by Sammie Joyce
“Shh,” he growled and when I turned my face back toward him, I saw that he, too, had become a monster.
“INIGO!” I tried to scream but his mouth crushed back toward me.
Bells sounded wildly in my head and I struggled to breathe…
My eyes flew open, the chiming growing louder and more insistent. I blinked, my face still firmly in the pillow where I’d fallen asleep. There were pins and needles in my feet where my shoes still sat.
The nightmare began to fade away as I realized I had slept completely through the night, uninterrupted until that very moment.
It was my ringing cell that had woken me.
Blinking, I rolled over to grab it from across the queen mattress, barely noting the time. The number on the screen was unknown to me but I answered it anyway, my head still cloudy from sleep.
“Hello?” I mumbled. A slight pause followed my greeting and a spark of annoyance shot through me.
“Hello? Who is this?” I demanded, not keeping my irritation from my tone.
“Is this Addisyn?”
My heart stopped.
“Inigo?” I breathed before I could stop myself. He chuckled.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“I…”
I was just dreaming about you? I haven’t stopped thinking about you? I was hoping you’d call? Did I dare tell the truth?
“Lucky guess,” I replied, sitting up, the remnants of sleep fading away as my heart thumped with excitement.
“I’m sorry to be calling so early but I’m going to be in meetings with clients all day and I wanted to ask you something before I got too busy.”
“Well… sure,” I said uncertainly, trying to make sense of what he was saying.
He has clients. Does that mean he’s got a real job? A career?
I wracked my brain to remember what he’d been wearing that night, to gauge his status in life, but I could think of nothing but the way his presence had affected me.
“I wanted to know if you’d be interested in going out with me tonight.”
Instantly, the dream came flooding back in a torrent, the candlelight, the kiss… and the monsters.
“I realize it’s short notice,” Inigo went on when I didn’t speak. “And I’ll understand if you—”
“I’d love to,” I interjected, dismissing all the other doubts I’d been harboring. After all, this was what I’d wanted, wasn’t it? This was what I’d been hoping for. I wanted to see Inigo again, needed to.
“Oh. Great,” he laughed. “I can pick you up after work if you text me your address.”
“Yes,” I breathed again. “Yes, okay. What time?”
“Does seven work for you?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect. I’ll wait for your text. And dress warmly. We’re going to be outside.”
A slight sense of relief overcame me when he said that. Outside wasn’t a restaurant filled with demons.
“Will do,” I agreed. “See you tonight.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Inigo murmured and I could hear the truth in his words.
“Me too,” I replied honestly. He had no idea just how much.
7
Inigo
What I’d told Addisyn had only been partially true. I had meetings all day but my schedule wasn’t so busy that I couldn’t make time to call her. The reason I’d called so early was because I just couldn’t take it anymore.
For an entire day, I’d agonized over what to do about the hold she seemed to have over me. I had been sure that the novelty of her would have worn off as the day went on but the opposite seemed to have been true. Instead, I found myself yearning to see her again in the most primitive, unadulterated way.
The fact remained that I had no business being with her but when I tried telling that to my logical, duty-filled self, I was only met with laughter in my own head.
So I’ll take her out one time, I reasoned, wondering why I was lying to myself even then. I’ll discover that she’s boring or insipid and that will be the end of that.
It was difficult to reconcile that anyone who made me half-crazy already could possibly be trite but I knew I had to do something to overcome the anxiety of not seeing her. The only solution, of course, was to see her.
The day dragged on, my clients irritating me through no fault of their own. I couldn’t focus on their legal issues when I had Addisyn’s face imprinted on my brain. I kept drifting off, imagining what her body looked like. I knew I should be ashamed of myself for letting my mind wander there, not only with a human but with a perfect stranger, but I felt no guilt.
I canceled my afternoon appointments, realizing by noon that I was going to be useless that day. Instead, I decided to go for a drive back toward Diamond Peak although why I was drawn there, I couldn’t say.
Aside from Addisyn, something else was tickling the back of my mind, something that had yet to be resolved or even properly addressed.
The murdered human.
That was why I’d gone after the scent, wasn’t it? I pondered the idea that Elia had been responsible for the killing but just as quickly, I dismissed it. Elia was a common thief, a bottom feeder who would look for the quickest, easiest way to make a buck. Murder didn’t suit his profile—not that I was some great judge of what made panthers tick.
I reminded myself to talk to Ty and Anton about him. I had no idea if the panther protectors had been aware that Elia had resurfaced or not. It wasn’t like they were apt to admit they had been disobeyed. To the panthers and leopards, their pride was paramount and stupid. It had gotten the best of them before. The bears and wolves were much more apt to accept help from the other shifters but the cats, well, they seemed to prefer to wait until matters exploded before sheepishly admitting defeat.
Regardless, Elia was everyone’s problem now and I needed to alert the others about what had happened. Why hadn’t I already?
I vowed to text everyone when I stopped but when I parked the Jeep at the same spot I’d parked the night of the meeting, there was another vehicle there, much to my surprise.
