Forbidden (28 page)

Rachel was an adult now, but in some of the photos, she looked like she was still in her teens. But there were both boys and girls, which wasn't common in pedophiles. Claire had seen both Scott and at least one of the kids in the green files. Claire hoped that the chief wouldn't find where she'd hidden the stack of photos before she got back to Luna Lake to retrieve them, but consoled herself with the thought that it would take him some time to return, given how far she and Alek had chased him.

Because the darkness was the chief. She had no doubt. He was powerful enough. He'd proven that. How easy it would be to black out an area to take a victim, take his photos and do … well, she hoped it was just photos, and then destroy the memories.

Were the missing kids the ones whose memories wouldn't wipe? Who threatened to go to the human police or even Wolven command? She didn't know, but she was sure as hell going to find out.

The temperature was dropping like a rock and freezing rain was trying to glue her eyes shut every time she blinked. Alek trotted alongside silently, but it was all she could do not to sneeze from the emotional cocktail of scent that surrounded him like a cloud. Curiosity was top of the list, which was the only reason she wasn't having an allergy fit. Suspicion reminded her of cedar tree pollen and made her sneeze horribly. Happily, the swirling emotions distracted her from his normal sweet, spicy musk. If she paid too much attention to that scent, all her plans would go horribly wrong.

“I'm not seeing any signs of a mall out here, but I wouldn't mind a food court about now.” The teasing in his voice said he knew she hadn't really been using a shopping application. Though he didn't know what it might be, he was coming along. Claire tried not to think about why. If he was a plant, this safe house would be compromised. She crossed her fingers that her instincts about Alek were right.

“It probably won't be
much
of a mall, I'll admit.” They came to a clearing and she saw what she'd been looking for, an old wooden cabin that blended into the trees so well that it was nearly invisible. The old pine timber that supported the covered porch and made up the four walls retained enough bark that it was hard to tell where the forest began or ended. Dried lichen covered the weathered roof.

Alek edged to where he could stick his nose out of the edge of the brush line and sniffed, then whispered, “Who lives here?”

“Us, for now.” She pushed through the last of the tall grass and trotted through what used to be a flower garden. The bars on the windows on either side of the door were decorated to look like designer grates. Once she reached the porch, with Alek close on her heels, she set the phone down on the wooden planks, glad to get the tape out of her teeth.

“Hey, where's the doorknob?” Alek asked. Claire looked up to see that he was right—there was no way to open the door.

“Hmm, good question. Could you look around back, see if there's another entrance?”

While he was gone, Claire carefully checked the porch, looking for a way in. The wind picked up, beginning to lash at her face, freezing her nose hairs with each breath and making the tips of her ears burn. She inspected both windows and the strange handle-less door and even pressed each board in turn with increasing urgency to see if there was a hidden switch. Nothing. She wasn't made for this temperature. She was a desert wolf and her skin was cooling fast.

Alek returned from the back of the house, his head frosted with sleet. The cold didn't seem to bother him much but his thick coat had fluffed out to fend off the wind.

“Nothing around back,” he reported.

At that moment the penny dropped and Claire knew why the cabin seemed impregnable. She let out a sound and shook her head. “I'm an idiot. I forgot the security system.” She went back to her phone and once again pressed her nose to the screen. A new screen popped up, blinking words:
Style of shoe?
“Bunny slipper.”

The application responded instantly and she heard a snap from inside the house. “Voice print confirmed. Please answer the security question below.”

“Hey, something happened.” Alek stepped forward and pushed against the door with his forehead, and then stood on his hind legs and leaned on the door. It moved fractionally.

Claire read the question and furrowed her brow.
An owl lives in a tree outside a college classroom. What does the owl say at sunset?
Surely there was some sort of trick to this. It couldn't be that simple!

“What's wrong?” Alek asked, dropping back onto all fours and joining her to look at the screen. “What sort of question is that?”

