“You need to stop me changing right now!”
At first I thought he was going to get mad. I mean, I had just slapped him. He didn't seem to care his jewels were in knee-up distance. He lowered his hand, shook his head, and the expression he gave me was not good. "Can't do, chérie. For the antidote to work, you have to be in the fever," he grinned. "We have two days before it starts. So first we find our own."
I could hear their laughter in my head and I hated it. They knew they had me by the balls, so to speak. And since I didn't know what he’d use to stop his venom, I didn't know how to get around this intolerable situation. And that just made me madder. As their laughter intensified in my head, I could make out distinct voices now and then. There were cracks about my hair, my lack of a shape, my small tits and then finally about how I was too weak to bear a prince of the wolves.
I closed my eyes and thought about burning them all, lighting them on fire, destroying them where they sat, stood and laughed inside their heads. And once I had all of those destructive thoughts, I wrapped them in a nice package and blew it back out to them.
All of them. To every wolf linked to the pack mind.
Wolves jumped around us, whined and yelped out. Some rolled on the ground as I blasted their thoughts back at them.
Even Bastien looked in pain for a short minute or two, before he looked past me to his pack and then narrowed his yellow eyes at me. "You would dare?"
"You dared. I'm just letting you and your knuckleheads know that I am not your mate, that I will never bear you children and that I am in control of me," I turned and looked at the circle of rolling, writhing wolves. "Do I make myself clear?"
Oh dear…Grey said in a sad voice.
What? You think that was too much? They've got to know they can't just control people like that. Not me! I'm my own person!
She looked up at me and when I looked down at her said, It's not that. It's…he really likes you now.
Oh, damn.
When I heard all of them answer yes, I slammed the door shut. Just a simple visualization of a door in my mind slamming shut to their thoughts. I locked the door up tight and kept the key. Once that was done, I looked at Bastien. "I suggest you start talking so we can find your people."
Part of me didn't want to help him at all, but the larger part of me was thinking of the unborn child. Human or wolf, I couldn't turn my back on a baby.
Bastien straightened up and squared his shoulders. This just made him look like a strutting peacock to me. Yes, I was still pissed off.
"Five days ago, we were hunting in the bayou and smelled something wrong. With the foul scent came screams. We believed it was a non-pack wolf. Mon frére took off after the noise, followed by his den mate," Bastien looked around at the recovering wolves. "We gave chase, but they were gone. We caught the scent of their blood and followed it to the edge of the city to a morgue."
"So you know one of your brothers is dead."
"Non. Mon frére still lives. Petite soeur is gone. They are both missing. But the blood in the morgue is wolf and probably the source of the screams we heard, so we hope the body will give us a clue as to who harmed it and took our family."
I had to think about the usage of the language before I clarified. "Are you saying the brother that's missing is your actual blood brother? Familial kin."
"Oui."
"And the female that's missing, the one that's pregnant, is your brother's mate?"
"Oui."
Ivan spoke up, his voice a lot calmer. "Why can't you go get it yourself? If there's a body there, the NOPD would probably love to have someone ID it."
Bastien's face darkened. I feared for a second he might lunge after Ivan and that wasn't going to work for me. "Ivan, have you seen any mention of any unidentified bodies being found in the bayou recently?"
He shook his head.
"That's your answer. If Bastien or any of his pack goes straight to that morgue and requests to see a specific body, it'll look suspicious. Then they'll ask questions the pack isn't prepared to answer. And," I held up my finger. "This wolf isn't part of their pack. They may not be able to ID it."
The edge of Bastien's sensuous mouth pulled up. "Smart."
Asshole.
"D'accord?" Bastien asked.
I looked at Ivan and Kyle.
Ivan made a face. "Do we have a choice? I personally don't want to see you end up as this lug's breeding mate."
Bastien growled.
I held my hand up in Bastien's face. "Down puppy. Kyle?"
Kyle's hesitation surprised me. I figured as my friend he'd be just as pissed off about the bite thing.
I leaned toward him. "Hello?"
"There's something you need to know before we do this."
"What? You're secretly a Werewolf?"
