Alpha Bear (19 page)

“You have a big heart, lassie,” Cam said,
smiling kindly at her. “That was well done of you, and I think it
will aid more in the protection of this town than you think. If I’m
right, there will be a natural barrier when you’re done with your
spellwork, that will help hide your town from those of evil intent.
That would be the best outcome, in fact, and would go a long way in
protecting the people here.”

John hadn’t realized the scope of Ursula’s
work, or that wards could have different intentions, though he
supposed he probably should have thought of that before. He was
just glad to hear that Ursula had given this whole thing some
thought and come up with what sounded like the most reasonable
approach. He liked that she thought enough of the town and its
people—and whatever innocent life might live in the ocean around
them—to have planned her work so carefully.

“Now,” Cam said, drawing John’s attention,
“if I’m guessing your pattern correctly, you’ll be planning a
sunset ceremony for tomorrow, no?”

John didn’t like the idea that this strange
fey could predict their actions so easily, but it did make sense.
And if Cam could figure it out, so could the leviathan—and anyone
else looking to prevent Ursula from completing her work.
Damn.

Ursula nodded in answer to Cam’s question,
her eyes wide. Clearly, the same thought had just occurred to her
as well.

“We’ll need to establish trust fairly
quickly. Alpha, would you object if I transported some of your
allies here tomorrow, with me, to help your men stand guard while
we do our work? If you’ll call Grif Redstone and ask if he can send
Steve and maybe a few members of his security team, I’ll be able to
bring a couple of people with me tomorrow when I come back. I’m
also hoping you’ll take their word for my truthfulness. They’ll
vouch for me.”

John was skeptical, but moving toward
trusting the fey with each new revelation. Though he hadn’t
mentioned it, John and all his guys knew Steve Redstone fairly well
from the old days. Steve and his brother, Grif, who was Alpha of
the entire Redstone Clan, had both been in Special Forces. John had
fought alongside Steve Redstone a few times during his long
military career and respected the man, even if he was a cougar
shifter and not a bear.

“Sounds like you’re planning on leaving us?”
John asked Cam, wanting to know more before he committed to the
fey’s plan.

“Well, I came to help the lassie, but as
you’ve got all well in hand for tonight, there are a few things I
need to do back in California this evening. But if you’re going to
do more warding tomorrow, I’ll come back to help, and bring
friends, if you’ll have them. It’s up to you, Alpha. This is your
land, and these are your people.”

John chuckled. “They may call me Alpha, but
it’s not like it is with the cats. Bears are independent thinkers.
Only my military unit really listens to what I have to say, and
even then, we discuss battle plans in depth. There are no blind
followers among us. There never were.” John turned to Brody and
Tom. “What do you think, boys?”

“Steve Redstone is a good guy,” Brody
offered. “If he’s willing to come help, I wouldn’t be averse to
having him as backup.”

“Agreed,” Tom put in. “I’d also take his word
if he vouched for you, Cam, no insult intended.”

Cam nodded at Tom. “None taken.”

“I think it’s all overkill,” Ursula said.
“But we can use all the help we can get. If this guy Steve can
convince you that Cam is on the level, then I say go for it, even
though you didn’t ask my opinion.” She stuck her tongue out
playfully at John, and he felt the jolt of happiness at the way she
interacted with him and his men. She was comfortable with them,
which meant a lot to him and his inner bear.

“Honey, I was going to ask you. You just
didn’t give me a chance,” he shot back, smiling at her.

“Good,” she answered back. “Then I’ll have to
tell you that I would like Cam’s help tomorrow. The leviathan lured
me in this afternoon when I thought I was safe from it. As magical
as you guys are, you’re not mages. I need magical help, and I can’t
imagine anything or anyone more magical than a fey knight.” She
smiled at Cam, and John felt the stirrings of jealousy. “And if it
hasn’t already occurred to you, he would never have gotten past the
wards I’ve already cast if he was one of the bad guys. You probably
don’t realize how my magic works yet, but you’ll figure it out when
you see how the wards repel evil.” She looked a tiny bit smug.
“That’s why the leviathan tried to lure me out, past the effective
range of the ward. It wanted to get me into an unprotected
area.”

