Lunar Bound, page 4
part #4 of Sky Brooks World: Ethan Series
“She asked,” he stated. “If I’d said no, she’d have just found someone else to do it. At least this way I can keep an eye on her. That’s what you want, right—someone spying on her?” He shook his head like I was pathetic. “Brother, you have some real control issues.”
My brother had a way of getting under my skin.
I took two handfuls of his Sesame Street t-shirt and pushed him back against the wall. He grinned back at me, but he was getting angry.
“You want to be her friend,” I growled. “Protect her.”
“Sky can take care of herself, Ethan. She’s training with Winter. She’s getting better at magic every day.”
That was another problem. “It doesn’t matter how strong she is, Josh, if she doesn’t see the danger coming. She thinks Quell won’t kill her because he loves her, because there’s something inherently good in him. He’ll kill her because he loves her, or he’ll kill her because he’s bored of her. It’s only a matter of time. One moment, she’ll let her guard down”—I pulled him enough to slam him back into the wall—“and then it’ll be over. And if Quell doesn’t do it, Michaela will. Understand?”
His cheeks flushed as he blinked. “You know, I think I need you to shout that into my face just a few more times. Also,” his gaze flicked down to my fistfuls of shirt, “you’re stretching Bert and Ernie.”
I felt the heat of his hand on my chest just before a magical force struck me, throwing me into the wall on the other side of the room. I had my own magic to call on. We’d played out the same fight dozens of times. I needed to get my temper under control.
Before I could break his spell, Josh released me, glowering. He held up an index finger in silent warning, then walked away.
I waited a moment, catching my breath as I forced myself to relax. It wasn’t enough. I needed to get some distance from Josh. I was on my way out the door when I felt my phone vibrate. A text message from an unknown number read, “I’m calling you. I suggest you pick up. M.” The call followed a second later. I walked out onto the porch before accepting the call.
“Here I thought we had us a truce,” the man said. “You go your way and stay out of mine—wasn’t that what we agreed to, Ethan?”
His voice was rough from decades of hard living and an innate crabbiness. “McClintock.”
“Hell, yeah, it’s me. Don’t act so surprised. We need to have us a little parlay. Lucky for you, I’m in the area.”
I scowled. “Let’s cut to the chase. What’s your price?”
“It ain’t that simple. Meet me at the Oak Lawn Dairy Queen in an hour. You know the place, where your brother dumped my hunter.”
The call ended.
Winter spoke behind me. “You want company?” Like all were-animals, she had uncanny hearing.
I glanced back at the house, decided to leave Sky with Steven.
“Bring your sword.”
Next I called Marko, gave him instructions.
I didn’t feel like talking on the drive into Chicago. Winter didn’t seem to mind. We’d worked together long enough that she knew I’d tell her what she needed to know, when she needed to know it.
Halfway to the mall, I received a text message from Marko. “He’s here, southwest corner booth. There’s a woman with him, looks pissed off, so I guess she’s met you already. They’ve got pistols on them, one at the waist each. The woman has a small caliber at her ankle. The old guy looks like he’s armed to the teeth, but I can’t spot anything.”
I answered using voice to text. “Five minutes out. Stay inconspicuous.”
“Yeah.”
When I put my phone down, Winter asked, “What are the odds this is going to get fun?”
“Depends on how pissed off he is.”
She nodded, thinking. “Public venue?”
It was my turn to nod.
A few minutes later, I parked my tanzanite-metallic-blue BMW M6 in the mall parking lot an hour later. She glanced around, confused. I gestured toward the Dairy Queen. She rolled her eyes and climbed out of the car, leaving her sword in the passenger seat. After I locked the car, I tossed her the keys.
“Why bring my sword?” she asked.
“I wanted you to feel comfortable for the drive over. Keep your eyes peeled. Might be more than just him and the woman.”
