“He should have. Or at least he should have taught you how to recognise others. You can recognise other witches, right?”
“Yes, I can feel their magic. And daemons, but they register differently.”
“But not wolves?”
“I’ve never met one before. You’re my first.”
Gage grinned and I pulled a face at him. So not what I meant to imply.
“Do you love the daemon?” he asked after a quiet pause.
“I... think so,” I said.
“You don’t sound so sure.”
So many thoughts and feelings were flittering through me. I thought I loved Evan, but he kept so much from me and his absence unnerved me now as much as it had when I didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. He was secretive and mysterious and he only told me half truths and wouldn’t listen to me. There was passion all right, no question about that, but I wanted honesty and reliability too and right now I wasn’t sure if I was getting that. “I don’t want to talk about him with you,” I said eventually.
Gage just nodded, then asked, “How much do you know about our world?”
“Not much,” I confessed. “Evan and Étoile were teaching me.”
“Then you should be wondering why your friends aren’t teaching you everything.’ He got up and took his mug across to the sink. I heard the water whoosh out of the faucet as he rinsed the mug and placed it upside down on the drying rack while I was thinking about that. He was still behind me when he said. “You should be asking why your friends only tell you what they want you to know.”
“It’s not like that,” I said, the chair skidding back as I turned round. “They’ve been really good to me. Both of them have saved my life.” And I’d saved theirs, I thought, but I didn’t say that.
“Then they should enable you to live your life.”
I didn’t know quite what to make of that so I drank my coffee slowly until it was all gone and then I played with my mug, rolling it around in my hands until Gage took it from me and rinsed it out too.
“You’re not their pet, Stella.”
“I never said I was!” I exclaimed, looking up quickly. “You’re making assumptions!”
Gage looked at me for a moment, his gaze coolly assessing. He set my mug on the rack next to his. He leaned back against the counter, and ran the tip of his tongue over his lower lip like he was ready to say more but was just about decided against it.
“Listen, I’ll go... unless you want me to stay.” He waited for me to protest but I didn’t, not because I didn’t enjoy his company – clearly I enjoyed it far too much – but because I wanted to chew over what he had said. I didn’t want to believe him that Evan and Étoile were holding things back from me, but I knew they had and in a big way and when I thought about it, perhaps that was why I hadn’t been so forthcoming about Chyler. What was that saying? Forewarned is forearmed. I was neither. “Come by later if you want to go to the movies. I’ll let Annalise come too so long as neither of you bullies me into a chick flick.”
I smiled at the thought of that, Gage wedged between us as we giggled through a romcom, but having seen Annalise’s stash of DVDs I figured he’d seen his fair share already, even if he wasn’t ready to admit it.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” I said. The right thing to do was put distance between us, to not cloud my already shaky thoughts.
With a shake of his head Gage stepped towards the kitchen door and I followed behind him. At the front door, he turned back to me, his hand resting on the handle, not moving back as I brushed past him to unlock it. “I’m glad this is all out in the open,” he said.
I smiled tentatively. “Me too, though this magic business never seems to end. Witches, daemons, vampires, werewolves... what next?”
“Well, you know what they say. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” And he was gone before I even had a chance to gape at him. I rolled my eyes as I shut the door behind him. Trust Gage to get the last dirty word in.
Twelve
Annalise was on my doorstep as soon as it was decent the next day. “Please don’t be mad at me,” she said as she hovered uncertainly on the threshold before I beckoned her in. She threw herself onto the sofa closest to the fire, folding her legs under her but just keeping her shoes off the edge. I’d built the logs up and then thrown a shot of magic at it to kick start the flames. “I didn’t want to hide it from you but it’s not something you can really break out in conversation.”
“Hi! I’m a werewolf!” I chirped. “Easy.”
“Hi! I’m a witch!” Annalise chirped right back.
The corners of my mouth twitched upwards. “Touché. So why didn’t you say anything? Gage said you knew what I was.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’d think me running around the woods on all fours was creepy or something.”
“I don’t think you’re creepy at all.”
“When you moved here, Gage said we were to respect your boundaries. We tried to stay off your property anyway but you don’t have to worry about us. I promise.” Annalise’s big eyes pleaded with me.
“Gage calling the shots, huh?”
“He is packmaster.”
I looked at her sharply. “Say again.”
She shrugged. “Gage is packmaster. What he says goes with the pack. If he gives an order, that’s it. No one defies him.”
“So, he’s like head honcho?” I asked, wondering if I should check the documentaries on the Discovery Channel for the wolf lowdown.
Annalise nodded. “In Wilding anyway. We own most of the territory out this way so that’s why we congregate out here.”
“How much of the land?” I asked.
Annalise pointed towards the south. “All that way right down to the turn off.” She pointed north. “And everything that way until the interstate.”
“And everything in between?”
“Yep. The Loup, the woods, everything except your house and land once it was sold. I think my parents liked the idea of having witches around occasionally.”
“Um, that’s... nice,” I said. Click click went the puzzle pieces in my brain. “So the Loup is... not just a members’ bar?”
