Forbidden Alchemy (Elemental Book 7)

by Rain Oxford

  Unfortunately, I had no service. That didn’t mean I was out of the country, of course; I could just have been more than five feet from a cellular tower. Darwin whimpered a little bit before falling back to sleep. Henry couldn’t contact me psychically like Darwin could, so I had to keep checking on him. While his jaguar wanted to hunt, he knew Darwin needed him to find help.

  It occurred to me that Darwin’s stomach could handle creek water and a raw animal, but I couldn’t hear any running water and didn’t want to risk leaving him alone to be found by another wolf pack or a bear. Although I kept an eye out for a small animal I could shoot and feed to Darwin, I wasn’t as good at spotting them as shifters.

  * * *

  It took Henry an hour from the time he left to find a town. When he did, he observed people walking out on the street. “I think we’re still in the U.S., as everyone is speaking English with an American accent.”

  “Can you get some water or food?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Come back and help me with Darwin, then.”

  “I am on my way.”

  It only took him twenty minutes to return. “Can you carry Darwin back?”

  “Not in his wolf form; he’s too heavy. We can get some water and food and return.”

  “I don’t want to leave him here.”

  Henry nodded. “Then I will walk there myself,” he said. He dressed quickly. “I will return as soon as possible.” He left.

  Ten minutes later, Darwin woke suddenly and climbed to his feet.

  “You shouldn’t move much,” I said, touching his foreleg gently to check for a wound. He yelped. “I’m sorry. I thought it was more or less healed. Does anything else hurt?” I reached for his head, but he scrambled away. “Darwin, calm down. It’s me.” He didn’t calm down.

  The last time he was seriously injured and shifted to save his life, his wolf took complete control and didn’t even recognize me, so I figured it happened again. I didn’t know how to reason with a wild wolf, and his alpha nature would cause him to attack me if I tried to control his mind.

  If I used my normal mind control on him, he would sense me in his head and could rip out my throat before I actually got a command out. However, that was how I dealt with people. Before I ever learned to control people, I could stop animals from attacking me. I could influence their mood and communicate with them, and I could put them in a temporary trance-like state where they wouldn’t be able to attack long enough for me to escape. Then again, I highly doubted I could outrun a wolf in a forest even with a head start.

  Thus, when he growled at me, I drew my gun. “I would rather shoot myself than you, Darwin, but if you go for my throat, I’m going to have to stop you.” I wouldn’t mortally wound him. A bullet through the foot would be painful, but he wouldn’t be able to attack. Plus, a warning shot would probably drive him away.

  Whether he understood my threat or not, he must have decided that I wasn’t worth attacking. He took off into the woods. I went in the direction Henry had gone in. I needed to warn him about Darwin’s state of mind, and then he could shift and find Darwin to protect him. No matter how strong Darwin was, he didn’t have a pack out here, and there were many larger predators.

  After thirty minutes, I was worried I was lost. The forest was sparser and hillier than I was used to. It occurred to me to check my phone again and I was immediately glad to see that I had reception. The weather app updated and told me that I was in New Mexico. “That’s new,” I said aloud. I had never been there, and I wasn’t aware there were forests in New Mexico.

  “Where is Darwin?” Henry said, emerging from behind a hill.

  I startled, but calmed myself quickly. “He ran off. Don’t jump out from behind things at me. I thought you were heading to town.”

  “I don’t walk as fast in this form.” He gestured to the hill. “There’s a road that leads down the mountain into a small town. I was going to climb down, but we can walk along the road if you would prefer.”

  “Just because I can’t shift into an animal doesn’t make me useless. I can climb.”

  “Very well. It would save time.”

  “Maybe you should find Darwin first.”

  “If he is in such a bad state that he doesn’t recognize us, we can’t help him. Perhaps I should call his father.”

  “Can we knock him out for a while?”

  “If we had something to knock him out with.”

