JOSH STARED at his split screen and tried to calm his racing heart. It helped to focus on the five tiny images of the wolves as they ran through the woods, but he still had equal parts excitement and terror zipping through his mind. He couldn’t believe he was actually doing this. He was the tech geek helping to take out a Big Bad. Lives depended on him and his tech, which was terrifying given how many failed attempts there were in any science. And yet he couldn’t deny the thrill. This was him, nerdy Josh Collier, as part of the team.
Or more accurately, part of the pack.
That’s what Nero had said. He’s one of us. And from Nero, that was like being handed the key to his heart. But Josh couldn’t bask in the glow of that because he had to do his job. He grinned. This was his job, and he loved it.
He focused in on the action, piecing it together from what he’d learned reading the mission file and watching the recording of Nero’s report to the review board. From what he could tell, right now everything was going exactly as before. They were running in formation, headed toward the demon.
“Get as close as you can,” he said into the microphone. “And space the shields as evenly as possible. You want to be able to get to one within twenty seconds.”
There was no response, but then he didn’t expect one. They didn’t want to tip off the demon that they were coming, but then again, how could the bastard miss five shields plunking down into the snow? Even as light as they were—which honestly wasn’t that light—they would still make a thud when they hit dirt.
It didn’t matter. The wolves needed the protection. He watched from five different vantage points as one by one, they dropped the shields into the dirt and then veered around them, going for the attack run. Nero’s team didn’t waste time.
Josh focused on Nero’s camera view, cursing the black-and-white image. If he’d thought for two seconds, he would have realized that he could put color cameras in and damn the extra expense. He wanted to see what a “weirdly colored demon” looked like, but all he got was a gray image of a humanoid crouching behind a bush. Not exactly Technicolor, but it was getting freaky large in the image because Nero was in attack range.
He switched over to Coffee’s camera because that had the better view. Nero zipped in fast and low, then abruptly jumped aside as the demon twisted and swiped. It was like Nero knew the strike was coming, which he probably did. Then, when the demon was off-balance, Nero did a swipe with his claws and tore a huge chunk out of the thing’s leg.
Pale stuff squirted out—demon blood—and Josh released a cheer. Mother and Pauly went in next. Their cameras dipped and swerved, making Josh a little seasick, but they managed to get the bastard from either side. Mother used some kind of leaping maneuver to get her jaws on the thing’s arm. Pauly did the same thing on the other side, missed, then got a swipe in with his paw that widened the gashes that Nero had made.
Gunshots rang out, the sound shocking in the crisp morning air. Josh already knew it was the demon. The thing was a really good shot, even while being torn apart.
“Watch the gun!” he called into the mic. “Cream, this is where you get shot!”
Cream’s camera abruptly dipped and swerved. Evasive maneuvers, obviously. And suddenly Coffee was leaping up and down in the air. Jumping?
A moment later the reason became clear. The demon hesitated, seemingly flustered for a moment, and shot wildly, missing both Cream and Coffee. Good going! Josh clapped his hands in delight, but even though the demon had missed this time, he still had a gun and was taking aim. What it didn’t realize, though, was that Nero wasn’t going to let it have the chance.
The alpha wolf, followed closely by Mother and Pauly, was already running full tilt at the demon. The demon had three pissed-off werewolves coming straight for it and another two right behind. And it was penned in by the greenery and the lake, which meant it had one last trick up its sleeve.
Josh checked the levels on the simple sensors he’d had put into their hoodies. They likely wouldn’t survive the blast, but that wasn’t the point. Sure enough, the demon’s internal temperature was rising fast.
“It’s about to blow! Get to the shields. If you can’t—” A quick look showed him that Mother was out of range. Damn it! “Shift now!”
He wasn’t sure it would work. Just because Nero had survived the first time didn’t mean any of them could do it again. Worse, Coffee was an old-school werewolf. Lots of bones crunching and excruciating pain and no in-between energy state. That meant they couldn’t get out of this by shifting. They had to crouch behind the shields and hope that the Volcax kept them from being burned alive.
“Please, please, please,” he whispered.
The demon blew.
Even though Josh knew he was out of range, the blast still terrified him. He felt more than heard the boom as the earth shook beneath his feet. Then the heat wave came at him with a roar. He knew from the pictures that the nearest trees were vaporized, but that did nothing to prepare him for the wave of hot air that flattened trees farther out and set them instantly on fire. The air was sucked out of his lungs, and every cell in his body felt the heat as a living thing. Thank God he’d set up on the far side of the van and the vehicle had shielded him. Not just the van, but the wheels as well, because otherwise his feet and ankles would be blistered raw. And it was also a good thing he’d pocketed Mother’s gun. The metal was now hot where it was tucked in the back of his jeans, and he prayed the bullets didn’t explode and blow his ass off.
