Chapter 22
By the time we arrived at our cabin for the night and picked up our key from an envelope under the welcome mat, we were all dead on our feet. Even though I napped a good chunk of the trip in Logan’s sweater, I was more than ready to get the fuck out of the car. Road trips were only fun when you could get out and play tourist along the way, but we needed time to get our shit together, which meant as few stops as possible.
It was hovering around four in the morning when we finally got inside. I hauled in the bags while Caden salted every doorway and windowsill.
All I wanted was to collapse face-first onto the bed, drag Logan as close as I could get her, and pass out until at least noon. We stayed awake long enough to brush our teeth and change into pajamas.
“Cuddle sleep?” Logan asked, the words melting into a yawn she hastily covered.
Caden nodded and I thanked the gods for whatever was making him so chill. Logan crawled up the middle of the king bed and wriggled under the blankets. We slipped in on each side and settled into much the same position as last night, with her leg slung over Caden and me pressed against her back. I snuggled in, nudging her hair away so I could breathe her in, tucking my face against the back of her neck.
Fucking bliss.
I woke gods only knew how many hours later and blinked into the blazing sunlight. I buried my face deeper against Logan with a groan and pulled the blankets over our heads. The smell of fresh coffee wasn’t enough to lure me out of my current location, but it did wake up Logan. She rolled over and into my arms with a contented hum, eyes still closed as sleepy fingers brushed my cheek. Her forehead touched mine and I held my breath, every nerve singing. She slid her fingers down, hooking under my chin to lift my face to hers. A soft sigh parted her lips a second before she pressed them to mine.
I sank into her, weaving my hand into her hair, savoring her perfect mouth. She was sweet and warm. I didn’t even care about the morning breath; I wanted to dive deeper, roll over and press her into the mattress, feel the suppleness of her body yielding to mine...
“Are you two getting up?” Caden asked from the main room.
Logan jerked back, eyes wide. She sat up sharply, not looking at me. “Yep. Be right there.”
I rolled onto my back as she slipped out of bed. Well, fuck. She probably forgot I was here and thought she was kissing Caden.
Okay, I could deal with this. I knew how to smooth things over.
I shifted into my small form and followed Logan out. They both turned to me and I paused, wondering if she’d said something to him. I slid closer, winding around her ankles as she sat down at the little kitchen table. She leaned down automatically and stroked along my back.
Caden picked me up by my scruff. Why did you kiss her?
If you think I’m capable of not kissing her back when she reaches for me, then you’re overestimating my self-control. I wriggled in his grasp until he set me back on the floor.
Caden sighed and crossed his arms, staring at me with some weird mix of emotions I couldn’t quite parse. After a few tense moments, he just asked, “Are you having coffee?”
I hopped up into Logan’s lap. In a bit.
He watched her stroke my ears. The world fell away as my eyes slid shut and she triggered my purrs and happy feet. Gods. Fucking magic fingers, I swear. I had no idea how long she pet me. It was hard to tell the passage of time in that delirious, gloriously blissed-out state.
When she finally stopped, I flopped against her chest and waited for the world to regain balance. I looked up at her. Sorry I kissed you. I got too excited.
She laughed and gave me a squeeze. “It’s okay. That’ll teach me for skipping over opening my eyes first.”
I stood and rubbed my cheek against hers.
“Doesn’t count as an apology if you immediately start rubbing all over her,” said Caden as he set a cup of coffee on the table for me.
Logan scooped me up and patted my hip. “Go get dressed so we can head into town.”
I scampered off to do that and wash up. We took turns in the bathroom, and soon enough we were on our way into Portland for breakfast and their massive bookstore.
I’d never been in one so big before. It was like a labyrinth. We wandered our way through and found the occult section, settling in. Figuring that old books were probably the most helpful to start with, we each picked one off the shelves and skimmed through. Mine turned out to be useless, so I prowled through the stacks to find something more helpful, passing them to Caden and Logan, and returning their used ones.
Logan’s phone pinged and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Oh, hey, Melinda says we can meet her between five and seven tonight at the shop. I guess when we’re done here, we can head over?”
“Perfect.” Caden squeezed her knee and went back to his skimming.
“I think I found a bit of something,” Logan said, looking up from a book of demonology spread in her lap. “I dunno if it’s the same thing but it talks about a beast of shadows called forth by a witch. Apparently if its witch dies or cuts it off, they lose their fuel source and basically go rabid to hunt magic sources.”
“Sounds like a general direction, at least,” said Caden. “There are shifters all over the place, though. Why is it hunting us?”
