On the Prowl by Kate Rudolph

25

Andre knewhe was giving Em's fans a hell of a show, but he didn't care. The beast was out there. It was closer to Em than it had ever been, and he needed to stop it. He charged. It was dark and the fans were so loud he couldn't rely on his sense of hearing. Nor his sense of smell. It was sensory overload from the thousands of people in the crowd, and the shadow beast didn't smell like anything.

Andre knew how to focus even when focus was impossible. Being in a war zone wasn't that different. Bright flashes. Loud noises. The fear that the enemy could get to you any moment.

But right now, he was the one stalking the enemy.

The lights would come up soon. Right now, the audience could only see their shadows moving around. And though it wasn't his priority, Andre did hope he could chase the shadow beast away before it became clear that Em was standing right next to a wolf.

Lightning flashed over his shoulder and Andre flinched. Then he growled.

The audience let out wild screams as another bolt of lightning flashed, and then the shadow beast was running off the stage.

Andre dared a glance behind him and saw Vi standing on the edge of the stage, her hands glowing with the aftereffects of magic.

Was she controlling the beast? Or was she trying to stop it?

Her lips moved, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. It didn't take a fool to understand that she was telling him to go after the beast.

He did.

But by the time he was backstage and prowling the hallways, it was gone. He snuck back to where he had dropped his clothing and shifted back to human, pulling on his clothes and heading back to watch Em finish up her concert.

He could see that she was shaky. How could she not be? But she was one hell of a performer, and she finished the show as strongly as anyone could be expected to after being attacked by a werewolf.

Vi stood backstage, and she gave him an assessing look when he stood right next to her. The band was back on the stage with Em, and no one seemed to realize that something magical happened.

Of course, the lighting guys had to know something was wrong. But they would be looking for electrical faults, not witches.

A witch. That had to be what Vi was, right? But he wasn't going to ask until Em was with him.

The concert finally ended, and it didn't take long for Andre and Em to head back to their hotel room with Vi in tow.

They didn't speak until the door was safely closed.

"What the fuck is going on?" Em demanded.

Vi held up a hand and tilted her head to the side, as if she was listening for something.

"No one's in the hall," Andre assured her. He could hear just fine.

Still, Vi shook her head and then headed to the door, waving her hands in front of it and muttering something until there was a bright flash of light that disappeared quickly.

"Now I'm sure we won't be overheard," she said. She stood up straighter than he'd ever seen, more confident now that she wasn't hiding a part of herself.

"Witches," was all that Em said before she sank down onto the couch in the living area of her suite and buried her face in her hands.

"Witches?" Andre looked at Vi for confirmation.

"Witches." She nodded. "Yes. I'm a witch. Obviously."

"Nothing was obvious about it until you started shooting lightning out of your hands," Em said, her voice still a bit shaky, probably both from the performance and Vi's revelation. She pulled her feet up onto the couch and curled up into a ball.

Andre wanted to go and comfort her, but he also wanted to stay between her and Vi in case Vi got any sort of idea.

"Did you summon that thing?" he demanded. He was almost certain of the answer. He didn't think a person would summon a magical monster only to fight it off. But maybe that had been the whole ploy. Maybe she had summoned the creature just in order to fend it off to ingratiate herself to Em.

"Of course not," said Vi, outraged.

"You're saying a lot of things like we should understand them," said Em. She uncurled herself and sat up straight. "I've never heard of a real witch. You don't exactly look like Sabrina."

"The nineties one or the reboot?" she asked, as if that mattered.

"Neither." Em clearly wasn't happy with jokes.

Vi's shoulders sagged. "I promise I'm not here to hurt you."

"Then why are you here? And you did something to Em before the show. What was it and why?" Danger was close to the surface, and he wanted to hurt her. But he and Em needed answers more.

Now Vi did look a bit sheepish. "I cast a minor confusion spell on Mercy, I mean, on Em. She caught me in the dressing room scrying for the creature. I didn't think I could explain it. I'm sorry." Her eyes were pleading as she looked at Em. Em just nodded, a bit shell-shocked. Vi kept speaking. "I wanted to work on your crew. I am…" Her cheeks grew red, clashing with her purple hair. "I'm a fan. It seemed fun. And before Mr. Werewolf here showed up, it looked like you needed some protection. I've been trying to figure out where the summon came from, but it's been difficult. Magic is tricky work, and I wasn't exactly expecting to need to perform major spells on this job."

"How did you know I'm a werewolf?" It popped right out of Andre's mouth without him thinking about it.

Both women stared at him, and he remembered how he had transformed and charged the stage. "Stupid question. Did you know before then?"

"Of course. It's obvious." Vi was looking at him like he was a particularly slow student.

"Forgive me," Andre said, words dripping with sarcasm. "I didn't know werewolves were widely identifiable. Or that witches existed." And he didn't like that she could confuse people with her magic.

