Page 23 of Relics of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #2)

23

The next day, I drove through Monroe on the way to my mother’s cabin. After the chaotic night, I hadn’t heard from Duncan, and I doubted I would. He belonged to that scientist now. Lord Abrams.

The thought of him serving them, and of them sending him after me, made me shiver. I’d been contemplating if there was any way I could return and help him escape, but they seemed to have programmed him to attack me. I couldn’t overcome the bipedfuris. I’d barely escaped with my life.

After fleeing the night before, I’d run hours in my wolf form, despite the pain from my wounds. The magic hadn’t subsided until I’d made it south of Everett, miles having passed under my paws. But there’d been miles more to go, and the jacket, with my phone and artifacts in the pockets, was the only clothing I’d escaped with. Once I’d been barefoot in my human form, my modesty barely covered, I’d called Jasmine to pick me up. Traveling miles through suburban streets as a wolf wouldn’t have been daunting, but as an almost naked human with numerous wounds? No, thanks.

Once we’d reached the apartment complex, I’d thanked her for her help, let her bandage my bloody gouges, and then gone straight to my bedroom. I’d collapsed unconscious for more than ten hours.

When I’d woken, with afternoon drizzle dampening the lawn outside my window, I’d been shocked that none of the tenants had come to my door, looking for assistance. Maybe they had, and I hadn’t heard them. Maybe they’d been too scared after the battle in the parking lot to wander out of their apartments at all. I grimaced at the thought and vowed that whatever happened to me in the future, I would do my best to keep it from affecting the people here.

Would that be possible? I hoped so, but Radomir and Abrams were still alive. Unfortunately. And I’d messed up their place and taken the artifacts. Only the ones they’d stolen from me and my mom, but… did that matter? They might feel vengeful anyway.

And what of Duncan? They could send him after me at any time. Unless he could escape on his own and get out of range of that device. He had once, hadn’t he? Maybe he could do so again.

“Let’s hope,” I said softly, turning into my mom’s driveway.

Right away, I hit the brakes. A white wolf stood, waiting for me, as if I were expected. Jasmine must have told them I would come by today.

I rolled down the window. “I have something for my mother.”

Though I didn’t know how many in the pack she’d confided the loss of the artifact to, I assumed Lorenzo was in the know, so I picked up the velvet-covered box and showed it to him. I trusted he could sense its magic, especially in his wolf form.

He padded to the side of the road. An invitation to pass?

When I drove by him, he sprang into the back of the truck. That startled me, and I barely avoided clipping a tree next to the winding driveway. In the rearview mirror, his tongue lolled out. Amused, was he?

“You’re spry for an older gentlewolf,” I called out the window.

He tilted his head back and howled.

That howl was familiar. He’d been the one to catch Duncan and me hunting to the east of the city, but this particular vocalization reminded me of the day we’d been talking and eating brisket at the Ballard Locks.

“Were you in Seattle recently?” I drove slowly as the cabin came into view between the trees. Only my mom’s Jeep was parked out front.

Lorenzo’s tongue lolled out again. I didn’t think I would get an answer, but after I parked, he jumped down from the back of the truck, not as a wolf but as a man. He was lean and fit, despite the creases at his eyes and whiteness of his short hair.

“I’m not spying on you,” Lorenzo told me, “but your mother is concerned that your cousins might still be plotting, so I am…” He turned a weathered palm toward the cloudy sky.

“Watching me?” I debated if that was the same thing as spying . I supposed not if he’d had protective rather than nefarious intent.

“Watching out for you. When I can. I’m also spending time with Umbra, bringing food when she’s not up to hunting.”

“I’m sure she appreciates that.”

His white eyebrows twitched. “She assures me she’s not an invalid and is capable of fending for herself until the day she dies.”

I snorted. That did sound more like the proud woman who was my mother. “Okay, then I appreciate it.”

“Good.” Lorenzo gazed toward the empty passenger seat of my truck. “You did not bring the strange outsider.”

“No, he’s… indisposed.”

That prompted another eyebrow twitch.

“When I saw you with him near the canal,” Lorenzo said, “I did not know if you considered him a friend or foe.”

“Yeah, I didn’t either.”

“I announced myself to let him know the pack is watching over you.”

I nodded, glad it had been my mother’s mate rather than my cousins. “He figured you weren’t there for the brisket.”

