Wolf Uncovered

by D. N. Hoxa

  My heart broke into a million pieces. I’d led Red to his own death by being stupid and reckless and childish. I’d cost him his life, and now Amara was here to remind me of it. Of course I wanted revenge. I wanted Hector Haworth dead more than he wanted himself to live.

  But I couldn’t answer Amara because, whether I liked it or not, I had to put my sister first. Her death would be my death. I couldn’t let her lose her life because of my stupidity, too. So I took out the phone from my pocket, and I dialed Finn’s number.

  “Any updates?” I asked when he answered.

  A sigh. “No.”

  “Liar.” It was just a guess.

  “My men are after her. We still can’t track her with a spell. She’s too far and all we have is her hair,” Finn said. “If we had her blood—”

  “But we don’t.” It had occurred to me to ask my mother or father for their blood, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t involve them in this. I’d already told my mother that Izzy was safe. I’d be damned if I went there and told her how miserably I’d failed again. “We don’t have her blood, Finn. But you have her on camera.”

  “We lost her! She’s fast. She has help and she’s very well protected. I don’t know what to tell you except we’re looking. I swear, we’re searching.”

  Unfortunately for the both of us, that wasn’t enough.

  “Thanks, Finn,” I said as a tear slipped from my eye. “Call me.” I hung up.

  “And?” Amara said.

  I didn’t want to say it.

  No, wait—my wolf didn’t want to say it, but I did. She could complain all she wanted, but this was the right thing to do. I looked up at Amara.

  “I have a plan.”

  6

  Calling Mandy for another favor killed me, but I had nobody else to turn to. At least she’d be far away from Haworth. All she’d need to do was mess with Finn, and I could handle Finn.

  When I told her that I needed her to hack into his database again, Mandy was ecstatic. Now that I’d told her everything I could think of about the paranormal world the night we went shopping and got drunk, she was even more determined to be involved. If it wasn’t about Izzy, I’d have never contacted her about this, but it was. About Izzy and about Haworth and about me. I needed her help, and she was more than happy to deliver.

  What I needed from her was to locate the footage of Izzy that Finn’s people had found and tell me the exact location of where it was recorded. Her scent would still be there because not even a full day had passed. I’d be able to pick it up and track it, and it was going to lead us straight to Haworth.

  “I still think we should just go to Staten Island. It’s a safe bet,” Amara complained as she walked around my living room with the soda in her hand.

  “No, it’s not. You said it yourself—you weren’t sure. We can’t waste an opportunity like this.”

  “What if Izzy isn’t with Haworth?”

  “Of course she is. He found her and took her. Kidnapped her. I don’t think he’ll let her out of his sight after all that trouble.”

  Amara stopped pacing for a second. “Do you think he knows about you two?”

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. I wanted to deny it, but it was useless. To myself, I couldn’t lie. “I don’t know.”

  “If she’s not really your sister, who is she?” Amara asked next.

  I looked at the phone on the table. I wished Mandy could text me sooner so I wouldn’t have to talk about this. It wasn’t Amara—it was just me. I didn’t know how to have this conversation.

  “She’s my sister.” It was the only reality I’d ever known. I’d screwed up when I ran away from home and never tried to contact Izzy for five years. I was trying to make amends, and I knew that my guilt was never going to let go of me if I couldn’t save her from Haworth. I convinced myself that there was still time for us. For me and her, and for me and my mother. My father? I’d already given up hope.

  “But where do you come f—”

  The vibration of my phone cut Amara off. Thank God. I knew what she was going to ask, and I did not want to have to answer that question. Mandy was a lifesaver. Seriously. I had no idea what I’d do without her. She’d texted me an address, and when I read it, my blood ran cold.

  “What is it?” Amara asked, coming to check the phone from over my head.

  The address was in Staten Island. Finn has said Newark. Liar.

  “Aha!” Amara shouted.

