Shifters of the Wellsprings: The Complete Paranormal Collection

by Leela Ash

  “It’s not that we distrust you. But this is a matter of Dragons and…”

  “Then you Dragons can take care of it. Without me.” The anger and… yes, pain in her face stabbed him, like a dagger through the heart.

  “Ms. King wait, please.”

  Kennedy’s calm bass halted the Wolf’s flight. She paused, watching him warily.

  Grim and formal, the Alpha rose to his feet. “Though it pains me to admit this, I believe my Flight needs your aid. Should you assist us, we owe you a Blood Debt, binding our Flight to you.”

  No! Not another Blood Debt! Not when he was so close to freeing his Flight from the duty of the last one!

  To his bafflement, Lily sneered at this generous offer. “Screw your Flight, screw your Blood Debts. I don’t want anything to do with you.”

  She would turn down a Blood Debt? A favor from the most powerful creatures in this world? Why?!?

  But he understood. Pride. They had shown her rudeness and no payment – no matter how rich – would assuage the sting of that.

  Kennedy didn’t know her, though, and the refusal puzzled him. “Then why are you here? Why offer to hunt our thief if you care nothing for the good will of our Flight?”

  “Because of him!” Casey blinked as the Wolf jabbed a finger at him. “He’s my… my…”

  Her what? Her bodyguard?

  Her Mate?

  Stirred by hope, his Dragon rose, gazing down at the angry woman with adoration.

  We aren’t Mates, he reminded it. You know that.

  So did Lily. “He’s my Pack! My Packmate… Packmate-ish kind of… thing. And the, uh, Pack hunts together.”

  “Casey Briggs is not a member of your Pack,” Kennedy corrected.

  The Wolf flipped her chair back up and plunked down in it. “Whatever. Jeez, you guys are dicks. What do you want?”

  Etiquette and protocol had flown out the window. The negotiation sputtered to a halt as both Dragons sought some path, some courtesy to begin again.

  Lily didn’t have enough patience for that, though. “Look, I can’t help you unless you tell me what needs doing. And forget the damned gold coins, okay? I don’t want one.”

  Not the soft words the moment needed. Casey sighed as his Alpha’s temper frayed even further.

  “What you want is not relevant!” Kennedy snapped. “The debt will be owed no matter what you say.”

  Lily pinched the bridge of her nose. “You have the crappiest way of asking for help.”

  Oh, spirits! He had to intervene before she drove his Alpha into a rage! “My lord, please. Allow me to explain.”

  Seething, Kennedy nodded.

  “Lily, the carving that was stolen? Your father brought it to us. It’s why we owe him a Blood Debt.”

  “So, it’s the reason my life sucks right now. Got it. Keep talking.”

  He ignored that peevish reply. “It marks the bearer as a friend of the mountains – the San Francisco Peaks. Any spirit who sees it will welcome him or her.”

  “And Dad got this how?”

  He actually didn’t know that. Kennedy did, though. “Your father’s grandmother was a respected wise woman of the Zuni. Some years back there was a problem in the mountains. My Flight tried to appease the spirits, but they turned away from us.”

  “We are still outsiders,” Casey interjected, “though we strive for Proper Behavior.”

  Kennedy nodded and continued. “But the spirits recognized and respected your father’s blood. He acted as our emissary. When he finished, they gave him this fetish so that we might approach them, even though we do not belong to any of the Peoples.”

  With no pause, Lily nodded. “So, it’s the key to some sacred place. The thieves stole it – which means they can get into this place and do something. Probably some nasty crap. You can’t, because you lost the key. But I can, because I’m my father’s daughter.”

  Oh, she was smart! Casey found himself smiling fondly at her. Though he quickly wiped the grin from his face, lest his Alpha see it and assume it meant he had forgotten his duty to honor her – from a distance.

  “That is it, precisely. Will you aid us?”

  “Any idea what they’re up to?”

  “One,” he replied. An admission that startled his Alpha. Casey hated to play messenger for the First Flight, but they needed to know this. All of them – his Flight and the Sand Pack.

  “Finn Donnelly of the First Flight warned me that the Fangs of Apophis sought a relic called ‘the Aegis’.” Kennedy’s nose began to wrinkle – until he added, “It prevents Nemagorix, the Destroyer of Worlds, from coming to Earth.”

