by Dannika Dark
The handshake broke, and the two men sat back. Claude and Shepherd were chatting away at the end of the table, something about their respective dream homes.
I yawned while Viktor broke off a hunk of bread and tempted Eve with another piece.
“Don’t worry,” Reuben said, noticing my concerned expression as I glanced toward the front gate for the millionth time. “We’ll find your friends. If they’re in one of our traps, it might take a while to get them out.”
“What’s this place called?” Eve asked. “Does it have a name?”
Reuben rose from the table and stacked our empty bowls. “Wonderland. We had a vote years ago.”
She snickered. “What were some of the other choices?”
“Oz, Metropolis, and one girl wanted to call it Fern Valley. That name almost won.” He circled around the table and touched her shoulder. “Are you ready to pick out your room?”
Her eyes brightened. “I get a room of my own?”
“Of course! You can paint it, draw on the walls, decorate it any way you want. All you have to do is keep your bed made up and your room tidy. If you and your brother want adjoining rooms, we can arrange that, but everyone has their own space. No sharing.”
“We slept in an open room in the other place. Adam can sleep somewhere else. I want total privacy.” Eve stood up and addressed Viktor. “Thanks for bringing us here.” She gave him a quick hug and then bypassed Shepherd as she circled the table and stood before Claude. “Thanks for saving my life.”
Claude’s cheeks flushed. He took her hand and bowed his head. “It was my privilege, little one. Pay it forward someday.” He let go and smiled up at her. “Cherish your brother. You’re lucky to have each other. You have a big decision to make someday, but I know you’ll make the right choice. You’ve already seen the dangers, and maybe now you’ll see all the good. Have a long, happy life.”
“Um, you too. Thanks.” Eve averted her eyes and fidgeted. “I heard everything you told Carol. I’m sorry about your sister.”
What the hell had I missed? I’d never heard Claude talk about his family.
Claude tidied her hair with a sweep of his hand. “I was always her protector.”
“I kinda know what you mean. I fight with Adam sometimes, but he takes care of me. I don’t know what I’d do without him.” Tears shone in her eyes as she turned and looked at Shepherd. “Thanks for everything you did for my brother.”
Shepherd nodded but kept his eyes trained on his hot coffee as he took a slurp.
“You’re not as scary as you look.”
Shepherd spit out his coffee as Eve returned to her chair to gather her belongings.
Reuben gestured to Claude. “You mentioned you’re a hairstylist?”
Claude straightened his shoulders as if there was no doubt.
“We have a few girls who, uh, they don’t like what we’ve done.”
Claude narrowed his eyes. “And what have you done?”
Reuben shrugged. “A hairstylist isn’t in the budget. Last week the new guy gave them all the exact same cut. They’re not happy.”
Claude rose from his chair. “If you bring them up here, I’ll fix your mistakes. But only on the condition that someone with an ounce of talent pays attention and takes notes.”
“I don’t think you can fix what’s been done, but you can show us a few tricks.”
Claude folded his arms. “You don’t think I can fix bad hair? Challenge accepted. Bring me all your supplies, and let’s get this done before their bedtime. And for future reference, cutting hair isn’t the only way to give someone a fresh new look. I’m also going to show you how to create buns and properly braid.”
“Lord have mercy,” Reuben said on a laugh. “You’re gonna make some kids happy.” He looked at Shepherd and me. “Anyone else have talents we can borrow?”
I shrugged. “I can suffocate a man with my thighs.”
Reuben’s smile waned when he lifted his gaze to the field behind me. “It looks like we found your friends.”
I twisted around in my chair and rested my arms on the railing. Christian swaggered across the field with a roguish smile on his handsome face. No glasses, his Henley shirt shredded and bloodstained, and Viktor’s bag in hand. A man accompanying him branched away toward the entrance to the greenhouse.
Christian reached the side porch and crooked his finger, calling Eve over.
