by Annie Bellet
“Freyda’s offered to put us all up at The Den,” Levi told me. He still had his arm around Junebug, the two of them apparently glued together since the fight.
Not that I blamed them. I didn’t want to let go of Alek’s arm, and not just because both of us were exhausted.
“We have a guest room,” I said.
I wished I’d thought of that before, at Vivian’s, so that Carlos and May had been staying with us. If they had, Carlos might have lived. I pushed the thought away. If they had, it’s possible that someone else might have died. Lara or Harper or Alek… There are no sadder, more useless words in any language than “what if” and “if only.” Dwelling on them would drive anyone mad.
Levi shook his head. “No offense, but I’d feel safer at the Den. Though staying above the shop would be awesome.”
“No offense taken,” I said. “I could be arrested by a secret government agency or something any day now anyway.”
Saying that of course caused a lot of other questions, which I answered as best I could, not mentioning the magic door that Samir had shipped me from beyond the grave. Well, the almost grave. If being a ruby-like lump stuck in a talisman around your killer’s neck was grave-equivalent.
May was also going with Levi and Junebug, under protests that it was too dangerous for her to remain that were immediately glared down by everyone around her. I had a sinking feeling that nowhere was going to be very safe soon. Danger to the right of us, danger to the left of us, and all that jazz.
“You are welcome at the Den also,” Freyda told Alek and me.
I was surprised at the sincerity in her voice considering the two times I’d been in her Great Hall things had gone explosive. She wasn’t making the offer out of politeness but instead looked like a resigned and determined commander who was girding herself for war.
“I have to go meet my lawyer,” I said. Perky had sent me two messages that read very polite but insistent in their undertone and the fact that there were two of them when she wasn’t the type to waste time like that.
We said our farewells. Alek and May had a few quiet words as he helped her into Freyda’s SUV. Harper said she’d walk home from the game store so she tagged along with us. It was a quiet, awkward ride back.
Lara had closed up the store for me. I made probably my hundredth mental note to give her a raise soon. She was practically a partner in my shop with how much time she spent there lately and with how much I’d come to rely on her. The building was mostly dark except the upper outside light shining on my landing. Summer’s deluge of bugs danced in the beam of light and Aurelio waited patiently in the glow.
Aurelio ignored my invitation to sit as he followed Harper, Alek, and I into my living room after an amusing, at least to my exhausted brain, shuffle of bodies as everyone tried to remove their shoes before coming into the apartment proper. I supposed I should have put in a better foyer or something. Alek didn’t sit either, instead looming near me, his face lined with grief and wariness. Harper perched on the edge of one of the armchairs. Though it felt a little rude, I slumped onto my couch with a heavy sigh. I was out of energy for standing and my couch cushions felt like seductive clouds begging me to rest.
“Three of my pack members are going after the sorcerer,” Aurelio said. He ran a hand through his dark hair, which stood up enough despite its shaggy length that it was obvious he’d spent a lot of the day repeating the gesture.
“That is stupid,” Alek said. I glanced at him. He was definitely out of fucks to give if he was being that blunt right out the gate. I could relate.
“He’s not wrong,” I said.
“I couldn’t talk them out of it,” Aurelio said in a tone that implied he had definitely made more than one attempt to do so.
“The man who did that to your pack member is a sorcerer,” I said. “But he’s not interested in you. I think it was a way to get to me. He’s got some kind of mind magic.”
Closing my eyes I leaned into the couch and took a deep breath. I hadn’t had the time to face what happened at the Den. I’d been too busy fighting with Harper and then fighting for my friends’ lives. I still had to deal with the government dudes and find out from Perky how that went and there was no telling when the First would make another move, though I hoped killing all his minions would at least give him some pause before he fucked with my town again.
Alek’s hands settled onto my shoulders as he moved around the back of the couch. He gave me a gentle squeeze.
