Impulse: Southern Arcana, Book 5

by Moira Rogers

  “Anna doesn’t approve of being shitty with guns.” Sera turned and set herself in a careful shooting stance, then squinted at the distant target and fired.

  The pistol was silent, but it wasn’t subtle. Magic punched out from her in a jagged circle as the trigger clicked. At the other end of the range, the bullet tore through the outer edge of the target and broke apart before piercing a secondary target in four places.

  Julio whistled. The kind of magic wound into the gun and the ammunition wasn’t easy, so he doubted the man had been exaggerating about being down for the count after casting his spells. “No wonder this stuff is so pricey.”

  “It’s quiet, even when it pretty much explodes.” Sera adjusted her aim and managed to put a second bullet closer to the center. “The noise always makes me jump, whether I’m wearing ear protection or not. Apparently that’s doubly bad when you’ve got shapeshifter reflexes.”

  “It can’t be good for your aim,” he agreed.

  “A magical gun.” She fired again, and actually smiled. “I’m only letting you buy this for me because the fate of the world is on the line. And because I’m hoping to get laid.”

  He ran his fingers over the delicious line of skin exposed by her shirt riding up. “Badass chicks are hot.”

  “Mmm.” Another shot, and the target shredded into pieces when she nailed it through the bulls-eye. “See? Now I’m all inspired.”

  “Want to try something else?”

  “Sure.”

  He retrieved another small box of rounds and peered at the scribbled writing on the side. “This one either turns people into frogs, or is particularly effective against them. Can’t tell which.”

  Sera laughed and bumped her hip against him. “The first time I met Mahalia, I asked her if she could turn people into frogs.”

  “Oh yeah? What’d she tell you?”

  “That she only did it to people who really pissed her off. Usually she’d just give them warts.” She plucked the box out of his hand. “One more round, then we need to go in and get this ritual over with. We’re probably both going to leave here bleeding.”

  “At least we heal fast.” And it was a damn sight better than bleeding a hell of a lot more later.

  Sera loaded the new ammunition and held up the gun. “I bet I can hit closer to the bulls-eye than you can.”

  Her victory came to him on a flash, right down to the cute little dance he was sure was last popular in the nineties. “Sucker bet, sunshine. Never wager with a precog.”

  “So cheat.” She grinned. “You haven’t even heard the terms yet. If you win, I’ll let you buy me a pretty dress and take me out for a fancy dinner.”

  “And if I lose?”

  “I get a cheap bar, beer and hot wings, and dirty sex in the bathroom.”

  Julio cleared his throat, took the gun from her and winked. “Like I said, sucker bet.”

  “Uh-huh.” As she stepped behind him, she trailed her fingers up his arm. “I’m bad news, mister. I hope you can handle me.”

  “I’ll try.” He lined up a shot, squeezed the trigger and snorted when the bullet went wide. “I told you I suck at this.”

  She laughed and retrieved the gun to line up her shot with adorable concentration that furrowed her brows. Her shot wasn’t perfect, but it winged the target, and her victory dance was just as cute as it had been in his vision.

  Chapter Ten

  The first time they’d snuck into Panama City Beach, Julio had been traveling as a wolf on a vacation, and she’d been an anonymous friend. Her jean shorts and sports jersey had been enough.

  The second time they’d be arriving as representatives of the Southeast council, and Sera put aside her pride somewhere around Tallahassee and asked Julio to take her shopping.

  Not that new clothes would make up for the fact that she was a coyote, but it was one less thing they could sneer about. When facing wolves, sometimes all you could do was minimize your disadvantages and smile a lot.

  Sydney met them on the edge of town with a smile and an invitation to skip the hotel and stay as guests of the pack. “At least we’ll get to run,” Sera pointed out as Julio guided Jackson’s car up the twisting driveway that led to Sydney’s house. “This is sort of weird, though. I guess I never think of the wolves in New Orleans as a pack because the only thing they all have in common is that they listen to Alec.”

  “Regional custom?” Julio shrugged. “I heard of one pack in northern California that actually lives as wolves as much as they can. Guess it takes all kinds.”