Thank God, he was lucky. His ass stayed exactly as it was. The heat was intense but bearable, and though his computer was blank, it didn’t appear dead.
But what about everyone else?
As soon as he could breathe without choking, he took off at a dead run for the others. All the electronics were fried, so he stripped off the headset on the way. Mother’s Glock dug into his ass with every step and his shoes were going to melt soon from the heat, but he kept running. It took forever to get there while his gaze took in the blackened landscape. Sweet heaven, nothing could survive this. Nothing had survived.
“Nero!” he bellowed. “Nero! Anybody!”
He was still running when he heard it. Nero’s human howl. He’d know the sound anywhere, and it carried in the still air like a divine bell. And thank God, there was no mournful note in it. If anything it sounded triumphant, especially when it was repeated by four other voices, all howling with him.
Nero had survived. Better yet, the entire pack had survived.
Josh stumbled to a walk and shot back his own howl. It wasn’t a strong as theirs. He was still breathless and had to get to them immediately, but he needed to answer. That was what packmates did.
They’d survived!
He broke into a run again and saw them long before he made it to their sides. All five in their naked human forms. Pauly and Cream had obviously survived and then shifted to human as soon as they could. And now they surrounded a pink, blobby thing that was bleeding orange blood. Gross.
“Don’t. Kill it!” he bellowed. And when everybody turned to look at him in shock, he repeated it. “Don’t kill it.”
Nero said something that even wolf ears couldn’t catch, but Josh could guess what it was. Something along the lines of “Are you crazy?” He wasn’t, though he could understand why they thought that way.
He picked up the pace again and finished the last of the distance. God, he had to get back on the calisthenics wagon, because huffing and puffing like this was embarrassing. Fortunately they waited for him. And when the blobby thing tried to make a run for it, one of the pack was there to shove it back.
“You could have shifted,” Nero said when Josh got close enough. “You’re a lot faster as a wolf.”
“I know, but it would have been harder to carry this.” He pulled Mother’s Glock out of his back pocket. “I haven’t yet mastered the art of carrying something in my wolf mouth without slobbering all over it.”
“Give me that!” Mother cried as she reached for the weapon, but Josh held it out to Nero instead.
“Remember when I was trying to tell you about this thing?” He gestured at the demon. “About how it’s a local legend that started from a dime novel?”
Nero nodded, but he had his get-to-the-point face on.
“In the book, the thing keeps coming back. They stab it, burn it, even chop off its head, but it keeps coming back.”
Nero’s eyes widened, and he looked back at the demon. “But—”
“Then the hero shoots it between its eyes with a magic bullet he got from a fairy prince.”
Nero’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Fortunately we both know one.” He pulled out what looked like a normal bullet except that it had the image of a twisted tree imprinted on the casing. He’d gotten it from Bitterroot, the same time the guy had given him the book. “Care to do the honors?” Josh asked. He figured that out of all of them, Nero deserved the right to end this particular legend himself.
Apparently Nero agreed. He grabbed the bullet and the gun and quickly loaded the chamber. The demon wasn’t lying still for this. He tried to make a break for it, but given that he was mostly torn to pieces, it was easy for Coffee to restrain him. Cream helped by grabbing hold of the thing’s head and holding it still in an impressive display of strength.
“Don’t miss,” Cream growled.
“Not planning on it,” Nero said. Then he pulled the trigger.
A dead shot right between the eyes. Josh would have cheered, except he had his hands over his ears in pain. He really needed to get used to big bangs.
Then, best of all, the demon poofed into ash, just like in the book.
Hallelujah!
That was when another sound intruded. Someone was clapping. And since it took him a bit to hear the sound, the others had turned around by the time Josh managed to look behind him. There, grinning at them like a proud papa, was the diminutive Bitterroot.
“Well done, well done,” he was saying. From the looks on everyone’s faces, they all knew him and felt varying degrees of hatred toward him. However, no one looked as murderous as Mother.
“What do you want?” she snapped. That wasn’t exactly what she said. Josh wasn’t hearing well yet, but he could read the curse words off her lips and guessed at the rest. And then his ears cleared enough that he could hear Nero’s grim response.
“He’s here for me.”
“Actually, he’s not,” Josh said. Then he grinned at everyone. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”
Nero’s face took on a horrified expression. “What did you do?”
“I convinced him that one geek was way better than one meathead, so I swapped in for you.” He gestured at Nero’s pack. “You’d die without them. You were dying every day that you were apart.”