“Maybe you’re from some super-secret royal shifter bloodline that’s extra magical?” Logan suggested.
I snorted. “If we were, I'd be pissed over all the money and power we’ve missed out on. Do we know if it’s still following us? Maybe we finally shook it.”
“I can try asking the trees. Not sure if they’d be able to tell, but it can’t hurt.”
We dug through a dozen or so more books before Logan leaned back against the shelf with a groan. “My eyeballs are crossing.”
“Do we want to buy the one possibly useful book and grab some drive-thru before we head to Hood River?” Caden asked.
“Fuck yeah!” I grinned. “I’m starving.”
We tidied up the mess we’d made and purchased the thick demonology book before heading out. We grabbed some cheap burgers and ate them on the way. It was a solid hour drive to Hood River from the bookstore.
The metaphysical shop we were searching for was basically a hole in the wall—small and cramped, with stock up to the ceiling. It smelled like incense, but about six different kinds at once, and made my nose twitch.
A middle-aged woman with thick, dark hair and bejeweled glasses lifted her head as we all came inside. “Logan.”
It was weird that she said the name as a statement rather than a question.
“Yep.” Logan gave a little wave and took the lead on our group.
“I’m Melinda.” The woman held out her hand. “Come here, sweetness. Tell me everything.”
Logan spilled out everything that had happened. Melinda’s eyes gleamed as she absorbed the story, and the hair on my arms stood on end.
“Sweetness, who were your parents?” Melinda held up her hand and a thick leather bound book zipped into her hand, hovering as she flipped it open.
“Um, Matthew and Lorelei Murphy. They adopted me when I was born.”
“Hmm.” Melinda waved her hand over the book and the pages whipped frantically. “Do you have information on your birth parents?”
“No. My birth mother wanted everything to be closed and I was supposed to get information when I turned eighteen, but apparently all the records were destroyed before then.”
“Come sit by me. I have to show you something.”
Logan extracted herself from Caden and I and sat next to Melinda. The witch looped an arm around Logan and our girl jerked back with a hiss, but Melinda wrapped her other hand around Logan’s wrist, her eyes going all glowy and weird.
My first instinct was to rocket off the couch and tackle Melinda, but the air was thick as molasses as I tried to reach for Logan, every movement fighting me. The harder I pushed, the stronger the force keeping me back.
Caden looked pissed as hell, fighting against whatever mojo Melinda had going on. Logan’s eyes were screwed shut, her body straining to pull away.
“Stop hurting her!”
Hush, little panther.
I shook my head, hating the feeling of Melinda in my mind.
Caden slipped into his half form, tail whipping behind him, claws digging into the invisible barrier, his growl vibrating the air around me. “Let. Her. Go.”
Melinda laughed in my head. Logan struggled, but it was easy to see her strength was fading fast. We kept struggling against Melinda’s magic, and when my fingertips finally reached Logan, her skin buzzed like a bug zapper and I flinched away.
“What the fuck?” I snapped.
Don’t worry, panthers. She’s not being hurt. Melinda turned those freaky eyes on me.
I didn’t like this bitch one bit.
Caden growled, his eyes flashing yellow as he hurled himself against the magic.
Melinda yanked Logan closer and took an audible whiff. “Mmm, you’re quite the little treasure box, aren’t you?”
Caden clapped a hand down on Melinda’s arm and grit his teeth. I bet she felt even shittier to touch. I sucked in a breath and wrapped my arms around Logan’s waist, whipping us both away from Melinda. Holy fuck did she burn. It felt like I’d been stuck with a dozen cattle prods but as soon as I detached them Logan sagged against me. She burst into tears and clung desperately to me. Caden pressed against her back a second later, turning to face Melinda.
“Explain yourself,” Caden hissed at the woman.
“What in the sweet holy fuck was that?” I clung to Logan, hands dancing over her torso to reassure myself she was still in one piece.
Melinda looked a little dazed, maybe even a bit high. She floated around the shop gathering up herbs and stones, ignoring us completely.
“Hey!” I snapped.
She finally looked over. “I had to unlock some boxes. There’re more layers still. Whoever locked her down was thorough.”
“Locked her—what?”
“There aren’t that many bound bloodlines, and all the ones I’m aware of are generations separated. I was told to cut those threads, so I did.”
I stared at her, uncomprehending.
“Logan’s a witch?” Caden asked.
Melinda rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t tell?”
“What part of my reaction makes you think we knew?”
Melinda laughed softly. “Her blood was practically screaming when she walked in.”
Logan had mostly stopped crying, but she was still shaking.
“Lo, you okay?”
