“I’m fine.” Anne bit out, clearly not fine. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around this. We thought that the Tates knew you from before they moved here, that you were living out in the open as a witch. We thought you volunteered to help.”
“I did volunteer to help. The witch thing was a huge secret though.” Ivy sat down on the stool behind the register. All of these emotions were exhausting her.
Anne’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious?” She shook her head and carefully set down the necklace she had been about to place on the display. “I think you should tell me your side of things.”
Ivy told her everything.
Chapter Two
Anne was sucking in heaving breaths by the time she had finished. Anne’s lip curled up revealing sharp inhuman teeth. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Ivy’s brain couldn’t process what she was seeing. Anne’s bones shifted under her skin. Ivy’s stomach heaved. Anne was starting to shift.
Ivy realized that Anne was waiting for an answer. She shook her head.
“You’re telling me those assholes busted into your life,” Ivy nodded, “dragged you into the middle of our fight,” Ivy nodded, “and you had no idea what was going on?” Fur was starting to spring up around Anne’s jaw line.
“Uh, Anne…” Ivy wasn’t sure what to do if Anne went crazy.
Anne’s eyes shot to Ivy’s. Everything inside Ivy froze. A predator stared her down. “What?” Anne’s voice was strained.
Ivy pointed limply to Anne’s hands. She did not have experience dealing with an angry shifter this close. Anne glanced down. Her right index finger ended in a blunt, black claw. She just snorted at it, unamused.
“I lose my skin when I get upset.” Her head snapped up and she pointed at Ivy. “I am pissed. Those bastards are about to get the business end of a crowbar applied to their faces.”
“Alright,” Ivy agreed, hoping that it would calm Anne down. “They deserve it, sure, but can we take a breath or two first?” Ivy started inhaling deeply. She gestured for Anne to join in.
Anne chuckled and shook her head. “I’m not about to shift and hunt them down, Ivy.” She nodded to Ivy’s hand. “You can go ahead and put the phone away. There’s no reason to call Ben.”
Startled, Ivy looked down. She hadn’t noticed she pulled her phone out. She blushed. “I’m not really equipped to deal with angry shifters,” she explained lamely.
“I realize that. Which is why you won’t have to,” Anne said with a smile. Two seconds ago, she had been ready to split her clothes down the seams. Now, she was smiling at Ivy like a proud parent.
Ivy knew that wasn’t good. “What are you planning?”
Anne was a troublemaker. She couldn’t help but meddle. Ivy had heard a few stories in passing. When Anne and Grace got an idea in their brains, things went downhill fast.
“Anne, I don’t want you…” Ivy started.
“Hey,” Anne interrupted quickly as if she knew what Ivy was going to say, “how about you sneak out the back before the Terrible Twins show up? It’s bad enough you had to deal with Pearl’s lackeys today. You don’t need to see those douches.”
“That’s nice of you Anne, but I think we should talk about…”
Anne checked her phone. “Ben has the Enforcers in a meeting right now but they should be done soon.”
Ivy’s stopped protesting. Her eyes shot to the bench across the street. It was still empty. Not for long though. She could make a break for it.
“Are you sure you don’t need help?” Ivy gestured to the necklaces. The last thing she wanted to do was leave Anne to restock by herself.
“I’ve got this,” Anne reassured her brushing off the flimsy excuse.
Ivy didn’t hesitate to run to the back room for her coat and purse. If she was lucky, she might be able to get to her apartment without seeing anyone.
It was a freezing, early November day with no snow on the ground. At least for a few more days. Ivy wasn’t sure what she was going to do when it finally got around to snowing. She needed to ask Anne to put aside some boots for her the next time a shipment came in.
Ivy kept her head low and suppressed the urge to speed walk home.
Chic Chick was on Main Street right smack dab in the middle of downtown. Not that downtown Black Bird was very big. Ivy’s apartment was on the edge of what might be considered downtown and it was only a nine-minute walk to work.
