Lycanthropy Files Box Set: Books 1-3 Plus Novella

by Cecilia Dominic

  “I would beg to differ. That tells me a few things about him, but not the important ones.”

  She grinned. “That was all the information I have to answer your first question. Deal again.”

  I did, and this time, she exchanged three cards. I did the same. She won that round, so I took off my sweater. The next game was mine with a full house.

  “So why is Rhys never far away?”

  She rubbed her temples and then drained her glass of wine. “That’s a more complicated answer, but it boils down to the fact that his boss has something of mine that means a lot to me, and I have to do something in exchange for getting it back.”

  “His carpenter boss or his bodyguard boss?”

  She shot me a “don’t play with me” look. “Neither.”

  “That’s not fair,” I said. “You withheld important information when you answered the question of who he is.”

  “Fine, I’ll take off my shirt.” She pulled her v-neck shirt over her head. Her breasts filled out her lace bra nicely, and I almost forgot my question. “Deal again.”

  By that time, the bottle of wine had been drained to half empty, but I hadn’t had any. She had bright red spots on her cheeks, and her eyes took on a glazed look. The more we played, and the more she told me, the more I smelled her fear. Our game was no game, but rather an act of desperation. She needed my help but couldn’t ask for it directly or… Or what? She’d risk losing whatever Rhys’s employer held?

  She won the next hand with two pairs to my nothing. “All righ’. Take off your shirt.”

  I did as she commanded, and we faced each other topless, although she still wore her bra. Somehow the sight of all the skin seemed more intimate than when we’d been wolves in the woods, although we’d technically been completely naked at the time. Without taking her eyes off my chest, she said, “Deal.”

  I pulled the bottle of wine to my side of the table but didn’t pour. “I think you’ve had enough wine and poker. You obviously want me to ask you something, but you don’t want to tell me outright. That’s fine. I understand the power of words. But I can’t help you if you’re going to harm yourself in the process.”

  “The only harm I’ll come to from this is some embarrassment and likely a nasty hangover,” she told me, her words clearer than I expected. “You see me as an innocent victim, and perhaps I am.” She took a deep breath, and her breasts caught my attention.

  I dragged my eyes to her face. “But…?”

  “But I’m responsible for the trouble I’ve gotten myself into, and I have to deal with it. I appreciate your trying to help me, but it’s not necessary.” She stood, but her foot caught on the chair rung, and she stumbled. I stood and grabbed her before she fell.

  “You’re right about the wine.” She held on to my arms and pulled into me, possibly to stabilize herself, but I became very aware of her soft skin and the scratchiness of the lace bra against my chest. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  This behavior and her earlier disorientation only further convinced me that someone had messed with her head. But who and why?

  “Go get cleaned up,” I said. “You’ll feel better after a shower.”

  “Will you come with me?” she asked with a coy look. “Wash my back?”

  “I’ll tuck you in after your shower, but that’s all I’m going to do. We can talk more tomorrow when you’re not intoxicated.” Or otherwise influenced.

  I waited until I heard the bathroom door close and the water start, and I pulled on my shirt and sweater. The room had gotten cold when she pulled away, but not ghostly cold—I hoped—just chilly summer night in Scotland cold. Yes, I would have loved to have warmed her up, but it had to be her choice with her mind unclouded by alcohol or whatever else had happened to her between when her mobile was stolen and when I found her.

  I grabbed the wine bottle and her glass, and when I turned to put the glass in the sink, I noticed she’d put the Major Arcana cards on the counter. The artist who had designed the deck was a friend of mine, and I always appreciated her drawings, so I looked through them after putting everything else away.

  The Moon card almost made me drop all of them. An image of Reine smiled up from under her cloud of white-gold curls as she poured out the stars from a silver pitcher against a royal blue background.

  The next card also took my breath away—Rhys without his cheek scar as the Devil.

  Yes, I would have to visit Veronica, the artist, the next day.