She cautiously approached the wood railing and was eye level with the Vampire. Her plump cheeks bloomed red when she looked down at the palm of his hand.
Christian returned her wadded-up gum wrapper. “The next time you decide to toss your trash and there isn’t a trash receptacle, use your pocket instead. Don’t be a litterbug, you hear? Have some respect for the world around you.”
Eve took the wrapper and fled.
“Says the man covered in blood,” I muttered.
He leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss.
“I take it by the glint in your eye that you killed the lion?”
“Aye.”
“Took you long enough.” I wiped his bloodstained beard with my sleeve. “Did you play with your food?”
“That’s why I’m late.” He dropped the bag. “I’ve certainly worked up an appetite.”
“There’s soup and bread.”
“That’s not what I’m hungry for, lass.” His eyes lowered. “What’s wrong with your hands?”
A strange golden light drew my attention, and I lifted my palms. What the hell? I shook them as if I could somehow remove the glow with a flick of my wrist.
“That’s never happened before,” I said, rubbing them against my jacket.
Christian gripped my wrists and looked me firmly in the eye. “You’re not doing that yourself?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t feel like anything. Energy always tingles. Sometimes it heats up my hands, and other times it causes pain. This is just… weird.”
I held up my hands and looked at them as if they were giant lightning bugs from a prehistoric era. A few seconds later, the light extinguished.
Chapter 29
The evening air was cool but not unpleasant. Claude had a line of customers in the greenhouse who were getting their first professional haircut, and Shepherd reluctantly acted as his assistant.
The rest of us sat on the long porch, lanterns on the walls brightly lit.
“If you have power downstairs, why don’t you set up some lights out here?” I asked.
Reuben crossed his feet, which were propped on the railing. “Artificial light attracts outsiders. It also attracts bugs.”
Viktor enjoyed a sip of beer, something they’d brought up from their private stash. Reuben said they didn’t like alcohol on the premises, but some of the shepherds kept a few bottles locked up for special occasions.
This qualified.
I passed on the offer, much to Christian’s surprise.
Viktor stood up from the table, his gaze fixed on the dark field behind us. “What is that he has?”
Christian and I turned. Matteo emerged from the darkness, flanked by two men. He looked like a man who had traveled out of time with his fur-lined boots and layers of tattered clothes. He was dragging something large behind him, and as they came into view, I realized it was an unconscious man. His legs left two flat trails in the grass. Matteo had rope looped over his shoulders like a harness, and the other end of each rope was tied to the man’s hands.
Viktor descended the steps to meet up with him, and I followed.
When Matteo reached us, he let go of the rope and panted, out of breath. “Anyone know this Mage?”
Viktor turned a sharp eye toward Christian. “Did you not kill the last one?”
“I don’t think this is one of General’s brothers,” I said, taking note of the man’s Asian features. “Who’s this guy?”
“This is the one who shot the boy with poison arrows.” Matteo nudged the man with his foot. “I spotted him in a sycamore tree with a clear shot
of your group. I started to climb the tree, but he escaped.”
Christian strolled up. “Escaped a Chitah? Aren’t you supposed to be excellent climbers?”
Matteo glowered. “He’s a Jumper. Have you ever seen one of them move? He took me on a long chase, and I had to wait until he used up his energy.”
The man’s long braid jostled my memory. This was the archer I fought on a snowy rooftop a few months back when a bunch of goons were attacking Niko.
Matteo heaved a sigh. “I threw a stunner at him, but—”
“It didn’t work,” I said, finishing his sentence. “He’s immune to stunners.”
“How do you know that?” Viktor shifted his stance.
“Because I fought him once. His group is after Niko.” I knelt down and checked the man’s pulse, and it was still ticking away. Maybe he was paralyzed. I looked closely at Matteo’s mouth and chin but didn’t see any blood. “Did you bite him?”
He shook his head. “Never had the chance to. After his last jump, he hit the ground running and then… collapsed.”