"No," he did this weird shrug by raising his shoulders all the way up to his ears and held out his hands. "But I'm dating one."
A movement behind Kyle caught my attention. Another human form stood up in the shadows. As this one stepped closer and into the dimming firelight, my jaw hit the floor.
Jack Roberts.
Ivan and I both looked at Kyle, but he was looking at Jack.
"Mon dieu," Ivan said as he slapped his hands to his cheeks.
THREE
Now I'd seen everything. I looked back at Bastien, who didn't seem that surprised. "You knew they were dating?"
"There is nothing in Jack's mind I do not know."
Jack cleared his throat. He looked less comfortable with his own nakedness. "It's the link, Sam. The pack's known from the moment I set eyes on Kyle."
I…didn't know what to say. But this answered a few questions that had popped up tonight. Like how Kyle knew how to talk to an Alpha, and he knew they preferred to be called Lycans. It was because he'd been sleeping with one!
Fatigue crept up my back as I looked at the burning embers in our fire.
"Sam?" Kyle said. "Are you upset?"
"No. Why should I be upset? I've lost my dad, my Elementals, and now a Werewolf has bitten me as a threat so that I'll find his missing brother and his wife. What's to be upset about?"
"Uh…" Ivan said. Poor boy didn't know how to react to what I'd just said. "Sam, is there anything I can do—" Ivan leaned his head to his shoulder.
He was the sweetest guy. Cute too, with his Japanese American features. I didn't feel right about this task the wolves dumped on me. And I did not want to be this wolf's mate. The first person I planned on talking to was Crwys. Hopefully he'd heard something else on my warlocking. Like when it could be removed. The Hammer had been found, or rather a copy of it had been found. A copy I'd ask him to make. As to my copy? It was gone. Regardless of whether I had it or not, Parliament had their copy. I was innocent. But I was still warlocked.
I should be freed. But apparently their process on reversing their decisions moved at the speed of ice.
"You have a deal, Mr. LeBlanc. But with a few caveats."
Bastien smiled. "Please speak."
I could see my handprint on the side of his face, quite prominent in the moonlight. "One, you won't go looking for blood. Period. Whether we find your people or not."
"Done."
"And two, you have got to talk to me with clothes on and not in fur suits, got it?"
He laughed and looked down at Grey who'd been sitting there this whole time, very quietly. “Ma petite, paladin. She is as you said, fierce." He was in my space in seconds. He took my hand and brought it to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it. His skin was hot. So much like Crwys's temperature. "You have promises. I will wait on news," he kissed my hand again. "Bonne nuit, chérie." And then he was gone and in his place was the musty scent of him.
Jack no longer stood as a naked man, but a large black wolf beside Kyle.
"Jai faim!" Bastien called out just before he blurred back into Big Red and the whole pack ran off into the foggy woods.
All four of us watched as they disappeared.
"Well, that's not something you see every day."
I elbowed Ivan and immediately focused my ire on Kyle. "You want to start talking now?"
But Kyle wasn't going to be bullied, especially not by me. He held up a finger and pointed to the low crackling embers, which was pretty much all that was left of our fire. "If we're going to have a full moon ritual, I suggest we get on with it. If not, I say we put the fire out, pack up and head back to the shop. Jack will meet us there when he's done."
"If it's all the same to you two," Ivan said as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "I'm up for Kyle talking about his boyfriend being a wolf, and some hot chocolate made with real milk, rather than a ritual."
I hated to admit it, but I just wasn't in the mood to be real ritually. Or witchy. And hot chocolate sounded good.
Kyle put the fire out as Ivan and I gathered our things. Once back in my Jeep I pulled out my phone. No bars. "Anyone got service?"
"Nope," Kyle said as the light from his phone cast deep shadows across his face.
"Ivan?"
Ivan had his eyes closed and his hands out. I could see the eerie green glow of his magic as it ebbed and flowed around him. He waved his hands and dismissed it. "Nah. The web's too thin out here for me to connect without bouncing off it. Funny to think there are still vestiges of wilderness in this world, isn't it?"
