Page 21 of Kin of the Wolf

I squeezed past the tiny sink and under-counter refrigerator and opened a narrow door, wondering if it revealed a closet. No, I’d found the bathroom, a bathroomsmallerthan a closet. There was a tiny corner sink and a showerhead, but was that a composting toilet? I wondered about the plumbing arrangement. Maybe he only had use of the shower and sink when he was at a campground with water hookups. Or… a parking lot with a hose? Since I’d never had an RV or even been camping in one, the workings were nebulous to me.

I closed the door and moved to the table immediately adjacent to the bathroom. In the van, everything was immediately adjacent to everything else.

The built-in padded bench seats were buried under boxes of gear and rusty treasures, with the area underneath the table equally packed. Cabinets and racks filled the wall space, blocking more than one window, and a bicycle was mounted flat to the ceiling, a pedal dangling low enough that I had to duck. Entering the van felt like climbing into a hoarder’s closet. The twin bed was the only place to sit. I perched on the edge of the mattress, stuff piled underneath bumping the backs of my legs, and set the case on the table.

To my lupine vision it had glowed, but to my human eyes it was merely aged ivory, the sides carved with decorative vines, leaves, and flowers, and the wolf head prominent on the lid. The hinges and clasp were small, even delicate, and looked like they wouldn’t keep a determined person from getting inside, but its unpleasant tingle grew into a more jolting electric zap if one tried.

“I’m delighted to have you join me in my abode, my lady.” Duncan bowed, as much as he could in the tight space, and almost clunked a pair of goggles he was wearing on the door to the bathroom. “I see you brought your sexiest attire.” He pointed to the oven mitt.

I removed it and rested it on the table. “I know how much kitchenware turns you on.”

“Quite. I hope you approved of the groceries I brought to replace what I ate.” He peered through the goggles at the case.

“You more than replaced what you ate.”

“As one should do if one hopes to be invited back. With these on, the case glows silver with a blue nimbus.” Duncan tapped the goggles, then pushed them onto his forehead and opened an upper cabinet. He withdrew the magic detector I’d seen before, a boxy device with antennae that reminded me of old-fashioned divining rods.

“It sounds similar to the view I had with my wolf eyes.” I didn’t remember a blue nimbus though.

If that had significance, he didn’t explain it. “I can’t see through the sides to get a gist as to the contents.”

“Are thoseX-raygoggles?”

“Not exactly, but sometimes you can see magical items, at least their blurry outlines, through walls and floors and such. Ialmostwore these when I visited your apartment with my magic detector, but you were already suspicious of me.”

“Yeah, guys who wander into my bedroom with X-ray goggles are extra sus.”

“Indeed.”

“Even as we speak, I’m wondering if I should be wearing a lead apron.” I squinted at him and crossed my arms over my chest. My boobs probably weren’t magical enough to glow through walls or whatever, but who knew. My bloodwasparanormal.

“I’ve already seen you naked.”

“And imprinted it in your memory. Yes, I remember.”

“Since the case itself is magical, I didn’t expect to be able to see through the sides, but it was worth checking.” After removing the goggles, he turned on the magic detector.

It beeped happily, the antennae drawn toward the case.

Since we’d already determined it was magical, I merely raised my eyebrows. Duncan pushed up a hinged lid on the back of the device, something I hadn’t noticed before, and showed me a small window where information was displayed. A header claimed an 87 percent certainty that the case had been made with druidic magic but also gave a 10 percent possibility to shamanic origins. A bullet list included silver, nacre, and Siberian mammoth ivory, as well as a number of metals, including gold, iron, and cobalt.

“Mammothivory?” I asked, assuming those were items present in the artifact.

“Oh yes. It’s quite rare, naturally, but there are preserved specimens available, and people do carve with it.”

“I guess we at least know an endangered species wasn’t illegally poached to make this.”

“I don’t imagine poaching was illegal when mammoths roamed the Earth, no. Getting one meant the village wouldn’t starve that winter.”

“Yeah.” I leaned back. The information was interesting but didn’t tell me much that I hadn’t known. The nacre—that was mother-of-pearl, wasn’t it?—probably lined the inside of the case. And the metals… “The hinges are silver, right? Do you think those other metals are mixed with it?”

“I… think this may be a list of the contents that make up the case but may also be giving us a clue about what’s inside.”

“Metal stuff?”

“Apparently.”

Duncan turned off the detector and grabbed a small tin I’d seen before. He dug a finger into its contents—some kind ofglowing violet gunk the viscosity of lip balm—and rubbed the stuff over his hands. It would allow him to touch the case without being zapped. A better solution than an oven mitt.

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