Fire and Ice

  “Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Lina said.

  “He meant the bad guys. There’s a few people in the world who know about the tablet’s true existence and whereabouts.”

  Lina thought for a moment. “That would put Bertholde in the running for that job. Is that why would someone kill her?”

  Ain shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe she wouldn’t tell what she knew, so they killed her so she couldn’t warn anyone else to move it.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Lina agreed. “Makes as much sense as any other theory we currently have.”

  “So back to your mystery object,” Cail said. “I like puzzles. Can I see the box?”

  Jan went to fetch it from their things. Cail played with it for nearly a half hour while they talked. Then both Brodey and Ain took a shot. None of them could open it.

  Ain returned it to Jan. “That’s a wicked one.”

  “Yeah,” Rick said. “Tell us about it.”

  “I’ll get in touch with Jocko in the morning.”

  “I think she definitely needs to go see Lacey,” Brodey said.

  Cail and Ain both nodded.

  “Who’s that?” Lina asked.

  “Our pack’s Seer,” Brodey said. “Like Bertholde. And, honestly? There are few places safer to be than a pack compound. Especially ours.”

  When Lina yawned, Zack chimed in. “I think she’s worn out tonight, guys. Let’s call it a night and decide on our plan in the morning.”

  “I’m okay,” Lina protested.

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “Hey, I’m still your Watcher, lady. Listen to me.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Oh, fine. You know, one of these days, I might decide to charbroil you, ya know.” She smiled.

  “Promises, promises, Goddess girl. Go get your tushy into bed.”

  She did.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Early the next morning, Ain closed himself in Cail’s study and placed a call. A sleepy, brogue-thick voice answered.

  “Aye? Better be good, wakin’ me this early.”

  “Hey, Jocko. It’s Aindreas Lyall, down in Florida.”

  The older man grunted. “Hold on, boyo.” It sounded like Jocko laid the phone down. Ain heard coughing and a horrific hacking noise. A moment later, the sound of water running. When Jocko finally returned to the phone, he sounded a little more awake. “Sorry, had to hit the loo. What’s up?”

  “I need to locate someone.”

  “Do I look like the Yellow Pages?”

  “He’s a wolf. Daniel Blackestone.”

  He didn’t like the wary tone that cropped up in Jocko’s voice. “Why?”

  Ain gave him the short version of everything that had happened and sensed Jocko’s distrust ease. “Ah. Makes sense, now. I’ll look around and let ye know.”

  “The sooner, the better. We’ve committed to helping them. If Lina’s vision is right, the cockatrice might have plans for us, too.”

  “Feathered bastards. Always did hate ’em. I’ll track him down. Ye said yer heading up here to see Lacey?”

  “Brodey is. He’s coming with Lina and her men. Cail and I are going to stay here and hold down the fort.”

  “All righty, boyo. I’ll let you know when I find him. Have Brodey stop by with yer guests when he gets here so I can meet ’em.”

  * * * *

  Lina awoke the next morning, alone in bed and with sunlight streaming through the bedroom window into her eyes. She knew her men had slept with her, because she remembered snuggling between them at some point and their pillows had obviously been used.

  Groaning with exhaustion she knew had to be the effect of the trip to Yellowstone, combined with her new revelations, not to mention her period, she dragged herself upright into a sitting position and tried to wake up. She heard men talking in low tones somewhere in the house.

  She got out of bed, pulled on a robe, went to the bathroom, and then padded out to the kitchen where she found Brodey, Zack, Kael, Jan, and Rick talking at the kitchen table with the book, cuffs, puzzle box, knives, and the strange stone talismans in the middle of the table.

  They fell silent at her appearance.

  “Okay, fuck that shit. What’s up?”

  At her appearance, Zack had stood to pour her a cup of coffee. He handed it to her, as well as a couple of Motrin for her cramps. “Nothing, babycakes. Why? Are you paranoid?”

  “Yes. Don’t you think I’ve earned the right to be after all that’s happened?”

  “She’s got a point,” Brodey said with a smile.

