Stone Cold Fox

  “Well—” Jo began.

  “Look, Jocasta, do you want to come home or not?” Bianca demanded.

  “Of course I do!” Jo exclaimed. “I haven’t thought of anything else from the minute you kicked me out.”

  “Well now, ‘kicked out’ is a rather harsh term, don’t you think?” Bianca purred. “I prefer to think of it this way—we sent you on a sabbatical and now you’re being recalled. But you must come right now—as soon as the car pulls up. The meeting of the Elders is already being convened.”

  On sabbatical—right, Jo thought sarcastically. A sabbatical where I had to sleep in the woods and had no place to go and nothing to eat. But she didn’t say any of it out loud. She was too busy thinking of home—of Avalon.

  “All right,” she heard herself saying. “I’ll be ready.”

  “Good. Mindy is driving—you remember her, don’t you?”

  Jo did vaguely recall a younger witch by that name—she was one of Bianca’s recruits and was slavishly dedicated to the older witch. Jo didn’t particularly like her but then, she didn’t particularly dislike her either. Maybe Mindy could fill her in on what had been going on since she’d left.

  “Um, yes, I remember her,” she said. “I’ll be ready to go when she comes.”

  “Very good,” Bianca said shortly. “I expect to see you soon, Jocasta.”

  The older witch had never been much for prolonged goodbyes. With a sharp click, she hung up the phone in Jo’s ear.

  “So you’re going? Just like that?”

  The deep, familiar voice made Jo jerk so hard she nearly dropped the phone.

  “Oh!” She put a hand to her racing heart.

  Reese was standing there, just inside the doorway. He raised one eyebrow at her sardonically when their eyes met.

  “I didn’t even hear you come in. How did you open the door without the bells jingling?” Jo demanded.

  “I’m sneaky like that. Haven’t you heard the expression, ‘sly as a fox?’” He laughed like he was making a joke but the bitterness in his voice couldn’t be disguised. “So . . . you’re going?” he said again, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “How long were you standing there, anyway?” Jo asked, ignoring his question.

  “Long enough to hear you making an extremely questionable decision, darlin’” Reese said dryly. “Isn’t Bianca the one who got you kicked out of Avalon in the first place?”

  “Yes, but she’s had a change of heart.” Jo lifted her chin. “She and the whole Council of Elders want me to come back. I’m going to be reinstated.”

  Reese raised an eyebrow at her. “And you think that’s a good idea? Going back on the night of the full moon?”

  “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Jo snapped. “And the moon has nothing to do with it.”

  “You’re fooling yourself, darlin’” he said quietly. “You’re going to have your first Shift tonight—you can’t hold it off again and you know it.”

  “I know no such thing.” Jo hung up the phone and reached under the counter to get out her battered pack. She was using it as a purse and had a few odds and ends in it. Of course, she had no clothes but hopefully her old clothing from her life before at Avalon hadn’t been thrown out. The only thing she was really worried about leaving was her athame, which was back in her room at Reese’s house. Well, she would have to send for it later as Bianca had suggested.

  “Jo, this isn’t safe,” Reese argued. “Why would they want you back all of a sudden? How do we know Bianca doesn’t have something to do with the man who attacked you in the woods the other night?”

  “That’s impossible. The witches of Avalon have no contact with males,” Jo said coldly.

  “Look, at least let me drive you up there if you’re so hell-bent on going,” Reese said, coming up to the other side of the counter. “To make sure you’re safe. And to be near you when the moon rises tonight.”

  “If you think you’re going to . . . that I’m going to break my vow just because the moon is full tonight . . .” Jo shook her head. “It’s not going to happen, Reese. And no, you can’t drive me because, as I said, there are no males allowed within the borders of Avalon.”

  “But—”

  “Look, I need to go write a note for Fiona and make sure things are straightened up in the back room,” Jo interrupted him. “I’m sorry but I just don’t have time to talk about this right now. My ride will be here any minute.”

  “Are you that eager to get away from me, Jo?” he asked and there was a note of sorrow in his voice that tore at her heart. “You don’t trust me? Can’t stand to be near me after what I did—is that it?”

