Pain kept Charles awake while his mate and the rogue slept. His leg and chest were making it quite clear that he'd been pushing too hard. If he wasn't careful, he wasn't going to make it down the mountains. But it was the thought of the witch that kept him alert as the snowstorm wailed around them.
He'd never felt anything like that, obedience wrapping him in impossible layers until he could do nothing but respond as she asked. He was too dominant for even his father to do that-but he'd heard it described. The descriptions had fallen short by a long shot. If he hadn't already been convinced of the correctness of his father's careful screening of the dominants under his rule before he allowed them to become Alphas, that would have done it. How terrifying it was for someone to have that kind of power over you, even if you trusted him. His respect for the bravery of the submissives in his father's pack had gone up another couple of notches.
If Anna hadn't distracted the witch and broken the spell...He drew in a harsh breath, and Anna made a little noise in her throat, comforting him, even in her sleep.
Panic long since over-or mostly over-he'd had time to think about the way that spell had worked. And he still had no idea how the witch had been able to use his...his father's pack bonds the way she had.
His father needed to know that she could do that, that a witch could break into the pack's magic. As far as he knew, nothing like that had ever happened before. Only his pain, and the understanding that he was going to have to pay attention to the limits of his body, kept him where he was, instead of running to the car. He had to warn his father.
If Anna hadn't been there...and how had she known what to do?
Outside of pack magic, most wolves had very little magic-and he'd have sworn that Anna was no exception. He knew her scent very well, and she did not smell of magic. If their mating had been completed, then she might have drawn on his...
He lifted his head and smiled toothily. Anna wasn't mated yet, but her wolf was. He'd felt her call on her wolf when the witch bespelled her, but he hadn't thought it would do any good. Fat lot he knew. The wolf had used his magic to break the witch's spell. And Anna hadn't been accepted into the Marrok's pack yet, so the witch's infiltration of the pack bonds hadn't allowed her to get to Anna the way she'd controlled him.
A soft sound amidst the howl of the wind broke his train of thought; something was walking in the trees. Even though it was a safe distance from where they slept, he listened and waited for the fickle wind to shift and carry scent to him. If it was the witch, he would gather his chicks and run, aching chest and leg be damned.
But it was someone else who stepped out of the trees and stopped so he could get a good clear look at him. Asil. Slowly Charles crawled out from under the tree. Anna sighed and resettled-exhaustion making it hard for her to wake up. He held very still until he heard her breathing even out again.
Then he started toward their intruder.
Since Asil had joined the Marrok, Charles had never seen him outside Aspen Creek; he didn't like it that the first time was here and now. It told him that whatever Asil knew, it wasn't going to make his life easier. He also didn't like his inability to cover up his limp.
Charles seldom bothered showing off, but he did this time. He called the magic to him and let it rip through his body, changing as he walked. It hurt, but he knew it didn't show on his face or make his limp any worse. If he'd been healthier and the spirits willing, he might even have been able to conjure up a new pair of snowshoes instead of having to wade. At least the snow on the bench, regularly scoured by the wind, was only a foot or so deep most places-half of that had fallen tonight.
Asil smiled a little, as if he recognized Charles's power play for what it was, but he dropped his eyes. Though Charles knew better than to trust the submission in the other's body language, it was enough for now.
Charles kept his voice low. "How did you find us?"
It was an important question. They were nowhere near the place they'd have been camping if he and Anna had followed the trip as he'd outlined it with Tag. Had he done something stupid that would let the witch find them, too? The oddities of the past twenty-four hours had badly shaken his confidence-and that, and his half-crippled body, was making him crankier than usual.
Asil kept his shoulders relaxed under the thick coat he wore. "As we age, we all gain abilities, yes? Your father can talk to his wolves in their heads, no matter how far away they are. Me, I can always track my pack mates. If you hadn't taken off like scared rabbits, I'd have come upon you hours ago."
"Why are you here?" Charles gritted out. He wasn't irritated about the "scared rabbit" comment. He wasn't.
Getting angry around Asil never was a good idea. The self-absorbed, arrogant Moor would feed you your anger back with a healthy dose of humiliation. Charles had never fallen victim, for all of Asil's baiting, but he'd seen many who had. You don't survive as long as Asil had without being a cunning predator.
"I came to apologize," Asil said, raising his eyes so that Charles could read the sincerity in them. "Sage told me something of what Anna endured. If I had known what you were dealing with, I would not have made trouble between you and your mate."
