Crave The Night by Michele Hauf, Sharon Ashwood, Lori Devoti & Patti O'Shea

by Michele Hauf

  “Fascinating.” Darak poked his own finger through to Rafe’s chest. For him, the barrier simply didn’t exist. “And kind of fun from this side of the force field.”

  “I need a serious Plan B.”

  “I figured I’d have to help save your ass, so I had a computer whiz I know do some digging.”

  “Who?”

  “Another wolf. A computer prof from Pack Silvertail. I was out in Fairview last winter and met him and a werecougar who’s a freelance reporter. They’re good with the research.”

  “And?”

  “I wanted to know what they could find on Miz Lila. Figured you wouldn’t have access to much tech, being a prisoner and all.”

  Darak was absolutely right. They’d taken his cell and the only other phone was on Lila’s desk. “What did they find?”

  “My computer genius found Lila Wilding’s name at a local business college. She graduated six years ago and has been working in the area since. She’s volunteered her talents for a lot of environment-focussed start-ups. Then she went to work at a privately-owned corporation called the Masterson Group almost exactly a year ago. When we checked into them, things got interesting.”

  “How?”

  “Masterson has an interest even greater than drilling in Wolf Creek. The forest at the north end of Owl River has miles and miles of old growth as far as the eye can see. They’ve made a move to acquire logging rights.”

  “Bugger that! It’s pristine land.” Fury clogged Rafe’s throat, but he forced himself to stay on track. “Still, what’s it got to do with Wolf Creek?”

  “It has a lot to do with your pretty jailer. About a thousand of the light fey court live there.”

  Stunned, Rafe fell back in his chair. Lila’s people. The oath. The need to protect her home. He could almost feel the connections as they snapped together in his mind. She’d thrown herself in the path of Masterson’s corporate juggernaut and fought with whatever weapons she could lay her hands on. The sheer gutsiness of it stole his breath—but it hadn’t been enough. The one thing the secretive fey sucked at was making allies, and this was not a fight they could win on their own.

  Rafe turned the problem over, looking for a way in. “That forest is owned by the government. It’s parkland, right?”

  “It is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be logged under the right permits. On top of that, the fey have never acknowledged the rule of human law, so their standing in the matter is very shaky, especially when the Masterson Corporation allegedly has a few politicians on the payroll. The fey were ordered to vacate a year ago.”

  “But they haven’t.”

  “No. It’s not like there’s a lot of places for a thousand fey to go. Plus, not all of their sub-species can live near human developments. They’re deadly allergic to industrial pollution. The rest, even those who could survive city living, won’t leave them behind. They’re big on clan loyalty.”

  Rafe groaned. “So what’s going to happen?”

  “You have heard those stories of men and women refusing to leave their cabins on the side of an erupting volcano? Those are the fey of the Owl River forest. They’ll stay there until they’re logged right along with the trees. It’ll be genocide.”

  Rafe sprang to his feet and paced the room. “How come I haven’t heard about this? Wolf Creek is barely a hundred miles away!”

  “You’ve been away. It’s a big forest. The fey have done everything they could to stay hidden, including using all kinds of shielding spells. It’s a silent storm. The only reason my friend was able to find anything out is because a few dark fey are willing to rat out their light fey cousins.”

  “Still, it’s weird. Normally you say “old growth” and at least twenty tree-huggers are there in five minutes. Somebody should have heard something.”

  “Same with your situation. I know Wolf Creek avoids publicity like the plague, but the takeover of an entire town should still be attracting attention. If nobody speaks up or drags the case to court, human law can’t do squat.”

  Rafe rubbed his forehead. Calling in the humans made an Alpha look weak in the eyes of his Pack—and so was something his father would never do. Still, Masterson Corp was a human company. Nothing wrong with turning in their CEO and president for breaking human laws.

  Darak continued. “The interesting factoid here is that the moment Lila signed on with Masterson, their attention shifted away from the forest.”

