I See You (Oracle 2) Page 7

  I forced myself to relax into the vision, and to ease my grip on my necklace. I’d grabbed it instinctively. I needed to see. I needed to collect information — and to resist the urge to try to thwart the magic channeling into my mind.

  But I knew I couldn’t stop it even if I’d tried. Only acknowledging the moment, then immortalizing it in charcoal would make the vision stop haunting me. It might have been over a year since I’d suffered a full-blown episode, but I still knew that much.

  I stepped forward, quickly glancing around the passageway in an attempt to absorb as much of the image as I could before the vision ceased. The newly constructed buildings had an industrial look from the sides. I couldn’t see any traffic or people nearby, though the vision might not show me such things. In fact, I was fairly certain that my visions showed me only things that were magic in some way. As such, the area might be full of terrified nonmagicals and I wouldn’t know it.

  The shattered glass appeared to have come from a window on the second floor. I expected it to crunch underneath my feet, but it didn’t because I wasn’t actually there. Which was good, because I’d forgotten I was currently barefoot.

  I couldn’t see any street or business signs. Ettie didn’t appear to have any marks on her or to be carrying anything, but it wasn’t like I could look through her pockets.

  Had she jumped? Or had she been thrown through the window?

  I stepped around her, thinking I might be able to see more of the building. It was funny how quickly I could accustom myself to stepping around a dead body. I blamed TV for my insensitivity.

  But as I stepped away, the mist of the oracle magic flooded my mind’s eye, taking my sight with it once again.

  I was back in the Brave. Not that I could see anything yet.

  I was shaking, vibrating with energy that didn’t feel like it belonged to me. I was still hunkered down. I stretched my legs out before me, just able to press my toes against the edge of the bench seat of the dinette and my upper back against the kitchen cabinets.

  My trembling gradually eased in this position. Or, rather, it fled the rest of my body as it focused down my left arm, then accumulated in my hand. Well, that was new. Or maybe this was the first time I’d been calm enough after a vision to notice.

  I was still mist-blind as I rolled forward onto the balls of my feet, then climbed onto the dinette bench seat. I pushed my laptop carefully out of the way and tugged my sketchbook toward me.

  My left hand felt as though it was on fire as I found a piece of charcoal in my satchel, then applied it to what felt like a blank page in my sketchbook. Just the act of pressing the charcoal to the page eased the energy burning in my palm.

  I wondered when my sight would come back, but then the thought disappeared as I began to capture the vision on paper. Pressing the charcoal to the page was enough to release the magic that had flooded my body and mind. I didn’t need to see.

  I sketched Ettie, the shattered glass, and what I’d seen of the building and the window through which Beau’s sister had fallen. Or been pushed … or thrown.

  My sight cleared.

  The Brave was dark. I reached for and turned on the nearest light without lifting the fingers of my left hand from the page before me. I was working on a close-up of Ettie’s face, smudging carefully to define her skeletal structure. I’d go back and refine the other sketches over the next couple of days.

  I still couldn’t get her eyes right. Perhaps I shouldn’t worry about it, but I felt as if I was missing something.

  Ettie was dead. So maybe I couldn’t get her eyes right because she no longer existed behind them, filling those murky brown orbs with energy.

  Maybe such thoughts were way over my pay grade right now. According to Chi Wen, I was a function of magic, but not simply a tool or a recorder. I was an interpreter.

  Still just a cog in the wheel of fate, though.

  But how could I believe in fate, in Chi Wen, and even in my otherworldly love for Beau yet not believe — or, rather, not submit — to the notion of my life being controlled or even dictated by a higher power?

  What was missing from Ettie’s eyes? Her soul? Was I so arrogant to believe that I could see such a thing? That when I sketched Blackwell and Jade, I could capture the pure essence that fueled them?

  I was exhausted. I wasn’t going to solve such huge questions — questions that had plagued humanity since … well, forever — with scrawled lines on paper.