"You didn't make trouble between us," said Charles. Impossible, though, to doubt that Asil meant what he said.
"Good. And whatever assistance I can offer to help you and your mate is yours." He looked toward the log where Anna and Walter were hidden. "In my fit of remorse, it occurred to me that I might be of some assistance with your rogue. But, it looks as though you have everything under control."
Charles felt his eyebrows rise. Under control was not exactly how he'd have described the last day. "Appearances are deceiving, then. Do you know why a witch would be looking for you?"
Asil's face went blank, his body utterly still. "Witch?"
"She was asking about you, specifically." He rubbed his forehead because he'd be damned if he'd rub his aching chest while Asil could see him. "Or how she could tap into my father's pack bonds to take tighter control of me than my father has ever managed?"
"A witch," Asil said. "Here?"
Charles nodded curtly. "If you don't know anything about her, how about a female werewolf who seems to be connected with her somehow? One whose coloring matches your mate's-"
His voice trailed off because Asil, his face still oddly blank, dropped to his knees; not like he was kneeling before Charles, but more as if the joints had quit working right. It reminded Charles of the way Walter had done the same thing earlier, but it wasn't wonder or the unexpected grace of Anna's presence that caused this.
The scent of Asil's violent emotions washed over him, impossible to sort out anything specific from the storm except that pain and horror were both in the forefront.
"It is her, then," Asil whispered. "I had hoped that she would die and be gone forever. Even when I heard what the rogue looked like, I hoped it was someone else."
That was why Charles didn't believe in coincidences. "You know the witch?"
The Moor looked at his black-gloved hands, then buried them in the snow. He closed his eyes and shuddered. When he opened them, they sparkled with gold highlights. "It's her. She stole it, and she can no more hide from me if I look, than I can hide from her here."
Charles took a deep breath and counseled himself to patience. "What did she steal-and who is she?"
"You know," Asil said. "She's the one who killed my Sarai." He took his snow-covered hands and scrubbed them on his forehead. Then he added the unbearable part. "She stole my mate bond when she did."
Charles knew-as did anyone who had heard the stories of the Moor-that Asil and his wife's mate bond had brought with it an unusual gift, empathy.
He didn't do anything dumb, like ask Asil if he was certain-though he'd never in his life heard of such a thing. And to be tied to a witch, a black witch, with empathy was possibly the worst thing he'd ever heard of. No wonder Asil had asked his father to kill him.
"This witch looks to be barely out of her teens. Sarai died two centuries ago."
Asil bowed his head and murmured, "I swear to you, I did not expect her to find me. Your father's safeguards held for all this time-if they hadn't, I'd have forced him to kill me the very first day I came to Aspen Creek." He swallowed. "I should not have allowed him to make me one of the pack, though. If she reached through the pack bonds, the only access she could possibly have is through me, though our mate bond."
Chilled, Charles stared at the Moor and wondered if he could possibly be as mad as he'd always claimed. Because if he wasn't, this witch was even more of a problem than Charles thought.
Crystalline wolf eyes gazed up at him, looking out of Asil's dark face while snow coated both of them. "Tell me about the wolf who looked like my Sarai." Desperation and despair colored the old wolf's voice.
"I never met your mate," Charles's voice softened. "But the wolf with the witch is large, even for a werewolf. She's colored like a German shepherd, fawn with black points and back. There's some white on her left front foot, I think."
"First two toes," Asil spat, coming to his feet in a rage that was undeniably real, for all that it had come upon him instantaneously. "How dare she use Sarai's form for her illusions?"
Charles folded his arms. He was going to have to sit down soon, the pain was making him light-headed. "It's not an illusion, Asil. Not unless an illusion can pass on lycanthropy. The rogue we found here is her first victim. She attacked him, and he drove her off-then Changed at the next new moon."
Asil stilled. "What?"
Charles nodded. "There's something strange about that wolf. She's only solid sometimes. Anna hurt her, and she fled, but as soon as she was out of sight, her tracks and blood just stopped."
Asil's breath caught.
"You know something?"
"They were all dead," he whispered.
"Who?"
"All the witches who knew...but then we all underestimated Mariposa."
"Mariposa? As in butterfly?"
Asil's eyes were black in the night. "I am not a witch."
