by Megan Morgan
“There is a story.” Neala gazed into the night. “From the before-now time, when Wolvites were masters of this land. The Sickness ravaged them. A cure was found, but it was transcribed only by a handful of witches, witches who then ultimately fled from their mates out of fear. The Sickness put terrible madness in the Wolvites, and the witches who had the cure took it with them when they ran away.”
“It was transcribed? Maybe it’s actually in one of Stacy’s potion books, then.”
Neala shuddered. “One of our ancient secrets, passed into the hands of a Lycan’s witch? I would rip my own guts out.”
“This is what I’m talking about, our world overwhelming yours. But it doesn’t have to be all bad. Their guns hurt you, but our science can help you. We could help the Wolvites before the virus gets out of hand again.”
Neala said nothing, her lips in a tight line.
“I’m glad the bark helped.” Lorena spoke gently.
Neala sighed. “You have proven that you, at least, want to help, despite your actions in the past. As such, I’m inclined to grant your request for a compromise.”
“Really?” Lorena perked.
“It won’t be easy to move him, but perhaps if I give him more of that potion, he will be calm. We will come here, at dusk, tomorrow. You must honor your promise that it will only be you and the doctor and one Lycan, with no weapons. Many Wolvites will be waiting here in the trees if you break that promise.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m sure the Lycan will be my dear brother Deacon.” She smiled cruelly. “Or will it be my beloved husband?”
Lorena resisted the urge to tell her she was a horrible woman. They were finally making progress. “It will be Deacon.”
“And you will take this.” She thrust out her hand. A small black stone rested in her palm. Lorena had seen one like it before. A black opal, the Witch’s Stone.
Lorena took it, though she was confused. As she did, an odd tightening sensation enveloped her wrists. She looked at her hands.
“You said if you break your promise, we can take you away with us.” Neala’s smile grew even more wicked. “You are now bound to me. If all goes well, I will take the spell off. Until then, you are forced to obey me.”
Lorena stared at her, horrified. She tried to fling the stone away, but couldn’t move. Her muscles locked against the action.
“At dusk, Lycan witch.” Neala turned and walked into the trees. “No weapons.”
Lorena swallowed, her fingers clutched around the stone.
“And…” Neala stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Thank you. Perhaps you will be a proper witch one day. On the correct side.”
She disappeared into the trees. The threat of Wolvites withdrew as well.
Energy radiated from the stone, warm and heavy in Lorena’s palm. She trembled.
* * * *
Deacon wanted to lay out of work and go to Lexington with Lorena, but they needed the money. Working in a lumberyard in summer was a mighty hot prospect, and by mid-morning he was wishing he was with her not just because he was worried about Wolvites—the air conditioned cab of his truck sounded like heaven. He kept picturing her in it, in her tank top and sunglasses, the cool air blowing her hair back. He nearly whined.
She sent him a text when she got to Lexington, and another when she got back on the road. She wouldn’t be home by lunch, so he stayed at work. When he went home for lunch, he didn’t go so much for the food, but in hopes of a little dessert. That hunger was bad today, too. The taste he’d gotten of her last night lingered on his mind, and his tongue.
He called Jack in the afternoon, to check on him, and distract himself.
“I’m helping Mama in the garden.” Jack sounded winded. “I expect it’s what’s best for me.”
Deacon sat in the shade of the supervisor’s shack, a bottle of water next to him. He’d promised Lorena he’d drink more water and less beer, not because she nagged him, but because being in love made him want to take better care of himself. A woman could make a man do crazy things, like eat vegetables and go jogging.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen next.” Deacon mopped sweat from his forehead. “I didn’t want Lorena going to Lexington by herself today, but I’ve seen her handle a gun, so I know she ain’t helpless.”
“Well.” Jack paused. “We’ll be ready for them next time, no worries about that.”
“Her and the doctor are determined to look that sick Wolvite over.” Deacon scratched his chin. “She seems to think she can compromise with them, get them to come out of the woods with him so they don’t have to go in.”
Jack laughed sharply. “You can’t reason with them animals, don’t care if they got a human form or not. They’re monsters.”
“She wants peace.” He picked up his bottle and twisted the cap off. “I wouldn’t mind some myself, God knows not having to look over our shoulders would be a nice change of pace, but I don’t think it’ll happen. They want reasons to come at us. I can’t make her see that.”
“Don’t let her get too sympathetic.” Jack’s voice darkened. “After what happened with…her.”
“Lorena ain’t like her, and you know that. She’s just peace-minded, that’s all. She believes since they got human forms they’re capable of acting like humans.” Deacon dumped the water over his head. That was like drinking it, sorta. It got absorbed into his skin, or something.
“Burn ‘em out, that’s what I say.” Jack spat. “I didn’t come back here to shake hands. This needs finished. They all need finished.”
Deacon was torn between Lorena’s values and his cousin’s pain. He understood both.
“I’ll call you when I get off work.” Deacon shook his hair out. “We’ll figure out how we’re gonna handle things. Go back to helping your Mama. I expect she’s got you pulling weeds.”
“She ain’t got no problem keeping me busy, that’s for sure.”
