Alpha Bear (18 page)

“So you figured you’d come up here and stick
your nose in? Fey can’t resist large quantities of magic and all
that?” John sneered, trying to draw a reaction from the guy, but he
wasn’t playing. So far, so good.

“Actually, I’m friendly with the Master of
Napa Valley and the Redstone Clan. I was consulting with them on
their little
Venifucus
problem a while back and decided to
stick around for a while. California is a lovely place, and the
wine Atticus brews is tasty.” Cameron smiled. “Marc LaTour—the
Master I mentioned—consulted with your friend, Hiram, and learned
about the critter problem you have up here. But that still wasn’t
enough to get me to pop in. I don’t just show up. It was your lady
who tipped the scales. Her prayer allowed me to travel here to
render assistance, but you already had things well in hand, so I
decided to retreat to your backyard and wait to introduce myself,
as is only proper.”

Now that made John think. Cameron certainly
seemed to know the right people.

John let out a whistle from between his
teeth. It was a low sound, pitched just right to signal one of his
team in particular. A moment later, Zak melted from the shadows at
John’s elbow. To his credit, Cameron didn’t flinch.

“Zak, would you mind calling your vampire
friend and checking this guy’s story?” John asked Zak, holding
Cameron’s gaze.

“My pleasure, Alpha.” Zak stepped a pace or
two away and hit speed dial.

Hiram, the Master vampire of the Seattle
area, was a new ally and silent partner in Zak’s new business
venture. Zak had saved the vampire’s life when the leviathan had
eaten Hiram’s yacht for dinner and the bloody, half-dead vampire
washed up on shore. Since then, they’d struck up a friendship, and
Hiram had become a trusted ally of the Clan.

John watched Cameron as Zak spoke to Hiram.
Although it was still afternoon, John knew that some of the really
old vamps could move around indoors, though they were usually
sluggish.

Hiram was truly ancient. John had tried to
discreetly trace Hiram’s origins back through the years but had hit
a dead end sometime around the middle ages. Hiram was even older
than that though, John thought.

Zak hung up after a few more words and nodded
at John.

“Hiram confirms his story,”

“Well, that’s one point in your favor,” John
said.

“Oh, come
on
, John. Can’t you see he’s
one of the good guys?” Ursula’s exasperated voice came to him from
the deck.

“I thought I asked you to stay inside,” he
said quietly, shaking his head. He wasn’t mad though. Actually, he
was surprised she’d stayed inside this long.

“‘Tis all right, lass. Your Alpha carries a
great weight of responsibility for his people. He has to be sure,”
the fey said, surprising John.

“Well, sir knight,
I’m
sure about you.
Thank you for coming to my aid, even if it turned out to be
unnecessary at that time. I could use some advice on how to handle
my next two planned encounters with the leviathan, if you’re
willing to discuss it.”

“It would be my honor, and please, call me
Cam.” He winked at her, and John felt a twist in his gut. Why was
that sly old fey winking at his girl?

“Cam, it is. And I’m Urse.” She smiled at the
fey, and John felt his hackles rise. This was getting out of
hand.

The bear urged him to take control of the
situation, preferably by planting a fist in Cam’s smiling mug.
Luckily, John’s human side was in charge right now, though he was
sorely tempted to follow the bear’s instincts. Still, if this guy
could be an ally in the fight against the leviathan and help keep
Ursula safe, then John had to be cautious about offending the guy.
Dammit.

“Might as well join us on the deck,” John
invited none too graciously. “Zak, gather the guys and set a
perimeter watch. Two-minute check-ins. I don’t want anybody else
being lured by that sea monster. Ask Brody and Tom to join us on
the deck asap.”

“Roger that,” Zak said shortly, fading into
the trees and reaching for the radio attached to his collar.

John escorted the fey up the couple of steps
to the deck. There was a table and chairs there, beside the covered
grill. Ursula sat first, followed by the fey as John watched, and
then, finally, John took a seat. There were two empty seats between
Ursula and Cameron for Brody and Tom, when they got there. That
way, there would be two trusted bears between her and the fey on
one side, and John on the other. His bear growled in approval.