She didn’t answer beyond fisting my shirt in her hands.
“I may have opened a few too many boxes at once,” said Melinda with a sigh. “She’ll settle in a bit. In the meantime, I have a theory. The creature you’ve mentioned is similar to the records from 1622 when Fiona O’Clery tried to rip out the magic core from her shifter lover so she and her children could have both witch magic and shifter abilities.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
“Yes. She failed in her goal. Her mate was destroyed in the process and she nearly died herself before her coven was able to intervene and put the creature into stasis. There have been other similar creatures throughout history, but that’s the last record of one we have, at least on this continent. It’s very possible that some witch recently was very naughty and created a new one. How are you intending to fight it?”
“That’s what we came here to find out,” snapped Caden. “We were hoping you’d be able to tell us that.”
“Honestly, I have no idea. It’s a magic eater, so throwing magic at it wouldn’t work. It doesn’t sound like it has much physical form either.” Melinda wandered off to turn on a small kettle behind the front desk, and she scooped the herbs she’d picked out earlier into a glass mug along with a clear stone. The water swirled as she poured it, tendrils of steam wafting up with a weird blue-ish tint. “Have her drink this once it’s cooled a bit.”
“What the fuck is that?” I inched Logan away from her a little more.
“Nothing to worry about, shifter. It’ll help her stabilize.” Melinda snapped her fingers in front of Logan’s face and I couldn’t stop the hiss that leapt out.
“Fuck off, lady.”
She only laughed. “You two are cute. She doesn’t need you to protect her from me.”
“You’re not making that a believable statement,” Caden growled.
I tipped Logan’s face up. Her eyes were glassy, and sweat made her skin shimmer. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I tore through a lot of mess. It’ll take her some time to process it all.” Melinda examined her nails. “I haven’t unbound anyone for a good, long time, but I know it takes quite the toll on the mind and body. I’ve heard from others it’s better to do as much as you can without breaking them so they don’t get twitchy about each layer. Sort of like a full body waxing all at once compared to ripping off one strip at a time.”
Melinda reached out to Logan, and Caden snapped a hand around her wrist. “I think you’ve touched her quite enough for one day.”
“Honestly, you two make my work more difficult, but I’ll be nice and not evict you from my shop.” Melinda walked past us and flipped the deadbolt and the open sign to closed. “Follow me.”
Caden picked up Logan and cradled her to his chest. Melinda scooped up the weird tea on the way and led us up a set of narrow stairs to a small apartment above the store.
I didn’t like it up here. It didn’t feel wrong like the creature, but it wasn’t comfortable. Melinda’s vibes weren’t exactly chill.
“Do you have somewhere safe to go?” Melinda asked as she sat down in her small living room. We sat on her couch with Logan between us.
“Not really,” I said.
“Find somewhere.” Melinda’s voice was firm. “After you leave here, I’m going to go on a nice, long vacation to visit my cousin in Bucharest. You brought her scent to my door and I ripped the lid off exactly what that thing is hunting.”
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
“Well, I’m not going to stick around and wait for something that wants to suck back my magic like a Capri Sun on a hot day. I’ve already heard about the half-dozen witch deaths on the East Coast. I don’t intend to add to that number.”
“But where the fuck are we supposed to hide from it?”
She shrugged. “That’s not really my problem.”
My hackles rose, and it took all my willpower to not shift into panther form and slap the shit out of her.
Melinda waved her hand dismissively. “Yes, yes, I see you, hissy. You can growl and fuss all you want, but it’ll make no difference. I guess it’s good I opened as many layers as I did where she’s safe. If it had gotten its hands on her, it would have torn them open like a kid at Christmas and sucked her magic down while she was catatonic.”
“What do you mean layers?”
“There were mountains of barriers between her and her magic. Who put them there or why, I have no idea, but she was locked down like Fort Knox. Since her abilities started to pop up only after she had direct contact with the creature, I can only assume that rather than her magic being consumed, it was first eating the layers of binding magic that kept her powers suppressed. You were able to remove her from the situation before they were all shredded, but there were still plenty left, which is what I removed.”
I looked down at Logan. Her eyes had a faint glow to them.
Melinda fished through one of the piles she’d picked out earlier and handed us two circular stones with the center missing. “These should let you see the creature.”
Logan shuddered in our arms and lifted her head, the glassiness fading from her gaze. She stared at her hands like she’d never seen them before. “What the fuck happened?”
“Lovely of you to join us again, sweetness.” Melinda smirked and handed her the freaky tea. “Drink this, and then we’ll go outside to let you test out what I’ve woken.”