Illicit

by Cathy Clamp

  The sun was getting low in the sky when Dalvin came up with one final idea. Remember crack the whip? She did.

  But they had no hands. How do we play?

  Claude apparently knew. He took the lead and beat his wings hard and fast, gaining speed and creating a vortex for the others to fly in. Dalvin took the second spot and matched his wing beats. Rachel suddenly found herself flying faster and faster, pulled along as though tethered to them. Claude suddenly said Now! He and Dalvin veered off so sharply that she couldn’t keep up. She was hurtled across the landscape while Dalvin made tones in her head. Her body obeyed without question, and she was darting in and around trees that she could barely see. It was a blur of motion, and she felt more alive than any other time in her life!

  Then she went around the last tree, at a lower elevation than before. A massive boulder loomed, and she knew she was going to hit it at top speed!

  CHAPTER 16

  It happened in the blink of an eye. She was hurtling through the trees, her body shifting position in response to the notes he sang. Her motion was seamless, flawless. He was frankly amazed at how fast she was picking it up, but music had always been part of her being. All Dalvin was doing was tying her movements to the music, like dancing. He was flying above and Claude below, watching as she streaked through the trees from the whip.

  He saw the boulder nearly a second too late. But that second was all it took. There was no way Rachel had the wing power to twist around without hitting the rock. At her current speed, the impact would kill her. No question.

  Dalvin threw out a net of magic as Bitty screamed a warning. She was seeing through Rachel’s eyes. Like the cowboys of the Old West, Dalvin looped his magic around Rachel’s body and pulled back hard. The strain was incredible, like grabbing the railing of a speeding train. His magic soaked into her, blended with hers, and gave her the power to turn away from the rock. The turn set off a sonic boom that echoed across the trees and sent rocks scattering down off the mountain.

  Damn good thing it didn’t start a landslide.

  She was panting heavily when he brought her to safely to the ground. Claude landed a second later and shifted forms; his magic-generated clothing had the appearance of medical scrubs. He knelt beside Rachel as Dalvin fluttered to a landing.

  “Are you well, little owl?” Claude asked, peering into her eyes. He ran his hands down her wings and checked her legs. “Does anything hurt?”

  Her voice was frustrated and her scent was angry, apparently with herself. “Just my pride. I should have been able to make that turn by myself.” She looked at Dalvin as he hopped over to stand by her. “Thank you, Dalvin. That must have taken a lot out of you.”

  He wasn’t going to lie. “It was touch-and-go. I’m glad I saw the rock before you did.” The next sentence just slipped out, unplanned. “I’d never let anything hurt you, Chelle. I couldn’t stand to lose you again. I’d die.”

  “Thank you,” she said quietly, a wealth of emotion in those two words. To give her a little privacy with her alphas, he flew over to his clothes and changed. He seemed to feel the press of her discomfort against his back, like a damp, cool towel, but maybe that was just his own embarrassment at having said something that he wasn’t sure was true. He would probably survive Rachel dying … again.

  Probably.

  Everyone was silent as they drove back to town. When the alphas arrived at their homes, Bitty reached back into the car and laid a gentle hand on Dalvin’s arm, through the open driver’s window.

  “Take care of our girl tonight. Y’hear me, fledgling?”

  He nodded and smiled. Nobody had dared to call him a fledgling since he was probably ten. But to these alphas, he was barely out of first molt.

  Then they were alone. They drove for a time in silence back toward town. He could feel her heartbeat and had to endure the wash of emotions that left him emotionally spent. Finally, she took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

  “You said that already. It’s okay. My fault anyway.”

  She looked at him with surprise. “Your fault? How do you figure?”

  He shrugged, feeling angry at himself. “You were doing well enough that I forgot I was supposed to be looking out for you. I should have been aware of your possible path. If you’d gotten hurt—” He tightened his fingers on the steering wheel.

  “Dalvin, stop the car. Right here.” He could hear taut anger in her voice.

  He hit the brakes. The SUV was still deep in the trees. She unbuckled her seat belt and swung her knees onto the seat so she could sit facing him.

