Beast in Me (The Divination Falls Trilogy)

by Marsden, Sommer

  ‘I don’t either. But I feel like everything leads back to them.’

  ‘The whole town leads back to them,’ Trace said, bending down just enough to let Cam get up on his back.

  ‘I know. So it makes sense that they’d be important. If they’re used for healing and there’s quartz and they’re basically the town hub … Stands to reason we should check, right?’ He was leaning over the wolf’s shoulder, talking close to his ear. Before he could talk himself out of it, he gave Trace a lingering peck on the cheek.

  The wolf shook his head and sighed. ‘Now you’re just cheating,’ he said and took off, going fast enough to make Cam instinctively hold on tight.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When they came upon the falls that twinkle-flash-shift of the memory came back to him and Cameron dropped from Trace’s broad back with way less grace than he would have liked.

  ‘I remember now! How could I forget?’ he breathed.

  ‘Well, it’s my understanding you were being prodded and poked by lightning when it happened.’

  ‘True. But I sort of have to deal with that all the time.’

  ‘Still. I’d have a really hard time remembering shit if I were being electrocuted.’

  Cam ran his hands over his face and sighed. ‘I saw something when I first arrived. In the falls.’ He moved forward, watching the water for any familiar signs. ‘It was a quick, dark flash of something in the falls but I thought it was a trick of my eye. I thought I was seeing things.’

  ‘And now you think?’

  ‘I think I saw whatever’s at the core of these issues. But how do we get rid of it? I mean, if it is there.’

  Trace narrowed his eyes at the churning water. The falls kept the water swirling with small whitecaps. ‘I don’t know. Not to sound like an asshole, but are you sure? I mean, you have been unconscious for a while and –’ he coughed ‘– you know. There’s been a lot of stress.’

  Cameron chuckled. ‘Are you trying to ask me if I might be losing my shit?’

  ‘Not as much as … Are you sure? That’s what I’m trying to ask.’

  ‘No. But let’s get closer and see.’

  ‘That might not be a good idea. Those rocks are pretty slippery and you’re not exactly 100 per cent at the moment.’

  ‘I can walk down some rocks,’ Cameron insisted. Was he annoyed or scared? He couldn’t tell.

  ‘At least hold my hand,’ Trace said.

  That he would gladly do. He liked the feel of that bigger hand curled around his as if that grip alone could keep him safe and sane. Two things he craved in his day to day life. Working with the elements rarely made you feel either.

  ‘I can do that,’ he grumbled. He caught Trace smiling in his peripheral vision. What a shit. A wonderful, gruff, perfect shit.

  Trace squeezed his hand and they began a slow and careful descent along the slick rocks to get closer to the falls and the water below it. The wind blew and Trace looked up at the towering trees that swayed overhead. Just then came the rolling dark shadow of that something, but just as fast, it was gone.

  ‘Just happened!’ Cam said, tapping Trace harder than he’d intended.

  ‘When?’

  ‘When you looked up. Of course.’

  Trace grunted. ‘Even if there is something in the water below the falls, what does that have to do with all the other crazy shit? The sightings and the chicken-eating monster?’

  ‘I think – think, mind you – that these things are drawn to the dual attraction of quartz and water.’

  ‘Both conductors,’ Trace said.

  Cameron felt a burst of pride toward his wolf. His wolf? Where had that come from? His cheeks heated with a blush before he could even process the thought.

  ‘You smell horny and scared,’ Trace said, continuing to help him down the rocks.

  ‘Stop smelling me.’ But he laughed. ‘And if they have the two conductors of not just regular energy but psychic and mystical energy, that’s probably where the main breach is. All the rest is just cracks they’re finding along the way. Bleed-through places if you will. Like when the walls of your room are navy blue and you paint them light green.’

  ‘There are always spots where the blue is visible.’

  ‘Until you fix them,’ Cameron said, nodding.

  They were nearly at the lip of the falls and the rush of the water was forcing them to shout. Cameron felt good, though, strong. He wondered if it was the quartz working its magic on his depleted body. The mist of the falls on his face made him shut his eyes and relish it. Such a nice feeling.

