Out of Smoke and Ashes

  Blackie and Kitty both nodded in agreement.

  Everyone turned as the front door opened. Wally walked in, back from a day putting his non-shifter skills to use trying to run down potential leads to find Carla.

  Elain noticed Kitty sat up straighter as her gaze narrowed.

  “Oh, hey,” Blackie said. “Wally, I don’t think you’ve met my sister yet. This is—”

  She bolted from her chair before he could finish getting the words out of his mouth. She came to a stop in front of the huge man, who stood more than a foot taller than her.

  “Hi,” she sweetly said. “Kathleen Blackestone.” She offered him a hand. “Call me Kitty.”

  “Kitty?” His massive hand engulfed her as they shook.

  Elain studied the look on Wally’s face. Wonder. Attraction.

  Amazement.

  “Oh, fuck me,” Brodey muttered.

  “What?”

  Before he could answer, Blackie was also up and out of his chair and suddenly trying to put himself between the two. “Whoa, wait a minute. You’re my little sister.”

  “Bite me, big dog,” Kitty snarled. “I’m an adult, and I’ve been one for well over one hundred years.”

  Callie let out a gasp and also joined them. She put a hand on Blackie’s shoulder. “Sir? I think we need to let them have a little alone time.”

  “She’s my little sister!”

  “She don’t look so little to me,” Wally snarled, slowly edging his way between Kitty and her brother.

  “What’s going on?” Elain asked.

  Brodey, however, couldn’t answer. He, Ain, Cail, Liam, and Micah were all converging on the group. They gently tried to move Blackie away from the bear shifter.

  “Son,” Liam said, “ye know how Fate works.”

  “She’s my little sister!”

  Elain thought he sounded like a man about to lose his mind.

  “You can’t order me around,” Kitty growled at Blackie. “Clan Council head, big brother, or Primary Podunk, I don’t give a shit!”

  Elain and Lina exchanged concerned looks. Mai, however, snickered. “They’re mates,” she explained.

  Together, Lina and Elain nodded, now enlightened. “Ohhh,” they said together.

  Jocko and Lacey had apparently had enough. “Daniel Blackestone!” she yelled at him. “Stand your ass down right now.”

  “I’d listen to everyone, boyo,” Jocko said. “Or yer gonna have a mighty one-sided fight on yer hands, and not in yer favor, either.”

  “But…” He looked around, seeking and finding no help. “But she’s my little sister!”

  Liam stepped between Blackie and Kitty. “Ye two can use my room,” he told Wally. “Last door on the right. Mind ye change my sheets after.”

  When Kitty and Wally ran for the hall, and Blackie tried to follow them, Liam blocked his path. “No, lad. We cannot let ye do that.”

  “But…she’s my little sister!”

  Elain saw that Lina was having just as much trouble holding back her laughter as she was. She waggled a warning finger at her friend not to start laughing, but that just made Mai giggle.

  And then the two women lost control and couldn’t stop.

  Blackie collapsed into a chair. “But…she’s my little sister!”

  Callie stood next to him, trying to soothe him.

  “Ye keep saying that, lad,” Jocko said, “but ye know the truth. Mebbe it’s not an easy thing to know, but ye cannot keep her locked up in a convent. She’s an adult.”

  From the back of the house, they heard the faint sounds of animalistic grunts…and moans.

  He stuck his fingers in his ears. “Argh!”

  Lina leaned in close to Elain. “Poor Blackie. Who’d a thunk his Achilles’ heel was his little sister? I guess every sadist has a soft spot.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Callie and the other men coaxed Blackie outside onto the back porch to finish his dinner.

  At least out there, the sounds weren’t as audible. Especially once Lacey turned on the living room TV and cranked the volume up.

  He still couldn’t believe his little sister, his baby sister, was now mated to one of his friends.

  A bear, of all people.

  Not that he had anything against bears. He knew Wally was a stand-up guy.

  He’d just hoped his little sister would have found a mate and claimed him outside of his earshot.

  “Ye gonna be okay?” Jocko asked.

