Wolf Marked (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 1)

by Veronica Douglas

  “This was the ring I saw in my vision,” I told Jaxson. “I should ask Casey what it is, now that I’ve got good photos instead of blurry smudges.”

  “Do it. But if he gets back to you with any answers, don’t tell anyone where you got the information,” Jaxson muttered, his voice so low it was at the edge of my hearing.

  I surveyed the wreckage. “They were expecting us. Why leave all this here for us to find? They must have been confident we wouldn’t survive the demons.”

  “It was a message.” He shot me a look that chilled my blood, then headed for the door. “Let’s go.”

  I finished sending Casey the images, along with the question, What the F are we looking at?

  It was definitely a day for breaking out the F-word.

  Rather than follow Jaxson out, I lingered for a second, then plucked the crumpled piece of paper from its resting place in the corner. Unfolding it, I found a message written in broad strokes: Have the Laurents really stooped so low they’d work with a LaSalle?

  Dread weighed down on me as a new thought tore into my mind. According to Jaxson, the rogue wolves had never abducted another werewolf. Had they taken Sam to punish the pack for working with me?

  I shoved the note in my pocket and hurried outside. We were so in over our heads, it was ridiculous.

  Regina was speaking to Jaxson. “We’ve scouted the area. No scent of any remaining demons.”

  Jaxson pointed at her and the others. “I want you all to scout out the nearest town and marina. See if you can track the rogues who escaped with Sam. Then see what you can dig up on sorcerers in the area—find out if there are any blood sorcerers milling around. I’ll make arrangements for us to stay at the motel on pack lands.”

  Regina and the others nodded and took off into the woods, leaving Jaxson and me. He strode into the forest, tense with fury, and I had to speed walk to keep up with him, even with my boots.

  “How are we going to get Sam back?” I asked.

  “I’ll let you know when I figure that out. Don’t worry.” His voice was a low rumble that sent shivers across my skin.

  Even so, my irritation flared. He was trying to cut me out. “I am going to worry about it. Her life is on me, and I’m going to help get her back. I can scry.”

  Jaxson’s honey eyes narrowed on me. “No. You’ve done enough. You wound up with blood dripping from your nose the last time, and you got caught. My guess is that wherever Sam is, the sorcerer will be there, too. He might not just kick you out of the vision next time. I don’t know what’s possible, but it could be very dangerous.”

  I stepped in front of him to stop him in his tracks. “You brought me along because I can scry. I saw the note, and I know Sam is in danger because of me. I’m going to do it, whether you like it or not.”

  He studied me for a long moment, a deep frown set on his face. When it seemed he was about to say no, I pushed. “It’s worth a shot, Jax, and I need to help.”

  I’d never called him Jax before. It just slipped out.

  His expression softened a little, and he sighed. “You’re right, it’s worth a shot. We’ll get somewhere safe, and then you can try it.”

  Before I could argue with his presumptuous tone, my phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket. “It’s Casey. He might have some information.”

  Casey’s voice cut across the line. “What the hell are you doing? Are you at some sort of twisted murder scene? Shit, tell me that’s not your godmother’s house.”

  “A blood harvesting site. I’m not actually in Belmont. We found one of the abduction victims in Wisconsin. He’s alive, but barely. What can you tell me about that circle of magic symbols in the middle of the floor?”

  Casey’s voice shook with what I presumed to be fear and outrage. “Are you out of your mind, Savannah? You have no idea how much danger you’re in! I’ve been trying to figure out what attacked you at the fair, and the photos you sent confirm it—blood demons.”

  “Blood demons?”

  Jaxson’s body tensed at my words, though I was certain he could hear everything Casey was saying.

  “Yeah. Blood demons are like vampires on steroids. If they get ahold of you, they’ll drain you dry. They’re apparently really nasty and nearly impossible to control unless you’re an insanely strong spellcaster. My guess is that some fucked-up super-powerful blood sorcerer summoned them using a little of your victim’s blood, then kept the dude around as a human juice box for the monster to feed on. That probably means the demon is nearby. You need to get out of there before it comes back.”

