Page 10 of Relics of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #2)

10

Twilight was creeping into the woods, and most of the family had dispersed by the time I stepped out of the cabin. A few remained on the porch, arms folded across their chests as they gazed into the woods toward the road. Was that the direction Duncan had gone? I suspected they were keeping an eye on him—or at least making sure he didn’t return and represent a further threat. I didn’t see any of my cousins.

I trotted into the woods, thought I caught a hint of Duncan’s scent, and headed onto paths that wove between the trees. A faint beeping soon reached my ears. His magic detector.

Following the noise, I spotted his outline near an ancient fir a dozen yards from the road. His fingers rested on the mossy bark, as if he were communing with the tree, while the metal detector in his other hand beeped cheerfully.

As I approached, I tried to see and sense him as my mother and the various other people who’d called him dangerous had. When he’d first appeared in the greenbelt by my apartment complex, whistling and wielding his metal detector, my senses had been dulled by the lingering effects of my last potion. Even then, I’d gotten a hint of the feral power about him. I’d known right away he was a werewolf. But was he more than that? And, if so, what more?

Since I hadn’t taken a dose of the potion at the last full moon, my magic—and my senses—had returned to me. I could notice his power, like the sun radiating energy. I’d gotten used to it, and his affable smile always seemed to say he was the opposite of dangerous, but when I attempted to assess him through fresh eyes, I could see what others saw. He seemed pure werewolf to me—not like those guys taking the strength-enhancing potion—but, as Mom had said, he was an especially strong werewolf.

“Hey, Luna.” Unaware of my scrutiny, Duncan waved for me to come over.

“I take it your device isn’t beeping due to the proximity of werewolves.”

“Nope. I’ve programmed it not to register those right now. They’re all over the place here.”

“I did warn you about that.”

“You did.” Duncan lowered his voice to add, “One of your cousins is watching from the other side of the road, about fifty yards that way.” He twitched a finger but didn’t look in that direction, instead continuing to consider the tree. “He’s in hiding, but I know he’s there, so you might want to be careful what you say.”

“I doubt he’s working for the other side,” I replied, but I did speak softly. It sounded like Mom hadn’t admitted to many others yet that she’d lost the medallion. I intended to get it back before the rest of the family found out. “He probably wants to see if an opportunity comes up to kick your ass.”

“I have no doubt about that .” Duncan turned off the magic detector to stop the beeps and opened a tool kit he’d also brought. He pulled out pliers, then poked them into a hole in the moss and bark.

A bullet hole, I realized. He’d already used a knife or other sharp tool to cut some of the bark away, and he used the pliers to extract the projectile.

“It’s silver but not only silver.” Duncan held it up, the bullet smashed flat from striking the tree. “Whatever metallurgist made it imbued it with additional magic. Your pack is lucky nobody died.” He looked at me. “Is that right? Is the kid you mentioned going to make it?”

“Emilio, and I heard it was bad, but he smiled and grabbed a salami in his sleep, so that seemed promising for his health.”

“It takes a great injury to dull a werewolf’s appetite.”

“Yes. The men took off in trucks, from what I heard.”

In the fading light, deep tire tracks in the dirt road were visible. They’d probably torn out of here at top speed.

“Is there any way you know of that I don’t that would allow us to track them back to their lair?” I added.

“A wolf could follow the scent of the trucks for a while, but… probably not once they got to main roads.” Duncan’s brow furrowed slightly as he turned the bullet over, eyeing it from all angles. “I did catch that hint of lavender again a couple of times. Our blond thug was here with the other attackers.”

“That wasn’t an ingredient in that Tiger Blood potion, was it?” I asked, though I doubted someone would smell like one of many ingredients in a liquid they’d consumed hours or days before, not unless it contained something potent, like garlic.

“Rue didn’t give us the full list, but I can ask her later. I’ll probably go back to see if she can offer any insight into this.” Duncan held up the bullet.

I touched it and felt the faintest tingle of magic. It wasn’t exceedingly powerful, less than what I’d sensed from the wolf case or my mom’s medallion, and I suspected it had a small enchantment designed to make the bullets more deadly for our kind.

“I need to find those guys—or whoever hired them,” I said grimly.

“I know. I’ll help.”