She followed me inside, slipped into a chair next to the door, giving herself a full view of the dining area. McClintock and Tonya were in the back corner booth, exactly where Marko had described. They were a mismatched pair, about thirty years between them. Both wore black cargo pants, with plenty of pockets to hide all sorts of tricks. McClintock wore a drab olive-green t-shirt while Tonya stuck with black. She was young, undamaged, while his rugged look was enhanced by a prominent scar that cut from the bridge of his nose across one shallow cheek. Another scar cut across the top of his left eyebrow. Tonya’s long black hair—still in a ponytail—was in sharp contrast to his cropped, gray-and-black military cut.
Despite his age, McClintock stayed fit. Muscles bulged beneath his shirt.
At my approach, Tonya rose from the table and took a seat in the next booth, putting her at my back if I chose to sit. McClintock leaned back in his seat, his legs splayed beneath the table, to stare up at me with his mirthless grin.
“You going to join me or just stand there and glower?” He gestured to Tonya’s vacated seat. “I know you were raised better than that.”
I flicked a glance at Tonya, cleared my throat.
His grin broadened some. “See, Tonya—always cautious, as it should be.” At his gesture, she reluctantly rose and took a seat at another table, where I’d be able to keep an eye on her. Once she’d settled in, I slid into the booth across from McClintock. He absently poked at his ice cream with a red plastic spoon while we measured each other.
Eventually, he got tired of waiting me out.
“You know, Ethan, I don’t normally come out to these parts. Chicago’s not my favorite town. I don’t like the people,” he admitted, giving me a pregnant look. “So when I do come here, you know it’s gotta be worth my while.”
“We made an arrangement with Liam to retrieve his lost creatures,” I said. “He hired you to undercut our deal.”
“I’m not surprised, not even a little bit. Doesn’t change my situation, though. I turned down a hell of a job for this one.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “Tonya said I was crazy. She might’ve been right, but then I saw those eggs.” He nodded, his smile genuine.
He’d already found the burrow by the time I’d arrived. Tonya must’ve been keeping tabs on the belocka while they waited for the eggs to hatch. He’d have taken the mother then, and sold the babies before they got too difficult to handle. He might’ve even kept one to farm more eggs. It was a brazen plan, far-sighted, unconscionable.
“Risky,” I said. “Lots of ways to get killed with that plan.”
“We both know I ain’t no spring chicken.” He gave me a wily look. “I’ve been at this a long while. About time I had something to show for my troubles.”
He was the oldest hunter I knew of. Most died young. If it was money he was after, we could’ve handled the matter by phone. He’d be paid already. I sighed, scratched an eyebrow with my thumb. “How much, McClintock?”
“You think it’s that easy.” He grunted. “Is that what you do as the Beta of the Midwest Pack? Do you write checks all day and make the pack’s problems disappear? You want a number? I’ll save you some time. We can skip the bargaining. Let’s say I started with something ridiculous and you worked me down until we both agreed that an even hundred thousand was a bargain.”
It was my turn to grunt. “Your mind is addled.”
“You get what you pay for, Ethan. I assure you, the other option is going to be a lot less comfortable.”
“If you brought me here to threaten me, you’re wasting my time.”
“A hundred thousand.” He shook his head. “I can’t go any lower. My pride won’t allow it.”
“You should look into that other job. Maybe it’s still open.”
“Oh, it is. It’s just,” he thought for a moment, shook his head, “some jobs stick in your craw, you know? Aw, hell, we’re both soldiers. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d done something I wasn’t proud of.”
I agreed. “It happens.”
He leaned back, draped an arm over the back of the booth. “Well, I guess we’re done here. Can’t say I expected much else from you. You’re a stubborn son of a bitch, Ethan Charleston.”
“Good luck,” I said, rising.
“You too.” He gestured absently to the dining area behind him. “Don’t forget your wolf.”
Marko was seated a few tables away, hunched over a burger he’d nibbled on while pretending to read a book. I’d made a point not to look at him when I’d walked into the restaurant, but McClintock didn’t need the visual cue. The Finnish wolf was tall, with a severe look.