Vi stared at him in disbelief. "How could you not know that? Your pack doesn't have a relationship with a coven?" Em was forgotten for a moment as she turned to him and gave him a look of grave concern.

"I don't think what my pack has or doesn't have is any of your business," he said. He wasn't sure if he trusted this woman, and he certainly wasn't going to give her more information than she already had.

"So you're saying you're a good witch, right? You confused me a bit with magic, but you didn't hurt me. And you're not going to do it again," Em said, bringing the conversation back to her. "And there's like, a bad witch after me. A warlock?"

Vi rolled her eyes. "Good witch? Bad witch? That's a bit reductive. Witches are just people. Some of us are awesome. Some of us suck. And whoever is after you is definitely of the sucky variety. And now that you know, I have no reason to confuse you again."

Andre wanted to hold Vi accountable, but Em seemed willing to let it go as she spoke. "So what's happening? We thought it was a ghost werewolf at first. Now we’re calling it the shadow beast."

"Shadow beast, I like that." Vi nodded, a contemplative smile tugging at her lips. She sat on the table of the room’s kitchenette and placed her feet on the chair. "A magic user of some kind summoned it. That much I'm pretty sure. It's not a ghost. It's a spirit or some sort of mental construct. I won't know exactly what it is until I get closer to it. Obviously it can inflict damage, since your mate here seems to be able to attack it. But there are a lot of ways that this thing could have been brought into the world and several ways we can take it out. But we need to work together if we’re going to do that."

Andre jolted when she said the word mate. He wanted to demand more information. What did she mean by that? Vi potentially had a wealth of knowledge when it came to what it meant to be a werewolf, and she didn't know just how ignorant he was, though she must have had some idea given her tone in this conversation.

"Why is it escalating?" Em asked, shifting a bit where she sat. "At first we were just feeling creeped out. Now it's attacking me."

"Is it?" Vi challenged. "Or is it just lurking and letting itself be seen? As best I can tell, it only fights back when your mate is around."

"You keep saying that word?" Em half asked, half stated, and Andre had trouble deciphering her tone.

"Well, yeah. Isn't he?" She looked between the two of them and pursed her lips. "Or I guess you can figure that out yourself."

Em pushed up from the couch and started pacing. "So you think it doesn't want to hurt me? It really tore Andre up." She shot him a concerned glance, and Andre smiled back to reassure her.

"You wouldn't fight back when a werewolf is chasing you?"

Neither of them had a response for that. But it did make Andre wonder. "Could whoever is responsible for this be like you? Just trying to protect her from something?" He didn't like the idea of the shadow beast lurking around, but if it was something they didn't need to worry about, he could sleep a bit easier.

Vi shook her head. "He might start off thinking that. But a construct like this is going to take on a life of its own. And before long, it's going to want to do stuff to Em. Perhaps claim her.”

Andre couldn't suppress the growl that came from his throat.

Vi nodded in agreement with Andre's wolf. "Not good. I can put protection on your room at night. That will stop it from getting in while you're in here. It will stop anybody from getting in, actually. You stay close to her during the day. I've got some ideas about what could be causing this, but I need to do more research. And now that we’re all on the same page, I think we can work together."

"So it's just like that?" Em asked. "Suddenly we’re a team? You’ve been lying to us."

"Would you have believed me if I just walked up to you and told you I was a witch? Performed a couple magic tricks? Come on."

"I accepted werewolves pretty easily," Em said in her own defense, not that Vi could have known that.

"Yeah, but you kind of had no other choice," Andre pointed out. That's what happened when one attacked your sister right in front of you. But he didn't say that part out loud. Vi didn't need to know.

"Do you want my help or not?" Vi asked, arms crossed and toe tapping, as if she was tired of their bullshit.

He and Em shared a look, but the decision was obvious from the start. They knew nothing about magic. Vi seemed to know everything. And they needed the help.

"Yeah, we want your help," Em decided. "Will we be able to get out if you put a protection up on the room?"

Vi nodded. "If no one's in the room, the protection will dissolve. So if you both have to leave, just text me and I can come put it back up. Easiest way around that is that one of you stays in the room if the other person has to go get ice or whatever. Then the person inside can let the other person in and you're good. Nothing can get in without an invitation. Is that good?" She spoke about magic security as if it were as commonplace as an alarm.

"Will you be safe outside the room?" Andre asked. He didn't want their new ally putting herself at risk.

"Oh yeah, I'll definitely be fine." She wasn't concerned at all, and it didn't sound like bravado. "I'll start consulting my sources tonight and see what I can come up with. You two just stay on high alert. Together we can fight this thing."

Then Vi went back to the door and performed some more magic in front of it before leaving the two of them alone in the suite, protected by a spell that neither of them completely understood.

Andre turned around and watched as Em sank back down onto the sofa. "Witches."

It was a lot to take in. But he and his mate were finally alone and safe from the shadow beast for the moment.

His wolf rose to attention within him. It wasn't witches he was thinking about right now.

It was his mate.