Lorena texted him when she got back to Blue Ditch. The sun was still well up in the sky, the danger probably less because of it, but he was anxious to get home to her.
Nevertheless, he stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got fixings for dinner. The doctor would be there, and threat or not, he had to be hospitable. He also bought Lorena a bouquet of flowers.
When he arrived home, she and the doctor were already set up in Lorena’s lab—the dining room, which he’d given her because he never used it much, and certainly not for dining.
She smiled as he handed her the flowers. “Hello.” She tilted her face up and he snatched a kiss.
The doctor looked as Deacon remembered him: scrawny and tall, silver hair at the temples, glasses, all wise and scientist-looking. Deacon shook his hand.
“Good to see you again, Deacon. I’m happy to come back to this town, despite the circumstances. It’s beautiful here.”
“How was your trip?” Deacon squeezed Lorena. “It’s quite a haul from Lexington. Wish they’d build an airport closer.”
The doctor was using his laptop at the table. “It was uneventful, which is good. Something tells me my stay here won’t be, but that’s my job.”
Deacon lifted the grocery bags. “Hope you like chicken. I’m gonna cook us up dinner.”
“I do, thank you.”
Deacon walked to the kitchen and Lorena followed him.
He plunked the bags on the counter. “Nothing happened on the drive? Didn’t see any Wolvites?”
“No.” Lorena grabbed a vase off the windowsill. “Dr. Winston says he doesn’t mind sleeping on the couch in your office.”
Deacon stepped over and cupped her ass in both hands as she filled the vase with water. He wrapped his arms around her and got a handful of all her curves.
“We gotta finish what we started last night,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s all I could think about today. Well, not all. But a lot.”
She set the vase on the counter and placed her hands over his on her stomach. “We have a guest. Behave.�
�
He nuzzled her hair. The Wolvite stink was gone now. Just her natural smell, the one that wrapped him in chains and made him helpless.
He kneaded her breasts. “I’m trying.”
“No, you’re not.” She swatted his hands.
He smirked and pulled away. “I better cook up a bunch.” He walked over to the bags. “Everyone will be over tonight. Whatever happens, it ain’t gonna be like last time.”
Lorena plunked the flowers in the vase and fidgeted with them. She was weirdly quiet. That wasn’t a good sign.
“I have to talk to you.” She took a deep breath. “I have to tell you something.”
He unloaded one of the bags. “Sounds like something I ain’t gonna like.”
“You won’t.”
He braced himself. Things couldn’t get worse, could they?
“No one can come over here tonight,” she said. “They have to stay away.”
“How come?” He turned toward her and folded his arms.
“Because I made a deal with Neala. It makes things safer for us, but we have to make things safer for them, too.”
No, he didn’t like this. “What do you mean by that?”
“It can only be the three of us. They’re going to bring Dafydd here tonight, so Dr. Winston can look at him. But I had to make a promise that it would just be us, and we would be unarmed.”
He widened his eyes. Things could get worse.
“I know it sounds crazy.” She held up her hands. “It’s safer for us if they bring him here, but it’s less safe for them. We have to make them feel like we’re not a threat.”
He unfolded his arms. “You want me to not have a gun in my hands around Wolvites?”
“Please, Deacon.” She placed her hands on his chest. “The potion Stacy and I made, it worked, sort of. It eased Dafydd’s symptoms. That made Neala trust me and she was willing to make a deal.”
He was confused. “Wait, when did you talk to her? I thought you were gonna give them that potion tonight.”
She lowered her hands and stepped back. “I lied. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean, you lied?”
Her eyes were desperate, but her expression was like a little kid who knew they were about to get in trouble. “I gave them the potion last night, when we were at Zeke and Stacy’s. And I talked to Neala, here.”
Deacon looked out the window. “She was here?”
“I needed to make a compromise. The potion was a gesture of goodwill. I wanted Neala to see I was willing to help her.”
He looked back at her. He’d heard the expression “blind with rage,” but he only just now understood it. He was blind with something, anyway. Rage, but also disbelief.
“When the hell did you talk to her?” He struggled to keep his voice down so the doctor wouldn’t hear.
“When you were asleep last night.”
“She was in our house!”
“No.” She held her hands up again. “I went outside. I had a dream about her and when I woke up, she was out by the trees. I went out there and spoke to her.”
He turned away, dragging his hands through his hair.
“Deacon…”
“You coulda been attacked.” He growled. “They could have snatched you away again.”
“They didn’t, though. Neala is willing to bargain. They’ll bring him here instead of us going out in the woods. Isn’t that better?”
“And we’re supposed to be defenseless when they come?” He whirled around. He didn’t mean to scare her, he would never take his anger out on her, but she flinched back.
“They’ll feel the same way, Deacon. Coming to a Lycan’s house, with a sick Wolvite? They’ll be even more vulnerable than we are. That’s why I promised we’d be unarmed.”
“Why do you want to bend over backwards for these things?” He slammed his fist on the counter. “Who cares if they feel threatened? How do you think they’re making us feel right now, saying they’re gonna creep in and kill us all in our sleep?”
