“We didn’t,” Graeson rumbled.
The doctor pinned on a frown and twisted to face us. “I have a reputation to maintain, and I won’t be a party to anything unseemly.”
“I’m an agent with the Earthen Conclave.” I reached for my badge on instinct before remembering I no longer carried it. “I don’t have ID on me right now.” I mentally prepped a lie. “I’m working undercover on an ongoing case and can’t afford to have any ties to my organization on my person. You can call Magistrate Vause, and she will vouch for me.”
He panned his gaze toward Mom. “Is what she says true?”
“Yes.” Mom offered him a watery laugh. “You don’t see the resemblance?”
“Well, I’ll be a toadstool’s cushion.” The dwarf studied me again, and his lips parted. “You’re Camille.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “I was too caught up in what happened to this young man to process it.” He stood and approached me. “I’ve treated your sister off and on for several years. Your parents are good people.” He brought me in for a hug I didn’t expect, and I went stiff. Touch was a necessity I was growing used to among friends and with the pack, but stranger etiquette eluded me. I suppose he felt like he knew me after treating Lori for so long. “Thank you for your service,” he added. “Your job can’t be an easy one.”
“It’s no harder than yours.” I offered him a polite smile, which he returned. “So what can you tell us about my cousin?”
“He’s suffered five broken ribs, one of which punctured a lung, and there’s damage to his spine. One of his shoulders was crushed, and that will be a long time mending.”
I swallowed the sour taste in my throat. Theo had been at the cabin because of me. Sure he had wanted to help his mom and brother, but wasn’t their involvement my fault too? How would I tell Aunt Dot…? What would I tell her?
“Sit down before you pass out.” He shoved me into a chair and pushed my head between my legs. “I’m very good at what I do. Your cousin has been stabilized. The magic I’ve pushed into him has already begun mending the damage. He will survive. He will be in a great amount of pain, but he will live.”
The room stopped whirling long enough for me to sit upright again. “Thank you.” Magic zinged over my lips, sealing my vow. “My cousins are like brothers to me.”
A pleased expression wreathed his face as my debt registered. “I understand there are more patients who need to be seen?”
“I’ll walk you over.” I guided him back to Theo’s room. “This is Dot Cahill, my aunt, and Isaac Cahill, my cousin, Theo’s brother.”
I stood back and gave the doctor room to work. Now that Aunt Dot and Isaac were cleaned up and resting, I began searching them for signs of Charybdis’s tampering. As relieved as I was to have my family back, mostly in one piece, I had to keep myself honest. They were ticking time bombs that could explode in our faces at the drop of a hat. We had no way of knowing what Charybdis had done to them, but I had no doubt he had infected them in case I managed to recover them.
This morning’s rescue operation left only one victim in his grasp. Harlow. All this time, and I still hadn’t managed to free her. That was about to change. By removing his leverage, I had wrecked his plans a second time. Ruining his circle and putting down his kelpie had painted a target on my back, and foiling his plans meant I might as well have neon tubing for veins. The bull’s-eye between my shoulders was about to glow fluorescent.
“No permanent harm was done to them.” The doctor’s voice snapped me to attention. “They’re both dehydrated, and they should stay in bed for the next few days. I recommend a diet of soup or broth, and plenty of fluids.”
“Isaac?” Dell bulldozed into my thoughts.
“Your timing is impeccable.” I had expected her to pounce me much sooner. Graeson might be to thank for her perceived restraint. “The doctor is leaving now. He says Isaac is fine. He just needs time to regain his strength.”
“I could come by and—” She stopped herself. “No. I can’t. I have to tend the pack while Graeson is away.”
“Do you want me to pass on a message?” I could do that much.
“No.” Zero hesitation. “I— It’s probably best if I wait until I can see him in person.”
So whatever she had to say, she didn’t want me to overhear. I could respect that. “Okay. I have to see the doctor out now. I’ll check back in with you later.”
“Be careful out there, Cam. Take care of Cord too.”
