Chapter 13
I had been nervous to stay with Vesta over the break—well, nervous to stay with her family, that is. It turned out to be effortless. At least until the Solstice.
We celebrated both Solstice and Christmas in my house and as a whole on Greenacres.
With my mother being a witch and our friends being werewolves, we tended to favor the Solstice part of the holidays, at least as far as gift giving.
Which is why I had been extremely anxious about the gift giving part of staying with Vesta.
To say that her family had everything was like saying that Omega was smarter than one of those old cell phones that people used to carry.
The Steward of Earth, for goddess’s sake.
So I worried that what I had put together would be utter trash. I was both relieved and mildly disgruntled when Vesta told me the truth.
“What do you mean you don’t exchange gifts?” I asked.
“It was almost pointless before I was even born. Oh, we still find things here and there and gift them, but nothing organized or scheduled. I mean, of course I have a gift for you, and this year I have one for Mother and Aunt Ashling, but that’s kind of it. Were you worried?”
“Worried? Terrified. I have gifts for everyone, but I’m certain they would think them garbage.”
“No, they won’t. Just give them and have no worries. I don’t think anyone got you anything, but probably not each other either. Aunt Ashling gives the gift of her food, which is magic itself.”
And so I ended up clearing my throat after the amazing and yes, magic, dinner that Ashling had prepared was cleared away.
“I, ah, didn’t realize that your family tradition was less, ah, gift-oriented then most at this time of year, so I have something for each of you.” The entire table turned my way. I had their complete attention.
“Oh, dear laddie, ye don’t need to do that!” Ashling protested.
“Ah, well, they are not much, so no worries,” I said, nervously. “In fact, here is yours.”
I had managed, on our trip back to Greenacres when Omega returned the Chiassons, to pick up some stuff from storage in the Pack’s secure warehouse. Now I handed one of those items to Ashling O’Carroll.
It was a pottery jar, made by a very skilled Center Portal potter. When she turned the lid off, Ashling stared at the ground black powder that I had filled it with.
She looked up with a frown.
“My mom somehow figured out that rhinocodium was bound into tick shells and centipedes, which explains the hundreds of both I killed for her as a child. Mixed with water and spread on a wound, bruise, or infected cut, that paste will speed whatever healing spell you make, using the power of the paste rather than your own. I thought it might interest you.”
Her expression turned to one of incredulous wonder. “Oh my. Does it ever. How do I find out more?”
“There is a group of advanced witches at school who are delving into rhinocodium for their thesis papers,” Vesta said. “They would love to consult with you on it.”
“Thank ye, lad,” she said.
“You’re welcome. Levi, this is for you,” I said, handing him a package that was clearly a wrapped book.
“You collect old books, but I don’t know anything about old books.
That,” I said as he unwrapped it, “is a copy of the first book ever published on Greenacres. Signed. It’s not bad, not great, but it was very popular fifteen years ago. Murder mystery.”
He was clearly delighted. “I remember hearing something about this. Thank you.”
I nodded. “Darci, Vesta told me you travel down South every year to participate in the annual Southern state python hunt. Says it’s easy to get bitten. See if these help.”
She opened the package to reveal thin gloves of mottled green that reached to her elbows. “Mackdragon skin. Snake teeth won’t penetrate it. Knives have a hard time with it too.”
She rolled up a sleeve and showed me a pattern of white scars on her left forearm. “Could have used these two years ago. Thank you.”
“Kristin, this is for you.”
She hefted the cardboard box and looked at me with brows up. “Weighty,” she said as she cut the twine and tape. She pulled out a rectangular pull top tin can and looked at it curiously.
“Tin fish from Greenacres. One of our better exports. The Jandreau clan cans them. The fish, what we call a bolt cutter on account of its jaws, swims upstream every year like salmon. The Jandreaus have one of the best spawning rivers running right through pack lands.”
“I told him about your tin fish obsession,” Vesta said.
“Icelandic to my core,” the tall, willowy werewolf said. “Thank you.”
“Alex and Holly, I followed a common theme for your gifts,” I said, handing each a package.
They tore into them and were rapidly holding handmade weapons.
“I made a copy of the axe my dad used to build a travois in the bush, although it came out as a tomahawk. Axehead beak and the tail spine of a Golf Alpha armapine. Alex, that’s a karambit knife made from the claw of the largest Mackdragon ever caught.
I had to use a diamond bit in my rotary tool to put an edge on the inner curve of the claw. ”
“This is awesome,” Holly said, swinging the tomahawk wildly only a few feet from Alex. “So light.”
Alex leaned back out of harm’s way while spinning the karambit around his little finger and taking much more controlled swipes with it.
“Okay, last are the three of you,” I said, turning to Vesta and her parents. “Vesta, you need to open yours first, then your mom and dad open theirs. They are all related.”
“Great… where is it?” she asked.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out three ten-millimeter cartridges. All three had gold bullets instead of copper ones.
Her parents turned theirs over in their hands, looking puzzled.
But my girl already knew the answer to my puzzle, as she sucked in a sharp breath.