“I know they can’t fight a sorcerer alone,” Aurelio said. “Especially not one who can sever us somehow. But I cannot stop them from trying.” He said the last words slowly but with great force as though they hurt to get out.
I opened my eyes and met his bleak gaze. I knew what it felt like to have the people I loved determined to fight something they didn’t understand and couldn’t beat.
“I will talk to them,” Alek said. He held up a hand to forestall Aurelio’s response as the other man shook his head. “To talk them out of it. The sorcerer wants something Jade has. He will come to us. It is wiser to wait and fight on known ground.”
On ground that was full of people I cared about. On ground full of innocent bystanders. What kind of damage would a sorcerer who could sever shifters from their other selves and cause them to explode do in a town full of shifters and far-more-vulnerable humans? Aurelio had said something about the guy having human back-up, humans with guns. Universe knew that men with guns could be destructive enough on their own, even without magic backing them up.
“I was not clear,” Aurelio started to say.
All three shifters’ heads swiveled toward the door and a moment later I heard the clang of footsteps on the metal stairs.
“Relax,” I said. “It’s probably just my lawyer.” I had texted Kate Perkins, aka Perky, as we pulled onto our street, not realizing at that point that I already had company.
Alek got the door and Kate entered with raised eyebrows as she took in the scene. I thought about standing but the lead formerly known as my muscles talked me out of it. Aurelio’s nostrils flared and then he relaxed as his senses must have told him the impeccably dressed blonde bombshell in front of him was a shifter, too. Kate’s perfectly arched eyebrows crept a little higher.
“Didn’t realize you’d have company,” she said as she kicked off her heels.
“Kate Perkins, meet Aurelio, also known as Softpaw, Alpha of the Bitterroot pack. Aurelio, my lawyer, Kate.” I managed a smile as I waved a hand back and forth.
Kate inclined her head and walked into the living room. She sat on the chair Harper wasn’t leaning against and set her dark pink leather briefcase onto the coffee table.
“We will go,” Alek said, giving Aurelio and Harper a stern look. “Talk to Softpaw’s pack. I will return.”
Aurelio looked frustrated as he shook his head again, as though he thought Alek’s chance of persuading the pack was no better. If their own Alpha couldn’t convince them, a man they appeared to obey without a lot of questions from what I’d seen, I doubted my mate, no matter how awesome and Justice-y he could be, would have better luck. Especially not in his current mood.
Which made what I was about to say even harder to put into words. I had a feeling I was about to piss off my mate. But hey, I’d already alienated my best friend, what was one more fight with someone I loved?
Because I knew what I had to do. And it sucked, but we were just running around putting out fires. If I’d learned anything from my years of struggle and the final battles with Samir, it was that eventually you run out of water.
“No,” I said, putting as much finality into the word as I could. “I’ll go with you, Aurelio. You can’t fight him, but I can.” I hoped. I was hella tired but with a night of sleep and a hot meal in me, miracles were possible.
“No,” Alek said. “This looks like trap.” His accent thickened as he paced toward me.
“Normally I’m all for a fight, but seriously, Jade. I agree with the tiger,” Harper said, b
reaking the silence she’d held the entire way home in the car and up to this point. “You’d be taking exactly what he wants right to him.” She stared pointedly at my chest.
I resisted the urge to tuck my talisman under my teeshirt as I shook my head.
“Yes,” I said. “Technically. But fighting battles on multiple fronts is just wearing us out and meanwhile more people are going to get hurt or die. If the mind-trick sorcerer comes here, he’ll have a whole town full of shifters he could sever and humans he could use or destroy. We know where he is, or at least where he was as of a couple days ago. We take the fight to him, eliminate that threat.” It had sounded less crazy in my head, but not by much.
“I’m going to pretend I’m not hearing you planning murder, so don’t mind me,” Kate said. She leaned back in the chair looking almost amused.
I decided not to tell her that I’d killed multiple people before breakfast.
