I smiled at Bastien and put my hand on his arm. "There will be no ripping of throats, okay? There's been enough ripping of a lot of things. Especially flesh, given what we all just saw in that morgue." I had to put on my serious face, and my serious attitude now. I also needed to talk to Crwys and get information on what he found at that call. Given our previous conversation, I was sure he'd call me once he found out I wasn't in the hospital anymore and I'd skipped out on the bill. Oops.
What I didn't want was him coming by while the wolves were in the shop. Though he said he wanted to talk to the wolves, I wasn't so sure the puppies should meet Mister Flame On.
Jack walked from around the table and pulled down four mugs. He also pulled out the tea sampler Kyle picked up a week ago and set it on the table. "I think we need to take a moment to think about the implications. Have some tea and put our heads together?"
Bastien snorted before he pointed at Jack. "Apogee."
"You say that like it's a dirty word," I said.
"Not a dirty word. Just is. Jack's turning was the mistake of Marilla's frére."
I wanted to make sure I understood what Bastien just said as Jack took the now heated kettle off its stand and poured equal amounts of hot water in each mug. "Marilla is the missing female?"
"Oui."
"And her brother is responsible for turning Jack?"
Bastien nodded. Suddenly he looked tired, almost like a parent at their wit's end as he rubbed at his face. "Oui. Lucas is perigee, same as his soeur. Only perigee can make a chiot."
"Chiot?"
"Me," Jack said as he set the kettle back on its stand. "Apogees who accept the pack and the pack accepts them are known as chiot, or pups, because we're turned. Those that are young and born are called loup de chiot. There is a preference given to the perigee, but from what I've been able to learn, perigee aren't born as often as they once were. For every twenty children born to the perigee, maybe one is perigee and the others are human. In this area, the Lycans' numbers have been declining fast for the past fifty years, so they've been forced to selectively choose those to carry on and create apogee."
"Can apogee have perigee?" The words felt odd on my tongue.
Bastien answered with a nod. "But the births, they are as rare as any perigee couple. Arduinna has much in store for us, but we don't know why she wants so few of us."
There was that name again. I needed to educate myself where Arduinna fit into the pantheon of myths I'd grown up with. The world was filled with so many of them, from the Greeks to the Norse, the Native American to even the Witches. Similarities in names as well as positions and attributes bled from culture to culture and I accepted the old adage that all the Gods and Goddesses were one.
But I was having a bit of trouble accepting that a Goddess whose patronage was wolf-people had a shared pantheon with my own. I didn't think it was because I was stingy with my own Gods and Goddesses, it was just…Witches and wolves? How urban fantasy-esque was that?
The back door opened before I asked my question about Arduinna.
Sam!
My heart melted into my insides, making my middle gooey and golden as Grey came running from the back. I knelt down and scooped her into my arms as she nipped, licked and whined aloud, all the while talking to me. Oh I missed you! They fed me dog food. Dog food! As if I were some ordinary canine in such a foul place. And speaking of foul places—wait until I tell you where they stuck things!
Bastien's rich, deep laughter made a nice accompaniment to Mom's non-stop complaining. I realized she was broadcasting to the entire pack.
Then that laughter twisted and became a howl. A dark, spine chilling howl. Grey and I pulled back from our place on the floor as Bastien turned. I stood up as he moved in front of me in a protective stance.
Jack took an almost comical growling stance by the counter as the two faced the back.
Crwys and Levi stepped into view; both of them wearing some seriously bored expressions at the display. Crwys was the first to approach. His eyes were red; Levi's were hidden behind shades.
"Easy there, puppies." Crwys said as he moved around the table and approached me from behind. He was quick and slipped his arm around my waist. "We're not the enemy here. But you and me," he said as he pointed at Bastien with his free hand. "We are going to have a lesson on marking another man's woman."
Wait…what?
Jack was the one that spoke. "Diable du feu," he said in a thick voice. He looked like he was mentally caught in between, as if he wanted to shift but wouldn't or couldn't. It reminded me of the condition of the girl's body in the morgue.
