Lycanthropy Files Box Set: Books 1-3 Plus Novella

by Cecilia Dominic

“So why is he the devil in the pack?”

  “He once was good, but bitterness and the desire for revenge have turned him against others. If you’ve seen him, you noticed the scar on his cheek. That was made by an iron weapon wielded by one of your kind at Culloden. His imperfection prevents him from accessing his full power or returning to his home, and so he has sworn revenge and has proven to be an eager mercenary for those who seek to harm you.”

  She turned to me, and I saw the tears in her eyes.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you,” I said.

  “You place me and every one of your kind in danger by pursuing this line of investigation.” She shook the cloth at me. “And I fear I have made a grave mistake by using his image, even without the scar, if someone has been able to recognize him on the cards.”

  “You knew the risk when you painted him.”

  She bowed her head. “It was a compelling dream, and I had to.”

  “What of her?” I asked and pointed to the moon card. “I can’t decide if she’s harmful or not.”

  “The moon reflects the light from the sun, and while it may give clarity, it also paints with confusion because you know better than I that objects seen by moonlight do not give away all their secrets.”

  “True,” I said. “But that doesn’t really answer my question.”

  “I don’t have an answer, Investigator, only that while she brings confusion, she can also give enlightenment by helping you see things in a different way.”

  “That makes sense from our interactions so far, but I fear she is going to try and exact some sort of price from me.”

  “Her kind will always seek some sort of advantage. Don’t let her, if you can.”

  “And did you see her in a vision as well?”

  “No,” Veronica told me. She plucked the fluorite off its holder and held it out to me. “She commanded that I paint her and include her in my deck, and I couldn’t refuse. That you’re here tells me that she already has some power over you, so please take this in the hope it will help you keep your clarity.”

  “Thank you, but why this and not the quartz?”

  “It likes you. I suspect you’ll need more than just that before this is all over. Take this ribbon and crystal holder and keep it on you always, even when changed.”

  I didn’t relish the idea of a stone marble bouncing against my chest, but I didn’t tell her that. I pulled out my wallet to pay her, but she stopped me.

  “Consider it a gift,” she said. “One given without conditions.”

  “Is there such thing?”

  “I suppose you’ll find out.”

  21

  When I exited Veronica’s shop, my phone pinged with a text from Lonna suggesting I come to her place for lunch since Abby was fussy, and she had only just been able to get her down for a nap. I texted back, offering to pick up something for us, and we arranged that I’d grab something from the cafe we were to have met at and bring it with me.

  I arrived at her house with salads and salmon quiche, and Max met me at the door before I could knock.

  “Thanks,” he said and took the bag. He looked markedly better from the last time I’d seen him, but the tension around his eyes and smudges under them indicated some rough nights. “I’m afraid none of us are sleeping well these days.”

  “How so?” I asked and followed him inside.

  “Abby’s having night terrors, I’m having nightmares, and Lonna’s not getting much rest between the two of us. We just got Abby down for a nap, but she probably won’t be asleep for long.”

  Indeed, Lonna’s beautiful light green eyes seemed even lighter with the dark shadows she sported under them, but she smiled when she saw me and gave me a hug.

  “Have you thought about moving out for a while?” I asked. “Maybe there’s something left in the house from the Fey’s work or the blood magic contamination.”

  Max sighed. “I’ve tried everything I know to cleanse the place and put up extra wards. No, I’m likely the cause of it.”

  Morena’s warning that the Wizard Tribunal wanted to pull Max from the Institute came to mind. “Have you heard at all from the wizard leadership? Could they be involved?”

  Max and Lonna exchanged glances.

  “Might as well tell him,” she said.

  “The Tribunal wants me to appear at the European headquarters next week. I fear the worst.”

  “Which is…?” I imagined wizard jail as a place where their wands would be locked up and their hands tied behind their backs.

  “They’re going to want to decontaminate me from the blood magic use, and their process is even worse than Reine’s because they lack her precision and power.”

  “Wait… I thought they sent her to you.”

  “No,” Lonna said. “Arnold, who’s a representative to the Tribunal did with the hope that if she came, no one would find out, and that would be that. But someone ratted us out.”

  “No wonder you’re having trouble sleeping.” I handed the take-away cartons around. “What are you going to do?”

  “I can go on the run with Lonna and Abby, but I fear that will not be a viable plan considering our daughter is already displaying magical talent,” Max said. “Someone will notice something.”

  I nodded, remembering the strange behavior of the spoon when I was watching her.

  “He could go without me and Abby,” Lonna pointed out, “but then we’d have to go into hiding separately because they might try to use us to get to him.” She reached her hand to Max, and he took it.

  “I’d never let anything happen to you,” he said. “I’d die first.”

  “I know, and that’s what frightens me.”

  I stuck my fork in the quiche so it stood straight up. “Or you could put yourself under the protection of the Lycanthrope Council and seek asylum with us. Lonna and Abby are part wolf, so it could work.”

  “And it would endanger the already tenuous peace we have been working on between wizard and werewolf kind,” Max said.

  He had a point, dammit. “What would change their mind?” I asked. “How can I defend you?”

