Theron
It turned out that getting my mate to settle and finding her clothing was the easy part. Sirens sounded throughout the city. Everywhere we looked, cell phones were out everywhere, and the distinct sound of my mate’s roar coming from tiny speakers all around us had my hackles up. Slinking through the shadows proved impossible once the sun hit its zenith in the humid and rank city we found ourselves. But all the while Whisper kept her nose to the air, searching for some elusive scent that she was positive she would find.
“We’ve been going in circles for hours, mate,” I grunted as I hefted myself over yet another fence. Scent traveled on the wind, and Whisper followed it in a meandering line, regardless of obstacles in her way. “There is nothing wrong with admitting defeat.”
“I can smell him,” she snapped back, the glare over her shoulder felt deadly as her power rose around us. “The tricky mage has been all over this fucking city.” She jumped over a hedge like it was a matchstick, and kept going. “Probably leading us on a merry chase for his own amusement.”
“And he’s a friend?” I shook my head, trying to piece together what I had learned about my mate, which wasn’t even enough to fill one hand.
“He is a friend of my clan,” Whisper threw over her shoulder, nose high in the air, nostrils flaring. “His scent is all over here, we’re close.”
“When you say friend of the clan… You mean, what exactly?”
“He is a friend of my clan.” She stopped abruptly, almost so fast that I didn’t have time to keep from smashing into her, but I just managed. “I say what I mean, mate,” she bit out, eyes going black as she looked me up and down. “It’s not like you have been oversharing on our little excursion, unless you count the prominence of your cock to be your motivation.”
“Woah,” I said, putting my hands up in defense. “I’m just asking. Look, it’s clear you are determined to get back to your people. I don’t have people to get back to. Paradigm torched my den, and cleared us all out. Those that they didn’t manage to take are on the run.” I placed my hands gently on her shoulders, watching for any flinching. “I am happy to share, just not while we have so many eyes on us.” I looked around at the phone that was pointed right at us through an apartment window. “We are news right now. You hear those sirens? They’re coming for us. Not that the cops would have a fucking clue what to do. So, instead of standing here, I suggest we go find this friend of yours.”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” She shoved my hands away, and for a moment that crystalline blue showed through the black haze in her eyes, and the sadness that looked out at me tore up my insides. “I just want to go home, Scar,” she whispered. “I need to go home.”
More than anything, I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and hold her tight. I wanted to banish the tears that were welling at the corners of her cornflower blue eyes and make all her sadness go away. But the way she shivered from my touch, the way she pulled away told me she hadn’t been handled with care in the past, and I was going to be the one who had to bear the burden of those mistakes.
“Lead on, mate.” I held my hand out, careful not to touch her again, and waited. I didn’t have to wait long–that perky little nose went right back into the air, and she started moving again.
We walked down countless streets, each one as dilapidated and unwelcoming as the last. St. Louis was a city that had been let go to ruin. There had been a few attempts to pull it back from the brink, which were dotted like oases in the desert. But by and large, the city had fallen into disrepair, supporting a population that was sliding slowly into deeper poverty, and crumbling infrastructure. So, when Whisper stopped in front of a completely empty lot, filled with broken bottles and refuse, I was more than a little confused.
“Dead end?” I asked, leaning back on my heels to take in the entire neighborhood. For once, there wasn’t a phone pointed at us. In fact, I couldn't see a soul around. No one peeked through the windows, no children screaked from back gardens. Not even a bird tweeted from the trees. Everything was quiet.
Whisper looked up at me, her brow raised. “Nope.” She folded her arms over her chest and stared at the lot. “We’re right where we’re meant to be.” Pointing at the houses on either side, I saw the numbers peeking out from the ivy and crumbling bricks. “This is the address.”
“Then your mage has moved.” I huffed, setting my shoulders to a nearby tree and watched as my mate paced back and forth. “We can’t stand out in the open forever, darling.”
