Chapter 11
Ophelia
It didn’t take me long to decide. I didn’t get a weird vibe from Deirdre like I had with other witches, and she was upfront enough that I figured I’d know pretty quickly if things weren’t working out. I just needed a day or two to come up with a plan for how to deal with Rocko, and then I could move on.
It helped make up my mind when Kara hinted that Deirdre’s friends, her pack, included some capable mechanics and gear-heads. So the bill for fixing up my car would probably be pretty low. That didn’t mean I’d trust her, of course, but at least I’d be closer to making an escape than if I stayed at the shelter and hoped my car magically fixed itself.
I thanked Kara profusely and asked her to pass along the message to Sunny and the rest of the crew, and promised to pay it forward if I ever got a chance. She just smiled and said she was pretty sure our paths would cross again, which made the back of my neck prickle in an odd way. I dismissed it and got into Deirdre’s car, holding my loom bag and knitting on my lap, just in case.
And then it was a short, slightly awkward car ride back the way I’d run the night before to a fancy-ass house in a mostly respectable neighborhood. It all looked so different during the day. It was almost difficult to believe that everything had been so terrifying…
My heart rate ticked up a bit as we passed semi-familiar streets and it became clear we were returning very close to where I’d been attacked by the animals.
When she noticed my discomfort, probably from the way I gripped the handle of the door, Deirdre glanced over. “Trouble?”
“This was near where…things happened last night.” I took a deep breath and rubbed my palms down my thighs, wanting to get rid of the clammy feeling with my only somewhat dirty jeans. “Just…weird to see it during the daylight.”
She made a thoughtful noise and guided the sedan around a corner. “The attack was bad?”
“Bad enough, but not the worst.”
Deirdre started to smile, shaking her head, and I looked over sharply. “Is that funny?”
“No, I’m just thinking how many people would say that sounded like something I would say.” The corner of her mouth stayed turned up. “I’m not particularly good at explaining things or asking for help, so it’s a fair point. Do you know why the animals attacked?”
I went through what I remembered, still struggling to piece together what triggered the event, but came up with no smoking gun for why a motley crew of canines wanted to kill me.
Deirdre pulled the car up in front of a massive house, with half the block next to it given over to an equally massive garden, and put it into park. She didn’t get out right away, her hands still on the steering wheel, and I braced myself for a whole lot of rude questions or a hex. Maybe both.
Instead, Deirdre sighed and counted slowly under her breath. Waiting for something.
I stared at her. More craziness? Was I the only sane person left in the entire damn city?
When she hit “three,” though, a blonde head with startling green eyes and an accusatory expression popped up in my window and said, “You went without me?”
I jumped and nearly cut myself in half with the seatbelt, and threw my hands up to deflect the attack. A bit of magic jumped out through my fingers and pinged against the window glass, cracking it into a mass of fine spiderwebs, and I nearly launched across Deirdre in an effort to get away.
The blonde girl flopped back on her ass with a shout as Deirdre said, “Oh, calm down,” and I tried to decipher whether she meant me or the stranger who’d just scared me half to death.
Deirdre kicked her door open and hauled herself out of the car, marching around the front to lean against the fender.
“You know he’s mad you went without anyone else,” the girl on the sidewalk said, not bothering to get back to her feet. Her attention drifted to me though, and the fever-bright interest in her eyes made me shiver.
“It’s good for Miles to be mad,” Deirdre said. She gestured and the young woman bounced to her feet, reaching for my car door without waiting to be asked.
I recoiled again and would have made it over into the driver’s seat if it hadn’t been for the gear shift and the console.
Deirdre sighed and caught the girl’s shoulder, drawing her back. “Mercy, I swear, would you give her some breathing room?”
“I haven’t seen another witch before,” she breathed, looking about as obsessive and transfixed as I’d always imagined the witch-hunters looked when they came across a new coven. “I just wanted to see if she smells different from you.”
Smells different? “I beg your pardon?”
Mercy grinned but Deirdre just rolled her eyes, helping to open my door. “Forgive Mercy, she’s just…enthusiastic. I’m afraid it might be my fault. I made the mistake of showing her some magic and now she’s very…interested in figuring it all out. Typical for a wolf, you’ll find.”
A wolf? My mouth dried out and I debated just staying in the car. The weather wasn’t that cold. I could totally sleep in the car until I figured out what I wanted to do next. Or it wouldn’t be a very long walk back to the shelter. I was reasonably sure that Kara would let me back through the door.
Deirdre’s head tilted as she studied me, then she shooed Mercy away. The witch sat on her heels as she studied me where I sat in the car, and for the first time, something about her softened. The abrasive personality fell away and instead she sounded like a friend. Maybe like a kindred spirit or a sister. “I get it. It’s a lot to take in. Sunny didn’t think you knew much about wolves and bears and shifters in general before last night, so I’m sure you’re still feeling off-balance. I share this house with my mate, who’s a wolf alpha, and some of his pack-mates. There are wolf shifters here, but they’re all on their best behavior. And there’s a djinn, too, although I can’t speak for Iskander’s behavior. He’s hard to gauge.”
