Avoiding Alpha (Alpha Girl) (13 page)

More muttering from the closet.

“Next.”

“Flour.” Wait a second. “Cinnamon? Salt? Flour? Really? What are we making? A pie?” This was supposed to be a potion, not a home economics project. “If the next thing on the list is pumpkin, I’m going to freak out.”

Adrian laughed. “Cinnamon can be used as cleanser for the blood. Salt grounds any evil spirits. Flour—”

“Did someone say we needed pumpkin?” Chris stepped out of the room with a can of pumpkin puree.

“Jesus Christ. I think my cousins made a mistake and gave me the family cookbook.” I closed the little brown book. “They could at least call it something better than cinnamon. Like bark from the center ring of an ancient tree.” I wiped sweat from my forehead. My wolf was rising along with my nerves. “If we mix these things up, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna make some really bad cookies.”

Adrian grinned. “These are just the ingredients. It’s what you do with them that makes them either cookies or a potion. Give it a chance to work.”

The thought that we could be doing the wrong thing made my mouth dry. I was so out of my element, but I was trying to go along with it. Still, this whole thing seemed really far-fetched.

I chewed on my lip, trying to find my calm but failing miserably. I hadn’t thought about what went into a potion. “How about we skip to the hard stuff? I’ll let you gather all this nonsense.”

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea. Might take longer to get all the other stuff together,” Adrian said. “Give me the book, and I’ll make a list.”

Dastien swung open the classroom door. His wavy hair was disheveled, like he’d been messing with it while he was on the phone. A pulse of anxiety flowed through our bond, and for once, it wasn’t mine.

“Everything okay?”

“Tribunal stuff.”

Yikes. Not something I wanted to deal with tonight, but I hated to see him upset. “Everything okay?”

“We’ll see. What’s going on?” Dastien asked, changing the subject.

I considered pushing him to find out what the phone call had been about, but decided against it. If he didn’t want to talk about it, I wouldn’t force him. “Adrian’s making a list. You want to go with me to find this stuff?”

“Sure, where’re we going?”

“No idea.”

My phone rang in my bag, Aphex Twin’s ‘Polynomial-C’ telling me that it was Axel. I ran back through the lab, and answered it. “Hey, bro.”

“You rang?”

“Yeah. Like forever ago.”

“Sorry. I kind of had a night, so I slept in and then had classes.”

I laughed. “No shit. I got the email.”

“Jesus. I don’t remember emailing you. What’d it say?”

“Hilarious stuff. You’ll never live this one down.” I grinned as I remembered his confession about a girl he was crushing on. “But hey, I might need your help.”

“What’d you do now?”

“Why does it have to be something that I did?” I said as I walked to the window of the lab.

“Come on. I’m your brother.”

I blew out a breath, fogging up the glass. “Well, it’s not me. It’s Meredith. I don’t know if I told you, but she’s been cursed by Luciana.”

The sharp exhale on the other end of the line told me he knew all about Luciana.

I walked back across the room. “Meredith was fine, but that changed this morning. I need help finding some ingredients. Any chance you’d know of a place to get things like—” Adrian handed me a piece of paper. I glanced down at it. “Hundred year old sainted ashes?” I looked up at Adrian and he shrugged. Right. A saint’s ashes to get rid of a demon. Made sense. But who in the hell kept ashes of a saint around the house?

“I might know of a place, but I’d have to go with you.”

Whoa. Seriously? I thought it might be a long shot at best, but he must’ve been keeping up with the coven more than I’d thought while he was at school in Austin. “That’s fine. It’d be good to see you. I missed you on Sunday.” The only time I really went off St. Ailbe’s grounds was for Sunday lunches at my parents’ house. Dastien always went with me, and some of the others, too, to make sure I didn’t lose control. But last Sunday, Axel hadn’t made it back from college.

“Aww, sis. That’s so sweet.” His voice had a whining-tease to it.

“Shut up. I hate you.” But we both knew that was a total lie.

He laughed. “Meet me outside my dorm?”

“Sure. I’ll leave now, but it’ll still take me a bit to get there.” We were a good hour-and-a-half away, and that was if there was no traffic at all.

“Cool. Text me when you get here.”

“Will do. Later.” I put my phone away. The guys were staring at me.

