by KT Strange
Wolfe popped an eyebrow.
“Well that’s not something I knew,” he mused.
“We don’t tell all our secrets,” Eli said.
“Clearly,” Wolfe drawled.
“So we’re burning it to the ground?” I asked. “Every building a council member has lived in?”
“Even this one,” Luka said, looking at the house behind us with longing. “All of it has been touched by an evil we can’t even comprehend.”
“Without their base of power, they won’t have the energy to continue their spread of dominance across the witching world, and the magic world beyond that,” Wolfe said.
“Think of these homes like giant batteries,” Luka added, ever helpful.
“Creepy,” Max muttered, rubbing her arms as she hugged herself.
“But we start with the council’s circle,” Wolfe said, “that is perhaps the most important. With that gone…”
“We pick them off one by one,” Finn said, his voice thick and steely. “Like they did to our pack.”
I ached to reach for him, but he stood, his shoulders squared and his jaw tight.
“Can’t say I’m gonna regret seeing them take their last breaths,” Charlie said with just as much anger in his tone.
“Revenge makes us just as bad,” Daria said, although she hesitated over the words. “Doesn’t it?”
“This isn’t revenge, sweetheart,” Eli said, turning to her. “This is goddamn survival. They ran us down until we had nothing, not even our families, not our flesh and blood. They tried to take everything from us. They can’t have it. Not us, not our girl, not Max, not you.”
Daria blinked and turned pink.
“I’m not really…”
“You want in on this family?” Eli asked. “The way I see it, you don’t have anyone in the world now but us.”
She gulped hard, glanced at Luka and then nodded. My heart warmed. These wolves had such capacity to love, even the people who had hurt them. They knew Daria was just a kid, an innocent in all of this. She came from a group of people that had hunted Eli and the pack down until there were only five left standing, and my guys were still willing to treat her like family…
My eyes stung.
“You okay?” Cash was there, rubbing a thumb over my cheek.
“Just feeling all the feels,” I said, swallowing down my emotions. “If we’re going to do this, I’m going to need more practice at shielding.”
“And everything else,” Luka said with a laugh. Wolfe sighed and waved his hand.
“Dogs off the field.”
Eli growled at him but moved away. Ace reluctantly let me go, the rest of the guys following.
“More meteors?” I groaned, tapping into that deep place inside me, where the lightning pulsed and breathed like a living creature.
“As if there were anything more spectacular to throw at you,” Wolfe replied with a smile before barking, “Shield up!”
Twelve
Darcy
“I have a theory,” Daria said a few nights later. We lay side by side on the roof of Luka’s mansion, on one of the patio’s, under the stars. I was working on my fine control, forcing my lightning to form into figure-eights and other shapes in the air above our heads. Daria would manifest butterflies made of pure light, they’d trace a random shape, and my job was to follow along as best I could. So far I’d made a few wonky stars, a heart, and what I swear was a middle finger salute, because Daria had giggled the entire time her illusion hovered in the air.
“Hit me,” I said. “What’s the theory.”
“You’ve gotten so much stronger, like, exponentially. I’m not gonna say you sucked before… but you sucked. You couldn’t flare up even when you wanted to, and you flared when you didn’t, and even then you weren’t that powerful.”
“Is there a reason you’re dragging me right now?” I sent a little spark of lightning to chase one of her butterflies, but it dodged before puffing out of existence in a shower of fading glitter like a mini firework. The light-dust vanished as it fell toward us.
“Something the boys said, about how they give you a piece of themselves when they bond you. What if it’s making you stronger?” Daria turned her head and shifted up on one elbow. I glanced at her.
“Well… um, it’s a theory I guess.”
“I don’t think any witch has ever bonded with a werewolf, so it’s unproven,” she said. “But…”
“You don’t think it’s all the practice?” I asked her, but had a funny feeling deep down, that she was right. Before Wolfe had come onto the scene, my flare ups? Had gotten bigger and bigger. Out of control, and way more powerful than I’d ever been able to conjure in my life. I’d gone from frying smart-phones to turning people to dust right in front of me, to freezing an entire group of people as if I’d stopped time just to get Eli out of a bad situation when he’d beat the shit out of Jake Tupper…
Daria was watching me, her eyes knowing as I put it all together in my head.
“Well crap,” my voice sounded weak in my ears. She gave me a grim smile.
“Mmhmm. So what’s that mean when you catch ‘em all? Think something special happens when Eli finally pulls that log out of his ass and gets on with it?”
“Daria!” I laughed, half-scandalized.
“Well he looks at you like you hung the whole damn sky out, let alone the moon. I don’t know what his problem is.”
“He thinks he’s not worthy,” I said. She giggled.
“Oh my god, he thinks he’s not worthy of you.”
“Hey!” I glared at her. “Ouch? Rude.”
“No, no, I mean, come on, Darcy, like. I love you. You know I do. But holy wow, those guys are hot. Let’s be honest here. Neither of us are winning beauty queen prizes. We’re pretty, that’s good enough for me. But your wolves?” She fanned herself. I rolled my eyes.
“I ought to zap you,” I grumbled at her.