  “Yeah. Thanks for the warning, but we already shot four to death already.”

  “Wait, what?” he squeaked.

  “I really appreciate all the info, Casey. I know this puts you in an awkward spot, but text me if you learn anything more. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  “Savannah, wai—”

  I hung up and gave Jaxson a half smile. “Bad news: those things are blood demons, and the sorcerer is using people like juice boxes to keep them hydrated. Good news: we just killed four of the bastards. Five, counting the one at the fair.”

  Jaxson’s expression darkened.

  “What? That’s good news, right? We know more.” I cocked my head.

  He grabbed my arm and silently hurried me toward the cars, but I yanked myself away. “Tell me.”

  He studied my eyes, then growled. “I was just wondering, with the demons dead, what do they need the juice boxes for anymore?”

  My stomach churned as we hurried back to where we’d left the vehicles. Five abducted people and five dead demons. We’d rescued one of the abductees, but that meant there were four other people who were no longer useful.

  It sickened me, but I prayed that the sorcerer still needed their blood for something else.

  Hopefully, our prayers wouldn’t be too little, too late.

  36

  Jaxson

  As soon as we returned to our truck, I pulled out my phone and called Billy. “I don’t care about your reservations about working with the LaSalle woman—I need you up here now. Bring men and guns. Sam’s been taken.”

  As I gave him the rundown, I could feel his fury across the line. He valued Sam just as I did. I depended on her for so much—intelligence, counsel, even friendship. If Sam had been harmed, I’d unleash a fucking war in Wisconsin until the perpetrators were found.

  My wolf clawed to get out, and I was one hair from slipping into a rage. I steadied my hand on the wheel.

  “How are you going to find her?” Billy asked, clearly enraged himself.

  I glanced at Savannah as she slipped into the passenger side. She really shouldn’t be privy to our traditions, but it was too late for that now. “I can do a moon calling ritual. Tonight, when the moon is at its peak. There’s a spirit guide up here in the local pack who should be willing to help.”

  “Hopefully, that’s enough,” Billy growled.

  Silence hung in the air. “The LaSalle girl might be able to help.”

  “How?”

  I wasn’t going down that road with him. “Meet me at the Sunrise Inn. It should be a safe base of operations. I’ll call you once we know more,” I said, and hung up.

  Savannah turned to me with an arched brow. “What’s a moon calling ritual?”

  I swore. “Something you’re not supposed to know about.”

  “Why, because I’m a LaSalle?”

  “Because it’s pack business, and I’m the alpha,” I snapped.

  She rolled her eyes. “But it allows you to track Sam?”

  “Yes. If she’s still alive, we’ll be able to track her.” I shouldn’t be telling her this. Our secrets were heavily guarded, and she was on the enemy’s side, even if she didn’t quite realize the gravity of what that meant.

  “But you can’t do the thing until tonight.”

  “No,” I snarled.

  She seemed to sense I was done dispensing information and settled back in her seat. “Fine. If you can’t d
o it until tonight, then we should scry as soon as we get where we’re going. The Sunrise Inn, wherever that is. Glad to know the plan.”

  I ground my teeth. “Now you do. We go to the hotel. You scry. If that doesn’t work, I do my thing. And we sit tight until we get a lead. The motel is on Eastern Wisconsin pack land. We’ll dig in and shoot the heck out of any werewolves or demons that come calling. You don’t need to worry, you’ll be safe there.”

  “I’m worried about Sam, not myself.”

  “Then you’d better start.”

  Savannah sighed at my comment, her frustration unmistakable. She had no idea how much danger she was truly in. The goddamn sorcerer was up to something more sinister than summoning blood demons. I could feel it in my bones.

  We drove in strained silence as we headed north, each of us brooding.

  The moon calling ritual was something alphas could do, though it only worked when the moon was at its peak. And it was best to have a spirit guide. Like scrying, it could be dangerous to meddle with the moon mother’s magic.

