by Cathy Clamp
“Anica?”
The bear rolled her head over. “Rachel. Knife. Can you reach?”
Knife? Rachel hopped up to the top of the boulder again, trying to see where the blood was coming from. There, in Anica’s side, the hilt nearly hidden by her thick fur. It was going to be tricky to remove it without hands. She studied the cliff face, looking for any cracks she could use to hold on. She spotted one, but it was narrow, barely big enough for a single claw.
She stretched across Anica’s body as the little bear’s breathing grew more shallow. Resting her injured wing on the boulder and bracing her weight on the opposite leg, Rachel was able to reach down and pluck out the knife, an ornate black blade with a bone handle. Blood began to gush from the wound. All she could think to do was throw her whole body weight on top of the bear to keep pressure on the injury.
Anica let out a soft woofing sound at the impact. Rocks were stabbing Rachel in the sides and her wing was bleeding too, though the damage wasn’t life-threatening. “Hang in there, Anica. We’ll get someone here fast.”
Dalvin! Anica’s hurt. She’s been stabbed. We need Amber up here, right away.
Instead of Dalvin, the leader of her parliament spoke sadly in her mind. There’s not enough time. I’ve been watching the monitor. It’s deep. Too deep.
We healed Alek, all of us together. Can’t we do that again?
But that was different—or was it? Bitty disappeared in her head.
Dalvin’s voice replaced the old woman’s. They’re discussing something strange. Something you helped with before—blending packs. Are you okay with that?
She nodded before realizing he couldn’t see her. Yes, go ahead. Whatever it takes.
Warmth filled her, like a slow, lazy sunbeam. She felt herself drifting along, like an inner tube on a river, inside her own head. She saw Dalvin’s face, his dark eyes concerned. Then the sunbeam turned into a fireplace and she was snuggled on a bearskin rug with Dalvin, luxuriating in the warmth. Hold on, Chelle. Your alphas tell me it’s about to get rough.
Pain. Fire shot out of the hearth and enveloped her. It poured through her and into Anica. The bear screamed, reached back with claws the size of kitchen knives and tried to tear her away from the wound. Rachel would have been happy to leave, except she was glued to the bear by the magic.
She felt herself sink down inside the bear, drip into the hole like she was liquid. The pain was so much like the cave. The snake venom was like this. It was.
It is.
Abruptly, Rachel was with Anica—really with her—in a cave, but not the Texas cave. No birds here, but the chains were the same. Anica, just a little girl, yanked at the shackles until her arms were bloody. Then they came for her. Rachel felt the bear’s panic.
“Turn her or be done with it,” said the man with the black hair, the one who smelled of viper. When they pulled her out of the cage and turned to shut it, she ran. Ran so hard and so fast. They nearly caught up with her. She screamed as claws raked down the back of her leg, from thigh to ankle. But she was little, and fast, and she ran.
It was night, like this night. A full moon, like this one. And the cave was … was near the water. Yes. A bit of the river ran through the cavern. It was hidden, behind the waterfall. Nobody could find it, and the rushing water covered the screams. She’d run in the river. Rachel felt every agonizing footstep. The rocks in the river slashed at her feet, but she had to stay in the water so they didn’t track her. How many times had she slipped, gone under, only to come up gasping and spitting, hundreds of feet farther downstream?
The moon made the claw wounds ache, as though acid was cutting deeper into her skin. Ever deeper. Rachel remembered the acid of the moon on the claw marks down her back. Like these, but different. No, not different. The same.
She saw the lights of a town ahead. A little town, just a few houses. A train. She heard the train coming and knew the train was faster than walking. But to reach it, she had to leave the river. She climbed up the bank, her arms shaking with exhaustion, her leg twitching and aching, not working properly. She tried to walk but could barely drag her wounded leg forward. Soon she was crawling down the road, trying desperately to get to the train.
The world split apart and she roared. The pain was so bad, as if every bone in her body was breaking, joining, splitting. Then it was over—even the pain in her leg was gone. She heard the train whistle again.