  “Destroyer of Worlds,” Lily murmured. “Now that is a nickname!”

  “I have never heard of such an artifact,” his Alpha huffed.

  “Neither have I. But I fear our thief may not be as ignorant as we.”

  Silence fell as they considered that threat.

  Lily, as usual, was the first to break it. “Okay guys, I’m convinced. Sign me up. Stopping ‘the Destroyer of Worlds’ from earning his rep sounds like a good thing to me. Let’s go find your thief.”

  Her promise wasn’t exactly ‘The Oath of Duty’… but it would do. Casey smiled as his Alpha bowed his head. “You honor us with your service and we, in turn, shall give thanks and repayment of this debt. Casey Briggs, Brother of the Flight of the Snows. Will you accompany this woman on her quest and give her whatever aid she needs?”

  “I shall,” he promised. Honestly, his vow to guard her would require that anyways. But the Oath of Duty required the words to be spoken again, and he did not quibble.

  Unlike his fidgety, impatient Wolf. Lily drummed her fingers on the Alpha’s desk. Both Dragons ignored her as they continued the proper ritual.

  From a pocket, Kennedy withdrew a gold coin. Casey took it from him, with reverence. “I entrust you with this, a token of our most sacred honor. When the debt is incurred, you will give it to our benefactor, binding our fates together.”

  “I understand and accept this obligation. It will be my…”

  “People, people! Can we get going already?” Lily snapped. “And chuck that damned coin away. I don’t want it.”

  Ignoring her was getting to be a habit, sadly.

  Chapter 10.

  In a decent world, Kachina Well would be hard to reach. A ten-mile hike up and over steep mountains. In that perfect world they’d arrive first, thanks to plane and Dragon-flight. Set up a nice ambush then settle down until the thieves arrived.

  Sadly, the world was not perfect. When he parked their rented Jeep on the side of Forest Road 21, Lily stared at Casey in disbelief. “Seriously? There’s a road a hundred feet away from your sacred spring?”

  “Yes. I didn’t put it here,” he muttered through clenched teeth. Retrieving a backpack, he pulled out several small cloth bags.

  As he did, she stretched her legs. “Please tell me that’s not the spring over there, on the other side of that picnic table.”

  “That’s it.” Bowls, feathers, and a bunch of herbal crap she didn’t recognize. Casey stepped off the road onto the edge of the forest. She headed straight for the spring itself, but he called her back. “Not yet. We need to cleanse and introduce ourselves. The spirit here is angry.”

  “Because of the picnic table or the garbage can?” They were pretty tacky.

  “Both – and more. You see that mountain behind us? There’s a ski resort on the other side that makes artificial snow out of recycled sewage water.”

  Recycled… whuh? Horror lit her face. “People ski in piss?”

  “Recycled urine.”

  “You cannot recycle that crap enough to make that okay!”

  Casey shot her a grim smile. “The spirits agree with you. So, we need to be on our best behavior, okay?”

  “Sure.” Dammit, if that resort was one of Rex Fairburn’s, she was going to have words with that Bear! Recycled… yuck.

  The better part of an hour passed while Casey prayed, waved
burning sage over their heads, and scattered cornmeal and an odd-looking tobacco around. She let the Dragon do this not-really-magic thing. The whole idea of sewage-snow still turned her stomach and she totally got why a spirit would be ticked off. Hell, she’d be pretty damned annoyed if someone sprayed urine on her.

  And if they said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s recycled!’ I’d deck them.

  Waving her to follow him, the Dragon finally approached the spring, walking with prayers and slow, measured steps. Supposedly this thing wasn’t a Wellspring, like the ones the First Flight guarded. Casey had some long, complicated explanation for the difference. To Lily, it seemed simple enough: Wellsprings did stuff, sacred wells didn’t.

  He hadn’t liked her ‘translation’ very much. She still thought she was right.

  A second thing distinguished Wellsprings from sacred wells. Nothing lived at a Wellspring, so they needed Dragons and what-not to guard them. Spirits (apparently) lived in sacred spots and didn’t like babysitters any more than she did.