  I would howl—not a normal howl, but a soul-empowered cry that would travel through the moonlight and summon Sam to me. If she couldn’t come, then my spirit would be transported to her, and I’d be able to track her down. That was what I was counting on.

  But spirit travel had its risks.

  Perhaps cunningly, the sorcerer and his minions had never abducted a wolf we could have tracked. That might mean that the sorcerer knew about the moon rituals—or his werewolf minions had warned him. In that light, taking Sam had been a mistake, and I would make them pay, one way or another.

  I glanced at Savannah. “To do the ritual, I’d need to go down to the shore on pack land. It’s only a few miles from the inn, but it means that I’d be gone for an hour, hour and a half.”

  She frowned, but I could sense her unease. “You worried?”

  “No.” I was glad she couldn’t smell lies, though she had a nose for them, all the same.

  “Just take me with you.”

  Like hell. “It’s taboo.”

  “Like scrying?” she asked snidely.

  “One I can’t break.”

  I didn’t want to leave Savannah at the hotel, but I didn’t have a choice. Some things were sacred.

  The Eastern Wisconsin pack wouldn’t let anyone suspicious onto their land, and Billy was heading up with reinforcements. He might hate her family, but he would protect her, especially if the moon ritual didn’t work. Then she’d be our best chance of tracking down Sam.

  I just needed an hour and a half. It seemed like so little, but my gut told me we were almost out of time.

  Twenty silent minutes later, we entered the nearby town. Its population wasn’t more than five thousand, and its main drag consisted of a handful of restaurants and shops catering to out-of-towners passing through. We passed a pasty shop, and Savannah’s stomach rumbled. She was always hungry. I glanced at the dashboard. In her defense, it was almost eight, and she hadn’t eaten anything substantial all day, which only added to my irritation.

  I wasn’t used to looking after someone. Something also told me that Savannah wasn’t the type of woman who liked being looked after. But still, she deserved better.

  “I’ll pick up dinner after I drop you at the motel,” I offered.

  She nodded but said nothing.

  A few miles out of the town center, a bird-shit-blue single-story motel appeared beside the road—the Sunrise Inn. The motel was set against the woods and looked like it had been built in the seventies but recently remodeled. I pulled into the lot and parked beside Cara’s Jeep.

  Savannah grabbed her backpack and a bag of chips from the back seat as Cara stepped out of the motel. She was the youngest of our Wisconsin team, which meant she’d gotten stuck with coordinating logistics.

  “Any news from the hospital?” I asked.

  She shook her head, swinging her short, dark hair. “No progress. He’s still in a coma but stable. The doctor says it might be a couple days before he comes around.”

  I tightened my fists, my claws itching to come out. Not that I expected him to remember much. The tortured mind was a fragile thing.

  Savannah looked at me. “I guess it’s up to us, then. Me first.”

  My stomach twisted. We were taught that scrying was dark magic with an unknown cost. I recalled her bloody nose…but what choice did we have? “Are you sure?”

  Savannah nodded. “Let’s do it now, before I pass out from exhaustion and hunger.”

  She was strong and brave, and willing to risk her life for others. No traits were more admirable in a wolf, let alone a human.

  Cara passed us our keys, and I led Savannah to my room.

  A smile quirked up on her lips. “A dangerous man is escorting me to his hotel and asking me to drink a strange brew. How should I be feeling about this?”

  I swung the door open without a word, smelling the fear rippling off her. No matter her bravado, scrying scared her deeply.

  Savannah dropped her bag on the floor and fished out the potion as I closed the door. “No taking advantage of me while I’m spying on other people.”

  Doubt tore at me. She was pushing on for Sam’s sake, but my instincts told me this was a bad idea. “Do you want something to eat first?”

  “Do you want barf on your carpet? This potion is really bad.” And without a second of hesitation, she tilted her head back and took a swig from the flask. A sour expression twisted across her face. “Oh, God. It’s rancid, and it burns. I’ll never get used to that.”