The train. She started to run toward it in a lopsided, clumsy gait. She saw a man and ran up to him to ask for help. Called out to him. Shouted. Roared.
He yelled in fear and ran away. Why? Couldn’t he see she needed help!
People ran toward her and threw rocks at her, chasing her down the road to where the train tracks crossed the land. Confused and frightened, all she could think was that she had to get back home to her family. They would help her. She walked all night, following the tracks, following a faint breeze that smelled of home. There, at last! Just over the fence, the berry bushes of home! The sun was nearly up and she was glad. So tired. She saw the house and then … then—
Rachel took a great gasp of air, her heart pounding like a trip-hammer. Chelle! Come back! You’re too far in, get ou–!
The voice cut off abruptly. She was back in the canyon, a bird once more.
“Rachel?” came a soft, tired voice beneath her. She scrambled to get off the bear, then fluttered up and over to land near Anica’s nose. “What happened?”
The bleeding had stopped. The little bear’s fur was matted with blood, but the wound was closed. “I think our packs healed you.” She held out her own wing. The feathers had grown back, the hole in her wing just a rubbery scar. “And me,” she added, surprised.
“How long have we been here?”
Rachel looked up. The moon had barely moved. “Not long, I don’t think. Can you stand?”
Anica’s legs were a little shaky, but she managed to get back on her feet. Rachel walked behind her on the path to the flat land.
“What do we do?” Anica asked, “Race is over? We lose?” She paused. “How are we think … talk?
Rachel flapped her wings, frustrated. “I don’t know. I can’t feel my parliament, or your sloth, in my head. But we can, so let’s use it. There’s still the fishing challenge. Can you make it to the water? At least eat something. And our families are there.”
“I will try.” The bear nodded and started to walk. Rachel took to the air, flying slowly, keeping pace with her new sorority sister. Like Claire. Survivors all.
CHAPTER 19
“Where did she go? She disappeared from my head!” Dalvin grabbed Bitty’s hands, trying to reconnect, but she pulled away.
“We had to let her go, Dalvin. We were causing her to go too far into Anica’s memories. The shock of cutting off the magic should have brought her back to this place and time.”
Amber was shaking her head, and Zarko Petrovic was holding his head in his hands, as if he had a splitting headache.
“Should have? Not good enough.” Before anyone could stop him, Dalvin ran toward the canyon, letting the moon pull his bird form out so that he took off from a running start. He tried to reach Rachel in his head, but something had gone wrong. He was alone inside his mind.
Why did that bug him? He flew hard, following the course from the lake backward. It wasn’t long before he saw Larissa.
“Larissa! How far behind you are the others?” She ignored him and kept running. Maybe she couldn’t hear him?
He could chase her down for an answer, but it was probably better to keep going. Larissa was probably going for help anyway. She could lead Amber back in case Anica was … well, he didn’t want to think about that. He liked Anica. They shared a love of R & B music. She listened to newer singers whose work he didn’t know, like Amy Winehouse. He’d heard the name but never in connection with Motown. But man, could that woman belt out the blues!
Music! That was the key. He thought of Rachel, thought of flying, and began to sing in his he
ad, do, re, mi, fa …
… sol, la, ti, do. Rachel’s voice joined his, and white lights appeared in his vision, making him light-headed. Rachel, where are you?
Near the canyon. Look for … the radio tower on top of the mountain. We’re just west of it.
He looked across the sky. The pale red blinking lights of the tower were easy to spot. Just west. He swooped down until he was just above the treetops, looking both ways and above him. He opened his pupils fully, let the moonlight in, and didn’t care at all that his head pounded from the effort.
There!
Dipping his right wing, he turned and flapped hard to reach the slow-moving bear and the owl who was walking and hopping alongside her. He fluttered down and immediately ran over to Rachel, nuzzling her neck feathers with his beak. “Are you okay? I was worried sick!”
She signed tiredly. “I am now. Anica is still pretty weak, though. I can’t leave her.”
Dalvin sighed. “Then Larissa is going to win. I passed her on the way here.”
Rachel hooted with angry excitement. “She damned well better not win! She stabbed Anica.”
