I complimented the bartender on the stew as I drank my cider. For as long as we were in Scotland, I’d try to eat in pubs rather than having cold sandwiches standing up in a cabin full of Conclave operatives. I’d try to find a bakery, too, I thought, wondering what the local desserts and pastries would be like.
After the meal, I paid with European money. I spent a few minutes looking at the bills. It was so strange to have a pocket full of foreign money.
I didn’t understand what the bartender said when he gave me my change, but his smile was real friendly, so I just smiled back and waved good-bye.
I rounded the pub and signaled Kato to leave. When we walked out, I didn’t want him behind me. He stood and exited, with me following closely.
I looked around for Mercutio, hoping he hadn’t wandered too far away. Now that I was armed, I could help us get the upper hand against the other Conclave operatives. I would likely need Merc’s help. Also, I wanted Mercutio ready to jump in the van with us so we could drive away in a hurry.
I slowed, wanting Kato to get farther ahead, but he slowed when I did. I’d expected him to start down the path from the woods that we’d walked to arrive at the pub, but he didn’t.
Where’s he going?
He turned suddenly. I dropped just in time to avoid being hit in the head with the doorstop he was carrying. I shoved the gun against his chest and he froze.
I shook my head.
He cursed and dropped it.
“You shouldn’t just take a pub’s doorstop. Didn’t your momma teach you it’s wrong to steal?”
“Who trained you? Not Maldaron. He was never that smooth. And Perth was mostly clerical,” he said, referring to the first Conclave operatives who’d been sent to Duvall.
“If anybody trained me it was my cat, Mercutio. Now get going. I want you to stay ten feet in front of me until the cabin’s in sight. If you shout or try to warn them that I got your gun, I’ll shoot you in the leg.”
“It would be smarter to kill me.”
“Yep, but I’m not a bad guy like you.”
He smirked. “You live by a code, huh?”
“Not one that I’ve written down, but yes, I guess I do.”
He shook his head. “I like you.”
“I wish I could say the same, but as a general rule, I’m not friends with people who abduct me.” I paused. “Except once I fell in love with a guy who kind of did,” I added, because when I’d lost my normal mind while under a spell, Bryn had trapped me in a circle to keep me out of trouble. Sometimes a kidnapping is for a person’s own good, but not usually, in my experience.
“Been abducted often, have you?” Kato asked with a smirk.
“Yeah, pretty often. Twice in one day one time.”
“By Conclave operatives?”
“Most often, but not always.”
He grinned. “You’re a regular escape artist then, are you?”
“I don’t know about being artistic, but I get the job done.”
We walked through the woods at a quick steady pace until Mercutio flew out of the foliage and head-butted my calf. I knew that move. My gaze darted right and left as I hurried forward.
“Get moving,” I told Kato. “There’s a problem.”
He stopped. “What sort of problem?”
Mercutio zipped past with a soft yowl.
“I don’t know,” I said, waving the gun. “Just get going. Jog! I’ll tell you when it’s okay to stop running.”
Kato looked skeptical.
“I’m not kidding,” I snapped. “My cat only makes me run when my life’s at stake. Otherwise we saunter.” I cocked my head, listening. I didn’t hear anything, but the trees were buzzing with unease. Mercutio stopped about twenty feet in front of me and crouched.
Uh-oh.
The growl was so low I almost missed it.
“Run!” I yelled at Kato, and shoved past him. I sprinted along the path until it reached the woods. I rushed into them.
Mercutio yowled and herded me to the left, and I hopped over fallen trees and raced forward, but Kato was noisy as he ran with me, and in the distance I heard small noises made by whoever pursued us.
Mercutio jerked to a stop and yowled.
I froze. “What, Merc?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.
Merc pawed the ground.
“He’s probably just scenting other animals. He could be hunting,” Kato said.
“I know the difference between hunting and being hunted,” I whispered.
