“There’s probably something edible around,” Shaine said.
Jess shook his head. “I’m okay.” Though it was out of place to say it, he wasn’t going to eat if he wasn’t hungry. Bane had told him true wolves could survive for over a week without food and python it when they could; werewolves tended to be tougher than true wolves. The coon he’d devoured last night would keep him comfortably until tomorrow.
He didn’t want to think about Bane.
Shaine shrugged. “Your life. Go have a shower, you’ve obviously been sleeping rough and you need one. Badly.”
Too empty inside to care, one way or the other, Jess obeyed. Memories stirred again, of trying to get clean after two weeks in the forest, but he buried it ruthlessly. He just couldn’t cope with that right now.
The clothes in his backpack weren’t noticeably cleaner than the ones he’d been wearing, but he could figure out what to do about that tomorrow. Right now, he left the bathroom, to find that all the lights were off, leaving only the glow of the streetlights outside through the two small windows, and Shaine was in bed already, waiting. He curled up against Shaine under the blankets, shivering a bit; Shaine slid an arm over him, sharing warmth. Well, what physical warmth Shaine ever had to share; with a body temperature that reminded him more of a dryad’s, Shaine was certainly no elvenmage. But the other kind of warmth, that was another matter.
“Shaine?” he said, after a few minutes.
“Hmm?”
“I really really need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“I’m a werewolf.”
“Oh. I was scared maybe you were gonna say you’re back on those fucking drugs again.”
“I mean it. I can be a wolf when I try.”
“‘Least I won’t have to worry so much about whether you’re safe.”
There was that.
“Drugs are no good. They don’t work anymore.”
“All the better,” Shaine said. “Shut up and go to sleep.”
35
Rebecca left the bank at five, and decided to wander the village rather than going home. The increasing tension within Whitethorn wasn’t something she really wanted to deal with just now.
Hm, it might be worth it to see what was new at Donovan’s shop. She walked the three blocks to Arachne’s Loom deep in her own troubled thoughts.
Evaline and Liam were there, Evaline holding up a rather attractive blue and orange dress against her and waiting for Liam’s opinion.
“I think you should try…” He broke off, and glanced towards Rebecca. Evaline echoed it, and growled low in her throat.
Rebecca ignored her, and swept past them towards the back of the shop. She stopped to look at a rack of bright-coloured vests, some magesilk, some made by more conventional methods.
Evaline came up behind her.
“We’re going to find him. We’ll get him home somehow. You aren’t going to win.”
“I really don’t care,” Rebecca said disdainfully. “Find him, forget him, it makes no difference to me.” She considered telling Evaline how interested the demon plane seemed to be in Jesse, but decided against it. Why should she give them free information?
“Y’know, Sam said something the first time she saw Jess. She said that he’s a lot more than a stray out of the city, and anyone who forgets that is going to regret it. I wouldn’t blame him if he decided it’s his turn for a little revenge once he comes home. And he will. That bond between him and Kevin and Gisela is too strong.”
“I’m sorry, I must not have made this clear.” She spun around, and met Evaline’s eyes levelly. “I do not care. At all. I do not need your pathetic attempts at threats. I do not care what Samantha said. And truthfully, given how easily manipulated that black wolf of yours is, I am not especially worried about whether he hates me. Excuse me.” She stepped around Evaline, and stopped at a rack of long skirts.
Evaline made a disgusted sound. “Kevin’s right. You are a coward. You’ve lost face with every wolf in Haven for this.”
Rebecca gritted her teeth, acutely aware of that fact and hating it. Had she challenged Jesse openly, beaten him in a fair fight and driven him away from Haven, that would be acceptable behaviour. Not that it would have endeared her to the other wolves, but she would at least have not lost face. Being implicated as the voice behind Avryl’s treachery, however, was another matter, and it damaged her standing with the Haven wolves badly. The opinions of non-wolves didn’t matter, but her status with the wolves did.
There seemed, however, to be no way to negate it without making it worse.
