Edge of Humanity (Only Human Book 5)

by Candace Blevins

  “I think you’re sensing their magic, right?” Cora asked me.

  “Probably. It’s the same basic technique I figured out when we were looking for them on Halloween night a few years ago. I’m stronger now, and I have better methods, but it’s the same concept, and that’s what I was sensing for back then.”

  “What if they’re going through a portal?” Kane asked. “Staying in Hell, or wherever, and coming here to scout at night?”

  My focus grew into a thought. A concept. I could make portals, could I sense them?

  “I need to meditate. Sitting on the ground somewhere.” I shook my head. “No, it’s too fucking cold for that. Maybe a solarium? Is there one close, where I can sit and meditate undisturbed for an hour or more?”

  “The hotel pool is indoor. Concrete, but it’s on the main floor,” said Cora.

  Would the water dampen the effect? I didn’t know. “I need a book, so it looks like I was reading by the pool and fell asleep. I’ll just prop it on my chest and close my eyes.”

  “I’ll hang out in the pool,” said Kane. “Cora can keep watch outside, so we can keep you safe.”

  Because I’d be vulnerable while I meditated.

  I looked at Cora. “Can you coordinate with Nathan, please, so he can come to you if he arrives while I’m meditating? I might be there an hour, three hours, six hours… I don’t know. Leave me be as long as you can, please.”

  An hour later, I was on a lounge chair in the indoor pool area. Huge windows looked out on a natural area, and no one else was around. Kane swam quietly. Cora wasn’t far. I felt her. I was safe.

  The chair was on the concrete, the concrete was on the Earth. I could do this. I sank into a meditative state and let my senses go down, into the planet.

  Massachusetts is flat. Well, Cambridge is, anyway. No mountain to have its own pulse, but the land had one. It was faint, but I found it, sank into it, let it become mine. I don’t know how long I was there. An hour? More? My breathing altered. My heartrate changed. I was in tune with the land. I felt the nearby river, and the interstates all around us — rivers of people.

  I telepathed Cora. “Can ya’ll get me to the SUV and drive around?” I aimed my senses in the direction I felt a disturbance. Something not-quite-right.

  Nathan’s arms lifted me, carried me just outside the pool room, settled me into the back of the SUV, where Smokey usually rides. It was freezing outside, but I managed to stay in the meditative state. I curled my arms around my knees and adjusted. It was harder to feel the Earth, but I could still sense the disturbance. I gave directions telepathically to Cora, and she drove. Kane and Nathan were with us but remained silent.

  My eyes opened when we were close enough I’d be able to find the dis-resonance even when not in a deep meditative state. We were in a residential neighborhood — classic New England houses I imagined cost a small fortune. Or a large one, more likely.

  We passed a house that practically throbbed with energy. It made my soul itch, like metaphysical nails on a chalkboard, or an off-tune, screeching violin. “It’s either in the house or behind it.”

  A backpack was open at the top, and I saw some of my clothes. I pulled them out and started layering them on, happy to see the magic gloves and socks, if not the vest. I usually saved it for night patrols, since I only had one. Cora always thinks ahead, and she knew how much trouble I was having with the damned cold weather. January in New England is fucking miserable.

  “I don’t sense anything,” said Nathan. “What are you feeling?”

  “Are you sure? To me, it’s the same as sensing for magic when we practiced for Halloween a few years ago.” I hesitated and added, “It’s possible my time in China taught me how to find portals.” I hadn’t thought he’d need to know. I didn’t want him to have to feel like he had to lie to the Concilio, if asked.

  “Climb into the backseat and put your seatbelt on.” Nathan sounded extra-pissy. I didn’t blame him. I’d have to explain later. I finished dressing, put my heavy boots on over my special socks, and climbed into the backseat.

  “We need recon,” Cora noted.

  Nathan made a call and rattled off the address without even saying hello first. “I need to know everything you can find out about this house and all adjoining properties and homes. Also, everything we can find out about whoever owns and/or rents it. Deep. Not surface. Send things through to my private drop as you have them. Priority one-plus.” He waited for the, “Copy that,”

  response, and disconnected without another word. Yeah. Pissy.

