Chapter 4

 

Cloud crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the handsome Whitehall witch. “Move, witch,” she demanded.

Cal continued to block the door, refusing to let her leave the cabin. “Not until we discuss this like adults, hunter.”

Tommy stood a few feet away, watching. “Not now, Cal,” he said in the petulant tone of a younger brother. “Can’t you go be all righteous and asinine somewhere else?”

“We need to go after the Org,” the tall, blond witch said firmly. Something moved behind his eyes, and for an instant Cloud knew it wasn’t the witch looking out at her.

She’d seen a lot of crazy things in her life, but the sight of possession never failed to give her chills, much as it had the day she lost her grandmother to the evil creature that had taken over her soul.

“You are hardly in any shape to go to war,” she reminded him. Her eyelids still felt swollen, and her heart was beating hard. But now that Tommy had forced her out of her self-pity, she was ready to move. To destroy anything that stood in her way. Her hand slipped to her belt, to rest against her tomahawk, and some of that old familiar fire rose up in her. “We don’t even know what you are.”

Tommy stepped closer, one pale hand up. “Hey, hey. Cloud—”

But the ghoul’s brother cut him off. “You think you are so superior to everyone, hunter? How did it feel to live a lie for a hundred years or so? To be led around like a blinded sheep by your elders?”

She was at his throat in an instant, blade drawn and digging into his golden flesh. “I am going to find Tess,” she hissed. “Even if I have to go through you, whatever you are.”

He raised a hand, a crackling ball of energy cradled in his palm, and Cloud pressed harder against her blade, releasing a trickle of blood.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Tommy said, throwing up his hands. Cloud refused to look at him, intent on getting to Tess, now that her mind was made up. Tess, who was probably out there thinking she was a monster, hating herself, putting herself in danger.

The ghoul shouldered his way between Cloud and Cal. “Okay,” he said, stretching out both hands to shove them farther apart. “Time out. Look,” he cast a white glare toward each of them in turn. “Let’s just clear the air and get over this shit, shall we?”

Cloud glared at him. “What?”

Cal shook his hand and the energy dissipated, but she could still feel it there, waiting to be called up again in an instant.

“You,” Tommy said, pointing at Cloud. “Are so in love with Tess you would destroy the whole world if it meant getting her back.”

Cloud narrowed her eyes at him, wondering what the hell his point was. Her fingers itched to strangle the witch on the other side of the room, wipe the smirk off his too pretty face and remove his head from his stupid, broad shoulders.

“And you,” Tommy said, pointing to his brother. “You pumped Tess full of your magic, fucked her into a sappy pile of wendigo goo, then tried to kill her.”

Cal’s eye twitched, but he didn’t give any other sign of reaction.

“Let me remove him,” Cloud said, her voice tight, hand squeezing the handle of her weapon. Distantly, she knew her emotions were out of control. That she should get a grip and remember the detached calm that had kept her alive for so long. But she just couldn’t calm down. She needed Tess by her side now. Not out there where anyone could work their way past her barbed shell and take advantage of her damned soft heart.

Like the witch had.

“Why are you chattering on about all of this?” Cal asked in a cool voice. “What’s important is how we handle the Org. There are a couple more facilities here in Michigan. And I think they have a couple more out west, in the deep forests. We need to go in, shut them down now, while they are still wondering what hit them.”

Tommy tilted his head. “So…you don’t care what happened to Tess, then?”

Cal threw up his hands. “Tess! It’s always about Tess, isn’t it? There are other people in this world with problems.” He looked away. “Fucking Tess.”

Cloud narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re a lying sack of refuse. Why do you really want us to go after the Org first?”

The witch shuddered. His whole body convulsed and he bent over, gasping. Then he straightened, pushing a lock of blond hair behind his ear, movements gone feminine. He looked at Cloud, his features softening. His voice, when he spoke, was smoother, slightly higher pitched, the cadence all wrong. “Forget him,” the thing said. “You are right, you need to find the wendigo. My brethren need her. If she is injured or lost, you need to find her. None of this human…politics…matters.” She sounded like she was trying to figure out the foreign words that humans used for things she didn’t understand. “Humans,” she muttered. “They are the monsters. Let them rot.”

Then she tilted her head back, her face contorting. She grasped her hair and tugged at it in frustration. “No! No, go away. Leave me alone.”

