Red Wolf by Jennifer Ashley
Ben shook his head. “Dimitri’s her mate—in her heart if not officially. She would have gone straight through me.”
Dylan’s stare became pointed. “You could have stopped her,” he repeated.
Ben knew that. He had powers even Dylan didn’t know about. Yes, if he’d tried, Ben could have prevented Jaycee from running through that door. She’d have hated him for the rest of her life, but she’d have been alive to do it.
“I decided not to,” Ben said calmly. “Jaycee’s no fool. Plus she has a Lupine with her who is more than capable in a fight. I’ve witnessed it.”
Zander turned around. His eyes were as dark as any Fae’s, the hair on his head as white blond. His beard was black and closely trimmed, like Angus’s.
“He’d better be more capable than that poor guy at Brice’s house,” Zander said. “He’s recovering. His wounds were easily closed, but it still hurt like a bitch.” Zander always paid for his healing gift by taking on the pain of the person he healed.
“Angus can look after Jaycee,” Ben said. “And Jaycee can take care of him.”
Zander pointed into the void. “Where does this go? Doesn’t look fun.”
“Faerie, probably,” Ben said. “But I don’t know.”
Dylan turned silently from Ben, his look managing to convey vast disapproval. Ben supposed the man had wanted to find Dimitri and Jaycee here safe and sound with Brice tied up between them.
“Tiger?” Zander asked. “You haven’t said anything yet.”
Tiger never spoke much. He had a mate now and a tiny cub called Seth, who was adorable. He carried himself in a more relaxed way these days, knowing his years of terrible ordeal were over.
“The land of the Fae is one possibility,” Tiger said without moving. “Wherever this leads, Jaycee is there.” No doubt in his voice.
Zander sighed. “Then we go. We need to fetch her back so Kendrick doesn’t play jump rope with our guts.”
That earned a sideways glance from Tiger, but the large man didn’t answer. He’d learned to let things Zander said slide right by.
“Agreed,” Dylan rumbled.
Kendrick himself was on his way to New Orleans with more backup, but he was hours behind them. Kendrick’s language on the phone had burned Ben’s ears, and let him know that he was furious at Ben for losing his two best trackers.
They were more than trackers to him, Ben understood from his tone, the number of swear words, and the fear in the back of Kendrick’s voice. Dimitri and Jaycee were two of Kendrick’s closest friends, and he cared for them deeply.
Zander glanced in surprise at Dylan, then turned to Ben in mock horror. “If Dylan’s worried about what Kendrick will do to him, then we’d better get in there and find Jaycee.” His look softened. “Tell Rae I love her.”
“Better send the same message to Glory,” Dylan said. “If she lets you speak when she finds out where I’ve gone.”
Ben gave him a silent nod. Glory, Dylan’s mate and a formidable wolf, was a terrible sight when enraged.
Ben and the other two Shifters waited expectantly for Tiger to say something, but he remained quiet, looking into the opening as though he could see what lay beyond. And maybe he could.
“Tiger?” Ben asked. “Any message for Carly and Seth?”
Tiger turned his head and pinned Ben with steady golden eyes. “Carly and Seth know I love them. And I will come back.”
Without further hesitation, Tiger walked through the doorway.
“Shit,” Zander said. “Say a few prayers to the Goddess for us, Ben. Dylan?” Dylan gave him a nod. Dylan started to walk forward, but Zander moved ahead of him, his bulk filling the doorframe. “A polar bear, a tiger, and a lion walk into Faerie,” Zander said as first he, and then Dylan, vanished. “I wonder how this joke will end?”
And they were gone. Their voices cut off, and blackness filled the doorframe.
“Goddess go with you,” Ben whispered, then touched the wall of the house when it creaked. “Let’s make sure they come back, all right?”
The house shivered, as though as worried as Ben. Ben patted the wall, then went to go make a few more phone calls.
* * *
Zander didn’t like the smell or feel of the woods, the clouds, the sky, the thin rain. He didn’t like the house that rose across the meadow on the edge of the woods, though he figured some might call the stone mansion with flowering garden and mountains beyond pretty.
