Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) (30 page)

In a hail of congratulations and wishes for good luck, Henry roared off on his bike. I was glad he’d found something to do. I think most drunks would hesitate before mixing it up with a seven-foot-tall Troll with tusks and a Mohawk.

“I’m working on my thesis tonight,” Frank offered. “Oh, professor, by the way, I’m changing my thesis to
The Social Behavior of the Compsognathus
. I even have video to go with it.”

Korembi laughed and shook his head. “Sounds like a plan, mon. You be lookin’ at a whole new field of study—the behavior of live dinosaurs.”

The rest of us adjourned to the library after that. Gracie followed but she wasn’t saying much. For all of her tough Goth-girl demeanor, she reminded me more of Alice, lost down the rabbit hole.

Berto joined us with his medical kit. “I’m sorry Sharon, but I’m going to have to get this dressing off before I try the healing. I don’t want to heal anything into the wound.”

She took it very well, even though it obviously hurt when he eased the bandage off her shoulder. The bite mark was gruesome. If we didn’t have Berto, I’d think this woman belonged in a hospital. He crossed himself, kissed her forehead, and whispered a prayer. The golden glow flowed from his hands over her wound, the flesh healing and knitting together in his wake. He erased the other cuts and bruises, and held both hands over her heart. The glow turned silver, and Sharon’s eyes rolled back in her head. She went rigid and slid to the floor.

Berto followed, now praying out loud. “Dear Lord, please grant Your healing for this wounded woman. Heal her body and purge her of evil. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Sharon was enveloped in a blinding flash of blue light. When we could see again, Mikah was holding Berto, and Sharon was utterly limp on the floor.

“Juice,” Berto rasped out.

Kat ran to the kitchen and came back with two glasses of orange juice, complete with straws. Mikah helped Berto drink and Leo held Sharon up while I helped her.

“I thought you said this would be easy,” she croaked out.

“It would have been,” said Berto, “But you had been infected with lycanthropy. You would have turned into a werewolf at the full moon.”

She struggled to get away from us.

“Relax!” he ordered her. “I said you
had
been. You have it no longer. God is merciful, and you are cured. You will not turn. I think the healing was so hard, on both of us, because the full moon is so close. Had I not seen you until after the full moon, after you’d changed, I’m not sure I could have cured it at all.”

“Olivia,” she gritted out. “You said the silver told you I was clean.”

“Okay, I was guessing. It’s not like I have a degree in werewolf biology. Now we know that pre-Change werewolves can handle silver. Or maybe it doesn’t bother them at all in Human form. It’s not like I can ask Colby to stand still while I experiment on him.”

“Olivia, I swear you’ll be the death of me. And for years I thought that honor was going to go to Leo.”

He tried to look hurt. Not very successfully, I might add. “I feel disparaged,” he said.

“I don’t know about the rest of you,” I said, “but it’s been a long couple of days. I’m ready for bed. Will you stay over, Sharon?”

“Yes, I think I will. And not only because I don’t have my car.” She hugged me. “Thanks, Olivia. If you hadn’t gotten me out of the hospital when you did, my life would have been over.”

Kat said, “You go on up, Olivia. I’m going to talk to Gracie, and then I’ll be up after a bit, okay?”

“Sure thing. Do what you need to,” I told her.

Kat and Gracie went off toward the library while Leo escorted me up to my new room. Frank was already there. He had a laptop set up on a little side table and was typing away.

“I thought I’d keep watch,” he said. “I need to know you’ll sleep safe tonight.”

“I’m keeping watch,” said Leo. He turned to me, “I told you sis, I’m not sleeping until the bastard’s dead. Don’t lock your door and I’d prefer you keep your windows closed. You can call it a night, Frank.”

They looked at each other, and Leo looked like he was pretending with all his might that Frank didn’t tower over him by a good foot or so.

“Why don’t we both keep watch,” Frank suggested mildly. “With two people, we can check the deck and cover breaks.”

I shook my head. “You boys work things out. I’m going to bed.” I gave Leo a kiss on the cheek and Frank a much friendlier kiss on the lips, and then I went into my room and closed the double doors behind me.

There was a
thunk
, and the leather-bound case from Mister Kravitz dropped onto a side table. “Thanks, Grammy!”