“For fuck’s sake,” I tried again. “I have to even designate which sorcerer we are talking about, that’s how screwed things are. I’m going after mind-guy before the First has the chance to recover from today and send more assholes at us. We know where mind-guy is,” I repeated. “He’s an enemy we can fight.”
Aurelio cleared his throat. “Are you all finished?” he asked.
“Tell your pack members to wait and I’ll go, you can show me where,” I said. “After I sleep.”
“They already left.”
“Wait, what? Why didn’t you say that?” It did explain why he was here. He truly needed my help and his words only strengthened my resolve to take care of this latest fire once and for fucking all.
Aurelio just raised his eyebrows and even Alek had the presence of mind to look a bit sheepish. We’d been arguing what to do without even listening. In our defense, it had been a horrible no good very bad day.
“He’s deep in the Frank,” Aurelio said. “At an old logging camp. I think he knows about the druid since it is out of his normal range,” he added with a glance at Kate.
“Hopefully he doesn’t know the druid is on his honeymoon,” I said. I tried not to think about how convenient it was that Brie, Ciaran, and Iollan, three of my more powerful friends and allies, were all out of the action. The last time something like that happened, we’d all nearly died by Samir’s doing.
I gave in and gripped my talisman, reassuring myself that Samir’s heart gem was still safely in the one spot on the D20.
“This is a terrible idea,” Alek said again. His blue eyes were like bruises in his exhausted face.
“I’m going with you,” Harper said.
I started to open my mouth to object to that but saw the set of her jaw and the hardness in her eyes. My heart ached but I knew there was zero chance of talking her out of it. Alek gave her a look that was probably similar to Caesar’s when Brutus stabbed him.
“Fine,” he said in a tone that said the opposite. “In morning.”
Aurelio’s shoulders slumped but he had the good sense not to push it. He likely could tell we were all at the end of our ropes. “We’ll leave at dawn. It’s a long hike. Longer on human feet. They have a head start tonight but knowing them, they will not attack the camp immediately, so we might be able to catch up.”
“Meet here?” I asked.
He nodded. Alek growled but held his tongue as Aurelio took the hint and left quickly. Harper slid into the armchair with a look that challenged any of us to tell her to leave. Nobody took her up on that challenge.
“It is a trap,” Alek said. He sat rigidly on the couch beside me, his thigh hard and warm against my own, the tension making both of us vibrate slightly.
“Good thing I’m a badass,” I said, tugging on his arm until he settled back beside me.
Alek’s look told me just how unconvincing I was curled here on the couch probably looking just as worn out as I felt.
“That fire is dealt with,” I said, looking at Kate. “What have you got for me?”
“They aren’t going to give us privacy, are they?” Kate said.
“Nope,” Harper said. “We can hear anything in the apartment anyway.”
Alek just peeled his lips back from his teeth in response.
“Ignore them,” I said. “How did it go with the agents?” I almost apologized for leaving her hanging like that but caught myself in time. She had probably been glad I wasn’t there to inadvertently muck it up by saying something stupid.
“They are out for your blood, but they don’t have shit. They are desperate to find some guy named Samir,” she said. “They didn’t come out and say it, but I got the impression they think you killed him.”
“I didn’t kill him,” I said, more or less truthfully. I kept my eyes on Kate and deliberately away from Harper’s face. It felt like I was salting the wounds my secrets had opened for Harper, but she’d insisted on staying.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Kate said in the bubbly, slyly sarcastic tone that had helped earn her the nickname Perky. She pulled her phone out of her briefcase and swiped it on before holding it out to me. “Do you recognize this?”
I took the phone. On the screen was a picture of a small but ornate skeleton key. It could have been any key, really. Except, it wasn’t. I recognized the shape of it, the almost heart-shaped back of the key, the delicate filigree, the rainbow sheen to the dark metal.
“Yes,” I said after a moment. I was pretty sure my face had already given that away even if I had been inclined to lie to my lawyer, which I wasn’t. “It’s Samir’s.” From the picture, it looked like the key was resting on some kind of plastic bag. Evidence bag. Shit.