“You all stand out,” McClintock explained.
I gestured to Marko, letting him know that his cover was blown. He straightened, sighed in frustration before rising and crossing the restaurant to join Winter.
“Drive carefully on your way out of town,” I warned the old hunter. “A guy like you probably draws all kinds of attention from the local authorities.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
I gathered Winter and Marko and led them out the door.
“I really don’t get to use my sword, do I?” she pouted, returning my keys.
After unlocking the BMW, I turned to Marko. He looked guilty as hell.
“I’m sorry, man,” he started. “I don’t know how he made me. I never looked at him directly, or the woman.”
Winter propped an arm out the passenger window, offered, “It was probably the neck hair—just cries wolf.”
He grunted approval. They made a game of taking jabs at each other.
“Find out what McClintock’s driving and get Tim on him,” I said.
“On it.” He plodded back toward the restaurant.
We were halfway back to the retreat when Winter said, “That other job—why tell you?”
“Leverage,” I guessed.
“Sounded more like a warning to me.”
It did. I fished out my phone, called Artemis. She answered with the enthusiasm of someone expecting to get paid.
“Hello, Ethan. What can I do for you?”
“There’s a hunter in town—”
“McClintock.”
I could hear her grin on the other end of the call. Not much got by her without being noticed. “Find out what he’s up to, where he’s staying. He’s got a job offer he’s dragging his heels on. The usual price.”
She answered cheerily, “Will do, chief!”
“Artemis,” I said before she could hang up. “Be careful.”
Her voice dropped to an enthusiastic growl. “Careful costs double.”
I grunted approval and hung up.
Winter looked skeptical. “The were-fox? You don’t think she’ll sell you out?”
There was always a risk using someone who made their living threading the needle. Artemis had grown up an orphan on the streets, finding and selling information. Over the years, I’d cultivated a mutually beneficial working relationship with her. I’d even come to her rescue once or twice, but I’d no illusions. Security was her primary motivator. Her loyalty could be bought, but she wasn’t fool enough to throw away a future of steady employment for a single paycheck. She also knew that if she betrayed me or the pack, I’d run her out of town.
Winter continued, “If he puts a gun to her head?”
When it came to the shadows, Artemis was more skilled than any hunter I’d ever met, including Chris. “He’ll never know she’s there.”
I spent the next few days staying clear of Josh and Sky while they worked through the list of Tre’ase. They’d already come up with a few targets. In a few days, O’Dowd would have his schedule cleared for the next two months. We’d all be spending a lot of time together, and I wanted to leave my anger behind.
Getting Sky away from Quell for an extended period of time was a bonus. She’d accelerated the construction of her greenhouse in anticipation of leaving him on his own. He’d become fixated on feeding from Sky. I didn’t like it. Sebastian didn’t like it. I’d no doubt that Michaela didn’t like it. Quell was going to be forced to adapt. With any luck, time apart was going to solve that problem.
Once I’d had enough time away from Josh, I reached out to make sure we were fine. I didn’t need the tension following me onto O’Dowd’s Gulfstream jet.
Josh wasn’t taking my calls. After a while, I gave up.
I had other concerns to worry about. Destroying every curse in existence had altered the supernatural world. We’d no idea what dangers we’d unleashed. There might be other, more positive ramifications.
I found Claudia in the office of her art gallery. Always elegantly dressed, she wore a pearl-colored pantsuit with a string of pearls over a pink camisole. Matching silk gloves rose nearly to her elbows. On her desk was a glass of red wine next to a stack of paperwork.
“No need to get up,” I offered as I walked in.
I greeted her with a smile, kissed the air over her cheeks, before she gestured for me to join her at the small tea table. I took one of the hand-carved wooden chairs while she took the other. For a moment, we waited each other out with smiles.
“I’d like to talk to you about the Vitae.”
