“My mother’s had it longer than anyone in the family history. It usually jumps right down into a younger Mitchell wizard when they’re twenty or so,” Rebekah said. “So far, so good, but…” She shrugged.
“So you guys won’t suck at scrying forever?” Curtis said.
“No.” Mackenzie shook her head. “I’ll be a healer.”
“And I’ll be miserable,” Rebekah said.
“What?”
“The gifts are different in each of the Families,” Matthew said. “Like Kenzie said, us five are the likeliest, but it’s not a sure thing. Well, except…I’m pretty sure someone’s about to get theirs.”
“Wow,” Curtis said.
“If I inherit,” Tracey said, “I have no idea how I’ll manage to come to these meetings ever again. They’ll have me at their beck and call.” She shook her head. Dale reached out and took her hand, and she squeezed his, clearly grateful.
Curtis resisted the urge to ask her what gift she would be inheriting. It was almost painful to bite the question back, but the look on her face made it clear she didn’t even want to think about it. He didn’t know much about the Spencers, and a lot of that was due to how she didn’t talk about them. At all.
“Sorry,” Matthew said. “But I figured forewarned…”
“So you just randomly pick up stuff that’s going to happen?” Curtis said, turning back to Matthew.
“I bound my inheritance into ink, actually,” Matthew said. “And touch. I was pretty keen on finding something I could control myself, rather than something my great-grandfather could still access at will.”
Having met Malcolm Stirling twice, Curtis could understand. The man was cold, and was in charge of the whole city in many ways. He could only imagine how much tighter Stirling’s control could be with access to visions of the future. It took Curtis a second to realize that was exactly what Stirling had. Or used to have, until Matthew had inherited, it seemed.
“Ink?” Curtis said.
Matthew pushed up the sleeve of his hoodie. On his right forearm, he had a simple tattoo: an outline of a black triangle. When Matthew put his left hand in his right, the tattoo changed. A dragon slipped from the triangle. As it uncoiled, other images appeared, and the dragon tore through them. Puppets and chess pieces and solid walls of brick fell to the dragon, leaving only spinning clouds of dust behind. The dragon snaked toward Matthew’s wrist, wrapping around his arm before settling there, its long powerful body trailing up his arm. And beside it stood a large silhouette of a wolf, almost protectively. Matthew pulled his hand away, and the image retreated back across his skin until nothing was left but the simple triangle once again.
“So it shows you images of the future?” Curtis said, more than a little in awe. “Symbolically, I guess, given the whole dragon thing.”
“Of whoever I touch,” Matthew said. “If I want it to.”
Curtis bristled. “When we first met, you shook my hand.”
“I needed to make sure I could all trust you. You know our families wouldn’t take well to what we’re doing here. Even if it’s not strictly forbidden, it’s not something they’d like.”
Curtis sighed. He supposed that was true. “Okay.” He wondered what Matthew’s tattoo had shown him, though.
“So which one of us did you touch?” Tracey said. “Who’s getting their gift?”
“It, uh, wasn’t like that.” Matthew stared down at the tabletop. “It came in a dream.”
Mackenzie leaned forward. “I thought part of why you bound your gift was so you wouldn’t have prophetic dreams any more?”
“This is the first time it’s happened since.” Matthew shrugged, looking up at her. “Apparently, I still can.”
Curtis looked back and forth between the two. He had no idea how one went about binding a gift into a tattoo.
“What did you see?” Rebekah said.
Matthew took a deep breath. “It was pretty vague, and I don’t know what a lot of it means. Part of the reason my family line always binds the gift into a tool is the way prescience tends to be all foggy and symbolic if you don’t. And before I bound it, it was random. I couldn’t choose what I wanted to learn about. This dream was like that. But it was definitely us. The five of us, I mean.” He gave Curtis an apologetic glance, and Curtis shrugged it off. “There was an approaching power, which I could feel more than see until it was almost right on us. And as it picked one of you, it got so bright I couldn’t see which one of you.”
He paused, looking at Mackenzie. She nodded. Curtis frowned.