  Movement to my right caused me to draw my gun, but I realized it was Darwin at the last second. He ran past both of us and over the hill. “Where is he going?” I asked.

  Henry shrugged and we both chased after him. At the top of the hill, I saw lights from the city and moonlight on the paved road a hundred feet in front of us. I saw Darwin’s silver fur flash through the trees. I saw the headlights of an oncoming car turn around the curve.

  “Darwin!” Henry shouted.

  “Stop!” I yelled.

  But Darwin didn’t stop, and he didn’t see the car. A woman screamed and the tires of the car screeched, but my blood ran cold when the vehicle hit Darwin. His yelp of pain was short.

  As Henry and I ran down the hill after him, my intuition warned me to stop. I ignored it at first, but with every step, it grew stronger. Just before breaking through the line of the trees, I stopped and grabbed Henry by the jacket to stop him as well.

  “What?” he asked in a low voice.

  Both front doors were thrown open, a man and woman got out, and the woman ran to Darwin. “Wait!” the man warned. “He might attack.”

  “He’s hurt!” the woman cried. She knelt before him.

  “We need to help him,” Henry insisted.

  “I know, but my intuition is warning me not to move.”

  Henry sniffed the air. “They’re human.”

  Darwin whimpered and the woman gasped, desperately wiping her tears away. “There’s still time to get him to the vet. Get the blanket out of the back and help me!”

  “He’s a wolf; he could be rabid.”

  “There are no wild wolves here. He’s clearly a Husky.” The man brought the blanket and wrapped it around Darwin’s body and head. “He probably got away from his family’s campground. Hold on, sweetheart. We’re going to get you some help.”

  The man lifted Darwin with a massive grunt. “Oh, fuck, this is the heaviest damned dog I’ve ever seen.”

  “Do you got him?”

  “I’ve got him!”

  “Be gentle.”

  “I’m being gentle!” he was out of breath after just a few steps. “Watch his head and make sure he doesn’t bite me.”

  Darwin whimpered. “You’re hurting him!” the woman insisted.

  “The bones you hear breaking are in my back! We are never getting a dog!”

  “Just get him in the car!”

  “Babe, it’s one in the morning. The vet isn’t open.”

  “Rita lives behind the clinic. She will take him. We just have to get him to her alive.”

  The man got Darwin in the back of the red Nissan Juke and they sped away. There was blood on the ground where he had been hit.

  “We’ll get down the mountain, and then I’ll shift and go invisible. My jaguar can track Darwin. I’ll lead you to him and you can save him.”

  “Can a vet tell if Darwin is a shifter?”

  “Not unless Darwin shifts.”

  “Then he’s better off in the vet’s hands. She will do her best with him.”

  “And what if she can’t save him? Do you want his last minutes to be surrounded by strangers?”

  “Don’t even suggest that. Darwin is going to survive this, and then we’ll get Ahz and return to the school. No one is going to die tonight.”

  * * *

  We followed Henry’s plan. We made our way down the mountain and then Henry shifted. I had to hold onto his fur so that I didn’t lose him when he was invisible. If I did get separated from him, I would have to let him find me.

 
The desert-style buildings and laid-back layout of the town would have been quaint and peaceful were I not worried about my friend surviving the night. It was quiet and dark because there were no wild parties or people cruising the streets for trouble. Everyone in the town seemed to be asleep.

  Finally, we found the vet building with a modest sign and no flashing lights. The red juke was in the parking lot in front of the clinic. A few minutes later, the couple walked out. They both had blood on their clothes and the woman was crying.

  The man wrapped his arm around her. “He’ll be okay.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “They’ll give us a call tomorrow to let us know. Until then, try to be positive. Someone else would have left him on the side of the road. Now, even if he does die, at least he’s warm and not in pain.”

  “Someone out there is looking for their dog and they may never see him again.”

