Suck It by Linsey Hall
4
Mac
After Drakon left, I followed my friends into the Shadow Guild tower. The welcome scent of home washed over me. I breathed in the aroma of the burning hearth combined with the floral scent of Eve’s potion workshop on the second floor.
A partially completed puzzle sat on the coffee table in front of the hearth, and Cordelia the raccoon sat on top of it, trying to put it together.
“Oh man,” Beatrix moaned. “I’ve been working on that for ages.”
Cordelia shot her a glare.
Carrow, Cordelia’s person and the only one who could understand her secret language, said, “She says she’s helping.”
“Sure.” Beatrix walked over.
I followed, and noticed that all of Cordelia’s pieces were completely mismatched. I ruffled the raccoon’s head. “Good job.”
She gave a toothy grin.
Beatrix flopped on the couch, but she clearly couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips. Cordelia was cute as hell, even if she was terrible at puzzles.
Carrow sat down in one of the squishy arm chairs, and I took the other.
“Budge over.” Eve squished in next to Beatrix, who moved to accommodate her.
Cordelia ignored us all and kept shoving the puzzle pieces together at random.
“Well?” Carrow said. “Spill. You look like a chimney sweep.”
I laughed wearily, not wanting to know how bad I looked after the explosion I’d used to escape the cell. My muscles ached as I leaned back in the chair, exhausted. Then I sat bolt upright. “Wait, who’s covering my shift at the Hound?”
“Quinn, so don’t worry,” Eve said. “Now spill.”
“Oh, good.” I relaxed back, but my heart rate stayed up as I told the story of the abduction and what we’d found.
“An attack?” Carrow grimaced. “And you don’t know where?”
“This is all we’ve got.” I took the phone from my pocket and pulled up the photo I’d taken of the plan, then put it on the table. “We know some of their planned positioning during the attack, but not where it’s going to happen.”
My friends leaned over to look at the map, and I racked my mind for anything else I’d learned from what I’d seen on the desk. “We did find a moon chart there.”
Eve’s head snapped up. “A moon chart?”
I nodded. “Shifters, right?”
“That’s what I’m thinking.” Lachlan, Eve’s mate, was the Alpha of the Guild City pack. Though she wasn’t technically a member of their guild because she already belonged to ours, she was a member of their pack by nature of being a wolf herself. “I’m not clued into the gossip with the shifters, as you know. But Lachlan might know something.”
“Can you ask?”
“I’ll do you one better. He’s at a meeting just down the street, and I bet he can pop over here.”
“Thanks.” I looked at my other friends, hoping one of them would miraculously recognize the place on the map.
Beatrix and Carrow just shook their heads.
“We’ll help you with this once you know where it is,” Carrow said. “But I’m afraid I’m no help before that point.”
“Me neither,” Beatrix said.
“Thanks anyway.”
“But I can get you a snack.” Carrow grinned and hopped up, disappearing into the kitchen before I could tell her not to worry about it.
And honestly, I really wanted that snack.
A moment later, Drakon arrived. I felt him before I saw him, his magic rolling over me like a wave that made my heart race. I turned to see him standing at the open door. He knocked on the door frame, and I gestured him in.
He strode inside with the confidence of a man who owned the place, and he was so darkly beautiful that he seemed almost unreal. There was a magnetic air about him that pulled at the deepest part of me.
Little Cordelia dropped her puzzle piece while staring at him with her mouth open. Beatrix reached over and shut it for her.
Apparently, the raccoon wasn’t immune either. People shouldn’t be as beautiful and terrifying as Drakon. He shouldn’t be real. I almost expected to blink and lose sight of him.
I shook the thought away. I was losing it. “They were gone, weren’t they?”
He nodded. “The house became engulfed in magical flames a minute after my arrival. They had a plan in place, clearly.”
“Shit.”
“Are you any closer to determining where the event is taking place?”
“Not yet, but we have a lead.” My attention caught on the door behind him, where Lachlan appeared. “And here’s our lead. Perfect timing, Lachlan.”
