Page 12

12

After we stepped out from behind the waterfall, Duncan paused to fetch his shoes and clothes from a log. He hurried to dress and also picked up the magnet I’d seen earlier. After stuffing the heavy cylinder into a jacket pocket, he grasped my hand again and headed up a treed slope. Maybe he knew the way to the road.

Another honk sounded.

As we climbed, I braced myself for truckloads of bad guys. If Duncan hadn’t been holding my hand, I might not have headed toward the road. When trouble honked, it was a good idea to go in the other direction.

“Did you know there were werewolves in the area when you were in that cave?” I asked as we navigated through ferns and over logs.

“Yes. A bonded pair, I believe. I didn’t recognize them but wondered if they claimed this territory for themselves. They didn’t follow me into the cave to discuss it. They did start howling a lot whenever the guardian robot beeped.”

“Is that why they were howling? I assumed you were irritating them. ”

“Moi?” Duncan touched his chest, the medallion dangling from his fingers. He’d given me back the sword after we clambered out of the cave.

“Yeah, you. You were at least irritating the robot. I trust you were the reason it was beeping.”

“Yes, it guarded the medallion. Rather, I assume that was what it stood watch over. I doubt it was placed there to keep an eye on the bats.” Duncan pointed at headlights now visible through the trees. Whoever was honking, their vehicle was stationary. “The beeping started after I lopped off the first of its wheels.”

“It didn’t like that? Weird.”

“Quite. I think… That isn’t one of Radomir’s thugs.”

No. As he spoke the words, we drew close enough that I could sense Jasmine’s familiar presence. When my truck came fully into view, she stood outside it, the engine idling as she peered into the forest in our direction.

“Had I known one of your relatives was responsible for the honking,” Duncan said, “we could have continued our most pleasant cave rendezvous.”

“You would have been okay with my niece walking in on us?”

“I do prefer my cave rendezvous to be private, but she wouldn’t have used a magical control device to force me—to attempt to force me—to attack you.”

I caught his slip, and it wasn’t comforting, but I didn’t comment on it.

By the truck, Jasmine had shifted from looking toward us to back down the dark logging road. I couldn’t see or sense anything in that direction, but more than a yearning for my scintillating company might have prompted her to drive up here.

“Hey, Jasmine.” I lifted a hand as we stepped out of the undergrowth and onto the bumpy dirt road. “I didn’t expect you to follow me. ”

“I got cold,” she said, “so I decided to drive farther up the road and see if I could sense you.”

“The raccoon wouldn’t spoon with you?”

Duncan blinked.

“It didn’t show up again,” Jasmine said. “My fearsome werewolfness probably scared it away.”

“I’m sure that’s it.”

She looked back the way she’d come again. “There were also some headlights visible through the trees, a couple of cars that had turned off the highway and were coming up the road. I thought it was weird that someone would be visiting a mushroom farm in the rain at night. Or at all. And we hadn’t seen anything else back here that would prompt visitors…”

“There’s an enchanted cave formerly guarded by a robotic dog and bats with glowing bellies.” Duncan waved toward the waterfall.

“You think that attracts a lot of visitors?” On the way to it, I hadn’t stumbled across a trail, so I doubted many people knew about the cave—especially if it was on private land.

“It attracted me .” Duncan flattened his hand on his chest.

“Yeah, but a lot of weird things attract you.”

He smiled and gazed at me but didn’t suggest that I was weird.

Two beams of light cut through the trees from down the slope, the direction of the mushroom building.

“Did they see you driving up here?” I asked Jasmine.

“They might have. I got out of there before they reached the raccoon den, but it was too dark to drive up without headlights, so they could have seen the truck. It’s also quiet enough out here that they could have heard it.” Jasmine spread her arms. “I didn’t know if I would find you. I thought I might get lost or stuck in one of the crater-sized potholes. Congrats on rescuing Duncan, by the way.”

“He didn’t exactly need rescuing,” I said .

“Except from my supreme loneliness and angst over not being able to visit you,” he said.

“I thought there would be shackles involved.”

“Intangible magical shackles, yes.”

I tilted my head as I considered him. “Can you come back with us now? Or are you compelled to keep hunting for the medallion? The other medallion?”

Duncan looked toward the headlights. Whoever was driving had decided the mushroom farm held no interest and was continuing up the mountain. Toward us. Or toward Duncan, anyway. His forehead scar glowed faintly in the night.

“I’m not certain,” he said. “As I mentioned, I haven’t fought the control as hard as I have other times.”

