by Ruby Loren
January knew Gregory would be adding this to the list of favours owed to him by the Witchwood shifters, but right now, she didn’t care.
January slammed the door of the Jeep and breathed a sigh of relief. Ryan had only managed to make it halfway back to the shifter bar on three legs, before he’d passed out from the pain of his multiple injuries. Then, Gregory and January had lifted him between them. January was seriously considering joining a gym after all of this was over. Baking cakes definitely didn’t count as exercise.
“I always knew there was more to you than met the eye, but I had no idea you were a witch,” Gregory said.
They were stood outside of the Jeep in the cold winter air.
“I’m not a witch. There’s just something I can’t explain which happens sometimes. Trust me, I am looking into it,” she told him.
The blonde vampire looked sceptical.
“Obviously, I haven’t found out much yet. I went and spoke to the local coven but we weren’t exactly on the same page,” she told him.
Gregory smirked. “Ninety percent of those ‘witches’ don’t possess a shred of the supernatural about them. Their ancestors may have had it, but mostly, they just love to gossip and stick their noses into other people’s business. It’ll be all over town that you’re trying your hand at magic.”
January shrugged. “Maybe someone who actually knows something about magic will hear about it.”
“Oh, you can guarantee they already know,” Gregory said.
January shot him a sideways look. “Do you have someone particular in mind?”
The vampire’s jaw muscle twitched and she was uncomfortably reminded of how impressive a figure he made. Now is not the time to be thinking about that!
“They’ll find you, or you’ll find them. Especially after what happened tonight gets out.”
“When it gets out?” January bit her tongue before she said anymore. Of course it was going to get out. She’d forgotten that the whole point of taking down the bounty hunters was to let the killers’ mysterious employers know they weren’t going down easily. She only hoped that their victory, over what must surely have been two of the most formidable killers around, wouldn’t just serve as a challenge to other hunters.
It could go either way.
“You won a great victory tonight and saved both his life and most likely mine. Don’t forget that,” Gregory said.
January couldn’t remember a vampire ever sounding so human.
“Are you sure you should be doing that?” January sat on the sofa with a disapproving frown on her face while Ryan limped his way across the kitchen.
“I’m helping it to heal. It’s fine. I can walk this off.”
January tried not to throw her coffee everywhere and spring up to help when Simon decided to run beneath Ryan’s legs in an effort to trip him up.
“Bloody cat! We’re in the same family, you idiot.” Ryan swore at the small black fiend.
Simon hissed back at him.
“I don’t think he likes other cats,” January told him, thinking of the times when Simon had come in with scratches across his nose. When she enquired as to what had happened, he always looked at her with a ‘you should see the other guy’ expression.
“He’s far too smug,” Ryan said, hitting the nail on the head. “Is adding vodka to coffee acceptable at eight in the morning?”
“I don’t think it’s acceptable at any time of the day. Are you sure you don’t want to go to hospital?”
When Ryan had come round in the back of the Jeep during the drive back to Hailfield and had turned back to human, he’d refused point blank to receive any medical treatment for his injuries. According to him, he’d had worse.
“The bone’s already knitting. All it needs now is to move, so it doesn’t get stiff. Trust me. I’ve been through this before.”
January was about to ask him for more details when her phone rang and Gregory’s name flashed up.
“The sun’s up… shouldn’t you be dead to the world?” She asked.
Gregory made a sound of annoyance. Evidently he wasn’t a morning person. “Yes, but this was more important. We have to follow that lead I have. Putting it off longer will just give them more time to send others after us, and you can guarantee they’ll pick more carefully next time. They almost had us. I no longer think playing it safe and staying here will actually keep us safe. It’s just waiting to die.”
January bit her lip, knowing that what he was saying was true. “Okay, so when do we leave?”
There was a short silence. Gregory had been taken by surprise. He’d clearly thought she was going to argue.
“We leave tonight.”
7
January tried to remember the last time she’d had a holiday and thought it might have been a trip to Cornwall with her parents when she was about ten. That had been before she and Jo had been given the whole ‘you’re a were-horse’ talk. They’d been pretending to be a normal family.
They hadn’t done a very good job of it.
She’d travelled when she’d been working as a bounty hunter, but she wouldn’t really class that as a holiday. Neither was this little excursion to southern France. Maybe when all of this is over, she thought and sighed. Almost everything she wanted to do started with that thought. It was getting depressing.
The winter air had less of a chill in it this far south, but all the same, January wished she was back at home with a hot coffee, and not halfway up the side of a mountain. They were several miles north of Carcassonne, searching for a chateau that Gregory’s lead had told him would be where he might be able to find something out about something.
That was about as specific as it had sounded.
January tried to control her breathing, so it wasn’t as obvious how out of breath she was when Gregory stopped and waited for her and Ryan to catch up. She thought she might be about to pass out from all of the climbing and couldn’t imagine how Ryan must be feeling, walking on a nearly broken leg. One look at his ashen face told her he was in pain and struggling, but was never going to admit it.