“Always,” I promised.
The doctor skirted me, easing into the bathroom to wash his hands, and I joined him. One eyebrow rose, but he didn’t startle. “Is there something else?”
“I need another moment of your time.” Using the vaguest terms possible, I framed a scenario not too far off from the truth, giving him a rundown of our situation without expanding on the fine details. “The danger should pass in the next forty-eight hours.” That was my most fervent wish. “Until then, Aunt Dot and Isaac are a danger to themselves and to others. Can you help me?”
“This is highly unorthodox.” He rubbed a hand over his head. “I can bring them to my clinic and sedate them. As depleted as they are, it might be the best thing for them, but forty-eight hours is my limit.” He pushed out a sigh. “I suppose I’ll stay on-site. I can’t risk contaminating my family or other patients.”
“We’re happy to compensate you for lost time.” It might drain my savings, but keeping my family safe was the best use of those funds. “We have no reason to believe Theo has been contaminated, but I would rather you keep an eye on him as well. Graeson and I won’t be around to monitor him, not if we want to end this.”
“I assume your mother will return home?”
“I haven’t asked her, but yes. That’s what I expect she will want.”
Negotiations over, we shook on the deal.
The doorknob dug into my hip as I kept him corralled. “There is one more thing you might do for me.”
“Let’s hear it.” Acceptance smoothed his features. “I get the feeling you won’t let me go until I agree.”
The doctor wasn’t wrong.
Graeson and I stood on the curb, watching the private ambulances pull away with Theo, Isaac and Aunt Dot tucked onto their stretchers. A sense of calm descended over me, and I exhaled a deep sigh of relief.
“Are you going home?” Graeson studied the red taillights. “Do you need a ride?”
“I am, and no.” Mom angled herself toward us. “I have my truck. I can manage.” She clasped her hands. “Cammie…”
“It’s okay, Mom.” I crossed over and gathered her in my arms. “I forgive you and Dad. I know you did what was best for me.” How could I deny what I had experienced myself? “That’s not to say I don’t have some issues to work through, but I want us to have a relationship. Even if it’s just letters or phone calls, I want that.”
Tears wet my throat and soaked into the neck of my shirt as she sniffled. “I’d love that, honey. Your father would too.” She drew back and wiped her cheeks. “We’ll figure something out so you girls can visit too.”
For the first time since learning my sister was alive, I had hope. The pack bond was strong, maybe enough to allow me to visit Lori a couple times a year. It wasn’t much, but it was ten thousand times more than what we’d had only days ago.
“That would be great.” I stood there, not sure what else to say. “Text me when you get home.” She had my number now. “I want to make sure you got there safely.”
Keys in hand, she crossed the lot and headed toward her truck. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, waiting on her to get in and crank the engine. We watched her pull out and head in a different direction than the one I had anticipated. Mom was smart, a survivor. Like me. I bet she was covering her tracks by taking a winding route home.
“Something tells me I won’t much like the next phase of your plan.” Graeson draped his arm across my shoulders. “Lay it on me.”
A notification chime interrup
ted me. “That can’t be Mom already.” Unless she was reaching out for help. I whipped out my phone, and my shoulders sagged. Crisis averted. “It’s Thierry.”
His fingers toyed with my collarbone. “I thought you said she was out of the office.”
“I guess this means she’s back.” I thumbed the icon and opened the message. “She wants to meet.” I tilted my head back. “Here. Tonight.”
He took the opportunity to caress the length of my throat. “All this over a prophecy?”
“Maybe she knows something we don’t?” These days, the more I thought I knew, about anything, the more wrong I was. “We have a few hours until then.” I scanned the empty street. “It’s time to push.”
“Are you sure about this?” He followed my line of sight to the gas station. “The clerk, if he’s there, is a host.”
