by WB McKay
He took the card and closed the door. I stood there on the front porch, Owen looking at me expectantly, the porch light ringing us in a neat semicircle on the step. There was more than a quarter of a mile of driveway between us and the light on the front gate. I refused to step out into the surrounding darkness. It felt like giving up. If I called and told Hammond that I knew the elves were on the wolves property, and that the wolves were protecting them, he'd be obligated to tell FAB. If FAB knew the scepter was there, if Owen's mom on the council knew that her dangerous property was being hidden from her on this plot of land…
"If I don't get this back..." I said.
"I know," said Owen.
Of course he knew. He'd grown up having holidays and dinners with a mom on the council. He probably knew what would happen better than I did.
"You don't think they want the scepter, do you?" I whispered.
"I don't know," said Owen. "Do you?"
"I didn't get that feeling," I told him. I didn't get the feeling he even knew what it was. Worry that I could be wrong made it hard to be certain. The stakes were too high to bet everything on my gut.
I thought about knocking again, just as soon as I figured out a new angle to argue, but a low guttural sound slipped out of the darkness, and that's when I noticed them. They must have shifted far away; I didn't smell any recent changes.
"Hello, Tucson Pack members." Owen pulled me hard to his side. Sweet, but it would make it more difficult to grab a sword if I needed to. Not that grabbing a weapon was a good idea. I needed to get out of this without doing that. "We were just getting in our car." The chorus of growls died off, and one wolf sneezed loudly. I took this for assent and we carefully--making no sudden movements--walked to the SUV. Owen tried to go with me to my door, but I pinched his arm and glared hard into his eyes, adding a slight shake of my head to make sure he got the message. Don't be a freaking moron, Owen, my eyes said. I'm pretty sure his eyes said something ridiculous about protecting me or some crap, but I ignored him because I did not have time for that bullshit. Get in the car and don't argue with me, I thought at him.
The car doors shut and I locked them all. "Drive slowly, okay?"
"Of course," he said. "I wouldn't want to run over any dogs."
"They can hear you," I said.
"Good," he said. "They're lucky we didn't kill them."
"And you would have had no problem with that. A pack of wolves who don't even know what they've stepped in getting slaughtered by two big bad faeries. That's the Owen I know. Kill, kill, kill!"
"I didn't say it was a good idea, only that they're lucky. They're lucky you're so nice."
I laughed, but he didn't.
We'd been stopped at the gate for most of his speech, and the gate was still closed. I'd thought there would be a motion sensor on this side. Considering they wanted us gone, I assumed they'd open it soon.
"You don't know the type my mom would have hired to do this job if I hadn't insisted MOD could handle it," said Owen. "If I hadn't pointed her your way, and someone else knew the elves were hiding here, they wouldn't think twice about killing them all." He shook his head. "They are very lucky."
"Hold on," I said. "Owen Kinney, it is your fault I got put on this case?"
"You knew I'd recommended you to my mother."
"I assumed she'd heard my name from you in some random conversation, like 'hey mom I went to Faerie and almost died but it was all cool. Oh hey I met a MOD agent, her name's Sophie. Did you see that movie or some other normal conversation thing?' And then when she called MOD she had me assigned to the case and made you come along with me so she could have a hand in the whole process. I thought your mom put us both here. I figured you would have told me if you engineered all this. You know this isn't my normal case type, right? I don't work high profile theft victims, or cases centered in Volarus. Why would you do all that? Isn't this interrupting your life? What about Smoke and Mirrors?"
"I--wait--slow down. I didn't think you getting assigned to this case was a bad thing. Was it a bad thing?"
"No, it's fine. But it feels like you… lied to me." My gut knotted up with confusion. I wasn't sure how big of a deal this was, but I didn't like it. "Did you make me think what I thought? Did you omit all that information on purpose?"
"I don't know," he said. "I didn't think this was an issue."
"But why did you do it?"
