Snow: The White Crow (10 page)

I nodded. “Yeah I got it.  Sacrifice the Wolf Hunter.”  He grinned at me.  I think I liked the man.

We both turned to look at Rachel, who was growling at him.  He shrugged. “Don't get all protective Paige.  The only reason I'm speaking about this in front of you is that I wouldn't be able to keep you away since you share a ummm...  'special' bond with the Hunter.  Consider yourself assigned as IPD liaison to the Recovery Specialist.”

Then he turned to me before she could respond. “This has to be done quietly, we can't assign any men to you.  It has to be compartmentalized.”

Then he handed Rachel the folder.  “I expect you to head out now.  You can reach Slater Mining before dark. There are wolf cages and panic cages in the abandoned lodge there.”

She looked at some print outs and a map then looked at me with a question in her eyes.  I nodded once to her, and she nodded back.  “Alright.  We'll gear up and be on the road within the hour.  Her weapons are at my place.”

He switched off the noise generators and opened his office door, apparently we were dismissed.  As I passed him, I said, “Alright but I get twice my usual fee.”  He nodded with a toothy smile, the bastard.

Then he called out, “Paige.  Try not to fuck things up.”

She called back without looking, “Come on Chief, you know me.”

His quick response of, “That's what I'm afraid of!” made me think this was common banter between the two.

She seemed to almost meld to my side as we walked, I wanted to be closer to her too.  She guided me to evidence lock up.  A thin as a rail woman with greying hair was the officer on duty.  I blinked after I instinctively inhaled to catch the woman's scent.  She was a Clean Blood.

My wolf strode up to the counter by my side and said, “Hey Martha, the old man said my girl here could pick up her toy.”

The woman looked at me then how closely we were standing together, then up to Rachel and she lit up. “She's a cutie Rach.”

Then she looked at me. “ID?”  I handed her my Wolf Hunter ID and she shook her head. “I need picture ID.”

I looked at the two women then sighed and handed her the driver's license I had to get for Washington State.  I had one for thirteen states now here in the United States.  She looked at it, then at me.  “I like what you've done with your hair.”  I smiled at her then she stopped and furrowed her brow.  “You're wolf?  And you're a Wolf Hunter?”

She handed my ID back to me and I shook my head as Rachel snagged it from me to look at it.  Then she chuckled while I shook my head as she realized what gave Martha pause.  My date of birth showed, August third, sixteen twenty-four.  I said to Martha, “I'm Clean Blood.”

Rachel gave her a toothy smile and the woman just shook her head in disbelief then looked something up on her computer then headed back into the evidence cages.  A minute later she came out with a huge black evidence bag and hefted it onto the counter.  “Sign there.”  I signed the form on the clipboard and then tore the plastic and removed my M4.  I so missed it.  I slung it over my back as she slid another smaller clear plastic evidence bag to me and pointed at another line on the clipboard.  I signed then removed my magazines from the bag and pocketed them.

Martha was grinning.  “Nice... toy.”

I gave her a silly toothy grin back.  “Thanks.”

We stepped away, exchanging nods with her and Rachel looked pleased with herself.  I crinkled my nose.  “What?”

She shook her head, looking smug.  “It's so cute that you have a rifle over half your size.”

I looked away rolling my eyes only to sneak attack hip bump her into the wall. “Watch it wolfie.”

She just took an imperious tone and said, “Whatever bird girl.”

We spent the time driving back to her place, with me reading all of the pertinent things in the file to her.  We took the time at her place to gear up.  It took all my self-control not to rip her body armor off of her and make her mine again.  She seemed to be having the same difficulty.  Whatever this bond we had was both extremely strong and extremely distracting.

We were about to head out the door when there was small scratching at her back window.  We spun and I had a Sig in my hand and she had her nine mil, both pointed at the... oh... the little squirrel at the window.  We grinned at each other and holstered our weapons.  I stepped to the window and opened it and the squirrel burrowed under my coat and came up face to face with me.

I smiled then froze when I caught a familiar scent.  “What is that you have for me Conrad?”  I took the talisman he was holding to me.  Then pushed a little of my magic toward him.  I got flashes of the battle last night.  The little guy had been following me.  He tracked the birds attacking the old crone and saw where the talisman landed.  After everyone had left he had gone to retrieve it for me.  I had left the house before he could give it to me so he waited.

I scratched his chin.  “What a clever, clever boy you are.”  I held my pocket open. “Help yourself, you deserve it.”  He swirled down my arm and started stuffing his little cheeks.  He kept looking up at me, but I wasn't stopping him.  When he had problems stuffing one last dried cranberry in his cheeks, he finally hopped from my arm to the window sill.

With a cute little chitter that made him lose a peanut that he stuffed back into his mouth, he hopped to the ground and darted into the bushes.  I shut the window then threw the talisman on the ground, not wanting to touch it, the magics in it were as foul as the rank smell of the wolf blood and hair of an Alpha.

