Miguel's Secret Cub Page 9

  I let her go and she dropped, cackling as she dusted snow off her sleeves. She bared her neck and grinned at me. “C’mon, daddy. Do it.”

  I shook my head, disgusted with myself. I couldn’t remember ever feeling worse. I turned and walked away, leaving her there. She only wanted to tease or goad me into killing her and I couldn’t do that. Who would I even be killing? There was nothing left of who she had been now, whether it was my fault or not. I knew she wouldn’t help me at all, if only because Haldo wouldn’t want her too. I marched away, headed toward the woods, intending to get back to Middlesmark and Andy, and hoping against hope my son had at least not gotten worse.

  Chapter Ten: Daisy

  The magic that was in me, that Haldo had put there had not been active lately.

  Now I needed it.

  It seemed like a way I might help Andy though I had no idea how. Haldo, I was sure, was the “magic man” Andy had been talking about. He had been real all this time and I’d put it down to the fanciful imagination of my little boy who was always making up stories. Instead, it was the monstrous man who would have destroyed me if Miguel hadn’t ended up attempting to reverse the terrible things he had done.

  I thought about it sometimes, the things Miguel had done for Haldo. I knew some girls he had brought to Haldo had died. I didn’t make excuses for it but I knew Miguel had already punished himself plenty and also that he had been so young when he’d done it; a boy and not a man. But more than that, I think I would have done the same thing at the time, when I was a struggling runaway just like him. I know I would have. So how could I condemn him? I understood him was all. I always had.

  But understanding couldn’t stop the revenge Haldo was taking on our son.

  I didn’t know much in the way of magic. I’d been trying not to think about it at all since realizing I had powers I’d never asked for. But I did have a couple of old books of spells hidden away and now I dug them out. I was ready to try anything if there was even a chance it might help Andy, who was curled up on his bed; a trembling little feverish lion cub.

  I was really hoping the books would have some magical solution. But there was nothing much about potions in the spell books and none of the spells looked like they would cause the reaction affecting Andy. The best I could do was cast some protective spells and I couldn’t tell if they were doing any good or not on a little boy who was already cursed. I also didn’t like the feeling that using my powers gave me and I wasn’t used to it. I was strong. I could feel how strong I was. But it was a power I didn’t want and it made me feel as if my very blood was contaminated.

  At one point as I spread my fingers, casting the second of three protective spells, I felt the power overwhelming me and the door rattled. The framed pictures on the wall shook. I couldn’t even remember what Haldo had done to me. That short time I was imprisoned was all a bit of a blur. But here was the proof. The furniture was trembling for the magic that flowed through me.

  I cast three spells and then I stopped, feeling sick. I didn’t even know if they were helping.

  Andy was at least not doing any worse but it still tore my heart in two as I sat next to him on the bed, to see him staring into space with those eerie eyes that almost glowed, the ribbons of silver swirling around his pupils.

  I wished Miguel would come back, though the thought that he might be getting some real help stopped me from texting him to return. Instead I just sat around and tried googling solutions. I felt like I was losing my mind.

  The apartment felt hot and stuffy. I knew it was just my anxiety ratcheting up but I got to my feet and tugged on the collar of my t-shirt, wishing for some relief.

  When there was a knock at the door, I knew it wasn’t Miguel. Somehow I could sense that there was danger right on the other side of the door as I stood in my tiny living room, my phone clutched in my hand. The coffee Miguel had been drinking was still sitting there on the table, now cold. Not much time had passed since this had all started, yet it felt like it had been days somehow.

  “Who is it?” I said, deliberately deepening my voice.

  Nobody answered but there was another knock, sharp and staccato. I was panicked all of a sudden. I texted Miguel with shaking fingers.

  Come back.

  The door splintered.

  It was as if it had just crumbled of its own volition. It was a spell of some kind, I was sure. One second there was another thundering knock and then the door was simply collapsing, the wood panels becoming dust.

  There stood Haldo.

