Chapter 3
Ophelia
My stomach dropped and turned over when the good-looking man who’d appeared out of the shadows turned himself inside out and ended up as a wolf. I nearly tossed my cookies right there in the street on top of the coyotes, which would have served them right, but then there wasn’t time to think about anything. The dogs and coyotes started nipping at me and trying to drive me away from where the wolf started tearing them all apart. The scent of blood made the bile rise in my throat until my whole mouth tasted bitter, and I struggled to control a wild surge of magic.
I didn’t like uncontrolled magic. I liked order and neatness, and evenly woven spells. Delicate patterns and predictable connections. Like weaving and knitting and crochet. But as panic consumed me... all of that disappeared. The urge to survive, to fight until there was nothing left, replaced that need for order, and I lashed out at the coyotes with all of my might.
Everything blurred into chaos and darkness and pain as the sharp teeth of the animals found my legs and even my arms and wrists a few times when I wasn’t careful. Magic kept them at bay for only so long. Then I turned and the enormous timber wolf—his shoulder easily as high as my hip—was beside me. I braced myself to die, since there was no way I could have fought him off, and marshaled what remained of that wild magic as a defense, just in case.
It ended up discharging off against the wolf, and he gave me a look like I’d somehow betrayed him. The very human expression on a lupine face threw me off-balance, and I stared at him without moving. What the hell was going on? Had I lost my mind? Humans didn’t turn into animals. Even with magic in the world, werewolves didn’t really exist. It had to be a glamour or some other spell.
Tears blurred my vision and I stomped my foot, magic rolling out in a tidal wave that knocked everyone else down. I wasn’t too proud to run, since I’d just about expended all of my magic, and bolted. One or two coyotes chased after me half-heartedly but gave up after about a block. I tried not to look a gift horse in the mouth and didn’t look back. No doubt I’d used enough magic that Rocko could find me easily.
I held my side with one hand and kept my bag secure with the other, panting for breath as the street numbers finally grew closer to the shelter’s address. It was so late I thought the place would be closed, but when I finally careened up to the entrance, a young woman stood up from behind a desk and walked around to unlock the door and let me in.
I practically fell in on top of her, collapsing on the floor, and panted, “Thank you.”
“Are you being chased?” she asked. “Do I need to call the police?”
“Maybe animal control,” I wheezed, but I tried to smile to dismiss the potential threat. I didn’t need the police on my tail, too. “Just some…wild dogs. I need…some help. A room for the night.”
“Hold on and catch your breath,” she said. Her eyebrows arched and she supported a very pregnant belly as she waddled back around to the desk to pick up a phone. She spoke quickly to someone on the other end, though I didn’t hear what she said over the sound of my wheezing. The woman put her hands at her lower back, studying me with her head tilted. “I’m Sunny. What’s your name?”
I managed to sit up and waited for the room to stop spinning. “Ophelia. Sorry for the…dramatic entrance.”
“It happens.” She glanced behind me and a smile softened her face.
I turned and immediately swore as the biggest fucking guy I’d ever seen in my life—and hot to boot—unlocked the door and lumbered in. I scrambled out of the way on instinct, and instead of sauntering in, he paused near the door and waited for me to get my shit together.
Sunny cleared her throat. “This is my husband, Sasha. I know he looks intimidating, but he’s just a teddy bear.”
Referring to anyone as a “bear” made me think of the coyotes and wolves in the alley. If there were werewolves, surely that meant a man who looked like a bear could maybe turn into a bear? My stomach turned over at the memory of how the man turned inside out before turning into a wolf... I massaged my temples. I needed a good, stiff drink. And sleep. A lot of sleep. “Right. Sorry.”
“Is no problem,” he said in a deep voice, thickened by a raspy Eastern European accent. “Solnyshka said you are running very fast from something. What is chasing you?”
If anyone could have dealt with Rocko, it would have been that guy. Not that I wanted to jeopardize Sunny and her family with a rogue sorcerer’s attention. Rocko didn’t fight fair. “Just some coyotes, I think. My car died outside the city so I had to walk, and a pack of dogs started stalking me a while ago. I managed to fight some of them off, but decided to run the rest of the way.”
Sasha nodded but didn’t look convinced. “We will look. Do not worry. Not even coyote can get through this door.” And he patted the reinforced glass and heavy steel of the entrance.
Sunny waddled back to the desk and gestured for me to take the chair next to hers. “Just a little bit of background, dear, so we know what we’re dealing with. We definitely have room, so don’t worry about that. Are you hungry? Need something to drink?”
“I could use a beer or seven,” I said under my breath. I pushed to my feet and made it over to the chair, though my legs gave out almost as soon as I’d reached it. I could still feel the snaps of the wolves’ jaws near my legs, could hear their panting and snarling until my skin prickled. They’d been so close to biting me, to tearing me apart... What had they wanted? There had been too much intelligence in their eyes for it to have been a random attack.
I shuddered and tried to push aside the feeling of being chased by something almost as dangerous as a rogue sorcerer. Sasha lumbered closer and I tensed out of instinct, refusing to feel bad for being cautious. He held out a flask though, and blinked slow and long like a hibernating grizzly. “Is vodka. Very bad vodka, but it might help nerves.”
“Thanks,” I said slowly, and took the flask. I managed to gulp a bit before fumbling the cap back on and handing it back.
He tilted his head at the door. “I look for trouble. Stay here with Sunny. Is safe here.”
I nodded, even though I didn’t really believe him, and gripped the arms of the chair as he maneuvered through the massive doors and foyer area. Sunny did something at the desk that engaged a bunch of locks with a reassuring ker-thunk, and I started to breathe a little easier. The big guy was right on at least one count—nothing was getting through those doors unless she opened them again.
“Now,” she said, resting her hands on her belly. “What are you really running from? Because I don’t buy the coyote story for a second.”
I blinked and sat back. “Uh, then I don’t know what to tell you.”
“There are a lot of weird things in this city,” she said. “Things that I never thought I’d ever see or come to understand, but packs of wild dogs roving around and randomly attacking people are not one of them.”
“How do you know?”
