by C. D. Gorri
The Hoodoo man cut his gaze between her and the wolf in the next room. “I thought werewolves could shift on command. Why hasn’t he turned human yet?”
Amber gazed through the window. The animal’s expression was strained; he was fighting the shift. “His wolf is very powerful. Once it comes to the surface, it takes time for the man to regain control.”
Papa Fortune took the knife from her hand and gazed at the broken tip. “That’s one hell of a hide.”
She pressed her hand against the glass. “Noah, it’s time to come back to me. We’ve got things to do, remember?”
It took a few minutes, but Noah finally returned to his human form, and Amber opened the door. He looked at her in awe. “How did you…?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she whispered. Honestly, she had no idea how she got so close to his wolf without being mauled, other than he had finally figured out she was a friend.
Papa Fortune’s shoes scuffled on the floor as he entered the room and handed Noah a new blade. “Fill the bottle.”
Amber retrieved it from the floor and set it on the table. Noah sliced the side of his palm, letting blood drip into the open container. When it reached the top, Amber corked it and swept it from the surface before the Hoodoo man could grab it.
“I’ll handle the rest.” She clutched the bottle of Noah’s blood tightly, while he pressed a rag to his hand. Hopefully Papa Fortune wouldn’t notice Noah didn’t heal as quickly as a shifter should. Any suspicion from him could negate this deal.
When Noah furrowed his brow, she cut her gaze to his injured hand before narrowing her eyes. He nodded. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
As Noah strode out the door, she turned to Papa Fortune. “Where is the DUME oil?”
“It’s here.” He locked his gaze on the bottle of blood and smacked his lips like he was hungry for it. “Let’s make the trade.”
“Hold on.” Amber pulled the bag of binding dust from her pocket and dumped it on the table before drawing a line through it like Snow told her to do. “This contract has been fulfilled. We take no responsibility for what you do with the blood nor how it works in your spells. Are we in agreement?”
“Yes, yes. Now hand it over.” Papa Fortune drew a line crossing Amber’s, sealing the deal, and held out his hand.
“With the scattering of this dust, my obligation has been fulfilled. I owe you no debt, nor do you owe me. By order of the goddess, no retaliation is permitted from either side.” She swiped her hand through the dust, pushing it onto the floor.
Papa Fortune held the DUME oil toward her, and she clutched it in her hand before releasing Noah’s blood. He let out a maniacal laugh, and Amber booked it out the door. While the binding dust spell would prevent him from coming after them, she didn’t want to be there when he found out the shifter blood he’d bargained for was useless.
They left through the convenience store and climbed into her Mazda. As she closed the door, her breath came out in a rush of relief. She held the brown glass bottle up in the light, chewing her lip as she gazed at the skull and crossbones on the label.
Noah reached for it, but she jerked it away. “It has wolfsbane in it. You’re susceptible to it now.”
He fisted his hand and dropped it in his lap. “Maybe not in human form.”
“Do you want to take that chance?” She opened the console and set the bottle inside.
“I guess not. Amber, you tamed my wolf in there. I was so afraid he was going to attack you, but you calmed him.”
She put the car in drive and headed back toward the French Quarter. “I think you calmed him. Maybe hearing me say ‘I love you’ helped you take back control.”
“I didn’t feel like I was in control.”
“Whatever it was, it worked. Hopefully we won’t have to find out if it’ll happen again.”
Traffic slowed to a crawl over the Crescent City Connection Bridge, and Amber peered out over the Mississippi. A steamboat loaded with tourists chugged along the surface, making her smile despite their situation. She could almost hear the jazz music a band was surely belting out on the bottom deck. From the opposite direction, a barge carrying a dozen shipping crates plowed through the water.
“Have you ever thought of living anywhere but New Orleans?” Noah’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.
“No, I love it here. Have you?”
