by MJ Caan
We had barely sat down when the same waitress appeared next to us with two menus and an ear-to-ear smile.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Cody Hunter,” she said. “Where you been hiding?”
“Oh, you know, work’s been crazy. I don’t really get to come up this way much anymore,” he said sheepishly.
“Well we’re just gonna have to work on that,” she said. “You want your usual?”
He looked at me at the corner of his eye before replying, “Yes, make it two orders please.”
She winked, picked up the menus, and tossed her mane of hair to one side before giving Cody a coy look and heading back to the kitchen. Cody looked at me, the slightest of blushes creeping up his neck.
I arched an eyebrow and tried not to laugh. “So that’s what passes for flirting up here?”
Cody laughed. “She’s an old friend of the family.”
“Should I be worried?” I asked, half-jokingly.
“Not at all,” Cody said in a very serious tone. He reached across the table and took my hand in his, and I was caught off-guard at the intimacy. Before I could say anything, the waitress reappeared and sat down two iced glasses of a dark liquid in front of us. She didn’t acknowledge anything, but the way she turned on her heel and walked away without speaking told me that she saw his hand covering mine. “It was real, you know,” he whispered. “The kiss I mean. As much as I wanted to take things further, I want to do that when the time is right for both of us.”
I swallowed hard and took a drink of soda before I trusted myself to speak. “Wow, and I thought I was the girl,” I said dryly. “But I like that. Plus, we still aren’t entirely sure what other Shifting triggers you may have, so in the heat of passion might not be the best time to find out.” I had the insatiable urge to kiss him right then and there in front of everyone. Instead, I just leaned back and stared longingly into those big brown eyes. He smiled at me, and licked his lips. Christ, was this man a telepath as well as a werewolf? I needed to say something to break the tension.
“So what we do about this lead your father gave us?” I asked.
“I was thinking about that,” he said, taking his hand away from mine. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, opening it to the text his father had sent him. “All we have is a number here. I’m going to email a buddy of mine in the department and have him run a trace on the number and see what he can find.”
“So you’re not afraid of getting in trouble anymore?” I said smugly.
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll have a lot to answer for when I get back to work,” he said. “But as far as we’ve taken things, we might as well go all the way.” He began tapping out a message on his phone.
“Speaking of which, how are you explaining your absence from work?”
“I’ve asked for a few days of personal leave,” he replied. “With the body that was found and everything that’s going on, it’s not the best time for me to be away, but until I know more about what’s my own personal situation I’m not sure I trust myself to be involved in certain situations.”
I started to confess that I knew exactly what he was feeling, but at that moment the waitress returned with a platter containing our food. She set the plate in front of us and looked at Cody. “Anything else?” she said, only a hint of ice in her voice.
“No, this is perfect,” Cody said. His eyes lit up and he gave her one of his big old smiles, but I wasn’t sure if he was smiling at the waitress or the food. Either way, it was all I could do not to laugh as I looked down at the massive pile of French fries smothered in chili and cheese, and a large, spiral cut hotdog on a bun with a single pickle lying beside it.
“This doesn’t look very healthy,” I said suspiciously as Cody picked up his hotdog and took a large bite. He just looked at me, the twinkle in his eyes growing brighter. At least he didn’t try to talk with his mouth full of food.
I shrugged. “Oh well, when in Rome…” I picked up the dog and took one tentative bite. It was surprisingly good, with just the right amount of crisp to the outside but perfectly cooked in the center. I dug into the mound of fries and found them equally as delicious. “Okay,” I said between gulps, “I suppose this isn’t bad as a once-in-a-while treat.”
Cody’s phone pinged and he picked it up after carefully wiping his hands on a napkin. I saw that he stopped chewing mid-bite when he saw at the screen. He swallowed hard before slowly moving one finger up the screen to continue reading the message.
“Cody, what is it?” I said, dabbing in my mouth with my napkin. When he didn’t say anything, I finally added, “Okay, you’re starting to make me a little nervous here.”
“My buddy at the precinct just sent me the information on the phone number. It’s actually a landline, not a cell phone.”
“So whoever is sending out the messages is either very stupid, or…” I said. “Or it’s a trap for anyone that follows through on it.”
“The phone number is registered at 127 Delphine Way. That’s one of the more secluded areas leading up to the Falls.”
“Okay, so that’s where we’re going next. Unless there’s more to this than you’re telling me?”
Cody reached for his soda and downed it in a couple of gulps. Then he looked up at me and said, “It’s registered to a Eugenia Garner.”
Why did that sound familiar? I could feel my eyebrows knitting together as I searched my memory, trying to figure out why that name was ringing a bell with me. It hit me at the same time Cody spoke.
“Dr. Garner is the pediatrician my father always took me to,” he said.
