The one thing I had going for me was that Maven didn’t know that ghosts were visible during the day. She wouldn’t expect any news from me until an hour or two after sundown, which meant I had until maybe seven p.m. to figure out what the hell to do.
Except I had no idea where to start.
When I was only a couple of miles outside town, Simon called. “Lex? Hey, I’m with Sashi and Grace. We got back to the hotel room and you weren’t there anymore.” He paused for a second. “Sashi said healing you was kind of rough. Are you . . . okay?”
How the hell did I answer that? My head was still a wasp’s nest, the werewolves could be anywhere in the state, and oh yes, an unidentified witch had subtly declared war on my boss. “Not exactly,” I summarized. “We need to talk, Simon.”
“Yeah, I’m right there with you.” Simon’s voice was grim. “We gotta figure out what to do about the Unktehila tonight.”
I smacked the steering wheel. “Goddammit, I forgot about the Unktehila.”
“Are you kidding?” Simon said, incredulous. “You forgot about a people-eating magical worm monster?”
“It’s been a rough day.”
“Well, time to remember,” Simon said unsympathetically. “He needs to feed again tonight, and I doubt he’s gonna go back to Chautauqua after we ambushed him there. He might pop up in Iowa, for all we know.”
“Oh, I have a hunch he’ll stay pretty close to Boulder.” I rubbed my eyes, trying to think. My impulse was to tell Simon and Lily everything, but there was no guarantee that the witch responsible for all of this wasn’t a member of their family. But Quinn wouldn’t be awake for four more hours, and I needed help. Fast. What the hell was I gonna do?
Maybe he can help. At first I’d thought Sam might have been referring to Hugh Mark, but what if I was wrong? What if there was another “he” who could help me?
Stop seeing them as demons, and start thinking about what they can bring to the table.
“Dammit, Sam,” I muttered. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
There might be a way to both avoid war and keep all my friends alive. It would cost me a pretty serious compromise, but what choice did I have, at this point?
“What?” Simon asked. I’d kind of forgotten he was still on the line.
“Sorry, nothing,” I replied. “Listen, Simon, is Sashi still on the clock? I mean, does she still work for us even though she already healed me?”
“Hang on, I’ll ask.” There was some muffled discussion, and Simon returned. “She says we’ve got her until her flight leaves tomorrow,” he reported, “but she’ll need someone to take care of Grace if you guys are doing anything too . . . suggestive.”
I thought that over for a moment. “Ask her if Grace likes animals.”
Another moment of conversation, and then Simon came back on the line and said, “Yes, Grace is into anything cute with fur.”
“Great. Tell her to be ready to go in ten. I’m on my way.”
I hung up the phone and called my cousin Jake’s wife, who was a stay-at-home mom. “Hey, Cara, I need a favor. Could you and Dani use some company today?”
I arranged to meet Simon, Sashi, and Grace at a coffee shop near the Boulderado. As I walked in, I couldn’t help but grin at the sight of Simon, who was flushed with health and excitement. He and Sashi were sitting at a table just inside the door, and although their voices were low, he was gesturing wildly, so animated and expressive that he didn’t even see me walk in. There was no sign of his cane. While I was—well, “sleeping” is too innocuous a word, but I hadn’t technically passed out, so we’ll go with that—Sashi had obviously healed his remaining injuries. I looked around for Grace, and saw her leaning against the back wall near the sugar-and-milk bar, talking on Sashi’s cell phone. Out of earshot. Good.
Relief crossed Sashi’s face when she caught sight of me, but I wasn’t sure if it was because I was up and moving or because I was rescuing her from the well-meaning scientist.
“Hey, guys,” I greeted them. “Looking good, Simon.”
“Feeling good, Lex,” he said, a little smug. I remembered how wonderful my whole body had felt after Sashi’s treatment, and I didn’t blame him one bit.
“You guys ready?” I asked Sashi.
She nodded. “I haven’t told Grace about your family yet. Just give me a second.”
