by Sarah Beth
Wesley sighed as he sat down, Abby reached for her tea and tucked herself into his side. “Ephram, I apologize for my behavior. Please –.”
Shaking his head, Ephram chuckled. “No need to apologize, my friend. I’m the idiot who barged into the house unannounced, when nerves were already running high.” He slowly lifted his eyes and met Wesley’s, smiling. “But I will accept the apology.”
They looked at each other for a moment, before Wesley nodded firmly and relaxed into the couch. Abby scooting even closer, her folded up legs leaning over his thigh. Although they had gotten fairly comfortable showing affection to each other over the last few days, this was the closest they had been in a while. Her weight was heavy against his side, and he suspected it was because she was trying to comfort him. Him — like he had been the one to feel followed and watched all day long. Like he was the one needing comfort in the room. He was supposed to be comforting her, taking care of her.
Looping his arm over her shoulders, he pulled her against him and ran his thumb up and down her arm, her small t-shirt barely covering her shoulders. The four of them sat in silence, the only sounds filling the room their breaths and Abby taking tiny sips of tea. The tension seemed to grow with every tick of the old grandfather clock in Claire’s living room.
Claire sat up, tossing her arms in the air before slapping her thighs, “I can’t just sit here, this is driving us all crazy.”
Ephram’s hand that had been laying on her knee moved to her back. A soothing gesture, Wesley was sure, but he could see it wasn’t helping Claire in that moment.
Abby uncurled herself from his side, leaning her back on the couch instead of his side, “I have an idea. But I’m not sure you guys are going to like it.”
Everyone looked at her, the confused and curious gazes making Wesley’s nerves spark again. He laid a hand on her knee, “What’s this idea?”
She looked at him for a moment, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I want to try and scry for the witch.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
❖
Wesley
Wesley didn’t care how many times Abby said to stop worrying, he just kept worrying. And if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure why he was so concerned.
Abby sat between him and Tori on the couch in Claire’s living room, she was perfectly safe. And yet he was so tense it wouldn’t have surprised him if he broke the coffee table in half with one hand.
When Abby told them her idea to scry for the witch, none of them had been sure. It would be too easy for the warlock to find her if she delved too deep. Magic tended to have a rebound effect. But she had argued well. Saying that maybe the reason Claire hadn’t had any luck was simply because her Faye-blood wasn’t as prominent as Abby’s. No one had been able to counter her argument, but they did decide to wait until the rest of the pack arrived.
Warren and Kyle headed off with Ephram as soon as they arrived, going to speak with a pack contact. Wesley was curious as to who the contact was, but he was so preoccupied with Abby he didn’t ask. Wesley looked from Claire across the table to Alex standing just inside the kitchen, talking quietly to Warren on the phone.
Nothing can hurt her here, he kept telling himself. Not in a protected house full of werewolves. But still it wasn’t safe enough for him or his wolf. He had felt it stir under his skin since his outburst with Ephram. It was close to a full moon, so maybe that was why his alter ego was hard to ignore. Something told Wesley that it had everything to do with the little witch beside him and not the moon.
“Okay,” said Claire, bringing Wesley’s attention back to the task at hand. “Scrying really is easy, you just have to have total focus.” She handed the tethered crystal over to Abby, the piece of hair tied to it. “Find your center.”
They didn’t have any new evidence to use for the scrying, so the hair Claire had been using was their best bet. Hopefully, it would be enough for Abby and her magic to locate the witch.
Wesley watched Abby take the crystal into her hand, holding it in her palm for a moment as she took a deep breath. She was nervous. He could feel it in his stomach, like a cold hand clenching and twisting. He was learning to tell the difference between her emotions and his own, as they swirled inside himself. Gently, trying not to startle her, he rested a hand on her knee closest to him. She didn’t open her eyes or move, but her lips picked up at the corners ever so slightly.
