Black Magic (Howl #4) (2 page)

“Are you sure that’s the way it really happened?” Samara asked quietly. “He must not have been around all that much because Josh didn’t seem to have any idea that he was his father. If Jason knew when they were younger, Josh probably would have known, too. Plus, this is a small town. People talk. You would have found out the truth a lot sooner, I think.”

Colby shrugged. “Maybe he was there watching them from afar, just to see what his other kids were doing. I don’t really want to know. But either way, it’s all I think about now. I’m going to question my whole childhood and even the past few years now that I know the truth. I don’t want to live in this house knowing that my father once lived here. I don’t even consider him a father now. He’s just Darren Jackson to me. A traitor.”

Samara didn’t say anything; she wasn’t sure what there was to say. As much as she wanted to be able to relate to what Colby was going through, she couldn’t.

“What’s even worse is that I think I knew, deep down, all this time,” Colby continued. “Have you ever felt like one of your own family members didn’t love you?”

“I’m not sure,” Samara replied, hesitantly. Before Seth had saved Luke, she had thought that he didn’t care about her anymore, but this was probably different. Colby and his dad were supposed to be on the same side as one another; she and Seth didn’t have much of a choice but to hate each other . . . or to at least pretend they hated each other. She wasn’t actually sure how he felt about her.

“I always knew that the way my father acted towards me wasn’t the way a dad would act towards their son if he really loved him,” Colby explained, running a hand over his longish curly blonde hair. “Even on the rare occasions when he
was
here for me, you could always tell that he didn’t want to be. It’s like his body would be there, but his mind would always be somewhere else.

“I always tried to justify it by telling myself that’s who he was, that it was him and not me, but now I wonder if he just wasn’t mentally present because he was off somewhere else plotting for all of this to happen since we were kids. Maybe he knew all along that he wanted to be my enemy.”

Samara gulped. “If he was that obsessed with this whole thing, don’t you think your mom would have gotten wind of it at some point?”

“He did a damn good job of hiding his second family from us . . . and from his own pack, too,” Colby pointed out.

“That reminds me. We’re having a meeting tonight with Darren’s pack to fill them in on everything that’s happened.”

Colby’s face froze. “You didn’t tell them to come over to the new house, did you?”

“No, of course not. I know you said your mom trusts all of them, but we don’t know how many of the others are in on this. I told them to meet us in the backyard for a bonfire, just so they wouldn’t want to come in the house. They might catch onto the fact that we’re moving everything.”

“We should leave the living room furniture here so they don’t notice anything’s different,” Colby suggested. “The new house is already furnished, anyway, but it will help us keep up our act.”

Samara nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Smart thinking.” She glanced over at him and casually asked, “By the way, have you talked to Emma at all over the past few days?”

Colby shook his head. “No, I tried calling her, but she hasn’t wanted to talk to me that much.” A saddened expression crossed his face.

None of the Ima pack really understood how Emma could be his mate. Meagan, his first mate, had been killed by Jason. Since a werewolf could only have one mate over the course of a lifetime, it hadn’t seemed possible for Colby and Emma to be mated to one another.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t all that strange. When Samara had become the Ima’s new Alpha, it was the first time a girl had ever taken on the role. Fate was working in unusual ways lately, ways that no one was able to understand . . . but ways that weren’t always bad, either.

“I’m sure that Emma’s probably just confused lately,” Samara offered as an excuse to Colby for why he hadn’t heard from her best friend. “I know she’s been having a hard time trying to figure out how to tell her mom about the whole werewolf thing, and I think she’s still kind of confused about you being her mate. I mean, the two of you did seem to hate each other before this happened.”

Colby glanced down at the ground. “I’m not sure that confused about ‘us’ is the best way to describe what she’s feeling.”

Samara raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I think she’s been avoiding me because she’s embarrassed to be seen with me. I mean, I’m just a dorky loser kid, and she’s all about being the most popular girl in school.” Colby rolled his eyes and laughed, but Samara could tell that it really bothered him. “She doesn’t want to be seen with me.”

