by Kat Bostick
Clem came barreling down the porch steps, her chiffon dress catching the wind from her momentum and making her look like her feet weren’t even touching the ground, a wingless bird gliding into battle. Cash and Deak were behind her, their eyes glowing even as they looked on in brief confusion. Clutched in Clem’s hands was a thick silver chain, one that Mari had almost forgotten about.
“Get her arms, Pa!” Vee’s attention snapped to Charlie at Clem’s command. It took both Jasper and Charlie several minutes and swift moves, but they managed to catch Veronica’s arms and press them to her sides. They struggled to hold her much more than they should have. What the hell was she?
Clem quickly wrapped her in the Vinculum—another enchanted item acquired from Lyse—and held the two ends together. “The spell, Mari!”
“I—shit! I don’t remember the words!”
“Concatenata autem infirma, torque daemoniorum.” Clem called out the Latin verse and Mari repeated it as clearly and concisely as she could. As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, the chain flashed a red gold and the two ends fused together, successfully locking Vee’s vicious arms to her side. Not having her arms free didn’t keep her from thrashing wildly, but at least no one was going to get flayed while they held her.
As the action slowed, Mari became aware of her surroundings again. Aubrey was wide eyed and milk white next to Emma, holding her upright as she wailed. Emma was tearfully mumbling something about “her mommy” and “that evil bitch.” A blank expression took Dad’s face as he watched Cash and Deak jump into the mix, helping them hold Veronica in place while she fought like some wild animal, making noises to match.
It was impossible to tell if he was incensed or incapacitated with horror. Until he spoke, anyway. “What did you do to her?”
“What did I—you think I did that?” She jerked her chin at Veronica.
Dad pointed an accusatory finger. “You attacked her!”
Don’t say she had it coming, don’t say—“She deserved it.”
“Get her to the barn, Cash.” Charlie cut through the argument with a voice like thunder. “That,” He separated Mari and her father, making it clear whose side he was on by placing her behind him. “Is a demon. A demon that you brought into my home. Are you going to tell me you didn’t know? You couldn’t sense it?” Charlie’s eyes brightened in a way that made anyone with half a brain take a healthy step back. Dad was at least that smart, backpedaling toward Aubrey and Emma.
“A demon?” Dad’s face went from stony anger to what the words “oh shit” would look like if they were a facial expression.
“Of some variety or another, yes. How is it possible you detected nothing?” Charlie matched Dad in height, but standing chest to chest, the alpha looked a hundred feet taller. “I knew something was wrong as soon as you stepped out of that car.”
“You did?” Mari frowned. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“We thought it was hatred.” Jasper put his arm over her shoulder, taking a stand at Charlie’s side.
“We? So, you suspected something too?” Deak mentioned his discomfort around Veronica, but Deak was uncomfortable around almost everyone. Mari glanced back at Clem and recognized the guilty apology in her eyes. “You all knew, didn’t you? Of course, you did. ‘There are no secrets in a pack, Mari.’” She mimicked Charlie’s brogue, badly. “‘Except when I want to keep them.’”
“What good would have come from being told that your stepmother genuinely despised you?” Clem asked softly.
“Honesty. Honesty is a good thing. I love honesty.”
“An omission isn’t necessarily dishonest....” Even Clem sounded like she knew her argument was weak.
“Don’t keep things from me.” Mari looked to Jasper. “Whatever it is, you know I can handle it. I handle shit.”
Typical Jasper, laughing at the least appropriate time. “You do handle shit.”
“Pack?” Dad looked as if someone had pulled a stopper out of his foot and every drop of color that his skin held was rapidly draining from the unplugged hole. It was clear by the way Charlie and Jasper suddenly tensed that the scent of fear was permeating the air. Too late, Mari realized what she’d said.
“Mari, what have you done?” He took two steps back, further shielding Emma and Aubrey. “Father Above, I’m too late.”
“Don’t freak out, Dad.”
