by Debra Dunbar
Stew. He’d slept through breakfast? Or maybe sidhe ate spicy stew for their first meal? Didn’t matter. It was food, he was hungry, and he was going to make short work of whatever was steaming away in that pot.
He didn’t dare stand, but he managed to crawl his way over to the fireplace, the blanket sliding off him after the first few feet. Screw it. She wasn’t in the house, and she’d already gotten an eyeful earlier. Plus, food trumped modesty, not that he’d ever had much modesty.
On the floor in front of the fireplace was a piece of parchment that looked art-worthy. He picked it up and chuckled. Clearly Gwylla couldn’t write English, even though she spoke it better than most of the non-native speakers he’d encountered in his life. On the parchment was a drawing of a wolf sitting with his head cocked to the side, one ear up and the other down, tongue lolling out of a smiling mouth. Then there was a plus sign followed by a bowl of steaming food. Then an equal sign and a wolf dancing on two legs, forelegs outstretched, mouth open in a happy grin.
The last few days had been weird, really really weird. First the trap the hunters had set for him in the middle of nowhere. Then an invisible world sanctuary that fortunately was near enough to the scene of his attack. Then the presence of some sort of fae powerful enough to heal him, this bonding and responsibility-for-his-life thing. Now this really humorous picture. What was a sidhe anyway? And why was she here in the middle of Alaska instead of back home in Aerie or with the other elves on that island?
Dustin struggled upright, using the packed-earth wall for leverage. With a shaking hand, he spooned the steaming soup into a bowl thoughtfully placed right next to the pot.
Gwylla had said the elves and sidhe were similar, but not the same. She had the pointy ears he’d always associated elves, but what would he know? He’d never seen an elf in his life. Actually she looked more like the ice queen he’d called her than what he imagined an elf would look like. Except for those Lord of the Rings elves. Suddenly he envisioned Gwylla in the draped see-through silk dress she’d had on last night, her white-blond hair braided around the crown of her head.
Yep. She was his total nerdy-guy fantasy woman. As a kid the dream girl had always been a toss-up between a Middle-earth elf or one of those hot blue alien women from Star Trek. All his human friends had been lusting after cheerleaders and Playboy pin-ups, his shifter friends had been lusting after female MMA fighters and Lara Croft, and he’d been into alien chicks and elves.
Easing himself carefully back to the floor, Dustin slurped the stew right from the bowl, feeling stronger as the warmth hit his stomach and spread throughout his body.
Hunters. In Denali. When he finally managed to get out of here, would he find that others had been killed? It wasn’t just the Denali Pack that was in danger from these hunters. Dustin had been missing six days at this point. Jake would have sent a crew out to look for him, and if the hunters had lain in wait…
Would he leave here to find that several of his pack mates had been killed? Would he leave to find an out-an-out war? When would the hunters get tired of laying traps and take their sport to the pack compound itself? Shifters had always lived in harmony with the humans here in Alaska. Here their existence was public knowledge, out in the open. Their home addresses weren’t exactly a secret. It would be easy for the hunters to find where members of the Denali and Juneau packs lived and taken them down one at a time, but the Swift River Pack lived in a compound.
That was both a blessing and a curse. A concentration of werewolves in one area would make it easier for them to defend themselves, but it would also make it easier for the hunters to mount a siege and take down the entire pack. The compound was set up as a social construct, for ease of pack life and management, not for defense. There hadn’t been anything for them to defend themselves against in Dustin’s memory. No one messed with the werewolves. And he had no idea if human law enforcement would arrive in time to help them—or even arrive at all. At this point Dustin suspected every human in Alaska.
He needed to get out of here and warn Jake. He needed to find out what was happening outside of this strange forest. He needed to be there to defend his pack if they were attacked.
The door opened and Gwylla smiled over at him before she began sealing the edges closed. She was once more wearing human attire—a floral print dress, that wasn’t see-through and was less formfitting then her fae outfit.
