Caged, page 26
Davis lifted his face and frowned. “At Paw Patrollers. They showed me pictures of the place.”
“They showed you pictures of the wolves at the Paw Patrollers building?” I asked.
“Well, no. The wolves weren’t in the photograph, just the other dogs, labs and whatnot.” He shook his head. “It all seemed legitimate, and Fang has been a blessing like you would not believe. Tanya laughed yesterday. She laughed…”
“This woman, Ms. Amica, what did she look like?” Liam asked, his voice hard.
“She was tall, at least five foot nine. Dark hair, dark eyes. Pale skin.”
“Do you have her contact information?”
Mr. Davis hesitated. “Yes. Yes, I do.”
Liam and I both perked up. “You have Ms. Amica’s contact information?” I clarified.
Mr. Davis snorted as he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the numbers. “She told me if anyone asked, to say no. I was supposed to tell them they had to contact Paul, that I didn’t have her information, but it’s not true. Ms. Amica—if that’s even her real name—said that Fang had special needs, including seeing a special vet. She said if Fang ever got sick or started acting strangely or I had concerns, to call her directly.”
He stopped scrolling and held his phone out to Liam, showing him a number with the name “Henry” as the contact name. “But if she stole your dog, then obviously something is wrong, and she’s not as above board as I thought she was. I can’t believe a place like Paw Patrollers would work with her.” He stared at Liam as the alpha typed the number into his cell phone. “You have to believe me, I did my research. Paw Patrollers has a pristine record. I never would have trusted just anyone to give my daughter a support animal, let alone a wolf.”
“Ms. Amica’s methods aren’t above board, but she wasn’t lying when she said Tanya had nothing to fear from Brenna,” I told him, needing to calm that parental part of him that feared failing his child. “Tanya was never in any danger.”
Mr. Davis stared at Brenna. “I would buy her from you. Any price. You have no idea how she’s changed our lives.”
His voice broke on the last word, and he pressed his lips together. My heart ached for him.
“I’m going to have someone contact you in the next few days about a replacement animal,” I told him.
Mr. Davis nodded, but didn’t look at me. He looked up as Tanya came out of the kitchen and stood in the doorway, her hands wrapped around her coffee flavored sugar. “Honey, go up to your room for a minute, please. I’ll be right up to…to talk to you.”
Tanya stared at him, then at me and Liam, then at Fang. Her eyes grew shiny with tears, but she just clenched her teeth.
“It’s okay, Tanya,” I said, letting my magic seep into my voice. “Everything is going to be okay. Go upstairs. Your dad will be up soon.”
The magic gave her the push she needed to do what her father said, but there was no magic strong enough to ease the pain of losing a pet. Unfortunately, there was nothing to help that but time. Tanya wasn’t the only child who would go through this, either. We’d have to gather all the shifters who’d been placed as pets. I gritted my teeth. When I found the person responsible for this, they would pay for all the tears their actions caused. Every single one of them.
I made a mental note to see what I could do about replacing the shifters. I had the money, I could buy real service dogs from Paw Patrollers. If I called the Vanguard in, they could even send their psychics to adjust the victims’ memories, blend the memory of the shifter with that of the new dog. Messing with a bond that strong was beyond me, but the Vanguard could do it.
“Thank you for your help, and for taking care of Brenna,” Liam said, standing to leave. “Ms. Renard will be in contact with you soon.”
Mr. Davis nodded, but again, he didn’t look at us. “You can see yourselves out.”
Liam sat in the back of the SUV with Brenna so he could talk to her while I drove. “I need you to trace a cell phone number for me,” he said.
I glanced in the rearview mirror to see him on his cell phone. Probably talking to Blake. I kept my eyes on the road, listening to him recite the number Mr. Davis had given us for Ms. Amica. I stiffened, then looked in the rearview mirror again. “Make sure you tell him not to go after the witch himself. Whoever Ms. Amica really is, she’s not someone to be cornered without a plan.”
Liam narrowed his eyes, but he passed on the message. “No one moves until I get there.”
