9. Bennet
AH, HELL. I WAS GOING to have to tell her everything, wasn’t I?
Not that she had actually told me much more about herself than I could have discovered in a public data search. I didn’t trust that smile of hers, either—it was too predatory.
She used to be a cop, I reminded myself. She’s used to questioning people and getting them to answer.
Then again, she had also saved me in the woods after she had seen my shift. She hadn’t panicked. As far as I knew, she hadn’t turned me over to police or to scientists who might want to observe me. Or worse, dissect me. She hadn’t called the tabloids. She hadn’t even called the local sheriff.
All of those things already made her more trustworthy than most people in the world.
Now, with our empty oatmeal bowls stacked on the tray between us and her socked feet perched on the coffee table, her knees drawn up to her chest, she simply waited for me to consider her request, a quiet half-smile on her face.
I realized to my surprise that I wanted to tell her everything.
I inhaled deeply and blew the breath back out in preparation for breaking one of the most sacred rules of my clan. We did not reveal ourselves to humans.
She’s not fully human.
I realized that was a justification, especially since I was certain she considered herself completely human.
But that would be my answer if I was ever questioned about this moment: I had revealed us to another supernatural.
“I’m a kitsune.”
She tilted her head and frowned. “A what?”
I shrugged. “Basically a fox-shifter.”
“A fox-shifter who decided to go for a run and got caught in a bear trap?”
I winced. “Not exactly.”
“I didn’t think so.” She crossed her arms over her chest, leaned back in her chair, and waited for me to start talking.
“My clan—my family, really—is in danger.” I paused, trying to think of how to describe the convoluted connections of the arcane world I lived in. In the end, I just dove right in. “There is a fae queen named Debourgh who currently leads the Winter Court.”
She watched me, her eyebrows raised. But I couldn’t tell if she believed me.
“The thing about this winter Queen that’s different from all the ones who came before her is that she has been able to figure out how to use her magic to pull power from different supernaturals. Last I heard, she’d all but killed off the brownies. And my species, the kitsune, are some of her favorite. She started hunting us down to be used like batteries.”
“And that’s why she was chasing you?”
“Why her warriors were, anyway.”
“What would happen if they catch you?”
“They would take me to their queen. I would be put in a dungeon, probably tortured for a while. When the time came, I would be drained of all magic.”
“What does that mean?”
“Ultimately, it means we die.”
But not before we existed—I couldn’t say it was living—for some time without our powers, including the ability to shapeshift. I wasn’t sure which I hated most, losing that power, or dying.
At least dying would put an end to suffering.
“So what brought you into my woods on Christmas Eve?”
I blinked, startled at her mention of the holiday. I hadn’t realized I’d spent quite so many days on the run.
“Merry Christmas, by the way,” I said.
“Yeah, happy Christmas,” she replied.
“I didn’t actually have a clear idea of where I was. I left home—the enclave where I lived with my clan—and set out to create a false trail for Debourgh’s warriors. My plan was to lead them in the wrong direction, and then double back and go home. But it hasn’t worked that way. They have been within minutes of catching me repeatedly on this hellish chase. I missed seeing the trap, and you know the rest.”
She considered my story for a long time, staring out the front window at the fat, white snowflakes beginning to fall, before she finally asked, “Why didn’t they follow you here?”
I, too, watch the swirling snowflakes outside as they begin to fall faster and faster.
“I think they did.”
10. Darcy
AT BENNET’S WORDS, I whipped around from staring out the window to gaze at him with wide eyes. “They did?”
He nodded. “I heard them last night. But they weren’t able to get very close to the cabin.”
I considered his words. “You had a pretty high fever for most of the night. Are you positive what you heard was really what was happening?”
“No. Mostly sure, though.”
I hadn’t actually bothered to check the weather yet, but I needed to. I picked up my phone and pulled up the weather forecast.
Yep. As I suspected.
“This is supposed to blow up into a big storm today.” I gestured at the falling snow outside the window. “Do we need to leave the cabin, go somewhere safer?”
“I don’t think there is anywhere safer.” Tapping one forefinger on his thigh, he regarded me for a second. “But if you’re anxious, I could leave.”
“No.” I answered without thinking.
Why did I say that? Every reasonable part of me was shouting that I should get him out of my home and keep myself safe. But the rest of me—including, apparently, most of my body—was screaming to keep him near me. “If you’re safer here, too, then you should stay.”
“I would appreciate that.”
“Then it’s settled.” Because I’m an idiot with more hormones than good sense.
Well, if things got really scary, I could always kick him out.
Not that I would.
He stretched his injured leg out in front of him. “I need to shift and get some exercise in, preferably before the storm gets too bad to go outside.”
“Will it be safe outside?”
The glance he gave me made my insides twist up, it was so heated. I didn’t know why he was looking at me like that—and that part made me nervous. But all he said was, “I don’t think the fae can approach the house itself.”
His comment distracted me from my anxiety about his glance for a moment. “Why not?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out. I’d like to sniff it out a bit more before I discuss any of my theories.”