  I searched the address on a real estate site, and told them, “Single family home. Three thousand six hundred square feet. Built in 1886. Five bedrooms, four baths. Last sold for nearly one point four million in February of 2001. Estimated current value is two point three million. Property tax last year was over fifteen grand, assessed on nearly two and a half million.”

  “Those sites take a while to update. If it was sold in the past month or two, it may not show up,” said Nathan.

  I closed my eyes and brought it back into mind. I’d been feeling when we drove by, but I’d also gotten a good look. “Privacy fence, side yard with overgrown garden, and windows at the top that seem to promise the attic is haunted. Tell me you didn’t get goose bumps?”

  Kane tried to cover his laugh with a cough, and I looked sideways to Nathan. He shrugged. “Cats don’t get goosebumps, to my knowledge.”

  “Cora?”

  “Wolves probably don’t, but this werewolf does when she’s in human form. I didn’t get them from the house, but I got the heeby-jeebies.”

  “Anyone else get the heeby-jeebies?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” said Kane, in front of me.

  Nathan didn’t answer, and I didn’t press.

  “How was your flight?”

  “Uneventful.”

  “Why are you being pissy?”

  “I knew you were holding something back about your trip. I assumed it was personal and unimportant.”

  Meaning he thought I’d tell him the important stuff, and the ability to sense a gateway to another realm should’ve fallen into that.

  “You were pissy before I mentioned it.”

  “What else do I need to know.” Nathan has this way of couching questions as orders. A flat statement you choose to ignore at your peril.

  “Some of what I learned seemed small at the time, but now I understand it was a bigger deal than I realized while I was living it. Other stuff was huge, but once I returned home, didn’t seem to be a skill I’d ever need again. The gateway thing fell into that category. I mean, it’s something I shouldn’t be able to do, and in fact may not be able to do again, but what were the odds I’d ever need it again?”

  I started to reach for his hand, but pulled back before I made physical contact. He’d put up a wall and I wasn’t sure I should try to breach it. “The list of everything I learned is long and varied, and some of it unquantifiable — concepts more than skills. I’d probably miss at least half of it if I tried to list it. Some stuff, I didn’t even realize was a lesson until weeks later when another lesson built on it, and I realized it was a building block. There wasn’t a single teacher, just random people I came across in my quest, who gave me bits and pieces I had to put together.”

  Nathan was silent and looked ahead. The muscle in his jaw flexed. If he’d had a tail, he’d have been swishing it in irritation. “Kane. You’ll remember she has the ability while we need it, and then you’ll forget it. While you can remember it, you won’t speak about it to anyone but me and Kirsten. Not even Cora.” Nathan spoke with power, and I realized it wasn’t just an order, it was a compulsion. Kane would literally, actually forget it. I didn’t know he could do that. Like the vampires. Could Randall compel his wolves to forget something? I didn’t know.

  Yet again, I was glad I was human and not under an Alpha.

  Two hours later, we found out the home had sold three weeks earlier for nearly three million dollars. Extra mo
ney had been offered to entice the owners to close quickly and move out within two weeks. The new owners had taken possession the day of closing.

  A family trust had purchased the home. Information within the trust was private, so we didn’t know the name of the person living in the home.

  We’d gone out to eat and were back in the SUV. Nathan stretched his legs out in the floorboard and rubbed his face. “I’ve dealt with this legal firm before. Nothing’s online. We can’t hack their servers to see the paperwork. Someone will need to travel to New York and break in to obtain the physical file.”

  “Maybe one of Marco’s people can get it?” I asked.

  “We don’t want to be further indebted to him.”

  “Since you’re here, I’m sure I’ll be called to him in the next day or two,” Cora said. “I can negotiate for help.”

  “I won’t ask you to do that.”

  “But you’d order one of your lions.” I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t.

  “How I handle my people isn’t open for discussion.”

  “I’m aware, Your Highness.”