  “That dog looked tough. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

  He coerced her into the car and they left. I wished I could have thanked them. Henry and I couldn’t have gotten him to the vet as fast as they did even if we did know where it was, and they were right; some people would have left him.

  Ten minutes later, I hung the strap of my bag around Henry’s head. “Go hide, shift, and get dressed. I’ll get Darwin.”

  He didn’t argue, so I walked up to the door. It wasn’t locked, but when I entered, the reception area was empty. It was warm and welcoming, with soothing blue walls, comfortable tan seats along the window, and a help desk across from the door. Beside it was a door that I assume led to the exam rooms and recovery kennels.

  A woman emerged from the back door. She was in her early twenties with dirty-blond hair pulled back into a messy bun. Although her demeanor was caring and sympathetic, dark circles under her eyes and the raggedy t-shirt and jeans she wore suggested she wasn’t used to working at this hour. “I’m sorry, but we’re closed.”

  I made a conscious effort not to look like a drug-seeker or burglar. “I heard my dog was brought in here a few minutes ago. He’s a Husky mix.”

  Her expression softened. “The vet is in surgery with him now. You’ll have to wait.”

  “How bad is he hurt?”

  “Very badly.”

  “He’s going to live though.”

  “He was hit by a car.”

  I sat heavily in one of the chairs. Despite what I told Henry, I was worried. Darwin was a shithead, but he was one of my best friends. He was brilliant, he had been shot before, and he was a powerful wolf who could command the largest wolf pack in North America if he needed to. The idea of him actually dying was ridiculous.

  Or I was in shock.

  People and animals died from being hit by cars all the time. If anything happened to Darwin, Maseré, Anya, and Amelia would be devastated. I didn’t think Maseré and Anya would survive it. Three years previous, I worked alone and I liked it that way. I didn’t get involved in the paranormal world or want to.

  But Darwin inserted himself into my life. He could take the tension out of the room with a bad joke, calm someone down by distracting them, or tear someone a new one if they challenged me.

  “Sir?” I realized the woman was standing in front of me, holding out a clipboard. “I need you to fill this out.”

  “When can I see him?”

  “He’s still in surgery.”

  “What if I cleaned up? Can I at least be in there with him?”

  “You don’t want to distract the vet.”

  I shook my head and took the clipboard. “No, you’re right.” Plus, I was upset enough that I was surprised I wasn’t already affecting the electronics. I didn’t want the lights to go out in the middle of the surgery.

  I filled out the form, mostly with lies, and waited another hour. Eventually, Henry entered. “Is he okay?”

  “Still in surgery.” I gestured to the seat next to me and he took it.

  “Maybe we should call his father. He has a right to know.”

  “By the time he gets here, it will either be too late, or Darwin will be back on his feet.”

  “We need a paranormal healer.”

  “This is the best we can do at the moment.”

  “They’re not using silver, are they?”

  “I wrote on his form that he’s allergic to silver.”

  “Anything they put in him, such as pens and plates, will have to be cut out before he can shift.”

  “I don’t want to hear it. We can deal with that later.”

  The woman stepped into the room and frowned at Henry before addressing me. “He’s out of surgery and he is alive, but he’s not out of the woods yet. Rita said you can come back, but there are other animals in recovery, so you must stay calm.”

  “Of course.” Henry and I stood and followed her back. Through the door was a hallway to three exam rooms, a medicine prep room, and a door at the end of the hall. The vet technician led us through the second door, which opened into a large surgery room. Against the far wall were three dog kennels and a door on either side of them. On the wall to my right were shelves of other medical supplies like stitches, gloves, and medicines. Beneath them were cabinets.

  I saw Darwin first. He looked like death warmed over. His fur on his stomach and chest had been shaved up to his throat, and there was a nasty cut across his chest, which had been stitched. His two front legs were in casts. He was on a metal table under a bright light, and there was a smaller table with bloody surgical tools.