Levi laughed as he joined us at the table. He put his hands on the back of one of the chairs, standing just a few feet from Jack. Levi is a beautiful man. Physically, he reminded me a lot of the actor Michael Ealy. He wore nice suits, liked to follow the rules and always wore shades. I didn't know if the shades were an affectation due to his allergy to sunlight, or because he looked good in them.
"Told you, 'Lo," Levi said as he removed his shades and revealed his incredible blue eyes. "I'm not diable to a Lycan. That's you."
Levi had started calling Crwys 'Lo a lot lately and I couldn't figure out why. When I asked Crwys, all he would say was it was a childhood name.
"You shouldn't be here," Bastien pointed at Crwys.
"Neither should you, Lassie. The agreement was you stay in your woods and it stays government protected land."
Lassie? I stepped back from Crwys and looked at him like he'd lost his freak'n mind. Yeah, Crwys was tall and wiry and sexy, but Bastien was a good foot and a half taller, and he's a wolf.
Let me repeat—he is a wolf!
Bastien looked from Crwys to me and back to Crwys. “Ma petite was yours?"
Crwys pulled me close to him. "Is."
Bastien stepped forward and let loose a growl before he said, "I offer a challenge. For the right of petite."
Crwys stood up straight and sneered. "I accept."
I pushed back and held out my hands. "Whoa, both of you. Wait a second. No one consulted me on this. I date whom I choose, not the other way around. And before we start showing who's got the bigger balls, we have a job to do because whether you like it or not, Mr. LeBlanc, I do not want to be your mate. Got it?" I glared at Bastien. "Got it?"
"Oui."
Crwys snorted.
I whirled on him. "And you…be nice. Don't think this is over. I plan on finding out why Jack called you a fire demon."
He grinned and I was happy to see the amber return to his eyes. "Jack is mistaken. And you can't possibly think I'm going to trust this schmuck after he forcibly marked you."
"She didn't fight."
I pointed at Bastien. "Stop it! I didn't know what you were doing." I grabbed an English breakfast tea and started steeping it. Bastien grabbed a honey lemon and Jack grabbed a chai. All of this was done in silence, except for Mom talking to me about her ordeal and the four of them giving each other ugly looks. No one said another word out loud until we were seated at the table, each with a mug of tea. I made sure I sat away from both of the big boys.
"The body in the morgue isn't one of the Aces. She isn't even a full wolf." I sipped my tea and let the warmth do its job.
Bastien finished his tea and stood to refill the kettle and start it heating again.
Levi held up his hands. "You guys were in the morgue?"
Everyone nodded. I said, "Yeah, I was looking for the body when Ivan—"
Wait…where was Ivan?
Speaking his name brought him to the forefront of everyone's mind. Grey was on the floor beside my chair and perked her head up as well.
"Sam," Kyle said. "Have you talked to him since the morgue?"
"Ivan was in the morgue too?" Crwys asked. The two cops did not look happy.
"He was in the security system," I said to Crwys before I turned to Kyle. "No. I haven't."
"I'll call," Kyle retrieved his phone.
"Back up," Crwys said. "Ivan br
oke into the hospital security system so you could go looking for the mutilated body."
I frowned at him. "You're learning our M.O."
"Do you know how many laws he broke doing that?"
I stared at Crwys. Since when was this guy worried about rules? "Ivan's good at what he does. Are you afraid they'll catch him?"
"Aren't you?"
A shrug was my best answer. "No. I trust him. Look, why are you so weirded out?"
Crwys stood and came around the table to offer me his hand. "We need to talk in private. Please?" he asked.
I took it and stood. He led me toward my office, away from the break room area. I felt Bastien's eyes on us and glanced over at him. He looked…irritated. Crwys turned us around so that my back was to Bastien. "Sam, think about this. It occurs to me, or maybe I'm just suspicious by nature, that the Magical Parliament is more interested in keeping your Elemental Gifts locked up. They passed them around the table like party favors. That gives them the false sense of security that you're powerless," his gaze searched my face. "They have the copy of the Hammer. They dismissed the charges against Arden, and have made a public statement that you were incorrectly accused. But you're still warlocked. Aren't you the least bit curious why?"