I gazed at Duncan in the deepening shadows, my mom’s warning about him coming to mind. I wanted his offer to help to be sincere—for him to be sincere. But maybe I was foolish to think he was anything other than a treasure hunter looking for treasure. Treasure that my ex had hired him to get.

Maybe I needed to visit an alchemist myself and try to acquire something that could stop him if he turned on me. My gut twisted at the thought of attacking him after he’d joined me in so many battles. We hunted and fought well together. I didn’t want Duncan to be an enemy.

What if I could find the men and the artifacts on my own? Then Duncan’s allegiance wouldn’t matter. If Jasmine’s dad got a lead, maybe I could figure something out. Or find a store that sold lavender-scented deodorant and was frequented by men amped up on potions.

“Are you admiring my profile and thinking of how appealing I am?” Duncan asked into the long silence.

“Oh, absolutely. It’s hard for me to think about anything else.”

“Unfortunately for my ego, I detect sarcasm in your tone.”

“You’re a perceptive werewolf.”

Duncan pocketed the smashed silver bullet and lowered the pliers. “Do you need to do anything else up here? Do you want a ride back?”

“I think I’m done for now. I’m not that much more welcome here than you are. But Mom is okay, for the moment. As okay as she can be. And I… I’ve got work to do back home.”

That wasn’t untrue, as I doubtless had a long list of tenant requests after being gone most of the day, but the work I had in mind was figuring out a way to find the artifacts.

“Of course.” Duncan gazed across the road in the direction where he’d presumably glimpsed—or sensed—whichever cousin was lurking. “Are they done harassing you? Do you know?”

“Lorenzo told them to leave me alone, but I don’t know if they’ll listen. He’s strong, but he’s older, and my cousins think they’re the young shits.”

“I noticed.”

“I wasn’t positive which one of us Augustus was after when he charged at the van.”

“Both maybe. Right before I changed, I saw him snap toward you. You were fast enough to avoid it, but he wasn’t holding back.”

“Maybe he thought they could kill me and then say it was an accident, that they were after you.”

“Even though I’ve done nothing.” Duncan splayed his hand across his chest. “And I’m a delight.”

I snorted. “You’re a lone wolf, and they don’t like you.”

“Such a crime to travel solo.”

“They can also sense…” I stepped closer, catching his gaze in the dying light. “Those with magic all seem to sense that you’re extra dangerous.” I decided to dive in and ask directly. “Why is that? Will you tell me?” Would he answer?

Duncan hesitated. “I prefer to keep my past to myself.”

“Your past? Or your heritage? It’s not like something that happened in your youth would give you more power, right?”

He shrugged and returned my gaze without looking away, but I could tell he didn’t want to go into more detail.

I lifted a hand and stepped back, not wanting to push him. I didn’t appreciate when people pried into my past, after all.

“Would you trust me more if I told you?” he asked softly.

“I guess if it was the truth and I could tell it was the truth.”

He snorted softly. “I don’t have a lie detector that I can hand you to hold on me.”

“What? All that equipment in your van and no lie detector? That’s disappointing.”

“The treasures I find don’t usually get mendacious with me.”

“No? Those rusty forks haven’t looked trustworthy.”

He laughed softly, then stepped closer and wrapped his arms around me. His grip was loose, and I could have stepped out of it if I wished, but I caught myself leaning into him and wanting him to reveal… whatever he would.

“I like it when you verbally fence with me,” Duncan said. “Usually, people with power are arrogant and stuck on themselves. You’re fun.”

“Thanks, but I’m a property manager who only gets by on what I’m paid because of the free rent. I’m the opposite of someone with power.”

“You know what I mean. The power of the wolf.” Duncan rested his face against the side of my head, his lips brushing the tip of my ear. Pleasure zipped along my nerves. “It has nothing to do with one’s station in the human world,” he continued, “though you could certainly use it to claim money and status and power there, if you wished. Most werewolves scorn everything human and prefer to be left alone, but history is full of those who used their lycanthropy to create minions and take land and wealth for themselves. You would never consider doing such. You want to win ethically and morally.”

“You know me that well, do you?”

“I’ve seen your envelopes.”

“And following a budget defines me?”

“Following the rules when you have the option not to does.”

It surprised me that he valued that. He’d come to Seattle to steal something from my apartment, after all. He didn’t seem that much of a rule follower himself.