“Not until recently.” He rubbed his palms on his jeans. “If this plan goes south, I might have to go rogue to avoid the pit, and…”
She took his hand across the console. “It’s going to work. We will be together.” And she would keep telling herself that until the very end. What choice did she have? If she focused on the what-ifs, she’d lose sight of their mission.
He nodded. “You’re right. We should take it one step at a time.”
After making it across the bridge, Amber drove home and parked in her driveway. “I’ll take the oil to Snow and get the potion. Meet me at the park with Cade in an hour?”
“I’ll be there.” He leaned toward her and brushed his lips to hers before sliding out of the car.
On her walk to the bakery, her phone chimed with a message from Snow: Rain went out to dinner with Chase, but I don’t know when they’ll be back. Better hurry.
She replied, On my way, and shoved her phone into her pocket.
The front door was locked, so she went around back and entered through the kitchen. As she stepped through the door, Snow shoved half of a red-frosted clarity cookie into her mouth. “That was fast,” she said around the food.
Amber grinned. “Did you just eat a love spell cookie?”
Snow swallowed. “You know it’s the same clarity spell in all of them. Only the consumer’s intent matters.”
“And your intent is love?” She arched a brow.
Snow shrugged. “Everything went well at the Hoodoo shop?”
“I don’t know about well, but I got the DUME oil.” She offered her the bottle.
Snow picked up a dishtowel and wrapped it around the glass.
“Should I not have touched the surface?” Amber asked.
“It was dry, right? Nothing wet or greasy on the outside?”
“It was dry…”
“You’re fine then. It’s best not to take chances with black magic though.”
“I’ll remember that next time.” Of course, it would have been nice if her friend had warned her. Then again, if Amber had used common sense, she’d have wrapped it in a towel too. Death Unto My Enemies shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Snow gathered the rest of the ingredients and ground the herbs with a mortar and pestle before sprinkling them into the bowl. As she poured the DUME oil into the concoction, it sparked, and smoke rose from the surface.
“You won’t want to get this anywhere near your skin. It’ll melt it right off the bone.” She transferred the mixture into a glass bottle and closed it with a cork. “It’ll disintegrate pretty much everything it touches, so be careful.”
“What keeps it from eating through the bottle?”
“Magic.” Snow grinned. “When you get the Thropynite, lay it on the ground and pour this over it. As long as that’s the only piece of the stone on this continent, the Grunch should return to their suspended animation states.”
“What about the fumes? Wolfsbane is toxic to shifters.”
“Get at least ten feet away from any shifter before you do it. Once it finishes sizzling, the fumes will dissipate quickly.”
“Thanks, Snow. You’re the best.”
“Let me know how it goes.”
“I will.” If we survive.
Chapter Twenty
“You’re not going, Amber.” Noah held out his hand, asking for the potion bottle, but she clenched it in her fist.
“The hell I’m not. I’ve got just as much at stake in this as you do.” She crossed her arms and looked at Cade, who averted his gaze and walked to the other side of the bridge.
They’d met at their fa
vorite spot in City Park, the same place where Noah’s wolf had awakened the first time. He didn’t feel it now, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t lurking right below the surface. Arguing with Amber wasn’t wise. “It’s not safe for you,” he said in a softer voice.
“It’s not safe for you either. For anyone.” She shoved the bottle into her pocket. “I’ve spent my entire life being protected. My dad was alpha. Now my brother is. I get this shit enough from my family; I don’t need it from you too.”
“I don’t want to lose you.” He was well aware of how her family treated her, but he couldn’t live with himself if any harm came to her.
“And I don’t want to lose you,” she said. “I also don’t want to sit at home wondering if you’re alive or dead. Y’all need all the help you can get.”
“She has a point,” Cade said from his perch on the opposite side of the bridge. “If Nylah…if she’s indisposed, that leaves you and me against who knows how many Grunch.”
“Don’t forget there’s wolfsbane in the potion. If it spills on me, it’ll melt my skin from the bone, but I’ll survive. You can’t even breathe in the fumes.”
