"Dominic's not a witch!" Valerie yells. "Take that back!"
"Look, I know you're upset, but look at the facts! Why else would he have vanished in the middle of a drill? Why would there be—"
"Shut up!" Valerie grabs Jackie by the shoulders and shakes her. "Take it back!"
"Let go of me!" Jackie reacts automatically, knocking her sister's hands aside. Valerie looks stunned, and Jackie realizes belatedly how much force she just used, like it was a militia training exercise and not her upset sister. "Jesus, Val, I'm sorry, but you—"
"Leave me alone!" Valerie shouts, and storms off.
Jackie looks at the sky and prays for patience. After a minute to think, she walks over to the Jeep with the two militia members inside. She knows both of them, although not well. "Hey. Could one of you do me a favor, follow Valerie and make sure she gets home okay? She's not supposed to be out here on her own, but she sure as hell doesn't want anything to do with me right now."
The two men look at each other, then one of them sighs and nods. "Sure, Jackie. Take over for me here?"
"Yeah, no problem." Jackie waits until he's gone before climbing into the Jeep. "He's not gonna show, though."
"No kidding," her companion replies. "They're all smarter than that by now. But Leo said three days of surveillance, so three days it is."
Jackie kicks back and puts her feet on the dash. They don't talk much. Jackie has never really made a lot of friends in the militia. They all know that Mitchell doesn't like her, so they've never wanted to get too close even though they like Nick. When the sun sets, another pair arrives to take over, and they head back to the complex in silence.
*~*~*
Ryan listens in silence while Maya describes what's been happening with Dominic. It's not an unusual story, except for the age at which it's happening. Most witches who have any real power will start having manifestations of it at the beginning of puberty. But it's not unheard of for power to lay dormant, especially in circumstances like this, when the witch knows consciously or subconsciously that to show that power would put them in danger.
It would be better for Dominic if they could hook him up with one of the covens in the area. They would be able to really teach him how to get it under control. On the other hand, Ryan likes the idea of having a witch in the pack, even a half-trained witch. It could help them out in a lot of ways.
He thinks Maya is surprised that he doesn't immediately insist that they can't keep adding members to the pack. Instead, he sits down with Dominic as Miranda Cooper wraps his ankle with an ACE bandage she's managed to scrounge up from somewhere. "So how much do you know about magic?"
"Nothing, just…fairy tales, mostly." Dominic won't look at him. "Look, I think—I think there's been some sort of mistake. These—these are just nightmares, it's just—some expression of PTSD or something."
"Okay. Are you going to go explain that to the militia, or should I?" Ryan asks. Dominic goes a little paler. "What you're describing is something very specific. It's called the Sight, and only witches have it. Magic is like…vibrations on the threads of reality. You're sensitive to those vibrations, and that's why you're having those visions. They're most commonly known as 'parallel sight,' which is when you have visions about something that is currently happening somewhere else. But they can also be of the past or of the future. With training, you'll not only be sensitive to the vibrations, but able to manipulate them."
"How…how so? I mean, what can witches do?"
"Magic is all about possibility," Ryan says. "Let's say that when the militia was chasing you, you didn't run into Maya. Instead, you hid behind a tree. It's possible that the militia would pass by without seeing you. It's possible that they would hear a noise somewhere else and get distracted. It's possible that a bear would lunge out of the woods and attack them, giving you a chance to get away. All of these things are possible, and magic acts on the possibilities. The less likely something is—a bear, for example—the more difficult the magic."
"Okay, that…that makes sense, but…"
Ryan can see that they're going to need a hands on demonstration before Dominic will really believe that what he's doing is magic. He takes off his watch. It's broken, has been broken for over a year, but he wears it anyway. "Hold out your hand," he says, and Dominic does. Ryan places the watch in it and closes Dominic's hand over it. "I want you to just concentrate on the feeling of the watch in your hand, the metal against your skin, and tell me what springs to mind."
There's some skepticism on Dominic's face, but he closes his eyes and then sucks in a quick breath. "It's…it's a man. Older, maybe in his fifties. Black hair that …that's going gray at the temples. He's your father, isn't he?" Dominic doesn't wait for the affirmative. "He's giving you the watch…it's your graduation. College, I think. Yeah…college. You're graduating from Berkeley and he…he's so proud of you."