  Trace’s hand was ripped away and Cameron’s eyes flew open to see the man going down fast. His ass hit the rock and he was trying to roll, but not quite making it, away from a huge tentacle. No more of whatever lurked in the water was visible, but the tentacle was the size of a sturdy sapling and easily wound around Trace’s ankles.

  Cameron started forward, screaming – he didn’t know what, only that he was screaming. His ankle turned on the wet surface and he fell, sliding toward Trace even as the wolf was dragged toward the rushing water.

  Amazement shivered through him as he watched his lover shift. The face changed first, growing soft around the edges before shooting out and down, a narrow snout where a stout jaw had been. The eyes flashed darker purple in the light and the ears perked up even as the wolf snarled. Clothes that were shed upon transformation tangled in the suckers of the tentacle and Cam blinked, open-mouthed, as Trace’s diving watch bounced down along the rocks. There was no wrist any more to hold it.

  ‘Trace!’ He managed to get to his feet and rush forward, only to slip again and then be knocked aside by the swaying monstrosity. The wolf in the thing’s grasp yelped, and it broke Cam’s heart to hear pain in that sound. ‘Trace!’ He bellowed above the sudden thunder and the rushing falls. The world was all muffled sound and battered air as the appendage swayed wildly and, for just a single second, he caught a glance at the head. A huge, misshapen blob of tissue with enormous eyes and a beak of a mouth. It was wrong in so many ways and Cameron felt a sob rip out of him as he scrambled to get a hold of Trace one more time.

  But the tentacle was faster; it pulled Trace inexorably toward the water until the wolf ceased to struggle and the monster claimed its prize.

  ‘Now you desert me?’ Cameron shouted, head back to the sky. ‘All the people I’ve helped by being a goddamn human lightning rod and now you are nowhere to be found?’

  Rage shot through him, grappling briefly with grief so sharp and stinging he wouldn’t have been surprised to see blood pouring from his chest. It was a pain he couldn’t comprehend because he’d never felt anything like it.

  His throat hurt and the muscles in his neck ached as he roared at the top of his lungs. ‘I’m falling in love with him. I have something good. Something nice. Something that makes me feel alive and now you are nowhere to be found!’

  Rage was replaced by a quiet, calm storm of peace inside him. It hovered there somewhere in his chest and, without really thinking about it, he waved his arms wildly at the body of water that had claimed his lover.

  Lightning shot down through it. The sight was fierce and beautiful and terrifying. Water danced and lit with a vivid cobalt blue here, an aquamarine there. Electricity dappled the water and churned up foam. Somewhere in the depths a bellow came – again a lowing like a cow – and Cam seemed to feel it in his head more than hear it. And then – he couldn’t bear to believe it but his eyes made him see it – a wolf, wet and limp and looking damn near dead, popped to the surface.

  ‘Trace!’ Cam yelled again. ‘I need you to hold on! Focus. Can you hear me?’

  There it was again. That slow, taffy-like stretch of time and matter and Trace was more human than animal and then all man. He looked like he’d been hit by several trucks, but he was alive.

  He started a slow, painful crawl toward the rocks and Cameron moved toward him on his hands and knees, holding out an arm to snag the wolf.

  To
gether they managed to get Trace up on the rocks and Trace made Cam move back as far as they could go.

  Cameron didn’t think about it. He simply kissed Trace. Forehead, cheeks, lips, eyelids. He kissed him until his own face was wet and his clothes were drenched. Trace was shivering. He needed to get his clothes. But when Cam went to gather them, Trace grabbed him and kissed him for real. His mouth cold from the water but wet and sweet on the inside – because he was alive. Perfectly, blissfully alive.

  He ran his finger over Cam’s cheekbone and gazed into his eyes. ‘Has anyone told you … you’re a danger, man?’

  Cameron tried to laugh but it came out more of a sob. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be. Now I’m pissed. We have to kill this fucker. And soon.’

  Something burst from the bushes, crashing wildly through the foliage. A grunt, a roar, and then a huge brown body appeared, swaying slightly in that way they have. A bear. No doubt Slaughter, but Cameron was taken off guard and he backpedalled on his hands and feet as fast as he could, sliding too close to the water for comfort. Trace reached out and grabbed him.

