Love and Other Wild Things

by Molly Harper

  Lara hissed and slapped Dani across the cheek, which stung, but then followed by holding her palm inches away from Dani’s face. A look of angry concentration twisted Lara’s features and Dani could feel her strength being sucked away, like water down a drain. She could see it being pulled out of her body in a thick golden thread, and into Lara’s hand.

  “You’re not better than me. You don’t know what’s coming.”

  Lara stopped the drain, shaking off her hand as if it burned. Dani panted, attempting to prop herself up on her elbow, only to flop back on the ground. “Oh, you’re right, you’re not even a supervilllain. I only warrant a half-competent minion to bump me off. I think that hurts my feelings.”

  Lara growled and subjected Dani to another painful bleeding of her life’s energy. Dani sagged to the grass, rasping out a breath. Dani had never been subjected to anything like it. She could feel her will to live, her very soul, being sucked away. She didn’t even know it was possible. Was Lara going to use what she was taking from Dani to rip the rift even further? Was she going to weaponize Dani’s life force?

  Panic turned Dani’s insides to ice. She couldn’t move to stop Lara as she gathered more and more from Dani’s body. Tears leaked out the corners of Dani’s eyes and onto the grass. Her whole body hurt, even her hair. She wasn’t going to make it out of this clearing. She would never see Zed again or tell him she was sorry and that of all the people she’d ever met, she loved him best. She wouldn’t get to say goodbye to her family or Jillian or Clarissa. She’d never get to apologize to Ivy Portenoy for suspecting her of murder.

  And she was going to have to accept that very soon. Because Lara couldn’t take fuel from a dead battery.

  If Dani had a hard time moving before, now, the effort to force air through her vocal cords to speak seemed Herculean. And yet, this bitch had fat shamed her, so it was worth it.

  “Your work is shit,” Dani panted. “If it was any good, I wouldn’t have been able to fix it so quickly. You need to stop working so hard to be flashy and put some intent behind what you’re doing, you weak ass wannabe.”

  “You shut your mouth.”

  Dani propped herself up on her elbows, sweating with the effort. “Was mommy a real witch? Is that why you’re so pissed off at the world? Is she disappointed in the mediocre party trick you call ‘work?’ What are you going to pull out next? Fancy card tricks? The dismembered thumb bit?”

  “Shut. Up,” Lara growled.

  “If you’re gonna kill me, go ahead and do it. Just don’t subject me to any more of your bullshit about how fucking clever you are. If you manage to do any real damage to the rift, it’s because you’re stealing the means from me, you half-assed, half-wit joke—”

  Lara hissed an angry breath, creating a small orange sphere the size of a tennis ball. She didn’t bother throwing it, simply slammed it into Dani’s face. As Dani slipped out of consciousness, she thought perhaps she’d made an error in judgement.

  Because OW.

  16

  Zed

  Zed jogged up the stairs to Jillian’s office in Building One. He’d been feeling uneasy all afternoon, that weird nagging tension that pulled at the corner of his mind when he thought maybe he’d left the stove on. But it felt bigger and worse. Something was wrong in Zed’s territory, and he wasn’t going to rest until he laid eyes on Dani and knew that she was safe.

  He noted that Lara, the scary receptionist was not at her desk, which was odd in itself. That girl was always glued to her desk. But he also noticed that he didn’t smell Dani anywhere in the office, despite her plans to meet with Jillian that afternoon. And that only made his discomfort worse.

  “Jillian?” he called.

  “I’m back here!” she yelled.

  Zed leaned against Jillian’s door frame, frowning over the office’s single occupancy. “Hey, where’s Dani?”

  Jillian lifted a brow. “I don’t know . . . because she’s an adult woman. And she objected when I tried to put a bell on her.”

  “She said she was going to meet with you this afternoon.”

  Zed frowned at her, which was enough to make Jillian sit up and put her serious face on. “I, honestly, don’t know, Zed. How did you get back here, anyway? Lara usually throws herself bodily at anyone who tries to cross my threshold without her written permission.”

  Zed waved his arms toward the unoccupied waiting room. “She wasn’t out there.”