“There’s more,” Matthew said. “I also saw a body. The thing is, it had been kind of skinned—”
“Oh crap.”
All eyes turned to Curtis.
“Sorry,” he said. “Why don’t you finish, and then I’ll let you all know what I know about the skinned body.”
Matthew’s eyes widened. Rebekah sighed.
“I’m going to go put the kettle on,” Mackenzie said, breaking the silence. “We might be here longer than I thought.”
*
“I don’t think a werewolf would have done that,” Matthew said.
Curtis had shared what he knew, and the five faces watching him went from worried to worse. Even Dale, the tabula rasa, looked dour.
“You don’t?” Curtis said. It was an honest question. Curtis didn’t know much about werewolves beyond the theoretical and the basics. Full moons. Packs. Fur. Teeth.
“It doesn’t make sense to leave the body behind,” Matthew said. “Even assuming a wolf did it, which I just can’t figure. Why attack a demon? Other than self-defense, maybe.” He frowned. “Not to mention, the alpha of the wolf’s pack wouldn’t be happy about the sloppy kill. Though I guess it could mean a lone wolf…” He trailed off and blushed.
“So,” Mackenzie said. “Learning a lot about werewolves, eh?”
Beside her, Rebekah snorted.
“I’m sort of seeing a werewolf,” Matthew said to Curtis. His blush increased. “Jace and I are…” He looked at Mackenzie, but she just grinned at him. “Anyway. Doesn’t matter. My point is, werewolves aren’t random killers. That’s not how they work. The whole ‘crazy wild animal’ thing isn’t true.”
“So if it was a werewolf, this wasn’t just some sort of random attack for kicks,” Curtis said.
“And I can’t see why a werewolf would want to take down a demon,” Matthew said.
“And there’s the body,” Curtis said. “And the missing strips of skin.”
“That is just so gross,” Rebekah said. Tracey made a noise of agreement.
Curtis shrugged. “I figured it was something to do with the law of constancy.”
“Seems like overkill to me,” Rebekah said. “I mean, why not just get some hair?”
“I was hoping you guys might know if there were magics involving someone’s skin specifically,” Curtis said.
“Remember when we used to get together and talk about fun things?” Tracey said.
Mackenzie sighed. Curtis looked around the group and saw similar looks of worry and fear on all their faces.
“Sorry,” Curtis said, though he wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for. His questions, or how he’d had made them consider the potential uses for skinned demon corpses.
“No,” Mackenzie said. “No, this was always the point. We were getting together because we wanted to help each other and push some boundaries.” She leaned forward. “So, guys. What do we do?”
“I don’t think any of us can ask our folks about that kind of magic,” Rebekah said, then glanced at Mackenzie. “Except maybe you?”
Mackenzie shook her head. “My mom’s pretty cool, but even she’d flip if I was all, ‘Hey, Mom, what magic you can do with strips of dead demon skin?’” She bit her lip. “But she doesn’t stop me from looking through our library, and we have some pretty dark books. I’ll just have to be careful.”
“I don’t want you guys to get in trouble,” Curtis said.
Rebekah
laughed. “We know how to stay out of trouble. And Kenzie’s right. We’ve all got access to our family books. We can all try to take a peek.”
“I think my uncle has some stuff on demons and magic,” Dale said, thoughtful. “Old stuff, but it’s worth looking.” When Tracey bit her lip, he gave her a rare smile and touched her shoulder. “I’ll be careful.”
“Thank you,” Curtis said, and he meant it. “And if there’s anything I can do for you guys…” He wasn’t sure he could ever help them out from his position outside the Families, but he wanted to offer anyway.
“If I end up disowned, will there room in your new house?” Matthew said, but he was smiling.
“Haven’t even broken ground yet,” Curtis said. “But you guys are welcome any time.”
“Right. Because being seen visiting you? Such a smart move,” Rebekah said. She gave his shoulder a nudge. “You’re a bad example. You’re the poster boy for breaking the rules.”
Curtis grinned. Then he looked at Matthew again. “Is there any chance I could maybe meet Jace? Ask him some questions?”
