Chapter 33 Vanessa #2
“I am Gichigami, but most of my friends call me Chiga. I heard from one of my old connections that you and your band of friends here have a huge lead on the assholes who have been kidnapping shifters and other folks. I know it’s a long shot, but my niece vanished without a trace two years ago.
She went on a walk and never came back. Figured I could lend a hand, and worse comes to worse, I end up helping a lot of strangers. ”
His voice was even deeper and more rumbling now that I was in the same room, and it carried a gravitas that was echoed in his dark, brown eyes.
If I had to guess, he was at least part Native, which made me wonder how many of the shifters were Indigenous and how many came over from Europe on boats.
I imagined almost every wolf shifter family that had been around for more than a hundred years had to have been some form of Native, otherwise a full moon on the boat in the middle of the ocean would have been awkward for everyone around.
Although Leo had explained to me that wolf shifters weren’t forced to transform during the full moon, he had said it made everything far more heightened, and their caloric needs increased even further, which probably would have led to quite negative reactions to the strict rations of maritime vessels back in the day.
“We appreciate that,” I said, and goodness, it was really beginning to feel like my house was the headquarters in the middle of a secret war.
Never in a million years had I imagined helping a wounded wolf in the middle of the forest would lead to a growing organization of almost fifty magical folks all conspiring to hunt down two serial killers and end their tyranny.
It really was the stuff of fantasy novels.
“What kind of connection? If you don’t mind me asking. ”
“He means Alicia,” Leo answered absentmindedly as he looked over the map pinned to the wall.
I did wish that I had a nice table they could all sit at, but that was in the kitchen, and we needed it for meals.
Besides, I liked that the kitchen was a communal space and didn’t really want to turn it into a war room.
“He’s a mercenary. He’s worked with her several times. ”
“A mercenary?” I echoed, feeling a little embarrassed. “So, you’re like a professional? Hope you don’t mind that we’re a bunch of amateurs. We’ve kind of been flying by the seat of our pants for most of this.”
Chiga looked relieved, as if he’d been afraid I would judge him from his work.
To be honest, I had no idea really what being a mercenary entailed, so I didn’t have an opinion on it.
Besides, I figured the important thing was that both he and Alicia were pretty adamant about helping, and we could use all the loyal hands we could get.
“Considering you’ve taken down three of the brothers, I don’t think I have room to judge anything.
I’m happy to help however I can. But in the meantime…
” It was quite an interesting thing to watch such a strapping giant of a man blush a bright, cheery pink.
“I have a couple of cat harnesses in the car, and I’d love to take your little guy here on a bit of a walk.
I’m supposed to FaceTime my fiancé back home, and I know he’d get a huge kick out of getting to see this cutie patootie get to play around in nature a bit. ”
Well, that was about the last thing I expected.
No one had ever asked to take one of my cats on a walk before.
I’d been tempted to try myself, but when I looked online at cat harnesses that were truly secure for a feline, I’d tamped that urge down.
Those things cost an arm and a leg. I could have made one myself, but there were some things I didn’t want to DIY.
“Are you absolutely sure he wouldn’t be able to get out of it?”
“One hundred percent. I have seven cats at home, including a sphinx, and none of them have ever been able to get out of the harness.”
Seven? Oh yeah, this man was a cat lover if there ever was one.
Secretly, I kind of hoped he’d stick around.
I had a soft spot for gentle giants, as well as people I could fangirl over cats with.
Even though there were about fifty in my bit of the property, there was never such a thing as too many friends.
Especially too many friends who loved cats.
“All right, I trust you. I’m sure Goober will love it.”
“Perfect! I’ll be right back.”
With that, Chiga hurried outside, his excitement evident by the way his large steps stomped across my hardwood floors.
Leo edged closer to me as soon as the man left, a smile on his face.
“That’s a moose shifter,” he said with a broad grin. “Built like a brick shithouse, isn’t he?”
“He’s pretty big. Is that common for moose shifters?”
“For sure. I’ve only met a few, and they were all gigantic. Even the women. With that, and him being a professional, we probably gained our ace in the hole.”
