“That’s nice, but right now, the plan seems to be to throw ourselves at the battlements and beat my family like piñatas until the candy comes out,” I said. “Which didn’t work great for us last time, remember?” All of them, every single one of the men in the vehicle, glanced away from me, their faces darkening with shame, or maybe rage. I’m wasn’t sure. It may not have been fair to throw Max’s death at them like that, but I had to. They needed to remember what we sacrificed to get to that point and that it wasn’t worth it. Losing her was the single most significant fuck up I’d made in my entire life, and if I lived to two hundred years old, I would never atone for it.
I’m sorry, Max… the thought rolled out of my mind like a prayer, wispy and thread-bare. I’d turned those three words over and over in my head until they had lost all meaning some nights, and others they were so powerful it was a spell that made my skin crackle all over with grief as the lightning surged through me.
“Surveillance,” Levi said, his voice throaty and thick. “We get there, we camp out, we watch, and we see what’s going down, then we make our move when the vipers are resting.” His gaze slid over to meet mine. “That good for you, princess?”
Finn bristled at the stupid nickname, and I put a hand on his knee. He didn't settle, not immediately, but some of the tension flowed out of him. Everyone was on a razor-thin edge, and it wouldn’t take much to shove us all over. The last thing we needed was a fight breaking out between the pack and the demons.
“Sounds very sensible,” I said, meeting Levi’s look with the same intensity. I was straddling a volcano and all the fireworks from the 4th of July celebration at once, and I needed to contain the energy as best I knew how.
I sat back with a sigh as Wolfe murmured something up to the driver through the intercom, and the limo began to roll out, the smooth ride soothing if not for the knot of panic and anticipation in my gut.
I kept thinking that the house I’d grown up in would look soot-streaked and half in ruins like it had taken a beating just as the witch’s council had. How the hell had life continued on as usual for my family after I’d razed their entire world to the ground?
I tried to swallow around the thickness of my tongue. A cool, wet something brushed the back of my hand. I glanced down. Ace was holding a bottle of water out for me, touching me with it. Smiling at him was the only answer, even if it felt forced.
“Thanks,” I said, and he grinned back, hopeful, as always, even in the bleakness of the moment.
“Only we’d roll up to do murder in a fuckin’ limo,” Cash said, kicking his legs out in front of him and making the rest of the car laugh in response. The sound was half-empty, ringing with how hollow we were, but it gave me a chance to breathe.
We would not lose Frank, lose Daria, or lose Luca like we had lost Max. I was promising myself that. My father and the rest of those fuck-bags weren’t going to take more lives if I could help it.
Being awfully brave for someone who’s going to a gunfight with chewing gum and prayer, the words bounced around in my head, reminding me of that empty place inside of me where my magic had once crackled and come to life at the barest thought.
My father had cracked me like an egg, and everything had slipped out. I steeled myself against further shitty thoughts because they’d only make myself worse than I already was. And I didn’t need to keep killing myself over the fact I had no powers, and I’d let him steal them from me. It was done. I had to deal with the consequences, and no matter what, if I had to strangle him with my bare hands, I would get my father back for all of his crimes.
I sipped the water as we drove, my head growing heavy; I let it lean onto Finn’s shoulder as the low noise of the guys talking muffled in my ears until I slipped into a half-sleep.
Someone shaking my shoulder brought me to Cash’s eyes, soft and apologetic as I woke up.
“Mmf?” My mouth felt like something had died and dried out in it, and he passed me the bottle of water I’d been nursing earlier. I guessed I’d dropped it or something.
“C’mon,” he murmured. The limo was half-empty, Landon and Levi talking to Wolfe in low, heated tones down by the driver’s partition. “We’re here.”
The sound of crickets pressed down on my auditory senses as I slid over the leather seats and out into the dark cover of the night. My eyes adjusted to the inky blackness, the blanket of stars stretching up above us. The moon wasn’t up, and it was hard to see.
