Crossroads Burning

by Nash, Layla

  Liv didn’t move, keeping a tight grip on the rifle. “I might wait here a bit, just to make sure nothing gives way.”

  “It should be fine.” I held up another rusty chain and padlock. “And we’ll secure the door just in case he manages to get loose. Then we can walk a ward around it for extra security. Okay?”

  She grumbled but retreated, and I wondered if maybe she just wanted to shoot something. “Fine, but the wards are up to you two.”

  I remained near the shed, squinting at the werewolf as I tried to see any hints of magic on him. He’d somehow absorbed all of Liv’s magic, and yet Lucia couldn’t tell what it was that had changed him from a person to a half-mad beast. Stranger and stranger.

  When Lucia returned with the ingredients for her dampener spell and the wards, I hiked up to the house so I could finally take a shower and get some fresh clothes. I picked my tent and pack up from the yard where I’d dropped them, and creaked up the stairs feeling about ninety years old.

  Chapter 33

  The water had gone cold by the time I climbed out of the shower, but I stayed in to wash my hair for the third time. I nearly finished off the bottle of body wash trying to scrub the dirt off my skin, and it was a good ten minutes before the water down the drain didn’t look like mud. I tried to comb some conditioner through the snarls that had knotted themselves close to my scalp, but I didn’t want to waste too much time fussing with my hair when there was still so much to deal with.

  I got dressed and wanted to just roll around in the sensation of clean clothes, but instead I curled up on the windowseat in my room and paged through the book I’d taken from the cave. Part of me didn’t want to share it with my sisters just yet, since the werewolf woke up before I got to that part in the story. The cave had the message for me, not for them. There was no telling whether the magic would work right and show us the answers we needed if we were all standing around it. I let my fingertips rest on the cover and closed my eyes, centering myself even though the ley lines were far below where I sat on the second floor of the old house.

  When I felt connected and as at peace as I was going to manage without a nap and a three-hour bath with bubbles and aromatherapy candles, I murmured, “How do I heal the werewolf?”

  I let the question permeate every cell in my body. I thought it with every breath and beat of my heart. I waited until that thought consumed me, and then I opened my eyes and the book.

  To a blank page.

  Well, of course it wouldn’t be that easy. Just because the ancestors agreed to help by pointing me to the book didn’t mean they meant it to actually work on the first or second or fifth try. I took another breath and closed my eyes again. “Can the werewolf be changed back to human?”

  Sometimes being more specific helped.

  But not that time. The page remained blank.

  Throwing the book across the room or out the window seemed like it would be just as effective as trying to use its magical properties. Maybe it would land on the shed and collapse it on top of the werewolf and kill him. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about him breaking free to rampage through the town.

  Like our neighbors didn’t have enough to hate us for.

  I drummed my fingers on the cover, staring at it as if I could just x-ray vision myself to an answer, and drew up a little more ley magic to try and run it through the book. It resisted, scattering the magic instead and giving me a hell of a headache. So clearly that wasn’t an option and I couldn’t force the book to reveal its secrets with a blast of power.

  Irritated, I hid the book under my pillow and found clean socks so I could put my boots back on. We didn’t have any time to waste.

  I clattered down the stairs and found Olivia sitting on the porch with the rifle, with Lucia in the kitchen prepping food for lunches for the week. She pointed me at the table and two fat chicken salad sandwiches next to a glass of milk. “Sit and eat. You lost weight out there.”

  “We didn’t plan to be gone for more than two weeks,” I said. Normally I would have ignored the orders and gotten something from the fridge, but I didn’t have the energy to be obstinate. Besides, Lucia was the only one of us who was even half-talented in the kitchen. I inhaled the first sandwich and most of the milk by the time I figured out what to say next. “Thanks for sending Luke out with the extra supplies. He took the feds back to the reservation so they’re a couple days behind me.”