“A very silly, very old joke.” She shook her head in dismay, then spoke as clearly as she could into the phone. “Why, why, why.”

Another metallic snap and the front door eased open a crack as a single light came on inside the cabin. Alek stepped in front of Claire, blocking her way, and nudged the door open with his shoulder. She used her magic, along with her eyes and nose, to confirm that there was no one else present. There was no scent except for pine, snow, and the delirium-inducing musk next to her.

The door opened wider and they heard another click, tiny but loud enough to make them both jump back and off the porch to land a dozen feet away on the cold ground. Claire shivered anew in the icy wind.

There was no explosion, no gunfire or people yelling, just a slight hissing sound and the smell of fire.

“Oh, for heaven's sake. Just go in.” A new voice made them start and turn as a single unit. A bobcat stood at the edge of the garden, its eyes twin golden stars that bored into Claire's head like lasers. “C'mon, it's freezing out here.”

“Who are you?” Alek's voice held a threat that Claire had no doubt he would act on if needed. He stepped slightly in front of her, shielding her. It amused her, because she was pretty sure she was the better fighter. She'd been trained by some of the best.

The cat made little snarling sounds—laughter, Claire realized. “Oh, you've grown up well, young Alek. Strong chest, coat like your mother's, but with your father's starry eyes. Nikoli would be proud.”

Alek started. “Who
are
you?”

“My sister put a snake on your ceiling and you got beaned by a metal lighter from his pocket. The cut should have needed stitches, but it healed while I watched. I knew you'd be an alpha. Do you remember that?”

Alek stepped forward a few paces, and when he spoke, his voice was filled with wonder. “You're the French doctor, the Council's doctor. Why are you here in the woods?”

“Please, call me Amber.” She stepped closer and brought the light scent of cat with her. It wasn't an unpleasant smell … not like the police station. “I presume one of you called me. I got a flag that someone needed stilettos.”

Claire backtracked and picked up the tape attached to the phone with her teeth. “I did,” she said, a bit muffled with her jaw closed. “But what are stilettos? I know the others.”

“Doctors, or healers if you prefer. I would have picked sneakers, but the messengers got those. And the heels sort of look like needles. But can we
please
go inside? I'm sure the fire has warmed at least a bit of the great room.”

“Fire? Do you live here?” Alek's head cocked slightly and his ear twitched.

The cat shook her head as she stepped past them. “Just visiting. My husband is in Alaska visiting his family. It's cold enough
here,
much less going to the Klondike.” She ruffled her fur, shaking off the crystals of ice. “Polar bears and their ice…”

She didn't add anything else, but it was enough for Claire to realize just who this person was! The wife of the Chief Justice was inviting them into her home. At least, it was hers while she was here, and she'd gotten here first.

Amber sprinted through the cabin door and planted herself next to the wide fireplace that held a gas-fired log set. “Ahh … fire. I love fireplaces.” She turned her head, licking her paw to clean her whiskers as she did. “This converts easily, if you need to use logs. Where are you headed and who's hurt?”

Claire let Alek go inside first and checked her six before closing the door behind her. The latch inside the door automatically sealed with a solid, sharp
thunk
that drifted a faint odor of oil to her nose.

“First I need to know that the area is secure.” Claire had no choice. The Four Corners battle had proved to her that nearly anyone could be compromised. There were alphas who were mind controlled, just like the lesser animals. Not everyone was fighting against the snakes. Some were fighting
for
them.

Amber looked closely at her for a long moment. “Well, you do have the phone and the door opened for you. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.” She glanced at Alek, who looked confused. He remained standing but not sure what to say or do. “I don't suppose you're part of this, are you?”

He let out a snort of air. “I'm not even sure what
this
is.”