Tiger halted just inside the line of trees. Next to him was an ivy-covered stone pillar, which Zander saw was an overgrown sundial. Weird place to put it where the sun would barely reach it. Maybe it had been placed here before the woods grew around it.
Tiger gazed unblinkingly at the house. “Jaycee is in there.”
“Good,” Dylan said, sounding relieved. He’d been the one to insist on Jaycee and Dimitri traveling to New Orleans to investigate Shifter activity, Zander knew. Kendrick would play jump rope with his guts too. “What about Dimitri?”
Tiger shook his head. “Not Dimitri. Jaycee, and one other Shifter. And Fae.”
The other Shifter must be Angus, the bouncer from the club Ben told them about.
“All right, what’s the plan?” Zander asked.
“We go in,” Dylan said. “And we bring her out.”
“Can’t get more simple than that,” Zander agreed. “Tiger, you want to—”
He cut off as Tiger started forward, his stride determined as he headed for the gate in the wall beyond the garden.
“—to lead the way,” Zander finished. He strode after Tiger. “Here we come, a lion, a tiger, and a bear. Think any of the Fae inside will say, Oh my?”
“No idea,” Dylan answered, falling into step with him as they followed Tiger across the garden.
“I hope they do,” Zander said. “That would be seriously funny . . .”
His voice trailed into the morning as mists gathered to obscure the sunlight.
* * *
“Fuck that,” Dimitri said, and attacked Simeon.
Brice snarled in fury and hurled himself at Dimitri but couldn’t reach him in time.
The Collar Simeon held was real, Fae-made and full of spells—Dimitri could smell them. It was more potent than even the Collars most Shifters wore. Made sense. Here in Faerie, the Fae would be able to come up with more Fae gold, the key ingredient to making the Collars work.
Dimitri rammed into Simeon, shifting as he went, letting his claws land on Simeon’s wrist. Simeon jerked, his fist opening, and the Collar clinked to the flagstones.
Brice swept it up. Dimitri completed his attack, sending Simeon to the floor, but Simeon, like the Fae soldier in Brice’s basement, was battle hardened and experienced. He twisted even as he went down, a hard bronze knife coming out to slice at Dimitri’s throat.
Bronze might not be as relatively hard as steel, but a sharp knife was a sharp knife. It cut through Dimitri’s fur to draw blood as Dimitri pushed himself back to avoid a death blow.
He wished for Jaycee’s agility. Dimitri recalled how he’d lazed on the porch watching Jaycee run and romp as her leopard at the house, Dimitri admiring her lissomness. Jase was beautiful, whatever form she took.
Images of Jaycee flitted through the back of his mind while he fought for his life—she dancing against him at the club, wrapping her foot around him in the hall at the house, her leopard running from him as they chased each other across the wide lands of Kendrick’s ranch.
A kind of crazed joy washed through Dimitri—this was what his wolf had been made for. Fighting, springing, slamming paws into his opponents, spinning, lunging, teeth and claws working. Battling without the rules, without refs making sure no one got seriously hurt.
Dimitri was always happy to fight—he just refused to do it at the behest of a Fae.
Out of the corner of his ey
The knife had iron in it, Dimitri concluded. Nice one.
There were too many soldiers in the room, and Dimitri knew it. He had to find an area where he could fend them off while he figured out how to get away. The only place he had to run was outside into Faerie, where Shifters were enslaved, and he had no clue how to get home—but one thing at a time.
Dimitri became a whirlwind, his red fur rippling as he attacked, feinted, twisted aside, all the while making his way to the large door.
Dimitri always hated when people called him coyote, Lupines implying he was lesser than they were. But maybe there was something to that. He had a light-footedness that other wolves did not and the cunning to make people look one way while he did something unexpected.
Like dropping and rolling across the floor, avoiding two Fae trying to jab him with swords, and avoiding Brice as he threw off his makeshift clothes and shifted to bear.