The thaumaturge witch left the table to join her daughter, and I sat down near Simon. “So. Where are we going?” he asked expectantly.
Oops. I had half of a rather slapdash and implausible plan, but I wasn’t ready to deal with the fallout of Simon learning everything right now. “I need her help with someone, kind of a personal thing,” I told him. He gave me a quizzical look, and I added, “Meanwhile, I’d like you and Lily to work on figuring out where the Unktehila might turn up next.”
He frowned at me. “I’m not an idiot, Lex. You’re not telling me something.”
I sighed. “No, but it’s because I can’t yet. Can you just trust me for a few hours? Please?”
Simon gave me a long, measuring look, and then shrugged and glanced at his watch. “Lily’s teaching yoga for the next half hour, but then, yeah, we can work on it,” he said. “But remember, even if we figure out where it’s gonna show up, we’ll need some serious firepower to stop it. You got in a direct shot last time, and it only lost a scale.”
“Let me worry about that,” I told him.
Sashi and I dropped Grace off at Cara’s house. I’d arranged for her to ride along to Dani’s piano lesson and then join them at Efrain’s for Mexican food.
“And they won’t say anything about the Old World, right?” Sashi asked me worriedly as we pulled away. She looked tired, and I realized that healing Simon and me must have taken something out of her.
“They can’t talk about what they don’t know,” I assured her. “No one in my family knows about magic. Grace is just having a playdate.”
“Oh.” Sashi gave me a surprised look. “I guess I just assumed, with you being a boundary witch and all . . .”
I shook my head. “My sister and I were adopted.”
“Ah.” Sashi smoothed down her pants, seeming to relax a little. “Great, then. And sorry if I’m being a pest . . . Grace and I haven’t spent much time apart. She says I’m overprotective.”
“My mother was the same way,” I said with a grin. “Take it from a former overprotected daughter: there are worse things for mothers to be.”
Sashi returned the smile. “Did you eventually grow out of it, then? Your mother was able to let go?”
“Not exactly,” I admitted, thinking of how much my own mother still worried about me, especially now that Sam was gone. “But when I joined the army, she kind of learned to do it long distance.”
Her smile faded, and I figured we were both thinking of her attempt to heal me that morning. “Listen,” I began, “thank you for what you did for me, back at the hotel.”
“That’s my job,” she said, shrugging it off.
“Healing the scar tissue, that was your job. But building me a blanket fort and letting me crash in your hotel room, that was above and beyond.”
I glanced over and saw that Sashi was smiling again. “Grace used to have anxiety attacks when she was smaller. Blankets and pillows made her feel safe. At any rate, you’re quite welcome.” She looked out the window for a moment, admiring the mountains again. “Where exactly are we going?”
I told her, and to my surprise the thaumaturge witch paled. “Lex . . . I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Because we’re farther from Boulder, and the extra boost it gives your magic?”
“Not just that, I have a . . . history.” Her voice was almost a whisper. “With them.”
“You said you healed them before.”
Sashi nodded. “A very long time ago. Grace’s father . . . well, let’s just say werewolves are the reason I’m raising her alone.”
Shit. Are you sure about this, Sam? She’d told me to g
et over my hatred of werewolves, but how could I when everywhere I turned, they were ruining lives—Sashi’s, the Pellars’, even my own family’s?
But I trusted Sam. If she said werewolves were more than psychotic killers, I had to believe her. After all, Keller believed more or less the same thing about me, and I was more than what he saw in me. A lot more.
Now I just had to convince Sashi of that. “You work for Maven, right?” I said abruptly. “I mean, she’s paying your bill, so your loyalties are with her?”
Sashi nodded. “She spoke to the accountant who handles my billing,” she said uncomfortably, as though afraid I was about to strong-arm her. “My instructions were to help you with whatever you need.”
I was a little surprised that Maven had given me that much leeway, but then, this had been my idea in the first place. I pressed on, “So if I told you something, you wouldn’t necessarily feel obligated to report it back to the witch clan?”
