Long Shadows: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 2 (26 page)

“So this is where you live,” Peter said, peering through the space between the countertop and cabinets that separated the kitchen from the dining room.
 

I jumped. “How did you get in?”

“I’ve been trying to find you for a week, but every time I tried, something blocked me.”

Max’s wards. Where are they now?
I looked around like I could see them visually and stopped myself.
Maybe they haven’t been set up yet.

“What are you looking for?” Peter asked.

“Can you sense any security spells? I think he called them wards.”

Peter closed his eyes. “Not that I can sense, but I am still early in my training.”

I dried off a still-damp plate so I could keep my hands busy. “He said he was taking first watch.”

“Lonna, there’s no one else here.” He came into the kitchen and took the plate from my hand. “I would know if there was another wizard in the area.”

My heart beat in my throat, and I focused on my left foot where Max had placed the spell.
Will it work in reverse? Can I find him?

“Peter, help me!”

“I don’t know how, and I cannot stay much longer.” He took my hands. “I’m here to warn you. There are rogue wizards who are looking for you, and if they catch you, they’ll kill you.”

“I knew that. Do you know why they’re after me?”

“They want to dissect you to find out what it is that’s so unique about your brain and your cell structure that your family doesn’t age quickly.”

“Neither do the other wizards and werewolves.” Saying the
other
struck me.
I’m acknowledging myself as one of them now.

“No one is going to do this to one of their own kind or one of the full bloods on the other side. It would bring the Lycanthrope Council and the Wizard Tribunal down on them. Since you are of mixed blood, and therefore a possible threat to everyone, there are those on both sides who would prefer that you disappear.” He took my hands. “I have a confession.”

“Only one?”

“The ones in Europe didn’t know about you until I told them, and now they’re going to be after you too. I’m sorry, I was just trying to find out the information you needed.”

Now the weight of history fell on my shoulders and was joined by a vise around my heart. “I just drove off my two best advocates.”

“You had best get them back, then.” He tucked my hair behind my ear. “I never stopped loving you, you know.”

I moved away from him. “From what I’ve heard, I don’t know if that’s a real emotion or if it’s something about me that makes men go nuts.”

He shrugged. “Does it matter? We had a good time together.”

“I need more than a good time, Peter. I need…”
What do I need?
 

His image flickered and faded in front of me. My skin tingled with the aftermath of the magic that had brought him there, and I instinctively closed my right fist as if to grab it. The energy raced through the scar on my palm, through my heart, and to my left foot, where it ignited Max’s mark. I had to catch myself on the counter so I wouldn’t fall, either from the pain or the intensity of the images that flooded my brain.

“Max!” I screamed. In a vision, Henry and his crew grabbed him outside my apartment and knocked him out from behind so he couldn’t fight back.

My brain made the connections I hadn’t seen previously. Carrigan didn’t want to protect me—he was part of the conspiracy to kill me, and when he realized Max wouldn’t cooperate, he decided to take him out of the picture.

What would they do to a wizard they wanted to make disappear?
Peter’s words took on a new sinister meaning.
They would do to him what they want to do to me.

From what I could tell, I had two choices: seek the asylum of the werewolves, who may also want me to disappear, or go after Max—
the man I love.

First I needed to be able to change at will, not only when my life was in danger. Sure, that was useful if I had enough warning like Max and I had had in my aunt’s house when Henry and his goons attacked, but not when the process of the change would make me defenseless for a few minutes. Since the antipsychotic had likely worked out of my system by then, what was keeping me separated from my inner wolf was whatever my aunt had done, which was being magnified by my own resistance. There was only one person alive who knew of my aunt’s magic and possibly how to reverse it. Giancarlo.

Although he had been spirit walking all night, he sounded quite awake when I called, and guilt stabbed me. Maybe he hadn’t been able to sleep since he left my place because I’d broken his heart. Or perhaps I was overestimating the effect I had on men to make myself feel better about failing with Max.

“What do you want?” he asked.

I swallowed around the lump in my throat that had formed when I heard the chill in his tone.

“I need your help.”

“What was that, Lonna?” My name sounded foreign on his tongue since I was so used to him calling me
Bellissima
, or beautiful one.

“I’m sorry about this morning. I need your help.”

A long sigh. “What changed your mind?”

“In the interest of being perfectly honest with each other, it’s because they took Max.”

“So you are unprotected.”

“And helpless.” Saying the words made me clench my teeth. “I need you to help me undo what my aunt and mother did so I can get my
fylgia
back and change at will, not just when I feel my life is in danger.”

“That is a good place to start.” He sounded interested, and the tension in my chest eased just a little.

“Giancarlo, please.”

“It is good to hear you beg. I will be right there.”

A tear splashed on the screen of my phone, and my hands trembled.
I was in control of my life, of my future. What happened?

The phone rang while I still held it and showed an unfamiliar number with a 706 area code. I answered.

“Ms. Marconi, this is Dennis from the Albion Funeral Home. How are you today?” He sounded friendly and Southern, but also somber enough for his profession. I pictured a short overweight man with a mustache and a dark suit.

“I’ve had better days.”

“I’m sure, and I’m sorry for your loss. I just wanted to let you know why there’s been a delay in us calling you to make arrangements for your aunt, Ms. Gannadisi.”

“Okay.” I bit my tongue before I blurted out that I was too busy trying to save my own life to worry too much about burying my aunt.
What kind of crappy niece am I?

“Well, I’m not sure how to sugarcoat this, so I’ll just say it. Your aunt’s body has gone missing.”