“That’s not true. Not after….”
“Not after we connected. I know. But like you said, they came first. And since I’ve pretty much cut ties with my family, I’m free to choose where I want to go and what I want to do.” His expression hardened as he invested determination in his words. “I like who I am now. I will not have it all erased and go back to who I was. I won’t allow it.”
“We can recruit you again—” Nero argued, but Josh cut him off.
“It’s done. Besides, he said their Fairyland is way better than Disney’s version. It could be fun.” Josh was proud of himself for sounding so calm. In truth, the idea of going to Fairyland scared the shit out of him, but if it would give Nero back his pack, then it was worth it. The guy deserved some happiness, and Josh wanted to be the one to give it to him.
Plus, his lovelorn side got off on the drama of it. He got to act out his very own noble sacrifice, just like at the end of his favorite movies. Of course, with the reality of it staring him in the face, he could admit that he was weak-at-the-knees terrified, but right now he was determined to put on a brave face. Nero, however, had his stubborn one on.
“No,” Nero said. “No way are you taking my place—”
Bitterroot held up his hand. “Your debt is paid,” the fairy said calmly. “But if you’d like to negotiate—”
“No!” All four of Nero’s packmates said the word loud and clear, even though Nero had shaped his mouth into a yes.
Mother’s tone was sharp. “We do not negotiate with fairies!”
Bitterroot grinned. “And yet here we are.” Then, before anyone could call him more crude names, he slapped his hands together and addressed Nero. “Hurry up and choose. The authorities will be here soon, and I wish to be gone by then.”
“Choose?” Nero frowned at the fae prince. “Choose who pays my debt? It’s me—”
“No,” Bitterroot said with a heavy sigh. “Choose which timeline you wish to exist in.”
This time it was Pauly who asked the obvious question. “Come again?”
“Did you think time travel was easy? You have created two timelines that exist simultaneously. In one timeline, your pack dies, you recruit Josh and have many nights of sweet passion. In this timeline, you kill the demon and they survive. You may choose to be in this timeline with them.” He gestured to the pack. “Or you can be in the one where Josh plays with your diddle all the ding-dong day.” He didn’t even look at Josh as his face hardened. “You cannot be in both. So choose.”
“Wait!” Josh gasped. “You can’t mean that both timelines exist. I thought I’d be erased. I thought….”
“Is it my fault that you never studied string theory? Yes, both timelines exist in parallel dimensions.”
Well, hell. Josh grimaced as he played through scenarios in his head. He still would have done the exact same thing, but it would have been nice to know his options. Meanwhile, Bitterroot was still talking, his voice as pompous as it was condescending.
“What will you pick, Nero? Your pack, which you have worked so hard to save? Or your boyfriend?”
Josh shook his head. “We’re not—”
“The hell we aren’t,” Nero growled.
“Goddammit!” Mother abruptly interrupted. “You went and fell in love in a timeline where we don’t exist. We didn’t get to see it!” She sounded like that was the most horrible part of it all. The others murmured their agreement. But there were also a few sly smiles, and Cream gave Josh a surreptitious thumbs-up.
Meanwhile, Nero was staring at his team with his heart in his eyes. The agony in him was palpable—or maybe Josh was feeling his own—so he cut in with the obvious answer. It would hurt too much to hear Nero say it aloud.
“He picks them,” Josh said. Hadn’t Nero said that this very morning? That they were first. That they came first. “I’m going to be off in Fairyland, so stay with them. There’s no point in us both being miserable.”
Bitterroot sniffed audibly. “Some people do enjoy being in my employ.”
Mother snorted. “Only the masochists and the mentally ill.”
“I take exception to that,” Bitterroot countered.
“I’m sure you do,” she agreed.
And that was a whole lot of banter that Josh knew indicated a history between these two. Unfortunately he had no time to delve into that, especially as Nero grabbed Mother’s hand.
“You were always my favorite,” he said, interrupting what was probably another witty comeback. And then he looked at the others in turn. “Just like you. And you. And you.”
“Aw, fuck,” Pauly said. “He really is in love.”
“You’re alive,” Nero continued, “and that’s all I ever wanted. Even if it’s in a different parallel dimension from me.”
“Shit,” Coffee murmured.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege. I—” His words choked off as he stared at his team. Then he squared his shoulders and turned to Bitterroot. “I pick Josh’s timeline.”
It took a moment for Josh to understand what was happening, and even longer for the reality to penetrate. There were two timelines, and Nero had picked the one with Josh in it. Not his pack, not the dead demon, but the one where his pack died and Josh came in to save the day. “What?” he gasped. “No!” He took an abrupt step forward. “Don’t be stupid. I’ll be in Fairyland, and your pack means everything to you. You said so.”