Which seemed like an odd answer to his question. Charles considered him. "But you've been alive a long, long time," Charles suggested. "And Sarai was an herbalist, a healer, wasn't she? You know some things about witchcraft. You know what this wolf is."
"Mariposa is the witch. We raised her, Sarai and I," said Asil starkly. "She came from a family of witches that we knew-my mate was an herbalist. She knew most of the witches in that part of Spain, kept them supplied with what they needed. One day a tinker came to our door with Mari; she was eight or nine years old. From what we gleaned later, Mariposa's mother had only just enough power to protect her youngest daughter from the attack of another clan of witches. Her parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and all were dead-and her mother, too. The tinker found the little girl wandering by the burnt remnants of her house and thought my wife would take her in, as he knew that my wife had done considerable trade with that family."
He sighed and turned away, looking out over the narrow, dark valley below them. "That was a bad time for all of us in Europe. The Inquisition had taken a terrible toll just a couple of centuries before-and when it was over, the witches started fighting for power. Only Napoleon kept them from exterminating each other entirely."
"I know the story," Charles told him. The only Western European witch bloodline to survive the power struggle was the Torvalis line, which was interbred with the Gypsies. Witches still were born here and there into mundane families, but seldom had a tenth of the power of the old families. The Eastern European and Oriental witches had never established the kind of dynasties the Western European witches had.
"They guarded their spells from each other," Asil told him. "So each family tended to specialize. Mariposa's family was one of the greatest of the witch families." He hesitated. "But she was only a child, and this was their greatest spell. I can hardly believe they entrusted her with it."
"What was it?"
"Her family was said to have guardians on their grounds, great beasts who patrolled and killed for them- but never needed food or drink. It was rumored that they made them from living creatures-they had a menagerie." He sighed. "Such powerful spells, as you well know, are never made without blood and death."
"You think your butterfly used such a spell on your mate?"
Asil shrugged. "I don't know anything. All I can do is speculate." He sucked in a breath. "She told me, before we sent her to another witch for teaching, she told me that the only place she really felt safe was with Sarai and me."
He paused, then said bleakly, "I was in Romania when it happened. I dreamed Sarai was being tortured and consumed. Her heart had ceased beating, her lungs could not draw in air, but she lived and burned with pain and power. I dreamed Mariposa consumed my love until she was no more. It took her a long time to die, but not as long as my journey from Romania back to Spain. When I crossed our threshold, Sarai had been dead for a while."
He looked out to the forest, but his eyes were blind, seeing something that had happened a long time ago. "I burned her corpse and buried the ashes. I slept in our bed, and when I awoke, Mariposa was waiting for me-in my head where only Sarai belonged."
He sighed, scooped up a handful of snow, and threw it off to the side. "I wasn't Sarai, to be blinded by the child she had been. Besides, I could feel her madness. I knew when Mariposa decided she wanted me, so I escaped. I ran to Africa, and the distance helped thin the link. By that time I figured out that if I was too close, she could make me do whatever she wanted." He opened his mouth and panted several times as if he were in wolf form and distressed.
"For years I waited, sure that she would die. But she never did." Asil hugged himself, then turned and faced Charles once more. "I think it must be some side effect of what she did to Sarai, that she stole Sarai's immortality as she stole our bond. I could not for the life of me understand why she'd do either-but if her intent was to create such a creature as her family was known for...it all makes sense. She watched her whole family murdered, watched her mother die protecting her from the spell designed to kill everyone in her home."
Charles heard the sympathy in the other man's voice and countered it with truth. "So she killed your wife, who had taken her in, protected her, and watched over her. She tortured her to death to provide herself with something that could protect her." Black witch, his instincts had said-and black witches were a nasty bunch, one and all. "And now she wants you-probably for the same thing."
"Yes," whispered Asil. "I've been running for a long time."
Charles rubbed his forehead again, but this time because he felt a headache coming his way. "And now you decided to come here and present yourself to her, gift-wrapped."
Asil gave a choked laugh. "I suppose that's how it seems. Until you told me she was here, I was still convinced that my suspicions were unfounded." His face lost the touch of amusement, and he said, "I am glad I am here. If she has some part of my Sarai, I have to stop her."
"I was considering calling Bran here," Charles told Asil. "But I'm starting to believe that might not be the smartest move."
Asil frowned.
"Who is more dominant?" Charles asked him. "You or me."
Asil's eyes had been darkening during their conversation, but at Charles's question they brightened fiercely. "You. You know this."