  Lonna’s tired sigh told me it would be something huge and impossible. “We need to prove that use of blood magic, specifically Max’s use of it, is for the greater good. If we could get the Institute reopened and start our reversal process studies, they might hold off. The first test subjects are only awaiting the go-ahead before they come over.”

  “Right,” Max said. “Nothing motivates the wizards like curiosity. They consider themselves to be a group of scientists above all.”

  “I wonder who reported the incident.” I took a bite of salmon quiche and thought through the possibilities. “Garou has a man following you, so it could be anyone connected to the Council. My guess would be one of the Campbells because they’re most invested in stopping our project.”

  “Right.” Lonna agreed. “Didn’t someone from their organization take credit for LeConte’s murder?”

  I nodded. “They did, but without Bartholomew and Cora’s knowledge, and I doubt it was either of them. I’ve talked to the person responsible for the letter, and I know she didn’t kill LeConte—it was just a political stunt. The Purists aren’t as cohesive as they’d like to seem.”

  “How close are you to finding the killer?” Max asked.

  Now it was my turn to sigh. “My one witness is difficult to pin down and likely isn’t even human.”

  “There was a witness?” Lonna asked. “That’s fantastic! They can identify the killer.”

  “Not so fast,” I told her. “As I said, he’s not human and has given me a compelling warning to stay away from him and his business.” I told them about Scarface’s friend bashing me on the head.

  “Oh, so that’s how you got the concussion,” Max said. “How is it doing, by the way?”

  I felt along the back of my head. “Not even a bump, and I haven’t had any symptoms since that night.”

  Lonna, who had disassembled most of her
quiche after a couple of bites, toyed with a piece of fish on her plate. “That reminds me. I know you’ve been seeing Selene. Has she said anything about her brother?”

  “Not really other than that he’s a student at Stirling and she doesn’t see much of him.”

  “She told us the same. I’ll be right back.” Lonna left the room and returned with a leather satchel. She pulled out a manila envelope festooned with postage. “Iain gave up and mailed this to me when we couldn’t get the last application to transfer electronically.”

  “That tells me another energy wizard is involved,” Max noted. “I’m looking in to who it could be, but my resources are limited at the moment.”

  “What about that Arnold guy?” I asked. “He seems to have some mysterious connections.”

  “Not reachable. It seems like everyone wants to play the ‘sabotage the Institute’ game,” Lonna said and pulled out a stapled stack of papers. “This is the missing application.”

  “How did you get it so quickly?” I asked and took it.

  “Iain has connections,” Max said.

  I read through the materials for a young man Corey Richardson who had gotten Chronic Lycanthropy Syndrome from a tainted flu vaccine. Everything seemed in order. “What am I looking for?” I asked.

  “Look at the copy of the ID,” Lonna said. “I thought something looked odd about it, but it wasn’t until I looked more closely that I saw it.”

  The driver’s license had been copied in color. Underneath it was a note that said, “Passport pending.” I looked over the license and noticed that it had just been issued a few months before.

  “So he just renewed his driver’s license?” I asked. “That’s not suspicious. It’s odd he didn’t have a passport, though it looks like he’s about to get one.”

  “Right, and now look at the picture.” Lonna handed me a magnifying glass.

  It showed me a young man with dark hair and blue eyes. The eyes looked familiar, but lots of people have eyes that color. Something didn’t match. “The hair looks dyed.”

  “Very good,” Lonna told me. “Max suggested we do a background check—which we’re doing on everyone from now on—and this came up.”

  She gave me another piece of paper. One Curtis Southerlin Rial had applied and been granted a legal name change to Corey Stuart Richardson.

  “The sixth application was for Selene’s brother,” I said, and the air in the room became stale and stagnant as her lies and evasions and half-truths piled up around me.

  “There’s no Corey Richardson or Curtis Rial enrolled at Stirling,” Lonna told me. “Iain’s still on faculty there, and he checked. Wherever Selene’s brother is, he’s not there.”

  “Selene said Scarface and his friends had something of hers, and it was obviously important enough to be able to manipulate her. I wonder if they have Curtis. But why would he change his name to apply for the reversal process other than the obvious that his sister works at the Institute, and that would be an ethical conflict for her?” I tapped the papers. “There’s something else going on here. Whatever it is, we need to ask Selene, but it needs to be somewhere Scarface and his buddies won’t be following her.”

  “Will you be seeing her again soon?” Lonna asked with a sideways glance from under her lashes.

  I knew that look, a female on the hunt for gossip. “We’re going to change and run together for the full moon tonight. We were going to do so on the Institute grounds, but I’d rather be somewhere safer. David Lachlan has warded grounds. Perhaps he would let us borrow his estate.”

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Max said. “That way you have backup if you need it. He’s a canny old wolf. I’ve not talked to him much personally, but he does seem to see and hear a lot.”

  I nodded. I would also ask him if he knew anything about the Order’s activities in the States.

  My phone rang when I reached my car after having left Lonna and Max’s place. Selene.

  “I can’t do tonight,” she said, her tone breathless.