Matthew blushed again. “We’re meeting up tonight. If you wanted to come along? I was going to grab a cab.”
“Sure,” Curtis said. “That’d be great. I can drive if you’d like.”
“Okay.” Matthew cleared his throat.
“You are so smitten,” Rebekah said. “Seriously, look at this boy. Smitten.”
“Okay, enough,” Matthew said, but Rebekah was right. Curtis wondered if Malcolm Stirling knew his great-grandson was seeing a werewolf. He doubted it.
“It’s getting pretty late,” Dale said.
That broke them up. Curtis lingered until it was just him, Matthew, and Mackenzie.
“I’ll be right there,” Curtis said to Matthew.
Matthew looked between the two of them and gathered his backpack. He closed the door behind him.
“I’ll let you know when I hear back from Luc how things go.”
“Thank you.” She grinned, impish. “And you gotta tell me all about Jace.”
“You haven’t met him?” Curtis was surprised.
“We can’t all really hang out much unless our parents are having a multiple coven moot or something. Matthew does what he can to watch the horizon. It’s easier now that he can see the future, but these nights are hard enough to arrange without making our folks suspicious.” She leaned in a bit. “I get to see Matthew more than the others, but I haven’t met Jace. He’s a mechanic. And apparently, he’s freaking hot.”
Curtis grinned. “I’ll give you a full report. Can I say I’m a bit surprised? I didn’t realize Matthew was gay. At first, I kind of got the impression you and he…”
“Oh, we did date,” she said. “It just turned out we were better as friends. Matt’s pan, though.”
“Ah,” Curtis said. “Well. Thanks again.”
“Any time.”
They rejoined Matthew in the entrance hall, and Mackenzie rescinded her invitation to her home. The wards once again pressed against Curtis, and he saw Matthew grimace as well. As they walked down the path to Curtis’s car, the hammering of the wards against their bodies lightened in increments. The wind, on the other hand, picked up. The night was freezing.
“So. Where to?” Curtis said once they were both in the car.
“The Village Pub. You know it?”
“Off Bank? Yeah.” It was in the short gay village strip. He was pretty sure Anders went there sometimes. As far as Curtis knew, the Village Pub was a gay bar aimed at a crowd a bit older and rougher around the edges than Curtis. He had no doubt it suited Anders. But Matthew, who was so clean-cut and handsome in a sort of bright, proper way? Maybe that’s why he was blushing again.
“Are you sure it’s okay I’m crashing your evening?”
“If there’s something going on with werewolves and demons, I want to make sure Jace is okay,” Matthew said. “Besides, I’ll bet it’ll drive Rebekah crazy you get to meet him first. Did Mackenzie ask you to take notes?”
Curtis turned on the car and pulled out onto Acacia. “It’s possible.”
“I’ll bet. She’s kind of relentless.”
“She’s pretty awesome.”
“Truth. And it’s nice to see her being herself again.”
“Pardon?”
Matthew glanced at him. “I keep forgetting you’re sort of new. Sometimes it feels like we’ve known you forever.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It is. Kenzie went through a bad time. Her older sister died. Breast cancer. Kenzie idolized her, and when your family inheritance is healing, it’s all the more galling.”
Curtis understood. Cancer was growth gone wrong. Healing spells wouldn’t work. If anything, they’d make things worse.
“That must have been awful.”
“Kenzie completely shut down. She didn’t talk to any of us, she was always on her own.” He exhaled. “It’s just nice to see her coming back.”
They drove in a comfortable silence. Though it wasn’t a sensation Curtis was quite used to yet, it felt good to have friends.
Five
The pub wasn’t the nicest place he’d ever been, but Curtis supposed it had a kind of comfortable charm. With its wood paneling, neon beer signs, and a jukebox full of relatively current music, it felt like what might happen if one of the gay bars in the Market had grown up and put away the sequins, muscle shirts, and glitter. The clientele was older than him. He was pretty sure he and Matthew were a decade short of everyone else in the room at least, but no one was staring, so that was good.
