Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(87)

“What do we do?” he asked Angus. “Cut and run? Or try for Lady Aisling?”

Angus realized they were all looking at him, Tiger included, who folded his arms and waited for his orders. Tamsin remained a fox, the shimmering bond between them as soft as her fur.

Angus tried to find air to speak. “See if we can find Lady Aisling,” he said, his voice grating and hoarse. “If we leave, those guys might return. They can make enough money from these weapons that they’d risk coming back for them.”

“Then the police can catch them and arrest them for the stash,” Zander pointed out. “We’ll be out of it.”

“A stash with Shifter fingerprints and DNA all over it,” Angus said. “Including ours. I doubt my brother was smart enough to wear gloves when handling them. All Shifters were fingerprinted when they were put into Shiftertowns, and about fifteen years ago, Shifter Bureau came by and helped themselves to our DNA. We have to destroy the weapons.”

“And if we can’t?” Zander asked.

“I don’t know.” Angus shrugged tightly. “We have to succeed.”

Tiger gave them a nod. “Angus is right. We stay and destroy them.”

Ben hefted the stone. “All right. Here goes nothing.”

He closed his hand around the stone, chanted a few words Angus didn’t understand, and then the name Aisling.

A breeze blew through the humid air in the clearing, but it was natural, a few clouds rolling overhead.

Angus caught no scent of Fae magic, no sulfur smell of a gate opening between the human world and the Fae’s. When he’d journeyed to Faerie—an experience he wanted to forget—the doorway between worlds had emitted a sharp, acrid odor.

“Nothing is right,” Zander commented after about ten minutes. He’d restored his clothes, except for his coat.

Ben’s chanting died away, and he cleared his throat. He opened his hand and scowled in frustration at the stone on his palm.

“Maybe we have to be in the house for it to work,” Zander suggested. The door to Faerie that Angus and Jaycee had used had opened from the haunted house.

“Jaycee said Lady Aisling told her she could summon her anytime, anywhere,” Ben answered.

“Jaycee can,” Zander said. “I’ll bet Jaycee has to use the stone.”

Ben shook his head. “The Tuil Erdannan are powerful enough to do whatever they want. They don’t have to obey the summons of a talisman. They choose. I bet she hears me just fine, but has no interest in answering.”

Zander turned to Angus. “Options? Besides having Tiger tear the weapons apart. I hate to risk him accidentally blowing himself up. Carly would never let us hear the end of it.”

Angus found his jeans and underwear and pulled them on. “Can we build a big enough fire to burn the trailer down and everything under it? It will create a hell of an explosion, but that will destroy the weapons forever. We disappear and hope the local men don’t describe us well.”

“Shifter Bureau will just round up any Shifters until they find the right ones,” Zander said. “Or make some of them scapegoats—your Shiftertown leader maybe, or all your friends. They’ll figure out you had something to do with it, since they’re chasing you and Tamsin.”

And Ciaran, Angus thought but did not say. Who was safe with Dante for now, but would Dante be able to keep Ciaran safe forever? Worry so vast it was physical pain washed through him. Fucking Shifter Bureau.

Tamsin, still in her fox form, now scampered off into the trees. She came back a few minutes later, stuffing her feet in her sneakers before jamming her baseball cap over her mussed hair.

“Can I try?”

“Sure, why not?” Ben scowled. He tossed her the talisman, which Tamsin caught with agility. “She can ignore you as easily as she can me.”

Tamsin returned to Angus’s side as she examined the talisman. It was a large, uncut amethyst, polished, like the kind sold in New Age stores or souvenir shops. Gold wire twisted around the deep purple stone, glittering even under the clouds that now obscured the sun.

Angus sniffed at it, but he couldn’t discern any scent but Shifter. He supposed Jaycee had possessed it long enough to erase any scent but hers.

“What do I do?” Tamsin asked Ben. “I don’t speak Fae.”

Ben shrugged. “According to Jaycee, just say her name. Lady Aisling. I added polite words, but it looks like they had no effect. Never do, on beings like them.”

Tamsin cocked her head. “What do you mean, beings like them? I thought you said they were some kind of super-Fae. Not as evil as the high Fae.”

“I never said the Tuil Erdannan weren’t evil.” Ben’s onyx eyes sparkled with anger. “When my people were being slaughtered, they did nothing. When the survivors were exiled, they did nothing. My people died off to the last man—me—and they did nothing. Yeah, you could say I have issues with them.”

Tamsin sent him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Ben. Maybe they didn’t know what was happening. We can always ask her.”

“Good luck,” Ben muttered. He turned away and marched to the edge of the trees.

Zander watched him go but didn’t call him back. Tiger said nothing at all, only folded his arms and waited for what would happen next.

Tamsin tapped the talisman a few times and brought it close to her mouth. “Hello, is this thing on?” Tap, tap. “Lady Aisling, this is Tamsin Calloway. You don’t know me, but I’m mated to Angus, who’s a friend of Jaycee’s. I really like her. She’s a lady who knows how to get things done. You met Angus, the growly black wolf. And Tiger and Zander. They’re here too. We have a little bit of a problem we hoped you could help us with. You might not be able to do anything, as it’s a problem very much of the human world, but we would welcome your advice.”