by Bianca D'Arc
“Yeah,” Sally agreed, getting up as well. The Pack and her vampire friends still might be in serious danger. Today was the day for answers.
She dressed quickly, stopping briefly in the attached bathroom to clean up a little while Jason remade the bad. He was very domestic for a man, she thought with a small grin. She could get used to being pampered by the likes of him.
They were out the door a few minutes later. He’d brought a shiny new SUV today. She’d loved riding behind him on the bike, but there was something to be said for the quiet inside the cabin of the SUV. They could talk while they drove into town.
Jason pointed out various sights of interest along their path. Even though he kept the conversation light and flowing, her anxiety began to build as they neared the police station. It was time to get to work. Time to find out if the danger was real or imagined. She hoped for the latter, but feared it was the former. A cold knot of dread formed in the pit of her stomach. She already knew how this was going to turn out. She’d known it from the moment she’d spotted that tattoo.
Putting her game face on, Sally hopped out of the SUV when Jason opened the door for her. They’d been able to park very close to the front door of the police station, so there wasn’t much time to get her thoughts in order before they were inside, face to face with the officers who had helped them the day before. The dark-haired one was Officer Bell. The blonde was Officer Horace.
Jason shook hands with both men, and again she got the idea that they knew each other. At least in passing. She went with Officer Horace while Jason went with Bell. Their desks were in the back of the station, where they took Sally and Jason’s official statements.
Sally saw her moment when both officers stood to go make photocopies. With a quick look at Jason, she twirled the official file her guy had left sitting open on his desk and began rifling through it. Jason knew without being told explicitly to act as a lookout.
Sally found what she was looking for on page three. No identifying marks on either of the men who had been arrested. Damn. It was like the last time all over again. Only she had seen the mark.
But why? That question had bothered her for years. Why could only she see the tattoo that was plain as day on the guy’s wrist? It still bothered the heck out of her. Was she nuts? Hallucinating? Her mind playing tricks on itself? She still didn’t have any answers to those questions.
Jason moved, making deliberate noise and she spun the folder back into place. Just in time. The officers walked back into the room and to their desks. They handed copies of their statements to Jason and Sally respectively. With only a little more fuss, they were out of the police station and on their way. Sally felt both relief and dread as Jason opened the car door for her.
They kept silent until they were both tucked safely inside the SUV.
As he put the truck in gear, he began to talk, keeping an eye on traffic. Nobody could tell looking in from outside that their conversation was tense, their topic of great import.
“Did you get the information?” Jason asked without looking at her.
“Our assailants are named William Sullivan and Bartholomew Samuels. No identifying marks on either wrist.” She told him what she’d seen in the police report. “Damn. I really thought I saw it. Just for a split second, but it was there.”
“If you say you saw it, I believe you.” His confidence in her was touching but she’d been through this before.
“Even if nobody else seems to see what I see?”
Jason nodded. “Even then.”
“Why?” She couldn’t fathom why his faith in her was so strong. Not when she doubted herself.
“Because of what I saw this morning. Whether you believe in it or not, you’ve got some kind of magic in you, sweetheart. I’m not all that familiar with magic users, but I have heard there are certain things that only they can see. You might have just enough of that special kind of sight to be able to see what you think are tattoos on people marked in a more arcane way.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” The thought had never even occurred to her, though it did explain quite a bit. “So where are we going now?”
“I think it’s time we tried to find my friend, Leonora. She might be able to shed some light on the nature of your magic. She’s the most magical creature I know around these parts. Well, the friendliest one, at least.”
“This is the nymph you mentioned?” Sally wasn’t sure how she felt about meeting a nymph. It would be nice to know why she saw tattoos where nobody else seemed to, but she wasn’t sure if she really believed there was some magical ancestor in her bloodline that only the werewolves were able to detect.
“One and the same. Don’t worry. You’ll love her. She’s got a way with plants and her place in the woods is breathtaking. I’m glad you’ve given me an excuse to go visit her. I usually drop by a few times a month when I’m prowling, just to make sure she’s okay and has everything she needs. She doesn’t get into town much, though she claims the forest provides for her. Judging by what I’ve learned over the years, I suspect that’s all she really needs.”
Jason drove them out of town and up into the woods, following the same path they’d taken yesterday. It really was beautiful country and the woods were particularly lush in the area around the small waterfall he’d shown her yesterday. Not dense. There was plenty of room to walk among the trees. But everything was in full bloom, green, growing and healthy.
She had been so enthralled with Jason and the cougar who had visited them, and then worried about the hunters, she’d failed to hear the lilting melody that wafted through the trees. It was beautiful. It got louder and more intense as they passed the place where they’d met Steve Redstone the day before.
Entranced, Sally moved in front of Jason, unaware she’d taken the lead. She only knew she had to follow that sound to its source.
“Leonora’s place is back this way,” Jason said from behind her.
Sally stopped, only then aware that she’d outpaced him by several yards. Something was drawing her in this direction. She sent out a tentative query to the nearest tree. Not something, she learned to her joy when it answered back. Someone.
