Page 21

21

Since we were taking Duncan’s Roadtrek, I didn’t object to him driving, but when we were cruising along on the highway, and he leaned forward, grunting and grabbing his forehead, I second-guessed that choice. His scar lit up, a faint orange glow seeping out between his fingers.

I lifted a hand, worried I would have to take the wheel to keep the van from veering off the road.

Duncan clenched his jaw, squeezed his fingers into a fist, and lowered his hand. He seemed to get control of himself, though the glow continued to be noticeable.

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked quietly.

Outside, dark gray clouds had rolled in, and fat snowflakes wafted down. If they started sticking, the roads would turn slick. A distracted driver would be a bad idea.

“He’s calling me back. Trying to call me back.”

“That didn’t quite answer my question.”

“It’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” Duncan frowned and returned both hands to the wheel, but his peevishness didn’t last long. “ Sorry. Having to fight it makes me testy.” He managed a quick smile for me before returning his focus to the highway—and keeping Radomir from affecting him, I had no doubt.

“It is what I was hoping for today, but not while you’re driving, ideally. Unless the call would prompt you to roll us right into Radomir’s garage.”

“With the wolf case that he’s been trying to steal nestled in the glove compartment?”

“It’s nestled between my feet. I looked in your glove compartment, but I wouldn’t be able to fit anything else in there. You have it stuffed with tools.”

“Stuffed. Really. The tools are neatly organized.”

“They’re covered with dust, and there was a Queen tape in the mix. Does your van even have a tape player?”

“ I have a tape player. For nostalgia.”

“Back there among the underwater demolitions?”

“No, you don’t keep your music in your armory.” Duncan looked at me like I didn’t know anything, though a more relaxed smile accompanied the expression. Maybe the magic trying to compel him to Radomir’s lair had faded. If so, I had no doubt the guy would try again. “It’s in the little cabinet for bathroom supplies.”

“Silly me,” I murmured. “I’d assumed extra rolls of toilet paper would go in there.”

“When you live in a van, there’s no room for extra rolls of toilet paper. You have to be conservative.”

“But using storage space for eighties cassette tapes is okay.”

“One has to prioritize.”

“I might prioritize bathroom necessities over that, but it’s your van.”

“They do sound like a married couple, don’t they?” came a whisper from the back. Jasmine .

If I hadn’t had enhanced hearing, I might not have heard the words over the rumble of the engine and the road noise.

“I told you,” Bolin replied softly. “Luna keeps saying they’re not, you know, but they act like they’re, you know.”

“Having sex?”

“Yeah.” Bolin’s cheeks were probably red.

Duncan, whose hearing was as keen as mine, slanted me a look. “I thought when your intern brought the violin case, he would play music, not gossip about us.”

“I think he’s going to use it to thump bad guys.” I didn’t mention the serenading plans. Jasmine also had keen hearing, and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise in case Bolin went through with it.

“Some druids have magical staffs they use as weapons,” Duncan said.

“He’s kind of a neophyte.”

“I can hear you two,” Bolin said sourly.

Apparently, it was okay for them to talk about us but not vice versa.

“It’s not a very big van,” I said.

“Tell me about it.” Two thunks sounded as Bolin opened and closed a cabinet door. “There’s SCUBA gear stored with the crackers and Spam.”

“Just don’t ask about extra rolls of toilet paper,” I said.

That earned me another look from Duncan. “I was going to tell you what I know about the location of the other missing medallion, so we could compare notes, but you’ve been teasing me a lot this morning. I might withhold.”

“If you knew the location, you wouldn’t have been battling a robot dog over a druid doohickey.”

“Radomir had a list of possible places he wanted me to check. That was one.”

“Druid doohickey?” Bolin asked .

“A medallion with a tree on it,” Duncan said. “I had to give it to Radomir. He wasn’t that pleased, since I’d implied I had the wolf medallion, but it was valuable enough that he said a collector would be interested, so he forgave me.”

“A collector?” I asked. “Not him or Abrams?”

“A collector. Abrams and Radomir are only after werewolf artifacts.”

“But you have no idea why?”

We’d already discussed this, so I didn’t expect a new answer, but Duncan didn’t always tell me everything. Maybe something pertinent would slip out this time.