Slowly, I exited my car and looked around for signs of my friend. I recognized Cronin’s Range Rover but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. I recalled how he had sauntered off alone on the night of the meeting and I wondered if he wasn’t going through a melancholic phase.
“Cro?” I yelled out. A bird squawked in response but Cronin didn’t materialize. Frowning, I began to walk toward the clearing leading to the mountain but before I got far, the imposing figure of a bear appeared. He sat back on his haunches and released a menacing growl, clearly not recognizing me.
Vaguely alarmed but not deterred, I moved closer.
“It’s me,” I offered, closing the distance between us. “What are you doing out here?”
Uncertainly, Cronin eyed me, his sunken eyes unblinking as if he didn’t know who I was. For the first time, I began to feel unsettled.
“Cronin,” I said again, stopping in my tracks. “It’s Inigo.”
Like a veil had been lifted, recognition filled the black bear’s face and his animal form melted away to reveal my giant friend.
“Sorry,” Cronin mumbled, sauntering toward me. His voice was like gravel and I could tell he was exhausted.
Oh dear.
I’m not sure if it was because Cronin was on his own as a bear Protector of if he was simply more sensitive in general but when the magic was strong, he was apt to bouts of moods that I didn’t fully understand. Sometimes, I thought they were just symptoms of loneliness but other times, he worried me.
“You haven’t been sleeping, have you?” I sighed when he joined my side.
“What are you doing here, In?” he asked, ignoring my question.
“You shouldn’t answer a question with a question,” I replied lightly. “It’s lawyering 101.”
“I’m not a lawyer,” Cronin growled back, his dark eyes flashing angrily. I guess I’d said the wrong thing but when he was like this, it was ea
sy to do.
“I took the afternoon off,” I told Cronin, flashing him a bright smile, hoping to alleviate the tension I could feel emanating off his massive form. “Why don’t we go for lunch.”
He scoffed at me, anger reclaiming his face.
“Lunch? You came here to take me for lunch?” he snapped dubiously. “How did you even know I was here?”
I realized he had misconstrued my words.
“I didn’t know you were here,” I said, stifling another sigh. “But since you are, let’s go to Patti’s.”
He bared his teeth and I felt my brow furrow in confusion. Why was he so wound up?
“Why are you here?” he hissed again. I shrugged nonchalantly.
“I’m not entirely sure,” I answered honestly. “I felt like I needed to come back here. You know, I ran into Elia the other night. I followed his scent from here.”
Cronin stared at me for a long moment.
“Elia Granger?”
I nodded.
“That bastard is banished… isn’t he?”
“If he wasn’t before, he certainly is now,” I said dryly. “Anyway, I was thinking about the human murder and I wondered if he didn’t have something to do with it.”
“I doubt that,” Cronin muttered, turning away. My brows raised in surprise at his matter-of-fact answer.
“Why do you say that?”
Cronin growled and for a moment, I sensed that he wanted to shift and run off to be alone. I reached out to put my hand on his arm before he could entertain the thought. He jerked back like he’d been burned.
“Cro, what’s going on?” I asked gently, refusing to be insulted by his brusque movement. My friend turned to me and stared for so long, I wondered if he hadn’t drifted off somewhere else. His expression was unreadable but I could see the wheels turning behind his eyes.
“Cronin…”
“I feel like I’m losing control.” He said the words so quickly and so quietly, I almost thought I’d imagined them. But I hadn’t; I knew that because I’d heard him say the very same words before.
“You’re not losing control,” I assured him. “There’s a high charge in the air. The magic is strong. Everyone can feel it.”
I meant it—whatever was happening around us, I wasn’t impervious to it. I just knew that Cronin somehow seemed a thousand times more susceptible and I had to be understanding of that—even if it annoyed me sometimes.
He snorted and turned his head away so I couldn’t read his face.
“It’s not that…”
I waited for him to finish but he didn’t.
“Cronin, you can tell me, man. We’re friends, Protectors. We’ve got each others’ backs, right?”
Slowly, he glanced at me over his shoulder.
Why is he looking at me like he thinks I’m lying?
He shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It doesn’t matter.”
He turned to walk away, his gait reminiscent of the Incredible Hulk departing the scene.
“Cro…” I groaned. “Come on, man. Let me help you through this.”
He didn’t answer me and soon, he was out of sight again, leaving me to stare after him as I had the night of the meeting. My impulse was to go after him but I also knew Cronin well enough to know that when he wanted to be alone, he was best left that way.
Still, it was unsettling to see someone I cared about behaving so unstably.
I wandered back toward my Jeep, sniffing the air around me for anything out of the ordinary, but that day, there was nothing. My sixth sense had brought me back to Diamond Peak for no reason, it seemed.
Unless Cronin was the reason.
My brow furrowed at the unbidden thought. Had I come there because I’d sensed Cronin needed me?
Apprehension shot through me and I spun around to head in the direction where Cronin had gone.
Shifting into my wolf form, I sniffed around for him but wherever he’d gone, he was nowhere around. I’d already lost him. Morphing back, I sighed heavily and flopped onto a boulder near a pine, turning my head to gaze up at the sky above.