  Jo’s heart felt like it was tearing in two. It was true she didn’t trust him anymore—not like she had, anyway. But did she want to leave him here and never see him again?

  No, whispered a voice in her head. No, of course not! I care for Reese. More than that—I don’t just care for him, I lo—

  Jo cut the voice off sternly. There was no point in thinking such things. She was going back to Avalon now, leaving the new life she’d made in Cougarville to return to her old one. And since no males were allowed in Avalon, there was no place for the big Shifter.

  “I’m sorry, Reese,” she said at last, her voice breaking on his name. “But I belong in Avalon.”

  “No, darlin’ . . .” Reaching over the counter, he cupped her cheek tenderly in one large hand. “You belong with me. Please, Jo—don’t leave.”

  The throbbing in her temples eased at once, erased as though it had never been, and her whole body flooded with longing for him. Jo felt every part of her yearning to be close to the male touching her so tenderly—every drop of her blood was on fire for the big Shifter whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  “Reese . . .” For a moment she almost gave in. But then the bloody images she’d seen on the Internet rose before her eyes. I can’t stay here—I need to get back home—back to Avalon, she told herself. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

  Pulling away from his gentle touch, she ran to the back room and sat down at the small desk to write Fiona a goodbye and thank you note. But when she grabbed a piece of paper and sat there with the pen poised over it, she didn’t know what to say.

  Dear Fiona, she began and then just sat there.

  All she could think of was Reese—of how he’d pleasured her and loved her right here, in this very room the day before. Of how good his big body felt against hers and how badly she wanted to be with him.

  Before she knew it, tears were dropping onto the paper, smearing the ink and ruining the letter before she even started it.

  Damn it! Jo crumpled the paper and reached for another sheet. Then she put her head down on the desk and sobbed. She had to get hold of herself and go back to her life in Avalon but just for a moment, she couldn’t help losing control. The tears took her and for a long, awful time she couldn’t stop crying.

  * * *

  Reese listened to her soft, helpless sobbing and felt like a spiked fist was squeezing his heart. He wanted to go to her, to try and explain, to beg her to stay . . . but he could tell nothing he said was going to convince her. Actions speak louder than words and right now Jo couldn’t hear anything over the act of bloody vengeance he had committed.

  Never mind that he had been taking vengeance for her. Reese understood now that by killing her rapist, he had shattered the image of himself that Jo had built in her mind. By showing himself capable of such gory violence, he had also shown her he was like every other male she’d ever known—at least in her eyes.

  Yes, Reese understood, but that didn’t make her rejection of him hurt any less.

  Forget about your hurt feelings, his Fox growled. This is no time for licking wounds—our female is going into danger. We have to stop her!

  Reese frowned—his other half was absolutely right. Jo was going into a sketchy situation—every bone in his body said so. But she was determined to go and leave him here—what could he do?

&nbsp
; His eyes fell on the beat up knapsack she’d had with her when she first showed up at his place. It was filled with all the detritus most women carry around in their purses, a pack of gum, a brush, a tube of lip gloss—along with a few most women probably didn’t—some packets of dried herbs for spells, the colored candles she used to call the circle when she cast, a vial of some essential oil she had told Reese was used for healing magic . . .

  There was so much stuff in there, he was certain she’d never notice if he added one little thing . . . right?

  Reese hoped not because there was no way he was letting her go into danger without any protection.

  * * *

  When Jo got back to the front of the pharmacy, Reese was gone. She looked for him, half hoping he would try to talk her into staying one more time but there was no sign of the big Shifter.

  You can’t blame him for leaving, whispered a spiteful little voice in her head. Not after the way you acted—the way you pushed him away.

  But she’d had to push Reese away—it was for his own good as well as hers. She was going back to Avalon—there was no place for him there.

  As if in answer to her thoughts, someone honked a horn outside the pharmacy door.

  Looking out, Jo saw a long black limousine waiting just outside the curb. Her eyes widened—could that be for her? The only cars allowed in Avalon were mostly Earth-friendly Priuses. But the driver looked familiar—a thin girl with dark hair and eyes and a mean, pinched look to her face. She saw Jo watching her from the front of the pharmacy and waved to her impatiently—an obvious hurry up gesture.

