“You’re the TA?” Charlie asked after Chase demonstrated to the whole class the correct way to slap the clay around.
Maggie hefted Charlie’s allotment of premixed clay and curled her lip. The tubes were convenient, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as what she’d spent the last few hours mixing over in her studio. There were too many impurities and not enough plasticity. She hadn’t used the stuff since she’d first started throwing when she was maybe five or six.
“I’m Chase’s independent study student. She’s letting me earn some extra cash by TA’ing this class.”
Charlie watched her intently as she pushed the heel of her hand into the clay over and over again. “You do realize she’s a little bit crazy, right?”
“When the Queen of England commissions you to make a vase for her, you’re eccentric. Crazy is much too gauche for a true artist,” Maggie said, dividing the ball of clay she was working on in half. “Have you ever kneaded bread?”
“Needed bread? Well, I get really hungry for a sandwich on occasion. It feels like a need, but I’m sure it’s really more of a want.”
He was not amusing. Not at all. Maggie had to be fighting a grin for some other reason.
“Knead that,” she said, pointing at one of the new piles of clay. “I’m getting the water.”
One side of Charlie’s mouth pulled up and Maggie felt something flutter inside her. She hadn’t forgotten how beautiful he was, you couldn’t overlook something like that, but she hadn’t remembered how devastating he was when he wasn’t being hateful. “You know, I kinda like this new, dominant Maggie. Are you sure you’re not one of us?”
“Positive.” And if he was going to keep looking at her with a tiny spark of humanity dancing in his eyes, it would be prudent for her to remember that.
Chapter 13
Charlie was still picking clay out from underneath his fingernails hours later.
“How is playing with mud considered a class?” He ran his hands under the faucet for the millionth time. “Seriously, I’m going to get a grade on my ability to use a turntable to make a bowl?”
“So what you’re telling us is that you suck at ceramics,” Jase said, peering over Talley’s shoulder as she checked on the contents of the oven.
“I’m telling you it’s a stupid class.”
“Maggie told me everything Charlie tried to throw collapsed in on itself,” Talley the Traitor said, transferring a pan of cookies from the oven to the counter. Jase immediately grabbed one and popped it into his mouth. No one paid attention to the howl of pain or litany of four-letter words that followed. The idiot did the same thing every time someone baked cookies, which around Fenrir Farm was almost nightly. “She’s worried his giant hands have too much Shifter strength in them to do something as delicate as ceramics.”
Jase grabbed a carton of milk out of the fridge. “Giant hands, you say?”
Charlie felt his face grow red as Scout lifted one of those hands into her own. “And they’re practically radiating with strength. I don’t know how he grabs onto a doorknob without twisting up all the metal on accident.” She blinked her mocking eyes at him. “It must take all your concentration to not destroy everything you touch.”
“I hate you all,” Charlie said through gritted teeth.
“You adore us,” Scout said, dropping his hand. “But it’s not your feelings on your bestest friends in the whole wide world I’m interested in.” She leaned in and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “What do you think of our little Thaumaturgic?”
“She’s hot,” Joshua answered, scooping up a cookie with one bare hand, and then tossing it to the other hand, and then back again. “Almost as hot as these cookies.” He dropped the chocolate-chipped treat on the counter and blew on his fingertips. “Damn, Tal. What did you do to these things?”
“I cooked them. In an oven. At three hundred and fifty degrees.”
Scout grabbed a cookie off the tray and cocked an eyebrow at Jase and Joshua as she bit in. “I want to know what you think, Chuck,” she said around a mouthful of sugary and buttery goodness.
“I think you probably just burned your fingertips and lips in an attempt to be a showoff.”
“I did no such thing.” But she obviously had, because she grabbed the gallon of milk out of Jase’s hand and took a giant chug, making sure to wrap her fingers around the part where droplets of cool condensation were gathered. “Come on. Spill it. What do you think of Maggie?”