"Her scepter was stolen. Of course I thought of you." He was splaying his hands out in front of him and shrugging a lot. Defensive. I knew how I'd handle this if I was in on an interrogation, but I didn't want to use interrogation tactics on Owen. I didn't want to be wondering if Owen was telling me the truth. I didn't want to be thinking about my visit to his parents and the way they liked to play games and wondering if Owen did that too. If he was more subtle about it, and I liked him, would I notice? "What are you thinking?" he asked me.
"I don't know."
And that's when the engine caught fire.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The fire caught me by surprise. I was scrambling for the door handle when Owen stopped me. He quenched the flames with a tightening of his fist. Sometimes having a dragon around could be helpful.
"Holy smokes," I said. "Why was the car on fire?" My senses caught up to my brain. I hissed. "Witches. Damn, that smells awful." Our engine fire wasn't the only one they'd started. Outside our windows, fires burned unnaturally over bare desert. Some of them burned out, others found saguaro cactus or other desert plants to cling to.
"This is bad," said Owen.
"That thought had occurred to me." I reached over and turned off the headlights. The light from the gate still made it difficult to see into the night, but easier than it had been before. Still, I saw nothing but the fires--no movement, no flickering lighters to betray their positions. Wherever they were, I'd bet the wolves were there, too. "We should get out of here. The gate's a lost cause. You're going to need to shift the second you get out of the car so you don't get jumped by a wolf." I didn't know if the wolves were still concerned with us, but I wasn't chancing it. "Can you shift that close to the car?" I'd never asked him if it hurt to be touched when he shifted. I didn't have that problem, but some shifters did.
"I can do that. And then?"
He was asking if we should fight. "The wolves and witches fighting each other is none of our business," I said. "But the elves are runners. They're probably making a run for it right now, even. I'm going to fly around the property and see if I can follow them. I want you--"
"To fly at your side, or take the opposite side of the property?" he asked.
The engine erupted into a larger fire this time. The flame came from my side of the car, but I didn't get a good enough look to pinpoint the source. Owen put it out again, but we needed to get the hell out of the car before something worse happened. I couldn't trust him to head back to Volarus when he was being so insistent, so I said, "My side, now go!" and got to work ripping off my clothes. He was out the door and shifted by the time I'd rolled down the window and changed to crow form.
I swooped in front of Owen, taking the lead. He drifted back a little so he was just behind me on the right. I began our search directly above the house. The scent of shifting wolves and their glamours was veiled by the witch magic burning out my sinuses, but I'd lived around a lot of elves. I was used to the subtle sage of their magic, but wasn't getting anything. Of course, the elves had proven adept at covering their trail when they stole the scepter from the museum and again at MOD. I kept my eyes open.
The things I saw were the stuff of nightmares.
The alpha had run out of his home mid-shift. He hobbled forward putting most of his weight on a human leg while the other snapped beneath him, slowly and brutally changing to that of a wolf. I couldn't believe he was charging into the fight with his pack while his body was grinding through his shift. My shifts were instantaneous. I'd never thought too deeply about the alternative. I couldn't stand to watch his bones breaking.
There were plenty of other horrors to witness.
Witches blasted the wolves with wind, but the wolves were strong and ran against it. Fire was another story, and a brutal one. Wolves leapt through flames only to immediately stop, drop, and roll. Fur burnt away to blackened flesh. It was violent and awful and the smell of burnt flesh was almost as bad as the witches' magic. None of it slowed the wolves down though. Their lighter burns were visibly healing in the time it took them to leap and scratch claws down fragile human skin. Once a wolf managed to evade their fire long enough to get close, none of that mattered. For all of their magic, witches were still soft-fleshed humans without healing abilities. I couldn't fathom a reason good enough to start a fight against an opponent who so outmatched you.
The scene was hectic, but for all of my searching, I caught no sign of the scepter or the elves.
