Second Sight
The Rune Sight Chronicles, Book 2
Boyd Craven III
Copyright © 2018 Boyd Craven III
First Sight, The Rune Sight Chronicles
By Boyd Craven
Many thanks to friends and family for keeping me writing!
All rights reserved.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
1
I came to slowly; something was digging into my side.
“Boss, you stink,” Rose said, flying over me.
“Rose…” my words trailed off as I saw that Cindy was laying half on top of me, her body wedged between the wall and what room there was left of the bunk, but mostly on me. “What… I mean… How long was I asleep?”
“I don’t know,” the fairy said flying closer, hovering right in front of me.
“How can you not know?” I asked her.
“Because I had too much honey. I helped myself to your hazelnut creamer, I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all,” I said slowly, working my way out from under the fully dressed and still dirty Sheriff.
“Good. Maybe I won’t have to tease you about not closing the deal then.”
“Closing the deal?” I asked.
I finally pulled my arm out from under Cindy, and as soon as my spot was vacated, she rolled onto her side, wrapping my comforter around her, leaving only a mass of red hair visible in dim light of the barely lit bunker.
“You’re still dressed. I might have sucked down enough honey to take on a train worth of Irish faeries last night, but you, sir, are still dressed and bloody.”
I rubbed my hand across my face, feeling the stubble. I remembered coming inside, I remembered Cindy and me making our way to my bed and her snickering that we would be right on top of each other and then the kiss. After that? I didn’t remember, I must have fallen asleep. Or passed out from exhaustion.
“I’m going to clean up,” I said, still using a quiet voice. “Want me to get some fruit out for you?”
“I took care of it. You want me to wake up the police lady and have her join you in the shower?”
“You really don’t need to match make,” I hissed back at her.
“Dumbass. She’s willing and probably wants it more than you do.”
“I just went through a couple major healings. I’m starving, I stink, and I’m—”
“Repressed. No, no, I got it. You’re gay? I mean, I don’t mind if you’re gay, lots of mages are gay. Maybe you like the strong silent guys—”
“Rose!” I said a little louder than I had intended and then cringed as the bed moved.
I waited for the lump that was Cindy to settle back down before I turned back to her.
“I like the ladies,” I hissed, feeling as if my masculinity was threatened.
“I know, boss, I just had to take the piss out of you.”
“You what?” I asked. “Who even talks like that?”
“Irish faeries mostly. I’m trying to expand my list of insults and sayings. It beats calling you a dumbass all the time.”
“Who’s a dumbass?” a sleepy voice said from under the covers.
I made a sawing motion across my throat, and Rose’s tiny, perfectly manicured eyebrows went almost to her hairline. I nodded at her and then pointed in her direction. She made a humping motion, and then a wicked grin broke out across her face. I hurried to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I had a lot to do, and I had a feeling I’d be hearing from Rasmussen soon. It wasn’t my sight or a premonition, but the way things were left made it probable.
I stepped out of the bathroom, my hair still a mess, but otherwise cleaned and scraped raw. A lot had happened, and I had been magically healed so much it had been a battle to make sure I got the stink of blood, werewolf, and fried hair off me before I could even think of food. My stomach rumbled as I smelled something heavenly.
“You know you have more food in the bunker than you do in the fake fridge out front?” Cindy said, wearing one of my large flannel shirts and by the looks of it, nothing else.
“How would you know?” I asked, walking towards the kitchen area where the smell of frying potatoes and bacon assaulted my nose.
“Rose checked for me. Said you had some leftover bar food in there and that was about it.”
“That smells fantastic,” I told her, unsure of what I should do at this point.
I mean, the chemistry had been building and last night was going to be ‘The Night’, but I had fallen asleep. I’d been utterly exhausted, and now that I had slept, I felt thoroughly famished, and I didn’t know what was distracting me more. The long coltish bare legs under one of my shirts, or the food that was being cooked.
“Thanks. Just a little of this and that. You grow up in a family diner, you got to learn how to cook or get out of the kitchen.”
I snickered and heard Rose do the same. I looked up and saw her sitting on top of the fridge. She gave me a little wave and then speared something out of what looked like a fruit cup. She began eating it, and I gave her a half a wave back.
“Sneak a piece?” I asked her, moving in close.
“Oh, boss, that was the smoothest of all come-ons,” Rose snarked.
I looked up at her startled as I had been reaching for the plate that had been covered by a paper towel and had been rapidly filling with—
“He meant the bacon, smartass,” Cindy shot back to her.
“What if I didn’t?” I asked.
“Tom!” both of them shouted.
“Jinx,” I replied, and when both mouths dropped open, I grabbed a couple slices of bacon and danced backward.