“Really? You think he knows a place?” Adrian asked.

I shrugged. “He said so.” He was my brother. I trusted him with my life. And Meredith’s. “You two get to working on this stuff, and Dastien and I will cover the rest. We cool?”

“Yup. Go. We got this,” Chris said.

I looked up at Dastien. “How about you? Is it okay if you leave campus all day?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. I think it’s fine.”

“That wasn’t what I meant. Aren’t you supposed to be teaching? And keeping the animals under control?”

He grinned. “Yes, to both. But they’ll be okay for a couple hours and I called one of my Cazador friends to fill in for my martial arts classes. It’s fine. Let’s go.” He started to walk out. “But I’m driving.”

“What? No, I’ll drive.”

“Not a chance.”

I followed him into the hallway, waving at Chris and Adrian over my shoulder. “Later, guys.”

***

Dastien ended up driving, but that was fine because that meant I got control of the radio. We chatted and listened to music the whole drive to Austin. Finding something to talk
about with him was never hard. Neither was being quiet. It was comfortable. Even when I felt like I was going crazy, being around Dastien made me feel calm.

He’d said it was because he was a strong alpha, and that centered my wolf. I wasn’t so sure that was it. I’d like to think that if neither of us were werewolves, if we were normal humans, that it would be just as easy. I’d feel just as comfortable.

“What?” He asked as he pulled off the highway.

“Nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. What are you thinking? I want to know.”

“You don’t have to know everything I think.”

“No. But I can tell you’re happy, and if I did something that made you feel that way, I’d like to know so I can make you feel that way again.”

I leaned against the window so that I could get a better view of him. “You didn’t have to do anything. You were you, and that’s more than enough.”

“
Cherie.”
His voice was low and gravelly as he glanced at me. That voice did things to me.

It wasn’t long before we reached UT’s campus. Axel’s dorm wasn’t far off the main drag. It was a massive two-building dorm. To me it looked a little dreary. All that brick with these teeny-tiny windows and closet-sized rooms with beds that pulled out from the walls, but Axel said he didn’t mind. He liked being with all the people.

I texted him that we were parked on the street in front of his dorm, and he walked up a second later. No one would ever doubt that we were siblings. He wasn’t as short as me, but we had similar features—wavy dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, light skin. His nose was a little bigger than mine, but the same shape. And our eyes were exactly the same.

“Hey, sis. Dastien,” he said as he jumped in.

“How you feeling?”

“Like shit, but it’s my own damned fault. Would be nice to have some of those werewolf healing abilities.”

Dastien laughed as he pulled away from the curb. “Then you wouldn’t have been able to get drunk in the first place.”

“No shit?”

“Nope. Metabolism burns off the alcohol quicker than you can drink.”

“Seriously?” Axel hummed as he thought. “What if you drank straight Everclear?”

Dastien shook his head. “Still wouldn’t get you drunk.”

These guys were ridiculous. “Not to interrupt, but where are we going?”

“Right. We’re going north on I-35. You’re going to meet our Great-Aunt Rosa.”

I twisted in my seat. “We have a Great-Aunt Rosa?”

Axel’s eyes were wide. “I know, right? Who knew?”

I faced front again. “Would’ve been nice if Mom hadn’t kept me so in the dark.” Being ignorant was seriously frustrating. “What’s Rosa’s deal? Why doesn’t she live with
La Aquelarre
?”

“They had a falling out after
abuela
died. Luciana was the problem. That’s why Claudia and Raphael’s parents aren’t around much. They technically live there, but spend most of the time traveling to avoid Luciana.”

“Why didn’t they move away?”

“Because the twins didn’t want to. They were still learning and needed to be around the rest of the coven to do that. Now that they know more, they want to stick around to support whoever inherits the position from Lucicana.”

I scoffed at that. “Sounds like shit parenting to me. Who abandons their kids to an evil witch? No wonder mom isn’t close with her sister anymore.”

Axel directed us into a neighborhood of cute, brightly colored houses. We stopped in front of one with a beautiful garden in front. Wildflowers lined the walkway to the front door, giving it a laid back feel instead of a manicured look like its neighbors.