“Collapsed?” Christian looked at him with a start. “Are you fecking with me? That’s a Mage. They don’t just pass out like one of those fainting goats.”
“I couldn’t see well from the ground, but it looked as if he had switched on flashlights. I thought he might have more poison on him, so I waited behind a tree.”
Viktor knelt down. “Raven, hand me your blade. Perhaps he is pretending. Let us cut off his manhood and find out.”
With a smile, I handed Viktor my push dagger. This might be fun.
When Viktor pressed it forcefully between the Mage’s legs, every man watching winced and shifted his stance.
The only one who didn’t move was the Mage. His eyes didn’t flutter, and when I checked his pulse, it was steady and slow.
“Maybe he pricked himself with his own poison,” I suggested.
Matteo folded his arms. “Wouldn’t he have come out of it by now?”
I lowered my voice to Viktor. “What the hell was he doing out here? And a poison dart? I think you need to call home as soon as you can and find out what’s going on.”
Viktor stood up and rubbed the back of his neck. “If he’s immune to stunners, we’ll have to tie him up.”
One of the men behind Matteo said, “We have chains in case of intruders. I’ll get them.” The man jogged toward the barn.
Reuben descended the steps of the porch and approached the scene. “You’ll have to take him with you when you leave in the morning. You’re responsible for him, and I trust you’ll do the right thing and turn him over to the higher authority. If he knows where this place is, he’s a liability.”
I stood up and dusted off my sweatpants. “Reuben, if you have extra guards, you might want to put them around the property tonight. This guy has friends, and we don’t know why he was gunning for the children. It wasn’t an attempted abduction; he wanted them dead.”
Reuben snapped his finger at one of the men, who then hurried off.
Matteo glanced at the greenhouse and looked around. “This is quite a piece of land you have.”
Reuben stared at the rogue Chitah for a long time. “You’re the one who lives in the cabin south of here, aren’t you? Our scouts reported you.”
Matteo stroked his beard. “No need to scrub my memories. I’ve seen children traversing through my territory. You can’t keep that a secret. What you do with them, however, is a secret. One I don’t understand. But I’ve never scented any fear on their part, so I left it alone.”
“You’ve seen other kids?”
“You travel the same path each time. That’s a fool’s errand. When you create a recognizable scent trail, you catch the attention of local rogues.” Matteo lightly kicked at the ground. “Consider taking a different path every time.”
Reuben looked up at the stars blinking in the night sky. “The transporters would only get lost.”
“No kidding,” I chimed in. “We almost got lost. This mountain is nothing but a maze of trees and no clear landmarks.”
“Is that bread I smell?” Matteo lifted his nose when a breeze picked up.
Reuben gestured toward the greenhouse. “You’re welcome to it.”
After a curt nod, Matteo strode past him and climbed the steps.
I eased up next to Reuben. “I get why you hire people like us to bring the kids. But we’re city people, and it doesn’t take much to get lost. Maybe what you need is a guide who knows these woods inside out.”
Reuben arched an eyebrow. “Mm-hmm. And you know of such a man?”
“Would you be willing? You hire outsiders to work here, but maybe you need a local to keep an eye on things and help the teams move through without incident.”
“That is not a bad idea,” Viktor agreed. “When we moved off the trail, it became difficult to navigate. Matteo was very resourceful. It would be a shame if you treated him as an enemy.”
Reuben tightened our circle. “Our hands are tied with local landowners. We don’t have the power to kick them out, but we have to keep a close eye on them and make sure they don’t get too nosy. We appreciate that he’s kept to himself. Not everyone has.”
“He’s a skilled trapper,” I added. “You should see the trap he built that I fell in.”
Reuben stole a glance at Matteo, who was feasting at the table by candlelight. “Is that right?”
When Viktor signaled that he wanted to speak to Reuben alone, I wandered back to the porch and ascended the steps.
“How’s the bread?”