“Where are we? Where’s here?” I asked, glancing around. The only light in the clearing we were in was being given off by the limo's headlights, cutting through the shadows.
“About a twenty-minute walk from your old stomping grounds,” Eli said, stretching his arms toward the sky and giving his back an arch. “We’re gonna spread out, leave you here with Wolfe, and get a good look at what’s going on before reporting back.”
That made me uneasy. My family’s house had all sorts of spells set for detecting intruders, and I didn’t want them going close to it without something to hide them.
Except I was powerless. I looked at Wolfe, who ignored my gaze. He seemed to know what I was going to ask, though, since his mouth opened in the next moment to speak.
“Levi, can you still do that…” Wolfe wiggled his fingers, and Levi snorted.
“Use your damn words, old man,” he said with a smirk. “Of course. Wolfies aren’t new to me, and it works on them just as well as it does on vamps.” He glanced over at my wolf pack, who were ranged out, glancing into the thick darkness. “They might not like it, though. Makes your skin itch something wild.”
“What is it?” Ace asked, speaking up before Eli could get a word because I could see the glimmer of lightning in Eli’s eyes, and Ace surely could too. Something was setting the oldest wolf of our pack on edge. I slipped between Charlie and Cash and pressed up against Eli’s side, letting my weight shift against his and steady him.
He glanced down at me in muted relief.
“You know me better than you ought to,” he said, voice quiet as Levi and Ace talked snippets of what they were saying filtering over to us.
“They won’t see you coming. They won’t hear you. But you can’t touch them either, so it’s not a get-outta-jail free for all card to kill everyone. It’s recon-worthy only.” Levi’s lipped curled. “The Unholy gives us gifts, but they all come with a catch.”
“This is like, a spell?” I asked. Landon nodded, the movement sharp and jutted.
“Levi’s good at getting in and out of places unseen,” he drawled, glancing over at Wolfe, “but then he isn’t the only one.” I thought back to when Wolfe had disappeared right in front of us, at the guy’s band space… so fucking long ago. I swallowed, my throat thick. Could Wolfe do that? Evaporate here, and just reappear inside the house, while my family was sleeping, so he could look for Daria and the boys? I wanted that so badly to be true, but when Wolfe finally met my eyes, they were sombre.
“They’d hear me coming, a mile off,” he said, “it’s well enough to fool humans and wolves, and even witches, but your father is something new now-”
“Unholy,” Levi said, “definitely fuckin’ Unholy. I can smell it.” He lifted his chin, eyes shutting. “It’s in the air all over this place. Surprised the rest of you can’t.”
Eli shifted, and I put a hand on his wrist.
“Wolves don’t smell that,” Eli replied, and he sounded bitter about it. I wondered why, but when I looked up at him, he was staring hard at Levi. Smirking in return, Levi shrugged, arms spread wide.
“Well, don’t let me shit on your race; you do lots of other things good, so what’s one little scent un-trackable, untraceable, amongst the millions you process every day?”
“Stop needling him,” Landon ordered, pushing off the half-felled log he was leaning against. “Let’s go and have a look-see before I get bored. Cast it, Levi, with your permission,” those last three words were directed at Eli, and suddenly there was a choice between getting information
and not.
Between letting Levi put some kind of infernal magic on my pack or not.
Eli didn’t even look at me.
“Do it,” he said, and Levi smiled.
“Whatever you say, dog.” He blinked once, the sound around me sucking into silence, and all of them vanished, Eli’s warmth disappearing beside me. I stumbled to the side, the breath chased out of my lungs as Wolfe crossed the clearing in a few long strides. He grabbed me by both arms and righted me. I swallowed and looked up at him.
“Can they… are they gone?” I asked, uncertain as I glanced around the darkness. I couldn’t feel them. It was like they’d never been there at all. My entire pack, Landon, and Levi too, had been gulped up by the blackness.
“Back into the car,” Wolfe said, guiding me toward it gently. “The bugs will eat you alive.”
Nine
“Try again.” Wolfe’s eyes were steady on my palm as I held my hand out, fingers wide.