Noah closed his eyes and blew out a long breath. Damn it. She was right. His instinct said to protect her at all costs, and while he wanted to haul her home and lock her inside, he wouldn’t dare. He’d been friends with Amber long enough to know she wanted a mate who would be her partner, not an overbearing bully.
“What if my wolf tries to attack you?”
“It…whoa.” She clutched her head and swayed before gripping the bridge railing.
“What is it?” He took her shoulders in his hands and steadied her. He recognized that look, and it wasn’t good. “What do you feel?”
“Your wolf is… There’s two, and then there’s one.” She rested her hand on his chest. “Change. I feel like your wolf is in danger. I feel like…”
Cade approached them, his brow furrowed, and Amber glanced at him before looking into Noah’s eyes. “I think… I feel like your wolf will die.”
His heart sank into his stomach. Amber’s empathic premonitions were often vague, but they were never wrong. “What if I don’t shift? I need to use my telekinetic power to hold the Grunch still, anyway. I don’t need my wolf for this fight.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Hold up,” Cade said. “The theory is that your wolf was awakened because Nylah is in another dimension, right?”
“Yes.” Amber slipped her hand into Noah’s. “As long as she’s trapped in the Grunch’s domain, she doesn’t exist on this plane.”
Cade nodded. “Whether you’re able to rip open their dimension and get inside, or we have to draw them out to destroy them, eventually you and Nylah will be on the same plane again.”
“That’s the plan,” Noah said.
“What if, when you and Nylah are together again, your wolf goes dormant? If it’s only awake because she’s not here, once she returns…”
“That could be it,” Amber said. “Maybe my premonition wasn’t that your wolf would die, but that it would go dormant again. What then?”
Noah leaned against the railing and held Amber’s hand between both of his. That theory made more sense than he cared to admit. It wasn’t just possible…it was probable. The moment they rescued Nylah, he would probably go back to being a regular second-born with only his telekinesis. He might never shift again.
“I don’t care.” He held her hand against his heart. “If I lose my wolf, so be it. I love you enough to make you happy for the rest of your life, if you’ll still want me.”
She traced her fingers across his forehead, brushing the hair from his face. “Of course I’ll still want you. I wanted you before your wolf awakened, and I want you now, whether you keep him or not.”
Her words seeped into his soul, wrapping around his heart and squeezing it tightly. He loved her fiercely; he always had, and he was an idiot for ever thinking she should be with anyone other than him. That was toxic masculinity at its worst. Noah wasn’t less-than because his wolf didn’t awaken when it was supposed to. In fact, the wolves could never defeat Alrick without his second-born power. He was enough, and he was the only mate for Amber.
“I love you.” He tucked her hair behind her ear.
“I love you too.” She kissed him on the cheek.
Cade laughed. “Alrick is going to be disappointed you gave Amber your heart when he was planning on eating it.”
“Good. Let the bastard starve.”
Amber stepped back and cocked her head. “What are y’all talking about?”
“We went to the hunting grounds so I could practice shifting without an alpha present. Alrick found us and asked for me. I guess he couldn’t tell who I was in wolf form.”
“Why would you do that?” She parked her hands on her hips. “You could have been killed.”
“Nah.” Cade grinned. “You should’ve seen him. He fought like he’d had a wolf all his life.”
She blinked, her brow rising. “You fought Alrick?”
“For a minute.” Noah shrugged. “He disappeared when my wolf pulled him into the bayou.”
She pressed her lips together hard, shaking her head. “Tell you what… I won’t scold you for being reckless, and you won’t patronize me by saying I can’t help rescue Nylah.”
“Amber…”
“I want to be there. You need a non-shifter to destroy the Thropynite, and it might as well be me.”
A crow cawed from a nearby tree before taking to the air and swooping over them. Noah ground his teeth, casting his gaze upward. The sun had begun its descent behind the horizon, painting the evening sky in shades of purple and orange, and a light breeze provided relief from the sticky summer heat.