  “Yeah, I love my coyote, but maybe not that much.”

  “No kidding.” He reached across the seat and laid his hand on her knee. “If anyone makes you feel uncomfortable or acts like a jerk—”

  Sera dropped her hand to cover his. “If we’re going to do this, you can’t protect me from anything but the worst offenses. If you smack down everyone who doesn’t approve, you’ll run out of wolves.”

  “I can’t smack them, but I can glare and growl.”

  And cause tension and problems when he needed allies. “It’s just words. Trust me to be tougher than that. All I need to know is that you won’t let anyone touch me. And I do know that.”

  He sighed. “You don’t have to suffer on my account, okay? I don’t want you to.”

  “That’s the point. It’s not suffering.” She squeezed his hand before lifting it so she could kiss his knuckles. “I work in a customer-service industry. I get more creative verbal abuse during a busy shift than most wolves could come up with in a year. As long as I don’t have to be friends with them, I don’t care.”

  “All right.” His tension didn’t ease. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and Sydney won’t tolerate that bullshit in his pack anyway.”

  No, he probably wouldn’t, which made the evening all the more nerve-wracking. If they couldn’t handle the friendly alpha of a small pack, their relationship would be dead before it had a chance to live. “We’re about to find out.”

  Julio rounded the last bend in the driveway, and a modest brick house came into view. “I guess this is it.”

  It looked worn and welcoming, a smaller version of Alec’s house in Louisiana. Some of the tension knotting her shoulders eased. She might have to face dubious werewolves, but at least they wouldn’t be the rich, snobby sort.

  Not like Julio’s family.

  Sydney parked his truck and made a beeline for Sera’s door as Julio pulled to a stop behind him. She squeezed Julio’s hand again and lowered her voice. “Are you going to make it?”

  “Don’t worry about me.” He opened his own door and climbed out.

  A woman had come outside, and she approached the car as Sydney helped Sera from her seat. “Are these our guests, Syd?”

  “Julio Mendoza from the Southeast council,” Sydney supplied, steering Sera around the car. “Meet Patty, the woman who has the unenviable task of keeping me honest.”

  “Most of the time, I do a poor job.” The woman smiled as she shook Julio’s hand, then Sera’s. “We’re having barbecue. Nothing fancy, but there’s plenty to go around.”

  “Barbecue sounds perfect.” Sera used her best friendly smile—and her best manners. “I’m Sera. And thank you so much for inviting us to stay with you. It will be nice to have a chance to run tonight.”

  “We run almost every night.” Patty turned and beckoned them to follow. “Everyone’s out back. Come on.”

  Sydney fell into step next to Patty and led them through the house. “Not everyone’s here, of course. Plenty work night shifts in town. We own the bar, a strip motel and a couple of restaurants. Keeps money coming in.”

  “Like a co-op,” Julio observed.

  “Pretty much. Money comes in, whether they work for us or someplace else.” They passed through a comfortable-looking living room that showed signs of being hastily tidied, and Sydney pulled open a sliding glass door. “Well, for a long time, money was going out as fast as it came in. Cesar raised tithes twice in three years.
”

  “Yeah, I bet he did.” Julio walked out into the back yard and accepted the can of beer someone handed him. “Hear anything else from him lately?”

  Sera watched as Sydney studied Julio, and recognized the tension of a man taking a careful step toward trust. “His brother called a month ago and said he’d be around to collect this quarter’s tithes.”

  Julio froze and turned to him. “Alec said everyone should funnel this quarter’s money directly back into the pack.”

  “Which is what I told Diego. He didn’t press the matter.”

  Too late, Sera made the connection. Cesar’s brother…Julio’s father. Her heart ached for him, but there was nothing she could say. Not in front of strangers. “If you need to talk to Sydney, maybe Patty could show me around.”

  “No, stay.” His hand closed around hers. “The next time either one of them shows up, Sydney, I think Alec and I would take it as a personal favor if you’d let us know.”