"I figured they were just slow to admit they were in the wrong."
"Babe, you've got something inside that's slowly taking hold of you, making you far more dangerous than you were before the warlocking."
My eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
* * *
"I'm saying that your Elemental power is what kept the Arcane in check. But now that your natural power's been stripped," Crwys's voice had lowered considerably. "Arcane is free to do what it wants. And the sad part about this is if the Parliament knew you had this thing inside of you, they never would have warlocked you. They'd have just killed you. My suspicion is that someone suspects you do have Arcane and they're stopping your Elementals from controlling it, hoping you'll somehow betray your use of something they view as highly forbidden. I don't know who, but you can bet you're being watched. I think it's a good idea not to be so visible until the warlocking is removed."
"My Elementals were the ones keeping the Arcane in check?" I put my hand on his hand. "How do you know this? How would anyone in Parliament know this? What are you not telling me? And don't say you're not keeping something from me because you really don't lie very well."
The amber in his eyes vanished and they became a soft, pinkish red. "Witches have successfully hidden their use of Arcane for centuries, Sam. As long as their God Mother's Gifts remain intact. It's the ones that lose those Gifts that go crazy, the ones history remembers. The ones the Parliament and all manner of creature in all the worlds want to destroy. I'm saying if you don't get those damn little creatures back, Parliament isn't the only thing out there that's going to want you. Alive or dead."
EIGHT
I knew on some level he was right about the Arcane because I could feel it. It had a voice now that it didn't have before. A small, niggling ghost in the back of my mind. It came to me when I made that house and the bodies vanish. It came to me when I destroyed what had been left of Ronald Kennett. I could hear it now, telling me Crwys was wrong, that the Elementals had no power over me or over anything I wanted to do.
I blinked several times to clear my head, to banish that voice and concentrate on what Crwys was trying to tell me. "Other than Parliament?"
"Sam…Arcane is feared and sought after. Yes, Levi's demon comes from the same realm, and he has the same power but being bonded with Levi's soul is what keeps that power in check. Leviathans—"
"Leviathans don't have the bond," I finished for him. "They use their power in this world."
"And they're attracted to it. Don't think that Dionysus isn't aware of what's happening to you. He pulled your strings to get you to the place to actually use it, Sam. That's what started this. So for now, you've got to do everything in your power to play nice and get those Elementals back," he put a hand to my face. "Don't blind yourself to the possibility that his ultimate goal was to infuse you with Arcane, and then take your body. Think of the power he would have then and your soul to ride."
We heard a low growl and I immediately looked behind me. Bastien's eyes burned gold and he snarled just loud enough to hear. When I turned back to Crwys, he had his middle finger up, saluting the Alpha. Dammit. I did not want a fight in my shop. The difference in their body weight and height was significant. Strength wise, I was pretty sure Bastien could stomp Crwys into the ground. Agility wise—I'd seen Crwys move at lightning speed and was pretty sure he could out maneuver the Lycan. But when it boiled right down to it, we didn't have time for this testosterone shit.
And my shop didn't either. I'd just got it fully restocked and making money again after last month's disaster. I wasn't counting the fountain inventory I'd destroyed yesterday. I assumed Kyle had taken care of it.
I grabbed Crwys's hand and pulled it down. "All right. Stop it. You're both pretty." I moved away from Crwys and back to the table. I'd heard what he said, about Dionysus watching me, plotting through time to fashion the ultimate body to steal, and I didn't want to think about that at this minute. I was doing a total Scarlet O'Hara and putting if off till tomorrow. "Right now we need to address the fact that Ivan—"
The door to the back came open and in walked Ivan with two bags and a wide grin. "Hey! Sorry I'm late. I had to pick up food. I was starving so I brought Chinese for everyone—oh hi Crwys, Levi." He glanced at me with surprise before he put the bags on the table.
