Long Shadows: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 2 (21 page)

“That’s not what I meant. Remember when I called you a magnificent creature?”

“Yes.” I arched an eyebrow. “What did you mean?”

“You’re different, and there are others who need your talents.”

“Different how?”

“You can make a seasoned wizard lose control of his emotions.”

I grinned. “That’s just you.” But then I remembered Peter. He hadn’t been seasoned as a wizard, and he was a known womanizer, but had I done something to him?

“I doubt that.” He was finally able to stand. “Fine, I’ll stay on assignment with you because I don’t trust anyone else to watch over you like you need, but under one condition.”

“What’s that?” I asked, but the feeling of my heart ripping in two told me what it would be before he said it.

“No more kissing, touching, flirting… From this point, we’re strictly professional.”

My lower lip went out in a pout, which I remembered I’d been told numerous times made it very hard not to kiss me, so I pulled it back in. “Fine. Good night, then.”

He sighed. “Good night, Lonna.”

Once he went back upstairs, I flopped back on the couch. To say every nerve ending felt sexually frustrated would be an understatement. I thought about calling Joanie, but when I was romantically failing, I didn’t want to talk to someone who was in a happy place with it. From what I’d heard in her voice, she and Leo had straightened things out. I eyed the pillows to see which one would be better to punch and/or scream into, but then I remembered the box.

It seemed like Aunt Alicia didn’t have an easy time of it romantically, either. I didn’t think I’d go to sleep, so I decided to investigate the contents of the box. Just until I got tired enough to take my mind off Max, of course.

The box held a stack of five journals, an envelope that looked ready to burst with old photographs, and legal documents like birth certificates. At the bottom was a Bible with a family tree inside tracing our family back several generations. On each level was a name in a different color, most recently Alicia, and before that Lucia, both in red ink. My name was there, the only one on that line, in black ink with a question mark beside it.

Interesting.

I opened the first journal, which held entries in a child’s scrawl. To an ordinary observer, they would look like typical complaints—
We got measured today, and Julia was as tall as me. It’s not fair! I’m the big sister
—but I wondered how many of them were actual complaints and how much was a little girl trying to figure out this thing that made her different. From what I could surmise after looking at Giancarlo and my aunt’s pictures, those of us with a touch of magic or werewolf genetics or whatever it was aged more slowly. I skimmed through looking for Lucia’s name and finally found it.

Aunt Lucia came today. I asked if she brought her dog, and she smiled and said, “always.” Later she went to take a nap, and the dog came out to play. I like it. Its name is Cialu, and it is always very gentle with us even when Julia pulls its fur. Lucia said that someday I may have a dog like Cialu, and Mamma wiped her eyes and said she hopes not.

“Well, that confirms that,” I said under my breath. “Sort of.” I moved on to the next journal, which was Alicia’s adolescence.

The boys like Julia because she’s pretty and gentle, and I worry that someone will take her away from me. I go on occasional dates, but nothing worth recording here. They typically end with the boy telling me I’m too “intense” or “fierce,” and I get angry and call him “immature” or worse. I fear Julia is going to end up losing her virginity before I do. It would be so embarrassing if she’s the one to tell me what it’s like instead of the other way around.

“Okay, that’s more than I wanted to know about my mother.”

The third journal was from Aunt Alicia’s college years, which held similar complaints about Julia’s popularity with the boys, but also about how hard it was to manage the changes.

I am not like Aunt Lucia. I cannot walk outside my body, but must change every time. My parents have gotten me an apartment in town close to school. It’s on the ground floor, so I can leave a window open to get in and out after my change, but it’s still hard in the middle of the city. Maybe I should have gone to school in the country, but I so wanted to be normal, and environmental programs with the concentration I wanted were difficult to find.

Then came the one in her twenties and thirties, which she only kept sporadically. This time I looked through for mentions of Giancarlo, and I found it.

A young man appeared today at the Forest Preservation Board offices. He said his name is John Carlo, and he was here to see me. Suzie brought him into the conference room, and I couldn’t help but notice his wavy Italian hair and soft brown eyes, like a puppy dog’s. He’s pretty hot all over. He said he was sent by his superiors to help me because I’m doing things inefficiently, but he didn’t mean at the office. He meant with my changing and how I’m handling everything around it. He’s like me, and for the first time, I had hope that maybe there is someone for me, after all.

There was a picture tucked in the pages of Alicia and Giancarlo holding hands by a river. They gazed at each other and smiled, and my heart broke at their happiness but also at what I knew would eventually happen. There had been no mention of an uncle to go with Aunt Lucia, and I wondered if it was a family tradition that those of us who were “different” were doomed to always be single. I couldn’t help it, my gaze drifted to the stairs.
And alone.

Then came the last journal, which had the words, “The Experiment” on the inside cover. I felt a jolt when I held it and had to rub my hands on my skirt.

Julia called me tonight. She said she and Marco are having a baby, and she asked if I’d found anyone yet. “To have a baby with?” I asked. “No, there’s no one.” I didn’t tell her about Giancarlo, how he’d promised to come back when he was done with his next tutoring job. I don’t think he’s coming back. Hard to write, but it’s the plain truth.

“Oh, Alicia,” she said in her breathless way, “what are we going to do? What if it’s the one who’s going to be like Aunt Lucia and you?” I called Giancarlo, and he actually picked up for once. His tone was cold and tired, like he was sick of dealing with me.

“Do you have the things I told you to gather?” he asked.

“Yes, they’re all here.”

He told me what to do. He said our kind weren’t good at spells, but I could probably get us close enough with our mixed blood. I proposed his idea to Julia, who agreed, reluctantly, and asked that we not share our plan with her husband.