  “What?” Jillian stood, walking toward the lobby. “She’s not off until four. And Lara never takes breaks. Ever. She’s basically Batman with better typing skills.”

  “So Lara and Dani are missing now?”

  “We don’t know that they’re missing,” Jillian said, her expression concerned. “They’re just . . . misplaced.”

  “So you haven’t seen her at all?”

  “Zed. I haven’t seen Dani since yesterday. And Lara was at her desk like ten minutes ago. I heard her berating the copy repair guy for stepping too close to our machine without an appointment. I don’t know where either of them could be.”

  Zed pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Dani’s phone number. It went straight to voicemail. “She’s not picking up her phone.”

  “Okay, well, that’s no reason to panic,” Jillian said, though her tone was becoming more serious. “Maybe she just can’t get it at the bottom of her bag. Or her phone battery died. Or she’s meditating.”

  Grumbling, Zed dialed Clarissa’s phone number. She picked up on the first ring. “Hello, my bebe.”

  “Have you seen Dani today?” he demanded. “Or Jillian’s uptight assistant?”

  “No, and I’m assuming that from the tone you’re using with your maman that this is an emergency of some sort,” Clarissa said.

  “I’m sorry, maman. It’s just Dani’s not where she says she would be and she’s not picking up her phone and I’ve been uneasy all day and no one has seen her and—”

  “Okay, okay, settle down. Now, I drove past Dani’s place this afternoon and her car wasn’t there. And I’m not even sure what Jillian’s assistant looks like. But I can go check at your place to see if Dani’s there.”

  “Thanks, maman.” Zed chewed his lip, panic rising in his chest. Dani wasn’t where she said she would be. She wasn’t with Jillian. She wasn’t at the maison.

  “Right.” Zed turned on his heel and ran toward the front door.

  “Hold on!” called Jillian. “Where are you running off to? She could be anywhere.”

  “Exactly! She could be anywhere!” Zed yanked open the front door and spotted a heavy-set redheaded man walking toward the parking lot. “YOU! GINGER FISH MICROWAVER!”

  The man stopped in his tracks and turned his head toward Zed, his expression terrified.

  “You work in Building Eleven?”

  The man nodded.

  “Have you seen Danica Teel? Is she in her office?” Zed asked.

  The man shook his head. “I haven’t seen her in days.”

  Zed roared . . . and the redheaded man took off running. Dani was missing. His mate was somewhere out there, hurt, and he didn’t know what to do. He almost launched himself out the front door, but he stopped, sniffing the air. He closed the door and crossed to Lara’s desk, sniffing all the way. He tossed aside paperwork and manila folders until he found the source of the sickly-sweet odor he was picking up. It was a copy of Popular Photography. He could feel crinkly, stiff patches on the cover, as if Lara had spilled something on the page and then it dried. He ran his nose along the glossy paper. Formaldehyde. The magazine smelled like formaldehyde. Dani mentioned a sickly-sweet odor on the person who’d attacked her in the library.

  Lara. He’d noticed the intense way she’d stared at Dani, but he’d thought it was just Lara’s personality. What had she been plotting?

  “Zed, honey, what are you doing?”

  Jillian’s voice was the only thing that kept him tethered to reality.

  “It was Lara,” Zed growled, his fangs el
ongated. Jillian pushed a button under Lara’s desk and Zed heard the click of a lock in the building’s front door.

  “What was that?” Zed asked.

  “Automatic locks. I just don’t want you to run off half-cocked and get yourself hurt. Just hold on for one second,” Jillian said, pushing a couple of buttons on her cell phone, and setting it to speakerphone.

  Jillian’s robot friend’s voice sounded from the phone. “What’s up, sweetie?”

  “Sonja, I need to use your evil computer mojo to access some employment records you’re not supposed to read.”

  “Ooh, my favorite!” Sonja said.

  “You’re wasting time,” Zed grumbled.

  Jillian held up the “wait a minute” finger. The sound of clacking keys filled the room while Zed’s panicked rage bloomed. “Okay, I’ve got HR’s secret files open. What do you need?”

  “Lara Gershwin.” Jillian replied. “When was she hired by the League?”