In my mind, I was starting to classify hosts as people Charybdis popped in and out of while avatars were vehicles he drove for long periods of time. What qualified a victim for one role over another? I had no clue. I couldn’t say he stuck to fae, because we were stronger or had magic, because Harlow had become his favorite new ride. Her humanity should have made her weak and unappealing to him, but of course where she was concerned, his fascination was only for me.
“I have to poke the hornet’s nest. Otherwise we give Charybdis too much power. He took a loss today. We need to nudge him into a rash action while his temper is up.”
We strolled down the street, Graeson’s arm hooking me against him, until we passed the general store. An old wrought-iron bench crowded the curb, and he angled that way.
“Be careful.” He pulled me in closer, kissed my temple with warm lips. “I told myself I wouldn’t ask, but are you sure you don’t want me to go in there with you?”
I shoved him down until he sat, and tapped his knee so he kept his seat. “He’s more likely to put in an appearance if I’m alone.”
He cuffed my wrist with his wide palm. “I’m going on the record to say I don’t like this.”
“Duly noted.” I bent down and pressed my lips right over his scowl. “We have an advantage. We can’t afford to lose it now.”
Releasing my hand, he assumed a casual pose. “Ten minutes, and then I’m going to have an irresistible urge for chewing gum.”
My shocked expression wasn’t feigned. “That’s five more than I expected.”
“I’m trying,” he grated. “For you.”
Before I caved to the wish I could sit beside him, cuddle against his warmth and forget the rest of the world, I had work to do. With or without the badge, I had a killer in my sights, and I wasn’t going to let him play games with my life or anyone else’s.
A tendril of disappointment unfurled in me. I wanted the conclave to be more proactive than it was, to be better than it is, to not turn a blind eye when it suited them, but fae were fickle creatures. No wonder most Gemini avoided the law altogether.
I kept my stride casual as I pushed inside the store. A clerk greeted me, and my mood plummeted. This wasn’t the right guy. The odds had been slim, but I had to try. If I had my badge, I could have flashed it and requested the schedule for the week. But I didn’t, which meant the only guaranteed method of locating the guy was staking out the gas station.
Scowl deepening, I snagged a couple of jerkies and two bottles of water then paid and left.
“Does this mean it didn’t go well?” Graeson kept his easy pose, waiting on me to join him. “What did you find out?”
“Nothing.” I passed him a bottle of water and a jerky, and the latter tore a snort out of him. “The clerk wasn’t there.” I ripped open my package and took a big bite. “It was stupid to think he would be waiting for me.”
“No, it’s not.” Graeson tugged a small plastic bottle out of his jeans pocket and handed it to me. “He’s been one step ahead of us this entire time. You were right to think he would monitor this point of contact after he figured out we wrecked his cabin this morning.”
“Do you always carry these on you?” The bottle of flavor enhancer was my favorite brand and my current favorite flavor. “I should shake you down sometime and see what else falls out of your pockets.”
An amused bend shaped his lips. “It’s my duty to see to my mate’s needs.”
A fission of warmth sizzled through me. “You’re better at this mate gig than I am.”
“You give me so much more than you realize.” He tapped my flavor enhancer. “What you do for me can’t be bottled, bought or sold.”
“You’ve got a way with words, I’ll give you that.” I let him pull me against him. “You’re very smooth.”
“You sand my rough edges,” he murmured against my hair. “Look at my wolf. He’s ruined. Defanged.”
“His fangs work just fine.” I had the scars to prove it. Under my cheek, Graeson tensed until I patted his chest. “It’s okay that your wolf is a bit of a caveman.” Instead of clubbing me on the head and dragging me to his cave, he had been content to tear into my calf to stop me from running and then follow me home to my den. “We’re friends now.”
His grumbled response reminded me how gutted he had been to realize he was capable of hurting me. Graeson had been out of his mind with grief at the time, and his wolf had taken over their body, shifting him and taking control of their actions. What made sense to the wolf didn’t please the man, but maybe the wolf was on to something. After all, I had fallen for his playfulness and fluffy belly that loved rubs before I realized that my heart already belonged to the bossy, grumpy, sometimes domineering man within him.