"So," said Charles, staring him down until the other's amber eyes turned away in defeat, "how did the witch, using your mate bond and your ties to the pack, control me?"
As soon as Charles went out to talk to Asil, Anna had begun her change. She needed to deal with that wolf with her tongue rather than fang and claw. He was too good at riling her mate-and Charles was still volatile from his encounter with the witch.
She didn't give any thought to Walter until she was naked and panting in the cold night air. She might have had three years to get used to being nude in front of people she didn't know well, but he hadn't.
She glanced at him, but he had his head turned away from her and was staring intently at a nearby tree trunk, the perfect gentleman.
She quit worrying about him and scrambled into her chilly clothes and boots because she could sense Charles's rising rage at Asil; Asil had put the Marrok and his pack at risk. But more than that, she was worried that neither Charles nor Asil realized how close Charles was to his breaking point. She found it curious that she did.
Boots on, coat on, Anna rolled out of their sleeping place and onto her feet. She didn't bother with the snowshoes-it was still early night. She glanced at the waxing moon; only a few more days until full moon. For the first time that didn't make her sick with anxiety. With Walter in wolf form at her heel she trekked across the bench where Charles and Asil waited.
It was a bad sign, she thought, that neither Charles nor Asil seemed to hear her approach.
"Could she be tapping the Marrok for power, like Leah does?" Anna asked.
Both men turned to stare at Walter and her, Charles clearly unhappy that he hadn't noticed their approach. Asil, the legs of his jeans soaking wet, seemed more concerned with Walter, who had his ears pinned back and was showing his teeth.
Anna put her hand on Walter's neck as she performed the introductions. "Asil, this is Walter. Walter, this is Asil-the wolf we told you about."
Asil frowned at the black wolf, who stared right back and lifted his lips to display his fangs.
"Stop that," she told Walter, hoping he would listen to her. What they didn't need right now was a dominance fight. It always took a while for a new wolf to establish his place in the pack. Interesting that Walter didn't immediately assume Asil was higher-ranked. "We need everyone in fighting shape."
"Walter rescued someone from the witch's wolf and ended up Changed," Charles said. "He's agreed to help us."
He could have phrased that a lot differently, Anna thought. Her hand touched the top of Walter's head protectively. Instead of dismissing the new wolf, Charles had made it clear that the wolf was under his protection and was a valuable participant in their attempt to foil the witch.
Pleased as she was, she didn't want Charles and Asil to fight, so she said again, "Could Mary...Mariposa be drawing on the Marrok's power through the pack bond?"
Charles quit frowning at Asil, and said, "It certainly felt like my father's power. But my father cannot hold me like that."
Asil looked grim. "A strong enough witch can control any werewolf who doesn't have a pack to protect him. It is forbidden by witch law, but it is possible. One of the problems Sarai and I had with Mariposa was that she was making people do things-like kill family pets. And she has had time to grow even more powerful. I think that because she is, through me, a de facto member of the pack-she might have managed to combine your father's powers with her own."
Anna wasn't certain of the implications, but Charles was obviously very unhappy.
"Are we still going down to talk to the Marrok?" Anna asked. "Even if he can't come here, shouldn't we warn him?"
Charles went very still.
"What do you think your father would do if we told him the whole of it?" Asil asked.
Charles didn't answer.
"Yes," Asil agreed. "That's what I think, too. He'd be out here-after he forced all of us to go home. No matter that it would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. He protects his own and has as much confidence in his reputation of invulnerability as everyone else does. Killing Doc Wallace left him hurting-and he won't risk losing anyone else for a long time. Certainly not his son."
"No witch could control my father," Charles said. But Anna could hear the doubt in his voice. Maybe he did, too, because he turned his head, and said, more softly, "We'll have to go after them ourselves."
Asil suddenly raised his face to the wind and closed his eyes. Then he became very still.
Charles whirled toward their campsite-Anna turned to look as well, but she didn't see anything. Not at first.
She seemed to coalesce from the wind and snow. Her fur glistened silver, gold, and shadow. They all froze, staring at her as she stared at Asil. After a few seconds, the wolf hopped off the log and walked slowly forward, whining. Her tail wagged, just a little.
Asil started to move toward the wolf, but Charles grabbed him, holding him back.
"Sarai?" Asil said hoarsely, limp in Charles's grip.
