by Lucy Lyons
I glanced back down at Dirk, and saw his chest rise slightly before falling again, and I almost cried in relief. His wounds were deep. Slashes swiped across his chest and abdomen had bled as he held his insides in place. Portia let out a slow breath, but I was unconcerned. If he was breathing, I could fix his wounds. It was the one thing in the whole mess I knew I could handle better than anyone else in the room.
His hands trembled as I pulled them away from his wound and pushed as much of his spilled guts back inside his abdominal cavity as I could. I gathered up the one power I was sure of—the power that had given me the strength to defeat every opponent that had challenged me and the ability to control the wild nature of the pack itself. I pushed that wild magic into Dirk and held his hands away from his body as his bones broke and reformed into smooth limbs. His wounds sealed, black fur flowed over him, and his moans of pain silenced.
Dirk struggled to his feet but wavered and collapsed to his side, his long tongue lolling out of his muzzle as I stroked his side and whispered to him, not because I thought what I said would be private but to keep him calm so I could make sense of the jumbled wolf-thoughts and fear for Rae that he was projecting at me almost faster than I could think.
“So that’s why you’re the man in charge,” Portia gasped, smoothing down her ruffled feathers and licking her lips. She’d returned to an almost fully human form as quickly as she’d changed, but her effortless shifting was the product of a thousand years of practice, and I could appreciate it without envy.
“That’s about it, Master Cetan. That, and the fact that I will never,” and I stressed the word despite the warning jangling around in my head, “change by force or by loss of emotional control. After all—” I began just before a blur flew at my face and Portia cold-cocked me. I shook my head and chuckled as I tried to clear my blurred vision for the second time in less than an hour. “After all,” I began again, “it’s our control that separates us from the animals, right?”
I heard a hiss from Maria, and Portia sulked and paced just out of striking range. Dirk was calming, and I pulled his furry body onto my lap to help him relax and focus our link to better understand him. What I receive put knots in my stomach and confirmed my worst fear. Rae had been taken, and Dirk had no idea what had hit them before he saw her dragged out the door by hooded figures all in black.
CHAPTER FOUR
I hesitated to say anything in front of Portia, but sitting at the edge of the blood pooled on the floor, unsure if it was all Dirk’s or if any of it belonged to Rae, I couldn’t wait until Portia was gone to ask Maria for help.
“There were five or six, all of them dressed head to toe in black. The clothes were almost in the style of the Venatores, so it could have been them, but they were strong. Stronger than any human Dirk has to compare them to—stronger even than him, and he’s one of my best.” I tried not to look at Portia, but she had continued pacing as I spoke, and I glanced up automatically as she stopped.
“All in black, very strong . . .” She looked past me to Maria. “He needs to speak to the Pooka.”
“The . . . Pooka?” I asked, and Dirk wriggled in my lap, trying to get free. I could feel his anxiety as he paced between me and Maria, reticent to pass her but desperate to get out the door to search for his mate. “Dirk, to me.” I said it softly, but the black wolf’s ears perked up and he padded back to me, obedient to his alpha despite his need to find Rae.
“Well, wolf, you certainly keep your own people in line,” Portia observed dryly. “Perhaps there is something the rest of us could learn from you.”
“He isn’t ‘in line,’ Portia. He knows that we’re on the same side, and he trusts that I won’t sit back and let anything happen to Rae. Believe me, if I were selfish or cruel or weak in my stance with other clans, he’d have braved whatever he feels coming from Maria and shot out that door.” Dirk glanced up at me, and I rubbed between his ears. “Also, he understands English and wants you to know you smell like prey.” I watched Dirk and Portia glare at one another and laid my hand gently on his nose when he showed his teeth in a menacing grin.
“Let’s go see the Pooka,” Maria suggested. “But stay away from the wolf until we find his mate, Portia, for the sake of the peace.” She turned to me and shook one small, brown finger in my face. “And you need to start taking your magic training seriously. You should’ve realized right away that this was a glamour. Goddess knows you’re around it enough to recognize it.”