  She downed the Motrin and gave both Rick and Jan a kiss before she joined them all at the table. “Do we have to have those creepy thingies out?”

  “Which creepy thingies, dear?” Zack asked. “The creepy book, knives, cuffs, or statues? Or Jan and Rick?”

  “Hey,” Rick said with a smile.

  “Just kidding, Smokey,” Zack said.

  “The statue thingies.” She shuddered.

  Jan grabbed them and put them back in Zack’s knapsack. “Better, lovely?”

  She sipped her coffee. “Yes. Thank you.”

  Brodey looked thoughtful. “You know, there has to be something about those things. None of us get the same feeling you do when you touch them. I mean, they’re intrinsically creepy, sure, because they were Lenny’s and no doubt had some kind of dark purpose. But they just feel like stone to us.”

  “I don’t care. They’re slimy and I don’t want to touch them.”

  “We get it,” Zack said. “Don’t worry.”

  “Yeah, we have other things to worry about,” Brodey said.

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “Like helping you learn how to defend yourself.”

  * * * *

  After breakfast, Brodey loaded Zack and Lina in one of their work trucks and drove them across the ranch to an isolated section of pasture adjoining a wooded area. Jan, Rick, and Kael stayed behind to discuss their various options with Ain and Cail.

  They wouldn’t clarify exactly what options, but Lina suspected it was ways of keeping her safe.

  “What are we doing here?” Lina asked as they climbed out.

  Brodey started stripping. He laid his clothes in the truck bed. She wanted to blush, but found she couldn’t force herself to look away, either.

  He laughed. “It’s okay, sugar. Feel free to look. I got over being bashful a century ago.”

  Zack whistled. “Glad you don’t mind, because you are nice eye candy, Brodey.”

  Brodey laughed again. “Sorry, you’re not only taken, you’re not my type. You want to fill her in, or do you want me to do it?”

  “It was your idea.”

  Lina felt herself growing frustrated. “Fill me in about what?”

  Brodey turned to her. “Remember how in Yellowstone you did that out-of-body thing to talk to me when I found you?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Let’s practice doing that again. We wanted to come out here where there’s not much in the way of distractions.”

  “You being naked is a huge distraction, Brodey,” she snarked.

  “You’ve got that right,” Zack agreed as he tugged at the bulge in his jeans.

  Brodey snorted in amusement, but continued. “I’m going to shift. You try to figure out how you did that and come talk to me.”

  “But I don’t know how I did it.”

  “That’s the point,” Zack said. “You need to figure it out. No better time than now. Instead of wasting time trying to eliminate what you can’t do, let’s focus on strengthening what we already know you can do.”

  Lina and Zack sat on the tailgate. They watched as Brodey shifted and headed out into the trees.

  “Any suggestions?” she asked Zack.

  “Nope. Sorry, sugar.”

  She stared at the woods, in the direction Brodey headed. When she’d done it in Yellowstone, she’d been tied up in a tent and drugged, barely conscious when she sent her mind out and talked to Brodey. It?
??d been more an accident than anything.

  A thought so stupidly simple occurred to her that it made her laugh.

  “What is it?” Zack asked.

  “Shh.” Remembering how she ended up at Baba Yaga’s, she closed her eyes and focused her mind and thought about seeing and talking to Brodey.

  Instantly, she felt herself step outside her body. She turned and looked at the truck. She still sat there next to Zack.

  Okay, so to find Brodey. She turned toward the woods and followed his path. Instead of walking, she envisioned herself floating, picking up speed as she moved until soon she was zipping along at a pretty good clip. It only took her a few moments to catch up with him. He was sitting in a small clearing, still shifted into his wolf form.

  Lina stopped next to him. “Brodey, can you hear me?”

  He didn’t react.

  She reached out to pet him and envisioned her hand touching the fur on his head, as if solid. “Broo-deeey.”

  He cocked his head, listening.

  She tried again. This time, she could feel his fur under her hand. Brodey jumped away from her and shifted back into human form.