“You think so?” I questioned.
“I’d put money on it. You know, if I had a job.”
“You act like running a rebellion isn’t full-time work,” Ricky teased.
“True. It is pretty demanding of my attention, but it’s not like we’re in this alone, right, Ven?”
Leo gave me a look, then winked, which made my knees far weaker than they had any right to be. Goodness, was he flirting with me? Even though we were officially together, I still wanted to giggle whenever he got playful.
But thinking about him being playful made me think about what happened afterward. Usually when we were horizontal on my bed.
Or upright in the shower.
Or on my kitchen table.
… Had I ever sanitized that properly?
I mean, I knew I had cleaned and disinfected it almost immediately afterward, but that was to human standards. Had any of the shifters in the house been able to sniff out what had happened there?
God, that thought was mortifying.
Leo grabbed my waist and planted a firm kiss on my lips. “Don’t go to bed without me, okay?”
“Okay.” And I knew I flushed even brighter than Chiga had. Leo and I rarely got up to anything more than cuddling considering all the sensitive ears around, but it still made my stomach flip to think I was going to get to spend the night in his arms.
I hoped that never changed.
“Hey, Ven. Leo called a meeting and wants us all there.”
I looked up from the glass bottles I was filling with oil.
I was finally restocking my deadnettle salve.
I’d gone through it like water with patching up everyone, so I figured it would be prudent to have a fresh batch ready for after the next big scuffle.
It wouldn’t do any heavy hitting, but I’d found that, with shifters, it was excellent at soothing the terrible itching that came along with rapidly healing wounds.
“Why do you seem so excited?” I asked Ricky, who was grinning from ear to ear from where he stood in the doorway of my greenhouse.
It had grown warm enough that I had all the windows and doors open, which meant the cat tunnel was closed—much to Mudpie’s chagrin.
With so many people in the house, she’d made it clear she preferred to hang out with me and only me, but that was something that could only happen at night time.
And even then she had to deal with the Leo. Poor soul.
“Because Alicia and another scout she was working with are back, and I think they’ve got some big news.”
“Why didn’t you lead with that?”
I screwed the lid onto the jug of oil, then rushed along behind Ricky.
Sure enough, my living room, the hallway, and my kitchen were full of bodies as I came in through the back door.
I wasn’t surprised to see some faces peering in through the window, as most of the shifters would have no problem hearing with their enhanced senses.
“Ah, there you are,” Leo said once his eyes landed on the two of us. “Now that we’re all here, you can begin, Alicia.”
The rather nondescript woman gave a nod. “Of course. I know I basically went ghost for the past week, but I promise the results are worth it. Vincent and I figured out where the two surviving brothers have gone.”
My stomach practically pole-vaulted with elation, and I had to tell myself to chill out. There was still a chance there was bad news, that Alicia might be wrong. It was important to keep a level head and not get too carried away with anything. Still, talk about some good news.
“They have, indeed, sussed out that someone, or multiple someones, are systematically wiping their bloodline out. From what we could tell, they’ve called in several huge favors and have holed up together in an ancient estate that was purposely built over sacred grounds.
All sorts of nasty spells and security there.
Basically, the gala auction was child’s play.
Getting in with any sort of sizeable force without the two brothers destroying us will be a challenge. ”
Leo nodded along, his face a mask of concentration I only ever saw when he was in full alpha mode. “The two remaining brothers… Do we have a profile on them? The ones I interacted with the most are dead, so I don’t remember much about these two. Other than... does one of them have a woman’s name?”
“That would be Millicent Carlisle, the second youngest. His father is Winston Carlisle, a rather traditional warlock who is rumored to have been killed and eaten by Katarina Morgana after she found him with a mistress.”
Wow, what? When did the crazy world I had been dumped into turn into an episode of Real Housewives?
“Word has it is that he insists people call him William or Bill, however, most of his family refused this name as Bill isn’t exactly the intimidating name of a magic user, and Millicent was traditional.
This is probably why he’s still alive, as it seems there was a pretty large rift between him and the rest of his siblings. ”