A snort escaped me. “Yeah, I guess not.”
“Not everyone is a traditionalist.” She rattled the bucket and plunged a hand inside. “Some wargs are already in relationships or married when their destined mate shows up on the doorstep. Some of them say no. At least at first.”
I hummed in my throat. “That sounds like a heartache waiting to happen.”
“Sometimes,” she conceded. “I’m just saying, if you meet a male and like what you see, that you shouldn’t write him off because of what might happen.”
I tripped over my own feet. “Tell me you aren’t playing matchmaker.”
“All I’m saying is Cord’s in my head, and he’s got a one-track mind where you’re concerned, if you catch my drift.”
Prickles stung my cheeks. “That’s not possible.” I gestured around us. “All of this is for Marie. He must be thinking of her. After Lori…” I rubbed the ache under my breastbone. “I was crazed for months. It was all I thought about.”
The quirk of her brow made me think Graeson hadn’t told her about Lori, which earned him bonus points in my book. It was one thing to be a kidnapper. It was another to be a blabbermouth.
“Is the connection always so wide open?” That must make pack life awkward. “Can you all read each other’s minds?”
“Uh, well. It’s like this.” Her gaze darted left to right. “There’s something you should know about that.”
“Dell.” The low voice resonated in my bones. “I’ll take it from here.”
The bucket of chicken groaned where she squeezed it against her chest. “I’ll wait for you on the porch.”
What I hoped passed for a comforting smile bent my lips. She ducked her head and spun on her heel. She couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I didn’t blame her. Alone with Graeson was pretty far down my list of favorite places to be too.
“Do you always walk this much?” Accusation throbbed in his tone. “Or is this a recent development?”
Now that Dell had piqued my interest, I studied him for hints of what she had been about to say. The fatigue etching his face had lessened. The grief that had clung to him when we met, he kept behind a wall that I struggled to see over. His eyes were still dull, but I had witnessed flashes of their brilliance. I wasn’t sure what it meant that he concealed his pain so well. What else might he be hiding?
“I move around a lot. I have a high-stress job.” I pegged him with a glare. “I’ve also been kidnapped by a renegade cell of rogue wargs. That’s enough to make a girl antsy.”
“We’re taking good care of you.” Graeson stepped forward, and sunlight cast shadows under his hollowed cheeks. “We’re providing for you.”
Call me crazy, but the subtext rang loud and clear. That he was the one doing the providing. Must be some alpha he-man impulse.
I stood my ground. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying that a gilded cage is still a cage?”
“You’re not rattling your bars too loudly. We both know you could leave at any time. Say the word, and I’ll drive you to the airport myself.” His jaw flexed, as if he had to force out the offer. “You could have used that girl’s phone at Upper Branch. Yeah, I saw it in your hand through Dell’s thoughts.” Another step closer when my cheeks flamed. I knew that would bite me on the butt. “Why didn’t you?”
“A girl is missing.” I tilted up my chin. “I owe her the best chance at being found, and right now that’s you and me.”
“I like the sound of us,” he growled softly.
Graeson towered over me, his warm breaths hitting my cheeks. They were rapid and deep, drawing in my scent. His golden eyes burned until all I wanted to do was blink, but I knew he would view it as submission, and I wasn’t bending an inch where he was concerned. He cupped the side of my neck. One of his large hands, warm and calloused, pulled me forward. My gaze held steady, and the challenge in his made my stomach quiver. My hands hovered over his chest, almost touching but not ready to concede to tactile curiosity. When his head lowered, he kept his lips a whisper above mine, daring me to close the gap and take what he offered.
“Cord.”
I jerked out of his grasp and backpedaled several steps. His hand closed over air, and his jaw set. Annoyance flashed in his eyes.
“I— Sorry.” Dell skidded to a halt, eyes wide as she panned from him to me. “Miguel’s got a fix on the kelpie.”
The gold in his eyes simmered. “Where?”