Her smile remained, but her shoulders tensed, her lips thinned, almost imperceptibly. She was a Moura. The Vitae was the protected object she was bound to protect. It was a subject she didn’t like to talk about. The best secrets were the ones forgotten. I’d struggled with whether to broach the subject with her.
She waited for me to continue.
“Is it possible the curse on Josh has been lifted?”
He didn’t know that he’d been cursed to die. In her time, our mother was a powerful witch. Like Josh, she’d been highly independent, which made her a threat to the Creed. When she’d cast the rever tempore—a forbidden spell—to save a friend, the Creed’s punishment was swift and brutal.
One of her two sons would pay the price of her sin, cursed to die at the moment of his eighteenth birthday. In a cruel twist, the choice was hers. Had she failed to choose, Josh and I would’ve both been killed. Despite the pack’s reputation for violence, we were never cruel. We killed out of necessity. The Creed killed for sport. Without allies, my mother stood alone against the Creed. As strong as she was, she couldn’t challenge their combined strength. Backed into a corner, she’d made the hard choice. She’d chosen Josh. He was younger than me, giving us an extra six years to find a way to break the Creed’s curse.
He was the strategic choice. From thereafter, she’d focused all of her energy on breaking that curse. With Claudia’s help, they’d at least found away to keep the curse at bay. Josh was saved, but our mother had never been the same. The choice had killed something in her, something vital.
The solution was Claudia’s. The power of the Vitae was to give life, but she didn’t dare wield it openly. Instead, we’d melted down the metal of the small, helix-shaped artifact and combined the liquid metal with black ink. Josh had no idea that he wore the protected object as a quarter-sized tattoo just above the top of one thigh. He’d been a small child then, and had no memory of receiving the tattoo. To this day, he thought the magic that kept him alive was a simple birthmark.
Claudia was skeptical. “Have all curses been lifted?”
“So far, that seems to be the case.”
“You want to remove the Vitae from him?”
“No.” I stared at my palms for a moment. There was no need. “I’d like to not worry about losing him.”
She smiled, reached across the table to give my hand a comforting squeeze. “You really think you’ll ever stop worrying about your brother?”
I grunted, returned her smile. “It would be one less thing, at least. I was hoping you’d have some insight.”
“We’re in uncharted territory now.”
“Sky wants me to tell him.”
She hesitated, just for an instant. “You told her.”
“I did,” I said, frowning under her judgment.
“It’s your decision, Ethan. It will hurt him.”
It shouldn’t. “Our mother made a logical decision,” I stressed.
“You can’t stop that hurt with logic. If you want my blessing, I can’t give it to you, but I’ll respect your choice.”
He had a right to know, didn’t he? Sky thought so. She’d convinced me, but I’d grown less certain. I’d promised to tell him, but I’d never said when. The timing wasn’t right. The pack was facing too much uncertainty. Telling Josh now would just complicate his life when the pack needed him most.
It could wait. I felt a burden lifting from my shoulders.
“Thank you, Claudia.”
I sped back to the retreat, glad to see Sky’s Civic was still there, next to Josh’s black Ducati.
“They’re in his office,” Winter informed me.
I approached the library door when I heard Sky ask in a voice meant to sound casual, “Has Ethan talked to you recently?”
I froze.
“About what?” Josh asked, disinterested.
“Nothing.”
“We fight, Sky. We get over it, until Ethan starts another one.”
She grunted in reply, then asked, “You have a birthmark, don’t you?”
“Of course,” he chuckled. “You’ve seen it. Do you want to see it again?”
She’d promised not to reveal my secret. Scowling, I walked into the room, unnoticed. She sat at a large, cluttered table, watching Josh pace in thought nearby. In front of her was one of the Clostra books, open, and the Aufero.
“He actually has two birthmarks,” I said, announcing myself before she could do any damage. A look of surprise came over Sky, as if she’d been caught talking in the back of class. I met her gaze with a stern warning. “I don’t think it’s necessary for you to see them.”