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, her hands falling to fist into her hips, never slowing her pace. “He knows we’re here. He’s just testing us.”
“And pacing is the way to get past the test?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the vacant lot, trying to see what Whisper was clearly looking at. “Is this some hocus pocus shit?”
“Rocco likes the dramatic.” She went back to glaring at the lot as she paced up and down. “He knew we were coming. What he’s waiting for is completely beyond me.” Stamping her foot, she let her beast go, the dominance filling every single molecule of air around us. Pressing down on me until I was ready to kneel in submission. “Let us in!” she screamed at the emptiness in front of her, stamping her foot again. “I know you’re in there. I know LOKI is looking for me, what are you waiting for?”
“Perhaps you could ask nicely?” Came a disembodied voice that echoed around the brick buildings surrounding us. “Maybe use a magic word or two?”
“Show us the fucking house, asshole, or I’ll tell Cordelia you were mean to me the next time she stops by,” my mate growled out through gritted teeth, punctuating each syllable with another stamp of her boot clad foot on the sidewalk.
Like a mirage appearing in the desert, the dirty vacant lot disappeared. In its place stood a townhouse painted in a riot of colors, with bric-a-brac littering the front lawn. At the front door stood a man as far from a mage as I could have possibly imagined. Every mage and wizard I had met on my many travels was old and withered, they carried a staff or a wand at all times. This man had a buzz cut, tattoos up and down his arms, and a jaunty pair of thick black rimmed glasses perched on his nose. The only thing that said mage about him was the mad look in his eyes.
“See, my sweet little bear,” he said as he descended down the steps with a flourish. “Was that so hard?”
“How many times has Les called you asking about me?” was Whisper’s way of answering, though she did let Rocco fold her up in his arms and squeeze her tight. My beast reared up, jealous of the stranger that was touching my mate, when she had made it clear that my touch was a no go half the time. “'Cause I know he’s been calling.”
“Plenty,” he said, ushering her up the steps. He looked back over his shoulder and looked at me, still standing, fuming if I’m at all honest, on the sidewalk. “Aren’t you coming, griffin? You wouldn't want to leave your mate all alone with me.”
“Asshole,” I growled under my breath as I pushed through the garden gate and followed them up the gayly colored path to the house. The scent on the wind, that I had thought was someone barbecuing nearby, turned out to be coming from the mage himself. “Firebird.”
“Oh, we’re outing each other, are we?” He clapped gleefully. I was already tired of the man’s presence. “I guess I started it. Whisper, did you know that your pretty mate” –he chucked me under the chin with a manic grin– “is the last griffin?” He turned from me and tucked Whisper’s hand into his elbow as he led us down the hall. “In fact, he’s one of the last of the ancient creatures that there are.”
“Really?” She turned back and glared at me. “A reason why you were keeping that to yourself, Beast?”
“It wasn’t the time.” Crossing my arms over my chest I plopped down on a stool just inside the kitchen. Magic and modern looked like they had been shoved hardcore together. Dangling herbs filled the space, vying for attention over the sleek lines, and shining surfaces. The only thing that disrupted the estetic was the huge farm table, piled high with ancient books and cauldrons. “I didn’t want someone overhearing.”
“Tsk, tsk,” tutted Rocco, who gave Whisper a twirl before going behind his little podium set up at the end of the table, and flipping some pages. “Whisper, you might want to give Les a call. He’s been very worried about you. I told him I would have you call as soon as you got here.”
“We have been standing outside for an hour, dick head,” she growled, snatching the phone right out of his hands. “Could have opened the door earlier.”
“I had a client,” he said quietly, almost calmly. “You know how it is.”
Whisper ignored him, pressing the phone to her ear and slipping by me out of the room. I could hear her talking to someone, but I turned my attention to the mage before me, electing to give her the privacy she deserved.
“So you’re the mage?” I asked, raising a brow as I picked through the herbs and spell books on the table. “Do they know what else you are?”