  The shower water stopped, and the noises of Selene getting dressed came from the bedroom. She walked into the living room wearing a large T-shirt, soft pajama shorts, and a very embarrassed expression under a full-force redheaded blush. She sat beside me on the couch.

  “I made my shower a cold one,” she said. “And as the water washed over me, I realized what a fool I’ve been acting tonight. I don’t know what got into me.” She slumped back and pulled a pillow over her stomach. “I’m sorry.”

  “What happened after that kid snatched your phone? Where did you go with Rhys?”

  “That’s the strange part. I don’t remember. Or I do remember, but it makes no sense.” She closed her eyes. “It was a small chapel just off the square. It looked like an office building from the outside. I saw…something. Like a person, but more like a skeleton, and it told me I needed to seduce you. I resisted, but then I felt a sharp pain in my thigh.” She rolled up her pants to show me a bruise. “And suddenly it made perfect sense.” She frowned. “Why? What good would my seducing you do for him?”

  “That’s a very good question.” I hadn’t moved my hands, and my fingers itched to stroke the soft freckled skin of her left thigh. The energy of the Solstice poured into the room with the light caramel rays of the setting sun, but I resisted giving in to my temptation. Someone else wanted it too badly, which put both her and me in danger.

  “I should go,” I said and heaved myself off her low couch. She stood beside me.

  “I understand. And thank you for not taking advantage of me.”

  I turned toward the door, but then looked back at her. “Do you have someone to change and run with for tomorrow night’s full moon?”

  “No. I was just going to go to the Institute and run around there. Garou has men there, and Max should’ve strengthened his wards around the property, so it should be safe enough.”

  “I’ll join you.”

  “Thank you. And Gabriel?” She touched my shoulder.

  I turned to face her. “Yes?”

  She stood on tiptoe and kissed my cheek. “I enjoy your company, and I think I’m starting to care for you. I wanted you even before they tried to make me seduce you. I just wish I knew how much were my feelings and how much was their manipulation.”

  I drew her into my arms. “I care for and want you too, Selene. Let me know when you figure it out.” I leaned down to kiss the top of her head, but she looked up, and our lips met. She tasted of mint and sweetness and moonlight, and I saw her as a wolf running free through a forest with trees I’d only seen in the American southeast. The places where our bodies met heated, and I growled and pulled her closer to me, but then I remembered—this is what Rhys’s boss wanted, and until I knew more, I couldn’t put her at risk.

  Is this my punishment—uncertainty about what’s going on between us?

  I pulled away, and she stepped back, but her hands lingered a moment longer than they needed to.

  “Right, tomorrow night, then?” she asked.

  “Tomorrow night. See you at the Institute at sundown.”

  My car was still at the pub, and my car keys and cell phone with David, so I headed back that way to see if he was there. If not, Troy would let me call him or crash in the little apartment above the bar.

  The long walk through the stretching shadows of sunset that faded into the dusky gloom of twilight gave me time to clear my head and sort through what Selene had told me and what I’d seen.

  Rhys, and by extension Selene, were involved with
the Order of the Silver Arrow, which held something Selene desperately wanted back. My instincts and common sense told me that seducing me wasn’t their endgame for her, but what was? Probably something having to do with the Institute. I’d learned the night before that others wanted to know how to use the reversal process, so could that be it?

  Reine kept popping up, but what was her connection to Rhys? It couldn’t be a coincidence that there were pictures of both of them in the Tarot deck. I’d visit Veronica Chalice before my lunch with Lonna and ask her. As a seer, she knew my secrets but had always been happy to keep them. I hoped she’d be willing to share a few of hers.

  An even bigger crowd stuffed the pub, and it took me a moment to sort out the sounds and smells. The live music continued, this time with a different, louder band. Sunscreen and sweat predominated the smells along with the golden brown scents of an obscene amount of fried fish and potatoes. My stomach growled, and the man in front of me stepped aside with a startled, almost frightened expression.