“How do you want to play this?” He let me doctor his drink and appeared pleasantly surprised with the end result. “If we’re doing surveillance, shouldn’t we move to a less-conspicuous spot?”
“Let him see us.” I was bone-tired and heart sore, and the pack was splintered. They deserved a home, a place to put down new roots where they would be safe. “I want this finished.”
So we sat there, holding on to one another, each of us lost in our thoughts. Besides the jerky, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and all the shifting had depleted me. My eyelids grew heavier as the minutes ticked past, until I had to stand and stretch the kinks out of my back just to stay awake, though standing convinced me I might fall asleep on my feet.
A chime rang out, and I fumbled my phone in my haste to check the message. “Mom is home.” That was one less worry. “The dryad touched base with them. She’s participating in a grace ceremony, a vigil where they use the stones to put a dryad in an ailing tree to sleep. It will be three or four days before she can deliver the gems.” I worried my bottom lip with my teeth, but Graeson kept his calm. “There goes that idea.”
Contagious as a yawn, Graeson sat upright and stretched his upper body as if unable to resist after watching me. “How much longer until we meet Thierry?”
“We have about an hour.” I plopped down beside him. “Do you think we spooked him?”
“You know him better than anyone.” His lips pursed, a sour pucker at tasting that truth. “Do you think he’ll run again?”
“No.” I jiggled my knee, in desperate need of a restroom after downing my water an hour earlier. “We interrupted his timeline by killing the kelpie. My involvement might have made this personal, but I can’t shake the feeling he’s the one running out of time. He’s not as careful, not as composed.” The more I considered his actions, the more sense my theory made. “He’s desperate to salvage this—whatever this is. I tie into his plans. He’s made that much clear. Maybe I’m a nexus point since I was involved in the case?”
“Revenge is a simpler motive.” His expression tightened. “He’s put a lot of effort into hurting you.”
Feeding off my pain and misery as he lashed out at my loved ones. “Do you believe in divination as prophesy?”
“The future is too malleable,” he decided. “I don’t believe anything is set in stone. But the Garzas are experts at choosing the most likely path and following it to a log
ical conclusion.”
“Does that mean you think Faerie is about to throw open its doors and release the Wild Hunt?”
Expression thoughtful, he rolled his shoulder. “Stranger things have happened.”
“You can say that again.” I settled in against him to finish our shift. “I get the feeling stranger days are ahead.”
How did you end a fae who could be anyone, anywhere and at any time? A possibility had occurred to me, a solution that required minimum sacrifice to protect all those I loved, and Graeson wasn’t going to like it one bit. If he caught wind of my plan, he would lock me in the hotel until I was gray-haired and wheelchair-bound, and my family would help.
Forty-eight hours until the doctor released Aunt Dot, Isaac and Theo from his care. Forty-eight hours to bring down this monster once and for all. Breathing in Graeson’s pine-and-musk scent, I curled tighter against him. Forty-eight hours to love him with all I had, in case my plan cost more than I could afford to pay.
Chapter 17
The gas station clerk was a no-show, and we ran out of time to wait him out. Thierry had sent another email, this one indicating she was minutes from town. With no choice but to resume our very public stakeout later, we returned to our hotel room and listened for a knock at the door.
A peculiar sense of anticipation swept over me when it came, and I rose to answer. Graeson crossed in front of me and took up position behind the door. I cut him a scowl for mistrusting her, but who was safe to trust these days?
I checked the peephole before Graeson could eyeball it, and saw the person I expected. Which, I allowed, didn’t mean much when it came to Charybdis. Built lean with jet-black hair and piercing green eyes, Thierry didn’t need more than her jeans and ratty T-shirt to be striking. Even through the distorted lens, the runes covering her left hand and arm stood out against her tanned skin.
“Hello?” she drawled, Texas thick in her voice.
One final check with Graeson, who nodded, and I opened the door. “Sorry about that. We’re jumping at shadows lately.”
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