“What?” I leaned against the counter. “What do you mean, missing? Where did it disappear?”

“I should’ve told you sooner, but we were hoping the sheriff would catch whoever did it and return her to us.”

“Dennis, just tell me where it went missing.”

“The hearse that was transporting it from the morgue at Saint Albeus to our facility ran off the road. The driver said he heard snarling animals, so he didn’t want to go outside. I’m not sure I believe this next part, but Joey tested clean for drugs.”

“Just spit it out, Dennis.”

“He said he blinked, and a couple of hours had passed, and the hearse was pulled over to the side of the road—not in the woods, although there were scratches on it like it had been. He said he was fine, maybe a little bruised up, but your aunt’s body was missing.”

“Thank you for telling me,” I said and took a deep breath. “Please keep me informed of the situation.”

“Now, Miss Lonna, we can still have a service, closed coffin, of course.” Dollar signs oozed from his words.

“No, I’ll wait until the authorities have located my aunt, and we’ll proceed from there.”

I hung up and chewed on a nail, a habit I’d broken as a teenager.
They have my aunt’s body. They’re going to experiment on it, and they’re going to want a live specimen.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks and went into the bedroom to pack.
First, I’ll get my inner wolf and ability to change back. Then I’ll rescue Max, and we can face the bullies who stole her.

Giancarlo arrived just as I was putting a load of laundry in the washer. I answered the door with the bottle of detergent still in hand. Okay, I admit I was holding it in case something decided to try and follow him in.

“You’re sexy when you’re domestic,” he said and kissed me on both cheeks.

I smiled, and it felt like before with him flirting and me appreciating it.

“Would you like something to drink?” I asked.

“I would love a glass of wine, but since it’s still early, coffee would be fantastic.”

I nodded, noting the dark circles under his eyes.
Right, he hasn’t really slept since the night before last.

“Plus,” he added, “if you are able to change when your life is in danger, then we should see if caffeine will help that process along since it can produce jitters and anxious feelings.”

“Good point, amp up the sympathetic nervous system and adrenals.”
Not that my adrenals need much help these days.
“Would you like to make it Italian strength?”

“My pleasure. Is there any more tiramisu? I have not yet had breakfast.”

“Help yourself. It’s in the fridge.”

He busied himself in the kitchen, and I folded clothes on the bed. I closed my eyes and listened to him, and I pretended I was back in my aunt’s house with Max puttering around the kitchen. The desire to be domestic with him overwhelmed me, and I had to blink so I wouldn’t start crying again.

“He means a lot to you, doesn’t he,
Bellissima
?” Giancarlo asked from the doorway. He sounded resigned, not jealous.

I nodded. “More to me than I do to him.”

Giancarlo’s mouth quirked, and I couldn’t tell whether he was struggling not to frown or smile. “You do not know the wizards. They are cold, analytical. Feelings do not have a place in their world.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” I said, thinking about how Max talked about Deirdre. “He had a fiancée who was killed by werewolves. He showed passion while talking about her.”

“Then he is a good one,” Giancarlo told me. “Trust this from someone who knows passion: you do mean a lot to him, but he struggles with his inner wolf as you do with yours.”

I arched an eyebrow. “He has an inner wolf?”

“In a metaphoric sense.” He spread his hands. “I should not have to explain this to you.”

“Right. Only one of us is allowed to pull out the psychobabble.” I threw a balled-up T-shirt at him. “Well, that explains why he keeps pointing out my struggle to me. He’s projecting.”

“Different words for the same part of human nature.”

I smiled. “When did you get so wise? Wait, how old are you, anyway?”

“I am relatively young for my kind, only eighty years old.”

“What? You’ve aged better than my aunt did.”

“She chose to grow older. She had no desire to outlive her family to that degree. It is hard for the mixed bloods because they have more options and therefore more difficult choices.”

“I have so much to learn.”

He handed me a big mug of coffee. “Then let us start.”

Two hours later, I was jittery, but no closer to changing.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked Giancarlo. I was on my third cup of very strong Italian coffee and feeling chatty.

“It’s part of my vow to protect your family.”

“Where did this vow come from?” I took another sip. My stomach flipped, and I coughed acid. I put the coffee down.

“It was another branch of the
Benandanti
, as I told you. Your ancestress who cursed the monks who now chase you also magically manipulated the
Padre Superiore’s
price such that only female children would become wolves. If they manifested the price and turned before they found mates, it became difficult, and they needed protection.”

“Right.” I remembered Aunt Alicia and how I’d always wondered why she was alone until Gladis Ann appeared. Then I thought she was a lesbian, and Gladis Ann was her partner. I took the picture I’d snitched from the scrapbooks at the FPB out of my purse and showed it to Giancarlo. He cradled it in his hands, and the creases at the corners of his eyes softened.

“Ah, Alicia. She was a woman of great passion.”

My stomach turned again, but not from the coffee. “Please, that’s like thinking about your parents in bed. It’s worse that she and I could have compared notes on you. Or did you hold back like you did with me?”

He placed the picture on the coffee table like the photo was made of thin porcelain and would break with any sudden movement. “I shall have to remember that you’re a bitch, and not a wolf kind, when you’ve had too much caffeine. Try changing now.”

I stuck my tongue out at him, but I obediently closed my eyes and tried to reach inside myself to find my inner wolf. My heart pounded, and my stomach heaved as it had with my last change, but otherwise there was no progress toward my lycanthropic state.