by Jody Morse
“Yeah, it must have been hers,” Kyle agreed. “You should sell this furniture. I bet it’s worth a bundle. I wonder if all the furniture in the whole house is this expensive.”
Samara shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s staying. For now, at least. I haven’t even decided what to do with this house yet.”
“I think you should keep it,” Luke said, eyeing the granite countertops and the stainless steel refrigerator that sat in the kitchen. “We need a house, right?”
“We?” Samara asked with a smile. It was the first time he had ever mentioned their future together—even though it probably should have been obvious by now that she would live with her mate one day, once they got married and marked with one another. Even so, hearing him talk about it made her feel happy inside.
Luke nodded. “Yes, we. It will also give us another place to hang for now instead of being at Colby’s house all the time.”
“But there’s nothing wrong with my house,” Colby protested.
“Nah, there’s nothing wrong with it, except that your parents are always there, up our asses, watching us like hawks,” Steve said, shaking his head.
Samara had to stifle the laughter that she wanted to let out; Steve’s description of it was perfect. Even though Colby’s mom was a really nice woman, his dad still gave her the heebie jeebies. Just thinking about the way he watched her with those dark, unwelcoming eyes made her skin crawl.
Colby’s face revealed that he was hurt by what Steve had said. “My parents are cool,” he muttered under his breath.
“They are cool, Colby, but I have to agree with them,” Kyle admitted. “It would be nice to have a place where we can get away and just be teenagers sometimes. I feel weird talking about girls or anything in front of your parents—or in front of my mom when we hang out at my house. This will just be someplace to go sometimes where we can be on our own. Somewhere besides the woods.”
Colby’s face softened a little, but Samara knew that he was still upset. Not that she really had time to worry about it right now; she had to focus her attention on finding the talisman. “This house is so big, I’m not even sure where we should begin looking.”
“Well, I say we split up,” Chris replied. “Steve and me will take the third floor, and Kyle can take the fourth floor. Luke can take the second floor, and Samara can take this floor. Sound good?”
“What about me?” Colby asked.
“Oh, you can take the basement,” Chris replied. “I saw the basement door in the dining room.”
“Why do I have to take the basement?” Colby protested. “It’s probably really dark and dusty down there . . .”
“Is Colby Jack scared of the dark?” Steve sneered.
“Maybe you’ll find a girl in a coffin down there,” Chris joked. “She won’t have any choice but to like you since she hasn’t seen any guys in years.”
“Chris, stop it,” Samara hissed at him. “I think we’re all spending too much together time or something lately.” It seemed like everyone was picking on Colby lately; then again, Colby had been picking on Emma so much that maybe he deserved it.
“That sounds like a good plan, though,” Luke said, bringing everyone back to the issue at hand: finding the talisman. “Let’s all go separate ways and find this thing as quick as we can.”
“Alright, so go look,” Samara agreed. She hoped the talisman was in the house because they were wasting a lot of time if it wasn’t. Once they were done looking, they had to get ready for the initiation ceremony tonight. “Meet me back here once you’re all done.”
They all promised that they would, and she heard the sound of feet racing up the upstairs. She went into the kitchen and began searching through the cabinets, which were filled with a blue and white dish set.
It reminded her of the one that Aunt Rae had always talked about; it was her own grandmother’s dish set brought all the way from China. It had hand painted floral designs, and Rae always wished that she would have been able to receive it as a family heirloom, but Grandpa Joe had thrown it away before Rae had gotten the chance to ask for it.
Samara decided that she was going to ask her aunt if she wanted this set; it wouldn’t have the same sentimental value, but it might still bring back some happy memories for her.
It surprised her to find that the cabinets were stocked with breakfast cereals, pasta, and canned soups and vegetables. It had been years since Grandpa Joe died, so Samara had been under the assumption that Mollie Archer had died before he had. But unless this food was many years past its expiration date, her grandfather must have bought the house from Mollie, who continued to live in it until she’d passed away, which must not have been that long ago. Either way, Samara felt strange about being in the house at all.
There was nothing in the dining room, aside from a beautiful golden silverware set with the letter ‘M’ engraved on it. Samara thought it was strange that the silverware set wasn’t engraved with an ‘A’ for Archer, but perhaps the silverware set had been a family heirloom that had gotten passed down.
Samara examined the metal; it was gold in color and it didn’t burn her hands like most things that were constructed from sterling silver did. Considering how expensive everything else in the house was, it seemed likely that it was a genuine gold set of silverware. Could one even call it silverware if it were made from gold?
Once she was finished looking through the kitchen and dining room, she peeked in the coat closet, a large walk-in closet that was filled with both men and women’s coats, which ranged from genuine leather jackets to sophisticated trench coats that looked like they had once been featured in a women’s fashion magazine. At the bottom of the closet, there was a shoe rack, which had high leather boots, designer heels in varying colors, and fur-trimmed snow boots, which appeared to be in perfect condition.
Deciding that there was nothing in the coat closet that looked out of place, Samara went into the bedroom. A king-sized canopy bed was covered by a blue velvet comforter and sat alongside a beautiful chestnut dresser.
