“Do you think she sees us coming?” I asked Warner as I leaned toward him, holding my second-to-last piece of chocolate in front of his lips.
He opened his mouth and I pressed the chocolate to his tongue. “The oracle?” he asked, lightly sucking my fingertips before I withdrew my hand.
“I don’t think Rochelle can quite tap in like that yet,” Drake said. “Or focus her sight.”
“I was just thinking how terrifying it would be for her to see us bearing down on her like this,” I said.
“She’s made of steel,” Drake said. “Or some sort of flexible metal at least.”
I glanced over my shoulder. The moonlight filtering in the side window above his head illuminated Drake’s face just enough for me to discern that he had his eyes closed. His half-eaten chocolate bar was resting on his chest.
“A person can be scared and fierce at the same time,” I said.
He didn’t answer.
Warner lifted his hand from the gearshift to caress my knee. “Kandy texted,” he said. “They know we’re coming.”
“Yeah.” I laughed wryly, straightening in my seat. “But is knowing better or worse?”
“If this is where the far seer told you to go, then this is where we go,” Drake said. A reprimand edged his tone.
“I’m heading there, aren’t I?”
“Yes. But you question everything, warrior’s daughter. Fate guides our feet.”
“Well, I’m glad that’s so clear to you.”
Drake snorted. “It is to you as well. Though you clearly get some sort of perverse joy out of pretending otherwise.”
“That’s enough.” Warner lifted his gaze to the rearview mirror, glaring at the fledgling guardian being sulky in the back seat. “You are with us only because the dowser has a generous heart. Either you’re a distraction or a support. And a distraction will get Jade hurt. Pick one so I know what to do with you.”
“My apologies,” Drake murmured. “I just don’t like this sense of uncertainty. Jade’s questions exacerbate that.”
“Talking things out is a valuable tool,” I said. “So is chocolate. Eat the rest of yours.”
“But then it will be gone. You taught me to savor.”
“There are times to savor and times to consume.”
Drake snapped a piece from his bar and popped the chocolate in his mouth.
Ahead of us, Henry came to a stop at a fork in the road. The headlights of the Escalade lit up a road sign: “Westport — 9 miles.”
I rolled my window down a few inches. Though I could faintly hear the crashing surf ahead of us, I couldn’t see the shoreline.
Henry turned right.
Warner eased on the gas to follow, rolling through the stop sign.
“The last official record placed the population of Westport at two thousand and ninety-nine,” Drake said. He’d sat up as we rolled to a stop, and was now leaning forward between the front seats. “It’s located on a peninsula, which is supposedly the farthest west we can go and still be on the mainland of the United States. Its public marina is the largest on the outer coast of the United States’ Pacific Northwest. And it houses a large commercial fishing fleet, as well as several recreational charter fishing vessels.”
“Thanks, Drakepedia,” I said. “Did Kandy let you borrow her phone? You know your magic is going to ruin it.”
“Her iPad. And I Google fast,” he said smugly. “Swift and indomitable, as is the wind that stirs the waves breaking on yon seashore.”
Warner and I burst out laughing.
“What?” Drake asked. “Kandy says I need to practice being inscrutable.”
“Guardian poet.” I giggled.
“Actually, that’s Qiuniu’s job,” Drake said.
I looked from Warner to him, cranking my neck in my surprise. “Sorry, the healer is a poet?”
He nodded. “Poetry, music, the written word.”
“That’s why his healing magic is accompanied by music?”
“Excuse me?” Warner asked archly. “Are you saying you hear music when the healer kisses you?”
Grinning madly at Warner’s sarcasm, I countered, “You were the one who swooned in his arms earlier.”
“Yeah,” Drake said. “That’s what makes him so dreamy.”
I lost it, laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. Warner joined me, filling the vehicle with his tasty magic and deep-bellied guffaws.
“What?” Drake said, aghast. “Haoxin says so!”
The engine of the SUV sputtered, then died.
Silence fell as the vehicle slowly rolled to a stop.