Ryan feels a tightness in his chest and wishes that he hadn't volunteered his watch for this experiment. Objects with strong emotional ties work the best, but he hadn't expected it to hurt the way it does. He waits until Dominic opens his eyes and then takes the watch back. "Still think you're not a witch?"
"I'm sorry," Dominic says automatically. He takes a deep breath and appears to steady out a little. "It's just…a lot to deal with." He looks around the abandoned bus station. "So, are you the one in charge? I mean, they all talk about it being Maya's pack, but…"
"It is Maya's pack. Just because I'm the oldest and by far the wisest," Ryan quirks a smile in Maya's direction and she rolls her eyes, "doesn't change the fact that she's the alpha. I make a modest contribution myself."
"Modest." Maya snorts out a laugh. "A word that has literally never been applied to my brother."
Several of the other pack members giggle while Ryan presses a hand to his chest to feign hurt feelings. A few moments later, Kyra ducks in through one of the empty windows. She shifts into her human form in a little shower of gray and black fur. "Everything's quiet," she reports. "There are a few extra patrols out, but they're nowhere near here."
"Okay." Maya walks over to where Ryan and Dominic are sitting. "I know that you don't know how any of this works. So here's a quick overview. I'm in charge. If you have a problem with one of my orders, you take it up with me directly. Other than me, everyone is equal, and everyone does an equal share. You won't be used to the sort of work, so we'll take it easy on you at first. As long as you're trying your best, you'll be fine."
Dominic nods. "Okay."
Miranda stands up and says, "I want you to stay off that leg for twenty-four hours. Keep it elevated tonight. After that you should be fine. Just don't do any running or climbing for a couple days if you can avoid it."
"Thanks," Dominic says.
Jared looks at Maya and says, "I need to make sure she gets home safe."
Ryan can't help but roll his eyes, but Maya just nods and says, "Take Spencer with you."
The three of them head out. Gabby starts building up the fire while Kyra and Siobhan sort through the day's pickings. They're lean, as they almost always are on a travel day. The only thing left from Jackie's last visit are some of the beans and two cans of corn. The beans haven't soaked, so they can't eat those today. There's some beef jerky that Spencer found in someone's car and some potatoes that Kyra stole out of a garden.
Maya looks all this over before opening one of the cans of corn. She hands it to Siobhan, who carefully divides it up into nine portions. Everyone gets one piece of beef jerky and half a boiled potato. Dominic looks at this meager meal and just closes his eyes for a long minute. Nobody says anything while he struggles with the reality of his new life. "Maybe once I learn some magic, I can help with the food."
"Actually," Ryan says, sucking on his piece of beef jerky, "that's fairly likely. A lot of mages are very good with plant life. It's very possible that a plant will grow well and be bountiful. Get you to enchant some civilian gardens, especially some of the hardier plants like zucchini or tomatoes
, and we'll be rolling in vitamins."
Dominic smiles, a little hesitant but genuine. "Do you guys ever hunt? Like in the woods?"
"No." Gabby shakes her head. "We'll put up traps for rabbits and smaller game and check them occasionally, but the patrols make it too dangerous to be in the woods long. The militia will go out and hunt the elk and deer, but we don't dare. They patrol the river too heavily for us to fish too."
"So you just…steal?"
Maya bristles. "What choice do we have?"
"No, I'm not…" Dominic rubs both hands over his face. "I just want to know what the rules are."
Maya huffs out a sigh. "Yeah. Sorry. We dumpster dive a lot, though it never gets us much. We have a few human allies who will help us get stuff. But mostly we steal. The civilians get their supplies from the militia so they never starve, not the way we do. We try to spread it out as much as we can. But the short answer is, if you see a pie on the windowsill, you snatch that bitch."
At this, everyone laughs. "Pie," Gabby says wistfully. "I remember Mom's apple pie."
"I always liked pumpkin pie," Marcus chimes in. "At Thanksgiving, we always had pumpkin and pecan pie."