John put his arm around her shoulders,
offering support as her expression changed to one of fear.

“You were stronger than its pull, honey. You
stopped walking all on your own,” he reminded her.

“But I couldn’t move,” she whispered. “And I
might not have been able to hold out against it for long. You
didn’t hear that song…”

“It sang to you?” Cam asked quickly, in a
low, urgent tone.

Ursula nodded. “Like a siren’s song. It made
me follow it through the woods, around the cove, where nobody would
see me until it was too late.”

Cam frowned. “Not good. If you could hear the
leviathan, it is more powerful than I thought. Did any of you hear
it?” He looked at the men, each in turn, but they all shook their
heads.

“I found her, but I didn’t hear anything,”
John admitted. “She was just standing there, motionless.”

Cam seemed unhappy with the answer but said
no more on the topic. After a moment, he spoke again. “Your granny,
she’s in Italy?” he asked Ursula.

“Oh, no. She’s in San Francisco.” John
might’ve wanted to keep such information private, but Ursula
apparently had no such intention. She trusted Cam. John just hoped
she wouldn’t come to regret it.

“San Francisco?” Cam sat back in his chair.
“But…you’re not a Ricoletti, by chance, are you?”

Ursula smiled. “I am.” John could hear the
pride in her tone as she claimed the relation.

Cam’s reaction was unexpected. He practically
beamed with happiness. “Oh, this is grand,” he said. “I know your
granny. Knew her when she was your age, in fact. I haven’t kept in
touch over the years, but that’s mostly because I don’t always like
reminding my friends of their mortality. They usually don’t take it
well. I pass in and out of people’s lives, for the most part, but I
remember your granny.” Cam winked at her as if sharing a joke…or a
memory. “She was special.”

“She still is,” Ursula agreed in a quiet
voice, giving Cam a kind smile. “And I think she would be happy to
see you again, if you don’t mind the fact that she’s grown
old.”

“Mind?” Cam seemed surprised by the notion.
“It is the way of things in this realm, lass.”

That put a damper on the mood for a moment
until Cam brightened a bit. “Now, let me tell you something few
know, my new shifter friends.” He looked around at John, Brody and
Tom. “I can travel by magical means, but not easily and not often.
Your realm limits me a trifle. I was able to pop up here because of
the lass’s prayer for help, and I will return on the same ticket,
so to speak.” Cam gave them a somewhat mysterious look. “I will be
able to transport two or three others with me tomorrow, but there
is no guarantee they’ll be able to go back home that way. They’ll
probably have to go back the non-magical way. Which means, you’ll
have to put us up for the night tomorrow night, so we can be here
both to help with the sundown ceremony tomorrow and for the full
moon the following night. After that, we can make our way home by
whatever means come to hand.”

“Even you?” Tom asked quietly, seeming
intrigued by the fey’s open talk of magical transport.

This was something out of a storybook. As far
as John knew, that kind of thing was limited only to the most
powerful of mages and the truly magical races like the fey. But the
fey weren’t of this realm. They traveled here at their own peril
and weren’t able to access all of the magic they could command in
their own world. John didn’t know all there was to know about fey,
but he knew that much.

“Aye, lad. Even me. This is your realm, not
mine. I pay a price to walk among you, and hoofing it, or taking
the bus, happens more often than you’d think.” Cam had the grace to
look embarrassed, but John figured the humble act was just that—an
act. Still, it was nice of the fey to make the effort of letting
them think he couldn’t wipe the floor with them all magically, with
one hand tied behind his back.

“I’ve got a place in town where you can
stay,” Zak volunteered. “I’m building a restaurant. It’s not quite
finished yet, but the upstairs apartment is good enough for guests,
even though the furnishings are bare minimum. There’s heat and
running water. Beds in the bedrooms and a big couch in the living
room. No cable TV yet though, sorry.”

“If all goes as I expect, there won’t be much
time to be watching telly,” Cam said with a laugh. “Thank you for
the gracious offer. I accept.”

John nodded over at Zak. It was a good
solution. Zak could keep an eye on the visitors, and they’d be in
the center of town, well within the already warded zone.