  Then I saw the veterinarian and froze. She was in her late twenties and had an athletic build with strawberry-blond hair and honey-brown eyes. The blood on her dark blue scrubs should have been my focus, but it wasn’t, because I recognized her.

  She was Ahz’s mother.

  “I’m Rita,” she said, holding out her hand.

  I shook it and then Henry followed suit. “I’m Devon, and this is Henry.” It was strange to me that she didn’t give us her last name, but I figured it was a cultural thing. “Is Darwin going to be okay?”

  Instead of answering, she addressed the receptionist. “You can go back to bed. Thank you for helping me deal with this.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning,” she said before leaving.

  Rita’s expression dropped from friendly to cold. “You know damned well this isn’t a dog, and wolves are illegal to keep as pets.”

  Henry started to snarl, so I nudged him in the side. “We’re from the north. It’s not illegal there,” I lied. “Is he okay?”

  “He was in surprisingly good condition considering he was hit by a car.”

  “Did you insert anything into him?” Henry asked. “Any pens or plates?”

  “I had quite a lot of bleeding to stop, so it was mostly dissolving stitches and glue. He had several breaks as well, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.”

  “Good. We will make sure he gets plenty of rest. How much do we owe you?” Henry asked.

  Her eyes widened. “You’re not taking him home tonight. He needs to stay here under observation.”

  “He is safer with us.”

  She opened her mouth to argue when Darwin flexed his legs and whimpered. She jumped. “He shouldn’t be moving yet!”

  “His metabolism is higher while he’s healing,” Henry said.

  “He’s still sedated! How can he be---”

  “Because he’s a shifter,” I interrupted.

  “A what?” she sounded genuinely confused.

  “He’s a man who can shift into a wolf.”

  “Like a werewolf? You’re crazy!”

  “No, a werewolf is a myth of a virus that turns someone into a wolf under the full moon. There are many shifters, and they each can shift into a specific animal whenever they want to. Darwin can shift into a wolf.”

  “You’re crazy. Get out of here before I call the police.”

  “Why are you telling her about paranormals?” Henry asked.

  “She is a paranormal. I’ve seen her
do magic.”

  Her eyes widened with worry and she took a step back.

  “She’s Ahz’s mother.”

  “What do you know about my son?” Rita asked.

  “We need his help.”

  She took a few more steps towards the back door, about to bolt for it.

  “Stop,” I ordered, releasing my magic to control her.

  She froze, but her eyes widened even further. “You’re one of them; you’re like John.”

  “I’m his son.”

  The fear in her eyes turned. That was her breaking point. In an instant, she went from a frightened mouse caught in a trap to a cornered, pissed off mother lioness, ready to kill anyone and everyone who was a threat to her child. She raised her hand at me and shouted, “Hasha!”

  Energy shot at me like a bullet, but I was faster.

  Barely.

  I created a protective shield around Henry and me. Her magic reflected off of it and struck the shelf, causing bottles of cotton to explode. “Don’t move, and don’t open your mouth,” I said, taking over her mind again.

  Her mouth snapped shut, but her glare could melt spines.

  Most wizards shook in terror before John’s power. She had obviously seen monsters much worse than him.

  “Your magic isn’t wizardry. Are you fae?” I asked. When she said nothing, I amended my command. “You can talk, and you will answer all of our questions honestly, but don’t do any magic against Henry, Darwin, or me.”

  “I’m a caster.”

  “Is that a type of fae?”

  “I don’t know what fae is.”

  “She’s a paranormal who doesn’t know about any paranormals?” Henry asked.

  Maybe she’s from one of the other worlds. “Are you from Earth?”

  She swallowed. “No.”

  “Did you come here through a tower?” Henry asked.

  “No.”

  “What world are you from?” I asked.

  “Syndrial.”

  “And your son?”

  “He was born here.”

  “How did you get here?”

  “I came through a portal.”

  “Can everyone do magic from your world?”

  “No. I’m a caster.”