by Kimber White
The place had high ceilings and marble floors. It looked like a classic haunted house with creepy portraits of likely long dead relatives on the walls. I half expected their eyes to follow me through the house.
Dorothea shuffled to a curio cabinet in the hallway. She fiddled with the handle and came back holding a wooden box.
“You keep your diamonds there?” I asked. “You might want to call my firm and get a security consult.”
“I know what you are,” she said.
I raised a brow.
“You’re either brave or stupid coming here,” she said. “And that girl out there is a liar. I don’t trust her. You shouldn’t either.”
“So why are you doing this?” I asked. “You seem more interested in playing games than business.”
“I’m keeping a promise!” she yelled. “Never you mind what I’m up to.”
She threw the wooden box at me. I caught it against my chest, surprised at how heavy it was.
“Take it,” she said. “Get it away from me and good riddance.”
The thing felt like lava in my hands. Whatever the hell was inside it, I sensed powerful magic.
“That’s right,” she said. “You’re right to let your wolf out.”
I caught my reflection in the hall mirror. Damn. I thought I had better control. My wolf eyes glowed like twin sapphires. It was this place. Whatever the hell was in this box.
“Open it,” she said. “I know you want to.”
I did. The urge burned through me, much like what I felt when I got close to Meg.
I lifted the gold latch. The box was lined with red silk. Mrs. Davies came closer. She put a cold, bony hand on my arm.
“Good riddance to it,” she said. “But you tell your girl out there she better honor her end of it. Thirty days. That’s all she gets to find me a buyer or I take my business elsewhere.”
In the center of the box, nestled in a cushion of red silk was the largest diamond I’d ever seen. Big, like the Hope Diamond. I was no expert, but it had to be thirty or more carats.
A red diamond. It had the look of a ruby but was both paler in color and far more brilliant. Each facet glittered as the sunlight caught it through the front window.
I looked at Mrs. Davies. Shards of red from the diamond danced across her cheeks.
The diamond was set into a gilded brooch. I reached for it, carefully lifting it from the box. It glowed. It had to be a trick of the light, but it glittered like a thousand stars in my hands. A growl rumbled through me. My fingers turned to claws as I held the stone up to the light. I dropped it as if it had turned white-hot. I’d almost lost control.
“Like I said, good riddance to it,” she whispered. “That thing has brought this family nothing but trouble.”
“Where did you get it?” I asked.
She stepped away and crossed her arms. “Been in my Frank’s family for generations. They brought it over from Wales more than a hundred years ago. Gave it to me as a wedding present. Ripped the family apart when he did. All of them greedy. Jealous. But, I kept it safe all this time. Now, they’re all dead and I’m still here.”
She pointed to the paintings on the wall.
“Tell your girl,” she said. “Thirty days then I call someone else.”
“Right,” I said, closing the box. I could still feel the heat from the stone burning through. It was impossible though.
“She’ll regret it,” Dorothea said. “You will too probably. But it’ll be out of my hair.”
“Right,” I said. Then, I repeated Dorothea Davies’s words at the same time she did.
“Good riddance.”
Then, she shuffled down the hall and went through another door, locking it behind her.
“Leo?” Meg called out.
I clutched the box to my chest and went out to meet her.
Chapter Four
Meg
I couldn’t believe it. The thing was real. My fingers trembled as I held that wooden box in my hand.
Leo slid into the driver’s seat and jammed the car into reverse.
“Wait!” I shouted. “I need to see it. I need to make sure…”
“It’s in there,” he said, his voice low and ominous. Mrs. Davies’ dogs had gotten brave again now that Leo was inside the car. They yipped and nipped, circling the vehicle.
I flipped the flimsy latch on the box and slowly opened it. A gasp caught in my throat as the dazzling light from the gem hit me.
It was more beautiful than anything I could have imagined. Even to my naked eye, the stone was flawless. Pure. A red diamond to be sure, but its many facets glittered in the sunlight, casting a prism of color in my eyes. It nearly blinded me.
“Close that,” Leo said.
He was irritated. I wondered what Dorothea Davies had said to him inside. They were in there far longer than I expected. Had she warned him about the stone? Was it possible she knew precisely what it might be?
I sat mesmerized until Leo reached over and snapped the lid shut.
“She kept it in a drawer in the damn hallway. No lock. I don’t even think she’s got an alarm system here outside of those two dogs and the trail cam. It’s insane.”
“She’s a little touched,” I said. “Eccentric. I told you. She showed my grandfather the stone once about twenty years ago. It has seriously taken that long to convince her to let us handle the sale.”
Leo tore down the driveway and onto the rural highway. I traced the hard outlines and ridges of the stone. It was real. My God. It was real.
I needed to get it to the office and examine it more closely. I needed to call in my grandfather’s expert for a definitive answer, but sitting there with it in my lap, I had no doubt in my mind.
The thing was magic. And it would be worth millions.
I sensed a change in Leo. He white-knuckled the wheel. His eyes had gone their most brilliant blue.
“Pull over!” I yelled.
