Long Shadows: The Lycanthropy Files, Book 2 Read online

  “Don’t tell me you’re going to change and get all wolfish on me,” he said. “I’m not edible.”

  “I would disagree with that.” I unzipped and unbuttoned his pants, and I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows.

  “Disappointed?” he asked.

  “Intimidated, and no one intimidates Lonna Marconi.” I took my shirt off and pushed him on his back. He reached up to unhook my bra, but I batted his hand away.

  “I’m in charge now, mister.”

  He flipped me on to my back, and I gasped.

  “No one told me you were an alpha female.”

  We tussled, and I pinned him. Okay, I knew he was letting me. “You should’ve known better.”

  I pressed my breasts into his chest and kissed him again. This kiss mingled the possessiveness of the one in the middle of town with the passion of the one in Aunt Alicia’s house. I knew that if we proceeded any further, I would lose the one thing I’d kept guarded in spite of—or maybe because of—all my relationship failures. My heart.

  He seemed to sense my hesitation because he broke the kiss and leaned back to look at me. “Is everything all right?”

  I nodded, but my eyes filled with tears. “I’m so scared,” I said.

  “Of what?”

  “Of falling in love with you. Okay, of you not loving me because it’s already happened to me.”

  “What has?”

  “I love you, Maximilian Fortuna.” I held my breath and steeled myself for the rejection I knew would come and the excuses and the awkwardness and…

  “I love you too, Lonna.”

  “What?”

  He smiled. “I love you too. It shattered my heart when you kicked us out earlier to think you never wanted to see me again. Then watching Henry almost take and kill you…” He shook his head. “I couldn’t lose you.”

  He pulled me to him and kissed me again, and I found something I never thought I would—love and acceptance for who I was, for all the sides of me. He made love to all of them, although I can’t explain how, and when we climaxed together, something broke through. I wasn’t sure what, but before I could say anything or explore it, something slimy licked the arch of my left foot.

  “Ew!” I grabbed it, but there was nothing there.

  “What happened?” Max asked, alertness replacing the comfortably drowsy expression on his face. “Your foot? I felt it, but it was different.” The light in the room dimmed to twilight dark.

  “Max, the light!”

  He untangled himself from me, and I reached for him, so aware was I now of how our bodies and minds completed each other. I also couldn’t resist sneaking a look at his muscular back, rear end, and legs. His wide shoulders tapered to…

  “Focus!” Wolf-Lonna had been quiet during our lovemaking, but now she had no patience for any more lust-fueled thoughts. “We’re in danger.”

  Buzzing filled my ears, and I rubbed at them, not sure where it was coming from.

  “They’re attacking the wards,” Max said. He grabbed my arm. “Get dressed.”

  I nodded and scrambled out of bed. “I can do better than that.”

  He put his clothes on quickly, leaving his shirt untucked. We didn’t speak because I could tell he was concentrating on reinforcing his defenses.

  “Change?” Wolf-Lonna sounded hopeful.

  “Yes,” I told her. It was difficult to concentrate on the process with the buzzing and pressure, but I found the will to follow the twisting and turning inward. Once I was my wolf-self again, I paced around the perimeter of the room, sniffing. I sensed his fuchsia magic struggling against something oily that exuded a sense of rot and decay and fetid blood. His power, of energy and life, seemed like it should win, but he was outnumbered by…something. I suspected Henry had returned.

  “Good,” Max said. Sweat ran down his face, and he stood with fists clenched. “There are a lot of them, and one of them is using forbidden magic. I don’t know how long I can hold them.”

  “Then I am ready to fight.”

  “Me, too,” Wolf-Lonna chimed in. “We will need to.”

  My fur stood on end, and I bared my teeth. “Bring it, then.”

  Max’s wards shattered, and the room was plunged into darkness. My eyes adjusted first, and I growled at Henry, who led the charge this time through the door.

  “Not so fast, wolf lady.” He aimed a gun at me.

  I leapt at him, and my chest stung. He hadn’t shot me with silver bullets, but rather a tranquilizer.