“We killed the car,” I whispered.
More hysterics ensued. If it was inappropriate to wallow in our circumstances, laughing was really the only thing we could do.
Red taillights lit up ahead of us. Henry had just figured out we were no longer following him.
“I really hope it isn’t a long walk from here,” Drake mused.
I wiped tears from my face, struggling to get myself under control. The road was narrow enough that Henry had to execute a three-point turn in order to head back toward us.
“I think the beta might make me sit on her lap,” the fledgling continued. “Not the other way around as it should be. I’m twice her size, but she’s pretty dominant.”
I choked, still weeping with mirth.
“I don’t think it will come to that, fledgling,” Warner said with a straight face. He turned the key in the ignition. The engine started, then settled into a gentle purr.
Henry slowly drove by us. His and Kandy’s faces were pale blurs in the front and back driver’s-side windows of the black SUV.
Warner lifted his hand, waving as they passed.
Henry turned around once more, then passed us to take the lead again. As he slid by, the back door of our SUV opened. Kett slipped into the back seat beside Drake.
Warner hit the gas before the vampire had fully closed his door.
“Cool,” Drake said.
“Show-off,” I groused. “Did you even bother telling Henry you were leaving while you were moving?”
Kett settled in with a shrug.
“You probably scared him.”
“If the sorcerer wants to run with the West Coast North American Pack, he’ll need to get used to being scared,” Kett said coolly.
“I don’t think he was bitten by choice,” Drake said.
The vampire slowly turned his ice-blue gaze on the earnest fledgling. A slow smile spread across his face. “Being there was his choice.”
Drake tilted his head, considering the vampire’s logic. Then he nodded, grinning.
Warner snorted.
“I’ll step out as we move through Westport,” Kett said.
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
“For a moment.”
“Not a fan of oracles?”
Kett’s grin was more a flash of teeth than a smile, but he didn’t offer an answer.
Warner was eyeing the vampire in the rearview mirror. “We don’t have time to … monitor you, Kettil.”
“I’ll endeavor to not kill anyone, as always.”
“Excuse me?” Though I wasn’t totally following the conversation, I was uncomfortably aware that they might be talking about feeding. Specifically, Kett’s dining requirements.
The vampire drummed his long, pale fingers on the armrest to his left. The uncharacteristically nervous movement was a blur in the moonlight. “I find the mode of transport and the proximity of the shapeshifters chafing, alchemist. No more than that.”
I nodded, turning back as the first buildings of the town of Westport appeared on either side of the road before us. Most of the single and two-storey structures appeared to be business oriented, and were all long-closed for the evening. At first glance, the tidy seaside town appeared more functional than quaint. Maybe the fishing that Drake’s Googling had highlighted took precedence over tourism.
“I have less need of sustenance lately,” Kett murmured.<
br />
I didn’t look back at the vampire. If he was in a sharing mood, it was better to let him talk than to question him. But when he didn’t continue, I spoke. “Since London?”
“More since Peru.”
“What happened in Peru?” Drake asked.
“I … I bit the rogue dragon,” Kett said. “It was … ill advised.”
Warner laughed under his breath, like he sensed how that was the closest the vampire would ever come to admitting a mistake.
“You drank dragon blood?” Drake asked. “And you still … function?”
Kett didn’t answer. But I knew — based on the past few hours we’d spent together and his absence over the previous year — that the answer might be a question of what his continuing to function actually entailed. He had mentioned some sort of pending decision during our conversation on the jet. And I got the feeling he was being forced to make it.
“The oracle is young, yes?” Kett said, ignoring Drake’s question. “I thought it best if she wasn’t … inundated.”
Kett was a collector. I would have thought he’d be eager to meet Rochelle. But maybe he wasn’t all that interested in the possibility of coming face to face with his future. That made two of us.
“Jade can open the conversation,” Warner said in agreement.
“Rochelle knows me too,” Drake said.
“Also, Audrey isn’t going to stay behind,” I said.