As we stepped up to the front stoop, the door swung open. A short, round, white-haired woman stood in the doorway. Her skin was paper-thin and wrinkled, and her shoulders hunched over, making me feel tall—quite an accomplishment for someone who was barely over five feet. She was in a flower printed dress, and a pair of reading glasses with bright red frames hung from her neck on a beaded chain.

“I wondered when you might come,” she said. Her voice was a little nasal and reedy, but pleasant.

“Me?” I pointed to myself.

“Yes. You.” She moved aside. “Come.” She motioned to the floor. “But watch the salt.”

A line of salt covered the threshold. The line continued across the porch and around the corners on both sides, sealing the house in a circle. For protection?

From who? Luciana?

Stepping over the salt, I walked into the house. The floorboards creaked under my weight. The place smelled old and musty, but there was a warmth to the space. The incense that burned somewhere in the house blotted out most of the musk, leaving it smelling like a church.

I sneezed. And sneezed. And again. I pulled my shirt over my face, but I couldn’t stop.

“Tess?” Dastien said. I felt his hand on my arm, but I couldn’t stop sneezing.

“That’s what I thought. Lead her into the living room,” Rosa said.

I couldn’t see. I was sneezing so fast my eyes were glued shut. I could barely get enough air to breathe. I knew I was breathing—sneezing took air—but this was out of control.

I reached out blindly, until I grasped Dastien. “Out.” Sneeze. “Now.” Sneeze. “Now.” Leaving this house was the only answer. It was the incense. I had to go. Right then.

Dastien lifted me, but Rosa started speaking in rapid Spanish. I was sneezing so much, I couldn’t focus on the words, but Dastien understood her. He said something and then put me back down on the couch. “She’s going to help.”

“Incense.” Sneeze. “Out.”

“It’s not the incense,
cherie
. Luciana cursed you when you went onto the coven’s land. Which was why I didn’t want you to go in the first place.” The last bit was very growly.

Shit. This wasn’t good. I kept sneezing. My abs were getting a hell of a workout.

Something slimy rubbed under my nose and the smell of eucalyptus and mint filled my senses. The sneezing slowed. I could finally open my eyes in between the wracking breaths.

The walls of the house were covered with religious icons. The aged paintings of saints’ faces stared down at me. There wasn’t a bit of empty space anywhere. Even the curtains had writing on them, and I’d bet everything I had that the words were Bible verses.

If I weren’t related to Rosa, I’d say this was the home of a crazy person. After all, I didn’t really know the lady. She probably
was
insane.

She stood in front of me, close enough that I could smell the rose and faint garlic on her skin above everything else. She held a white egg in one hand as she leaned over me. The shell was ice cold as she rubbed it over my head. She ran it in a circular motion down my body from head to foot as she said the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish. As she moved the egg, the sneezing trickled to a stop.

What the hell was going on?

When she was done, she reached for a glass on the coffee table. We were all silent as we waited for something to happen, but I wasn’t sure what.

The sound of Rosa cracking the egg against the edge of the glass startled me. She dumped the innards into the glass, but something was wrong with it. The yolk was black and the white had turned a cloudy gray.

“Holy shit,” Axel said.

“Watch your language,” Rosa said.

I sat up, swinging my legs over the edge of the couch to get a closer look. “What the hell is that?”

“You, too.” She held the glass up to the light so I could get a good look at it before handing it to me. “
That
is a curse.”

“What!” I nearly dropped it.

Rosa took the cup from my shaking hand. “Did Luciana touch you while you were there?”

I thought back, replaying the scene in my mind. “No.”

“Did she say anything odd? Make any motions with her hands?”

I was suddenly cold. “Yes. Yes, she did. She said something, but I couldn’t make it out and she waved her hand. It felt like she slapped me, but there was no way for her to have physically done that. She couldn’t actually have reached me.”

“And how did you feel after?”

How had I felt? I’d nearly changed. My wolf tried to claw its way out. But I’d been pissed. It was normal to be easily angered, especially around the full moon. Right? “I…my wolf was upset.” Oh shit. She’d wanted me to feel out of control. Luciana had made the point to tell me she could make me feel better, but when I hadn’t agreed, she’d made sure I’d start
feeling worse. She was banking on the fact that if I lost control of my wolf, then maybe I’d go to her.

She was trying to trap me.