Then I spotted them: a pair of yellow eyes, watching us. I jumped back. Kato jerked. Mercutio stood his ground.
Within seconds we were surrounded by four huge wolves. Not natural wolves. Unfortunately I had enough experience to recognize a pack of werewolves when I saw them. And I could feel their impression of me.
Prey.
11
ONE OF THE wolves charged forward. I whipped up the gun, but the wolf who knocked Kato to the ground pinned him, but didn’t maul him. I released the pressure on the trigger that I’d almost pulled.
“What do you want?” I asked as the three remaining wolves inched closer. I shook my head and bobbed the gun in warning.
Mercutio hissed, ready with teeth and claws to defend us to the death.
Branches swayed, and the trees murmured their displeasure. The wolves looked around sharply. I wasn’t sure whether they understood the trees’ language, but they must have felt the mood of the forest.
The wolves stayed as they were, waiting for something, I realized. Kato struggled under the wolf’s weight on his chest, and wind began to flow through the trees. He was calling the air to him, gathering power.
The wolf on Kato growled and then grabbed Kato’s throat in his jaws. He didn’t clamp down or tear flesh, but the warning was obvious. Kato’s words trailed off into silence.
“What are you doing? What do you want with us?” I asked. “We haven’t done anything to you, and you’re starting trouble you probably don’t want.”
They prowled circles around us. I wasn’t sure how much these men could understand in wolf form. They’d seemed to know that Kato was preparing to cast a spell, but they didn’t look at me or change into human form to explain what was going on, so I couldn’t be sure they understood my questions.
As seconds ticked by, Mercutio and the wolves grew restless, and their crouches deepened. Merc’s gaze turned away from the circle and then quickly back. I realized the wolves’ attention was partially focused there, too, on some distant point.
“What is it, Merc?” I asked, looking to the north the way he had. The woods loomed dark and sinister. A shiver of fear raced down my spine. Whatever or whoever the wolves waited for wasn’t likely to be a welcome sight for me and Mercutio.
I placed a hand against the bark of the nearest tree. Its branches had curled toward me protectively when the wolves had first surrounded us. My right foot rested against a tree root; the left burrowed its toes into the dirt.
My muscles tightened. I didn’t look at Merc. His reflexes didn’t need to be primed. He was already at the ready, like always.
I gripped the rough bark. A warm pulse from within the tree greeted my fingertips. “Help me,” I whispered, and then darted around it.
The wolves lunged forward. Sharp nails grazed my back as I leapt. A branch swung down, and my outstretched hands caught it. The woody limb snapped upward, dragging me into the air.
Mercutio darted to the trunk, barely evading snapping jaws that tried to catch him. He ascended in a spiral of blistering speed, avoiding the paws that scrabbled and slammed the bark trying to reach him.
Merc came to stand on the crook of the branch I dangled from. He cocked his head and meowed.
“Yep,” I said, pulling myself up. My arm muscles shook from the effort. I really needed to add chin-ups to
my fitness routine. I also needed to add a fitness routine. I bet Kismet would’ve just swung up and flipped into the air and landed on her toes on the branch like a gymnast. Yeah, I had to work on that.
I put my leg over so I sat straddling the branch, facing the tree trunk and Mercutio. “Made it. Thank you, tree,” I said, patting the branch.
Twenty feet below, the wolves growled and circled us. In a whisper, I said, “Someone’s coming, huh, Merc? So it’s not a good idea to sit waiting for the wolves to give up and go away.”
The tilt of Merc’s head and his stance told me he agreed that we weren’t in the clear. I looked around. This wasn’t the jungle, so there were no vines to swing from. Plus, not being Tarzan, I wouldn’t know how to do that anyway. I’d probably just crash into a tree trunk and fall down. It would have to be a more normal plan.
“Kato,” I said.
He looked up.
“When I start shooting, get up and run back to the cabin.”
Kato nodded.
I pointed the gun at the wolves. “Let him go,” I shouted.
