Chapter 18

Eighteen

I stare at myself in the mirror a little too long.

I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this. It hadn't occurred to me that we'd have to do this.

Taking a deep breath, I head back out. I don't bother to get dressed.

I have no idea what the guys are discussing when I come into the living room, but they stop… and their smiles turn to concern.

"We have a teeny tiny problem." I say, not wanting them to stew any longer than we have to.

"What's that?" Johnny's the least concerned of the group, but he's also the one who's had the most recent orgasm, so that follows.

"We have to take a road trip."

I can tell it's not what they were expecting me to say.

"Do we?"

I nod. "The coven found out about us and they need to pass judgment, so we have to go to Salem."

"And if we don't?"

"They'll come here, but… No one wants an entire coven of witches descending on this sweet little town."

They four of them look at each other, but it's Joshua who asks, "What is going to happen?"

"We will be judged by a jury of my peers."

None of them look like they like my joke.

"And if we're found guilty of… whatever?"

"Oh judging you four is purely a side-eye thing. You're not actually on trial. My guess is they just want to look at you." And make sure none of them are too angry or have battle scars that would suggest they're going to do something dangerous.

"So what happens if they find you guilty…"

"They won't."

"If they do?" Thomas watches me for a long moment. "Humor me."

"The trial is to see if I am a threat to the coven or have drawn a threat to it. If they find me guilty—and again, they won't—at best, they'll banish me. It will mean I can't get within a five hundred miles of Salem without experiencing excruciating pain."

"And at worst?"

I know they're not going to like it, but… I'm not going to lie to them. Wrinkling my nose, I try to think of the best way to break the news. "Then you guys will go back to being werewolves when the moon is full."

The others look confused, but Chase pales. "They'll kill you?"

"To protect the coven? Yes."

Joshua curses and walks away, but Chase…

"Did you just gowl?" I ask, looking up at him. "I've told you. They're not going to find me guilty of anything."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I wouldn't have done the spell if you guys were a threat to anyone. They're doing this to make an example. I'd be shocked if they don't pretend to consider it, but killing me would do more harm to the coven than you four ever could."

"Okay." He nods, but he doesn't look happy about it. "We trust you.

"When's the trial?"

I wince in apology. "Tonight. Who wants to drive?"

They're shellshocked.

It takes a minute for them to move, but Johnny stands, "We'll have to take my truck. Should we get a hotel?"

"It'll be better if we stay with Elaria."

Thomas lets out a frustrated sound and heads to his room.

Chase gets on the phone and tells his partner there's an emergency as he disappears into the back to pack an overnight bag.

Joshua takes my face in his hands and turns it up to his. "Promise me you're going to be okay. If they try to take you away from us… I don't know what we'll do."

"I know. That's another reason they're not likely to kill me. They might not know you'd hurt them, but there's the possibility you'd try to tear them to pieces. And in close quarters, you might take a few of them out before they could stop you."

"They'd have some time before that happened. There's still ten days until we might change."

His conviction settles in my stomach like a leaden weight. "You never turned when the moon wasn't full?"

"I have." Chase says, dropping his bag at his feet. "They've been lucky. And I hope to God, we continue to be lucky."

"We could change without the full moon?" Johnny looks too freaked out.

I wish they'd already known. "It's uncommon, but severe trauma or grief or anger can make it happen."

"Pure rage." Chase agrees. "The strongest emotions, or the sudden need to protect yourself…"

Joshua looks at Chase like he's trying to do the math. "When did you…?"

Chase looks at me and takes a deep breath, closing his eyes before he twists his head to the sides, cracking his neck. "When I was seventeen."

"You were a wolf when you were seventeen?" Thomas looks a little lost, but he's been with Chase the longest. "How did I not know that?"

"Because I don't like to talk about it. But I guess you guys should know." He sits down and it looks like his jaw is clenched tight enough he might crack teeth. "I was changed when I was fifteen. A wolf attacked me at summer camp. I don't want to go into what happened that night. But when I was seventeen, there was a car accident. A drunk driver… It killed my little brother.