With another deep breath, she opened her eyes and leaned closer to the map on the table. With careful movements, Abby let the crystal hang by the string an inch above the surface. Slowly, she moved the crystal in a wide circle around the ink city. Concentration obvious in the deep set of her brows. Wesley almost removed his hand from her knee, but thought better of it at the last second. He didn’t want to distract her. But moving his hand would probably distract her more in that moment than leaving it where it sat.
Minutes passed and no one moved.
Wesley was vaguely aware of Alex standing in the doorway to the kitchen, watching from afar. But his own focus was on the woman beside him. The crystal kept circling the map and Abby’s face continued to pull tighter, her lips turning white as she clenched her jaw. He could hear her pulse beating hard in her chest; her breaths coming in short bursts. When beads of sweat formed on her forehead, Wesley was ready to make her take a break. But then something happened.
The smells in the room shifted; her distinct lilac and earthy fragrance was harsher. The smell of magic grew stronger, enough to make him sneeze, and then more aromas filled his nose — the room smelled musty, like it was covered in dust, and there was a tang of blood on his tongue. Wesley looked around, but it was obvious the other wolves in the room didn’t smell the shift in the room. They had barely moved from their positions, postures relaxed but focused. He was the only one who could sense the change.
Suddenly, Abby’s eyes snapped open and glowed. It wasn’t like the yellow glow of his own wolf eyes, when he was in human form. Her eyes were iridescent, a rainbow of colors and yet white as snow if you looked too close. He was so distracted by it he didn’t notice the crystal suddenly drop to the map, standing on its tip. No one moved, but Wesley heard Claire gasp on the other side of the table.A minute passed, maybe even two, before Abby’s eyes dimmed and the iridescence morphed into forest green eyes. A gush of air left her mouth before she slumped into Wesley’s side, his arm automatically going around her shoulders to hold her upright.
“Abby, are you okay?” He tried to keep the worry out of his voice, but he didn’t think he succeeded. Unlike the other times she collapsed in his arms, her body wasn’t ice cold. It was as warm as a hot summer’s day.
On the other side of her, Tori set a hand on her shoulder, “Abby?”
Abby took a deep breath and let it out. He could feel it feather across his chest, “I’m okay…” She sounded breathless. But her heart rate wasn’t too fast, it was rather slow if anything.
“Abby, do you think you found her?” Three heads looked over at Claire across from them. She sat with her hands clasped tightly in front of her, her expression intense.
With another deep breath, Abby sat upright again, her warmth leaving Wesley’s side. He let his arm fall from her shoulders to her back. She looked down at the map, her brows pulling together, and nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.” She shrugged then, “Well, at least I think I’m sure.”
Alex walked further into the room, standing close to the table between them, “What did you feel?”
There was silence for a minute while Abby looked at the map, the crystal still standing on its tip. He felt her unease wafting off her and into his own body. It was a deep ache in his chest. Wesley began to make soothing circles on her back, trying to offer some sort of comfort. She looked up at Alex, her face grim, “Darkness.”
She sat in the living room beside him, her arms crossed over her chest and sighed, not for the first time since the pack had left. Wesley couldn’t help but chuckle,
“You’re cute when you pout.”
She turned her head and glared at him, “I do not pout. It’s just not fair they’re going to go check out the warehouse district and we’re not.”
He couldn’t argue with her there. A part of him was as annoyed at being told to stay at Claire’s as she was. But he was also more focused on keeping her away from trouble. Thankfully, keeping her safe won out over his impulse to go against orders and follow his pack.
“They’re going on a reconnaissance mission, to check it out. We aren’t missing anything important.” He hoped.
Scrying was a tricky sort of magic - it didn’t always lead you to what you wanted to find. Their best hope was that the place Abby found was a base the witch used for a time. Maybe even where she was keeping Jessie. They needed more leads, more clues. Anything. Abby was untrained, had never scryed for anything in her life. Even being half-Faye, the chances Abby found the witch on her first try were slim. With a sigh, he leaned over the side of the couch and grabbed her backpack. Setting it in her lap, he said, “Why don’t you do some homework? Keep your mind off things.”