The wolf lowered her head and dropped her tail in a classic submissive pose. She whined again. Beside Anna, Walter growled and placed himself between her and the other wolf. But the witch's werewolf had eyes only for Asil.
The wolf made a pleading, grieving sound. Then she turned and ran. Anna was watching her, so she didn't see what Asil did, only that he was suddenly free from Charles's hold and running after the wolf who wore his mate's semblance.
Charles didn't give chase. He just watched as the pair of them disappeared into the darkness.
"That's not good, is it?" Anna murmured.
"No." Charles's voice was grim.
"So what are we going to do? Should we track them?"
"No." Charles looked at Walter. "But I don't think we need to, do we? The witch is still staying at that old forest-service cabin."
Walter yipped a soft agreement.
"We're not going to tell the Marrok?" The wind picked up again, and Anna shivered. "Are you sure that's wise? Does your father have a witch in his pay who could help? My old pack shared one with the other Chicago pack."
"Asil's witch has found a way to control a werewolf who has the protection of a pack," Charles said. "I've never heard of anything like that-so I don't think she's been spreading the word. Thankfully, witches are so jealous of each other. But if she's the only witch who knows how-we need to keep it that way. We can't bring a witch into this."
He was still watching the place where the witch's pet had disappeared into the darkness.
"What about your father?"
"Asil is right. He'd want to handle the witch on his own."
"Could he?"
Charles started to shrug but stopped halfway, as if it hurt. "She didn't have any trouble with me. That doesn't mean that my father couldn't fight her off-but if not...my father controls all the werewolves in North America, Anna. All of them. If she took him, she could have them all."
"Is that what she wants?"
Charles was swaying a little, she saw. "I don't know. She's been looking for Asil for a long time-but my father is quite a prize."
Anna took a step closer to Charles and wrapped an arm around his waist to steady him. "Are we safe here for the rest of the night? Or will she come for us?"
He looked down at her and sighed. "Safe as anywhere, I expect. She has Asil to occupy her. Poor old Moor. If I were in any kind of shape, I'd have gone after them. But he's on his own tonight." A humorless smile came and went on his face. "We don't have any choice but to spend the rest of the night here," he told her. "I need food and rest before I'm good for another mile of travel."
She parked him on one of the downed trees, in a place that was somewhat sheltered from the wind, and rebuilt the campfire. Walter blocked the wind as she used a glob of Sterno and the lighter to force a fire out of the driest chunks of wood she could find. While the water heated, Anna rebandaged Charles's ribs with strips of a clean shirt. Docile as a child, he let her do it.
She fed him two of the freeze-dried meals, gave one to Walter, and ate another. When they were finished, she kicked piles of snow onto the struggling fire until it was out completely, then urged Charles back into their original shelter. She was too tired to try changing again, and Charles was in worse shape. Walter curled up in front of them both, effectively blocking the wind and snow that tried to reach them.
Anna opened her eyes in the darkness, certain that something had wakened her again. She raised her head from Charles's warm, sweet-smelling skin and looked around. Walter was nowhere to be seen, and sometime in the night, she and Charles had reversed positions, so he lay between her and danger.
The wind and snow had ceased, leaving the forest silent and waiting.
"Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni," she murmured. Too bad Scotty wasn't around to beam them to safety. There was something about the heavy atmosphere that was frightening.
She listened hard but heard nothing. The weighted silence pounded on her ears and made the beat of her heart even louder in the stillness of the winter night.
Her heartbeat, her breath was the only thing she could hear.
"Charles?" she whispered, touching his shoulder tentatively. When he didn't respond, she shook him.
His body fell away from her. He'd been lying on his side, but he rolled limply out from under their barely adequate shelter and onto the snow. The moonlight illuminated him almost as well as daylight could have.
Her breath stopped in her chest, followed by a rush of pain that made her eyes water; blood had drenched his back all the way through his coat. Black glistened on her fingers: blood, his blood.
"No," she sat up, hitting her head on the dead tree they were sleeping under, but she ignored the pain and reached out to him. "Charles!"
Bran sat bolt upright in his bed, heart pounding and breathing rapidly. The cool air of his bedroom brushed over his sweating body. Witch.
"What's wrong?" Leah rolled over and propped her chin on her hands, her body relaxed and sated.
"I don't know." He took a deep breath, but there had been no strangers in his room. Though his head cleared quickly, the memory of his dream eluded him. Everything except that one word: witch.