Cal’s body went from rigid to relaxed as he stood upright, shoulders squared, features settling into the calm, distant look he usually wore. “Damned thing,” he muttered angrily. The witch wasn’t taking well to whatever strange possession the Org had forced on him. “Look, I agree we need Tess back.” He sighed. “I need Tess back. So she can talk to this thing inside me. She seems to find Tess…soothing.”

One corner of Cloud’s mouth twitched at the disbelieving look on the witch’s face. “Soothing” wasn’t really a term anyone would use to describe Tess. But then, Cloud admitted she would feel a lot more calm herself if Tess were here. Then the smile fell away. The damned witch only wanted to use her again for his own gain. And only after he carried out his political agenda. “So go,” she told him. “Go attack the Org. We are going to find Tess first.”

He heaved a sigh. “I need your army of hunters and witches. And the Org people who defected…well, they aren’t going to follow any orders from me anytime soon. They were there…” his voice broke. “They know what their scientists and doctors did to me.”

His shoulders hunched for a moment before he pulled himself together. “Besides, those facilities are bound to have more of the supernatural creatures in them—both the test subjects and those abominations they’ve created. Tess will be drawn there anyway, even if she is as lost as you seem to think.”

Tommy heaved a sigh. “God, can’t anyone around here be honest.”

They both looked at the idiot ghoul.

“You,” he said pointing to Cloud. “Are furious because he fucked your girlfriend.”

Cloud gritted her teeth together. “And don’t forget tried to kill her.”

He nodded. “Sure, that too. But he didn’t succeed. I doubt he really even tried. And she sure as shit clung to you when you came back, right? Even if you abandoned her before.”

Cloud clenched her fists so tight she felt her knuckles pop. “And?”

He shrugged and turned to Cal. “You came here to do a job for the Org. To learn about the creatures here and get rid of whatever was making them gather. And you were following their orders because they are holding Elana in one of their facilities, where they may or may not be performing nasty experiments on a five year old girl.”

Cal’s cheeks flexed as he clenched his jaw before he spoke. “And?”

Tommy shook his head. “You actually saved Tess’s ass because you like her more than you want to admit, maybe you were even falling for her for a minute there. But that just won’t do for a big elite witch like you, mom and pops would never have it. You want her back with us as much as the rest of us. But you are jealous as hell that Cloud gets to keep her.”

They both stared at him. Great Spirit, when did the moronic ghoul become their psychologist?

He shrugged his leather-clad shoulders. “You guys are so busy being jealous and wanting to kill each other over some wendigo ass that you aren’t making sense.”

Cloud narrowed her eyes. She was going to kill the ghoul. For good this time.

A burst of laughter escaped Cal. She turned to him to find him shaking with mirth. Her own lip twitched with suppressed laughter. “What is so funny, Whitehall?”

The witch wiped his eyes. “This. Just…” he wheezed with laughter. It was so strange to see him being anything but uptight or possession crazed. Cloud had no idea how to handle this development. “All of this….”

She rubbed a hand over her face. “Okay. Yes. This is all pointless.” She crossed her arms again and tapped her foot. “But Tess is still out there somewhere, probably suffering. We are going to go find her. Then we will go after the Org.”

Cal straightened up and stopped laughing. His eyes held a naked emotion that made Cloud uncomfortable. It was so…vulnerable. “Please,” he said softly. And in that moment, she knew exactly why Tess had fallen for his schemes and right into his bed. “They have….” He cleared his throat and his fingers curled into fists. It was hard for him to give her this honesty. It was a show of trust. “Please help me? They have my daughter. She’s…ancient Gods, she’s only a little girl. Can you imagine what they might be doing to her? Because I can….” His voice was only a whisper now. “I do…I imagine it every minute of every day.”

Cloud took a deep breath. “Goddamnit.”

Tommy put a cold hand on her shoulder. “Pretty much.” He turned to his brother. “We want Tess back, but we can’t put her needs above Elena’s. And you’re right.” His expression turned grim. “If there are more of those monsters, Tess will be right in the thick of it anyway.”

Then he grinned at them both with a knowing leer. “So can you guys forget those amazing tits for a while and just get along?”

Cloud shrugged out from under Tommy’s hand. “I’m sure we can work together long enough to silence you, ghoul.”

Cal arched an eyebrow at her and gave her a wry look. “They are amazing tits though.”

Cloud rolled her eyes and brushed past the two idiot boys, her mind already focused on what she had to do next. Men!

But she did allow herself a private smirk, all the same. They might be annoying as hell, but they weren’t wrong.