Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic Read online

  “I still do.”

  Right, just what every girl wanted to hear from her next lover. “You need to work on your pillow talk.”

  “I don’t generally talk while anywhere near a pillow.”

  “Here’s a hint. Try flattery. It’ll get you nearer the bed.”

  “I haven’t needed it yet.”

  “Well, then, have it your way.” I turned to exit the room. He was insufferable. Why the hell did I get so hot and bothered at the mere thought of spreading my legs for him? Damn it.

  He called after me, laughing. “You’ll still bake, right?”

  Desmond hardly ever laughed, and now he was compelled to laugh at me. I didn’t answer. I would have liked to swear to never bake another cupcake for him ever again, no matter how childish it sounded. Except there was no way I could uphold a self-imposed injunction of that sort for more than an hour or two. If there was good chocolate in the house, at some point, I would bake.

  I might be able to walk away from sexy, dangerous shifters, but chocolate had me at its beck and call. Of course, having not slept with Desmond yet made walking away easier. I had a feeling that if I knew what I was missing, I wouldn’t have any more willpower than I did with baked goods.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I was never more sure of who I was, than when making a trinket. Or, in this case, a necklace. My hands moved of their own volition. My fingers surfed the glimmers of magic in the found items, bringing them together to create a new whole.

  With my thoughts filled with the urgent need to protect Mory — to protect Rusty’s sister as I hadn’t protected Sienna — from her own magic and the harmful magic of others, I wove the fine gold chain through the thicker links of the silver necklace. I clipped off the clasps and soldered the ends together with the extra metal. Then I snipped the large man’s wedding ring off my own necklace and linked it to Mory’s necklace with a soldered piece from one of the gold bangles. I’d used this ring, combined with some of Sienna’s hair, for a seek spell in the very first magical object I’d knowingly created. I hoped that the ring still held enough of Sienna’s magic that it would help inoculate the necklace, and therefore Mory, against my sister.

  What if I’d done this for Sienna six months ago? Would she still have dabbled in black magic? If yes, then would it have rooted in her so deeply that it created … whatever she now was? A black witch who cared for nothing beyond the accumulation of power?

  I remembered Mory lying across me in the alley, the life slowly being pulled from her by a force I couldn’t see or feel. Thinking about shielding her from that magic, I began to bend and shape one of the thin gold bangles into a small cage of sorts with the wire cutters.

  “Excuse me,” a snobby female voice said. “What are you doing to the alpha’s coffee table? And are those my gold bangles?”

  I looked up, peeved that my focus had been pulled away. I’d dragged the coffee table to the front living room window so I had a view of the river, and the bridges, and Portland beyond. I’d spread my cobbled-together-jewelry making bits and tools on what appeared to be the oldest towel to be found in the linen closet. The towel wasn’t actually particularly old, just dark colored. There’d been a bunch of them, so if I ruined this one, I hoped it would go unnoticed.

  The striking brunette who’d been fawning all over Desmond at dinner last night was looming over me. She looked just as good dressed in some sort of business chic as she had in eveningwear. I felt instantly grubby in my shorts, T-shirt, and pinned-up curls.

  “What are you doing?” she repeated, as if I might be a terribly dense two-year-old about to eat cat poo.

  “How is it your business, Audrey?” Kandy asked. She was stretched out on the couch, eyes closed as if sleeping. I hadn’t even noticed her there. The house was so full of werewolf magic that I didn’t bother to distinguish.

  Oh, shit. This was Audrey? These were probably her now-ruined bangles.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’d be happy to replace these —”

  “I don’t care about some cheap baubles,” she said. “Just what do you think you’re doing here, witch? A spell of some sort? You will not practice magic in this home.”

  “She’s not only a witch. And she has permission.” Kandy, her attitude still deceptively relaxed, shifted half upright on the couch. She had one foot on the floor, one arm propped on the back of the sofa.

  Green — the glow of the shapeshifter magic — rolled over Audrey’s eyes as she finally acknowledged Kandy’s presence in the living room with a turn of her head. “The alpha is not currently in residence —”

  “And you’re not Desmond’s second,” Kandy interrupted, emphasizing her use of McGrowly’s given name.