I was about to let my magics fly to incinerate it when Rachel put a hand on my arm, she sounded concerned at my reaction to it and her nostrils were flaring as she stared at it.  “What is it?  It smells of rot and wolf.”

I looked at her.  “Remember that talisman I told you about that the old crone was using to control the werewolves with Alpha compulsion?”  She nodded.  I said, “Well?” I pointed at it.

She stared at it then licked her lips.  “Can't we use it against them?  To stop the compulsion on wolves like this Black Crown everyone is looking for?”

I shook my head sadly, I understood the question well.  “No, it doesn't work that way.  This thing is evil and unnatural, just being close to it like this burns at me.  It has but one function, that is to aid evil.  It can make a wolf do anything the holder wants, it isn't just getting them to do what you want, it is robbing them of their own free will.  And it is only powerful enough to affect maybe three dozen wolves at a time.”

She squinted at me, I could see her thinking it through. “It can't be that bad can it?”

I looked at her.  She really thought it could do good, I don't think the part about robbing someone of their free will.  I looked at her then asked carefully, “Do you want me to show you?”

She hesitated and then nodded slowly.  “I trust you.”

I squatted and paused as I looked at her, then I picked up the foul thing.  “Rachel love, hop on one foot.”

She started hopping on one foot.  She said with a tinge of fear in her voice, “I can't stop.  That thing is doing it?”

I nodded then said, “Please kill your little trash can beside the sink.”

She tried to stop herself I could see it in her movements, but she growled and started stomping and punching at the can.  She looked at me with stark fear in her eyes and a pleading.  I nodded once at her then held the talisman up. “You can stop.”

She did and then I let a large amount of magic explode from my hand greater than the black magics contained in the talisman and it burst into flames and turned to ash.  I smelled sulfur and brimstone.  Part of the magics were demon based like the wolf curse itself.

She looked at me then the ash and then grabbed me into a hug.  Her voice was hoarse. “That was the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me since I watched a wolf eating my insides.  I really thought I could resist, but I couldn't stop myself or even slow down my compliance.”

I nodded, kissing her above her ear.  “Losing your will is a terrifying thing.  Now imagine, even with the best of intentions.  Let's say that you tell a wolf under compulsion to just go home.  That may seem innocent enough and like you are saving them.  But you are just replacing one compulsion with another.  The wolf you commanded still has no free will and has to do what you said.  That is not the same as breaking a compulsion, which is what it sounds like the Black Crown can do.”

I then locked eyes with her.  “Now imagine even worse.  Someone getting their hands on this with seemingly good intentions.  Like the people doing tests on wolves. They could compel wolves to fight as the weapons against other wolves, like they were trying to create.  Again, the wolves would have no choice but to do as they were told, their will not their own.  So telling someone to kill a trash can would be no different than telling someone to kill another person or a wolf.”

So I pointed at the ash that fell to the ground.  “Evil must be destroyed, and that thing was evil.”

She nodded and she was shaky.  I buried my face in her neck and inhaled deeply then smiled at her and exposed my neck to her.  She needed that, she needed my submission just then to let her know she was in control of herself after the scare I just gave her.

She growled and opened her jaw and bit my neck and held it, just shy of it hurting.  Then she suddenly released it and rubbed her jaw along my chin.  “Mine,” she whispered.

I tilted my head back down and nodded. “Yes.”  Then added as I cupped her cheek, “I'm sorry for that demonstration.”

She gave a sad smile back.  “I don't think I would have fully understood any other way.”  Then she squinted. “So that is how an Alpha's compulsion works except on a bigger scale?”

I nodded.  “That was just some blood and fur from an Alpha bound by black magic.  Or the fur would have reverted to human hair.  Holding an infinitesimal amount of the Alpha's power.  That is why it could only control a few dozen wolves, and Alpha's true power is tens of thousands of times more powerful.”

Then she squinted and asked, “So we destroyed the talisman, that means the people affected are freed from the compulsion?”

I shook my head. “No, not as long as the person who held the talisman and gave the commands, lives.  Or the Alpha who's fur was used to create the talisman dies.”

I could see understanding in her eyes.  “That is why the wolves sired by an Alpha's line and all the people under that wolf's compulsion were freed when the Red Hood killed Slater?”

I nodded again and added, “But just as an Alpha can create their compulsion, they can also release someone under compulsion.  The second Marcus brother did that in the huge battle of Berlin where the Red Hood killed him.  He released part of the army of wolves to just go berserk as their inner beasts wanted to.  He wanted the mayhem to sidetrack the Red Hood, but an unknown woman with her somehow calmed them, as Red did what she does best.”

That would have been Daria.  I was starting to think maybe Daria couldn't change at will now that I thought of it.  Red's hellhound only fought at her side by day and on non-full moon nights.  By the full moon, nobody has ever seen the hellhound, just some unidentified woman who fights with the speed and strength of a wolf.  Was Daria bound to the lunar cycle like the wolves?