  Jo grabbed her knapsack and slung it over one shoulder. Going around to the driver’s side door, she leaned down and Mindy rolled down the window.

  “What is this?” Jo asked. “Why did Bianca hire a limousine to come get me?”

  “Just get in,” Mindy snapped. “We don’t have all day. Bianca is waiting.”

  “Okay, but . . .” Jo stared at the long, black car uncertainly. “Should I ride in the front with you?”

  “Of course not, idiot.” Mindy rolled her eyes. “Get in the back, and hurry.”

  She glared at Jo with open hostility that Jo almost balked at getting in. But then she remembered she had just burned her bridges here in Cougarville and she had nowhere else to go. Frowning, she opened the back door of the limo and slid inside.

  The interior of the limo was all plush, dove gray leather with wide, comfortable back seats and a well-stocked bar on one side. Jo barely had time to notice the amenities, however, before a soft humming sound caught her attention. Looking up, she noticed that the smoked glass partition between the driver’s portion of the limo and the passenger area was rising slowly, cutting off her view of Mindy and the view of the outside world through the windshield. She couldn’t see anything out the side windows—they were too darkly tinted.

  “Hey, Mindy—why are you doing that?” she called, frowning. “I wanted to ask you some questions.”

  The glass partition paused about three quarters of the way up and Mindy looked at her in the rearview mirror.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked flatly.

  “Well, mostly I was hoping you could catch me up on what’s been going on in Avalon,” Jo said. “Have there been any changes?”

  Mindy gave a short, humorless laugh.

  “More than you know, but you’ll find out soon enough.”

  “What? What does that mean?” Jo demanded.

  “That’s all I’m allowed to say—Bianca’s orders. And these are her orders too.” The glass partition hummed again and rose to meet the roof of the limo, cutting Jo off by herself in the backseat area.

  “What are Bianca’s orders?” she demanded, pounding on the partition. She was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this—a cold tremor in the pit of her stomach that told her something wasn’t right.

  This isn’t good—I need to get out of here!

  But when she tried the door handle, she found it was locked. And then a soft hissing sound filled the cab and a sickly-sweetish odor met her nose.

  What’s going on? What is this?

  Jo opened her mouth to scream and sucked in a lungful of the sweetish gas that was filling the limo.

  Immediately, her head began to go swimmy and everything looked very distant and far away.

  “Just sit back and enjoy the ride, bitch,” she heard Mindy say over the limo’s intercom system.

  And then everything went black.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jo woke up with a pounding headache and the feeling that her entire body was being crawled over by ants. She twitched reflexively, trying to get rid of the crawling sensation but it wouldn’t go. Opening her eyes, she looked at her hand, trying to see if she could shake the insects off.

  But there were no ants. Though the crawling sensation continued, her skin was bare . . . in fact, all of her was bare, Jo realized with a shiver, and it was cold!

  She sat up and looked around. She was in the middle of the Sacred Glade—the outdoor clearing in the forest was hallowed ground, dedicated to the worship of the Goddess. It was where the Elder Witches practiced the Great Rite when they performed it during the Summer equinox.

  The sun was setting, painting the sky bloody red, and the trees loomed all around her like wraiths. She shivered and put her arms around herself, wishing she could get rid of the ants-crawling-all-over sensation. What was going on? Why was she here and who had taken off her clothing? The last thing she remembered was the whitish gas filling the back compartment of the limousine. Someone must have drugged her. But why?

  “Oh look, she’s awake,” said a familiar voice. “She must be stronger than I imagined—I thought you said the gas would keep her out until moonrise.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said a deep, masculine voice. “I can breed her before moonrise just as well—if that idiot Shifter didn’t breed her already, that is.”

  Jo’s eyes flew open wide at the sound of a male voice in the Sacred Glade. Male energy was forbidden here! And the other voice belonged to . . .