The small cat nodded once and came toward Claire. Once she had blocked Alek from seeing, she lifted her right front paw above her head to show Claire the brand under her foreleg. It was the only way Wolven could go forward after the plague. Nobody could take anyone's word for anything because lies were truth if people believed them under mind control. So once the Council was confirmed clean by the seers, who had special abilities to see auras that could confirm truth, or into the past, or even the future, every Wolven and Council member had been branded with a hot silver iron to show their affiliation. Amber's had both the flying
W
symbol for Wolven along with the reverse
C
that showed she was a Council member. Claire likewise lifted her arm and held out a paw and touched Amber's. The cat looked at the single flying
W
in Claire's armpit and nodded. “Okay, so you are…?” Amber trailed off, waiting.

She glanced at Alek, then back at Amber. “Can you make sure nobody is listening in before I begin? The Second of Luna Lake seems to have deep claws into people's minds.”

“The
Second
? Interesting. Well, that's easier in human form. The shift shuts down some of the sensory input I'll need to clean the area. Give me a second. And I have some clothes that should fit you both, so you don't have to stay in wolf form the whole time.” She turned and left the room, heading through a back door. Claire saw a flash of light through the doorway that didn't seem to be a light.

“Everything okay in there?”

“Yep,” came the reply. “Just changing into fluffy clothes. Be right out.”

Still watching the door, she asked quietly, “What was that flash of light?”

He nodded and came over to whisper next to her ear. “The really powerful ones do that sometimes when they shift. My mother explained once that so much power is hard to hold in either form. They have to consciously not glow. But it bursts out between forms, which is why they don't often shift around other people. You'd feel the sting of it, like being shot with a fire hose in the chest.”

Oh. She'd never had it explained like that, but she had noticed that when Council members visited her pack, they tended to change forms away from the rest of the pack. She'd never known why. She turned to look at him, saying, “Thanks. I didn't know that,” and found herself staring at the most amazing eyes she had ever seen. Alek's eyes were glowing, shining like twin stars, filled with bright white fireflies. Mesmerized, she couldn't look away.

“Your eyes are amazing.” The words came out in a whisper, nearly breathless. He seemed equally lost, standing still, inches from her, just breathing.

“That was a little tougher to untangle than I'd imagined.” Amber's voice preceded her into the room. “And I see you have your
power
back.” The redhead's twinkling eyes had a knowing quality. She wasn't a tall woman, standing about the same height as Claire. She was lean but compact, yet had feminine curves and a quick smile with her canines a little longer than normal, even in human form. She added, “Don't make me open a window. The pheromones are getting a little thick in here.” The pair of jeans she threw at Alek hit him in the muzzle, causing him to blink and back up abruptly. “Those should fit if you shift and take a cold shower first so you can close the zipper.” She threw a shirt at him as well, to back him up a little farther from Claire.

With an effort, Claire looked away as Alek shifted. She could tell from the sounds that he was in human form. He scooped up the clothing and sprinted into the bedroom.

“And these are yours.” The healer tossed garments into a pile in front of Claire: a pair of soft flannel pants with a drawstring and a heavy sweater. Claire wasn't sure she still needed them. It seemed warmer in the room than it had a moment before. “The area is secure. And whatever your name is, I need to know right now if you're doing it intentionally. Remember that I'll know if you're lying.”

Feeling better than she had in days, Claire had already shifted to human form and started to dress by the time Amber's question registered. “Doing
what
?”

The healer looked bemused. “Yet another interesting…” She stepped over and lifted Claire's chin with one manicured finger. “I don't think you know yet.” A chuckle escaped her. “Never mind. I'll let you figure it out.”

“Figure what out?” What did the healer know? “You said you untangled the mess. Is that why I feel like myself again?”

The other woman pursed her lips and walked across the room to sit in a recliner. “Mostly. But let's cut the last tie and see what happens.”

A flare of magic hit Claire full in the chest, dropping her to her knees with a cry of pain. The healer didn't blink. It was the strongest burst of pure magic Claire had ever seen, and it took Amber no more effort than raising an eyebrow.