“You sold it?” Kate asked.
“What?” I said. “No. I haven’t seen it in almost thirty years. Is that an evidence bag?”
“The agents tried to give me the run around at first, but like I said, they are desperate for some reason. So they let me photograph this and told me they had a witness who said you sold it to him.”
“Witness is lying,” I said, handing Kate back her phone. I leaned into Alek, hating the tension still rippling through him.
“It’s thin evidence of anything even so,” she said. “They can’t prove he kept it on him or that he didn’t give it to you or someone as a gift.”
I bit back a response to that. There was zero way Samir would have given that key to anyone. It had once been the key to a lock around my damn neck. Someone was setting me up and I had a suspicion as to who would have the access, knowledge, and power to do so.
I also knew that Noah Grey, the Archivist, would never be stupid enough to reveal himself. He’d have used middle men. If I was right, the question was why? I’d pissed him off, but this much? Still, this had the feel of him, somehow. Coming at me from the shadows, sideways. Noah was one of the few people on the planet who knew I hadn’t killed Samir but was keeping his heart somewhere. Fortunately for us, the vampire had no idea where or how, as far as I knew.
“Jade?” Kate said and I realized I’d been silently staring into space for a good while.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We’re exhausted and I can’t deal with this right now if I don’t have to.”
“You don’t have to,” she said with a gentle smile. “This is what you pay me the big bucks for. They’ll want an interview but I can put them off. Though you disappearing for a hike in the wilderness won’t look good.”
“Tell them it was a prior commitment that I can’t get out of and I’ll talk to them next week,” I said, managing a smile.
“I’ll do what I do,” she said.
“Thanks, Kate,” I added.
“I thought y’all called me Perky,” she said as her smile widened.
Harper snorted and I shook my head, returning her grin. “Only in my head and almost never aloud,” I said.
Harper made a coughing sound that came out suspiciously like the word bullshit and I mock-glared at her. She’d coined the damn nickname. I had a feeling that Perky knew that we also called her partner, Harrison S
mitt, “Smitten.”
“I like it,” she said as she made her way to the door.
“She’s kinda amazing,” Harper said after Perky had left. “I’m taking the guest bed. Don’t you even think about leaving without me,” she added with a glare.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. I winced, recalling the spell-induced dreams I’d been stuck in. I didn’t feel the cotton-candy magic or catch any sign of it, hadn’t since I’d awoken, but now I was afraid to sleep.
Alek paced the living room and shook his head when I pointed out a shower might be wise for both of us.
“What if I cannot protect you?” he murmured softly in Russian.
So. There it was. I stepped into his embrace and pressed my cheek to his chest. He’d lost someone he loved today and now I was running headlong into danger, danger he couldn’t kill for me. Another enemy he couldn’t fight. My tired brain refused to find non-stupid-sounding words to tell him I understood so I just clung to him, breathing in his scent, letting him breathe in mine.
“You must rest, kitten,” he said after what felt like not nearly long enough.
“I don’t know if I can,” I whispered.
“Try,” came his murmured response. “Please try.”
My body was of the Yoda school where there was no try. Stumbling into our bedroom, I decided a shower could wait until morning. I’d cleaned up some at Levi’s though it felt woefully inadequate. I pulled off my clothes and crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow. I barely registered that Alek didn’t come to bed at all.
There’s nothing like jogging through the woods with a bunch of shifters to make me glad I’d been keeping up on my cardio by doing runs with Alek a few mornings a week. I focused on my breathing and not tripping over fir tree roots and thought about how only a few years ago my idea of working out was not using the fast travel in Skyrim. Aurelio’s pack fanned out around us, the huge shifter-wolves often invisible in the trees. Aurelio stayed near, in his wolf form once we’d gotten away from town. Harper had shifted to her fox form but Alek remained in his human one, his long legs easily and gracefully putting the miles behind him.
