“Do I have to keep repeating myself?” I asked as I drove my elbow back his sternum. “Don’t. Touch. My. Things. Or my friends.”
I freed Kett, slashing through his clothing and skin in my rush. He barely bled. He did that quick-moving thing that vamps were apparently able to do, and suddenly no one was holding me down any longer.
I gained my feet. Kett stood to my left. I turned back to the older woman and the teenager. The other four were recovering from being tossed away like a child’s candy wrappers.
I locked my gaze to the older woman’s. It was obvious the way the others gathered to her that she was their leader. Not that she’d managed to stop them from attempting to burn Kett — though maybe it had been her idea and she didn’t like to get her hands dirty.
My eyes flicked to the teenager who was attempting to not tremble. She had feathers woven into her hair.
Desmond, still in naked human form stepped out of the forest behind me and stood to my right.
“Nice feathers,” I said. I always paid compliments where they were due.
The four other adults — three men and a younger woman — grasped the necklaces they wore. Necklaces of teeth, which was just creepy. The tart but spicy huckleberry and onion magic rose up around them like a cloak. Then suddenly, the four had become the animals I’d encountered in the woods. A grizzly, a black bear, a coyote, and a red fox.
“Not shapeshifters,” I said. “The magic is wrong, and they didn’t transform.”
“Skinwalkers,” Kett said. His voice was as cool and unruffled as always. Not that that was any indication of whether he was pissed off or not. I’d figured that out the hard way a couple of times.
“This wouldn’t be the treasure we’ve been hunting, would it?” Even as I asked, I was really hoping I was wrong, and that we hadn’t been tracking a rare breed of Adepts this entire time.
Kett didn’t answer.
Damn it. Maybe I was willfully ignorant, because I hated it when I was on the wrong side. Completely wrong. As in, not only were we most likely trespassing on First Nations land, but our treasure hunt — led by a vampire — probably looked way aggressive.
“Damn you, vampire,” Desmond said under his breath.
The teenager and the elder hadn’t transformed. I easily guessed that the woman was the raven, and that the teen hadn’t been chosen by an animal yet. That’s how most Native American legend worked, wasn’t it?
“I get that our being here, on your land, is not cool. That you might have thought we wished you harm. But really, who brings a child to a monster party anyway?” I said, addressing the elder. Yeah, probably a little overly aggressive. But hell, they just kidnapped us all and tried to throw Kett in the fire.
“It is her right to confront the strangers trespassing on her land,” the elder answered.
“Well, it’s a hard lesson you’ve set her up to learn today. My own Gran opted to keep me safe and sheltered instead.”
The grizzly stepped forward with a growl, but the elder held him off with a terse command in a language I didn’t understand.
“Your Gran should have taught you the proper way to enter the territory of another.”
“That is my error,” Kett said. “The Conclave was unaware that the skinwalkers were … resurfacing.”
“Vampires,” the elder spat, but didn’t elaborate her distaste. She didn’t need to. None of the Adept liked vampires, and it wasn’t just the blood drinking. The immortality, invulnerability, and insular nature pissed them off as well.
“Here’s the thing,” I said, interrupting the staring match between the elder and the vampire. I’d noted the other skinwalkers getting impatient.
“You transgressed,” the teenager said with a snarl. “We have every right to retaliate.”
I ignored her. “My friends here — the all-powerful vampire and the two vicious shapeshifters — don’t take kindly to being hunted and tied up.”
“And you, witch? If that is what you are. Do the vampire and the shifters follow or lead you?” the elder asked. She wasn’t being sarcastic or nasty. She sounded truly curious.
“Neither. And that’s a problem. Because we’re in the middle of the forest, and none of the magical community knows you exist. Right? So if you try to stop us from leaving and the slaughter and bloodletting happens, there won’t be any tribunal stepping in to sort out punishment. I know. I’ve been through one before.”
The skinwalkers in animal form shifted impatiently again, but the elder appeared to be listening to me.