“Hi, Ethan,” she said, reacting to my tone. “Nice to see you, too.”
My brother had a way of getting under my skin.
I took two handfuls of his Sesame Street t-shirt and pushed him back against the wall. He grinned back at me, but he was getting angry.
“You want to be her friend,” I growled. “Protect her.”
“Sky can take care of herself, Ethan. She’s training with Winter. She’s getting better at magic every day.”
That was another problem. “It doesn’t matter how strong she is, Josh, if she doesn’t see the danger coming. She thinks Quell won’t kill her because he loves her, because there’s something inherently good in him. He’ll kill her because he loves her, or he’ll kill her because he’s bored of her. It’s only a matter of time. One moment, she’ll let her guard down”—I pulled him enough to slam him back into the wall—“and then it’ll be over. And if Quell doesn’t do it, Michaela will. Understand?”
His cheeks flushed as he blinked. “You know, I think I need you to shout that into my face just a few more times. Also,” his gaze flicked down to my fistfuls of shirt, “you’re stretching Bert and Ernie.”
I felt the heat of his hand on my chest just before a magical force struck me, throwing me into the wall on the other side of the room. I had my own magic to call on. We’d played out the same fight dozens of times. I needed to get my temper under control.
Before I could break his spell, Josh released me, glowering. He held up an index finger in silent warning, then walked away.
I waited a moment, catching my breath as I forced myself to relax. It wasn’t enough. I needed to get some distance from Josh. I was on my way out the door when I felt my phone vibrate. A text message from an unknown number read, “I’m calling you. I suggest you pick up. M.” The call followed a second later. I walked out onto the porch before accepting the call.
“Here I thought we had us a truce,” the man said. “You go your way and stay out of mine—wasn’t that what we agreed to, Ethan?”
His voice was rough from decades of hard living and an innate crabbiness. “McClintock.”
“Hell, yeah, it’s me. Don’t act so surprised. We need to have us a little parlay. Lucky for you, I’m in the area.”
I scowled. “Let’s cut to the chase. What’s your price?”
“It ain’t that simple. Meet me at the Oak Lawn Dairy Queen in an hour. You know the place, where your brother dumped my hunter.”
The call ended.
Winter spoke behind me. “You want company?” Like all were-animals, she had uncanny hearing.
I glanced back at the house, decided to leave Sky with Steven.
“Bring your sword.”
Next I called Marko, gave him instructions.
I didn’t feel like talking on the drive into Chicago. Winter didn’t seem to mind. We’d worked together long enough that she knew I’d tell her what she needed to know, when she needed to know it.
Halfway to the mall, I received a text message from Marko. “He’s here, southwest corner booth. There’s a woman with him, looks pissed off, so I guess she’s met you already. They’ve got pistols on them, one at the waist each. The woman has a small caliber at her ankle. The old guy looks like he’s armed to the teeth, but I can’t spot anything.”
I answered using voice to text. “Five minutes out. Stay inconspicuous.”
“Yeah.”
When I put my phone down, Winter asked, “What are the odds this is going to get fun?”
“Depends on how pissed off he is.”
She nodded, thinking. “Public venue?”
It was my turn to nod.
A few minutes later, I parked my tanzanite-metallic-blue BMW M6 in the mall parking lot an hour later. She glanced around, confused. I gestured toward the Dairy Queen. She rolled her eyes and climbed out of the car, leaving her sword in the passenger seat. After I locked the car, I tossed her the keys.
“Why bring my sword?” she asked.
“I wanted you to feel comfortable for the drive over. Keep your eyes peeled. Might be more than just him and the woman.”