  “I’ll do that.” Sydney waved a hand toward a scattering of picnic tables that had been shoved together in two long lines. “This is no way to start a party, though. You two take a seat. Sera, honey, pick your poison. Beer, sweet tea, something stronger?”

  “Beer’s fine.”

  Sydney gestured, and a shy teenager who’d been staring at her snatched a bottle out of a cooler full of ice and trotted over. The boy gave Julio a nervous look before offering Sera her drink. “You’re really a coyote.”

  Sometimes the spite was easier. Loathing and hatred were simple. The fawning awe made her feel freakish too, but it felt bitchy to snarl when the kid was trying to be friendly. And he was a kid, so she managed a smile. “So I’ve heard.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “I grew up in Louisiana. Not far outside New Orleans.” She tried to judge the boy’s age. Fifteen, maybe, a gawkish age for any shapeshifter, with instincts and hormones doing serious battle. “How about you? Do you live around here?”

  He pointed toward a line of trees, through which she caught a glimpse of silver. “In the RV camp. Most of the pack lives there.”

  Sydney clapped the young wolf on the shoulder and turned him around. “Go on and make yourself useful, pup.” The kid bolted, and Sydney’s face took on a strained expression as he turned back to Julio. “Your uncle and Coleman before him squeezed out a lot more than most of them could afford, especially in this shit economy. We all make do.”

  Julio lowered his voice. “I wish you’d said something when Alec and Carmen came around last summer.”

  “It’s easy to say you’re different,” Sydney replied just as quietly. “In my experience, nothing drives good intentions into the mud as fast as money on the table. Maybe I was still having trouble believing.”

  “I’ll talk to Alec before we leave, see what can be done short-term.”

  Sydney looked from Julio to Sera, and it was hard, keeping an impassive expression in the face of so much desperate pride as it bled into hope. “We’re not looking for handouts. But a little of our own back would be nice.”

  “I understand.” Julio lifted his beer, then shook his head as he set it back down. “No, you know what? I’m going to go call him now. He needs to see this.”

  Sera squeezed his hand before releasing it. “I’m going to stay here with Sydney and Patty.”

  “Yeah, okay.” He flashed her a quick smile and walked away, digging his cell phone out of his pocket.

  “He’s sweet as pie,” Patty murmured. “Where’d you find him?”

  In a tiny exam room during the worst moments of her life. Not exactly a romantic start to the story, so she picked a different start. “He pulled my father from a burning building.”

  “Well, now he’s just making me look bad,” Sydney grumbled. He leaned over to kiss Patty’s cheek. “I’ll check on the grill. Shout if you need me.”

  “We won’t.” She winked at Sera. “We’ll be talking about you, that’s all.”

  “Girl talk. Totally.” When Sydney was gone, Sera smiled. “He seems great too. Holding together a pack can’t be easy.”

  “He’s had a rough time,” Patty conceded. “But like he said, you make do.”

  Sera followed Patty to the closest picnic table and ignored the curious and assessing stares from the wolves. Most seemed unwilling to come closer—a wariness that no doubt came from uncertainty and a healthy dose of fear of what Julio might do.

  Fear wouldn’t stop the powerful wolves, but maybe she wouldn’t always be a liability. “Julio and Alec will help all of you. Alec’s not perfect by a long shot, but he cares. And Julio’s sister does too.”

  “I believe you, actually. And trust me when I say it’s been a long time since I could say that and mean it.”

  “I’m not surprised.” Sera sipped her beer and watched as Julio held a low, animated conversation with Alec. “Will you tell me something?”

  “Name it, sweetie.”

  “Seeing him with me. Does it make it harder to trust him?”

  Patty snorted. “After the mess with Coleman and the other Mendozas, it’s already damn hard to trust him. I’m not sure what you’re asking, exactly.”

  Something inside her relaxed. “So you don’t care that he’s slumming with a coyote?”

  For a moment, the wolf looked almost guilty. Then she sighed. “It’s a bit of a relief, actually. That he might not be thinking he’s better than a bunch of panhandle rednecks.”

  Sera reached across the table to cover Patty’s hand. “No. Not remotely.”

