4.0 - Howl Of The Fettered Wolf

by Krista Walsh

  She frowned. “I did. Until this morning. That voice came to me again and demanded the book. It tried to tear the knowledge of where I’ve hidden it right out of my head.” She pressed her hand against her temple. “I was surprised I didn’t wake up with blood streaming out of my ears.” As she remembered how real the dream had felt, right down to the details of Gabe’s living room, she dropped her hand to the counter and shot her head up, immediately regretting the swift motion. “They know where I am. They showed me your house. Not clearly, as if they’d been here, but with enough detail to suggest they know what it looks like. They know I’m here, and they must know the book is here, too.”

  Gabe’s smile vanished. He pulled the eggs off the stove and crossed over to her. Even from the other side of the counter, she sensed the change in his energy, as though his entire body were trembling with an anger he was trying very hard to restrain. Instinct urged her to step backward, even as she understood the anger wasn’t directed at her but at whatever had come after her.

  He rested his hands over hers, and she got the impression he was meeting her gaze through his lenses. “We’ll know if they try to come for us,” he said. “They won’t take us by surprise. I meant what I said last night — if you can remember.” A hint of a grin returned to his face as Vera’s cheeks grew warm. Then he sobered. “I’m going to help you. I swear I won’t let them get what they want.”

  Vera swallowed hard and shifted her hands so her fingers squeezed his, his warmth passing deep into her bones. She prayed he was right. She hoped their efforts would be enough to prevent a catastrophe.

  Gabe released her to finish getting breakfast ready, and she silently scolded herself for wishing he had held on a little longer.

  Her disappointment faded when he ushered her to the dining table and put the rich-smelling plate of bacon and eggs down in front of her. While she ate, he set up his laptop on the coffee table in front of the fire.

  She leaned her back against the dining chair, elbows propped on the armrests, and sipped her coffee as she watched him plug in. “Where did you get that?”

  He fiddled with the cable to keep it tucked under the table. “I popped home to grab a few necessities while you were in the shower last night. We wouldn’t get very far without internet.”

  Vera arched a brow. “You have internet here?”

  Gabe drew a line through the air above the laptop, no more than three inches long. Through the angle of the rift, she made out a stippled ceiling from some other location.

  “Why pay for Wi-Fi twice when I can just bring the signal through from the service I’m already paying for?” he asked, and Vera’s smile grew to match his. “Once you’re done eating, I’m going to call a friend of mine who’s going to get us all the answers.”

  “How does he have such magic?” she asked lightly, trying for a teasing tone. “Is he one of us? Some kind of oracle?”

  Gabe laughed. “No, but he wishes he was,” he said, brushing his hair off his brow. “Percy’s human, although his ancestors crossed swords with mine a very long time ago. Maybe that’s why he has such an interest. Whatever the reason, his research helps me out on my cases more often than not. I’m sure he can lead us in the right direction.”

  Vera took a bite of toast, wishing she had some tea to wash it down. So far, she hadn’t spotted a kettle anywhere. “What kind of research does he do?”

  “All kinds. He’s an internet guru, an engineer, a software developer. Whatever techy service I need, he’s there to provide it. Even if sometimes he does go too far.” His voice dropped, and Vera noticed the way the muscles bunched at the base of his neck. He drew in a deep breath, his nostrils flaring, and when he released it, he visibly relaxed.

  This wasn’t the first time Vera had observed how close Gabe’s anger simmered under the surface of his charm, or how practiced he seemed to be at controlling it. She remembered him displaying the same behavior in Jermaine’s locked room. Antony, the incubus, had called him out on it.

  Was it part of his Gorgon background, or something that had developed out of his isolation from the world?

  Either way, Vera couldn’t find it in her to be afraid of him. On the contrary, she found herself wanting to help him, to keep him company with his internal battles. There was something very attractive about a man with enough self-control to rival hers.

  She grabbed the last strip of bacon and pushed her plate away, suddenly impatient to get to work and meet this friend of his. “Done.” She took her coffee over to the couch and sat beside Gabe in front of the laptop screen. Her arm brushed against his, and she swallowed the fluttering that crept up from her stomach at the contact.

  “Are you cold?” he asked, surprised.

  “Maybe a little,” she replied, not wanting to admit the real reason for her shiver. “I must still be feeling the effects of the alcohol.”

  In actual fact, her headache was gone, and the food and coffee had worked wonders to settle her stomach and make her feel like herself again. But it was an easy excuse to offer.

  “Let’s fix that, then,” Gabe said. He grabbed the crocheted afghan from the back of the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders, making sure it was snug against her neck. His fingers lingered at her throat, his thumb sliding so softly over her jaw that she wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not.

  She wished he would take off his sunglasses so she could gauge his thoughts, but he turned away, clearing his throat as he opened a program on his laptop.

  The video call icon spun in a slow circle as the program loaded, and then a deep ringing came from the speakers.

  A moment later, a man with dark curly hair and enviably long eyelashes answered. Behind him was a wall of computer servers with glimpses of gray paint in between. Nothing to give any indication of the personality behind the handsome face.

