Page 28 of Witchblood

Apahad sent Oberon with my things. They’d given me back my home, even if it was across the country. Did that mean they didn’t want me dead, punished, or humiliated? I was so confused. This whole day had been madness. Waking up in the middle of a pack with an alpha who was claiming to be my mate. Calming rabid wolves, cowed by little girls, healed with a kiss, and confronted with my past. Too much. It was all just too much. I should have let Liam go, gone back into the house, or followed my trailer, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know what to do. Move or stay still? Run or hold on?

“Seb?” Oberon asked.

“He’s processing,” Liam said. “Lots of thinking. Your father warned me that hethinks himself into a corner and back again.”

Oberon snorted. “Made him really good at alchemy and herbalism. Was always testing and hypothesizing. He and Felix were always a bad match. Felix doesn’t think, just demands. Anyway, the inside of the house is untouched. The wards wouldn’t let any of us go inside. Wouldn’t have the wallet and phone if they hadn’t just one day appeared onApa’sdesk. Hopefully everything didn’t get tossed around during the drive. It took eleven witches and a shit ton of wolf strength to get the camper unrooted from the spot it’d been parked.Apa’spack witch was furious that Seb had a ward that strong, and she couldn’t figure out how to break it. If someone hadn’t suggested we dig up the trailer we’d have never broken the ward that bound it to the earth. You were always good with wards, little brother.”

“Not good enough,” I muttered. Should have kept Felix out. Redone the ward. Something. I was suddenly exhausted. The energy I’d borrowed from Liam drained away and I just wanted to sleep. My trailer was here. Home. Safety. I would need to sleep soon if any indication of the last two times I’d used someone else’s power to heal was. Already my emotions garbled in a mix of chaos. Exhaustion and vulnerability were never a good combination.

“You can let me go now. I’m not going to run,” I told Liam. Seeing my home so close made me long for it. It wouldn’t be the same, would it? A year was a long time for the world to change. For me to change. But it was warded. No one could get inside but me. I could lock even Felix out with little effort now. A year of practice casting wards on my car had done me a wealth of good. They couldn’t even burn the trailer down around me as the wards made it inflammable. It wouldn’t survive a bomb strike and it would take a while to rebind it to the earth to make it unmovable again, but it would be safe. Safe on Liam’s land. Being close to Liam was okay. Would he let me stay? Was it too much to hope that what he wanted from me was real? Maybe I could just live here for a while. Work at the bakery, make some tea, rebuild a life without the Volkov’s pack since they hated me anyway. The pack didn’t have to accept me. Liam didn’t have to mate me.

“No strings,” I said. “You promised no strings.”

“I did,” Liam acknowledged. “The house is movable, and Kevin’s truck can move it to wherever you’d like, but for now it will be hooked up here. Kevin needs some sleep and time with the pack. He’s been away for almost a week. You promised to show my daughter how to make lavender lemonade. I’m sure that will take a day or so at least.”

The effort it took to finally get my hands to release their death grip on Liam’s shirt had me sweating. Soon I’d collapse in a dead sleep for at least a few hours, my hunger completely replaced by exhaustion. I turned away from Liam and followed the truck and trailer across the property. On the other side of the lavender field from the house, Dylan was parking the trailer. He jumped out of the truck and began unhooking the trailer from the truck. Liam followed me at a subdued pace when he could have beat me to the camper a hundred times over. Vaguely I could feel Oberon at our backs, but was too tired to care. Not when home was this close. Safety…

Chapter 12

Ireached the door of the trailer and just stood there, soaking in the sight. When I put my hand to the door, the sensation of the wards rippled through me. Welcoming, awakening, almost like a sleeping cat, they recognized me. I turned the handle expecting resistance for some reason, though I’d never needed a key. The door locked just fine from the inside. I just never used it as the wards provided better security.

I flung the door open, fearing a mess of a home left to time and flight. Only everything was in its place; clean, dust free, and quiet. It was a little stuffy so I stepped inside to open some windows. In the hottest of Texas summers there was a tiny central air unit that ran on solar energy. The whole camper ran on solar, was connected to satellite, and could store enough water for a week’s use without a fresh water hookup. I’d had rain barrels too, but they weren’t part of the actual camper and I suspected they’d been left behind.