  He glared at him. “I’m glad you find this so amusing.”

  “Lad, life is what you make it. Not the oddest pairing I’ve seen for sure. Two good people found their true love. Ye wouldn’t be one to deny them, would you?”

  He took a deep breath. “No.”

  Callie stroked his shoulder. “He’s just a bit squicked out to know his little sister’s doing it a few walls away.”

  “I’m going to beat your ass in a bad way, pet,” he grumbled.

  Eventually, the two lovebirds did emerge late that evening. Kitty came out to talk to her brother. “I’m…um…going back to Wally’s hotel with him for tonight.”

  Blackie stood and hugged her, trying to ignore the scent of bear now covering her. “I am happy for you. But…” He lowered his voice. “You weren’t all that happy to find our playroom, were you?”

  She shuddered. “No, I get it.”

  Wally cautiously stuck his head out the back door. “We good, Blackie?”

  He waved his friend out and hugged him. “Yeah, we’re good.” He held up a finger and pointed it in the bear’s face. “You take care of her.”

  Wally draped an arm around her shoulders. “I will. I promise.”

  “Okay. Just…be ready tomorrow morning. Keep your phone handy. I need all men on deck tomorrow. You’ll have to be ready.”

  “I will.”

  Once they’d left, Blackie wanted to talk to Mark, Liam, and the Lyall men alone, without Elain present. He and Callie stayed behind as the other shifters left for their hotel or went to their rooms. Micah and Jim followed an exhausted Mai to bed. As did Lina and her men when they’d finished feeding and changing the Beasts.

  Ain, Brodey, and Cail sent Elain to bed despite her not wanting to go.

  “Please,” Ain softly said. “You need sleep. If you need to know what’s going on, we’ll come wake you up. I promise.”

  Callie nodded. “I’ll keep ’em honest,” she joked, crossing a finger over her heart.

  Elain finally let them put her to bed. It wasn’t until all the men were back in the living room a few minutes later that Callie spoke up. She looked up at Blackie. “Sir, please, let me do this,” she softly begged, not wanting to disturb Lina, Elain, or Mai. “You know if we leave this until the meeting tomorrow, he’s going to have some damn trick up his sleeve. By then it might be too late to save her.”

  He stroked her head and stared down at her. “There are more players in this game than we can see.” He’d had a little time to think about it. “If it really was Abernathy’s daughter who sent that box of information, and she is a cockatrice, no telling what could happen if you run into her.”

  “If you don’t risk me going, Mom might get killed. Or worse. Please!”

  He knew all too well what that “worse” could be, even though he didn’t want to speak it out loud. Rodolfo Abernathy was notorious for taking mates in retribution.

  And then “losing” them later in a variety of insidious ways, some meant to look accidental.

  Some not.

  He turned to Ain and Mark. He pointed at the two men and waved for them to follow him outside before motioning for everyone else to stay put. When they were standing alone by the cars, Blackie whispered, “What do you all think?”

  “What do I think?” Ain asked. “Are you shitting me? This is my mate’s mother we’re talking about. My mother-in-law. I’m all for going Rambo on his ass and killing everything that moves that even remotely smells like it’s been within twenty feet of Abernathy.”
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  “We have no idea where he is, where he’s holding her, or any guarantee Callie can find and rescue her. And Carla, as much as I love her, isn’t technically a Clan member. She’s the adoptive mother of one of our members. I am under no obligation to risk Clan lives going after her.”

  Mark nodded. “I have to side with Blackie on this one.”

  Ain’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “I’m sorry,” Mark said, “but I can’t ask him, Clan Council leader or not, to put his mate at risk. I wouldn’t make you risk Elain’s life, or Jan and Rick to risk Lina’s, or Micah—”

  He threw his hands in the air. “Fine!” Ain looked anything but fine.

  He didn’t blame him. “We need a plan,” Blackie said.

  “We have a plan,” Ain countered. “Callie is willing to go in there. I heard about what happened in Brussels. I have no doubts she can hold her own. She’s a damned Immortal!”