  “Not yet,” Audrey said. “I’m here at Lord Llewelyn’s request —”

  “Lord Llewelyn, esteemed member of the Assembly, is not alpha here.”

  Audrey squared her shoulders. Her high heels were so spiky they sank into the rug. They looked difficult to fight in. But I assumed that if she was vying to replace Hudson as Desmond’s second, Audrey was an accomplished scrapper, high heels or not.

  I bowed my head back to the half-finished necklace before me. I slipped one of the jade stones imbued with skinwalker magic into the gold cage, then cinched the spokes closed.

  I’d been rolling the jade stone in my hand, thinking of the skinwalker magic … how it rolled up and over the walkers like a cloak. I thought about how that magic would combine with Scarlett’s glimmer in the chains, Sienna’s glimmer in the ring, and Audrey’s glimmer in the bangle to create a cloak of protection for Mory.

  “You will not talk back to me, wolf,” Audrey said, once again interrupting my focus. She and Kandy had continued their argument over my bowed and occupied head.

  Kandy had risen beside the couch. She had some half-healed burns on her arm that I hadn’t noticed before.

  “What are those burns, Kandy?” I asked, completely undercutting the tension and the magic building between the green-haired werewolf and Audrey.

  Kandy glanced at her arms and shrugged. “Stupid spellcurser riding point for the black witch last night.” She curled her lip in Audrey’s direction.

  “Hoyt hit you with one of his silver ball-bearing curses? I thought he ran off.”

  “I run faster,” Kandy said.

  I laughed.

  “If you’re done with the girl talk?” Audrey said.

  “We aren’t,” I said. “And you’re interrupting my work.” I stood. Slowly. A grin spread over Kandy’s face — her predator smile.

  Audrey didn’t step back, but her head pivoted between Kandy and me, now unsure which of us was the bigger threat.

  “Perhaps you could continue this discussion at another time?” I asked, my tone civil.

  “The discussion is about you, witch,” Audrey answered. She had two tones, snooty and snappish. I wouldn’t make her my second. I thought about mentioning this to her — reminding her of Hudson’s charm — but the thought of the handsome werewolf made me sad.

  “The dowser,” Kandy said, correcting Audrey from calling me a witch for the second time. “Is not your concern. She’s an invited guest. The items on the table and in the kitchen have been provided for her.” That wasn’t technically true, but I didn’t want to argue the semantics.

  “I asked,” Audrey repeated, “what she was doing. I expect an answer.”

  Now this was a sticky subject. I wasn’t going to blurt out that I was making a magic necklace, because very few people knew I was capable of such. Audrey obviously wasn’t one of those in the know, and I wasn’t interested in enlightening her.

  “I’m simply tinkering. I’m not going to unleash some spell in your alpha’s home.”

  Audrey turned her green-eyed gaze on me. She scented the air, looking ridiculous enough that I had to fight a smirk. Then she curled her lip toward me. “I don’t like the way your magic smells. Like spicy spring rolls.”

&n
bsp; “I do not smell like —”

  “It’s a good thing you aren’t staying,” Kandy said before I could start an all-out brawl.

  “You have no right to question me.” Audrey had settled on snarling instead of snapping now.

  “I stand as the dowser’s protection. You’re disturbing her —”

  “I’ll question who I want, when I —”

  “Perhaps this dominance display could be postponed or moved to another location? I’m very certain that Desmond would be pissed if you trashed his living room.”

  Audrey and Kandy immediately backed off their aggressive posturing. The mention of a dominance fight was some sort of a deterrent, which made sense. Kandy was tough but didn’t want to be involved in pack politics. Audrey did want to be involved, but if Kandy kicked her ass, she’d lose her chance. I had a feeling Audrey thought out her power plays more thoroughly than that.

  Kandy turned her grin on me. “You could at least have pulled out the knife and threatened her a bit.”

  Audrey looked startled. Her eyes darted over me in a futile search for the afore-mentioned invisible knife.