"Pumpkin, now that would be something good to grow," Ryan says. "A big enough pumpkin and we actually could make pie, or at least pie filling if we could find a house to steal the sugar and spices from."
"Hey, Thanksgiving is, what, nine months away?" Gabby asks and laughs. "We've got time to figure it out."
"Time for me to learn how to turn a carriage into a pumpkin," Dominic says, and everyone is laughing again. "Thanks. You know, for everything."
Maya nods and squeezes his wrist. "You're going to be fine," she says. "We're all going to be fine."
*~*~*
"Is Valerie here?" Jackie greets Helen as she comes into the house.
"In her room," Helen says, and doesn't ask why Jackie wants to know or why Valerie might be upset. Brusque civility is a conversation goal when it comes to Helen. "Where have you been?"
"Picked up a militia shift," Jackie says, glad that it's true.
"On your day off?" Nick comes out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel.
"One of the guys had something come up. It was only a few hours; I didn't mind. I'm gonna go change, though." Jackie heads into her room before further interrogation can take place. She doesn't actually need to change; she just wants to hide in her room until dinner's ready. But she pulls on a heavy sweater along with some fingerless gloves because the house is chilly. She'll leave her boots on until it's time to go to bed.
About half an hour later, Helen calls, "Girls, dinner is ready. Come set the table."
Jackie emerges from her room and sees Valerie doing the same. Her eyes are red and puffy, but she looks fine other than that. Jackie feels a wave of relief and realizes how hypocritical she is. She faults their father for treating Valerie like glass, but does the exact same thing. She didn't trust Valerie to survive the trip home any more than Nick had.
Valerie slams the stack of plates down on the table. Nick looks up from where he's carefully dividing up portions of the pork roast. "What's wrong, honey?"
"Why don't you ask Jackie?" Valerie says snippily.
Jackie quietly places glasses on the table and says nothing.
Nick looks between the two girls. "Jackie?"
Feeling inexplicably wounded, Jackie snaps back, "Valerie found out that the world doesn't revolve around her, and now she's upset."
"You're only saying that because you're jealous!"
Jackie loses her temper. She stomps over to the radio, flips over to the channel, and says, "Leo, are you still in your office? Over." She knows that he will be. Leo basically lives at the office. He's never married, has no children. Killing is his only passion.
"Go for Leo," he says a few seconds later.
"Leo, it's Jackie. Were you guys doing surveillance on Dominic Westphalen's house? Over."
"That high school kid? Yeah, classmates turned him in as a witch. He slipped through our fingers but—"
Valerie goes white. Nick looks startled, and when Valerie starts to try to grab the radio from Jackie, he pulls her back and takes it himself. Jackie lets him. Her point has been made, and now that it has, she feels strangely guilty seeing the stricken look on Valerie's face. "Leo, it's Nick. Has there been any sign of him? Over."
"Oh, hey, Nick. No, he must've known we were coming for him. Not surprising. Witches are damned hard to catch when they've got the Sight, you know that. Anyway, he's not a high priority target. We'll see if we come across him. Why do you ask? Over."
"He was a, uh, a friend of Valerie's. I have to go. Out." Nick puts the radio down.
"It's not true," Valerie chokes out. "Daddy, it's not true!"
Helen sets down a platter of green beans and says sharply, "I hope you weren't keeping his secret for him, Valerie. Your grandfather would look very poorly on that."
Valerie makes a noise like she's been kicked in the stomach. For the first time that Jackie can remember, Nick loses his temper with his wife in front of her. "For Christ's sake, Helen! Was that really necessary?"
Before Helen can respond, Valerie turns and runs out of the room. A bare second later, her bedroom door slams behind her. Nick walks toward it, but Valerie shouts, "Leave me alone!" before he can even knock. Nick sighs and comes back to the table.
Helen holds the platter out to Jackie. "I'm not hungry," Jackie says, and gets up to leave.
"We can't afford to waste food," Helen says. "If you don't eat it, I will."
"You can shove it up your ass for all I care—"
"Jackie!" Nick cuts her off, and when she stops, he says quietly, "That's enough. You're excused. Go to your room."
