“Listen to me, Phoebe,” Saul said, drawing everyone’s attention back to the tables. Without his coat he wore one of the full-sleeved white shirts he favored with black pants. He had wide shoulders and narrow hips, and Leigh decided he was too thin.
Slowly, Phoebe focused on his face and, amazingly, she smiled.
“Keep looking at me,” Saul said. “Talk to me when you can.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Sean said. He touched one of her curls.
Saul glanced up and shook his head at the other man.
“I didn’t see them coming,” Phoebe said. “They… it was big. A big animal. It knocked me down and snarled in my face. I thought there were others back where I couldn’t quite see them. The one who attacked me got its claws in my hair.” She began to reach up with her left hand but cried out and took deep breaths. “My arm really hurts. I expect I’ve got big scratches on my head,” she said through her teeth.
Leigh didn’t allow herself to look at Niles, but his hand settled comfortably on the back of her neck.
Sally indicated the cup Cliff had left, looking to Saul for approval. He nodded and she lifted Phoebe’s head. The drink looked like tea but Leigh could smell brandy.
“Has she got a broken arm?” Niles asked.
Leigh turned her face up to him and recognized one of his rare angry outbursts in the making. His lips made a hard, white line. On the back of her neck, his fingers dug in harder.
“No,” Saul said, looking hard at Niles. “A pull at the shoulder, I think. Perhaps partial dislocation. She’s going to be fine.”
“He had eyes that shone in the dark,” Phoebe said. “I was in my place at the bookshop. All the lights went off and I was dragged outside. I screamed but no one heard—no one who cared.” She gulped more of the spirits-laced tea and color started to return to her cheeks. “He threw me down. Every time I tried to get up, he threw me down again.” Her gazed settled on Leigh and didn’t move away.
“You aren’t alone anymore,” Leigh told her. “I’m sorry you were scared.”
“I went down to your cottage to see you about contacting your sister,” Phoebe all but whispered. “But you weren’t there. I waited, then drove back home. That creature came right after I got back.”
Saul, Leigh noted, held Phoebe’s arm just above the wrist. The look of pain was fading from her face.
“Holy… Who the hell is that?” Gabriel said.
A woman Leigh had never seen before stood at the end of the bar. She came forward a few steps, an arrogant curl on her bright red lips. Heavy makeup didn’t make her look ugly, just artificial. “Sally,” she said. “Where have you been? You don’t follow instructions too well, do you, girl? I’ve looked for you all over. Good thing I’ve found you now, by the looks of things.”
Saul turned to stare at the woman, who took a half-step backward and all but snarled at him. “Saul VanDoren. I should have known you’d be here.”
“Who is that?” Gabriel said again, this time more loudly. “Ma’am, do we know you?”
She swayed, moving the long skirts of a dark brown striped Victorian-style traveling dress. “Who cares if you know me—you don’t and won’t,” she told Gabriel. “I’m not here to see you. I could tell the kind of trouble people were getting into and the signs led me here.”
The woman looked at Phoebe and frowned. “Who is that creature?”
“You don’t need to know,” Saul said. His nostrils flared as if he smelled something he didn’t like. “Give her more tea, Sally, please.”
Sally did as she was told and managed to indicate to Leigh that she should come closer.
Leigh moved but Niles went with her as if they were fused together, and she smiled at him. Fused to Niles was exactly where she preferred to be. His hand clasped her waist possessively.
“Will you hold her shoulders for me?” Sally said.
Saul had moved in closer, too, and between them they more or less closed Phoebe off from this newcomer.
“Have you forgotten who you answer to, Sally?” the woman said, her voice grating. “It’s very unwise for you to ignore me. If you ever want to go back—”
“This is my old friend, Ms. Tarhazian,” Sally all but bellowed. Then she dropped her voice to a whisper only those gathered at the table could hear. “I want to get her out of here, but I dare not openly offend her.”
“Is she the Fae Queen?” Niles asked.
Sally nodded, and her complexion turned a little green.