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her lips pulling tighter together for a moment before she sighed. Unzipping her backpack, she pulled out a bunch of loose pieces of paper, along with a textbook and notebook.
Glancing at the loose pieces of paper, Wesley noticed they all had “Buern, Faye, and Mate” written on them in loose, messy handwriting. They must have been the notes from the dream she told them about...He wondered why she was carrying them around with her in her backpack.
“I grabbed them last night, after I saw that figure outside my window.” He glanced at her, saw her looking at the pages with apprehension in her eyes.
Reaching out his hand towards the stack, he said, “Do you need the notes on them?”
A brief hesitation before she nodded, “Yes, at least the ones on Expressionism. I haven’t taken that test yet.” She shook her head as she looked at them, “I don’t even know why I grabbed them...I should just throw them out, but I need the notes…”
He nodded, grabbing a pen and a clean sheet of paper out of her backpack. Leaning closer over the coffee table, he sorted through the notes. After a moment, he felt eyes on him. Blue eyes looked up to meet shining green ones, her brows pulled slightly and her lips parted. He smiled, “Why don’t you work on something else?”
“But…” she sighed, running a hand through her hair, “You don’t have to do that.”
Nodding his head, he went back to looking for notes that had the blue highlighted title. “I know, but I want to help. Don’t worry about it.”
He busied himself with transcribing her notes down. A few minutes later, Abby sighed and flip open her textbook. Having never studied art in such depth before, he found himself pulled into Abby’s notes on Expressionism and artists like Munch and Kandinsky. He was lost to the world for a while. Only vaguely aware of Abby as she scribbled new notes into her notebook, beside him. He was almost through the notes on Franz Marc when his cell phone’s shrill ring broke him out his trance. Pulling it out of his pocket, he didn’t even glance at the screen as he answered, “Wesley.”
He had not been expecting Alex’s voice on the other end, not yet. They weren’t expecting to hear from him for a couple of hours. “We found the warehouse. It’s not empty.” Even through the phone, Wesley could hear Alex vibrating with energy. He sat up straight, letting the pen fall to the floor, “What do you mean?”
Alex growled, Wesley could barely hear Warren talking in the background, “The witch, or whatever it is, is here.”
That was unexpected. Their biggest hope had been to find her hideout, a place she was using as a base. Maybe they’d find Jessie there. They hadn’t expected to find her.
“We’re going in. We can’t afford to lose our chance. Get Abby out of the city –.”
“Whoa, wait!” Wesley cut him off, his hand clenching on his knee. “You can’t go in there alone, not without backup! Without a plan!”
A sigh came through the phone, Alex’s voice sounding annoyed. But Wesley wasn’t sure if it was directed at him or not, “We don’t have a choice, Wesley. We have to stop this dark witch.”
Wesley heard Warren say something, but the only answer was a growl from Alex. “Yes, okay. It would appear we’re dealing with a young warlock, not a witch after all.”
Yet another unexpected thing. Warlocks weren’t common. Not that half-Faye didn’t have sons, but the Faye blood in their veins always favored females. Wesley could count on one hand the warlocks he’d read about in history lessons. He glanced at Abby sitting beside him, her brows pulled in concern. Claire stood in the doorway to the kitchen, worry heavy on her features.
“Ephram is heading back to the house as we speak, he’s going to take Claire out of the city. I want you and Abby to go with them, go back to the mountain.” Alex was trying to protect the people he cared about, Wesley had seen him do it before. Not that his adopted father didn’t care about the rest of the pack. But at that moment, Claire, Wesley, and Abby were the ones he could protect. And Wesley knew Alex would do his damnedest to succeed.
He climbed to his feet, raising a hand in Abby’s direction to pause any questions before they could start, “But Alex –.”
“No. No buts this time, Wesley. Do as I say. You have to protect Abigail.” Very rarely did Alex use his Alpha voice on Wesley, on any of them, really. But when his voice dropped a few octaves and held a barely contained growl behind the words, Wesley felt helpless to ignore them.