"Grief wasn't enough to force the change, but when the judge acquitted him." He shakes his head. "Let's just say I'm very lucky my mother didn't let me be in the courtroom that day. I was a wolf for three days."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I killed him." He looks up, his eyes startlingly clear. "I hunted him down, I drove him into the woods and I stalked him for three hours. I wanted him to feel terror and pain, and then I tore his throat out and left him for the scavengers."

"Jesus."

"I'm not proud of it, and even though there's no way they could charge me for it… I don't exactly want to advertise it."

The others grimace, but Thomas nods and he looks at me. "He deserved it. And if those witches try to kill you, I know I, for one, am going to wind up a wolf because of it."

Picking up the three bags piled on the floor he snatches the keys out of Johnny's hand. "You two," he looks at Joshua and I pointedly. "Get dressed and pack your bags. I want to get this over with."

Chase gives me a sheepish smile and hands over the folded stack of my missing underwear. "We'll do the treasure hunt I had planned next time."

Packing isn't a problem for me. After all, I hadn't un- packed in the first place. And Joshua doesn't get distracted as we pull on our clothes. He spends the whole time scowling at the floor and I know he's working on figuring out what they'll do if they don't like the coven's verdict.

"Hey," I touch his arm as he pulls a change of clothes and stuffs it into a backpack. "I know you're used to taking care of everybody, and that you're good at it.

"But… you gotta stop treating this like a normal problem. Witchy things are different. Take a back seat on this one."

"Easier said than done."

When Johnny comes after us, he looks a little surprised we haven't gotten distracted enough to tease. "Everything okay in here?"

Joshua nods and tosses his bag straight at Johnny's head.

He catches it, of course, and smiles with bared teeth.

Thomas is in the driver's seat when we go out the garage door and Joshua helps me up into the back seat.

Sandwiched between him and Chase, I know I'm the only one in the car who's not worried about the outcome of this trip. And without going home first—the opposite direction—I can't do anything to alleviate the stress.

Nothing that wouldn't get us pulled over in a heartbeat, at least.

When we turn the corner, all five of us look at the women on the steps of Mrs. Miller's house.

Mrs. Miller, still looking a little pale from her earlier shock, hugs the first one, and I can only guess that they are the three foretold granddaughters, here to sink their hooks into the four men I can now claim as my own.

"Looks like my competition's arrived."

That gets me four very different sounds of disapproval.

Dropping my head to Joshua's shoulder, I don't bother to hide my smile. It will be interesting to watch them try to draw my wolves away… if that's what they want at all.

The only stop we make before we head across the bridge is at a coffee hut. The highschool girl working the window gives Thomas a wide smile and looks at the rest of us until her gaze settles on me, and then, her smile brightens.

She's one of the girls from the football game bathroom. "Looks like you guys are headed off somewhere fun."

I ignore the fact that she can't read the mood and listen as Thomas rattles off a clearly memorized list of drinks, and he pauses, but he doesn't look back at me before he adds a final drink to the list: London fog latte with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

It's perfect, even if it's not what I would have picked out of habit, so I don't complain.

She disappears into the back and Thomas drops his head to the head rest looking at me in the rear-view mirror. "Is that okay? I should have asked, but I needed her to stop smiling at me."

"It's perfectly acceptable."

"I can get her to make you something else."

"Nope. Gimme the fog."

She pops back up to the window to return Thomas' card and deliver the first drink, and the guys stay silent as she goes through the routine four more times.

Before he rolls up his window, Thomas stuffs a small wad of cash into their tip jar and heads for the bridge that officially marks the northern edge of the town.

Tires hum across pavement as the green supports whizz by and I feel the same foul slither I did the last time I crossed the barrier. But the smaller chunk of calcite I keep with me now means she won't know that I've crossed her boundary.

"Uh… We have company." Johnny looks at his lap.

The wolf doesn't fit, exactly. It's ghostly body passes through Johnny's and the seat, as if it's sitting on the floor. Thomas's wolf is in the back among the baggage, but Joshua and Chase's wolves have followed suit, claiming their human body's space in the car.

"They're on trial too." I meet the ghostly eyes as Johnny's wolf turns back to look at me over its shoulder. "If something goes wrong, they should take care of it before you even have to think about changing."