by Bianca D’Arc
“Oh, man. Ben isn’t going to like this,” Jack muttered after a few minutes. Kiki looked up to see him holding a leather-bound book.
“What have you got?” Kiki wanted to know.
Jack held up the book. “If I’m reading this correctly, it’s a list of all the Altor Custodis agents in North America.”
“Holy cow. Someone’s watching the watchers?” Kiki thought aloud.
“More like somebody got the list of watchers from the watchers themselves. I think this is from one of the AC archives,” Jack said. He whistled between his teeth. “Wherever this came from, it’s just possible Ben might be able to trace it back. Then, we might be able to track down some of the real problems in the Altor Custodis. This is a good find.”
“What is the Altor whatsit?” Helen asked. Kiki took pleasure in finally knowing something her talented sister didn’t. She explained what Jack had told her about the group while he kept searching.
“This looks interesting,” Helen said sometime later, after going through a couple of drawers. She pulled out a file, and inside the file was a sheaf of parchment papers that looked as if they’d been ripped out of a book. A very old book.
“What is it?” Kiki asked.
“Recipes,” Helen replied, still reading. “Not my field, but these look like they were torn from a potion grimoire.”
“Good or evil?” Jack asked, his mouth firming in a grim line as if he expected bad news.
“Neither,” Helen said, turning toward him. “In general, a spell is neither good nor evil until someone puts their intent behind it.” Kiki had heard that before. It was word for word from their mother’s teachings.
“Hey, Jack?” Ace’s raised voice came from the other room. “You might want to come in here.”
The note of dismay and anger was clear in the other man’s tone, and Kiki followed right behind Jack as he left the office behind and headed for the inner laboratory. There was a small dark room attached to that lab. The door was open, and Kiki peered around Jack’s shoulders to get a look inside.
“Oh, Sweet Mother of All,” she whispered, seeing the little brown ball of fur curled up on the floor of the tiny room. The creature had a collar around its neck, and its bones were protruding from starvation and maltreatment.
“Is that…?” Helen whispered at Kiki’s side.
“It’s a bear cub,” Kiki replied.
“It’s a shifter cub,” Jack growled as he regarded the poor, abused bundle of skin, fur and bones. It blinked up at them, clearly scared out of its wits, trembling in fear.
“Everybody back off,” Kiki said, surprising herself with the authority in her tone. “You’re overwhelming her.”
“She’s right,” Jack said, getting a handle on his temper. “Let me handle this.” He moved closer while everyone else backed off a few feet. Everyone except Kiki and Helen, that is. “Hey, little lady,” Jack coaxed the small cub, crouching down and holding out one hand toward the bear cub. The cub snarled and tried to bite him, but Jack just stayed calm and tried again. “I know you can understand me, sweetheart. I’m like you. I’m a bear shifter, too. Can’t you scent the bear in me?”
The cub just looked confused. Kiki leaned in over Jack’s shoulder. “Carol’s dead,” she told the cub bluntly. “She can’t hurt you anymore. We want to help. My sister is a healer. Will you let her take a look at you?”
Golden sparks filled the small space, and where there had been a bear cub, there now sat a little girl of about six or seven years of age, completely naked. “Is she really dead?” The words were hard, but the girl’s eyes were starting to come alive with hope.
“I killed her myself,” Jack admitted.
The little girl broke into tears. “Thank you,” she sobbed.
Helen found a clean lab coat and handed it to Kiki. Kiki gave it to Jack, and he helped the little girl put it on like a dress. Then, he picked her up in his strong arms and hugged her close.
“Kiki?” He spoke quietly, over the girl’s head, as he continued to hold her while she wept. “Can you get the chain off her?”
Sabrina stepped closer to help when Kiki began looking for a way to get the chain off the child. Helen helped too, but Kiki noticed all the other shifters stood clear. On closer inspection, Kiki realized the chain was made of silver. Poison to shifters, she had learned. The chain had burned the girl’s skin where it touched, leaving angry red marks. Kiki was disgusted but determined to get that filthy chain off the little girl’s neck.