  “You saved my life. Got that? How it was endangered doesn’t matter. You saved me. Thank you.” She leaned forward and kissed him, easing herself onto his lap so that she was tucked tightly between him and the steering wheel.

  The kiss took his breath away. Her mouth ate at his; her arms were wrapped around him so tight that he could barely breathe. But he didn’t want to. He put one arm around her, then shifted her position until her head was nearly resting on the windowsill. His other hand went around her waist and slid up, under her shirt, to touch her warm skin. The kiss seemed to last an hour yet wasn’t long enough. When they came up for air, both of them were breathing hard. He touched her face, sliding the back of his hand down her skin, reverent, hungry.

  “I want you, Chelle.”

  Her scent and her words said the same thing. “I’m scared, Dalvin. What I’m feeling … it’s almost too much. There’s too much history, too much magic right now.”

  He understood what she meant. He and Bitty had both forgotten to remove the tether binding him to her flock. Dalvin could feel Rachel’s heart beating from both outside and inside his own chest.

  “I don’t want you to be scared. I want your first time to be like flying. Joyous. No reservations. So,” he said, gently disentangling her and easing her back into the passenger seat, “we’ll wait. Maybe the time will be right soon. Or maybe it won’t. But I don’t want regret to be part of how you remember me.”

  “You’re definitely leaving after the peace talks are over?” She looked sad when he nodded.

  Staying hadn’t occurred to him. Being in Wolven was all he’d ever wanted, from the time he’d been toddling around the big old family house, watching his dad get ready for a mission. After the snake attack, when his father couldn’t fly anymore, Dalvin had sworn to himself that he’d keep the skies safe in his dad’s name. What would his father think if he quit the service? Even if it was to be with Rachel?

  She looked at him with an odd expression on her face. “I just saw that. Your dad, as an owl, soaring off the roof. You were watching him fly away, holding a suitcase in his talons.”

  She’d seen that?! He looked at her so suddenly he nearly went off the road. “Do memories come through a pack link?”

  “Sometimes,” she acknowledged. “Bitty has used my mom’s words against me more than once when I tried to pretend I didn’t know any better about some rule or another. But I’ve never seen someone else’s memories before. That was really strange. But cool. Your dad … an owl. How did I never know that?”

  He let himself smile a little. “People ignore little inconsistencies all the time. It’s easier than trying to understand something that doesn’t make sense if you don’t know what’s really going on. How did my mom get cupcakes to school in the third grade when all the highways were closed because of a blizzard?

  “Remember that? It was my turn to bring snack and I’d forgotten. The teacher said I’d get held back from recess if I didn’t have cupcakes for everyone. I ran to the office and called Mom, and she made it to school before the bell and everyone got a cupcake as they were walking out the door.”

  “Oh, yeah. Mrs. Zycrizick,” Rachel said, nodding. “How could I forget? She was a pill. Your mom rocked.” She chuckled quietly, eyes shining. “Now that I know the truth, I’m trying to imagine your mom flying over Detroit with a container of cupcakes in her claws. Why was there no YouTube of that somewhere?”
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br />   Dalvin smiled as the citrus scent of humor filled the car. “Magic. She’s really good at illusion. She probably looked to the people on the ground like a sparrow carrying string to a nest.”

  Rachel laughed … finally, the laugh he remembered from a decade ago: light, free of the weight that he’d heard in her voice since he arrived.

  They reached Luna Lake just as the sun disappeared behind the mountain. He let her out at the apartment building. “Go eat some protein and see if you can get a couple hours of sleep. You’re supposed to be back at the course at midnight, when the moon is fullest.”

  “You’ll be there?” Her eyes and voice were hopeful. It made him happy to hear that note in her voice.

  He nodded. “I’ll be working. Don’t forget I can’t help you tonight.”

  “I know. But knowing you’ll be there makes me feel better.” She moved away, her walk close to dancing, singing “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music.