  Another point in this thing’s favor, along with its very sensible aversion to trash, dirty picnic tables, and pee-snow. If Casey could get this spirit to talk, she was sure she’d hit it off with the creature. So, she kept her mouth shut and followed the guy who knew what he was doing.

  The spring of Kachina Well trickled weakly out of a crack in the stone wall of a small canyon. Its waters dribbled over a small cascade of rocks and formed a tiny pool. Lily wasn’t sure if the spring had been damaged or if it was naturally unimpressive. And, well, she didn’t ask. Seemed like just the kind of question to set off an already-annoyed spirit. Even she had to admit, though, that the ‘water from a wall’ trick was neat.

  Kind of.

  Be polite, she reminded herself. Her Wolf had already lost interest in the little fountain and was checking out the smells over by the garbage can.

  Great. My spirit animal is actually a raccoon.

  Casey’s Dragon, on the other hand, sat at attention. Tailed coiled neatly around its body. Wings folded tight to its flanks. Horned head slightly lowered, a silent witness to the man’s chants.

  Hey Wolf! Check out what the Dragon’s doing. We’re getting ready to talk to a spirit. Why don’t you come watch?

  Because there was a day-old McDonald’s bag by the trash can and that was far more interesting to her spirit animal than some well-dwelling… thing. With her luck, her Wolf would probably trot off in the middle of the negotiations to check out the piss-snow.

  “From the west we have come, bearing gifts, to hear your wisdom,” Casey droned. “From the west…”

  On and on, blah blah blah. Maybe her Wolf had a point about the garbage.

  A glint of sunlight on water drew her eye down to the well.

  And down, down, down, down into the ground. Under those still waters, a stone staircase had appeared, descending deep into the earth.

  Lily’s jaw dropped. Her Wolf came loping over, now intrigued.

  “Do you see…?”

  “Hush!” Casey waved her silent and bowed. Above him, his Dragon lowered its great head to the ground and crooned a greeting.

  A creature made of tar stood beside the spring. Lily could ‘see’ it with her Shifter senses, the ‘sight’ that let the Kinds recognize each other. Eight feet tall, with broad black antlers stretching out on both sides of its head, it stared at them. Two tiny white eyes were the only color in its inky form. A long snout, almost like a moose’s, jutted out. If it had an expression, she couldn’t tell.

  Beside her, her Wolf’s hackles rose. Lily agreed. This did not look like a friendly critter.

  But it was polite. “Greetings to the adopted son of Brother Wind.” Its voice was slow and deep, like molasses dripping onto stone. “Three visitors in one day. How unusual.”

  Yeah, no surprises there. She’d caught the woman’s scent as soon as they walked to the well. Definitely a Rat. And one whose magical protections had worn off. About two hours ahead of them, if she had to guess. The hunt pulled close!

  Casey explained their problem with a pleasant (and unusual) lack of formality. “The woman who approached you was a thief. The token she carried was not hers. She stole it from my Flight.”

  “You should have guarded that token. It was important.”

  Both Casey and his Dragon flinched at that accusation, and Lily felt her temper stir. Like they hadn’t tried?

  “She was a very good thief.” Her bodyguard kept his tone low and reverent.

  “And, it seems, you were not a very good guardian.”

  Another twitch… but still he didn’t move? He was just going to sit there and let this oversized tar bubble talk smack about his Flight?

  Well, she wasn’t! “Hey, listen up, Molasses-Breath! His Flight did a… ow!”

  Casey’s hand closed around her wrist like an iron band. A tight iron band. “Manners!” he hissed. “Manners!”

  Good manners were earned, not demanded. But, well, they did kind of need this a-hole’s help. Fuming, she fell silent.

  Molasses-Breath stared at her. She stared back. Her Wolf joined her.

  A note of panic crept into Casey’s words as he continued his plea. “The blame is ours.”

  The hell it was! Her Wolf growled, showing its sharp teeth. Molasses-Breath’s own lips curled – revealing a mouth full of fangs three times as large.

  As if that was going to intimidate her! Lily snarled back herself.

  “Please, Wise One,” Casey yelped, with desperate politeness, “tell us what the thief did.”

  “She came, with no greetings and no gifts. Yet she bore the token and, out of honor for it, we let her enter our home and take what she sought.”