Ursula had already launched into a discussion
of magic with the fey that had John a little lost, but it didn’t
matter. She understood what Cam was saying, and that was enough. If
it would help protect her tomorrow, so much the better.

Brody and Tom arrived together, coming in
from the woods. They each stopped to greet Cam, shaking hands with
the fey, who stood to greet them, before everyone sat down
again.

“I’ve heard about this town, you know,” Cam
said, surprising them all. “One of the Redstones mentioned the
experiment you were undertaking up here, and he speculated on
whether or not a bunch of bears could make a go of living together
in one place. The cats have a hard enough time of it, apparently.”
Cam chuckled, but John heard the hint of a question in his
words.

“We’re making it work,” he said
noncommittally.

“Redstones are mostly cougars, right?” Brody
asked. “I crossed paths with Steve Redstone early on in my military
career.”

“The Redstone family itself is cougar,” Cam
confirmed. “But their Clan, as I’m sure you know, encompasses many
other species. They have a number of wolf Packs under their
umbrella as well as more than a few solitary bears and entire
fighting wings of raptors. They all come under the Clan banner and
work for the Redstone Construction company. I thought maybe they’d
done some work for you up here in building the town.”

John wasn’t giving out information here. He
didn’t really know this guy, though he was willing to give him the
benefit of the doubt for now. Still, Cam wasn’t going to be
learning much from them tonight. No, the information flow would
have to be going the other way for now. Until they were sure about
him.

“We do a lot of our own work,” Tom said,
politely ending that line of conversation. Tom was the town lawyer
and even more cautious in his words than John.

Cam merely nodded and moved on. “As to your
leviathan problem…how do you actually know it is a leviathan, and
not some other beastie from the deep?”

“My Nonna has connections,” Ursula
volunteered. “The
strega
in Italy have been talking about
the return of the leviathan for months now. And recently, some have
been talking about the return of the Destroyer as if it has already
happened.”

Cam’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “I
pray they’re wrong,” he said. “I fought that she devil once
before.” If possible, his expression grew even more troubled. “It
wasna easy to banish her the first time. Many good people were
killed in the effort. Believe me when I tell you, nobody wants to
go through that again.”

“We believe it,” Tom said quietly.

“But if
strega
have seen it…” Cam’s
head shook. “Well, that’s not good. Most
strega
are on our
side. Those left in the old country are aligned with the church
there—however they work that with their conflicting beliefs—and the
side of Light.”

“The beliefs aren’t as conflicting as you
might think,” Ursula said with a small smile. “Nonna makes it work,
and she raised us as Catholics too.”

“Wait a minute.” Cam spread his hands on the
table. “You’re
strega
?”

“Well, yeah,” Ursula said, her eyebrows
raised as she shrugged. “Nonna taught us everything she knew when
she realized we had magic too.”

“We?” Cam asked.

“Me and my sister,” Ursula answered,
innocently revealing way too much to this stranger.

John cursed under his breath. If the fey was
playing a game with them, he’d just learned there were not one but
two powerful witches in town. John hoped that knowledge wouldn’t
come back to bite them.

“How about we talk about the leviathan?” John
broke in before any more personal information about the Ricoletti
sisters could be given.

“Aye,” Cam agreed somewhat reluctantly. “But
‘tis good fortune you have
strega
here to combat it. Now I
understand where all the power is coming from. Some of those
Italian ladies have very unique powers. I take it one of yours is
to throw permanent wards.”

Ursula nodded to the implied question.

“Thank the Mother of All for that,” Cam said,
aiming his words skyward. “I’ll admit, when I felt the disturbance
in the magic up here yesterday, I was concerned. After this
afternoon’s session, I grew even more so. The powers you’re
throwing here are mighty and have drawn attention from all those
who are sensitive to such things—both good and evil. I’m very much
afraid that if you continue this work, you’ll be dealing with some
of those on the other side of this war in the not-too-distant
future. I’d bet they’re already on their way here, to investigate.
Many
Venifucus
seek to steal power. You and your sister
would make nice, juicy targets for an unscrupulous mage.”