I led us out in further circles, still searching for the elves. I reminded myself again and again, I'm only here for the scepter. As violent as the battle was, it was still preferable to what would happen if all of FAB became involved, or if the scepter revealed the existence of Faerie to the human world. I had to find the scepter. The fact that I could shift back to human and wail--causing unimaginable pain that would stop the fighters in their tracks--was counterproductive to the cause. I briefly considered the possibility of the wolves and witches rendered immobile by pain, providing me the opportunity to search the premises for the scepter, but dismissed the idea.
For one thing, I'd just seen the alpha continue functioning while his bones were snapping; the wolves may have been too skilled at pushing through pain for even my magically charged cry to stop them. While I felt the wolves were largely innocent bystanders drawn into a fight they had no business in, I didn't fool myself into thinking they wouldn't turn on me, especially when I was actively causing them pain.
For another thing, even if worked to temporarily subdue the wolves, I'd draw attention to myself. If I couldn't find the scepter, I'd eventually have to question them--there was no backing out and waiting patiently for the elves to run out after I'd just turned both the wolves and witches against me by causing them such agony. Between the pack and the coven, that was a lot of people suddenly having cause to turn their violence on me.
There was no option but to avoid drawing attention to myself, by scream or otherwise, until I had a clear line of sight on the scepter.
And, the truth was that as gross as the thought made me feel, the fighting might work to my advantage if it flushed out the elves. They were runners. Their protectors were busy. This was my shot.
So I focused my attentions on finding the elves and scepter, and distanced myself from feeling responsible for the fighting below.
We'd flown far enough away, and done enough circles, that I was certain we wouldn't have missed them. I tightened our next circle drastically, convinced the elves hadn't made a getaway yet, which meant they were still in the house. I could continue circling and hoping they'd come out to greet me, or I could go in after them.
I imagined the pack gossip flying around on this. We were being attacked by witches--fire everywhere--and the FAB agent showed up. Did the boogey monster protect us? No, she broke into our home while we were preoccupied.
At least I had no illusions about being the good guy.
We were doing a narrow sweep around the house to check the status of the battle when a witch yelled over the battle, "We want to talk!"
No way, I thought. The witches had started the fight. What could they want to talk about? It took two words to say, "We surrender!"
But the wolves were of a different opinion. A ridiculous one, if they asked me. The wolves backed away from whatever they were doing, somehow called back to the front of the house by the wolf--I assumed the alpha--beginning their shift back to human form. That would be a painful five minutes.
I had at least five minutes to get into the house.
We landed on the opposite side of the building by the back door. A look through the windows showed a kitchen and another living room. Both of them were empty of people.
I shifted back to human form. Owen turned his head away. So chivalrous. Cute, but it wasn't the time for that. I got into his view with a finger over my mouth to tell him to be quiet, and then two hands palm out in front of me to ask him to stay there. Now wasn't the time for the others to notice the burst of flame that enveloped him during a shift. He made a show of nodding his large diamond shaped head for me.
I crept toward the door. Sneakiness was key. I'd get in and out without anyone noticing a thing.
The back door crashed open and the elves spilled out. I didn't hesitate; I rushed the woman, Lyssa, and knocked her to the ground, removing Epic from the sheath on my back and pointing the sword at the second elf, Cedric. "Stop! FAB!" I knew it was a long shot, but they were elves. It was worth a try, and they deserved to know who they were pissing off.
Both of them stayed stock still for a long moment, staring at me like they were still processing the last couple seconds. They hadn't expected to see a person on the other side of the door, or for that person to be a naked FAB agent with a sword.
Cedric's brain caught up and he turned away from me. He was much too slow about it. I didn't bother moving after him. Cedric hadn't noticed the dragon at his back. Owen reached out a claw and scooped him up.
"Unhand me!" he yelled.
"Did you really say that?" I asked.
Cedric shrieked and wriggled. It was embarrassing. It only got worse when he threw a bit of fire at Owen's face. Elves have the advantage that their magic performs a variety of tasks, but only weakly. The transparent ball of yellow flame flew slowly toward Owen, so slowly that Owen had time to smile--showing off his massive teeth--and blow a light breath toward Cedric, extinguishing the flame.
