Once I’d sufficiently thrashed around in the tank, I leapt out and shook, spraying water over anyone foolish enough to stand nearby. My wolf was pissed and wanted to bite the LaSalle woman.
They killed our sister. With wolfsbane.
My body trembled with fury. Just having the residual scent of it on me made my wolf want to rip throats. It had taken all my control to back off when I saw the canister in Savannah’s hands. That shit had killed my sister. I would never forget. Never forgive.
And gods, I wanted revenge.
Yet, when my sister died, I’d been the one who’d had to bring the pack in line to prevent all-out war with the LaSalles. I’d had to swallow my anger to do the right thing. And I’d have to swallow it now. I needed the cursed woman alive.
I started running back toward where I’d left her. With my wolf enraged, I’d need to shift to get control.
That was going to be a problem. When I’d heard Savannah screaming earlier, I hadn’t bothered to take my clothes off to shift—I’d just let them shred. I needed something to wear before I shifted so that I wasn’t running around the fair stark naked. I’d never admit it to my wolf, but there were times I envied regular shifters.
I passed a vender selling clothes. With a snap of my jaws, I yanked a pair of trousers off the rack and left the merchant woman screaming bloody murder behind. My wolf didn’t care about ideas like property, just territory.
I slipped out of sight behind a tent and shifted back. My bones snapped and muscles stretched, my jaws shrank, and my fangs retracted. I gritted my teeth and gave a low growl. Shifting had never hurt like this.
Fucking LaSalles and their wolfsbane.
I snarled as I buttoned the trousers.
Human again, it was time to find the damned woman. Even with thousands of people milling around the fair, I could smell her. That was surprising, but clearly, the danger had attuned my human senses somehow.
Despite the rampaging wolves and demons, the fair hadn’t descended into complete chaos. Magic-Siders were reasonably accustomed to demonic outbreaks and haywire magic. It was just a natural part of having a population made of spellcasters, shifters, vampires, demons, devils, and a dozen other magical species. Shit went crazy pretty often. It was a miracle that the city was still standing.
But there was no doubt about where everything had gone down. Blue lights flashed off the trees, and Order agents were swarming everywhere. One demon and one wolf were dead. Their accomplices would be long gone by now, including the she-wolf who had originally attacked Savannah.
We’d been so fucking close, both to triumph and disaster. Once again, Savannah Caine had gotten very lucky.
When I reached the flashing lights, I encountered a forlorn scene. Agitated cops. Miserable wolves. And in the midst of it all, the traumatized LaSalle woman, sitting on a curb.
She was a magnet for disaster, but I was relieved she was okay. I would do what was needed to protect her, but after what she’d done to us, I didn’t feel one ounce of pity for her current predicament.
Well, perhaps a little pity. Three days ago, she’d had no idea that werewolves or demons were real. Tonight, she’d been nearly killed or abducted by both.
Savannah leapt to her feet as I approached. “That was you—the gray wolf that killed the man!”
Her eyes darted to my bloodied chest, and heat rose in her cheeks.
“The wolf that saved your ass,” I snarled. “After which you sprayed me with wolfsbane!”
She bared her teeth almost like a wolf would. “I wasn’t sure it was you! And it looked like you were about to attack me! You were snarling and had blood dripping from your goddamned mouth.”
“I would never hurt you, but apparently, that doesn’t go both ways.”
She stepped up, but three cops intervened and pulled us apart. One started grilling me on the shifter that I had put down. What a disaster.
Sam had partially regained her senses. She was on the phone with my lawyer, by the sound of it. Thankfully, the dead man was a shifter, and we were subject to pack law. Still, there would be paperwork and interviews and reports, but they knew better than to restrain me.
It didn’t matter. The Order was going to just squeeze us harder after this.
I glared at the body. I hadn’t meant to kill him. But Savannah had been in danger, and I wasn’t sure if more wolves were going to attack, or more demons. I’d made a quick decision—the wrong one—and we’d missed our chance to get answers. Now there was no way to get information out of him without a necromancer, and that was a line no one in the entire city was willing to cross. Not even the LaSalles, monsters that they were.