“Percy was here, too,” Leigh said, ignoring the blank faces around her. “I think he wanted to warn us she was coming.”
Sean continued to rub Phoebe’s legs through the blanket and looked at her with something between fascination and adoration. This night—or morning—was getting too much for Leigh.
“Sally,” Tarhazian yelled. “I made myself clear to you, but you couldn’t manage to follow my orders. You’ve managed to mess everything up. Again. For that, you will pay.”
As silently as she had appeared, Tarhazian was gone. Leigh couldn’t tell if Sally felt relieved by her departure, or even more frightened at the threat. Before she could ask, Phoebe sat up, supported by Saul. “Leigh,” Phoebe said quietly but desperately. “Come close. You, too, Sally. All of you.
“I heard something, or I’m pretty sure I did,” she said to Leigh, who clutched Niles’s arm. “One of those animals called me, Leigh. Can you tell me why he would do that? I worried about you.”
Saul rested a hand on Phoebe’s cheek, and when he moved it to the other side of her face, Leigh was almost certain the bruises and scratches were fading rapidly.
“No, I don’t know,” Leigh told her.
“I think I do,” Niles muttered.
Abruptly Phoebe burst into tears. “That thing was a great big wolf,” she sobbed. “I didn’t say before, but he had another animal beside him the whole time, only he was a bit smaller. Kind of like a big dog.
“I think they were going to kidnap me until the smaller one got a good look at me. He made a wailing sound and the other one backed off. They howled in the darkness like there was a lot of them. And then they turned away as if I wasn’t there.”
“Thank God,” Gabriel said.
“I was glad,” Phoebe agreed. “But that one who attacked me thought I was someone else, another woman. I’m sure of it. They’re out there now looking for some poor woman they want to drag off into the forest. It really could be you, Leigh.”
Leigh felt Niles grow as still as a stone statue.
“We will be ready,” Saul said to Niles. “We have more power on our side and we will stand together.”
“Strange bedfellows,” Sean muttered.
chapter THIRTY-THREE
WITH BROADENING dawn, a cold, blue-gray light settled in. The impact of the heavy snowfall was startlingly visible on the laden boughs of trees, the tall white ridges on fences, the mountains of white that lined the road. Hardly a naked twig showed to break the flat, white margins of the world.
Leigh’s Honda ground along on chains that didn’t completely reach through the icy coating beneath the snow. So few cars had come this way that she and Niles made mostly fresh tracks.
The heater wasn’t working well and on the backseat, Skillywidden had curled up on top of Jazzy. Jazzy hated the car even more than he used to and the addition of cold left him shivering and snuffling, and rolling his eyes at Leigh each time he had a chance.
“Sean wasn’t leaving Phoebe no matter what anyone else thought,” Leigh said. She glanced at Niles.
Niles nodded. “That was one instant case of magnetism—at least on his side.”
“Phoebe isn’t well and it shows,” Leigh said. “But I can understand the attraction. She’s vibrant and interesting. I think Sean would be drawn to that. He’s reserved but he’s on top of everything in that quiet way of his. Sometimes he makes me laugh. He says things I don’t expect.”
“Are you trying to make me jealous?” Niles stroked her cheek wi
th the backs of his fingers. “I don’t know if I can bear having you admire another man.”
“Just you, huh?” she said. “How do you plan to make sure I don’t admire anyone else? This ought to be good.”
“Give me a hint. What kind of answer do I give to that?”
She shrugged, turning on the windshield wipers to sweep aside a small avalanche from the roof of the car. “Feats of strength, maybe. Dancing exhibitions, singing opera. I prefer ballet, by the way. Gourmet meals you cooked yourself.” Rolling in her lips, controlling a grin, she gave herself a second before she said, “Mind-bending lovemaking. Luscious, lustful sex in every place in every way, every day—maybe several times a day.”
As he watched her, a sly smile parted his lips.
“That should cover it,” Leigh said.
“And this is what happens to a nice girl once she’s been with me?”
