Page 34 of War Games

“Lead the way.” I looked at Dirk again, the poor young man shaking his head still at my inappropriate joke. “Dirk, you get to follow. Let’s go.”

“All right. Let me put this back in the truck.” Dirk left before us. I made no move, waiting for him to reappear, so Olivia was kept there as well. She didn’t seem bothered by the wait, though.

“Now we’re ready,” I said politely, now less intrigued thanks to the potential connection and more interested in just what she did.

“Great, we’ll start here, then!” With a smile, she waved for us to follow her into the kitchen. “This is where I prepare bottles for the babies. I use a few materials you would find interesting, curious, or suspicious, depending on what you’re looking for. Everything I feed the animals here, I also use my potion training and the correct herbs from my garden to enhance to help them gain weight or heal or grow, all depending on what they need. I don’t brew everything here in the kitchen since these sorts of potions can go wrong, but I keep portions of the ingredients here for an emergency supply.”

“Wait, so everything you do as a witch is for these animals?” I looked around, opening some cabinets she pointed to, seeing regular herbs I knew the names of and some things I had never thought of being used in potions. I wasn’t a witch, though. This was out of my knowledge base. Dirk came up behind me and took a couple of pictures.

“I’ll send them to Zuri later if we have to,” he explained to me over my shoulder.

“To answer you, Miss Leon, yes. I was born with a small skill for plant related magic, helping them grow and such. I was educated in healing magic. I combined those to start theherb garden I needed for potion training from my mother. She wanted me to be a doctor. I wanted to be a veterinarian.”

“How did that go?”

“I haven’t spoken to her since I was twenty and told her I was going to vet school.” Olivia shrugged. “She cut me off. I took out student loans instead and never looked back. Got my degree and went to work with animals.”

“And how did you end up out here?” Dirk asked, frowning.

I knew he couldn’t smell any lies because I couldn’t either. She was being completely truthful.

“I realized that it was hard getting away with doing magic to save people’s animals while other people were watching. When I rescued a fawn near its mother, who had been killed by a car, I took all of my savings, bought this place, and started the rescue. My old coworkers supported me and helped me bring in donations, and if I need more complicated surgeries, I reach out to them for that help.”

“I have to ask… how do you pay for it?” I knew businesses were expensive, and you had to rely on them to make a profit if you didn’t have wealth. This was a non-profit animal rescue. She was only spending money.

“Donations help. I have feeds of some enclosures that are live and allow people to watch and such; those bring in a constant small stream of money. I just make sure not to do anything in front of those enclosures. I’ll point them out when we go near them. Beyond that, my mother cut me off, not my father, and they divorced when I was young. He passed while I was in vet school and left an inheritance…” Olivia looked at a small cage where those opossum joeys were bundled up and sleeping. I could smell them. “He loves animals, too. I fell in love with them when I spent my summers with him. With the proper investments and everything from him, I really only collectdonations so other people can feel good about themselves when they donate.”

“I’m sorry to hear about your father.” I swallowed. It was upsetting to hear how she could lose her supportive father so young, yet mine, sometimes a complete asshole, was still kicking. It also made me jealous. Not because I wanted Hasan dead but because everything was so complicated between us.

“It happened ten years ago,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t think too much about it.” She started moving toward the back door. “Let’s do the entire tour.”

Dirk and I did the tour, including spaces she didn’t let any inspectors into, protected so she could work on potions and spells to help the animals she took care of. While witches were out to humanity, they weren’t well regulated. Some were known and open about it, while many were reasonably cautious. Olivia, it seemed, only told a couple of coworkers at her old vet office, and they agreed with her choice to come out onto her own property to work.

We met everything—coyotes and foxes, hawks, owls and pigeons, badgers and groundhogs. Even exotic things people had tried to keep as pets, like one tiger prowling in its large enclosure, which had a pool built in for it.

“Shakir is a lovely male, but no, I don’t go in the enclosure with him the way I can with many of the other animals,” she said as the tiger prowled closer. “I’ve been asked if I can rescue more big cats and other large predators, but I only have a couple of enclosures right now for them, and once you get into a lot of big cat rescuing, you become a dedicated big cat rescue… That’s a lot of work I’m not ready for right now. I like saving the local animals, too, and I would lose that or need to hire more people to help.”

“I don’t need any rescuing,” I said lightly, smiling as the tiger bared its teeth at me and Dirk. “Promise.”

“Thank you.” Olivia chuckled. “As for my workers, if I haven’t explained… I have a couple of ranch hands who come out and tend the land and feed animals with me in the mornings. You missed them today. Fully human, no magic. They think I develop supplements to give the animals, like nutrition smoothies.” She reached forward, letting Shakir sniff her hand through the fence. He was pleased by this move, then walked away, leaving us alone. “This is also the end of the tour.”

“Thank you for showing all of this to us,” I said, meaning every word. I had expected a lot of things on this trip with Dirk, but what Olivia showed me was nothing like I had expected.

“Any time! I mean it. If the werewolves that you know want to visit, I’ll welcome them. I have no reason to buy into any of the nonsense other supernaturals get up to, always bickering with each other.” Olivia stared at Shakir as he went to soak in his pool. “We’re all on the same earth. We should be helping each other.”

I could only nod. Her sincerity was beautiful.

“I’ll let you two get back to the house on your own and give you some time to look around alone; just don’t go in the enclosures. Some of these animals are escape artists, and they are here to heal or to live out their lives.” Olivia gave a tiny bow, something she clearly didn’t do often enough, and walked away.

“Wow,” Dirk said. “I wasn’t expecting any of this.”

“Me neither…” I chuckled. “So, what happened between you and Landon?”

“Right now?” He was stunned by my audacity, but that only made it funnier to blindside him while in this beautiful piece of paradise on earth.

“Yeah, why not?” I smirked.

“He asked me to marry him when we get back. I said yes,” Dirk answered quickly. “We’re going to do it at the courthouse. He wants that piece of paper, and I want it, too. Something realand tangible. A real promise that we’ll do everything together from now on, and if we’re not together, then we’ll always think about each other. Wear the rings when we can and everything.”

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