Matteo had claimed the entire basket and didn’t bother buttering it. “Fresh. Not as good as my recipe.”
I sat down across from him. “Maybe you could teach them.”
He chewed off another bite, flecks of bread crumbs clinging to his beard and scattering on the table. “I doubt they need any help.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
“That Mage climbed high to conceal his scent,” Matteo said. “If these people want to protect their land, they should build tree stands outside the perimeter. Someone high enough to see or smell trouble.”
Matteo had solid ideas, but he was emotionally disconnected from the idea of pursuing anything meaningful in life. His last kiss with Blue hadn’t escaped my mind, and while he might have been shunning everyone because of an emotional trauma, maybe he was a lost soul who just needed a purpose in life.
Hell, don’t we all?
“You should think about offering your services here. They could use someone with your expertise. You know these woods better than anyone. You could protect the groups who come and go.”
He swallowed a mouthful of bread. “And why would I do that?”
I folded my arms across the table. “Because despite your surly attitude, I think you care about what happens to children.”
“No one is offering me any job, and I’m not here to beg for one.”
“You could escort them yourself, or maybe you could just give them better ideas on how to secure this place.”
He set down the heel of bread. “In exchange for what? Money means nothing to me.”
“Take it from me, finding a purpose in life can pull you out of hell. Isn’t that better than money? I spent a long time in hell, so I know what it’s like. You think you don’t need anyone, and maybe you don’t. But that’s not what it’s about. It’s who needs you. Think of all the kids you could help. I don’t know you very well, but you stuck your neck out for us. I’m sorry about the whole kiss thing, but maybe I can give you advice.”
“And what advice is that, Mage?”
I felt my father’s wisdom filling me up. “Don’t sit around waiting for life to get better. Breathing isn’t enough. I don’t know anything about your past and your woman, but what do you think she’d say if she knew you were living alone in the woods? What do you think she’d want you to do if given the chance to help innocent children? I can’t tell you what path to take. I don’t even know hal
f the time if I’m on the right path. But you need to choose something instead of sitting on your ass, growing tomatoes.”
I stood up and turned my back.
“Raven?”
I caught the railing and looked back.
“You’re a fierce woman with a fiery heart. Don’t ever let that Vampire change you.”
I half smiled. “He’s the one who brings it out in me.”
Chapter 30
Earlier that day.
“We go,” Switch said decidedly.
Wyatt stood up from the dining table and huffed. Since when did these guys think they called the shots? “Hold your ponies. You have an obligation to guard the property. The only place you go is two steps behind Hunter.”
“He’s got a point.” Crush twisted a small rubber band around his grey goatee. “You need to protect that boy. Kids come first. Always.”
Switch folded his arms on the table. “You put a tracking device in her shoe. How can you just sit here when you know exactly where she is?”
Wyatt knew Switch had good intentions, but tough shit if he didn’t like the plan. “Look, we appreciate all your help. But when it comes to making countermoves, you don’t get to make those decisions. I don’t make those decisions,” he said, pointing to his chest. “Maybe you’re top dog around the packs, but that doesn’t mean you call the shots when it comes to Keystone.”
Switch leaned back in his chair. “Boy, if you make air quotes one more time, I’m going to snip off those fingers.”
“Boy?” Wyatt bristled at the remark. “My name’s Wyatt Blessing, and I was born in 1803. If anyone here’s a boy, it’s you.”
“Boys hide in their castle while men fight battles.”
Wyatt kicked over a chair. “It’s not my choice! You think I like having my hands tied? But what happens if you take off and they bust in here and slaughter everyone, including the kid. Huh? You gonna feel like a hero? What the immortal hell do you expect me to do?”
Crush casually sipped his coffee. “Calm your ass down—the both of you—and we’ll figure something out. You’re both right. He can’t call the shots any more than you could in a pack, Switch. Wyatt, you’ve got exact coordinates on your friend. Switch has a point. How much time before they find that little device on her? Let’s put our heads together.”
