Filed to story: The Healer and The Wolf PDF Free
“That would be Millicent Carlisle, the second youngest. His father is Winston Carlisle, a rather traditional warlock who is rumored to have been killed and eaten by Katarina Morgana after she found him with a mistress.”
Wow, what? When did the crazy world I had been dumped into turn into an episode ofReal Housewives?
“Word has it is that he insists people call him William or Bill, however, most of his family refused this name as Bill isn’t exactly the intimidating name of a magic user, and Millicent was traditional. This is probably why he’s still alive, as it seems there was a pretty large rift between him and the rest of his siblings.”
Not large enough for him to stay out of cursing Leo’s pack and scattering them to the seven winds. Even with all of ourvictories against the brothers, we’d still only found Ricky. As far as I knew, there were at least twenty other people missing. I knew Leo felt the pain of their absence every single day. He was good at hiding it and occupying himself with the responsibilities of running a pseudo-rebel headquarters, but occasionally, I’d catch him staring out into the night sky, and I always knew exactly what he was thinking.
“He has an affinity for the weather, and while I couldn’t find any direct reports of the style he prefers to battle with, I did manage to uncover a few people who say his go-to move is summoning a particularly malevolent lightning cloud indoors. Oh, and blinding his opponents by causing thick, overcast skies, then suddenly clearing them to reveal full sunlight.”
That was a pretty neat trick. But finally, I saw a chance to ask Alicia a question that had been lingering in the back of my head for quite a while.
“These brothers have all had specialties,” I said cautiously, trying to project that I belonged and knew what I was doing. Of all the fantasies I’d had about my faraway future, none of them really involved working as a military coordinate for magical people. “Chadwicke had luck. Alric had an affinity for metal manipulation. This Bill has the weather. But they can do other stuff, too, I’ve seen. Like generate shields and throw people around.”
“Yes, because they are all warlocks. Each one of them has sworn fealty to a different spirit, god, or otherwise mystical force that has granted them special abilities as long as they remained faithful. Originally, they were all witches born to their extremely powerful mother, but one by one, they all made their different pacts to try to gain more power. Still couldn’t compare to her, however. Thankfully, there hasn’t been a single public sighting of her since her youngest came of age. Most think she’s retired back to the old world.”
I had to wonder what kind of mystical woman had birthed such a group of certifiable sociopaths. Surely, she had to be just as terrifying and monstrous as all of them. Or maybe she was just a powerful witch going about her business and living her life, only for all of her sons to end up jealous of her power and mutate themselves through magical contracts that still left them weaker than the matriarch they were trying to surpass.
I hoped I never found out.
“The remaining target is Frederick Plutus, son of the witch Dominic Plutus, who apparently broke it off amicably with Katerina and was living somewhere on the Polynesian Isles before he ran afoul of someMaeroafter trying to bewitch the heart of their forest. They crushed him under rocks and planted a tree over him.”
Well, that was one way to deal with a colonizer. Not that I knew what it meant tobewitch the heart of the forest,but it seemed pretty serious. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder at all the different types of magical entities that lived outside of America. Did every land mass have their own unique, indigenous magical folks? That would make sense, and it was awe-inspiring.
“Frederick is the third youngest and he has an affinity for plant life. From what I’ve heard, his go-to is poisons or suddenly spawning carnivorous plants that have somewhat cognitive abilities.”
Wait.
They had a plant guy?
Leo and I exchanged a look, and I wondered if he was thinking exactly what I was. Probably not. Part of me couldn’t help but wonder if he had anything to do with what happened at the gala. Was there any way that this Frederick could have caused all the plant nonsense, and I was just the scapegoat?
No. As easy as that would make things, I knew without a doubt that I had been connected to the plants I had summoned.That one of the brothers was also connected to them had to be a coincidence. But still, how uncanny. I had to admit, it did kind of appeal to the part of me that thought everything that happened so far was fate-an inevitable path I’d been chosen to walk upon. But the greater majority of my mind didn’t believe in frivolous things like fate, so I tucked those thoughts away and kept listening.