The wolves didn’t budge.
Animals can sense a person’s nature. I reached deep into myself for my fae side. That side of me didn’t have much conscience. She was ruled by instinct, impulse, and a lust for tasty things, like honey and Bryn. Calmness washed over me, and for a moment I was flying down a faery path on horseback, the air a tunnel of flashing colors and wind.
I jerked on the reins, and my horse’s thundering hooves planted to a stop.
I blinked and was back on the branch, my connection to Kismet broken. I felt her, though—in the distance and in myself.
I looked down at the wolves, calculating my chances of killing them all before they scattered. They stiffened, sensing the change.
Wait, I thought. They’re men in wolf form. I won’t murder them.
A voice in my head whispered that if my intent was to get away, my best chance would be if the wolves around the tree couldn’t chase me.
My heart thumped.
Mercutio made a small sound of warning. He likes me as regular Tammy Jo, not the detached faery version of me.
Right, I thought with a shiver. I pushed my inner faery aside and took careful aim. I squeezed the trigger. The bullet skimmed through the fur of the wolf holding Kato. The wolves scattered.
Kato rose, flung spells over his shoulder, and tore off through the woods. The wolves didn’t pursue him. They all stayed with me. Good grief!
At least Kato could bring help back. Would it be in time?
I looked around, wondering what Kismet would’ve done in my place. Would she have been able to hop from tree to tree? I might miss an outstretched branch and fall to the ground. That would be especially painful, since I was still healing from deep wounds that I’d gotten the week before.
I pulled out my cell and Kato’s. Neither had a signal. Typical! In places with lots of magic, electronics often didn’t work right. Or perhaps it wasn’t the magic. Maybe there just wasn’t one of those cell towers near enough to penetrate the deep woods.
Unless I was prepared to shoot and incapacitate the wolves, I couldn’t climb down and make a run for the cabin, because there was no doubt they’d catch me within a few feet of the tree.
Getting bolder, the wolves returned to the tree’s base, watching us from the ground.
“You know, Merc, there’s no telling what will happen once Kato goes to the cabin. Maybe they’ll come armed with silver bullets and kill these wolves,” I said, looking at the gun I held.
Realization dawned. I removed the clip of Kato’s gun and checked the ammunition. It wasn’t silver. The wolves should be able to recover from the wounds made by regular bullets. They’d have to live with the pain of being shot, but they would live.
I grimaced. The pain from deep wounds was no picnic.
But it might be better in the long run, because knowing the Conclave wizards, they’d do whatever was the most efficient thing, which might be killing the werewolves.
“Hey, listen,” I called down. “That wizard is from the Conclave. You know the Conclave, right? It’s like the magical CIA. Um, that’s American. You know what the CIA is, right?” Was there a British version? Of course—James Bond worked for it. What was the name of it? I sure didn’t know.
“So the Conclave operatives are like James Bond, except way less charming. If they come, I don’t know what will happen. It’d be better if you let me go before they show up. Safer for you,” I said.
They didn’t leave. I wasn’t sure if they understood me.
Mercutio made a skeptical sound.
“What? I shouldn’t have given away about Kato being with the Conclave and going for reinforcements? You’re right. Probably giving away strategy’s not a good idea, especially since it didn’t make an impression on them.”
I chewed my lip, trying to think of a way to distract the wolves so I could get down and run. If I’d known a spell to create a diversion . . . Of course, my spells usually went hopelessly wrong, and this might not be the best time to experiment. On the other hand, I needed to try something.
“What are you doing?” a little voice said.
I jumped, nearly falling off the branch. I grabbed it to brace myself as Merc swiped a paw at a pudgy winged creature who could’ve sat cross-legged in my palm. He wore a small leaf on his head and fuzzy pants that might have been made of squirrel fur. Another winged creature who was thinner with a long nose zipped up next to him.
“What’s she doing?” the thinner faery asked.