  “Focus on Sam. Where is she?”

  Savannah closed her eyes and wiped her lips with the back of her wrist. “Talk me through it. It’s annoying, but it helps.”

  “You know her face. She was there the first night you came to Magic Side. She was with you when you were attacked at the fair. Today, she bought you Coke and chips and gave you stern looks when you pried into pack business. Think of her wolf. Dark, with a patch under her eye. You saw her shift today.”

  Savannah’s breathing stilled. The potion was taking hold.

  Suddenly, she gasped and leaned back. Her hand flew to the comforter and clenched it so tightly that her fingers turned white.

  The scent of her emotions surrounded me. Terror.

  She jerked forward, and I grabbed her before she tumbled off the bed. “Savannah, are you okay?”

  My heart raced as her body started to shake, and I pulled her close. She relaxed slightly, but her pulse skyrocketed, and a bead of sweat rolled down her neck. My wolf surged inside me, desperate to get out, and I gritted my teeth against the pain. He was wild and getting more uncontrollable lately around Savannah. There was something about her that drove him into a frenzy.

  Savannah mumbled something unintelligible.

  “Talk to me.” I lightly squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay, but I see a lot of blood.” Her voice was far off. A dream state.

  “Where are you?”

  “Concrete walls. A dirty linoleum floor.”

  “Is she there? Do you see Sam?”

  “She’s here. She’s bound and on the floor, but her chest is moving. She’s alive.”

  I gripped Savannah’s hand as a spark of relief broke through the cracks. “Give me details. Anything that might be a clue to where she is.”

  Her voice hitched. “There’s writing on the ground.”

  Dread crept across my skin. “Like the summoning circles?”

  “No, a message. It—”

  Her body quaked, and she coughed. Blood splattered across my shirt, and a red tear dripped from her eye. Panic shot through me. What was happening? A seizure?

  “Savannah! Come back to me.” I let my presence wash over her, a command, an imperative to return from whatever dark place was pulling her in.

  She gasped, and her eyes flew open. “Holy crap, I hate doing that.”

  Unsteadily, she got to her feet, and then collapsed to her knees, heaving.


  Guilt tore into me. How could I let her do this?

  I knelt down to help, but she held her hand up. “I’m okay. Just give me a minute.”

  She wiped the blood from her mouth, and my nostrils flared. Her blood smelled sweet and tangy, and I wanted to taste it on her lips. I grimaced at my thoughts. Seeing Savannah in pain made my chest want to crack open, and worry clawed at my patience. “Tell me what happened.”

  “There was a message. For me. In blood.”

  “What did it say?”

  “We’re watching you. The sorcerer knew I would try scrying.”

  My heart hammered against my ribs, and my head began to pound. He was watching her.

  Fuck.

  How could I leave her to do the ritual with the sorcerer spying on her? But how could I leave Sam to rot and do nothing?

  I had to handle things one at a time.

  Once she was willing, I helped Savannah to her feet. It took every ounce of restraint to keep myself from licking the blood from her cheek. “Are you sure you’re fine? Is there anything I can do?”

  She forced out a weak laugh. “No, I’m not fine. But some food would go a long way. And a shower, but you can’t help with that.”

  I couldn’t even manage a smile. “We’re not doing this again.”

  She wiped her nose, leaving a smudge of blood on the back of her hand. “Yeah. Maybe that’s a good idea.”

  37

  Savannah

  I shut the door to my room and slumped against it, thankful for the privacy and space to think without the wolves reading into my thoughts or watching me dry heave.

  I surveyed my surroundings. The room had a light green carpet, a double bed, and a TV. Basic but clean, just like Jaxson’s—minus the new blood stains and spit on the floor.

  It was so conventional, like a snapshot out of my life before the nightmare began.

  My mind flooded with visions of the blood demons chasing me through the forest. The she-wolf tearing her own throat out. The poor guy in the cabin, surrounded by blood bags and needles. And Sam locked in that cold room.

  I’d seriously need a therapist after all this shit.