Wolf Hills (19 page)

“And a child of the woods,” Leonora finished, drawing closer. “At least in part.”

“I believe she is part wolf, but only a small part,” Jason added as they both turned to look at Sally. She felt a bit like a bug under a microscope. “She can make things grow and I think she sees magical marks. We were hoping you could help shed some light on the nature of her magic.”

Leonora giggled. It was a charming sound. Like petals on the wind.

“That’s easy,” the nymph stated. “Nature
is
her magic. The trees agree. She has a touch of my kind of magic in her, but there are ways to tell how she came by it if you wish to delve deeper.”

“Will it hurt?” Sally found herself asking. She didn’t know anything about magic. Not really. The thought of anything other than what she did with plants frightened the bejeezus out of her.

Again came the tinkling laugh. “No, my dear. It will not hurt. It won’t even require any special preparation. Simply give me your hand and I can call forth your family tree.”

Sally looked at Jason, wondering if she should. His encouraging nod decided her. She held out her hand and the nymph touched it. Leonora’s hands were warm and dry, full of energy and light. The light reached out to meet her and Sally felt the little spark when their energies met. A spark of recognition, if she wasn’t much mistaken. Then again, she didn’t know enough about this magic stuff to really know what was happening.

“Watch now,” Leonora said softly as between them, a magical, mystical, glimmering sapling rose out of the ground.

It disturbed no earth and it was transparent, though it glowed with life. It had a very specific sequence of branches and as Sally watched, she recognized that each branch terminated in a different member of her extended family. People she’d never known. People she’d always wondered about.

And there, at the top, was her own energy. And it was connected to…

“I have a sister?”

Chapter Nine

“And several cousins you really need to meet. Some of them have rather intriguing abilities. Mostly untapped.” Leonora frowned. “That can’t be allowed to continue. The forest needs them.” She continued tracing downward, following the trunk down to the roots of the tree. “Ah. It is as I suspected. Welcome, granddaughter. I’ve wanted to meet you—or someone like you—for a very long time.”

“You’re my…” Sally trailed off, not really sure what was going on. She’d never had family. Not real family, related by blood. She wanted to study the tree and learn all its secrets.

“Great, great, great, great…” Leonora ticked off the rows of branches part way down the glowing tree, then gave up. “Well, you get the idea. It’s just easier to say I’m your granny.” Leonora stood back to look at Sally, giving her the once over, her eyes glowing with unshed tears as she squeezed Sally’s hand. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Sally.”

“Me too,” Sally whispered, nearly overcome with the idea that she had a real live blood relative. At last. Maybe Leonora could explain a bit about where Sally had come from.

Leonora let go of her hand and the tree began to disappear. Sally panicked for a split second. She hadn’t had nearly enough time to study it.

“Will I ever see the tree again?” Sally asked. Even she could hear the tone of desperation in her voice, but she didn’t care.

“Of course, dear. Now that you know the way, you’ll be able to call it to you at will. It is
your
tree, after all. The one you will nurture and help grow when the time is right.” Leonora sent a speculative look toward Jason and Sally felt the heat of a blush stain her cheeks.

Somehow the nymph—make that Granny Leonora—either knew or had guessed that Sally and Jason were getting it on. Sally’s reaction only confirmed any suspicions she might’ve had. Busted.

Reassured that she could study the tree again later, Sally felt a little better about watching it fade back into the earth. She wasn’t all that sure about adding to it. That would mean having kids, and she’d never really contemplated how that would work with her lifestyle.

“How did this happen?” Jason asked as the nymph began leading them through her forest, toward a small clearing.

