Forbidden

 

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As always, I want to thank my wonderful and supportive husband, Don, and my terrific agent, Merrilee Heifetz. I'd also like to give a huge written hug to editor supreme Melissa Singer, awesome publisher Tom Doherty, and all the people at Tor for their continuing faith and belief in the Sazi reality.

Special thanks to new romance author friend Tamara Morgan for her help and great sensory input in locating and creating the town of Luna Lake. Thank her by buying her books, listed on her Web site:
www.tamaramorgan.com
.

I'd also love to give a shout-out to the residents of Republic, Washington, and the rest of Ferry County. You're home to bits and pieces of everywhere I've ever lived (the mountains of western Colorado; the Burlington, Colorado carousel; the Native American lands of the Four Corners; and the mines of both Colorado and Texas), which totally rocks! I hope you'll welcome your new fictional neighboring town and quirky residents. Ferry County looks like a very cool place to live, and I hope to someday visit and wander around all the businesses I got to know on your chamber of commerce Web site.

 

CHAPTER 1

Fear wasn't something Claire Evans thought she'd ever feel again, but an all-too-familiar buzzing filled her ears while bile rose into her throat. Adrenaline raced through her veins, and her muscles flexed involuntarily, as though striking at an invisible foe. The sensations were hardwired into her from that time, long ago. But now she was just a passenger in a car in rural Washington, with no enemy that she could feel or smell. Yet she was alert and wary.

“You feel it too, don't you? The dark tightens around your throat like a hand.” Danielle's tremulous whisper beside Claire made her start and turn her head to look at the lovely African-American woman driving the car.

She tried to shrug it off. “I'm a Sazi … a wolf. The dark doesn't scare me.”
So why is my heart pounding like it's going to leap out of my chest?
She stared out the windshield where the bright headlights barely held the night at bay, looking for something … anything that would explain what she was feeling.
Analyze the fear, Claire. Force it to reveal itself.

Danielle Williams's laugh held just a touch of hysteria. “It's not the dark, girlfriend. It's what's
in
the dark. Strange things live in the forest here. Stuff that even scares those that hunt at night. It's why I'm the one driving you tonight.”

Claire turned in her seat to face Danielle more squarely. “Come again?” Before the other woman could open her mouth to respond, Claire took a deep breath through her nose and knew abruptly why fear had been tightening her throat. It wasn't her own fear filling the air … it was Danielle's. Underneath the thick scent of feathers that she expected to smell from an owl shifter was the unmistakable sour scent of near-panic. An owl scared of the dark? That was wrong on so many levels. There had to be something deeper at work. “What's wrong, Danielle?”

A long pause followed. Claire let it grow until the other woman couldn't stand the pressure anymore. “It's my … little sister and … brother.” The words were choked out with long gulps of air between. Claire didn't have to ask their names; though she'd just met Danielle tonight, she'd done her homework on her host family. Nineteen-year-old Danielle was the oldest biological child of John and Asylin Williams. Ten-year-old Kristy was the youngest and fourteen-year-old Darrell was in the middle. But the Williamses weren't content to raise only their own children. They'd opened their home to more than a dozen orphans from the plague and raised them as their own. Many “after-plague siblings” of various races, families, and shifter species had come and gone through their massive, hand-built home during the last decade, making it the perfect place for Claire to stay and to gather information. Danielle snuffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Kristy and Darrell have been missing for three days now. Nobody knows where they are. I left college to come home and help search.”

“Oh, man! What happened?” Three days? Why hadn't she been told yet? Or did Wolven not know about the disappearances?

“Kristy was supposed to spend the day at a friend's house. When dinnertime rolled around and she hadn't come home, Mom sent Darrell to get her. When neither one made it back after another hour, Mom called Isabelle's family. They hadn't seen Kristy all day. Hadn't seen Darrell either.” Danielle drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. Claire felt the speed of the car increase and began to push magical energy out in a wave in front of the car to hopefully warn any prey animals to avoid the roadway. The last thing they needed was to hit a deer and wreck the car.