  Dammit, not again…

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I woke to the sound of dripping water and the smells of damp and mold. My ears popped, but there was no change in air pressure, only the sense I was sealed in somewhere. Someone groaned nearby—I wasn’t alone.

  “Who’s there?” I asked. I wasn’t bound, but I was afraid to move, not sure if my cell mate was friendly. If it had teeth and claws, I didn’t want to find out by stepping on it and pissing it off.

  My left foot tingled, and the thing groaned again with a familiar tone. It was Max. I crawled over to him and found him on the floor. My fingers touched something sticky—blood—and there seemed to be a lot of it.

  “Max, are you okay?”

  “They coshed me on the head good this time,” he said.

  “Do you have a concussion?” I ran my hands over his head, but in the dark, I couldn’t see how big the wound was or where it was located.

  “How the hell should I know?”

  “Uh, you’re a doctor.”

  “Oh, right, I am.”

  I frowned. “Did they do something to your memory?”

  “I don’t think so.” He struggled to sit up, and I helped him lean against the rough-hewn stone wall. “Thank you, Miss.”

  My heart dropped to my stomach. “Uh, you’re welcome?”

  “So, since it seems we’re going to be in this predicament together, perhaps we should get acquainted.”

  “Max, please tell me you’re kidding with me.”

  “Oh, since you seem to know who I am, please tell me your name. Have we met before?”

  I bit my lip to keep the sob from rising in my throat. “It’s me, Lonna. You were sent to watch over me.”

  “I obviously didn’t do a good job if we’re here.”

  I leaned back against the wall and stretched out my legs in front of me. My body thrummed with his nearness, but the sharp, hollow pain in the middle of my chest had nothing to do with what may or may not have been done to me physically. I also noticed Wolf-Lonna was silent.

  Probably another dose of Luridatone. Maybe they can give me some more to block the emotional pain.

  A door opened, and I squinted against the light.

  “Maximilian, old chap, what are you doing in there?”

  It took a moment for the back-lit bald man’s features to emerge from the shadows of his face.

  “I assure you I have no idea, Carrigan,” Max said. “This young lady says I was sent to watch over her, but that doesn’t explain why we’re in the dungeon.”

  A smile pulled the corners of Carrigan’s mouth up and back like stage curtains, showing yellowed, crooked teeth. “A horrible misunderstanding. There have been a few of those lately. Come, now, let’s get you cleaned up. You, too, Miss…?”

  “Marconi.” I raised an eyebrow, but I decided not to argue that he knew damn well who I was, and he’d orchestrated the whole thing.

  I gasped when we emerged into a stone hallway with lights that flickered like torches. “You took the dungeon thing too seriously.”

  “There’s nothing like a little Abandon All Hope ambience, isn’t there, Miss Marconi?” Carrigan’s jovial tone insulted me at the same time his words warned me.

  “I don’t care about your decorating. Max needs medical attention.”

  “Head wounds bleed a lot, and so they look worse than they are,” Max said. He frowned at me. “You do look familiar, but I can’t quite place you.”

  I kept my expres
sion neutral, aware of Carrigan’s scrutiny of my reactions. Does he know we were lovers? The extent of Max’s feelings for me?

  I followed Max and Carrigan out of the dungeon, up winding, narrow stairs, and to a back hallway. To the right, the noise of pots and pans punctuated laughing, jeering conversation in mixed English and Spanish. My stomach growled at the scents of Caribbean spices and other exotic things, and I wondered how long I’d been knocked out.

  “Dinner will be in the main dining hall at seven,” Carrigan said to Max, obviously assuming I would overhear.

  “Everything smells fantastic.” Max looked relaxed like he was happy to be home, and my heart sank a little lower, if that was possible.

  We’re from two different worlds. I shook my head. There’s no point in sulking. I need to make an escape plan.

  I focused my attention externally to try and figure out the myriad twists and turns in what seemed to be an island plantation house with white walls, and dark wood windows, baseboards, and molding. The furniture stood large and heavy, and every surface held a small statue or other tchotchke that looked like it could have some sort of magical significance.