“The old-fashioned way, of course. Many, many years ago, I fell in love with a human. He was a woodcutter, of all things. After he met me, he found a new profession, of course, but we were married and had a daughter named Marisol who married a werewolf. That is the line from which you branch, Sally.” Her grandmother sent her a beatific smile. “Her werewolf took her away to live with his Pack and they were happy for many, many human lifetimes. She returned home exactly once, when we buried her father. My magic had been able to sustain him far beyond a normal human lifetime, but all mortals eventually fade from this world, into the next.” Leonora looked so sad for the loss of her love, Sally reached out to her, touching her hand as they walked.

Leonora took it and they walked hand in hand into the clearing. It was a grassy glade dotted here and there with a riot of blooming wildflowers, all bobbing their heads as the nymph passed as if in greeting. To one side was a house of sorts, made entirely of the twining roots and branches of trees, as if the saplings had decided to braid themselves together to protect the one who would live within and beneath their sighing branches.

It was absolutely stunning. Beautiful. Breathtaking.

“This is amazing,” Sally whispered as they stepped inside the inverted V-shaped opening. As they entered the dwelling, the tree branches shifted around to close off the door. Sally felt no malice in the trees. They were simply keeping the forest creatures out and the heat in for the comfort of their friend, Leonora. Sally thanked them for their protection and they seemed to recognize her, a few leaves shaking as she passed.

“They like you too,” Leonora said with a smile as she led them to a comfortable couch along one wall.

The place was much larger than it looked from outside. And contrary to what Sally had expected, Leonora had a few of the conveniences of modern life in her dwelling. The couch was supported by springy, living tree limbs that had shaped themselves out of the wall to hold lovely, upholstered cushions in shades of green and brown velvet.

A pool gurgled somewhere in the back of the home and Sally caught a glimpse of steam coming from a small pond that was partially hidden behind a screen of young saplings. It was a natural hot spring. Sally guessed that was both the bathing area and the source of moist heat in the home. Another trickle of water flowed downward from a channel made of tree branches into a small, waist high basin that probably served as a sink. It was ingenious.

Leonora motioned for them to be seated on the couch and she took up a chair that was to one side of the couch, also created from the living trees themselves. The walls of the home had an irregular shape with many nooks and crannies like this alcove with the seating area. For all intents and purposes, they were in the living room, but it was like no other living room Sally had ever seen. It took her breath away.

“I am so glad to finally meet one of my grandchildren,” Leonora began, her gaze focused on Sally with genuine affection. “Tell me all about yourself.”

Normally reticent with strangers, Sally felt comfortable with Leonora in a way she never had been before. It made her chatty, but then, she had just met a blood relative and seen for herself, through the magic of the tree, that she wasn’t alone. She had family. And now she had a way to find them. A clue about who they were and where.

“I’m a detective. I live in San Francisco. Until a couple of days ago, I didn’t know anything about magic, or the fact that one of my best friends had married a vampire. Werewolves were a complete surprise to me.” She looked over at Jason with a rueful smile.

“I bet.” Leonora seemed delighted, clasping her hands together in front of her heart as she listened eagerly. “Have you always been able to speak to the trees?”

“Since I was a child, but city trees are mostly drowned out by the noise of so many people living together in one place. I grew up in foster homes. I began to realize my way with plants was more than a little unusual when I was about seven or eight. The teasing from the other foster kids protected me in a way. It made me hide my abilities, which was probably the right thing to do at that time. Until this morning, nobody had ever seen the way I could coax things to grow.”

“You caught her at it?” Leonora sent Jason a knowing grin.

“Red-handed,” he confirmed. “Or maybe that should be green-thumbed,” he joked softly, putting his arm along the back of the couch cushion, around her shoulders.

“What were you growing? I felt a little tug on the earth energy, but there’s such an abundance here, and the feel of your power is so close to my own, I couldn’t really trace it.”

“I bought some seeds yesterday,” Sally answered, almost afraid she was going to get into trouble for using her skill in such a selfish way. “I grew a night-blooming garden for my friend Carly, as a gift. She only became a vampire recently and I could tell she missed flowers. She used to love my gardens back home.”

