Pulling a large handful of coins from a tight pocket, Ruby dropped them carelessly on the counter and sauntered away.
"Will you vouch for me when the time comes, Cousin?" I called after her.
She stopped and turned to look at me over her shoulder, green eyes sharp. "Convince me," she responded, "convince them."
Sting's rift had come to a finish, replaced with an upbeat song I didn't recognize. Sting was stepping down from the stage and was slipping through the crowd, heading toward me. I finished my drink and pulled a little magical bauble from the air. I didn't have any coin, but containing a small section of my magic was enough. "Payment" was always such a subjective idea.
The small bauble of ice-magic fell to the bar with a thud and I turned to go.
Chapter Six
The Smithy
When I transported myself back to the smithy, I could almost smell the magic floating around the building. It was a magic I knew very well. Teleportation magic.
Rod was back.
Hopefully the other two were still with him.
I thought it'd be more fun to wait and see what came up from the forge, so I walked into the lobby and slipped behind the counter. I fished around for Jake's supply of pre-packaged food and water, pulling it out from the decrepit shelves hidden underneath.
I didn't need it, but I was sure the ones downstairs would appreciate it. I only grabbed a few bottles and a handful of packaged snacks and set them on the counter, hopped up onto the countertop, and swung to face the trapdoor at the other end of the room.
The Wolf alpha's mate was the first one to emerge.
Coming up from the trapdoor, her eyes caught sight of me and she was immediately suspicious, narrowing her eyes and lifting her lip in a slight snarl. She came up the stairs and around the counter, her head lowered and her chin jutted forward in an aggressive stance as her lip curled more and more. Her body was tense, her arms held just back enough that her fingers were brushing the tops of her weapons. She stared me down like a feral dog and words rumbled out from her chest. "What are you doing here, witch?"
I rolled my eyes. "Oh knock it off, dear," I chided. "You and I both know you don't have the energy for this fight." I held up a bottle of water and a bag of jerky. "Have fun going after Afanasiy?"
"How did—"
"I know what my father wanted to show Layla. I know you hate Afanasiy. Wolves tend to hunt what they hate, even if the kill doesn't come right away. I know you'd lead her to him and try to take him on." I dropped the water and jerky down in front of me as I leaned forward. "So. Kill him yet?"
She glanced at my hand and then back at my face. One of her hands lowered away from the weapons.
"I did what had to be done," she said, snatching the water away in a quick jerk. "Got a few shots in. Gave him the warning he deserved." She tore the top off and took a long drink, draining the bottle in one go. She tossed it to the side and I slid off the counter, stepping away to reveal more. I backed up to the windowsill and rested against it as she eyed the food.
"Still," I said, "it's impressive, coming from one such as you."
She shot me a look as she went for another bottle. "One such as me?"
"A woman who's not even an Alpha manages to hunt down and confront the phantom who burned down her Pack's hierarchy in one blow." I smiled as she studied me, evaluating my words. "It's impressive."
"Impressive or not," she answered, "it's what I did. Now"—she leaned back against the counter a little, her body only slightly relaxing—"answer my question. What are you doing here?"
I rolled my eyes again as I let out a sighing laugh. "I told you when you first came here, Wolf."
"Don't lie," she snapped. "And call me by my name. I've had enough 'manners' from your kind."
I tipped my head in acknowledgment. "Olyvia, then. And I didn't lie. Jake left me in charge of his smithy while he was gone."
In an effort to get that skeptical look off her face, I pulled out a ring of keys and jingled them. She stared for a moment with an intense look on her face, but her body relaxed more.
She didn't need to know these were old keys to a vault that didn't exist anymore.
"Just because he didn't take care of it while he was here doesn't automatically mean that I'm a liar," I said. "It means he's a bad homeowner."
I managed to get a muffled, shoulder-shuffle laugh. Good. She was still tense, but I was starting to think that was just how her face looked.
Her pet thief came up the stairs and froze when he saw me. His face hardened. He looked to Olyvia, who gave a small shake of her head and a cutting motion with her hand, waving his tension away.
He looked back at me. I flashed him a teasing smile that made his lip twitch before he ignored me.
Olyvia tossed him a bottle of water. He caught it and asked, "Plan?"
She considered. "Run like little girls?"
"That's my line," he said, taking a swig of water. "Besides, I recall someone telling me that tucking tail only gets you killed."
"That was before I was explicitly told that I managed the impossible," she said, motioning to me.
I smiled. "Not the impossible, dear. Just the improbable."
"Semantics make my head hurt," Rod sighed. He placed his bottle on the counter and made for the door. "If there's not an immediate plan to run, I suggest a strong defense. Jake's got a number of magical wards around the place. I bet I can activate them. Or reactivate them, actually."
"And here I thought you only had one response to trouble," Olyvia said with a smirk.
"I guess I'm just full of surprises," he remarked, going out the door and closing it behind him.
The rest of the day was fairly low-key.
Layla didn't come out of the basement for hours. When she finally came out, she was visibly shaken but functioning. She was clutching a leather-bound journal to her chest. It was the one that Father refused to let me read.