  “Play nice, Kandy,” I said, “and I’ll make you some cupcakes.”

  “I bought blueberries. You said you wanted to test a new frosting.”

  I smiled. I had wanted to test a blueberry buttercream. “Deal.”

  Audrey looked as if she wanted to spit nails. I turned back to my work.

  “No cupcakes for you,” Kandy hissed over my bowed head. Audrey spun on a high heel and stomped from the room.

  Using another piece of Audrey’s bangle, I soldered the gold cage around the jade stone to the man’s wedding ring. When I was done, it hung off the necklace like a pendant.

  The necklace still felt unfinished, but I wasn’t sure what to add.

  ∞

  I wandered back through the bedrooms looking for Mory. It was after eleven.

  I found the fledgling necromancer leaning against the wall in the hallway, next to the guest room I was occupying. What was interesting was who was currently looming over her, his height even more awkward and gangly next to Mory’s super-petite form. Yep, Jeremy, the teen werewolf himself. The werewolf I’d expressly warned off the necromancer only six hours ago.

  I suppressed a smirk at my amazing ability to manipulate a teenager as I cleared my throat.

  Jeremy flinched, then looked chagrined when I tapped my nose. Yeah, he should have smelled me coming, or heard my footsteps, bare feet and all.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, singsong and ever so sweetly.

  “Talking,” Mory answered, with her regular chin-jut firmly in place.

  I grinned, then dangled the necklace out in front of her. “I made this —”

  “For me?” Mory cried, all her sulky teenaged angst dropped without hesitation.

  “Yes. It’s not going to be as reliable as mine yet. I’ve added to mine for two years.”

  Mory’s fingers fluttered over the necklace but she didn’t touch it. “You’ll add more?” she asked quietly, not looking me in the eye.

  “As I come across them.”

  “Because you just know which are the right ones?”

  “Something like that. It’s not finished. I …”

  Mory cupped her hands around the gold cage pendant and I saw what was missing. The necromancer’s magic. I had to show the necklace who I wanted it to protect.

  “Here, let me put it on you.” I lifted the necklace over Mory’s head. It could loop only once, not three times like my chain, but it still rested about an inch beneath Mory’s collarbone. “I have to seal it with your magic. You okay with that?”

  Mory nodded solemnly. Jeremy took a step back. Smart wolf.

  Having never done such a thing deliberately before, I wasn’t sure of the right way to go about it. I spread my fingers across Mory’s chest, some resting on the necklace and some resting on her upper ribcage. I could feel her fledgling magic. It was dim compared to the powerful beings I was now accustomed to being around. I remembered it being drained from her in the alley, along with her life force. My heartbeat picked up, unsure and anxious.

  “Mory,” I whispered as I called her magic toward, up, and over the necklace. “You know this is just for fun. You don’t go looking for trouble just because you have it.”

  “That guy hit me with a spell in the alley, and —”

  “But this is a different necklace, yes?” I looked for some understanding in Mory’s face.

  The necromancer nodded.

  “It’s a trinket.”

  “A trinket,” Mory repeated.

  “Is Rusty here?”

  Mory glanced over my shoulder at Jeremy and bit her lip. Then she nodded once, quickly. I could feel Jeremy shift behind me, looking warily around. Wolves, even more than most people, didn’t like things they couldn’t see, smell, or hear.

  “Can Rusty understand me?” I asked.

  Mory nodded again.

  I lifted my head so that I was speaking over top of Mory and slightly to the side. “Rusty. You will never harm Mory again —”

  “He won’t,” Mory interrupted. Her words were anxious and rushed. “He didn’t mean it. He —”

  “Never again,” I said. Then I soldered Mory’s magic to the combined magic of the necklace with my own, thus creating a completely new magic — one that would protect Mory from any other magic. Well, any other weaker magic. But, factoring in Scarlett, the skinwalkers, Audrey, and me, it would have to be a high-powered spell and not cast by Sienna … hopefully and in theory. Unless my sister had found a way to fundamentally alter her base magic.