Taking the cartridge in hand, she twisted the bullet counterclockwise and it screwed right off.
Then she dumped the contents into her hand.
Omega was clearly watching because the diffused lighting suddenly focused itself into a tight spot of bright light that lit the Damara ruby in her hand.
It had been cut with facets and it had a platinum setting around it that would slide onto a chain or cord.
Her parents copied her actions and found themselves holding chips of ruby set into ovals of gold and platinum, also able to fit on a chain or bracelet or cord.
“That is my largest ruby. The chips were the result of when I had it cut by a jeweler. I made the settings myself with help from two of our teachers, Mehitable and Erika. The gold and platinum come from Greenacres and I know both are common now days, what with asteroid mining and all, but it seemed appropriate. The big ruby will ensure you always have a source of magic even if you’re in deep space.
The chips are sympathetic with the ruby, and the spell matrixes allow you to always find each other , to know if each of you is alright.
The chips are small but still have enough juice to power their matrix. ”
Holly whistled softly. Everyone else was speechless. Stacia had tears in her eyes, Declan looked dumbfounded, and Vesta just launched herself at me in a blur.
“Ooof,” I said, because it was a blur with significant impact. I would love to report she was like a soft kitten floating into my arms. But it was more like getting hit with a full-length heavy bag that just swung down from the ceiling. Weres are dense, dense, dense.
The kiss was intense and my initial alarm got swept away for a second or two until she pulled back.
“Craig…” Declan started but just drifted off as his mouth stopped working. Vesta’s mom just came over with a huge smile and grabbed my head, pulling it forward to kiss the top. I realized her shirt was low-cut at almost the last instant and slammed my eyes shut. No, no, no.
Vesta was laughing at me when my head was released from the vise of her mother’s grip.
“Omega, what is that ruby worth?” Holly asked.
“The largest Damara Ruby sold at auction fetched eight-point-three million credits. Vesta’s is larger still, even after being cut. It would go for perhaps twenty-five to forty percent more.”
“Ah, kid, you just set your own gift giving-bar impossibly high,” Levi said.
“No he didn’t,” Kristin said. “A gift of gems and or precious metals between two bonded mates is the equivalent of an engagement ring.”
“You knew that?” Darci asked me.
“Yes. I’m well versed in werewolves. Plus, my sister was advising me on the setting and the cut and stuff.
When they open their gifts, both Hannah and Burke are going to find a ruby too, so that they always heal fast. Oh, that reminds me,” I said, pulling out three loops of cord.
“You can mount your setting on anything you want, but on Greenacres the weres all use this fiber for jewelry. We call it bungy vine because…” I said, holding up one cord and stretching it like, well, a bungie cord.
“It shifts with the wearer?” Kristin asked.
“Yeah. It’s tough as shit too. Really hard to break,” I said, yanking on the cord as hard as I could. It stretched out two feet more but didn’t snap.
Vesta snagged the cord I was stretching and threaded her ruby onto it with the dexterity of a professional seamstress. I leaned over and handed Stacia the other two, working my arms under and around my lap partner, who was settling her necklace in place.
“Ooooh. I can feel the energy in it,” Vesta said.
“You’ve handled rubies before, Vee,” I said.
“Not in a setting and not for long, plus this has my name on it… my magical name,” she said.
“Well, as best as I could get it. I’m still new at some of this stuff,” I said. “Erika and Hettie were super helpful for that.”
“Hettie, is it?” Ashling asked with an arched brow.
“Outside of class and with personal side projects, we can use first names,” I said.
“You,” Vesta said. “You can use first names. Don’t think for an instant that we don’t know that you are the teachers’ favorite.”
Vesta’s parents were settling their own necklaces into place, and I saw the moment her mom felt the magic from the ruby chips. Her dad smiled and nodded, like he found them clever, but her mom had both brows up in astonishment.
“Your necklace, Stacia, is dual purpose. First and foremost, it will always point you in the direction of your daughter’s necklace, whether she’s wearing it or not.
But you’ll know if she is or isn’t and you’ll have a general idea if she’s healthy or scared.
Second, it will feed you magic for healing or shifting if and when you need or want it. Not a lot, but some.”
I turned to her dad. “You no doubt already realize this, but yours is geared specifically for being able to pull her out of trouble. I know you can find her anywhere on Earth, but this will help if she’s above the earth, or in another dimension or planet—theoretically.
Erika was pretty pleased with how it turned out. ”
“Just health and fear?” Stacia asked.
“I don’t want to make it privacy invasive, but more a safety device. She could also call for help with it.”
“The gems are linked sympathetically because they came from the same matrix, but they are not like entangled particles,” her dad noted.
“But see, they are. Omega helped out with the final product,” I said.
“She already wears nano,” Holly stated.
“Which could be destroyed by something like the Adversary,” I said. “When we go out in the bush, we have as many redundant systems, tools, and safety features as possible. This is just another layer of that, which happens to have cosmetic beauty.”
She stared at me for a second. “You sure you don’t have an older brother or half-brother around somewhere?”
I smiled and shrugged.