A Shift in the Water (10 page)

Katerina hadn’t stopped screaming for two days. When she couldn’t find the wolf down by the shore, she’d ordered Jeremy to search the entire island for him, but the boy had returned empty-handed. Katerina prayed in front of the hearth, but the Goddess refused to tell her where the wolf was. After nearly forty-eight hours of searching the island, talking to locals, and even sending a message to the sheriff, she entertained thoughts of giving up and going back to Arizona. At least in Phoenix, she’d be able to draw upon her element without all this cursed rain dampening her charms.

“I’m sorry, babe,” Jeremy said. He brought her a glass of wine and cowered across the room, braced to absorb some of her anger.

“I know,” she said. “But you’re the one who forgot to renew the charm on the earth. You let him get away. If you’d kept the charm active, he never would have been able to stand on the ground long enough to dig. You screwed up. And now you need to figure out how to fix it.” Katerina stormed out of the room and up to her bedroom on the second floor. She’d barely managed to keep her temper with the IRS agents and then to return to the coast and realize that Jeremy had let the wolf escape—it was too much. She didn’t think he could have found his way off of Orcas Island, but she had no way of knowing for sure. She couldn’t locate him using her charms. Only air elementals could send out locater charms. Bella had the ability to do so, but she was in Phoenix and unable to assist Katerina with her task from there. It was Thanksgiving tomorrow. Perhaps Bella could fly up for the weekend.

Katerina paced the small bedroom. Jeremy felt suitably guilty, and she hated that she was so angry she couldn’t manage to be nice to him. He wasn’t all that smart, but he was loyal and devoted to her. If only she hadn’t been called back to Phoenix. The wolf would be dead—or nearly so—and she would be planning her trip home.

She picked up the phone and called Bella.

“Hello?”

“I lost him,” Katerina said, dropping down onto the bed. “Jeremy let him get away and I can’t find him.”

“Ya searched everywhere?” Bella asked. Every once in a while, Katerina thought she detected a slight accent from the air elemental, but she’d never been able to pinpoint what it was. Something vaguely European, but it was so faint and transient, she was never sure.

“Jeremy hasn’t slept. He drove around the whole island at least a dozen times. The wolf fell into Puget Sound. The last I saw him, he was headed for shore, but other than a patch of blood on the sand, there’s been no sign of him. I need you to try to scent him.”

“I’ll never get a flight. It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow.”

Katerina stifled her grumble. She couldn’t be angry with Bella. The woman had done everything she’d asked of her the past seven months. Managing Flaming Objects was a full time job. Tending to the coven was less onerous, but still wasn’t easy. Fire elementals tended towards quick tempers and Bella was soft-spoken and timid. “I know. See if you can come out in the next few days? I can’t imagine he could have gotten on the ferry. No one would have let a wolf walk on the boat. We can keep searching the island until then.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Why do you put up with me?” Katerina asked. All of a sudden she was exhausted. The loss of the wolf, the failure of her revenge, weighed heavy on her shoulders.

“Because ya saved my life. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. I don’t know where I came from or what happened to me before I washed up on that beach. And I think if it had been anyone else who’d found me, I wouldn’t have had a chance. I love you, my fire-sister. If you want, I’ll get in the car right now and start driving.”

A hot tear gathered at the corner of Katerina’s eye. “No. Get a flight when you can. I’ll be okay. We’ll find him, kill him, and then life can get back to normal.”

The only sound in the house was the wolf’s ragged breathing. In his nightmares, he burned. The bad woman stood over him, wielding her fire, watching him scream with glee in her eyes. He whined, seeking comfort from Mara, but the bed was empty. Panic drove him to the floor, nearly falling as his still-weakened and aching muscles protested the sudden movement. He ran through the house, desperate. No Mara. Where did she go?
Mara! Mara!
He couldn’t speak . . . not in words . . . but his desperate vocalizations echoed throughout the house.

Thunk.
The lock on the garage door.
Mara
. He ran towards the sound.

She entered the house, carrying a bag over her shoulder. “Hey there, Bud.”

The wolf whined.
Not Bud
. That wasn’t his name. He didn’t know what his name was. He only knew it wasn’t Bud. At least she didn’t call him dog. The bad woman called him dog.

She dropped her bag on the floor and the wolf sniffed it. Scents of chlorine, sweat, and coconut wafted over him. He knew these scents, but he didn’t know how. The sickness that had clung to her the previous night had faded. Her hair was wet. He was so happy to see her. He wasn’t alone. She’d keep him safe.

“You didn’t even flinch when I touched you this morning.” Mara smiled at him and stroked his head. She filled a bowl with a mix of bison, beef, and blueberries and put it down on the floor at her feet while she cooked something for herself. Her food smelled okay, but not as good as the meat. He ate heartily. His strength was returning now that he was getting regular meals. He’d almost forgotten what it had been like to be cold, hungry, and in constant pain. Mara ate standing up at the counter. When she was done, she went into the living room and patted the couch next to her. The wolf hurried in and jumped up, lying down with his head in her lap.

Cool, comforting fingers scratched behind his ears. The storm inside him calmed. Not enough for him to shift. Never enough for that. The wolf snuggled closer to her, content with his full belly, comfortable bed, and sweet voice in his ear.

“I’m not sure I can swim much longer.” A deep sadness laced her tone. “I won’t even be able to drive in a few weeks. I don’t know what I’ll do . . . Goddess. I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” A tear tumbled down her cheek and landed on the wolf’s muzzle. “I wish I could stay here with you all day, but I’ve got to go out for about six hours. It’s Thanksgiving. I’ll be back, but I don’t know what to do with you. Do you think you can stay in the house the whole time?”

