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15. Stranger Danger

My phone rang just as there was a break in the traffic. Sprinting, I swiped the screen with my thumb. "Hey, Mom."

No response.

"Mom?" I made it to my side before a fancy sedan sped by. Slow down, you big jerk. There were pedestrians and cyclists all over around here.

"Darling, why does your voice sound so strange?"

"I was running across the street. All good now," I said, walking the berm on my side of the road.

"That's fine. I wanted you to know that Serena called. That man came in today, made the huge mess, and poisoned her tea. She caught it all on her security cameras, since she knew where to point them. The tea leaves and the surveillance videos have been turned over to the police. No lives were lost."

"That's great. Glad to hear it. She needs to keep an eye out, though. If Calliope tries once, she'll try again." I walked around a guy taking a picture of my mural and went to the back deck.

"Your Uncle John called. He found something of Calliope's in the safe."

"What?" When Calliope disappeared, the first thing we'd done was search for anything of hers I could touch in order to find her, but she'd cleared out her room. Everything, absolutely everything, was gone. The bedroom, bathroom, common areas were scoured clean of her belongings, including furniture. She knew what I could do. She and her demon weren't taking any chances. I'd tried anyway with car seats and door handles but didn't get anything more than a murky afterimage of her.

"Sylvia had kept a framed baby handprint and footprint of each girl in the safe. When I called John about protecting his banking accounts, he checked the safe for some of Syl's jewelry and found the baby things. The poor man is suffering horribly with guilt on top of grief."

"Yeah, I know." I felt so sorry for Uncle John. He was the kindest, gentlest man, and he had to help us hunt down his own daughter. "Can you ask him to get it to me quickly? We don't want him getting into a car accident and the fingerprints burning up." I could try using that new finding spell I'd seen in Sam's grimoire.

"I'll pick it up today and bring it to you. Now, do you remember your Gran talking about a wicche named Bracken?"

"Sure. He's the old alcoholic whose wife and son had to run and hide to get away from him. What about him? And, no, I'm not going to talk his estranged son into giving him another chance."

"Really, Arwyn, that's hardly fair. Your gran got a hold of him and asked him to come after you had that first vision of poisoned tea leaves. He's on his way…"

She was still talking, but I was distracted by the man walking around the side of my gallery and onto my deck. Pocketing my phone, still connected to Mom, I dropped my backpack by the door, freeing up my hands.

"This is private property, sir. You're trespassing."

"It's a business," he said, still moving toward me.

Fingers readying a spell, I said, "Yes, but one that's not open yet. You're trespassing on my property, so it's time to go."

"Are you the sea wicche?" He gave me a long perusal. "With that hair, you sure look like one." His smile didn't make it to his eyes. "You're a pretty little thing." He tried to peer into the studio, but I'd had the windows treated for just this reason. I didn't want randos from the gallery to snoop in my studio. "Anybody else around or are you on your own?"

"Haven't you heard about sea wicches?" I took a step toward him and could tell he wasn't expecting it. He liked scaring women, liked hurting them. "We're well known for taking lives and stealing souls. Are you sure you want to be standing here right now, leering at me, planning how you'll overpower me?" I smiled my most predatory smile and took another step closer.

Never breaking eye contact, I flicked the fingers at my side and watched the grin slide off his face. His eyes widened in sudden fear. One, two, three, four, five seconds. I took another step forward, my smile widening, before he sucked in a desperate breath, expression now panicked. Had I frozen his lungs for a few seconds? Yes. Yes, I had.

I leaned in, close enough to smell his foul coffee breath and whispered, "Don't fuck with me."

He stepped back and I tilted my head, never breaking eye contact.

"Run along now, before I take an interest in you."

The man turned to take off and ran into a six-and-a-half-foot angry werewolf whose eyes were bright gold. Declan grabbed my would-be rapist by the neck with one muscular arm, picking him up off the deck. I couldn't see it, as he was facing away from me, but given the sudden scent, I'd guess the man had just soiled himself.

Declan gave him a disgusted look. "Tough guy."

"She's—she's a witch," he wheezed around Declan's grip.

Declan nodded. "And I'm something far worse. You should do what the lady says. Run and never come back." He threw the man off the deck and onto the dirt and rocks along the side of my cannery.

Whimpering in a heap, he slowly got to his feet, looked back at us, and limp-jogged away.

Declan stood at the edge of the deck, arms crossed, watching the man retreat.

"How'd you know to come? And I had that covered. He was leaving before you got here."

"I know. He just pissed me off." When he relaxed his body and turned to me, I knew the creepy guy was gone. Gesturing to my pocket, he said, "Your mom's trying to talk to you."

Oh, shit. I fumbled in my pocket and dragged out the phone. "Hey, Mom. I'm back."

"Is the wolf there?" Her voice was angry, but I was pretty sure she was just worried. Probably.

"His name's Declan."

"I don't care about his name. Did he get rid of that man?"

"Actually," Declan began, moving closer and sitting on a bench. His werewolf hearing meant he always heard both sides of a phone conversation. "Your daughter already had it covered. All I did was shove him along."

"Your grandmother and I will bolster your wards. Men like that shouldn't be able to get anywhere near you. Do you have cameras up and running?"

Declan glanced up, looking for cameras.

"You know I do, Mom, but I did have it under control."

"Gran and I will be right over." And she hung up.