John didn’t like the sound of that.

“What exactly are the
Venifucus
now? I
mean, I’ve heard scary stories all my life, and there are new
reports from the Lords, but what’s truth and what’s fiction? What
are they now? The bogeymen from my childhood tales, or some kind of
paramilitary magical organization?”

Tom asked the questions, giving John a few
minutes to try to calm his bear. Right now, the creature was
roaring in defiance of anyone who would even think to target
Ursula. For crying out loud, wasn’t she in enough danger
already?

“When the Destroyer first walked in this
realm, she drew around her a band of supporters. Mages, a few other
fey, werecreatures who walked the dark paths, even a few vampires
and many misguided humans. Any who sought power without really
caring where it came from. Those who liked bloodshed and killing.
Evil beings. They formed the
Venifucus
—a secret society that
quietly supported and aided the Destroyer as she came to power.
Once she was on her rampage, they came out into the open somewhat,
fighting the forces of Light directly wherever they could.” Cam’s
words held everyone’s attention. “The human organization called the
Altor Custodis
was formed around the same time to keep an
eye on the magical beings. They had a policy of non-involvement,
but they have been watching us for centuries, keeping track of our
whereabouts and our family lines. Recently, some of yours
discovered that the
Venifucus
have infiltrated the
Altor
Custodis
at the highest levels and have been using their
observations to target and eliminate anyone they thought might
oppose them.”

“We’d had reports from the Lords,” Brody
confirmed.

John hadn’t wanted to believe it and hoped
the conflict would stay far away from his little town. He’d spent
most of his life fighting, as had most of his men. He’d wanted to
retire, set up the town, find a mate, and spend the rest of his
life raising cubs and just living happily ever after.

It seemed like that wasn’t going to happen.
Though he hadn’t invited it, evil had found him and he couldn’t do
anything but oppose it. Fight it and defeat it. So they could all
live in peace. Eventually.

“You bears have concentrated a lot of magical
energy here in your cove,” Cam went on quietly. “I’m not surprised
the creature was attracted to it. I don’t think I’ve ever come
across a concentration of shifter magic quite this potent anywhere
in the world…except maybe for the snowcat stronghold, but they’re
protected by their terrain. Few outsiders venture into the
Himalayas, and nobody can get near their cliff-top village without
being seen long before. You don’t have that advantage here. You’re
wide open.”

“So you think concentrating so many bear
shifters here together is what did it?” Tom asked.

“Och, now. You know how magical you folk are.
And you’re usually more solitary. Even bears who live in small
family groups have been targeted by the
Venifucus
. You
should have a talk with Rocco Garibaldi about his kinsmen and how
they were kidnapped a while back. That was a family of just three
bear shifters, one only a teenager, who managed to escape. Even so,
working with just the magic of the mother and father—being siphoned
off through torture and evil magic—the
Venifucus
were trying
to open a portal into the farthest realm. Imagine what they could
do with the number of bear shifters you have gathered here. It’s
too tasty a treat for them not to try. You should warn your
people.”

“We’re not civilians,” Brody ground out,
clearly angered by the idea that someone would harm innocents like
Cam was describing. “We can take care of ourselves.”

Cam nodded once. “Aye, but you’ve got
non-soldiers in your town too, I’m sure. Like the lass, here.” Cam
turned his attention back to Ursula, his gaze speculative. “But I’m
thinking the wards she’s putting up will go a long way toward
keeping you all safe within the boundaries. What have you been
putting into your wards, lass?”

“Protection against evil, safety for all
beings of good intent, that sort of thing,” Ursula replied. “I kept
it general because it’s not just one kind of bear shifter here, and
I don’t know what might be out in the water besides the leviathan
and its minions. There could be selkies or water sprites, or
who-knows-what out there, just trying to live life in peace. I
didn’t want my wards to keep them away if they were good.”