She followed me inside, slipped into a chair next to the door, giving herself a full view of the dining area. McClintock and Tonya were in the back corner booth, exactly where Marko had described. They were a mismatched pair, about thirty years between them. Both wore black cargo pants, with plenty of pockets to hide all sorts of tricks. McClintock wore a drab olive-green t-shirt while Tonya stuck with black. She was young, undamaged, while his rugged look was enhanced by a prominent scar that cut from the bridge of his nose across one shallow cheek. Another scar cut across the top of his left eyebrow. Tonya’s long black hair—still in a ponytail—was in sharp contrast to his cropped, gray-and-black military cut.
Despite his age, McClintock stayed fit. Muscles bulged beneath his shirt.
At my approach, Tonya rose from the table and took a seat in the next booth, putting her at my back if I chose to sit. McClintock leaned back in his seat, his legs splayed beneath the table, to stare up at me with his mirthless grin.
“You going to join me or just stand there and glower?” He gestured to Tonya’s vacated seat. “I know you were raised better than that.”
I flicked a glance at Tonya, cleared my throat.
His grin broadened some. “See, Tonya—always cautious, as it should be.” At his gesture, she reluctantly rose and took a seat at another table, where I’d be able to keep an eye on her. Once she’d settled in, I slid into the booth across from McClintock. He absently poked at his ice cream with a red plastic spoon while we measured each other.
Eventually, he got tired of waiting me out.
“You know, Ethan, I don’t normally come out to these parts. Chicago’s not my favorite town. I don’t like the people,” he admitted, giving me a pregnant look. “So when I do come here, you know it’s gotta be worth my while.”
“We made an arrangement with Liam to retrieve his lost creatures,” I said. “He hired you to undercut our deal.”
“I’m not surprised, not even a little bit. Doesn’t change my situation, though. I turned down a hell of a job for this one.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “Tonya said I was crazy. She might’ve been right, but then I saw those eggs.” He nodded, his smile genuine.
He’d already found the burrow by the time I’d arrived. Tonya must’ve been keeping tabs on the belocka while they waited for the eggs to hatch. He’d have taken the mother then, and sold the babies before they got too difficult to handle. He might’ve even kept one to farm more eggs. It was a brazen plan, far-sighted, unconscionable.
“Risky,” I said. “Lots of ways to get killed with that plan.”
“We both know I ain’t no spring chicken.” He gave me a wily look. “I’ve been at this a long while. About time I had something to show for my troubles.”
He was the oldest hunter I knew of. Most died young. If it was money he was after, we could’ve handled the matter by phone. He’d be paid already. I sighed, scratched an eyebrow with my thumb. “How much, McClintock?”
“You think it’s that easy.” He grunted. “Is that what you do as the Beta of the Midwest Pack? Do you write checks all day and make the pack’s problems disappear? You want a number? I’ll save you some time. We can skip the bargaining. Let’s say I started with something ridiculous and you worked me down until we both agreed that an even hundred thousand was a bargain.”
It was my turn to grunt. “Your mind is addled.”
“You get what you pay for, Ethan. I assure you, the other option is going to be a lot less comfortable.”
“If you brought me here to threaten me, you’re wasting my time.”
“A hundred thousand.” He shook his head. “I can’t go any lower. My pride won’t allow it.”
“You should look into that other job. Maybe it’s still open.”
“Oh, it is. It’s just,” he thought for a moment, shook his head, “some jobs stick in your craw, you know? Aw, hell, we’re both soldiers. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d done something I wasn’t proud of.”
I agreed. “It happens.”
He leaned back, draped an arm over the back of the booth. “Well, I guess we’re done here. Can’t say I expected much else from you. You’re a stubborn son of a bitch, Ethan Charleston.”
“Good luck,” I said, rising.
“You too.” He gestured absently to the dining area behind him. “Don’t forget your wolf.”
Marko was seated a few tables away, hunched over a burger he’d nibbled on while pretending to read a book. I’d made a point not to look at him when I’d walked into the restaurant, but McClintock didn’t need the visual cue. The Finnish wolf was tall, with a severe look.
“You all stand out,” McClintock explained.