“Like when they tried to get you to kill me in that courtyard?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’ll fight them when they want you to murder a friend, but when they want you to go treasure hunting, you’re all in.”

Duncan winced. “I wouldn’t say I’m all in .”

“You ripped a glowing-eyed robot dog to pieces, leaped into a twenty-foot-deep hole, and swam around in murky water to find a magical bauble that wasn’t even what you were looking for.”

“The water wasn’t that murky.”

I folded my arms over my chest.

“I don’t think my priorities are wrong,” Duncan said.

“You shouldn’t be working for them, not willingly.”

Not at all.

“Whatever they want those artifacts for,” I continued, “it can’t be anything good. Those aren’t the kinds of people who are out to do good in the world.”

“I’m certain they are not.”

“But?”

Duncan extended his arm in the direction of the water, fingers flexing. Still called by the hunt? The treasure hunt ?

“Come back with us.” I patted the truck door. “We’ll give you a ride to your van. It misses you.”

“I also miss it—and the equipment carried within.”

“Uhm, Luna?” Jasmine turned her face as a Jeep rolled around a bend toward us, headlights shining in our eyes. A larger vehicle followed right behind, something that looked like a mix between a tank and an SUV.

With a start, I realized I’d seen it before. It had been in the garage at the lavender farm in Arlington.

“Get in the truck,” I told her.

“There’s not much room to turn around and go past them,” she said.

“They’re here for me,” Duncan said with certainty.

“I don’t doubt that, but they wanted me at one point too.” As I’d been thinking before, I hoped Abrams and Radomir had lost interest in me, but I couldn’t count on that.

“They won’t get you.” Duncan held out the medallion he’d found and walked into the road, arms spread.

“Come back with us,” I tried again. “We’ll find a way past them.”

Duncan shook his head, not looking back, and took a few more steps, as if he might keep the vehicles from running him over to get to our truck. Of course, if he turned into the bipedfuris, he would have that ability. I’d seen him rip steel doors off their hinges. The tank-SUV looked armored, but he could tear into that Jeep; I had little doubt.

The vehicles rolled to a stop, and I could sense magical beings inside. Or, if Radomir had the same army as before, those were normal humans amped up on potions that enhanced their strength.

“Duncan, if you abandon your treasure hunt and come back to Shoreline with me, to help me fight crime in the neighborhood, I’ll reward you with the finest of cacao-nib and bacon-bit dark chocolate.”

He looked wistfully over his shoulder at me. “That is very tempting.”

But not tempting enough, his resolute expression said.

I thought about promising him an invitation to my bedroom if he returned, bribing him with a more carnal pleasure. But the continuing glow of his scar left me uncertain about whether he could disobey that control device, even if he truly wanted to, and I didn’t voice the offer.

The passenger-side door of the Jeep opened, and a brute got out, a rifle in his grip. He squinted at Jasmine and me before looking toward Duncan and whispering something to the driver. He also glanced at the tank-SUV, though nobody had stepped out of that yet. I could just make out the driver, another brute with a similar magical aura to the other, and he nodded and pointed at us. Or… at me?

I couldn’t tell if these guys were among those who’d been at the compound the night Duncan and I had fought our way out. After turning into the bipedfuris, he’d killed a lot of those security guards. But even if these men hadn’t been there, they might have been given a photo of me, and they might have orders to collect me.

Duncan held up the medallion he’d found. The small emeralds glinted, reflecting the headlights.

The brute opened a back door and pointed for Duncan to get in.

“Turn around first,” Duncan said. “Both rigs.”

“We’ve got something to collect.” The brute looked at me.

I stepped behind the truck, waving for Jasmine to duck low. I didn’t want my ride to be shot up, but I wanted my niece shot up even less. And I would prefer not to end up bullet-ridden myself. If the men were supposed to collect me, they might not shoot me, but I wouldn’t bet a stick of gum on that .

Two doors on the tank-SUV opened, and another pair of muscled riflemen stepped out.

My stomach twisted with unease. If those firearms were loaded with silver bullets, the men might be a match for us, even if I turned wolf and Duncan shifted into his more powerful form.

“Nice of her to join you out here,” the first speaker said, “so we can get both at once.”

“Radomir doesn’t want her anymore,” Duncan said.

“Oh, he does. We just confirmed that.” The man nodded toward the driver of the Jeep. Maybe the guy had called their boss to ask. “We’ll even get a reward for finding her.”