“Can’t get the door to the hookups open,” Dylan said from the doorway. “Some kind of ward?”

“Yes,” I said. I put my hand to the wall and closed my eyes, centering on the wards, letting my senses breeze over them, testing each one and smoothing out gaps, removing axis points. A year of practice and I could even out the kinks with little effort. The wards on the camper were years of trial and error patched together. Only now could I meld them into something seamless. At least the year on the run had taught me something. I’d have to spend some quality time making them permanent and etching wards under the floorboards, but I could enhance what I had for now. I added Felix to the non grata list. He could pick the trailer up and throw it, at least until I could get it rebound to the earth, but he couldn’t get to me when I was inside it.

“The house was unhooked and buttoned up. We noticed it a day or two after you left. Didn’t think you’d been in the right mind to close it down before leaving, butApasaid it was probably a ward. Never known a ward to unhook lines and close doors. Barriers, yes, but wards aren’t active like that,” Oberon said. “No one could get in.Apawouldn’t allow Felix near it. But I swear sometimes I see lights on in there.”

I quirked a smile at Oberon’s tone. “It’s not haunted.” Though many in the Volkov’s pack had often whispered of it. When I’d bought the trailer it had been a mess. Only gutting it and recreating it had made it what it was today. But I’d never have purchased it if I’d sensed something as dark as death had taken place inside. Now it was a place of safety. Felix couldn’t enter, neither could Oberon or evenApa.His entrance had always been temporary and very careful.

Liam couldn’t enter either. He stood in the doorway looking resigned. “At least let us help hook it up and come to the house for dinner. You’re hungry. Your stomach was growling earlier.” He glanced at Oberon who hadn’t gotten closer and was standing off to the side so he wasn’t behind Liam. I could see him through the window, with his arms folded across his chest, expressionless. Why had they brought me my home? Were they trying to lull me into a false sense of safety? Had they done something to the wards?

I touched the wall again, testing the wards. Everything was secure, though the ties were old and not as strong since it was no longer bound to the earth. I was pretty sure I could improve the wards, but it would have to be over a few days. Just the feeling of standing in my own space made me feel calm, safe, and exhausted. I relaxed the wards on the hookups and heard the little supply closet outside pop open.

“That works,” Dylan said from the other side of the trailer. “Hooking everything up now.”

“Seriously haunted,” Oberon grumbled. “Wards don’t close doors and unhook powerlines.”

The trailer wasn’t haunted like Oberon seemed to be implying, and I was just tired.

“I just want some rest,” I said to Liam who stood right outside the door with his hands touching the side of the doorway. He couldn’t enter, and he might as well have been staring through an unbreakable glass window.

“You won’t eat dinner first? You’ll need the strength from all that healing.” He would need the food more than I would though he didn’t look tired at all.

“One skipped meal won’t hurt.” I’d gone for days without eating before. Having my home back just overpowered every other need. I looked around my little camper. It was a 21’ trailer with the kitchen right inside the entryway and the bedroom in the back. All of the area for seating and traditional camping setup I’d removed and added custom shelves. All of my books, herbs, and equipment was where it should be. Walls full of tiny roll-out shelves for tins of herbs, mixtures, and supplies. It was a wide open space, with only the bathroom closed off. The bed was made with fresh linens. Something that should have been impossible if no one could get inside.

I’d run that last night, leaving the house in disarray. There had been dishes to wash and the bed had been a mess of blood and fluids. I even vaguely recall a dent in the wall near the bed from Felix throwing me into it. Yet it was all gone.

Not haunted. Not really. It was a little more complicated than that.

Dylan stepped up beside Liam. “Everything is hooked up.” He glanced from me and back to Liam. “You sure you won’t come in for dinner?”

“I just need…”

“Time,” Liam finished. He nodded and stepped away from the trailer. “Good night, Sebastian. Remember, if you’d like to start in the bakery, we’re up early.” He walked back toward the house without another word. Dylan returned to drive the truck back, and Oberon stared at me through the window. I closed the door and locked it. Not that the lock really mattered.

“Tomorrow then, little brother,” Oberon said.