  “You sure have a knack for timing,” he said. “Here I was, about to unlock the next level in this game, then your call comes in, distracts me, and leaves me wide open to be cut in half by the big boss. Now I’m cranky, so this better be good. Well, hello.” His gaze landed on Vera, and his face lit up with a bright smile. He looked to Gabe, and his expression turned questioning. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

  Gabe grimaced. “Vera Goodall, this is Percy Sparkes. Percy, Vera.”

  “It is my great pleasure to make your acquaintance, my lady,” Percy said with a flourish, and Vera pressed her lips together to keep herself from laughing.

  “Enough of that,” Gabe said. “This isn’t a blind date, it’s business.”

  The words reminded Vera that Gabe’s kindness came from a place of professionalism, and some of the warmth leached out of her veins. She held her coffee mug closer and pulled the afghan tighter around her shoulders.

  “What kind of business could you possibly be doing in the middle of nowhere at this hour of the morning?” Percy asked.

  “It’s almost noon,” said Gabe.

  “Early enough.” Percy leaned closer to the screen, his attention shifting from Gabe to the scene behind him. “Isn’t that your parents’ place? What the hell are you doing there?”

  “Planning out a strategy. We hope,” Gabe said. “Vera is trying to keep something safe, but people are coming after it. We came here to buy a bit of time, but it seems some of them already know where we are. We need you to help us figure out who’s put us on the run.”

  Percy frowned. “More trouble already? I knew I should have started making plans to move after we solved your last case. What is it this time? A harpy? A legion of Kozkor demons? Probably something really cool, while I’m stuck here doing research.”

  Vera cast Gabe a questioning look. By the slight shifting of his forehead as he looked back at her, she guessed he was rolling his eyes. “Percy is as supernatural as it’s possible for a human to get. He knows more about our world than I do. His only regret is that he wasn’t born with horns.”

  Percy snorted, but instead of replying, he bit off the end of a c
andy bar.

  “So are you going to tell me what I need to find out, or are you going to make me guess?” he asked through a mouthful of chocolate and nougat.

  Gabe gestured for Vera to take over, and she shifted on the couch, using another sip of coffee to give her a moment to decide how she wanted to proceed. Gabe trusted this man on the other side of the screen, but she hadn’t succeeded in life by taking other people’s word for who was trustworthy.

  The book was meant to be a secret. The more people who knew about it — especially those as interested in the otherworldly as Percy obviously was — the higher the chances that news would spread about its location. The last thing she wanted was to incite more groups to come after her. Percy would be at risk, too, if anyone knew he possessed the information.

  But then, he worked with Gabe, which suggested he already had a wealth of knowledge that would get him in trouble if the wrong people found out, so maybe one more little fact wouldn’t tip the scales against him.

  What decided her was her faith in Gabe. For reasons she didn’t entirely understand, she had complete trust that he wouldn’t betray her, and if she was going to trust him, she had to believe he wouldn’t lead her astray by introducing her to Percy.

  After a final sip of coffee, she set down the mug and crossed her arms over her knees. She told Percy everything she knew about the book and the little she knew about the two groups coming after it.

  “I know one of the thieves in the group is named Rega,” she offered, regretting that she didn’t have much to go on.

  “And if you could find anything about this ancient power that’s able to get into Vera’s mind and manipulate her thoughts, that would also be helpful,” Gabe added. “Personally, it worries me more than the others. I can get my hands on a demon, but an unseen enemy will be harder to fight.”

  Percy’s fingers flew over his keyboard as he took down all their thoughts. His expression had smoothed into a mask of serious concentration, and Vera began to understand why Gabe worked with him. The man was juvenile in an innocent sort of way, but he was obviously just as passionate about his work as he was about his video games.

  “Give me some time to look into all of that and I’ll get back to you,” he said. “In the meantime, you kids have fun.”

  In the middle of Percy’s exaggerated wink, Gabe disconnected without comment, then sagged into the couch. “That’s about as much as we can do right now. I’d suggest we do some internet searching of our own, but there’s no one better at it than Percy. He would only mock our amateur attempts to catch up. I say we go for a walk and try to get our minds off things for a while. Recharge the brain cells so they’re ready when we need them.”

  Vera opened her mouth to argue, believing that coming up with a plan would be more fruitful, then decided to let it be. They could discuss the situation while they walked, and maybe some light exercise would ease the jangling of her nerves. All this tension was making it difficult for her to sit still anyway.

  ***

  Being far away from New Haven’s city limits, autumn had swept in here with a more natural progression. No early blizzards had stripped the trees of their colors, and the grass still had patches of rich green amid the brown. The air smelled heady and sweet, as though it were touched with wine, and Vera tilted her head back to catch the cool breeze on her cheeks.

  In her haste, she hadn’t packed a coat, so Gabe had lent her one of his plaid flannel jackets. The softness tickled her neck and the sleeves dangled past her wrists. She felt as though she were dressed in a blanket, and it was wonderful.

  Instead of the trench coat Vera expected him to wear, Gabe had thrown on a plain gray cargo coat that made him look as though he should be working the land instead of just walking it.

  She’d grabbed the book from its hiding place before they left, not trusting it alone and unguarded in the empty house, and walked with it hugged to her chest.