The wolf yipped at her.
Stay
. He didn’t want her to go. Mara stroked his head. “I feel better when I’m with you,” she said. “It’s almost like I’m not sick at all. It won’t last, I’m sure. But even if you give me an extra day, I’ll take it.” Tears gathered in her eyes again. The wolf nudged her hand and whined. “You can’t stay here forever, you know,” she whispered. “I’m going to die soon. I have to figure out what to do with you before that.”

The wolf pressed closer to her. He knew the word
die
.
Die
was bad. The rest was gibberish to him. He didn’t want her to die. He wanted her to stay with him. She smelled good. She was kind. She was his.

Mara let him outside for a bit while she showered and he chased birds. The action was instinctual, but it wasn’t him. Every hour, every day that passed, brought him closer to the truth. He wasn’t a wolf. He was a man. He remembered walking on two legs. Speaking in words. Wearing clothes. He remembered being around other people. People he cared about. He didn’t know how to get back there. Or where
there
was.

Mara smelled clean and fresh and hardly sick at all when she called him back inside. The wolf followed her when she gestured towards the bathroom. She ran a brush through his matted fur and poured pot after pot of warm water over his body. Every time she touched him, he felt better, stronger. When he shook the water from his fur, she laughed. “You look practically handsome now,” she said, and kissed the top of his wet head.

After she’d dried him off, he ran back to the living room and immediately lay on the couch where they’d sat earlier. He looked at her expectantly, but she shook her head. “I’ve got to go, Bud. But I’ll be back in a while. Please don’t destroy my house.”

When she left, the wolf jumped off of the couch and went into her bedroom. He curled up on her bed, right next to where she slept, and fell asleep.

Mara knocked on the bright red door of the house in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. It flew open and a pint-sized tornado of activity whirled towards her. “Aunt ‘Ara!” Adam and Lisa’s oldest daughter, Sarabeth, snared her in a tangle of arms and legs. She was only six and had called her ‘Ara for years. Mara wasn’t technically the kids’ aunt, but they didn’t know that. She loved it. She’d never have children, not now, so she spoiled the kids as much as she could.

“I brought you something,” Mara said quietly. She reached into her purse, withdrew a chocolate Santa, and handed it to Sarabeth. “Don’t tell your mom. And no eating this until after dinner, okay?”

“Okay!” Sarabeth grabbed the small chocolate from Mara’s pale fingers and ran back into the house. “Mom! Aunt ‘Ara brought me candy!”

Mara laughed.
Traitor
. Goddess, she was going to be sad to leave these kids.
No. No morbid thoughts today
. The house was warm and smelled like the holiday. Lisa basted the huge turkey, tossing a quick smile at Mara while she wrestled the bird back into the oven. Aunt Lillian sat on a stool at the kitchen counter, mincing some rosemary. To Lil’s left, the table was proudly dressed, filled with china, crystal, and silver. Blaring sounds of football completed the house’s transformation. Adam and Jen watched the Raiders and the Cowboys intently. A touchdown set Adam whopping and Jen falling to her knees in mock surrender.

“Hi, hon.” Lillian set down her knife and embraced her niece. She looked Mara in the eyes. “Not doing well today, are we?”

“No,” Mara whispered in her ear. She didn’t want the others to hear. “It’s kind of hard to muster much of a smile when you know you’re never going to have another Thanksgiving. But I swam this morning. It helped.”

Lillian wrapped an arm around Mara’s shoulders and guided her to one of the stools. “I wish you’d let me bring you to my friend Eleanor down in Cannon Beach. She’s still convinced she can help you.”

“I don’t believe in that stuff, Aunt Lil. Whatever Goddess is up there”—Mara gestured to the ceiling —“she’s given me a good life. I don’t want it to end, but I’m not about to pin false hopes on one of your crystal-wielding friends.”

“Leave her alone, Lil.” Jen handed Mara a glass of wine and scowled at the older woman. Jen was a high school science teacher. Like Adam, a veterinarian, she believed in modern medicine and modern medicine alone. “This is a day to relax and stuff our faces with food. Not browbeat Mara into some hooky backwoods malarkey.”

Mara stifled a laugh. Lillian had grown up in the backwoods of Tennessee, but she was anything but hooky. In fact, Lil was one of the calmest and most rational people Mara knew. That didn’t stop her from grasping at straws where her niece was concerned. Mara hid behind her wine glass while her aunt and her best friend glared at each other.

“I’m not letting her go without a fight,” Lillian spat. She went back to aggressively mincing the rosemary. 

Mara and Jen headed into the living room and Mara sank onto the sofa. She missed the wolf. Her fingers itched to stroke his fur. Now that he was clean, he smelled strong and powerful and woodsy. His pelt was soft and sleek where it wasn’t burned. How in the world had he ended up burned? There’d been fires on the island when she’d left. Had he been caught up in them? Some of the burns looked old. He’d been so sad when she’d left. She should have brought him. A bubble of laughter caught in her chest. Yeah, right. Like Aunt Lil and Lisa would accept a wolf in the house. Not with the kids. But he could have hung out in the backyard. She shook her head. Her wolf didn’t seem to like the outdoors much. Every time she let him back inside, he looked practically giddy.

“Mar, what’s on your mind?” Jen linked her arm with Mara’s.

“I sort of did something stupid,” she admitted.

“The wolf?” At Mara’s surprised expression, Jen jerked her head towards the corner of the room. “Adam told us. It’s really a wolf?”