He hung up the phone and dropped it on the seat next to him before turning to face Brenna. He raised his hands to put them on either side of her head, digging his fingers into her thick white fur. “I need you to shift.”
Brenna snorted, then shook her head. She made a weird half-groan sound in her throat.
“She has the same spell on her that Patty had,” I told him. “I checked as soon as I saw her at the door.”
Liam didn’t take his eyes off Brenna. “I’m going to try and help you. Just try, Brenna. You’re strong, you can do this.”
Brenna huffed, but leaned into him, closing her eyes. Liam closed his eyes too. A wave of energy rolled through the vehicle. I swore and tried not to drive off the side of the road. Peasblossom squeaked and fell out of the pouch where she’d had one leg out already.
“Hey!” she snapped. “Steady on, now!”
“Should have been ready for that,” I muttered.
“Dammit.” Liam dropped his hands and stared at Brenna. “Have you been with the Davis family the entire time you’ve been gone?”
Brenna nodded, the gesture awkward in her lupine body. Then she paused and shook her head. She made that strange whine-growl again.
“Is that a yes or a no?” Liam asked.
She barked.
“Is Paul the one who did this to you?” Liam asked.
Brenna shook her head. She barked again.
“Do you know who Ms. Amica is?” I asked.
Brenna barked.
“Do we know what a bark means?” Peasblossom asked.
“We need to be able to talk to her,” Liam said, frustrated. “Can you break the spell?”
“I can try, but it will take time. That’s a powerful spell, I’ll need time to—”
“Nevermind, I’ll ask Vincent.”
I bristled, tightening my hands on the wheel and counting to ten. There was no point in getting defensive, Liam was just worried. I rolled my shoulders and took a deep breath, speaking only when I was sure I could do it without casting a petty spell to turn his clothes inside out or something. “I can talk to her when she’s in wolf form, though.”
That got his attention. “You can talk to and understand wolves?”
“Shifters in wolf form, yes. The spell to understand a wild animal is different, they don’t think the way we do, so the magic it takes to understand and speak with them is more complex. But shifters are more similar. Even your wolf halves think differently than a mundane wolf would.” I glanced at Brenna in the rearview mirror. “I can talk to her if she’s willing to talk to me. We’ll have to wait until we park, though, I shouldn’t cast while driving.”
“You better pick a place to park away from the center,” Peasblossom said grimly. “We still don’t know who’s involved. It’s better if they don’t know we found Brenna.”
Liam narrowed his eyes. “You think the kitchen witch is going to know we have Brenna.”
“I think Mr. Davis is upset, and he’s only going to get angrier as he has to watch his daughter suffer. Especially if she tries to use again. I’d be surprised if he hasn’t already called Ms. Amica to give her a piece of his mind.”
Liam swore under his breath, a string of words that made me give him a witchy look through the mirror. I didn’t chastise him for the language, but he fell silent after the look.
I pulled over into the parking lot of a gas station and parked on the edge where it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to anyone watching that we had a wolf in the car. Brenna laid down on the backseat, facing me but as out of sight as a large wolf could get in the backseat of an SUV.
I twisted in my seat and looked into Brenna’s eyes as I called my magic. Silver light rose inside me, visible in my mind’s eye, and I pushed that magic into my voice when I spoke. “Dicere,” I whispered.
The magic puffed into the air, trailing down like steam from a child’s toy train until it wafted over Brenna’s face. Brenna must have felt it, because she began making different sounds, a combination of growls, yips, barks, and chuffs. As the magic soaked into her, those sounds turned to words.
“Who are you?” Brenna demanded. “What’s going on? How did you find me? Liam said others have gone missing. How many? Who?”
“Slow down,” I said, holding up a hand. “First we need to know who bound you. What happened the night you disappeared?”
Brenna made a sound that reminded me of a sneeze. “I had time before my next appointment, so I went on a run. I’ve…had a lot on my mind.” She looked at me then, pausing. I couldn’t read her canine features very well, but I knew what she was asking.
“I know,” I said gently. “We both know.”