Black Bird really was the quintessential small town. Main Street always looked like there was going to be a parade later in the day. The shops that lined the wide two-lane road were immaculate and cheerful. There were wooden planters placed along the sidewalk filled with flowers. Even the back-alley shortcut Ivy used was neat and clean. A few businesses next to Chic Chick had Thanksgiving decorations out. It was quaint.
Ivy felt more than saw a presence step in her path. She looked up and nearly groaned. Two teenagers stood in her way. The pair of boys couldn’t be out of high school. They were both taller than her but hadn’t filled out completely. Not that it mattered. They were shifters. They had enough strength to be dangerous.
One with black hair had his arms crossed over his chest and was giving her an evil glare. The blonde was rubbing his chin and looking at her from head to toe. Their body language put her on edge. If they were trying to scare her, they were succeeding.
“I don’t know what all the fuss is about. She doesn’t look like a threat,” the blonde one said.
The other one elbowed him, hard, “She’s got magic you idiot. She doesn’t need to look like a threat. She is one.” His eyes narrowed cruelly.
Subtly, Ivy looked around. There wasn’t a soul around. Usually, when one of the townsfolk got bold and confronted her, it was in a more public space. The presence of more people usually kept things from escalating past mean words. No such luck this time.
“Alright, boys, you’ve seen the witch,” she said trying to deescalate the situation, “time to run along.”
The black-haired teen raised a lip. In his wolf form, it was probably a terrifying sight. He was a little too young and too unpracticed for it to work in his human form. It didn’t make Ivy relax though. He had too much aggression and youthful idiocy for her liking.
“Don’t tell me what to do, witch,” he spit the word. He looked her up and down. “You’re right. She doesn’t look like much of a threat. We could take her.”
Ivy didn’t practice magic. She hated using it but she wasn’t stupid. She would use it in a heartbeat if it kept her safe.
She pulled a thread of magic from the center of her heart. She was too nervous to feel it’s comforting peace. Inside, she bundled it into a tight ball, ready for her to direct it if she needed it.
The boys took a step forward. The cocky one smiled, a crazy glint in his eyes. The angry one growled.
Ivy took a quick, deep breath. She shot her magic full of intent and screamed at the pair. In an instant, her hair flew out as an unnatural wind exploded behind her. Her scream became an unearthly shriek. Ivy felt her nails grow and her eyes shift.
“Run, little pups, before I clean the meat from your bones,” her voice was both shrill and impossibly deep. She felt the wind whip her clothes around wildly.
The boys’ eyes went wide with fear. One took an involuntary step back. Ivy opened her mouth to show them jagged, stained teeth. That sent them running.
Ivy didn’t drop the illusion until they were well out of sight. She felt her shoulders sag with relief. She was very glad that her magic had cooperated.
To be honest, the spell working probably had less to do with her skill and more to do with the sheer amount of intent she had slammed into it. She had thought “banshee” loudly enough and with enough blind panic that the magic had no choice but to work. She didn’t really care why it had worked; she was just happy that it had. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if they hadn’t run off.
With a heavy sigh, she kept walking home. No one else bothered her. In fa
ct, she didn’t see anyone else the rest of the way. Which was for the best.
Ivy stopped on the sidewalk in front of her apartment complex. There were five two-story buildings situated around a circle drive. Each building had four apartments in the front and four in the back.
It was a nice complex. The flower beds outside were still orderly despite the lack of flowers. Most of the doorways had holiday wreaths hanging. There were a few pumpkins on porches. People put in effort to make their entryways look nice.
The apartment across from Ivy’s was another thing entirely. That entryway had the mummified remains of an Easter lily sitting where everyone could see it. There was a sun-bleached plastic flag planted in the pot that proudly declared “Easter 2016”.
Ivy shook her head. She could put up with a lot of lies being spread about her, but blaming her for Margot Jennings’ black thumb was just obnoxious. She took a second to try and pick out the aforementioned tomato plant but couldn’t tell which crumpled, dry husk it was.