I grinned at his reflection in my rear view mirror. Ivan's Gift, the power bestowed upon him by what we called the God Mother, was that he could touch the Cyber World. He could dive into Cyberspace and manipulate it with a thought. It was a new power—something I'd never seen before. But we'd recently learned he wasn't the only one of his kind.
Kyle was a Hedge Witch. This magic was considered more common; except for the fact Kyle was a man. Most Hedge Witches were female. A Hedge Witch worked with herbs and spells and could literally create magic from the spirits of organic items found around them.
And then there was me. I was an Elemental Witch and could, at one time, control the Elements with my Gift. I was also on my way to learning Spirit, the fifth Element. And this brings me back to the warlocking, where my Gift was taken from me. Usually warlocked Witches go insane with the stress caused by being unable to use their magic. Especially Elemental Witches. Our connection to the Elementals is personal, so taking them from us was like destroying our family.
And I'd already had enough of my family destroyed.
I was waiting for Parliament to give me back my Gift, but all I was getting was a recorded, "We'll get back to you on that," message. It was going on a month now and I was losing my patience.
"You don't mind if Jack comes to the shop, do you?"
So first he tells me Jack's coming, and now he's asking. I backed the Jeep out of the flat space I parked in and maneuvered it over some bumpy terrain to get back to the dirt road. "When?"
"Late tonight?"
"Sure." Once on the road I relaxed into my seat and smiled at Grey as she settled into the front passenger seat for the ride home. "As long as you'll strip down to your tighty-whiteys and show us you don't have any bite marks or claw marks in the morning."
"That's a good point," Ivan chimed in. "We don't want to wake up to a toothy, hairy Kyle."
"What the hell for? Jack's an apogee. He couldn't turn me if he wanted to."
"So, they use the distance to the moon at different times to signify species?" Ivan was interested now. One of the things about Cyber Witches I've observed is their uncanny ability to find and hold knowledge. They craved it. That made Ivan a walking Google.
"I don't know about Lycans in general, I just know how Aces use those terms. Apogees are those that were turned from the bite of a perigee."
"And a perigee?" I prompted.
"They're born with the wolf inside of them. There aren't many in the world, so when they're perigee they're considered special. Shifting is easier for them and they have better control. They're not ruled by the moon when shifting, though full moons do make it hard not to shift. Bastien's a perigee, that's why his bite can turn you," he leaned forward. "Can I see the bite?"
"When we get back. I'd like it if you'd give it a good cleaning?" Another thing about Hedge Witches is their natural ability to heal.
I turned the Jeep out onto the highway and glanced at Kyle in the rearview mirror. "How did you find out Jack was a Werewolf? Was it before or after he and his G-men arrested Ivan?"
"Lycan. They like to be called Lycan because Werewolf is just too Hollywood," Kyle huffed. "It was after Jack helped us get Ivan released. We were supposed to meet up at Le Roundup and he didn't show. When I went looking for him at his apartment," Kyle shrugged. "I got a surprise."
"And he didn't try and eat you?" Ivan asked.
"Yeah, he did. But I'm not helpless, you ijit."
Ivan laughed.
Not me. I was concerned. "Kyle, he could have hurt you, even if he couldn't turn you. Why didn't you call me?"
"You weren't exactly…" Kyle looked at the rearview mirror. "You weren't in any condition to help. It was just after you took out your dad's house."
I looked at the road. "Oh. So how did you not get eaten?"
"I had wolfsbane in the car. I'd been over to Paulette's to pick some up. Had the sample in my pocket and what do you know," he laughed nervously. "It worked."
"You're kidding," I looked back at him. "Wolfsbane protected you from him ripping you apart."
"And it worked tonight," he smiled. "Jack said it did. He could hear the others talking."
I slammed the brakes on the Jeep in the middle of the highway. Grey was abruptly deposited into the front floorboard and the two meatheads in the back hit the backs of the seats with their faces. After I threw it in park, I apologized to my mom, turned in my seat and pointed at Kyle. "You used wolfsbane out there in that Circle? In a full moon?"
Kyle looked less than happy with me. But he didn't answer.
