Chapter 20 Sage
Sage
Carl showed up at the house in the early afternoon, and Sage couldn’t say he’d ever spent a more awkward time in his own home.
For one thing, there was the constant over-the-top touching Will was doing, which wasn’t in and of itself a nuisance, and of course Sage knew it was a werewolf thing.
It was, however, frustrating, since Sage was still careful in how he behaved around Will, and he didn’t want to embarrass Will by accidentally triggering him.
For another thing, answering emails on the couch with Will half on his lap and Carl scowling at the display really wasn’t the most productive way to spend an afternoon.
Which was why Sage stopped answering client emails in favor of making some jam, or even some raspberry-flavored lube. Really, any distraction would do at that point.
“I can help,” Carl and Will said at the same time, which gave Sage a most evil idea.
“I could use both your help actually.” He headed to the kitchen to dig out two plastic bowls that were about as old as Sage himself.
He walked back to the living room and handed one to each werewolf.
“You could both go out to the garden and pick some berries. Raspberries are fine, but really anything that’s ripe can go in the jam.
And don’t worry, the garden is warded against loup-garou now,” he added for Carl’s benefit.
He was already taking off his work jacket and tie and rolling up his shirt sleeves.
“Good to know. This should be fun, shouldn’t it?” Carl said, basically throwing a challenge Will’s way.
Some growling followed, but very soon after, Sage had two werewolves headed toward the thorny berry bushes and eager to come back with lots of fresh produce. It was much easier than going berry picking himself.
Sage did give the wards a last check by planting his palm flat on the wall in the hallway leading to the back door, but everything was as it should be. Sage went to the still room and pulled his recipe book off the shelf.
His lube recipe was pretty decent by now, and he had a few regular customers, including Celeste, but he loved experimenting. He was just about to figure out what he wanted to do this time around when a knock on the front door pulled him out of his creative process entirely.
Sage closed his recipe book with a sigh. “Peter, if that’s you, you better have good news.” He walked to the door, but when he opened it, his gaze fell on…a little girl. It was one of the neighborhood kids, though Sage didn’t know her name. “Anything you need, young lady?”
The girl looked up at him, and Sage got the deepest, darkest sense of foreboding when her eyes met his. “The man says he’ll eat Miri, but he’ll let her go if you come out and talk to him.”
Fuck. “What’s your name?”
“Vicky,” she said.
Sage knelt so he was on eye level with her. “Where’d you see him?”
Vicky pointed. “We were playing over by the elm trees, you know? He wanted to ask something, and Miri went. She’s older. He wanted to know the way to somewhere.”
“Okay. Okay, you, erm, go back home. I’ve seen you around. You live here, right?”
She nodded. “Down the street. My mommy is home.”
“Great. You go to your mom, and I’ll go find Miri. Come on.”
Sage took her small hand in his and walked her to the front gate, though he had to slow down when her shorter legs wouldn’t quite move as fast. On the sidewalk, Sage faced the girl.
“Straight home, okay?”
She nodded. She was afraid, but kids processed things differently, Sage knew that, and the fact that she wasn’t crying and sobbing and instead was doing what Sage told her meant he could focus on finding the other girl. Vicky walked down the street, and Sage headed the other way.
“By the elm trees” referred to what had been an extremely modest playground, basically just a swing set, when Sage had moved in with his grandmother. Now, it was a newer swing set and some monkey bars, along with a seesaw and a slide.
“Show me where the girl is, show me where the wolf is,” Sage said, pushing his magic into the words. Visible only to him, bright touch memories appeared, like luminous paint highlighting where the girl had been.
The monkey bars stood out in bright blue, but in a darker, rusty orange, Sage saw a bigger spot, almost hidden by the shadows of the trees. That’s where the damn loup-garou is. Fucker. Sage ran that way.
The orange and blue mingled, but the bright splotches of color were easy to follow. Whenever they dulled, Sage repeated the spell and pushed more magic into it.
The elm trees were part of one of the smaller parks in New Elvenswood, but this particular park encroached upon a few, very quiet neighborhoods, so Sage found himself passing between trees to cross a pedestrian street, only to vanish back into the trees again.
If anyone saw him, they’d think he was a weird creep for sneaking around like that, but then again, hardly anyone was out, which explained how a creep like the loup-garou had managed to take the girl this same way.
Sage ran when he could. In the end, he was out of the park but on a road that led to the last few houses here in the Valley. Behind them, the woods started.
It wasn’t quite where the witches gathered for the annual Easter Egg Hunt—something Sage had always loved as a child, and that had probably inspired him in enchanting the cushions.
It was still a wooded area that quickly became dense though, which wasn’t unusual for a town like New Elvenswood with its higher-than-average Elven population.
Elves loved their nature close and healthy.
Sage saw the blue and orange traces on the ground, covering foliage and passing into the woods, so into the woods he went. He wasn’t an angry person, or someone who’d ever enjoyed learning the art of lethal magic, but he knew he wouldn’t have any issue using it today.
This loup-garou had not only taken a little kid from a playground, he’d also known and watched and potentially participated in what had been done to Will.
And if those men who had done it hadn’t met Peter already, well, Sage wouldn’t have minded channeling his inner Peter himself, blood eagle and all.
The woods soon became hard to walk through.
Sage saw broken branches and smashed mushroom colonies, and his orange and blue tracking spell kept pulling him forward, deeper and deeper into the wilderness that nestled so close to the city.
By a dense copse of beech trees, he came to a halt, startled by a noise from in front of him.
“What the—”
A teenaged girl, maybe somewhere between twelve and fourteen, came barreling through the trees and almost slammed into Sage.
She looked fucking terrified, and she ran as if a demon were chasing her.
Except the beast that was on her heels was a loup-garou that had shed his human skin, turning fully monster with fearsome fangs.
Sage had no time to cast a spell. He had no time to scream. The loup-garou slammed into him. All the air was driven from his lungs, and he hit the ground hard. The beast snarled, and Sage fought the dancing black spots encroaching on his vision.
The loup-garou shifted. Sage was relieved, because the girl had to be gone by now, and even if she wasn’t, the loup-garou hadn’t wanted her to begin with.
Human again, the man from Madame Celeste’s parking garage slapped an unwashed hand over Sage’s mouth. Sage panicked. He needed to pull magic, heat magic, anything, because this guy seriously gave Sage the creeps, and the fact that he was naked after the shift didn’t help.
“I was hoping for my big brother’s little wolf twink. I’m guessing you killed him, did you? Or did Ed sell you the twink, huh? He just dodging my calls after last time?”
The loup-garou didn’t make a move to actually move his hand, which told Sage he didn’t want those questions answered in the first place. The bloodlust in his eyes and that humorless smile said as much.
Sage pulled his magic close and released a charge at the man—like static electricity, but stronger.
“Fucking—”
He instinctively pulled his hand away, and Sage used the opening to kick up, get to his feet, and run.
“Leaves and branches hide me, rock and earth defend me!”
The spell took effect, though it was flimsy, unfocused because Sage’s mind was muddled with fright.
The loup-garou chuckled. “You wanna play hide and seek? Fine with me, little witch, but a true loup-garou always finds his prey. Always.”
Sage ran, and the woods closed in around him.