The grizzly took up space in the chamber and many of the Fae scrambled away from him. Terrified of Shifters. Wusses.
Dimitri kept rolling, coming up on his paws with all the Fae on one side of the room and no one between himself and the door. Now to open it. The second or two it would take to shift and turn the handle might be the difference between his life and death, but what the hell?
The dokk alfar did a running vault over two Fae who penned him in, rushed past Dimitri, and opened the door. He politely let Dimitri barrel out first, then he ran after him, keeping up with Dimitri’s long stride.
Dimitri made for the stone staircase, but the dokk alfar grabbed a handful of Dimitri’s scruff and made a motion for him to turn down a side passage. Dimitri didn’t know whether he could trust the dokk alfar, but he turned. The man needed to get away as much as Dimitri did—he certainly wouldn’t be treated kindly by the Fae running around this citadel.
The dokk alfar wrenched open another door, this one less polished and carved, and plunged down a wooden staircase beyond. Aha. The back stairs. With any luck, the steps went all the way down and out through the hill.
They were steep, wherever they were taking them, dim, and treacherous. The dokk alfar leapt down them without fear, but Dimitri’s wolf stumbled. He could move much faster as wolf, but that wouldn’t help if he tripped and ended up with a broken neck at the bottom.
He shifted back to human, his bare feet unhappy with the splintery wood beneath them. But his balance was better, and he could hang on to the walls on either side—no railings for servants.
Screaming sounded lower down, maids and workmen scrambling out of the way of the crazy dokk alfar and his iron-bladed knife. Dimitri hit the bottom floor and ran into a kitchen full of terrified people pressing themselves out of the way. One of the younger maids took in Dimitri, all six foot plus of him in his gleaming skin, and stared unabashed, her mouth open.
Dimitri nodded to her. “Ma’am,” he said, then charged after the dokk alfar.
They made it to a trapdoor outside the kitchen, which the dokk alfar yanked up a moment before twenty Fae soldiers stalked forward and surrounded them, swords drawn. One kicked the dokk alfar in the groin, sending him to his hands and knees, then stepped on his hand that still clutched at the ring to the trapdoor.
Brice came running up, panting, in human form once more. The Collar Simeon had held was clenched in his giant fist. “Take it like a Shifter, Dimitri.”
Fight or surrender. Dimitri’s choice. His ally, the dokk alfar, was down. Brice wasn’t going to help him. The only reason the Fae weren’t killing Dimitri right away was because their leader, Simeon, had some weird fixation with Shifters.
Fight or become Simeon’s pet, like Brice.
Dimitri flowed into his wolf and attacked the nearest soldier.
His limbs began to tingle, a lethargy quickly working its way through his body, and his legs buckled. The Fae he’d been fighting stepped back, and Dimitri fell all the way to the floor.
He looked up to see Simeon standing over him, a dart in his hand. The man didn’t need a tranquilizer gun, did he? He only needed to corner Dimitri and stick a tranq dart into his shoulder when Dimitri was distracted.
Effective. Dimitri’s body shifted back to human before he could stop it. He tried to make his arms and legs respond, make himself get up and run, but his limbs lay still, unresisting. Dimitri’s brain became cloudy, his vision blurred.
He could see well enough to observe the Collar coming down to his throat, and the triumphant look in Brice’s dark eyes as the silver and black chain locked around Dimitri’s neck and Dimitri’s first screams rang out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jaycee gazed at the huge area Lady Aisling tapped with her pointer, feeling hope drain out of her.
She reached over the table and touched the bottom of the map, the parchment stiff under her fingers. “How am I going to find you, Dimitri?” she asked softly.
Lady Aisling sniffed, hearing her. “Well, you could start by postulating where he would be most likely to go. Why did he disappear through a circle in someone’s cellar? Did a hole simply open up? Or was he playing with magic he should not have?”
“Dimitri didn’t set up the circle,” Jaycee said. “We were trying to find out where other Shifters had gone.”