“She’s not there,” Sally told Jason. “But I know where she is.”
“How?” Jason caught up to her, his smile quizzical.
“The trees told me.” She saw his eyes narrow as though he didn’t quite believe her. “You don’t hear that?”
“Hear what?” Jason cocked his head as if listening intently, but he shook his head only a moment later.
“How do you find someone in the woods?”
Jason tapped his nose. “By scent.”
“Of course.” Sally should’ve realized. He was a wolf, after all. “All right. Well, I suppose it’s like that, only I can hear the trees whispering in the wind. The leaves shush a melody all their own. Sometimes, if the trees are active, as they are here, I can even ask them questions. Not in words really, but more like thought impulses, and sometimes they answer back. The birch over there passed my query to the pine who whispered it to the oak and so on. Like a leafy game of telephone.” She’d never had a chance to describe this to anyone before and found it hard to put into words exactly how it all worked. “When the answer flew back this way, they told me where we’ll find your friend.”
“And they told me where to find you,” came a feminine voice through the leaves. A woman appeared, her hair blonde as sunlight, her clothes dappled with the greens and golds of the forest.
Jason stepped forward. “Leonora, it is good to see you again.”
“And you, Jason.” Her smile was angelic but her gaze quickly moved from Jason to Sally, questioningly. “Who is this you bring to my glade? The trees whisper of her magic.”
“Sally Decker, a police detective from San Francisco,” Jason said formally. “She is a close friend of the new Mistress.”
“And a child of the woods,” Leonora finished, drawing closer. “At least in part.”
“I be
lieve she is part wolf, but only a small part,” Jason added as they both turned to look at Sally. She felt a bit like a bug under a microscope. “She can make things grow and I think she sees magical marks. We were hoping you could help shed some light on the nature of her magic.”
Leonora giggled. It was a charming sound. Like petals on the wind.
“That’s easy,” the nymph stated. “Nature is her magic. The trees agree. She has a touch of my kind of magic in her, but there are ways to tell how she came by it if you wish to delve deeper.”
“Will it hurt?” Sally found herself asking. She didn’t know anything about magic. Not really. The thought of anything other than what she did with plants frightened the bejeezus out of her.
Again came the tinkling laugh. “No, my dear. It will not hurt. It won’t even require any special preparation. Simply give me your hand and I can call forth your family tree.”
Sally looked at Jason, wondering if she should. His encouraging nod decided her. She held out her hand and the nymph touched it. Leonora’s hands were warm and dry, full of energy and light. The light reached out to meet her and Sally felt the little spark when their energies met. A spark of recognition, if she wasn’t much mistaken. Then again, she didn’t know enough about this magic stuff to really know what was happening.
“Watch now,” Leonora said softly as between them, a magical, mystical, glimmering sapling rose out of the ground.
It disturbed no earth and it was transparent, though it glowed with life. It had a very specific sequence of branches and as Sally watched, she recognized that each branch terminated in a different member of her extended family. People she’d never known. People she’d always wondered about.
And there, at the top, was her own energy. And it was connected to…
“I have a sister?”
Chapter Nine
“And several cousins you really need to meet. Some of them have rather intriguing abilities. Mostly untapped.” Leonora frowned. “That can’t be allowed to continue. The forest needs them.” She continued tracing downward, following the trunk down to the roots of the tree. “Ah. It is as I suspected. Welcome, granddaughter. I’ve wanted to meet you—or someone like you—for a very long time.”
“You’re my…” Sally trailed off, not really sure what was going on. She’d never had family. Not real family, related by blood. She wanted to study the tree and learn all its secrets.
“Great, great, great, great…” Leonora ticked off the rows of branches part way down the glowing tree, then gave up. “Well, you get the idea. It’s just easier to say I’m your granny.” Leonora stood back to look at Sally, giving her the once over, her eyes glowing with unshed tears as she squeezed Sally’s hand. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Sally.”
“Me too,” Sally whispered, nearly overcome with the idea that she had a real live blood relative. At last. Maybe Leonora could explain a bit about where Sally had come from.
Leonora let go of her hand and the tree began to disappear. Sally panicked for a split second. She hadn’t had nearly enough time to study it.
“Will I ever see the tree again?” Sally asked. Even she could hear the tone of desperation in her voice, but she didn’t care.
“Of course, dear. Now that you know the way, you’ll be able to call it to you at will. It is your tree, after all. The one you will nurture and help grow when the time is right.” Leonora sent a speculative look toward Jason and Sally felt the heat of a blush stain her cheeks.
Somehow the nymph—make that Granny Leonora—either knew or had guessed that Sally and Jason were getting it on. Sally’s reaction only confirmed any suspicions she might’ve had. Busted.
Reassured that she could study the tree again later, Sally felt a little better about watching it fade back into the earth. She wasn’t all that sure about adding to it. That would mean having kids, and she’d never really contemplated how that would work with her lifestyle.
“How did this happen?” Jason asked as the nymph began leading them through her forest, toward a small clearing.