Leonora’s smile reassured her. “A beautiful gesture for a true friend. I’m sure she will love it.”

“The thing is, I’ve never really been in forest this dense.” Sally gestured to the saplings surrounding them and the wild woodland beyond. “The trees here are really amazing. They helped me find those hunters yesterday,” she admitted, looking at Jason.

“Hunters?” Leonora seemed interested.

“Hunting a teenaged wolf in human form. They shot her before we could get there, but she’ll be okay. Sally led the hunters off the scent and managed to capture the two who had fired bullets at both Colleen and Sally.” His hand dropped to her shoulder and rubbed in light, comforting circles.

“Where?” Leonora looked incensed.

“Up on Yellowtail Ridge.”

Leonora sent a wave of communication that Sally could feel but not hear, through the trees of her home and out into the surrounding forest. It flew toward the site of yesterday’s events and back again with lightning speed. This woman had a lot more power and control over it than Sally had, that was for sure.

“I see,” Leonora said, her eyes focused beyond the living room. Sally got the feeling the trees were relating the scene for her in vivid detail. “The four who were two are four once more, but they rest for now.”

“So I take that to mean the two we had arrested made bail and are back with their buddies?” Sally asked, just to be clear.

“Yeah. That’s what it sounds like.” Jason squeezed her shoulder. “I had someone keeping an eye on the police station. They’ll stay on the scent.”

“It’s not safe—” Sally began, but Jason forestalled her words.

“These are adult wolves, trained in ways you couldn’t even begin to imagine. Soldiers. Special operators, if you will. The ninjas of the werewolf world. If they can’t handle four humans with lousy aim, then nobody can.”

Sally hadn’t known Jason had those kinds of people in his Pack. There was lots to learn about this new world she’d discovered.

“Now, about the wolf in Sally’s ancestry. Do you know who he was?” Jason asked Leonora with keen interest. Sally wasn’t sure why it mattered so much to him, but she was interested in hearing more about her ancestors too.

“Certainly. My daughter Marisol was caught and wooed by Ranulf, son of Rothgar the Great and Neveril the Mighty.” Leonora sniffed. “Neveril was nice enough, but her mate was an overbearing lout. I had to teach him to respect my power before he would deign to speak with me. That all changed when we allied to fight Elspeth. That’s when he really earned his moniker. He united all the wolf Packs and led them into battle. That’s what made him great. In his youth, he was a bit of a hothead and didn’t respect women until he met Neveril. She changed him for the better, I always thought.”

Jason looked at Sally with wide eyes. “You’re descended from two of the greatest wolves of all time, Sally. We teach our pups stories about Rothgar and Neveril. Wow.”

“Yes, well.” Leonora seemed unimpressed. “Their son Ranulf was a jerk, if you’ll forgive me for being so blunt. He was truly mated to my Marisol, but he fought against it. He didn’t want a non-wolf. He didn’t want a non-shifter. He especially didn’t want a half-human hybrid nymph. But fate is fate. And Marisol was his as he was hers. More’s the pity. Their children couldn’t shift and Ranulf hated that. He kept Marisol away from me and tried to raise his children among wolves who belittled them because they couldn’t shift. I think he thought if he beat it into their heads enough, somehow their magic would turn them into wolves. For they were magical. Very magical. But he refused to see it. He wanted wolf pups and he hated me for denying him that honor.” Leonora looked bitter. “After her father died, I never saw my Marisol again. And then there was the war with Elspeth and the
Venifucus
. She died honorably, alongside her mate, fighting them. I thought their children had all perished beside them, but now I know at least one survived.”

“My ancestor, right?” Sally asked hopefully.

“Yes, dear. Their son Rolf. I don’t know about the others because they’re not on your tree, but I have hope now, after meeting you, that more of Marisol’s children might have survived.” Leonora’s face glowed with joy. “And here you are, a beautiful acknowledgment of my daughter’s life. You look a little like her around the eyes.”