Annalise nodded. “It’s for the wolves.”
“Like a cub scout house but with fangs?”
She grinned. “Pretty much.”
“So, what now?”
“I’m going for lunch with Beau.” Her face was suddenly stricken and she flushed pink as she tripped over her words in a hurry to get them out. “I mean, I’m not going to eat him! We’re going to have lunch on Main. Do you want to come?”
“There’s no way I’m crashing your date.”
“Speaking of dates... has Evan come back yet?”
I shook my head. “No, he hasn’t.”
“Well, don’t sit around moping,” Annalise warned as she got to her feet. “Life’s too short.”
Life was indeed too short, but it seemed like I was just treading water, waiting for something to happen. Slowly it dawned on me, that throughout my whole life I’d been waiting and that had got me nowhere. Things had only truly changed for me when I’d started making real decisions of my own. That was what had brought me to Wilding when I was scared and alone. That was what would drive me forward now.
I closed the door after Annalise and leant against it, wondering what the hell I should do. I could sit here and wait or I could start making plans of my own. I could wait for Evan to grow a pair and stop ignoring me, or I could go talk to him myself. It occurred to me that I didn’t actually know where he was, but I could make a guess and say he was staying at the inn with Étoile, Seren and David, who all seemed to be giving me the silent treatment. I guessed I would have to be the mature one.
I grabbed my jacket and bundled myself up, pausing for a moment to search for my bag, keys and the shiny new phone. I locked the door and tried the handle to make sure it was locked because a little paranoia never hurt anyone and jogged to my car. It was freezing inside so
I turned on the engine, switched the heater up to full blast, and tugged on gloves so the cold wheel didn’t cool me from the outside in and headed out onto the road.
Wilding was fairly busy for midday with the parking spaces on Main half full already and the sidewalk bursting with people out and about doing their Christmas gift shopping. Our little town seemed to attract a number of tourists, the type of people who were day tripping or travelling through and liked the quirks of small town shops. I drove down Main and turned onto Oak Lane, arriving outside the inn a few minutes later and pulled onto the side of the road. The entrance door to the Oak Inn was unlocked so I walked right in and asked for either of the Winterstorms but before the receptionist could call up, I spotted Étoile and Seren in the adjoining sitting room. Étoile waved me over and I walked through, thanking the receptionist.
“Well, hello,” said Étoile brightly like they hadn’t completely ignored me these past few days. “Take a seat. We were just talking about you.”
“Oh?”
“All things nice, of course. How are you?”
“Fine.” I wasn’t fine, but no one ever really meant you to answer: my life sucks, I don’t know where my boyfriend is, I nearly did something with my neighbour and I feel guilty as sin, oh, but my health is good, thanks very much.
“We kinda got that too,” said Seren and I flinched. I would not get used to them doing that.
“You will,” said Étoile with a smirk. “What was that about the neighbour?”
“Nothing.” I flushed and stuffed any memories in the back of my mind where they wouldn’t leak.
A smile pulled at Étoile’s lips. I thought my feeble efforts to protect my thoughts were... approved. “Since you didn’t ask but were thinking it anyway, Evan was here but he isn’t right now,” said Étoile, getting straight to the crux of my problem.
“Is he still mad at me?”
“He’s having a little jealous alpha male moment,” answered Seren, in a way that would have been thoroughly condescending if Evan was listening, “but he’s going to get over it.”
I heaved out a sigh of relief. “Good to know.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s exactly thrilled with you. Neither are we,” chided Étoile with a pointed look. “But we do understand. It’s okay to be suspicious of us. I would be too.”
It sounded so unpleasant when she voiced it that I said, “I feel like I should apologise or something.”
Étoile was surprisingly sympathetic. “Not at all. We swept into your life, took you away from everything you knew and when you needed us, we weren’t there. Then we turned up again, out of the blue. We have not been good friends to you and we should have tried harder.”
I tried not to look startled at Étoile’s unexpected confession. “It’s been a long year,” I replied. “And I haven’t even asked you how yours has been.” Perhaps I had been a poor friend too. I’d been so eager to learn, to be safe, that I’d forgotten a relationship had to work both ways for it to be a friendship. If they had failed, then, maybe, so had I.
“It’s been tiring,” Seren chipped in as she waved a hand to attract the waitress’ attention so she could order drinks. “Our sister is very ill and she will be for a long time, but she’s safe now at least.”
Étoile added. “And safe from everyone else. Astra’s truly not a bad person, she’s just not really meant for this world.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, we’ll keep her from the world because she can’t handle it. She’s... too much.”
“Well, I’m glad she’s all right,” I said at last, even if I didn’t throw any weight behind the nicety. We fell silent as the waitress laid a tray on the low table in front of us. When she’d gone, I asked, “Do you know where Evan went?”
Étoile nodded. “He’s been watching over the house Chyler is staying in.”
“All this time?”
“No, just since yesterday. We’ve been coming up with a plan.”
“And you didn’t think to call and share?”
“You don’t have a phone,” pointed out Seren, “and we were too busy to drive over.”