“We three will set up a perimeter,” Warner said. “If we’re lucky, Shailaja will show her face, and this will be all over quickly.”
“After we find Chi Wen,” Drake added.
I glanced at Warner. I was still worried about the far seer’s state of mind — and about what finding him altered might do to Drake.
The sentinel nodded imperceptibly.
“As you say,” Kett murmured. He sounded unsettled, though. Almost fretful. I was pretty sure that no one but me or maybe Kandy could pick up the different nuances in his cool, poised tone.
I reached my hand back through the seats. Kett brushed his fingers against my palm without looking away from his window. Drake wrapped his warm hand around both of ours, creating an odd — but definitely not awful — peppermint and honeyed-almond sandwich.
“I’m glad you survived, vampire,” Drake said. “Thank you for your aid and friendship.”
Kett looked surprised. Then he lifted the corners of his lips in a smile of acknowledgement. “I am at your disposal … as you require.”
Satisfied, Drake released us.
A comfortable silence fell as we rolled through the tiny town of Westport. A few restaurants and a gas station were open, but the single main street was quiet. Sleepy. Which I wouldn’t mind being for the next twelve hours or so.
Beyond the final buildings in the main section of town, Henry flicked on the left-hand indicator of the Escalade, then turned. We followed, moving closer to the sound of the surf.
“No other guardian is friends with a vampire,” Drake said conversationally. “Especially not an elder of the Conclave. There is strength in this diversity.”
I grinned a little, catching Warner doing the same out of the corner of my eye.
“Indeed,” Kett said. His tone was as cool as ever without any hint of sarcasm at the fledgling’s suggested alliance. But then, ancient vampires played the long game.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Kett plotted centuries ahead. Though the fact that those centuries could possibly now include me — according to Suanmi — still unnerved me. My whole life, I’d been expecting nothing but an ordinary, mortal existence.
Of course, I still had to survive the next confrontation with the rabid koala to have any kind of existence at all.
∞
A vintage-1970s Brave Winnebago was parked beside a tiny cabin on a sparsely treed acreage, about a dozen feet from a long, narrow, gray-sand beach. Well, at least it was gray in the moonlight. Momentarily mesmerized by the reflection of the full moon shimmering across the dark surf of the open coast, I climbed out of the SUV.
The age of the RV was easy to estimate, just based upon the exterior color scheme of cream, orange, and brown. Though what I could see of the cabin windows were dark, the Brave was ablaze with light. It was an easy guess that Rochelle and Beau were pulling power from the cabin but staying in the RV. All the curtains had been drawn throughout the midsection of the Brave. I wondered if they drew them every evening, or if this was a reaction to our impending arrival.
Henry had parked the black Escalade in a spot behind the cabin, though it was a tight fit between the building and the large oak tree that backed it. It was the type of tree that might have held a tire swing at one point. I wondered how long Henry had owned the property, and whether or not it was a family cabin.
Warner had parked twenty feet or so back on the dirt drive, pretty much blocking the exit. I imagined that was a deliberate choice. Kett was already gone, having slipped silently out of the Escape five minutes before we’d arrived, with the main street of Westport still in the rearview mirror.
Interior lights illuminated the neighboring homes through the sparse pine and fir trees on either side of the lot. The houses were near enough that I could see a family of four watching TV in the living room to the north, and smoke curling upward from the chimney to the south. But they weren’t so near that the neighbors would hear or see anything untoward transpire. Unless they were Adepts, of course. And I seriously hoped to avoid anything transpiring.
However, untoward things tended to happen around the oracle and me. Hell, bloody and nasty things tended to happen around me and any other Adept.
Pine needles and dry sand crunched underneath my feet, but none of the stealthy shapeshifters, the dragons, or the sorcerer made a sound. I suspected Henry employed magic on his loafers to gain the effect.
Warner and Drake melted into the darkness to case the area, while Kandy and I paused beside an empty firepit about a dozen feet from the Brave’s side door, closer to the beach than the cabin.