This city was Amber’s home too, and Nylah was her friend. She did have as much at stake as Noah, so how could he deny her? “Okay, but if my wolf forces me to shift around you, I want you to run and not look back. Deal?”
She smiled. “Let’s go get your sister.”
They piled into Noah’s truck and headed toward the east end of the city to the wooded area around the old Grunch Road. He parked alongside the ditch and grabbed a crowbar from his tool kit before climbing out of the truck.
“The Grunch’s skin is mostly stone, but he has a few soft spots.” He gestured to his side and the spot where his neck met his shoulder. “If he comes after you, hit him with everything you’ve got.”
Amber took the makeshift weapon and held it in both hands, giving it a couple of practice swings. “It’s not Excalibur, but it should do the trick.” She smiled as if trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t work.
Their apprehension thickened as they ventured into the forest. Once again, the area was eerily quiet. No birds chirped in the trees above, and no animals, not even a field mouse, scampered by on the forest floor. The air felt thick and heavy, and Noah wrapped an arm around Amber’s shoulders, tugging her to his side. The energy around them grew denser the deeper into the trees they trekked.
“This must be the place.” Noah stopped, still holding Amber against his body.
“Listen,” she said.
“To what?” Cade asked.
“Exactly.” Noah released his hold of Amber and nodded to Cade, a silent request for him to keep an eye on her.
Cade moved to stand next to her, and thankfully, she didn’t protest.
With a deep inhale, he reached out with his mind, sifting imaginary fingers through the atmosphere. He detected a low vibration running through the normal energy, and it seemed to exist above, below, in, and all around them. It was like a layer of foreboding magic folded into their realm.
“Can you sense anything?” Amber rubbed her arm as if she had chills.
“I can feel it.” He pushed with his mind, and the thick veil dipped inward, thinning slightly where he pressed. “It’s like a layer of gelatin. I think I can puncture it.”
“Hold on,” Amber said. “Let’s take a few
deep breaths and center ourselves.”
Though he was tempted to tear the dimension open and barrel in with his teeth and claws bared, Amber was right. This was the toughest demon Noah had ever fought. They needed to go in with level heads.
He gazed up, but he couldn’t see the moon through the thick canopy above. The silvery light filtering through the leaves barely illuminated the area, but his vision had sharpened with the awakening of his wolf. He could see just fine. The sultry air hung stagnantly, pressing in around him like a sauna, and a bead of sweat rolled down the center of his back.
“Ready?” He looked at his friends.
Amber nodded, and Cade shifted into his wolf form. Noah focused all his magic into the veil, pressing until it thinned to almost nothing. But a piercing scream broke his concentration. He turned in time to see Alrick grab Amber by the waist.
The gargoyle pressed his nose into the side of her head before licking her ear. “She’ll make a sweet appetizer. Your sister will be dessert.” With a wave of his hand, the veil around them opened, and Alrick disappeared inside, taking Amber with him.
“Son of a bitch!” Noah reached his arms out, making a clawing motion with his hands and ripping open the veil with his magic. Cade bounded inside, and Noah followed, letting the portal he’d torn open slam shut behind him.
He nearly tripped over the crowbar lying on the floor, and he froze for a moment, his brain not accepting the reality of this pocket dimension. There were no visible walls, and they appeared to be in the same part of the woods. But everything inside looked like a washed-out grayscale version of the forest. He took in the scene, and as his gaze locked on Amber, his stomach sank.
Alrick held her by the neck, his long talons stretching across her trachea as he rested his other set of claws against her chest…over her heart. Cade stood facing them, his hackles raised as Nylah watched, her hands pressed against an invisible wall.
Cade rocked back, preparing to lunge, and Alrick jerked Amber aside, the tip of his claw piercing her skin.
“Wait.” Pulse pounding, Noah threw up his hands and gathered the energy around him. If Cade attacked now, Amber would be as good as dead.