“My name is Jade Godfrey. I own a bakery in Vancouver called Cake in a Cup,” I continued. “Let’s just part ways now without more violence and I’ll treat us all to cupcakes. You name the date. My Gran would probably love to meet you.” I let my offer hang in the smoky air between us, hoping the skinwalkers would back down, and marveling at the self-control that Desmond and Kett were exhibiting.
“Just to be clear. The sleep spells won’t work a second time. Will they?” I asked Kett.
“No,” he answered, turning his head slightly toward me. The firelight flared in his eyes, turning them momentarily red. I shuddered. I was more afraid of the monsters beside me than the ones in front.
“The skinwalking is an amazing ability. But you are still just human underneath, aren’t you?”
The elder didn’t answer, but I’d kicked the grizzly and seen his reaction. He was also still favoring the shoulder I’d stabbed when he took Kandy. They cloaked themselves in the animal forms, and possibly gained some strength as well as the teeth and claws, but they could be hurt … badly.
“You understand that we … well, my companions, at least, are not human?”
Again the elder nodded.
“Your magic is unique. And if I understood Kett’s statement, thought to be extinct.”
The elder nodded.
“Please don’t do this.” I said, turning to include Kett and Desmond in this appeal. “Please, we transgressed and for that we are sorry. Please don’t make us fight.”
The teenager turned to look up at the elder. Her grandmother, I guessed. The elder sighed. If they tried to detain us again, and Desmond and Kett killed them all, the teenager would never come into her powers. She would never understand her connection to the energy or spirit, as Gran called it, of the earth.
When the hell did I become the freaking wise diplomat of the group? And since when did Desmond and Kett stand quietly — though alertly — by while I chatted about the possibility of them slaughtering people. I guess they agreed. I felt old and jaded.
I sheathed my knife, shoved my other hand in my pocket, and brushed my fingers across the jade stones. The skinwalker magic they held was precious, but I didn’t have any more words with which to convince the elder.
The teenager was correct — it was their right to retaliate against our trespassing. But they would likely die defending that right. Yeah, perhaps I was being a little melodramatic. But I’d seen Kett and Desmond in action. They’d defend themselves then exact their own revenge as was their right … even though we were in the wrong first. My head was going to explode.
“Go get Kandy,” Desmond said. And despite the command in his voice — and the fact that I usually chafed at it — I turned and walked away into the forest.
∞
Kandy found me, actually. I was still stumbling around in the dark, attempting to track her werewolf magic, when a gray wolf with green-glowing eyes appeared in a shaft of moonlight between the trees. Deliberately showing herself to me, I assumed, so as to not freak me out further.
I held my hand out to her and she put her head underneath my palm and pressed up. Her potent werewolf magic was more concentrated in her animal form, and I could sense no further trace of the skinwalker sleep spell on her.
I knew how Kandy took her steak — blue rare — her preferred movies — horror or teen sex comedy — and that she was a fiercely loyal pack member. But I’d never seen h
er in her wolf form before.
I wondered if it was an intimate thing for this normally brash, outspoken, and slightly kinky woman. I also wondered if the transformation helped her burn off the skinwalkers’ impressive magic. Impressive in that it took down a vampire, two shapeshifters, and whatever the hell I was.
Kandy whined and circled me to face back the way I’d come.
“You know he won’t want us to go back,” I said, guessing at her thoughts. She just continued to stare off into the trees.
I brushed my fingers in the fur of Kandy’s neck, aware I would never take such liberties if she was in human form, but wanting to comfort her somehow. Her coat was silky and smooth underneath the guard hairs, and practically silver in the moonlight. I estimated that she was the same weight in both of her forms, about a hundred and twenty-five pounds of pure lean muscle. When we did yoga together, she put me to shame, though I was a fan of having all the right curves in all the right places.