She clapped her hands over her face. “Do you know how much we can learn from a live Wolvite that has the virus? Not to mention one that had his symptoms eased with an experimental drug?”
The doctor cleared his throat from the doorway. Deacon looked over.
“For the record,” the doctor spoke amicably, “I think this is incredibly dangerous and I tried to talk her out of it. I just hope it’s worth it, and that it doesn’t end badly.”
Lorena lowered her hands and glared at him.
Deacon raked his hands through his hair again. “There’s no way I’m letting them things on my property without being armed. You can’t make promises like that, Lorena. Especially if you don’t want anyone else here.”
“Deacon.” She spoke firmly. “I need you to listen to reason.”
“There ain’t no reason!” He gritted his teeth and looked at the doctor. “I’m sorry. We don’t mean to argue in front of you.”
“It’s all right,” the doctor said. “This is a volatile situation. I want to get my equipment set up, and I want to grind up some more bark.” He turned and walked back to the dining room.
Deacon looked at Lorena, his jaw clenched. “So does this mean you snuck out at Zeke and Stacy’s too, when I wasn’t looking?” That’s why she had the Wolvite stink on her.
“This could be the start of peace. You said you’d love to lay your gun down.”
“So you start with that lying woman who tore our family apart, not once, but twice?”
“She didn’t have a choice as a child, they took her. They raised her up with their beliefs. It was all she knew. Yes, she had a choice in what she did to Jack, but maybe she didn’t have that much of a choice, maybe it was pounded into her that she had to do it. What if I could convince her that both sides are right? What if you could get your sister back?”
“She ain’t my sister.” He leaned toward her. “And getting her back now would only hurt my family worse.”
“So what do you want?” She stared up at him. “Do you want her to die? Do you want to kill her?”
He couldn’t answer that question. That was the gray area he lingered in, unable to find his way out.
“What you did was dumb,” he said. “Dangerous. Fool as hell. You know that. You knew I’d be mad when I found out.”
“Yes.” Her gaze was hard. “But they started this, by kidnapping me. I did those stupid things to try to deescalate the situation. If I don’t do what they want, they’re going to hurt you and your family. There’s still enough healthy Wolvites to accomplish it.”
He wanted to shake her, or maybe scoop her up and lock her in a closet, for her own safety.
“I’m trying to make this situation as safe as possible for all of us. They’re forcing me to jump through hoops, but I’m forcing them to jump through some of mine, too.”
He hung his head, trying to collect his thoughts, and whatever patience he could find. “I can’t face them without a gun.”
“You have to.”
He looked up at her, into her eyes. They were frightened now.
“Why?”
She took a breath. “Neala has a spell on me. If we don’t do as I promised, they’re going to snatch me away, for good this time.”
Chapter 9
Lorena sat at the dining room table, Dr. Winston’s lab equipment spread across it, their laptops open. Her dinner plate sat next to her, the food mostly untouched. Even angry and upset, Deacon cooked a good meal, but she was too nervous and distracted to eat. The afternoon waned, and all she could think about was the ephemeral but insistent grip around her wrists.
Dr. Winston was running tests on the bark potion, a batch of which he and Lorena mixed up while Deacon cooked in stony silence in the kitchen.
Deacon leaned in the doorway now. “That ain’t to your liking?” He nodded at her plate.
She picked up her fork. “It’s wonderful, I’m just—it’s hard to eat right now.” She popped a morsel of chicken in h
er mouth and chewed, but barely tasted it.
“Something in this potion is affecting the bark.” Dr. Winston indicated the Petri dish in front of him. “It’s reducing the viral load by double the result I had with the bark alone.”
Lorena swallowed. “It’s a simple potion meant to soothe agitation and anxiousness. It’s nothing special, I don’t think.” Stacy hadn’t indicated the potion possessed any actual healing properties.
“Nevertheless.” Dr. Winston drummed his fingers on the table. “Do you think this Neala would speak to me? Do you think she would answer some questions?”
“I don’t know.” Lorena looked at Deacon. “Neala gets defensive when I ask her things. She’s very guarded.” She forced another bite into her mouth.
“I ought to call Grammy,” Deacon said. “If anyone could get a holding spell off you, it’s her.”
Lorena put her fork down. “You can’t involve your family in this. They’ll come over here.”
“Hell, everyone is suspicious already with me telling them not to come tonight. I ain’t no good at lying, you know that. They’ll probably end up here anyway. They know something’s up.”
“If they come over, Neala is going to take me. Is that what you want?”
He looked away.
“Your grandmother wouldn’t help me anyway.” Lorena rubbed her hands on her jeans. “She’d love to see me carried off.”
Deacon pushed away from the doorjamb. “That ain’t true. I don’t know why you have to be so hostile to her. She’s a powerful witch. You and Stacy could learn plenty from her, I don’t know why the two of you always got to be tormenting her.”
“I don’t want to discuss this right now.” She pushed the plate away. “She can’t help me. We’ve got more important things to worry about, let’s focus on that.”
Deacon walked to the table. He stopped next to her chair. “You can’t throw the stone away, but what if I took it from you?”
