by Anya Bast
She squirmed beneath him, breathless. “And I want you to,” she whispered, “but the door is open and Alisa is bound to come back up.”
“I know.” After a moment he rolled off her, stood and offered her his hand. “Until tonight, I guess.”
She took his hand and stood. “I can’t wait.”
After they bathed and dressed, they met in the kitchen and settled into a delicious breakfast of roasted vegetables and eggs prepared by Alisa.
“This is delicious,” said Paige, taking a final, savory bite.
“Thanks. They use herbs and spices a little different on the Magica side of the land.”
“I’m surrounded by great cooks and I can’t cook at all.” She sat back and rubbed her stomach. “I’m going to get fat.”
Jarek picked up her plate and kissed her temple. “If you ever got fat, there would just be more skin to kiss. How do you say it over in your reality? It would be a win-win situation.”
Alisa smiled at them. “You two remind me of my parents.”
Paige smiled back at her. “Really? Do they love each other?”
“Very much.” She paused, the smile fading from her lips. “Even their magick is related.”
“I’m sure there’s much you can teach us about the Magica,” said Jarek from the kitchen. I’m looking forward to hearing about it all.”
Alisa glanced out the window toward the woods. “I’m looking forward to meeting my aunt. Will we be going soon?”
“Yes, you two should go,” said Paige. “I’ll clean up the kitchen.”
“Are you sure?” asked Jarek.
Standing up, she waved him away. “Positive. Go on. I may not be able to cook, but I can certainly clean up after the people who can.”
“Okay, then let’s head out,” he said to Alisa, who popped out of her chair.
Jarek kissed her lingeringly while Alisa grabbed a small bag she had packed by the door. She raised it. “A gift for my aunt.” She smiled. “I made it yesterday afternoon from carved branches I found in the forest.
“That’s a really nice gesture,” said Paige.
“It’s Magica tradition.”
Paige walked over to Alisa and gave her a hug. “Good luck today. I hope your aunt is everything you’re dreaming of, plus more.”
“Thanks, Paige.”
She watched from the window as Alisa and Jarek left the yard and disappeared into the woods, then she set about clearing the dishes and washing them. Once that was done, she went to her room and changed into her dance clothes, then headed out to the barn to get some practice.
The sadness of her impending departure clung to her, yet this morning she felt more at peace and content than she had in a long time.
As she crossed the yard in the morning mist, headed toward the barn, Alisa emerged from the edge of the woods, running flat out toward her. Her hair was a tangled mess, her clothes dirty and torn. “Paige! Paige! There’s something wrong with Jarek, Come quick!”
Paige’s heart caught and her breathing quickened as panic overtook her. “What’s wrong?” She dropped her ballet shoes to the grass and ran for Alisa. “What happened?”
Alisa shook her head. “I don’t know. We were headed to the village and Jarek just suddenly collapsed. I couldn’t wake him up. I ran all the way back here.”
“Show me.”
Together they ran into the woods as fast as they could go, dodging branches and jumping logs and rocks. By the time they reached the place where Jarek had collapsed, Paige’s heart was ready to jump out of her chest, she had long bloody scratches all over her arms, legs and face, and her dance clothes were ripped and dirty.
None of that mattered.
Jarek lay in dire wolf form and was slumped over a log, motionless. Paige ran to him and saw immediately what the problem was. A long dart stuck out of his shoulder. “What is that?” She knelt by his side, her hands in his silky fur as she sought a pulse.
She couldn’t feel anything.
Her gaze caught on Alisa’s bag spilled next to Jarek’s body. Next to it was something that looked like a gun.
Paige stood and whirled around, cold realization splashing through her blood stream like ice water.
Alisa stood not far away…with five Magica Hunters ranged around her. “I’m sorry, Paige.”
Paige blinked, her gaze going from Alisa to Jarek. It had been a trap. “What did you do?” she yelled her at her. “Did you kill him?” She paused, remembering Kaiden. “What about Kaiden? Did you set him up too? Alisa!”
Alisa just stood there, not answering, tears in her eyes, as the hunters advanced on her. Paige had no sympathy for Alisa’s tears. Right now she wanted to tear the woman limb from limb. Instead of running, she lunged for the betrayer.
The hunters caught her and held her back by both arms as Paige spit and snarled like a wild thing. She tried to grab for one of the hunter’s long wand like weapons, but he grabbed her wrist and wrenched her arm painfully to the side.
Rage bubbled up from the depths of her. It shot through her body like heat, tingling through her veins. The tingling intensified, radiating through her chest, arms and legs. Suddenly she knew this sensation had nothing to do with her anger. For a moment, she thought she was having a heart attack.
She let out a surprised gasp and a flash of pain exploded through her. Her body seemed to stretch and reform. She blacked out for a moment. When she regained consciousness, the world looked different...odd. She was seeing things from a height that was not normal. She opened her mouth to speak and a low growl came out. Looking down at her body, she saw two white paws on the ground, fur, and the shape of.....
Oh, no. She’d turned into a dire wolf.
The Magica began yelling and readying their weapons. One of them stabbed a needle into her shoulder and the world began to swim and go dark for the second time.
