Arcane Magic (Stella Mayweather Series) (4 page)

"Hey." Gage's reply was warm and smooth.

"Hey, yourself. What have I said about your wolves taking naps on my porch?" I asked, staring at the prone man. Edging backwards, and away from him, I glanced across the street. Gage's truck was parked in the driveway and there was a light on in his living room, indicating he was home.

"I don't recall that," replied Gage. "I do remember an angry note, however, about peeing on your porch."

I remembered that too. Boy, was I cross! Especially, since it wasn't like they weren't as house-trained as their human selves. Every werewolf claimed he could keep a strong grip on that courtesy, even when down on all fours. Not only that, but the wide expanse of woodland surrounding my house would do just fine as the furry beasts' community toilet. Fortunately, that incident was never repeated, and my porch was scrubbed clean in its entirety the very next day. Two pretty chrysanthemum bushes were also planted, flanking the porch base, which I assumed was their peace offering and apology.

"Well, now, I have one of your pack taking a snooze on my porch." Since Gage
knew of my predicament and was close by, I didn't hesitate to retrace my steps, stretching one foot out to nudge the sleeping wolf as I expressed my displeasure to Gage.

"My pack are all here at the Loup tonight," Gage told me, adding, "area meeting."

I frowned. "I thought you were home. Your light is on and the truck is parked there."

"Took my motorcycle. Forgot about the lights."

I nudged the man again with my toe and he didn't move. "Another meeting?" I asked, waiting for the man to stir. He didn't and I felt my heart rate increasing. Something was wrong with the man. What if he were unconscious and needed medical help?

"Just one pleasure of rising in the ranks." Some shouting erupted and I heard the rustle of fabric in my ear as Gage probably pressed the phone to his shirt while shouting something in response. It didn't sound polite. "Like I said, everyone's here. At least, I think they all are. Maybe someone ducked out. You recognise your visitor?"

"Nope. Thought you might know. Looks tall, white, with dark red hair and a beard."

"Don't recall any bearded redheads." Gage paused. "You sure it’s a wolf?"

"Yep, I can sense it, but there's something..." I trailed off as I nudged the man with my foot one more time. Of course, that was what was "off" about him. The scent of otherness was mixed with something most unpleasant, something decaying.

The man at my feet wasn't taking an impromptu nap.

He was dead.

"Stella?"

"He's dead," I blurted. "Oh, crap, Gage, this werewolf is dead. On my porch!" Taking a step backwards, I leaned against the railings and jumped, spinning to scan my surroundings. I'd been so focused on my annoyance at a minor infiltration of my property that I barely thought to look around until now. With the phone still pressed to my ear, I cautiously began to survey my immediate surroundings. The wards weren't giving off any alarms, so that was good, plus, I was protected wherever I stood. Another step off the porch, however, and the wards guarding the house would diminish. I turned warily, half-expecting something or someone to jump out at me right before I faced it or them, but there was nothing. The woods remained still in the half light and the air seemed very silent.

"Dead?" repeated Gage, like he didn't quite believe what I just said.

"Definitely dead," I confirmed, not that I planned on getting close enough to feel for a pulse. I could tell from where I was standing. Just in case I wasn't being clear enough, I added slowly in a panicked voice, "There's a dead werewolf on my porch."

"Go inside," Gage's voice
became thick and urgent, accented by the heavy thud of his footsteps as he yelled out orders to his pack. "Stella, go inside right now and lock your door. I'll be there in a minute or two. Stay on the line until I get there."

"Okay." My voice sounded like a squeak as I bounded up the steps, leaping over the dead man's legs, and pressing myself against the front door with my keys rattling in my hand. Without bothering to insert them into the lock, I simply ran my hand over the mechanism, feeling it spring open as the magic recognised me. Pushing inside, I flipped on the lights and simultaneously rammed the door shut, relocking it as fast as I could. "Gage, are you there? I'm inside," I said into the phone.