My nostrils flared. Fear.
I spun and spotted Savannah. Though flanked by two cops, she was as white as a ghost. Now what?
Leaving my own interrogator mid-interview, I headed over.
A cop waved the unmarked canister in her face. “This is wolfsbane. It’s highly illegal, and we’ll be confiscating it. How did you get it?”
She looked from one cop to the other. “I had no idea! I thought it was mace or some kind of pepper spray. I’m new to town…I didn’t know any of this was real until a few nights ago! What the hell is wolfsbane?”
The cop clipped the bottle to his belt. “Wolfsbane is a chemical weapon and riot control agent. It is illegal for civilian use. I’m going to ask you once again, where did you get this?”
She shrugged. “Found it. Someone dropped it at the fair. I’d lost my mace, so I picked it up and kept it.”
The second cop stepped up in her face. “This will go easier on you if you tell us the truth. Who gave it to you?”
The woman had authority problems and looked about ready to slap him, so I stepped in. “Her family.”
Savannah shot daggers at me with her eyes, but as far as I was concerned, the LaSalles could collectively go to hell.
The overbearing cop crossed his arms. “Is that true, ma’am? If you don’t tell us, we’ll have to book you.”
She set her jaw, and her eyes burned with hatred. At least she was loyal. That, I could admire.
“Okay, ma’am. We’re going to need to take you downtown.” The cop turned to me. “Do you and the pack want to press assault charges, Jax?”
Her eyes went wide. “Assault charges? I was the one who was attacked by a damn monster and that asshole over there!” She pointed at the body, trembling.
I could smell her rage and fear.
My wolves watched eagerly, waiting to see how this played out, hoping the cops threw the book at her. I could smell their hatred, and I owed my pack justice. Savannah should rot in jail for a month for what she’d just done.
But we needed her to stop these abductions and clear the pack’s name. The seer had told me that Savannah would lead me to the answers I sought, and I hadn’t gotten any yet.
I waved the cops away. “Let me talk with her.”
The officers stepped back, and Savannah’s body tensed as her eyes widened. I smiled as if to say, Yes. I have sway here. They’ll do as they’re told.
“Are you going to have your corrupt cops lock me up, Jaxson?” she spat.
“You’d be safer there, so I’m considering it.”
She jabbed a finger into my chest. “Bastard. You’re the one who murdered someone.”
“Someone who was coming after you. Don’t forget that.”
Her lip curled up in frustration, and she balled her fists. “Fine, so you’re my savior. What are you going to do with me?”
Such gall. “I need your help, so I’m not going to press charges. But there are conditions.” It took all my restraint to spit out the words without growling. My wolf struggled in my chest in protest, and the way in which the other wolves slunk away told me the pack would be angry. Not surprising, but it wasn’t the alpha’s goddamn job to make everybody happy. It was my job to protect the pack.
The woman crossed her arms. “What conditions now? I’m already risking my life to help you.”
I stepped close so she had to crane her neck to meet my gaze. “Never touch that shit again. Wolfsbane.” Even the word burned my lips.
“And how do I protect myself, then, from the freaking werewolves trying to kill me?”
“Pepper spray. Something else. It’s non-negotiable.”
She ran her hands through her hair. “Fine. Whatever.”
“Second, you have to make it up to the pack.”
Her eyes widened. “How?”
“That’s for you to figure out. But know this: they will hate you now if they didn’t before.” I turned to walk away.
“Jaxson!”
The pleading in her eyes stopped me in my tracks. “What?”
She wrapped her arms around herself and joined me. “What was that thing that attacked me? Did you kill it?”
“We killed it, yeah, but I have no idea what it was. A type of demon I haven’t encountered.”
She swallowed hard, and I could smell the terror rising from her. And determination. “I need to see it. If I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life, I want to see it for real.”