I nodded dumbly and let the large, black wolf that was Dirk lead the way out the door with Maria behind me and Portia bringing up the rear. The women got back on Maria’s Vespa, and I stopped myself from offering Portia a ride in my Audi. Nothing had bled in her yet, and I was loath to try Dirk’s patience with the Cetan, who obviously was just as ready to tear into my wolf as he was to rip out her throat.
I followed them back to the dojo and watched as Dirk sniffed the air, his eyes anxious as they met mine.
“Don’t worry, big guy. They have a lead to follow already. I’m sure Rae’s OK. Whoever took her probably wants a nice, healthy baby, right? So let’s focus our energy on finding her and see if we can’t send her some calming thoughts in the meantime so she doesn’t go into labor until the last possible second.” Dirk chuffed in agreement and let me lead him into the back of the dojo, where the Fae who couldn’t glamour themselves could come and go through an underground system similar to the vampires’ setup below the nightclub.
Maria summoned us through a doorway to a room I knew was usually used for nightly poker games where I wasn’t welcome, not because I was a werewolf but because I had telepathy. Today the spacious room was empty but for a handful of tables stacked against the walls and a gigantic, shaggy, gray dog lying on a mat in the middle of it.
Portia was nowhere to be seen, but I placed myself between Dirk and the door so she couldn’t appear unexpectedly and startle my already near-panicked wolf into attacking in the dojo and breaking the pact of neutrality we all made so we could be here. I shouldn’t have worried. Dirk scented the air and trotted straight to the mountain of fur lying panting on the mat. He snuffled around him, and in my curiosity to see what Dirk found, I didn’t speak but waited for him to talk to me instead.
“He’s the Pooka, if you were wondering,” Maria finally offered, and I nodded and continued to watch Dirk. “He was taken by some men in black, but he escaped. I thought maybe you were looking for the same people.”
“You mean you know he was talking about the same people, and you want to see if I can get the information out of him before he hurts Rae,” I countered, “or if I’m just another Fae flunky who only leads because he’s the strongest of a weak clan.”
“Watch your tongue, young man,” she snapped, and the Pooka raised his head and regarded me warily. I could feel his mind pressing against me, trying to speak to me. It wasn’t a language I knew, however, and I answered in English, I’m American. Do you speak English or Spanish?
Ah, apologies, American wolf. I thought you to be my kind for a moment. I get confused sometimes. There was a deep, sad loneliness in his thoughts. He’d been alone for probably longer than I’d been alive, considering the life span of most Fae. Even Dirk whimpered and gingerly stepped forward until he was close enough to nose the Pooka’s face and blow in friendly greeting.
The Pooka perked up and chuffed gently at the black wolf, and his muzzle split in a lopsided grin. Dirk backed away from us all, and I felt the room get tight as he tried to shift back into his human form before his power had regenerated fully. I reached across the bond we shared and acted as a focus, the way Caroline had taught me, and in less than a minute, Dirk stood before us, naked and whole without even scars to show the extent of the damage that had been done to him.
I cast about for anything with which he could cover himself, and the Pooka handed him the thin, woven rug he’d been lying on. While I’d been distracted, the injured Fae had shifted without a sound or a breath of magic. Instead of a mas
sive Irish wolfhound, a stooped old woman with a face like a wrinkled apple smiled gently at me. I’d never seen a Fae so markedly aged, and I flinched before I could stop myself.
“Oh, don’t look so worried, Clay. A Fae as distinguished and old as Cailleach here has the right to fade if she wants,” Maria scolded me gently. I caught myself gaping and closed my mouth with a snap before replying.
“Actually, I’m more confused because . . .”
“Because you thought I was a man?” Cailleach chuckled, its voice as husky and deep in reality as it had been in my head. “I can be whatever I want to be. I’m a Pooka—not a man or a woman. This human shape is not my true form any more than the wolf is yours. I can be a great stallion or the wolfhound or a mouse if it suits me. You and your kind may come into that magic again, but for now, just know that you once had a great deal more in you than the wolf when your people ran the wild hunt.” She patted my shoulder, and for the first time I noticed she was wearing a gray, drab dress that looked like it was made of wool.
