Chapter 197

Charles

The air crackled with the raw power of the spell. The gun he held clattered to the ground. His body collapsed like a marionette with cut strings, twitching every so often. Blood splashed and spurted out from his neck, covering Cecil as she fell to the ground with a soft sob. The scent of blood, metallic and raw, filled my nostrils, but it was quickly forgotten as I rushed forward and scooped her into my arms. She was cold and shivering as she sobbed into my arms, clinging to me and trembling. Something in me sighed in relief. I stroked her hair and tucked her close, trying to get her warm and shield her from the rain.

“It's all right. I'm here now. You're safe.”

She rumbled, burrowing into my arms. Father.

My heart clenched as I tucked her close and stepped back towards the jeep. The surge of protectiveness washed through me and stole my breath away.

It’s all right... I rumbled gently. She sighed, seemingly falling asleep. You’re safe now.

“Get out of the car!”

The driver, eyes wide with terror, scrambled out of the SUV, his hands raised in surrender. His face, pale and slick with sweat, was contorted in a mask of horror. His gaze dropped to his companion, and he wouldn't even paler. Coward. He trembled so much it was a wonder he was still standing.

"I... I didn't know," he stammered, his voice a broken whisper. "He... he made me do it! Please, I'm just a driver!"

Nothing in me wanted to believe him, but his heart was steady, quick with fear, but steady.

"Take him away," I rasped, my voice hoarse with the strain of holding back the storm. "Get everything you can out of it, but don't kill him."

Not yet, anyway. Two Enforcers moved forward. With a swift nod, they scanned the SUV and the trembling driver before taking him into custody. I retreated to the jeep where Grace was and pulled the cover up and over the back to protect them from the rain. I treated Cecil’s face with some bruise balm, cleaned her up, and tucked her beneath the blanket beside Grace. The roiling tension that had kept Grace so stiff eased as she cuddled closer to Cecil. She buried her face in Cecil’s hair and pulled her close to her body. The sight gave me hope. With any luck, she’d only be a little bit more irritable and a little bit more irrational for a few days before she acclimated to the change in her body. I almost felt bad thinking about it, but honestly, Grace could be outright irrational when she wanted to be. At least outside of the lab…

I thought back to conversations I had with Keith and about her and shook my head. It was such an insurmountable problem. I was sure that Eason had an idea about why she was the way she was, more than just growing up the Alpha's daughter and far deeper than whatever damage Devin had done to her over the course of their marriage. I wondered if she even knew what it was that made her so prone to self-sabotage, even when she so clearly didn't want to.

Watching her for a few more moments, I wondered what kind of alpha Grace would turn out to be once she'd completely settled. They said that a lot of your core personality didn't change. The shift didn’t create. It just highlighted and increased what was already there. Maybe she was going to turn out to be more Stormclaw than I’d hoped and become more actively protective and collaborative. The goodness I had seen in her would have a chance to really shine and be out in the world if that was the case. Though, maybe she wouldn't change it all. Something in me told me that it wasn't going to be that easy, and there was nose and you speculating until she woke up.

I stroked her hair. I really hoped everything she’d accomplished personally wouldn’t be undone. She was just starting to back off the defensiveness and starting to think more. Would her sense of needing security come back in full force or stronger than before? I needed to talk to Eason about how his shift affected him the first time. I think it would give me some clues about what to expect and, thus, how to mitigate the damage that the changes could do.

I leaned back against the side of the jeep, listening to the Enforcers canvas the van and start to interrogate the driver. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it hardly mattered. My mind turned back in time to the last time I had zoned out like that and felt the full brunt of my witch blood surging through me. A lot more people had died then. Then again, there had been a lot more people around to kill. The fire had been nothing compared to the bloodshed I’d caused. I could almost see the faces of my parents and siblings staring back at me, cold and vacant, looking up at me from the ground.

Dead.

I turned my thoughts away from the coup and back to the present. I looked over at Cecil.

Alpha Shadow. Devin's debts. Sean Caldwell. The states. The war. Astarte…

There were connections I was missing. Simple answers that might make things clearer, but I couldn't figure them out right now. My head was too clogged, too worried, too anxious, and too hyped up on adrenaline. But something did come to mind. I couldn't afford to keep Devon locked away in Stormclaw for much longer. He needed to be present and seen by whoever he’d robbed so that they could come after him rather than coming after Grace and the kids. Maybe if I made it very clear that he was going to be punished under Lycan law, then I could get more of these people to come forward to add to the docket against him under Lycan law.

I left back down the path we'd come down and shook my head. I needed answers about who these people weren't and why they seemed so desperate to get the money back. My instincts were pushing and pulling in this way and that, but I couldn't come up with a definitive answer. I really wish I'd spent more time trying to figure out the future when I was in training. It would have been helpful to you to get a glimpse of it now.

“Sir, I've got information,” she approached me, carrying her tablet with a troubled expression.

The rain was starting to die down, luckily.

“Go on.”

“The driver is human. Completely human. No potions. No drugs.”

I scoffed. “That rules out that one theory. And?”

“Headless Nick is much the same. No signs of spell work either. They were completely doing it voluntarily.” She paused. “Well, as voluntarily as someone can be if his storage checks out. We're scanning the database for information on either of them, but no results yet.”

I huffed. We really needed to work on interspecies information sharing. “But the humans are cooperating?”

“They are. It's just taking a while.” She smiled. “ I don't think anyone wants to piss you off after last time.”

I smirked. “I'm a different man now.”

She grinned back. “Not where it counts.”

I chuckled. “True. Keep me posted. Have the analysts gotten a chance to look at the golem yet?”

“Strangely enough, yeah. No sign of witch involvement.”

I frowned and looked at her. “What do you mean?”

She offered me the tablet. “Not a single drop of witch energy. While the infrastructure is witch-based, it's not being powered by a witch.”

“What sort of energy are you finding there?”

“I'm not sure. I need to do a deeper analysis. They promised to get back to me if they cracked it first.”

I look down at the tablet. Scanning the information. Something wasn't right, or rather, something was too right. Too easy. A sense of something poked at me from the back of my mind.

“What are your first guesses?”

“Powered by crystal. Maybe something like a rift crystal or empowered by human life.”

“Untraceable or dark as fuck. Love those odds.” I sighed. ”What about the others that you picked up?”

“That's where things get interesting.” She smiled. “They were werewolves, but not the standard type.”

“Go on.”

“More like ancient-style werewolves, not the evolved versions.”

I stared at her. “That should be impossible.”

“Should be isn’t the same as isn’t.” She grinned. “I’ve tapped our witch connections for explanations.”

I sighed. “Good. We'll debrief about it later. For now, how long is it gonna take the Moon Crest police to show up?”

“There was a mudslide and lots of chaos in the city due to the chase, so a while. Any orders until then?”

“Take a small team back to the brick house, please. I want to know where the fire started. Anything else you can about the scene. In the meantime, I'll call George. Good work.”

I grabbed my phone and dialed as she walked away.