“Werewolves are magnificent.” He lifted his chin.

“You’re not going to bring up trimming again, are you?”

“No. That’s a personal choice. Not all werewolves keep themselves tidy. Some are quite…”

“ Au naturel ?” I suggested.

“Indeed.” Duncan took the turn off the main highway to head through town and toward the forested lands that held my mother’s cabin. As we traveled into the foothills of the mountains, the ground grew snowy. At the higher elevation, it had been sticking for a while. “Radomir had a map with lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers circled. He’d come across some rumors or lore about the medallion last being seen near a waterway.”

“Mom’s aunt said a lake specifically.”

Duncan nodded. “That’s possible. Back in the days before goggles and SCUBA gear, a relatively deep body of water might have been considered a decent place to hide something.”

“So if the wayward wolf who stole it from my pack knew he was being pursued, he might have thrown the medallion in?”

“Even if those trying to retrieve it could sense the magic,” Duncan said, “diving down and getting it out would have been difficult.”

“It would have been difficult for the thief to get it out too. ”

“Maybe, at that point, he simply didn’t want to be caught with it and didn’t hope to find it again. Or he was naive about his ability to do so in a lake.”

“I guess it’s a good thing you’ve got a van full of SCUBA equipment.”

“Absolutely.”

“You should probably let Radomir call you to his garage, so you’ll have easy access to it.” I waggled my eyebrows. That would be a lot easier than trekking after a bipedfuris with a GPS tracker in my mouth.

“With you and your well-armed brute squad—” Duncan glanced back at the violin case, “—ready to jump out and attack him when we arrive?”

“Naturally.”

Duncan gave me a longer look. “Are you planning to kill him? Both of them? So they can’t harass your mother again?”

“I’m not a murderer.” I winced, well aware that I had killed before. But that had been in self-defense, damn it. “And I’m more worried about keeping them from harassing you .” That wasn’t entirely true. I did want to end the threat to my mother, ideally to the whole pack. “From controlling you anyway.”

“I’d prefer they not harass or control me,” Duncan said wistfully.

“Good. I’ve wondered how hard you’re fighting them… or at least their quest.”

“As I admitted, this quest isn’t unappealing, but I would be happier searching by your side, with the intent to give the medallion to you , rather than having anything to do with them .”

“I believe you. I’m going to make sure they leave the picture.” I set my jaw and looked out the window as we drove deeper into the forestlands, snow dusting the boughs of evergreens.

Duncan looked like he wanted to ask more, but he fell silent as we continued up the road. A for-sale sign that hadn’t been there before caught my eye. It was past the beaver pond and not far from Mom’s property, though it was on the opposite side of the road.

“Is that a bite taken out of that sign?” Bolin asked from the back.

“That happened the day it went up,” Jasmine said. “The night . Some of the pack members like to dissuade people from buying and developing the land out here, and normal humans aren’t dissuaded by the usual ways wolves mark territory.”

“Does that mean one of your family members…”

“They’ve been known to pee on such real-estate signs, yes.”

“I can see where humans wouldn’t really notice that.”

“Yeah, they’re obtuse. You should see what one of my cousins did to a land-development notification a little ways back down the road.”

“I’m not sure I want to imagine,” Bolin said.

“The pack knows those lands don’t belong to us, not in the legal, human sense of these things, but when you’re in wolf form, you know how it is.” Jasmine shrugged. Maybe she’d forgotten that Bolin wasn’t one of our kind and wouldn’t know that. “You think like a wolf, not someone aware of property lines. At least the family still owns quite a bit of land back here. Your mom specifically, I think, Luna. My parents mentioned that once. Apparently, more than one real estate developer has approached your mom about selling. None of those meetings went well for them.”

“Were signs not the only thing bitten?” I asked.

“I think not.”

When we turned into Mom’s driveway, I sensed other werewolves about. None of the family had attacked me since Augustus had passed and his cronies had been asked to leave the pack, but I gripped the case through the towel. Others would sense its magic and be curious. They might be more than curious.

Only a couple of cars were parked in Mom’s driveway. At the moment, there weren’t any werewolves, naked or otherwise, snoozing around the cabin. With the temperatures dropping, and snow blanketing the ground, maybe the family wasn’t inclined toward that hobby.