“Evaline,” she said. “Surely you have something better to do with your time. Are you really so bored?”
“You’re not a wolf,” Evaline spat, turning away. “You’re a dog pretending to be a wolf.”
Holding her growing anger firmly in check wasn’t easy, but this was neither the time nor the place to fight Evaline. It would only make her look even worse.
Damn this whole mess. She was sorry now she’d ever laid eyes on Kevin Lioren and thought she could have him to herself. Directly and indirectly, he was the ultimate reason why she was now standing in quicksand and had to hunt for a way to escape it. Elves were more trouble than they were worth.
36
For the hundredth time, Kevin settled himself on his bed with his homework; for the hundredth time, he read the same paragraph, but it still made no sense to him. For the hundredth time, he gave up, went back to pacing restlessly around the room.
Deanna knocked quietly on the door, and crossed the room to hug him.
“Are you okay? You’re broadcasting pretty strongly…”
“Sorry.”
“That isn’t what I mean, and you know it. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Something’s wrong, but I don’t know what, or where, but I can’t get it out of my head.”
“Jess?” she asked gently.
He sighed. “I was trying not to think that.”
“Give up on the homework. Come on downstairs.”
“Well, I’m not accomplishing much up here.”
Past Jesse’s empty room, a constant reminder of something rarely far from anyone’s thoughts anyway. The equinox was just past, it was less than a week to Jesse’s birthday…
How under the sun had he made everybody love him so much, that two months later they were still worrying about him all the time?
He found no more peace in the cosy dining room with his coven-mates, Flynn intent on a jigsaw puzzle on the table, Cynthia curled up in one corner of the couch with her current knitting project, Bane dozing furform on the rug by the woodstove. Restlessly, he picked up the brush from the ledge by the woodstove, and sat cross-legged beside Bane; he had to smile when the wolf woke at the first touch and helpfully rearranged himself so Kevin could reach him more easily. Deanna claimed the other end of the couch and retrieved an oversized book lying open and face-down beside her, revealing a notebook under it—research for something, apparently. Kevin concentrated on brushing Bane’s heavy fur tangle-free and shining-soft, always a popular pastime for both wolves and friends.
Even that couldn’t calm him as it usually did. He laid down the brush, and got up. “I’m going for a walk.”
Bane growled halfheartedly, and went back to his nap.
He made no effort to decide where to go, simply let instinct lead him where it would, trusting to his own deeper self to take him where his conscious self couldn’t.
A wolf snarling, somewhere ahead… he knew wolves well enough to recognize it as defensive, not aggressive.
He ran down the rest of that hill, up the higher one in front of him, and found a small black wolf—with two unnaturally large grey wolves at his heels. The black wolf staggered, all too obviously exhausted, but he still spun around clumsily to attack. The grey wolf slipped to the side, got around behind him and snapped at his flank, and the other mirrored it. Jess tried again, with no more luck; the grey wolves weren’t
going to let him stand and fight. They drove him back into a faltering limping run again, matching his speed without letting him slow.
Kevin felt pure heat surge along every nerve—a sensation he recognized, the wild mad ecstasy of power, stirred and fed by strong emotion. He’d learned the seductive joy of it along with the satisfaction of taming it under Thomas, surrendered himself to it with Rebecca, and mastered it again.
This time, he was in control of it, not the other way around.
He crossed the road so he was directly in their path.
Jess almost hit him; he stumbled again, this time fell and simply lay there, sides heaving.
Kevin stepped between Jess and the grey wolves. They were neither werewolves nor true wolves, mage-sight told him, they were constructs, mage-made, something that he’d only ever heard of as a theory since it took immense amounts of power and a high level of skill.
“Come on,” he told them, his voice dangerously quiet. “Try to get him now.”
They hesitated, pacing back and forth; their programming probably didn’t include what to do if they were confronted directly by someone other than their prey.
Gisela darted out of the trees, and made directly for Jess. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised she’d felt the same call that had brought him here. The healer dropped to her knees beside the collapsed black wolf.