At least I tried to listen. Once the general information dump was over, multiple people started suggesting different strategies, and my frustration amped up. Alicia hadn’t even finished telling us about the location or anything else she’d found out. It was definitely rapidly growing to be too many cooks in the kitchen, even with Leo cutting in regularly to shut people up and get us back on track.
Given that I wasn’t very military-minded, and my anxiety was rising with every interruption, after an hour or so I dismissed myself with the excuse of a headache. Leo gave me a concerned look, but I squeezed his arm in assurance. I wasn’t going to have a breakdown or anything, but I needed a bit of a break. Yeah, I had planned out our whole Chadwicke escapade, as well as the first raid on the medical facility, but now we were way past my pay grade. We had people better suited for the job, and I was happy to focus on making sure our healing reserves were stocked.
I got myself a glass of ice water and made sure my cats were fed, then headed up to my room for a nap. I hadn’t been napping outside of my cycle, but a quick thirty-minute refresh would do me well.
I set my alarm and changed into some house clothes before crawling into bed. Not a moment later, Mudpie sprawled against my side, purring up a storm as I petted her until we both slipped into sleep.
I wished I could say it was restful, but I was shoved into a nightmare the minute sleep took me. It was nothing solid, like me showing up naked to work or having somehow enrolled in college again, but it was still awful. Slipshod and full of horrific, disjointed images and scenes, ranging from being stuck in an inescapable fire, to being at the gala and watching all the plants I’d summoned shred apart my friends instead of Alric.
After watching Leo be drawn and quartered for the umpteenth time, I finally managed to rip free from the nightmare. I jolted awake, soaked in sweat from head to toe, my throat aching as if I’d been screaming.
Holy fuck on a stick, that was terrifying. Hadn’t I experienced enough trauma in life without my mind needing to make up fantasy situations to make it worse? Sleep was supposed to be my escape, not another way to torment me.
“Hey there.” Leo stuck his head around the door. “Are you okay? I thought I heard you crying.”
“Crying? No, I-” I touched my face and found that there were indeed tear streaks on my cheeks mixing with the sweat from my nightmare. “Huh, would you look at that.”
Leo stepped in fully, gently closing the door behind him. I thought about insisting I was fine and sending him on his way, but then he leveled me with one of those concerned looks, and all my resolve crumbled.
“Can I help you, baby? I know things are a bit crazy right now, but you don’t have to go through this alone. I’ll always make time for you.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Despite everything on his plate, Leo had been quite attentive ever since the gala. Even before that. He seemed so in tune with my emotions in a way no one in my life ever had been. Strangely, it had taken a shifter to make me feel more human.
Although, whether I wasactuallyhuman was up for debate at the moment.
Once more, the instinct to pretend I was strong and nothing was wrong flared up, but it withered and died almost instantly. If there was anyone I could be vulnerable with, it was my cats and my boyfriend.
“I’d really like to be held right now.”
The gentle smile that spread across his handsome face was exactly what I needed. “I can do that.”
He got into bed with me, pulling the covers over us. The man awed me. He basically had a war to plan, but he still acted like it was no problem to help me with my nightmares. Realistically, I should probably take the noble path and tell him I was fine so he could go back to working on saving his pack. But for once, I wanted to be selfish. I wanted to admit that I was scared, weak, and wanted a really nice hug from the man I was in love with.
“Do you want to spoon? Or do you want to sit between my legs and lean back against my chest? I could brush your hair?”
Something so simple shouldn’t have had a fresh wave of tears coming to my eyes, but it did. No one had ever taken care of me like this, and the thought of having my head petted while surrounded by his scent was highly appealing.
“I’d really like the second one. I think I’ve had my hair up in a ponytail for two days.”
“I think so, too. Your scalp has to be pretty tired, so let’s give it a break, shall we?”
I nodded, and Leo reached over to open one of the drawers of my nightstand and pulled out my wet/dry brush. It took him a moment to arrange himself, but once he was comfortable with the appropriate amount of pillows behind his back, I crawled between his legs and settled myself.
Leaning back against his chest was so simple, yet it was so incredibly comforting. The warmth of his body combined withthe firmness of his muscles was an assurance that he would always be there for me. I didn’t know what I had done to deserve a man like him, but I would be forever grateful.