  “She was an Immortal,” Blackie said, forcing himself to keep the protective growl out of his tone. “She’s my mate, and now she’s vulnerable.”

  “She was your mate back in Brussels, too, and that didn’t stop you from letting her go in there and kick ass.” Ain reached out and grabbed his arm. “Lina can’t do it because her powers are fluctuating too much since the birth of her babies. Too unpredictable, and she’s the first one to admit it.”

  They all looked up as they heard the door quietly open and shut again. Liam emerged from the cabin and slowly walked toward them, his hands shoved in his pockets. When he reached them he looked up. “Well?”

  Torn, Blackie studied him for a moment. “You never took another mate after Maureen died?”

  He studied his boots again and shook his head.

  “What’s going on with you and Carla?”

  He sighed. “Might as well tell ye. I been trying to wait for the right time to ask her. To have that discussion with her. Had planned to do it the night of Elain’s wedding. Perfect excuse for the two o’ us to clear out and leave the newlyweds alone, eh?” He stared down at his boots again. “I just hope I get the chance to tell her how I feel.” He met Blackie’s gaze again. “No, I can’t force ye to risk yer mate. I won’t, because I lost one already in this life and damn sure hope I don’t have to live through that grief again. But if ye won’t help me, then I’ll go with or without yer say-so to bring her home myself, or die trying.”

  He stared at Liam for long moments, the other three men not breaking the silence.

  Finally, despite every ounce of his being regretting it, Blackie nodded. “I’ll let her make the decision. I will not force her to do it, or even ask her to do it.”

  Liam nodded while Ain let out a loud, relieved sigh. “I appreciate it,” Liam quietly said. “And it’s all I can ask.”

  He reached out and grabbed Liam’s arm and waited until the older shifter met his gaze again. “Don’t wait any longer,” he warned. “You said it yourself, you know how short life is.”

  “Believe me, we get her back safe, you won’t be seeing us for a while if she says yes.”

  They returned to the cabin. Callie took one look at her mate and Master and swooped over to throw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Sir. Thank you for letting me.”

  He carefully untangled her arms from him and held her at arm’s length. “Here’s the deal. I will not ask you to do this. No one is asking you to do this.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t have to ask me. I want to. She’s…” She closed her eyes for a moment, composing herself. “I want to. I love her. I spent a long, long time alone. It’s hard to remember what that was like. I feel more human than I ever did in my life. She’s my mom in my heart as much as she is Elain’s or Lina’s or Mai’s. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t help.”

  “Do you even have an idea how to do it?”

  She nodded. “I’ll take my phone. You can track it through the GPS. When I find her, I’ll shape-shift and give her my phone. I’ll pretend I’m her, and let the people who have her think I’m her until you can get to her and get her to safety by using my phone. Once I know she’s safe, I’ll just pop right out of there. Easy!”

  She looked at Liam. “I can’t tell what Abernathy’s going to do, but every ounce of my gut tells me he needs her alive to lure Elain to him. He can’t kill her. Well, not yet, at least. She’s his only bargaining chip. He’s got to have her somewhere close by now. He wouldn’t risk trying to fly her in tomorrow morning.”

  Every ounce of his being screamed this was dangerous and risky and putting Callie in the crosshairs of a very dangerous man who was desperate enough to try anything.

  She might be very powerful, but her mating to him had taken away her invincibility.

  And he didn’t think he could live without her.

  He damn sure knew he didn’t want to.

  * * * *

  Callie popped home, grabbed her phone charger, and tucked it into her pocket before returning to the living room at the cabin. She hugged Daniel. “Thank you, Sir,” she whispered again.

  “You will come safely back to me,” he rumbled low in her ear.

  An edict.

  She hated that at even at a time like this, that tone of his voice could make her wet. “Yes, Sir.”

  He fisted her hair, where she’d pulled it back into a ponytail, and tipped her head back to look into her eyes.

  “You will be safe, mate. You will not take risks that put you in harm’s way.”

