Just one more might bring down everything I’ve built up.
Chapter 2
A few days later, on my day off, I eagerly headed to my aunt Olga’s apartment. It was sunny, promising to be a great day of visiting with family.
The minute I approached the door, I caught a whiff of baby lotion and heard the gurgles of an infant. I had a bag in hand, containing yet another recent purchase, a gift. An older blonde woman opened the door and quickly got out of the way as I bounded inside.
“Heh. Good to see you too, Nat,” my aunt Olga said in Russian. I’d have time to give her a proper greeting later. She wouldn’t go anywhere.
An elderly woman, my grandma Lasovskaya, gently patted my three-month-old niece’s tummy in a small portable crib.
“Sveta,” I whispered with a grin to the baby.
The tiny girl with a bit of blonde peach-like fuzz hair on the top of her head squirmed at the sound of my voice.
“Hey, princessa. It’s your tyotia,” I said.
Seeing Sveta made all the worries pressing against my shoulders disappear. Even though she was still young, she was my family’s hope for the future.
“Are you hungry, Natalya?” Grandma asked.
“I can make extra food for you and Mama,” Aunt Olga offered. My aunt acted as caretaker for my grandma during the day.
I leaned down and kissed both of Grandma’s cheeks. Her wrinkled skin was warm and soft. “Not right now, but thanks.”
Grandma chuckled and handed me the baby. “You’re not here to see me, huh?”
A sigh escaped my lips as I cuddled the baby close to my chest. Sveta’s wayward fist found her mouth, and she suckled on it. Such a simple act filled me with happiness. I didn’t get quality time like this due to work. Once in a while, Karey, Sveta’s mom, needed a sitter when her normal one backed out, which came as a surprise to me, since Sveta had so many aunts on Karey’s side, even if they were all bat-shit crazy. Last year, my brother married Karey, a wood nymph he’d knocked up. Like a gang of mobsters, the wood nymph’s numbers ran deep and they fiercely protected their own.
Crazy aunts or not, I had the baby all to myself and she eventually fell asleep in my arms.
Grandma looked on with a grin. “So how long until I get to hold one of yours?”
If I had been drinking, I would’ve done a spit take. “Not any time soon, Grandma. We just got married. Thorn and I need to adjust to my new status.”
Grandma chaffed. “That’s a poor excuse. Your grandpa Pyotr didn’t wait long to get me in the family way.”
“Oh, Mama,” Olga said with a laugh.
Grandma never held back when it came to having new babies in the family. Once Alex married Karey, she switched targets. I hadn’t married a good Russian boy like my parents expected, but the local pack leader was just as good. Just thinking about Thorn made me smile. Now they hoped for me to produce a litter or two. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. Like how many full moons Thorn had left.
Aunt Olga finished preparing Grandma’s lunch and left her food on a tray. She offered me a serving of chicken soup, but I refused. Nobody could get me to move with this baby in my arms.
In the middle of a bite, Grandma turned to me. “I heard from an old friend a few days ago.”
“From Russia?” I asked.
“Yes. It was Tamara.”
The name brought a flash of memories from this winter. I’d made a journey north to help my father with a werewolf obligation called a moon debt. Somehow, thanks to the help from close friends, I succeeded, but one of the obstacles in my way had been Tamara. A sinister older woman with a cunning smile came to mind.
“Why would she contact you?” I asked. “I thought she worked for a pack leader in Maine.”
“She reached out to me about old magic. She didn’t go into details as to why she’d returned to our homeland. Only that during her time in Russia, she’d gotten close to uncovering a spell to remove curses from objects.”
My stomach felt like it dropped onto the floor and rolled away. A few months ago, I didn’t know werewolves could cast spells. Our people called it old magic and these days the laws governing werewolves, the Code, prohibited any werewolf from using it.
“And what else did she say?” I asked.
Think of big girl panties with obnoxious pink flowers. I took a deep breath. Was this the news I craved hearing, news that would save my husband?