Brenna sagged into the seat, then immediately forced herself to rise again. I noticed she didn’t look at her brother.
“A woman was walking in the woods. I didn’t think anything of it because it was a beautiful night. Then as I passed her, she held out a hand like she wanted me to stop. Only I didn’t stop. I fell.” She huddled in on herself, burying her snout in the seat for a moment as tension rolled through her. “It hurt. It hurt really bad, and when I finally realized what happened, I was ulv.”
I frowned. “Ulv?”
Liam’s gaze snapped to me when I said that. “What did you say?”
I repeated the gist of what Brenna had said so far.
“Ulv is our word for our wolf form.” He looked at Brenna. “Who did this to you?”
“I didn’t recognize her,” Brenna said, frustration clear in her voice. “And she didn’t smell like anything. She must have been using alum. She was tall, dark hair, pale skin. I tried to change, but I couldn’t. I tried to run, but she called out to me. She said she was going to take me to see someone who needed my help. Tanya.”
Her features softened when she said the teenager’s name. “She said if I was a good dog to Tanya, if I took care of her and protected her, then in one year she would return and release me from the spell. She said then I’d be free to leave or stay as I wished.”
A strange growl warbled in her throat. “I don’t think she meant it. I don’t think she ever would have let me leave. She must have known how hard it would be to come back after a year in wolf form.”
Liam shifted on his seat, hands flexing as if he were struggling not to shake the information out of the both of us. I relayed everything Brenna had said.
“Where was she taken after the woman gave her the choice?” Liam asked.
Brenna looked away. I knew she was remembering everything that had happened in Adrian’s office. “She took me to meet Paul. He obviously had no idea what I was. They talked and the woman told him Tanya’s name, and all three of us went to see Mr. Davis. They left me there.” She looked at Liam then, even though I was the only one that could understand her. “I didn’t know what to do. The binding was so tight, I couldn’t shift, and I was afraid if I ran away, I’d be trapped for good. So I waited, and then I got to know Tanya.”
This time she looked at me. “It’s hard to explain, but it felt good to take care of her. She felt so broken. She hardly says a word to her dad, but she talked to me.”
I nodded in understanding. I related what she’d said to Liam.
“Then what happened?” Liam asked.
“Two days after they left me there, Paul came back.” Brenna snorted. “You know, for a minute, I’d thought he was rescuing me. Like maybe he’d figured out what I was. He’d spent a lot of time with Ruth at New Moon, I thought maybe he knew our secret. But then he took me to Varca.”
Her voice filled with disgust. Not a lot of love for the mighty hunter. “He tried to sell me to him. When I realized what was going on, I decided to get away. I knew Varca didn’t live far from New Moon, not as far as Tanya. So I tried to scare him off, thinking maybe he’d change his mind and make Paul take me back. I planned to run as soon as we got outside.” She snorted. “Paul panicked. He made a phone call, and then Ms. Amica showed up twenty minutes later.”
Again, I related what she’d said.
“You couldn’t get away before she got there?” Liam asked.
Brenna’s head drooped, then she lifted it again, and I could almost feel her glaring at her brother. “Varca had a gun. Not a hand gun, either, that wouldn’t be enough for that…” She trailed off then snorted again. “I didn’t take the chance. Maybe I should have.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” I said firmly. “You did the right thing.”
Brenna laid her head on the seat. This time when she spoke, she didn’t look at either of us, just stared into space. “The witch made me bite Paul. I’ve never felt anything like it. It was like she put her mind in my body, and I was just along for the ride. I felt myself biting him, but I couldn’t stop. Then she shut him in the room with Adrian and waited outside the door until…”
She didn’t finish the thought. She didn’t need to. “She took me back to Tanya. I think she used magic on Mr. Davis, because he acted like I’d never left. I’ve been there ever since.”
She stared into the distance as I told Liam what she’d said. Liam stroked a large hand down her head, petting her and scratching behind her ears. Brenna didn’t react.
“Do you have any idea how we might find the witch?” Liam asked gently.