“You look much better.”
“I’m feeling better, thanks. And thanks for the stew.” He held up the drawing. “And the picture.”
She laughed. “I didn’t have time to learn to write your language. I was among the humans here only briefly before I left and created my sanctuary.”
She walked over and grabbed some pillows from the bed, tossing them onto the floor beside him. Then she poured two glasses of what looked like wine, and swapped one of them out for the empty soup bowl in his hand. “Relax. Drink. And we can continue our talk from last night.”
He sipped what was indeed a sweet wine and relaxed against the pillows while she sat next to him, her thigh brushing his as she folded her legs.
“Let’s see. Where were we…? I fly tourists, pack members and other shifters around Alaska as my job for our pack. Do you know what a plane is?”
She nodded. “The big metal birds that humans use to travel long distances because they cannot teleport.”
He eyed her in surprise. “You can teleport?”
“Yes, but I’m not powerful enough to do it repeatedly within a short period of time. It takes a great deal of magic that is often better used for another purpose. And besides, I do not often need to travel long distances.”
Dustin took another sip of the wine. It was better than what Jake had at the compound. It was better than any wine he’d ever had before. “As I told you yesterday, I’d just flown two members of the Denali Pack from Anchorage to their home and was returning when I saw an overturned truck and someone, a human, signaling for help with another lying on the ground. I landed and grabbed my first aid pack but when I got near I realized something was wrong. The guy on the ground was a dummy, and the overturned truck wasn’t an accident. Before I could run or do more than pull my gun, the man waving me down shot me. It was one of those magic-coated bullets like the ones that that killed a grizzly shifter in Kenai and nearly killed two werewolves. I was forced into an immediate shift to my wolf form. I don’t know how I managed to escape. My wolf took charge and somehow I ran. In the distance I saw a forest shimmer into view. Everything after that is blurry. I passed out, and then I woke up here.”
“You know these men? You recognize the magic they’ve used on their weapons?”
She seemed distraught, her eyes dancing away from his to stare into her own glass of wine.
“I don’t know them personally, but as I said, hunters have attacked us in the past few months. We’re shifters, the descendants of Nephilim. We heal much faster than the humans do. Outside of a few strategic shots, we don’t die from bullets. These hunters are targeting us, targeting shifters. Their bullets force a change of form that normally should take twenty minutes into seconds. And the magic on the bullets hinders our ability to heal. It kills us.” He fixed her with an earnest stare. “They’re hunting us in particular, taking our bodies as trophies. And they want us in our animal form. We managed to kill two of these hunters in Kenai almost three months ago, but one escaped, and obviously there are more.”
Her breath hitched. “Dustin, I must confess something to you. I recognize the magic on these bullets. It’s a mirror to my own, and I am positive that it is wielded by an elf I know.”
He turned to her eagerly, catching his breath as the wound in his chest protested the movement. “You know him? Do you know where he is? If we can get to whoever is creating these magic bullets, we can put a stop to the hunters.”
“You cannot stop him. He will be surrounded by humans with these weapons. You and your pack would be killed before you ever reached him.”
“So we just sit back and let them kill us? We wouldn’t storm in and get ourselves killed. We’d do surveillance, set up a trap of our own. We’d… I don’t know, Jake will think of something. Or maybe we’ll ask the angels to help.”
“Perhaps the angels can stop him. He is powerful and brilliant. I would suspect he is already wary of attack by angels and has something in place to mask himself from them.”
“Well, we still need to try.” Something in the way she was fidgeting with her wine glass caught his attention. It was as if she didn’t want to tell him something. “What is it about this elf? Is he a friend of yours? A family member?”
She bit her lip, still staring at the wine glass. “We were once lovers, and there was talk that we would be wed. I thought…I thought I loved him and that he loved me, but he betrayed me. He was only using me.”