"No, ma'am," came a different voice. "This is Jay. Gage will be with you soon. He just took off. Said I had to stay talking to you until he gets there."

"Okay," I mumbled as I peeked through the window in my living room. The dead man still lay there alone. Well, at least, he had my groceries for company, I realised with a sigh. Not that it mattered. Corpses usually put me off my food… a little. Scant seconds went by when a large wolf burst from the undergrowth and appeared at the foot of the steps, slowly ascending as its nostrils flared. The wards allowed his entrance.
Gage
. Several more wolves appeared behind him. Some looked familiar, but it was hard to make out their markings in the advancing darkness. I watched as Gage approached the body, circling it, and sniffing. Part of me was ready to leap from my skin if the body twitched, but this was no horror movie; this was real. Just in case... I looked behind me, my hand poised on the door handle, half expecting to find a psycho in the house and ready to race outside if there were. There was no one, but that didn't stop my heart thumping… not one bit.

I told Jay that Gage had arrived and he acknowledged that, remaining on the line, although silently. As I continued to watch Gage pace and nudge, traversing the length of the porch, his
ears and eyes alert, I began to wonder about the dead wolf's identity. If everyone had been at the meeting, this werewolf wasn't a member of the local pack. If he weren't from Gage's pack, I wondered, what would bring him to my house? Assuming he was alive when he stepped onto my porch, was it just a coincidence that he died here? Was he looking for a witch? Or me? Of course, I couldn't discount his two-sided nature. He could have been looking for Gage. It wouldn't be the first time someone unfamiliar with Shadow Wood Lane mixed up our two houses.

I refocused on Gage just as he crouched down, the wave of magic sliding over him while his fur receded and his bones reshaped. Rather than watching his transition, I turned away and went to the bathroom, retrieving a towel just as a knock sounded on the door. I opened it, keeping my eyes firmly above the waist as I handed him the towel, which he gratefully took with a nod, simply wrapping it around himself. I handed the phone to him and he spoke to Jay for a moment before hanging up and giving it back to me.

"Where did the rest of them go?" I asked, noticing the absence of the other wolves.

"They're looking for a scent," he told me matter-of-factly. "He's definitely not one of ours and he's gotta be from somewhere."

"You don't know him at all? I thought maybe he got our houses mixed up. Maybe he was on his way to see you when whatever happened to him... happened," I finished weakly. I peeked past Gage's broad shoulders to check that, yes, the dead man was still there. "It seems to be the most likely explanation."

"I thought the same thing at first."

I frowned, trying not to notice his chest. Had Gage gotten broader? More muscular? "And now you don't?" I asked, blinking. Now was not the time to admire Gage's considerably toned physique.

"Nope. He was here for you," Gage said with absolute certainty. Cold fear washed through me and I gulped, stumbling backwards, away from the door, and also the corpse. Looking stricken, Gage reached for me, wrapping one warm hand around my elbow as he stared down at me with concerned eyes, despite an oddly wolfish appearance. Their irises always seemed to settle last, and his were still elongated and flecked with amber gold. "I didn't mean like that. At least, I don't think he was here to harm you. He's not armed in any way. Come see."

"No, thanks." I stayed behind Gage as he moved, trying to ignore any humour that a man wearing only a bath towel was defending me. "My wards let him onto the porch, so he couldn't have meant me any harm," I decided, relieved to relocate the rational part of my mind again. "But how do you know he was here for me?"

"There's something you should see." Gage released me as he turned away, and I couldn't help noting the fine way his muscles moved as he returned to the dead body. He stooped to the ground, the towel sliding back to reveal one powerfully muscular thigh,
twice the width of mine; yet his grace as he moved was unsurpassed. He manipulated the dead man's outstretched hand for a moment, then stood, returning with a slip of paper, which he passed to me.

"What's this?"