“We’re getting close. There’s definitely something here,” Gregory said, when they reached the rise of the hill.
January’s heart sank a mile when she saw they’d have to follow the tiny track down another valley before scaling yet another mountainous incline to reach the point Gregory was indicating.
“Can you feel it?”
January walked closer to Gregory, wondering what he was talking about.
Then she felt it too.
Someone had put a very strong ‘stay away’ spell around the whole valley. There was no doubt about it. There was magic at work here… and her mysterious ex-employers had a track record with magic.
“Maybe this is it. Do you think we’re a little unprepared?” She said, feeling that they hadn’t planned this at all.
When she’d been a bounty hunter, she’d always scoped out her targets for weeks, or even months, before making her move. Rushing into a situation without a clue was what got you killed.
“We don’t have the luxury of time anymore. The best case scenario will be that we’ll all sit down and have a civil conversation about how we can resolve our differences. Then we go our separate ways and live our lives,” Gregory said.
Ryan coughed. “Yeah right,” he said. January shared his sentiments.
“All we can do is visit this chateau and hope that luck favours us and that an opportune moment presents itself. Maybe we’ll get lucky,” the vampire said.
January frowned at him. ‘Getting lucky’ was not a solid plan. “How about we just agree to take a look and get out of there if things look bad? I’m definitely in favour of running rather than dying. Not all of us have lived for so long that we’re ready to gamble our life on luck,” she shot a pointed look at Gregory. His mouth twisted a little, but beyond that January had no clue what he was thinking.
“Sunrise is only a few hours away. We should move faster,” was all he sa
id.
January and Ryan put down the bags they’d been carrying and shifted. It was a relief to January to be able to use her added unicorn strength to scale the hill, although she managed to make ten times more noise than Ryan - even with his injuries. Jaguars were definitely more suited to clambering about on rocks than horses were.
“They have to know we’re here,” January said, changing back and instantly feeling vulnerable standing unclothed on the side of a mountain. “That is - if they’re actually here,” she added, looking up at the towering sandstone walls of the medieval castle.
The building was doing its very best to fall back down the mountain. It looked like it had been deserted for centuries. She shivered and instantly felt warm fur wrap around her, as Ryan shared his body heat.
There was a small door in the side of the castle that someone had bothered to put a lock on. January took that as a good sign that perhaps something was in residence here, or at least had been at some point during the last hundred years. Gregory checked the doorway. He took something from his pocket and bent in front of the lock. A few seconds later, there was a click as the lock opened. January raised an eyebrow. Gregory had clearly picked up a few tricks during his long time on the earth.
January walked forwards to push the door open, but Gregory’s arm shot out, holding her back. “You’re the one they want. There’s no way you’re walking through that door first before we know what we’re walking into.”
“So, you want to be the one to take that risk?” She asked.
Gregory’s face told her all she needed to know. He thought there was something bad behind that door. He didn’t want to go in there either.
Before January could warn Ryan of what she suspected, the jaguar had cat-sighed and pushed the door open. A second passed and nothing happened. Then there was a metallic sound and an awful growl of pain.
January pushed Gregory aside and threw open the door, not caring about her safety.
Ryan lay on the floor. When he turned his head to face her, January saw that his spotted fur was matted with blood. Several shiny items stuck out of it. It was fortunate that they’d all missed his eyes.
“A bomb containing silver and wood. The main explosion missed him, look,” Gregory said, casually pointing out the arm-length piece of wood that was now embedded in the brickwork. “It was designed to kill a vampire. It’s a good thing that silver only affects us and not shifters, isn’t it?”
January was speechless. “You thought there would be something like this.”
It wasn’t a question.
“I was just being cautious.” Gregory’s eyes were narrowed and careful.
January furiously bit her tongue and tasted blood. They both knew he’d let Ryan walk straight into the trap – a trap which could have killed him, despite Gregory’s assertions that he’d got off lightly because he was a shifter. If one of those shards had buried itself in Ryan’s brain, he’d be just as dead as anyone.
She knelt beside Ryan and pulled out the worst of the debris. His eyes reassured her that he was alright, but mightily annoyed. If he decided to take on Gregory right now, January would have been tempted to let it happen.
Of course, he’d definitely lose, having gone several rounds with two invincible wolves last night and now getting blown up. January hoped it wouldn’t be a case of ‘third time’s the charm’ the next time they were attacked.
“No one is here,” she said, stating the obvious. Now that they were inside the chateaux, it was plain that no one had ever spent time here. It was definitely not the secret lair of the oldest vampires in existence.
“It was always the most likely scenario,” Gregory said.
January waited for a better explanation.
“Obviously, we’re being watched even more closely than we thought. My source must have been compromised by the Old Ones. This was just another attempt on our lives. Although, clearly, this trap was aimed at me personally. I actually thought they’d try something a little more creative.”