Brenna’s voice was quiet when she answered. “I know the area where she was keeping me. It’s only a mile or so from New Moon.”
I stared at her. “You were kept only a mile from the rehab center?”
“That’s brass for you,” Peasblossom said, speaking up for the first time. “Hiding right under their noses.”
Brenna raised her head, nostrils flaring as she searched for the source of the voice. Peasblossom slid down my shoulder and marched over the armrest so she could look Brenna in the eyes.
“Cheer up, Brenna,” she said. “At least you haven’t got melted wings.”
She turned her back so Brenna could see the damaged wings in question.
Brenna blinked, then looked at me.
“That’s Peasblossom, my familiar.”
“There’s honey in her pouch, if you want some,” Peasblossom offered.
Liam interrupted before Brenna could think of how to react. “Hiding close to New Moon was smart. Brenna’s scent would have been all over the woods, it’s as good as hiding in plain sight.” He looked at Brenna. “You weren’t there long?”
Brenna shook her head.
“No one’s gone missing more recently than you, so there’s probably no one there. But I’m going to call Ruth just in case. I’ll tell her to keep everyone inside. If Brenna was taken in the woods near the center, then we need to be prepared for whatever reaction this witch will have to Brenna going AWOL. Blake should have the information on that number soon, and hopefully that will lead us to the traitor.”
He stopped talking, a frown passing over his face. He looked down at his phone and dialed another number. “Blake. Do you have the information on that number yet? All right, I need it as fast as possible, so do what you have to do. And find Ruth, she’s not answering her ph— What?” Liam’s face got serious, then grim. “What do you mean Ruth is missing?”
Chapter 24
“I don’t like this,” Peasblossom muttered, eyeing the growing darkness. She stood on my shoulder to look out the window at the setting sun and the long shadows cast by the forest trees. Her fingers tightened around a lock of my hair, pulling painfully at my scalp as she wrapped the dark tendril around her like a security blanket. “It’s not safe to be in the forest at night. Your remember what happened last time we were here.”
A shiver skipped down my spine, and I rolled my shoulders, trying to shrug it off. Oh, yes, I remembered. How could I forget the special torment that was a dream shard? It had been made specifically for me after all…
Liam didn’t take his eyes off the dirt path ahead of us. We were on the Rocky River Reservation now, on a road that wasn’t really a road. He’d insisted that I pull over and let him drive, arguing that he was more familiar with this territory off the main road. His phone glowed in the gloom of the SUV’s interior, the little red blip on the screen guiding us to Ruth’s cell phone.
“Peasblossom isn’t wrong,” I said carefully. “Danger aside, something’s not right. Why would Ruth be out here now? By herself?”
“The forest isn’t a scary place for us, day or night,” Liam said shortly. “And there could be any number of reasons that Ruth would be out here. One of her clients could have had a breakdown. With everything that’s happened recently, it’s a miracle we haven’t had to sweep the forests looking for rogues.”
I wondered if he was referring to the fact that his new uber-alpha behavior might have scared clients of New Moon into the forest, but I wasn’t sure. It didn’t seem like a good subject to bring up right now.
Peasblossom narrowed her eyes. “If you think she’s out here doing her job, and you don’t think she’s in danger because she’s a big bad shifter, then why are we going after her? Why not let her handle whatever it is?”
I spoke up before Liam could, painfully aware of the tension making the veins in his temples bulge. “Because she’s not answering her phone, and there’s a kitchen witch preying on the wolves of New Moon. And someone is specifically targeting Liam, so attacking one of his staunchest supporters would ostensibly be high on their to-do list.”
“Blake said the number we got from Mr. Davis is for a burner phone. He set up a trace and tried to call it, but whoever answered hung up too fast, and now they won’t answer at all. We can try to trace where it was purchased and attempt to track down security footage to see who bought it, but that would take too long.” Liam slowed the SUV as we got closer to the red dot on the map. “Right now, my concern is Ruth. Either she had a good reason to run off and not answer her phone, or she’s in trouble. And if this kitchen witch did take her, then this is our chance to catch up with her.”