“Now I suggest you get on the phone and
figure out who I should be picking up for the journey tomorrow,”
Cam said, rising from his seat. “I’m heading to Las Vegas, home
base of the Redstone Clan. I’ll be back on the morrow with as many
as I can bring with me. I expect you to settle just who that is
between yourselves and the Redstones. Sound good?”

John rose as well. “I can live with that.” He
liked that Cam wasn’t forcing anyone on them.

“Then I’ll take my leave of you until the
morrow.” Cam leaned across, offering his hand to John first, then
to the other men as everyone rose. They all shook hands with new
respect for each other. Cam simply nodded at Ursula, tipping an
imaginary hat in her direction. “I’m glad you asked for help, and
did not need much of it today. The Lady sent me here, I believe,
because of what you will do tomorrow. She knows, lassie. She knows
all and gives aid where it’s needed. What you’re doing here is
bigger than you realize. And quite frankly, none of us expected the
leviathan to be on our shores. I’ll do some research tonight, but I
believe, now that I think back, there was some talk of a creature
like it in the Atlantic several months ago. I’ll track that down,”
Cam said, looking at John. “We’ll need all the information we can
get about this menace.”

“Agreed,” John replied. “I’ll place some
calls myself. I had no idea anyone else had been dealing with this
kind of thing.”

“The oceans are vast, and most of us are
land-based. It would probably be a good idea to try to speak with
some of the ocean-going shifters, if at all possible. They probably
know more about this than we do,” Cam suggested.

John nodded.

“Thank you for coming to help,” Ursula said
in an emotional tone.

“It is my honor, lass,” Cam said in all
seriousness, nodding to her in an old world way. He held her gaze
for a beat, then turned to the men, nodding at each in turn. “Until
tomorrow.”

Cam walked away, down the steps of the deck,
toward the forest. They all watched him go. As he entered the tree
line, he seemed to glow, and for a split second, John saw the
magical armor of a golden knight walking away from them, into the
misty forest. Between one blink and the next, the knight was
gone…and so was Cam.

“Did you just see…?” Tom trailed off in
confusion, shaking his head.

“Dude in a full metal jacket, disappearing
into the trees?” Zak replied, also shaking his head. “He sparkled
like nobody’s business. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“That was armor,” Ursula supplied. “He’s a
Knight of the Light.”

“No shit? Seriously?” was Tom’s candid
reply.

“What do you know about them?” John asked his
friend, knowing Tom had always been the most studious of his
buddies.

“
Chevalier de la Lumiere
is a sacred
title earned by only a few souls in the mortal realm and beyond. It
is an ancient order. Knights are chosen by the Lady Herself, it’s
said. Usually though, they hide their nature. I’m kind of
surprised—and a little worried—that he’s shown himself to us this
way. Frankly, it also makes me suspicious, though I have no idea
how someone could fake what we just saw.”

“Anything evil couldn’t get past my wards
either,” Ursula put in. “And you’re right to worry. All
strega
know that when the Destroyer returns, the Knights
will reveal themselves and work with those on the side of Light to
fight Elspeth’s evil again.” Her brow furrowed as her words took on
an ominous tone. “If the Knights are showing themselves, then
perhaps the rumors out of Italy are true. Maybe Elspeth, Destroyer
of Worlds, is back.”

The first thing Urse did when she went inside
was to grab her cell phone. She spared a moment to text Mel that
she was okay and promised to call in a bit, but she had to talk to
her grandmother first. Urse knew John and his friends were making a
lot of phone calls too. They were interfacing with those Redstone
people about who was going to join Cam tomorrow, and somebody was
reporting to the Lords of the
were
, but Urse was more
interested in the magical side of things, and what her Nonna
thought about the knight showing up.

And Cam said he’d known Nonna when she was
younger. Urse wanted to know more about that too, but when Nonna
refused to say much about her prior acquaintance with the fey
warrior, other than the fact that she had known him in her youth,
Urse was disappointed. No matter how much she wiggled around the
subject, Nonna would say no more.

She did, however, tell Urse to listen
carefully to any suggestions Cam might make. She spoke very highly
of his magical abilities and seemed both worried and glad that the
fey knight had come to Urse’s aid.