She went over to the dresser and began pulling the drawers open. She fished out clothing that looked like it belonged to a man. Had Mollie Archer had a husband who had passed before her and she hadn’t bothered to get rid of his old clothes, or had she lived with a boyfriend? Samara knew that it wasn’t really any of her business, but she couldn’t help but feel fascinated by the woman who this house had belonged to.
Samara had been expecting to find something in one of the dresser drawers—mostly because she had found something in one of her grandfather’s dresser drawers at the cabin—but after she had gone through each and every drawer, she realized that her search had unveiled nothing.
“I found something,” Luke told her. She glanced over her shoulder and found him standing in the doorway, holding up a book.
“The talisman?” Samara asked excitedly.
Luke shook his head. “No, I didn’t find it anywhere on the floor I was searching. Someone else might have found it, though. But, I did find this.” He took a step forward, opening the pages of the book, and Samara realized that it wasn’t a book at all, but a photo album instead. “It says McKinley on the front, and there are some pictures of Joe inside. I didn’t look at all of them, but I thought you might be curious to see.”
She took the photo album from him and began flipping through the pages. “I wonder if he might have left this here for me to find it on purpose. Why else would it have been in Mollie Archer’s house?”
“That’s sort of what I was thinking,” Luke agreed.
Samara heard a loud banging sound, and she heard Colby cursing in his head. She climbed off the floor and raced down the hallway and to the door that led to the basement.
“Colby?” she called downstairs. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he replied, but his voice, which sounded really distant, wasn’t too convincing.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Colby?” Luke asked from behind her.
Ther
e was a long pause. Finally, Colby said, “I think I could use a little help. There’s something down here. It looks like a snake . . . and it’s on me.”
A snake? Maybe one of Mollie Archer’s neighbors owned a pet snake that had slithered its way into the house, Samara thought to herself, as she led Luke down the stairs into the dark depths of the basement.
Once they were downstairs, Samara noted that the basement was surprisingly clean—as far as basements went, at least.
“Where are you, Colby?” Samara asked, and she heard his strained voice mutter, “Over here,” from one of the corners.
When she got closer to him, she burst into laughter. “Colby, that’s not a snake!”
“It’s not?” he asked, and even through the darkness, she could see the surprise on his face.
“No, it’s just a garden hose,” she said, unwinding it from around his legs.
Once they were all back upstairs and in the bedroom, where she had left the photo album, Samara heard the sound of shoes squeaking against the hardwood floor, and she glanced up to find that Kyle was standing behind them.
“I didn’t find anything in any of the upstairs bedrooms or bathrooms that I was looking in,” he told her apologetically.
She sighed, climbing up onto the bed. She scooted down to the edge, feeling weird that it had once belonged to Mollie. Samara found herself wondering if Mollie had passed away in this very bed.
“What’s that?” Kyle asked, pointing to the photo album that she was still holding in her hands.
“Luke found an old family photo album,” she explained. “A McKinley family photo album.”
Opening the pages, she began looking through the photos. There was a picture of Grandpa Joe with his wife, Samara’s grandmother, who Samara had only ever seen in a few blurry photographs since she’d died before Samara was even born. Her grandmother stood about a foot shorter than her grandfather, and she looked so tiny and fragile in comparison to his well-built body. Now that she knew that her grandmother wasn’t a werewolf and her grandfather was, the differences in their bodies made a lot of sense.
She flipped to the next photo in the album. It was another picture of her grandfather. This time, he was sitting down at a kitchen table, a birthday cake in front of him. He wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t really look unhappy either. He just sort of looked . . . there. Samara imagined that birthdays must have lost their luster to him after he’d already had so many. She hoped that she would never feel that way.
The next picture was of her grandmother lighting the birthday candles, her hair in a braid that hung to one side of her neck.
“She looks like you,” Luke murmured.
“Really?” Samara asked, glancing over at him. No one had ever told her she’d looked like her dad’s mother before, but then again, hardly anyone ever spoke of her because of the memories that he harbored from the horrific day she was murdered.
Luke nodded, giving her a small smile. “You have the same eyes—not the same color of eyes. Hers were much lighter than yours. But when you smile, your eyes smile the same way hers did.”
Samara beamed, pleased that he had noticed such a small thing about her, and then focused her attention back to the photo album. She half-expected to find a letter from her grandfather telling her the talisman’s location in one of the pockets.
Once she flipped through all the pages, she was disappointed to find nothing except for a few cute pictures of her father and Aunt Rae when they were babies with their mother. When she was done, she closed the book and set it down. “There’s nothing in here that can help us.”
“Can I look at the pictures?” Colby asked from his place on the floor in front of the bed.
Samara handed him the photo album. “Sure. There wasn’t anything really interesting in it, though.”
“Just seeing pictures of Joe McKinley is fascinating enough in itself,” Colby insisted, and she rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help but feel annoyed whenever people implied that her grandfather was some sort of superstar.
She heard the sound of shoes clunking against the hardwood floor and found Chris standing in the doorway. “Did you find anything?”
