Chapter 23

I cameawake with a scream that sounded like it was ripped out of my soul. With a sob, I curled up on my side, drawing my knees up to my chest, and began to shake. I swore I could still feel my grandfather's boot heel on the middle of my back.

It had been months since I'd had a nightmare that intense. It didn't take a psychiatrist to figure out what had brought on such vivid memories; Adri had spent the better part of an hour digging glass out of my back. The pain and blood from last night was more than enough to remind me of the horrors of what my grandfather had done to me.

I stumbled to the bathroom to wash my face. I was about to put toothpaste on my toothbrush when my phone rang.

It was Adri. "You must never sleep," I told her after we'd said hello to each other.

"I'm headed home. Mr. Vaughan requested I call you in the morning to let you know where things stand, but I didn't want to wake you too early."

I was quiet. "How is Sean?" I asked finally.

"Mr. Maclin is healing well. He'll be our guest for a few days. Mr. Vaughan informed the pack of his whereabouts, and his beta saw for himself that he's unharmed and being kept in comfortable conditions."

"What do you plan to do with him?"

Adri's tone was businesslike, which I appreciated. "Since he suffered no serious injury, Mr. Vaughan has decided not to file a grievance with the Were Ruling Council. He suggested you go before the council and demand a judgment against Mr. Maclin for the seriousness of your injuries and the damages to your home."

"I don't want anything from Sean," I stated. "The less I have to think about him at this point, the better. I'd rather pay for the repairs myself than drag this out."

"It would be Mr. Vaughan's honor to represent you," Adri informed me. "You'd have no contact with Mr. Maclin at all."

"Please tell Charles I appreciate his offer, but I just want all of this behind me. The sooner Sean and I have nothing to do with each other, the sooner we can both move on."

After a beat, I asked, "Has Sean said anything about…the situation?" I didn't know why I inquired or why it mattered to me in the least.

Adri didn't seem surprised at my question. "Once Mr. Maclin shifted back to human form, he was extremely upset you were hurt, and he wouldn't be calm until we convinced him that you were healed. He's also insisting he had no intention of infecting you with the werewolf virus, or claiming you as his mate against your will, though he admits you share a metaphysical link."

I scowled.

"We've been told the link will dissolve on its own given time, as long as you have no further contact with Mr. Maclin." Adri paused. "He asked that we tell you that he would still like the chance to explain himself."

"You can tell him that you delivered the message and there's nothing he has to say that I want to hear." I was pleased at how steely my voice sounded, though I felt a sharp ache somewhere in the middle of my chest.

"I will do that." Another pause. "You doing okay with all of this?"

"I'll be all right. It's not like I was in love with him, or anything close to it." I paused, then added, "He should have known I'm not prey."

"I understand."

We fell quiet.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Adri said finally. "Mr. Vaughan began making inquiries last night to find a teacher for your client."

"Really? I thought…."

"He's apparently changed his mind about requesting your blood. I believe he'll ask you to upgrade the wards on one of his storage facilities instead."

"Please tell him thank you, and that I'll be happy to work on the wards. Just tell me when and where and what kind."

"I will. Have a good day, Alice."

"You too, Adri. Go get some sleep."

I put the phone down, lay back on the bed, and closed my eyes.

My heart felt bruised. I was glad Charles was keeping Sean in custody for a couple of days, so I wouldn't have to worry about him showing up on my doorstep. Despite everything, there was a part of me that wondered if Sean had been telling the truth when he'd claimed he had no plans to turn me into a werewolf. Maybe it was unfair of me not to hear him out.

Even if that was true, I reminded myself, there was no place for me in Sean's life. He was an alpha werewolf in need of a mate, and that wasn't going to change. Until Charles had explained the situation, I hadn't really thought of Sean's role as an alpha and how different it was from a pack werewolf.

More importantly, he'd initiated a mating bond with me without my permission, and I didn't think that was something I was going to be able to forgive or forget. It was best we made a clean break. For both our sakes, I hoped by the time his involuntary seclusion was over, Sean would come to the same conclusion.

Wanting to distract myself from thoughts about Sean, I called Natalie.

She answered immediately, her voice cheerful. "Alice! No answer from the lawyer yet, so I left him another message. How are you?"

"Doing well, Natalie. Have you had any luck finding out more about our missing item?"

"The MacGuffin?" Natalie teased. I made a face at Malcolm's goofy nickname for the Kasten. "Nothing yet. I just got started on the papers in her desk, though. There's a lot more to go through. I'll try to get finished this afternoon."

I remembered my earlier conversation with Adri. "By the way, I'm in the process of finding you a teacher. I hope to have some news on that soon too."

"Awesome," Natalie said. "I'm actually getting kind of excited about it."

"I'm really glad to hear that. Let me know if you find anything, and I'll keep you posted." We said our good-byes and disconnected.

I took a long shower, scrubbing myself until I could no longer imagine I smelled Sean on my skin. I dried my hair and dressed.

When I opened my bedroom door, Malcolm waited on the other side. "Where have you been?" I asked.