Drakon turned to face the massive shifter. Lachlan was identical in height to Drakon, with a very similar build. The similarities ended there, however. Lachlan’s face had the brutal beauty of a prize-fighting poet, whereas Drakon was pure fallen angel grace.
The two men sized each other up briefly. Neither let their magical signature show fully, but they were clearly well matched—albeit in different ways. A fight between them would be magnificent and terrifying.
Drakon nodded in greeting. “I am Drakon.”
“I know.” Lachlan strode in, confident and cool. “I’m Lachlan.” His attention turned to me. “You have a problem?”
I nodded and pushed the phone toward him. He bent down and picked it up, looking at the photo while I told him what little we knew.
He frowned at it. “I don’t know where this is, but it’s my guess that it is a Festival of the Moon. They’re happening all over the world right now, hosted by various shifter clans.”
“Shit. So there’s more than one shifter festival going on?”
“Quite a few. We’re doing our own at our headquarters in Scotland later this month. Fortunately, the setup looks nothing like this.” He handed the phone back to me. “I can’t tell you where this is going to be, but I can arrange a meeting with Glencarrough. If anyone is going to know, it’s them.”
“Thanks.” It would be the next best place to look. Glencarrough was the headquarters for many of the shifter packs, and it was hard for an outsider to get an invite. With Lachlan's help, we’d get in today.
He nodded and turned toward the door. “I’ll make the call now.”
As he disappeared back into the courtyard, Eve followed him out. Drakon looked at me. “I’ll come with you to Glencarrough.”
“It’s not necessary.”
“I have as much invested in this as you do.”
“Of course.” He needed more info about how to break the curse, and Ludovic was definitely his best bet.
Carrow returned with snacks, stopping dead in her tracks at the sight of Drakon. Her brows rose. “You.”
He nodded briefly.
Her mouth flattened in annoyance. She hadn’t been fond of him ever since he’d abducted me. I was over it, but I appreciated her ride-or-die friendship. Beatrix was the same. She hadn’t stopped studying Drakon with a suspicious gaze since he’d walked in.
Carrow handed me the grilled cheese sandwich she’d made me, and I grinned gratefully. “My favorite. Thanks.”
“No problem.” She kept glaring at Drakon. “You can’t kidnap her again, you know.”
He nodded sharply. “Of course.”
“Good.”
Lachlan reappeared in the doorway, Eve at his side. “Glencarrough can see you today. Now, if you like.”
“Excellent.” I stood, taking the sandwich with me. “We’ll go.”
“I can get us there,” Drakon said.
“Do you want backup?” Carrow asked, her gaze going between me and the vampire.
I smiled but shook my head. “We’re good for now. I’ll let you know when shit is about to really go down.”
“Good deal. But be careful.” She glared at Drakon for good measure, and Eve and Beatrix did the same.
“I don’t envy you, mate,” Lachlan said.
A wry smile tugged at the corner of Drakon’s mouth, but he said nothing.
“See you soon.” I quickly ate my sandwich while walking out to the courtyard behind Drakon.
“Ready?” He turned to me.
I popped the last bite in my mouth, then held out my hand. “As I’ll ever be.”
He gripped my hand in his, and I felt that familiar shiver race up my arm. Desperately, I wanted to grip him tighter and pull him toward me.
No.
That was an insane thought. It didn’t matter how good our kiss had been before, it was crazy. But the heat that I felt was reflected in his eyes, and I had to look away.
“You know where we’re going?” I asked.
He nodded. “I’ve never been inside the castle walls, but I know the location.”
“That’ll do.”
A moment later, his magic flared on the air, and the ether sucked us in, spinning us through space to spit us out on the lawn in front of the massive walled castle that acted as Glencarrough’s headquarters in the highlands of Scotland.
Chaos surrounded us. Normally, the green and purple mountains would be empty and serene. The faint sound of a breeze and the echo of birdcalls would fill the air.
Today, it was the setting for a massive gathering of shifters. Bagpipes blared, and people competed in all sorts of athletic competitions. The scent of beer and sausages and fried dough filled the air.
“They must be having one of the festivals of the moon that Lachlan mentioned,” I said.
