“It’s hard to believe we’re in an enclosed compound,” Fee said to Lana as they walked through the woods behind the big house. Though there were a few other small dwellings on the property, the bulk of the parcel acres had been left wooded.
“I know. The woods were always my favorite part of visiting my grandparents. That and hanging out with Greg and George and Katy, of course. Sofia was never fun to play with.”
“Greg and George must have found solace out here as well,” Fianna mused. “Growing up in that place—it couldn’t have been easy.”
Lana shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. Having each other is what got them through.”
They walked a little farther, toward a small, glassy pond, dotted with fallen yellow and red leaves. A cool breeze brushed their cheeks, but the weather was still warm for late October, and they wore only light jackets over their jeans and sweaters.
“Have you decided on a date for the wedding?” Lana paused beside the pond, looking down into the water rather than at Fianna. “I’m guessing soon.”
“We haven’t talked about it at all.” It was as honest an answer as Fianna could give. Lana had become the closest friend she’d ever had. She hated to lie to her, even by default. “Sometimes, I’m not even sure we’ll go through with it.”
“You didn’t have any wine last night or any coffee this morning.” Lana looked up and smiled. “Even though you really looked like you could use it. Your scent is changing, and you’ve been acting a little…weird, even for you. I’m thinking the wedding should be ASAP.”
Hell, Lana would have known she was ovulating, too, wouldn’t she? “We don’t know yet.” Now it was Fianna who stared into the pond. She wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t understand what Lana was hinting at. “Even Greg couldn’t tell as of this morning. It’s very strange, having him sniff me, let me tell you.”
“I can’t tell yet either.” Lana linked her arm through Fianna’s. “There’s so much of him on your skin, which could account for the change I’m sensing. Are you happy about the possibility? Is he?”
Fianna shrugged. “I…don’t know. I’d love to have children, but right now, everything is so complicated—”
“Fee, get down.” With a sharp shove, Lana sent Fianna sprawling on the ground at the same time as she dove in the opposite direction.
As she fell, Fianna heard the twang of a bow. Vicious spears of fire burned into her shoulder before she landed hard, knocking the wind from herself. As she lay sprawled in the dirt, she heard a scrabble followed by an ear-splitting howl. Her vision blurred to black, but she swore there was a snarling wolf in a torn pink sweater standing over her, right before Fianna passed out.
When the meeting finally ended, Greg left Des and Ric talking to George and Jase while he went looking for Fee. She’d seemed unusually preoccupied at lunch, and even though he knew she was with Lana, he couldn’t help the need to check on her with his own eyes.
“They went for a walk in the woods,” Olga told him when he checked the kitchen to see if they were there. “Miss Lana always did like the pond. I’d look there if I were you.”
Not even bothering to stop for a jacket, Greg headed out the back door, through the garden to the woods. He’d only gone a few yards past the garden gate when Sofia stepped out from behind the trees.
Greg paused, manners winning out over his desire to find Fee. He looked at Sofia, in her tight leather pants and figure-hugging silk sweater, and wondered what he’d ever seen in her.
“You can’t really be marrying that annoying Fae mouse.” Sofia stepped close enough that her musky perfume filled his nostrils. She was aroused, clearly, but even the scent of her desire didn’t do anything to stir him. Whatever attraction she’d once held for him was completely gone.
“I am.” He moved to the side of the path, intending to step around her. “I’m sorry if you didn’t understand years ago, but anything we ever had between us is over. Fianna is my mate.”
“You don’t mean that.” She slid in front of him, blocking his way, and laid her hands on his chest. “It was so good between us, Greg. So hot. And think of the power we’ll wield. Together we’ll rule every lupine in the Midwest.”
Before he could tell her he had no interest in ruling anyone, she leaned in. Her high-heeled boots put her just a few inches shorter than him, so she barely had to look up. She grabbed his hair, pulled his face down and planted her lips on his.
The kiss tasted wrong. Everything about Sofia was off. She felt unpleasant and the vibe down Greg’s spine was sort of slimy and cold. Mostly, she simply wasn’t Fee, and he didn’t want anyone else.