"You just tried to throw fire at a dragon," I said. "You're out of your league. Where is the scepter?"
"Never," he said.
With Cedric safely in hand, I turned my attention to Lyssa. Still on the ground, with one hand up to protect her face, I bent down and got close. She seemed scared, so I gently told her, "If you don't attack me, I have no reason to hurt you. If you tell me where the scepter is, I can make sure this goes easy for you."
Lyssa lowered her hand. Her hair stopped at the bottom of her pointed ears. She had a hooked nose and big, pretty eyes. She opened her mouth--I thought to speak--and then bit down hard. Her teeth made a loud crack, and she disappeared.
"No." I reached out and touched her. She'd used an invisibility charm. "An invisibility charm!" It was unbelievable. I dropped Epic in my desperate struggle to grab arms I couldn't see, and was promptly blown back hard on my butt. Another charm. If I had to guess, I'd say she had used a modification on an earthquake charm. Basically, she convinced the earth itself to throw me.
I sheathed Epic and took off after her. Owen was already flying low with Cedric in his claw, but he couldn't see her either. Fortunately, I'd been right next to her a moment before. Her magic smelled faintly of sage and pine, but the invisibility charm had a musky odor that was hard to miss once I noticed it. I followed it, the scent growing stronger, until I heard her yelp at my side as she tripped on a large rock. I reached out and found her hair. She was still on the ground trying to get back up. I followed her body down and locked my hands around both of her wrists.
"Where is the scepter?" I asked.
She didn't answer. Owen hovered over us and reached out with his empty claw. I shoved her toward him.
None of this had taken very long. It had been perhaps three minutes since the witch had proposed a conversation and the wolf had begun shifting. That left me roughly two minutes for the wolf to finish changing--plus however long the wolves and witches spent talking--to get the scepter and get out unnoticed.
Haiku, my short sword, would have worked better for holding up to Lyssa and getting close in her face while I yelled at her, but Epic always scared people more.
"I can't even see if or where I'
m cutting her, Cedric." I gently moved the sword around Owen's seemingly empty hand. "Tell me where the scepter is and this will be over. You have thirty seconds before I get impatient. Twenty-eight. Twenty-seven."
"A wolf asked for it when the witches attacked. It's their problem now." He scratched his head. "We didn't want any of this."
"Which wolf? Where'd they go?"
Cedric shrugged.
"I don't have time for this."
"We were in the house. I didn't see him after he went down the hall. I don't know his name."
"Owen. Don't let them go."
I turned to run before he offered a sign of assent, but I knew he'd agree. There was no time for him not to. I needed those elves in someone's custody whether I found the scepter or not. I mentally slapped myself for thinking like that. I would find the scepter. I had to.
The house appeared empty, but I'd thought that before the elves flooded out. I didn't have the time for hushed sneakiness. "Hello? I called out as I rushed through the main floor. I didn't have time to search the house. There were two reasons I could imagine for the wolf asking for the scepter. The nice one was to keep it protected. I lived in the real world, so I figured it was the bad one. I'd heard one too many stories about wolves who wanted the chance to prove who they were to a human. I passed through an open room that smelled like a warm summer day. The pack must have used it for shifting. The room was full of abandoned clothes; I scooped up a set of sweats. I pulled them on while standing by one of the large windows in the front of the house, taking inventory of the situation out there. The alpha was still shifting. It had to have been five minutes already. I'd heard that was only a rough estimate--I'd also heard it could be more like ten minutes--but I'd always wanted to believe the smallest number possible. I'd never felt more grateful for my painless shifts in my life as I watched the alpha's back muscles rolling under his skin.
The wolves, still in wolf form, were at his sides. Several yards of open space marked the division between them and the witches, whose faces I couldn't make out in the darkness, especially with the little lights shining at me from the backs of their cell phones.