“Keys are in the drawer,” the child rasped out, rubbing her eyes as the storm of her emotions let up a little.
Everybody searched the drawers, and it was Marilee who found a set of keys in the drawer farthest from the room where the girl had been held. The length of the chain would let her go only so far. The keys were there, just out of reach. She could only imagine how that taunt had hurt the girl, knowing freedom was so close, but unable to reach it.
“What kind of monsters…?” Kiki heard Helen mutter as the keys were passed forward.
Kiki got them and quickly removed the chain. Helen took charge of the girl, using her healing talent to help her while Kiki unwound the dirty black magic from the chain and the small room where the girl had been kept. She took great pleasure in returning that energy to the earth, where it would disperse to harm none.
Helen took the child into the outer room, settling into a chair with the girl on her lap. Jack followed with Kiki, his expression grim.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?” Helen asked the girl.
“Melissa Ebersole,” she replied promptly.
“Do you live around here?” Helen continued, her healing energy working even as she spoke to the girl.
“I don’t know where I am,” Melissa said finally, shaking her head a bit. “The bad lady took me from the playground when I was at school.”
“How long ago was that?” Jack asked gently. “Do you know?”
“Days and days. The mean people fed me ten times. I counted. But they only fed me once in a long while, and the food tasted really funny. I ate a little anyway, because I was so hungry,” Melissa told them, just as her tummy growled.
“That was a bear-sized growl if I’ve ever heard one.” Jack chuckled, making the little girl smile. “Tell you what. There’s a cafeteria down the hall. Let’s go raid the snack machines and feed the bear, then we’ll figure out where you come from and how to get you home.”
“You mean I can see Mommy and Daddy again?” Melissa’s eyes brightened even more.
“Absolutely,” Jack promised. “We’re going to do everything in our power to get you home.”
The search continued in the lab, but Kiki and her sister focused on Melissa once Jack had set the little girl up with a mountain of food out of the snack machines in the cafeteria. She ate and ate, but she also answered questions, and Kiki was able to get a laptop and use the WiFi connection to try to track down Melissa’s parents based on what the girl could tell them.
The real breakthrough didn’t come, though, until Jack put in an urgent call to the Alpha in Grizzly Cove. The fellow, who Jack called Big John, had already known a girl had been snatched from her schoolyard in Pennsylvania. The Alpha called the Lords, which Jack explained were the recognized authority over all shifters in North America, and within ten minutes, a man named Rocky called Jack.
They had a quick conversation, and Jack began grinning and nodding. He sent Kiki a thumbs up, which she took to mean they’d found the girl’s parents. Jack ended the call and came back to the table, where Melissa was only about halfway through the pile of sandwiches and snacks Jack had procured from the machines.
“Your parents are coming here, Melissa. They’ve been looking for you all over since you were taken, and they’re very close. They’ll be here in an hour or two,” Jack told the little girl.
“I knew they would look for me,” Melissa said, sure in the knowledge of her parents’ love. Kiki wanted to meet these people—these shifters—that h
ad searched high and low for their lost little one.
“They followed your trail really well,” Jack praised the couple. “I’m sure it was hard because the people who took you were using black magic. Do you know what that is?”
Melissa nodded, her little head bobbing up and down. “Daddy says it’s hidden evil. He’s teaching me about the different kinds of magic because he says I have a powerful gift and will be good at fighting bad people when I’m grown.” She put down her sandwich and looked sad. “But I wasn’t very good at it when the bad lady took me.” She looked about ready to cry again, and Jack reached out for the girl, touching her hair.
“You’re alive. You lived to fight another day. You did very well, Melissa.”
The little girl looked up at Jack, her gaze watery. “It didn’t feel that way. The bad lady sucked my energy, and I couldn’t stop her,” she admitted in a small voice.