In a weird way, Curtis felt more comfortable here than he usually did at the gay bar the rest of his university acquaintances went to on those rare nights he joined them for some fun. Partly, it was being older than them. He’d missed a few years when his parents had been murdered by the Families and had only gone back to school part-time thereafter. But mostly he was most comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans, which was definitely a dress code the Pub seemed more in line with than the bar the LGBT Centre crew would drag him to.
Just one more place I don’t quite fit, Curtis thought. Then he shook his head. No need to get maudlin.
He watched Matthew scan the crowd. Matthew nodded to one of the corners of the pub, farthest from the bar itself. “There he is. This way.”
Curtis wasn’t sure what to expect. To the best of his knowledge, he hadn’t met a werewolf before. He’d heard they generally didn’t hang out in the cities much, preferring rural areas. He wasn’t sure whether that was because the cities were so often the domain of the vampires and the Families, or because the werewolves just preferred access to nature.
Probably a bit of both.
The man noticed them, looking up as they approached.
Whoa. Curtis blinked.
If Jace was a typical werewolf, Curtis needed to spend more time with nature. He was built thick, with wide shoulders and strong arms. The stained white V-neck shirt he wore revealed a chest with a deep cleft between the muscles. Dark hair ran up to the hollow of his throat. Jace was built.
Curtis forced himself to make eye contact. To his surprise, Jace was frowning at him.
“Hey,” Matthew said, leaning over. The moment Jace’s attention was on Matthew, his entire expression changed. He smiled, which softened his otherwise rough features, and he reached out and took Matthew’s hand in a gesture that seemed almost bashfully gentle. Jace slid over in the booth, tugging Matthew down in after him, and once Matthew sat, they shared a brief kiss of welcome.
“This is Curtis,” Matthew said.
Curtis slid into the other side of the booth. “Hi.”
The wariness was back in Jace’s eyes. “You’re a friend of Matt’s?”
“Yeah,” Curtis said.
“Hey,” Matthew said, nudging Jace’s shoulder. “Be nice. Curtis is a good guy. I told him you’d help him out.”
“You need help?” Jace said. He put an arm around Matthew and settled
into the booth. “You’re a flick. What kind of help does a flick need?”
Curtis blinked. “How did you know I’m a wizard?”
“You smell like one.” Jace tapped his nose with his free hand. “Ink. Candles. Herbs.”
“Huh,” Curtis said.
“They’re big on smells,” Matthew said. Jace tugged him in close and gave his neck an exaggerated sniff. Matthew laughed, squirming away.
“Okay, you guys are adorable,” Curtis said.
Matthew turned pink, but if Jace was embarrassed, he didn’t show it. He grinned. “Did he tell you how he seduced me?”
Curtis’s eyebrows rose. “No. He certainly did not.”
Matthew shoved Jace. It had little effect. “I did not seduce you.”
“You told me you were having visions about me.” Jace glanced at Curtis. “Naked visions.”
Understandable, Curtis thought. He felt his own face heating up.
“Curtis has questions for you,” Matthew said. “Don’t you, Curt?” A note of pleading crept into his voice.
“I do,” Curtis said, forcing himself back on track. “You’re part of a pack, right?”
Jace nodded. He picked up his beer and took a brief swallow.
“Have you heard of any wolves…um…” Curtis wasn’t sure how to put it delicately, so he didn’t. “Attacking a demon?”
Jace’s frown seemed genuine enough. His forehead creased. “What?”
“There was an attack,” Matthew said. “On a demon.”
“A murder, actually,” Curtis said.
“And you think it was a wolf.” Jace’s voice dropped even deeper than his already rough timbre. “Why do you think it was a wolf?”
“The markings on the body,” Curtis said. “One of the Family doctors had a look before the demons reclaimed it, and—”
Jace raised his free hand. “Wait. The body?”
Curtis exhaled. “I know. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. For some reason, the demon didn’t ash. Best guess is magic. But it had bite marks on the arms and the neck I’m told match a wolf.”
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