It was the good stuff from Moon Wok. Jack and Kyle expressed their joy and started grabbing paper plates and silverware, as well as chopsticks from the kitchen shelves. My own stomach growled when Ivan handed me a carton of house lo mein, complete with chopsticks and a fork.
"I am sorry I'm late getting back. But when I dive like that into the Cyber World, I am seriously famished afterward." He pointed to the second bag he'd moved to the side of the table. "That's my food."
I'd seen Ivan hungry. Given the time and opportunity he would eat the entire bag, regardless of how much food was in it.
I shook my head as he winked and approached his bag. I also spotted Bastien sniffing the air. He moved around Jack and Kyle as they spooned out portions of what looked like sweet and sour chicken and garlic chicken, then stood next to Ivan, sniffing him. I thought for a minute he was going after whatever was in Ivan's bag. Ivan turned when he realized the big guy was sniffing him and stepped away.
"What the hell?"
Bastien stopped and gave Ivan the biggest shit-eating grin I'd ever seen. He clapped Ivan on the back and said, "Trés bien, mon ami."
Kyle held up his hand. "English guys. What's wrong with Ivan?"
Crwys stood beside me and put his arms around my middle, with me still holding the box of noodles. "He said very good, my friend."
I pushed his arms away before I poked at my noodles with my chopsticks. "We just don't know what is very good. The food?"
"That's not important," Ivan declared and was looking a little red. "Let's just get to whatever you guys were talking about before I got here."
Crwys snorted. "He had sex," he pointed to Bastien. "And the tayeau there can smell it."
I knew the word. It meant hound. I'd never considered it offensive before, until I saw Bastien jump over the table in a flash and attempt to put his hands around Crwys's neck. Notice I said attempt. I dropped my noodles getting out of the way (dammit) and Bastien slammed into the fridge because Crwys wasn't there anymore. Bastien turned and searched the room. "Diable!"
Crwys came down the stairs from my apartment and stopped on the last one. "I have been called worse. Now I would suggest, tayeau petite, you knock it off. Do you really want Sam to find your missing people?"
Bastien snarled at Crwys. "If she doesn't, she's mine."
"Stop it. Now!" That last burst had a bit of power behind it. The room filled with red glitter—a tiny amount really
—which faded immediately, but it made everyone stop. "No more name calling, and no more goading. Let's just get this shit done." I retrieved my noodles and my chopstick and started eating. Thirty second rule. Sue me. After a few bites of euphoria at the incredible taste of the lo mein, not to mention the satisfaction in my stomach because I couldn't remember the last time I ate, I waved to get everyone's attention. "I think the next step should be having Bastien and Jack, or one or the other, take a look at the body you found today." I looked at Crwys.
He immediately shook his head. "There's no way I can get these two in there to view a body."
"Crwys, these two sniffed the first body. Let them sniff the second and we can be sure if this is a serial mutilation."
"You can't argue with that, diable," Bastien said as he grabbed a box of house fried rice and a fork. I was amazed at how carefully he ate. He was almost dainty the way he held his fork and made a point of not spilling a single grain of rice.
Kyle spoke up. "They could put out a missing persons report. What could it hurt? Get their faces on the street and make sure to mention she's pregnant."
"No publicity," Bastien and Crwys said in perfect unison. They looked at each other, scowled and then looked away.
I set my box on the counter. "Crwys, just arrange a viewing. Call in a favor or something. You want to find the one responsible, don't you?"
He looked at me for a while as the amber returned to his eyes. "I'll see what I can do," he looked at everyone else. "But I can't take all of you."
"I'll stay here," Ivan said as he ate. "I got some things to do." When everyone looked at him, he frowned. "What? The shop hasn't been open all day and I spent several hours last night cleaning up the fountain mess," he smirked at Kyle. "Someone was too emotionally distressed to help me."
That I could believe.
"This was before you spent time with the lady?" Bastien said.
Ivan blushed bright red as Crwys, Kyle, Jack and Levi started in on their guy-ribbing.
Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three Page 5
