Head Above Water (Gemini: A Black Dog #2) (20 page)

“It’s okay.” Dell touched my shoulder. “He’ll come around. Just give him some space.”

“I’m going home before I cause any more collateral damage.” Turning my back on the spot where Harlow had lurked, watching me and my family for days, raised gooseflesh down my arms. “Be careful, Dell. I mean it. If Bessemer wants his pound of flesh, send him to me.” The threat of a shift rode the rise of those chill bumps. “If he puts a hand on you, I’m going to bite it off.”

Behind her, Emily cocked her head at me. “Imogen says stuff like that.”

Thoughts mired on Graeson, I managed a real smile at the hope Bessemer’s latest bedmate might actually stick. “Sometimes it’s up to us girls to tell guys when they’re being silly.”

She digested that nugget of wisdom with a bob of her head.

I had to give the kid credit. She didn’t beg or cry or struggle as Dell marched her toward Silverback Lane. She wiped her nose and eyes with the backs of her hands, straightened her shoulders and went to face the music.

Isaac stepped beside me, and we trudged for home, his gaze sweeping the night. “Where’s the wolf?” He whistled. “Here, boy.”

“He’s not a pet,” I snapped without heat. “He’s a wild animal.”

“With the heart of a man.” He speared me with his gaze. “And the hots for my little cousin.”

A flush baked my face stiff and itchy. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Not so fast.” He caught me by the wrist when I tried to open my door and frowned at the small yard inside the circle of our trailers. “Looks like Mom has decided to inflict family night on us. We have to at least swing by and make our excuses.” If he heard my groan, he ignored it and hauled me into the backyard. “It’s your own fault her nesting instincts kicked in. You showed up with Dell, who was half-dead, then locked Mom up with the locals while your wolfman hunted you down. That’s a lot for her to handle. You know she’s pure momma bear when it comes to her kids.” I warmed to be included in her brood, at least until Isaac added, “Huh. Now that I think about it, you got attacked by the wolfman and still somehow you ended up in bed together?” Any higher and his eyebrows would wing right off his forehead. “That’s messed up, coz.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered.

He turned me loose, plugged his ears, and said in a loud voice, “And I don’t want to either.”

Aunt Dot had arranged a snacker’s paradise on the compact folding table near her home. Four chairs huddled around it, though only three people ever filled them. The normality of the scene, of her smile when she spotted me and her scent when she reeled me in for a hug, was exactly what I needed. Not the gloom of my trailer’s blacked-out interior or another night spent in the company of a wolf, but this. Warm arms, genuine smiles. Simple. Easy. Uncomplicated.

“There’s a meteor shower tonight.” Aunt Dot shoved me down in my chair and slapped an icy can of soda in my hand then did the same for Isaac. “The person who counts the most wins. Winner gets breakfast in bed for a month.”

“A month?” Isaac perked, winking at me. “It’s on.” Behind her back, he held up two fingers and mouthed, “Two minutes.”

Sitting with Aunt Dot for a couple of minutes wouldn’t kink our timeline. Giving him a thumbs-up, I popped the cap and took a long sip. “You two have upped the ante while I’ve been away.”

Once assured she held our full attention, Aunt Dot launched into a recitation of how we, as Geminis, should have some interest in the skies because of our namesake constellation. Nodding along with the familiar lecture, I soaked up the normal before ruining Aunt Dot’s family night with the ominous news I was, in all likelihood, being hunted by a serial killer and his new avatar.

Not five minutes later a bellow shook the trees and silenced the night birds, crickets and frogs.

“What on earth?” Aunt Dot’s hand lifted to her throat. “What was that? Pumpkin?”

“That was the sound of an alpha warg realizing his daughter has been consorting with fae.” I set my drink aside, stood and rolled my shoulders to loosen them. “Company’s coming.”

Isaac rose to his feet and positioned himself beside me. “How bad is this going to get?”

“This is Theo-discovering-you-swiped-the-keys-to-his-Camaro-and-wrecked-it-on-a-date-with-his-girlfriend bad.”

“You said your brother wrecked that car—” she began.

“Not now, Mom.” He shot me a
thanks so much
look that promised retribution via ceramic figurines. “You ought to go inside until we see how this shakes out.”

“And leave my babies out here?” Her laughter rang cold in the night. “I don’t think so.”

We three stood, shoulder to shoulder, eyes on the forest beyond our wards.