I could still taste Desmond’s magic behind me — so similar to Kandy’s, though she was more berry than his citrusy dark chocolate. Her magic came with a refined but bitter finish. Delicious, but edgy. Not the kind of chocolate you bake with, but better paired with wine or even strong cheese. Kett’s presence as well — all his cool peppermint magic — was still strong behind me.
But I wasn’t too sure about the skinwalkers. The farther away I got, the more their magic collected into a grouping rather than individual signatures. Perhaps this meant they were all blood-related, or perhaps it was an adaptive evolution thing to better hide their nature. It could also mean that Kett and Desmond were hunting and slaughtering them one by one in the dark woods of their ancestral land.
Yeah, I got the irony.
Kandy whined again. Then she turned and began to lead me through the forest. I could still barely make out the shapes of the trees, but, when the growth got too thick, there was nothing at all.
I stumbled and fell three times before we came within hearing range of the river and hit the slightly smoother ground of the logging road.
Kandy headed in the direction the river ran, so I guess I’d been correct about it being the Squamish and flowing toward Vancouver — or specifically, Howe Sound. I didn’t praise myself too much. The choice had really just been a coin toss … if I’d had a coin.
We’d parked at Alice Lake Park and walked at least three hours before getting attacked. I wasn’t sure how far away we were now, but I really wished I could turn into a wolf and run the entire way home.
There would be cupcakes left over from the bakery. Hopefully, we hadn’t sold out of all the chocolate options while I was wandering lost in the forest and besieged by skinwalkers. I kept that thought in the forefront of my mind and followed Kandy’s wolf without complaining out loud. My voice wasn’t at all pretty in the whiny octaves.
∞
We made it to the SUV in the Alice Lake parking lot where we’d left it. We had a ticket, of course, for illegal overnight parking. Delightful. Kett could pay it. I was just pleased they hadn’t towed us. We were the only car in the lot. I wondered where Desmond had parked. Certainly, he hadn’t run all the way from Vancouver in mountain lion form? Then I decided I was really too tired to worry about it.
I found the emergency key magnetically attached inside the rear wheel well, but only after Kandy scratched there repeatedly, tilting her head like I was an idiot when I didn’t catch on right away. Werewolves were nasty creatures who didn’t believe that trauma could affect your brain capacity. Actually, I had an idea that werewolves didn’t believe in trauma at all, unless they were inflicting it.
Kandy then made me open the passenger door so she could leap gracefully up into the seat. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t just transform. Kandy certainly wasn’t the shy type, so it couldn’t be the nudity. I imagined that shapeshifters got over that quickly if it was ever even an issue to begin with. I could understand the idea of feeling more comfortable behind a predator guise, a more deadly form. Not that I had a more deadly form, but I could bake a brownie that made you think you’d died and gone straight to taste bud heaven.
Yes, I was completely aware I used chocolate as a sex substitute. So what?
I climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. My mind wandered to the idea of collecting huckleberries by moonlight and whether or not that would make them more potent, or if collecting things at different times of day was just a witch myth.
I put the SUV in gear and almost ran over Desmond, who suddenly appeared in the twin beams of the vehicle’s headlights.
Jesus! That would have caused a ton of damage — to the SUV. Desmond would probably just shake it off his still utterly naked — and, thankfully, not blood covered — body. Yes, I get that I kept noticing the naked part, but I was out of chocolate. Actually, there wasn’t enough chocolate in the western hemisphere to stop me from noticing.
I put the SUV in park and loosened my seat belt, thinking that Desmond would want to drive. But after scowling at me for a beat, he simply crossed around to the door behind me. I checked out his backside in my mirror. What? I hadn’t seen him naked from behind. I was just checking to see that he was okay, but also noted he had a fine ass. Completely muscled. My ass was completely unmuscled, not that Desmond seemed to find it at all lacking during our make-out session a few hours ago.
He yanked open the door and climbed in. The obscenely large SUV sagged in response to his weight, but leveled out once he was seated. “You looked at me like you were thinking of running me over, dowser,” he said. “What have I done to piss you off now?”
