Chapter 2
Jessie
Two days later, I stood with Dave and the basajaunak just outside the motel. A few of our vans and SUVs had doors or trunks open, waiting for the last of our luggage to be loaded in.
“We should be going with you,” Dave told me, and the rest of the basajaunak nodded or grunted their agreement.
“Something doesn’t feel right about the trees in this wood.
The mountain is unsettled, and it doesn’t seem to be regarding that pack.
Something is wrong here, Jessie. You shouldn’t go without us. ”
“The alphas specifically said you guys had to stay behind.”
Butterflies filled my stomach as I looked out at the trees. I knew what he felt, a strange sort of wrongness about the area, though I couldn’t put my finger on why. Maybe it was simply nerves about what was to come, or maybe it was something else.
“They won’t be able to see us if we go on foot,” he pushed.
“Any decent shifter would feel your presence, or smell you, and Austin suspects there are a few of them in this pack. We agreed to their terms, and so we need to fulfill our end of the bargain.”
“But…” He shook his head and looked at the ground. “If you get into trouble, and we stay here, we’ll be too far away to help.”
“I think that’s the point.”
The butterflies turned ravenous. It wasn’t just Austin that might cause this alpha to balk.
Or Broken Sue, who would go, or even Tristan.
Nessa and Sebastian, our resident mages, would be going as well.
Our numbers were greatly reduced, but he was giving entry to some of our biggest power players, people who could do damage from a distance.
Why would the alpha allow the mages but not Dave? Austin couldn’t figure it out. Hollace was allowed, but not Cyra. Niamh and Mr. Tom, but not Edgar.
Although, if the alpha had heard how weird Edgar was, that made sense.
Indigo had to stay behind, which also made sense.
If he planned to take us down, he wouldn’t want our healer with us, but Fred got an invite.
She was a Jane and couldn’t get a reading on this pack via technology, reaching the conclusion that they were off grid.
Magical people were fine living disconnected?
A die-hard tech nerd, Fred was flabbergasted, so I told her to stay behind.
She wasn’t needed and this was dangerous.
Apparently, Fred disagreed because a few minutes earlier, I’d noticed her sneaking into the back of a van, and she wasn’t overly stealthy about it, either.
I considered yanking her back out and decided why bother?
Waste of time. Niamh would sneak her back in and do a much better job concealing it.
Better to know where Fred was, I decided, and look out for her than not know and have her do something surprising and stupid at the worst possible time.
Jasper and Ulric had gotten a pass to go, but no other gargoyles. Six shifters would be allowed, chosen by Austin. Everyone else was told to remain at the motel in case the alpha had someone watching them to make sure they stayed put.
We hadn’t seen a soul all morning, not even the cleaning staff. The front desk was unmanned, and the sidewalk outside was deserted. Not all that uncommon, but there were no cars on the highway.
“You have to admit, the situation is odd,” Hollace said, walking over. He wore his cream suit from the alpha meeting with a red square tucked in the front pocket. We would mostly follow shifter protocol until things got dangerous.
“More than odd,” I murmured, scanning the trees.
“Where the hell is everyone? The town is tiny and there hasn’t been much activity the last couple days, but there has been some.
It seems suspicious that the day we leave you guys behind is the day everyone disappears.
” Sweat beaded on my forehead. “What if it isn’t us who is in danger at all, but you guys? ”
“We are in no danger,” Dave growled.
“He has a point,” Hollace said. “Those shifters wouldn’t leave the basajaunak here with a phoenix and then try to take them out. They’d divide us up better than that.”
I shook my head as the rear doors closed, and shifters took their positions next to the vehicles they’d be traveling in. They were waiting for my crew.
I took Dave’s hand and looked into his eyes. “You be careful, do you hear me? Stay safe. Keep everyone safe.”
The other basajaunak pushed in closer. Phil was wearing his kilt, a construction vest, and hardhat. He put a large hand on my shoulder.
“I can sneak in if you need me to,” he said. “I can blend in.”
He didn’t seem to realize that more than his clothes made him stand out. Normal people weren’t ten feet tall and had hair all over their body.
“Thank you, but you stay here, okay? Don’t let anyone follow us. They might get picked off before they get to us.”
“This is the least fair thing of all the unfair things,” Cyra said, walking up. “Even if they attempted to kill everyone, I can’t die. It’s safer for everyone if I go along.”