  He looked exactly the same, except he was dressed more casually than I remembered him. He was wearing a black sweater and tailored pants and he wore a long black coat. He didn’t have a beard anymore, instead he had a bit of gray stubble on the tip of his chin. But he was otherwise clean shaven. His face was long and a little weathered. His eyes were as empty and dark as I remembered.

  He clasped his hands in front of him and smiled at me.

  “The one that got away,” he muttered. “Well, one of them anyway.” He sounded as if he were only speaking for his own benefit, as if I wasn’t there at all. “But I always thought you had the greatest promise, Daisy.”

  Oh good, now he was speaking directly to me. Somehow that didn’t comfort me.

  “What did you to my son?” I said. I looked directly at him, refusing to show my fear. I clenched my fists at my sides and I felt the magic rushing through me now. But I didn’t know if it was really me doing it or if it was Haldo.

  I wanted to believe it was me.

  “I managed to perfect my technique!” Haldo said. It was as if I was supposed to congratulate him. “All that experimentation, that torture, that pain… I managed to catalyze it down to one simple potion. Which your son has now imbibed. He will have whatever power I bestow on him and he will do my bidding.”

  No.

  “I’ll kill you first,” I said calmly.

  “Oh, don’t worry.” He stepped inside my apartment and my skin crawled. I wondered where Miguel was. Whatever happened, I couldn’t rely on him showing up to save me. This time, I’d have to save myself and our son. “He won’t even know what’s going on. He’s trapped in his lion form. Do you...have any idea what happens to a shifter who is unable to shift back? They lose their capacity for abstract, human thought after too many years. They become more lion than man. He’ll be my pet, you see.”

  My pet.

  I was seeing red. Almost literally. The edges of my vision was blurring, I was so angry that this man who had tortured young women was now back to take away the most precious person in the world to me just when I’d been on the verge of true happiness.

  “Take me,” I said. I tried to remain steady. Somehow I still thought I might be able to reason with him. “You want me. Take me. I have power. You put it there, now you can use it.”

  Inwardly, I was scrambling. I could go with Haldo. In the moment, it seemed perfectly reasonable if the alternative was him enslaving my son. Miguel would take care of Andy. Surely, Haldo could agree to this. Wouldn’t he rather have me after all. It was perfect really. Thank God, I’d found Miguel. He was right here to be the dad I knew he could be. I’d happily sacrifice myself if I could safeguard Andy.

  “It’s tempting,” Haldo said, tapping his chin. “But no. I’d much rather have this little lion cub as a trophy. He’s so young too. There’s no telling what I can mold him into. You should see what I’ve done with Lara-”

  I shuddered. I felt ice cold all over yet the magic was still pouring through me. I could feel its vibration in my blood.

  I wondered if I could take him.

  Not that I would even know how exactly. I’d accidentally moved ketchup bottles and broken things. I’d used my power to cast a few spells. I had no idea how to use it to take down someone so powerful.

  But before I got the chance, Haldo said, “Oh, Andy!”

  “Stay away from him!” I screamed and ran at Haldo. He flicked one little finger and I went tumbling backward, hal
f falling on the coffee table. The corner of it caught me in me in the hip and I groaned at the pain, staggering to my feet as Andy came padding out of his room. He was still in lion form of course, his eyes still vacant and silvery. He was so calm. He headed straight for Haldo as if trained. It made me want to throw up.

  “Andy!” I cried. I reached out for him. “Andy, baby! Come here, sweetie! Come to mom!”

  Andy didn’t even look at me. He was going to Haldo like an obedient dog. I’d had nightmares about Haldo before, but this was worse than anything I could have imagined.

  “Andy…” Tears streamed down my face and I clapped my hands to my cheeks, sinking to my knees. “Andy! Please!”