Maria had been teaching me about the Fairy Kingdom, but that was only between classes or on the rare evening I could stay late instead of heading straight over to Pulse for my security briefings. The only information I remembered about the Pooka was that they were famous for getting travelers lost at night, dragging them into the bogs to drown. The old lady before me didn’t seem very dangerous. Then again, that’s how they got the travelers, I silently reminded myself.
“Will we be able to shift and appear clothed?” I asked. “That would be quite helpful.” Even Dirk managed a dry chuckle, despite the urgency I felt from him to ask the old woman his questions.
“That’s glamour, which means you should already be able to achieve such a low level of magic.” She tilted her head to one side. “But you can’t, can you?”
I shook my head and frowned. “I can’t, but I can wait to ask about that. Right now, we need to know about when you were taken?” She shuddered and looked for a place to sit. I unfolded one of the poker chairs for her and another for Maria, and I stood while Dirk paced behind us. Every time I glanced at him, he was watching the door, and I sniffed the air, tying to discern what had him spooked. It only took a moment to realize that the answer was “everything.” I’d gotten used to the different smells of the other Fae, but to him, it was torturous to be surrounded by so much possible danger with Rae missing and possibly hurt.
“Please, we need answers quickly. His mate has been taken, and she’s pregnant,” I explained, and the Pooka’s rosebud mouth made a tiny O of shock.
“Of course, of course. Granny Cailleach will tell you everything . . . But I forget things too,” she added, her voice beginning to tremble. It was Dirk who stopped pacing and knelt at her feet, his hand on her knee, waiting for her to continue. “Oh, you’re such a nice boy, such rich, dark skin, like a proper hellhound should have,” she tittered, and patted his hand. “Your mate will have the first American-born Pooka. That’s quite an honor,” she smiled at him, and her eyes glazed over as she started to retreat into her memories.
“Yes, Granny, it’s the highest honor we could bestow such valiant, wild folk, but she’s been taken. Can you tell us where?” Maria urged her. The Pooka chewed on her lined, paper-thin lip and took a shuddering breath before she replied.
“Yes, yes, I’m sorry. It was more difficult to bear than I thought, but I remember bits and pieces. Maybe that will be enough.”
“Anything will help, Grandmother Wolf. Please help me find my mate and my unborn child.”
“Children, I think,” she mused quietly, and Dirk and I exchanged a look. The doctor hadn’t said anything about multiple heartbeats, and due to the nature of our beasts, Ashlynn had made sure there was no confusion. But they were a pair mated for life. Anything was possible if we could get Rae back unharmed. “Yes, you will have quite the litter someday,” she continued. “Whatever will you do with all that wild magic in the future?”
“Please,” I snapped then controlled my voice with effort. “Please, where were you taken?” The Pooka’s eyes cleared and she glared at me.
“I was taken down, young pup,” she retorted, and I bit off a reply as she continued. “I was under the water, and clank, clank, clank of the pipes clanged in my head when they took my body away from me and left me on the floor in the puddles.” She shuddered again. “When I woke up, I was in the garbage by the pier, and Master Shedu’s people brought me here.”
“It must be somewhere under the city then,” I blurted. “Why can’t we sense her?”
“The earth is a good barrier, as the vampire queen could tell you. It protects us from the evil beneath but shields can work both ways.” I looked at Maria, also known as Master Shedu, the protector, and I knew she meant that the ones who had taken the Pooka had used our own magic against us.
“They’re within the magical barriers of the dojo,” I stated, and Maria shrugged.
“That, or they’re under your vampire nightclub. All in black, violent, and magic-users. That sounds more like your former clan than any of ours.” I bristled, and she raised a hand before I could fire off a retort. “I’m not blaming your people. I’m simply reminding you that many lives are at stake. You must take care before deciding there is only one possibility as to who’s the culprit.” She didn’t need to remind me. I was living, furry proof of how far my own people were willing to go to gain power over what they didn’t understand.