"There's a scrap of something with your name on it. See here?" Gage tapped the inked letters. "Says ‘Stella May.’ I'll bet the rest of your name got torn off."

"It feels like an envelope. It's too thick to be paper." I turned it over, but there was nothing, not even ink smudges, never mind a fragment of letter-weight paper concealed within it. "I wonder what he was delivering."

"More important is this question," said Gage, as we looked down at the corpse, "who killed him before he could deliver it?"

Chapter Four

"No one knows who he is? Really?" I flopped onto the couch in Gage's living room, opposite a now fully-clothed Gage, and threw my hands upwards. "How can he be totally unknown?"

"Believe me, I had every single pack member troop past his body, taking a good look at his face, and sniffing his scent," said Gage, setting two cups of coffee on the low table between us. "And not a single one could recall ever meeting this guy."

I couldn't argue with that. I watched from the relative safety of my living room as every available pack member did exactly as Gage said. I knew many of them well enough to wave to — and had done so — although some were friendlier than others. The only member who did not stop by was Annalise, but she had an excuse. After just arriving home from the hospital with the baby, Beau took the time to come inside and show me photo after photo of chubby, dimpled cheeks and tiny fingers and toes. The few pack members out of town were sent the dead wolf’s photo by text message, but reply after reply could not identify him.

"Either no one knows him at all, or someone is lying," deduced Gage, relaxing while resting his arms across the back of the couch. His shirt buttons strained at the effort. "What?" he said, catching me looking at him.

"You've gotten bigger," I replied.

"Been working out," said Gage. With a grin, he raised his forearms and flexed his biceps.

"So I see," I said, trying not to let my temporary awe slip into my tone. It wouldn't do to let Gage grow big-headed, or think anything untoward of my observance.

"Let me get you a tissue for that drool," he joked, tossing a box of tissues towards me. I caught them and made them disappear. Seconds later, they reappeared a couple of inches above his head and dropped. I laughed as he jumped. The box tumbled onto his shoulder and he grabbed it, tossing it onto the table with a shake of his head. "Okay, witch. Back to the subject. I prefer to think that none of my pack is a liar, but I can't count it out. I'll do some asking around. We'll find out who this guy is."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meanwhile, you don't worry one bit. So, he was delivering a message to you. Could be anything. Could be nothing to do with supernatural business. Could be totally innocent."

"Could be I won the lottery and he was here to personally inform me?" I asked, a touch sarcastically.

Gage grinned. "Could be. What would you do if you won?"

"Fix my house." I had a never-ending list of things to fix around the house and Gage often kindly helped with many such tasks. Truth was, I was pretty tired of doing repairs. For once, I wanted to return from my vacation without finding a leaking window, a busted pipe, or some other calamity.

"I'd go to Hawaii and surf. I've always wanted to try."

"Hawaii sounds better than house repairs."

"Anything sounds better than house repairs." Gage picked up his mug and sipped. "Listen, I really don't want you to worry about this, okay?"

"How can I not? There's a dead man on my porch," I said with a very pointed look.

"And the sheriff is one of ours, so he'll look into the relatives too. Maybe he'll get a hit on one of those police databases."

"You think this man is a criminal?"

"I don't know what to think, except you said yourself, he didn’t intend to do you any harm, otherwise he wouldn't have been on your porch. Your wards wouldn't have allowed him."

"It's the dead bit that really worries me. How did he die?"

"Asphyxiation, but it’s not obvious how. There're no ligature marks, but his eyes show the usual symptoms. He's a big guy. I don't see anyone overpowering him, unless he was already incapacitated somehow."

"You are really, really bad at giving reassurances."

"I made you hot chocolate though."

"And I appreciate it."

"Do you want to take Annalise's room for the night? Her bed isn't made up, but it will only take me a minute. It's no trouble," Gage asked, waving away my objection. "Or I can stay at yours if you want someone in the house. Annalise made me promise to watch over you, and for you to call if you needed anything, but I told her I had you covered."