“If you want this, what your boss really sent you out to collect, you’ll leave her alone.” Duncan swung the medallion in the air.

He and I knew it wasn’t what Radomir wanted, the match to my mother’s medallion, but Duncan had to believe the thugs wouldn’t know one magical artifact from another.

“We’ll have it and her.” The first rifleman pointed his firearm at Duncan’s chest.

My skin heated, magic tingling through my veins as the desire to protect him tried to bring forth the wolf. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Even if they had silver bullets, we would have a better chance of dodging gunfire and fighting the men as wolves.

“Oh, I can ensure you won’t have it.” Duncan drew the magnet out of his other pocket and held it close to the medallion, as if it were an old hard drive, and he could wipe its data. The dangling artifact didn’t stir, which I assumed meant it wasn’t made from anything magnetic, but Duncan’s confident expression implied he could do something to it. “This’ll steal the magic and make the bauble useless. It won’t help Radomir’s plans, and he’ll be very angry about losing it. There’ll be a punishment, not a reward.” His eyes narrowed. “And I know you’ve felt his punishment before… and how unpleasant it is.”

The men exchanged looks .

“I’ll get into the Jeep with you,” Duncan said, “but you leave the women alone, or I’ll destroy this.”

Faint murmurs came from the back vehicle. One of the men speaking on a phone to someone? Radomir?

If so, he might think to ask one of the brutes to get a good look at the medallion and describe it. He might also know that a magnet wouldn’t do anything to a magical artifact. At least, I doubted it would. Maybe Duncan truly did have something that could affect the medallion.

During the call, the riflemen kept their guns pointed at his chest. One of them continued to eye me as well. None of them were paying attention to Jasmine, who was doing as I’d asked, staying low behind the cover of the truck. But her jaw was clenched, her eyes determined, and I suspected she also felt the pull to change, to deal with a threat. She was, after all, a werewolf.

“All right. Fine.” The thug who’d opened the door for Duncan lowered his rifle. “We don’t need her. But, you, get in.”

Duncan gazed at all of the riflemen. They put their weapons in the vehicles and climbed in.

After giving me another look over his shoulder, Duncan tucked the medallion and magnet into opposing pockets in his jacket and headed for the vehicles. As the tank-SUV drove in reverse until the driver found a spot wide enough to turn around, Duncan got into the back of the Jeep. It also turned around, the headlights finally out of our eyes.

“Why do they want you ?” Jasmine asked as the two vehicles bumped down the road, heading back toward the highway.

“I’m not sure. When I met their bosses before, they had me touch some wolf artifacts, including my mother’s medallion and a chalice that gave me a vision, but I don’t think they knew about that.”

Actually, I had no idea about if they did. Wasn’t it possible the chalice had shared that vision with the whole room? In it, a bipedfuris—it might even have been Duncan—had been standing next to a waterfall and holding the cup aloft. If Radomir and Abrams had seen that vision, maybe it had prompted them to call Duncan and start sending him to check waterfalls in the area. Especially if they’d scrounged up some other research that had offered similar clues.

“Well, they seemed to want you back. I guess I’m glad nobody wanted me .” Jasmine waved to herself. “Even if that’s kind of insulting.”

“It’s better not to be wanted by bad guys. Trust me. You can focus on being wanted by prospective employers instead.”

I waved for her to get into the passenger seat and opened the driver-side door, but I couldn’t help but gaze wistfully down the mountain, wondering when I would see Duncan again. At least he wasn’t in a dungeon. He was doing what he loved. I did worry, however, what would happen when he returned to Radomir and Abrams without the werewolf medallion, especially after he’d implied to the thugs that he had it.

I shook my head. Duncan had chosen those actions of his own accord. What befell him wasn’t my fault. It bothered me, though, that he’d done it to protect me. It also bothered me that I had no idea how to rescue him if he was willing to go along with that magical compulsion and not fight it as much as he could. I didn’t think that was a good idea. My gut told me we didn’t want Radomir and Abrams acquiring any more werewolf artifacts. It also told me that they might get rid of Duncan once they had no use for him. Abrams had already had him dumped in a ditch once. Next time, he might have Duncan shot with a silver bullet.

“Are you okay?” Jasmine looked over at me.

I’d slid into the driver’s seat and gripped the wheel but was staring out the windshield without putting the truck in gear. Too lost in my grim thoughts .

“Yeah,” I said, even if I wasn’t. I forced a smile for her and started the truck down the road.

“You’re a crappy liar, Aunt Luna.”

“Yeah,” I repeated.