He felt as if she’d punched him in the stomach. “A lover? Your ex-boyfriend? And an elf? But you’re not an elf?” Shaking his head, Dustin tried to get the image of Gwylla and some elf out of his head. “Okay. Backup a moment. What is the difference between sidhe and the elves? You said you’re both fae?”
She took a quick drink of wine. “All of the fae are like cousins? Step siblings? We would be indistinguishable to many. With sidhe and elves, the line is often blurred. We are taller, and our powers are different. A very long time ago, the elves refused to live with the rest of us in Aerie. They left with the Angels of Chaos to live in Hel.”
“And why are you here in the middle of Alaska and not in Aerie?”
“I was sent to be an emissary to Hel. The queens want the elves to return to our fold, and I was sent to live among them, to show them the power and joy that would be theirs if they rejoined us. I found some receptive to the idea, but the high lords had different plans. When the elves migrated here, I followed, not wanting to abandon my assignment, but uncertain how to proceed.”
He stared at her, fairly certain she was lying but feeling that he was not in any position right now to call her out on it.
“But here?” he asked instead. “In the middle of Alaska, where as far as I know there are no elves? Why are you living in an isolated, invisible parallel universe world in the Alaskan wilderness instead of on Elf Island, making your case for reunification?”
She looked down at the half-empty glass of wine, her white-blonde hair hiding her expression. “It’s a place for me to recoup my power, to decide whether I should continue to act as an emissary, or return to Aerie and admit failure.”
And that felt like a lie as well. Did her presence have more to do with the elf that betrayed her, the one who had the mirror image of her magic? Perhaps if he came back to this later, she’d be more willing to share the truth with him. So instead of continuing, he switched the topic.
“You said your powers are different than the elves’? What exactly can you do? Beyond creating invisible worlds with giant trees and healing mortally injured werewolves, that is.”
She shot him a mischievous smile that made him acutely aware of the fact he was sitting naked beside her. “Teleport. Control the environment. Elves have some limited skill with that, but we’re better. We’re also better at forming plants and allowing them to live in what would normally be adverse conditions, like my maples, oaks, and hawthorn in the high altitudes and cold conditions here. We can create an overlay world and hide it, ward it strongly against discovery or attack. As for me, I’m particularly skilled with snow and ice. This part of your world calls to me with its wintery beauty. We can affect time in a limited fashion, and enchant. If we choose, we can also serve as a conduit, in which I would share my energy and skills with another.”
Her powers seemed to be more along the lines of defensive ones, like a magical chameleon combined with the abilities of a weather witch. Except for enchantment. Dustin eyed her, suddenly wary. She was beautiful in an otherworldly way—breathtakingly so. Was her appearance a form of illusion to draw him in, to make him want to stay? Because it seemed to be working. The thought of leaving her sanctuary, of leaving her, distressed him. Was this her magic? Or this weird bond thing she’d mentioned? Or was he just hurt and tired and wanting to curl up in a safe, snug earthen den with a beautiful, sexy woman?
Dustin shook his head, trying to focus on something besides the brush of her thigh against his. “Will you tell me more about this elf that betrayed you? I know it’s personal, and probably none of my business, but if he’s the one who is providing the magic bullets to the hunters, then I want to know all I can about him.”
Her mouth twisted as she turned to look again into her wine glass. “I was with him when we crossed from Hel. The other elves went elsewhere, but I remained, and came here to Alaska with him. At that time, I was beginning to suspect…but that is not important. He is a high elf, very talented, brilliant and powerful.”
“And he’s the one who is providing the magic for the bullets?”
She ran a finger around the edge of her glass. “I’m sure of it. The magic is too close to my own to be that of another elf. I shared my knowledge and power with him while we were in Hel. I held nothing back, because I…trusted him. But once here, I began to see a side of Talligie that I’d foolishly overlooked or ignored before. We had a disagreement. I refused to do something, told him that I was leaving him. He attempted to imprison me, tried to keep me there, but I managed to escape.”