  His gaze met mine and the lion wasn’t far beneath the surface. “I told you to never call me…” His shoulders slumped as if the air went out of him, and his eyes went back to human. “I’m being an ass. I’ll try to do better.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Kane, drive to the local Pride’s land, please.” Not quite as pissy, and he’d used a please. He was trying.

  “In Dover? Or the conference area in Boston?”

  “Dover. Kirsten needs healthy forest. Her energy’s all wrong.”

  “Is that why you’re distant?”

  “Not completely.” He practically bit the words out. So much for trying to get along.

  Imagine your favorite arrogant, asshole cat in human form. Nathan.

  22

  Arrogant cat or not, Nathan had been exactly right about me needing a forest. Both lions changed and ran in opposite directions, and Cora hung out with me in wolf form while I wandered the trails and soaked in the energy of the trees and land. The Pride’s property abutted a huge conservation woodlands area, and I could only see trees and sky. No city. No buildings. Nothing man-made.

  Cora alerted to let me know someone was coming, but I felt the lioness before she made it to us. A beautiful woman of perhaps thirty, wearing only a loose dress, and barefoot despite the fact the temperatures were barely in the teens. I was in the lightweight clothing I’d worn to the pool, plus ski-pants, two thermal shirts, a sweater, heavy boots, a hat, and a massive overcoat — not to mention my heated gloves and socks. The sun was out and the day beautiful, but it was still fucking freezing. I had a scarf around my mouth and nose because the cold air hurt my lungs, and breathing part of what I’d just exhaled helped.

  Cora didn’t growl, and I assumed the lioness in human form was part of the local Pride and friendly. I pulled my scarf down around my neck so my mouth would be clear to talk. “Thank you for allowing us the use of your wonderful forest. The energy is soothing.”

  “The Amakhosi’s guest doesn’t have to thank us.”

  “And yet, I did. I’m Kirsten, this is Cora.”

  “I’m Kelly, but my friends call me Kells. You and the wolf are bound?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “You’re cold. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you to our outdoor fireplace.”

  Perhaps three quarters of a mile farther into the forest, we came upon a roughly oval-shaped clearing — the long side about half the length of a football field. One end held a stone chimney with a beautiful hearth, the other was balanced by a small little mountain of boulders.

  I helped Kells load firewood into the fireplace, and she used what I recognized to be a dryer lint ball as a firestarter.

  “The women in Nathan’s personal Pride are big on using everything, and sending as little to the landfills as possible, too.” It felt like I needed to start a conversation, but I wasn’t sure where to start.

  “Being the beast known as the King of the Jungle doesn’t give us the right to trash it.”

  The fire caught right away. I pulled my gloves off and held my hands to the blaze, and drank in the heat. Cora — still in wolf form — stretched out on top of the mountain of boulders on the other end of the clearing. At home, we have house sized boulders all over the place in our forests as well as our populated areas. I’d yet to see any here, and yet, there were a whole bunch of car-sized boulders piled to make a decent sized hill. Obviously, the lions had brought them in and arranged them.

  Kane showed up first — in human form and fully dressed. He hugged Kells, asked her how she was doing, and thanked her for seeing to my comfort.

  “Where’s His Majesty?” I asked Kane.

  “You realize, you only call him that when you’re grumpy with him,” Kane said, his arms crossed. “It’s the opposite of showing respect.”

  “Probably, but…” I shrugged. “I respect his position and title. He ordered me not to refer to him as royalty in any way unless a situation specifically called for it, so yeah, using it when I’m mad is me telling him I’ll do whatever I damned well please, but it’s personal between us, and has nothing to do with the respect I have for him as a person, a shifter, a lion, and a monarch.”

  “You are His Majesty’s friend,” said Kells. “You don’t have to—”

  She broke off, spun on one foot, dropped to her knees, sat her butt on her feet, and stretched her body out until her forehead was on the freezing-cold ground and her arms stretched in front of her, palms on the grass. A yoga child’s-pose with the arms extended, except Kells radiated respect and deference instead of relaxation.

  Nathan walked into the clearing in jeans, a long-sleeved tight-assed t-shirt, and hiking boots. His hair was wild, as if an unseen wind blew it. He walked to Kells until the tips of his boots were millimeters from the tips of her fingers.