Lorenzo nodded toward the box I gripped and extended his hand toward the cabin. “Your mother will be pleased to see you. And that.”

He didn’t follow me inside. I found Mom in her bedroom, the curtains and a window open, despite the late autumn chill. A cheerful bird chirped out back, and fresh air flowed in, so I couldn’t blame her for the choice.

She lay in bed with a book in hand but her eyes closed. Emilio must have healed enough to return to his own home.

Mom still looked wan, despite her regenerative magic. I reminded myself that, unfortunately, the attacking thieves hadn’t been the only thing to plague her this year. How much longer did she have, I wondered. Maybe I would call up that alchemist and ask her if there were any magical treatments to help fight cancer. Even if there were, would Mom accept them? She’d said no to the normal human offerings.

Her head turned toward me, and her eyes opened, focusing first on my face and then on the box.

“You’ve retrieved the medallion. I am pleased.”

“Good.” I smiled and set it on her bedside table, then perched on a hard wooden chair, the only seat in the room.

“It is the only thing of value that I have to leave for you. And I was sworn to keep it and protect it. It holds power for the pack, power to keep us together and protect us.”

That was vague, and I wondered if she actually knew what the magic it held could do. Unlike the wolf case, it didn’t have any inscriptions that I’d noticed. No ancient words hinting of its use.

“Losing it was distressing for many reasons,” Mom added.

“The guy who ordered it stolen is unfortunately still alive. I got into his compound and was able to find this and also the wolf case that my ex-husband stumbled across somewhere. There were other artifacts too. All with wolves carved or engraved in them. All magical. I was a little tempted to grab everything, but then I would be a thief.”

“If they were of the werewolf, they’ve more right to be held by our kind than by a mundane human. Or… was this thief something else?”

“He had some magical items, but I believe he was fully human.” I shrugged apologetically, wishing I’d learned more. As soon as Abrams had compelled Duncan to attack me, I’d lost interest in anything but surviving. “He also has a lot of minions that were amped up on potions. I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of them.”

“I will speak with Lorenzo, and we will prepare the pack and our territory. We will not be surprised again if men with silver bullets arrive.”

“Good,” I said, though I regretted that I hadn’t been able to put an end to the threat. At this stage in my mom’s life, preparing for battle was the last thing she needed to worry about. “I’m not sure what he wants, but he and a scientist are awfully interested in werewolves, and our artifacts, for some reason.”

“We are an interesting people.” Mom managed a smile.

“That’s true.”

“I’m glad you’ve remembered this.”

Since I’d lost it in the parking lot against those men, I was more conflicted about my decision to stop taking the potion, but the world seemed to want me to be a werewolf right now. And, since I knew it was what my mother wanted, I nodded my agreement toward her.

“Will we see the lone wolf again?” From her tone, it was hard to tell if she wanted that or hoped Duncan had left the area permanently.

“You seemed concerned about him.”

“Yes, but I have been thinking about that. He was powerful. Were he to become a trusted ally, perhaps he would be tolerable.”

“I’m positive my cousins don’t want the pack tolerating him.”

They didn’t even tolerate me .

“What they want is immaterial,” Mom said. “If they keep troubling you, we will kick them out of the pack.”

I didn’t know if she and even the sturdy Lorenzo were a match for all of them, but I didn’t say so. The last thing I wanted was to be responsible for a brouhaha within the pack.

“Duncan helped me get the artifacts back,” I said to change the subject. I also wanted her to know that he had assisted me, that he wasn’t a bad guy. I almost told her that he could take the two-legged form, but he’d confided his story to me in private, so I felt compelled to keep his secrets.

“Did he? That is good.” After a thoughtful pause, Mom added, “As I said, he is very powerful. I believe he is from an ancient bloodline without much dilution.”

“Yeah.”

“When you two came before, you should have brought him in to meet me.”

“The brute squad on the porch wouldn’t have let him enter. Besides, he was busy sniffing lavender.”

“You will bring him for an introduction next time,” Mom stated, an order rather than a request.

That would be a hard order to obey if Duncan was in the clutches of a new master. No, a very old master.

Not wanting to disappoint my dying mother, I said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Good.” She yawned and closed her eyes.

I patted her hand and left the medallion, as well as a few squares of chocolate.