Olyvia talked her down to a more stable state of being. She was having a spazzy moment because she just found out she was an 'alien', the term in this moment meaning "not from Earth".
I wasn't sure why that concept made her so shaky. Our whole bloodline was from a different world, in another dimension. Apparently, it was confusing for her. I blamed her paranoid human guardian. He refused to allow her any knowledge of her actual history or anything even resembling marwolaeth or elvin culture. I think was his belief that she would be safer by being kept in the dark. Ignorance always leads to safety, right?
While she cried and held on to the few but fond memories of her past, I began to feel my father coming close. Luckily for me, I also heard the faint call of Shawn's voice. He was calling for me in a Dream.
You'd better answer him, said Mother. He might have found something.
Closing my eyes and stretching out across the counter, I turned away from their ruckus and began to Dreamwalk. Since Shawn was Dreaming of me this time, it was fairly easy to find him.
He'd found his father's lab, but couldn't get in. The door was sealed from years of abuse by the elements. He didn't want to stick around without shelter, and didn't know of anywhere safe nearby. He was currently hiding out in a hole he'd dug himself, but was worried that it wouldn't protect him for very long.
I told him to move to a safer place. A Fox could find another Foxhole easily, and I didn't want Shawn to be discovered before I could get to him. He agreed and told me that he'd move as soon as he awoke.
"I can't get to you immediately," I said, "but I'll transport myself to you within a day or so. Stay close, but stay safe. If you even think Afanasiy is near, you run for it and you don't look back."
"What about you?"
I smiled. "It's fine, darling. I can handle myself. Worry about your own hide. It'll keep you alive longer."
He nodded as he took a deep breath. "Alright".
I turned to leave, but the sun and clouds moved to block me, the sky darkening and thunder r
olling in the distance. I turned back to Shawn with a raised eyebrow. He realized what he was doing and blushed.
"Sorry," he apologized, "I just... I'm scared. When I wake up, you won't be there to defend me."
I smiled and moved to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Foxy. I have time for a Dream. I can stay."
The sun was warm. The breeze was cool. And someone genuinely wanted my company.
I know I'm a bitch, but it's still nice to have company that actually wants me around for just me.
Before I left the Dream, I reminded Shawn to stay safe and wait for me to contact him. He agreed, and I left the dream on good terms.
I opened my eyes to find that maybe an hour had passed. Time in a dream. Always different. I lay on the counter for a moment, taking in a deep breath and extending my magical senses. I could feel the magical ebb and flow around me like water, telling me who was where.
The thief must have set up the magical defenses outside Jake's smithy, based on the massive energy from outside, and was back downstairs. My half-marwolaeth, half-elf cousin was still sitting under the windowsill. She was leafing through her father's notes and attempting to sound out any unfamiliar words she came across, which was unfortunately all of them. She would flip back to sentences she thought she knew, comparing different phrases with one another.
She was attempting to decipher her own language.
Olyvia sat next to her, analyzing the words as they came. She recognized some of the drawings and sketches, probably from her days of wandering aimlessly among the magical world. She offered a word here, a sentence there, based on the creatures she recognized. They were making slow, tedious progress as they tried to figure out Koannian Elvish. It would have been cute if I didn't find it so pathetic.
Olyvia glanced up at me. Her eyes grew sharp and dangerous for a moment, doing her best to study me. Then Layla drew her attention again, asking about something in the book, and her features softened as she looked back down.
For such a paranoid Wolf, she was certainly growing a soft spot for my cousin.
Now I knew why Father was so insistent on giving Olyvia all the pertinent information. If she was going to have a soft spot for this child, there was a very high probability she'd end up dead.
Marwolaeths may be immortal at night, and Wolves may be stronger than most creatures during the day, but one thing you can count on is that a marwolaeth with a soft spot will always have that soft spot used against them in the end. The stronger they are, the more that spot becomes a sensitive nerve. Control the nerve, control the monster.
Why do you think Afanasiy hasn't tried to kill me yet?
Regardless, the two of them went on with their work and ignored me. I slid off the counter and walked downstairs, seeking out the thief. I wanted to see what the cleverbox knew about the situation he had gotten himself into.
I found him standing in the middle of the circular room, staring at the soot-covered wall. The forge was buried in the wall, only maybe an inch or two still exposed. The insides were dark, making it look like a monstrous metal mouth hanging open, ready to devour the next thing placed inside.
"I've known him a long time," Rod said quietly. "Didn't think he'd ever give up on his smithy like this."
"It was time," I said. "Or, at least, he thought it was."
"If you've done something to hurt him, I will find a way to kill you." His voice never changed with the threat, making it all the more believable.
"I don't hurt people," I responded with a soft laugh. "I hurt monsters."
He turned his head, looking at me over his shoulder. His eyes burned a cold blue for a moment before they changed back into his normal shade. I smiled, undeterred.
"Don't worry, monster." I sighed. "I'm not allowed to kill you yet."
"Why are you even down here?" he asked, turning away from me. "Don't you have someone else to annoy?"