“Follow my butterflies, slacker,” she teased, and the illusions danced above my head, forming whorls that I did my best to trace with small, delicate threads of lightning.
“You know I think you’re beautiful,” she whispered after a few minutes of my powers chasing hers. “You know that, right?”
“Yeah.” I reached out in the dark, taking her hand in mine. “I knew what you meant.”
“They are crazy hot though, and rockstars-”
“Daria.”
“Let me fangirl for a minute. Their music is so good.”
“Daria.”
“Look, I know they’re yours. They’re like my hot cousins or something. It’s a little weird, but you can kinda pretend you’re not related-”
“Oh my god.” I laughed, and sat up. “I can’t with you.” She pushed herself up and smiled at me.
“You love me, and you know it.”
“Is this a party for two?” Max called out, opening the hatch that lead from the attic below.
“Come help me tickle Daria. She’s a pest. Hold her down. We’ll do this mundane style, no powers,” I said, giving Daria an evil look. Her eyes widened.
“I’m sorry,” she squeaked. “I swear I am not always ogling your multiple boyfriends, but honestly, you could share-”
“Oooooh, you didn’t,” Max said to her as she crossed the roof to join us. “That’s a tickling offense. Maybe even a pantsing.”
“People don’t really pants other people,” Daria said, her eyes growing ever wider.
“At college? Like all the time.” Max folded her legs as she sat down with a sigh. “What are we doing besides gossip and magic practice.”
“Talking magical theory too,” Daria offered, changing the subject very quickly. I poked her in the ribs and she grunted at me. “I think every time a wolf bonds Darcy, she gets more powerful.”
Max tilted her head.
“Huh. Makes sense. Kinda like magical dick.”
“What?!” I choked. Max wrinkled her nose at me.
“Don’t be a prude. It’s ki
nda like their dicks are magic.”
“It’s their teeth that do the bonding. Not… not their dicks,” my voice was strangled. Daria and Max exchanged a look and then burst into laughter, nearly falling over.
“Oh my god for someone who is getting laid five times over every night, you are so buttoned up,” Max said, after catching her breath. Daria was still wheezing.
“We don’t know how they bond you,” Daria said, with a snorting gasp of air. “So it could be their dicks and their teeth. Are they in you when it-”
“Not talking about this,” I said, holding up my hands. “This officially crosses into TMI categories of discussion.”
“TMI is only for when someone shares with you way too much info, unwanted. We want to know the deets. You’re currently in NEI-land.”
“NEI?” Daria asked, swiveling her head to look at Max.
“Not enough info,” Max said.
“Ooooh. Hey, while we’re slanging. What exactly do people mean when they say ‘yeet’?”
I groaned and got to my feet.
“I’m going downstairs,” I said.
“Good idea, go lock in Eli, get bonded. Get that magic werewolf dick,” Max called over her shoulder at me as I walked toward the hatch.
I closed my eyes for a second, deciding it was probably not worth the magic-fight it’d start if I zapped her in the butt. Still… the talk had given me some ideas.
“Wolfe?”
His head was bent over some large book that made even his long legs look small in comparison. He and Luka had been spending a lot of time in the library, digging out every architectural diagram of the witch council’s headquarters that they could. We needed to raze it to the ground, and then dig up all the foundations as well, shattering the stones to dust if we wanted to do this right.
“I have a very bad headache, Darcy.” He sounded exhausted.
“I wanted to talk about heartstones," I said. He glanced up and frowned.
“I think we’ve discussed them adequately. I wouldn’t wish this life of unliving on you. You’re too young to make that kind of deci-”
“What if-” I held my hand out to stop him. “What if you ended up deadified because you weren’t bonded to a wolf?” I asked. “I saw a witch, in my vision at Dragonpack. She made a heartstone and she wasn’t dead. I don’t know anything about her, but I know she made one and she survived.”
Wolfe frowned.
“I-”
“Not every witch could have died making one, or nobody would have made them. At some point, witches were making heartstones for werewolves, for whatever reason, out of the goodness of their hearts, right?” I pulled up a chair and sat across from him. “My powers are growing, maybe because the guys bonded me as their mate. Maybe… maybe I could do it.”
Wolfe eyed me and then glanced away.
“You haven’t had children yet.”
“What?”
“I wouldn’t… want you to risk it… without-”
“One,” I snapped, “that’s kind of a me-decision, not a you-decision, and two, there’s no way I’m getting pregnant by any of the pack until they’re near a heartstone for a long enough period of time. We don’t forgo condoms for funsies, they can’t get me pregnant. It’s not possible. Remember?”
“Is that what you want?” Wolfe asked with softness, seeming to back down in the face of my anger.
“What? Of course I want that. I want them to have a heartstone. They deserve that safety. Without it…”
“Their strength will fade, their lives will shorten,” Wolfe said. “I know. It pains me to think of it. But no, do you want… with them… children?”
“It’s not something I’m thinking about right now because reasons, mainly I’m still really young, and our relationship might be bonded and blessed by the werewolf gods or whatever, but it’s still… it’s still new.” I swallowed down a pack of feelings. “I want to just be alive for another month. Right now that’s not even guaranteed.”