“It’s in a cave system beneath the lake.” Specks of dirt on her tennis shoes commanded her sudden interest. “Our patrols must have corralled it.”
“We drove it into the water,” he said under his breath as though that outcome unsettled him.
Why hadn’t it escaped when it had the chance? The absence of a scent trail meant the wargs had no way of tracking it. Why had it approached us in the first place? Why parade its prey in front of us? The thing was inciting us to action, and that kind of boldness made me nervous. “The girl couldn’t have survived this long in the water.”
“Unless that’s what he does,” Graeson said, shifting uneasily. “We don’t know how he picks his locations. I’m not sure about the other sites, but I know there is a cavern beneath the pond where—” his voice hitched, “—Marie was found. A water sprite lived there when I was a boy. She used to talk to me when I was hunting in wolf form.”
The way he said it made me curious. “Does she still live there?” Some fae hibernated for decades at a time.
“No. She was accused a drowning a young man she favored. Some said they were lovers. I think she was beautiful and he was tempted by her. If she harmed him, then she was protecting herself.” His expression soured. “The conclave swept in and removed her before Bessemer got it in his head to sanction a hunt without a trial. Now her name will never be cleared, and she won’t be allowed to return home for as long as Bessemer lives. That type of fae…” Old sadness rang out. “They bond to their homes. Relocating her was a death sentence.”
That might explain his distrust for the conclave. They had hurt a friend of his. His fondness for the sprite might also explain why he had greeted me with an open mind instead of the prejudice so many wargs held against fae.
“You think this might be part of his pattern.” I turned the idea over in my head. “We know he keeps his victims alive for a week or longer. If he’s choosing bodies of water with fae-created cave systems, then there may be dry caverns and oxygen too.”
“The kelpie could stash its victim there until the time was right,” Graeson agreed.
“How do we find out what’s underneath this lake without tapping into conclave resources?” Without Internet access, we couldn’t Google geography or touch base with my contacts. “Local fae would know. I’m going to need that ride into town now.”
“No.” Graeson rubbed his chin. “You won’t. I have someone in mind.”
“Who? Last I checked, wargs don’t have gills.” I crossed to Dell and touched her shoulder. She peered up at me through fringe bangs. “We have to call Vause.” We had no choice. “It would take days to assemble a dive team capable of handling the kelpie without asking the conclave for assistance. This victim doesn’t have that kind of time.”
“There’s another option, a safer choice.”
On reflex, my hand clamped over the pearl bracelet on my opposite wrist as though protecting it might shield Harlow too. “Harlow isn’t well enough to go up against a kelpie.”
A mermaid would have made me hesitate, but a human? She didn’t stand a chance.
He didn’t miss a beat. “Medics cleared her this morning.”
“How do you—?” With sinking certainty I knew. “You’ve been keeping tabs on her in case you needed her.”
The announcement shouldn’t have surprised me. Graeson was all about protecting his resources.
Maybe I had done wrong by going along with his plan. It seemed he and Vause were surfing the same wavelength after all.
“Harlow is facing suspension. She’l
l be sidelined until an internal affairs investigation finishes with her, and we both know it’s a formality. She lied on her application. They aren’t going to forgive or forget that. She’ll be lucky if they don’t press charges.” His gaze dipped in a rare show of deference. “I offered to hire her, and she accepted. I didn’t push her into this.”
“You didn’t have to,” I stated the obvious. “What options does she have?”
All those clothes and hair products didn’t come cheap. I might not be a girly girl, but as often as I traveled, I had gotten lost in my share of superstore aisles and gaped at the seven dollar tubes of lipstick and ten dollar tubes of foundation. It cost a fortune to wear enough cosmetics that it appeared you wore none. Faced with a crimp in her income, of course Harlow would jump at the chance to earn fast cash.
“I put her up at a hotel in town.” He chose to regard my question as rhetorical. “I’ll send someone to pick her up when we’re ready.”
Disappointment sapped the fight out of me. “You think of everything, don’t you?”
His jaw flexed. “Someone has to.”