“Is there something wrong with your eyes? She’s sitting here.”
“But why? She must know he’s coming. Is she hurt?”
“Of course she’s hurt, or she would’ve already gone, wouldn’t she?” Chubby snapped. “You can see she doesn’t even have her bow. It must have been a terrible fight.”
“I don’t see blood. Who’s this cat?” Thin demanded, darting out of Merc’s reach. “Is this cat bothering her? Why hasn’t she thrown this cat out of the tree if he’s bothering her?”
“I don’t know!” Chubby shouted. “I’m trying to find out.”
I grabbed Merc’s paw to keep him from batting Chubby through the air.
“I like her humanside hair. Very bright,” Thin said.
“You have to get out of here,” Chubby said to me. “The wolf lord is coming. He’s two miles away, and you know how fast he can run. When you don’t give him what he wants, he could lose his temper and tear you apart.”
My stomach tightened. “I don’t know how to escape. They have us surrounded.”
“And you’re too hurt to try to outrun them? You need a fast horse,” Chubby said, looking around.
“The horse is not here,” Thin said. “The wolves would’ve caught his scent if he was humanside and nearby.”
“And he’s not on the path. We’ve just come from the path,” Chubby said, scrunching his round face. “Where is the pony?”
“I think you have me—”
“Don’t get distracted, Royal!” Thin shouted. “We have to help get her out of here.”
Royal jerked to attention. “I know!”
“Torch the tails,” Thin said.
“And get eaten? That’s getting too close!”
“Torch the tails!” Thin shouted louder.
“They’ll crush us in those jaws. They’ll eat us alive!”
“They’ll try,” Thin said, poking Royal in the belly. “You’ve gotten too fat. You’re slower than a drunk fly.”
Royal glowered. “I could thrash you, Shakes.”
“Not if you had to catch me first.”
“Oh, I’ll catch you. After we torch those tails, you’ll see.”
Shakes grinned. “We’ll help. Wait and see,” Shakes said to me. “I told you you’d be glad you saved u
s.”
Shakes and Royal swooped down. Within moments they were flying around the wolves with tiny flaming spears, trying to set the wolves’ tails on fire. The wolves spun in circles, snapping at the faeries.
Merc and I climbed partway down and then jumped to the ground. Then I ran as if my life depended on it—which, if the faeries were to be believed, it did.
12
THE WOLVES WERE gaining on me when I heard Zach shout, “Get down.”
I dived to the ground and covered the back of my neck with my hands, expecting to feel a wolf land on me, but instead a gunshot rang out, and a wolf landed heavily on the ground next to me.
He shifted into human form, gasping for breath.
“Oh, God,” I said as blood bubbled from a hole in his chest. He must’ve been leaping when the bullet hit him. I crawled to him and pressed my hand over the wound. “Hang on.”
He gripped my upper arms tight, his eyes wild with fear. “Silver.”
The raging howls of the other wolves echoed around us as they crashed into the woods. I heard more shots and explosive sounds as magic was wielded, and then a scream and growls.
“My son . . .” the werewolf lying next to me whispered in his accented English. “He’s three. He won’t understand.”
Tears sprang into my eyes. “Then you have to hang on so you can see him again. Werewolves are the strongest of all the supernatural creatures. You can make it,” I said.
His large brown eyes squeezed shut, causing crinkles around them. “Can’t breathe,” he said.
“We need help here!” I yelled. “Stop fighting! He needs a hospital.”
The man’s eyes opened, and he stared at me. “You’re not her.”
“Who?”
“Not a disguise to trick us. Who are you?”
“I’m Tammy Jo from Texas. That’s in America.”
A ghost of a smile appeared on his face for a moment. “Wait!” he yelled, his expression startled as he looked over my head.
I turned just in time to see the muzzle of another wolf, who leapt at me. I got my arm up, but the force of him slamming into me toppled me over the fallen guy. Sharp teeth sank into my flesh.
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