“You’re complaining?”
Silence didn’t last long before Niles said, “Pull over.”
She glanced in his direction, a smug grin in place. “We’ll be home soon.”
Niles looked very serious. “We’ve got to get started or I won’t manage everything I’ve got to do in a day.”
She removed one hand from the steering wheel and placed it on top of Niles’s firm thigh. “I promise to help you. I wouldn’t dream of letting you shoulder the whole burden on your own.”
He sighed. “Leigh, this feels so good, just to let the tension go for a while and enjoy each other. We know we’ve got hard times ahead. But I do love you. I don’t know if I can ever tell you how much.”
“You’ll manage,” she told him.
Reaching over the console, he kissed her neck and ran the tip of his tongue around the inside of her ear. He slipped his right hand inside her coat, under her shirt, and gently lifted a breast from inside her bra. His thumb ran back and forth over the instantly rigid nipple and Leigh let out a cry.
“Mmm.” He bared her breast and bent his head to kiss her there.
“You’ll put us in a snowbank,” she said. “Oh, God, I want you now. Stop it till we get home.”
He continued to run the edges of his teeth over erogenous skin and pull her flesh into his mouth.
“Niles!” She slammed on the shrieking brakes and the car fishtailed into the nearest wall of snow. “Look what’s happened.”
Reluctantly, Niles looked up. They had almost reached the entrance to the track leading to Two Chimneys. Or the place where the entrance was supposed to be.
What he saw didn’t fool Niles. The track hadn’t simply been blocked by a fallen tree. Piles of snapped limbs, chunks from the trunks of trees, bushes, shrubs, and foliage of all kinds crammed together in an unholy mess only a supernatural rage could accomplish. Roots, spread wide and black from being under the wet earth, curled above the snow like big, inky spiders.
“Turn off the engine,” he said. “Now. I’m getting out. You’re staying here with the doors locked and if anyone but me comes your way, leave.”
Her shock almost immediately turned to a mutinous expression. “Where you go, I go. We’re sealed, remember.” She held up her palm to show the purple stamp there. The edges were still red.
She didn’t understand that there were some things she couldn’t do, some things she might do to slow him down. He covered her palm with his own. “I may have to move fast. You know what I mean? I need to know you’re safe. Go to Gabriel’s if you have to.”
“What’s the big deal?” she said. “It’s just the weight of the snow that’s made this mess.”
“Perhaps.” If she could think that, so much the better.
Out of the car, he waited for Leigh to lock the doors and went into a crouch. He hurried to the first demolished gatepost. The gate itself usually stood open, but he could see pieces of it scattered around.
Working rapidly, he hauled aside branches, jagged pieces of tree trunk, and one wrecked piece of forest and fence after another. He didn’t get it, not yet. What reason could there be for this—except rage? He tossed aside a twisted and rusted piece of metal that must have been buried in the undergrowth for years.
Rage with what, or with whom?
Leigh?
The wolves had come here, following Phoebe. That’s the only explanation that fit. They had followed her here, then back to her place. They didn’t share the werehounds’ ability to see in the dark, or not to the same degree.
What Phoebe had mentioned about one of them using Leigh’s name made sense. Once they found out Phoebe “wasn’t the one” they had thrown her down and left.
Hell, why play games with the obvious? Brande and his pack were after Leigh. They knew she could be a bridge between the hounds and the humans and they wouldn’t want that. They had thought Phoebe was Leigh and followed her. There was no reason they would know what kind of car Leigh drove.
Then, when they hadn’t managed to find Leigh back at Two Chimneys, they had trashed the place. Trashing what didn’t belong to them was a favorite pastime of Brande and his followers.
They wanted to use Leigh against him—and ultimately against any werehound attempt to bond with the humans.
He cleared part of the track and started dragging larger branches into the forest. They would go back to nature there.
Niles walked backward, pulling the top twenty feet or so of a giant fir with him.
“How can you do that?”