The hunters released her and her dire wolf’s body slumped to the ground. The last thing she saw were Alisa’s shoes.
* * * * *
Kaiden loped into the yard and changed back into human form. The farm was quiet and he couldn’t feel the presence of anyone else. He reached out to Jarek telepathically and only got silence. That meant Jarek was too far to communicate with him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was wrong, but he didn’t know what.
He’d gone to the place where Alisa had directed him, but Torrent hadn’t been there. A growing darkness in his heart, he’d raced home only to find the farm empty. He calmed himself. Maybe Paige had simply decided to go into the village with Jarek and Alisa.
He walked toward the house, trying to shake this sensation that there was something off. That’s when he spotted Paige’s ballet shoes laying in the grass. He walked over and picked them up, feeling their worn, well-loved silk against his palms. There was no way she’d just dropped them this way, unless…
His family was in danger.
Kaiden lunged forward, dropping the slippers and immediately shifting to dire wolf form. He bounded into the forest, headed toward the village. That’s where they’d been going this morning. Maybe the path to the village would yield some clues.
Blood pumping and heart pounding, he raced through the woods until he came to a familiar form slumped on the ground. Jarek had shifted to human form. His skin looked ashen and his body broken. Kaiden glimpsed the dart and knew immediately what had happened.
But he might be too late.
Before he checked for Jarek’s pulse, he dashed into the trees looking for Harden root. It took precious time, time he didn’t know if he had. He finally located one. Digging with his massive paws, he yanked it from the ground with his teeth and raced back to Jarek.
Shifting to human form, he cradled his friend in his lap, bit off a sliver of the root and forced it into his mouth. Jarek was heavy and cold. Kaiden could feel no pulse. He let the sliver rest in Jarek’s mouth, letting its healing properties dissolve on his tongue. Kaiden’s heart beat rapidly. He hoped like hell he wasn�
��t too late.
Jarek didn’t move.
Despair rose like a black hole in the center of him as the sliver melted in Jarek’s mouth, delivering the antidote to the Magica poison he’d been injected with, but Jarek didn’t stir. Late afternoon turned to evening and Kaiden sat there, cradling Jarek’s head in his lap.
He understood what had happened. All the clues lay in the clearing. Alisa’s bag, the dart gun, the area of the grass where a scuffle had occurred. Alisa had been planning this all along. They’d taken Paige for some reason.
Jarek stirred and groaned.
“Jarek!” Kaiden yelled it. Relief surged through him. He’d been certain he was dead.
Jarek rolled to the side, groaning again, and spit out the sliver of the root. “What happened?” he croaked.
“I think Alisa shot you with a Magica dart on the way to the village.”
Jarek rolled to his back and pushed up. “All I remember is a sharp pain, then nothing.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“Where’s Paige?”
Kaiden took a moment to answer. “My theory is Alisa lured her out here and the Magica took her.”
“That makes no sense. The Magica want the location of the village. They were so close. Why didn’t Alisa just have them follow us?”
“I don’t know.” Kaiden’s voice was grim. “But it doesn’t matter now. We’ve got to get her back, Jarek.”
Jarek nodded, still looking ashen. He pushed to his feet and staggered to the side. “Let’s get Torrent and head over there.”
“You’re in no shape—“
“Let’s go. Right now.”A muscle worked in Jarek’s jaw and his eyes flashed dangerously. “We need her back and nothing else matters.”
Kaiden nodded. He’d known that was exactly what he’d say.
* * * * *
Paige opened her eyes to slits and noticed three things immediately. One, she was lying on a very smooth, very hard, very cold floor. Like marble. Two, her head hurt bad enough to make her want to curl into fetal position. She fought that urge, also fighting the desire to bolt to her feet and dash for an exit. Three, she was no longer in dire wolf form. Someone had dressed her in a long white gown and put slippers on her feet.
Gee, how thoughtful.
Voices murmured above her, all male. She feigned unconsciousness, in the hopes of hearing something interesting.
“What did you do with the Lyacon woman?”
“I’ve reunited her with her family.”
“You let her go?” Man One seemed outraged.
Man Two snickered. “I reunited her with them in the dungeon.”
Paige considered those words and the implications of them. Was it possible that Alisa had done what she’d done because these monsters were holding her family on condition of her good behavior? If so, Alisa never should have assumed the Magica would uphold their end of the bargain.
“The Lyacon woman did not do as she said she would. She did not lead us to the village. She only brought us this.” He toed Paige’s side. “Useless.”
“A mistake she and her family will die for, all in good time.”
“Excuse me, sir,” said a third male voice. “I don’t think this woman is as useless as you may presume. She is the mate of two powerful Lycaon dire wolf males. The mate bond they forge is immensely strong. They will come for her.”
“Hmmm. Yes, but only one of her mates still lives.”
Paige’s blood turned to slush.
“One Lycaon in our control is good enough. One that we can manage through threat to his mate.”
Man One grunted. “It will have to do. Take her away.”
She barely registered their words. Her mind couldn’t, wouldn’t, process that Jarek was dead. It just wasn’t possible. He was alive. She could feel it in the center of her bones.