  “It was a difficult spell,” Haldo said simply. He picked up Andy in his arms and my stomach lurched. “Very difficult potion. There were several elements. The hardest bit has just proven itself successful however. I had to disrupt his love for you. Now that is a trial! Disrupting the bond between a mother and her child? It’s nearly impossible. Or...perhaps you just don’t love him as much as you think? Or he doesn’t love you.”

  He was saying that just to hurt me. I knew that. But it was working.

  He was holding my son and stroking his head. “My little pet,” he said.

  That did it. I couldn’t have explained the mechanics of it but the power was overwhelming me. I heard screaming from somewhere and realized it was coming from me as windows shattered. The vibration of magic inside me rippled out, making the ground shake beneath us.

  I had to think that Haldo had not intentionally put this much power inside me, but he had and now he would reap what he’d sown.

  “Drop him!” I shrieked at Haldo. Or anyway, it felt like I was shrieking, but the voice that came out of me was like thunder. I was floating off the ground and I felt the magic forming a halo around me as it filled me up. I remembered in stories I’d heard as a child that shifters with magical ability sometimes became exponentially more powerful once they found their mate and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was happening here.

  Haldo looked terrified. I took that as a small victory. He hadn’t counted on me actually being able to use the power he’d given me against him. He dropped his arms and Andy dropped to the floor, landing in a heap of fur on the carpet. The poor thing looked so confused but he wasn’t missing the show of power on display and to my relief, he ran back into his room.

  I knew no spells, no proper way to channel this fury.

  But I’d moved a ketchup bottle without meaning too.

  Maybe I could throw a wizard intentionally.

  I screamed and focused all my rage toward Haldo and his eyes bugged out as he was thrown out of my apartment and into the wall across the corridor. He snarled and raised his hands, his face a mask of rage. If he got the chance to fight back, he would ruin me. I had no doubts about that. I might have been powerful, but I was still a complete novice.

  I took a chance and in the rough way that was all impulse and instinct and nothing to do with skill, I yanked Haldo forward again with all the force of my power. He went tumbling back into the apartment, landing on the coffee table and crashing right through it. He yelled in pain and tried to get to his feet and then it was all a blur as I tossed him around the room like he was nothing, like he was just a toy at my whim.

  He managed to cast spells and I dodged them. Finally, I screeched in fury with one more blast of power and this time it was an accident when I sent him crashing right through the living room window and to the snowy ground three floors below.

  Watching his body go sailing through the window, I came back to myself, my mouth dropping open. I heard the thud of his body hitting the ground below and winced.

  It should’ve been odd that no neighbors pounded on the wall or came running after all that noise. My apartment was thrashed. Windows were shattered, furniture was splintered, and my front door was gone after all. But then again, the building was full of shifters. They might have figured there was just a mountain lion fight in 3G and gone about their business.

  Now I ran to the window and looked down to see what had become of Haldo.

  I ran to the window just in time to see him slowly stagger to his feet. I wished the fall had killed him but three stories into a few feet of piled up snow on the soft, dirt ground behind the building that looked out toward the woods wasn’t going to do the job.

  But he was definitely hurt and that was good. He was limping away and I was just about to find my phone and try to call Miguel, when a mountain lion came tearing out of the woods.

  I knew that lion as well as I knew my own form. It was Miguel. He was a blur of darkly golden fur against the white blanket of snow and I didn’t have to wonder if he was heading for Haldo before he was leaping and attacking the old wizard.

  I clapped a hand to my mouth and watched Miguel maul Haldo right there below my window.

  Miguel must have been headed back to my place and then sniffed out Haldo when he’d fallen.

  Now Haldo’s blood was gushing out into the white snow, his throat torn open. Miguel had been too fast for Haldo to cast anything in defense and he was dying. I gripped the window sill and watched him shudder through his last breaths. The gore of Miguel tearing through him was bloody but it was nothing I hadn’t seen before and besides that, it was satisfying to watch.

  Miguel had come through. He’d protected his mate and his son.

  Andy...

  I waited until Haldo went completely still in the snow and then I dashed to Andy’s room, my heart in my throat.