  I placed the charcoal I still clutched in my left hand down on the lime-green Formica of the table. Every edge of the remaining nub was smooth and rounded.

  The door swung open and the Brave dipped to the right.

  I flipped the sketchbook closed. Though with both of my hands covered in charcoal from smudging and shading, it would be completely obvious I’d been sketching.

  I lifted my gaze as Beau entered the Brave. He was smiling, obviously content from his run. His white teeth were a stark contrast against his smooth mocha skin.

  I wasn’t going to be able to hide the sketchbook from him. I shouldn’t want to hide it from him … except it was now filled with pictures of his dead sister.

  I couldn’t shield him. All I could do was be at his side as he suffered the pain, the torment of living. All I could do was see him, love him, and believe in him. He did nothing less for me.

  Kandy stepped up behind Beau. Even three feet away, I could feel the energy of their shifter magic. They were awash in it.

  Though I was bone tired, a smile in answer to Beau’s spread across my face. Sometimes I loved him so much that the joy of it hurt.

  His dark aquamarine gaze dropped to my hands. “You’ve been sketching.”

  I nodded.

  Kandy did an about-face, stepping back out of the Brave before she’d fully entered and clicking the door shut behind her. The werewolf was odd. I knew she’d be able to hear our conversation through the door, but she still wanted to give us the semblance of privacy. Maybe that consideration was a pack thing?

  Maybe she wanted the distance for herself. My visions bothered her. The idea of possibly seeing her own future, and of that future not being of her own design, rattled her. I got the feeling that werewolves, or shapeshifters in general, were very careful about being out of control. I was glad that was the case. The mere thought of an out-of-control werewolf was disconcerting.

  “Are you okay?” Beau stepped close enough to gently turn my left hand palm up and brush his fingers across my butterfly tattoo.

  “I think it’s a magical locator,” I said. I realized I hadn’t told him about the tattoo flitting around when Kandy had shown up. “The tattoo, I mean. When it leaves my wrist and flies. It’s showing me magic. Or Adepts, at least. Maybe? I think.”

  Beau stared down at my wrist for moment, absorbing this information. “Okay.”

  “I’m not sure I can control it, though. I asked Chi Wen if it was an extension of the oracle powers.”

  “But his answer was vague.”

  “Something about my father being a sorcerer. So that means … what? That I have more than just oracle powers? Do you think … do you think that my other tattoos are going to … activate as well?”

  Beau looked down at me, his brows drawn tightly together.

  “That’s cool, right?” I whispered, only half joking. “The weirder and weirder it all gets … it’s still cool?”

  Beau sank to his knees at the end of the dinette, wrapped his hands around my hips, and tugged me toward him. I curled my arms around his neck and shoulders, pressing my left cheek to the top of his head. I was awkwardly pinned between him, the table, and the bench seat, but I didn’t give one shit about it.

  Beau’s face was crushed to my breasts. I could feel the electricity of his magic through my thin tank top.

  “Well, this is always okay,” he drawled, pressing a kiss to each of my breasts.

  I laughed, but then quickly sobered. “I’m not sure I want you to see the sketches.”

&nbs
p; Beau nodded, then looked up at me. “Did you get any new information?”

  “I don’t think so … except she falls or is pushed through a second-floor window.”

  “What kind of building? House? Business tower?”

  “No. I don’t think so. I don’t … obviously they didn’t look familiar, but also, I don’t have any context. Might have been a narrow alley, but I don’t think so. It didn’t feel like a downtown sort of area. Some sort of new construction … newly paved and newly painted, at least.”

  “So we keep going.”

  “We’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “Yeah. Fantastic.” Beau was less than thrilled. He straightened and turned to the kitchen, seeking food as he always did after a run.

  My heart ached for him, which was a relatively new and terribly unpleasant sensation. I didn’t want to be responsible for his pain. Maybe his sister was going to die anyway. I was just banking on it being better for Beau that we tried to do something about it beforehand.