Jackie flounces away and slams her own door too just because she can. She can hear Helen and Nick arguing in low voices in the main room but doesn't make any attempt to overhear. Instead, she buries herself in a book and tries to forget about what's been going on.
A few hours trickle by. She sneaks out to use the bathroom. Through her wall, she can hear Valerie crying on and off. After a while, she hears the master bedroom's door shut. She waits another fifteen minutes and then creeps out.
She realizes she's made a mistake a moment too late because Nick is still up on the sofa. Of course Helen's making him sleep on the sofa. He looks up when she comes out of her room, and he smiles at her. The expression is clearly forced, but at least he's trying. "Hey. Are you coming out for some food? Don't worry about what—"
"No, I…yeah," Jackie says, changing her tune quickly. She has a stash of food in her room that she's pilfered from storage, in case of late nights or the hunger from extra exertion. But she doesn't want Nick to know that. "But really I came out to check on Valerie. I thought…maybe I could talk to her now."
Nick nods. "I'll make you a PB&J while you check on your sister, okay?"
"Okay." Jackie knocks gently on Valerie's door.
"Go away," Valerie chokes out, but Jackie eases the door open and goes inside. Valerie is lying on her bed on her stomach, hugging the pillow to her face. "I said go away."
"I will, I just wanted to see..." Jackie's voice trails off. She sits down on the edge of Valerie's bed. "I'm really sorry, Val. I lost my temper because you're right. I am jealous of you. I shouldn't have called Leo like that. I knew how much you were hurting and I just…"
Valerie snuffles a little. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't."
"Of course you didn't, geez, nobody thinks that." Jackie sighs. "Maybe Dominic didn't even know. Just because witchcraft normally sets in at puberty doesn't mean it always does. Trauma can trigger it, you know, so maybe what happened a few weeks ago brought it on. I don't think Dominic would lie to you, you know?"
Valerie nods. She sits up and wipes her eyes. "I know I should hate him. He's a witch, and he—he's not human, and—" Her voice breaks. "But I just can't believe it. I love him. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. And now I'll never see him a
gain. I can't believe that any of this is happening." She dissolves into another sob. Jackie sits with her and rubs her back and murmurs soothing noises.
A long time passes before there's another quiet knock. The door opens and Nick comes in with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a small plate of apple slices, and two glasses of milk. He sets them down and then leaves without disturbing them.
"You should eat," Jackie says, picking up the plate.
Valerie nods and nibbles on an apple slice while Jackie sets into her sandwich. "Hey, Jackie…sometimes I feel like you don't like me very much."
Jackie sighs. "It's not—I love you, Valerie. You're my sister. But your life is so easy and so perfect that it's easy to hate you sometimes. It's not your fault. You didn't ask for your life any more than I asked for mine. But sometimes you're so—so ignorant. Like you have no idea what the world is really like or how it works. So sometimes I would think that I just wanted to open your eyes. And make you see it. But now that you do see it…I wish more than anything that I could rewind time a few days and protect you from it."
Valerie wipes her nose and sniffles again. "I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"I don't know. I'm just sorry. I'm sorry Mom's always a bitch to you and, and I'm sorry your parents died and I'm sorry Grandpa made you join the militia. I'm sorry I don't defend you when Mom makes comments about your hair and I, I'm sorry for that time when you were hanging out at the café with us and the other girls were rude to you and I just—I'm just sorry for everything, that's all." Valerie holds out an apple slice and says, "I'll try to be better."
"Pretty much all any of us can do," Jackie says. "Come on, eat your sandwich. You're not used to going without, like I am. And then you should get some sleep."
Valerie nods and takes the sandwich. "Thanks."
*~*~*
It takes Dominic a few days to learn the ropes, but he's a quick study and a hard worker. Ryan finds himself taking a liking to him. It would be easy for someone in Dominic's situation to wallow in self-pity or blame the werewolves, but Dominic just rolls his sleeves up and throws his back into whatever he's doing. He doesn't complain about the tasks he's given, whether it's the middle watch shift or the arduous task of hauling water back to the den. After Jared's bossiness and Kyra's self-sufficiency that borders on selfishness, it's a refreshing change.
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