Charlie threw his legs up on the edge of the giant wood-planked table and leaned back until his chair was propped up on the back two feet. “If she’s involved with whoever is behind the murder then she’s one of the best actresses I’ve ever met.” He noticed another bit of dried clay on the corner of his finger. How on earth was that even possible? “I still think it’s a good idea to stick close to her. For someone to know what she is and that she’d been contacted by us, it has to be someone close.”
“Like the roommate,” Liam suggested.
“Like the roommate.” Charlie had questioned Maggie more about Reid as she attempted to show him how to make a bowl instead of a giant lump of grayish nothingness. She’d tried to laugh off the suggestion Reid could have been involved, but he could tell she was trying to convince herself as much as him. Her face was an open book, every thought and emotion she had was written in big, bold letters all over it. Charlie gave it a lot of thought last night as he lay in his bed, waiting for his customary four hours of sleep to come and take him under, and decided her openness is what brought his coyote to the surface. The animal half of a Shifter revels in instincts and emotions, and Maggie McCray was a smorgasbord of emotions. After being caged for so long, Charlie’s coyote gloried in seeing and creating those emotions he could no longer feel.
A folder landed next to Charlie’s feet. “The roommate checks out,” Joshua said. “I started pulling everything I could find on her when we first approached Maggie. Mitchell double-checked my findings today, and everything adds up.” He flipped the folder open and picked up the first sheet of paper. “Reid St. James. Eighteen. Daughter of Sandy and Calvin St. James. We traced her family tree back three generations, and there isn’t a Shifter or Seer hanging out on any of the branches. She’s just what she appears to be - a kid with more money than sense.”
Jase made the requisite comment on Joshua’s use of grandpa-phrases while Charlie thumbed through Reid’s folder. Joshua hadn’t been kidding. He had a ridiculous amount of information on the girl. Birth certificate. Report cards. Transcripts of online chats and text message exchanges.
“Damn,” Liam said from over Charlie’s shoulder. “I really thought we were onto something.”
Charlie picked up a print out of Reid taken from a security camera time stamped over three years ago, wondered how on earth Joshua managed to get ahold of it, and then decided he’d really rather not know. “Yeah, me too. I guess we’re back to square one.”
“Not necessarily,” Joshua said.
“Can I do it?” At the tilt of Joshua’s head, Jase leaned across the table, his eyes aglow. “Guess who didn’t return to their pack like they were told and is still checked into a flea-bag motel in Lexington?”
Charlie sat up and let his feet fall to the floor. “Mandel?”
“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!”
Liam was already moving towards the back door.
“But he’s not there,” Scout added, stopping Liam in his tracks. “From what I can tell, he hasn’t been there in days.”
Liam turned his head slowly, as if someone had slowed down the film for dramatic effect. “You went to his room?”
“I went to the room he’s been paying for, but I’m telling you, he hasn’t been there in days.” Scout broke a cookie in two and popped half of it in her mouth. “Actually, I’m not sure he was ever there. I couldn’t really catch a scent, but you know how those old, crappy motel rooms are. It’s impossible to pick up on anything other than old smoke, old booze, and
old… funk.”
“Who went with you?”
Scout hooked her thumb to the right, towards Talley, who raised her hand.
In the wild, submissive coyotes will flatten themselves to the ground and press their ears back to their head when a more dominant coyote or wolf unleashes their anger. Shifters in human form didn’t have the same control over their ears and getting themselves to the ground would require too much motion. The point was to avoid the alpha’s attention, so Charlie, Jase, Talley, and even Joshua dropped their heads and averted their eyes, becoming so still they hardly breathed.
Scout popped the other half of the cookie in her mouth.
“What?” she asked when it became apparent Liam was going to just stand there and growl instead of actually saying or doing anything.
“You went looking for him alone.”
Charlie risked a glance out of the corner of his eye. Scout had one leg tucked up underneath her in an attempt to look casual and at ease, but the line of her spine and flare of her nostrils said she was as tense as the rest of them. But unlike the rest of them, she would do battle with the big bad wolf if she had to.