Alex sighed, his voice softer when he spoke again, “We’ll be careful, son. But I’ll be better off if you and Abby aren’t anywhere near here.”
Wesley shut his eyes tightly, his tightly clenched fists hanging beside him. He growled himself, “Okay.”
Alex hung up the phone before Wesley could think about anything else to say. He dropped the phone to the couch with a growl, both hands now fists at his sides. His body vibrated with adrenaline. His wolf stirring under his skin, begging for release.
Abby stood beside him, resting a hand on his chest. He didn’t mean to growl at her, but it was out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop it. She didn’t even flinch. “What’s wrong?”
He took a deep breath, trying to calm the beast ready to tear apart Claire’s home, and ran a hand through his hair, “The pack found the warehouse, and it’s not empty. They’re going in.”
She nodded her head, the scent of lilac and fresh rain filling his nose, and then she turned to Claire. “Well then we better get going. They can’t go in there without backup.”
He stood stunned for a minute. Watching her as she stuffed her notes back into her backpack and grabbed her jacket off the back of the couch. He hadn’t expected her to be ready to charge into a fight, guns blazing. But then maybe he should have. With everything she had learned and been through over the weekend, she never once turned tail to run. The wolf, still so close to the surface, warmed with pride.
Claire’s voice broke through his thoughts, “Abby...Ephram texted me. He told us to stay put, that he’s on his way…”
Abby paused, looking at Claire with a raised eyebrow, “And do you do everything Ephram says?”
Rolling her eyes, Claire crossed her arms over her chest, “No, Abby, I don’t. But what exactly do you expect to do charging in there?”
Wesley shook his head to clear it, “Claire’s right, and besides, we can’t. Alex gave us an order. We have to get you both out of the city.”
She didn’t even pause as she headed around the coffee table, zipping her coat up as she went. “Well that’s not going to happen.”
His head was spinning, trying to keep up with the little witch that stood only to his chest and yet was ready to run into the unknown. He gave himself a good mental shake before following her out into the kitchen, passed a concerned Claire.
“Well, are you ready?” She turned to him, one hand on her hip and a determined look in her ey
es.
He sighed, reaching a hand out to her, “Abby…”
Stepping just out of reach, Abby shook her head, “I’m going to go help them. I’m not a helpless little girl, not any more. I’m not going to let them go in there without help. If you plan to protect me, then you better come with me.” She sure as hell was going to keep him on his toes. For a moment he contemplated picking her up, sticking her in the truck, and driving back to the mountain. But he was fairly sure it wouldn’t work. And the last thing he wanted was end up on her bad side. He looked back at Claire, for help or guidance or something, but found her smiling.
When her eyes met his, Claire offered a shrug. “She’ll be more useful out there than stuck in here. If I could do more —.” She turned her head, not meeting his eyes. She took a deep breath before raising her head again, “Go help them. Protect her. I’ll handle Ephram when he gets here.”
Wesley looked at his best friend for a moment before nodding his head. With a sigh, he walked to the front door and held it open for Abby. She smiled up at him as she walked past, a little skip in her step as she passed.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
❖
Wesley
As they pulled into a rough area of the city, he noticed that many of the buildings in the area were abandoned. The perfect place for someone to hide out if they didn’t want to be found. The warehouse district was only a few blocks away from the college campus, the location where the second girl’s body had been found. He drove up to a chain-link fence and stopped, noticing Alex’s Humvee parked out of the line of sight, behind some bushes and some discarded building material. No one but a werewolf with great night vision would probably have seen it. He parked behind the Humvee and shut the engine off. The silence was deafening.
He glanced at Abby as she put a leaf into her coat pocket. She grabbed a few off a tree in Claire’s front yard as they headed out. He wanted to ask why, but they seemed to be back to some uneasiness between them and he didn’t want to make her unfocused right then. “You ready?”