"Well..." Funnily enough, I wasn't happy about the idea of going home alone anymore than I was about staying the night at Gage's house. What if another messenger dropped dead on my doorstep? Even worse, what if the elusive assailant planned to return? There were too many worrying “what ifs” for me to feel comfortable enough to sleep soundly. "Can you stay in my spare room?" I asked quickly, before I talked myself out of it and into a fitful night. "Étoile and Kitty's rooms are both free; so you can take your pick."

"Done deal," said Gage. "Truth was, I'd have slept on your porch if you said no, so this just works out better for me. Drink your hot chocolate while I grab a change of clothes and we'll go over there and think nothing more of this until morning." Gage was halfway up the stairs when he leaned over the rail and added, "Grab a DVD, okay? No reason why we can't enjoy the rest of the evening. Can't get any weirder."

"Don't you have to go back to your meeting?" I replied as I checked his DVD collection. Action, adventure, comedy... a few horror movies. I skipped those and pulled out an adventure film that I'd seen in the movie theatre last year and enjoyed. "It sounded important."

"Nope," Gage yelled back. I heard doors open and shut as footsteps crossed the floor and the drawers thumped shut before finding Gage downstairs again, a bag slung over his shoulder. He dropped the bag by the front door, grabbed his cup, taking mine too, and returning them to the kitchen. "We’re all done. Come on. Let's go."

On the way towards the door, I picked up the bath towel Gage borrowed, which was now folded, slipping past him while he flipped off the lights and locked up. It took us less than a minute to cross the space between our homes and enter my living room. I shivered as I stepped onto the porch where the body had lain — where it was now, I didn't know — and closed the curtains to avoid having to look out on the porch. It wasn’t like I could see much besides our reflections in the glass now that night had truly fallen. Gage asked for beer, and I brought him one, along with my wine, as we settled on the couch to watch the movie, the evening cosily reminiscent of many we had enjoyed since our friendship was rekindled. For a long time, we didn't talk.

Just as the movie ended, Gage got a call. Instead of eavesdropping, which was tempting under the circumstances, I took our glasses into the kitchen to rinse. When I returned, he was waiting for me, looking thoroughly unconcerned as he sipped from the bottleneck.

"Any news?" I asked.

"No. The scent trail went cold so we think maybe he came by car. It's easy to lose a scent that way."

"Did they find a car?"

"No. This would be easier if we had a name so we could check the DMV records or local rental agencies. Maybe it got towed or..."

"Someone else moved it," I finished.

"Right. There weren't any keys on the body, so that's a definite possibility."

I took a sip of wine, feeling warmer and more relaxed. The absence of identification and keys was puzzling. I rarely went anywhere without one or the other, and usually both. "Maybe someone doesn't want us to find out who he is."

"They might not have wanted us to find him in the first place. I don't want you to worry again, but maybe your coming home early scared someone away." Gage ejected the DVD and was busy returning it to the box when he added, "There's nothing more we can do today. I'm ready to hit the sack. We'll try again in the morning."

"Okay," I agreed, knowing it was true, but wishing something could have been done. Something, anything, that could have made me more comfortable. "Étoile's room is already made up. I put towels in there too. If you need anything else, help yourself."

"Thanks." Gage moved closer to me, wrapping his arms around me and giving me a squeeze. It seemed so natural to rest my head on his chest and hug him back. I could have stayed there longer, safe and warm as I leached his heat while my eyelids drooped, and his hand rested on my hair, but
after he dropped a kiss atop my head, and wished me goodnight, he was gone.

~

Despite Gage's presence in the house, I still had a restless night. No matter which way I lay, whether I had the covers drawn to my chin or thrown off, and regardless of the amount of stars I conjured to twinkle on the ceiling, I couldn't seem to find a way to stay asleep. All I could think about was the lifeless body, the strange scrap of envelope with my name ripped in half, and the danger that clearly lurked not so far away. I should have been comforted with Gage in the house, but if the powerfully built dead werewolf could be vanquished by a means we didn't yet know, so could my friend.