“Which is precisely why you didn’t get on the approved list,” Hollace told her. Grinning, he sauntered to the nearest van. He was rubbing it in. Cyra pouted as she watched him go.
Niamh waited beside a beat-up Jeep with scratches along the sides. It was a rental, in the lot right beside a moving truck and three clean and polished passenger vans. We hadn’t bothered with insurance.
“Well,” Niamh said by way of hello. She insisted this peculiar setup had been staged for dramatics. I sincerely hoped her “hunch” was right.
“Miss, watery dredge posing as coffee for the road?” Mr. Tom stopped beside me with a thermos. “I do not understand a town without a coffee shop, but then I also do not understand a town with three morgues and scarcely as many people.”
I frowned, gazing at the deserted highway leading into town. I hadn’t noticed the morgues. That did seem odd.
Austin strode over. He wore a tailored suit jacket and slacks, a dress shirt unbuttoned at the neck, and a pair of loafers without socks.
He hadn’t bothered with a tie, cufflinks, or any bells and whistles.
He expected to shift and so was keeping up a minimum pretense.
Not like I was that much better. I wore a pretty but expendable flowing dress with a stretchy belt around my waist and slip-on shoes.
I could shed this in a moment or tear my way out of it.
“Jess.” He wrapped his fingers firmly around my upper arms and looked down into my eyes. “Stay safe, do you hear me? If the worst happens, you fly out of there. You slam them with magic, and you fly. Do not take any chances.”
I smoothed my hand down his hard chest and soaked in those beautiful cobalt eyes. They were filled with concern and love, and they sparkled with unspeakable violence. My accidental pulse of magic felt like a call to arms.
“We’re going to be okay.” I was good at assurances by now. I should be. I said them often enough. “It’s going to work out, you’ll see. We’ll be fine.”
I wished I believed it. I had a bad feeling we were about to find out what was plaguing this mountain.
Austin walked around to the driver’s side door and climbed in. I followed suit.
“Undo that seatbelt, Jess,” he told me. “You might need to get out in a hurry.”
And I would get out in a hurry if he hit a stump and I was ejected from the moving vehicle.
I did as he said. Sometimes it was not easy to override my Jane training.
Austin started forward, leading the procession.
“I forgot to tell Edgar to stay out of trouble,” I murmured, watching the trees rush past. “Or say goodbye to Indigo.”
“I did.” Sebastian reached around the seat to pat my arm. “Indigo was worried, and Edgar gave me an odd smile and possibly a wink.”
“Possibly a wink?”
“One of his eyes randomly closed, which also happens. I think he might be physically falling apart. Is that possible?”
Anything was possible with that vampire.
“I haven’t felt any presences.” Austin directed the Jeep into the center of the road, which had narrowed to a single lane. “If they were watching us back there, they were doing it at a distance.”
“The gargoyles didn’t see anything,” Tristan said. “Though it would be easy to hide from them. I kept them confined to the skies above the motel. How much do you think this pack knows about us?”
“More than enough if they really wanted to.” Austin braced one hand on the wheel and the other on his thigh, his eyes scanning our surroundings.
“A lot of those are rumors, right?” I asked. “As far as they are concerned, I mean.”
“Rumors that have been backed up by many trustworthy sources. I guess it depends on what he’s willing to believe. The more they know, the better. We aren’t trying to hide anything.”
I nodded, sending out a spell to see if anything waited in the woods. Small animals so far, out in the distance. Birds and things in the brush.
“But like…why allow Niamh and Mr. Tom, but not Edgar?”
“Maybe he has something against vampires?” Tristan replied. “They can be incredibly deadly when in their prime. Unpredictable and without loyalty. They are always a wild card. This alpha might not know our vampire is half senile.”
“More than half,” Sebastian muttered.
“Why my gargoyle crew but not any others?” I pushed. “Why not the usual team of gargoyles we bring to match the shifters. You’d think they’d want to know their story.”
Austin shook his head. “Maybe he doesn’t think it matters.”
I bit my lip. “Which would insinuate he doesn’t care about our setup, and he wasn’t planning to join up anyway.”
“Right,” Austin growled. “In which case, why allow us in? He can’t possibly think I would leave my growing and prosperous pack for his. That math just doesn’t work out.”