But they weren’t wrong that Kaiden and Jarek would come for her. They would rush in like knights in shining armor, all protectiveness and strength…and be captured. The Magica would threaten her death if they didn’t lead them to the village. She hoped they wouldn’t trade her life for the lives of so many others…but she couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t.
She had to save herself before they came busting their way in here.
Rough hands grabbed her and pulled her up. She went limp, dead weight, as the man pulled her across the floor toward a door on the opposite end of the room. Through her barely slitted eyes, she could see the room was immense and well-appointed. It appeared like an empty court room, perhaps. Leather chairs, shiny wooden desks lined to face a dais with an even larger, shinier desk.
The man yanked her through the door and started down a hallway. Finally, he stopped and hefted her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes. She did her best imitation of an unconscious woman. Opening her eyes to slits she noted that her captor was huge. She had no hope of defeating this guy in hand-to-hand combat.
But he had one of those long, magick-wielding sticks holstered at his side…..
She bounced along down the corridor. They appeared to be headed for the door at the very end. She envisioned a long, dark stairway headed down under the earth and a cold, dank cell meant for her. If she let that happen, she’d never escape. Right now she had the advantage of surprise.
Lifting her head, she examined the opposite end of the corridor. Could that be an exit? Light was shining through. She couldn’t be sure if that was a way out, but she was going to have to take the chance. She couldn’t allow herself to be put in a situation where Kaiden and Jarek would have to rescue her.
Her heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears, she grasped the end of the man’s wand, yanked it out and plunged the pointy end into his butt.
The man yelped and dropped her. She tumbled to the floor where she lay sprawled and stunned. The man stumbled around the corridor looking dazed. He was dressed in all black and had a huge handlebar mustache. He came to a wobbly stop, his eyes focusing on her. Raising his finger, he pointed at her. “You, you….” Then he pitched forward and landed on his face.
Paige bolted to her feet and ran flat-out toward the possible exit. She reached the door, hearing sounds behind her, and fumbled with the strange doorknob for a terrifying moment before she figured out how to work it. Plunging through the opening, she found herself on a busy, alien street.
Her brain popped for a moment, trying to take in the angular, hard architecture and all the people dressed in head-to-toe puritan looking clothing, all the garments in drab, muted colors. For a moment she felt transported into The Scarlet Letter, yet the buildings were ultra-tech. The whole fleeting impression shot through her, disorientating her for a dangerous moment. Then she regained her senses and fled into a nearby darkened alley. She knew that moment of hesitation could mean her death. She was dressed in this weird, flowing white dress, like a nightgown, and wore flimsy slippers. She didn’t blend in and she’d noticed more than one head turning her way as she stood frozen on the sidewalk.
Hearing movement and shouting behind her, she raced down the alley, nearly blind. Her slippers pounded on the pavement toward the light at the other end. Then she realized that light was not her friend. She needed darkness, needed to hide. Fortunately, there were plenty of both shadows and hiding places down this alley. She just needed to find the best one.
Voices echoed from the mouth of the alley. She whirled around, looking for a place to go to ground. There, against the brick outer wall of the courthouse was one of many huge metal containers, ostensibly for trash. She dove behind one of them and wiggled down, trying not to think about what she might be touching, and worked her way as quickly and silently as she could under it.
Pounding footsteps approached and Paige held her breath, wanting to shut her eyes like a child. If she couldn’t see the monster, the monster couldn’t see her. The footsteps slowed and she went completely still, though her heart pounded so hard she could hear it in her throat and ears. Low conversation followed. The footsteps pr
oceeded down the alley faster, moving past her.
After several minutes of silence, she slid forward and peeked out from beneath the trash container. It looked like her pursuers were gone. As silently as she could manage, she extricated herself from beneath the container and made her way out into the alley. All was quiet.
Now what to do?
She couldn’t stay here, since it was only a matter of time before her pursuers realized she hadn’t left the alley and came back to search for her. Yet leaving the alley seemed too risky. Magick was also an issue. What if they could use it to track her?
She looked skyward, wishing she could fly. That’s when she noticed something interesting. Periodically a set of a pull down metal stairs were attached to the side of the buildings. If she were at home, she’d say they were fire escapes. Here she didn’t know what purpose they served. That made the thought of ascending one a scary thing. What would she find at the top? For all she knew, there were a bajillion mages up there doing the polka.
Up there her chances were uncertain.
But down here they were assured. Down here, she had no chance. Those mages would return, search every inch of this alley, and find her.
She stared at one of the pull down stairs for several seconds before going to one and pulling it down. It made an awful, metallic sound that made her flinch. Lifting herself up, she began to climb, her slippers far too slick on the metal bars for comfort. Heights were really not her thing.
When she reached the top, she cautiously peered over the smooth lip of the top of building. Nothing. It could be any rooftop in an American city, aside from the shiny metal the mages used in the construction.
She climbed over the edge and pulled the ladder up behind her so it looked like no one had touched it from the alley. It was a waste of time. When they returned to the alley and found no sign of her there, of course the ladders leading upward would be a source of suspicion.
Her gaze darted around. She needed to find a way out of here and soon. Then she needed some of those ugly puritan clothes to blend in.