I didn’t think he’d listen to me in a million years, but he did. Leo pulled at his tie. A vein popped near his temple. The man had kept asking me all this time if I was all right. Now, he seemed like he was about to keel over.
Magic. I swear I felt the heat coming from the stone in my lap. I closed the lid.
“You don’t look well,” I said. “Did she say something to you?”
He jerked his head around, meeting my eyes. My pulse roared in my ears. His gaze was fierce, almost predatory. I knew at that moment the truth of what he was. I was staring into the eyes of a full-blooded wolf shifter, and it looked like his beast was about to come out and devour me.
Chapter Five
Leo
Meg’s hand was on my arm. I lost myself for a moment. I don’t know how long it lasted. A minute, a few seconds? I had to get control of my wolf, and fast.
“I don’t like your Mrs. Davies,” I said. I felt like I was losing my grip. I didn’t know if it was from being so close to Meg or to that blasted diamond. But, something didn’t feel right inside of me. I white-knuckled the steering wheel. More than anything, I wanted to let my wolf out. I felt like I might lose my mind if I didn’t. I had half a mind to pull off on one of these country roads and disappear into the woods for a few minutes.
“Leo?” Meg said. “Are you okay?”
She put a hand on my shoulder. Her touch grounded me, but it also sent my heart racing again.
I opened my mouth to answer her and felt the sharp edges of my fangs. Shit. This was dangerous. Sweat poured down my back. I got out of the car and tore my jacket off. I loosened my tie.
Meg put the box on the front seat and came out to join me.
“You don’t look so good,” she said. “Are you sick?”
“What? No. It’s just…” Just what? How the hell could I explain what I felt if I didn’t understand it myself?
I needed to shift. Right now. Only I couldn’t leave Meg for a second. I felt danger coming from somewhere. But, there was no one around but us.
“We need to
just get back to your shop. The sooner we have that thing locked up in your vault, the happier I’ll be.”
She nodded. “So will I. It’s just, um. Do you want me to drive?”
“What?”
I looked down. My forearms were a little extra furry. I closed my fists so she wouldn’t see my claws.
I went to the back of the car and popped the hatch. I kept a cooler back there. I thanked God for it now. I pulled out a bottle of ice water. Without thinking, I tossed Meg one too.
“Thanks,” she said.
I twisted the cap on mine and downed the entire bottle in one gulp. It helped. At least a little.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just got a little overheated.”
“Right,” Meg answered. I got back behind the wheel and waited for her to strap in. Thankfully, we only had about twenty more minutes until we made it back to her shop.
Somehow, I found my zen. Meg found a jazz station. I usually hated that crap, but somehow it distracted me just enough to keep my wolf under control.
Finally, we made it to our exit. I wound around the business route back into downtown Ann Arbor. Meg directed me to a small parking lot off the alley behind her store.
My senses raw, I got out of the car and had her follow me. We reached the fire escape at the back of her building.
“You live here too?” I asked.
She nodded. “We renovated the space above the shop a few years ago. It’s just a studio, but it suits me. I’ll show you where you can set up camp.”
She keyed in through the back door. I made her wait in the hall while I checked the building.
We were alone.
Meg clutched the wooden box to her chest and made her way down the hall. I waited as she opened the vault. She pulled out a drawer and set the box on top of it.
There, in the dim light of the vault, she opened the box and lifted the diamond out. Even in here, it shimmered. It lit Meg’s eyes with fire and quickened my pulse.
“It’s magnificent,” she said. She reached behind her. There was a small bag on the ground. Meg pulled out a jeweler’s loupe and inspected the stone.
“It’s absolutely flawless,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. If it’s real...it’s the largest red diamond in the world.”
“If it’s real? You mean you’re not sure?”
Meg put the glass down. She chewed her lip. I recognized it now as her tell. Whenever she was nervous or about to hold something back, she did it.
“Look,” I said. “It’s about time you leveled with me about everything. There’s something weird about that rock. I can sense it. And there’s something you’re not telling me. Where’s your grandfather? Really.”
She regarded me. Those luminous brown eyes of hers flicked over every inch of me. My wolf felt it too. I clenched my fists, letting my claws dig into my palms.
“My grandfather wasn’t completely sure. We’ve just suspected. But, I have reason to believe this rock, as you call it, is a gem known as the Kingsblood Diamond.”
She paused. Her words had weight, but I knew I wasn’t giving her the reaction she expected. I shrugged.
“You’ve never heard of it?”
“No. Should I?”
She closed the box, slid it into the drawer and turned the combination lock. I moved further down the hall to give her room to close and lock the outer vault door.
“Come with me,” she said. “I want to show you something.”
I followed her back into the main shop. It was late afternoon now. My stomach growled, but lunch could wait. I was hungry for something else and it drove me just about out of my mind.
Meg was cool and calm. Now that the diamond was tucked safely in her vault, she relaxed. Her mood seemed to alter mine, making it easier to find my chill.
Meg pulled a dusty, battered book off the shelf beneath her counter. She gestured to the sitting area in the corner of the store. She took a seat in one chair and I sat opposite her.
“Kingsblood Diamond,” I said.