Of course, I had another layer of protection. My ring from Evan. It was a gift that came with its own special level of magic, a system that was supposed to help me if ever I was in trouble. I could use it... but... would Evan come? The ring, an old custom amongst demonkind, marked me as his, but I wasn't his anymore. So, with all this on my mind, I drifted in and out of sleep, until all of a sudden, it was morning and daylight
streamed through the windows. I could hear a one-sided conversation somewhere, and clattering of pans in the kitchen, so I figured Gage was making breakfast and talking on the phone. My suspicions were confirmed when I found him seated at the table, in jeans and a t-shirt, but barefoot, talking as he ate a bowl of cereal. He hung up abruptly and smiled as I entered.

"Any news?" I asked, trying to hide a yawn behind my fist.

"No, not yet. I was talking to work. Won a big project."

"That's great!"

"It's not exactly the ideal time, but the deadline is long so it's no problem; and they're more than happy for me to work from home. Being area packmaster and holding down a job is no easy feat."

"That's good," I smiled, opening the refrigerator and extracting a bottle of juice. Someone packed my groceries away, which I thought was a nice gesture, especially since I had forgotten all about them. "I'm glad work is going so well for you."

"Speaking of work... can you call your contacts and see if they have heard anything about this missing werewolf? He might have some kind of connection to the witches. If this guy doesn't turn up home soon, someone is surely going to miss him. Maybe someone you know might recall meeting him."

"I can ask. Should I say why?"

Gage paused, his eyes thoughtful. "I'm not sure it should be common knowledge until we know exactly what he was doing here."

"I can't lie to
Étoile. Not just because she's my friend, but also because she's telepathic," I added. "Besides, she's way too smart not to notice something going on."

"You can tell her," Gage decided, "but just so long as she doesn't say anything. Let's try and keep this known to as few people as possible."

I wondered if "as few as possible" included his entire pack, but decided not to call him on it.

Instead, I said, "I'll call her right after breakfast. I should have called her last night, but I didn't think to."

"It was probably the shock. No one thinks straight after finding a corpse," said Gage in a gentle way as he returned to his breakfast.

"All the same, it should have been mentioned."

"She can't get mad at you for it."

"No, I know. I don't have a duty to report this. We're not as organised as your packs. Part of my job is to disperse information like this, but I guess I always assumed it would be alerting witches to witch hunter movements, not this. We haven't even discussed coordinating news with other supes, but maybe we should. So, I'll call
Étoile and ask her to listen out for any information about a missing werewolf."

"I appreciate it. She's got my number. She can call me if she needs anymore details. Or Jay, if it's not too awkward."

I privately thought it might have been. Étoile hadn't mentioned Jay in a long time, and I noticed he studiously avoided bringing up her name last night too. "I'll mention that, thanks."

I waited for Gage to finish his breakfast before we agreed that he would go home and work from across the street, staying on hand if I needed him. Since his house looked over at mine, he would also be able to keep an unobtrusive eye on the place. In
return, I agreed to let him know if I planned on going out. Even though I was uncomfortable with the possibility of danger not so far away, and a big part of me wanted not to be alone, I had to remind myself that I was as safe as could be within my ward-protected home, and didn't need a babysitter. If I needed looking after when anything bad happened to me, I'd be permanently attached to someone else. I couldn't have that kind of life. I wanted my life to be as normal as I could get. With my college classes finished, and still not due back to work at Seren and David's online shop, I could read the Council documents entrusted to me. Some semblance of working would give me the normalcy I craved. I might even learn something pertinent about the demons, or my ancestors.

So, after clearing away our breakfast things and seeing Gage out, I meticulously checked every door was locked and every window secured before moving into the sunroom, which doubled as my office, where I placed a call to
Étoile.