Graeson set off toward the shack at a clipped pace, and I watched him go. Dell shrank into herself, and it frayed my last nerve.
“He doesn’t care what it costs the rest of us as long as he gets what he wants.” The kelpie had to be brought down, but I was afraid Harlow would take the fall. “Does he have a conscience at all?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you earlier,” she said softly. “He gave his grief to the pack.”
“Gave it away? That’s something a warg can just hand over?” Her gaze darted from left to right before she nodded, and my stomach cramped. “As in he no longer feels it?”
“We took it and spread it out among ourselves. That’s why he’s in my head. The pack bond is always present, but usually it’s muted to give us all our privacy. Cord has to keep his mind wide open so we can sort of… It’s hard to explain. It’s like siphoning the negative energy. Right now he’s an open book, and your name is scribbled on a lot of pages.”
A flush spread up my nape. “How long will it last?”
“A few days, maybe a week. That’s why he’s pushing so hard. He’s running out of time. The grief was eating his mind. He couldn’t think for replaying the last time he saw Marie. They fought over something stupid. She wanted to go to the movies with a boy, and he said no. She yelled hurtful things, stormed off to her best friend’s house then didn’t come home. He blames himself for what happened.” Her voice wavered. “He’s our beta. Her death happened on Chandler pack land. It’s his duty—as second to Bessemer and as her brother—to find her killer and punish him. If Cord doesn’t deliver before the next full moon, then the first order of business will be an open challenge on him for his position, and Cord is too dominant to let that happen. He’ll fight to the death before he’s demoted. It’s instinct.”
I spat a string of curses. “What kind of leader throws his own people to the wolves?” Literally.
Wargs valued strength, both physical and emotional. I got that. They were all about survival of the fittest. I got that too. But the man had lost his sister. And his alpha, who should have been sympathetic, had set Graeson on the kelpie’s trail with an ultimatum. No wonder he was bending all the rules. This was about more than Marie. It was about the rest of his life, his position within the pack. He was fighting for her memory as well as his own future.
“Come on.” I grabbed Dell by the hand and dragged her toward the shack. “I need to have a chat with Mr. Machination about the rules before Harlow gets here.”
Damn Graeson for his scheming. As furious as I was on Harlow’s behalf, I couldn’t walk away now. I was in too deep. There was a sliver of a chance Roni might still be alive. That was enough to keep me in line, and Graeson knew it. But that didn’t mean I was going to let him sacrifice us all in the name of revenge. As much as my palms itched to strangle him, one day his grief would rebound, and that was punishment enough as far as I was concerned.
Harlow arrived ten minutes after I retreated up the rickety stairs to my temporary quarters. Dell sat on the cot while I paced the room from end to end, which is to say I took five steps before I had to turn in order to take five more. The familiar ping of gravel bouncing off undercarriage drew me to the window.
The younger witchy brother opened the rear passenger door of the SUV and offered Harlow his hand with a flourish of harmless gallantry that tempted my eyes toward the ceiling. She blushed prettily and allowed him to help her hop onto the ground.
Tonight she wore her candy-bright hair in a French braid that complemented her Creamsicle orange tank top and tie-dyed postage-stamp-sized shorts. Even the straps on her wedge sandals matched. Factor in the serviceable brown leather bag she wore like a backpack, and the bright colors made her appear even younger, more innocent. The ball of anxiety in my gut tightened when she spotted me and waved with so much enthusiasm she wobbled in the gravel. The witch had to steady her by wrapping his arm around her waist.
“They’re here,” I said more for myself than for Dell. With her hearing, she had probably tracked their impending arrival for several minutes. I blew out a breath and took the stairs at a clip. Two wargs were out on patrol. Two more stood on the porch. Another pair flanked Graeson, who occupied the center of the room with a clear view of the vehicle through the window. Miguel waited at the register with a bland expression, as if only his brother knew the secret to drawing out his fiery temper.