“Wait,” he said, confused. “I thought you said there was a shooter.”
Anica shook her head, her eyes barely open. “Yes, but I am not shot. Larissa had knife. Stabbed me in side.”
“In human form? But she’s an omega.”
Again Anica shook her head. “No, in bear form. Blade was is attached to her collar. I did not notice it when we began race. It was very thin and carefully placed, not to be noticed. We took shelter from Samit and when we are in tiny area, hidden, she strike! Stab me two, three times. Knife comes off collar and she runs away when Samit captured.”
Snow began to fall; he blinked to keep the flakes from clouding his vision. “If it was in her collar, then it had to have been placed there by her Alpha.”
Anica smelled very confused. She scratched at the snow with her claws. “Is not right. Larissa work for us. She is femily too. Why she try to kill me?”
“Wait, what?”
Rachel smelled and sounded surprised and a little indignant. “So Dani really did hear that right? Larissa was talking to Draga in French? She was going to throw the match.”
The bear’s head dipped repeatedly.
“Yes. Is not my idea, is Mama’s. Papa not know. I am not supposed to know. Mama is Jancic before marrying Papa. Larissa is also Jancic, but she became brown bear instead of black. Kasuns do same thing to Jancics as they do to us. A blood feud was demanded but never held. They just laugh. There are no Sazi to help Jancics.”
It all made sense now. “That’s why the original peace talks were supposed to be in the village near Loznica. Half of the phone book is Jancics.” Such as the waitress at the café, who took her mother’s surname instead of her Russian father’s. Look deeper. Chelle had no idea just how right she’d been. But why would Larissa turn on Anica? Why would she risk stabbing her when there were so many Wolven agents nearby?
Anica was breathing harder. “I am very tired. Very hungry. I would like to rest now.”
She needed to rest. She’d lost a lot of blood. But he couldn’t afford to let her stay here. Tamir, Samit, Larissa—who knew if there were more people out there with their own reasons for wanting the Petrovics dead? “Wait here. I’ll find food.”
Rachel sat down next to her new friend while Dalvin put his wings in high gear to the lake. As he expected, Larissa was busily fishing. And oh, look, how handy! She’d already caught four big salmon and put them in the basket. He swooped down just as the announcer was calling out, “And there’s the fifth, folks! And it has a yellow tail.”
Dalvin reached out with his talons and grabbed the bucket of fish. He called out to the announcer, “Penalty on the play. Intentional interference. The fish are forfeited. Begin again.”
Larissa was just about to start running the final leg. He had to stop that. There wasn’t time to explain everything he’d learned. He saw Rabi Kuric look up and then shift forms, the tiger following Dalvin across the ground as they raced back to Anica.
She was very weak when he landed. He shifted forms and petted her nose. She opened her eyes, just barely. He shoved a salmon under her nose.
“Eat something. You’ll feel stronger.” It was almost too much effort for her to open her jaw, but she did. He hoped that the protein would give her back some strength.
Councilman Kuric sprinted up just as she was finishing the first fish and reaching into the bucket for the second. “Is good fish. Big fish are good.”
“What the hell happened out here?” Kuric asked. “We stopped getting images from the drone.”
“Plans within plans. We need to arrest Larissa for attempted murder and Draga Petrovic for conspiracy to commit murder. For a start. And we might pick up Alpha Kasun for conspiracy too. I’m not sure which one is guilty, but one of them sure is.”
He’d been so focused on Anica that hadn’t realized Rachel had disappeared until she dropped out of the sky, carrying something in her teeth. She dropped the object in the snow at Rabi’s paws.
“That’s the knife that stabbed Anica,” she said. “I went back for it. I’ll bet someone’s prints are on it.”
By the time the four of them reached the lake, Larissa had completed the fishing challenge a second time and crossed the finish line. The whole town was congratulating her, and she was roaring in victory.
When Larissa saw Anica walk up, limping but alive, she panicked and tried to run, but Rabi caught her in a net of magic and hauled her back.