Tired of it all, he pushed her hands away from him and stepped back. “No. Now leave, Sofia. This isn’t going to happen. Not now, not ever.”
In the distance, he heard a scream, which cut off sharply. Fee? Another shriek blended with the first, then turned into a howl, one filled with anger and fear. Lana.
Sofia forgotten, Greg shouted to the house for help and ran as fast as he could toward the pond.
Footsteps pounded behind him as he ran, but Greg didn’t turn around to look. When he reached the clearing by the pond, his worst fears were confirmed.
Fianna lay sprawled on the ground, unmoving, a slick patch of blood seeping from beneath her. In wolf form, with remnants of her sweater still clinging to her shoulders, Lana stood guard above her fallen friend.
When she spotted Greg, Lana whimpered and stepped away, allowing him to go down on his knees beside Fee.
“She’s breathing.” He heard the agony in his own words. Turning her slightly he saw the weapon. An arrow poked out of her left shoulder, blood sluggishly seeping around it.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw Lana change and struggle back into her tattered jeans.
“It came out of the trees,” she said. “I heard the shooter running away but thought it was more important to protect Fee than to chase the bastard down.”
“Thank you.” Greg got the words out past the knot in his throat, but he didn’t look up as he examined Fee’s pale skin and shallow breathing. “Desmond,” he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“Here.” The mage pushed through the crowd that must have followed when Greg yelled for help. Ric was close at his heels.
George was there, too, and Greg looked up at his brother as he was nudged aside by Ric and Des. “George, would you see if you can track the assailant?”
George nodded, stepping behind a tree to strip and shift.
By now, half the occupants of the house had crowded around them, including Peter and his security team, guns out, eyes scanning the ring of trees.
“Ric, can you blink the arrow out, while I stop the bleeding?” Des’s voice was calm and cool. “I don’t think it hit anything vital.” He pulled a knife from his pocket and sliced through Fee’s jacket and sweater to reveal the wound.
“No problem.” Ric squatted across from Des, his hands on Fee’s good shoulder. “On three. One, two…” He lifted one hand, and on three the bloody arrow was in his hand and Des began applying pressure to the gaping hole in Fee’s skin.
Jase took the arrow with a handkerchief and turned to Peter. “You got somebody ’ere can check for prints?”
“Ric, some help here.” Des moved his own hand aside. “See what you think.”
The elf moved a hand to Fee’s bare skin. “The wound is pretty simple,” he said after a moment. Even as Greg watched, the bleeding stopped and the hole began to close. “But what the hell is that in it? It’s coursing through her blood.”
“I think it’s our mystery drug,” Des growled. “I’d lay odds that arrow is tipped with it.”
“We need help,” Ric agreed. Fee’s body started to twitch under their hands. “Is Elise in town?”
Des shook his head. “Underhill.”
Fee’s convulsions increased and Greg took one of her hands, sensing the magic Des poured into her to calm her.
“Let’s get her into a car,” Ric said c
almly, though Greg could see the tension in his friend’s lean form. “I’ll call Aidan and have them meet us at their place.”
Aidan and Elise’s Grosse Pointe home housed the local portal to Faerie or Underhill. Very little communication got in and out, but both Ric and Aidan had magically enhanced phones that could penetrate the veil between worlds.
Greg was there in an instant, lifting Fee into his arms. “Grandfather…” he began.
The old man shook his head. “Go. Bring her home when you can. We’ll take care of finding the assassin.”
“I’ll drive,” Lana offered, running ahead of Greg and the others.
“My car.” Des threw her a set of keys. “It’s spelled to be ignored by cops. Don’t get us all killed.”
“You’re going to have to put her in the back with us, Greg.” Ric kept pace beside Greg as they ran to the parking area beside the house. “Hopefully between us, Des and I might have enough magic to keep the drug’s effects under control.”
“I’ve seen Elise draw power from others when she healed Fee from the gunshot,” Lana said. Still barefoot, she sprinted to keep up. “Can you do that with us? Pull energy from me or Greg or any of the other lupines?”