Impressive. My wolf grudgingly agreed.
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, that’s not possible. As soon as you kill a demon, their body melts away. This one left a sticky patch of black blood before it boiled away into nothingness. It’s going to be difficult to identify off a description alone.”
Her shoulders drooped. “At least it’s dead.”
It wasn’t truly dead—demons just went back to the underworld. But I didn’t want to explain that to her at this point, given what she’d faced that night, so I just shrugged. I was beginning to suspect she had a knack for knowing when I was lying. Perhaps I had some kind of tell. I’d need to work on that.
Before I could step away, she grabbed my arm. “Will there be more?”
“Maybe. Probably.”
“Where do they even come from?”
I drew a long breath and met her eyes. “They’re summoned from the hells. By sorcerers.”
27
Savannah
My life had become a living nightmare.
Being hunted by werewolves seemed like a much smaller problem now that I knew demons were coming for me. Demons summoned by sorcerers.
Could Casey and Aunt Laurel summon creatures like these?
Jaxson had warned me the LaSalles practiced the dark arts. Was this what he’d meant?
I leaned against a tree and took stock of my situation. In addition to being hunted by a variety of supernatural beings, I was pretty sure that I’d just alienated and pissed off everyone in the local werewolf pack, and now the cops wanted to throw me in jail for using wolfsbane. At least Jaxson was able to persuade the cops to let me go—though I could tell that had infuriated his pack. Sam wouldn’t even meet my eyes anymore.
The cab ride home was a dismal affair, and a black SUV full of werewolves followed me all the way back to the Indies.
Casey, as always, greeted me at the door. It was late. Had he been waiting?
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Jeez, Savannah, every time you show up, you look worse off than you did the time before. What happened now?’
I didn’t want Aunt Laurel to hear, so we headed upstairs. I explained everything while I sat at the tiny desk in my room and sketched the demon from the park to calm my nerves.
Casey rubbed his face with his palms. “That is fucking madness. You need to stay away from Laurent and his pack. He’s going to get you killed.”
I shook my head. “No. I have to put a stop to this. I can help.”
My cousin frowned. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Jaxson may hate you, but I know he’ll protect me—even after what I did to him tonight.”
Jaxson had killed a man in front of me. Just to protect me.
Casey gave a half laugh. “Yeah, well, you’re going to be working that one off for a while. Wolfsbaning the alpha. You’re lucky he didn’t kill you himself.”
I set my jaw. “You gave me the wolfsbane! I nearly got thrown in jail just for having it on me!”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But I gave you it to use on assailants. Not the Dockside alpha,” Casey said, chuckling. Clearly, the thought delighted him, but Casey hadn’t seen Jaxson in his wolf form, glaring back with blood dripping from his mouth.
I flipped my sketch of the demon around and shoved it toward my cousin. “Can you tell me what this is?” While the demon’s body had disappeared, its sinewy limbs and savage claws were going to be etched in my mind forever.
His eyes widened. “Holy shit, you’re good at drawing. This picture actually scares the bejeebers out of me. Unfortunately, I have no idea what this is.”
“Can you find out? You owe me.”
“Yeah, we’ve got a few manuals of demonology stashed around here somewhere. And I know people I could ask.”
“Discreetly.”
For whatever reason, I didn’t fully trust my aunt. Through the mild application of physical threats, I made Casey promise not to tell Aunt Laurel or Uncle Pete what had happened. While I trusted my cousin implicitly, I couldn’t shake the feeling that his parents would try to stop me from working with Jaxson or that they’d keep me on lockdown until the threat had passed.
But I needed to figure out what was going on, and Jaxson Laurent seemed hell-bent on doing the same.
That night, I barely slept, and when I did, my dreams were filled with nightmares.
I woke exhausted, with a dark cloud hanging over my heart. Demons and werewolves were hunting me, and I’d just maced the one person who seemed the most invested in keeping me safe.