I could read the futures, not very long, but for a few seconds. Let’s just say that I had already explored initial reactions depending on what I had actually meant versus what they said. The results varied significantly, and one of them had me getting hit with a spatula and getting glitter bombed by Rose. Instead, I went for the safe route: bacon. I tore into it and then walked over to the fridge. I had bought a lot of fruit and juice the past week since Rose had thrown in with me and right now as much as I would love coffee, I needed energy, and I was going for the OJ.
“That’s not even remotely funny,” Rose said as I opened the fridge door.
“Actually, it kind of was,” Cindy said with a snicker. I found what I wanted and pulled it out.
“Want some OJ, short stuff?” I asked.
“Thanks. Wow. This is a domestic moment about to happen. I think I might hurl.” Rose rolled her eyes.
I grinned at the diminutive faerie and then scooted behind Cindy to get out three glasses.
“Sorry about last night,” Cindy said.
“What do you mean?” I asked her, my heart beating hard, quite suddenly.
“Well, I mean, it started to get…” her words trailed off, and I turned to see her turning bright, bright red in the face
and neck, her ears looking like a thermometer that had gotten too hot and was about to pop, “…hot and heavy, and I fell asleep.”
“Oh… Yeah, don’t worry about it,” I told her, my mouth dry as she turned to stir at the potatoes again. “We were both wiped out.”
“You were such a damned gentleman about it,” Cindy said after a moment, her back still turned to me.
I heard a popping sound and looked up to see Rose had disappeared, her fruit cup gone with her.
“You want to know the truth? I thought I fell asleep first,” I told her.
She turned and gave me a grin, her color starting to come back to a healthy hue.
“You sure about that?” she asked me quietly.
“Honest. And it looks like Rose gave us some privacy.”
“Tom, no offense, but the morning after… I mean I haven’t showered, and I’ve still got rock bits in my—”
I busted up laughing. For a second her face turned furious, and I was ducking before the spatula flew my way. I’d seen a furious tirade was incoming from my sight.
“Stop, wait,” I said, holding a hand up.
“I’m being serious—”
“I am too. I meant she gave us some privacy to talk. She talks a big game, but she’s a softy at heart. Always plays the matchmaker but is squicked out when it comes to sex talk. I don’t understand it.”
“Squicked out?” Cindy asked, changing the subject.
“Yes, squicked. It’s a thing, I think.”
“One of these days, you and I…” her words trailed off.
I saw her cell phone on the far end of the counter. I looked into the future, having had a nudge of premonition from my sight that I always left open a crack, and picked up the phone, handing it to Cindy. She took it, looking at me funny as I pulled a new spatula out of the utensil drawer. I had started stirring the potatoes when the phone rang, startling her so badly she nearly dropped the phone.
“Hello?” she answered as I kept stirring.
I listened as she had a one-sided conversation with somebody. I pulled out another plate, put down a triple layer of paper towel, and started shoveling the potatoes onto it. I put the pan on the stove, cracking eggs that had been laid out.
“Yes. I know. I don’t know how I’m getting phone reception where I’m at, but my radio must not be working. Yeah. That’s a good idea. No, it was my day off. No, I did not spend it shacked up with…” she looked over at me, “…that’s none of your business. Yes. Okay. I’ll be in for my shift at ten, don’t worry. No, really, you should have called me sooner. Okay. Bye.”
“What happened?” I asked her as she put the phone down, her hands trembling slightly.
“Nothing. The Attorney General in our area hadn’t heard from me in a couple days regarding the Shinabarger farm murder, and was calling for updates. He called dispatch and didn’t identify himself, so they just took notes. It wasn’t until this morning he had them try to radio me. Apparently, my dispatcher is pretty fierce about keeping my days off sacred.”
“And you don’t want to explain that you were kidnapped by a mage assassin, held as bait, and were read into the magical community?”
“Yeah, that.”
“But he asked who you were shacking up with…” I said, letting the words hang and loving how her face turned almost as red as her hair.
“So what? I might have told him about you once or twice.”
“Oh really?” I said, grinning.
“Dumbass!” Rose said poofing into view in front of me.
“Dammit!” I screamed, covering the pan as glitter started floating all around, announcing her entrance.
Cindy burst into laughter as I scowled and used my chest to keep the faerie farts from covering our food.
“She was probably telling him about you to keep him from asking her out again,” Rose said in a haughty tone.
Cindy was nodding, gasping for breath now. Any second now, she’d flop on the ground and start pounding on the floor like a toddler. I knew it, I didn’t need my sight to see that. Tom humiliation 101. T minus… three…. two….
“He was my high school sweetheart,” Cindy said between gasps, her words coming out half giggle now.
“So I was… wait, Rose. You snuck back in to see if we were doing anything, didn’t you?”