Wolfe blinked, and I swear his eyes glittered with tears.
“So you wish to try to create a heartstone.”
“No, I’m going to make one,” I said, with determination. “Anything is possible. You’ve shown me that, they’ve shown me that.”
“I suppose it is,” he said, before sitting back in his chair. “And have you thought what would happen if you became like me?”
“Well at least they’d have a heartstone,” I whispered. “And… a mate who really likes blood, I guess.”
“Ask them,” Wolfe said. “Ask them if they think it’s worth the risk. They might want to keep you just as you are.”
That idea left a sour taste in my throat.
“But they can’t have me just as I am forever,” I pointed out. “I’m going to change. Everybody does. We all grow and shift over time. I’m going to get old, and one day I’ll die, maybe before them, maybe after, or somewhere in between.”
Wolfe was quiet, watching me, listening.
“If they want to keep me just as I am, like this forever,” I said, the thought occurring to me, unfolding in my mind as I spoke, “well maybe being like you would be the only way to do that.”
“They love you, Darcy, just as much as you love each of them. At least give them the choice. They’ve had so few choices in the manner of which their lives have gone. Ask them,” he urged me.
“Is this Wolfe my teacher talking? Because you’ve been pushing me for so long to stretch my powers, to try harder.” I scanned his face, trying to get a read on what he was thinking. He looked… sad.
“I’m speaking to you as someone who has grown very fond of you in a short time, Darcy,” he said. “Were something to happen to you… I should think I would be quite… quite put out.”
My lips quirked, but I didn’t smile. He was really uncomfortable, almost resigned.
“So you don’t think I could make one?” I asked, needing to hear it from him. I held my breath as he looked toward the ceiling, like he was counting the moments before he spoke again.
“I fear you could, and that you will try, no matter if I discourage you or not. I fear losing you to your own powers, watching you burn up, or the worst of it, becoming like me. I fear watching each of your wolves die, leaving you more and more alone, until there is no one left but the two of us to wander the world.” He held my eyes with his. “If that is a future you can see yourself living in without regret, then I cannot hold you back from what you want to try.”
My mouth was dry. A tiny spark in my mind lit, and wouldn’t go out.
“You love someone, and you’re afraid to lose them and be alone, is that it?” I asked.
He turned back to the book in his lap.
“I think I hear the dinner bell ringing,” he said.
“Wolfe, it’s eleven at night.”
“Best you be getting to bed then, Darcy.”
I got to my feet, waiting for him to answer my question. He was silent for a long time, and eventually, he out-stubborned me, especially because Charlie came to the doorway and called for me.
I left Wolfe there, alone with his thoughts, and the feelings he had for someone that he wouldn’t, or couldn’t act on.
Thirteen
Darcy
“I’m beginning to think that Daria, Luka, and Frank are plotting something,” Charlie said as he crashed into bed next to me. I groaned.
I’d nearly been asleep. The last week had taken it’s toll on me as Wolfe had me practicing my magic every day for hours on end. The nights… well, I was snuggled up tight with five werewolves who were very, um, insistent. Needless to say I wasn’t getting nearly enough sleep.
“What makes you say that?” Cash asked, lifting his head from the pillow I was sharing with him.
“Can we leave gossip for tomorrow? You guys are worse than Max.”
“Max’s great, what’s wrong with Max?” Ace piped up, his voice sleepy. Apparently I wasn’t the only one nearly in dream land before Charlie had come to bed.
“Stop stealing the covers,” Finn growled at Eli, who responded with a hearty shove that had Cash pressing into me.
“Easy, easy,” he snapped at the twins. “I got precious cargo right here. C’mere, sweetheart, let’s you and me find a private room, what do you think?”
“Hey, I didn’t do anything,” Ace protested. “Wherever Darcy goes, I’m going too.”
I sat up with a groan.
“I just want to fucking sleep,” I said, tugging at my tank top that had gotten all twisted from Cash’s snuggling.
Charlie watched me, amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes.
“I think the kiddos are plotting something,” he reiterated.
“Since genius here won’t shut up until we ask him what’s going on,” Cash said, “just tell us already.”
“I keep catching them hiding in random rooms in this heap, heads together and whispering,” he said. “I wondered if any of you had the same idea that I did, that they’re up to no good and we should put a stop to it.”
“I think it has more to do with Luka and Daria exchanging magic theory. Frank’s just along because he’s fallen head over heels for Daria and doesn’t know how to make a move,” Eli said. We all went quiet.
“What?”
“He’s what?”
Eli stretched his arms up, ignored Finn grumbling at him for shifting the covers.
“You guys haven’t noticed? He follows her around all the time making moon eyes.”
I blinked over at his shadowy form in the darkened room.
Daria… and Frank? I burrowed down into Cash’s arms, enjoying the comfort of his broad shoulders.
“Should we… do anything about it?” Ace asked in the quiet as we all got settled. Charlie sighed, stretching out at the far end of the bed. I felt the ghost-soft touch of his hand on my hair, even as Ace sandwiched me in next to Charlie.
“I think Frank deserves a little happiness, and if he wants to chase after a witch-girl, well… it’s working out for us just fine,” Finn said after a moment.