Kevin reached into the sunlight, let that combine with the rage, felt the brilliant heat of more raw power than most mages could hope to survive unscathed.
Part of it he used to shield Jess and Gisela; he heard Gisela whisper, “Uh-oh, brace yourself, Jess.”
The rest, with no attempt at shaping it beyond directing it to its targets, he turned loose on the two constructs. The intoxicating strength of it washed over him; what he knew would have put most mages on their knees in agony was to him an electric high.
The constructs, with yowls of protest, melted back into the formless solid-energy masses they’d been made from, then even that disintegrated back to its natural state.
The power was still there, begging to be used, there wasn’t anyone who could stop him if he chose to take what it offered…
“Kev?” Gisela said softly, her voice shaky. Not afraid, exactly… but not far from it.
Grimly, he leashed the power, channelled it away, back into the sunlight. It obeyed; it was himself he had to fight to do it.
He turned around, and scooped Jesse up carefully, using enough of the lingering power to lighten his weight. “I’m okay, kitten,” he said, surprised at his own hoarseness. “I’m not going to lose it.”
“I was starting to wonder, for a minute, but I didn’t really think you would.”
“Near miss, but not quite.” That faith felt better, in a way, than the ecstasy of being at the heart of so much power. With his arms full of a weakly-struggling wolf, he had to shape the gate with his mind alone. He waited for Gisela to step through, then followed. The road vanished, replaced by the solid familiarity of the living room.
The rest of Sundark were in the dining room still, but everyone was talking at once; when he and Gisela came in, abrupt silence fell, then came a dozen questions all over-top of one another.
“Be quiet for a minute,” he told them sharply, and laid Jess down on the now-vacant couch. “Is he okay, ‘Sela?”
She perched on the edge, rested a hand on his side, and closed her eyes. Hob jumped up to investigate, unsurprisingly, but Cynthia picked him up and held him in her arms where he could watch without being in the way.
“I think so. He’s hurt in a few places, but nothing really bad… there’s traces of some kind of poison, it did an awful lot of damage before his body recognized it and countered it, I don’t know what it was, they must’ve had poisoned teeth, these look like bites. Mostly just exhaustion. Kev, they must have chased him for hours! It’s a wonder he made it here at all!”
“Who chased him?” Bane demanded, more than a hint of growl in his voice.
“I’ll see what I can fix, but mostly he just needs to sleep. And not do much when he wakes up. At least he can’t run away again for a while, I don’t think he’d make it out of Janicot.” More silence, no one willing to break her concentration while she was intent on healing.
“That’s all I can do,” she pronounced finally. “Can you take him to his room?”
Wordlessly, Kevin gathered him up again. He heard Gisela tell the others to stay there, then she joined him.
Gisela flipped back the blankets, so Kevin could lay Jesse down again, this time in his own bed. The wolf stirred restlessly, and his form fluxed to human, Kevin didn’t think he was even entirely conscious; he nestled into the blankets Gisela drew over him, and relaxed completely. Hob darted in the door, launched himself onto the bed, and curled up next to Jess, glaring defiance of anyone who might dare try to move him again.
On some level, he knows he’s home safe. Gently, Kevin brushed raven-dark hair away from Jesse’s face. I promise, Jess, I’m not going to make you sorry ever again for trusting me, just please give me a chance…
“Your turn,” Gisela said, and motioned to the loveseat. Kevin decided not to argue, sat down and let her examine him.
“No more stretching for a couple of days,” she told him. “You’ve got a mild case of backlash, it’s been a long time since you used that much power all at once. Why don’t you stay here and catnap a bit? I’ll explain to your coven and make sure someone brings you something to eat.”
“Okay.” He coiled himself so he could rest his head on his arm, his arm on the loveseat. Gisela settled a magesilk blanket over him, kissed his cheek fleetingly, and left the door ajar a couple of inches for Hob behind her.