After Duncan parked his van, I opened the door and rearranged the towel to fully hide the case.

“Should we… stay inside?” Bolin peered out one of the van’s side windows, one that wasn’t blocked by equipment, and into the trees beside the long driveway.

I didn’t see anyone but sensed a couple of pack members in that direction, likely in wolf form. Was that Rocco? He was a young upstart who might interfere.

“You’ll be fine here,” Jasmine said.

“Because you’ll protect me?” Bolin asked.

“Because the family hates Duncan and focuses their animosity on him.”

“I thought that was only Luna’s cousins.” Duncan slid his keys into his pocket. “And they’re gone now.”

“Oh, everyone gets concerned when you’re around,” Jasmine told him. “It’s the uber powerful old-worldness that clings to you.”

“I should have taken you up on your offer to shower this morning,” Duncan said to me.

As if that would wash away his power.

Still, I smiled and said, “Yes,” before getting out, a half inch of snow squishing under my shoes. It dusted the ferns and rocks to either side of the driveway, though it hadn’t yet filled in under the trees.

None of the loitering wolves intercepted me on the way to Mom’s front door. They were probably here as protection in case Radomir’s men showed up.

Inside, Lorenzo sat at the table, looking worried.

“Are things… okay?” I asked him, holding the door open for Duncan to follow me in.

“Last night, while many of us were gone hunting, one of the enemy’s trucks came by and presumed to come halfway up the driveway. A magical security device blew out one of its tires and knocked the fender into the trees, and the driver retreated. The vehicle parked down the road until several of us returned home. Also…” Lorenzo looked toward the open door to Mom’s bedroom. “Your mother didn’t snip or snark at me this morning.”

“And that’s… unusual?” I guessed, knowing my mother’s personality well, despite my long absence.

“It is. I would have deserved it. During the hunt, I was distracted and failed to bring down a buck.” Lorenzo shook his head sadly.

“Do you want me to snark at you?” I looked toward the front door.

Duncan stood at the threshold and hadn’t yet presumed to come in.

“It wouldn’t be the same.” Lorenzo considered the towel I held, the case bundled within, occasionally zapping me through the thick material.

“It’s an artifact. I’m not sure if we told you about it.”

Mom might have told him about it. I unwrapped the towel enough to show him the ivory case, the fanged wolf head carved into the lid. I also shared the translation and that we’d seen it heal Duncan after he’d been poisoned.

“It may not do anything for Mom,” I warned when a glimmer of hope entered Lorenzo’s eyes, “but I doubt it’ll hurt to try.”

“It felt quite delightful, actually.” Duncan rested his hand on his side in the spot where the poisoned sword had slashed him.

“You’re welcome to make the attempt.” Lorenzo nodded toward Mom’s room. “Assuming she’ll let you.”

“She might snark about it,” I said.

“I hope so.” He smiled wistfully.

I waved for Duncan to follow me but realized that Lorenzo and the others would sense it when Duncan changed into the powerful bipedfuris form. Would the whole pack run in, believing my mother threatened?

“If you sense something,” I told Lorenzo, “Mom won’t be in trouble. We need to summon the magic of the artifact.”

I looked at Duncan, hoping that was the truth, that Mom wouldn’t be in any danger. I didn’t think so. When Duncan had turned in my presence, without the control device nearby, he had defended me.

“They can’t make me attack anyone from this far away,” he said quietly, as if reading my mind.

“What do you mean by sense something ?” Lorenzo asked.

I held up the case. “It only responded before—opened to let the artifact inside come out—when a werewolf was present. A real bipedfuris.” I extended a hand toward Duncan, certain Lorenzo knew by now that he could change into that form.

The flat, cool look that Lorenzo adopted implied he knew… and wasn’t thrilled about it. Maybe Mom hadn’t told him that she wanted Duncan to be my mate and produce powerful offspring.

“Perhaps we should have stopped at that pet store for a rattlesnake,” Duncan murmured to me when Lorenzo’s cool look continued.

“I was being sarcastic about that. You can’t buy rattlesnakes at pet stores.”