  “I’ll send a nurse up to your room to patch you up,” Carrigan told Max.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

  “Oh, we need to make sure that all is as it should be.”

  I frowned at the sinister double meaning to his words.

  “Great.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I keep getting a sense that someone I care about is in danger, but I don’t know who, so it must be a faulty signal.”

  “I’ll send Saraya. She’s good at disconnecting spells like that.”

  “What if it’s not faulty?” I asked and ignored Carrigan’s scowl.

  “Well, obviously if he cannot figure out who it is, they mustn’t be that important to him.”

  Ouch.

  Max went into his room and closed the door. Once I was alone in the hallway with Carrigan, his jovial expression dropped.

  “As for you, my dear, you’ll be settled in a different part of the house.”

  “I’m sure I will. What am I doing here, Carrigan? How did I get here?”

  “By private plane, just like everyone else. Pity you slept through the whole trip. The view is spectacular.”

  He stepped closer, and I found myself backed into a wall. My left hip bumped a random cabinet, and I reached out to catch a wobbling elongated cat statue. Carrigan beat me to it and placed it just so on the top.

  “Don’t touch anything,” he said with clenched teeth. “You don’t know how these magical things will react, and I don’t want them sullied by your half-blood witchery.”

  “That’s why you erased Max’s memory, isn’t it? So I wouldn’t ‘sully’ him.”

  “Miss Marconi, you presume too much. He wasn’t truly in love with you.” But he didn’t meet my eyes. With a curt gesture, he indicated I should follow him.

  We went back down the stairs and across a large front hall, which opened to a breathtaking beach vista. The double wooden doors in front of me opened to the room I’d become familiar with, and I wanted to go in and study Deirdre’s picture as if that would give me a clue as to how to reawaken Max’s affection for me. Carrigan shut the doors as we walked by.

  “That room is for wizards only,” he huffed.

  “Understood.” I hid a smile. But I’ve been in there.

  We went up another set of stairs—seriously, this place was starting to feel like a multilevel labyrinth—and to a smaller hallway. It was still nice, but obvious it had been set up for guests rather than residents, and so it was less elegant. The table at the back of the hallway was bare except for a small Tiffany lamp. The table itself was less ornate than its cousins in the other part of the house.

  “As you can see, this is the guest wing,” Carrigan said. “I trust you will be comfortable here.”

  “I guess I’ll have to be since going home isn’t really an option, is it?”

  “Where is ‘home’ for you, Miss Marconi? Your inheritance in north Georgia? Your shabby apartment in Little Rock? With your pack?”

  “With Max.” The words flew out before I could stop them.

  “Then it seems that this is your best option since you are a creature who belongs nowhere. You can have his proximity, if not his affection, in exchange for your cooperation.”

  “You don’t know that. He fell for me once. He could do so again.”

  “Ah, but you took advantage of Max’s protectiveness. He has only had one true love, and it was not you.”

  He opened a door near the stairs, and we went through another small hallway that led into a bedroom. On one side, a king-sized bed with cotton bedspread and dark wood headboard dominated the room. On the other, French doors opened to the balcony on the beach side.

  “Well, I can’t fault the view.”

  “Don’t even think of trying to escape. There are wards that will alert us to your movements. I allowed you to wake in the dungeon to show you where I could be keeping you, but I wanted to demonstrate that I am not a monster.”

  “But you want to do horrible things to me.”

  “My dear, if I had wanted you dead, we would have taken care of that. But there is one more thing.”

  “What?”

  “Have a seat.” He gestured to a wicker armchair with an ottoman. “Max isn’t the only one who needs a spell removed. As I recall, it’s on your left foot.”

  I shook my head. “No way. It wasn’t comfortable going on, and it’s not going to come off easily.”

  “I fail to see whether you would know how it’s going to feel considering you’re not schooled in the ways of magic.”

  “Still.” I shrugged. “It stays.”

  “So you can try to lure Maximilian back to you?” He shook his head. “Once he has the spell removed, it won’t matter. It may even lead you to me.”