We didn’t have to wait long.

T
he alpha burst
from the forest’s heart, all rippling muscle and simmering rage, with one hand locked around Emily’s slender wrist and the other clamped on Dell’s upper arm. The whites of his eyes shone with madness.

“You, fae. You did this.” He shook Dell until she stumbled then hauled her back and lifted her until she was forced to stand on tiptoe or allow him to dislocate her shoulder. “You brought that evil back here.”

Isaac tensed in my periphery, but Aunt Dot restrained him with a hand to his chest.

“I did.” All the evidence pointed at that being true. I wasn’t going to deny it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“My daughter—
my only child
—met with that monster. She took spelled food from it. The same fae who killed our Marie.” He flung Dell forward, and she landed in a heap. “Take that and get off my land.” His face purpled, bones gliding beneath his skin as he fought the change and bellowed,
“Now.”

Trembling, Dell crawled on her hands and knees inside the safety of the wards. Isaac ran to her, cradled her in his arms and carried her inside his trailer before rejoining me in the yard.

Guilt drummed a painful tattoo in my chest.

My fault. I did this. I cost Dell everything. Please let Graeson be able to undo it.

Beneath that another primitive rhythm pounded. Dell was mine to protect, and I had failed her. The urge was visceral and flooded my mouth with saliva. My fingertips burned, the tips of claws pressing against the fragile pink barrier of my skin.

“I’m not on your land,” I said, voice hoarse from my thwarted change. “I’ll leave Villanow, but not until I’ve captured the fae.” Harlow deserved better than to be torn apart by wolves. She was a victim too, but Bessemer’s prejudice blinded him to that fact. “You have my word she’ll be relinquished into conclave custody.”

“Conclave,” he scoffed. “They’re your law, not mine. Fae who kill on my lands are mine to punish. The conclave had their chance. They won’t get another.”

“We don’t have evidence the fae who killed Marie is here,” I said calmly. “It appears he’s chosen a new avatar, and as far as we know, she has committed no crime. She’s his victim as much as Marie was.”

“I’m done hearing your lies.” He stabbed the air in my direction. “I gave your family sanctuary. I suffered your toxic presence among my kin for Cord’s sake, because grief had carved him hollow and he seemed to think you’d fill him.” His lip curled. “And this is how you repay our hospitality, how you repay Cord. The creature who killed his sister followed you here. It went after
my
daughter.”

“I haven’t lied to you, and I didn’t scheme my way here. I came at Graeson’s request.” And oh how I wished he were here to back up that claim. “I’ve been hunting this creature for months. Until today I had no reason to believe it was in the vicinity, let alone on pack lands.”

We might have made more progress too, if not for the pack drama Bessemer had instigated at every turn, but I was hardly going to throw that in his face now.

“Lies are the language of the fae.” He cocked his head to one side, a predator scenting prey. “What hunting have you done if you didn’t know it was here?”

I bit my lips before they had a chance to tingle. The last thing I needed was Bessemer figuring out I had been removed from the case or who had been helping me continue to work it off the clock. Armed with that information, I had no doubt he would be thrilled to call the conclave and tell them exactly what I had been up to and how my actions had endangered the fragile accord between fae and native supernaturals.

The fall was coming, but I didn’t want Thierry and Mai or any of the others helping to tumble after me.

“You had your chance to make this right.” He glanced around the clearing. Golden eyes winked in the trees. “Now it’s our turn.” His voice rose to a stout cry. “We lost one of ours to this unnatural creature. A child. As your alpha and as a father, I give my word we won’t lose another. Tonight we hunt fae, and tomorrow we wake with the knowledge our children are safe from their evil.”

Summoned from the darkness, Aisha strolled to his side. He didn’t acknowledge her except to transfer Emily from his grip to hers. Imogen emerged next, rolling her hips with invitation, and his hungry smile welcomed her to join him. She claimed the spot on his other side.

“Listen to me.” Slowly, I approached them, leaving my family in the backyard, near the pulsing heart of our strongest wards. “Thanks to Emily, we know the fae’s routine. We know where and when to find her. Let’s wait for morning. Working together we have a better chance of succeeding. We need her alive and unharmed to find out where the killer’s gone.”