“Aw, honey, I’m a full grown grizzly bear, and I couldn’t break through her wards. She was very powerful. Don’t beat yourself up. You did the best thing you could—you stayed alive so we could rescue you. When you’re a grown bear, you’ll do the same for others, if the opportunity arises, and you’ll remember this day. I hope you’ll remember that you were strong enough to stop the bad lady from taking all of your energy.” Jack’s voice lowered, but Kiki could still hear him. “She tried, didn’t she? She tried to drain you dead.” It wasn’t a question, but Melissa slowly nodded.
“I held a piece of me back, like Daddy told me to,” she whispered. “It was hard,” Melissa admitted. “And it really hurt.”
Jack stroked the little girl’s hair. “But you were stronger than the pain. You did really well, Melissa. Remember that. You saved yourself.”
The girl’s eyes brightened but then turned curious. “So, how did you stop the bad lady if you couldn’t break through her ward?”
“Oh, that wasn’t me. Kiki here did it, with human magic,” Jack said, sitting back in the cafeteria chair and sending Kiki a heated gaze that warmed her blood.
“Human magic?” Melissa blinked with wide eyes. “Are you a mage?”
“Me?” Kiki was startled into laughing. “No, I’m not, actually, though my sister is a healer. The rest of my family is magical, but not me.”
“Then, how did you stop the bad lady?” Melissa’s face tilted as she scrutinized Kiki.
“I have a special garden,” Kiki said, as if sharing a great secret. “See this?” Kiki took a few fresh sprigs of lavender from her bag and handed them to the girl. “Smell the purity? Just like soap, they cleaned away the black magic and broke the protections the bad lady had around herself.”
The girl sniffed the lavender then promptly sneezed, making everyone chuckle. “Tickles,” was Melissa’s observation.
“Herbal magic is a still a form of magic, Patches,” Helen reminded Kiki. “You were always better at the herb lessons than the rest of us.”
“You know Mom only taught us that stuff because she wanted to include me and show us something that even I could manage,” Kiki said, the old hurt coming out, despite her intentions to keep silent on the matter.
“Oh, sweetie, I don’t think that’s true. Mom wanted us all to have a well-rounded magical education. Just because you couldn’t do the other kinds of magic never made any of us think you were somehow lacking. Look, nobody else in the family can heal like me. And nobody can see the future like Mom. We each have our own special gifts.”
“That’s just it. You all had gifts, and I didn’t.”
The silence was deafening. It was Melissa, oddly enough, who broke it. “But you stopped the bad lady,” the girl reminded Kiki.
Kiki looked at Melissa and smiled. “Yeah. I did, didn’t I?”
Suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore, who had what gift or that Kiki had none. She had done what others couldn’t. She’d been at the right place, at the right time, with the right knowledge, and she’d done her best.
What Jack had said to Melissa made a lot more sense. Kiki had also saved herself from Carol. She’d used what little knowledge she had to do the one thing that would allow others to help her. As had Melissa.
“We’re a lot alike, you and me, Melissa,” Kiki told the little one. “You did what you’d been taught to keep yourself alive. I did the same. We both did well, when the going got tough, and we both need to cut ourselves some slack for not being perfect. We did our best, and it was enough to live to fight—and learn—another day.”
Kiki met Jack’s gaze. She knew Melissa probably didn’t understand everything she’d said, but it didn’t matter. What mattered most was that she finally believed, in her heart, that she had done the best she could. She’d done enough. Learned enough. Was enough.
Melissa’s parents arrived about an hour later, frantic to see their child. Jack and Kiki had brought her up to the lobby to wait after she ate her fill. Helen had examined her briefly and told them that Melissa would be fine once she regained the weight she’d lost and had a chance to rest and recuperate. Helen had left the little girl with a benevolent kiss on the forehead, letting Kiki and Jack handle the reunion.
Jack had said that was probably for the best because the parents were likely to see everything and everyone as a threat for a while. Bear parents were notoriously protective of their cubs.
What Kiki hadn’t expected was that Melissa’s parents would be a mixed couple. Mixed, in the sense that her father was clearly a bear shifter—he was built like the Bishop brothers in that he was tall, heavily muscled and moved as fluidly as all the shifters she’d met so far. But Melissa’s mother was clearly not a shifter.