“Of course.” I waved my hand toward the front door. “You are welcome here in the cabin and on any of my land. Just try to stay safe.”
His half-frown melted into a brilliant smile, sending a shiver straight through to my belly. “Thanks.”
What was going on with me? I’d met plenty of gorgeous men in my life, and none of them had ever affected me like this one. Damn.
I pushed my reaction aside for now. “Feel free to use my room to...change? Shift? Do whatever you need to do. If you need privacy, that is. I mean, if you want to.” I was babbling, and I could feel my face growing hotter by the second.
His smile relaxed into a grin. “That’s fine. I’ll shift in there—if you’ll promise to open the door for me to go outside when I’m done.”
“Cross my heart.” I made the gesture and he gave a little two-fingered wave as he headed into the bedroom.
He disappeared into my bedroom, and I shook my head at myself as I cleared away the breakfast dishes from the coffee table.
Yes, he was gorgeous.
Yes, he was exotic.
In fact, there was pretty much no one more exotic than shapeshifter.
And that was exactly why it was utterly insane for me to be working so hard on a crush on someone I had only just met. Someone who was vastly different from me. Someone whose world should never have intersected mine. It was sheer happenstance that we’d met at all.
Hell, it was only through luck that I hadn’t shot him in the head. My stomach clenched at the thought. I wondered how many shifters died every year from hunters’ bullets or traps.
As I washed our dishes, I heard
him moving around in the bedroom. He left the door partially open and it took all my willpower not to turn around and peek.
And then, I felt it when he shifted. It was a noise without sound, waves of something flowing over me, sending chills up my back.
Either that, or I was imagining it entirely.
Still, seconds later, a large red fox trotted out of my bedroom just as I was finishing the dishes.
I dropped the last bowl into the draining rack and moved toward the front door. “Let me grab my coat and get my boots on, and I’ll go outside, too, at least for a little while.”
The fox —Bennet—nodded.
I shoved my feet into my snow boots and was pulling on my winter parka when I heard a vehicle rumbling up my drive. At the same moment, Bennet cocked his head, his ears perking up.
“Not many people come up here, especially when a storm is brewing. I bet it’s the sheriff.”
Bennet turned his head to look up at me inquiringly.
“It’s not unusual. He likes to check on some of the more isolated people in his jurisdiction when a big storm is on the way.” I turned around and moved through the kitchen. “Come on. I’ll let you out the back. Don’t let him see you if you can help it. I don’t know how he’d react to seeing an enormous fox lurking around.”
Bennet nodded again and waited for me to open the back door. When I did, he bounded away into the snow. I watched them for a few seconds. His leg looked fine to me.
I could’ve used some of that healing power after I got shot.
I had already shut the kitchen door and latched it when I heard the honk of Jim Bingley’s SUV.
Although the storm door was closed, I could see him through the glass as the sheriff came up my front steps, stomping the snow off his boots. He waved to me and I opened the storm door. “Hi, Jim. You want to come in?”
He eyed my parka. “Looks like you were just about to go out,” he observed.
“Only to sit on the porch for a while and watch the snow fall.” I smiled. “We can sit out there or in here, whichever you want.” I didn’t say it, but I really wanted him to come inside. Less opportunity for him to see frolicking foxes in my yard that way.
Of course, keeping him out in the cold might convince him to leave quicker.
“Let me pour some coffee to keep us warm, and let’s go out the porch,” I said, not really giving him time to make up his own mind.
Surely Bennet has the sense to stay out of sight.
“You don’t need to pour me a cup,” he said. “But I’d sure love a refill in my thermos, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. Go grab it and I’ll fill it up.”
That was good. It meant he didn’t mean to stay too terribly long.
I poured myself a cup of black coffee and waited until he trotted back up the stairs, coffee thermos in hand.
As he stood just inside my door and I poured coffee for him, I said, “I assume you’re up here checking to make sure I’m okay for the storm?”
Jim laughed. He was probably about ten years older than me, with thick dark hair and a matching mustache. And he was a nice guy, someone I might have considered dating under other circumstances, but we’ve never had any kind of click. At least on my part. I’d never asked him about his ideas on the issue—and I wasn’t about to start now.
“Yeah, mostly to make sure you’re stocked up on supplies and know the storm’s coming.” He held the storm door open for me and we walked out to the two rustic-style rocking chairs I had on the front porch. He stared out at the flat yard that dropped off into a creek bed at the end of my property.
My cabin faced the very edge of my own property because it had the best view. Directly across from us, a mountain rose up high, its deep, craggy slopes ensuring I wouldn’t have human neighbors building houses that could look down into my windows. Behind the cabin, my land stretched out for about an acre before dropping down toward the next plateau. The road Jim had taken in was the only easily accessible route to the cabin itself, though with enough perseverance, a climber could get from the clearing down the mountain where I had found Bennet and up to my house.
“Have you seen anything unusual on your property lately?” Jim asked, startling me out of my reverie. I fought to keep my reaction minimal.