  In Scott’s apartment, Dalvin wandered into the kitchen, looking for something to eat. The time on the clock on the wall brought him up short and he pulled out his cell phone to confirm that it was only five o’clock. But it was pitch-black outside … and they were in a valley, with winter settling in. There was still enough time to eat and maybe even catch a few hours of sleep. He set his alarm for eleven o’clock and turned the volume to high.

  There was leftover pizza in the fridge, so he grabbed the box. He texted Tamir to make sure there was nothing new on the schedule. He didn’t have phone numbers for any of the others, which was stupid. Exchanging contact information should have been the first thing he’d done when he’d met Claire and Alek and, frankly, Amber and Councilman Kuric.

  Stupid, stupid!

  He grabbed a couple of slices and ran down the stairs, still chewing, to knock on Rachel’s door. She opened it and immediately picked up on his concern. “Are Amber and Anica here?”

  She shook her head. “No, and I’m wondering if we’re missing something.”

  “Grab your coat. We should have gone back to the lake instead of returning to town. Now that I think of it, I didn’t see any of the SUVs when we drove along Main Street.”

  “I didn’t either,” Rachel said, shaking her head. “Crap! Ascension normally doesn’t start until midnight, but maybe they changed the time? Let’s go to the Community Center. That’s where people normally get dressed.”

  “Dressed? In what?” He handed her the second slice of pizza he was holding and she took a bite.

  “Yuck. Pepperoni. Oh, well.” She took another bite. “We dress in robes and have chants and such, but also games and sometimes rides. It’s like Druid cult meets county fair. No doubt the neighboring towns think we’re weird. But it keeps people from wandering this way to ask a bunch of questions.”

  They piled into the car. A stop at the Community Center confirmed that it was empty, as were the town hall and the diner, which was closed, lights off and door locked.

  “We’d better go to the lake. That must be where everything is happening,” Dalvin said.

  “It’s weird that nobody called you, isn’t it?” Rachel said. She was getting edgy, and he couldn’t blame her. The moon was rising. The weight of it pressed on him, pulled at the bird inside him.

  “Very.” He pushed down on the gas, speeding, and grateful that there weren’t too many turns or curves between the town and the lake. Late, late, late! kept echoing in his mind.

  They rounded the last corner so quickly the back wheels skidded, spinning the SUV nearly completely around as they entered the parking lot, which was packed with cars and lit by torches that smelled like natural gas. Claude and Bitty ran to meet them.

  “Oh, I was so afraid you weren’t going to make it, chère,” Bitty said, looking anxious. “Hurry and get over there to have your robe put on.” Rachel raced into the darkness at the edge of the parking lot.

  “What the hell happened?” Dalvin asked tersely.

  Bitty let out a hiss that rivaled some of his mother’s best. “I was afraid of that. That bear agent … he is ready to sacrifice himself to make you look bad. Watch him closely.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me through the mental link that the time had changed? All I got was a foreboding, a sensation of being late, but I didn’t know where to go.”

  Her brows raised. “A pack link can’t compete with a mating link, child. When you saved Rachel’s life, you blew open that last door.”

  Mating link? “What are you talking about?”

  “Adway! Where the hell have you been?” Councilman Kuric was stalking his way. “We have been looking everywhere for you.”

  Bitty stepped between them. “Now just you hold on there. I have been with this boy all day. He did not receive a single call, text, or smoke signal that plans had changed. When my brother picked me up to bring me here, I was able to get a vague message to him through my temporary pack binding. You’d better look elsewhere for your problem, because it’s not this agent.”

  “Alpha Kragan,” Dalvin said, “I appreciate your support, but I can defend myself.” He looked Kuric square in the eye. “I spent the day doing what I had been ordered to do—training Rachel Washington. Since the bears were using the course, we went elsewhere for flying lessons.”

  Kuric held out his hand. “May I see your phone?” Dalvin pulled it from the holster and handed it over. Using his thumbs, the councilman quickly sent a message. A moment later there was an answering ping from somewhere near the man’s hip. Kuric reached into a pocket and produced an identical phone. “Huh. Interesting.” He slid both phones back in his pocket and held up one finger. “Wait here a moment.”