“I wasn’t alone.” She reached for another cookie and Liam tracked the movement with his eyes. “Talley was with me the whole time.”
“Talley is Seer. Seer, Scout. Not a Shifter. Not a fighter.”
“It’s not like I took Mischa or Lizzie. I took Talley. She’s the Stella Polaris and can outshoot Dirty Harry. As far as back-ups go, she’s pretty damn capable.”
If Talley hadn’t been cowering in fear due to the Alpha tension in the room, she would have taken the opportunity to remind them she didn’t consider herself the Stella Polaris, but as it was, she was too busy staring at her bellybutton and clinging onto Jase’s hand to do much of anything else.
Liam prowled over to Scout’s barstool and leaned over her, bracing his hands on the counter behind her. “Do not ever, ever, do something that stupid again.”
“Stupid?” Scout’s eyes narrowed until only a sliver of pale blue could been seen behind her lashes. “How is going to gather evidence on a potential murderer stupid?” She pulled her shoulders back and jerked her head up, forcing Liam to lean back a bit. “Protecting the Shifters and Seers of the world is our job, or have you forgotten?”
Even though Scout looked like she would enjoy breaking a bone or ten, Liam refused to back down.
“Being reckless and getting yourself killed are not in the job description.”
“I wasn’t being reckless!”
“You went alone!”
“I. Was. With. Talley.”
Liam’s growl sounded more wolf than human. “Don’t ever do something like that again without telling me and taking backup.” Scout started to correct him once again. “No,” Liam said, cutting her off. “Talley isn’t backup. Joshua. Charlie. Jase. They’re backup. Talley is not. We don’t place Seers in danger. They’re sacred.”
Scout took a deep breath, and when it came out between clenched teeth, she took another. “One,” she said, her voice considerably quieter, but still carrying a tremor of anger, “Talley was an excellent choice of backups. Don’t ever give me this take-a-boy-instead-of-a-girl sexist crap again, or I swear, I will show you what women are capable of. And two, where the Hades do you get off telling me what I will and will not do?”
“I’m your mate!”
Scout rolled her eyes. “Of course you are.”
Every muscle in Liam’s body visibly tensed. “‘Of course I am?’ What does that mean?”
Charlie realized at some point he’d stopped playing the role of the submissive Shifter and was watching the scene unfolding before him, and he wasn’t the only one. Everyone else was looking on with expressions ranging from uncomfortable to horrified.
“It means,” Scout took another deep breath, this time holding it for several seconds while she quickly batted back some tears with her eyelids. “It means ‘of course you’re my mate and want to protect me, but you’re overreacting.’ Seriously, Liam, we were fine. I promise.” When his expression didn’t change, she pressed on. “You know I wouldn’t ever knowingly and willingly put Talley in harm’s way. If you don’t believe anything else, believe that.”
“I’m your mate,” Liam repeated, but this time it sounded more like a question.
Scout answered it by placing a hand on the side of his face and giving him a small, fragile smile. “I know,” she said.
“Scout—“
“Joshua, what kind of information have you and your tech geniuses gathered on our not-so-good Mr. Mandel?”
It was perhaps the most unsubtle redirection in the history of time, but Charlie couldn’t have been happier. He loved his Alphas and felt closer to them than most members of his family, but there were just some moments you shouldn’t share with others.
What he’d just witnessed was one of them.
“Ummm…” Joshua cleared his throat, and shook his head as if trying to clear the giant Etch-a-Sketch of his brain. “The only credit card activity since Saturday has been on the motel room. No restaurants, stores, or anything, but he did remove the maximum allowance from the ATM twice on Friday.”
“Has anyone seen him?” Liam asked.
Joshua shook his head, and then, realizing Liam wouldn’t see the motion since he was still in some kind of hypnotic eye-lock with Scout, said, “No. No one at the motel will admit to seeing him, and he’s refused maid service. Lennon is going over security footage from some places in the area, but no sign of him yet.”