"That means you knew they'd show up, didn't you?"
Ivan righted himself and turned his body to face Kyle in the small space. "Dude…is Sam right? You knew we were going to get interrupted by Werewolves?"
"Lycans," Kyle said. "And I wasn't sure. I told Jack what we were going to do and when he found out where we were going to be he warned me that was pack territory."
"That's free land. State owned."
"They don't recognize state rules or federal rules. Jack suggested I make something that'll protect us."
"He knew we'd need protecting."
Kyle shrugged. "He knew the pack would be out on a full moon. It made sense to me."
"But you never considered talking to me? Or Ivan? What about us? You might like getting it on with a furry man, but that might not be something Ivan and I want."
"No. Uh uh. Not into furry men," Ivan held out his hands. "Not happening. I like women. No fur."
"Why are you so mad?"
"Why shouldn't I be? Kyle…you knew there was a Werewolf—Lycan pack living right here in New Orleans. You're sleeping with one. That man suggested you use wolfsbane in a ritual because he thought we might get attacked. You knew this. Ivan and I didn't." I glanced at Ivan to make sure and he nodded his head. "That's irresponsible. You let us walk into what could have been a dangerous situation."
"But it wasn't! In fact, LeBlanc asked you for a favor."
"A favor?" I jerked my shirt and jacket away from my shoulder to expose the bloody bite and conjured a small red ball of light with my other hand so he could see. Of course the red light didn't help the appearance of the bloody shoulder. "Does this look like a favor? That bastard bit me and threatened to make me a brood mare if we can't find their people. Aren't you the least bit apologetic?"
Kyle did look a little green at the sight of my shoulder.
Sam, that symbol is glowing. You need to calm down. Breathe.
I dismissed the ball of light and put my hand to my chest and felt the warmth coming through my shirt. Mom was right. It'd been doing that every time I h
ad a heavy emotional response to something. But neither of us had any idea what it meant. Was it a warning of bigger things to come if I lost my cool? Given the absence of my dad's house, I'd call that a yeah. "You tell Jack to come to the shop. I have a lot of questions for him, about everything."
Kyle didn't say anything else. I took several deep breaths, with my mom coaxing me, and I started back down the highway toward home.
What I didn't know was that the pack's troubles and mine were about to become one.
FOUR
I was expecting Jack Roberts to show up at my door later. Preferably without a fur coat and fully clothed. Unfortunately, no one told me the NOPD would be waiting on us when we arrived.
Blue and red lights illuminated the street in front of Bell, Book and Candle as we approached Bourbon Street. I pulled the Jeep around back and parked in the alley. We piled out of the car and hurried inside before the cops caught on that we'd slipped in without them noticing, which I didn't think was the truth because they knew all these shops had back doors.
"What do you think's going on?" Kyle asked as we made our way to the front where the main retail shop was.
"I have no freak'n idea. I just hope they don't come in here. Ivan?"
He stopped by the computer, which flipped out of sleep mode without anyone touching it. The web browser opened as page after page was displayed and then replaced by another. The cascade finally stopped on a small article in the Picayune Times Online. We piled around the computer just as the police banged on the front door. "This is the New Orleans Police Department. Open up!"
"Do I let them in?" Kyle asked.
I was scanning the article. "It's about the mutilated body in the morgue."
"Miss Hawthorne!" came Captain Prescott's voice through the door. "I can see you in there. Open this door immediately."
Ivan touched my arm. "Go. I'll keep looking."
Grey moved out of my way and kept just behind the counter as I walked fast to the door. The wards the three of us set up were in place and nothing vibrated inside of them to warn me there was any Other World threat outside the door. No crazy-ass Changelings or ninja Ghouls. I unlocked the door and opened it. Three uniformed officers flanked Captain Mildred Prescott, who stood in the center. She wore a black calf-length coat and a gray infinity scarf. Her dark eyes narrowed from the illumination coming out of the shop as Kyle turned on the interior lighting at just the right moment. "Captain Prescott, to what do I owe the pleasure of the NOPD at one o'clock in the morning?"
Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three Page 2