  “Not,” the woman continued firmly, “that I think of you that way. But I’m used to other wolves looking at me like… Well, like I might not be fitting company for anyone, much less important people like them.”

  “I am a redneck,” Sera said lightly. “The only shapeshifters I had around me growing up were wolves. The boys thought I was fitting company when they got lonely, and a stray who needed to be kicked to the curb when they weren’t. So I get it.”

  Patty smiled, the expression edged with hard reality as well as commiseration. “Then you are one of us.”

  In a lot of the ways that mattered, maybe she wasn’t so different. If she wanted to be with Julio, she could use that. She could help him regain the trust of the wolves who’d lost trust in anyone with power.

  Of course, it wouldn’t change the other challenge. Julio’s family had been willing to risk Carmen’s life to try to turn her into a wolf. Diego Mendoza had looked at his daughter and had decided that she’d be better off dying as a newly made wolf than living as a human psychic.

  If they’d destroy their own family to protect their precious bloodlines, she didn’t want to imagine what they’d do to her—or what price Julio might have to pay to stop them.

  Running with a wolf pack was a new experience for Sera.

  She’d run with wolves. Miguel and Anna took her running as often as she wanted, and there was always a camaraderie between them. It was fun to test herself against Anna’s strength and speed, or to tumble across the grass in a fake battle with Miguel, who had enough nervous power to exhaust even Anna.

  Running with a pack was different. They were a pack. They flowed together under the moonlit sky, the communication between them so subtle Sera could only wonder at it. They ran as a group and played as a group, the youngsters testing themselves in teasing challenges that Sydney always broke apart before they could turn too real.

  Sera ran with them, her blood pulsing in a primal, familiar beat that matched the fall of her paws against the ground. A little quicker than Julio’s—she had to fight to keep up with his larger stride. She was smaller than all of the adults and most of the adolescent wolves, but pride made her push herself until the pack began to splinter, veering off in private chases or circling back for games of tag.

  She nipped at Julio’s tail and took off toward the denser part of the woods, slowing her pace to give her tired legs a chance to recover. He followed her, growling at another wolf who broke apart with them.
The stranger tucked his ears and backed off, hunkering close to the ground, his tail between his legs.

  Sera kept running without guilt. They’d done their duty. Talked to wolves all through dinner and into the evening, and men approached Julio with growing surety, and women talked to Sera with a heartbreaking mix of caution and envy. It was hard to blame even the ones who looked on Julio with covetous eyes—he represented safety and security in a world that had taken too much from them.

  But he was hers. And now, after sharing him all evening, she wanted him to herself.

  Julio slowed to a walk, his gaze focused on her. She could feel its weight, its careful assessment.

  So serious. So carefully protective. She circled back and nipped at his tail, trying to tease him into playing with her, but he was having none of it.

  Too many strangers, then. She huffed and nipped at him again, then took off into the woods, heading away from the pack and into the darker, stiller parts of the forest.

  He ran her down after half a mile, his panting breaths moving closer and closer until he’d drawn even with her shoulder—running beside her instead of chasing.

  This was peace. This was life as she was meant to live it, as comfortable in her fur as she was in her skin, strength at her side but not overwhelming her. The forest lay quiet around them, but still they ran. Sydney owned endless acres around his house, enough to give the pack a taste of solitude whenever they needed it.

  She’d had no idea how very much she needed it.

  Julio stopped and wandered in a wide circle around the edge of a shadowed clearing, then threw his head back in a wild howl.

  The sound thundered through her. Not a call, but a warning. A proud statement of ownership, if only for a while. No wolf would trespass on his territory. No wolf would dispute that it was his territory.

  He was strong and beautiful, and Sera crept to him with her head bent low, savoring the whisper of instinct that urged caution and respect, because for the first time she had no fear of rejection or danger. He met her with a soft rumble, rubbed his nose against hers.

  The clearing was thick grass covered in leaves. Comfortable enough to stretch out upon, even when she let magic shimmer through her on a wave of giddy heat that left her human and tingling, naked beneath the endless sky. “I love the woods at night.”