  I couldn’t understand how she could be so excited. I was still frozen in place, looking at the address, trying to convince myself that Mandy hadn’t made a mistake because this meant that whatever Haworth was up to tonight, he’d taken my sister with him. “I knew it! They’re in Staten Island for the ninth item, and if Izzy’s there, Haworth will be there, too.”

  “We don’t know that,” I whispered.

  “Sure we do. You said it yourself—he kidnapped her, so he won’t let her out of his sight.”

  Amara was right. Wasn’t this what I’d wanted? This confirmed it—Izzy was definitely in Staten Island. She was there and I could track her, find her, take her away again—this time for good. Why was the fear paralyzing me?

  It took me a long second to realize that it wasn’t the fear, at least not entirely. It was my wolf.

  She didn’t want to be let out. All she wanted was for me to give this up, kick Amara out and let Finn do his job. Stay away from Haworth. I don’t know how I understood the way she thought, how I could translate her howls and growls and restlessness, but if I could reach out to her and make her see what this meant to me, I knew she wouldn’t be against this. She needed to trust me because, afraid or not, I wasn’t about to let this opportunity get away. Finding Izzy was too important. And who knows? Maybe Amara was right. Maybe I could kill Haworth after all.

  My wolf liked that part very much.

  By the time I got the Reaper String from the hole in the frame of my bed, Amara spelled me with six different spells, and we walked out of my building, night had begun to turn the orange sky dark. I still had that feeling of being watched, but when I sniffed around the neighborhood, I couldn’t notice anything unusual. I was reminded of Moore, in fact. He’d spent three hours telling me about what smell was and how our noses picked it up. After that, he told me about the layers of smells, and how you could pick them apart one by one until the very bottom by simply focusing the right way. Learning to differentiate between one smell and a mix of various smells was a special skill, he’d said, one you couldn’t achieve without practice. I believed him. He made all of it sound so much more complicated than I’d ever thought—which was basically: everything had a smell and I could pick it up better than anybody else. Moore also told me that, in time, I’d be able to smell people’s emotions as well. It was a very handy skill to know when people were lying or telling the truth or just hiding something. To me, it felt like an invasion of privacy, but he was right—it was a neat trick. We had yet to start with practice tomorrow, but for today he’d wanted me to pick a taste and attach a smell to it—like sweet for happiness, sour for anger, or whatever. I was supposed to do that tonight. Moore was going to be disappointed in me tomorrow.

  We got into Amara’s small car and drove to Staten Island. Izzy was sighted in Annadale according to the footage Mandy had found in Finn’s database. I was nervous, ready to spill out all the pizza I’d made myself eat, but I kept on going. Kept on hoping, though I wasn’t sure if it was me or my wolf who hoped we’d find Izzy alone, trying to get away to find her way back to me. Yes, my wolf really didn’t want to come across Haworth, but I’d lie if I said I didn’t feel the same. At least a little bit. I kept that thought to myself because I didn’t want to discourage Amara. After all, it was her idea to go after Haworth tonight that convinced me I was done leaving my sister’s fate in the hands of others. No more asking other people to hide her—I’d just do it myself. And if Haworth wanted to find her again, he was going to have to go through me first.

/>   Yes, yes, I realized how that sounded, but the thought made me feel brave for a second, so I stuck with it.

  “I’ve got weapons in the back,” Amara said. “All kinds of guns you can shoot.”

  “Where do you even get these things?” The last time, she’d had a big bag full of weapons, but she’d lost them all. Those things must have cost a fortune.

  “Poker,” Amara said with a shrug. “I play poker and I’m very good at it.”

  For some reason, that made me laugh. Yes, I could definitely see Amara beating a bunch of guys at a game of cards.

  “Good for you.”

  “As soon as we get your sister out, do you think you can bring her out?” She meant my wolf.

  I flinched. Did I want to tell her the truth or lie?

  “I don’t know.” Something in between. I was, in fact, pretty sure that my wolf wasn’t going to come out, but then again, if I was bleeding and if Haworth was threatening to get away like he had last time, she might change her mind. My wolf was unpredictable, and her thirst for blood was overwhelming. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to resist herself. Hopefully.

