CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The commander questioned Misty for a long time before he finally let her go. Diego and Xav had stood by her, the only ones allowed to stay with her, because they were human.
Misty, Diego, and Xav had come up with the story that the cubs had tried to run away—somewhat true—and Misty had gone after them, worried they’d get hurt. They’d led her out into the desert, where they’d all gotten lost. They’d found a cave to stay out of the sun, and there Matt had gotten hurt.
Why hadn’t she called anyone? the commander asked. Her cell phone hadn’t worked out there, Misty said. How did they survive? She’d brought plenty of water with her and snacks, knowing that Kyle and Matt, as wolves, liked to run off as far as they could. They’d been used to living half-wild up in Elko, and didn’t understand they couldn’t do that here. They were just little kids, weren’t they? So everyone should cut them a break. How did she get back? Walked to the road and hitchhiked in. She’d been bringing the cubs, Matt hurt, back to Shiftertown when the soldiers had spotted her.
Xav and Diego confirmed everything she said.
Xav walked away with her to look for Ben while Diego stayed with the commander. The soldiers, who’d been sent by the Shifter Bureau, weren’t leaving, it seemed. Someone had called in an anonymous tip this morning, Xav told her, that not all Shifters’ Collars were working. Eric was being questioned about that now, surrounded by the soldiers. Xav had no idea who’d called in the tip, but Misty had a bad feeling about it.
Oison had vanished from the cave before Graham, Misty, Dougal, and the cubs had fled. Had Oison stirred up trouble with the human government as part of his efforts to control Shifters? Graham in particular? Oison had disappeared not long before they’d run out of the cave, but if time moved differently in Faerie, as Diego had told her, maybe Oison had emerged hours before they did.
Xav queried other Shifters as they went about Ben and the cubs—Lindsay said she’d seen a weird guy with both cubs headed for Graham’s. She’d wanted to follow and make sure all was well, but the soldiers had pulled her aside to speak to her. Lindsay looked worried, not her usual laughing self. She put her hand on Xav’s arm as she answered, and what was in her eyes told Misty that maybe she’d reconsidered pushing Xav away.
Misty thanked her and hurried away, pretending not to notice Xav lingering to stay with Lindsay.
As she approached Graham’s house, Misty heard yelling. A woman on Graham’s front walk was loudly telling three soldiers what they could do with themselves as they surrounded her and tried to cuff her.
Misty recognized Jan, the Lupine woman who’d attacked Misty after she’d spent the night with Graham. Jan’s blustering was to cover her fear, Misty realized. Misty remembered that Jan’s Collar hadn’t gone off when she’d gone for Misty—perhaps she was one of the Shifters whose Collars didn’t work right. If the humans discovered Jan wore a Collar that didn’t stop her from violence, what would they do? Fit her with a new one? Cage her? Or worse?
Misty sped her steps to take her into the path of the soldiers and Jan. Jan saw Misty, and fury entered her eyes along with the fear.
“Come to gloat?” Jan demanded.
“Where are you taking her?” Misty asked the soldiers, ignoring Jan.
“To have her Collar tested,” he said. “All Shifters are. Orders.”
“Huh.” Misty put her hands on her hips and gave Jan a disgusted look. “You don’t have to test that one. It’s real, all right.”
“Why do you say that, ma’am?” the soldier asked, trying not to look irritated.
“Because I got into a fight with her the other day,” Misty said. “She’s jealous as hell. Her Collar started crackling before she even got in a punch at me. I smacked her a good one, and she ran off. Believe me, the Collar worked. The sparks got me—they stung.”
Jan kept struggling. “Bitch,” she yelled at Misty.
“See?” Misty said, wrinkling her nose. “She doesn’t like me much. Thinks I stole her Shifter.”
The soldier looked Misty up and down, his gaze lingering on the skin bared by her sleeveless top and shorts. “Why would you go out with one of them?” he asked. “Ma’am.”
“For the sex.” Misty smiled at him. “Try it sometime.”
One of the other soldiers laughed. “She’s not wrong.”