  “About six months ago,” Sonja said. “A little bit before you got sent to the Bayou. Dr. Montes recommended her to the board, based on a paper she wrote on ‘Dynakinesis and Human Potential.”

  “Dr. Montes recommended a receptionist, based on a paper she wrote on a completely unrelated subject in experimental physics?” Jillian asked.

  “Yeah…Oh, no.” Sonja replied.

  Jillian pinched the bridge of her nose. “Dr. Montes’s fuckery strikes again. So it would seem that my receptionist is the one who’s been tampering with the rift. I’ll fill the appropriate paperwork out after I handle the extremely angry bear shifter in my—Zed, no!!”

  By that time, Zed had done the only thing he could think of, running at the office door at full speed, leaving a Zed-shaped hole in the door as he ran toward his motorcycle.

  As he fired up his engine, he heard Jillian yell, “Dammit, Zed!”

  Zed drove through town on his motorcycle well beyond the legal speed limit. He scented the wind, trying to find some hint of Dani, some whiff of formaldehyde. He followed traces of that warm, floral scent he loved, swerving around corners and, in some cases, through fields. He realized after a few miles that he was being led toward the rift, and sped toward Afarpiece Swamp.

  At the edge of the swamp, he ditched the bike without bothering to use the kickstand, leaping off the seat and landing on four paws. He bounded through the woods, ripping through underbrush and bowling over trees. He didn’t even take the time to appreciate the comfortable rightness of his other form. He only gloried in the ability to run at top speed to get to his mate faster.

  His ursine brain wasn’t capable of producing much in the way of connected rational thought, beyond, mate, mine, unsafe, DANGER. But he knew he had to get to the rift as quickly as he could. He refused a life without Dani. Refused. He would get her back and he would destroy all threats to her forever.

  Right, good plan.

  He barreled into the clearing, shaking off the ear-popping unpleasantness of being near the rift. Even without Dani’s talent, he could see it now, a riotous living vortex of color that made him dizzy and nauseous to look at. He spotted a figure hunched near Dani’s rock marker. Lara was bent over Dani’s prone body, holding her hand over Dani’s heart. Lara’s hand seemed to be drawing a river of golden light from Dani’s body.

  As he transformed to two feet, slipping into his small human shape, Zed hollered. “DANI!”

  Lara turned, her lovely features twisting into an ugly smirk. “Oh, sure, move closer, make me work faster to drain her life away. That will be good for her.”

  Zed howled, “You let her go, you evil bitch!”

  Lara clicked her tongue. “What would your maman say about you using such foul language in a lady’s presence?”

  “You’re no lady,” he growled.

  Dani was barely breathing, and he could only see the imperceptible movement of her chest. She was so pale, just a shadow of a person against the vibrant green of the grass. And it made his heart ache to see her so still, to see her face without life or color, no hint of that smile he loved so.

  Enraged, he threw himself at the barrier, launching his body past the rock circle limit for magique. He groaned as the bone-buckling pressure ground down on him. Every step was agony. It felt like an ocean of pressure crashing down on his body. His head throbbed. His ear drums felt like they might burst. He could barely breathe.

  But he had to get to Dani, had to make her safe.

  Lara’s grin was downright nasty and Zed wanted very badly to wipe it from her face. “You’re too late. I’ve got what I want from her. She’s just a shell now. She didn’t even know what hit her, that was the sad part. She never even considered weaponizing her powers did she? Silly hippie bitch. That’s what pacifism gets you.”

  “Shut up,” he growled, a berserker’s rage filling his chest as he inched closer.

  Lara was struggling to stay on her feet and now it was his turn to smirk.

  “You took too much from her, didn’t you? You can barely stand?” he asked, inching closer. “Dani says that’s dangerous, taking too much in without an outlet. You should have thought of that.”

  Dani’s head jerked, just barely, toward the sound of Zed’s voice. He buried the urge to crow. Come on, baby, he thought, come on, concentrate on my voice and wake up. Be my self-rescuing princess. Come on.

  Lara rolled her eyes. “God, you’re worse than the rest of the assholes in this town, do you know that? You think you’re smarter than everybody, which is really easy when you’re surrounded by idiots. You all think you’re so damn special because you managed to make a life here in this backwater shithole. Do you know what it’s like being stuck here when you’re used to living in civilization?”

