I lay next to him and rubbed his stomach while kissing him on the nose. “Maybe. I knowyou’llbe happy.”
“Talking about the holidays got me thinkin’.”
“About the food?” I asked, giving him a slight shove.
Roscoe smiled and sniffed my head. “Nah. I’m thinkin’ about how nice it’ll be to spend it with you.”
That made me smile. “When’s the last time you spent it with anyone?”
“Sober?” he asked. “Don’t remember. What about you?”
“The last holiday I spent with anyone was when I lived with my aunt for a few months. After I graduated, I left that town and started a life by myself.” I turned all the way toward him. “Remember when we first met and you said I had a loose ass?”
Roscoe chuckled. “I just said that to get under yer skin.”
“There weren’t that many guys before—well, none that ever wanted to stick around. I didn’t even expect you to stick around, but two enchanted earrings and a bunch of amazing sex later, here we are.”
“You regret it?”
I shook my head. “That’s the weird thing. I don’t.”
“I knew it was only a matter of time before the seeds of my charming personality would grow on ya.”
“More like the spores of a particularly smelly fungus,” I added, my thoughts shifting to something else. “I wonder if Austin celebrated the holidays after everything that happened to him.”
“Sometimes I just wanna give the guy a hug and not let go,” Roscoe whispered. “I wonder why life can be so nasty to some and so good to others. It’s like there’s only so much goodness in the world to go around, and those with everything suck the rest of it away, and they don’t even know it. They just go about their lives ignorant, thinkin’ their petty problems are the end of the world when they don’t even know what real problems are.”
“This year, we’re gonna take some of that goodness for ourselves,” I said, snuggling against Roscoe’s chest. “We deserve at least that much.”
The ground was unbearably cold. I shivered, struggling to open my eyes. The others were gone and so was the campfire. With a groan, I pushed myself upright and looked up at an unfamiliar canopy as waning moonlight streamed in through the mist. My hand grazed a small leather sack on the ground, and I picked it up, the familiar scent of psychedelic herbs stinging my nostrils.
A pair of eyes glowing amber stared at me from the shadows, waiting.
“Where am I?” I called out. No response, which was not surprising. The feral wasn’t going to emerge until I’d taken the herbs, so I reached into the bag and pinched a small amount, tucking it between my gums and cheek like last time.
In an instant, the moonlight brightened into a multitude of colors, glowing moths and neon-like lines flitting around me. Though I knew it was still dark, I could see the feral clearly as he watched from the trees.
He was gigantic and black with braids and feathers in his mane. He wore a leather harness with about six small sacks hanging from it as well as a frayed belt with two larger sacks on both sides. The werewolf ambled languidly on his pawed feet before sitting on a hollow log next to me, his heft causing it to creak a bit. It wasn’t often that I saw werewolves bigger than Austin, but this one would have towered at least a foot over him.
“Hello,” I said, my voice sounding as it had while under the effects of this drug.
“Cody…” He growled my name so deeply it vibrated the ground. He reached for my chest and gently lifted the enchanted stone Roscoe had made into a necklace for me. “Come home?”
“We came here for help.”
“Help?” He looked around. “No witches.”
“A friend of mine did something he shouldn’t have done using the vironoct. He was under the influence of witches, and now another friend can’t break the magic.”
“Hmm,” the feral mumbled, scratching his head. “Under witch’s control?”
“It’s not witchcraft.”
The feral stood and waved me forward before walking toward the scent of smoke. Keeping the herbs in my mouth, I followed him as the colorful path brightened even more. I tapped the werewolf on the arm and pointed to Austin lying next to the fire.
“He needs your help.”
The elder didn’t respond as he approached, rather knelt next to the blond werewolf and placed a hand softly on Austin’s head. He stayed like that for about five minutes before looking back at me.
