Bite This! (9 page)

A
n uncharacteristic quiet
greeted Darcy at Harkness Farms.

The older children were all at school, and baby Luna was probably napping. The living room felt dark compared to the bright autumn sun outside, and it took Darcy’s eyes a moment to get used to the lack of light.

Luke peered around with interest. His wide eyes took in the fireplace and the rag rug. His nostrils flared slightly. The whole house smelled like a cozy wood fire, but Luke would be noticing the scents of all the children who lived here.

Darcy took him through to the kitchen. Mom sat on a stool at the island with Mrs. Cortez. Gloria Cortez was so tiny her feet swung from the stool without reaching the floor.

They both looked up.

“Come see me, child,” Mrs. Cortez said to Luke, her little face wrinkling with a warm smile.

Luke ran right up to her.

Darcy’s heart ached with relief.

She’d always felt a tug of resentment at the magic that kept her wolf in check. Unlike her siblings, she didn’t fear her animal. But she’d never been able to hold it against Gloria Cortez. Not even for a second.

Mrs. Cortez had always been there for their family; for everyone in the community, really. Her daughter, Eva, was a triumphant force for good in Tarker’s Hollow. Eva ran the fundraisers and yard sales and charity drives that kept the schools in books and even the poorest kids in band uniforms.

Mrs. Cortez herself was quieter with her support. Somehow she always knew how to appear at the farmhouse with a heaping plate of homemade brownies when a child was having a hard day. She helped Mom with a pet quilting project, which seemed to be more about drinking sangria and cackling late into the night than it was about the project. The quilt was never finished, maybe never would be - but Darcy had happy memories of the comforting sound of the women’s laughter downstairs to keep her warm on late winter nights.

Gloria had even tried using her magic to help repair expensive farm equipment once. And another time she’d torn up the gravel drive at a blistering speed on her red bicycle to help when Chance got stuck in the tree.

Like Kate Harkness, Gloria Cortez gave freely of herself, never asking anything in return.

And although everyone knew wolves and magic were not supposed to mix, Gloria thought the whole idea was nonsense. She was very respectful about using her magic at Harkness only when asked, but the shifters probably would have loved her no matter what.

And of course, her magic had been instrumental in rehabilitating the wayward shifters that called Harkness Farms home. By singing her spell over them when they arrived, the kind woman granted the kids the control they needed to live normal lives with their animal halves. Darcy hadn’t had any real issues with her animal, but kids like her brother, Johnny, would have been in real trouble without Gloria’s spell to control their shifting.

She had seemed like a little old lady back when Darcy was a kid, and she seemed about the same now.

At the moment, she was studying Luke avidly.

Then she squinted, and cocked her head.

Reaching toward him gently, as if she were about to brush aside a stray hair, she touched her open hand to his lips.

When she pulled it away she was holding a rose.

It was like one of Finn’s sleight of hand tricks, but Darcy knew this was more than simple prestidigitation.

Luke looked up at Mrs. Cortez in stunned silence, and put his hand to his own mouth.

They all looked at the flower. The petals were a red so dark they were almost black, but otherwise it looked like any other rose.

“Is that better, child?” Mrs. Cortez asked kindly.

“He can’t—” Darcy began.

Mrs. Cortez held up a hand to indicate that Darcy should wait.

“Well, is it?” she asked Luke again.

“Y-yes. Yes, ma’am. Thank you,” the boy said, his voice hoarse.

Darcy went to him, wrapped an arm around him, and hugged him close.

“Was that…magic?” she asked Mrs. Cortez over his shoulder. “Keeping him silent?”

“Yes, well crafted, too. But not very strong. Book magic,” Gloria replied dismissively.

No wonder the kid had been afraid of Finn.

Darcy pulled back from Luke, keeping her hands on his shoulders.

“Can you tell us what happened to you, Luke?”

He nodded.

She stood and Mom hopped off her stool, offering it to him.

“I’ll make some hot chocolate,” Kate announced, grabbing a pan from the pot rack above.

Luke took a seat, Darcy stood beside him.

“I don’t remember much,” he told Mrs. Cortez. “The people, and that man, Draven, they came in the night. I was sleeping in my room. But they came and they, they made me go with them.”