Slipping my phone back in my pocket, I sat down next to Declan, bumping his shoulder with mine. "I really am fine."

Nodding slowly, he wrapped an arm around me. "I know." He patted his chest with his free hand. "Got my heart racing when I saw him walk around the gallery. We were standing near the road, Natsuki explaining her vision, and I got a bad feeling. I turned, saw him, and just started running." Shaking his head, he added, "I didn't even tell them where I was going. Kenji was midsentence and I sprinted away."

Resting my head on his chest, I said, "Thanks."

"No problem. You're getting more creeps than I would have expected. The place isn't even open yet."

"Yeah," I sighed. "I've been living like a hermit for so long, I guess I was hoping it wouldn't still be a problem."

"What wouldn't be? And did you know your gloves are still off?"

I stared down at my bare hands and then watched Declan wrap his warm one around one of mine. It was nice. "My mom was probably more panicked than she'd normally be because I've attracted a certain kind of attention from certain kinds of men since I was quite small."

Declan pulled me closer to him.

"They were always trying to lure me away or just straight up snatch me. Because of that, defensive magic was the first thing Mom and Gran taught me. The first time I remember, a man took me before anyone saw."

"First time?" Declan growled. "How many times has it happened?" His eyes were lightening again.

"A few. Anyway, this man clapped his hands around the back of my neck and over my mouth. I dropped into a vision of all the other little girls he'd taken, raped, and killed. When I woke up, I was in the back of his van. Windows blacked out. Duct tape over my mouth and around my wrists. And he was unbuckling his belt."

Declan's hand clutched mine, but he stayed silent.

"My hands were tied behind my back. I needed my hands, but I tried to throw every spell I could think of anyway. I was so scared. I started kicking. Screaming behind the tape. He liked that."

Feeling a jab, I drew my hand away. Declan's hands now had long, sharp claws at the tips.

Blowing out a breath, he shook out his hands and they went back to normal. "Sorry. I'm very angry." He cleared his gravelly throat. "I know there's nothing I can do about something that happened when you were a child, but I want to very badly."

"It's okay," I said, patting his hand. "It has a good ending. After I started kicking, the back doors of the van flew off and there was Mom, like an avenging angel. The man screamed, falling out of the van, curling in on himself and cradling his junk. She grabbed me, spelled the tape so it fell away, and stalked back to our family party on the beach."

"Tell me she ripped off his cock."

"If not off, it was severely damaged."

Declan grunted his approval.

"Anyway, the van was in the beach parking lot, near some bushes, probably where he was going to dump my body when he was done. The next lesson with Mom and Gran was how to get out of duct tape, rope, any binding. So, I know my mom might have sounded more angry than concerned on the phone, but creepy men are a real trigger."

"As they should be."

I smiled, nestling in. "True, but even though she knows I can take care of myself now, she and Gran are racing over. They need to assure themselves I'm not tied up in the back of a van again."

He ran a hand up and down my arm. "You've been dealing with predators all your life?"

I nodded. "Part of why I like to keep to myself. I was also figuring that I'd aged out of the pedophiles' preferred victim pool."

"There are plenty of predators who are just fine with adult women," he growled.

"Yeah, there's that." I wiggled my fingers. "So, I have lots of magic, cameras all around the building, wards that are about to be reinforced by Mom and Gran, and a werewolf down the road."

"Not to mention a selkie guardian that can go get Dad when you need him. Hey," he said, leaning away from me to get a better look, "why aren't you wearing the earrings? They're a direct line to him."

"I know, and after today, I will. I just worried that if I wore them, he could always be listening in, which made me super uncomfortable."

"You got to figure he's a powerful, important guy, right?" Declan said. "He doesn't have time to eavesdrop while you paint, bake, chat with Cecil. He's got stuff to do. Think of the earrings like a buzzer. They get his attention so he can shift his focus to you."

"Hmm. But when we're messing around, stay away from my ears. I don't need my dad hearing any of that."

Declan chuckled and I felt him relax. "Agreed. And whenever possible, before any serious messing around, just take them off."

"Good call."

He kissed the top of my head. "Your mom just parked." Standing up, he pulled me with him. "I'm going to get back to that meeting now."

"Tell Kenji and Natsuki sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry about." Taking my hand, he led me to the railing. "Put your hand out. You'll need a reset in a minute." He cradled my face in his big, warm hands, running his nose over my hair, across my temple, before tilting my head up and kissing me softly, thoroughly.

At the clearing of a throat, we broke apart.

"Ladies." He stepped away, his gaze moving between me and the water.

I shot a stream of seawater up, ran a hand through it, and then shook off the droplets. "Hey, Mom, can I have some gloves?"

"I'll leave you three to it. I need to get back to a meeting. It's always good seeing you," he said and then took off at a jog.

Mom opened her bag with a tsk and then handed me a fresh pair of gloves. "I don't like him."

"Hush, Sybil," Gran said. "I like him just fine."

"Besides," I said, "did he not just come at a run to help me?"

"Well, if you're going to have a werewolf lurking around, you might as well put him to use," she said. "Now, let's get to work. Your Gran and I were discussing this on the way over. Your wards are very strong already, but they were built before you were a member of the Council. The Three have a power all our own. We'll build the next ward together."

I wasn't sure there was a ward strong enough to protect me, but it was worth a shot.

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