Nero turned to him with a shrug. “Turns out you mean more.”
“But I’ll be in Fairyland.”
“What if I’m with you?” He eyed Bitterroot. “What do you think? Two of us is better than one. We make a good team. We’ll both serve the sentence at half the time.”
“No!” Josh said. Well, that’s what he tried to say, but his throat had closed down. Nero had chosen him over his pack, and the magnitude of that cut off every sound, every breath, and every thought except gratitude.
“Well, that is an interesting thought,” Bitterroot said. “Especially since we have to address the subject of you reneging on our contract.”
“What?” Nero jolted. “I did no such thing!”
“I believe our contract required secrecy. That means you couldn’t tell anyone about our deal.” He arched a brow at Josh. “And yet you told him.”
“That’s different. Josh had to know. He had to get the shields and the jackets—”
“It doesn’t matter why you broke the deal.” Bitterroot smirked. “Only that you did.”
“And this is why we never make fairy deals,” Mother huffed. “Because there’s always a fucking catch.”
Nero advanced on Bitterroot. His hands were clenched and his brow furrowed. He towered over the diminutive fairy in the most intimidating way. Unfortunately Bitterroot didn’t seem the least bit cowed.
“You owed me a favor!” Nero barked.
“Which is why you aren’t right now covered in fairy boils. But a contract is a contract—”
Mother cut in, her voice unusually subdued. “I’ll take his time,” she said, and suddenly she had 100 percent of Bitterroot’s attention.
“What?” he asked, his voice airy light, but there was an intensity to the question that could not be denied.
Mother folded her arms across her chest. “How long is Josh’s employment contract for?”
Josh spoke up, his voice thick but still able to say the number that had been bouncing around his brain since the moment he’d made the deal. “Forty-nine human years.”
“I’ll do it—” Mother said.
“No!” Both he and Nero were emphatic. And in stereo.
“—I’ll serve their sentence for them, but I’m not doing forty-nine years. I’ll do one, because a woman has got to be worth at least forty-nine of these losers.”
“Forty,” Bitterroot offered.
“One.”
“Forty-two and I’ll pay you in rubies.”
“One. And I’ll take human money in my bank account.”
“Thirty-five, and you’ll be my consort.”
“One, and I’ll be your employee. Separate living quarters and duties we both agree on.”
“You will be obedient to me and me alone?”
She swallowed. “I’ll perform duties we agree upon ahead of time. For one human year.”
Bitterroot glanced to the side, and his smile widened. Josh didn’t even know what he was looking at until he spoke. “You may be my dragon master,” he said.
She snorted. “Since when do you have dragons?”
“Since now,” he said, and he moved quickly over to one of the blackened shields. Bending down, he gently sifted through the partially melted framework and ash to where that egg had been. A moment later he was gingerly lifting up a tiny dragon no larger than the palm of his hand. Then he walked it back to Mother, using one hand to lift hers, palm-side up, before gently setting the ruby-red creature in her hand.
“Wow,” Coffee whispered. “You totally Game of Thrones-ed it.”
Josh had to agree. All of them crowded closer to see, but Mother was the most entranced of all, her eyes wide as she stared at the delicate creature.
“There’s more,” Bitterroot said as he went to the debris of shields littered on the ground. One in each pile of ash, all different jewel colors. He gathered each one, warning Cream away from a shield with a dark glare and a snapped order to “Stay back. They’re delicate and take special handling.” Then he reverently set each one in Mother’s hands. And when they spilled past her palms, he used her wrists and put one on her shoulder.
“They’re gorgeous,” she breathed.
“So you agree? You’ll be in my dragon master?”
“I don’t know anything about dragons.”
“I’ll teach you. And at the end of a year, you may keep one for your own.”
Her head shot up, tears in her eyes. “One year?” she whispered.
“And I will pay you with a dragon.”
“Yes.” The word came so fast, Josh wondered if she’d spoken before she could change her mind.
“Yes,” Bitterroot echoed. And then right before their eyes, he changed. Where there once had stood a condescending youth, there now stood a tall, dark fairy prince with a shimmering butterfly tattoo. His hair was sleek black, his eyes even more so. And when he touched her cheek, Mother shivered. Her lips parted in shock or fear, or maybe just a riot of emotions that flashed through her eyes too fast to catch.
The new Bitterroot smiled. It was a dark looked filled with a danger that sucked the heat from the air.
Then they were gone.
And so was Wisconsin, because just as quickly, Nero and Josh were back in Indianapolis, standing in the park on a brilliant winter morning.