“Something else venomous then?”

“I don’t think so. They don’t want parents to sue them when scorpions sting their little kids.”

Lorenzo looked back and forth between us. What he took from our banter, I didn’t know, but he gestured toward Mom’s bedroom door. “Do what you must. I trust Umbra will let you know if she objects.”

“Oh, I’m positive.”

I walked to her bedroom, knocking lightly on the open door. “Mom? Are you awake? ”

“Awake enough to sense your artifact and your old-world werewolf.” She rested in bed, propped against pillows, a book closed beside her.

Her left hand was still bandaged. That was odd. Werewolves usually healed quickly—our kind were known for that. Even if age and illness had diminished her power, I wouldn’t have expected a wound she received several days ago to still need bandaging.

More, there were not one but two chains around her neck. The witch talisman and… was she wearing the female version of the family medallion under her shirt? Because she felt the need for more protection? Or hoped their power would help her feel better?

“That’s pretty awake,” was all I said, forcing a smile though worry knotted my stomach.

“I sensed him before you turned up the driveway. He’s like the sun.”

“Radiant, warm, and delightful?” Duncan stepped into the doorway and bowed to Mom, though he didn’t call her my lady . That probably would have elicited the snark Lorenzo had missed.

“Blinding,” Mom said. “But since you’re using your power to help my daughter, I won’t object to it. Or to you.” She gazed between us.

Willing her not to bring up fertility, I raised the wolf case. “We want to try something.”

I wanted to try something, I amended silently. Duncan kindly did not object to my phrasing, though he did look pensively out the window. His scar wasn’t glowing at the moment. I was glad. That might have worried Mom, and I would have had to explain it.

Her gaze lingered on his forehead when she looked him over. Maybe she sensed something magical—something binding —in the scar even without the glow.

“That is the artifact you’ve spoken of?” was all she asked.

“Yes. When it opened at a timely moment, it healed a poisoned wound.” I hesitated to describe in detail the night I’d battled and killed my own cousin—even if Augustus had been a douche, he’d been family. But I wanted her to know why I’d brought the case, so I explained those final moments, the way the mushroom-shaped artifact inside had saved Duncan’s life. “There’s nothing in the translation on the case that suggests it would cure a terminal illness, but… why not try?”

I forced a smile, though tears threatened, brought up by thinking of Mom’s end, of what would happen if the artifact couldn’t do anything. Not for the first time, I regretted all the years I’d stayed away. Maybe she wouldn’t have accepted me as I’d been, but I’d missed knowing her as an adult.

“I admit when you walked in holding an artifact, I hoped it was the lost family medallion, the male version of mine.” Mom’s hand strayed to the chains around her neck. “Did Lorenzo tell you all about what Aunt Concetta said?”

“He did, and we are indeed on a quest to find the medallion. Duncan already battled a robot dog and bats with glowing bellies in an attempt to locate it.”

“The bats didn’t bother me,” he said.

“They dive-bombed me,” I told him. “And did I tell you how some of Radomir’s thugs stayed behind in that tank-SUV to try to run Jasmine and me off the road?”

His eyebrows rose. “I did wonder what happened to your truck, but I’d assumed it was the motorcycle hoodlums who keep assailing your home.”

“We do get assailed a lot there.” I sighed, reminded that I’d left that problem unfinished. Dubois might even now be knocking on my door.

Mom cleared her throat, probably not caring about the assailing of a human apartment complex.

“You will become the bipedfuris in an attempt to open the case?” she asked Duncan .

There weren’t any tears in her eyes. Maybe she’d come to terms with her fate. If she’d hoped to end her life the night she’d picked a fight alone with a bear, she must have.

“We think that’s what triggered it,” I said.

“You can take that form at will? Even with the full moon not near?” Mom waved toward the window, more focused on Duncan than me or the case. “And no threat leaping upon you?”

“It’s more easily bestirred by those things,” he said, “the same as the wolf, but I can call upon it at will.”

“I would like to see that. A bipedfuris. When you changed in my driveway before, I only glimpsed it. I would love to see it up close. Before you came here, I’d only heard the tales from those who were old when I was young.”

“So you’re game to try this?” I lifted the case.