  “Looks like today is just full of bad guardians!” Lily chirped.

  Casey wrapped an arm around her before she could shy away. “Could you please be quiet?” he begged.

  “What? He’s a dumb-ass! And he… mmph!”

  The Dragon clamped a hand over her mouth.

  She was tempted to bite him. But, even in their human form, a Dragon’s skin was tough as nails. Last thing she wanted to do was break a tooth.

  The spirit watched their struggles, amused.

  Once more, Casey tried the diplomatic approach. “Great One, what did the thief take? Was it the Aegis?”

  The spirit’s jaw dropped.

  No, it didn’t ‘drop.’ It plummeted. It fell like a puppet’s wooden jaw and bounced against the spirit’s own chest. For a moment it gaped at them, tongue lolling. Then a noise, loud and booming, rumbled up its throat.

  Laughter.

  “HA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! AHAHA!”

  The sound froze Casey into a statue of shock and horror.

  Not Lily. She slapped his hand off and took a step forward. “Briggs, turn around.”

  “What? Why?”

  She popped the button on her jeans. “Because I’m going to take a piss in his well. You think the snow-melt is bad around here?” she snapped at the gibbering spirit. “Wait till you try the unrecycled version!”

  And, of course, the big doof still couldn’t abandon on his ‘manners’! As she started to unzip, he tackled her. Both of them tumbled to the ground, she trying to squirm away, he struggling to pin her in place. Back and forth they rolled. Her Wolf barked hysterically, frantically trying to bite Casey with its misty spirit-jaws. Meanwhile his Dragon stared innocently up at the sky, pretending it didn’t know any of them.

  Lily writhed, drove an elbow into his stomach, and kicked off a rock. He rolled, pulling her with him, they spun, and…

  Plunk!

  They tumbled into Kachina Well.

  “ENOUGH!” Molasses-Breath roared.

  Damn spring wasn’t even deep enough to drown in – though it did soak them both. They scrambled to their feet, glaring at each other, water dripping off their disheveled clothes.

  “I am so sorry, Wise One!” Casey gulped.

  “I’m not!” Lily shrieked at the towering spirit. Too bad her Wolf d
idn’t have a physical body. She’d give anything to have it roll that garbage can down here!

  A long black arm rose, pointing a fat tarry finger at her face. “WHAT IS THIS THING WHOSE PRESENCE YOU HAVE INFLICTED UPON ME?”

  Casey licked his lips. “This is Lily King. Her great-grandmother was honored among the People.”

  Who cared? No way in hell Molasses-Breath was going to let her into his little Spirit Man Cave now!

  “She is not of the People!” the well’s protector huffed.

  “Yes, she is.”

  “Do not ‘correct’ me!” the creature shrieked.

  For the first time, even Casey’s deference started to fray. “Her father is Aaron King. The man to whom you gave the token.”

  “I remember him. There is nothing of him in her.”

  Like a fist to the guts, those words knocked the wind out of Lily.

  “He is her father,” the Dragon insisted.

  Molasses-Breath drew himself up until he towered, ten feet tall, above all except Casey’s Dragon. “Do you think I no longer recognize the People? I tell you, his blood does not flow through her veins.”

  A high ringing filled Lily’s ears, and she wobbled. Beside her, her Wolf’s tail drooped.

  Aaron King wasn’t her father?

  Then… she was no relation to her Pack?

  Who was she? Why hadn’t anyone told her? The bitter taste of betrayal filled her mouth as she realized that her Pack, all the people she knew and loved, had lied to her.

  The spirit’s image grew misty and it shrank. “Do not approach me again. I will not speak to you.”

  Then it faded away, leaving them with nothing. No clues, no Aegis, no token, no treasure.

  And no family.

  Chapter 11.

  Nothing went right from then on.

  Dead inside, Lily still forced herself to Shift and track the thief. Duty kept her going; she was too heartsick to even hope for a fight.

  Didn’t matter. Their enemy stayed a step ahead of them, all the way. The trail led back to a private airstrip. The same one they’d landed at.

  Shoulders slumped, Casey banged his forehead against the Jeep door. “They must have left a half hour before we arrived.”