His head jerked up and he glowered across the branches at Leigh. “I told you to stay in the car.”
“I’m getting bored. I want to help. This is my place.” She pointed to the chunk of tree he held up by a couple of snags. “That’s huge, Niles. It’s bigger than most trees. You’re tossing it around like a matchstick.”
“I’m strong,” he said. There was no point making up some elaborate story.
She opened her mouth to speak but crossed her arms instead.
“What?” he asked.
“I know how strong you are. Or maybe I don’t. I wonder how much I don’t know about you.”
“Your timing for an inquisition is great,” he said. “What don’t you think I’ve told you? Isn’t it enough to know I’m a—”
“I’m being stupid,” she said, cutting him off. Shrugging and giving him an abashed smile, she picked up several sticks. “Sorry.”
“No. You’ve been through too much, too fast—”
“Niles!” She shrieked his name so suddenly, he jumped. “Someone’s under there. I can see a foot.” Leigh pointed past him to a tangle of thick vines.
He saw the leg at once. A leg in ripped rain pants with a high-topped black sneaker on the foot.
“My God. Oh, no, Niles. Quick. I’ll help.”
He had torn aside the vines before she could start and sent a message out to Sean. He was the one to help with injuries, particularly serious ones, which this already looked to be.
“He’s dead,” Leigh said. She turned aside and he thought she would throw up but she took breaths through her mouth and held on to a tree for support.
Sean erupted into the scene.
Too late Niles saw that no medic, no matter how gifted, could do anything for this man.
“I think you need Saul,” Sean said before he got a good look at the corpse. “No, I guess not. He doesn’t raise the dead—or not that dead.”
“He’s broken,” Leigh cried. Niles put an arm around her. “He’s bent backward so far his spine must be broken… in several places.”
Niles caught Sean’s eyes and they exchanged thoughts. “Our special operations method,” Niles indicated. “Neck will be snapped, too. Fastest, most efficient way to kill without a lot of noise and without much to hide.”
“Just a rolled-up bundle of bloody bones and flesh,” Sean responded. “Only we bagged ’em afterward. I thought we were the only ones who did this.”
Niles simmered. “I thought we invented it and we only used it in extreme situations.”
“On someone who would kill us if we
didn’t kill them,” Sean said. “In a war zone.”
Niles wrapped Leigh hard against him and kept staring at Sean. “We left all this behind.”
“You never quite did.” Sean shook his head. “I shouldn’t have said that. We have to deal with whatever comes our way and get over it. We’ve got a chance to start again.”
Niles looked at the heap of human pulp on the ground. “You wouldn’t know it from this. Leigh will expect us to call the police, not get rid of him.”
“Might be the best thing to do.” Sean knelt and turned the man’s broken neck to the side to show his face. “Shit. We know this one.”
Leigh gasped. “It’s John Valley.”
chapter THIRTY-FOUR
LEIGH CRINGED. She pushed away from Niles and made herself look more closely at the dead man. “That’s terrible, but at least it must have been fast.” She scuffled around in her coat pockets and found a crumpled piece of paper. “He left this at Gabriel’s for me last week. He kept trying to get me to—you know how he asked me about selling this place? He tried again and then there was this offer someone made.”
Frowning, Niles took the paper from her, looked at it, and passed it to Sean. “That’s a lot of money but it is beautiful land.”
“I kept on saying I didn’t want to sell but he wouldn’t give up.”
“There’s soot on him,” Sean said.
Leigh felt very sick but she made herself stand up straight. “Call 911.”
She couldn’t miss the nonverbal communication that passed between Niles and Sean.
“What’s with the dead birds?” Sean asked. “Don’t tell me they died when he fell on them. They would have flown off.” Several large, black, dead birds lay around Valley.
Niles gently pushed one of the birds with the toe of his boot so they could get a better look at it.
“Crows,” Sean said. His gold brown eyes caught the cold morning light and Leigh couldn’t look away. If anything about a man could be ethereal, then Sean’s eyes were just that.
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