“There was nothing at all,” Chris said, stepping into the room and sitting on the floor next to Colby.
Samara let out a loud sigh. “If Steve doesn’t find it, then I think the reason we’re not finding it is because it isn’t here. Someone else has to have it.”
Kyle shrugged. “Do you think there’s a chance that Seth could have taken it? Maybe he found out something about this house and came here and took it for himself.”
“I don’t think Seth is the one who took it,” Samara replied, shaking her head. “It doesn’t even seem possible that he could have found it. There’s no way we would have known how to find it if we hadn’t found those letters when we were in Alaska.”
“Hey, guys, look. You can see the talisman really well in this picture,” Colby said, pointing to one of the pictures in the album that he held in his hands.
Samara glanced at the photo over his shoulder. Her heart skipped a few beats.
The cushion-cut, vibrant blue sapphire pendant that her grandfather wore around his neck looked familiar . . . too familiar.
It was the same blue sapphire stone that was in the ring that Jason had given Emma—the same sapphire that was now in Troy’s hands.
Chapter 23
“What do you mean Troy has the talisman?” Kyle asked, the color disappearing from his face.
“I never told you guys because it didn’t seem important at the time, but we made an exchange with Troy. We gave him the blue sapphire ring that Jason gave Emma in exchange for her to become an Ima instead of a Shomecossee,” Samara explained, still in total disbelief.
Colby rolled his eyes. “Are you serious? You traded the talisman for Emma? Of all the girls you had to trade it for?”
Samara gave him a ‘look’, and his face softened.
“Hey, I’m just kidding,” he said apologetically. “I know it’s not your fault. How could you have known?”
Luke met her gaze. “Are you positive it’s the same sapphire? Maybe it just looks similar. . .” His voice sounded as hopeful as the rest of the guys in the pack looked. “One’s a necklace, and the other’s a ring.”
She nodded her head. “I’m sure. It’s the same exact color and the same exact cut. Apparently, someone had it put in a white gold ring setting instead of the yellow gold pendant setting that’s shown in the picture . . . probably so that it wouldn’t be so recognizable.”
She paused, remembering how Troy had acted about the ring the night he’d agreed to let Emma become an Ima. “It all makes so much sense now. Troy kept saying that the ring was of some sort of significance to him. He said Jason stole it from him, but that it was rightfully his. Why would he have cared so much about this ring otherwise?”
“You’re probably right,” Chris said. “I just don’t understand how Jason—or Troy—got their hands on it in the first place.”
Samara shrugged. “I don’t know how they got it . . . but I do know one thing. We need to get it back now that we know who has it.”
“Well, let’s wait until after tonight’s initiation,” Kyle said. “The more pack members we have, the more likely we will be to fight off the Shomecossee.”
Colby shook his head in disagreement. “Do you really want to wait that long? I’m not sure that our new members will be ready to fight tonight.”
“Kyana will be ready, I’m sure,” Samara muttered. “She’s been a werewolf for so long. Emma won’t be ready, though. She’s barely a week old yet.” She paused, glancing over at Chris. “Do you think Rain will be ready to fight right now if we need her to?”
Chris nodded. “Yeah, Rain’s actually pretty good at fighting. She’s pretty fierce, if you know what I mean.” The other guys laughed, and Samara guessed that they knew something about the two of them that she hadn’t been let in on yet. “I think she’ll be ready.”
“Perfect,” Samara said. “So, we’ll just have Emma sit out of this one. Rain and Kyana should make up the difference enough in terms of numbers to help us beat them. I hope.” She didn’t know much about the Shomecossee. As far as she knew, they weren’t as powerful as the Vyka, but she did know that they were supposed to combine packs with the Seku. She wasn’t sure how many members they had altogether. For all she knew, the Shomecossee would still outnumber the Ima, even with their new two fighting members.
“We mostly only need to deal with Troy, anyway,” Chris pointed out. “And Rocco, too, probably. He has to butt into everything, so I’m sure he’ll butt into this, too, especially since his cousin’s involved. I’m hoping we can get the talisman back and steer clear of the rest of them altogether, though.”
“That would be nice,” Samara agreed. “We need to be prepared for the worst, though.” She glanced at her clock. It was almost time for initiation. They were all meeting in the woods behind her house, near Starlight Lake, the same place where the Ima pack always met up.
“We’d better get going,” Luke said, as though he was reading her mind, and Samara realized that was because he probably was. “We need to get this show on the road.”
They locked up the house, leaving the photo album on the bed, and climbed into Chris’ car.
*
When they got to their designated meeting area, Samara found that Emma was already there, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently as she waited. Her blonde hair looked even lighter under the moonlight, and she was wearing a short skirt and low-cut shirt with a leather jacket—an ensemble that seemed way too cold for the late November night.
“It’s about time!” Emma called when they approached her. “I’ve been waiting here for you forever.”
“Forever?” Colby asked, with a smile on his face that Samara couldn’t identify. He looked really happy, but Samara got the impression that he was about to make fun of Emma again. When he opened his mouth next, she found that she was right. “How long’s forever, a half hour?”
