Wildblood

Chapter 32

32

Thumping her back against the wall, Miya slid into a squat and scanned the bar. Gavran’s wing twitched as he struggled to right himself, disoriented from the flowers’ toxic fumes. The domovoy’s shadow receded, and he ambled over to the raven, grasping a graceless wing in a good-natured attempt to help. Crowbar wobbled to her feet and stumbled toward Ama. Caelan had collapsed on the stairs, fighting back sobs as she pawed at Kai’s jacket sleeve and mumbled apologies.

Like Ama, he was still recovering, hunched over with his head hung and his elbows pressed against his thighs. He clumsily groped for Caelan’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m fine.” The words came out like gravel, a harsh contrast to the elation they were meant to inspire.

Ama rolled back into a squat and buried her face in her palms as Crowbar fretted, drawing her into a tight hug. “It’s okay,” she reassured, her soft strokes along Ama’s spine slowing when she realized that her all-but-titanium girlfriend was trembling.

“I don’t remember the last time…” Ama exhaled when she lost the words. She pushed herself up, her expression severe like she’d swallowed a too-bitter pill.

Miya glimpsed wet streaks across Ama’s face. The white wolf was rarely helpless—always so controlled, so in control—but she’d had her bearings ripped from her faster than she could make sense of it. Ama trusted the safety of her human mask, and the leshy had flicked it away with a mere look, exposing the animal underneath.

Kai was unnervingly accustomed to it. He was as fierce as Ama, yet where she’d acquired mastery, he struggled for autonomy against his demons. The leshy’s violation was just one of a thousand gut punches he’d have to walk off.

Miya unglued herself from the floor, walking woodenly to Caelan and Kai. “Do you need anything?”

They both shook their heads, and Miya sighed shakily. She dropped her forehead to Kai’s shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her back.

“What the hell was that?” Ire sharpened Kai’s question into a growl.

“The domovoy saved us.” Miya turned her head to see the house guardian trundling from one person to the next, anxiously checking to see if they were well. She had no idea if Kai had witnessed what she had—the domovoy’s goliath silhouette making quick work of the nature spirit.

“I didn’t see dick. Lights flashed, shadows fell off the damn wall, and the old kook in the coat kept loitering by the door. Felt like I was stuck in a fishbowl someone’s shitty toddler threw down the stairs.” He let her go, his jaw working as he tongued his now blunted canines. “You know the rest.”

The haywire electricity and living shadows seemed to be Caelan’s doing, but the domovoy existed between planes. Only Miya and Caelan could see him.

“He’s not trying to hurt anyone,” Caelan insisted. “He’s just trying to get me back to where I belong.”

“You saw everything?” Miya confirmed.

The girl nodded, then launched into another defense of her friend. “I heard the call again. That’s why I wanted to leave. The leshy was trying to help.”

“The lights and the shadows…was that you?” Miya asked.

Another nod, slow and ashamed.

So, the foliage was the leshy’s doing. Miya smiled weakly. “What he did isn’t your fault.”

“I’m sorry he scared your house spirit.” Caelan glanced between Miya and Kai as they ushered her toward the bar. She dropped onto a stool next to Miya, her shoulders slumping. Having re-discovered flight, Gavran perched on his beer tap and croaked, examining his somber audience.

“What the hell was that?” Crowbar demanded, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Your invisible housecat scared off that bark-faced wilder beast,” Kai said dryly. “Apparently, we missed the show”—he gestured at Miya and Caelan—“but these two had front row seats.”

“The leshy amplifies the nature in things,” said Ama, claiming the stool on Miya’s other side. She looked tired, her usually sunlit eyes dull like straw. “For me and Kai, it means forcing our transitions. For Miya, it’s shunting her spirit into the dreamscape, leaving her unconscious on this side.”

“He doesn’t always do it,” Miya observed. “This was the first time he let loose on all of us.”

Crowbar bee-lined for her moonshine. Uncorking the bottle, she poured everyone but Caelan a generous shot, then offered the teen a soda. “I’ve had my fill of supernatural shenanigans. Why’s some ancient arboreal man trying to activate your powers, anyway?”

“More like cripple us.” Ama cast Caelan a dubious glance. She probably wanted the leshy gone for more reasons than one; he threatened her command over her own nature. “I don’t think any of us knows what he wants. I suppose it’s a good thing the domovoy intervened. Otherwise, our runaway here would be long gone.”

“Lay off her,” Kai warned. “She didn’t ask for this.” Leaving his drink untouched, he meandered around the bar and stopped by the wall where the domovoy’s shadow claws had latched on. He traced over a deep fissure that hadn’t been there before, the marks a battle scar on his second home.

Caelan sat pin straight, fidgeting. “It’s getting worse.”

“The call?” Miya ventured. Something kept pulling her—an unnamed she that seemed to originate from the material plane rather than the dreamscape. An anomaly.

“I’ve been fighting it for so long,” said Caelan. “It used to only get to me in my sleep—that’s why I was sleepwalking all the time—but now I hear it even when I’m awake. It’s…it’s painful.”

Kai abandoned the cracks in the wall and hopped over the bar to Crowbar’s side. He slammed back his shot, then planted his hands on the counter in front of Caelan, boring into her. “Painful, how?”

Her gaze stuttered from Kai to the shelves behind him. “It feels like my bones are trying to burst from my skin. Like I’m wearing the wrong meat.”

Gavran’s head angled to a near ninety degrees, and Kai shot him a wry smile. “Gnarly.”

“It’s true,” Caelan insisted. “But I have to fight it. I know something terrible will happen if I find what’s calling me.”

“Why were you kidnapped?” Kai asked without ceremony, spurring a series of slack-jawed glares from around the room.

“I…don’t know,” Caelan stammered.