“I’m too late.” He repeated.
“Too late for what?”
“To stop you!” Mari pushed past Charlie and Jasper, reaching a hand out to calm her father. He jumped back. “They’re werewolves. You lured us into a pack of werewolves.”
“I didn’t lure you anywhere. I invited you to my wedding. I just happen to be marrying a werewolf.”
“Mari…” It was a plea for mercy, her father so certain that she intended to commit some heinous act against him. After what she did to Veronica, could Mari blame him?
“Let’s not make any rash decisions here.” It was unclear if Charlie was talking to the pack or Dad. “We have a bigger problem to deal with right now. None of my kin will harm you or your family so long as you are within the boundaries of my territory. You have my word.”
“Your word?” Dad spit. “The word of a blood thirsty—”
“Do not finish that sentence!” Mari surprised everyone, including herself, by shoving him. “Be grateful for Charlie’s hospitality and worry about the freaky demon that your wife just transformed into. Your priorities suck, Dad! They really suck.”
The disgust written plainly on Dad’s face when his gaze travelled between her and Jasper was as painful as if she’d been swiped with those demon claws. “I should have known.”
Mari chose to ignore his revulsion, tucking her reaction away into one of her tidy boxes to deal with later. Or maybe never. “Um, yeah, you really should have. You’re so out of practice that you can’t even see what’s right in front of you. How long has Veronica been like this?”
“Since October, maybe earlier.” He rubbed his right temple with two fingers. “I thought it was you.”
“Huh?”
“I thought I was sensing you.” The hits kept coming. Dad truly believed that Mari was destined for darkness, that her existence was so corrupted that he could feel evil corroding her soul from across the state. “Can you blame me? Look around you! I’ve dreamt of you surrounded by them. I know what you could learn to do to them.”
“Does that level of arrogance come to you naturally, or do you practice it in the mirror?” A strange hush fell over them as Deak spoke up. “She died this fall. For almost two minutes your daughter was dead.” What? They neglected to tell Mari that important little detail.
“What do you—”
Deak was in Dad’s face, lips lifted in a snarl. His fist was a shackle around Mari’s arm as he raised it, wrenching her dress sleeve down to reveal the long white scar along her arm. “Mari already knows how to do what you’re accusing her of. And instead of using us, she died for us. What right do you have to judge her, while you let a demon live under your roof?” He dropped Mari’s arm and shook his head. “Your kind disgusts me.” Then he was following Cash and Teal to the barn, shoulders bunched with tension.
“Where are they taking her?” Emma wailed. “What are they doing to my mom?”
The confrontation with Dad ended abruptly when he rushed to catch Emma, stopping her from chasing after Cash and the others. There was a brief, tense exchange between Dad and Charlie before Clem took Emma’s hand and led her back inside. Aubrey hurried after Clem, lifting her dress to keep it from dragging in the snow.
More talking, Dad and Charlie both keeping their heads down and voices low. It appeared to be an argument but Mari was too wound up with her own frustration to intervene. If Dad got himself shredded, that was on him.
Mari exhaled, watching her breath vaporize and dissipate into the night. “Sweet baby werewolf Jesus.”
“I was feeling more along the lines of ‘what the fuck,’ pers
onally.” Jasper caught her left arm, fidgeting with her sleeve until it was back in place and covering her scar. He still wouldn’t look at it.
“What the fuck, sweet baby werewolf Jesus?”
Chapter 22
Jasper
Hatred created a palpable aura around the barn, thickening the air until Jasper wanted to claw at his throat. Or someone else’s. Hatred wasn’t quite the right word to describe the terrible, dark feeling that made his alcohol fuzzy blood boil. It was less defined than that, less directed. Maybe this was just what evil felt like.
“We should wait until Charlie makes some calls.” Jasper wasn’t surprised that the alpha could identify a demon, nor was he shocked to learn Charlie knew someone that could deal with them. Before he was one of the most powerful alphas in the Midwest, Charlie was a nomad with a clever tongue and not much to lose. He made a lot of friends and a lot of enemies doing whatever it was he did to make his fortune.