I slipped my new phone out of my pocket and held it up. Étoile whistled. “Well, look who made it into the twenty-first century.” She held out her hand and I passed it over as she said, “I’ll program our numbers into it.”
“And we’ll take your number too,” added Seren.
I looked around. “Where’s David?”
“With Evan. Boys do like stakeouts.” Seren winked.
“Are they coming back soon?” I wanted to know more about what they were doing, and what their plan was. I wanted to be a part of things, not an afterthought. Gage’s chide taunted me. I wasn’t their pet, even if I wasn’t entirely their equal.
“David will, but Evan won’t. Don’t look so glum, you’ll see him later, and then you can kiss and make up.” Étoile seemed very sure of that.
“If only life were that easy.” I slumped in my chair and stretched my legs for a moment before realising how unladylike I looked next to Étoile and Seren. I neatened myself up promptly.
“It’s all down to Mrs Prentiss,” said Étoile, plucking at my stray thought. “She was our Cotillion teacher. If we slump we still hear her shrieking.”
“She was very mean,” smiled Seren. “On our last day, we...”
“I don’t think we should share that story,” snipped Étoile and I wondered what awful thing they had apparently done for revenge. Strangely, it didn’t exactly strike me as out of character and I felt instantly mean for thinking such a thing. I took my phone as Étoile passed it back and used my thumb to scroll through my phonebook. She had added her’s, Seren’s and David’s numbers, but not Evan’s. I stuffed it back in my bag.
“You said you’d made a plan.”
“Ye-es.” Étoile picked up her cup and sipped. “But we haven’t exactly put the finishing touches to it. Let’s discuss at your house later.”
“Today?” I asked and Étoile nodded, saying, “We’ll all come.”
“Do I need to get anything or do anything? If you need any...” I looked around. There was an older couple sat in the corner and a middle aged man reading a book. It wasn’t a big room, but there was enough space between all of us that we could talk with relative privacy. Even though, I hesitated to say things like magic and spells in the open, so instead, I said, “Uh, supplies, I don’t have anything in the house that strikes me as useful.”
“David will do that. All we need is you and us. David is the boss when it comes to the... other stuff.” Seren seemed rather proud of that. I wondered if his version of magic was as powerful as theirs, or more so. It didn’t seem to me like many could better the sisters and while Étoile had been introduced to me as something like a gofer for the witches’ council, then later as a tutor, I’d never really understood what her job was with them. Evan had explained that the Winterstorms were a very powerful family but I didn’t have a frame of reference for that. The few witches I’d met hadn’t exactly introduced themselves on a scale.
“It’s just different. Either can be stronger. Many can do both, like you,” said Seren.
“How do I keep you two out of my head?” I asked, changing the subject. I didn’t see them plucking thoughts from David or Evan.
“You can stop us peeking if you want to just like you did a few minutes ago,” added Étoile, “though it’s much more fun for us if you don’t, obviously.”
“You can see the future,” I whispered back crossly, “isn’t that enough?”
“I like living in the now.” Étoile laughed.
Étoile and Seren both leaned forward and pressed a hand on each of my arms and I felt my spirits lift. “We’ll come by this afternoon. Until then, we’re stuck here waiting,” said Seren.
“Fine. I’m going. Just turn up whenever you’re ready.” I stood up and shrugged my jacket back on and zipped it right to my chin. “Call me as soon as you’ve got some news?”
“We will,” said Seren and they waved to me as I left. When I stepped outside, past the winter jasmines, I realised why I’d suddenly felt so calm and happy to go about my business. They had influenced me and I hadn’t even seen it coming. I shrugged. Perhaps I needed it anyway; this feeling of serenity was much better than the familiar anxiety that had been tugging at me all morning. It had taken me some time to realise that they could do that, but today I didn’t mind.
I stopped by the diner on the way home and sat at the counter while I ordered a grilled sandwich and a Coke. I could see Annalise and Beau in the booth in the far corner but they were so absorbed in each other that they didn’t see me. Darla, the ever present waitress chatted to me between customers and filled me in on town gossip. By the afternoon, I would probably be her new update. I had provided her with an entire two weeks of entertainment when I’d first moved here. By the end of those two weeks, every time I opened my mouth and my English accent spilled out, just about everyone greeted me by name. Darla, wasn’t just a small town gossip though, she was a one woman PR machine and she’d eased my route into the town like a well oiled wheel so I made sure I tipped her well as I paid up and left. I tried to not think about how sharp and white her teeth were as I left. I tried to not wonder if she was a member of the Wilding wolf pack. I failed.
I didn’t go straight home. Instead, I picked up some books from the little book store across the street and then went into the grocery store to collect more food. If I was going to keep on having visitors, I’d have to truly stock up at some point. When I finally headed home, that calm, relaxed feeling was still with me and I was grateful for the Winterstorms’ little intervention. It was about as close to feeling normal as I could get and I grasped it with both hands.
Unruly Magic (#2 Stella Mayweather Paranormal Series) Page 19