  I knew in my heart he was lying and that there was something more tied up in that spell. “He learned to do protection spells after what happened with Deirdre, didn’t he?”

  Carrigan raised his hand as if to slap me, and I backed away, but I had to find out if my guesses were right. “It’s only something that can be done between two people who have a connection, isn’t it?”

  “That is irrelevant. What matters is that it does not belong on you.”

  “It stays,” I said again as calmly as I could.

  He took my arm and tried to force me to the chair. He had a lot of strength for a short, fat, old guy.

  “You are here as my guest, and you will cooperate. Remember, if you do not cooperate, you will not be allowed to see Maximilian.”

  “It sounds like you’re not going to let me see him, anyway, so why should I?”

  He paused in his tugging. “Fine, I will make an agreement with you. You will obey me, and I will allow you to interact with Maximilian.”

  “That’s a bit vague on both parts, Carrigan.” I yanked my arm from his grasp and rubbed the spots where I knew there’d be bruises later.

  “You drive a hard bargain, Miss Marconi. Recall I am only calling you my guest out of courtesy, and you are in this room because of my favor, which is waning. I could just as easily be having this conversation with you in the dungeon.”

  I remembered that moment in my aunt’s house when the blood lust had taken over, and I had wanted to rip the thug’s throat out. Now I felt the same, but I had to assert my analytical side.

  He’s not keeping me in the dungeon for some reason. He doesn’t have to be kind to me. So what is his game? I can either play it or end up truly imprisoned again, and here at least there’s some chance of escape. I’ve beaten those wards before.

  “Fine, I’ll cooperate within reason, and you let me see and speak with Maximilian.”

  “Within reason?” He chuckled. “Oh, my dear, I see what attracts him to you. You are truly clever and impossible, as he told me before I wiped knowing you from his mind.”

  I clenched my
fists behind my back. “Is that our agreement or not?”

  “Yes, as long as I can also define the extent to which you interact with Maximilian. Keep in mind our definitions of ‘in reason’ may also vary according to your level of cooperation. Now, if you please…” He gestured to the chair. I sat and placed my right foot on the ottoman.

  “I haven’t forgotten which foot he used, Miss Marconi. Stop playing games, or my definition of reasonable will be quite narrow.”

  I sighed and placed my left foot on the ottoman as well. He sat on a stool and examined my foot. “Remarkable,” was all he said.

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “Hold tight. This shouldn’t be too painful.”

  I don’t know what he did, but the entire bottom of my foot felt like a scab being peeled off bit by bit. I pressed my lips together and covered my face with my hands so I wouldn’t scream. The relief when he finished washed over me, and I found I was a hot, sweaty mess.

  “I am truly sorry I had to put you through that,” Carrigan said, but there was only pity in his eyes, not compassion. “You are a truly remarkable specimen, and I only want you in the best shape for our studies.”

  “What studies?”

  “You will find out. Within reason, remember?”

  I slumped back. I’ve been beaten. Damn tranquilizer hangover. “Just leave me be.”

  He stood and moved the stool back to its place by the dresser. “I expect to see you for dinner.”

  “But I haven’t a thing to wear.”

  “I’m sure you can find something in the closet that will fit you. You have a full set of towels and a bathrobe as well. I suggest you use them before you come down to eat. At least pretend you’re not a barbarian.”

  With that little barb, he left me. I once again looked at my left foot and found nothing obviously different except that it was pink. Reaching through what had been the connection between me and Max yielded nothing, and I slumped back in the chair.

  No Wolf-Lonna, no Max… I shivered in spite of the comfortable temperature, completely unsure of what to do to get myself out of this mess.

  The shower relaxed and refreshed me until I walked back into the room and the turquoise view of the sea and smell of the salt air. The unique shade of blue-green reminded me of Max’s eyes and how he’d looked when he gazed at me before and after our lovemaking. The tang of the breeze tried to tease up happy memories of time spent with my parents on beach vacations when I was a child, but I pushed them away. There was no sense feeling anything but insecure, lonely, and wary here.