Page 31 of Witchblood
“He’ll be leaving with me. No one in without me, I promise.” I set the clothes aside, trying to decide if I was going to strip and change in front of Liam or not. He had seen me naked, helped me shower, and held me in his arms. I guess it didn’t matter much, so I stripped and changed into the new clothes. Everything was a little bigger than I remembered. Or maybe I’d just lost a little too much weight.
Robin’s disapproving look increased. The narrowed eyes and lowered ears were a dead giveaway even to anyone who didn’t understand cat body language. He stood in the kitchen, tail flicking back and forth like a snake. His gaze went from Liam to me and back again. “This has nothing to do with him,” I said, putting my hand on my too loose jeans. “Just too much time on the road.”
I went to the kitchen, debating food. Since Robin was filling the pantry, everything would have that magical aftertaste. Most people wouldn’t notice it, but I would. Maybe I’d eat at the bakery.
“It doesn’t smell like a cat,” Liam said. “Never seen a cat like that outside of a zoo.”
“It’s not like he’s a lion or anything. Just a European wildcat.” I hadn’t known what he was until I’d looked it up online. He was bigger than a housecat, but smaller than a bobcat. He also never left the camper. At least not as a cat.
“A cat who lived for a year in an unopened trailer with no water, food, or litterbox,” Liam pointed out. He was much more observant than I thought he’d be.Apanever talked about Robin, though I knew he’d noticed him a time or two. They seemed to have agreed to ignore each other. Liam and Robin, however, appeared to be sizing up the other.
Liam finally got up and headed to the bathroom, keeping a wary eye on the cat until he closed the door to the bathroom. “Be nice,” I whispered to Robin. “He’s letting me park on his land for now. His pack is protecting me from Felix.”
Robin stalked toward the door and back again, tail swishing fiercely. All attitude was Robin. My heart hurt with how much I’d missed him. There had been so many lonely nights on the run that I’d just hoped he’d appear, a friendly face if nothing else.
“It’s safe. I promise.” I put my hand over my heart, because promises were power to fae like Robin. “I have some new wards to try and will get us rebound to the earth soon.” I dropped to my knees in front of him and scratched his chin. “Sorry it took me so long. Been running from my own shadow it seems. A little afraid this is all a dream I’m going to wake up from soon. I’ve missed you terribly.”
Robin huffed, but his head sought my hand for more scratches until he finally turned and nipped my fingers.
“Yeah, well, right back at you.” I got up.
Robin jumped to the top of the refrigerator. A normal cat would never have been able to jump that high. He loved being up high. I reached up to scratch his ears. He closed his eyes for a minute and relaxed into my touch. A year was a long time to be alone and untouched. “I’m going to work at a bakery for a bit. Maybe earn some cash.” Robin flicked his tail, uninterested. “Maybe I can work long enough to buy a truck. Then we can travel around anywhere. Explore the world. Well at least this side of the world. I suppose you’ve seen all of Europe.”
He never talked about his past. Not that he talked much at all. Never as a cat as that was something that would garner attention. I had known the little boy I’d picked up on the side of the road late one night a few years back hadn’t been human. The shape of his face tipped a little too ethereal, and his eyes glinted in headlights with magic. He’d worked to look human for me. The thought that he might be trying to lure me into something had crossed my mind, but far away from everything, on a road in the middle of nowhere, his presence didn’t make sense. Fae weren’t common in America. Sure they popped up once in a while in areas the old spirits of the land had faded. Most who did travel to this new world stayed in the big cities where they could syphon energy off the huge bustle of people.
I’d driven halfway across the country to attend a small alchemy conference.Apahad argued for ages about security before finally giving in and letting me go. Not that he could have stopped me. I suspected he had someone tailing me, though I’d never seen them. And then I’d found Robin. Hadn’t expected him to stay. He’d vanished at one of the hotels I’d stopped for a night of sleep, only to reappear three days later in a completely different state, waiting beside my car. Traveling with him would be fun, though I suspected I’d miss Liam. Maybe it was a good idea to leave now, before I got even more attached. Who was I kidding? Liam said pretty things. But Ifeltsomething when we touched. Almost whole…
“I’ll try to pick you up some chocolate,” I told Robin trying to get my brain off Liam. Robin loved a particular brand of highly processed, sugar laden, chocolate. And while he seemed to be able to create just about anything out of the ether, he never did the chocolate. Maybe he could taste the magic too. Robin nipped at my fingers again and I let him go.
Liam stepped out of the bathroom. He didn’t look any different, but I’d heard the water running, and I’d left him a spare toothbrush on the sink top. If he’d barely slept, he looked fine. Good actually. I could look at him every day and think he looked good.
“Do you need to run back to your house to change for work?” I asked.
“I have clothes at the bakery. I’ve had a lot of late nights negotiating pack business and still get to work each morning.”
I opened the door. Toby no longer sat at the base of the step, but a few feet away. “You do know that’s a perk of being alpha, right? Having minions to do all the hard work?”
“Is it?” Liam seemed amused. “I’ll have to get on that. Having minions do all my work. Bet Dylan would love that.” He stepped past me and out the door. I knew when the wards left him because he stopped. I could see the tension of his wolf roll back into him. The oldest weres often thought they’d beaten their wolf into submission, only in reality they’d trained it to be quiet and deadly, waiting for a chance at control. I’d never bound Felix inside my home for that very reason. He had always unnerved me a little. The tiny glimpses I’d seen of his wolf left me afraid. In public, he was the poster boy for control. I was one of the few who knew the truth. If I’d bound his wolf to allow the man silence, they’d have died when they stepped outside my wards. The wolf would have used that half second adjustment to rip him apart. It was a wonder we’d lasted as long as we had. My delicate dance around his ego had progressed over time to terror. Not a good thing to base a relationship on.
I stepped out of the camper and closed the door. Liam still hadn’t moved. He couldn’t shift faster than I could get back inside. His wolf didn’t seem out of control either. Near the surface, yes, much likeApa’swas, but not crazy like Felix. For just a second or two I could almost see the shadow of it moving around him. An edge of light displacement, waves or whatever, flickering the ether. Was he safe? Would his wolf hurt me? Even though it had claimed me as mate?
“You can’t get back in without me pulling you through again, so you don’t ever have to feel like this again,” I told him.
“It’s fine, just…different.” He looked up to meet my eyes. His were their normal blue, no hint of the wolf luminescence in their depths.
“Peace and then madness?”
“More like quiet and then noise,” Liam corrected. “Inside I could feel the ties to the pack but didn’t have them tugging at me in small ways like they do. Out here, their tugging is stronger. They don’t realize they do it, it’s just a need of being a part of a pack. Most of the time I don’t notice it. It’s like a radio always playing that you just tune out. Having the silence inside made me realize how much I’ve tuned it out. The Volkov warned me, the larger the pack, the morenoisethey make. I will have to speak to a few of them and find out if they felt any differently when I was inside. I’d hate to be cut off from a wolf who needs me, even if it is for a few hours of peace.” He glanced down at Toby. “You didn’t seem bothered.”
Toby bumped my leg. Liam sighed.
“Why doesn’t he change back to human?” I asked Liam.
He turned and headed toward the giant parking area in front of his house. I followed and Toby trailed me. I wasn’t sure if we could or even should take Toby to the bakery, but Liam didn’t tell him to stay behind.
“Toby was injured in a car crash. He’s a family member of one of our wolves. They thought to change him instead of letting him die.”
Becoming a werewolf wasn’t a cure for death. Usually if someone was already dying, trying to change them would only speed the process along. “I’m surprised he survived at all.”