  Beau found some beef jerky, then opened the door to toss a piece to Kandy. The green-haired werewolf climbed into the RV and eyed my closed sketchbook warily. The two shapeshifters ripped the plastic packages of dried meat open, then chewed while contemplating me.

  “Well, that’s not uncomfortable at all,” I muttered.

  Beau grinned.

  I mock-scowled at him, standing to tuck my laptop and drawing stuff away so Kandy could transform the dinette into her bed.

  “Do getting the visions mean you can change what you see?” Kandy asked.

  I glanced over at the werewolf. She looked deceptively relaxed, lounging against the back of the passenger seat. But even I could hear the tension behind her question.

  “Did you lift a huge rock off the dowser? Did she think you were dead? Did she almost drown?”

  Kandy nodded grimly.

  “I saw all that before it happened. Would you have done anything differently if I’d told you?”

  Kandy thought about this for a while. Then she lifted her arm, calling my attention to the thick, gold cuff she wore. “The treasure keeper gave me these at the behest of the far seer.”

  Since Kandy had connected him to Chi Wen, I instantly assumed the treasure keeper was another guardian dragon. “Would Jade have died if you weren’t wearing them?”

  Kandy didn’t answer, but I got the feeling she just didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility of the dowser dying.

  “And now you’re here,” I said, feeling slightly more hopeful that I wasn’t just leading us on some ill-fated rescue mission. “So the far seer seems to think he can manipulate the future to some extent. And so do I. I’m just figuring out the how part.”

  Kandy snorted, then stepped toward the bathroom. “He’s one of the most powerful beings in the world. There are nine of them. I’ve really only met three. And they all scare the shit out of me. I learned a long time ago that nothing was scarier than me in the dark. I was wrong.” She stepped inside and latched the door behind her.

  I looked at Beau.

  He shrugged. “At least they’re on our side, right?”

  I clicked off the light — Kandy could see perfectly fine without it — and crossed to the rear of the Brave to climb into bed. Beau followed me.

  I pulled down the covers and tucked up onto the far side of the bed. It was too hot to snuggle, but Beau stretched out beside me and lightly touched his fingertips to mine.

  We listened to Kandy move around in the dark, clicking the table out of the dinette and shifting the cushions to make it a bed.

  Just as I was drifting off to sleep, Beau whispered, “They are on our side, right?”

  I didn’t answer. I wasn’t sure how to answer.

  He grunted and rolled on his side, forcing me to do the same to accommodate his bent knees. He was too tall for the bed. We spooned about a foot apart. His magic danced across the back of my bare legs, arms, and neck, only abating as his breathing deepened and he fell asleep.

  I was exhausted but I didn’t sleep. It bothered me that I couldn’t answer Beau’s question utterly truthfully. Dating a shapeshifter who could smell lies made me wary of being flippant.

  A week ago I would have said ‘yes’ unequivocally. Wouldn’t I? Of course the guardians were on our side. They were the good guys, right? But what did that mean exactly? Why did I hesitate to answer Beau? Was I assuming Chi Wen would put us in harm’s way if it served some greater purpose? And how would that even work? We were inconsequential, weren’t we?

  Except Kandy … and the cuffs she wore. They weren’t inconsequential.

  Beau shifted in his sleep, turning to face the other way. I snuggled closer, pressing my knees underneath his legs and my face to his back despite the heat. Only then did I drift off to sleep.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “I’ll be back,” Kandy said.

  “What? When?” I shielded my face from the already-warm morning light cutting through my sunglasses. Obviously, lenses that were dark enough for Vancouver weren’t meant for Kansas. We’d risen around dawn to unhook the Brave from the water and electricity of the campsite, then to empty and fill our holding tanks. Our immediate neighbors were apparently still asleep.

  “We’ve been in the territory of another pack for two days.” Kandy crossed to the SUV where she’d parked it snugly against the front nose of the Brave.