Grandma patted my knee. “It’s not what you think, Natalya. I believe it isn’t.”
My chest tightened. I glanced at Sveta, my heart breaking as I wondered if she’d ever know her uncle. Would he die before she even took her first steps?
“Tamara wants me to go check her work, and I’m too old to consider such a request. The last five centuries have been hard on me.” Grandma had seen so much since emigrating from nineteenth-century Russia.
I nodded, staring at the minuscule lines on Aunt Olga’s coffee table. “So what do you think, Grandma?”
“It’s probably a rumor of some kind. She said the wizards have been working to remove curses from their weapons. The spellcasters are fighting among themselves, and, somehow, the warlocks have found a way to tilt the balance. They’ve found a way to curse wizard weapons and render them useless.”
So that was why there wasn’t as much stock at work for the past couple of days. Did that mean none of our spellcaster customers would ever come back?
Grandma continued with a sigh. “I’ve got too many years on me to play with old magic.”
“What about Thorn?” I blurted.
“I know you love him, but the thing about old magic is that there’s more than one spell to do the same thing. Don’t talk to Tamara if she tries to contact you. You’re just a beginner, but she might try.” There was a bite behind the old woman’s words. Grandma rarely pushed when she spoke, but this time she did.
My lips sealed shut, and I bit the inside of my mouth. There were so many things I ached to say. So many questions. Maybe my grandmother sensed the rising anxiety I struggled to suppress. She tried to take my hand, but I slid out of the way and placed the sleeping baby back in the crib. Keeping my feelings inside wasn’t going too well.
“Don’t be disappointed,” she said. “Tamara has chased too many problems. She is beda. The kind of trouble you don’t need right now.”
“What can you do, Grandma? What can I do?”
“Pray to God. I’ve contacted friends I trust. They are doing what they can.”
“I appreciate that.” I kissed her cheek and then Aunt Olga’s. It was time to go. I had some thinking to do.
We said our goodbyes, and I headed home. On the way back to the small house I shared with Thorn, I noticed a dark-haired man waiting by the door. He had to be here for Thorn, since I rarely had visitors. When he turned around, my hackles rose and my fists clenched.
It was Rex, a man I wouldn’t even call an acquaintance.
This day was getting better and better.
As he strolled in my direction, my memory replayed every single moment with him from the past that I tried so hard to suppress: disappointment, shame, and—even worse—betrayal.
“You seen Thorn around?” he asked, looking me directly in the eyes. As the pack’s second-in-command, he should have looked at the ground in my presence. This wasn’t the first time he’d challenged me.
“Not since this morning.” I stared right back at his smug face.
“That’s a shame.” Rex used his right foot to kick around a small stone on the sidewalk. “He hasn’t been easy to find the last couple of weeks.”
“Your point?”
Rex gave me the very same expression he used on the day my parents tried to match me up with him after Thorn disappeared five years ago. It was the look a predator gave his prey. “An alpha should be accessible to his pack. He’d only hide if he was weak.”
“He does have a cellphone. Why don’t cha try that?”
The second-in-command smirked.
“I already tried his phone, Natalya. Your mate’s days are looking rather numbered if he keeps acting like this.”
“Is that a threat?” An icy edge lined my words.
“What do you think it is?” He took a step toward me and smiled. Most of the women in town would’ve melted from his smooth smile and lean build, but I knew he had that asshole disease spreading around the East Coast. “Have you ever regretted walking away from me that summer? Or should I say getting carried away after your little panic attack? Have you ever wished you hadn’t broken down in front of the whole pack so you could be by my side?”
I laughed at him. Hard. “Not really.”
His sneer raised the fine hairs on the back of my neck. “Maybe after Thorn dies, you’ll have a chance to prove you’re an alpha female.”
For seconds, I didn’t breathe, move, or break eye contact with him. If his crazy ass was trying to scare me, he was doing a damn good job, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of showing how deep his words cut.
