Wolves and Roses

by Christina Bauer

  Soon, we’re both standing outside. Bryar Rose is still in her cami and mini shorts. Not that I’m complaining, but regular humans usually get chilly this late at night. I check out the horizon. The sky is starting to lighten behind the trees. It’s early morning. All the more reason for her to be cold.

  “You sure you don’t need a jacket or something?” My wolf hates this idea of Bryar Rose getting dressed. He wants our so-called mate as close to naked as possible. Nut job. I tell him to shut up, and for once, he listens.

  “No, I’m always a little on the warm side.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure.” She bites her plump lower lip, and that makes me crazy in all sorts of ways that I don’t want to think about.

  “Something wrong?” I ask.

  “I should have said this before, but I was just overwhelmed.” She looks at me with her big blue eyes, and I’m a dead man. “Thanks for saving my life.”

  “Oh, it was nothing,” I say quickly. “Alec got a tip; that’s all.”

  My wolf hates this. “No lie to mate. We hunt her, protect her.”

  I have had it with my wolf. “Shut up.” I meant to say that in my mind, but I basically growl it out loud.

  “Shut up?” asks Bryar. Her eyes glisten, and I feel like a total ass. “I was just saying thank-you. You don’t have to be rude.”

  It’s on the tip of my tongue to explain to her that I was talking to my wolf, not her. But that would just mend fences—and honestly? It’s better if those fences stay broken. After all, she’s a human. I’m a wolf. And I’m one of the three. Even if we could be mates, the mating ceremony would kill her. It’s not worth considering.

  “Let’s get back to my car. You can call your friend from there.”

  Bryar Rose lifts her chin. “That’s not all. Once we get there, I want some answers, too. Madame said some strange things to me. I have a suspicion you know what they mean.”

  Madame’s the Denarii we’re about to roast. Something in Bryar Rose’s voice sets me on edge. Denarii love to blabber when they’re going in for a kill. “What did she say?”

  “She saw the papyri I’m reconstructing and asked me if I knew the location of the fountain.”

  My protective instincts go through the roof. “That freak was talking nonsense at you. The fountain is nothing.”

  In truth, the fountain is everything, at least to me. But Bryar’s in enough trouble without bringing her in on all my crap.

  “I don’t think so,” says Bryar. “I’m reassembling a full copy of the Book of Magic. I’ve run across the fountain a few times already. It’s important.”

  I can’t believe what I’m hearing. The damned Book of Magic? Why doesn’t she wear a blacktop costume and lay out on the street—it’s just as dangerous. I knew she was stealing papyri and assembling things, but I didn’t know it was the damned Book of Magic.

  “You’re what?”

  “Assembling a copy of the Book of Magic. You have a problem with that?”

  Yeah. Everything.

  My wolf doesn’t like this either. “Stop her,” he says. For once, I agree with him.

  I move to stand toe to toe with Bryar. I’m tall even in my human form, and it usually intimidates the crap out of people. “Here’s the deal. We’re burning down this cabin, going back to the car, and calling your friend. That’s it. No questions and answers. No gossiping like a pair of girls at a damned slumber party. Do you understand?”

  Bryar glares at me, and the hurt in her eyes tears right through my soul. “I understand. You’re an ass.”

  I shrug. “That’s right.” It’s a total douchebag thing to say, but it’s the truth. I’m one of the three wardens, which means that I’m cursed to carry the magic of my people. Alone. No mates. No cubs. No home. And no matter what my wolf feels for Bryar, I can never be anything to her but a distraction. Much as it kills me, she’s better off without me.

  Chapter Seven

  Bryar Rose

  I slide into Knox’s jacked-up Mustang and worry my thumbnail with my teeth. Please let Elle be okay.

  Knox slips into the driver’s seat. Instantly, his massive frame overpowers the car’s snug interior. It’s more than that, though. The guy has some kind of energy vibrating around him. It’s hypnotic and irritating all at once.

  He pops open the glove compartment, pulls out a phone, and hands it to me. “For your friend.” Meaning he wants me to call Elle.