“Curiosity?” I offered. “He invited Hollace. He’ll get to see a mythical, spectacular being that isn’t as dangerous as a phoenix.”
“Or maybe he wants to pit himself against the biggest, baddest alpha out there,” Tristan said in a low tone. “He wants to see who’s the king of the mountain.”
“Bingo,” Austin said.
I sent out another spell to detect anyone lurking in the trees as we passed.
“Are you getting anything, Jessie?” Sebastian asked.
“Small animals, mostly. And birds.”
“Yeah.”
The sky boiled with clouds, but no storm had come. No rain, either. The dense wood cut down on the available light. The air was heavy and humid and rich with the scent of damp earth, pine, and wildflowers. The edge of a felled tree jutted out into the lane, forcing Austin to slow to go around.
Nothing of note interrupted my spell. Still, my gargoyle started to churn. I held out my hand to stop Austin but didn’t give the command. The urge to go airborne suddenly gnawed at me.
“What is it?” Austin asked, working the Jeep around the log.
Using my gargoyle’s connections, I checked on the people we’d left behind. I sensed worry and frustration, but no cause for alarm. Those in the vehicles behind us were watchful and alert.
“I’m still getting nothing,” Sebastian said.
I shook my head. Me, too. Except this gnawing need…
“Stop,” I finally said.
“What’ve you got?” Austin asked as Tristan leaned forward.
Nothing, that’s what I had. Absolutely nothing. Except…
I looked at the sky as the Jeep idled. My hand reached for the seatbelt release before I remembered I wasn’t wearing one.
“I’ve still got nothing,” Sebastian said.
I released a breath. I was jumping at shadows.
“Yeah, I—“ Two shapes appeared within my spell.
“I got something,” Sebastian barked. “Three—no five—eigh—“
“A team, coming in fast in shifter form,” I said, throwing open my door.
“Highly organized, flanking us. At a distance right now but closing in.” I counted them as I readied more spells in my mind.
The grisly ones popped up first, but I discounted them.
No one tended to walk away from those, and this might not be as bad as it seemed.
“Nearly twenty-five—no, thirty in shifter form surrounding us.”
“I count forty,” Sebastian said.
Yeah, I did now, too. Or near enough.
Austin peeled out of his clothes, as did Tristan. I glanced back. My team had exited their vehicles and were readying for the attack.
My connections fired with emotions. “Everyone is wondering if they should shift,” I told Austin. “The gargoyles are asking if they should go airborne.”
So was I.
“Hold,” Austin said as the resident shifters slunk in, closing the circle around us.
I rattled off their positions. Their uniformity was damned impressive.
“I got three more,” I said, feeling them enter the spell. “On the road in front of us. Human form, one a little in front of the others. The welcome party, I’d wager.”
“Some welcome,” Tristan murmured.
Austin placed himself in the middle of the road, feet planted and shoulders squared. He’d shift at a moment’s notice.
I didn’t stand with him. This was a shifter matter, and my presence would only make him unbalanced. He’d place my protection above diplomacy, and things would escalate quickly. Besides, it would be Tristan who fired me into the air if this got underway in a hurry.
A man walked toward us, a hunk of muscle, brawn in spades.
He looked like he was carved from rock, but he moved like a swimmer, fluid and with ease.
His white-blond hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and I clocked him in his late twenties.
Hard to tell at this distance. He was a smidge taller than Austin’s six-two and slightly less robust. His muscled arms swung from wide shoulders, swishing against the fabric of his purple muumuu.
Wide-eyed, I glanced at Tristan. He didn’t return the look, so I turned to Sebastian.
“That cannot be a coincidence,” Sebastian whispered. “That is something Elliot Graves would wear in this situation to taunt an enemy.”
Yes, it was.
A man and a woman flanked Mr. Muumuu. They were dressed in pristine suits, sparkly jewelry, and expensive shoes, and they looked every bit the part of one of these meetups, except for the location.
They scanned our gathered people—those they could see—but Mr. Muumuu only had eyes for Austin.
The alpha’s beast moved behind those gray eyes, the color of wet stone, and power pulsed from him like a second heartbeat.
From some unseen or unheard cue, those gathered around us started to close the circle.
“Their timing with the alpha is perfect and precise,” I murmured to Austin in a low voice.