Samara opened her mouth to respond, but before she could get any words out, Colby sniffed the air. “Do I smell bacon?”

She nodded and smiled. “Yes, Luke and I brought breakfast over.”

“Neat. I’m as hungry as a hippo.” Grinning, he rose to his feet and strolled out of his bedroom in the direction of the kitchen.

Samara stood there, frozen in place, his words lingering in her mind. Was her best friend embarrassed of him? Maybe. It was going to surprise people for her to go from dating guys that all of the other girls at school crushed on, like Jason, to going out with the less than popular guys, like Colby. It would ruin the image that her best friend worked so hard to create—and maintain—for herself.

Following Colby out of the room, Samara realized something. Even if popularity had nothing to do with the reason her best friend was acting so flaky, Colby had no reason to be feeling this way when she could easily do something about it.

She had waited too long to give him the makeover that she had been wanting to give him since she found out that he had originally been the leader of her pack, before she had initiated and taken over the role of Alpha. It would give him a major boost to his self-esteem, which was what he needed more now than ever.

“Hey, Colbs?” she called, as she entered the dining room. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow afternoon?”

Colby glanced up at her over the sausage patty that he was stuffing into his mouth. “No, what makes you ask?”

Samara grinned. “Well, you do now.”

Chapter 3

“It doesn’t seem like any of these books have any information on fighting against someone using black magic,” Samara commented, flipping through the last few pages of the old book she held in her hands. Once she was done, she tossed it onto the table in front of her frustratedly. “I don’t think there’s anything in
any
of these library books. Looking through the rest of them seems like a lost cause. The only ones I haven’t gone through yet have to do with mating rituals. I doubt it’s in any of those.”

“I think you’re right,” Luke said, taking the book she had just thrown and putting it in the box of books that they were moving to the other house. “I think we need to be thinking outside of the box.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, glancing up at him.

“Think about it for a minute. Darren knows that we all come here when we want to research stuff. He’s not going to leave something important here where he knows we can easily find it.”

Samara nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But the question is, where
would
he leave it then if it’s not in here?”

“Colby is the only one who might know the answer to that.” Luke shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t know Darren all that well. I mean, I’ve known Colby since I was a kid, but it feels like Darren was never even around all of those years. And when he was around, he was sort of just hovering over us, watching everything we did. He was very careful not to reveal too much about himself while he was around us. I don’t think I could tell you more than five things about him if I tried.”

“Well, what are the things you
do
know?” Samara pressed. “They might be able to help us figure out where whatever we’re looking for is.”

Luke hesitated, doing a mental inventory of what he knew. “I know he loves football. The Green Bay Packers are his favorite team. He likes Italian food, he plays basketball with the guys from his pack almost every Wednesday, and he smokes cigarettes like they’re going out of style.”

Samara raised an eyebrow. “Werewolves can smoke?”

Luke nodded. “Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt us. Fire’s only supposed to kill vampires, not werewolves. And it’s not like we can get lung or oral cancer from smoking like humans can.”

“Huh.” She thought about all of the things that Luke had just told her before turning to him as an idea came to her mind. “Does Darren have a man cave?”

“Yeah, no one’s allowed to watch TV in his entertainment room. It’s the one area of the house that belongs to him. Once Colby and me wanted to watch—” He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes lighting up in realization. “Maybe whatever we’re looking for is in there. It would be a great hiding place.”

“Exactly,” Samara said, rising to her feet. “Lead the way.”

Luke poked his head out of the library and headed down the hall.

Samara tiptoed after him, even though she knew she didn’t really have to be quiet. The house was silent because the other wolves in their pack and Colby’s mom had gone to take some of the things that they had already packed into boxes to the new house. Luke and Samara had stayed behind so that they could keep going through the library books while they packed them up in hopes that they could
find something that would help.

Once they were in Darren’s entertainment room, Samara shut and locked the door behind her.

When Luke gave her a curious look, she shrugged. “I’m just being cautious. I feel weird about being in here. I don’t think he’s going to come home anytime soon, but I’m worried that he’ll have some sort of psychic revelation and figure out we’re in here or something.”

