Shadow Rites

Molly was sitting in rusty chair, cold glass of tea in one hand. “What if you just take a sledgehammer to them?” she asked.

The men looked to her, smell of surprise on both. “I could create a ward that would let the sledgehammer in but not let magical energies escape,” Molly said.

“Yeah,” Evan said, his words slow with thought. “That would work.”

Molly nodded. “Evan, you’d make a separate ward. Add filters to the ward to allow only oxygen through the filter. Increase the outer air pressure, forcing the O² into the ward. Scientifically it might work.”

Eli said. “You set the ward. I’ll get the sledgehammer.”

“You got a sledgehammer here?” Evan sounded surprised.

“Never know when you might need a good sledgehammer.”

Mr. Prepared, Jane thought. Let’s sleep. Things might get rough tonight.

Beast closed eyes and slept in sun, waking only to see Evan break iron into tiny pieces, and magic smash against ward like bomb going off. Fire, too bright to look at, was inside ward. Did not smell blood, did not smell iron or salt or Jane hair, even with men shouting and jumping around like kits. Silly men.

I rested and slept and ate raw roast and steak all day. Eli was best litter mate.

* * *

It was dusk when I changed back, hidden in my own room. I stretched, fully human, on the bed. While I was starving, needing to replace the calories used to power my shifts, I hadn’t felt so good in a long time. I had successfully shifted when my life was in danger, had stayed in Beast form all day, sleeping on heated rocks, had no new scars, and my old ones were faded to pale pink lines. And from beneath the door came the scent of the grill all fired up and loaded down with more beef. I dressed quickly in Bruiser’s wrinkled shirt and a pair of leggings and went to the table.

Eli had prepared me a fourth chunk of meat, this one a thick steak grilled to rare and bloody perfection, with beer-batter-fried onion rings, asparagus sautéed in bacon drippings, which was out of this world, roasted sweet potatoes, and green salad with crispy bacon on top and hot bacon dressing. “Holy moly guacamole,” I said, taking my seat and digging in. I was half finished with the steak when my hunger was satisfied enough to look up. And came to a total stop.

The whole family was eating together. Everyone but Bruiser was here. Tears filled my eyes and Eli passed me a bread basket, saying, “If you get all sappy and cry, it will ruin the ambience. Plus, all the girls will have to do a hug-hug, kiss-kiss moment and the food will get cold.”

I took three slices of Molly’s homemade bread and blinked back my tears. “No way am I stopping eating just to cry and hug my friends. But you know I love you all, right?”

They all spoke over one another: “Yes.” “Totally.” “Yes, Aunt Jane.” “Wessh A’ Ja’.” “Back atcha.” “Whiny girl stuff.” And Brute whuffed.

I stilled, turning to see the werewolf stretched out on the floor, two empty plates near his feet. One was Beast’s plate. One was new. I thought back through the day. I remembered the claw marks on the floor at EJ’s bed. And Beast making nice-nice with the wolf. And the grindylow grooming Beast’s pelt. Around the table, my friends and family were deliberately paying attention to their food and not to me or the wolf. “He’s moved in?”

“He’s my werewolf,” Angie said.

“He’s ma wrolf,” EJ said, waving an asparagus spear in the air.

“He tried to save my son,” Molly said, taking the green spear from Evan Junior.

“The grindylow seems to think it’s a good idea,” Eli said.

“No,” Big Evan said.

I went back to eating, knowing that a family had to make tough decisions all the time and that, oddly, I wasn’t in charge.

“How much do you remember from today?” Eli asked, after an uncomfortable silence.

“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” I said. “I caught up on a lot of sleep today.” Which was how I heard what they had done all day, starting from the time Eli successfully beat the iron focals into small pieces and Evan’s working burned them to ash, releasing the last of the spell that was wrapped around Evan, which, fortunately, had been a simple knock-out spell, but had been geared to a human male, not an in-the-closet witchy man, allowing him to find consciousness and help with the spell-breaking.

Molly had done research on the witch names on her list. Alex had done research on Molly’s research. Eli had spent hours with Jodi Richoux, having missed the dawn conference call with Leo, and had made nice-nice with everyone on the security team, especially Derek and the men he chose to work with Jodi’s off-duty cops who would be on rooftops before, during, and after the Witch Conclave.

Evan and Molly had come up with what sounded like a contract with Edmund, to cover the blood vow given by their underage daughter to Edmund Hartley. I kept my mouth shut about that one, still bothered by the similarity to what I had done as a child, when I took a blood oath to kill my father’s murderers.

And they told me about the package that had come while I slept on the rocks in the back. They all seemed eager for me to open it, but until I finished the food, I was going nowhere and doing nothing. Because the food was OhMyGosh too good for words.

After dinner, while the sun was setting in a red sky, I let my godchildren drag the package to me across the floor. It was huge, big enough to ship a chair in, but weighed little by comparison to the size. The box was postmarked in Louisiana and it had a return address I recognized. I ran a hand over the cardboard, feeling a hint of icy magic from within, and smelling the scent of leather.