“Holy shit,” I said. “So if she was the one sending the messages that would explain why one of the parents would be trusting enough to show up if they received them. Do you think this pediatrician treated the rest of the…”
“Shifters? It’s okay, you can say it.” I could tell he tried to keep the hurt out of his voice, but it was still there. “When I was growing up, she was the only pediatrician in town. So it stands to reason that’s where they would’ve gone, at least the ones who didn’t leave town.”
“When was the last time you saw her?” I asked.
“Just after I turned eighteen. It was right when I was leaving for college and I decided to join the police force.”
I pulled out my own phone and began tapping quickly at it.
“What are you doing?” Cody asked.
“I’m trying to see if she still practicing. I’ve been here most of my life, and I’ve never even heard of this physician. My aunts always complained about having to take myself and Gar into the city to see our physician. I would think if there was a local option they would’ve taken us there.” I scrolled through a couple of websites before I found what I was looking for. I stared at the screen in shock at what I was reading and then looked up at Cody, mouth agape.
“What is it?” Cody asked. I didn’t answer. “Allie, now you’re the one scaring me.”
I had Googled Eugenia Garner and cross-referenced it with practicing MDs. I handed my phone over to Cody so that he could see the results for himself.
“Are you kidding me?” he said in shock. “This says her specialty is in veterinary medicine. She’s a vet. All this time my father’s been taking me to a fucking vet?”
24
For once, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to get Cody on my side. He agreed that waiting for my aunts’ return was not the smartest play. Granted, what we were about to do might not of been the smartest play either, but I’m pretty sure it was all we had going for us at the moment. We decided to drive out to Dr. Garner’s house and pay her a visit. This was the only truly concrete lead we had come across, and we were both afraid to let it go cold.
Delphine Way was a windy, two-lane stretch of road that carved its way through the foothills leading to Singing Falls. Cody pulled the car over to the side of the road and parked, it just before reaching the driveway to number 127.
“The house sits about another quarter mile up the
drive,” he said. “I was thinking maybe we should walk the rest of the way just in case we don’t want to attract attention.”
“Good idea,” I said. “If we don’t advertise our presence, maybe there won’t be time for anyone to prepare any nasty surprises for us.”
“Okay, so when we get there, just let me do the talking. No magic, no intimidation, nothing like that. I still remember how incredibly nice this woman was to me growing up. I can’t believe she’s wrapped up in anything dangerous.”
I just nodded and didn’t say anything. Cody might be very trusting, and he had had enough heartache thrown at him for one day. But if this woman had answers, and could lead us to my mother, then I would do whatever necessary to get her talking. But I kept that tucked away in the back of my mind and nodded at Cody in agreement.
A few feet off of the main road, we stepped into darkness. There were no lights along the driveway, and the crunching of the gravel surface seemed to be the loudest sound in the world at that moment. I thought about telling Cody that we should walk along the side of the driveway to stay as quiet as possible, but then I remembered the way that the roots from trees grew in gnarled, crooked hooks that danced along the surface of the ground in this part of the town. A little bit of noise was better than risking a fall and a broken arm.
“I should’ve grabbed the flashlight out of the back of the car,” Cody said. “I’m pretty sure it’s a straight shot up to the house, from what I remember. Her office was in the back of the house but we would always enter through the front door”
“Now that’s something that I can help with,” I said. I held up my hand and concentrated, willing magic to pool around it in the form of blue light. The glow from the circle illuminated the path in front of us in flickering warmth. I looked over at Cody and returned his smile.
“Well,” he said, “I guess I’ll keep you around. You certainly come in handy in the dark.”
I tried to hide my blush, part of me hoping that he meant that in the double entendre way that I took it. But then I felt it, and all of the whimsy drained out of me. I dimmed my light and motioned for Cody to stop. We stood motionless, and I could feel his eyes burning into me. I held up a finger and just as he started to speak, pressed it to my lips.
Peering through the darkness, I could make out the shape of the large center hall colonial just through the clearing ahead of us. I could feel it, the itch behind my eyes, the tingling that raced down my spine and pooled in that spot behind my belly button. Magic. And we had almost walked right into it. I closed my eyes, centered my breathing, and pulled my own magic up and let it burn through my vision. When I opened my eyes I could see it there ahead of us, shimmering softly in the darkness and surrounding the house.
“What is it?” Cody asked, no longer able to contain himself.
“Wards,” I said. “There are magical wards surrounding that house.”
“So what does that mean? Is it like… a force field?”
As silly a question as it seemed, I realized that I didn’t know the answer. My aunts and I had used wards to keep out supernatural beings. But I never really thought about the mechanics of how that happened. Could they pass through the field? Did it simply alert the person who cast the spell that someone was there? Or did the person vaporize on contact with the ward, like they did in cheesy sci-fi movies when someone would reach out and touch a crackling energy barrier? I also wondered if it would keep me out if I didn’t have my magic flaring. Technically, I was a human, so the ward shouldn’t have any effect on me. But what about Cody? He wasn’t human, and if this ward was set to repel supernaturals, what would happen if he tried passing through? I was, of course, also assuming that this ward worked the same way as the ones I had used. But what if a much more skilled practitioner had cast these wards? Who knew what they might be capable of doing.