  “Holy fuck, Lina! You scared the crap out of me!”

  “What?”

  He pointed at her. “You’re here.”

  “You told me to do it.”

  “Mentally. You’re actually here here.”

  In the distance, they both heard Zack yelling something.

  “Oh, crap,” she said, looking at her hands. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

  Brodey laughed. “Okay, so do we want to work on you dematerializing instead?”

  She snorted with laughter. “At least I didn’t randomly blow something up. Like you.”

  “And for that I am extremely grateful, kiddo. Let’s head back to the truck before Zack blows a gasket.” He shifted and took off at a run.

  Hmm. Well, let’s try it again. Lina closed her eyes and focused on going back to the truck. When she opened her eyes, she was still standing in the middle of the clearing.

  “Well, fuck a duck.” With a disappointed sigh, she trudged off after Brodey through the woods.

  By the time she reached the truck, Brodey had already donned his clothes and had calmed Zack down.

  “There you are!” Zack said. “You scared the crap out of me, disappearing like that.”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose,” she said.

  Brodey snickered. “You might want to practice that in an open field. You don’t want to accidentally materialize halfway through a tree or something.”

  “Jesus, give me something else to worry about, why don’t you?” Zack quipped. He shook a finger at Lina. “Quit scaring me like that!”

  “I wasn’t trying to scare you,” she said, suddenly feeling very weary. Would she ever master these funky powers?

  Did she even want to?

  Brodey’s expression looked concerned. “You okay, kiddo?”

  “I’m exhausted,” she said.

  “Why don’t we head back?” he suggested.

  She shook her head. “No. I can’t give up just like that.” The men slid over and made room for her on the tailgate. She leaned against Zack. “I just feel overwhelmed.”

  “I would, too,” Brodey agreed. “Do you want to try the materialization thing again? Just a few feet this time?”

  She nodded. “Sure.”

  He walked several yards away, out in the middle of clear ground, and turned to face her. “Try to come to me.”

  She sat up straight and took a deep breath. She still wasn’t sure how she did it before. After five minutes of trying without any luck, she slumped against Zack. “I’m the worst goddess ever.”

  Brodey returned to the truck. “Stop that. You just need to figure it out, that’s all. Don’t expect to learn all this stuff at one time. Maybe you’re trying too hard. Maybe we should start with much smaller things, like making stuff move or something.”

  “Or barbecuing chicken?” she snarked.

  He laughed. “Now there you go. You’re great with that. We can skewer a few birds and let you go to town with the fireballs.”

  “I wish I could have been there to see that,” Zack proudly said. “I bet it was a sight.”

  Brodey shivered. “Dude, that thing was so fugly, I would have had to tie a pork chop to it to get Wally to go after it. And he’ll eat damn near anything when he’s shifted.”

  “Speaking of Lenny,” Zack said, “we should probably have someone check his place out.”

  “Do we know where he lived?” Lina asked.

  “Kael found out his last address was outside of Boston.”

  “Hey,” Brodey said, “that’s near Wally. I can have him go check it out. He’s a PI.”

  “Well, isn’t that coincidental,” Zack said.

  Brodey shrugged. “He’s about three hundred years old. He’s worked for Scotland Yard, Interpol, and the original Pinkertons. He likes to stay in the same field.”

  “Can you call him for us?” Zack asked.

  “Sure, but the number’s at the house.”

  Lina climbed off the tailgate and stretched. “Okay, so we need to go to the house—”

  The words caught in her throat as she found herself standing in the Lyalls’ living room. Jan, Rick, and Ain all let out startled shouts as they looked up from the dining room table.

  “Um, hi,” she said, her face reddening.

  Worst. Goddess. Ever.

  Ever!

  “What are you doing here, babe?” Jan asked.

  “Fuck that,” Rick said. “How did you get here?”

  She started to answer that question when her cell phone rang. She knew it was Zack from the ringtone. She answered. “Yeah, sorry about that,” she said. “I’m at the house.”