  “To the oil under Wolf Creek.” Which is why she needs the mineral rights. She’s trading our oil for her forest.

  “Exactly.”

  “She’s trying to save her home.”

  “By throwing Wolf Creek under the bus. I wouldn’t waste any sympathy on her.”

  “I’d do anything to save the Pack. I can’t blame her for doing the same for her family.”

  “Bloody noble of you. She could have asked for help.”

  “Maybe she needs to know she can.” His mind was racing. “But there’s still a lot that doesn’t add up. For one thing, how could one employee, however talented, change the course of an industrial giant? A company used to bribing politicians to get their way? Why wouldn’t they just take both the trees and the oil?”

  Darak frowned. “Pretty smart questions for a dog. What do you want me to do?”

  Rafe was done with secrets. “You said you have a friend in the media?”

  “Errata Jones. She’s a damned good investigator.”

  “See if you can catch her interest. Tell her to call all her reporter friends. We need to shine a good bright light on Masterson. The only reason they’re getting away with any of this is because nobody knows about it. The best court in this case is public opinion.”

  “Are you so sure about that? You’re not humans. That matters to some. Plus, oil and timber mean jobs.”

  “Sure, but I doubt the average taxpayer would be down with throwing entire populations out of their homes. People can be greedy and stupid, but not on that scale. Joe Average is a better guy than he gets credit for.”

  “It’ll bring the press down on Wolf Creek like a bunch of fleas.”

  “I’ll tell Dad not to eat them.”

  “And the fey are going to hate the publicity. They’ve been hiding out there for years.”

  Rafe sighed. “Frankly, that’s just too bad. They can hide or they can lose their forest. If we nail Masterson, we’ll be saving their backsides as well as our own.”

  “Jawohl, captain. Anything else?”

  Rafe thought a moment. “I’m running out of chips in this poker game Lila and I are playing.”

  “So you’re telling me to move my ass?”

  “Yeah.”

  Darak raised his eyebrows in an expression of innocence. It didn’t really work on the vampire’s craggy face. “My friend’s already on standby. Full coverage on today’s late news good enough for you?”

  Rafe grinned. “That’s just about perfect.”

  “You owe me a lot of beer for this, dog breath.”

  “I thought the dead were patient.”

  “Only for revenge and foreign films, and they’re kinda the same thing.”

  Lila had the sensation of falling, as if she’d been clinging to the edge of a balcony miles above the ground, and her hands had finally slipped. So much had spun out of control.

  She played with her pen, rolling it to and fro on her desk. It was tempting to play the game of “if.” If she had not left home for school, if she had not fallen in love with the human world, if she had not believed she could use her business-world experience to negotiate on behalf of her people. It had all put her on that balcony, in a position to fall. And then had come Rafe, and a whole other kind of falling.

  She couldn’t afford to think about that. She had spent the last hours bludgeoning her brains for a way out of the Wolf Creek mess, but Rafe’s kiss had complicated everything. He’d melted her resolve when she could least afford it. When there was no time for second thoughts.

  She picked up
the phone and punched speed dial, her heart in her mouth.

  “Masterson,” grunted her boss. She could hear what sounded like a truck motor in the background.

  “It’s Lila.”

  “Progress?”

  She heard a car door slamming. He was obviously on the road. She decided to skip over his opening question. “You’ve tried to buy this land before.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “The wolves.” It was a gamble, bringing it up. Pushing him. He could back out. She half expected it. On the other hand, she needed to take one more throw of the dice and hope against hope for a reprieve.

  Masterson made an irritated sound. “So what? You said you could deliver their land. Do it.”

  “You said you’d told me everything. This complicates things. You owe me a penalty shot.”

  “You’re out of time, Lila. The deadline is tomorrow.”

  The receiver felt slick in her hand. The vow that had bought her a year and a day was ticking down the last few hours. “Now the deadline is Friday, because I say it is. That’s your price for hiding information.”