The cold weather I’d felt coming had somehow melted away to an extended summer, the sun blazing brightly overhead. I was pleased. The night would certainly cool off but there was no rain or snow on the horizon. It was a perfect night for an outdoor date with Addisyn.
And if it gets too cold, I’m sure I can think of ways to keep us warm.
I reached into my pocket and withdrew my cell phone, opening my texts for the tenth time since that morning.
500 Salty Way
That was all Addisyn had written in her text. I’d wanted to message her back, telling her again how much I was looking forward to seeing her, but I didn’t want to lay it on too thick.
After all, I’d be seeing her in a few hours. I could show her exactly how I felt then.
* * *
I showered and changed in record time, finding myself staring at the walls of my condo a full hour before it was time to leave for Addisyn. By the time I climbed into my Jeep to collect her, I was climbing the walls myself and Cronin crossed my mind.
We all get jittery, I reasoned. Some of us just handle it better than others.
I had good reason to be a bundle of nerves. If any of my shifter comrades saw me on a date with a human that night, I’d have some explaining to do. I suppose that was why I’d selected a fairly obscure venue for that time of year. I couldn’t think of many people who would want to be outside in October for hours on end but I knew I couldn’t very well invite Addisyn home with me for our first date.
First and last, I corrected myself, sighing even as I thought it. I wondered how long I was going to continue trying to lie to myself.
I waited outside the sweet, modern home on the cul-de-sac until exactly seven o’clock when I ambled toward her front door, my heart beginning to pound in anticipation.
She’s just a girl. A human girl. That’s all.
But when she opened the door, my stomach flipped and I found myself momentarily speechless as I gaped at her.
She was taller than I had expected, although not as tall as me. Her dark blonde hair shone in gleaming tresses, framing her heart-shaped face to fall stylishly around the curve of her angled chin. Her hazel eyes were clear and bright even if she did give me a slightly wary look from the threshold.
“Am I early?” I asked innocently. She shook her head quickly and darted her eyes back into the house nervously.
“I-I just need another minute,” she replied slowly. For a minute, I thought she was going to ask me to stand on the porch but she stepped back and gestured for me to enter.
“I won’t be a minute,” she promised, hurrying back into the house. I closed the door behind me and looked around the tastefully decorated house. I was impressed that someone so young had such a lovely place.
Maybe she still lives with her parents.
I knew that millennial kids tended to stay home later. Us shifters were kicked from the nest, instructed to be independent from a young age. Rarely did a shifter return home after college or the military. It was just another reason that the elders loathed the humans so much. Personally, I found the connection between older generation humans and their offspring inspiring. I would have liked to have known I had a place to go if matters got too rough—not that matters had ever gotten too rough. On the other hand, I doubted that the pack would have seen me living in a gutter if worse came to worst.
I became aware of a set of eyes on me and I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw a gaunt, almost toothless woman at the other end of the hall.
“Hello,” she purred, jaunting closer to me. “Who are you?”
If I stared hard enough, I could see the resemblance to her and Addisyn but it was difficult to imagine Addisyn aging as badly as this woman.
“Inigo, ma’am. Inigo Mathis.”
She smiled and it was truly a horrible sight. As I had suspected, most of her teeth had fallen
out and the ones that remained were badly rotted.
“Hello, Inigo,” she cooed. “I’m Mrs. Clark but you can call me Odessa or Odie. All my friends call me Odie.”
“Mom,” Addisyn snapped sharply, reappearing in the foyer. “We’re late.”
Odessa’s smile faded and she looked toward her daughter, a hurt expression on her face.
“Right,” she mumbled. “All right.”
Addisyn moved past her and reached for a jacket out of the hall closet, nodding at me to leave.
“Nice meeting you, Odessa,” I offered.
“You too, Inigo.”
Addisyn shoved the door closed behind us and scampered forward down the steps as if she was trying to escape as fast as possible. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to run from me or from her mother. I really hoped it was the latter.
8
Inigo
With a sinking feeling in my gut, I hurried after Addisyn. I had the feeling that things had already gotten off to a rocky start although I didn’t quite understand why. When I got to her side, she wouldn’t look at me and I could hear her breathing was slightly uneasy.
She’s nervous. Put her at ease, I told myself, struggling to regain control of a situation I had lost somehow.
“You live at home with your mom?” I asked lightly, opening the car door for her. Addisyn’s head whipped around and she sneered, her lips curling over her teeth. I was taken aback by the expression. Somehow, I had made things worse, it seemed, a fact that became evident when she spoke again.
“My mother lives with me,” she said curtly. I instantly realized my mistake, the bitterness in her tone almost palpable, but I found myself impressed that she had taken on the responsibility of caring for her mother. I didn’t want to judge but I had seen my fair share of drug addicts and I was certain that Odessa Clark fit the bill. I couldn’t imagine what that meant for her daughter. I didn’t speak again until climbing into the driver’s side and fastening my seatbelt.
“You’re a good daughter. Most kids in this day and age won’t take care of their parents.”