She looked surprised at the suggestion. “No, of course not. I wasn’t raised in a clan system, Lex. I have no loyalty to the Pellars or any other witch family.”
“Okay, then.” I took a deep breath. “Look, I need your help to prevent a war.”
I told her all of it, beginning with what I understood of the werewolf war. That explanation alone filled up all the time in between our brief stops at a hardware store and a butcher, plus a run out to my cabin. Sashi waited in the car while I let out the dogs, grabbed my homemade ghillie suit, and changed my clothes—I could only fight evil so long without a bra.
By the time we were finally on our way north I had moved on to the sandworm, the vampire uprising, the werewolf attacks, and the meeting with Nellie Evans, which fascinated Sashi. It took almost the entire rest of the drive north.
“Ley lines,” Sashi marveled after I finished. “I’ve heard the term, but I had no idea they actually existed. I thought it was just a silly form of misdirection, like the idea that vampires can’t stand holy relics.”
“Yeah, well, apparently they’re real, and whatever has awakened this particular fragment has stirred up enough magic to essentially force the werewolves to break their promise,” I told her. “And if I don’t do something, now, today, Maven is gonna learn who caused all of this and quite possibly declare war. She’ll practically be obliged to attack, if she wants to appear strong enough to hold the state. I have to find the witch who did it and stop him or her before Maven does.” I made a face. “Believe me, I have no love for the werewolves, either, but I can’t think of any other way to do this.”
Sashi absorbed my words quietly for a moment. “I’ve just . . . I want to help you, but I’ve seen them get violent before, Lex. And I know you’re strong, but these people . . .”
So, probably not a good time to tell her how Sam had died, then. “I brought my silver bullets,” I offered.
Her face was still bleak. “That’s assuming you get a shot. The werewolves are beyond normal strength . . . normal weapons.”
“I know,” I said grimly. “But just this once, I’m counting on that.”
Chapter 33
Sashi eventually agreed to the plan, even though she was obviously worried about it. I’d been prepared to offer her a bonus, out of my own pocket if necessary, but she didn’t even hint that she wanted more money. She seemed to understand I was doing my best to help, and I respected her for that.
We made it up to the wolf preserve around four. The daily feeding tour had already started, which meant one of the staff members was out leading the tour, leaving two more inside. Since Sashi had the phobia about wolves, her job would be to go inside and chat with the employees, making sure they stayed away from the windows. “Don’t worry,” she said, still looking a little unnerved, but determined. “If I can have a chat with my patients while I heal them, I can certainly manage this.”
She dropped me off at the entrance gate and proceeded into the visitors’ center on her own. At this elevation, twilight was already starting to fall, and the thick patches of trees made it appear even darker than it was. I was hoping that the fading light and the ghillie suit would conceal me from the guests on the tour, who would have to look through the darkened pens, the trees, and the wolves to spot me.
I remembered the way to Tobias’s enclosure, and crept there after I was sure the tour group had already moved past that area. A couple of his neighbors trotted over and growled suspiciously at me, but I threw a couple of extra chunks of shoulder roast at them, and they ignored me to eat the goodies. I had half a vial of doggie painkillers in my pocket from my dog Chip’s last surgery, but I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use them. I’d be guessing at a dosage, and I didn’t actually want to hurt any of the wolves.
At Tobias’s pen, there was no sign of the dark wolf, but I was short on time, so I just lifted the massive bolt cutters I’d bought and began cutting the chain links on the outer fence. The snap of each piece of metal sounded so loud to my ears—too loud. The tour was only a couple hundred feet away, and I figured they’d think the first one or two snaps were just twigs breaking, but any more than that was liable to get me in trouble. I paused, not sure what to do.
Before I could decide, my eyes caught movement in the dim light, and I looked up in time to see Tobias creeping toward the interior fence, the back of his dusty brown fur standing up with hostility. When he saw me, his ears flicked back and forth uncertainly. He came right up to the fence, bared his teeth, then dropped his lip, whining and pacing back a few feet as he tried to figure out why I had returned. “Tobias,” I whispered, “I need to talk to you. Please shake your fur if you understand what I’m saying.”