  “Kells. Rise and tell me how your kits are doing.”

  She came off the ground and stood as gracefully as any ballet dancer — fluid and agile, with strength showing in every movement. “Your Majesty! They’re growing like you wouldn’t believe! They’ll be three in two months, and keep us on our toes watching out for them.”

  “I look forward to seeing them, but it might be a few days or even weeks.” He looked to the boulders and grinned at Cora. “Presley isn’t going to be happy with a wolf’s scent on his overlook.”

  Cora’s wolf lifted her head, looked around, settled it back on her paws. She didn’t much care what the local Lion leader thought.

  “Is my energy better?” I asked Nathan.

  “It is. I no longer want to belt you until you’re you again.”

  My clit throbbed to life and my insides heated. I looked to the ground and tried to bring my reactions under control. Every shapeshifter in the clearing would smell the instant arousal at his words.

  Kells chuckled. “No need to be embarrassed. I begin to understand what His Majesty sees in a human. You’re strong and don’t take shit off him, and yet you don’t refuse to submit to him when it’s called for. The perfect mate for a powerful lion.”

  “I’m not his mate. I love him, but I can’t be…” I stared at the ground, tears suddenly near the surface, and Nathan came to me and drew me into his arms. I was cold all the way to my core, and he pushed warmth into me as if it were second nature. I was arguing he wasn’t my mate, and he took steps to show I might be. My heart hoped, but logic reminded me it couldn’t be. He was taking care of me, as he takes care of everyone he feels responsible for.

  “If we can get the wolf back into her human skin,” he told Kells, “I’d like to invade the nearest all-you-can-eat buffet and clean them out. Do you have the time to join us?”

  “If you need or want me there, I can. Presley told me to provide whatever I’m capable of supplying while you’re in our home territory, which, of course, is your demesne.” She looked at Cora and back to us. “The wolf
is welcome to use our lands during the full moon, should she still be here.”

  Before Nathan could do his high-and-mighty thing, I told Kells, “The offer of hospitality is appreciated. A friend helped with an introduction to the local wolf Alpha. Cora’s welcome to run with the Pack, though if there’s time, I’ll fly her home the day before and return her to us the next evening. She’ll be happier running with her own people.”

  Kells’ eyes furrowed. “She is Pack? I thought…” Her gaze searched mine, as if looking for the answer to some unasked question, but I wasn’t sure what she was asking.

  “The connection to Kirsten was unintended,” Nathan explain. “Cora is second under Randall in Chattanooga. He isn’t pleased, but understands Kirsten doesn’t want to take Cora from him.”

  “But she clearly did.”

  “No, I didn’t. I drew her to me to keep her from being taken over by an old god. I also protected the Pack from the ancient one. When I killed the god-of-old, the Pack was released from his control, but Cora’s connection to me remained. It’s complicated, but she’s Randall’s wolf and my friend.”

  She shook her head. “She’s clearly your wolf. I’ve never heard of a human capable of binding a wolf to her as a Strigorii does, but it feels similar.”

  I turned to Cora and tilted my head. “Do you have anything to add to the conversation?”

  She kept her chin on her paws. Didn’t move a muscle.

  I tried again. “I’m hungry. Are you coming with us or hanging out here?”

  The wolf lifted her head and considered the question. I’d put Cora’s clothes in the lightweight backpack my extra layers had been in, and I ran a thumb under a shoulder strap. “I’ll walk into the woods with you.”

  She stood and leapt from boulder to boulder until she was on the ground. She didn’t wait for me before disappearing into the woods, but I walked into the same spot and followed the hint of a trail. By the time I got to her, she was human. And naked.

  She accepted the backpack and began to dress. “Nice setup. We don’t need a fireplace back home, but if I eventually have my own Pack, I might want to duplicate it — for the looks, if not for the practicality. It’s homey.” A pause while she fastened her jeans. “Will it take hours of meditating for you to sense the portal again? I agree your energy was fucked, but I figured you’d need to hold onto it in case you needed to access the portal.”