The soldier holding Jan released her and stepped back. “How about we go after some of the more docile ones?” he asked his colleagues. “This is going to take forever as it is.”
As soon as Jan found herself free, she took off, running in her long-legged stride. The first man gave Misty another once-over. “You get tired of Shifters, come and find me. I’m at the Shifter Bureau attached to the air base.”
Misty only smiled at him and walked away. She heard the other soldiers’ voices as they tramped on. “You don’t have a shot with her,” one said, laughing, “especially once she’s been with a Shifter. Tell you what, I’ll take you to this bar called Coolers. There are some hot Shifter women there.”
Misty drew a ragged breath, feeling sick to her stomach, then hurried out of the heat up to the cool shade of Graham’s front porch.
Jan stepped out of the shadows of the porch’s corner. “Why did you do that?”
Misty stifled a shriek and pressed her hand to her chest. “Crap, don’t do that. How’d you get here before I did?”
“I’m Shifter. I ran. Now, why did you help me?”
“So they wouldn’t test your Collar.” Misty leaned to her and lowered her voice. “It doesn’t work right, does it?”
Jan’s nostrils flared. “I’d think you’d want me to be caught. To be locked up, or executed.”
“Why would I? I didn’t like you wanting to beat me up, but sheesh. Killing you? That’s just wrong.”
Jan stared at Misty a moment longer then she inhaled. She let the breath out and looked thoughtful. “You aren’t lying.”
“No. I’m not.” Misty chewed on her lower lip. “Are there other Shifters whose Collars don’t work?”
Jan nodded. “Some. Eric has them safe. I waited too long to go to ground, and they caught me.” She paused, her gray eyes moving as emotions went through her. “Thank you.”
Misty gave her a nod. “You’re welcome.”
Jan dropped her gaze. “Yeah, well. I better go.”
“Yeah, you’d better. Stay safe.”
Jan glanced around at the empty street then drew a breath. “The blessing of the Goddess go with you.” She said it quickly, in one go, then she turned, jumped from the porch, and loped away.
“Wow,” Misty said softly. “That was . . . Hmm.” She pushed open the door and entered Graham’s house.
She paused inside the front door, an ache in her heart. The house felt so empty without Graham in it. He filled every space of it—the house knew Graham’s laughter, his bellowing voice, his swearing, the way he thundered up and down the stairs and banged around in the kitchen. In that kitchen, he’d made love to Misty, rendering her complete for the first time in her life.
Misty walked into the kitchen and stopped. Ben sat at the kitchen table, a bottle of beer in front of him, Kyle and Matt sitting on either side. Both cubs were in human form, dressed in sweats and T-shirts, and shoveling down ice cream. They were even using spoons.
Ben looked up at her and grinned. Kyle said, with his mouth full, “Hi, Aunt Misty.” Matt continued to eat, as though he’d never get enough.
“What . . . ?” Misty came into the room, moving faster with every step until she leaned down and buried the startled Matt in a big hug. “You’re all right.” Tears wet her cheeks.
“He was knocked around and bruised up,” Ben said. “No permanent damage. I took them to Andrea. She did her mojo.”
Misty released Matt, who grinned at her, and collapsed onto an empty kitchen chair. “Andrea’s still here?”
“Her, Sean, and their cub. But safely hidden away. Andrea was glad to help heal the cubs, though she said Matt wasn’t too badly hurt.”
“Thank God,” Misty said, heartfelt. “And the Goddess too, I guess. Do you know Andrea?”
“You should ask—did she know me? Answer, no. Not until I introduced myself. But I know who she is. I keep tabs on Shifters.”
“Do you really?” Misty looked him over. Ben, as before, had an innocuous look, despite his ex-con appearance. If he really was an ex-con. “You’ve been to prison, have you?”
“Oh, yeah. I just didn’t say whose prison it was.”
“And that means . . . what?”
Ben looked thoughtful. “The Fae put me in prison for a while. They talked about horrible ways to execute me, then they decided banishment would be even better.”