  “That’s okay. You have the Reaper String,” Amara said, but her heart wasn’t into it. “Have you had the chance to train with it?”

  “No.” I hadn’t had the time to even properly settle in my new life.

  “It’s fine!” she said with a fake laugh. It wasn’t fine—we both knew it.

  “This is a mistake.” Again, Red’s words, not mine. He’d known it all along, just like he would have known it now if he were here. I didn’t know then, but it was pretty clear to me now.

  “If we let him gather all those enchanted items, it will be impossible.”

  “We should have told Finn or the ECU—just someone who’s more equipped to go after him.” It was the fear talking together with my wolf, but I knew I couldn’t do either. If I told Finn, he’d try to stop me. If I told the ECU, they would not only bring me in for questioning, but they’d arrest Izzy, potentially kill her on sight for working with Haworth in the first place. So, no, we couldn’t tell anyone, not unless we planned to expose everything, and I wasn’t ready for that. I couldn’t do that to Izzy, not without a worthy fight first.

  “We both know how that would end up,” Amara said with a grunt. “At least we’re not sitting around doing nothing. We’re doing something.” She failed to add that that something was probably going to get us both killed.

  We didn’t say anything else for the rest of the trip, and the one-hour drive felt like five minutes. I’d never been to Staten Island before, but now that I was there, everything and everyone looked suspicious. Amara’s spells had held. Not even Finn had been able to tell I was gone; otherwise he’d have been calling my phone nonstop. For now, we were in the clear.

  Amara took us to Annadale and to the address Mandy had sent us. Izzy had been caught on the camera of a human-operated bank on a main street. I hadn’t seen the video myself, but I’d pick up her scent as soon as we were there. On that, at least, I could count a hundred percent. If only my wolf didn’t try to stop me every single second.

  I’d wrapped the Reaper String in a napkin before putting it in the pocket of my jacket, as if a napkin could stop my wolf from noticing it on my person. She didn’t like the steel plate any more than I did, and I had yet to figure out why. But Amara was right. That thing was my best bet against Haworth, or against anyone who tried to kill us. Any witch, that is. I had no idea what the hell I was going to do about vampires and werewolves, but I’d cross that bridge when I got there. Or, I’d just die.

  Amara parked the car a couple blocks away from the bank, and when the time came to get out of the car, I felt like there wasn’t enough air in the world to satisfy my lungs. I felt weak, vulnerable, like nothing could keep me safe. Not like Red could. I tried not to think about him as a general rule, but when going toward my own death, it was hard to keep him away from my thoughts. It was hard not to drown in guilt—even harder not to think about what ifs.

  What if he’d made it? What if he was still there? What would I have done to make up for the way I treated him?

  I guess I’ll never know, I thought to myself, and the second we turned the corner, my sister’s scent filled my nostrils.

  I froze in my tracks. My God, she was there. Or she’d been there in that neighborhood recently. She really had been there. You might wonder why I was so surprised when I knew that this was what I was going to find, but it came as a shock to me that I’d actually thought one thing right.

  “What?” Amara whispered, her hands behind her under her jacket, ready to reach for the guns in her waistband. The rest she kept in her backpack. If I were smart, I’d be holding my hands close to the two guns she’d given me, too, or at least the Reaper String in the pocket of my jacket, but no. I couldn’t get enough of my sister’s smell, and I couldn’t get past the fact that I’d found her, that I could track her just as easily as if I could have seen her. The trail of her smell was very strong.

  “She’s here,” I said to Amara, and with a deep breath, I shot forward. It was dark outside. There was no moon, but there were lampposts and the signs of the stores on both sides of the wide streets to illuminate our way. People walked in both directions without bothering to even look at us, both humans and paranormals. For the first time, I understood what Moore had meant about the layers of smells and mixtures. There were so many smells thrown together in one place, but I had no idea how to pick them apart—except for Izzy’s scent. Hers I knew in my sleep. I’d grown up with her. I knew it by heart. So I easily followed it.