Human, Kiki thought. Non-magical. One hundred percent human.
When their pickup truck stopped in front of the entrance, the woman threw open the passenger door and dropped to a crouch. Melissa ran into the woman’s arms, both of them crying tears of joy and relief.
The big man who was Melissa’s father came around the truck and enfolded them both in his arms, showing his deep care and relief as he held them both close. Kiki’s heart ached for them. The terror these parents must have experienced when their baby was kidnapped. She could hardly imagine how awful that must have been.
After a long moment, the man stood, putting himself between the two females and everyone else. Jack had told Ben and Jim to stay inside. Only he and Kiki had stood out by the entrance, waiting for Melissa’s parents to arrive. Kiki realized that had been for the other men’s safety. It was clear, this bear shifter would have ripped apart anyone he saw as a threat to his family.
“I’m Martin Ebersole,” the man announced, looking from Jack to Kiki and back.
Jack stepped forward. “Jack Bishop,” he said, offering the man his hand. They shook, seeming to come to some sort of male understanding. Kiki breathed a sigh of relief. The father was calming and didn’t seem like he felt threatened by Jack.
“Did you find my daughter?” he asked.
Jack shook his head. “My brothers found her when we were searching the building. I killed the woman who kidnapped her yesterday evening after a bit of a struggle.” Jack filled the man in quickly about how Carol had the entire plant under her spell and had baited a trap for him, using Kiki as a hostage. He ended his story by stating simply that Kiki was his mate, and Martin nodded.
“Thank you, ma’am, for what you did. We’ve had a hell of a time following the witch’s trail,” Martin explained.
“I’m amazed you could follow it at all,” Jack told the man. “Carol had a lot of power, and I underestimated her. Almost fatally.”
“I’m a tracker,” Martin told them. “I was a Recon Marine in ‘Nam. Tracking’s my specialty. Always has been. But this…” Martin shook his head. “This was like no trail I’ve ever followed before. That witch fouled the scent, and I had to go on gut instinct more than not.”
“Your instincts were spot on,” Jack complimented the other man. “In a day or two, you’d have been here, yourself.”
“Maybe,” Marti
n allowed. “But I’m grateful that you took care of the problem and found my cub.”
“I’m only sorry we didn’t realize she was here sooner.” Jack lowered his voice. “They were keeping her in a small room, and she was sleeping when we found her. If I’d known she was here, I would’ve had her out of there last night.”
Martin looked back at his little girl, now chatting happily with her mother. “No harm done, I think, but I appreciate your candor. We’ll probably go bear for a while and just stay outside, under the stars. No more small rooms for my cub. Not for a good long while.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“She was really brave,” Kiki put in. “She even told us where to find the key.”
“Key?” Martin’s brows lowered, and Jack shifted uncomfortably.
“Yeah, that’s the other thing. They had a silver chain around her neck,” Jack admitted. “The key was in a drawer within her sight, but too far for her to reach.”
Martin cursed under his breath. “She’s not burned,” he said, when he could talk again. “Are you sure it was silver?”
“My sister is a healer, and she took away the damage,” Kiki told the man. “I took the spells off the chain with a willow wand and some lavender,” she added as his eyes narrowed.
“Are you a witch?” he asked, almost angrily.
“Me? No. But I know some herbal cures. My family is magical, but I’m not.” For the first time, saying that didn’t hurt at all.
Kiki had to wonder at the change in herself. All her life, she’d felt inferior. Now, she felt just fine. There was no sadness for what might have been. No envy for her siblings who had so much power. Kiki was content within herself.
“The silver chain is worth a small fortune,” Jack said quietly to Martin. “Our shaman in Grizzly Cove has connections to craftsmen in the Native American community who would probably be glad to buy the silver and melt it down for use in their jewelry designs. Even just at the spot price on silver, the weight would add up to a pretty penny. I’d like to give that money to you, for Melissa. It’s only fitting that what was used to harm her be turned into something that will help her in the future.”