  “You can’t worm out of the agreement.”

  “You bent the spirit of the rules, Masterson.”

  “Whatever. Your rules, your problem. No wonder you fey are going extinct. You’re bad business people. You made a bad bargain.”

  “But not today. Today you take my terms.”

  She heard a babble of excited voices, some of them angry. Where is he?

  “Okay. Fine. Gotta go.” The line went dead.

  She hung up, sucking in a deep lungful of air. Two days. She’d bought herself two days of safety.

  Is it enough, Liliana? Her sister’s voice rang sweet in her mind. Even in private, her sisters stayed invisible and silent, hiding the grotesque forms and voices they’d taken for the duration of the vow. If they spoke, they used the power of their minds.

  I don’t know, Lila answered. It will have to be enough time, I suppose.

  You feel sympathy for the wolf.

  He is kind, Rosemund, and strong of will like your bear. That is not to be scorned.

  It is his people or ours. There is no third choice for us, and certainly not for you.

  Lila buried her face in her hands. Masterson was right. She’d made a bad bargain. As foolish a blunder as any human who didn’t know the rules of oaths and vows. Go to bed, Rosemund. I need to think.

  There was the rustling sound of wings, and a rush of air that surrounded her like an embrace. And then silence eddied around her. For a blissful moment, her mind was empty.

  Then Rafe knocked and opened the door, not waiting for an invitation to enter. His face spoke before he even uttered the words. “I know.”

  Chapter Seven

  The breath left Lila’s body in a single choked curse. “Know what?” She closed her mouth before she could start stammering something foolish. How much does he know?

  “Turn on the news.”

  Lila was about to ask why, but his expression stopped her. She pulled the remote out of her desk drawer and clicked on the flat screen. What she saw made her gasp. It was the entrance to Gilden Forest filmed from the air, right above the spot where the main access road disappeared under the canopy of trees. The scene was dark, but the lights of the news chopper showed Masterson’s machines of destruction were poised to begin chewing through the forest. He wasn’t going to give me one second longer than our deal demanded.

  The reporter was saying something, but Lila was transfixed by the images. The view had shifted to footage taken by a camera on the ground. Microphones bearing the letters of various TV stations bobbed toward a man in a yellow hard hat. She couldn’t see who it was, but she recognized a crowd of fair-haired people in the distance who had to be fey.

  “This can’t be happening!” Lila said, her voice just above a whisper. Shy, secretive fey showing themselves on camera? Had the world gone mad?

  “It’s happening, Lila. It’s happening as we speak.”

  “Sacred Titania!” She felt suddenly sick.

  “I’m sorry about the press, but publicity is the one medicine Masterson can’t stomach. If enough people know what he’s up to, he’ll be forced to do the right thing.”

  “You did this?” Her voice held a universe of shock.

  Rafe nodded, his face grave.

  Lila was silent for a long moment. When she spoke, her words were quiet. “Masterson made me swear to keep it secret. This is the last thing he wanted.”

  “Too bad. I didn’t promise him anything.”

  “My father . . .” She trailed off, and buried her face in her hands. “You don’t understand. It’s not just Masterson who wanted secrecy. This much attention will be like death to the fey.”

  “They’ll get over it when they get to keep their homes,” Rafe said bluntly. “It’s the only way to work through this. The vampires and shapeshifters came out of hiding when it became clear living off the grid just wasn’t possible anymore.”

  “Tell me again how this will help us?” She heard the tears in her voice, and winced.

  “There’s such a thing as squatter’s rights. With the right lawyers, the fey can get the law on their side.”

  “We don’t have lawyers. We don’t recognize human law.”

  Rafe shook his head. “You need to start. I’ll give you the names of some legal firms. A lot of lawyers are vampires, no pun intended. They’re used to working on inter-species cases.”

