curl of steam kicking up from under the hood of the truck.
We all got out and looked at the front of the car. The grill had little bits of branches and leaves embedded in it. I toed out carefully looking for the item I expected. There. To make sure I landed a few solid kicks at the space I’d identified. A fucking tree. A tree that was there, but we couldn’t see. It was clever of whichever elf it was. After numerous fakes designed to get us used to thinking the wrong way about things.
A quick scan for Evan was performed. He felt far to the north. Tracking Candy was simple enough without a link. All that seemed to matter was the possessive aspect. The sex had helped, but I’ll be damned if I was going to screw everyone who owed Julianne a debt to avoid needing a tangible item.
I couldn’t follow her as clearly without a personal object nearby. All I got was a direction and nothing more. She was a lot closer than Evan. So close that I detected a hint of almonds. Wait, why did she smell of almonds? I hadn’t noticed that she had a scent at all. When she was around it wasn’t my nose that gave me sensory feedback.
“What is it, Jay?” Julianne asked.
“Huh?” I mumbled.
“You’re growling. If I didn’t know better I’d swear you were pack.”
Thomas was looming behind me. Julianne was trying to follow my line of sight. I didn’t even know what I was staring at. There was a space next to one of the trees that my focus had settled on for the last few minutes.
“What are you looking at?” She asked.
I had no clue but looking away was difficult. My mind was still halfway tracking Candy. Thinking about how she had left me back at the car and took off. Her face snarling at me as she ran through the trees.
Worse, there was this overlapping feeling like I was touching something far away. There was a sensation of uneven pressure against the base of the tree that my eyes were on. I felt a curl of fingers against wood that came with a slight tingle of energy. My hands weren’t touching anything, though. The longer I stared, the more alien the feelings became. Another example was my feet feeling like they sunk freely into the dirt when my own shoes were still on.
Thomas started up a louder growl than I. A moment later he took off. The unexpected action of his hulking form darting past me wasn’t enough to break my intense stare. The state itself was essentially secondary to the feelings echoing across my body.
There was a barely perceptible shift. Then I saw Candy peel away from the tree I’d been staring at. Literally peel away, it felt like she was walking through the soft leaves of some plant. Visually I could see her drop bark and leaves then leap off like a deer through the trees.
Had she been watching us? To see what?
“Holy shit,” Julianne muttered.
I nodded.
“I didn’t know elves could do that.” She looked at me.
“Your brother?” I asked. He was lost in the brush. My focus had been broken, but nothing stopped the sensations from coming through. My feet finding purchase on the trunk of a tree. My hands grabbing onto a branch and swinging forward. My heart beating faster than it should as panic scattered coherent thought.
“He’s a big boy. You alright?” Julianne asked.
“No,” I answered. Tactile senses stopped overriding my eyesight and the immediate area became visible again.
“No shit?”
“I don’t know what’s wrong, Janny.” No. I knew. Everything was wrong.
“What do you mean?”
“I wish I knew.” I shook my head back and forth. Evan had things we needed. All of us had to recover Arnold. Both of us needed to get Daniel off of our backs. I was going to seriously reconsider his friend status after this settled.
We managed to exercise what little mechanic skills were available by the time Thomas came back. He sank down with a huff nearby while we stared under the hood. From what I could tell he was winded.
“What do you think?” Julianne asked.
“It’s busted,” I answered her.
“You’re a useless man. Can’t fix a truck.”
The mess of wires and tubing leading between the different car pieces was a nightmare. I figured out enough to see the radiator was bent out of shape and that meant the cooling fan wouldn’t work. That threw off belts and anything beyond that was out of my depth.
“Thomas! Get some pants on and get over here.” Julianne snapped. I heard a sigh of frustration. It was half human, half canine, wholly exasperated. Thomas joined us a few seconds later, looking tired but human.
“How bad is it?” He asked.
“Not the worst wreck we’ve had, but I don’t think it will run properly.” She answered.
He saddled up to the side of the engine and looked inside. I watched him trace along the different parts and tilt his head around to get a better angle.
“Might run, but who knows how many invisible trees she left us.” Thomas hung his head.
“The elf was female?”
“Oh yeah. Once I caught the scent, it was all female.” Thomas glanced sidelong at me. “Smelled like she’d spent a little time with you there, big guy.”
I could feel Julianne glaring at me. “We took a ride up here together.”
“I guess that could be it.” He didn’t sound convinced. By the way he ignored me after that comment, either he didn’t care or thought less of me for it. “Anyway, you’re right, the truck’s not an option anymore.”
“So walking?” Julianne sounded depressed about it.
“Walking.” I agreed. Luckily I’d managed to get an attempt at sleep in. It didn’t help the mental fatigue, but it helped the physical exhaustion.
We manually cranked up the windows on the truck
then locked it. Thomas pointed out a cooler in the truck bed that I had pretty much ignored.
“There’s some food in there.” He said.
“Brought a meal?” I asked.
“After last time? I know you don’t need it, I don’t, but Tiny does.” He jerked a finger towards his sister.
“Tiny?” I’m fairly sure if I tried that nickname I would end up castrated.
“Whatever, at least this way I don’t have to see rabbits walk into your hands. That was unnerving. I appreciate needing to eat, but there’s a difference when we hunt.”
“Why the about face?” I asked.
“My sister vouches for you, that’s a lot in my book. You’re weird, but this situation with your friend has been driving my grandfather crazy. I hear you’re trying to solve it so you get a pass for now.” He was extremely talkative. I wasn’t sure how to handle it.
Julianne was walking up from the other side of the truck. She had pulled a jacket out of somewhere along with a small backpack. It looked like it had a miniature tent on it.
“By your friend, he means Daniel. There’s been a lot of extra pressure coming the pack's way because of him.” She said.
“You told me some of it.” It didn’t surprise me that Daniel was being a monster in any way he could. He’d put Julianne on notice, me on notice, and a lot of demand towards getting Evan. All to get to Arnold Regious. Why? He was the heir to what? A fortune?
“Well, it’s bad. If it keeps going, the pack may go into isolation for a bit.” She sounded upset even uttering the words.
Isolation was a government act where a pack under pressure could take the property reserved to it and put all their people on that land. It helped justify maintaining wooded areas. It was a safety measure for humans and pack that let them cool down away from the normal population.
It also put the entire area on high alert and drug in law enforcement. People who weren’t pack and went inside the zone often never made it out again. There had been around twenty isolation events in the past one hundred years. Each one had a body count associated.
Once Lost Lords (Royal Scales, Book 1) Page 24