Jasper also wasn’t surprised that his mate had returned to the house only for the two minutes it took to slip on a pair of snow boots and a jacket. She felt responsible for this mess and she was going to try to fix it.
“I can’t wait. I need to know what it wants and why it’s here. And I need to know how it’s controlling me.” Mari bit down on her thumbnail, the only outward sign of the anxiety she was battling.
Whatever it was, he shouldn’t be near it for long. Even as the wrongness coated his skin, he was oddly wooed by it. Some tiny devil that sat on his shoulder had been given a megaphone and was broadcasting the benefits of stalking back to the front of the house and taking a fist to Mari’s father.
One, it would feel good. Two, it could kill him if Jasper hit him hard enough. Three, it would make Mari happy to see her father get his lights punched out. Four, Mari happy would mean she wouldn’t protest when he dragged her into the nearest shadowy alcove, hoisted up her dress, and—
“I need fresh air.” He panted, only then realizing that his body had taken that last point and run with it. Mari’s back was pressed into the barn wall, held in place by his chest. His hands were already halfway up her thigh and he was snarling like a wild animal.
This wasn’t right. Jasper felt drunker than the one or two glasses he’d entertained for Cash’s sake. It was as bad as the one time he’d actually been drunk, also thanks to Cash. The only two parts of his brain that seemed capable of functioning were the ones responsible for violence and sex.
Not a good combination.
“We’re…outside.” Mari breathed, arching into him. Okay, at least he wasn’t the only one. If anything, it was probably worse for them because what she felt was echoing into him.
“We need to get more outside.”
“I need you to get more inside.”
Father Above, she was going to kill him. “No.”
The rejection slapped her back into focus. She blinked once, twice. “Holy shit.”
“You have such a way with words, honeysuckle.”
Mari slipped his arm, running full out to the tree line. Unsurprisingly, Jasper chased her. If she was trying to get him to calm down, this was not going to work. When she made it a good distance from the barn, she scooped a handful of snow and chucked it at him.
“Do you want to play, witch?”
“No!” She was panting, the snow slowing her down. “Stay there.”
“Make me.”
“Jasper, stay there.” She tossed more snow, taking a second handful and stuffing it down the front of her dress. “Shit! Cold, cold, cold.”
That stopped him in his pursuit. “What are you doing?”
“Just hold on. I need to clear my head. You’re very distracting.” She dropped more snow into her dress, squirming and cursing under her breath.
Mari’s eyes slid shut and his excitement suddenly waned, dulling as she closed herself off from him. Her face flashed through sixteen different expressions in the span of ten seconds, ending with something between a scowl and a smile. “It was me.”
“What was you?”
She started pacing. “It was me, but it wasn’t me. How is that possible? I really need to know how this works. If I don’t believe it’s in there, is it not in there? Can it be in multiple people at once? Am I evil?”
“Mari,” Jasper cut her off mid-step. “What are you talking about?”
“This…I…There’s a lot to explain.”
“Too much to explain before you get frostbite?” He took her hands and found them void of warmth.
“I’ll talk fast.”
“You always do.”
Mari resumed her pacing, arms flailing wildly as she talked. The picture she painted was a complicated one, making several connections that he never would have seen. It also made him aware that there was a lot more she hadn’t been telling him than he thought. By the time she was finished, he was more confused, not less.
“You think a demon was triggering my behavior?”
“Yes. Mine too.”
“But I’m not possessed, nor are you.”
If she kept rubbing her temples like that she was going to reveal a part of her skull. “I don’t know how to explain that part. I need to talk to Clem and see if she has any accurate books on demons.”
“I don’t think I understand the motivation. What does a demon want with us?”
