by E Gregory
“Alright, off with you then, I’m going to finish this game.” His dad waved him off.
Niki thought about changing out of his t-shirt into something nicer, but then he worried that would be too obvious. He wasn’t known for his fashion sense. He was definitely a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy, so he left it alone and headed out, locking the door behind him.
Outside, Niki did a quick mental perimeter check and found that his protection wards were still strongly in place. Satisfied, he hopped in his car and headed toward the Birns family house, on the edge of the forest.
The Birns had lived in Rush Creek for four generations and before that, they were only about forty miles from here. So they’d been local to the area for a long time. The family home was a huge two-story house with an almost gingerbread quality to the trim work outside. It was several friendly shades of blue and white and looked like it might stand until the end of time. Niki knew that was because the Birns siblings put a lot of work into it after their parents had passed.
Niki turned on his podcast so he could stop thinking about how nice it would be to live in the house if it weren’t for Liam lurking around the place all the time. As the pack’s mage, he’d been invited and had to turn Ethan and his sisters down. They hadn’t been surprised though. It was really just a formality. Besides, Niki had college to get through, and then he’d be deciding where to live after that.
He turned onto the main road that would take him to the Birns house. It was a tranquil drive through the woods and Niki adored it. Everything felt hushed along this stretch of road. The trees were huge and reached up into the sky on either side of him, making him feel as though he were back in time, back to when people lived off the land, and life wasn’t just a mad rush for the latest tech gadget.
Not that Niki was against technology, but he could see how it could get in the way of communing with nature, easily. Being a mage was all about communing with nature so it was sort of an important thing to him.
Niki was lost in these thoughts when all of a sudden he noticed steam spilling out from under the hood of his car. He didn’t panic, thankfully, but eased his car off to the side of the road and turned off the engine. He did hit the wheel out of frustration before he got out, though. After all, he was only human.
He grabbed a rag out of the trunk and carefully opened the hood to look inside. Niki couldn’t see anything obvious, so he peered under the car. Sure enough, there was already a puddle forming under the engine on the pavement. He couldn’t be sure without testing it, but he thought it might be coolant.
What that really meant though was he wasn’t going to be driving any time soon. Niki blew out his breath and pulled out his phone. First, he texted his dad to let him know what had happened and that he was going to have his car towed to his dad’s shop. Then he texted Ethan to please come rescue him off the side of the road. Finally, he called a tow truck and they said they could be there shortly since there wasn’t anyone waiting ahead of him. For that, he would be eternally grateful.
Niki climbed back into his car and leaned his head back closing his eyes. A coolant leak could be in several different places he knew, just like he knew it might not be an easy fix. It was frustrating, but not something he necessarily could have seen coming. He was lost in these thoughts when a chill went rolling down his spine.
He opened his eyes and looked around but there was nothing new to see. Just trees and the road stretching out behind him and in front of him. So he reached out with his magic and tried to get a feel for the surrounding area. At first, there was nothing, but then, somewhere to his right, in the woods, there was something just there. He could just barely make it out and he had no idea what it might be. It felt incredibly cold though, all through his veins, and old. Ancient even. To the point that he was starting to be a bit spooked. And actually, it felt sort of familiar too. Like when he’d just got to town yesterday and had that weird feeling.
The trees still looked empty but he was positive he was being checked out by something and he couldn’t be sure that something wasn’t looking for its next meal. Niki knew it was probably pointless but he locked the doors and sent out a pulse of protection around his car. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. He was seriously getting freaked out!
Niki fumbled with his phone but managed to pull up Ethan’s contact info and quickly hit dial. Ethan picked up right away.
“I’m almost to you.” He said before Niki could tell him what was wrong.
“Okay, hurry because I don’t think I’m alone out here,” Niki told him. He felt that chilling sensation again. The one he’d joked with Michael about when they were kids that meant someone was walking over your grave. He cut his eyes to the right, but the tree line was still unchanged.