  Amara stuck by my side, her hands still behind her, under her jacket, ready to shoot and spell whoever would come for us. We passed the bank and the camera that had caught sight of my sister and turned the corner. Her scent was still there, lingering in the air like it had planned to become part of that neighborhood forever. But it wasn’t. In two days, maybe three, there would be no trace of it left here. Hopefully, in two days, Izzy would be far, far away from there.

  I didn’t care who was watching, and maybe that was naive, but fighting my wolf every step of the way while she tried to distract me was enough. Besides, Amara knew how to keep watch better than I did, and as long as she didn’t freak out, I knew things were okay. We hadn’t been spotted.

  When we turned another corner, that’s when my body stopped moving again. The smell was unmistakable. Izzy was there, yes, but so were wolves. Haworth’s wolves. Their scent was forever imprinted in my memory—that scent of animal overfilled with magic. Haworth’s nasty, possessive magic. His wolves were there and so were his men, but I couldn’t be sure if he was there, as well. Right now, it didn’t matter. Izzy was close, and if I could get her out, I’d call that a victory.

  “Where?” Amara whispered in my ear.

  She knew I’d stopped because I’d spotted them. Not exactly but they were at the end of the street, a much quieter street than the one we’d just left. I turned around to take a look at my surroundings, trying to tune out my wolf’s growls of protest. She wanted me gone. I wanted me right where I was. It was a never-ending battle inside my head. On our side of the street, there were a few cafes and a few clothing stores, and across the wide street was a big white building with a really big banner attached to the front, which let us know that it was a gallery. But Izzy’s scent was coming from ahead.

  I pointed my finger. “There.” She was at the end of the street.

  Amara eagerly shot forward, but I grabbed her by the arm to stop her. “They’ll see us coming from a mile away if they haven’t already,” I warned her, but she shook her head.

  “I’ve spelled us to the teeth. Even if they see us, they won’t be able to recognize us,” she said.

  She was so sure of herself that I allowed myself to believe her, even though my wolf didn’t. By now, I knew that my wolf would find any excuse she could to prevent me from going after Izzy. It hurt me that she couldn’t see—couldn’t seem to care about this
, but I reminded myself that she was an animal. All she cared about was survival.

  I followed Amara, staying close, and this time, I did remember the two guns under my jacket. I wrapped my fingers around the cold handle of one. I remembered what it was like to shoot a gun, and I hadn’t liked it then. I probably wouldn’t like it now. The cafes ahead of us were crowded but not so much that we couldn’t see who was there. I relied on my nose to tell me what to expect, and only one of the four—the very last—was filled with paranormals. The rest were only human. My sister was there, barely twenty feet away from me, and I’d slowed down because my wolf was clawing at my chest, begging me to stop, turn around, and disappear. It took a massive amount of willpower to push through her resistance, to remind myself that she was just in my head, that she couldn’t physically stop me now. I was sweating by the time we reached the last cafe.

  Amara said that we were spelled, that nobody was going to recognize us, but I still felt as if I was completely naked with a neon sign on my forehead with a red arrow pointing at my face. I felt completely visible, but Amara didn’t seem to care.

  “Be careful,” I whispered in her ear as I looked at the cafe now right in front of us, and without a look my way, Amara walked inside.

  Cursing under my breath, I followed. There were at least thirty people in there, all kinds of paranormals, and we would have no chance to even blink the wrong way before at least one of them reached us. But Amara didn’t care. She was angry. She was being reckless, just like I had been last time, and there was nothing I could do but follow her because my sister was in there, too.

  When the door opened and I walked inside the wide space, I almost fell to the floor. Yes, the place was crowded, and yes, Izzy was there. Definitely there. Her scent hung in the air, calling to my very being, pointing me to the right, to a leather booth right next to the bathroom door where she, another girl, and four guys were sitting and drinking.

  I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t think she’d be out drinking with Haworth’s men after they kidnapped her. But of course she would. What other choice did she have?