There had to be over two hundred people here, nearly all of them shifters. Fortunately, the sun was lovely and bright and the breeze cool. It was the perfect day, and the spirit of the occasion infused the grinning faces of everyone around me.
I couldn't imagine Ludovic attacking another celebration like this. It would be carnage.
“Why the hell does he want to do it?” I muttered.
“I’ve been wondering that myself.” Drakon inspected the crowd. “I think he wants to replenish his collection of souls. He relied on that powerful magic before we destroyed it.”
“Of course. He’s in a hurry, so a massive gathering of supernaturals is perfect.” Though we didn’t have confirmation of our theory, it just felt right.
And awful.
Fates, all those people wiped out in one terrible attack.
No way in hell I’d let that happen.
My gaze finally landed on Eleanor, the leader of Glencarrough and the one we really needed to speak to. She was currently busy competing in a dancing competition, and I was impressed by the swiftness of her feet and the wide smile on her face. Normally, she was hard as nails and just as reserved.
“This way.” I headed toward her, and Dragon followed.
We passed a group of runners crossing the finish line. They were red faced and sweaty as they came from the direction of a steep hill they’d apparently just climbed.
The man in the lead stumbled over the finish line, and one of the waiting attendees handed him a cup of water and a can of Tennant’s Lager. The sweating man dumped the water over his head and chugged the beer.
I felt a smile crack the edge of my mouth. Next, we passed a group of people throwing massive logs into the air. Caber toss. The supernaturals were able to throw them much farther than humans could, and I watched one guy hurl his over a hundred meters. The next competitors threw theirs even farther.
We stopped at the edge of the short wooden stage that supported the dancers. They finished their reel and bowed. Eleanor’s eyes met mine, and the levity faded, replaced with the same calm control that I was used to seeing.
She left the other dancers and approached us. “Lachlan told me about your concerns.”
I nodded. “I’m convinced that the person planning this is capable of incredible destruction. I’m hoping you can help us stop it.”
“Of course.” She turned and started toward the castle. “Come this way.”
We followed her to the castle, but instead of going into the main building, she led us into one of the guard towers. It was quiet and cool inside, and she wiped her brow as she faced us. “Tell me everything you know.”
I pulled my phone out and passed it to her, making sure that the photo was showing on the screen. She stared down at it, frowning. “This is the McCabe and Donahue packs, I’m sure of it. I saw their plan just the other day. How the hell did this Ludovic person get this?”
“They have spies everywhere, I’m sure.” I shivered at the memory of their power. “Can they cancel the event?”
Even as I said it, I knew it might not be the smartest plan. If Ludovic needed power, he was going to launch an attack on innocents. At least if he attacked this festival, we’d know where it was and be able to stop him.
But that put the shifters at risk, and guilt surged through me at the idea of using someone else as bait.
“I’ll see if the packs will cancel the event, but it’s highly doubtful. They’re both Texas packs.” She grimaced. “Stubborn as they come. But let me call.”
She turned away and pulled a slim cell phone from the pocket of her dress. Quickly, she dialed, not bothering to leave the room while she waited for them to pick up. Drakon and I stayed silent, and I leaned against the stone wall as I waited.
The conversation that passed did not inspire confidence. It was easy enough to get one of the alphas on the line, but once she had them, Eleanor seemed unable to convince them to cancel or accept our help. She pulled out all the stops, too. If I’d been on the receiving end of her dire warnings, I certainly would have heeded them.
In the end, the Texas packs did not agree to cancel the event, nor did they appear to be willing to accept help.
I’d never been so frustrated in my whole freaking life.
Eleanor hung up the phone and turned to us with a disappointed frown tugging at the corner of her lips. “I can see from your expression that you heard.”
“Yeah. Stubborn bastards.”
“Indeed.” She sighed. “Though I am not terribly surprised. Any other pack might have accepted help, but this is a special scenario. These two packs have been fighting for decades over land rights. They’ve finally come to a tentative peace, and this festival is supposed to patch up the bad blood. Neither clan is willing to accept help for fear of how it would look.”