“Why would a veterinarian have mystical wards around her house?” I asked. “More importantly, how are you going to get past them?” I was speaking rhetorically, processing my thoughts aloud, and I didn’t really expect an answer from Cody.
“Only one way to find out,” Cody said. “Why don’t we just walk up to the house and see what happens?”
“You know, for somebody trained as a police officer and who always seems to value safety first, you really can throw caution to the winds at the worst time.”
He shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. “We’re running short on options here. Unless you can think of something else…”
“Maybe,” I said. “Wards are typically set in place to keep out something supernatural. But they also function like an alarm system, alerting the person who cast them that they’ve been breached. What if the good doctor inside is not the person that cast these wards?” I thought for a moment, and then took Cody’s hand. “Maybe these wards are in place to notify someone else if a wolf arrives.”
Still holding Cody’s hand, I let my magic flow again. The soothing blue light spread from our joined fingers up our arms until it outlined both of our bodies. I took a step toward the house, pulling Cody along with me. The closer I got, the more wary I became of the house. Something was triggering my fight or flight instinct. My magic was reacting negatively to the magic that flowed through the wards: whoever had created these had seriously dark intentions. Still, we pressed on, and I hesitated for a second just as we were about to pass through the threshold of the wards. I concentrated even harder, focusing my will on the shield around us. I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. But the intention was to pass through the ward without setting off the alarms.
I wasn’t sure what Cody might’ve felt, but for me passing through the ward felt like stepping through a beaded curtain made of entrails and bits of bone. They scraped across my own shield in a way that made me feel violated and sick to my stomach. But in an instant, we were on the other side of it and standing at the base of the stairs that led up to the porch. I let out a deep breath and allowed my magic drop away. I could feel the slight warning flash that signaled the onset of a possible migraine. It might have seemed like a simple idea, but maintaining that shield had taken a lot out of me.
“You okay?” said Cody softly. I nodded and gave his hand a squeeze. He smiled back at me, and together we walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. There was no overhead porch light; the only illumination came from the small windows on either side of the door. Despite the fact that we would have appeared as vague shadows to anyone inside, the door opened almost immediately; that meant that we, or someone, was expected.
A short, dark-skinned woman of indeterminate age was suddenly standing in my face. She wore stylish, frameless glasses, and her dark eyes scanned me up and down before she turned her back and motioned for us to follow her into the house.
“You’re early,” she said. “And I thought you were going to call when you arrived.”
A quick magical probe confirmed what her nonchalant attitude already told me. She was not the one who cast the wards—she didn’t even know they were there. I glanced to Cody, who only shrugged in response, and we both stepped into the house. I mouthed the words, “Is that her?” at him. He nodded but didn’t speak.
“You told me you had him under control. What happened up there was anything but control,” she continued. “And I don’t know why you think meeting in person is a good idea. This is on you.” She led us through a well-appointed living room that opened into an office that consisted of a large exam table and shelves lining the walls. They were overflowing with glass mason jars, as well as stethoscopes, surgical blades, and what looked like electronic monitoring equipment all arranged neatly in rows and columns. “I told you I had no idea what would happen if you tried to Shift one at this point,” she said, finally turning to face us.
The office was brightly lit, and this was the first time the doctor was able to get a clear look at the both of us. She adjusted her glasses and seemed to take me in with a single toe-to-head sweep. She glanced over my shoulder at Cody and froze in place.
“Cody? Cody Hunter?” she said, reaching to place one hand on the table to steady herself. “My God, boy, is that you?”
“Hello, Dr. Garner,” Cody said. “It’s been a while.”
Dr. Garner looked at me, her eyes beginning to well up.
“I didn’t know he was the one you were going after,” she said. “I thought it was one of the others. You should have given me more notice.” She turned from me, shaking her head in disbelief before spinning back around again. “My God, his father! I’ve known that man since grade school.”
Finally I spoke up, unable to take the confusion any longer. “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe we’ve met.”
The doctor looked at me, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Who are you?” she asked. She moved quicker than I would’ve anticipated for someone of her age. Opening a drawer at the foot of the exam table, she reached in and withdrew a shiny scalpel blade which she pointed at me. “You’re not one of the Order of the Fell.”
“No, I’m not,” I said, pulling up a dagger of blue light and holding it out in front of me.
“Hey, hey,” said Cody, raising both hands and slowly stepping between us. “Dr. Garner, we’re not here to hurt anyone. We just want some answers. Please, just put the knife down.”
She was staring at the blue power signature that flowed within my hand, and her eyes were wide. I stepped back and recalled the magic, and opened my hand to show her that I meant no harm.
“Who are you?” she asked again.
“My name is Allie,” I said. “Allie Caine.” I could tell by her demeanor and the stiffness in her neck that she recognized my name. But I had no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