  “How the fuck did you do it?” he practically shouted in her ear.

  “I don’t know!” she said, bursting into tears. Jan and Rick huddled around her as Ain took the phone from her and spoke to Zack.

  “Yeah… Sure. We’ll keep her here until you two get back.” He hung up the phone and handed it back to her. “Your Watcher decrees your lessons are over for today due to his needing a stiff drink and a tranquilizer for his nerves.”

  “I suck at this!” she wailed against Rick’s shoulder. “I can’t do anything right!”

  “Shh, lovely,” Jan soothed, “it’s all right. You’ll get the hang of it eventually. Maybe you’re just trying too hard.”

  They got her mind off of her less-than-Goddessly skills by talking about sending Wally to search Lenny’s. Ain and Cail both agreed that was a solid plan. Brodey went to fetch his friend’s number. Lina had never searched Edgar’s place because she didn’t want to deal with anything related to him. She’d told the attorney to turn the contents over to Lenny.

  In retrospect, she kicked herself in the ass for doing that. Brodey related all this over the phone to Wally, who was more than happy to help out Brodey. He promised to go do it that afternoon.

  PART II

  Chapter One

  Now

  “Jeez, Callie, what the frak is up with you today? You act like you’re about to bounce out of your skin.”

  Callie looked across the table at her friend, Shawna. “What?”

  “You drinking espresso shots before you even get to the coffee shop, or what?”

  Callie realized she’d been anxiously tapping her foot and willed it to stop. “Better?”

  Shawna raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow at her. “Not really. Purple? Really girlfriend, you’re shitting me that’s not a wig, right?”

  Callie stroked her hair. “I was in a mood.”

  “A mood? Is that code for drunk?” Shawna’s mocha skin looked flawless, as always. Her shoulder-length hair had, no doubt, suffered an hour’s torture of straightening for her to achieve the casually mussed look she sported. She wore blue jeans and a gorgeous maroon blouse that set off highlights in her brown eyes. She pulled the look together with stiletto san
dals that gave her five-three frame an extra four inches. If someone didn’t know she held a law degree and was the head of the Mid-Atlantic Conservancy Trust for the Performing Arts, a position she inherited when her wealthy parents died and left her the job in their will, they’d never know she was worth over forty million dollars. She still insisted on driving her fifteen-year-old VW Rabbit to work every day at the “MacTrippa” office, as she called it.

  “I was not drunk.” Callie examined the result in the chromed side of the napkin holder. Her green eyes, one aspect of her appearance that never changed, stared back at her. “I was experimenting.”

  “Girl, you flunked that experiment. Leave the mad scientist crap to Dr. Frankenstein, and get your ass back to the hair stylist.”

  “I did it myself,” Callie mumbled. “I like it. You’re my friend. You’re supposed to support me.”

  “You’re what, thirty-five? Time to leave purple hair behind.”

  “Thirty and holding,” Callie mumbled. Sort of the truth, although Shawna didn’t need to know that.

  Shawna snorted in derision. “Embrace your age. You’re a hot woman. You don’t need to go purple to prove it.”

  “It’s not like it’s all purple. Just a few streaks for highlights.”

  Shawna arched an eyebrow at her again. “More like you were lit high or something.”

  Callie looked around for any sign of her intended mark. Three years of coming to this Charleston coffee shop and time was growing short. So far, all she’d picked up was Shawna as her friend, and a caffeine addiction. But her sister had insisted events were already in play, and literally any day now, she’d find him.

  Why her sister couldn’t just hand over his name, address, and phone number beat the hell out of Callie. But Babs insisted it didn’t work that way, that mortals’ free will must be maintained, otherwise the prophecies wouldn’t be fulfilled, blah, blah, blah.

  Always complicating shit. Just like her.

  Shawna sipped her latte. “We still hitting the opera tomorrow night?” She grinned. “I saw the publicity stills of Salzari, the lead.” She let out a low whistle. “A Saturday night at the opera never looked so sweet. Two words, honey—tight leather pants.”