The brown wolf hesitated for a moment, then stiffened his legs and shook himself hard. I sighed in relief. I’d been half afraid that he would be too far gone, after spending so much time fighting the call of the ley line vestige. Tobias sat down and watched me warily. “Okay,” I said. “Listen: I know why the moon lines have been calling you, and I think I can help. In return, I need you to help me stop a war between all the Old World factions. But I’ve got to break you out of here first.”
He gave me a baleful look, giving no indication that he either understood or cared. Crap. I hadn’t considered the possibility that Tobias simply wouldn’t give a shit. “You remember what it was like when Trask was in charge?” I asked him.
That got his attention. The big wolf bared his canines and growled at me. “I know,” I said. “I’ve been to my own war. But if I don’t do something, if we don’t do something, that’s gonna happen again. People are going to die, and some of them will be werewolves.”
The wolf looked from me to the bolt cutters. Then the fences. Finally he chuffed unhappily and trotted to the opposite end of his pen, near where the tour group was still circling. Where I certainly couldn’t follow.
For a moment I thought that was it—Tobias had refused, and even if I snapped the whole fence apart, I couldn’t exactly go in there and drag him out. It would blow his cover, for one thing, and he’d have no choice but to attack me, which meant I’d have no choice but to shoot him.
Then Tobias began howling, which prompted the other wolves to join the chorus. It drew the attention of the tour group members—and made a heck of a racket. Grinning, I lifted the bolt cutters again and quickly snapped off a big circular chunk of fence, large enough to accommodate even a wolf of Tobias’s size. I darted through the opening, scrambled the few feet to the interior fence, and repeated the process as quickly as I could. Tobias must have heard or sensed my progress, because he kept the howls going until I was finished. A moment later the howls petered off and Tobias returned. I pulled the chunk of fencing free, he carefully stepped through it, and just like that, we took off for the road.
I texted Sashi to let her know we were ready, and Tobias and I crouched in a ditch while we waited. Between the falling darkness, his brown fur, and my ghillie suit, we really were damned-near invisible. Sashi arrived a moment later, and I opened the back door for Tobias to climb
into the vehicle. He was enormous, but the trusty old Subaru had a big backseat, and I was used to hauling canines around. Tobias got busy sniffing the cushions with great enthusiasm. I could see Sashi gripping the wheel tighter when the enormous wolf moved around the seat, but he ignored her, and after a few minutes her shoulders dropped away from her ears.
I directed her to the same secluded spot where I’d pulled over on my last trip. Tobias hopped out and trotted into the woods, while I set out a cheap pair of men’s sweat pants, a T-shirt, and a hoodie from the hardware store. They hadn’t sold any shoes, and I didn’t know his size anyway, so he’d have to go barefoot for now. Then I climbed back into the passenger seat next to Sashi and started stripping off the ghillie suit. I was wearing regular street clothes underneath.
Sashi eyed me. “You’re very good at this werewolf jailbreak business,” she remarked.
I gave her a wry smile. “Thanks. If Maven fires me for this, maybe I can go pro.”
We waited. Five minutes slipped by, and then ten. I texted Cara to check on Grace, and learned that the girl was in the process of eating her weight in Mexican food and was a happy camper. More time passed, and soon the sun dipped below the tree line and disappeared entirely. I started to worry. Maven and Quinn had said the werewolves needed a week to recover in between changes, but how did that work when the werewolf in question spent most of his time in wolf form? Did he still need as much time to recover, and if so, could he get, like, stuck between forms? I hadn’t thought of that, either.
Thirty minutes after we’d stopped, I saw movement in the woods, and a moment later Tobias was fumbling with the door to the backseat. He finally got it open and slouched in. Sashi and I twisted around to face him.
Boundary Lines (Boundary Magic Book 2) Page 22