“I don’t think so.” Des wrenched open the back door of his big sedan and slid in while Ric did the same on the other side. “Generally, it’s a magic-to-magic thing, but I’m willing to try. Hand her to me, Greg. I promise, we’ll do all we can.”
Putting Fee into another man’s hands was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, but it was her best chance for survival. He could see her body shaking, and her lips were turning blue. As gently as possible, he handed her to Des, who eased her long legs across to Ric, so that she lay across both their laps. Ric had his cell phone to his ear as Greg and Lana piled into the front and Lana started the Lincoln’s powerful engine.
“They’ll be there by the time we arrive.” Ric hung up his phone. “Come on, Fee, stay with us, kid.” He chafed her ankles. “Whatever this shit is in her bloodstream, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
“It’s the same drug,” Greg said. He’d turned completely backward in the front seat, ignoring the seat-belt law. He reached back and took one of Fee’s cold, shaking hands. “I can smell it taking hold. But it doesn’t make sense. She’s human now. Why would a drug for paranormals be affecting her like this?”
“My guess is that her DNA is still Fae,” Des said. “Her powers were stripped, but she’s still herself underneath. She’s fighting it, though. With her being so lightweight, I think this was meant to be a fatal overdose.”
“Come on, princess, keep fighting. Don’t let the bastards win.” Greg didn’t know if she could hear him, if she could feel him holding her hand, but surely it couldn’t hurt. He didn’t want to think about his life if she didn’t make it, and he couldn’t even give voice to his other fear—that even if she survived, she’d lose the baby. While he had no proof yet that she was pregnant, he’d been sure of it in his soul since the night they’d first made love.
It should have taken close to an hour to get all the way across town to Grosse Pointe, but Lana was fast, and traffic was light. Throughout the thirty minutes or so they spent in the car, Fee alternately moaned, slept or shuddered. Greg could sense the flood of magic Des and Ric continued to pour into her. They hadn’t been able to pull juice from him. Both of them were pale and breathing heavily by the time Lana squealed the car to a stop inside the gates of Aidan’s mansion.
Aidan and Elise waited outside at the circular drive, their faces drawn and anxious. Meagan was right beside them. Greg leaped out of the car, opened the back door and was lifting Fee out even before the engine shut off. As the others clambered out behind him, Greg followed Aidan and Elise into the house at a run.
“In here.” Elise pointed to the door of a first-floor bedroom, one Greg hadn’t noticed on any of his previous visits.
Greg lay Fee down on the sheets. He sat on the edge of the bed, still holding that one hand, a lifeline, though he couldn’t have said whether hers or his. Elise dropped to the bed on Fee’s other side and laid both hands on Fee’s bared neck and shoulder.
“The poison is eating away at her nervous system,” Elise said after a moment. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Aidan, a little help.”
Her husband put his hands beside her on Fee’s skin. “Draw as much from me as you need, leannan.”
A pair of Aidan’s servants appeared in the doorway. “Us too if you need us.” Greg recognized Tobias and Mairead Bootle, the brownie who was Aidan’s right-hand man and the half Fae, half gnome who served as nanny to Aidan and Elise’s daughter.
“And the rest of us.” Wallis Silverwood, Aidan’s head of security, stood behind Toby, along with Bronwyn, the housekeeper. More of the staff crowded behind them.
Greg felt a sting at his eyelids. All these people had gone from hating Fee when she’d been acting on behalf of her uncle, to loving her when she’d foiled her cousin’s plans and stepped between little Dina and a bullet.
Gradually, over the next fifteen minutes or so, Fee’s convulsions began to ease and her breathing grew stronger and steadier. Aidan sagged aside and was replaced by Wallis after maybe five minutes. Next, Bronwyn took a shift, then Mairead. As Toby lifted his wife away from the bed to take her place, there was a commotion in the hallway, and five-year-old Adina Greene shoved her way past to stand by her mother’s side.
“It’s okay, Mommy. I need to help.” Sometimes the child’s words were far more mature than her body. The look in her emerald-green eyes was even older. “It’s the same kind of magic I have in me. I can fix it.”