“Damn it.” I scowled, then shook my head. “They’re getting it anyway. I don’t care if we have to show up uninvited.” Anyway, they were our best lead for finding Ludovic, and he was the only one who had answers about how to save Drakon. So even if the shifters wanted to be stubborn, we had too much on the line to let them.
“The only problem with that plan is that I still don’t know where the festival is taking place,” Eleanor said. “The plan never included that information.”
“Shit, really?”
“Really.” She shook her head. “They’re two of the most secretive packs in the world. We’re lucky they submitted their plans to us at all, but they were unwilling to give more details.”
“So you’ve no idea where they’ll meet?” Drakon asked. “Even a small clue could give us enough to get help from witches or sorcerers to track them.”
“I know they’re having a planning meeting at The Rocking Bull Bar and Grill,” she said. “That should actually be happening tonight. I think the festival is any day now.”
“Tonight?” My heart raced. “So if we can sneak into that meeting, we can at least find out where the festival is.”
“Most likely. But you’ll need to be careful. They won’t allow non-shifters in there.”
“So we need a disguise.”
“A damned good one. They’ll probably only allow pack members inside.”
“We can figure that out,” I said, heart racing as plans flitted through my mind. “Thank you. This is perfect.”
She nodded. “Good luck. If you need anything at all, let me know.”
We parted ways, and Drakon took us back to the Shadow Guild tower. As soon as we arrived and separated, he asked. “What are you plotting?”
“I think I’ve got a way in to the shifter bar. But we need to speak to Eve. Come on.”
I hurried toward my tower, racing through the main room and up the stairs to Eve’s workshop. As I’d hoped, the potion master was inside, moving quickly from one small cauldron to another. Her pink and silver hair was piled high on her head, and a smudge of purple sparkled on one cheekbone. When she looked up at the sound of our entry, her eyes were bright with energy.
“What did you find?” she asked.
I relayed what Eleanor had told us. “So we need something that will turn us into shifters.”
“From their pack,” Drakon added.
“Then you need a potion to give you the appearance of someone else.” She pursed her lips. “I think I have just the thing. I made it for a customer, but you can have it, and I’ll brew them another.”
“Oh, thank fates, you’re a lifesaver.” I’d known she could make us anything we needed, but some potions took extra time to brew. Since the meeting was tonight, we were definitely lucky she had something on hand.
Eve went to the back of her workshop and began to search. Drakon and I waited, breath held. Finally, she returned with two small vials of potion and handed them to me. “They are fairly self-explanatory. Take a piece of the person you want to be—a hair, ideally—and put it into the potion. Then drink it.”
“Thanks.” I put the vials in my pocket. “You’re a hero.”
“Just don’t get yourself hurt. And let me know if you need help.”
I nodded. Together, Drakon and I left the workshop. When we reached the main sitting room, it was still empty. Cordelia’s Frankenstein of a puzzle sat on the coffee table “completed,” but she was nowhere to be seen.
Drakon turned to me. “If the meeting is this evening in Texas, we have time before we need to leave.”
He was right. The time change was fairly substantial. “All right. Do you want to come back here later tonight?”
He nodded, and I couldn’t believe that we were planning on working together like everything was normal. Just recently, he’d kidnapped me. And now we were doing this? If I was smart, I would have enlisted the help of my friends and left him out of it. But it was impossible to leave him out of something he wanted to be included in, especially given that his life was at risk.
And honestly, I hadn’t even considered it.
Being with him just felt natural, albeit intense.
“Mac, I—” He cut off as his form flickered, going transparent for the briefest moment.
Fear iced through my veins.
The curse.
The witches’ solution wasn’t permanent, and it had to be fading, taking him from this plane and returning him to his tomb of granite.
“Drakon!” I reached for him, gripping his strong biceps to try to pin him to this plane and dragging him toward me. I wrapped my arms around him, clutching him in hopes that I could keep him here.
It seemed to work, and his form resolidified, leaving us bound together in an embrace. Suddenly, all I could feel was his heat and strength as it surrounded me. His sandalwood-and-spice scent was divine, making my head spin as his strong form surrounded me.
Heat rushed through my veins, pooling at my center until my breath came short and my head spun. I wanted nothing more than to reach up and press my lips to his.