I opened my mouth to ask more about Colin’s phone call, but a tug on my mate bond interrupted me. Matt perked up at the same moment.
Nate and Arik were on their way, and they’d found something.
And oh, God. They were really excited about what they’d found. That usually meant trouble.
Hopefully it wouldn’t take the form of garden zombies this time, but I wouldn’t be placing any bets.
Chapter 6
Arik
“So they had a shaman’s help getting away,” Matthew said. “And you think one of the kids is an alpha? How can you tell? How can anyone tell at this age? Alpha magic doesn’t really show until they’re closer to adolescence.”
“We’d learn a lot more from talking to the shaman, because the spell bags themselves can’t tell us what the maker was thinking,” I said, glancing around at him, Calder, Ian, and Nate where they variously perched on stools or leaned against appliances. Jared sat across from me at the table in the breakfast nook, shoveling food in his face. I took another delicious bite myself and resisted licking my chops the way I would have in my other form.
You’d never read this in any books on the craft, but the best way to replenish overused healing magic was via consuming high-fat foods, like massive quantities of cheese. Or certain kinds of omega-rich fish, but I’d die before I admitted that in front of Nate, with all his stupid cat jokes.
We’d all gathered in the pack house kitchen. Calder had quietly made two enormous cheesy omelets and set them in front of me and Jared while Nate and I explained what we’d found in the car and they caught us up in turn on the call from Colin Kimball. During all the excitement, Jared had been way up at the other end of the pack lands working with a couple of other people on clearing an enormous tree that had fallen across an access road, and they’d opted to stay and finish the job since we had things under control here. He’d come back filthy, cold, red-nosed, and smelling of pine sap and rotting mud. Calder had somehow found this irresistible, pulling him into a kiss that made everyone clear our throats after a minute.
I liked seeing my brother happy. Scratch that. Seeing my brother happy brought me joy and contentment only second to how I felt being Matthew’s mate.
But fuck, they needed to get a room—another room than the one they had. A room far, far away from me. Thankfully they’d finally started building themselves a little cottage and would be moving out of the pack house as soon as the weather allowed them to finish construction.
Since my mouth was full, Nate took up the thread. “We’re extrapolating the idea that one of the kids is an alpha, or that someone thinks they are, from one of the spell bags. It covers up all shifter magic, but it’s meant for alpha magic specifically. You’ll have to trust us on that, you wouldn’t understand.” I nodded vigorously, and everyone except Nate rolled their eyes for some reason. Whatever. We were the experts, not them. “Anyway, Jessica’s human. So unless there was someone else in the car originally, it’s meant for one of the kids. But the really cool thing is the way one of the spell bags covers up the rest of the magic on the car. Usually you’d feel the magic if you knew to look, but the car seemed empty. Naturally empty. No one ever taughtmehow to do that,” he added in a sullen mutter.
Nor me. And I agreed. It was very cool.
Matthew and Ian glanced at each other with matching long-suffering expressions, communicating without words the way they often did. Just as well. They mostly insulted each other when they spoke out loud.
“So what you guys are saying,” Matthew said with a sigh, “is that you were incredibly excited and all worked up by what you found in the car, and all you actually found in the car was some technical bit of spellwork that’s irrelevant to our current problems and also impossible for us to understand.”
Seriously? Gods preserve me. My eyes went to Nate, who was staring back at me, eyebrows raised. That look clearly said,Can you believe them?
“Blaming us for your ignorance is a real mood,” Nate said aloud. “Allyoudid was read her driver’s license. Super impressive, A-plus detective work, guys.”
Ian shook his head and turned around, reaching over the counter he’d been leaning on to start filling the coffee maker. “He’ll be less cranky in a bit,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Matthew, not quite quietly enough for the rest of us to miss it.
“I don’t drink coffee, unlike my easily bribed associate, here,” I said, talking more loudly to drown out Nate’s sputtering. “So you’re still going to havemetelling you that your ignorance isn’t our fault.” I put my fork down on my now-empty plate. “Besides, you’re overlooking the non-technical point, which is that Jessica knew someone would be looking for them, and she went to some trouble to try to cover her tracks. The more work she put into getting away, the more trouble whoever’s after her is likely to cause us.”
“And the husband’s already looking in the right area,” Calder put in. “It won’t be long before he’s on our doorstep. My money’s definitely on him being the asshole in this scenario. If she trusted this unknown shaman but not him?”
“Agreed,” Matthew said, and he sounded unutterably weary, exactly the way I felt.
If we weren’t careful, our mate bond would collapse from the weight of so much mutual exhaustion. Mine was more physical, the strain of using too much magic at once. His, I knew, would be more mental: knowing that whatever happened next, be that enemies on the doorstep or our safety at risk or the fate of Jessica and her children, he’d be the one responsible.
“She’ll hopefully sleep until morning.” I stood up, having to push off the table to do it without wobbling. “Which means I’m heading to bed. Nate, you said you’d take the late shift?”
“All I need is coffee. Go get some sleep. You look—”
“Yes, I got it, thank you! Like you’re a fucking fashion model right now with your hair all—”
“Thank you, Nate, call us if you need us, we’ll be right down the hall!” Matthew got me by the arm and hustled me out of the kitchen before I could blink.
“I know I look like shit,” I muttered, as we headed for the stairs. “But I’d think I’d get a pass for saving someone’s life while he fucked off to get fucked.”
“You look incredible to me.” Matthew let go of my arm to wrap his around my waist and squeeze me into his side. “You are incredible. Everything about you.”
Men had said things like that to me ever since I’d gotten old enough to be fuckable, always with one goal…and they’d never fooled me.