“That’s not going to happen,” I said slowly. “Not if I’m still breathing and have the will to find a way to help him.”
“Don’t get in my way, bitch.” The word bitch came out as a long exhale. His curled lip revealed an elongated incisor, and he closed in, close enough for me to smell the pastrami sandwich he had for lunch. Extra onions. “I’m not going to have to lift a finger in a few months to get what I want, but it would be a shame for me to make sure both the alpha male and female make a quick exit.”
Forty-eight hours passed since my encounter with Rex, and I was still shaken. I had too many questions and not enough answers. Saturdays were supposed to be a day where I worked at The Bends or I took the day off. For once, I actually took the day off, but I had things to do. I had answers to find, and there was only one person who could give them to me. It was so long since I touched base with one of my best friends. He was there for me during some tough times. When I had my worst days, he was at his best.
Every so often, I thought about Nick Fenton, the white wizard I met during my supernatural therapy group. I couldn’t help but smile as I left the subway in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. I came to this neighborhood many times with Nick. All the familiar smells from the restaurants we visited or the shops that we passed by were comforting. It was nice to have someone who understood what it was like to live inside my head and to see everything around me that bothered me to no end. But he saw me as so much more, and though I didn’t reciprocate his romantic feelings, he never turned me away. He was a forever friend.
The street outside of the next brownstone was busy this morning. A family was moving out across the street. Burly men lugged boxes into a moving truck. Cars barely had enough room to squeeze by. Thank goodness, I decided to drive to the closest train station in Jersey and then commute into the city. Throughout my ride, at every stop, I’d had an urgency, an itch I couldn’t scratch in my hide.
Nick had to know what was going on with the spellcasters. Maybe he’d even heard some news of what Tamara was talking about with the tainted weapons and such. My walk up the stairs quickened along with my heartbeat as I approached his door. Soon I’d see his smiling face and he’d reassure me that my hopes weren’t in vain.
Yet when I knocked, no one answered. I pressed my ear against the warm wooden door and closed my eyes. Not a single sound. No faint hum from a fridge or even from any other electronics. Catching Nick’s scent would be difficult. Based on my experiences with him, he usually hid his scent from me.
“Can I help you?” The door down the hall opened, and an elderly man with a balding head and wire-rimmed glasses peered out.
“Excuse me?” The faint scent of a spellcaster came to my nose.
“Are you looking for someone?” The man stared at me.
My mouth opened and closed. There was something familiar about his features as if I’d seen him before. When he blinked a few times, I remembered Mr. Blackowski. This man tried to hook Nick up countless times with his daughter, much to Nick’s chagrin.
“I’m looking for Nick, Mr. Blackowski,” I said.
“He’s not here right now.”
“I see. Can I leave him a message?”
Mr. Blackowski opened his door all the way and tugged keys out of his pocket. “I don’t think you understand.” He strolled over to Nick’s door and placed a brass key into the lock. The door opened with a loud yawn. The emptiness in the room kicked me hard in the gut.
A conversation with Nick from months ago flooded my mind. “You’ve given me a lot to think about—especially in terms of healing others... I’ve made the decision to enter medical school under Dr. Frank’s direction.”
I’d thought I had more time. I’d thought that, like regular medical school for humans, Nick would have to take the MCAT exam and wait for acceptance into medical school. Things in the magical world were apparently beyond my understanding.
My footsteps on the hardwood floor echoed through the small room. Seeing his tiny kitchen brought to mind the day I came here and he cooked me dinner. Or I should say he “bought” dinner and shyly admitted it wasn’t his food. A smile touched my face.
I slipped my hand into my pocket and rubbed my fingertips against my cellphone. Any attempts to call him resulted in a disconnected number. He’d severed his ties with the human world, or so it seemed to me. A part of me hoped he wasn’t trying to run away from me because I’d chosen Thorn over him.
“Thanks so much for showing me he’s gone,” I said to Mr. Blackowski.