Not mace. Wolfsbane. I had no idea what exactly that was, but while it had burned my skin and eyes, it had practically incapacitated the other wolves. When I closed my eyes, I could see Sam staring back at me, filled with hate.
I put my hands over my face as I flopped back in bed. I had to make amends. The problem was, I’d never been particularly good at apologies or acting contrite. It was practically a foreign language.
At breakfast, I asked Casey how best to apologize to a werewolf, and he grinned. “Bring it a dead rabbit. Nice and rotten.”
Thanks, Captain Helpful.
With little to be gained from my cousin, I kept to myself for the rest of the morning and had a cab drop me off at Eclipse at ten a.m.
A muscle-bound bouncer leaned against the wall of the restaurant, scrolling on his smartphone. He had a wolfy look about him, hot and menacing. Most of the werewolves I’d met in Magic Side were unbelievably good looking. There must have been some kind of sexy wolf gene in this pack.
The man slipped his phone into his pocket and stopped me with a meaty hand. “Hold up. Are you carrying?”
“Carrying what?”
He loomed over me. “Wolfsbane. I heard what you did at the Full Moon Fair. I can’t have you bringing that in here.”
“Nope, fresh out.”
He growled and sniffed. Could he have smelled it if I’d had some on me?
“I was attacked by a demon and a bunch of werewolves,” I snapped as I stepped back.
“Don’t pull that excuse. You sprayed the alpha and the people trying to protect you. Don’t ever try that shit when I’m around, or you’ll regret it.”
I pushed past him. “Well, everybody had fangs and claws out and was growling. How was I supposed to tell the difference?”
I stepped into the bar and immediately regretted my words. Four shifters sent me death glares, stopping me right in my tracks. I’d hoped the place would be empty that morning.
So much for putting off apologies.
The look of betrayal in Sam’s eyes cut particularly deep. Three days ago, she’d taken care of me when I was drunk and adrift in a world I didn’t understand. In return, I’d wolfsbaned her while she was trying to save my ass.
I straightened my spine and walked over to the bar. She turned her back to me and began stocking the liquor shelf.
I deserved that. And more.
I couldn’t believe that this was the same place I’d gone out for dinner with Jaxson. That night, it had been rich, lively, and teeming with excitement and music and magic. Now, in the light of day, I could see the cracks and taste the bitterness in the air.
Placing a hand on the bar top, I murmured, “Look, I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire yesterday, Sam. I didn’t know what was in the canister, and I was really scared and fairly certain I was about to die.”
She slowly turned with a deadpan look, then braced her arms against the bar. “Do you have any idea how badly that shit hurts? You should have listened to me. I told you to submit. Why don’t you listen to anything anyone says?”
Her tone was cold and dismissive, and my temper flared. I lowered my voice so it was a knife-edge whisper. “When you first met me three days ago, I didn’t know any of this existed. Since then, I’ve been attacked by more werewolves than I can count and nearly choked to death by a demon that looked like it walked straight out of a Tim Burton film. Excuse me if I wasn’t ready to listen at that moment when Jaxson was about to rip my throat out. I’d just watched him snap another man’s spine in front of me.”
“He wasn’t going to rip your throat out.”
“Yeah, well, after being nearly shredded to pieces, I wasn’t about to take any chances. Do you get my drift?” I emphasized those last words and glared at the other shifters around the room.
I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown, so they’d better cut me some slack.
A man seated at the bar slowly spun on his stool until he was facing me. Had I seen him last night? Several deep furrows cut his forehead, and his eyes sparked with pure hatred. “You need to keep in mind that LaSalles aren’t welcome here before you go shooting your mouth off,” he said, his voice almost a growl. “You’re lucky the alpha needs you now, but as soon as that’s through, don’t you ever set your dirty feet in pack territory again, or I’ll drag you out by your filthy red hair. Do you get my drift?”
My throat tightened.
Every look around the room was the same. They hated me here, and it wasn’t just the wolfsbane. They despised my family. This was a blood feud, and I was in the wrong part of town.
Wolf Marked (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 1) Page 19