Kandy leaped into the backseat as Desmond slammed his door shut.
I most certainly hadn’t been thinking about running him over. At least not with the car. I was relieved he was completely dense when it came to reading my face.
Kandy was nosing around Desmond as if making sure he was unharmed. Either that or she was thinking of eating him. Hard to tell with a werewolf.
“Okay, okay,” Desmond said to the wolf. His tender tone hooked me somewhere painful behind my ribcage and I looked away from the rearview mirror.
“Are we waiting for Kett?” I asked.
“The vampire can get his own ride,” Desmond answered. “Enough, Kandy.”
The wolf settled down on the seat beside Desmond with her head resting on her paws. Submissive, I guessed.
Desmond reached into the back of the SUV and found — to my disappointment — a pair of sweatpants. It was Kandy’s car, so it made sense there’d be extra clothing.
I tapped the gas and eased the vehicle out of the parking lot.
“It’s going to be a long ride without chocolate,” I said.
“Yeah,” Desmond said. “Let’s not talk about you and the vampire getting one of my wolves mixed up in your treasure hunting shit, putting a rare magical species in the unfortunate situation of kidnapping an alpha shifter, and triggering a life debt you still owe me. You owe me. Not the other way around. And yet here I am, at your beck and fucking call.”
The life debt, which compelled me to help bring Hudson’s killer to justice — and yes, should have been nullified with Sienna’s death — shouldn’t hold any sway over Desmond. So … yeah, it was going to be a really long ride.
CHAPTER FIVE
I hit Highway 99 and wanted to speed all the way home. If my foot was heavy enough, I could turn the hour drive into forty-five minutes easily. And trust me, with the amount of angry magic sparking off Desmond in the back seat, that still wasn’t going to be quick enough.
Yeah, I could taste emotional nuances in magic now. Fantastic. But that pleased me way less than it should have, because none of this was a game. Magic with Sienna had always been like a game, until it really wasn’t anymore.
Unfortunately, we needed gas. So seven minutes later, I was pulling into a deserted gas station in Squamish. I must have driven through Squamish a dozen times as an adult headed to a party or dinner in Whist
ler. Or on a hiking trip to collect jade just outside of Lillooet. Actually, Gran had initiated those trips when I was a child as a way — I now knew — to distract and satiate my dowser magic. However, I’d never strayed more than a hundred feet from the highway. Squamish, caught between urban Vancouver and posh ski village Whistler, was a place to grab gas or ice cream. It also happened to be the name of the largest First Nations band in British Columbia. Yeah, that was a hard lesson learned. I knew I was thick about things, but I preferred to not have to get kidnapped and then nasty before I figured stuff out.
Magical etiquette and history were not my strong suits. They weren’t even my weak suits … bathing suit maybe, as opposed to an eighties power suit. All right, now I was just being insane in my head. At least my chocolate-obsessed thoughts kept me grounded. This other garbage wasn’t helping at all.
Desmond actually grabbed the back of my seat and leaned forward to check the gas gauge when I slowed to pull off the highway. Yeah, jerk. As if I’d lengthen the trip if I didn’t need to. Plus, I wasn’t too pleased that the delicious taste of his magic grew more potent the nearer he got. It actually brushed over my right shoulder and neck when he exhaled his grumpiness in a huff.
I pulled up to the pumps, making a guess of the location of the gas tank. Desmond was out of the SUV and at the pump before I’d even shifted into park.
“Well, I hope he has a credit card,” I said under my breath. “He wasn’t wearing pockets earlier.” I turned to Kandy in the back seat. She was still in wolf form and watching Desmond alertly through the side window. “I gather you aren’t going to join me in the bathroom?”
Kandy flicked an ear at me in response. For the werewolf, duty came first and foremost. Now, with her alpha so near, that duty was firmly focused on McGrowly.
I wished my life — boundaries and all — was so clear for me. I thought it had been, but now I understood I’d been building a life on half-truths and guesses for a long time.
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser Series) Page 5