“Really? If Oison is typical, I can’t believe they thought letting you go was satisfying.”
“Well.” Ben folded his hands around the bottle of beer on the table. “They didn’t just banish me from Faerie. They banished my entire race. Walked us out into the harsh human wilderness, locked the gates and made sure they never opened for us again. Half of us died the first year. How do you think I feel, knowing that?” Something dark flashed in his eyes, endless pain that Misty guessed never went away.
“What did you do? To get put in prison, I mean?”
Ben shrugged, masking the anguished look. “I killed one of their emperors. I killed him because he was running a war that was slaughtering my people, whole clans at a time. I snuck into the emperor’s tent, pretending I was a pathetic sex addict who wanted the joy of an emperor doing me. The emperor’s ego loved that. He got all his guards to leave us alone, and then . . .” Ben sliced his finger across his throat. “I knew I’d never get away, and I was captured, but I didn’t care. Worth it. When an emperor dies, the High Fae clans fight each other to the last man to see who controls the next one, but in a rare case of Fae agreement, all the clans decided to banish me and my people.”
And half had died in the first year. Misty’s heart squeezed. “Ben, I’m so sorry.”
Ben shrugged, the flash of pain there and gone again. “Even so, more of us survived because that emperor was dead, and the Fae couldn’t use us anymore. We never thrived again, but we’re still around. We’ve been helping humans and Shifters survive encounters with the Fae for nine hundred years now.”
“And what are you?” Misty asked. “If you’re not Fae.”
“Human mythology calls us goblins, hobgoblins, or gnomes. We were pretty ugly in Faerie.” He grinned. “Or beautiful, depending on your point of view. We learned how to look like humans since we came out of Faerie, changing our appearance every so often so we blend in with whatever fashion of whatever century.”
“Gnomes,” Misty mused. “Like the little plastic men with pointy hats people put in their front yards?”
Ben laughed uproariously. Then his laughter died in an instant, and he said, “No.”
“I was joking. I’ve barely gotten used to Shifters—it will take me a while to process this.”
“Take your time. I’ll be around.”
Misty folded her arms on the table. “So, why don’t you look like a successful businessman or a rich man of leisure? If you can look like what you want?”
“I can almost resemble any kind of human I want. But I look like what I truly am—a man who did a crime and paid for it. I’m never going to pretend it didn’t happen. I sacrificed a lot of people with my stunt, and it wasn’t their choice.”
Misty went silent a moment. The twins were listening, in spite of continuing to scoop globs of ice cream into their mouths.
“What do I do now?” she asked after a time. “How do I find Graham? Is he even alive?”
Ben drained the beer bottle and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. “You still have your book?”
Misty touched it in her back pocket. “Yes.”
“Look in that.” Ben stood up, carried the empty beer bottle to the recycle bin and tossed it in. “And take those two with you when you go. You’ll need them.”
“Why?” Misty got to her feet. “Safer to leave them here with Eric or Xav, isn’t it? Or whoever isn’t being hassled by the Shifter Bureau.”
Ben shook his head. “You’ll need the cubs. They’re very special Shifters. Take care of them.” He started for the back door.
“Where are you going?” Misty asked in panic. “Stay and help me.”
“Can’t. You’ll be fine. You have your guards there.” He nodded at the twins, who were watching him, round-eyed. “There are other people out in the world being hassled by Fae. I need to save them too. You have my number if you need me again.”
He pointed both forefingers at Misty, walked out the back door, slammed it, and headed down the porch steps. There was a flash of sunshine, and he was gone.
“Great.” Misty felt despair settle over her. “On my own again.”
“We’re with you, Aunt Misty,” Matt said. “You saved me. Now we’ll save you.”
They were adorable, both of them. Misty fetched a spoon and the last carton of ice cream in the freezer and sat down at the table with them. As the three of them reached with spoons for the chocolate marshmallow ripple, Misty opened the book. “All right, I’ll look through it. Again.”
Not until most of the carton was gone did Misty stop on a page. She pressed her hand to it, her heart beating faster. The spell read, How to Find Your Lost Love.