“Not a problem. He’s a good man. I hope he finds what he’s looking for out there.”
“I do, too,” I whispered. “I do, too.”
Chapter 3
With Nick gone, I didn’t have many options. So my next destination was Dr. Frank, who treated me for my OCD. The old wizard scratched my hide the wrong way on most days, especially since he didn’t let me slide into my incessant need to shop. I did make a small pit stop in Manhattan on the way to his office, but compared to last year, when I made three or four shopping trips per therapy session, I considered a browse through—umm, brief purchase—at Nordstrom’s to be a huge step toward improving my self-control. Only three things purchased, mind you, and that didn’t even count, since they were gifts for Sveta.
When I reached the receptionist desk on the upper floor, I stopped in the middle of the hallway. The woman at the desk was new, a human this time. She smiled as I approached.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Is Dr. Frank available?”
“Dr. Frank was called away on personal business for a few months. Dr. Chainey is taking care of his patients until then.”
Panic brushed against my stomach. “As one of his patients, why wasn’t I notified?”
“It was an emergency leave,” her smile was apologetic. “We just sent out notices about his departure a few days ago. Yours probably hasn’t arrived yet. I’m so sorry.”
So this was a recent development. Suspicion touched my senses. Not a good feeling to have. My imagination wanted everything to be like it had been before. With a quick glance at the meeting room doors, I imagined hearing my friends behind them. Heidi the mermaid’s laugh bubbled up. Shy Abby the Muse replied to someone in her soft-spoken voice. Lilith, the soul-sucking succubus, would be complaining about her last date, or lack-thereof. The others would be there, too. But now Dr. Frank was gone, only to be replaced by a human, or so I assumed. Maybe he was another wizard for all I knew, but Dr. Frank had been my therapist since I was a kid. Telling all my secrets to someone new didn’t sit right with me.
“Thanks for your help. I’ll look for that letter.” I tried to sound polite, but my voice came out stiff. It wasn’t her fault that Dr. Frank had disappeared.
So where did that leave me?
As I left the building, I weighed my options for tracking down what could be happening with the spellcaster community and decided to make a few more phone calls. Heidi’s phone went straight
to voicemail so I left a message. I wasn’t sure when she’d answer. Abby didn’t really carry a cellphone, a rather useless device when only other supernaturals could see or hear her.
The third number I dialed finally worked, and a man with a low timbre voice answered the phone. “Hey, Nat!”
“Tyler! I’m so glad someone from therapy group is alive.”
“What do you mean alive?” The sounds of traffic bled through his phone. A man near him swore at a biker who got too close to his cab.
“I tried to find Nick and he’s gone. Moved out of his apartment. He didn’t answer his phone either,” I blurted. “Heidi also didn’t answer, and Dr. Frank is gone.”
“Yeah, I recently tried to call Dr. Frank’s private line and was sent to voicemail. I never heard back. Are you doing okay?” He always had a kind voice, even if he didn’t have too much confidence.
“Not really. I need some answers, and my spellcasting friends have exited stage right.”
The sounds of his footsteps stopped. “Are you in New York right now?”
“Yeah, I’m in Upper West Side near Dr. Frank’s office.”
“Stay where you are. I just finished a go-see with a designer, so I’m free. Let’s grab a coffee.”
“You’re the best, Ty.”
Not long after our phone conversation, we met in a coffee shop off 73rd. The place wasn’t the cleanest, but Tyler didn’t stop me as I wiped off the small table. The tall dwarf even moved the napkin holder so I could scrub underneath it. A few ladies passed us and looked over Tyler’s perfect blond hair, lean waist, and long legs. But he didn’t return their gaze, so they moved on.
My poor friend made it damn clear he wasn’t a ladies’ man.
The dwarf scooted down in his seat with shoulders pushed forward, chin pressed near his chest. His bright blue eyes, almost the color of the ocean, reflected insecurity. Hopefully, he didn’t act this way during his modeling gigs.
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