His cell phone rang.
"What's wrong, Da?" Samuel's voice was wide-awake. "Why did you call me?"
It took Bran a moment to understand Samuel wasn't talking about a phone call. He rubbed his face and tried to remember. Witch. For some reason the word sent cold chills down his spine.
Maybe he'd been dreaming of the past. He didn't do it often anymore. And when he did, it wasn't about the witch-it was about all the people who died beneath his fangs after the witch was dead.
No, it didn't feel like a dream of memories. It felt like a warning. As soon as he thought that, he felt again the urgency that had woken him up. Something was wrong.
"What did I say?" His voice obeyed him, sounding only calm and curious.
"Wake up," Samuel said dryly.
"Not very helpful." Bran ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, I was asleep."
Samuel's voice softened, "Was it a nightmare, Da?"
As if in response to his question, Bran saw an image- part of his dream-"Charles is in trouble."
"From a rogue?" Samuel spoke with polite incredulity. "I've never seen a rogue that could make Charles break a sweat."
Witch.
But not his witch, not the witch who had turned him into a monster so long ago. Dead, but never forgotten. A different witch.
"Da?"
"Wait, let me think."
After a moment he said, "Charles and Anna went out after the rogue two days ago." Sometimes just speaking things aloud helped him jog loose whatever he'd been dreaming about. Dream warnings sucked-he eventually remembered what they were about, but sometimes only after everything was over.
"Asil came by that evening. He was angry with me for sending Charles out so soon after he'd been wounded," Bran said.
"Asil was worried about Charles?" Samuel sounded skeptical.
"Exactly my thought. Astounding. Though he wasn't too upset until-"
"What?"
Bran rubbed his forehead. "I'm too old. I forgot. What a stupid thing...Well, that's explained."
"Father?"
He laughed. "Sorry. Asil took off yesterday morning, presumably after Charles, but I just figured out why. The rogue's description matches Sarai's wolf-Asil's mate."
"She's been dead a long time."
"Two hundred years. Asil told me he'd burned her body and buried the ashes himself. And old as he is, he still cannot lie to me. She's dead."
Leah rolled off of her side of the bed and gathered up her clothing. Without looking at him, she stalked out of his bedroom to her own. He heard her shut her door behind her and knew he'd hurt her by having this conversation with Samuel, instead of his mate.
But he had no time to apologize-he'd just got an odd insight.
Witch.
"Samuel," he said, feeling his way. "Why would you burn a body?"
"To hide its identity. Because it's too cold to bury a body. Because their religion requires it. To prevent the spread of disease. Because there are too many bodies, and no one has a bulldozer handy. Am I getting warm?"
He was too worried to be amused. "Why would Asil have burned Sarai's body in Spain during the Napoleonic wars?"
"Witch."
Witch.
"I dreamed of a witch," Bran said, sure now that it was true.
"The Moor's mate was tortured to death over days," Samuel said reflectively. "I always assumed it was a vampire. A witch would never have been capable of holding a werewolf for days-kill her, yes. But not torture."
"I know of one who could."
"Grandmother's been dead for a long time, Da," Samuel said cautiously.
"Killed and eaten," Bran said impatiently. "I merely pointed out that we know of one exception. Where there is one, there may be others."
"Sarai was the Moor's mate, and they were part of a pack. It wasn't like it was with us. And Sarai was killed two hundred years ago. Witches live a human life span."
"Asil told me he'd been dreaming lately. Of her. I assumed he meant Sarai."
There was only silence on the other end of the phone. Samuel knew about those dreams, too.
"I don't know anything," said Bran. "Maybe Sarai was killed by a vampire, and the wolf having her coloring is just coincidence. Maybe Asil burned Sarai's body because he couldn't stand to think of her rotting in the grave. Maybe my dream was just that, and Charles is coming back with our rogue right now."
"You know," said Samuel reflectively, "you just proved your point better by arguing against it than you did arguing for it. I wonder if that says anything about how your mind works."
"Or yours," said Bran, smiling despite himself. "I'm going out to check on Charles."
"Good," said Samuel. "Do you want me to come back?"
"No. Are you staying with Adam or Mercy?"
"I am your son," he said smugly despite the underlying worry in his tone. "At Mercy's, of course."
Bran smiled as he hung up the phone. Then he got out of bed and dressed for a drive.