  Taking long strides across the crowded parking area, the councilman pointed at Alek and then at Claire. “You and you. Follow me.” They looked surprised but fell in step behind him. The little group approach the benches near the dais, where the Bosnian Alphas were sitting, guarded by Tamir.

  Without pausing, Kuric executed an impressive tae kwon do leg sweep that pulled Tamir’s legs from under him. The councilman then hit the bear shifter squarely in the chest with an elbow, so hard that Tamir doubled up, stunned, before he hit the ground. The entire assembly went quiet.

  “Sometimes it’s simply more satisfying to use brute force,” Kuric said smoothly. He got to his feet, yanked his tunic back into position, then said to Claire and Alek, “Take this man into custody.”

  He waved Dalvin over. “You spent the most time with him. Find out who he’s working for, who wants to sabotage these peace talks.”

  Dalvin was taken aback. “I haven’t noticed him taking one side or the other.”

  “Really?” the councilman asked. “Then explain this.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the two phones. Returning Dalvin’s to him, Kuric held the other so Dalvin could see the screen. “Text Tamir,” he told him.

  It took almost no time for Dalvin to send a simple message, the letter “K.” The other phone pinged immediately, then made a whooshing sound, as if a message was being sent.

  The councilman handed Dalvin the second phone and dropped his own into its holder. The most recently received message—the single letter “K”—was identified as having come from “Incoming Wolven.”

  The same message had been forwarded an instant later, sent to a phone number Dalvin didn’t recognize; it was identified as “Outgoing Wolven.” It had a country code as a prefix, but not one Dalvin recognized. He checked the contacts list. There were also entries for “Incoming Council” and Outgoing Council.” It was the same number. But on Dalvin’s phone, Tamir’s contact information said his name.

  With an undercurrent of anger in his voice, Kuric said, “I have a race to officiate. Find out what this man knows and who his contacts are. Have Amber put an outgoing block on his head, in case he’s tied to a pack somewhere, so they can’t listen in. I’m tired of bullshit games. We’re going to finish this tonight if I have to put down every member of both families myself.”

  Tamir wa
s beginning to come to. Alek and Claire had put his wrists in handcuffs that had been wrapped completely with pure silver. This would not only block his magic, it was also intensely painful, which meant Kuric was really ticked. The big bear was starting to squirm.

  “Where to, boss?” Alek asked, looking square at Dalvin.

  “Boss?” Claire nodded. Her blue eyes were glowing with the power she was using to hold Tamir nearly motionless despite his struggles.

  “Rabi found the phone you were holding under the dais while we were doing our security sweep, before anyone arrived,” Alek explained to Dalvin. “There was an explosive charge under the bleachers, strong enough to have taken out one of the families. Tamir claimed you’d lost your phone and had borrowed his. It looks like he copied your whole camera roll and e-mail box to the second phone.

  “The councilman spoke to me and Claire privately, told us that if you turned out to be the mole, Claire would take over from Tamir because Rabi still didn’t trust him … but if Tamir was the saboteur, you’d be the new senior agent.”

  Dalvin realized the whole conversation at the start of the mission, about downloading the encryption app for his phone, had had a purpose.

  “Damn it! Tamir insisted I download a program to securely lock my phone. I bet that’s how he got in. He probably hoped I’d show up at midnight, after everything was done, and he’d waylay me and switch phones. I might not have noticed right away, if everything was in the same place on the home screen.” He looked at Tamir, whose face was filled with fury and frustration. “Okay, let’s go chat, shall we? I’d like my strip of hide back. Maybe I’ll replace it with one of yours.”

  CHAPTER 17

  The embroidered white Ascension gown slipped easily over Rachel’s head and down along her body. It took only a moment to shed her clothes underneath the wide tent of cloth. The gowns were one of the few dignities of the competition, from a time when people actually cared about those who ran the race. It prevented the whole town from witnessing an omega failing to shift, shifting incompletely, or mutating. Dani, Rachel’s attendant, carefully gathered up and folded her clothes and put them in a protective plastic bag.