“How many members of his pack came to the hustings?” Jase, who was staring at Scout and Liam staring at each other, asked.
“It was just him and Imogen,” Charlie answered. It was his job to keep track of who attended each hustings. For days before the event, he met with every person seeking an audience with the Alpha Pack, getting information on who they were and what pack they were associated with. He remembered Mandel and Imogen clearly. A guy didn’t easily forget a girl who looked like Imogen. “Even her mother stayed back home. I got the distinct impression they didn’t agree with his reason for coming here.”
“Well, then kudos to the Mandel Pack for being decent human beings.” Scout finally broke eye contact with Liam in favor of seeking out her best friend. “Did you get a chance to See him the other day, Tal?”
“I tried to track him down after the hustings, but he was already gone.”
Scout fell back against the counter. “So, now what?”
“We wait,” Joshua said. “Send someone to keep an eye on his house and the motel, and Lennon and Salinger will keep following his digital breadcrumbs. He’ll eventually slip up, and when he does, we’ll catch him.”
“Do we put the word out that we’re looking for him? Declare him an enemy of the Alpha Pack or whatever it is we do?” Scout asked.
Liam considered it for moment. “Let’s hold off,” he decided. “If he doesn’t know we’re on to him, he might get sloppy.”
Joshua grabbed a handful of cookies off the counter. “I’m going to go work on the heat signature app some more. It needs a few tweaks, and then I’ll be able to equip all of your phones.”
“We’re going, too,” Jase said, also grabbing a handful of cookies. “Someone signed me up for a class at eight in the freaking morning.” He shot a glare Scout’s way. Scout widened her eyes in an attempt to seem innocent. “What? It wasn’t me. It was Talley.”
Talley patted Scout’s shoulder as she made her way to the door. “Nice try, Your Majesty. But I think he was sitting there when you said, ‘Oh, look. An interpersonal communications class at the butt crack of dawn. Jase will absolutely hate that,’ and then erupted into evil laughter as you hit the enroll button.”
“Hmmm… That does sound vaguely familiar.”
Jase expressed his feelings on the matter by flipping her off. Scout responded with the grace and maturity one came to expect from the Alpha Female and stuck out her tongue.
“I�
�m going, too,” Liam said, sliding his phone into his back pocket.
“Going?” All signs of amusement melted off Scout’s face. “Going where?”
Liam ran a hand over the back of his head. “The gym. I need to decompress.”
“But you’re coming back?”
There was a long pause where Charlie had to look away from the angst-ridden scene before he died of discomfort.
“Yeah.”
“Tonight?”
“I’ll just be a few hours.” Liam bent down and placed a kiss on the top of Scout’s head. “Will you be in your room when I get back?” he muttered in her ear so softly no one else should have been able to hear it. Unfortunately, Charlie possessed the same super-hearing as all Shifters and heard every word just as clearly as if Liam was whispering in his own ear.
The two shared a few more tender moments before Liam left through the backdoor, saving Charlie from attempting to disappear to save himself from having to watch two of his best friends making out. Once he was out the door, Scout’s entire body seemed to curl in on itself.
“You okay there, Scout?”
“Peachy.”
Charlie might have considered believing her if she wasn’t swiping tears out of the corner of her eyes as she said it. Since he was already up and moving towards the cabinets, he wandered over to where she was sitting and tapped her nose twice. “Yep,” he said. “It’s growing.”
Scout clapped her hands together in front of her chest and batted her eyelashes. “Gee, Jiminy. Do you reckon one day I might be a real Alpha? One who can make her own decisions and everything?”
“Depends. Are you going to quit turning into a jackass on occasion?”
“Wait a minute. I wasn’t the one—“
“What Liam did was have the good graces not to mention in front of half the Alpha Pack how we have operating procedures. Operating procedures you helped draft and approve. Operating procedures you and Talley completely ignored today,” Charlie said as he dug through the cabinet until he found glasses boasting the faces of Batman and Superman.
Fragile Brilliance (Shifters & Seers) Page 11