My hands shook.
What did they do to me?
I kept reading with the next entry.

 
Julia came with the baby today and without Marco. The little girl Lonna is so precious! And her eyes are fading from newborn blue to what looks like it might be pale green. Like I know anything about babies and their eyes, and I might just be a doting aunt, but this one is going to be a beauty. We placed a sprig of wolfsbane at the head of the crib. Out of the way of the baby, of course, since the stuff is poison unless you know how to use it correctly. That’s step one. The hope is that exposing her to the aroma of the flowers will keep the wolf part of the brain from developing. It all sounds suspect to me, but apparently we are focusing on balancing out the wolf, human, and other parts of her. I can’t even say what the other part is because it would put her and all of us in danger.

Chapter Seventeen

“In danger of what?” My eyes burned, and I had to stop and put the journals away. I took the box upstairs, slid it under my bed, and hid it behind a plastic storage box full of wrapping paper. After taking a mostly cold shower, I thought about getting back into my family history, but I had the feeling again of someone watching me—cold fingers across the back of my neck. I turned off the light and crept into the hallway. Max met me on the landing. I gripped the railing and willed my knees to stop shaking.

“Did you feel it?” I asked. My heartbeat lodged somewhere around my voice box, and even my voice trembled. All I wanted was for him to take me in his arms and tell me he would protect me, but he remained still, and I felt the static buzzing around him.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Remember I told you in the woods that my realm is light? It’s actually energy. Someone is trying to get past the wards I put on the house.”

“Why?”

The look he gave me told me I needed to leave the country of denial, and quickly.

“Right. Because someone’s after me. Are you sure it’s not you?”

“It’s always a possibility, but you’re the more valuable of the two of us.”

“Right. The mixed blood.”

He gripped my arm. “Who told you that?”

I pulled away. “I’ve been learning about myself while I’m here. We can talk about this later.”

“Whatever happens, just stay out of my way.”

The air pressure built and then released, and my ears popped. Max glowed orange and yellow like he was on fire from within, and his turquoise eyes blazed. Something gathered in me in response, and internal twisting and tensing told me I was about to change.

“Max,” I gasped, “it’s happening.”

“Let it! I’ll hold them off while you do, but as much as you can, don’t make yourself an easy shot. They may have tranquilizer darts.”

I nodded, unable to speak. The hallway runner rushed up to meet me as I fell to my knees and then stomach. Max loosened my clothes and couldn’t help but wish he’d done that earlier in a different context. The sexual energy that came to mind seemed to speed the process, and in a moment, I was shaking the clothes off.

“Brilliant,” he said and flashed me a smile. Literally, it was like lightning with my heightened senses. “Since you can see in the dark, be sure you get a good look at who they are. I don’t plan to allow them to escape, but if they do, I need to report them.”

“Who do you think they are?”

“Rogue wizards. They’re acting directly contrary to orders from the Command to leave you and your kind alone.”

I snarled.
“Let’s kick some tail.”

There was no crash, but I heard the lock on the back door being picked. We descended the stairs as quietly as we could, which is harder with four feet than with two. As we moved, Max gathered energy, and it made my fur stand on end.

The first man was through the door by the time we got down the stairs. He had messy black hair and a scar down one cheek that ended at the corner of an eye patch.

“There’s a pirate?”

“A thug,”
Max told me.
“Remember, don’t make yourself an easy shot.”

Max loosed a lightning bolt, and the man fell back screaming. The one behind him caught him and used him as a shield to force his way into the room. Max kept throwing electricity and fire at him, but I could tell he wasn’t shooting to kill.

Eyepatch guy’s yelling hurt my ears, so I darted around the couch and bit the second guy on the back of the thigh. The toughness of the flesh told me I’d gotten part of his hamstring, and he fell to the floor with a hiss, releasing the pirate so he could flop out of the way and give Max a clear shot at whoever was behind them.

Instead of screaming, the second one clutched his leg and yelled, “The bitch is in here! Watch for the wolf.”

The third man who was about to come through the door paused. “She’s not supposed to be able to change.” He lobbed what looked like a ball of water at Max, who was gathering energy for another shot. Max darted out of the way, and it splashed against the fireplace.

“The pictures! Don’t let it hurt the photos.”

“I’ll do my best,
Max said.
“A little help here?”

I leapt at the third guy’s throat and took him down but didn’t get hold of his neck. He shoved me off with surprising strength and ran into the night. That left us with the two, one of whom was bleeding and the other who buzzed and was obviously in shock—no pun intended. Max ran outside to follow the one who got away, but he returned after a short time.

“They had a car,” he said. “Were there only three of you?” Max asked the bleeding one. The other one was unconscious.

“Like I’m going to tell you, Blondie.”

“Lonna, how about you do to him what you were threatening to do to me when we first met?”

“Gladly.
”

“Excellent. Shall we start with the slow evisceration? Or would you like to emasculate him first?”

“Evisceration, of course. It’s my favorite.”

“The lady says evisceration. It will be a slower, more painful death as she opens your abdominal wall and slowly drags your intestines out across the room. Did you know how long they are? I’m sure it will fascinate you.”

“You’re bluffing,” he said, but he watched me with frightened eyes, and I smelled his terror.

I slowly moved toward him, growling low and with my teeth bared. He tried to scoot backwards, but Max blocked him and secured his hands with a belt. His blood made a nice savory, metallic topping for his sweet, sweet fear, and I had to battle the urge to allow the predator in me to take over.
He threatened me, invaded my home, and may have tried to poison me earlier this week. Scumbag deserves to die.
A red film covered my vision, and the man’s frightened look changed to one of terror when I leapt at him, aiming for his throat.