  She didn’t look up from the fresh loaf of bread she sliced, though she cut it with a little more vigor than the bread deserved. “What about the rest of them in town?”

  “What do you mean, the rest of them?” I spoke around a mouthful of sandwich, getting up to retrieve more milk from the fridge. “There was only four of them. Two witches and two shifters.”

  Lucia tossed an orange at me. “Five more showed up in town a couple of days ago, asking about the ones with you. They’re staying at The Inn and trying to convince Grady and his boys to take them out to the Crossroads since the rangers won’t let them leave town on their own.”

  I froze near my chair, the orange and milk both forgotten. “You’re shitting me. There’s more of them?”

  “Yep. Been asking all kinds of questions about wolf populations.” She slid me a sideways look. “And about whether the first group were making friends while they were here.”

  “Shit.” I scrubbed my hands over my face after I put the orange and milk down, and sank into the chair as my legs started to ache. I’d really been looking forward to a nap. “Did anyone tell them about us? It’s bad enough Lincoln and them know we’re witches, but if word keeps spreading, there’s no telling where the trouble will stop.”

  “I don’t think so.” Lucia wrapped a couple more sandwiches in plastic wrap and stuffed them into a brown paper sack along with an apple and a carton of juice. “But I think you ought to go into town and figure out what the hell they want. Or at least get the parts to fix your fucking truck. We look like rednecks with a bunch of broken-down vehicles in the yard.”

  I shook my head and started on the second sandwich. “I can’t fix it, I already tried. I’ll talk to Jimmy about towing it out to his shop to fix. I won’t have the money until Lincoln and the others get back from the res and pay me.”

  “Lincoln,” she repeated quietly, her focus once more on the veggies she chopped and slid into a soup pot. “Your voice changes when you say his name, Sass.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about, Looch.”

  She never asked me about anything personal, not after Alex broke my heart, and I’d appreciated the lack of prying. Olivia, on the other hand, had never met a piece of gossip she didn’t savor. Lucia gestured at me with the knife before she whacked her way through a bunch of celery. “Here’s the thing, Sass. You had a lot to say about the other three—a lot—but almost nothing to say about him. You don’t have to hide it. He’s easy on the eyes.”

  I leaned my elbow on the table and covered my eyes, though I didn’t stop chewing. “It’s nothing. Proximity and stars and a little bit of danger all kind of created a perfect storm of attraction. It wasn’t really about me, and he’s leaving anyway. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I wasn’t worried.” Lucia dropped the brown bag and her car keys on the table next to my elbow and headed for the porch. “You can take my car into town to talk to Jimmy about the truck, and sniff around to see what those feds are up to.”

  “Can you two handle the werewolf if something happens?”

  “We’ll find out.” She held the screen door so I could follow her out, juggling my phone and keys and the sack lunch. Lucia took the rifle from Liv before sitting down. “We won’t shoot him unless we have to, but you should probably call Doc Larsen about more sedatives for the horse.”

  I added it to my mental to-do list and handed Liv all of my stuff so I could lean down and lace my boots up. “Anything else?”

  “Who’s bringing the horse back, since you flashed here?” Olivia peered into the sack
and reached in to take the juice box before Lucia smacked her shoulder and told her there were more in the fridge.

  “She bolted when the werewolves attacked.” I frowned, glancing toward the barn. “Didn’t she come back?”

  Lucia sighed. “I’ll ask the neighbors if they’ve seen her. When did she run off?”

  “Couple of days ago.” I massaged my temples as the headache the book gave me flared again. “Damn it. As soon as the truck’s fixed, I’ll go out looking for her.”

  “I’ll let the ranchers know to keep an eye out for her,” Liv said. “They’re meeting up by the fort tomorrow morning, so it’ll be fine. I’m sure she found a nicer barn and better grain somewhere else.”

  That didn’t make me feel any less guilty. I’d really assumed the horse would race home without me and be waiting in the barn whenever I made it back to the house.

