Page 78 of Secret Shifters Next Door

Siobhan nodded. “It took some digging, and a lot of questions. I’ll be honest, I don’t usually get involved in the issues of other supernatural beings. This spell, though? It intrigued me. I wanted to know who had created and cast something so singularly interesting.”

“Interesting?” Steff blurted out. “We might all die. Is that interesting?”

Siobhan looked him steadily in the eye. “Honestly, yes.”

Steff looked nonplussed and closed his mouth, deciding he didn’t want to ask any more dumb questions.

Siobhan continued. “There is an old warlock in the north woods of Michigan I have sporadic contact with, but he has an almost encyclopedic memory when it comes to witch culture and history. I gave him your physical description and a detailed recounting of the spell she cast. Almost immediately, he gave me a name. Emiladia Wardlow.”

From within her robe, she extracted a piece of paper. She unfolded it and set it on the table for us to see. It was a photocopied image of a painting. It looked old, maybe from the sixteen or seventeen hundreds. The woman in the painting was young and lovely, dressed in clothing that had been fashionable then. Staring out at us was the face of Emily Heath.

“Holy shit,” Blayne whispered, holding the paper up to examine it closer.

“She was the youngest daughter of the Wardlow clan. The clan had been working with a splinter group of dragon shifters. Something had happened, and they were slowly going feral. The Wardlow clan was trying to develop a new spell that could hold off the process, maybe even cure them from going feral.”

“It seems, the process took too long. One day, while Emily was away in a neighboring valley collecting medicinal and magical herbs and roots, the dragons succumbed to the feralization. They attacked the clan’s small village.” Siobhan swiveled her eyes to me, and said, “It was a complete and total destruction. Men, women, children, babies, all of them. Emily returned some hours later and found that everyone she knew, everyone she had ever cared, ever loved, had been murdered, mutilated, partially devoured?—”

“Okay. We get it,” I said as shame and guilt tried to bear down on me and crush me.

Siobhan raised an eyebrow. “Obviously, Emiladia was… distraught, to say the least. She became known in most Wiccan circles for her robust and unflagging hatred for shifters, especially dragon shifters. It was part of the reason my friend knew exactly who I was looking for. Her hatred for your kind was without equal.”

I buried my face in my hands. I hadn’t thought I could feel bad for Emily. This story changed that. A group of dragon shifters had taken everything she loved. If a witch had come to Lilly Valley and killed all my friends, Harley, and the girls, took everything I cared about? Could I have done the same thing she did? Would I become some shifter vigilante scouring the world, hell-bent on killing every witch I found? I wasn’t sure, but I now understood her hatred, especially for dragon shifters. Most hunters had something similar happen in their background. Itmade it more understandable. I’d still destroy them if they came near my family, but it didn’t make me any less empathetic.

“That’s pretty much all I know.” Siobhan turned to Miles. “I’ll assume our dealings are done for now?”

Miles, who looked like he might be sick after hearing the story, nodded. “Yeah. If I need you again?—”

“I’llallowyou to find me,” Siobhan said and swept from the room, leaving the thick scent of magic in her wake.

“Harsh stuff,” Steff said, rubbing his face.

“Yeah. No fucking wonder she wanted us all dead,” Blayne said. “How does this help us, though? Does it?”

“It helps us get inside the heads of the hunters. We know how determined they all are,” I said. “If all of them have something like that in their past, some stupid ass feral shifter did something like that, they’ll die like a dog on a bone. These won’t be guys who’ll shit their pants as soon as they see us shift. It does help,” I said.

I stood to go. As I grabbed the door handle, Miles asked, “You going home?”

I nodded. “I have a lot to think about.”

Without another word, I stepped out and walked to my car. The drive home was a total blur. I almost missed the turn into the neighborhood. I nodded at Terry as I pulled into the driveway. He was sitting in his sedan, keeping watch on the house. There was so much going on in my head that I almost didn’t notice the smell of food when I stepped into the house. I closed the door and sniffed the air. A wave of nostalgia swept across me at the scent.

I hadn’t smelled that in close to twenty years. It was almost exactly like my mom’s stew. How the hell? My stomach roared out, rumbling so loud that Harley heard it from the kitchen. She peeked around the corner, saw me, and smiled.

“Hey. I was working on dinner.”

“I can tell.” My voice was thick with emotion. “How did you get my mom’s recipe? It smells just like hers. Wait, how the hell did you even know about her stew?”

Harley grinned. “I prodded Steff for information. He knew very little, so I took what he said and did my best. I wanted to make you happy.”

In that instant, looking at her, food was the last thing on my mind. I walked toward her and said, “Put it on low, so it doesn’t burn.”

Harley saw the look in my eyes and did exactly what I said. Before she could get out of the kitchen, I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. I gently eased her onto the bed and pulled my shirt off.

Harley looked at me and smiled as she unbuttoned her pants. “What do you think you’re doing, mister?”

After I stripped my pants down, I looked at her and growled, “I’m going to show you how hungry I really am.”

I was on her in a second. The desperation of my dragon surged within me, making things move faster. There was no foreplay here. Just lust and desire. I kissed her hard, sliding my tongue along hers. I slipped my hand down to her breast and took her nipple between my fingers, drawing a gasp from Harley. Our kiss deepened as I lifted her off the bed, wrapping my arms around her.

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