“He won’t show up here, don’t worry,” Luke replied. He wrapped his arms around her waist protectively. “Even if he did come home right now and catch us in here, I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know,” Samara replied softly. Resting her head on his shoulder, she glanced around the room. “I wish we knew what we were looking for. I have no idea what it could be, but I have a feeling there’s something in here somewhere.”

“Me, too.” Luke took his hands off of her and began picking up the
Sports Illustrated
magazines that were piled high on the coffee table in front of the black leather sofa. He shook them to see if there were any loose papers inside, but nothing fell out.

Samara began to go through the pile of DVDs and Blu-ray disc cases that were stacked on a shelf, but she didn’t find anything unusual in any of them, either.

The rest of the room appeared to be clean; there wasn’t any junk lying around. The only things that were out in the open was a few eagle statues, an authentic-looking black bear rug, some framed pictures of baseball players that were autographed, and red candles that were placed on a tiny end table. Nothing seemed to be out of place or unusual.

Sighing, she glanced over at Luke. The look on his face told her that he felt just as hopeless as she d
id.

There was a loud knock at the door, which startled Samara, making her jump. Her heart beat faster, as she wondered if Darren was the one standing
on the other side of the door.

She nervously glanced around the room for some sort of weapon, just as Colby’s voice called from the hallway, “Hey, guys? What are you doing in there?”

Samara breathed a sigh of relief. She reached for the lock and turned it. “We just wanted to see if there was anything in here.”

“Hey, Colby, where would your dad hide something?” Luke asked. “If he was going to hide something, that is.”

“There was nothing in there?” Colby asked, pointing his chin at the room behind them. “It would have been my first guess.”

Samara shook her head. “Nope, we didn’t see anything. There’s gotta be something somewhere inside this house that will lead us in the right direction, though. I just don’t know where it could be.”

Colby tapped his finger against his chin. “There might be something in the attic. My dad used to go up there a lot when I was a kid.”

“Okay, let’s check it out.” Luke started down the hallway, apparently off in the direction of the attic.

Samara followed close behind him, even though she really doubted that whatever they were looking for could be in the attic. Then again, it was probably one of the places in the house that no one would ever think to look if they were trying to learn more about black magic, so maybe it wasn’t a complete waste of their time.

Once they were inside the attic, Samara found that it was surprisingly clean, unlike the McKinley’s attic, which was filled with clutter and boxes that hadn’t been opened in years. It made Samara feel relieved; hopefully it meant that it wouldn’t take them too
long to go through everything.

Plopping down on the hardwood floor, she opened the first plastic container. It was filled with old, smelly sports equipment. She noticed a pair of children’s sized soccer cleats, a mesh jersey, and other miscellaneous items that must have belonged to Colby when he played soccer as a kid. She covered the box before he had a chance to look inside; she didn’t want him to be reminded, again, of the times when his father had missed his soccer games.

In the next box, there were pictures of Colby’s parents. Linda was dressed in a long, flowing white dress, her blonde curly hair pulled on top of her head and a lily tucked behind her ear. Darren was wearing a black tuxedo, which looked light in contrast to his black eyes, which poured into the camera. Samara shivered; even in a picture, those eyes gave her the heebie jeebies.

“My parents’ wedding day,” Colby murmured, glancing over Samara’s shoulder to look at the picture. Holding the picture to the light, he tapped his father’s face. “Bastard.”

Samara took the photo from him and put it back inside the box. She quickly closed the container the pictures were stored in. Even though she felt sort of compelled to go through them for some reason, she knew that now definitely wasn’t the right time. Not when the pain that Colby was going through was still so new; looking at pictures that were seemingly happy felt like rubbing salt into a fresh wound.

Luke pulled one of the boxes open and laughed when he saw what was inside. “Dweebs, Geeks, and Weirdos! Do you remember this game, Colby?”

Glancing over at the box that Luke was holding, Colby laughed. “How could I forget? Playing it was one of our favorite pastimes.”

“Dweebs, Geeks, and Weirdos?” Samara asked, raising an eyebrow at the blue box that Luke held in his hands. “What
is
that?”