Rachel stood beside Dalvin in the falling snow, leaning into him. He could feel her heartbeat under the feathers, and it made him happy. “I’m so glad this is all over.”
She turned her head and blinked. “Oh, it’s not. Not by a long shot. Does the Council own a private jet?”
CHAPTER 20
Rachel plumped the pillows behind her back and picked up the remote control. Bedrooms. Who knew there were planes that had multiple bedrooms? Sure, the bed was only an oversize twin, but it was a bed … on a plane! Freaking cool!
Was that a knock on the door? A door … inside a plane! She’d never flown in a private plane before and had spent the first few hours glued to the window, watching the landscape sail by. Once they got out over the water, there wasn’t much to see except gray. Even the little bumps of turbulence didn’t bother her, or the thought of where they were going. She popped out one of her earbuds—she was listening to a singer she hadn’t heard of until Anica played a song for her. Instant die-hard Winehouse fan. Pity she’d had such a short career. The best ones always seemed to die young.
“Hello?”
“Chelle? Want some company?”
“Sure. C’mon in.” Dalvin entered, wearing a simple pullover sweater and jeans. Man, did he look good. So not the boy she remembered. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” he said softly. He shut the door with careful effort, trying to make as little noise as possible. Most everyone was asleep by the sound of the gentle snoring she could hear in the hall, droning like white noise. Rachel was too wired to sleep.
She patted the bed, inviting him to sit. The room was small and there weren’t many options.
“Take a load off.” She tossed him a pillow—there had to be a dozen of them stacked on the bed—and he sat next to her. When he swung his feet up, she pushed them off, saying, “Take your shoes off. These are white sheets. Didn’t your mama teach you manners?”
He let out a little chuckle. Deep and wicked, it pulled at things inside her.
“My bad.” He twisted to the side and she heard the thunk as each shoe hit the floor. He settled beside her again, putting his bare feet on the covers. She hadn’t noticed before, but the boy had big feet. “So.”
“So,” she repeated. “You got some pretty quick action on this. Thank you.”
He inhaled deeply and let it out slow. His breath smelled of spearmint gum and lime juice.
“You really sure you want t
o be part of this? This isn’t your fight.”
She snorted, spewing spit all over the white coverlet.
“The hell it’s not!” He hurriedly put a finger to his lips and she winced a little, then lowered her voice to an angry whisper. “The minute they snatched me off the street in Detroit, it became my fight. They’re going to wish they never messed with Mama Washington’s baby girl.”
A corner of his mouth turned up in that same teasing smile she used to love … and hate. “I thought you weren’t anyone’s baby.”
“No,” she said, getting onto her hands and knees and crawling out from under the covers. “I said I wasn’t your baby. Not yet.”
“Ah.” He didn’t move a muscle, just stared at her with those golden-brown eyes. His magic was like a second skin against hers, as though he was already caressing her body. It made her shiver all the way down to her toes.
Oh, to hell with it. She crawled on top of him, straddled his legs. She’d intended to seduce him during the flight, provided they could get a second alone. The rough denim of his jeans was delicious against her bare legs, and she could feel the beginning of a bulge against her thin panties. She planted a kiss on his warm, soft lips. Her magic sort of melted into his, mixed like sugar and butter—sweet, thick, and rich enough to stop your heart.
He didn’t waste any time. He tugged her shirt over her head and let her do the same to him. He pulled her to him, rubbed all that skin across hers and turned her insides to hot, liquid fire. Her hands couldn’t get enough of him. She wanted more, and then even more. He seemed to know just what she needed. He unhooked her bra. Pulling the straps from her shoulders, he pushed her back to look at her, naked.
“My God, you’re beautiful.” She didn’t know how to respond to that. Nobody had ever said it to her. “I never thought I’d see you again. And to see what you’ve become? I am the luckiest man alive.”
He leaned forward before she could speak and started to kiss her breasts. The feeling was beyond pleasure, somewhere near pain as he sucked a nipple into his mouth and pulled until she cried out softly. He let out a little hiss and then made a popping noise with his tongue that made the bird inside her flutter with excitement. He rolled her back and over so suddenly it took her breath away.