He paused outside of Leah's closed door, but what was wrong between them could not be changed. He didn't even want it to change, only regretted that she was so often hurt. In the end he let her be.
He didn't leave a note; she wouldn't care where he was going or why.
Anna's throat hurt from crying as she lay over Charles's cooling body. Her face was wet with tears and blood that froze in the bitter cold. The ends of her fingers burned from the snow.
He was dead, and it was her fault. She should have realized the bleeding was worse than he'd let on. She'd only had him a few days.
She levered herself off him and sat cross-legged on the cold ground, studying his exotic and handsome face. He'd lived two hundred years or more, and she knew so little of that time. She wanted all the stories. What had it been like growing up a werewolf? What mischief had he gotten up to? She didn't even know his favorite color. Was it green, like his bedroom?
"Red. It's red." His voice whispered in her ear, startling her.
But that was impossible, wasn't it?
She reached out to touch Charles's body, but she just blinked once and was lying flat on her back underneath a Charles who was very much alive, though the left side of his face looked as if some beast had clawed him.
She was panting, and her hands hurt as they slowly changed back to human. Was she the one who'd hurt him? Her heart felt as though it had been stopped in her chest and only now started beating.
"Charles?" she managed.
His face didn't move very much, but she saw his relief anyway, and felt it in the relaxing of his hold.
Briefly he put his face down against her neck and breathed against her ear. When he pulled back, he rolled off of her, and said, "All you had to do was ask."
She sat up, feeling weak and disoriented. "Ask?"
"What my favorite color was."
She stared at him. Was he making a joke of it? "You were dead," she told him. "I woke up and there was all of this blood and you weren't breathing. You were dead."
A growl from behind startled her; she'd completely forgotten about Walter.
"I smell it, too, wolf," Charles said, the gouges on the side of his face rapidly fading. "Witchcrafting. Did the witch take anything of you, Anna? Skin, blood, or hair?"
When the wolf had appeared, Mary had grabbed at her hair.
"Hair." Her voice was so hoarse she almost didn't recognize it.
"When there are witches about, it's good to keep them at a distance," he said. "Your hair allowed her to get into your dreams. If you had died there, you'd have died for real."
She knew that would be important in a minute, but not right now. A little frantically she unzipped his coat. He caught her hands, and said, "What is it you want? Can I help?"
His hands were so warm, but he'd been warm before. "I need to see your back."
He released her, stripped out of his coat, and, still kneeling, turned so she could see that the strips of shirt she'd wrapped around his torso were free of blood. She put her head against his shoulder and breathed in his scent. Underneath, she could smell old blood and the tang of a healing wound.
She grabbed his shirt in both hands and tried to collect herself.
"It was just a nightmare?" she said, afraid to believe. Afraid that had been the truth and this was the dream.
"No," he said. "It was the sum of the worst of your fears." He turned in her grip and wrapped both arms around her, surrounding her cold body with his heat. He whispered in her ear, "We've been trying to wake you up for about fifteen minutes." He paused, then said, "You weren't the only one who was frightened. Your heart stopped. For almost a minute I couldn't get you to breathe...I...I imagine you'll have bruises. CPR is one of those things I find pretty difficult; the line is so thin between forcing air out and breaking ribs."
He tightened his hold, and whispered, "One of the problems with having a brother who is a doctor is that I know how few of the people who need CPR survive."
Anna found herself patting him on the back-up on his shoulder, well away from his wound. "Yeah, well, I bet most of them aren't werewolves."
He pulled back after a moment, and said briskly, "You're cold. I think it's time for more food. We've still got a couple of hours before daylight."
"How are you?"
He smiled. "Better. A lot of food, a little rest, and I'm almost as good as new."
She watched him closely as he pulled a few packets of food out of the pack-things that didn't need hot water. More freeze-dried fruit and jerky.
She ripped a piece of jerky loose with her teeth and chewed. "You know, I used to like this stuff." Eating the bits she fed him, Walter spread himself out over her feet. Big as he was, he soon had her frozen toes toasty warm.
They lay down again, Anna sandwiched between the males, Charles at her back once more.
"I'm afraid to go back to sleep," she said. And it wasn't because he'd told her the witch could have killed her, either. She couldn't face seeing Charles's dead body again.
Charles tightened his hold on her and began singing softly. His song was Native American-she recognized the nasal tone and odd scale.
Walter sighed and moved into a more comfortable position as they all waited for morning.