  A blink and a shake of his head and there was a buck-naked sheriff standing there on alert. ‘What was that? What happened? I heard –’

  He was cut off by the sound of running feet on the slippery path. Eliot burst into view, her cheeks red, her face flushed. ‘What the hell? Sometimes it sucks to be human.’

  ‘It’s in the falls,’ Cameron blurted.

  Trace stuck out his hand and Cam took it. Together they moved closer to the higher ground. Eliot snickered and tossed the sheriff some gym shorts. ‘Cover up, big boy.’

  Slaughter blushed and grunted. ‘I heard a noise. I can’t describe it. Deep and big and wet and …’

  ‘It was the resident sea monster.’ Cam sighed. He was suddenly exhausted. So tired from this day that seemed to run in slow and fast time simultaneously.

  ‘What?’ Slaughter craned his neck, trying to get closer, but Trace put a hand on the sheriff and pushed him back.

  ‘I really wouldn’t recommend that. I’ve already taken a dip in the crazy pond today. Trust me. You don’t want to go there.’

  ‘What do you mean in the water?’ Slaughter asked.

  Eliot touched his arm and said, ‘Come on. The wind is picking up and you’re … Well, pretty much nude. Let’s give the boys a ride home and then they can explain.’

  Slaughter was blushing again, Cameron noted, and he dipped his head in agreement. ‘Let’s go, then. You OK, Trace? You do know you’re naked.’

  They all looked at Trace and Cameron heard a semi-hysterical bubble of laughter float out of him. ‘Your clothes are there.’

  Trace did his best to get dressed and they all filed out of the woods. One wet, one semi-naked, and two humans. Just an average day in Divination Falls.

  In the car, Eliot said, ‘We’ll take you home. You can fill us in.’

  ‘Good. I can also go for some food, a shower, and a nap, believe it or not,’ Cam said.

  ‘I believe you.’ Eliot smiled. ‘You look wiped.’

  ‘There is a monster in the falls.’ Trace sighed. ‘And it tried to eat me.’

  Eliot looked surprised. ‘You can’t be serious about the second part.’

  ‘Yeah, only the kicker is Lightning Boy channelled a bolt of lightning and hurt it and it let me go. So … You know. Normal stuff. What about you?’ Trace asked Eliot. ‘Are your woo-woo town seer senses picking up anything with our infestation of creatures that should not be? I mean, it’s like a fucking B-movie around here. Tentacles from under the falls, chicken-eating boogety-boos.’

  Eliot frowned. ‘We’re lucky all it ate was a chicken. And I’ll tell you what I told Sam.’ She glanced at the sheriff and he gave her a brief go-ahead nod. ‘I see water and light. Light and water. And then darkness. Whether the darkness is good or bad, I don’t know. Is it them gone and the visions stop – or is it them winning? And we get darkness as the booby prize?’

  ‘It just keeps getting better,’ Trace snapped.

  Cam sighed, feeling very much defeated, and rested his head against Trace’s still-cool shoulder. It didn’t surprise him in the least that the motion of the car and the contact with the wolf started to lull him to sleep.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘I’ll be back tomorrow. We’ll sit and talk more then.’ Slaughter, dressed in a T-shirt to go with the gym shorts pulled from his cruiser, dropped them off. ‘For now we have the gist of it. There’s a monster under the falls and it’s causing bleed-throughs. We need to get rid of it, heal the rift, and see if we can finally get these things out of here. Because –’ he turned to face them over the seat

  ‘– it’s been here since those Malus jokers were on the scene a few months back, right?’

  Cam nodded. ‘Probably.’

  ‘Right. Awesome.’ The sheriff blew out a sigh and scrubbed his face with his hands. ‘I’ll be back in the morning. Will you tell Father Finn so I don’t scare him?’

  ‘You’re very scary,’ Eliot snickered.

  Slaughter growled at her, but it was playful. ‘You two need to do it already,’ Cam said before he could stop himself.

  Dead silence. Then the sound of one wolf laughing, very hard. Cameron quickly shuffled out with a muttered, ‘Sorry, I’m so tired there must be no filter between my brain and my mouth.’

  Thankfully Slaughter and Eliot were still speechless.

  Inside the blissful hush of the rectory, Trace said, ‘Don’t you know they’re already doing it, Lightning Boy?’