Kate poured milk into the pan. Darcy noticed that her mom’s lips were pulled thin and tight as she worked.

“Were your parents there?” Mrs. Cortez asked gently.

“I-I don’t know what happened to my parents. I heard them arguing. And then I didn’t hear anything.”

Darcy didn’t like the sound of that. Either Draven had shut them up, or they were okay with what had happened to Luke. Either way, it was not good.

“Can you tell us where they took you?” Mrs. Cortez asked. She was so calm, in a way Darcy could not have been while listening to this.

“It was bad. They put me in a cage. They used something to put electricity in me. It made an awful noise and it hurt so much. It made me…” he looked to Darcy.

Oh god, it had made him shift. And he didn’t know if it was okay to share.

“It’s okay, baby, Mrs. Cortez knows our secret,” Darcy managed.

“It made me turn into my wolf,” he told Gloria solemnly. “And then they wanted me to shift back, but I didn’t want to. So I curled up tight. But they gave me a shot, and it made me turn back again.”

“That’s terrible, Luke. You must have been very brave to get away from them,” Gloria told him.

“They wanted me to be brave. They wanted me to fight. They made us practice. There were… there were other kids, like me. All of us were supposed to grow up and be fighters for the lady. But some of them disappeared and I don’t know what happened to them…” he trailed off, trembling.

That was enough of that.

Tears prickled the insides of Darcy’s eyes and she wrapped her arms around him possessively.

“Good boy. Thank you for telling us, Luke,” she whispered into his hair. “I will find out what happened to them and help them.”

Kate sniffed and Darcy looked up to see her wiping her eyes surreptitiously with her apron.

“Luke,” Kate said warmly. “Here’s some of my very best chocolate, and I’m going to cut up some honey crisp apples for you. Have you ever had honey crisp apples before?”

Luke let go of Darcy to take the steaming mug of hot chocolate. He shook his head at Kate’s question.

“Well, I think they’re the best apples in the whole world, but you’ll have to taste them and tell us what you think,” Kate said stoutly, already chopping up apples on a wooden cutting board.

“My little brother got stuck in a tree picking honey crisp apples,” Darcy told Luke, sneaking a piece of apple right off the cutting board.

“Stop that! This is a sharp knife,” Kate scolded her, as if she were a little kid again.

“He did?” Luke asked.

Darcy nodded and swallowed the sweet fruit.

“He climbed up really high. Chance is a bear shifter, like my other brother, Derek,” she explained. “So he wasn’t scared to climb a tree, especially when there was tasty fruit at the top.”

Kate laughed and rolled her eyes.

“He slipped on his way down, though and his arm got stuck. Do you know who got him out?” Darcy asked.

Luke laughed. “You did, of course!”

His confidence in her made her heart surge.

“Nope. He wouldn’t let me help him. And the Tarker’s Hollow volunteer fire department came out too, but they didn’t get him out either.”

Luke laughed.

“Was it your mom?” he asked, indicating Kate.

“No again,” Darcy said. “It was Mrs. Cortez.”

“
You
like to climb trees?” Luke asked the little woman in amazement.

Gloria laughed and ruffled his hair with a small hand. “No, child, I like my feet firmly on the ground. But I love Chance, so I had to help him.”

“Was it hard to climb the tree?” Luke asked, munching one of the apples Kate had put in front of him.

“The firefighters let me use their ladder. I just climbed up and got him down,” she said.

“But he was stuck,” Luke said. “Oh, but you probably used your magic to save him, right?”

There was a moment of silence. They didn’t usually refer to Gloria’s gift openly that way.

“That’s right, child,” she said. “It surely came in handy that day.”

Interesting. Darcy had always wondered if Gloria had used magic to get that arm out, or if Chance just needed to be calmed down by a familiar grown-up with small enough hands to slip his arm out.

“Finn has good magic too,” Luke explained. “Darcy told me it was, but I wasn’t sure. Not all magic is good,” he told Mrs. Cortez in warning.

“That’s very true, you’re a smart boy,” Gloria replied without missing a beat. “Have you ever seen the bad kind?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. But I wouldn’t like to tell you about it because you might be scared,” he told her seriously. “And Darcy would cry. Wouldn’t you, Darcy?”

Darcy bit her lip so hard she almost tasted blood.