  “Sorry, mate,” I said. “Long day.”

  He put his arm around a dark-haired woman, and pushed through the crowd away from me. The pub mirrors were too far away for me to check my reflection, but something felt…off. I pushed through the crowd to the bar, and as luck would have it, David sat there with a pint in front of him.

  19

  Go on, then,” David said to the woman next to him. “My friend’s here. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  I raised my eyebrows and watched her sashay off through the masses, which was impressive considering there wasn’t room enough between people to sashay.

  “New friend?” I asked and slid onto her just-vacated stool.

  “I couldn’t just wait here forever without company,” he told me with a wink.

  Troy placed a pint of something dark in front of me. I gave him a skeptical look. “You know I don’t do stouts,” I told him.

  “Try it. It’s a dark brown someone brought me from the States. Called Drafty Kilt.”

  I sniffed it and took a sip—malty, yes, but with a nice sweet/bitter balance. “Okay, not bad.”

  With a satisfied grunt, he walked to the other side to take someone’s order.

  “Find her?” asked David. He spoke in a low voice so only I could hear him, and I had to really narrow my auditory focus to pick out his words.

  “I did, and I got a few more answers, but not much. Also, did you know our Fey girl is the moon in one of Veronica’s Tarot decks?”

  He coughed. “Doesn’t surprise me. Veronica gets most of her stuff from dreams, she told me. The silver one has been hanging around long enough it would be hard for her to avoid being spotted by someone like V. Where did you see the card?”

  “At Selene’s.”

  He smirked. “Ah, the old Tarot reading to get them into bed trick. Nicely played, lad.”

  “What? No, nothing like that happened. Well, maybe a little something like that, but Selene’s virtue is intact, at least where I’m concerned.”

  “A good woman needs to be cultivated.” He nodded at his beer, which he sipped more slowly than the previous night. “Like the ingredients for good ale.”

  “Are you going to wax philosophical again? If so, I might go get in a run and meet you back here to pick up my car keys and clothes.”

  “I have them in my vehicle. If you really need to run, come to my place. The grounds are secure. It’ll do you good.”

  I put down my beer, which had tasted good until we started talking about running. Now I wanted refreshment of a different sort. David signaled to Troy that we were ready to pay, but the brawny bartender waved us off.

  “The system that runs the till is down. I’ll get it from you lads next time.”

  “That’s not good for them,” I said to David once we got outside the press of sound and bodies. I took my first full breath in what felt like ages. “No one carries cash anymore.”

  “Hopefully the tourists do.”

  I followed him in my car to his place, and he showed me to an upstairs bedroom to change. Although the sun had set, its reflection on the almost full moon carried its Solstice energy of light and hope tempered with the sense of the turning of the year and the days getting darker from here. Life and death, death and rebirth…

  And through it all, we stand guard over those whose lives are shorter than ours, saving them from themselves and dangers they can’t even imagine. The Lycanthrope Creed, an ancient document only known to the Council members and which is read at the Winter Solstice meeting, hinted at such dangers. I supposed there might be a different piece of paper or parchment that full but not junior Council members had access to.

  I trotted down the hall, my claws clicking on the wooden floors. David showed me how to get out through the kitchen and where to ring to come back in. He didn’t reveal his own private exit and entrance to the castle, and I hadn’t expected him to. Although we were becoming friendlier, we respected each other’s secrets.

  “While you’re gallivanting about, I’ll go to my Archives and find those documents I mentioned to you.”

  A breeze stirred the grass on the lawn and the leaves of the trees beyond into a beckoning whisper, and I followed it. A hint of chill rode the wind, promising that winter and snow and ice never lurked too far away in this part of the world. I wondered if Selene had ever had a white Christmas and if I could convince her to stay here in Scotland for the holidays.