January’s eyes flashed when she heard the disappointment in his voice. He could have shared all of these hypotheses before they’d marched straight into a trap that had nearly resulted in a death.
“Back to the drawing board. As soon as we’re back where there’s signal I can have us on the next flight. You won’t even have to miss work. Although, now we’ve met the kind of bounty hunters they’re sending, I would recommend missing work. In fact, I’d recommend building a fifty foot wall around the house, adding a snake-pit moat, and then locking your front door and throwing away the key. Just until it all blows over…”
“These vampires have been around forever! It’s not ever going to blow over, Gregory,” January told him. She knew it was just the vampire’s dark sense of humour, but she didn’t want to hear it.
“We’ll work it out! So far, no one has succeeded in killing us. As long as that continues to be the case, we’re not doing so badly.”
January went back to trying to patch Ryan up and resolved to ignore Gregory. Nothing he was saying was helping.
Before she shifted to follow a very ragged looking Ryan back down the mountain, she turned to face Gregory. His mouth curved into a smile and January saw a flash of fangs.
“I’m not going to forget this. If he dies because of you, it won’t solve your problem,” she told him.
That wiped the smile from his face.
None of them looked back at the chateau when they walked away.
None of them saw the slim figure detach itself from the shadows of the tumbling walls and disappear down the opposite side of the mountain.
“Is it too early to have brandy in my coffee?” Ryan asked.
He and January were sat in a small French bistro in Toulouse, watching the sun creep above the streets. January managed to raise a small smile, but inside, she was a ball of worries.
Looking at Ryan’s ruined face wasn’t helping. The metal and wood had definitely left their mark. Combined with the recent wolf mauling, Ryan looked like he’d been in a car accident. Shifters did heal faster than humans, but all that meant was that the car accident looked like it had happened a week ago, rather than last night.
“It’s a good thing I’m more than just a pretty face, isn’t it?” Ryan said.
January realised she must be staring. “Sorry, I was just thinking about how close a call it’s all been. What if we’re not as lucky next time?”
“I don’t think that luck has a lot to do with any of this. You’re the one who got us out of the first situation, plain and simple.”
“But I have no clue how I did it,” January complained, taking a sip of her espresso and appreciating that at least the coffee was good, even if the rest of life wasn’t.
“Figure it out! When we’re back in Hailfield, I will help you find someone. I’m on your side, January. As long as I’m still breathing, I’ll do everything I can.”
January’s head cleared for a moment. She was reminded that, unlike her and Gregory, Ryan really didn’t have to do this - and currently he was the one taking the most hits.
“I’m not backing out, either. This is my fight, too,” Ryan added, reading her change of expression.
“You’ve almost died twice in less than twenty four hours!” She protested.
Ryan’s hand tightened around his glass of medicinal brandy. “But I didn’t die. What do you expect me to do? Stay at home while you go after these ‘Old Ones’ - who may or may not exist - with Gregory Drax? Do you want me to wait around and have to hear that you died and that I have to live knowing that if I’d been there, maybe… just maybe… I could have done something to stop it? I know I don’t have magical powers, or hundreds of years of life experience, but I can do something. As long as I can still do something, this is my problem, too.”
January looked up at him, her eyes feeling strangely full. No one had ever said anything like that to her before. No one had ever been on her side.
She opened her mouth and closed it
again. How could she even begin to express how she felt?
“I don’t believe it! Ryan Eridge! I always knew you were a survivor. Although, by the looks of your face, you’re starting to lose your game. Do I want to ask about the other guy?” The man laughed loudly at his own joke.
January and Ryan stared at the newcomer to their table and January kicked herself for not noticing his approach until he’d started speaking. That was what happened when you let your emotions take over.
“How do you know Ryan?” She asked, her fingers not quite loosening on the steak knife she’d slipped out of the pot of cutlery on the table.
This man had an army haircut, like the severe one Ryan had had when she’d first met him. He also had a similar muscular military-esque physique, only now he was carrying a little more weight around the middle. Whatever he and Ryan had done together, she suspected it was several years in the past.
“Ryan and I both used to work for the Official Board of Shifters. We’d go around infiltrating packs and checking up on everything that was done. It was also our duty to stop anyone who put a furry foot out of line. All done to keep the shifter secrets safe, of course.” The man winked at Ryan.
Ryan moved uncomfortably in his seat.
January thought that this man’s definition of ‘stop’ was probably the permanent kind.
“What Official Board of Shifters?” She asked.
The man frowned at her. Too late, January realised her ignorance.
“You didn’t think we were allowed to just go our own sweet way, did you? Someone is always watching to make sure certain laws of the land aren’t broken. When they are, someone is always there to make sure it’s cleaned up and dealt with.” The man turned to face Ryan again. “I’m guessing you had to quit the country, when you quit your position and the Board didn’t like it? I see we both picked France and the sun to run to. There are worse lives to be living!”
January’s eyes met Ryan’s across the table with sudden understanding.
He hadn’t quit his job at all.