  “No one but you can remove this from around your neck,” I said, running my fingers along the chain.

  “Can I use it to protect someone else, like you did with me?” Mory asked. Her eyes were once again on Jeremy.

  “I wouldn’t,” I answered. “It needs to … get to know you. To accept you. You understand? Like new shoes.”

  “I have to wear it to break it in, to make it mine. Then, maybe?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But let me work on it a couple of more times before that. I’m … I’m not sure how it would react to someone else. I’ve added so much of your magic to it.”

  “Okay.” Mory threw her arms around me — catching me unaware — and gave me a fierce hug. Startled, I felt her magic twirl around me, filling my senses with the taste and smell of toasted marshmallows. My chest constricted. I was going to cry when it was the last thing I wanted to do. I patted Mory’s back and cranked my head to meet Jeremy’s gaze. “We should make lunch, eh?” I asked, my tone overly bright.

  “Sure,” Jeremy answered. His hands were stuffed in his pockets.

  Mory disengaged from me and immediately started showing off the necklace to Jeremy. I headed toward the kitchen, barely keeping my tears at bay.

  “Jeremy’s going to take me to the shifter graveyard later,” Mory called after me.

  “All right,” I said back over my shoulder, but I didn’t stop. “Just ask permission first. Ask Audrey.”

  Jeremy moaned. “Audrey is never going to let us go,” he muttered to Mory. She giggled in response.

  I brushed a tear from my cheek and hoped neither of them noticed. Damn you, Sienna. Damn you. I could feel that intense ache in the flesh of my heart, that knife tip that had been lodged there since I thought Sienna had died.

  Except this was worse. She was still alive and still very willing to hurt whoever stood in her way. Her way toward what, I had no idea, and I’m not sure Sienna really knew either.

  Damn you.

  ∞

  I was all ready to test the blueberry buttercream, then frost the dark chocolate cupcakes I’d made, when Desmond and Kett lumbered into the house. Well, Desmond lumbered, while Kett glided over to the window and took up his still-life position.

  Kandy swiped a finger worth of icing while I was distracted. Audrey jumped to
her feet. She’d been hunched over some sort of paperwork in the dining area, but she had no idea where to place herself when Desmond slumped onto a stool in front of the kitchen island and stole a bare cupcake from me.

  “Don’t eat the paper,” I said.

  Too late. Desmond inhaled the entire cupcake. He reached for a second one. I slapped his hand with my icing-smeared spatula. “I’ll ice one.”

  Audrey lunged for me — her eyes blazing green — and smacked into Kandy like she was a brick wall.

  Desmond licked the icing that had splattered on the back of his hand. “Mmm, good.”

  “Not too sweet?” I asked, ignoring the growling woman attempting to dart around Kandy, who kept sidestepping to block her.

  “You always think it’s too sweet,” the green-haired werewolf said.

  “It has to balance out the cake. More cocoa, maybe?”

  “Just put some on a damn cupcake,” Desmond said. “And calm the fuck down, Audrey.”

  “She … she … smacked you —”

  “She has touched me many times, and I have suffered no damage … other than the need for a cold shower on occasion.”

  All the fight went out of Audrey. She alternated from staring wide-mouthed at Desmond to gawking at me, disbelief etched across her face. Jesus, it wasn’t like I was some hideous monster … wait, maybe that was the problem.

  I frosted a cupcake. Desmond watched my hands intently as I did so.

  “You usually put on more than that,” he said.

  “I’m not done, and I thought you were in a rush.”

  “I can be patient.”

  I laughed. He grinned.

  I got that we were deliberately not talking about something and didn’t push it. The neck and armholes of his T-shirt were stretched out, and he was wearing track pants again. The kind shapeshifters stored in places like the trunks of their cars.

  I passed Desmond the iced cupcake, and frosted a second for Kandy. Then, with only a moment of hesitation, I made a third for Audrey.

  I licked the frosting off the spatula. It was on the edge of being too sweet.

  Desmond watched me with hooded eyes. I grinned, wishing briefly that we were alone with the bowl of icing.