  “Where will you run, then?”

  “I don’t know. I just… I just can’t.”

  I closed my eyes, shut off my own mixed feelings, and analyzed the layers of emotion in her tone. There was fear…and anger. Mostly anger. And impatience.

  “What’s pissed you off?” I asked.

  A sharp inhale, and then an exhale heavy with frustration. “If you must know, that thing I’ve lost, they’re close to returning it to me, but I must meet them tonight after midnight.”

  “Oh, then we’ll have a couple of hours so you can get your change and run out of your system and meet them with a clear head. And I can go with you, make sure they’re not going to pull a fast one on you or give you something other than what you’re expecting.”

  She chuckled. “That would be very difficult. My…thing…is very unique. There’s only one of it.” A deep breath. “Okay, we can meet up, but I need it to be closer to the Eastern Pond, and you’re not coming with me after.”

  That’s what you think. The connections between my experiences wove together into a map, the ruins I’d discovered in the center. I bet that was where the vargamore was hiding.

  “David Lachlan’s estate is in that area. I’m sure he won’t mind,” I said, sure to keep my tone nonchalant. “I’ll email directions to you.”

  “I’ll likely be followed all evening, as usual, and I don’t want to endanger either of you. I’ll run to his place—they won’t expect that. Can you have clothing waiting for me?”

  “I’ll drop by to pick some up now.” And I don’t care if they see me. They need to know you’re under my protection whether you like it or not.

  Selene met me at the door. I ignored the bag she held out to me and stepped past her into the apartment. I don’t know what I was looking for, only that I wanted some evidence she hadn’t been keeping such a big secret from me, that she had some valid reason for not asking me to help her.

  “I’ll draw you a map so you know where to meet me,” I said. I opened my mouth to say more, but she held her hand up.

  “I’m pretty sure I can find you on the Institute grounds,” she said.

  “The place I’m thinking of is easier to explain with landmarks.”

  She dropped her bag by the front door and nodded. “That makes sense. I can memorize it before tonight. My paper and pen are in the office.”

  She left me standing by the couch, and I studied the pictures on the end table while feeling in my pocket for the fluorite Veronica had given me. Not that I knew if it would indicate anything interesting like if the apartment was bugged through electronic or magical means. Obviously something had changed since the previous night, when she’d felt free to be open with me. I looked around to see if I could spot anything suspicious.

  The photos were just of Selene and a young man I recognized from the information Lonna had given me, no parents or friends, in different settings and at different ages. Someone must have taken the pictures, I reasoned, since they were snapped from too far away to have been “selfies”. Curtis grinned, but in a few of the photos, Selene gazed off camera, her expression pensive. The Tarot deck sat on the table as well, and I slipped the two cards I’d borrowed back into it before she returned.

  She stood at my shoulder as I drew a rough outline of the area with Lycan Village and Laird Hall marked. I wrote on the map, Can we talk freely here?

  She shook her head.

  How did you get away to call me earlier? was my next written question.

  Ran to Veronica’s shop, she answered on the page. Tell you more later.

  I nodded and drew the directions out for her.

  “Great,” she said, “I’ll see you tonight.” She put her arms around me and leaned into me, her head on my shoulder. I wanted to believe it was a gesture of trust and desire, but there were other agendas at play, and I couldn’t be sure.

  What the hell? I thought. I put my arms around her, held her close, and rested my chin on top of her head. H
er shampoo smelled of lemon and some sort of herb, maybe rosemary. It was a strong scent for someone who seemed so delicate and buffered by different forces, but it reminded me that she’d kept her secret from Lonna and Max, who were two of the smartest people I knew. What chance did a guy like me who’d been out of school longer than she’d been alive and who didn’t have any kind of scientific training have to outsmart her? All I could do was hang with her and hope for the best. As I’d learned, smart people tended to get themselves in the worst trouble because there are some things you just can’t think your way out of.

  She pulled away but didn’t let go, and I gazed at her face. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes told the story—she needed something solid to hold on to, and she was scared, so scared of what was going to happen to her and her brother. For the hundredth time, I wondered what she’d gotten herself into, but this time it was followed by the realization that perhaps her brother had been the culprit all along, perhaps even since childhood. I commanded my plumbing to stand down, we didn’t need to get distracted by a pretty face and a nice set of—

  She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to mine. It didn’t take much nonverbal persuasion on her part to get my mouth to open for her, and I tangled my fingers in her hair, releasing another wave of scent that mingled with that of our desire. Although it was only afternoon, the full moon sang in my blood, wanting me to make her mine.

  In front of whoever was watching or listening to us. That reminder crashed through me like the cold water of Reine’s intervention with Max, and I put my hands on Selene’s shoulders and stepped away.

  “We’ll continue this tonight,” I rested my forehead on hers. “I don’t feel like putting on a show,” I whispered in her ear.

  “Understood, and thank you,” she replied with a nod. She walked me to her front door and handed the bag of clothes to me. “See you tonight.”

  22

  What do you see in the lass?” David asked. “She’s pretty enough, but she’s trouble. And she’s a scientist. That’s almost akin to being a wizard.”