I gestured to Marko, letting him know that his cover was blown. He straightened, sighed in frustration before rising and crossing the restaurant to join Winter.
“Drive carefully on your way out of town,” I warned the old hunter. “A guy like you probably draws all kinds of attention from the local authorities.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
I gathered Winter and Marko and led them out the door.
“I really don’t get to use my sword, do I?” she pouted, returning my keys.
After unlocking the BMW, I turned to Marko. He looked guilty as hell.
“I’m sorry, man,” he started. “I don’t know how he made me. I never looked at him directly, or the woman.”
Winter propped an arm out the passenger window, offered, “It was probably the neck hair—just cries wolf.”
He grunted approval. They made a game of taking jabs at each other.
“Find out what McClintock’s driving and get Tim on him,” I said.
“On it.” He plodded back toward the restaurant.
We were halfway back to the retreat when Winter said, “That other job—why tell you?”
“Leverage,” I guessed.
“Sounded more like a warning to me.”
It did. I fished out my phone, called Artemis. She answered with the enthusiasm of someone expecting to get paid.
“Hello, Ethan. What can I do for you?”
“There’s a hunter in town—”
“McClintock.”
I could hear her grin on the other end of the call. Not much got by her without being noticed. “Find out what he’s up to, where he’s staying. He’s got a job offer he’s dragging his heels on. The usual price.”
She answered cheerily, “Will do, chief!”
“Artemis,” I said before she could hang up. “Be careful.”
Her voice dropped to an enthusiastic growl. “Careful costs double.”
I grunted approval and hung up.
Winter looked skeptical. “The were-fox? You don’t think she’ll sell you out?”
There was always a risk using someone who made their living threading the needle. Artemis had grown up an orphan on the streets, finding and selling information. Over the years, I’d cultivated a mutually beneficial working relationship with her. I’d even come to her rescue once or twice, but I’d no illusions. Security was her primary motivator. Her loyalty could be bought, but she wasn’t fool enough to throw away a future of steady employment for a single paycheck. She also knew that if she betrayed me or the pack, I’d run her out of town.
Winter continued, “If he puts a gun to her head?”
When it came to the shadows, Artemis was more skilled than any hunter I’d ever met, including Chris. “He’ll never know she’s there.”
I spent the next few days staying clear of Josh and Sky while they worked through the list of Tre’ase. They’d already come up with a few targets. In a few days, O’Dowd would have his schedule cleared for the next two months. We’d all be spending a lot of time together, and I wanted to leave my anger behind.
Getting Sky away from Quell for an extended period of time was a bonus. She’d accelerated the construction of her greenhouse in anticipation of leaving him on his own. He’d become fixated on feeding from Sky. I didn’t like it. Sebastian didn’t like it. I’d no doubt that Michaela didn’t like it. Quell was going to be forced to adapt. With any luck, time apart was going to solve that problem.
Once I’d had enough time away from Josh, I reached out to make sure we were fine. I didn’t need the tension following me onto O’Dowd’s Gulfstream jet.
Josh wasn’t taking my calls. After a while, I gave up.
I had other concerns to worry about. Destroying every curse in existence had altered the supernatural world. We’d no idea what dangers we’d unleashed. There might be other, more positive ramifications.
I found Claudia in the office of her art gallery. Always elegantly dressed, she wore a pearl-colored pantsuit with a string of pearls over a pink camisole. Matching silk gloves rose nearly to her elbows. On her desk was a glass of red wine next to a stack of paperwork.
“No need to get up,” I offered as I walked in.
I greeted her with a smile, kissed the air over her cheeks, before she gestured for me to join her at the small tea table. I took one of the hand-carved wooden chairs while she took the other. For a moment, we waited each other out with smiles.
“I’d like to talk to you about the Vitae.”
Her smile remained, but her shoulders tensed, her lips thinned, almost imperceptibly. She was a Moura. The Vitae was the protected object she was bound to protect. It was a subject she didn’t like to talk about. The best secrets were the ones forgotten. I’d struggled with whether to broach the subject with her.