Dirk stood, carefully extricating himself from the ancient woman huddled in her chair. She staggered to her feet, and he dropped the tapestry on the floor and helped her lie down on it. She shimmered, and once again, a great, gray shaggy face peered up at me with intelligent eyes.
Thank you, grandmother wolf, I thought, and her jaw dropped in a happy, canine grin.
You think you know the wild hunt, she replied, but soon, you’ll experience it for real. Be grateful for the freedom in my gift to you and your people, and protect the young ones who will join you in the coming days. For the Fae, the young are too few and far between to take for granted.
Suddenly, the room was awash in power, and I was thrown back, landing on my ass and banging my head painfully on the stone floor. When I sat up, Dirk was shaking his head from across the room, and Maria stared at us with a look of shock and horror on her face, tears welling over her eyelids and spilling down her cheeks.
I looked toward the rug where the Pooka had been, but the rug was empty, and the Pooka was gone. Then I felt the warmth in my chest and realized that she wasn’t, at least not finally. Glancing at Dirk, I saw the same power boost floating around him with an aura that matched the love and wild freedom I felt inside me, a little bit of her magic that she’d given us as she chose to fade completely. Speechless, I turned to Maria, who dashed the tears from her face with her hands and sniffed back the remainder as Dirk and I pretended not to notice.
“Well, someone took a liking to you, Clay.” I opened my mouth to respond, but she held up a hand and I shut it with a snap. “She didn’t wish to lose the wild magic as she faded. She chose to give it to her closest living relatives, which, both literally and genealogically, were the two of you. That magic will spread to your people once you participate in a real wild hunt, unless you’ve gotten better at those sad attempts at what you call witchcraft,” she sighed. “Part of me hopes I get to see it. The wild hunt has been gone from the Fae for so long, and the magic feeds us all in ways you can’t even imagine.”
“Were the kidnappers trying to stop the wild hunt?” I asked. “If that was the point, they could’ve just left us alone. The hunt we practice is in honor of the old ways. We don’t create magic with it.”
“I think we need to find them and ask them ourselves,” Maria replied. “Rae being taken by possibly the same people who took and experimented on Grandmother Cailleach may have nothing to do with the wild hunt. They may just be evil people who learned of our existence and want to destroy us.” She nodded her head and motioned us through the door ah
ead of her. “We hide because in an all-out war, we would lose. Humans would simply overrun us as they have for thousands of years.”
I pushed to door to the locker room open and told Dirk where to find my extra change of clothes then waited with Maria.
“If I’m to understand you, the expectation is for us to hide and form shaky alliances with Fae who hate us to survive without ever becoming a real community?” I asked, half in the locker room, half in the hallway.
“Not if you can make us safe. But these people who take Fae like Cailleach, who was once revered and was a great Fae who could cross the bridge of reality and bring nightmares to our enemies . . . to take her and torture her to steal her power, her wild magic . . . they are evil, and who will stand between them and humans once they kill us all?” She turned away and gave me her parting shot over her shoulder. “The Fae need new voices, Clay, who are not of the High Fae or the lesser. The old feuds run too deep. Maybe your kind, with its wild magic and no affiliation, is just what the Fae need right now.” She shrugged and kept walking without looking back, and I headed into the locker room to finally change into my street clothes, wondering if there was anywhere outside the pack that I didn’t have to guard against those who would force us into their service.
CHAPTER FIVE
Dirk was just pulling my extra T-shirt over his head when I came around the corner. He tossed me another pile of clothes he’d pulled out, and I quickly changed as I planned our next steps.
“We have to tell the others, Clay. I don’t want to go down into those sewers and tunnels without more wolves, some rats. Hell, I’d take a vampire or two right now. Whatever it takes to get Rae home and keep our baby safe.” He looked lost as he looked down at his bare feet.