37
Gisela made her way back downstairs, to the dining room. Sundark hadn’t calmed down noticeably; she was all but attacked.
With proper healer composure, she leaned against the doorway and waited for them to stop all talking at once.
“There were two constructs shaped like wolves chasing Jess,” she explained calmly. “Kev and I got there at almost the same time. He destroyed them. Better yet, he did it without losing control. He’s pretty badly shaken up, though. They’re both up in Jesse’s room, I’m going to get Kev something to eat, and after that, don’t even think about disturbing either one.”
The phone rang; Cynthia picked it up. “Heya, Lori. Here, ask ‘Sela.”
Gisela crossed the room to take the phone, repeat the story for Lori—she’d felt the disturbance, she said—and ask her to explain to the other Haven mages.
“I’ll tell Katherine and Tomas,” Lori promised. “Everybody else will be calling them to ask, only Tomas and Moira and I would be familiar enough with Kev’s signature to identify it that fast from a distance. Naomi picked up the fringes of it too, so it was strong enough for at least the witches who know Kev to sense.”
“I’ll call Winter. Any other witches who noticed can find out on their own.”
“He’s all right?”
“They both are.”
“Leave it to Kev… Right. I’ll talk to you later.”
Gisela hung up, dialled Coven Winter’s number. Liam answered.
“Is Nick okay?” she asked him.
“He and Sonja are cuddled together on the couch and I’m not sure which one is more shaken up. What’s going on?”
Typical that hypersensitive Sonja would also catch it. She repeated her account yet again.
“Why am I not surprised at that being the source? Need me for Jess?”
“Wouldn’t hurt, but it can wait until you take care of Sonja and Nick. It’ll be mostly trying to clear out the fatigue poisons faster than his body can plus some overextended muscles. Other than that, there are a couple of bites, that’s about it.”
“I’ll be over in a while, then.”
“Right. ‘Bye.” She returned the phone to its cradle. “It even hit Naomi and Nick and Sonja,” she told Sundark.
“Typical,” Bane growled softly. “When phoeni
x gets angry, he has to let everyone in Haven know.”
“You know it’s going to hurt Kev if you say things like that in his hearing. If I could, I would’ve done the same thing, after what they were doing to Jess.” Just the thought was enough to put unhealerlike visions in her head. What depths of cruelty did it take to try to kill a wolf by running him until he collapsed?
She got her feelings back under control firmly. “I’ll be up in Kev’s room. Liam will be over sooner or later.”
She detoured to the kitchen to fill a plate with Kevin’s ever-present homemade cookies and a large cup with juice, added a hasty sandwich of leftover roast beef, delivered it, and roused Kevin enough for him to start automatically eating.
Kevin wasn’t going to mind if she sat here on his bed across the hall, legs crossed tailor-fashion. There were prices on being a healer and helping her friends, and one of them was self-discipline. Less than two months shy of nineteen, she was no longer an apprentice with the luxury of letting her feelings show; she was a healer, finished the basic training every healer had, and near the end of the somewhat more complex training necessary for a healer who routinely dealt with all four races, if nowhere near to the height of her power.
Self-discipline was as important to a healer as it was to a witch or an elvenmage: to the witch because loss of control made the elements respond, the mage because loss of control could be extremely destructive, and to a healer because if her feelings ruled they would hinder her in what her first priority must always be.
She closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, reached to the earth to ask it to give her energy and accept her chaotic feelings.
A gentle psychic touch, the equivalent of a knock at the door: Liam letting her know he was there and asking her to come back. There was no hurry, she could take her time coming out of the trance.
“Are you all right?” he asked quietly.
“Mmhmm.”
“Don’t lie to the healer, ‘Sela.”
“Really. Just a lot of feelings hitting me all at once. Anger at whoever did this, relief that Jesse’s home… but I’m scared of what’ll happen when he wakes up. If he sees this as a betrayal… Liam, I’m the only one that won’t make either one throw up all shields.”
Black Wolf Page 29