  Lucia didn’t let me wallow for long, gesturing at her car. “Go on. We’re burning daylight.”

  “You know, you sound more like Gran every day,” I said, but I started walking. “You best watch that or you’ll age before your time.”

  “Fuck off, Sass,” she called.

  The shed rattled with an answering snarl from the werewolf, and I gave it a wide berth as I headed for Lucia’s car. Hopefully the day got better.

  Chapter 34

  When I got closer to town, the cell phone reception improved considerably. I called Luke and left him a voicemail to call me. I didn’t know what the other team from Lincoln’s agency was doing in town, but I was pretty sure he’d want to know. I could see them hustling back to town if they knew someone else was checking up on them.

  I stopped at the mechanic’s shop first thing and asked about him towing the truck and repairing it, though Jimmy looked at me sideways when I said I’d need a couple days to pay him. But luckily he was used to people in Rattler’s Run needing an IOU, so he just heaved a sigh and wiped the grease off his hands before shaking mine and muttering something about probably having to send away for the parts.

  Since I’d checked that one off the list, I headed to the vet’s office, which was co-located with the regular doctor. They were brothers, and there was a running joke that if one wasn’t available for an ailment, whether human or equine, you were just as good to go with the other brother. The bottle-blonde receptionist with a bouffant hairdo eyed me up and down and picked up her pencil as she flipped through the desk calendar. “You need an appointment, honey? Something eatin’ away at you?”

  “Nah, Ms. Janice. We need some more tranquilizers for the horse. We’ll have to trailer her back from the reservation, and I don’t want her to bust her hoof again kicking the damn thing.” I shoved my hands in my pockets and tried to look less exhausted. I hadn’t thought the two-week ride was so draining, but apparently everyone else could see it.

  “Well, Jordan is off collecting bull... samples, but I’ll see if Harry can sign it out for you. Unless you want to wait for Jordan to get back?”

  I shrugged, even though I wanted to groan. I really wanted to be back at the house and in my bed as soon as possible, and waiting around for a bull to make it with a fake cow so the vet could catch a sample did not fit into my plan. “I’ll be in town for a bit if Doc wants to wait for the other Doc to get back to the office. We’d just need the same stuff he gave us last time.”

  “All right, dear. Stop back in about thirty minutes, okay?” She made a note on a sticky pad and scooted her chair back so she could go into the back where the doctors kept their offices. But Janice paused before she turned away, and lowered her voice as a hint of concern wrinkled her forehead. “You sure you’re okay, Luckett? You look terrible.”

  “Thanks,” I said, laughing a bit. No one ever accused Janice Larsen of being subtle. Her brothers were much the same—straight-talking, foot-in-mouth kind of people. “I was out at the Crossroads with some of those researchers for the last two weeks. Sleeping rough and eating out of saddlebags doesn’t agree with me, I guess.”

  “It looks like more than that,” she said. She rested the back of her hand against my forehead, even though she had to stretch up on her tiptoes to do it. “You look flushed and feverish. Are you gettin’ the chills at all? Feelin’ shaky?”

  The answer was “yes” to all of them, but I could attribute that more to using too much magic than the flu. “I’m just tired, Ms. Janice. But I’ll be back if I don’t feel better in a day or two. I promise.”

  “You do that, young lady.” And she jabbed me in the sternum to punctuate her point before heading for the back of the office. “Come back in thirty minutes and I’ll see what we can do.”

  “Thank you,” I said, and wandered into the sunshine.

  As I contemplated wasting another thirty minutes in town, my attention drifted to the bar. Actually leaving the invoice in the bar was a pretty clear signal that I didn’t want to see Lincoln again, and I hadn’t made my mind up about whether I did or not. Regardless of what I told Lucia, I hadn’t ever felt anything in my whole life like how I felt with Lincoln. Not even Alex gave me butterflies as much as the tall federal agent. I didn’t think what Alex and I shared could have been love when I compared it to how a life with Lincoln might look. If nothing ever happened with Lincoln and he left just like I knew he would, at least he gave me a standard against which to measure other men. Even if he used a condescending tone every now and then.