The witch led Harlow up the steps and held the door for her. She spotted me, scuffed her shoe on the planks once then shuffled up to me. She slid her arms around my waist in a fragile hug I didn’t expect. I went tense, and she felt ready to break apart in my arms. The shock faded when her shoulders hitched in what I feared was a quiet sob, and I squeezed her back with everything I had.
She didn’t thank me this time. The watery film covering her eyes when she looked at me did it for her.
“How are you feeling?” I summoned the brightest smile in my repertoire, the Aunt Dot Special, the one I flashed when I got home from a long trip and she was waiting on my porch to welcome me with a kiss to my forehead and a hug that smelled of her homemade rose perfume.
“The medics waved their magic wands over me.” She pulled back, and her fingers brushed her cheek dry. “They healed me before I had a chance to scar. It’s amazing what magic can accomplish these days.”
Though she had just climbed the steps, I led her back out again. Warg hearing being what it was, we couldn’t venture far enough for true privacy, but at least I wouldn’t have to see them hanging on my every word and zapping mental commentary back and forth among themselves.
“What happened at the Rebec place—” I began.
“It’s okay. Really.” A wavy strand of her hair had come undone, and she wrapped it around her finger. “You did what you had to do. You saved me. Again.” She tugged on the curl. “I think you managed what Mom failed to do. You knocked some sense into me. I see now that I don’t belong here. On land, I mean. I thought it would be… But it isn’t. Guess I’m more fish than girl.” A tired exhale. “I’ve made it this far. Graeson is paying me out of pocket for this gig, and that’s money I need for the trip.” She glanced up. “I’m going to stick around until Charybdis is captured. After that I’m heading home. For good.”
A pang arrowed through me. If Harlow returned to the sea, our paths would never cross again. Lakes were bad enough. An ocean? No. That was asking too much. I couldn’t face open water. Given Harlow’s experience topside with rage-mongering fae, I could hardly blame her for choosing the sea over land. Even if the water was no less dangerous, it was a familiar threat to her. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
“I’m tougher than I look.” Harlow squared her shoulders. “I can do this.”
“The kelpie is still down there.” Or so the witches claimed. “Can you fend him off alone?”
“I can swim circles around him.” A smile touc
hed her lips. “I’m a mermaid, remember?”
An all-too-human one.
Hinges groaned behind us, and I turned as Graeson stepped onto the porch. The wargs hovered behind him. “We don’t have much time,” he announced. “The Garzas’ latest divination places the kelpie in Butler, Tennessee this time next week.”
A prickle of unease lifted hairs down my arms. I didn’t want Charybdis in the same state as my family.
“I’m ready when you are.” Harlow tugged on the strap of her backpack. “I’ve got everything I need right here.”
The beta looked at me with fierce, shining eyes when he said, “This ends tonight.”
I hoped he was right.
Chapter 15
Sardis Lake reflected the moon in its belly. Insects skating over the surface of the water caused ripples as their slender legs glided. I stood at the base of the pier where the Tanner sisters had gone fishing, the closest I had come to this particular site. A knocking sound made me frown. I scanned the night for its source while praying it wasn’t my knees.
“It’s not too late to call in the conclave,” I murmured, wary of fuzzy ears picking up the offer.
Somewhere wolves prowled the woods on soft paws. Harlow’s one sticking point was she wanted complete privacy for her “change”. I got a pass, because I knew her secret. That and she had been shivering since we left. Even in the dark, the temperature hung in the mid-eighties. Cold wasn’t to blame for her teeth chattering.
“I’ve got this. Don’t worry so much.” Harlow dropped her bag on the planks, adjusted her skintight neoprene top, this one in black, and sat. “You look ready to yak. Are you sure you can handle this?”
“No.” I backed up until the heels of my boots sank deep into the sandy soil. “I’m not.”
My honesty must have shaken her, because her fingers slipped on the lock fastened to an inner pocket. “We’re not alone.” I got the feeling she was comforting herself. “We’ve got the wolves for backup.” She wiped her hands and tried again. “That’s what—eight wargs? They can swim, right?”
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