I removed the dagger from the case and put it under my pillow. I wasn’t going to get caught without a weapon again.

I’m not sure how late it was when Kat finally joined me. She cuddled up against me, all warm and soft, and I immediately drifted back to sleep.

Raising the Stakes

I made it downstairs while there was still breakfast to be had. It turned out that Razaini was used to cooking for a moderate-sized crew. “Your kitchen sure beats some of the camp kitchens I’ve had to deal with out on digs.”

I was a little surprised to find Gracie already sitting in the dining room. “I hope you don’t mind, Olivia, but Kat said I could stay over last night.”

“It’s her house too, Gracie. She’s free to have guests whenever she wants,” I told her.

After breakfast, Sharon excused herself to make a phone call.

“I have to see a man about a dog,” said Leo, and then he went into one of the offices off the library and closed the door.

I was planning more research on colloidal silver when Gracie came up to me.

“Olivia, I know you’re busy, but could we talk privately?” she asked.

“Sure, okay.” I tried to not look actively hostile, but she was one of the last people I wanted to spend time with.

“Look, this isn’t easy,” she said.

“Whatever, Gracie. You’re the one that wanted to talk.”

“I’m sorry I tried to force Kat to choose between us. I was insecure and jealous, and I was wrong,” she gritted out.

That’s not what I’d expected from her.

“Um, I’m not sure what you want me to say, Gracie.” Now I felt all awkward. “You’re right, you shouldn’t have pushed Kat like that, but that’s kind of between you and her. I’m not sure why you feel insecure or jealous. Kat’s cared about you for a long time. She wouldn’t be with you if she didn’t love you.”

“When she asked about being with you before, I didn’t care. Honestly, you weren’t a threat. You were just some girl living off her sister and moping around with loser guys,” she said, with some venom.

“Gee, thanks. Way to hold back there, Gracie. How do you really feel?” When someone hits a little too close to the mark, sarcasm is my best and closest friend.

She ignored me and kept going. She’d obviously rehearsed this, and she wasn’t going to let something like another person’s input distract her. “Then this Change happens, and suddenly Kat acts like you hung the moon. Now you’re exotic and magical and sleeping with everyone, and she can’t get enough of you.”

“Gracie, this is my house too, so please, stop trying so hard to piss me off. I’m not known for my good humor on the best of days. And as far as the ‘sleeping with everyone’, that is rude, not true, and none of your fucking business. If this was supposed to be an apology, it needs some work. You’re welcome to wait for Kat to get home from work, but I have projects I need to get busy with.” I stalked out of the house and closed the heavy front door as firmly as I could.

I was determined to put the Gracie issue out of my mind. Right now I needed to work on my magic. If I wanted colloidal silver, I’d have to make my own.

I’d summoned water in the past, and I’d even shot a spray of vinegar at the cat. What I wanted to find out was whether I could shoot a spray of colloidal silver at a rampaging werewolf. I knew from the hammer I summoned the other night that such items didn’t last, but they were wickedly effective until their magical essence faded away.

I taped together a couple of archery targets and drew a rough werewolf shape on them, centering it so the bull’s-eye was near the heart, or at least where I figured the heart would be. I hung it on the side of the house and moved to the far side of the driveway for target practice. At first I just got water, but finally I started to see a greyish tinge appear on the white of the target. I was working on accuracy when a patrol car pulled up at the end of the driveway.

I sighed and hit the gate controls. I didn’t know the driver, but the passenger was Lieutenant Clark. They parked and got out. The lieutenant went over to my target for a closer look.

He finally looked at me. “What are you doing, Ms. Mitchell?”

“Target practice,” I answered.

“With what? Your target is soggy—nice werewolf, by the way—and you don’t even have a squirt gun.”

“I’m trying to shoot colloidal silver. Want to watch?”

“Certainly.”

I went back to my spot, and focused my will at the target. Nothing existed but my will and my focus. The stream of fluid finally hit it dead center, and the poor paper target gave up—falling to the ground in a sodden mass. I blew on my fingertip. “Not bad.”

He looked at me appraisingly, but didn’t say a word about the magic. “Officer Curtis called. It concerns you, so if you could come inside also, I would appreciate it.”