  “Do you think Percy will take long to find what we need?” she asked.

  “He’s usually pretty quick,” Gabe said. “It’ll depend on how deep he needs to dig to find what he’s looking for. Perce has trouble understanding the concept of going too far.”

  Vera cast him a sideways glance. “I get the impression that concerns you.”

  He chuckled. “You know me that well already, do you?”

  Vera’s mouth went dry as she realized how much she wished that were true. She said nothing, returning her gaze to the grass.

  “I admit, it does concern me sometimes,” Gabe said. “I trust the guy with my life, but I can’t help but worry that one day he’ll poke his nose somewhere he shouldn’t. Or worse, land the entire otherworld in hot water. I do my best to keep him on the right side of curious, but he’s a stubborn ass.”

  Vera laughed. “That sounds familiar. Ara often says the same kind of thing about me.”

  “I wouldn’t say your ass was stubborn,” he said. Then his cheeks flushed and he shoved his fingers deep into the pockets of his jacket.

  Surprise shot through Vera at the comment, but Gabe appeared so flummoxed, she thought it wiser to let it pass without notice.

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, watching the dogs tear through the grass. Baxter’s tongue lolled out of the corner of his mouth when he came to a stop in front of them, then he bounded away again.

  “They’ve never seen this much open space,” Vera said. “I’m sure they’ll sleep for a week after we get home.”

  Her thoughts wanted to drift to what awaited her when she got back, but she shoved all consideration of her to-do list to the back of her mind. It could eat at her with its sense of priority as much as it wanted, but for now, she was content to ignore the entire mess. As though stepping through the rift had taken the problem out of her hands, she felt like a different person. A woman who had nothing to think about other than the fresh air and the strain in her legs as she walked through the field. She imagined this was what life would have been like if she’d grown up a human woman, with a normal collection of responsibilities and no great burdens to drag her down.

  She wondered if this was the life her father had wanted for her. To be enjoying her peaceful surroundings with a man she felt safe with.

  Her cheeks warmed, then heated another few degrees when Gabe said, “Care to share whatever has you blushing?”

  Vera brushed her hair behind her ear to cover her embarrassment. “Nothing important. I was just thinking that it’s been a very long time since I’ve felt this…free. It’s nice.”

  Gabe looked around him. “I won’t argue with you there. This is the only place I’ve ever felt comfortable being who I am. There was never any judgment or fear. I’d forgotten how much of a haven it is.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Vera said. “Your family was lucky to find it.”

  “My dad built the house, actually,” he said as they walked toward the edge of the woods. Baxter and Vidar were faint brown spots in the distance, chasing each other and who knew what else through the long grass. “He was quite the craftsman. Most of the furniture inside has his touches on it.”

  “Like the dining set and the mirror frame in the bathroom?” Vera asked, impressed.

  Gabe chuckled. “Yes, the mirror was one of his. It took him a good year to make it perfect, every day adding a little more detail. It was sort of a family joke that in looking in the mirror, we were just the latest in a long line of myths, even if no one would ever tell stories about us.”

  Vera smiled as she pictured the Mulligan family standing in front of that mirror, making faces at themselves to better match the design in the frame.

  “He made it all for my mother,” Gabe went on. “We couldn’t stay in the city after I had a few…accidents.” He tapped his sunglasses, and Vera felt the corners of her mouth twist downward. She couldn’t imagine what it had been like for him having to hide his face away from the world, unable to explain why. “So we moved out here where I could run around and not get into so much trouble. No
t that kind, anyway. I was still a hellion of a child.”

  She chuckled. “I find it surprisingly easy to believe you were a nightmare for your mother. Lovable, of course, but a nightmare.”

  Curiosity was pushing her to ask what had happened to his family, but politeness held her back. She knew they were no longer around, which would have been hard enough for him to reveal; she didn’t need to poke into old wounds to get the details.

  But after another moment, he continued on his own. “Dad disappeared when I was fourteen. Rick, my brother, had died two years before that. He drowned in the river in the woods over there.” He pointed into the thick tree line that edged the property. “Nothing was ever really the same after that. One day, Dad was working in his workshop around the back of the house, and the next, he was gone.” Gabe shook his head. “I’ve never really forgiven him for leaving.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “It is what it is, and it’s one mystery I don’t think I’ll ever solve.” He forced out a low laugh. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this. I guess I want you to know some of the skeletons in my closet.” His throat bobbed with a swallow, and he offered a tight smile. “You did hire me to help you, after all. You should know something about the man you’re working with.”

  Business. It always came back to business.

  Vera stepped closer to him, needing something more, wishing that her proximity could help ease some of the anger and grief in his heart. “I can empathize with the suddenness of a disappearance. It’s like you grow up believing you can see how your life will work out, and then something happens that changes everything.”

  Gabe glanced at her, and Vera blushed again. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe he considered it presumptuous that she thought she understood his pain, or maybe he thought her a narcissist for trying to bring the conversation back to herself.

  She had managed to run a business for five years, but the ins and outs of any conversation beyond the basic “How are you?” patterns remained a realm of uncertainty.