  Lara turned away from Dani completely to focus on Zed, and he welcomed it. Dani’s eyes fluttered open behind Lara’s back, and he nodded to her while Lara ranted about how difficult it had been to live in Mystic Bayou. Dani frowned up at her captor, making what Zed could only describe as her “cut a bitch” face.

  “Look, lady, I don’t give a shit how much you hate it here. I’m taking my Dani back,” he told her. “And if that means throwing your ass in the swamp, that’s what I’ll do.”

  Dani’s eyes drifted closed again but her hands began to move in a circular motion over her chest. Lara was so caught up in yelling at Zed, she didn’t notice Dani’s movements.

  “You want this empty sack of skin?” Lara snorted. “Fine. She’s basically a vegetable. No more scintillating conversations you barely understand.”

  “Shut your filthy mouth before I close it for you.”

  Lara sneered. “You would never hit a woman. Your stupid redneck code of honor would never allow it.

  “I’m not gonna hit you,” Zed told her, nodding toward his gal. “But she will. And she is pissed.”

  Lara’s head whipped toward Dani. Dani rolled, her hands clenched around a glowing ball of light that crackled with lightning. She heaved a breath and flung her arm, sending that angry ball of intent straight at Lara’s face. Lara screamed and attempted to dodge, but the ball hit her in the back. The sheer force of it sent her muscles into seizure. She sagged to the ground, writhing in pain as Dani’s weapon did its work.

  Keeping an eye on Lara, Zed knelt next to Dani. He slid his arms under her legs and shoulders, scooping her off of the ground. “Come on, baby.”

  Zed stumbled back to the magique safe line as fast as his legs would carry him. Dani’s nose was bleeding freely, but her heart rate, while fast, was steady.

  “Ow,” she murmured as he set her on the ground. “I can taste blood and . . . artichokes. Is that bad?”

  Zed burst out laughing, bumping his head against hers. “Nah. I’d say that’s to be expected.”

  “Pretty sure I love you. I’m so sorry,” she murmured, kissing his mouth, despite the nosebleed.

  “Pretty sure I love you, too. Now, you just stay right here. I’ll be right back, okay?”

  “Yep.” Dani let the “p”
pop and she let her head drop to the ground.

  Zed struggled back over the magique line, forcing himself toward Lara’s crumpled body, step-by-step. And when he finally reached her, he picked her up by the arms. This woman had nearly taken Dani from him. She’d hurt his woman. She’d put his people in danger. And he could not allow that to stand.

  She sniffed, waking from unconsciousness and blinking warily at him. She snarled. “You won’t hurt me. You don’t have the balls. What would your maman say? She’d be so disappointed in you, betraying your redneck roots and hurting a woman.”

  Zed bared his teeth at her and using all of his upper body strength, he tossed her like a rag doll toward the shimmering color. She screamed, disappearing into the tornado of light with a sizzle. To his surprise, the rift simply danced on without so much as a blip, as if Lara had never been there.

  “My maman would have kicked your ass and then tossed you,” he muttered.

  Zed shuffled back to Dani, eager to put distance between them and the rift. He lifted her gently, tucking her head against his chest. “Just sleep, abeille.”

  As he carried her back to where he’d left his motorcycle, he called Bael’s number. Bael picked up without a greeting. “What in the fuck are you doing, Zed? You have Jillian completely freaked out. She can’t find Dani and she’s gone all flame-y over it and—you ran through her front door like a damn cartoon character!”

  “Yeah . . . uh, I’m going to need to meet you at the parish hall,” she said. “I need to turn myself in. I kind of murdered someone. I’m not particularly sorry about it, but I feel like it’s going to result in a lot of paperwork for you. And Jillian.”

  Bael sputtered. “I’m sorry, what?”

  Zed did, indeed, turn himself in to Bael officially at the parish hall. Jillian and Bael met them there, with Clarissa, who had blankets, brandy and blueberry pie. Zed draped Dani in his office chair and put a bottle of water to her lips. Dani had managed to hold on to Zed’s back on the motorcycle, but he could tell it had taxed what physical strength she had left. He covered her with the quilt Clarissa brought.