“No. Why?” I tried to sound casually curious, but I was afraid I’d failed miserably when I saw the interest in his eyes sharpen.
“Just been getting some odd reports lately about poachers lurking around in the woods.”
“That reminds me,” I said. “I ran across another bear trap in the first clearing off the trailhead down the mountain. I clipped it and left it there for you.”
“Left it? You usually come drop them on my desk with a clatter and an announcement that I need to keep the poachers under control.” He was grinning now, but he wasn’t exactly joking. That was what I did.
I laughed along with him, though. “It was late, and that just seemed like so much work.”
“But you’ve seen nothing...strange?”
I wrinkled my nose and frowned as I answered, trying to look confused. I was afraid I only looked constipated. “Well, the bear trap isn’t that unusual. Annoying, but I think a typical poacher left it there.” That part, at least, was true.
Jim turned and gazed directly into my eyes intently. “But you will let me know if you run across anything bizarre, won’t you?”
“Absolutely,” I promised, mentally crossing my fingers behind my back.
“Sounds good.” He pushed himself up from the rocker and tilted his thermos at me. “Thanks again for the refill. Be sure to give me a call if you need anything. I’ll touch base with you after the storm.”
We said our goodbyes, and I stood on the porch waving at him until he had disappeared down the drive and I could no longer hear his SUV’s engine.
Seconds later, Bennet bounded around the corner, stiff-legged in the snow, his mouth wide open in a vulpine laugh, his tongue lolling out. He trotted up the steps and shook the snow off his fur.
“Hey,” I protested as it hit me in a shower of snow clumps. “Go to the other end of the porch.” But I was laughing at him as I said it. “Are you ready to go inside?”
He nodded definitively, and I opened the door to let him in.
As I did, however, a strange, silvery-white figure rose from the creek bed, climbing up to the very edge of my property line and unfolding itself to stand tall where it had been entirely camouflaged by snow only seconds before.
I’ve never seen one before, but I had to assume that this was one of the creatures that had been hunting Bennet.
That supposition was confirmed when the thing opened its mouth and hissed, “The kitsune is ours. Give him to us.”
11. Bennet
I FROZE IN ABSOLUTE terror for a moment, worried that Darcy would say or do something that would give the elf hunter mystical control over me.
But she assessed him coolly, then stepped out in front of me on the porch. “He is not yours. You cannot have him. And you are not welcome here.”
That blue-tinged light flared at the edges of her property, and the elf warrior recoiled from it with another hiss.
He paced back and forth along the edge of the boundary she had just reinforced with her statement, snarling at her. When he dropped down to all fours, he looked even more animalistic than before.
I might be the shapeshifter, but he was the one without any humanity.
Finally, he stood up and called out to her, but he was taunting me. “It doesn’t matter how much you fuck him. We will have him eventually.”
Oh, fuck. So to speak. I hadn’t really been considering it, but part of me had known that sex magic was a possibility.
No, that wasn’t entirely true. I had definitely known and had been avoiding thinking about it because Darcy Pemberley was so damn gorgeous.
I met her gaze with my own, then gave something that I hoped look like a shrug.
I needed vocal cords talk abo
ut this.
And pants. I’m definitely going to need pants to discuss this with her. And maybe a pillow. And hands to hold it over myself to hide my inevitable erection.
I needed to shift back to my human form. But I didn’t know if I could possibly talk about sex magic with this woman without pulling the lid off the bubbling hot lust I had kept barely under control since I had walked out into the living room that morning and seen her in a tank top and a pair of flannel pajama bottoms slung low on her hips.
Dammit. I didn’t have time for this kind of complication.
But a little voice inside my head whispered, Look around. You’re about to be snowed in, safe from the fae hunters, and without anything better to do for at least the next twenty-four hours. Sex magic might not be a bad idea.
That little voice needed to shut the hell up.
“Do you think they can get inside the cabin?” Darcy asked. It took me a second to realize that she was asking about the fae. I shook my head emphatically.
“Then let’s go inside. I think we need to talk about some things.”
I nodded and trotted in in front of her as she held the door open for me and then closed it behind us.
Back in her bedroom alone, I concentrated on letting the energy and power of the shift flow through me. It was so much easier now that my leg was almost healed, and I wasn’t caught in an iron trap.
I wondered briefly if it was possible that the kitsune had some connection to the fae that made us slightly susceptible to having our powers weakened by iron, too. I’d never felt as bad as I did when I was caught in that trap.
I picked up the T-shirt and sweats Darcy had loaned me from where I’d left them on the bed after I made it that morning. Holding them up to my nose, I inhaled deeply.
They smelled like her, like green plants pushing up through snow, fresh and new and sweet. And I’d worn them long enough this morning that they smelled a little like me, too. I found the combination of our scents unexpectedly arousing.
“Yeah. I’m gonna need that pillow to cover myself up,” I muttered.
“You okay in there?” Darcy called out from the living room.
I opened the bedroom door and stepped out to join her. “Just fine.”
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