  Those are the first words either of us has spoken since Knox agreed that he’s an ass. I swipe the phone out of his hand. “Thanks.” But the way I say that word? It sounds more like a version of screw you.

  I dial Elle’s number and drum my fingers on my kneecaps. Knox revs up the engine and peels out onto the darkened street.

  The line rings five times before Elle picks up. “Hello?”

  “Elle, it’s me.”

  “Hey.” She has a lazy, happy tone in her voice.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m great. Why?”

  “Well, some bad things happened tonight.” Specifically, I killed our group therapy leader and burned your cabin down. “Maybe it’s best if I come over and we talk about it face-to-face.”

  “Sure.” There’s a voice in the background. A male voice.

  “Is someone there?”

  “Oh, that.” There’s a rustle as Elle places her hand over the microphone. A muffled “Be quiet. I’m on with Bryar Rose” sounds in my ear. “It’s nothing.”

  “It sounded like something.” That particular male voice registers in my memory. “Is Alec there?”

  “Him?” She’s acting super-suspicious now.

  “Yes, him. Alec LeCharme, the guy you’ve been not-stealing from for years. Knox already told me that he was going over to your place.”

  “Um, sure. He’s here.” She makes a humming sound, which is something Elle only does when she’s really happy.

  “And?” I know I shouldn’t have a snippy tone in my voice—especially since I just killed our group therapy leader (the first time, anyway) and burned down her cabin—but I can’t help it. An evasive Elle is an annoying Elle.

  “And what?” asks Elle. More evasiveness. Grr.

  “What’s going on?”

  “He’s giving me a backrub.”

  “Oh.” Elle is getting busy with Alec right now. I can’t believe it. Mostly because Elle is in the same club as me: the “sweet seventeen and never been kissed” club. We were supposed to tell each other the minute we smooched someone. And now I have to drag it out of her that she’s getting backrubs? This is not good.

  “Oh?” Elle asks.

  “Oh.” It’s another single word that I say in my screw-you tone.

  “Don’t ‘oh’ me.” Another rustle sounds as Elle cups her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone. “It’s not like that. We’ve been talking. That’s all. He and I have some big things in common. We haven’t…you know.”

  “Oooooh.” This time, my word is laced with relief. I’ve had enough shocks for one day. I don’t need to add my best friend holding out on me to the list. “You can tell me all about it when I get there.”

  “I’ll try.”

  That’s another totally evasive answer, but at this point, I’m done attempting to figure out what Elle is up to. This is the kind of conversation that’s best had face-to-face. “See you soon.”

  “Bye.”

  I end the call and hand the phone to Knox. He nods toward the dashboard. “You can put it back in the glove box.”

  “Say please.” I’m still not done being testy with this dude.

  Knox looks at me over his shoulder and, damn it, he’s smiling a little. That melts my heart a touch, which is something my brain did not authorize. He follows it with a sincere reply. “Please.”

  That gets me right in the ticker. I toss the phone into the glove box, fold my arms over my chest, and turn to Knox. “We need to talk.”

  The headlights of an oncoming car highlig
ht the chiseled planes of his face, a detail I wish I didn’t notice. He sighs. “Sorry about being an ass before. You got questions. Let’s talk.”

  A little more of my resistance slips away, damn it all. “What happened back there? Who are the Denarii really?” I’m starting to think my initial impression of them protecting magic wasn’t exactly accurate.

  “Denarii are coins from ancient Rome.”

  I roll my eyes. “You know what I mean.”

  Knox huffs out a breath and runs his hand along his jawline. “How much do you know about the Book of Magic?”

  “I’ve been collecting bits of it. I’ve got about a quarter of it put together and translated.”

  “You do?” Knox stares at me.

  I make shoo fingers at the windshield. “Eyes ahead, Knox.”

  Slowly, Knox turns his attention back to driving. “That’s why Alec and I have been getting those bits of papyri. We’ve been trying to do the same thing.”