“The old-fashioned way, of course. Many, many years ago, I fell in love with a human. He was a woodcutter, of all things. After he met me, he found a new profession, of course, but we were married and had a daughter named Marisol who married a werewolf. That is the line from which you branch, Sally.” Her grandmother sent her a beatific smile. “Her werewolf took her away to live with his Pack and they were happy for many, many human lifetimes. She returned home exactly once, when we buried her father. My magic had been able to sustain him far beyond a normal human lifetime, but all mortals eventually fade from this world, into the next.” Leonora looked so sad for the loss of her love, Sally reached out to her, touching her hand as they walked.
Leonora took it and they walked hand in hand into the clearing. It was a grassy glade dotted here and there with a riot of blooming wildflowers, all bobbing their heads as the nymph passed as if in greeting. To one side was a house of sorts, made entirely of the twining roots and branches of trees, as if the saplings had decided to braid themselves together to protect the one who would live within and beneath their sighing branches.
It was absolutely stunning. Beautiful. Breathtaking.
“This is amazing,” Sally whispered as they stepped inside the inverted V-shaped opening. As they entered the dwelling, the tree branches shifted around to close off the door. Sally felt no malice in the trees. They were simply keeping the forest creatures out and the heat in for the comfort of their friend, Leonora. Sally thanked them for their protection and they seemed to recognize her, a few leaves shaking as she passed.
“They like you too,” Leonora said with a smile as she led them to a comfortable couch along one wall.
The place was much larger than it looked from outside. And contrary to what Sally had expected, Leonora had a few of the conveniences of modern life in her dwelling. The couch was supported by springy, living tree limbs that had shaped themselves out of the wall to hold lovely, upholstered cushions in shades of green and brown velvet.
A pool gurgled somewhere in the back of the home and Sally caught a glimpse of steam coming from a small pond that was partially hidden behind a screen of young saplings. It was a natural hot spring. Sally guessed that was both the bathing area and the source of moist heat in the home. Another trickle of water flowed downward from a channel made of tree branches into a small, waist high basin that probably served as a sink. It was ingenious.
Leonora motioned for them to be seated on the couch and she took up a chair that was to one side of the couch, also created from the living trees themselves. The walls of the home had an irregular shape with many nooks and crannies like this alcove with the seating area. For all intents and purposes, they were in the living room, but it was like no other living room Sally had ever seen. It took her breath away.
“I am so glad to finally meet one of my grandchildren,” Leonora began, her gaze focused on Sally with genuine affection. “Tell me all about yourself.”
Normally reticent with strangers, Sally felt comfortable with Leonora in a way she never had been before. It made her chatty, but then, she had just met a blood relative and seen for herself, through the magic of the tree, that she wasn’t alone. She had family. And now she had a way to find them. A clue about who they were and where.
“I’m a detective. I live in San Francisco. Until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know anything about magic, or the fact that one of my best friends had married a vampire. Werewolves were a complete surprise to me.” She looked over at Jason with a rueful smile.
“I bet.” Leonora seemed delighted, clasping her hands together in front of her heart as she listened eagerly. “Have you always been able to speak to the trees?”
“Since I was a child, but city trees are mostly drowned out by the noise of so many people living together in one place. I grew up in foster homes. I began to realize my way with plants was more than a little unusual when I was about seven or eight. The teasing from
the other foster kids protected me in a way. It made me hide my abilities, which was probably the right thing to do at that time. Until this morning, nobody had ever seen the way I could coax things to grow.”
“You caught her at it?” Leonora sent Jason a knowing grin.
“Red-handed,” he confirmed. “Or maybe that should be green-thumbed,” he joked softly, putting his arm along the back of the couch cushion, around her shoulders.
“What were you growing? I felt a little tug on the earth energy, but there’s such an abundance here, and the feel of your power is so close to my own, I couldn’t really trace it.”
“I bought some seeds yesterday,” Sally answered, almost afraid she was going to get into trouble for using her skill in such a selfish way. “I grew a night-blooming garden for my friend Carly, as a gift. She only became a vampire recently and I could tell she missed flowers. She used to love my gardens back home.”
Leonora’s smile reassured her. “A beautiful gesture for a true friend. I’m sure she will love it.”
“The thing is, I’ve never really been in forest this dense.” Sally gestured to the saplings surrounding them and the wild woodland beyond. “The trees here are really amazing. They helped me find those hunters yesterday,” she admitted, looking at Jason.
“Hunters?” Leonora seemed interested.
“Hunting a teenaged wolf in human form. They shot her before we could get there, but she’ll be okay. Sally led the hunters off the scent and managed to capture the two who had fired bullets at both Colleen and Sally.” His hand dropped to her shoulder and rubbed in light, comforting circles.
“Where?” Leonora looked incensed.
“Up on Yellowtail Ridge.”
Leonora sent a wave of communication that Sally could feel but not hear, through the trees of her home and out into the surrounding forest. It flew toward the site of yesterday’s events and back again with lightning speed. This woman had a lot more power and control over it than Sally had, that was for sure.