  I didn’t know how any of this worked. He had used a potion but then again, Haldo had been controlling him with a spell so if he was dead, wasn’t the spell broken?

  “Mom?”

  I found Andy in human form, sitting on his bed, looking up at me, confused and frightened. But his eyes were clear. They weren’t glowing or silvery.

  “Mom, what happened? I couldn’t shift! Mom...”

  I ran to him and fell to my knees, throwing my arms around him and he hugged me back. There would be time enough for answers but now I just wanted to hug my son and hear his voice and feel his human arms around me, embracing me, and listen to the regular beat of his heart against mine.

  Chapter Eleven: Miguel

  I’d lucked out. I didn’t even need to look up to know that it was Daisy who was responsible for Haldo’s timely tumble to the ground. I could feel it. I felt my connection to her as strongly as I felt a connection to my own right hand. Or rather, my paw. I’d been running as fast as I could through the woods to get back to Daisy and Andy and just when I’d made out her building up ahead through the trees, I’d seen that tall, lean dark figure go plunging from the third floor.

  I’d smelled him immediately and only seconds later as I ran toward the unmoving figure heaped in the snow, could I see his face. There was no mistaking Haldo’s scent, even after all these years.

  Just smelling him brought such a rage up within me. I didn’t think twice. I only counted myself extraordinarily fortunate to have arrived in time to kill him, although it looked as if Daisy had come damn close. I wondered how she had managed it. She was a pretty petite woman and Haldo wasn’t huge but he was tall and somewhat substantial. It didn’t matter now as I leapt him, springing from my back legs, roaring.

  When my teeth sank into him, I noted that his flesh tasted bitter to me. It was as if he was full of chemicals. I’d heard dark magic could make humans like that sometimes. It was an unnatural fit for them and their bodies reacted to it. On some level, it was satisfying to tear through him, killing him quickly as my teeth ripped through his throat. But I took no pleasure in it.

  When I was done, there was no question that he was dead. Most of his blood was now in the snow. But there was still a body to dispose of. I spat out blood, disgusted by the taste. I glanced around, still in my lion form. There was no one around but the building was pretty populated. Eventually, someone would come asking questions.

  I had to get rid of H
aldo.

  I managed to drag him into the woods myself, and temporarily out of sight. But he should be buried. I shifted back into human form and it felt different now to look down at the corpse that had once been a live person who had given me nightmares for years. Now he was gone and out of our lives. I glanced back through the woods at Daisy’s building and wondered how Andy was doing.

  I checked my phone and there were several messages from the guys. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, still tasting that acrid blood, and texted Luca with a shaking hand. I needed their help. Luca didn’t even ask what I needed, only the address That was typical for him. Even given the body at my feet, it made me smile to think I had such loyal friends.

  Luca reported that he and Charlie and Dylan would leave practice and come meet me and to stay where I was. That left me on guard duty over a corpse for a bit.

  I wasn’t sorry I had killed Haldo. In fact, I felt like I should have done it the first time. It would have saved Lara anyhow. She was free now. If she even knew how to be.

  Still, it felt strange to have killed a person. I’d hunted plenty but I only killed animals and never a shifter or a person. I felt changed and I didn’t know how exactly. Yet I also felt as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

  For a while I just leaned against a tree there in the woods, on guard and on alert. I was itching to get back in the building and see Daisy but I stayed where I was, waiting for the guys as Haldo’s body lay quietly at my feet unmoving. Every time I smelled somebody anywhere near me, I tensed up but no one came too close, thankfully. The sound of every guard on the street on the other side of the building made my ears perk up and finally I heard somebody pull over and then the scents of Luca, Charlie, and Dylan reached my nose.

  Thank God.

  I swallowed and stood up straight and it was strange to wait, standing over my kill as I watched them walk up. Charlie was carrying shovels which I hadn’t thought to ask for. We were well hidden from view and Luca clapped me on the back, squeezing my shoulder.