  Hope flickered to life in Lila’s breast, but then died. “Maybe that will solve the legal side of things, but when the humans know where we are, they’ll come hunting us. There’s always some fool who wants a pot of gold or a love spell and will stop at nothing to get it.”

  Rafe put a gentle hand on her arm. “The wolves love the woodland as much as the fey. Let us run unharmed in your wild places, and you will have a patrol against unwanted visitors.”

  Lila tried to digest this, but the cameras swerved toward a fleshy man arguing at the top of his lungs, red-faced and sweating. He was casually dressed, but would have looked more comfortable in an air-conditioned boardroom. Masterson. So that explained the noise in the background of their phone call.

  And he was screaming at her father. The king of the fey was the personification of tall, pale elegance but, by the stiff way he held himself, he was on the verge of screaming himself. Oh, no.

  A reporter shoved her microphone into Masterson’s face. “You’ve been accused of buying political favor that secured Masterson Corporation’s logging license without the requisite environmental impact scans. Can you comment on that?”

  Masterson spluttered.

  The reporter turned to Lila’s father, who eyed the microphone as if it might turn into an adder. “Mister, um, King, can you tell us what arrangements have been made for your people when you leave this forest?”

  Her father focused intense green eyes on the camera. “None whatsoever. We were not consulted. We have no intention of leaving.” He turned his face away, as if dismissing the outside world.

  “What if you’re forced to go?” the reporter demanded.

  The king gave her a weary glance. “We don’t know how.”

  Lila felt as much as heard her father’s voice. It held profound sadness, but most of all it held resignation. The world was changing faster than the fey.

  “Are you going to fight back?”

  The king gave the cameras a look, but did not answer. Lila knew why. The kind of power it would take to beat Masterson’s machines by force would turn Gilden Wood into a nightmare of wild magic. Lila’s plan was the only way for the fey to survive.

  Rafe touched her arm. “We’re on the same side, Lila. Masterson’s the enemy, not me.”

  She stood up, too agitated to sit. “You don’t know the whole story.”

  He grabbed the remote, turning off the TV. “And I suppose you can’t tell me.”

  Lila tried to snatch the remote, but he held it away. “Give that back!�
��

  His brows drew together. “Tell me.”

  She gave up. “I made a vow to give Masterson something of equal value to the woods as a bribe for leaving us alone.” She was getting a horrible headache, as if someone were driving an ice pick into her skull just above her right eye.

  “I guessed that much.”

  “I was watching my people get thrown off their land. There’s no place else for most of them to go where they’ll survive. What was I supposed to do?”

  Rafe said nothing. She felt hot tears leaking from beneath her lashes.

  “It was a bad oath, made in haste. I should have slowed down and thought about what I was doing, about the promises I made, but I bound it in blood. I have to live with that.” She snatched the remote and turned the TV back on, dreading what she might see. The sound blared, jamming the ice pick further into her head.

  Masterson was raging at the cameras. “I had a bargain with these fey, but this press fiasco negates any agreement we made. The deal is off and the forest is mine!”

  Bloody hell! He’d betrayed their bargain. Now she’d have to pay the price.

  Lila dropped the remote. As it hit the ground, the news program switched to a comedy show. Silently, Rafe picked it up and shut off the TV. The ensuing quiet blared through the room.

  Lila’s vision had gone white with fright and fury. Her lips chilled to numbness. “The wolves are safe. For now at least.”

  “Can Masterson break his side of your deal?”

  “He just did.”

  “There must be consequences if he backs out now.”

  “For me. For the fey.” Her voice sounded distant in her own ears.

  “But it was Darak who called the media. You didn’t do anything.”

  Lila shook her head. “The only thing that matters is what Masterson said. The deal is off. He always had the option of backing away at any time. That was one of the flaws of the oath. I should have known better.”

  “What does he forfeit?”

  “He cannot profit from whatever replacement deal I found for him. Wolf Creek is safe.” Her voice shook, and she could feel the tremors spreading through her body.

  Vows had been broken. Magic was unraveling.