  “Hello, Jocasta.” Bianca emerged from the trees, smiling nastily at her. “Are you up for a little ceremony?” She was wearing a long, flowing black gown that clung to her boney body and her black hair was loose around her waist. Jo thought the youthful hairstyle did nothing but make the Elder witch look older—her wrinkles were obvious, even in the light of the setting sun—but it wasn’t Bianca who drew her eyes.

  Stepping out of the forest beside the Elder Witch was a powerfully built naked man with broad shoulders and cool, appraising eyes. He was big—about as big as Reese was, she estimated—and he’d shaved his head completely bald. In fact, all of him was bald—even his armpits and pubic region. In his hands was a long, hairy, spotted pelt.

  “Who . . . what . . .” She looked wildly at Bianca. “Where is the rest of the Elder Council? And why is he here? Male energy is forbidden in the Sacred Glade!”

  “Yes, yes, I know, I’m breaking the rules.” Bianca sighed as though following the ancient customs handed down for generations was an insignificant detail which simply got in her way. “And as for the rest of the Council, they’re on a retreat at our sister site in California right now. I volunteered to stay behind and keep the younger witches in line.” Her eyes flashed. “Which I fully intend to do.”

  “What do you want with me?” Jo demanded, standing on shaky legs and trying to cover herself with her arms. “Why did you drug me? And what is this . . . feeling?” She shivered again as the tingling, tickling sensation ran all over her bare skin.

  “One question at a time, Jocasta,” Bianca said primly. “That ticklish sensation is a confining spell I placed around the glade before we began. It stops you from using all those nifty new powers you’ve been acquiring and to make sure you don’t run off before the fun starts. Go ahead—try to leave.”

  Jo took a step forward and then another and another. But long before she reached Bianca, she encountered wha
t felt like an invisible glass wall in her way. Keeping one arm firmly over her bare breasts, she felt the barrier with her fingertips. It seemed to go up and up forever and extended as far as she could reach on either side in smooth, unbreakable infinity.

  “See? It’s quite impenetrable—from your side anyway. You cannot get out.” Bianca sounded smug. “Of course, there’s nothing to stop someone from coming in to join you.” She gestured to the nude, bald man who was still gripping the hairy pelt in one big hand. “Meet Mr. X—I won’t tell you his name, not that you’ll be around to repeat it after tonight, but some secrets must be kept.” She smiled primly. “I will tell you he is the silent partner who owns one of the richest and most influential pharmaceutical companies in the world.”

  The bald man gave Joe a most unpleasant smile.

  “Oh, we’ve met before, in the forest a little while back. Remember me, Jocasta? Of course, I had a little more hair back then . . .” He rubbed one hand over his bald head. “But some sacrifices must be made in order to fulfill our destinies.”

  A wave of cold horror washed over Jo’s entire body at once like an icy wave. This man was the one who’d tried to capture her in the forest outside Reese’s house—the one who had been so upset that she hadn’t been bred yet . . . Suddenly she remembered what he’d said when he and Bianca first entered the Glade—“I can breed her before moonrise just as well—if that idiot Shifter didn’t breed her, that is.”

  “Stay away from me,” she said in a shaky voice.

  “I’ll be happy to, my dear.” The man leered at her. “As long as you’ve already been bred.”

  “What do you want with me? Why do you care if I’ve been . . . been bred?” Jo backed away from the invisible barrier.

  “It’s the only way to release your full potential, Jocasta dear,” Bianca purred. “Until you take your Shifted form for the first time, your new powers aren’t fully formed.”

  “How do you know?” Jo demanded. “How do you know anything about Shifters at all?”

  “Well, I didn’t until Mr. X approached me some time back.” Bianca gestured at the huge bald man again. “He told me a most interesting and surprising story about how female Shifters are able to regain their youth through the Rejuvenation process. And he had been doing a bit of research into the matter and found that a witch who was also a Shifter would have quadruple the power after she had undergone the Shifting process.” Bianca paused and smiled at Jo meaningfully. “All that was required was for the latent Shifter Gene in such a witch to be woken up, and both youth and power would be hers. And he just happened to have a formula that could achieve this awakening.”