“Thanks, man,” Niki said. “Can you stay on the line?” He asked. He hated how desperate he sounded, but whatever was out there was clearly more than he could handle [1]by himself.
“Yes. Just keep talking to me. Tell me what you had for dinner. Tell me how your dad is.” Ethan instructed. Niki knew what he was doing and could have hugged him for it. Well, not really, people didn’t hug Ethan that he was aware of but metaphorically speaking anyway.
“We had a fajita salad. With grilled chicken and I made my dad leave off the sour cream and cheese. We ate in front of the TV because that’s what Dad usually does. He’s doing good. I think I’m keeping him off junk food mainly so there’s that.” Niki recounted.
“Okay, you should see me shortly. I think I’m close.” Ethan said. Niki didn’t ask how he knew he was close. He probably smelled the car engine or something. Sure enough, there was the car! He’d brought the Challenger, probably because it was the fastest car they owned. Niki had never been so happy to see it.
Ethan pulled up right in front of him and jumped out of the car, coming to open the door for Niki. Niki did manage to hold off on hugging him, but only just.
“I am so glad to see you.” Niki gushed. He looked to the right again but realized this time he no longer felt the presence. “Whatever was here, I think it’s gone now,” Niki told him.
“Good,” Ethan said, and then he scented the air, his brow crinkling in the process. “I don’t smell anything.” He said and Niki could hear the disappointment in his voice.
Together they waited for the tow truck, which thankfully wasn’t far behind Ethan. Once he’d signed the papers, the guy let them go and Niki hopped into the Challenger with Ethan.
“You still feel like coming over, or do you want to go home?” Ethan asked him. Niki was struck by his kindness.
“I think I’d better go ahead and come over now if that’s still okay. I need to see if you have any of the ingredients I need for this potion and I need to explain our plan to you.” Niki told him.
“That works for me,” Ethan said. Then he turned the car around and headed off to his house.
The drive was quiet. Ethan had never been one for small talk, and though Niki usually felt like filling the silence himself, today he could only think of the strange presence he’d felt in the forest. It left him feeling wrong-footed and off-balance. He still felt cold and like someone might be watching him though he knew he was safe now.
Finally, they pulled up the long drive to Ethan’s house. The two-story beauty stood out against the green of the trees as a bright spot on a manicured lawn. There were window boxes spilling flowers in yellows and pinks and purples. The flower beds in front of the porch were just as bright with varying sizes of pots filled with flowers set into gravel beds. The wide porch was welcoming and Niki had spent a lot of his time sitting out there rocking in one of the many chairs, just listening to the birds sing and trees creak. He didn’t feel like staying outside today though. He wanted to be inside where he knew he was safe from prying eyes.
Ethan led the way into the house and into the kitchen where he grabbed some bottled water for both of them. He passed one to Niki before asking, “What exactly did you feel out there?”
; Niki took a swig from his bottle and sighed. “It felt cold all through my body like nothing I’d ever felt before and I got the distinct impression that whatever we are dealing with, it’s old, like really old. Scary old even.”
“It frustrates me that it leaves no scent. For me, a werewolf, that’s like working blind in a way.”
“That’s where this plan comes in. I have a list of ingredients I’m hoping you have.” Niki told him.
“So what’s on this list of yours?” He asked.
Niki pulled out his little folded piece of paper and passed it to Ethan. “These are the herbs I don’t have.” The list had Adder’s Tongue, Dwayberry which Niki had discovered was also known as Belladonna, Eyebright, Poke Root, and Vertivert. “The Vertivert has to be harvested under a full moon if you have it.”
Ethan considered the list carefully. “I think I have everything here. I might be a little low on Belladonna. Cara was brewing tea to help her sleep, so I’ll have to see about that. But I know I have the others and yes my Vertivert was harvested under the full moon. We do know what we’re doing around here, you know.” Ethan told him with a smirk. He slipped the list into his pocket and led the way through the adjacent greenhouse to the storeroom off the kitchen.