I shifted my head to look him in the eyes. Only my wolf blood sharpening my vision allowed me to see his face in the deepening dark, the strong line of his jaw, the scar above his eyebrow, the way he gazed back at me with intensity, his arms tightening around me. His power seemed to envelop me as well, promising he would protect me and that I would enjoy being with him.

I opened my mouth to say that I might indeed trust him more if he told me about his past. But he must have assumed my parted lips meant I wanted to be kissed, for his mouth lowered, capturing mine.

I hesitated, conflicted on whether I wanted this. Oh, my body responded to him, nerves lighting up with longing, and I had to resist the urge to grip his shoulders and return the kiss— hard . But he was still a question mark, his intentions unknown. His past and his heritage were a mystery.

Despite all my reservations, the feel of his hard body and his power mingling with mine was appealing. Appealing and arousing. Before I’d made up my mind about the wisdom of the choice, I kissed him back, reveling in his touch and his interest. He found me more than fun . We were close enough that I could tell that.

A howl came from the driveway.

That wasn’t one of my cousins. It sounded like Lorenzo, the white wolf saying this was pack territory and that this activity wasn’t welcome here, not with a stranger.

Duncan growled, not breaking our kiss, and he clasped my butt, keeping me close to him, molded to him. Though my body sang with pleasure, I leaned back.

He released me slowly, with reluctance. A hint of that growl lingered in his voice when he shot a dark look toward the driveway and said, “I hadn’t imagined the family being so involved if I chose to date a mature woman almost as old as I am.”

“We’re not dating. We’re tracking bad guys.”

“Ah.” His gaze returned to me. “I was confused by your eager lip touching.”

“And your hand on my ass?”

“No, that wasn’t confusing in the least.” He smiled roguishly and squeezed me before stepping back.

Damn if I didn’t like that squeeze and want to shift closer again. But another howl came from the driveway, and I refrained.

“I’ll take you home.” Duncan picked up his magic detector and tool kit, and led me down one of the paths heading toward his van. “Unless you’d like to drive back to that pond, where only the beavers would be witness, and test the firmness of my mattress?”

“I would not.” That might have been a lie, but since he didn’t have that lie detector, I felt safe in asserting it. “Beavers are notorious gossips. And you… are still being evasive with me.”

“I know.” He sounded sad about it, but that feeling, if genuine, didn’t prompt him to share any more about himself. He merely opened the passenger door for me.

“Thanks.”

As Duncan turned the van around and drove toward the road, no wolves were visible. My senses told me that some were watching us, though, making sure we left.

For a fleeting moment, it crossed my mind that if I found Mom’s medallion and returned it, the family might think more kindly toward me. They might accept me once more. But if she hadn’t told anyone, and I could return it before the others found out, she would be the only one to know I’d retrieved it. That was okay. That would be enough. Let the feelings of the family toward me be as they would.

“I don’t trust that trouble isn’t going to come after you again,” Duncan said, his thoughts on other topics. “I want to stay in your parking lot tonight in case you need help.”

“Or in case I get randy and call you to my bedroom?”

“Is that a possibility?”

“No.”

“You’re sure? I haven’t noticed any gossipy beavers in that area.”

“I’m sure.”

“All right, but you won’t object if I stay close?”

“You’ll find out if you wake up with a tow truck attaching chains to your van.”

He snorted. “As long as the tires don’t get slashed again.”

“I wish those guys would show up and attack so we could capture them and force them to tell us what the deal is, but… I don’t have anything left for them to steal. I doubt I’ll see them again.”

“I was thinking more of your cousins. I don’t think they’re done with you.”

If Augustus knew the medallion he wanted his wife to inherit had been stolen, he might have been done with me, but I wouldn’t speak of what my mom had told me in confidence, not with my relatives and definitely not with Duncan.

“You can stay,” I told him. “In the parking lot.”

“Of course, my lady.” He made a hat-tipping gesture at me as he turned the van onto the pavement of the road heading back to town. “I’ll pine for you from afar.”

By the light of the dashboard, his gaze was more intent than teasing, and a longing crept into me, a wondering of what might have happened in the woods if my family hadn’t shown up.

Nothing, I told myself firmly. I wasn’t going to sleep with a man I couldn’t trust. Not again.