“Yeah, buddy, I might,” she told him.

He went back to his apples and chocolate, looking content that he had figured out the lay of the land. It was clear from his expression that he was wholly unaware that the adults in the room were in turmoil over what he had suffered.

But kids were resilient. She’d heard enough stories from her foster brothers and sisters to know that. If she could keep Luke safe, he would be okay.

The distant hiss of air brakes outside announced the arrival of the school bus.

“Oh, here they all come,” Kate huffed, heading to the door to greet them.

“I have a lot of little brothers and sisters,” Darcy told Luke. “Do you want to meet them? If you like, they can show you the orchard, and you can pick some apples.”

“Awesome,” he cried, leaping off the stool.

“Be careful out there,” Darcy heard herself say. Since when did she say things like that? Oh brother.

“I will,” he told her. “Thank you for helping me,” he stopped to say to Mrs. Cortez.

“You’re welcome, child,” she replied with a radiant smile. “You can ask me for help anytime you want.”

He looked thoughtful and nodded. Then he dashed into the other room after Kate.

Darcy could hear the other kids greeting him at the door. Then there were the sounds of little feet dashing over the drive toward the orchard.

“Coffee? Or sangria?” Kate asked from the doorway.

“Better make it coffee,” Darcy replied. “But I’ll get it, you sit.”

Kate seated herself at the island again as Darcy busied herself with the coffee.

“So, no point beating around the bush, because we have trouble,” she began. “I was attacked by a shadow demon.”

“Oh, Darcy,” Gloria breathed.

Darcy recounted how she had fought the shadow thing, and how Finn had used his magic to trap it. Gloria’s eyes widened at the description. Darcy felt a swell of pride for her mate, her Finn.

When Darcy finished, the older woman sighed.

“I’m so sorry, Kate.”

“You did all you could, Gloria,” Kate said sharply.

“Darcy, you know all magic has a price, right, honey?” Gloria asked.

“Yes, of course,” Darcy replied, wondering suddenly what price Finn paid for his gift.

“The price for your 300 moons was supposed to be… metaphorical - a personal sacrifice. But with the opening of the portal in Tarker’s Hollow… well, a release of magical energy like the end of the 300 moons spell is bound to draw some unwanted attention. I want you to know that I never would have put you or your brothers in harm’s way,” Gloria said.

Darcy put down the mug she was holding, not liking the sadness in Mrs. Cortez’s voice.

“Mrs. Cortez, I know that. We all do. If not for you, some of us might not have made it this far. You’ve always done all you could to help our family. But we’re not children anymore. My brothers and I can take care of ourselves, no matter what we’re up against,” she told Gloria with feeling.

Gloria and Kate exchanged a look.

“Honey, I’m guessing you haven’t been listening to the news,” Kate began carefully.

Darcy shook her head.

“Derek’s plane was lost over the mountains last night. There was a storm…” Kate trailed off, unable to keep it together, even for Darcy.

Derek.

But Darcy’s own despair was instantly overshadowed by the grief in her mother’s eyes.

“Mom, he’s a shifter. We heal, really,
really
well. Even if that plane went down, he’s going to be okay. And if he’s alone in the mountains - who cares? He’s a
bear
.”

She hoped it sounded more convincing than it felt.

Kate pressed her lips together and nodded.

Gloria patted Darcy’s hand.

“Darcy, we’re afraid there may be a magical element involved here. And what you’ve shared today makes me even more afraid. It looks like Johnny’s got himself in a safe place now, but he had a run-in with something as well. I’m going to try and reach Chance - to warn him,” Gloria said, hopping off her stool.

“Mrs. Cortez?” Darcy stopped the woman on her way out. “What happens if I don’t pay this price? If I neglect my wolf during my 300th moon? Is there a chance that I could… lose her?”

The woman paused for a moment, considering.

“I don’t know, Darcy,” she said at last.

She was trying to be kind, but the look on the old woman’s face was answer enough.

Darcy gave her a squeeze, then found herself staring out the window over the orchard as Gloria Cortez headed out of the kitchen.

The calming view had seen her through many youthful calamities. But what she was up against now - it was beyond what calming down could fix. Her brothers were in trouble. Her mother was distraught. And out there was the child of her heart, sought by evil people.