  “That’s illuminating,” I muttered with a glance at Beau. He appeared to be checking the front tire pressure, even though I was fairly certain he’d already checked it earlier.

  Leaving the driver’s door of the SUV hanging open, Kandy paused, glaring down at the back of Beau’s head. After a long-suffering sigh, she elaborated. “Driving through is one thing, hanging around is another. I’ll have to run down to New Orleans and check in with the Gulf Coast pack and Francois.”

  Beau grumbled something under his breath that sounded like, “Racist pig.”

  “In person?” I asked at the same time, but my question went unheeded.

  “Stand up and face me, kitten,” Kandy snarled.

  Tension rippled through Beau’s shoulders. Though he stood and pivoted his body toward Kandy, he appeared to still be examining the tires of the SUV rather than looking directly at the easily triggered werewolf.

  “You have something to say?” Kandy asked.

  “Wolf pack,” Beau spat.

  “The Assembly has mandated that all packs are open to all shapeshifters. Wolves just happen to be the dominant species. Are you saying you sought admission with Francois and were denied?”

  “No.”

  “Then what?”

  Beau didn’t answer. Kandy narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t move closer. The silence stretched out so long between the two of them that I began to get antsy, glancing anxiously around the mostly still-sleeping campsite. We’d wanted to pull out early, before many people woke.

  “My mother …” Beau trailed off.

  Kandy waited, then prompted. “Your mother?”

  “This is about Ettie, not her.”

  “It wasn’t me who brought her up,” Kandy said. “Your mother what?”

  “Was abused by her pack master.”

  “Francois?”

  “No.”

  “Who, then?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Cats are very rare. Tigers, more so. But no one recognizes your last name, Jamison. It’s not pack. So was your mother bitten, not born?”

  “Jamison was my father’s name. And no.”

  “Wait,” I said, uncharacteristically injecting myself into the tension-filled conversation out of pure curiosity. Knowledge was power among the Adept — even I learned that lesson quickly. “Shapeshifters aren’t just born?”

  Kandy shrugged. “He mentioned abuse. Another type of Adept might become a shifter if they were systematically bitten over a long enough time to inject enough magic into the bloodstream. If the shifter was powerful enough. If the victim didn’t die from the foreign magic.
It would take months, and would get the shifter instantly blacklisted with the packs and the Assembly. But I doubt a tiger could be created that way. Not one who would then be powerful enough to breed a shapeshifter with Beau’s magic, especially with a nonshifter mate.” Kandy then turned her attention back to Beau. “So? Your mother’s last name?”

  Beau shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know.”

  Kandy frowned.

  “She doesn’t want to be pack,” Beau continued, his words stilted as if they were painful to speak. I brushed my fingers lightly across the small of his back. He pressed into my touch.

  “She’s in hiding?” Kandy asked, incredulous. “Why not go to another pack and confront her abuser? Why not go to the Assembly? She raised you outside of a pack? That must have been near impossible. And in Francois’s territory? Did you move a bunch? How does she manage her transformations?”

  “She doesn’t,” Beau growled.

  Kandy snapped her mouth shut on whatever questions she was planning to continue to pummel Beau with. “I see,” she murmured. “I won’t mention you or your mother, then, when I check in.”

  “And if he asks your business directly?” Beau sounded seriously doubtful.

  “I’m not his wolf,” Kandy said. “I’m a pack enforcer. You think anyone can take something from me that I don’t want to offer, kitten?”

  “No. Sorry.”

  Kandy nodded. Then she turned her glare on me. “Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”

  “Make it quick, then,” I said. Yeah, I got snarky when someone I loved was being worked over. So … that was only when Beau was attacked, obviously.

  Kandy bared her teeth at me, then laughed. Her mirth was a wild sound that was sure to wake everyone nearby. She sobered quickly, glancing back at Beau again. “I have the address.”

  He nodded. “If Ettie isn’t there, I’ll text.”

  Kandy climbed into the SUV and pulled away far too quickly.