“Yeah yeah, you’re the expert, I got it,” Niki answered as he playfully waved Ethan on toward the greenhouse.
Niki was jealous of their greenhouse and storeroom. It was like entering a hidden garden followed by walking into a mage’s dream come true. The Birns used to keep a mage as a boarder so they needed access to all their own herbs and this was the Birns's solution. Just to keep everything on hand themselves. Then they didn’t need to trust an apothecary to have the exact ingredient when needed.
They walked past the orchids and violets that Ethan’s older sister kept in honor of their mother and into the herbal section of the greenhouse where Ethan carefully snipped bits of each of the ingredients Niki needed. Then through the greenhouse into the storeroom where he looked for the Vertivert.
They found it in a little glass jar and he passed the jar and a tiny muslin bag to Niki. “Take what you need. I’ll wrap up everything else.” He told Niki.
Niki took the Vertivert over to the work table and carefully measured out one-eighth of a gram on the little scale. This he put into the muslin bag. By the time he was done, so was Ethan who passed the other little bags to him as well.
“Now, let’s sit and you can tell me about this plan you and Jessica have hatched,” Ethan said. He followed Niki back out of the storeroom and through the greenhouse. They grabbed their water on the way to the living room where they both sat in chairs facing each other in front of the empty fireplace.
Niki sat aside all his little herbal bags and took a sip of water. “At first we thought we might just be able to find creatures that could hide from werewolves easily, but that was taking too long. They exist but the scope was too large.” Niki explained.
To this, Ethan nodded. He got it. He leaned back and crossed his arms, waiting. Niki used to be intimidated by that pose, but now it was just commonplace to him.
“So we decided using magic was the best way to go. See, it’s a locator spell. To locate something hidden. And with a couple of tweaks, we think it can locate someone hidden.” Niki explained.
“I see,” Ethan said. “And the herbs?”
“A potion that the wolves will have to drink. I have the full list here.” He passed the second piece of paper to Ethan who read over it. “Is everything on there safe for you all to ingest?” He asked. That was something he would have to learn eventually for himself, but for now, he trusted Ethan to know.
“I think so. I’m going to double-check a couple, but as far as I can tell we’re good to go.” He said.
“So on the night we do this, you and the others will drink the potion and then I’ll say the spell that will bind you not only to each other but to the mission, which of course is finding whatever has come to town. Then you should feel a pulling that will take you right to it, whatever it is.” Niki told him. “It’s a little dangerous, I admit, but we thought it was the fastest way to solve the mystery.”
“Agreed,” Ethan said. He uncrossed his arms and took a sip of his water. “Have you talked to the Anderson pack about this? What did Michael say?” Ethan wanted to know.
Niki could feel his cheeks heat up. He hadn’t even thought to run this by Michael first and Michael was his best friend. “I guess I was so caught up in checking what ingredients you might have, it sort of slipped my mind. I’ll call him when I get home.” That was one reason, he knew, but the real reason likely had more to do with how excited he was to come to see Ethan after being away for so long. Ethan looked so good, even better than he did in Niki’s imagination, and it was sort of awesome to be helping him now in an official capacity.
“Okay, let me know if he’s on board. I’ll tell the rest of the pack and make sure we’re all on the same page here.” Ethan said. He leaned toward Niki and put his water on the bricks in front of the fireplace.
Niki nodded. “Will do.” He promised, and he swallowed the sudden lump he felt forming in his throat. He didn’t need to react to Ethan in such an obvious way, but he couldn’t seem to help it. They hadn’t always worked so easily together and it just felt so natural and good.
“Okay. I think we need a pack meeting, then. How long will it take you to brew the potion?” Ethan leaned forward again slightly as he asked.
“It should only take a day. I have to brew it in the light of the moon and then it needs to rest twelve hours.” Niki explained. He wasn’t flustered, he told himself, just pleased he could be of some use to his packs.