She waited for me to continue.
“Is it possible the curse on Josh has been lifted?”
He didn’t know that he’d been cursed to die. In her time, our mother was a powerful witch. Like Josh, she’d been highly independent, which made her a threat to the Creed. When she’d cast the rever tempore—a forbidden spell—to save a friend, the Creed’s punishment was swift and brutal.
One of her two sons would pay the price of her sin, cursed to die at the moment of his eighteenth birthday. In a cruel twist, the choice was hers. Had she failed to choose, Josh and I would’ve both been killed. Despite the pack’s reputation for violence, we were never cruel. We killed out of necessity. The Creed killed for sport. Without allies, my mother stood alone against the Creed. As strong as she was, she couldn’t challenge their combined strength. Backed into a corner, she’d made the hard choice. She’d chosen Josh. He was younger than me, giving us an extra six years to find a way to break the Creed’s curse.
He was the strategic choice. From thereafter, she’d focused all of her energy on breaking that curse. With Claudia’s help, they’d at least found away to keep the curse at bay. Josh was saved, but our mother had never been the same. The choice had killed something in her, something vital.
The solution was Claudia’s. The power of the Vitae was to give life, but she didn’t dare wield it openly. Instead, we’d melted down the metal of the small, helix-shaped artifact and combined the liquid metal with black ink. Josh had no idea that he wore the protected object as a quarter-sized tattoo just above the top of one thigh. He’d been a small child then, and had no memory of receiving the tattoo. To this day, he thought the magic that kept him alive was a simple birthmark.
Claudia was skeptical. “Have all curses been lifted?”
“So far, that seems to be the case.”
“You want to remove the Vitae from him?”
“No.” I stared at my palms for a moment. There was no need. “I’d like to not worry about losing him.”
She smiled, reached across the table to give my hand a comforting squeeze. “You really think you’ll ever stop worrying about your brother?”
I grunted, returned her smile. “It would be one less thing, at least. I was hoping you’d have some insight.”
“We’re in uncharted territory now.”
“Sky wants me to tell him.”
She hesitated, just for an instant. “You told her.”
“I did,” I said, frowning under her judgment.
“It’s your decision, Ethan. It will hurt him.”
It shouldn’t. “Our mother made a logical decision,” I stressed.
“You can’t stop that hurt with logic. If you want my blessing, I can’t give it to you, but I’ll respect your choice.”
He had a right to know, didn’t he? Sky thought so. She’d convinced me, but I’d grown less certain. I’d promised to tell him, but I’d never said when. The timing wasn’t right. The pack was facing too much uncertainty. Telling Josh now would just complicate his life when the pack needed him most.
It could wait. I felt a burden lifting from my shoulders.
“Thank you, Claudia.”
I sped back to the retreat, glad to see Sky’s Civic was still there, next to Josh’s black Ducati.
“They’re in his office,” Winter informed me.
I approached the library door when I heard Sky ask in a voice meant to sound casual, “Has Ethan talked to you recently?”
I froze.
“About what?” Josh asked, disinterested.
“Nothing.”
“We fight, Sky. We get over it, until Ethan starts another one.”
She grunted in reply, then asked, “You have a birthmark, don’t you?”
“Of course,” he chuckled. “You’ve seen it. Do you want to see it again?”
She’d promised not to reveal my secret. Scowling, I walked into the room, unnoticed. She sat at a large, cluttered table, watching Josh pace in thought nearby. In front of her was one of the Clostra books, open, and the Aufero.
“He actually has two birthmarks,” I said, announcing myself before she could do any damage. A look of surprise came over Sky, as if she’d been caught talking in the back of class. I met her gaze with a stern warning. “I don’t think it’s necessary for you to see them.”
“Hi, Ethan,” she said, reacting to my tone. “Nice to see you, too.”