“Power? Specifically, my power. You were just an innocent bystander because of the whole mating thing.” She tapped her chin with her index finger. “Or maybe you were meant to make me cast on you and thus feel how powerful I am and get super addicted to it. Who knows.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about these dreams?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about yours?” Touché. “Or that I died. Was I really dead?”
“No!” He was not prepared to talk about this. Ever. “I refused to let you be dead.”
“Jas,” She pulled him into a hug. “I know you’ve been having nightmares.”
“No reason for me to tell you when you’re already stealing them from me.”
“Hey, I would make it stop if I could. I don’t want to sneak into your head any more than you want me to.” Mari put her cheek over his heart. “We need to talk to each other. Keeping stuff to ourselves was making this worse.”
“That’s why you didn’t want to complete our bond.” He realized aloud. “Because you thought you were making me lose my mind?”
Blunt teeth crunched at her bottom lip. “I was afraid whatever was happening to me was affecting you too. I thought it would only get worse if the bond got stronger.”
“But it got better.”
“I think this magic—werewolf magic—deflects other types of magic. Or interacts with it differently. Our bond made a charming spell have the opposite effect on me.”
“I told you nothing good would come of avoiding me.”
“I didn’t want to hurt you.” She shivered, from the cold or the fear he wasn’t sure. “I was afraid I would destroy you.”
“You’ve already destroyed me, sweet Mari. I’m in pieces.”
“Is that supposed to be romantic? I want to do the opposite of destroying you.”
“You do that too.” He frowned when Mari’s shivering got worse. “You need to go inside.”
“Wait!” She dug her boots into the ground when he tried to lead her. “I don’t know anything about demons, but I think this one has been around awhile. When I—” Her hands combed through her hair and she swallowed hard. “When I killed Lyse, everything magic that was part of her came into me. Whatever has a hold on Veronica, I think it was in there too. That’s why it’s been trying to find a way in. It wants my power.”
“It can’t have your power.”
“Just, don’t let it get in your head. Focus on this.” She gave a tug on the bond between them. Jasper wondered if she realized where on his body he felt that mental caress. He was going to have a lot of tension to work off when this night was over. “Recognizing that darkness for what it was made it easier
to push it out of my mind.”
“What are you doing?” He took her arm as she tugged on the door of the barn. A disgusting mixture of hatred and thrill swamped him until he felt dizzy.
“Finding out what this thing wants.”
“This isn’t a good idea right now. We need to meet with Charlie’s contact first.”
“We will. After I make this demon tell me it’s secrets.” She slipped out of his hold and hurried down the corridor of cars in the dim barn. His brothers had already vacated the space, clearly suffering from the same impact of the demon aura as Jasper. “Tap into your own magic. It’s stronger than whatever this is.”
How was she suddenly so confident about this? Her theory about werewolf magic was just that. There was no telling what that thing in there could do to either of them.
Jasper hesitated outside the steel door at the back of the barn. This was a room he made a point to steer clear of. He hated the way it made his skin feel too tight. Claustrophobia was not a good look for a werewolf. But even with a chain and steel bars to protect her, he wasn’t keen on letting Mari go in there alone.
So, with a slow exhale, he stepped through the doorway. Four cells lined the wall to the right side. Four was probably overkill, but when Charlie had the room built, he didn’t know how many pack members to expect. It was the same reason the cottage and half the bedrooms in the main house went untouched. The Dunne compound was built for a pack twice their size.
And a pack twice their size was bound to have problem wolves, hence the cages. Jasper was unfortunate enough to spend some quality time behind those bars earlier this year, an experience he would never be repeating. Not now that he had Mari. Now that they all had Mari. If she learned her craft well, they would never have need to lock up an unruly werewolf. A Wolfseggner was the cure to a werewolf with a few loose screws.
Mari walked slowly down the concrete hall to the cell at the end of the room. Her gaze found him in a sidelong glance and she nodded subtly. That was his out. She was letting him know that he could leave. Not going to happen.