  Don’t be an idiot. The girl’s secrets make her dangerous, not cuddly. But she’d looked so sweet and confused after her shower, although her kiss hadn’t conveyed innocence. Her complexity, how she simultaneously asserted her independence but obviously needed help, intrigued me. I’d told her I cared for her, which was true. I feared I was falling beyond “caring” to something deeper, and it frightened me.

  My head will be clearer after a run.

  David’s property had once been a hunting estate, and the forest had remained mostly untouched. Spicy, earthy smells emerged from the ground as I ran over it, and large rocks radiated the heat of the day. Once I looked at their silver-edged shape, I noticed the boulders seemed of regular dimensions and appeared to have been laid out in a sort of line, although too few of them remained to tell what their purpose had originally been. An old Roman road, perhaps? A wall?

  Intrigued, I followed them. Nocturnal creatures beckoned me to hunt them with their scurryings and squeaks followed by freezing or darting when I drew near, but the human part of me had found a mystery, and I wanted to solve at least one today.

  The forest gave way to grass and shrubs, an old sheep pasture judging from the smell. David’s wards ended, but I was too intrigued to stop. The rocks continued their march across the landscape, soldiers frozen in time. Wisps of fog wreathed through the long grass and curled around the scrubby bushes, and the thick silence that accompanies power descended on the field.

  I stood, ears swiveling to catch some sound, any little noise to indicate danger. The unnatural silence blanketed everything like thick snow, and moonlight made the fog glow, furthering the illusion of a winter field. The whiteness highlighted the dark stones, and I discerned a pattern to them. What had seemed random scattering now filled in as the remains of walls and corners, perhaps the decrepit ruins of a castle of some sort. Why the stone hadn’t been plundered for other things, I could only guess—the sense of foreboding and Stay Away they emanated. Who could put a spell that powerful on them that it would last even when the castle crumbled? The only wizard I’d heard of who was that powerful in the area had been Wolfsheim, but he was dead, wasn’t he?

  The creature that had put the spell on Selene, the one that had confused her into pursuing me—and who’s to say that wasn’t the aim all along?—had been powerful. Only a few wizards could manipulate intention like that. How had she described him? Like a person, but more like a skeleton. And Wolfsheim had been the leader of the Order of the Silver Arrow. Perhaps he still was.

  Now what few hairs hadn’t been sta
nding up did, and I bared my teeth toward the center of the field—“Whoever or whatever you are, I will figure you out, and you will not take that girl away from me.”

  A weak threat, to be sure, but I suspected he hadn’t been challenged in recent memory. A cloud covered the moon, the fog disappeared, and the noises of the night returned. Whether the illusion had been a warning or a revelation on this the shortest night of the year remained to be seen. Reine’s words popped into my head, and I promised myself I would return when I could stand on two legs with my human judge of perspective and see if this could be the ruins of Wolfsheim’s castle. Reine had mentioned it had the same layout as the Institute, so I could use that as my guide.

  I backed out of the field, turned, and loped through the forest back to David’s manor.

  Once I had changed and showered, I met David in his dining room. He handed me a glass of Scotch.

  “Trust me, you’ll need it,” he said.

  David opened a small trunk that looked like it had spent some time underground judging from the dirt and damp stains on it. When he lifted the latch on the front, my ears felt stuffed and then cleared like they had when Reine had disappeared earlier.

  “What was that?” I asked. “Did you just release some sort of spell?”

  “Not something the Council Investigator needs to know.” He grinned at me over his shoulder. “In spite of commerce between wizards and lycanthropes being forbidden for hundreds of years, it might have happened a few times, probably more than the Council would be comfortable with. They sometimes needed our protection; we occasionally needed their spells.”

  “You had to do something before security systems were invented, I suppose.” I looked around the room and smoothed the hairs that stood on the back of my neck. “There’s more than one in this house, isn’t there? That explains how your lands are warded.”

  “There might be a general sort of compulsion ward to make sure no one but me wants to stay down in the dungeon looking through the Archives too long.”