  ‘I … What?’

  ‘The smell was all over them. The sheriff and the town seer are knocking boots.’

  ‘Dear God.’ Cameron sighed and that made Trace laugh harder.

  ‘You go sit down. I’m going to go tell Father that the sheriff will be here in the morning. No detours, you look beat.’ The wolf swatted Cam on the ass and Cameron made a small, surprised noise. ‘Go on. I’m worried about you.’

  ‘Since when?’

  Trace leant in and ran his hands over Cameron’s chest. Even through his tee the touch was welcome and borderline erotic. He knew the other man could feel his wildly beating heart. There was no hiding it. ‘Since I realised I need to stop hiding in what is basically a basement. That my life is slipping away and I’m down here in a pit alone. And it’s all my doing.’

  With that, he turned and bounded down the hall, his footsteps almost silent. Because he was a predator. A gorgeous predator.

  Cam shuffled off, slightly stunned, somewhat scared, and a good amount pleased. Flashes of their encounter in the library crowded his mind and he shivered at the remembered touch. The orgasm that had ripped through him. That man’s mouth on him, kissing and biting until he …

  ‘Jesus. Stop,’ Cam said to himself. In that moment, it hit him. What he wouldn’t give right now to be a normal man. No elemental double. No energy coursing from him randomly. Just a man who wanted another man. OK, so that man happened to be a wolf too, but ya know – shit happens.

  In his room he stripped off his clothes. That balloon head feel that always came with fatigue overcame him, but all he wanted in the world was food, a shower, a hug from Trace – any order would do.

  His clothes formed a misshapen pile on his bedroom floor and he shuffled like an old man into the adjoining bathroom. The light was too bright, the room too small, the bare bones shower curtain nothing more than a milky barrier between inside the tub and out. It was the epitome of cheap and no nonsense and he loved it. A more welcome sight he couldn’t imagine at the moment.

  The shower water was hot almost instantly and Cam was thankful for well serviced rectory boilers. Serviced by handsome wolves with big cocks. Thick forearms. A way of growling that made his dick hard …

  Cameron pushed his face under the water to derail his dirty mind. But his dick was hard anyway – he was just a man, after all. There was a very mild rustle and thump in the room. The hair on the back of his neck went up as he i
magined big things coiled in the dark. Things with tentacles and suckers and beaks. Things that wanted to rend and tear and eat.

  ‘Calm down, it’s just me,’ Trace said softly.

  Cam wiped his eyes and peered through the opaque white curtain. ‘How did you know I was scared?’ he almost whispered.

  ‘I could smell it. Taste it on my tongue.’ Trace was moving as he spoke but Cam couldn’t make out what he was doing. ‘The good father is putting in a brick oven pizza as we speak.’

  ‘What?’ Cameron laughed, but his belly grumbled.

  ‘He cooks when he’s nervous or upset.’

  ‘He’s a good cook,’ Cam said.

  ‘He must be nervous or upset a lot.’

  Cam tried to focus but the hot water was lulling him like a siren’s song to a sailor. He just wanted to let his muscles unknot and his fears abate. ‘Do a lot of people attend church?’ he asked, his eyes closed, head tilted back to let the water sluice through his hair.

  ‘None.’

  ‘Why a church, then?’

  Trace’s voice was closer and that made the hair on Cameron’s neck go back up, but for an entirely different reason. ‘None of us are particularly religious,’ Trace said. ‘But we like having a church here. And we like having Father Finn.’

  ‘Nice man,’ Cam said, feeling a bit breathless and he wasn’t sure why. Was the wolf closer?

  Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Not me …

  ‘He is a nice man. He’s a confidant for most of the town. We are his congregation whether we attend service or not. I think he has a smattering on high holidays. Some do baptisms and weddings. But mostly he’s more like our fucking therapist.’ Trace laughed.

  Then the curtain was drawn open and Cameron was opening his eyes and there was a broad, naked chest in front of him. And an imposing man with very intriguing eyes.

  ‘Hi,’ Trace said.

  ‘Hi.’ The word puffed out of him and he was helpless to not touch that chest. Run his fingers over the peppering of hair and the random scars. One that he couldn’t help but notice up close and in the light looked like a jag of lightning.