Ivy wanted out of Black Bird. She wanted to leave so badly that it made her skin itch. Monroe Springs might not have been the friendliest of places, but at least there, people ignored her.
Until she had enough money to move, she was stuck. She would just have to keep putting up with old ladies being mean to her.
Since moving to Black Bird, Ivy had made a clause to her no magic rule. She could use magic in life threatening scenarios. Or to protect herself. After what had just happened, she was feeling very grateful that she had made the change.
The first thing she had done when she had move was to create a ward for the apartment. It acted like a magical security system. It kept people from getting in without her permission. Ivy wasn’t planning on giving anyone permission. She had only made one “key”.
She shifted her purse around so she could pull her necklace from its hiding spot under her shirt. At the end of simple chain was a piece of clear quartz. It wasn’t anything fancy but it didn’t need to be. She pulled it over her head
Ivy pressed the quartz up against the door. She glanced behind her, double checking that Margot wasn’t leaving her apartment. The last thing she needed was Margot at her back while she was trying to use magic. Discretely.
She pet the crystal slowly. Ivy imagined her magic unspooling from her center. It entered the quartz. Sweat trickled down her neck. Green flashed at its center. She forced herself to keep charging the stone. She didn’t want to use more magic than she had to. That would draw too much unwanted attention. At the same time, she didn’t want to have to repeat the process because she didn’t give the spell enough juice in the first place.
Green sparked once, twice, then flickered to life. “Unlock.” The word was barely above a whisper. She put her hand on the door knob and waited. Under her palm she felt the tingle of magic. A warm pulse welcomed Ivy inside as the ward recognized her magical signature. She pulled her keys out and physically unlocked the door.
Kicking off her shoes, Ivy looked around the blank apartment. She exhaled, feeling the last of her energy drain. Her apartment in Monroe Springs had been full of art and colorful furniture. It had been her favorite place on earth. It had been the first place she had stayed long enough to decorate.
This apartment was dull. All of the furniture was comfy but grey. The carpet was beige. In fact, it matched the beige paint on the walls too. There weren’t any pictures on the walls or knickknacks on the coffee table.
Ivy set the oven to preheat as she walked back to the bedroom. The only thing that was uniquely Ivy’s was the mound of books sitting on the floor next to the bed. They were historical texts about magic. Every night after work, Ivy poured over them trying to learn more about the spell Lawrence McDowell had hidden in Grace’s cabin. She was obsessed with it.
She really should thank Ben for the books. Ivy was not allowed in the library. There was a sign on the door. Which made it really hard to do research on ancient magical text. Especially when Ivy’s laptop was still in her apartment in Monroe Springs.
When Ben heard about the library, he had called to offer her a job as the Pack’s magical scholar. He wanted her to find out as much as she could about whatever magic Lawrence McDowell had tangled with. When she needed a book, she text Ben. He made sure it got to her. The tradeoff was she passed along anything she learned to him.
She really didn’t mind. Researching magical texts was in her blood. Her parents had been very accomplished witch scholars. She had learned to love pouring over ancient tomes as a kid. It felt nice to come home at the end of the day and do something familiar and productive.
Surprisingly, she had made progress in the last week. Enough progress that she felt comfortable sharing her findings with Ben. She still had so many questions though.
Looking down at the kaleidoscope of multicolored sticky notes and barely legible writing, Ivy decided that research was absolutely the last thing that she wanted to be doing tonight.
Putting on her biggest, comfiest sweatshirt Ivy went into her bathroom to find a hair tie. She winced when she looked in the mirror.
Dark circles hung under each of her bloodshot eyes. There was an almost pimple on her chin that she was desperately trying to cover with makeup. She sighed. It was very visible.
Her long white blonde hair was losing its war with the Cascade winter. It looked limp and frizzy at the same time. She leaned forward and groaned when she saw that her roots were starting to show.
Black Bird was NOT good for her health.
Ivy shut off the light and went to go cook dinner. Tonight, she was going to eat an entire frozen pizza, drink too much and try to forget what a mess her life was.