  “You mean, put together the Book of Magic?”

  “Yeah. We haven’t gotten anywhere near assembling a quarter of the text. We just got a small part put together.”

  “About what?”

  “Nothing.” He stares at me again like I hung the sun and moon. “You really assembled a quarter of it? I mean, the way you talked in Alec’s office, I thought you were just putting together bits and pieces of Alec’s papyri. Maybe you knew a phrase of two. I didn’t think you knew all about the Book of Magic.”

  “I did, I do, and eyes front.” I point at the windshield again.

  “What does your part say?”

  “Nuh-uh. You answer me first. I asked you who the Denarii really are. The woman who attacked me in the cabin—she called herself a true Denarii.”

  Knox sighs. “There’s no way to tell you about the true Denarii.”

  I roll my eyes. “Sure, there isn’t.”

  “You’ve assembled part of the Book of Magic. So you know about wardens and the fountain?”

  “Yes. Wardens guard the three types of magic, all of which come from the fountain.”

  “The stuff about the wardens and fountain, that’s all in the first half of the book. It’s easier to read and translate. What’s hard is the second half. It looks like—”

  “A bunch of words strung together with no rhyme or reason.”

  “Yeah. Alec thinks that if you rearrange the hieroglyphs in a certain way, then the words will make sense. It’s a hidden code. Whatever is hidden in those glyphs, that’s the most important part of the Book of Magic. It’s what the true Denarii want.”

  I sink into the leather chair and contemplate this bit of news. “So, we’ve both translated parts of the book. If we merge our stuff together and then run it through some decoding programs, I might be able to find the pattern quickly enough. What does Alec think the code is about?”

  Knox grips the steering wheel tighter. “It’s about how to find and activate the fountain. And how to bring back magic, or at least stop it from disappearing.”

  I don’t like the way he’s grabbing that steering wheel for dear life. “Why do I get the feeling you’re holding back on me?”

  “Because I am. Look, I don’t know you all that well, and this stuff, it’s between Alec and me. I’m telling you all I can.”

  This is disappointing, but I get it. We’ve known each other less than a day, and he’s told me a lot. “I understand.”

  A long minute passes before Knox speaks again. “Take the internship job with Alec. There’s a room in the LeCharme building that explains the Denarii.”

  “Okay, I will.”

  “Good.”

  “Just answer me one thing. Am I still in danger from the Denarii?”

  He frowns. “Yeah.”

  I tap my lower lip with my pointer finger. “I lied. I have another question about the Denarii. Are all of them evil? Because the girl who works the front desk of the Midtown League seems really nice.”

  “No. Someone that low level is probably fine.” There’s a world of experience behind that answer, but I get the feeling it will need to wait until I start my internship. All of which is cool with me. This night has been far more than I bargained for already.

  “Okay. Thank-you.” And this time, there isn’t even an edge to my voice. “Not that you still aren’t an ass.”

  “I get that a lot.” Knox tilts his head like he’s listening to someone else speaking.

  I look around the car. “Do you hear someone?”

  “Sort of. Sometimes my wolf…” Knox huffs out another breath. “He talks to me.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know they did that.”

  “Not all of them do. I’m lucky, I guess.”

  I stare out the window and watch the lampposts fly by. The cityscape appears on the horizon. We aren’t far from Manhattan now. I think through everything Knox said. The fountain…the Book of Magic…and the three. I can’t wait to get back to my papyri with all this in mind.

  But first, I have to tell Elle that I burned her cabin down. That won’t be easy.

  Chapter Eight

  Knox

  I pull up to the curb before the Barrow Arms, a five-story brownstone in the Village. Nice. “This is Elle’s place, yeah?”

  Bryar Rose shifts in her seat. “This is it.”

  Her scent turns bitter, which means that Bryar Rose is unsure how to act around me. Not that I blame her. I’ve been a dick to her ever since I met her. Sure, it’s because I don’t want her to get hurt by my semi-insane wolf, but she doesn’t know that.