"Plenty of them," I responded, moving around to face him. "All in due time. What I need to know is how much trouble you think you're in."
"I'm not in any trouble." He refused to look at me, still trying to stare at the blank, black wall.
"Stop being a child," I chided. I moved to put myself in his way. His blue eyes dodged.
"Then stop being a bitch," he answered, moving away from me.
"Fine. But don't come crying to me when Olyvia dies and Layla is taken away from you."
He stopped. He glanced at me. A signal that I had gotten his attention.
"Ah look," I said, gently mocking the signal. "He has a heart after all." I walked up to him slowly. "I know you," I whispered. "You want them both safe, but it isn't out of duty or loyalty. No, not you. You just want to have back what's yours. What I can't figure out is who took it from you in the first place."
"Does it matter?" he asked without moving.
"It matters." My voice was flat. "If you're being controlled by someone intending ill towards my family, I'm going to kill you. It's as simple as that."
"I'm not," he responded, turning away. "Don't worry."
I stared at the back of his head for a moment. Normally there's a tell when someone's lying, even tricksters. Given my lineage, I had gotten to know how to read the minds of others, even without special powers.
He had no tells.
He wasn't lying.
"Good," I said. I moved around him, giving a cold peck on the cheek in passing as I left. "As long as we're on the same page."
It had been only two days. Already I was reminding myself not to kill them.
Olyvia had been opening up to me gradually, but it was ever so slow.
Rod continued to purposely elude me.
Layla, the innocent, had no reason to mistrust me aside from the information her guardian fed her. She believed Olyvia so readily that in just two days she had begun doing everything she in her power be as annoying as possible.
Olyvia and Layla were stuck together at the hip most of the time, due to Layla's insecurities. Contrary to her outward appearance, Olyvia didn't put up much of a fight.
All Wolves were big softies on the inside.
It had taken those two days for Olyvia to get in contact with an old friend of hers. One that could get the three of them into the air and out of sight for a little while. One that could get them to a better haven than this one.
It didn't take long before they got directions to a place for them to meet. He wasn't willing to come to the smithy. Not surprisingly, he'd heard that the Foxes and the Keepers were targeting Olyvia and her misfits, and didn't want either party to see him picking them up at the smithy. It'd be a bit obvious.
I stood on the steps and watched them go, ready to leave the premises myself. I had a lab to get to.
The bushes nearby rustled, and something darted off. Our magic whipped out with a thought, snapping around the creature and forcing it to a halt. I reeled our magical line back in, revealing the creature.
Pale eyes stared out at me from behind a silver mask, the growing moonlight shining off of a slick black coat that twisted as the creature looked this way and that. It was a Fox. One of Afanasiy's spies.
It struggled in my magical grip, uncomprehending of it's sudden capture. It squirmed and writhed, beginning to make little whining sounds. I heard a few nearby bushes shuffle again, a small group of Foxes revealing themselves. I could have caught them all. I should have. Instead of stifling the message they would bring, I decided to send a message of my own.
With a flick of my hand, I brought my magic bubble crashing in on him, smashing his chest to begin suffocating him. While the lunar, immortal creature struggled and suffered, I drew my crystal sword and decapitated it.
Chapter Seven
The Lab
I performed another sweep around Jake's smithy and locked the door, adding my own personal touch of magical defense before I teleported to Shawn. I hoped he was still close to his daddy's lab, otherwise we'd have to wal
k together. I wasn't partial to walking, my way being a much more efficient way of getting around.
I materialized right behind him, his brown mop of hair nestled behind a wild hedge. Just beyond the greenery lay a metal bunker, the cold trap nearly overtaken by the wildlife surrounding it. Good. We were right outside the entrance.
Shawn jumped at my sudden appearance, not used to seeing my powers in action. I gave him a smile and kneeled down, placing a small peck on the forehead as I did.
"How you doing, Foxy?"
He blushed immediately, still not over his adolescent stage.
"H-Hi Jules," he stammered out.
I nodded at the bunker. "Gone inside yet?"
He gave a little shake of his head. "N- No. I thought you'd … I mean, I don't know what … I mean..."
I placed a gentle finger on his lips. "Gotcha. You waited for me. Now that I'm here, let's go in."
"Go in?" he asked. "Now?"
Grabbing his arm and "helping" him up, I said, "why do you think I asked you to meet me here?"
Half-truth. I could find my way around the place easily enough. I probably could have teleported into the main lab if I felt really adventurous. I needed to visit this lab to dig up what information I could on what the humans did to the Hyenas in his lab. I needed to find out if any of the data was still accessible and viable. It might give me an edge to use against Afanasiy, and even if it didn't, more information was always good.
Aside from all of that, the company of this little Fox was welcome. I might also need his help. While I was an expert in most things, technology wasn't one of them. Shawn, on the other hand, was well-versed in the art.
During his time with Afanasiy, Shawn had managed to create a formula that changed the genetic makeup of a marwolaeth into a hybrid of two different groups. He told me that he managed to make at least one hybrid of each group; a Fox-Hyena, a Hyena-Wolf, and a Wolf-Fox.
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