“Sure. I need to build another target anyway.”

I led them into the house. “Sharon, you have company!” I yelled.

“We’re in the library,” she called back.

Gracie sat at the far side of the room, reading something over at the gaming table. I did my level best to pretend she didn’t exist.

Sharon and Leo were both waiting in the library near the door. “Let me show you something first,” she said to the lieutenant, “before we talk.”

He nodded.

She pulled at the neck of her shirt, exposing the uninjured shoulder that had been a torn mess the day before. “I know Olivia was a little abrasive at the hospital yesterday, but she had her reasons. She got healing for me, and she got me cured so that I wouldn’t turn at the full moon.”

Lieutenant Clark glared at me. “I thought you said she wasn’t infected in the first place.”

“I may have been overstating my knowledge of werewolf physiology. I wanted her to be healed, and we didn’t dare risk my friend back in the hospital. If they’d seen him healing someone again, I don’t think we could have gotten him out of there.”

“Why didn’t you say that instead of threatening to cause a media shit-storm?” He demanded.

“You wouldn’t talk to me. You wouldn’t let me see Sharon. You were being an overbearing d…jerk, and I didn’t feel like discussing it.”

Sharon jumped in. “Olivia needs to work on her tact, but she meant well. If she hadn’t brought me here before the full moon, they probably couldn’t have healed me at all. She was right, though. You wouldn’t have listened to her.” Then she turned to me. “You still need to show a little respect, Olivia. What would your dad have said if he’d seen you talking to Lieutenant Clark like that?”

I crossed my arms. “I’m sorry I was rude.”

“I’m sorry you thought I wouldn’t listen,” he offered.

He didn’t sound any more sincere than I did, but at least we were making the effort.

“That’s a good start,” said Sharon. “We need to work together on this. They may look like the Scooby Gang, lieutenant, but they’re quite a team when they get going.”

“I appreciate that, but we still can’t have vigilantes running around.”

Sharon said, “With all due respect, sir, we don’t have anything that can take down a werewolf. I think silver and magic are our best hope right now. I agree that vigilantes are dangerous. I would like to request leave for the next few days, for now, to provide backup and to be the liaison with the force if they can subdue the werewolf.”

“I’ll agree to leave through the end of the week. If it hasn’t been apprehended by then, let’s talk. I do expect the formal paperwork on my desk.”

“Of course, lieutenant. Thank you.”

They went out front to talk privately for a bit, and I tried to see what Leo was doing on the computer. As soon as I got close enough, though, he powered off the monitor. “What are you doing, Leo, surfing porn?”

He actually turned red. “In a manner of speaking, yes. Remember I told the cops I saw pictures of you on Colby’s laptop?”

I didn’t like where he was going with this. “Yeah.”

“He took a lot of pictures of you, sis. Sometimes sleeping, sometimes not. You were naked in all of them, and you were, um, being used by him in a lot of them. He posted them online and shared them on various websites.”

I dropped heavily into a chair. I felt like I was going to be sick.

“I have this friend that’s good with computers. He’s looking into the problem. He’s had some success removing pictures and videos from websites in the past, but when something goes online, you can never get all of it. I’m sorry. I wanted to be able to tell you we erased all of them, but it’s not possible.”

My skin crawled at the thought of horny strangers staring at my pictures. Colby had emailed some pictures he’d taken in the act. Those were bad enough. I couldn’t imagine what he took and didn’t show me. I leapt up and ran for the bathroom, making it just in time. I was sick until there was nothing left, and still couldn’t stop heaving. Sharon came in at some point. She put a cool, wet cloth on the back of my neck and had me sip some cold water.

“I’m so sorry, Olivia. Leo told me.”

“I’m the one that let him use me. I guess I got what I deserved.”

“Olivia! Nobody deserves what he did. Even if you consented to sex with him, you didn’t consent to his sharing pictures with the world, did you?”

“No. I didn’t like the pictures, but I didn’t want to make him angry. I told him I didn’t want pictures, but he said they were just for him, and I didn’t fight.”

I was feeling small again, and I didn’t want to go back to that place. “I’m going to take a shower and maybe catch a nap. You guys eat lunch without me. I’ll be down later, okay?”