That was a terrible thought and I hoped I was wrong.  Those two were clearly in love.  If they could only be together three nights a month, and most of that time fighting or hunting...

I thought of Daria's compulsion and how I could even feel it when she tried to make me submit and I wasn't wolf.  It was different though.  I snapped back to the conversation when Rachel asked, “Different how?”

I furrowed my brow.  “What?”

She said, “You were saying Daria's compulsion was different somehow.  And who is Daria?”

I blinked.  “I didn't say anything I was just thinking about something.”  I was spooked, was Daria a secret?  Had I somehow let Rachel know?

She said, “No you just said that...”  Then she paused and squinted.  “You didn't say anything?  God that's freaky.  That's like the second time today I swear you said something when you didn't.”

I remembered earlier when I swear I saw her checking the time through her eyes.  At that thought, I was staring at myself.  I blinked and she was in front of me again “Umm... I think something has happened to us.  I'm getting flashes of what you are seeing and apparently you can hear my thoughts.”

She was silent for a few moments.  “My wolf thinks you're our mate.  I agree.”

I blushed at that because for the first time in my life. “I feel the same, and my inner nature beast feels the same.”  I swallowed. “What if... what if the white crow brand that ties me to a Queen of Nature did something to our mating bond.  I've never heard of a wolf mating bond do this.”

She shook her head.  “No, it usually just ties two together at an emotional and umm... sexual level.”  Then she looked down, almost in shame.

I made her look at me.  “What?”

She took a deep breath.  “Werewolves mate for life.  I'm sorry.”

I blinked a couple times.  Part of me was frightened of that, of having someone I cared about constantly in danger by my side, because of what I am drawn to do.  But then another part of me felt so alive to finally have someone I feel this way about.  Someone I... loved.  All I wanted to do at that moment was kiss her, so I did.

It started to get hot.  Before I gave into my animal urges, she broke us apart with watery eyes and a huge smile.  “Don't do that or we'll be here until sundown.  The chief would have my pelt.”

I nodded and she dragged me out to her vehicle and we got in. I thought about our link a bit and what I was feeling the first two times I got flashes of her vision.  I felt emotionally connected each... I was suddenly seeing the road and her hands on the steering wheel.  I held onto it, thought about my... mate.  Finally, I smiled and let it drop and I was staring at her beautiful profile.

She squinted at me. “Are you playing with the link again?  Stop that.”  She growled playfully.  I couldn't let her get away with trying to tell me what to do.

I leaned over and flicked her nose then kissed it.  “Bad doggie.”

She muttered, “Bird girl.”  Then she sat up straighter as we started north toward Slater Mining headquarters.  “We got sidetracked.  This Daria that you say has Alpha compulsion.  You said it was different somehow.”  Then she grinned like a little girl. “Or should I say, you thought it.”

I pushed her shoulder playfully then got serious.  “I think she can release a compulsion too.  But hers felt as if it weren't absolute control.  Like it was more of a suggestion and I ultimately decided whether I wanted to comply or not.  I mean the urge was strong, but I decided not to listen.  So her compulsion like her odd mix of black and white magics is rooted in the black but tempered by the light.  She doesn't rob her targets of their will.”

Then I smiled. “Like how Chief Parsons said the men who heard her howl felt the need to hunt for a couple hours.”

She furrowed her brow.  “Wait, so Daria is the hellhound?  You were talking like she is a woman.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She took a calming breath.  “You're not going to tell me are you.”

I grinned. “Nope.”

Then I added at her sigh and matching grin.  “Not until I know if I'm supposed to be sharing their secrets.”  Then I waggled a finger at her.  “So no sifting through my head!”

She chuckled. “Yes love.”

I leaned over and rested my head on her arm hugged it.  “Good wolfie.”

After a comfortable silence just soaking up each others company, I started sharing my theory of the old crone.  I believed that the lamia wasn't as powerful as she seemed.  All of her attacks involved talismans which had the power.  And after I took out her puppets, her own power was diminished.  She had also said her group was just a diversion meant to draw out the Red Hood.  That godforsaken talisman that overwhelmed me and made the white crow brand save me, was targeted at Maireni.

I finished with, “I think that the most dangerous group was the one that leveled part of the forest.  I think Damaschin is on the trail of the lead lamia... um, gypsy witch.”

She grinned. “I know what a lamia is Snow.”  I liked her calling me Snow like everyone else, but she made it sound like an endearment.  Though I preferred Gretta from her for some reason, it seemed more intimate.

I crinkled my nose and continued, “The crone has at least one wolves still protecting her.  There is no telling how many wolves the leader still has, Red killed four and the rest of her group.  Or the gypsy witch did the killing herself with that blast.  We won't know until crime scene techs go over the scene or we catch up with Red.”

We passed a playground on our way out of town.  I watched some children playing.  I thought it odd outside of the walled cities.  I knew most of the children on the play sets were either the children of the Clean Bloods that chose to live among the wolves on the outside or newly turned wolves.