“A Shifter called Brice,” Angus put in with a growl. “And his crew. Brice was the one messing with Fae magic. He probably sent a whole mess of Shifters into Faerie through that hole.”
“A group of Shifters?” Lady Aisling’s brows rose. “You see? That narrows things down.” She lifted her pointer again and moved it south and east of her house—a hundred miles? A thousand? Ten? A map scale would be helpful.
“The lands of Simeon Mac An Bhaird. He has a keen interest in Shifters and even has managed to bring some to Faerie. And as I said, he is a prat.”
“How do I get there?” Jaycee said, her heart thumping with impatience.
“Calmly, my girl. Then there is Orag du Galbrath and Walther le Madhug.” The pointer moved to locations to the north of Simeon’s patch and northwest of that. “Alarmed at Simeon’s buildup of his army, reinforcing them with Shifters, they too have been bringing in Shifters. Whether by force or willingly, I have no idea. The Battle Beasts should come back to Faerie—that is their theory. Not all of us agree. The power hungry are mad for Shifters. It’s the new fashion.”
Jaycee shivered. Lady Aisling meant it was the new fashion regardless of what the Shifters thought.
Shifters had been captured and living penned up by the humans for the past twenty years or so. Now Fae were stealing them out of that captivity and dragging them into combat. Which, according to some evidence, had been the Fae’s plan all along—half Fae passing as humans had influenced the creation of Shiftertowns and Collars. Brice had been brainwashing Shifters to follow him to Faerie and be slaves to the Fae again. And he had Dimitri.
“How far are these?” Jaycee swept her hand to indicate the map. “This one.” She pointed to the closest, which belonged to the Fae called Orag. “And what kind of transportation do you have?”
“It is, as you measure distance, thirty kilometers. Or a little less than twenty miles for those in your world who have not converted their measurement preference. I have a carriage and four horses that can cover that distance in a few hours. However, I have not said that I will help you, dear.”
Aisling gazed calmly at Jaycee, her green eyes unblinking.
Jaycee’s breath came faster, her leopard restless inside. She could shift and take this woman before her retainers could help—plus she had a nice iron knife in her pocket.
Angus moved to Aisling’s other side, looking every inch a bouncer appr
Lady Aisling gazed back at him without concern. “Hmm. Perhaps, you know, I would like a few Shifters of my own.”
Jaycee closed in on her. “Would you? Are you worried about these Fae who are bringing in Shifters attacking you? You don’t need to. Shifters won’t obey the Fae. We’re born hating them.”
Aisling turned to her. “You’re not, you know. Born hating Fae, I mean. Your anathema is taught. But I was teasing. I don’t want Shifters in my house. You are far too uncivilized, if you won’t take offense. And I have no fear of men like Simeon attacking me. He would not dare.”
“Why not?” Jaycee observed the wide window, thought about the stone sides of the house that were full of carvings, the low garden walls. “This place isn’t defensible. Far too many opportunities for an enemy to get in. You’d be taken very quickly.”
Aisling gave Jaycee a small smile. “What you say is true, but my neighbors will never attack me.”
“Huh,” Jaycee said. “I wouldn’t put it past the Fae to do whatever they want.”
“Neither would I,” Aisling answered. “But I know they won’t touch me.”
Her words distracted Jaycee from her unceasing worry. “Why not?”
Aisling raised her shoulders in a simple shrug. “My dear, you see a harmless elderly Fae woman who likes to putter in her garden and visit your world to shop as a treat. They do not.”
“You keep saying elderly,” Jaycee broke in. “But you don’t look elderly to me. Shifters live a long time, but I’d think you weren’t that far into your first century. In human terms you’d be in your late twenties at most.”
“Kind of you.” Aisling preened, a woman pleased to be complimented. A glance into her eyes, though, showed she was far from young. Those eyes bore the weight of years, of things seen, endured. “You might be surprised to find that I am at least a thousand years old, and that I am not an ordinary Fae.”
“I don’t consider Fae ordinary at all,” Jaycee said. “But what do you mean?”