Danielle kept talking, the words tumbling over themselves in a rush. “Mama should have called me that day. I would have come to help look for them. But she didn't want to
bother me
. Damn it! Kristy's only ten and Darrell's not much older. They haven't even shifted for the first time.” Tears glistened in the orange light from the dash. Danielle wiped them away with an angry hand before clutching the wheel again, wrapping fingers around it like talons around a snake.

Claire reached out to touch the other woman's shoulder. “I'm so sorry, Danielle. I understand just how you feel.” In fact, she understood more than Danielle could imagine. She had once been one of the missing. Worse, to many in her hometown, she still was. It's why she was the perfect person to send here to investigate.

I wonder if there have been other disappearances. Is that why nobody is talking to Wolven?
She was young to be part of the Sazi law enforcement branch, and only a few people even knew she was active. But the agent on duty in Luna Lake didn't seem to be sending in reports of anything abnormal … or at least, nobody admitted to getting them. She was being planted in the town by the Sazi Council to find out what was happening. Her primary task was to find out why people were missing from the official reports, even though the town leaders claimed everyone was accounted for. While it was likely just a clerical error, it could be dangerous if someone was hiding something. Thankfully, because she was bound to the Texas wolf pack, she could mentally contact her pack leaders, Adam and Cara Mueller—Wolven agents and police officers both—in a crisis. She had to work hard to make the connection work and it gave her a bad headache, but it was better than nothing. “Is there anything I can do? Once we arrive, I mean.”

Danielle put up a helpless hand. The wet scent of sorrow filled the car, smothering the sour panic. “I don't know. Maybe. We can use every set of eyes. Maybe, as an outsider, you'll see something the rest of us are missing.”

An outsider
. It seemed strange to be considered an outsider in a town that was all Sazi. No shifter should ever be considered an outsider. That was the whole point of the encampments that had been formed after the plague: to welcome and protect Sazi of all species. Claire tried hard to project confidence into the car. The gift of empathy was still new to her and she wasn't very good at projecting emotions yet. But the healer back in Texas had told her it could be a valuable tool for investigating once she was more skilled. She only knew she was succeeding when the hot metal scent of determination rode up over the musty damp smell of fear.

“Anything I can do,” she said firmly.

They went back to watching the dark landscape slip by in a blur while Claire struggled to keep Danielle's fear from overwhelming her. She couldn't afford to become an amplifier of someone else's negativity. She tried to concentrate on the bits of roadside that were highlighted in the headlamps for brief seconds: a speed limit sign, which they were presently exceeding by at least ten; then red and yellow leaves that whisked into the air, swirling around the hood and over the roof; even a bright bit of metal in the grass, shining silver before disappearing. But it was no use—the more silence that passed, the more time she had to dwell on possibilities, and the greater the fear grew. Claire needed to take Danielle's mind off the situation. “Tell me a little about Luna Lake. Where might the kids have spent the day if they didn't go to their friends'?”

Danielle shrugged. “I've been wondering the same thing. There's not much to the town. There's no arcade or anything and no mall. The nearest town is Republic, but it's too far to walk. There's an ice cream store but that's the first place Mama checked. S.Q.'s a sucker for little kids with wide eyes. Gives them so many free samples that they wind up sick in the morning. Of course, that means every kid in town hangs out there.” She must have realized Claire didn't know the people in town, because she explained. “S.Q. Wrill … with a
W
 … owns Polar Pops on Main Street. She's a nice lady but you'd think a falcon would have more brains. I swear she'd forget her head if it wasn't attached.”

“S.Q.? That's her real name? Just initials?”

“It's sure what I'd call
myself
if I had her given name. Everyone blends the letters and calls her Skew. Her mama should have been ashamed.” Danielle shook her head as the road slipped by. She didn't continue until Claire prompted.

“Which is?”

“I'll have to spell it. S-e-n-s-a-b-i-l-l-e. Her middle name is Quille, with an
e
at the end. I mean …
really?
Her mama must have been high as a kite when that poor girl was born.” She tsked, clucking her tongue like a chicken, and then sighed.

Claire struggled not to laugh out loud.
Wow. Sensabille … Quille … Wrill. No kidding, poor girl.
But this was all great stuff. Not only would learning about the people in Luna Lake keep Danielle occupied, but Claire would learn a ton about the town. Already the scents in the car were lightening. “Interesting. What else is there to keep kids occupied? Is there a playground?”