“We’ve heard enough.” Bessemer bent to Aisha’s ear. Her mouth tightened and eyes shot daggers at Imogen, but she took Emily and left. “The time for talking has passed. Blood answers for blood.” Shaking his fist at the moon, he boomed, “Tonight we hunt!”

Bone-chilling howls lit up the night, the wolves’ songs a haunting melody that played while they dispersed.

“Hide behind your wards,” Bessemer taunted. “I’ve a taste for fae blood, and I’m not particular where it comes from.”

“I can’t let you kill her.” I could no more return to my chair and watch the meteor shower with an ear cocked for the sound of Harlow’s screams than he could go home and wait for the dawn. “She’s a good kid.”

At least she had been before Charybdis sank his hooks into her.

She’s human
, I almost said in a bid for mercy. But Bessemer was past hearing, and he wouldn’t believe me anyway. It might encourage him, in fact, the hope I was telling the truth and his prey was so much weaker than the rest of us.

Or…she had been. With Charybdis amplifying her powers, nothing was certain.

Not knowing was the worst part.

“Marie was a good kid too.” Tight as a rope stretched thin, his voice strummed with determination. “There are a lot of children here, and I won’t lose another one.” His nostrils flared, and he hesitated when he might have turned. “Where is Cord?”

A pang rocked me. “I don’t know.”

“Convenient that he vanished before the call to hunt was issued,” he noted. “Which side would he choose, do you think?”

“The side he felt was in the right.” His personal sense of honor would permit him to do nothing less.

“The man, perhaps. The wolf? He will answer to me,” he promised. “Make your peace with that.”

Would he? Was that an alpha’s power or an egotist’s expectation? This was the first time the wolf had left my side in days. At this point Graeson was more man than wolf in temperament and, most times, in action. Did that mean he could resist the song of his kin? The lure to run alongside others of his kind? The promise of hot blood to rinse out his mouth? I wasn’t sure. I hoped his will, his memory of Harlow, remained stronger than that.

Isaac crossed to me and slung his arm around my shoulder, grinning coldly at Bessemer. “Happy hunting.”

The alpha paused, as though sifting the words for deeper meaning. Brow still tight, he turned and headed for the deepest shadows. Sooner than I expected, a new voice lifted the joyous chorus. That fast the alpha had shifted and picked up the scent.

Tracking the movement of the pack was simple. How Bessemer expected to catch a fae while making so much racket was beyond me. Once the stragglers had moved on, Isaac dropped his arm and rubbed his face vigorously.

The glimmer of hope that had risen in me when the possibility of confronting Harlow on land was a thing I could wake to and enact vanished in a cold rush of reality.

Back to Plan A.

“I need to grab something from my place.” I would just have to hope it worked on humans
and
fae. “Then we have to get to the lake without being torn apart by wargs.”

“Sounds doable.” He backed toward his trailer. “Let me grab some gear, and I’ll meet you back here.”

“What about me?” Aunt Dot glanced between us. “What can I do?”

“Stay put,” we said together.

“Someone has to take care of Dell.” Isaac hugged his mom one-armed. “You have to keep her here. She’s been cast out, and that means anyone in her pack can attack her without provocation or retribution.”

“He’s right.” I squeezed her shoulder. “We need you to take care of her and keep our wards up. When we get Harlow back—”
please let us get her back
, “—we need things here at full power to keep out the wargs.”

“You mentioned witches.” Aunt Dot frowned. “If they’re any good, they could dismantle the wards given enough time.”

“They’re good.” Dell wobbled down the steps from Isaac’s trailer wearing one of his dress shirts. “The best.”

“Then we can’t stay here.” Aunt Dot shrugged off Isaac and went to steady Dell. She led her to the chairs and set her down gently. “Theo is in Orlando. We can always head there.”

Normally, I would balk at the suggestion, but after tonight, Aunt Dot would want to mother hen all her chicks. “Okay.” I tried not to grimace. “That sounds good.”

“We can handle this.” Dell’s voice sounded pancake-flat. “You get the girl.”

“You’re coming with us to Florida.” Isaac left no room for argument. “Put your things in my trailer.”

This morning that would have jolted her awake. Now he might have been commenting on the weather instead of asking her to move in with him, even temporarily.

“Dell…” Unsure what to do, what to say to make this better, I rocked my weight from foot to foot. I had to go, but I couldn’t leave her this way. “These people are your family.”

“Not anymore.” Tears overflowed her cheeks. “This hasn’t felt like home in a long time anyway.”