She opened the book to a place she had marked with a sticky note.
“It’s old,” she said. “It first shows up in the historical record about nine hundred years ago, but it’s referred to as being old even then. Llywelyn the Great. Many consider him to be the one great Welsh king. The story says he wore the diamond as a brooch. Kept it under his armor in the Battle of Aberconwy.”
“Doesn’t sound very practical,” I said. “That thing’s huge.”
“It was considered a lost cause. Llywelyn wasn’t supposed to win. But he showed up wearing the brooch and became the King of Wales. They wrote songs about it. A rumor got started that it was the diamond. That it made Llywelyn invincible while he wore it.”
“You don’t believe that,” I said.
Meg turned the book around so I could read it. It had a crude drawing of a stone similar to Mrs. Davies’s brooch. The reference beside it recounted the story as Meg just told it.
“It became part of the crown jewels after that. Until it went missing about a hundred years later. Bad luck for the Welsh monarchy after that.”
“Then what happened?”
“The diamond shows up a few times over the next few centuries. Then, it disappears again during Napoleon’s reign.”
“And you’re saying it just happens to show up in a basement in a house on Devil’s Lake in Michigan. Meg, it’s gotta be a fake. That’s ridiculous.”
“You’d be surprised the kinds of things we find in the most ordinary places. But Mr. Davies has a connection. At least, his family does. His three times great grandfather was a courier for a Welsh nobleman. The story he told Mrs. Davies is that his ancestor was asked to hide the diamond. The family thought it was cursed. So, he did and kept it in the family. It got passed down until it finally wound up with Mrs. Davies after her husband died. She’s kept it ever since. She firmly believes it is cursed. That’s what she told my grandfather, anyway. But, I’ll know the truth soon enough.”
“How?” I asked.
“I have an expert I trust who can tell me more about its...er...more unique properties. But, Leo, red diamonds are the rarest kind. There is literally no other gem it could be other than the Kingsblood if it’s authentic.”
“So,” I said. “How much is it worth if you’re right?”
She sat back. “The Moussaieff Diamond sold for fifteen million dollars. It holds the record as the largest red diamond in the world. The Kingsblood is six times the size. We’re talking maybe seventy million dollars, to the right buyer.”
“The right buyer,” I said. I didn’t like the look that crossed her face.
“Like I said, the stone has a nefarious provenance. That kind of thing attracts interesting types.”
“And that’s why your grandfather knows a firm like mine is the only one capable of making sure your transaction goes off without a hitch.”
Cursed, I thought. I didn’t know if I believed that. But there was definitely something about that stone. Meg wouldn’t meet my eyes. I realized at that moment one of the things that were really going on.
“Analyzed,” I said. “You’re not just talking about cut, color, and clarity. Shit. Meg, who is this expert your grandfather planning to bring in?”
Witches. It had to be witches.
“That’s my business,” she said defiantly.
I rose from my seat. I tossed her book on the seat beside her. “And neither you nor your grandfather bothered to mention any of this to Payne. Do you even understand the kind of trouble you can stir bringing in...the people I think you’re thinking of?”
If the stone was genuinely cursed, she’d be dealing with dark magic. No white witch on the planet would want to come anywhere near it.
My wolf roared inside of me. Just the thought of letting this woman anywhere near something dark like that had my blood thundering in my ears.
Mine!
The word tore through me, taking my breath from my lungs.
I had
to turn away from her. I went to the front of the store. Evening was coming. It felt exposed here. I wanted to take Meg to ground, far away. I wanted to get her as far from that damn stone as I could.
Something bad was coming. I felt it. From the second I touched the diamond, I knew where this was headed. Something else occurred to me too. I turned back to Meg.
“I need to call this in. And you knew I was going to say that.”
“Leo…”
“I’m calling this in.”
“Leo…”
“This has got to be the most harebrained scheme. Meg, you’re not equipped to deal with this. You’re not...you’re just…”
Human. I wanted to say human. Vulnerable.
I curled my fists and let my rage boil through me.
She rose and met my eyes. “I’m not stupid,” she said. “And my family has been dealing in exotic items like this since before you and I were both born.”
“You’ve never dealt with anything like this.” I don’t know how I knew that, but I did. I needed Payne’s counsel. This was not what we signed up for. I should have called him the second I sensed something off about this job.
Only I hadn’t. I’d let...what? Lust cloud my judgment.
“I need you to get your grandfather on the phone for me. Or take me to him. If I can’t talk sense into you, maybe…”
“I can’t,” she said. Tears made her eyes glisten. Her pain shot through me. Again, it felt like my own. This wasn’t…it couldn’t be…
“Leo,” she said, her voice small and choked. “I can’t call my grandfather. I can’t take you to him.”
I went to her. Something primal took over. I wanted to protect her with my body. I wanted to…
She was crying. It gutted me. “Meg?”
“He’s dead,” she said.
“What? When? How?”
Her lips quivered. I went to a place beyond reason. I just felt. Before I knew what was happening, I went to her.
“He died a week ago,” she said.
“My God. Meg?”