“Not a one.” Rocco leaned back on the kitchen island and looked me up and down. “There aren’t many of us left, friend,” he said. “And with Paradigm breathing down our throats, you can’t be too careful.”
“And Paradigm?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I watched him. The manic personality that had answered the door, had fallen away to the somber creature I knew lived inside. “How long have they been living at your doorstep?”
“Long enough that I keep myself nicely hidden.” He gave me a gallic shrug and rolled to his feet. “But that’s not what you’re here for. You are here for a way home.”
“I’m here to keep my mate safe. There’s a war coming.” I picked up one of the open books and skimmed the page. A spell to mask identity. “This will do nicely.”
“Don’t presume that you know anything about spellcraft, griffin.” Rocco pulled the book from my hands and shut it. “Do you know how far you and Whisper have splashed your faces since erupting from a building in the middle of downtown? She turned into a bear on the street, twice. Both times with humans present and cameras going. There is certainly a war coming, but change is already being carried by the wind, and we can’t put the genie back in the bottle now.”
“That was unfortunate.” I nodded, letting my hands wander over more paraphernalia on the table. “I assume you’re working to cover that up? Is that why it took so long for you to answer?”
“There’s no covering this up, Scar,” Rocco hissed, snatching a crystal ball from me before I had a chance to touch it. “There’s no putting the shifter back into the box. In a world that has exploded onto the interwebs, social media is beyond what I can control. Alone I can redirect and mask small outbursts. But Whisper was caught on dozens of cameras, hundreds. It's already going to the media. There’s not going to be anymore hiding, no more cover ups. We have to accept that our hidden lives are a thing of the past. Watch the chips fall as they may. Humans have known about us for a while. It’s the masses that haven’t yet caught up. You think that storied military career was all because of your prestige in battle? It’s better if they know. Things like Paradigm can’t exist out of the shadows, bird boy. You and Whisper? You’re our light in the darkness.”
“What?” I growled, grabbing Rocco up by the collar of his shirt. The smoke that billowed from under the garment became pure flames fast enough that I could smell the singed hair of my chest before I dropped him. “Magic has lived in the shadows for a millennia, mage. We can’t just shrug our shoulders and say, ‘oh well, it was nice while it lasted’. Humans can’t handle the supernatural.”
“That’s not my call to make.” He looked almost sad as he dropped his ass on a chair. “The Council has spoken. This is too widespread and the shadow organizations are becoming more powerful by the day. And since you and Whisper are the heart of it, the media is coming to you.”
“No,” my mate gasped, her hand still on the kitchen door, phone dangling from two fingers before crashing to the ground. “No, no, no.” Her head shook back and forth. “I can’t. Rocco, make them look somewhere else. They’ll find me.” I watched as a tear slipped down that porcelain cheek before she took off. The sound of her feet on the stairs let me breathe a sigh of relief. At least she hadn’t burst into her grizzly form and rocketed out into the streets again.
“You’ve got your work cut out for you, my friend.” Rocco patted me on the back. “Whisper has been through all of it, and none of it was filled with unicorns and rainbows, if you know what I mean.”
“Then why does she want to go back to her clan so badly?” I asked, looking up the steps to where my mate disappeared. The hollow sound of a door slamming several stories up told me she had found her hiding place.
“Because the Lords of Khaos saved her.” He shrugged. “They pulled her out of the hell she had found herself in. No, she’s not worried about LOKI, she’s worried about her home clan.”
“Why?”
“Because Whisper’s bear is the biggest beast there is. And when you push a dominant like her too far, blood flows.” He pulled out a book and set it on his podium, flipping through pages. “Whisper’s bear, Frigga? She’s one to contend with. Apparently she slaughtered half the males in the Broken Oath Clan before disappearing into the wilds. And they’ve been gunning for her ever since.”
I just looked up the long windy steps of Rocco’s townhouse. “She is a bit ferocious, isn’t she?”