“And you came here?” Dustin felt the stew curdle in his stomach at her words. He’d imprisoned her. Had he hit her? Hurt her as well? All of this made him want to dig his fangs deep into the neck of this elf.
Her eyes were sad. “Yes. I had allowed myself to be a conduit to him, and I’m unable to sever the connection unless I face him to do so. Here in my sanctuary, I’m out of his reach. He can’t use my energy while I’m here, and I’ve constructed this place so he cannot easily find it.”
“And you intended to either return to Aerie or stay here forever? Hide out rather than face him?”
She winced. “Yes. At the time I just wanted to avoid the confrontation. Please understand, he is equal to me in power and strength. There is a chance he would best me, and I didn’t want to be imprisoned and used by him. It seemed the better solution to hide here, out of his reach.”
“But now?” he prodded. This elf was providing the means to kill shifters, and she was the one being who could find him, easily get within striking distance of him. Dustin understood her fear that she might not prevail in a battle between the two of them, but for her to stay here while shifters were murdered…that would wipe out any respect he had for her.
She sighed, finally looking directly at him. “I’d hoped with me hidden he’d abandon his plans, but it seems that isn’t so. I have no choice but to leave my sanctuary and confront him. I only hope that I’ve been able to recover enough strength to break our conduit link, and take back everything I so foolishly gave him.”
Reaching over to get the bottle, she refilled both of their glasses. He was tired and still in pain, and the food he’d just eaten plus the wine was making it hard to concentrate but he still had questions he needed answers to. “How long have you been here in your sanctuary?”
“Almost three months of your time. It took quite a lot of my power to escape and build this sanctuary. As I’ve regained power, I’ve enhanced the illusion, hiding it better and creating a barrier between here and your world. I’d never intended to leave here. But I will. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to stop him.”
What if she wasn’t ready? Having to heal him probably had depleted her even further. Was he being selfish in wanting her to face her ex-boyfriend when she wasn’t ready? “How much longer until you’re at full strength?”
Her laugh was short and bitter. “Ten, possibly twenty years. Maybe more. But I don’t need to be at full strength to defeat Talligie. I just need to be smart, to be clever.”
Dustin gulped down the wine, suddenly worried that this confrontation between Gwylla and her ex wasn’
t going to end well. “I wish…are you sure? Because we don’t have ten years. He’s killing us. And I’m assuming that he doesn’t need a functioning link to you to make the magic for the bullets.”
“No, obviously not.” She downed her wine as well. “But if he finds me and he defeats me, then bullets will be the least of your worries. He’ll take everything I have, leave me nothing but a shell. And the sum of our magic is greater than our individual parts. If he defeats me, then he will be a problem that possibly only a host of angels can stop.”
He swallowed and tried to remain calm. “Okay, so maybe you should stay here for a few decades, or until you’re strong enough to face him. I can’t, though. I need to help my pack. If we have to, we’ll fight this guy ourselves. We can’t just hide and wait until you’re strong enough to deal with him.”
She winced. “I’m sorry. I won’t wait ten years. I’ll face him as soon as I’m able. And there are other things I might be able to do to help your people. If you have healers, or magic users, I can teach them how to counteract the magic. I can’t reverse the magic, or heal it with a touch, but I can teach others to help your injured survive their wounds.”
“Thank you. We don’t have a healer in our pack, but the Juneau Pack has an angel. Two, actually.” It would help. And as much as he wanted her to face down this elf that had betrayed her and take her revenge, the thought that her ex would kill her made him want to hide her away himself, to protect her.
Silly. He was a werewolf, and an injured one. What need did she have of his teeth and claws when she had powerful magic at her fingertips?
“You have an angel?” Her green eyes registered shock. “There are two angels here in Alaska? They are ideally suited to learn how to heal the magic. And they may be the only two here besides me who could fight Talligie and stand a chance of defeating him.”
He had mixed feelings about that. It was a relief that there were two celestial beings in Alaska who could take this guy down, but troubling that it would take an angel to defeat an elf.