"At Natalie's, giving you some space. What the hell happened downstairs? Were we robbed?"

I leaned against the doorframe and told him about my visit to Hawthorne's, what Charles told me about Sean's pack problems and his plan to turn me into a werewolf, what happened at my house, and Sean being held in Charles's custody.

Malcolm was flitting around in a rage. "That son of a bitch. I'm so sorry, Alice."

I shrugged. "He still claims he had no intention of infecting me, but he did initiate a bond without telling me about it. Even if he didn't want to turn me into a werewolf, an alpha has to have a werewolf mate, so it was basically doomed from the start."

"He did save your life after Natalie burned you, and he took care of you afterward. I suppose that's worth something. Though if he wanted you for his mate, that would explain why he was so strongly motivated to get through the wards. I can't believe he was going to bite you."

I headed down the hall to the stairs, Malcolm trailing along behind me. "I guess it doesn't matter anymore. He's Charles's problem for a couple of days while he calms down. After that, if he does come around, I'll just have to make it clear he needs to stay away from me."

"You need to get some silver."

I paused in the middle of the stairs, then continued on. "I hope it doesn't come to that," I said softly. "But you're probably right. I have silver, though. I guess I need to start carrying it."

When I got to the main floor of the house, I stopped and stared.

My front window had been replaced with a lovely piece of decorative fixed glass that looked frightfully expensive even without adding in the cost of having a window company come out in the middle of the night. The bevels in the glass cast rainbows of light across the foyer. The floor was spotlessly clean, and I didn't see or sense any trace of ash or my blood anywhere.

My living room was virtually empty. The books that had been in the bookcases were stacked neatly on the floor. The broken furniture, my smashed television, and the rest of the debris were gone. Only the couch and the record player remained. How they had avoided getting destroyed, I had no idea.

I went to the basement door. When I looked at my wards, I could see the golden thread that represented Sean. I yanked it out. The wards rippled, then went still. I opened the door, and Malcolm and I went downstairs.

I went to one of the cabinets, traced runes on the door, then opened it. I pulled out two small silver throwing knives and a wrist sheath from one of the cabinets, then I took out a box of silver bullets, my gun, and an empty magazine. Malcolm watched silently as I loaded the magazine with the bullets.

I felt sick at the thought of shooting Sean, but if he did intend to bite me and turn me into a werewolf, I'd do it without hesitation, even if it brought the entire Tomb Mountain Pack down on my head. My only hope in that case would be to get to the Were Ruling Council before the pack got to me and explain that Sean had attempted to bite me against my will.

There was a slim chance my strong blood magic would be able to burn the werewolf virus from my body if I did get bitten—I'd heard of it happening before—but I was certainly not going to bank on that. My best defense was silver.

While I finished loading the magazine, I told Malcolm what I'd sensed from John West at the art museum the night before.

He was justifiably troubled. "We knew he was strong, but from what you're saying, West might not just be a member of the harnad. He might be its leader."

"I'm starting to think that too. In that case, he could draw on the power of the other members to enhance his own blood magic."

"Not someone you'd want to have to face."

I snorted. "No kidding."

I went back upstairs to make coffee and toast an english muffin, then returned to the basement to look through my blood magic books for any more references to the Kasten. Other than the one I'd shown Malcolm yesterday, I didn't see any more mentions of the box, though a few of the books described other objects of power with similar characteristics. I made some notes on those, hoping I'd learn something that might help me better understand what the Kasten was—if indeed that's what had been in Betty's library—and what it might be able to do. Malcolm worked on his masking spells in the work area.

Shortly before lunch, Natalie texted that she was looking through the last of the papers in the desk. We made plans for me to come over later in the afternoon to look at the letters she'd found from John West, once she'd had a chance to look through the rest of Betty's files.

By two o'clock, I was bleary-eyed and my back was killing me. I leaned back in my chair for a few minutes and watched Malcolm jump in and out of his bolt-hole crystals.

I was reaching for another book when it felt like something kicked me in the head and I fell over. My chin hit the table and I bit my tongue. I ended up on the floor, staring up dazedly and tasting blood.

As the ringing in my ears faded, I could hear Malcolm calling my name. "What the hell was that?" he demanded. "I felt a surge of magic, and then you fell out of your chair."

I tried to think, but my brain was fuzzy. "I don't know. It almost felt like my house wards broke, but they're fine." I frowned. "Did someone try to get past my wards?"

"That wouldn't have affected me," he pointed out. "The only wards I've been working on—"

"—Are at Natalie's house," I finished. "Did someone just break Natalie's house wards?" I struggled to my feet, reaching for my phone. My call to Natalie went straight to voice mail. I didn't bother to leave a message.

"We've got to get to Natalie's house," I said. "Right the hell now. Can you jump there?"

Malcolm shook his head. "No, but I can get there a lot faster than you. Meet you there." He vanished.

I took thirty seconds to cram my blood magic books back into the cabinet. Then I grabbed my phone, my bag, and my gun on the way out the door.