  I could beat that out of him.

  The thought made me want to go find a place to hide and sleep it off. I must have been delusional or hysterical. And since I didn’t have time for a nap, a beer would have to do.

  At least it was lunchtime and five o’clock somewhere, as Clara would say.

  I tried not to stare at the fleet of black SUVs with darkly tinted windows parked between The Inn and the bar, certain they had to belong to the other team of feds. Hopefully they weren’t hanging out inside and were instead up at the fort, badgering the rangers about going to the Crossroads.

  But why they would bother with permission from the rangers was beyond me if they were set on rescuing Lincoln and his team from whatever happened in the Crossroads. The rangers all knew I’d taken the first group out, so it wasn’t like they could tell the new guys when I’d return to take them out as well. And with Eddie away, none of the other rangers were brave or foolhardy enough to go to the Crossroads on their own. If the feds were really that worried, they would have taken off on their own without waiting for permission.

  I didn’t bother with a table and instead took a stool at the bar, though I angled myself to keep an eye on the door and the rest of the room. Only two ranchers occupied a table near the fireplace, talking in low voices over their beer and hamburgers.

  Clara raised her eyebrows at me as she leaned on the bar and tossed a coaster down in front of me. “Damn, girl. Where you been?”

  “Out,” I said, tilting my head in the direction of the Crossroads. “Wandering around with those tourists. I just got back, but they’re still up at the res with Luke. Can I get a beer?”

  “Sure thing.” She pulled a pint and set it on the coaster, then glanced at the door behind me. “More of them showed up, you know.”

  “That’s what Lucia said.” I sipped the beer and savored it, closing my eyes as I swallowed. “Have they been in here much?”

  “Mostly they’re up at the fort,” she said. “But they eat dinner here since there’s nowhere else to eat after six. Four dudes and one woman, all burly as fuck. Even the woman looks like she could bench press a heifer. They’ve got weird gadgets and shit they carry around with them, looking all serious with their little radar dishes and antennas.”

  I rolled my eyes even though my stomach started feeling a bit queasy. It could have been the nerves or the beer, maybe both. “That’s weird. Did they say why they’re here? I haven’t heard anything from the rangers about taking them anywhere, but I don’t know if the rangers know I’m back.”

  “They said the same kind of bullshit as the f
irst group—tracking wolf migration and searching for data. They were concerned no one had heard from the group you took out, so they might want to talk to you.”

  “I don’t want to talk to them,” I said, giving her a look. “Not interested. The other guys should be back in a day or two, whenever Luke is done messing with their heads, and the big dude should leave a stack of cash for me here. I told him I’d leave an invoice.”

  “No worries, babe.” Clara wiped down part of the bar and waved as another friend walked in. “I’ll keep an eye out for anyone dropping your name in here, but I wouldn’t expect the Luckett witches to stay secret for long.” She winked when she said witches, since she thought it was all a joke, but my stomach turned over that someone might make the same joke in the presence of the new feds. “With them wanting to go out to search for the others and you back in town, the only real answer is having you take them out to look.”

  “I know.” I wanted to groan and rest my head on the bar for the thirty minutes until hopefully the doctor felt comfortable dispensing horse tranquilizers. “I’m just hoping they all find each other without me being involved at all.”

  Clara smiled, hustling back to the other end of the bar to put in someone else’s order. “What are the odds, Sass?”

  “With my luck? Not great.” I wallowed in my beer for way too long, feeling sorry for myself as I tried to reason through what we were going to do with the werewolf. I really didn’t want to kill him, and not just because getting rid of the body would be hard as hell. I didn’t like the idea that a single bite could condemn a normal person to being a beast for the rest of their existence. There had to be a way to reverse it, magically or medically.