Audrey crossed toward the RV, lifting her hand to knock. Henry hovered a few feet back from her.
“Henry’s family owns the lot?” I asked Kandy. “There aren’t any discernible wards on the cabin … or the RV.”
The green-haired werewolf shrugged, keeping her eye on Henry. He had lifted his gaze to the moonlit sky above the crashing surf.
“Problem, sorcerer?” Kandy’s voice rang out through the dark night, causing Audrey to pivot away from the door.
Henry shook his head. Then he shook it again and grinned. “Nah.”
A large shadow percolating with dark-chocolate magic landed silently on top of the Brave, which dipped under its weight. There, it perched over Audrey, mimicking a watchful gargoyle.
For a split second, I thought it was Desmond’s magic I was tasting. Then I caught the hint of cayenne pepper.
Beau.
Not knowing if I was witnessing some sort of shapeshifter game or not, I could only watch as Audrey turned, ready for an attack, seconds before Beau dropped on top of her. In his massive double-fanged, orange-pelted half-beast/half-human form, he was easily three times the size of the beta. I’d never seen him in either his tiger or his half-form, and both abilities were unusual. Werewolves were the dominant species among the shapeshifters. Big cats were rare, and tigers even more so.
Audrey intentionally fell backward, flipping Beau over her head and rolling both of them closer to Henry. The beta’s magic rose up as she transformed. Her terrifying, seven-foot-tall, dark-gray-furred half-beast form was apparently constructed solely out of muscle, tooth, and claw. Audrey’s expensive outfit wasn’t going to come out of this looking so perfect anymore.
As they tussled, the two of them chortled a cacophony of absolutely dreadful monster noises, trying unsuccessfully to pin each other.
There was a more immediate issue, though.
Henry, who was still standing between the wrestling monsters and us, was shaking. Moaning, he tore
his fevered gaze from the growling mass of teeth and claws to stare up at the full moon.
“Kandy …” I breathed.
“I see him,” she said curtly. “Henry?” She padded closer to the moonstruck sorcerer.
I stepped back.
Henry lost whatever battle he was fighting in his mind. His skin split — tooth and claw and hair ripped through his human visage. His jacket and jeans ripped through at the seams. His precious cowboy hat tumbled away as he threw his head back, howling in pain and frustration.
“Ah, shit,” Kandy muttered. Her shapeshifter magic rolled up and around her while she hurriedly started tugging off her sneakers, leggings, and T-shirt.
Henry attacked her before she could finish undressing — or transforming. And there was nothing playful about the claws he raked across her. Though he’d been aiming for her ribs, she spun away from him to take the vicious blow across her back.
Audrey tossed Beau aside. He tumbled past the cabin and the SUV parked behind it, disappearing into the more densely wooded area at the back of the acreage. He snapped a couple of good-sized trees in half as he went. Then, scrambling, he leaped forward to catch them before they toppled into the cabin or the RV.
Henry lifted his bloody claws to his wolfed-out face. He licked them lovingly, moaning as he did so.
Kandy transformed, shredding her remaining clothing and filling my senses with bittersweet dark chocolate and ripe red berries.
Henry lifted his snout to the sky and howled. It was a terrifying, hair-raising cry full of anger and torment.
I was wrong. The neighbors were definitely going to hear that.
Drake stepped into my peripheral vision.
“Let the shapeshifters handle him, fledgling.” Kett’s cool voice sounded out from the deep shadows beyond the driveway behind me.
Audrey wrapped her hairy, muscular arms around Henry, pinning him. He struggled, thrashing and growling. Then Kandy stepped up to lock her gaze to his. In her half-beast form, she was taller than the bitten werewolf by half a head.
A terrible, rippling snarl emanated from her misaligned jaws.
Henry pressed his ears back against his head, struggling to hold Kandy’s gaze. Then his snarling turned into a whimper, and he dropped his chin to his chest.
Artifacts, Dragons, and Other Lethal Magic Page 16