“Was not,” she said with a sniff. “That squicks me out.”
“Squicks,” Cindy repeated, and started laughing again.
I stirred the last of the eggs up, added salt and pepper and let them cook as both of them started talking about this new word. I listened, but my mind was racing. I needed to do so many things, but my stomach was aching. I finished off the eggs and grabbed plates.
“Where did you leave your fruit cup?” I asked Rose as I started dishing food out.
“I tossed it in the fire pit behind the cabin, between here and JJ’s shack.
“Shack?” Cindy asked, taking a plateful of food.
“Yeah, his little trapper's shack. The cabin building where he practiced flexing when he didn’t know you didn’t know about the magical world and…”
“We got it, Rose,” I said. “Hey, do you want any?”
“You’re eating strips of pigs, fried plant material that grows underneath the soil, and fertilized with cow manure and the babies of birds too stupid to fly. What do you think?”
“You want another fruit cup and a touch of hazelnut creamer?”
“Hey, he’s smart,” Rose said, flying near Cindy and nudging her with her tiny shoulder. “Told you he could learn.”
“That you did,” Cindy said and dropped her a wink before taking her food to the small table I had in the bunker.
“When did you tell her that?” I asked, following.
“You sure you don’t remember anything about last night?” Cindy said, “I mean, after we fell asleep?”
“No, I went to sleep then woke up and took a shower…”
“We’ll just leave it at that then,” Rose said in a hurry, snickering.
“I am so lost here,” I said, moaning.
2
We ate in a hurry, and Cindy rushed her stuff into the bathroom to get ready. I was still famished, so I had seconds, and then thirds while she showered quickly.
“We need to talk about what happened last night,” I told Rose, who was sitting on the edge of the table next to me, just out of reach of my hand in case I accidentally bumped her.
“I know,” she said softly, “but don’t talk about it with her around. And seriously, you really need to quit getting so banged up. Those healing charms drain you badly.”
“Yeah, that rechargeable one is going to come in handy,” I told her, grinning.
“Yeah, just don’t come to rely on it,” Rose said in a scolding tone.
“I won’t, but it’s going to be something else I add to my charm necklace,” I told her, pulling it out, so it sat on top of my shirt. “The Arches gate stone is going on there too.”
“Good. I wouldn’t leave JJ out there with his new mate too long, or you’re likely to have a few litters of pups added to the pack before you know it.”
“I… Oh man,” I said, grinning, and shoved a mouthful of bacon in so I wouldn’t have to talk to her.
What I knew about werewolves would fill a book, but despite that, I knew almost nothing. For example, even though I’d been savaged under the arm, I knew I wasn’t in danger of catching the lycanthropy. Something about a mage’s blood negated the curse from bites. I never had it explained to me other than that the magic doesn’t mix. I’d come to know however, that wasn’t exactly right, because when I’d won the challenge with JJ, I’d noticed subtle changes with myself.
When I gave a command, it seemed to have been like a guitar in my chest had been thrummed, and my voice was somehow louder, more profound, more commanding. I’d heard Alphas had a little more control over their inner beasts as their will was stronger, yet I’d been told JJ was ruled by his beast. I hadn’t seen that to be h
onest, because not only did he retain most of his intelligence in his shifted form, but he also kept his clothing, which only some of the strongest-willed Weres could do. Still, I felt the command of the Alpha as I led the pack. Maybe some magics didn’t mix, but I was sure I didn’t have to worry about howling at the moon once or twice a month.
I also knew that most humans could never survive the transformation. It wasn’t because the change itself is deadly, though it can be. Instead, an enraged werewolf who’s biting you is more likely to kill you than let you go wounded and free. It was part of the predator instinct that drove them, one I’d encountered over and over. That was why I’d given Carl and Yolanda’s pack so much reverence and respect when I’d first encountered them.
By treaty, the mage world leaves the werewolves alone, unless they are at risk of exposing the supernatural to humans. It had happened multiple times throughout history, which had forced secret wars to be fought by the mages, Weres, and other supernatural creatures. Somebody had a bright idea that, instead of slaughtering each other, humanity would be left in the dark and everything touched by magic would agree to a new accord, a treaty. Mages definitely held the most power and were the unofficial rulers and enforcers of the treaty, but they weren’t the only ones. Rumors of a werewolf and vampire council swirled, but without a formal education in the magical world, that was all they were to me. Rumors.
As a hunter, I’d never asked my prey the reason, back history, or why they’d suddenly decided to turn against humanity; I just put them down. It had been a dirty and horrible time in my life, but I’d believed in what I was doing. I still did, though I considered myself retired. Well, except for my plans for killing Vassago and bringing the house of shadows to its knees. That’d make me feel better.
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