“They lack the discipline required to become Enforcers. Bottom line. Frankly, it would be less detrimental for everyone involved if we pulled them from training and kept them in their jobs,” Holly Kroll leaned across the diner’s rickety old table, stressing her point.
Ezra liked Holly. She was a Canadian transplant to Black Bird. She was the youngest of a dozen siblings. Her father was the Alpha of their Pack in Edmonton. Both of those facts became obvious when Holly got worked up.
It didn’t matter if the fight was physical or verbal. Holly jumped in with both feet and fought like an animal cornered. She fought like the youngest kid in a house of strong personalities. Ezra didn’t actually know any of her siblings, but he’d be surprised if she wasn’t the strongest in her family.
Right now, Ezra didn’t have the patience for Holly’s strong personality. He and his brother had somewhere to be.
Ezra was trying not to show how annoyed he was. This was the Pack’s weekly security meeting. These things used to be attended by only the Alpha and an Enforcer or two. Now though, every major group or organization sent a representative. There was someone from the Mayor’s office, the school district, even the business association had someone at the meeting.
Ben sat at the head of the six small tables they had pushed together. He was a good Alpha. He was forward thinking and fair. He had inherited the Pack when his father had retired a few years ago. Ezra was glad Ben was at the helm of the Pack. He didn’t think Ben’s father could have dealt with the shit storm that had rolled in recently.
Paul Carlson, Ben’s second in command, sat next to him. Scattered around the tables were the seven original Enforcers, now promoted to lead Enforcers: Dave Pierce, Derek Johnson, Mark Warner, Jack Taylor, Holly and he and Ezekiel. The rest of the seats were taken up by newer additions that represented the rest of the community.
Ben sighed. He was the one who had opened Enforcer training program to anyone who wanted to join. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, Holly. The headache will be worth it,” he promised. “Having more Pack members with even basic fighting skills will make a huge difference if McDowell comes back. We need all the volunteer Enforcers we can get.”
Ezra supported the idea, but he wasn’t sure if it would make a difference against Lawrence McDowell. The man had some fucked-up magic on h
is side. No army of angry citizens could take out a Pack of rogues with a witch as their leader. They would need magic too.
Ezra felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Don’t think about her.
Ezra’s twin, Ezekiel tilted his head towards the discussion still going on around them. Ezekiel must have noticed that he was not paying attention. Ezekiel always knew when Ezra wasn’t paying attention.
Someone, either Ben or Holly, had roped Sheriff Cal Robbins into the argument.
“I don’t know what you expect me to do, Holly,” Cal exhaled. Sheriff Robbins was a new presence at these meetings. And at that exact moment it looked like he was regretting being asked to attend. He shoved his hand through his hair in an exhausted motion.
“You’re their brother,” Holly cried, getting upset at Cal’s indifference.
“And their boss,” Cal added, “and I still can’t get them to do shit.”
Henry and Patrick Robbins were the middle Robbins children, right between Cal and their step sister Betsy. They were deputies with the Black Bird Sheriff’s department. They were also complete pains in the ass. Mostly harmless, but pains in the ass no less.
“Your brothers are inexperienced and cocky as hell! They can’t take orders, they have short fuses, and they never stop talking.” Holly could have spit fire by the time she finished.
Cal just nodded in complete agreement. A burst of rage burnt Ezra’s nose. Holly did not like that. Cal must have smelled it too.
He sighed and put down his coffee. “The only thing those two knuckleheads listen to is experience. Next time they pull shit, show them why you’re an Enforcer.”
Holly’s mouth dropped open. “You want me to beat the shit out of your younger brothers?”
Cal sipped his coffee slowly, “Yes, please. It will save me the trouble of having to do it twice a week.”
A few men around the table chuckled. Ezra cracked a smile. Pat and Henry had been causing problems since they were teens. Nearly everyone at the table had wanted to punch them at least once. Holly was the only one who was getting permission to do it.
Resented Page 3