Aidan stopped in his tracks and nodded. “She’s probably right if the drug is Gravaki. It’s a long story, but she…absorbed a bunch of magic before she was born.”
Instead of staying beside her mother, Dina climbed onto the bed and slipped her tiny hands under Fee’s sweater. She closed her eyes and hummed for a moment, rocking back and forth.
After a few seconds, she popped open her eyes and smiled.
“Everybody’s okay now. Mommy, you can stop.” She yawned and didn’t object when her father picked her up into his arms.
“She’s right.” Elise lifted her hands and slumped back against the headboard. “The magical toxin is completely gone now. Fee and the babies should all be fine.”
Greg felt the room spin around him. “Babies?”
Dina held up two fingers. “A boy—I think he might marry my little sister someday. And a girl. She’s going to like Aunt Meagan’s baby, but it’s gonna be a lon-ng time before he likes her back.”
Silence descended in the wake of Dina’s announcement. Finally, Aidan blinked. “Sweetie, you don’t have a little sister.”
Dina shook her head. “Not yet. Maybe next year, maybe later.”
Greg was still reeling. “Twins?”
He felt Lana grip his shoulder and squeeze. “I told her the wedding better be soon.”
Fianna remembered pain. The stabbing agony in her shoulder and spasms of torture racking her body. They must have been a dream, though, because she felt nothing but comfort and softness when she woke. Sunlight warmed her cheek, and she opened her eyes to see it glinting through a mullioned window, the sparkling light reminding her of Faerie rather than the smoke-clouded sunshine of autumn in Detroit.
“Hey there.” Lana sat beside the bed in an armchair, smiling. “How’re you feeling?”
Fianna stretched. “A little stiff but otherwise fine. Where are we?” The luxurious bedroom looked familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. When she turned, she saw Meagan propped in a second chair, a book lying closed in her lap. “What’s going on?”
“You’ve been out for almost a day,” Meagan replied. “But Elise swears you were only sleeping. You and your little ones are going to be fine.”
“What?” Fianna bolted up to a sitting position. “Little ones?” Slowly, the memory of her attack was coming back to her—Lana
’s scream, the pain, the fall. “Damn it, did I get shot again?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Lana moved over to sit on the bed beside her. “It was an arrow, coated with the designer drug the guys have been investigating. It was an almost lethal overdose.”
Nausea rumbled through her stomach, and she cupped her free hand low on her abdomen as she looked up at Meagan. “And the other part? Did you say little ones?”
Meagan nodded. “Fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. Both of them are fine, I swear.”
Lana squeezed her hand. “You can stop wondering, cuz. It’s official. Announced by Elise, confirmed by Dina. I thought Greg was going to pass out cold when he heard.” She let go and busied herself plumping the pillows behind Fianna’s back.
“Where is he?” Fianna looked around the room. “For that matter, where are we?”
“Oakwood, Aidan’s estate Underhill,” Meagan replied. “We thought this would be a safe place for you to recover. Greg’s in the next room. He sat up with you all night, but we finally talked him into taking a nap.”
“Was anyone else hurt?” Discovering she was still weak now that the shock had worn off, Fianna sagged back against the pillows. Though she needed to know more, a big part of her brain was still busy processing the word twins.
“No, but we weren’t able to catch the shooter,” Lana said. “Or even figure out how they got into the compound. All we know is that it was another lupine and another drug user.”
“Ric, Des and Aidan led a strike team down into the salt mines early this morning,” Meagan said. “They rounded up some demons and a few addicted witches and lupines, but no one who knew anything. Nightshade is still at large, along with your archer.”
Fianna nodded. Her mouth felt like someone had stuffed it full of used bar rags and her eyelids were growing heavy again.
“Here.” Meagan had probably read her mind, because in an instant, she handed Fianna a mug of cool water. “Sorry I didn’t think of this sooner. Are you hungry?”
After draining the mug, Fianna shook her head. “No, thank you.”
Lana jumped to her feet. “I promised Greg I’d go get him the minute you woke. You can’t go back to sleep before he gets to see that you’re all right.” She fled from the room.
Motor City Wolf Page 14