  “You good getting inside? Want me to walk you up?” Just because my wolf is crazy doesn’t mean I’m not feeling protective myself.

  Bryar Rose grips the door handle. “No, I’ll be fine.” She starts to pull down the handle, but I don’t want her to leave.

  On instinct, I reach over and grab her wrist. “Wait.”

  Touching her skin is nothing less than electric. It’s a warm jolt that I feel down to my soul. The warden marks on my back start to pulse with power. Meanwhile my inner wolf howls with glee.

  “Mate! Mate!”

  I tell him to shut up while I keep staring into Bryar Rose’s blue eyes. Her voice comes out all silky again. “What is it, Knox?”

  What is it, anyway? It’s a good question. I guess I’m still feeling protective. There are too many questions out there when it comes to Bryar. “What are you going to do about your therapy group?” I force myself to drop her hand.

  “Oh.” Her eyes cloud over. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

  “Alec has contacts. We’ll find some way to assign you to a new group that has nothing to do with the Denarii. Maybe he can get you out of it altogether.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “This is the kind of thing Alec specializes in.” She gives me a small grin, and I want to see more of that. In fact, I want her smiling all the time and only at things that I say and do. It’s crazy. “And what about your aunties? You talked to them when we were in Alec’s office. Are they going to cause trouble about what happened tonight?”

  “They won’t suspect a thing. They thought I was going to some party and then staying over at Elle’s. They won’t expect me back home until Saturday at midnight for my birthday party.”

  “You’re having a birthday party at midnight?” I frown. “I thought you said your birthday was Friday.”

  “I suppose it would make sense for the party to be at midnight on Thursday or Friday night.” She shrugs. “I don’t know why my aunties insist on Saturday. I’d say they’re up to something, but the three of them are always scheming. You know…fairies.”

  “Right.” The fae are nuts. Case in point: they’re the only group stupid enough to go out in public in their Magicorum forms. Humans love seeing anyone with magic. If Alec ever cast a spell in public, he’d get mobbed for photos and autographs. I’ve seen weres in their wolf forms get asked to pose for pictures with human babies.

  Bryar shakes her head. “This is too good t
o be true. Alec and his internship, the therapy group, everything… It doesn’t seem real. Alec can’t really do all of this.”

  “Oh, he can. Alec’s parents are super-wealthy, and he’s their only child. That family will do anything for their heir.”

  “That doesn’t explain all the papyri. His parents have to know that he’s collecting that stuff.”

  I shrug. “They do.”

  Bryar stares at me for a moment. “Oh. I get it.”

  “Get what?”

  “Alec. He’s a warden, right?”

  My mouth falls open. This girl is sharp. “I can’t talk about that.”

  “You don’t need to spill his secrets. I hadn’t heard that any wardens officially existed, but it makes sense. They can’t have families and kids. Alec’s parents probably want him to have the papyri so he can find and activate the fountain.”

  Hell yeah, that’s what they want.

  My breathing gets tight. Damn, I’d forgotten she knew about the fountain and the wardens. Why wouldn’t she put it together? Bryar read and translated the damned Book of Magic. I sigh. There’s no point lying now. “Yeah, Alec is a warden. That’s why he’ll help you.”

  She slumps back in her seat. “Wow.”

  “Don’t say anything to Elle, okay? It’s Alec’s story to tell.”

  “I won’t.” She shakes her head. “Poor Elle. I think she’s falling for him a little.”

  My mouth thins to an angry line. “Don’t pity him. Not everyone has to have a family. He’s young and having a good time.” Bryar stares at me for a long minute, her eyes getting larger. My heart starts beating at double speed. “What?”

  She leans in closer. “You’re a warden, too. Aren’t you? That’s why your wolf is so huge.”

  “That is none of your business.” The words come out far sharper than I intended.

  “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to pry. I mean, you’re right. You and Alec are young and want to have fun. I’m sure it’s no big deal that you can’t take a mate.”

  My inner wolf goes berserk inside me. “Bryar Rose mate. Bryar Rose maaaaaate!”