“Good. Let’s get the packs together here tomorrow night. We can do dinner and go over the plan in more detail then. And if all goes well we can drink the potion and head out. The humans of the packs can stay here--”
“Uh, no. No, I want to go too. You might need me. We can leave Jessica and Elaine here to hold down the fort, but I’m going.” Niki insisted.
Ethan seemed to think about this for a moment but eventually, he gave one short nod. “Fine.”
Niki almost fell over. Ethan was rarely so accommodating, but he must have figured that now that Niki had some training he’d be safer on missions like these. Niki didn’t say anything though, he wasn’t about to test the theory and make Ethan second guess himself.
That settled, they moved on to other topics.
“Oh, I’m supposed to thank you for the grimoire you sent to Jessica. Apparently it’s coming in handy.” Niki remembered. Ethan was glad the book was helpful and that Jessica was so pleased by it.
“So how was training? Or are you sick of talking about it already?” Ethan asked.
“Not at all!” Niki exclaimed. “No, it was awesome. I learned a lot. Well, and I learned that I still have a lot to learn if you know what I mean.” Niki grinned at Ethan who flashed a rare grin back.
“So you’re all set then, right? They gave you the go-ahead to be our mage?” Ethan raised an eyebrow at him, as though teasing him ever so slightly.
“They did. I had to get special permission to serve two packs, but it’s all official now. I suppose you’re stuck with me.” He teased back.
“I suppose I am,” Ethan said evenly, but he had a twinkle in his eye that told Niki he was just fine with it.
They sat and talked for a while about training and about the Birns pack. Ethan wasn’t a gossiper so it was more just information he thought Niki might need in his capacity as their mage. Still, it was a good talk and when their water was gone and the conversation lulled, Ethan said he ought to take Niki home.
“Thanks, I appreciate it. Not that my dad would mind coming to get me, but I kinda hope he’s taking it easy tonight and maybe even going to bed early.” Niki explained.
“You take good care of him, Niki. I know he might not always act as if he appreciates it, but I’m sure he does.” Ethan said softly.
The compliment surpri
sed Niki, making him smile. “I hope so.” He said. “It’s tough for him to behave while I’m gone, but I haven’t seen any signs of junk food in the house, so I have hope.”
“I’ve had the pack keeping an eye out too. We have your back.” Ethan told him.
“Thanks for that.” Niki knew they’d been stopping by, but he was touched to hear from Ethan that it was on purpose.
“Okay, let’s get you home,” Ethan said, changing the subject again.
Niki was reluctant to go, but it was getting late. He wanted to touch base with Michael about the plan so he could let Ethan know they were all a go.
“Okay.” Niki agreed. He walked back into the kitchen to toss his water bottle in the recycling bin with Ethan’s and then they headed out. It was fully dark now and for a moment Niki tensed waiting to feel that ominous presence once more, but he felt nothing as they walked to the car.
“Nothing?” Ethan asked, as perceptive as ever.
“Nothing,” Niki confirmed.
“We’ll figure it out. I have faith in this plan of yours.”
“I can’t take all the credit, it was Jessica that pointed me in the right direction.”
Ethan chuckled as he unlocked the car and climbed in. “I have faith in both of you then.”
Niki also laughed softly as he settled into his seat and buckled his belt.
Ethan’s Challenger was black as night and the interior was as well. The sound system was souped-up, calibrated for werewolf hearing, but to Niki, it just sounded awesome. Ethan turned on some music before pulling back down the long drive and Niki leaned his head back and closed his eyes to enjoy it.
The ride back to his house was quiet. Ethan wasn’t much of a talker, to begin with, so he’d likely talked himself out back at the house. That was fine with Niki though. He listened to the music and kept the beat with his toes. When they reached his house Ethan pulled into the driveway and cut the engine.
“Go ahead.” He said. “I’ll wait here.”
Niki would never admit to being scared, especially not to Ethan, but he was a good bit relieved to know he didn’t have to walk out there without some sort of backup.