“It’s not working,” I replied, the frustration growing inside of me. Around us, the limo sheltered us from the outside, making me feel slightly less uneasy. Slightly. Somewhere, out there, my guys were closing in on my family, trying to find out if my father was there, and Frank too. Even though he was a demon, I had to trust Levi that his magic was enough to keep them safe. I hoped they were all okay, and I tried to imagine what they were seeing… if they could get right up to the edge of the household, see into the windows… if a servant had left a window half-cracked or a door edged open, they might be able to go inside. Levi said they wouldn’t be able to touch my family, no physical interaction whatsoever. Did the same hold true to all corporeal things? Would they have been able to touch me before they left the clearing and started their hunt for my family home?
It was too many questions that I had no answers to.
“You’re not paying attention,” Wolfe was curt, and I glared at him, snatching my hand away and folding it, palm-flat, against my stomach.
“It’s not working. I don’t have any magic. He drained me dry,” I snapped back, a ghost of a headache floating behind my eyes.
I was useless and helpless, and I hated it. Wolfe’s expression softened, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled at me. It did nothing but make me feel even more stupid, and… it was like I’d lost a sense. Like the colours at the edge of my vision had been muted and snuffed out, like all the sound had been narrowed down to just the treble. The world around me had shrunk. I could no longer feel the things that were beyond my own skin and body.
I could barely feel the tingle of the bite marks that the guys had laid on me, and I wondered if my losing my magic had affected our mating bonds. The thought made me sick.
“There is always magic in us, even mundanes,” Wolfe said, “you couldn’t stay upright, couldn’t breathe if you had no magic in you. Now again, palm please, and I want you to listen for that storm on the horizon.”
There was a storm on the horizon? That was news to me. I didn’t want him to think I was ungrateful for him trying to help me, but I was on the edge of tears. And I had nobody to blame but myself. I had caused this. I had taken risks and let my father steal my magic.
It hurts worse when you do yourself dirty.
Wolfe pleased with me with his eyes and held out his hand for mine. I sighed and obliged him, shutting my eyes against the cozily lit interior of the limo and trying not to think about the ridiculousness of my life or the circumstances that had brought us here.
Like he told me, I tried to listen, feeling my soul shudder as it fought me, fought the sensation of me pushing it out beyond my skin. I needed to go out of my body, stretching myself thin like a wisp. It was easy with magic; it bound everything that made me ‘me’ to my body no matter what, but now… I felt like I couldn’t do it.
That magic was suddenly fake and not real at all. It hurt, my brain aching, my eyes feeling like they were going to pop out of my skull from concentrating so hard. I could hear Wolfe’s breathing, and then-
Something snapped, sliding into place inside me, something raw and jagged emerging from the depths. It felt blood red, the copper taste in the back of my throat as I coughed, my body heaving forward. Wolfe caught me as I folded in two, holding me against his chest as I gasped for breath, my lungs shredding from the inside out.
It was there. I could hear Wolfe’s heartbeat. I could hear the beat of the driver’s heart, slow and steady, beyond the glass partition. Who was he anyway? I opened my eyes and looked up at Wolfe, gasping. The world was translucent. I could see right through him, through the car, the stars in the sky above shining, tiny pinpoints of life all around us. I jerked back and slammed into the seat of the vehicle.
“Holy shit,” I said, eyes wide-
And in the distance, I could see it. The storm on the horizon. It was boiling there, growing in strength, shuddering in the misty air.
And between it and me? My pack, and the demons, tiny smudges of smoke on the edge of my senses.
“I-“
“You see it,” Wolfe said, sounding surprised and elated all at once. I turned back to look at him. It made me feel uneasy because he was there in 3D like I could see through him, but inside him simultaneously, everything shadowed. He was a thick, blurry outline of himself.
“You didn’t think I would be able to?” I asked before I could help myself. Okay. I could feel things beyond an ordinary human sense. It wasn’t the same as my magic powers; it was something that was less and more at the same time. Distractingly, a rabbit hopped by the limo at ten feet, it’s ears rising and falling as the engine hummed.