“It’s a board game,” Luke explained. “It’s more like truth or dare, though. It’s really fun. Colby and I used to play it all the time. Good times.”

“Hmm, the name of the game sounds fitting for the two of you,” Samara
said, laughing at her own joke.

Luk
e shot Samara a look that told her he didn’t think her joke was funny as he pulled some of the other games out of the box. There was Monopoly, the Game of Life, Scrabble, Candy Land, and Clue. One of the games in the box caught Samara’s eye. The board was a pretty shade of blue, which reminded her of the night sky; there were stars and a moon on it.

“What is that?” she asked, pointing at the game board. On second glance, she noticed that there were letters and numbers inscribed on the board, along with the words YES and NO.

“This?” Colby asked, holding the board up. “It’s a wolf spirit board.”

“A what?” Samara raised her eyebrows at him.

“It’s sort of like a Ouija board,”
Colby explained. “The only difference is that Ouija boards can only be used to conjure human spirits.” He pointed at the wolf silhouettes, which were painted at the bottom of the board. “This is used to communicate with werewolf spirits.”

“I didn’t know you would need a different game board to do that. Seth and I used to try to use a Ouija board to contact our dog, Buddy, after he died. No wonder it never worked,” Samara muttered, glancing at the movable indicator that came with the game. Instead of being heart-shaped like the other indicators she had seen with Ouija boards, this one was shaped like a crescent moon.

Colby nodded. “Absolutely. Werewolf spirits require a different form of energy in order for us to communicate with them than human spirits do. Human spirits are actually more difficult to get in contact with, but it’s rare for humans to be able to contact spirits using a werewolf spirit board. It normally only works for werewolves. Werewolf spirits and human spirits are very different in other ways, too.”

She glanced up at him. Ghosts had always intrigued her, even though she’d never really known that she could believe in them until now. Now, she knew she could believe in anything. “How else are werewolf spirits different from human spirits?”

“Human spirits that linger here in this world are usually thought to do so because they have unfinished business,” Colby explained matter-of-factly. “But some werewolf experts believe that if we die, our spirits will linger on the Earth forever because the forest is where we belong.” He shrugged and stuffed the game back inside the box with the other board games. “I’m going to put this away so no one trie
s to contact any dark spirits.”

Samara laughed. “Yeah, talking to werewolf ghosts isn’t on the top of my to-do list right now. It sounds like it could make for a fun rainy day, but we have more important things to worry about at the moment.” She glanced around the attic looking for something—anything—that could help lead them in the right direction. But nothing in the attic seemed to stand out to her.

She glanced over at Luke. The look in his eyes told her that he felt just as frustrated about it as she did. He slumped against the attic floor and sighed. “Maybe we should just give up looking.”

“We can’t just give up that easily,” Samara protested. “We really need to find something, or there’s no way we’re going to have a shot at beating the Vyka. We need to figure out how to conquer black magic.”

Colby tapped his chin. “Actually, maybe Luke’s right about this. Maybe we
should
give up.”

Samara shot a glare in his direction. “Why would you agree with that? It’s stupid! We can’t just give up over this.”

“Chill, Sam. The reason I agree is because maybe the problem is that we’re looking
too
hard. Maybe once we stop looking for whatever it is that we’re looking for, it will show up on its own,” Colby explained.

She considered the possibility. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Things do seem to show up when they’re least expected. Maybe we should just keep packing everything up, and whatever we’re trying to find will just show up on its own. It’s worth a try, at least.”

Rising to her feet and brushing the dust off her knees, Samara followed Colby and Luke down the attic steps. Once they were in the hallway, Colby froze. “Emma’s here,” he whispered.

“She is?” Samara raised an eyebrow at him. She was about to ask how he knew when she quickly remembered that he could hear Emma’s thoughts, the same way she could hear Luke’s sometimes. It was weird to think that Colby was able to keep in touch with her best friend even better than she was now. She couldn’t tell Emma anything she wanted to keep a secret ever again because Colby would find out now, too.