The cost of those words hurt me on her behalf, because I wasn’t sure they were true. “What about Meemaw?”

“I can get word to her.” She wiped her face and sucked in a breath. “It’s not right to ask her to abandon her home…at her age…because I…”

Aunt Dot wrapped Dell in her arms, and Isaac gave me a nudge to get moving. “Mom will take care of her.” He started backing toward his trailer. “Harlow will have heard all that racket. If she was on land, she won’t be for long. The safest place for her is in the water where the wargs can’t reach her.”

A nod was all I could manage. I swallowed hard, turned and dashed into my house to grab the bag Harlow had abandoned in Abbeville. I didn’t own a swimsuit, but I was a jogger in another life, so I pulled on a gray sports bra with matching spandex workout pants that cut off just below my knees and molded to my legs. I tugged a T-shirt on over it and shoved my feet into sneakers I could kick off before I…

Don’t think about it.

A minute passed while I stood frozen in the bedroom with my hand on Harlow’s bag and my heart lodged in my throat before someone pounded flat-palmed on the exterior. I jumped, and the spike of adrenaline thawed my fear. I slid the bag on and jogged out to meet Isaac.

Cutting short his lingering glance at Dell’s back, he hefted a ratty duffle bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

He stepped free of the wards and onto Chandler pack land ahead of me. I blinked, and he was flat on his back, buried under the weight of a snarling warg. At least one more set of golden eyes pierced the gloom.

Great. Bessemer had positioned sentries to keep us occupied.

Magic coasted over me, the change to half-warg complete in the time it took Isaac to throw off his attacker. His eyes widened when he spotted me. I didn’t have time to let him gawk; I made a fist and knocked the second wolf out of the air. The first scrambled and leapt for Isaac, who had shifted so that his arms were as thick as tree trunks and shaggy as Spanish moss. Blunt fingers the color of swamp water dug into the warg’s throat until it went limp in his grip.

“Don’t kill them.” The second wolf skirted me and pounced on Isaac, who was pushing himself off the ground. “Incapacitate them.”

“Oh…” he panted through clenched teeth, “…I plan on it.”

Dodging his beefy arms, I gripped the wolf’s ruff and hauled him off Isaac, who clamped a fiber-thin silver collar around his throat with stubby yet nimble fingers. The warg howled and thrashed until I dropped him.

Isaac rolled to his feet, a silver loop glinting in his fist that he was quick to snap onto the other downed warg. “Why didn’t they attack you?” He gestured toward my face. “Does it have something to do with your aspect?”

“I don’t know.” I wondered that myself. “Maybe they’re loyal to Graeson.”

It was the only reason I could fathom why they wouldn’t harm his mate at Bessemer’s say-so. For their sake, and Graeson’s, I hoped their alpha never caught wind of their rebellion, or there would be bloodshed.

“We need to show this to Mom.” He studied me a moment longer. “No offense, but you’re not skilled enough to evolve or hold a shift to this degree unless…” He raked his fingers through his hair. “This level of imitation with a secondary shape is only seen in Gemini who are
becoming
.”

“That’s not possible.” I smoothed my thumb over my spur. “I imitate Lori.”

“Our resets are fluid,” he said gently. “They must adapt as our twin ages, gets scars, puts on weight.” He petted down the length of my forearm, a fierce curiosity blazing in his eyes. “You haven’t taken Lori’s blood in years, but you’ve been ingesting warg blood regularly for a prolonged amount of time. Paired with the mental bond and your attachment to these people…” He buzzed with excitement at the possibility. “Maybe your reset is, I don’t know, resetting.”

Dumbfounded, I stood there working my jaw like a fish out of water.

Isaac cinched his hands around my upper arms and gave me a light shake. “Later,” he promised. “Mom and I will help you get to the bottom of this once your friend is safe, okay?”

Unable to use my words yet, I nodded at him.

Releasing me with a grin, he set off at a jog. I cast one final glance at the pitiful wolves and followed, shoving down the possibility I might be losing Lori all over again. This time for good.

“Hey.” I caught up to him. “Since when are you packing silver?”

“Did you really think I was going to visit a pack of wargs unarmed? This one in particular?” He snorted. “A few calls were all it took for me to discover the Chandler pack alpha more than dislikes or distrusts fae, but hates them. I wasn’t going to bring my family into a hostile situation unarmed.”