Mom flicked dismissive fingers. “There are no artifacts that can heal the Taint. Rosaria, the wise wolf, confirmed that. But I would be delighted to see a bipedfuris before my time passes. What a gift.”

Duncan smiled and bowed.

“He already thinks highly of himself,” I told Mom. “Don’t stroke his ego.”

“Some stroking is usually required when one wants to win the favor of an exceptional mate,” she said, holding my gaze, making it clear she thought I should be stroking something of Duncan’s.

“She called me exceptional.” Duncan waggled his eyebrows at me.

“She’s buttering your buns because she wants to see you get tall and furry.”

“Men do love to have things buttered.”

“Oh, I know.” I refused to do that, but I pulled out a bar of fine dark chocolate infused with hazelnut liqueur and dusted with chopped hazelnuts. Slowly—tantalizingly—I peeled open the wrapper and offered him two squares .

“Ah, delightful.” He popped one into his mouth.

“Chocolate rewards for good behavior also work,” I told Mom, then laid two squares on her bedside table in case she was in the mood.

“We all have our ways.” She waved as if in dismissal, but she also picked up a square to eat.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll disrobe.” Duncan looked around, as if he might find a dressing screen or a walk-in closet in my mom’s two-room log cabin. There hadn’t even been indoor plumbing when it had originally been built.

“We don’t mind.” Despite her age and weakened state, Mom managed something of a salacious smile.

“Ah.” Duncan scratched his jaw and looked around again. Were his cheeks a touch pink?

I knew he wouldn’t mind getting naked in front of me—in fact, I hadn’t noticed that he minded getting naked in front of many people—but maybe a friend’s mother was a different story.

“Show her how well trimmed you are.” I swatted him on the chest but also nodded toward the doorway, in case he would prefer to undress in front of Lorenzo and then make a dramatic entrance. “She’ll be impressed.”

“As so many ladies are.” Duncan recovered his equanimity enough to wink and bow to me.

“He’s a little full of himself,” I told Mom as she watched with a bland expression.

“Those with power always are.”

Duncan issued a disgruntled sound, then started removing clothing, apparently deciding that doing it in front of Lorenzo wouldn’t be any better than in front of us.

To give him privacy, I turned to look out the window past Mom’s headboard. She didn’t. She openly scrutinized Duncan as he undressed. She was probably assessing his power and fitness to father offspring rather than ogling him out of sexual interest, and I was positive she didn’t care if he trimmed himself.

She didn’t say anything aloud, but, after finishing her perusal, she did give me a significant look, as if to say, This one will do.

I sighed and shook my head.

After kicking off loafers and draping his clothes over a chair, Duncan walked naked to a corner and stared at the floor. He’d made it sound like summoning the bipedfuris was easy, whether the moon or a threat bestirred the magic or not, but he probably had to concentrate, perhaps imagine himself running through the forest in his furry form, hunting enticing prey.

I unwrapped the case from the towel and placed it on the bedside table near Mom. If I’d known any words I could use to entreat the magic to come forth, I would have chanted them.

“It can be difficult to call upon the beast without an inciting event causing strong emotions,” Mom said, watching Duncan, his muscled back toward us.

“I could get Rocco in here to threaten him,” I offered.

“That pup is no threat,” Duncan murmured, not looking back at us.

“Maybe Emilio could beat you with a salami. That has to be threatening.”

“Do not distract him,” Mom murmured to me. “I am most curious.”

“About the case or Duncan?”

Since she’d barely looked at the artifact, I didn’t need to ask. She smiled at me.

The power that always emanated from Duncan increased, fluctuating like an energy field rippling over his skin. His muscles thickened, his torso broadened, salt-and-pepper fur sprouted from his skin, and he grew taller, his head almost brushing the ceiling as his face also changed, teeth sharpening and a snout half as long as a wolf’s forming .

The bipedfuris turned toward us, fingers flexing, showing off sharp claws, and his brown eyes were no longer entirely human. Though they remained sharp with intelligence, their ancient depths spoke of power and the savagery of the wilderness.

Even though I’d expected this—I’d requested this—uncertainty swept through me. What if he attacked instead of helping? Neither Mom nor I had the power to stop him.