Kai raised an eyebrow, drumming his thumb against the counter. “Two competing Bratva factions are trying to get their hands on you, and most of them don’t even know you’re a person. You’re telling me you have no inkling about that?”

She shook her head. “I was taken while sleepwalking…because of that freaking call. I thought I was just an easy target. Figured they’d harvest my organs or something.”

Miya winced at the girl’s nonchalance. She reminded her of Kai when he spoke about his murdered parents—cold, distant. “And you were in that warehouse the whole time?”

“I don’t know how long I was in there, but yeah. They fed me twice a day and let me use the bathroom. That’s it.”

“Three weeks.” Kai’s gaze dropped. “You’ve been missing for almost a month.”

Caelan’s jaw went slack. “Holy shit?—”

“It took them three weeks to settle who’d take custody?” Ama’s mouth tugged into a disapproving frown. “Sloppy.”

“They were probably bickering over how to settle it.” Kai scratched through his hair. “Bratva factions don’t always play nice. They operate independently, so they butt heads a lot. If one of them realized Caelan was leverage over Pyotr…”

“Why not just take her then?” Ama pressed. “Why the underground fight?”

“She was found by a third party,” Kai explained. “Small fry looking for a quick buck. They didn’t want to piss off either faction, so they refused to sell unless Pyotr and his rival came to an agreement.”

“And that agreement was the match between you and Ivan Zverev.” Miya finally reached for her shot. She needed it.

“The broker was smart enough to keep things quiet,” Ama realized. “I’m impressed the whole mob didn’t know the prize was a person.”

“If they yapped, they might’ve ruined the deal.” Kai waggled his fingers for the moonshine. Crowbar passed it to him, and he poured himself more. “I’m guessing they only talked with Pyotr and his rival. As the info went down the food chain, it got twisted up. By the time it reached me and Sergei, we could’ve been fighting over a deflated soccer ball for all we knew.”

Miya rubbed her face and whined. “How’d this third party know Caelan was an asset when they found her? They must’ve recognized something .”

“She said she doesn’t know.” Kai tipped back his drink. “Whatever they recognized—it’s not something she’s aware of.”

“Hey, as much as I love being the center of attention…” Caelan wrung her hands together, then peered up at Kai. “Can I have some fluffernutters?”

Kai’s lip twitched. “We’re on about mobsters and kidnappings…and you want a fucking sandwich?”

Her chin jerked down, her nod resolute.

Sighing, Kai straightened from the counter. “All right, get your shit. We can go home.”

A beaming smile brightened the teen’s ruddy face, and she jumped from the stool. When she retreated upstairs, Ama was the first to speak.

“The leshy needs to be dealt with.”

A collective groan filled the room, punctuated by Crowbar pouring another round. Their barkeep raised her shot in a tentative toast, and they all clinked glasses.

“We still don’t know his intentions,” Miya said, smacking her mouth to banish the moonshine’s bite. “They might not be nefarious.”

Ama picked at a chipped nail. “No, but the impact is. He’s desperate to get Caelan back now that you’ve fulfilled your end of the deal, but for what purpose?”

“Doesn’t matter.” They all turned to Kai. He stared down his empty shot glass. “Giving the kid to that thing won’t stop whatever’s got its claws in her. Besides, she’s got a family.”

“She said she can’t go back,” Miya said quietly.

“Because her whole life is fucked up.” Kai clanked the glass onto the counter. “She can’t make that decision until she’s gotten rid of whatever’s after her.”

“That’s…oddly mature of you,” Ama remarked. Crowbar thwacked her across the arm.

Kai shot the white wolf a venomous glare but waived the chance to spar. “I don’t give a shit about what the leshy wants. It’s a spirit. It’ll do whatever it thinks will help it reach its goal.”

“ He cares about Caelan’s safety,” Miya countered. “Maybe he showed up because he felt her distress.”

“Maybe.” Kai’s glower softened as his eyes slid to Miya. “Doesn’t mean he’s actually keeping her safe.”

Caelan’s footsteps thundered down the stairs before she rounded the corner, bundled in Miya’s borrowed clothes. “I’m ready.”

She seemed calmer, bouncing back easily after what felt like a night terror made manifest. Miya wasn’t sure she would’ve faired so well at Caelan’s age.

Crowbar collected the empty shot glasses. Sidling up to the domovoy’s corner, she tilted her bottle and spilled some of the moonshine onto the floor. “Thanks, little guy. I can’t see you, but the witchy one says you did good.”

Miya smiled in their direction. “I’m glad you two are getting along.”

“If he’s warding off shit that makes my bar swim like a canoe in a tsunami, he’s my new goddamn bestie.”

Kai’s hand found the small of Miya’s back as he steered her toward the door.

“Be careful,” Ama warned sternly. “If you need, Gavran can come with you.”

The raven pumped his wings and chortled. Miya poked his silken breast, earning a soft purr. “I’m sure he’ll do the rounds regardless of what we say.”

Gavran squawked in protest, but they all knew he’d spend the night patrolling the neighborhood sky.

Kai grunted Ama goodnight and yelped when Crowbar swatted his ass with a dish towel. After a flurry of friendly threats and a fist bump with the bartender, he hauled Miya and Caelan from the King of Spades . They barely squeezed their way out, pinioning the black wolf in a heap of giggles until he rolled his eyes and steadied them. His arm draped around Miya’s shoulders—a familiar comfort—and she reached for his dangling hand, threading her fingers with his.

Caelan shuffled closer to his side, scrounging for security like a small animal caught in the rain. Kai noticed, and a sadness that didn’t suit the angles of his face carved his expression into something foreign. His chest rose with a pensive inhale, and after an excruciating beat, he rotated his arm and offered it to the girl.