I reached for the door, my hand glowing and transparent, just like Wolfe’s own body, as I grabbed the handle.
“So fuckin’ weird,” I muttered, the muddy feeling of my powers inside me shivering as I opened the door.
Everything felt like I was walking through melted wax as I unfolded my legs and emerged from the limo.
The storm was growing faster, a curl of wind from it reaching toward me, rustling along my hair and then winding through the trees edging the clearing. I could see it’s path, a visible thing, and the trail of glinting dust motes it was leaving behind. I saw what Wolfe meant, that I had magic in me that was more than just witch powers. It was the lifeblood, the magic of existing, that I’d tapped into somehow.
I wondered why no one had ever spoken of it to me before, not even Daria. Well, why would they have known? If you were mundane, you didn’t really explore those kinds of things or even know where to look… and if you were a witch, you had no need of it. I could tell this power was limited, at least, to the strength of my body and my heart, and that if I used it to do anything other than sense, I’d probably give myself an aneurism. As it was, I wasn’t feeling all that great.
It didn’t help that there were glints of…things, on the horizon, things I knew were not the storm and not the dark smudges of my pack closing in on the home I’d grown up in.
I stepped back, leaning against the side of the limo as Wolfe emerged.
“What do you see?” He asked me, his eyes sliding over my tense body.
“I don’t know,” I said, narrowing my gaze. There was something… in the distance, a flicker of light, almost like a candle flame, but larger. It was swaying, back and forth, as if it were on a swing or something like that, but there was so much brush and bramble between us and it…
It shifted, twisting, turning toward me, and it may have been a mile from me, or ten, but right then, I knew what it was. Dark hollow spots in its orange-red flame, 5 feet above the ground-
“Max,” I breathed and shoved off of the limo. Behind me, Wolfe startled, his fingers glancing off my wrist as I ran into the brush. He shouted my name, but it died in the woods as I bolted, seeing her as bright in my mind as if she were right in front of me.
She was nothing more than a flame, tall and pillared, wavering in the storm’s growing breeze, but I knew she was waiting out there for me. How long had she been hiding in the dark? Mo
nths? Hoping I’d find her, come for her? My heart ached, surging as I rocketed past fallen trees, their outline hollowed with the translucency that permeated everything everywhere. It was hard to run in a world where the ground wasn’t solid, and it felt like you were skimming the surface of a clear lake, rocks and worms, and other things buried underneath your feet, just like shipwrecks waiting to be discovered.
But Max flickered, her light calling to me. I screamed her name, the sound dying in my ears as I saw her pulse and turn and start to move away. My legs pumped, aching and heavy. I wasn’t fast enough. I reached my fingers forward and felt my heart give a painful thump in my chest, the magic of my blood rising up at my demand. Faster, I needed to be faster, I needed to catch her-
The ground lifted up under me, the earth that I was made of, the star-dust we all come from answering my heart’s call.
It rose up and pushed me forward, a spray of dust and leaves, sticks, rocks, trailing in my wake as I rode it like a wave, my feet skidding along the ground. The wind struck my face like a slap, my stomach turning over as I wobbled, trying to stay upright as the dirt ground and moaned, letting me chase Max at inhuman speeds.
Ahead of me, she guttered, 30 feet, then 20, then- she flickered out of existence, and I flew head-first, the ground hiccuping under me and tossing me through bushes. Branches smacked my face, and I barely brought my arms up to protect myself before I hit the still earth, and slid along it, the gravel ripping and pulling at my clothes and biting into my skin. Pain exploded along my side, and I rolled to a stop, gasping for air.
My lungs felt like they couldn’t expand. The world had lost it’s transparent, translucent quality, and I was in pitch black, my whole body aching. I lifted my head, squinting in the dark. There was no trace of the flame that I’d known was Max. The earth felt warm under me, and the faint hint of burning curled into the back of my throat when I inhaled.
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