  She couldn’t nod with his fist in her hair. “Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

  Then he pulled her in again for another hug. She felt his breath against the top of her head as he deeply inhaled and exhaled, absorbing her scent, his wolf never far from the surface.

  Finally, he pressed a kiss against her forehead before releasing her. “Keep me posted as much as you can.”

  “I will, Sir. I’m going to have my phone on silent so it doesn’t give me away.”

  He nodded, then stepped back. “You are,” he quietly said, “free to use whatever means you need to use to return safely to me, my mate. Any means necessary.”

  She smiled, knowing how hard that allowance must be for him, freeing her to go where he couldn’t follow.

  Where he couldn’t protect her.

  “I love you, Sir,” she said.

  He sadly smiled. “I love you, too, pet.” He nodded. “Go on.”

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She opened them in Baba Yaga’s living room.

  She turned around, already sensing her older sister wasn’t home. “Babs!” she yelled as she stormed through the house and out the front door. “Babs! Where the hell are you?”

  She circled the house, which on the outside deceptively looked like little more than a tiny hovel.

  Nothing.

  “Dammit.” She decided her next step, despite not wanting to do it. She closed her eyes again and opened them inside Brighde’s current residence, a swanky condo on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

  “Gigi!” She went through the rooms, swearing as she did.

  Still nothing.

  “Where the fuck are they?” she muttered to herself. Figures, when I need them, they aren’t anywhere around. But they hadn’t hesitated to be all up in her grill over stuff when it suited them.

  “Crap.” She didn’t want to give up, but unfortunately, she didn’t have all the powers her two sisters did. And she damn sure didn’t want to bring Lina into this operation. She needed to get her strength back from giving birth and taking care of the Beasts.

  Her next and most obvious stop was Rodolfo’s Pennsylvania compound, the only address they had for him despite rumors about his other strongholds.

  Nothing. Not a damn person there, just the overlying reek of his aftershave.

  With a sigh, she closed her eyes, opening them on Lacey’s front porch. She politely knocked, waiting before knocking a second time since it was the middle of the night.

  Inside, Jasper barked. “Just a minute!”
Lacey called out.

  She saw the lace curtain at the side window move a moment before the door unlocked and Lacey opened it. Lacey had to lean to the side to keep Jasper from bolting through the door to greet her. “It’s the middle of the night, Callie.” The old Seer arched an eyebrow. “Or are you back to being The Cailleach tonight?”

  “May I please come in?”

  The old Seer stepped aside. “Of course you can. You don’t need formalities with me.” She closed the door behind Callie. “I’m guessing Daniel finally relented and is allowing you to try to find Carla?”

  She nodded.

  “I don’t know where your sisters are, if that’s your next question.”

  Her face fell. “Well, it’s not now. Do you have any idea where or how I can find Rodolfo Abernathy? He’s not in Pennsylvania. All we have is a cell number and that’s not helpful. Especially since he’s stopped answering it.”

  Lacey clasped her hands together in front of her. She wore a pale blue terrycloth robe over her pajamas. “I don’t have that information, but I do know something that might be almost as helpful.” She motioned Callie to follow her to her den, where Lacey switched on a lamp on her desk. She pulled a road atlas of the US out of her desk drawer and flipped it to Montana. “Here,” she pointed to a spot on the map east of Kalispell, Montana. “Mai’s uncle’s name is Casper Gallatin. His Clan is from this area. Lots of Gallatins, and most of them coyotes, or related to them somehow.”

  “How is that helpful?”

  “Find Casper Gallatin, and you’ll find Rodolfo. Or, at the very least, you’ll have a bead on the bastard. I’ve heard from multiple sources that Rodolfo has another compound out in Montana, but I don’t know where. He’s kept it a well-guarded secret.”

  “Take your best guess.”

  Lacey placed her hands on the map, fingers splayed, and closed her eyes. After a few minutes, she slowly nodded and drew the fingers of each hand together as she raised them from the map. Slowly, her right index finger began to lazily trace across the map, slowly gliding as if following the bed of an invisible river until her finger stopped. “Here. I think. To the west of it.”