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I got into the car, then looked over at Sid. “So, now we’re millionaires. Where do you want to go for lunch to celebrate?”
“Bubba’s burgers. They still have the best fries and shakes.”
“That’s the sister I know and love,” I said and laughed as we pulled away.
The money was nice to have. We didn’t have to worry about jobs or housing. We could take the time we needed to find Dad and figure this out. I said this to Sid while we sat on the wall outside Bubba’s and watched the boats on the lake.
“What are you trying to say, Sin?” Sid asked, feet swinging idly, her gaze on the boats docked below us on the pier.
“I’m saying that maybe we should rethink our plans. Benny hasn’t heard anything about Dad. Auntie Sett can’t find anything, and she’s trying to find what she can. It’s looking like actually finding Dad is going to fall on us. Grandpa is losing it, the witches can’t do much without stepping on shifter toes and Benny isn’t going to put his people at risk for one shifter who hasn’t been an active part of the community for most of his life.”
“I’ve been thinking about stuff too,” Sid said. “And I think you’re right. But we’ve been kept out of a lot, and don’t have all the tools we need to do this right.”
One thing about me and Sid is this. We only dive in when we know what we’re getting ourselves in for. We did a ton of research about majors and colleges before we picked what we studied and where we went to school. This was going to be no different.
“So,” I said, “We need to sit down with Sett and ask her some hard questions and then make our decision.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
“Okay, let’s head back to the farm and find out what Auntie Sett can tell us, then do our lists tonight?”
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
Sid
Sin and I sat at the table in the cottage, notepads in front of each of us.
“It feels like four years ago, doesn’t it?” I asked Sin.
“Yeah, it kinda does. Here we are, making lists and trying to decide what direction our lives will be going in.”
“Well, the last time we did this, we made some good decisions, right?”
“I think so, yeah. Just a little disappointed that we’re not following through on those decisions. I had my pick of Harvard or Johns Hopkins.”
“You’ll get to go later. Maybe we’ll both end up at Harvard. That’s where I was going too. I had there or Georgetown.”
“See? We made it to the top choices in our fields. We can do that with this, too.”
I let out a breath. “But the Academy? Are we nuts? We’re just opening ourselves up to all kinds of abuse and bullshit. We’ll be the only hybrids going there. We’re related to the founders, to one of the directors, to professors…we’d be in for a ration of shit even if we were pure.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s insane. But it’s the fastest way to get the training – and access to the information we need – to find Dad. It’ll help us help Mom and maybe we can take down these Purist assholes so no one else has to lose their home and almost lose their parents.”
I knew Sin was right, but this was like walking up to the mean girls in school and spitting in their faces. Being who we are, it was a red flag to anyone trying to make their mark.
“I know, Sid. This is the last thing I want to do, but it’s what we have to do.”
I looked down at the list, pushed it away and reached for my beer. I took a swallow and then held it up to Sin.
He lifted his and tapped my bottle. “To the Belle Cove Supernatural Police Academy. May they forgive us for what we’re about to do.”
I nearly snorted beer all over the table when I laughed at his toast. “Either they’ll forgive us, bury us, or name another building after us.”
“Or all of the above,” Sin replied.
We had a few weeks before we had to report to the Academy, and that time was taken up with getting fitted for uniforms, taking placement tests, helping around the farm, spending time with Mom, and training. Lots and lots of training.
We did go to graduation, but it wasn’t the celebration we had planned. We spent some time with our friends, but Mom hadn’t been strong enough to go and Dad was still missing. Grandma came and Auntie Sett, and we got our diplomas mailed to us afterward anyway, so it seemed like not such a big deal. The family had a party and a fancy dinner for us, and that was nice, but without Dad, it felt flat.
We went on our daily run. Fifteen miles before breakfast every day. The first few times I couldn’t eat breakfast afterward because I was too busy puking. Now I could sit down and eat, then go spend two hours on the firing range Sett had built out in the back reaches of the farm. After that, we spent time working with our magic. Then Sin and I drove over to Benny’s place and worked on shifter skills. By the time I fell into bed at night, I was exhausted and slept hard. Which meant that most nights, if I dreamed, I didn’t remember them.
I remembered this one.
I found myself in the woods behind the farm. Grandma’s herb farm backed up to a state forest, so we’d run through them many times. I recognized the area, a good mile or so in from the farm.
Following a scent trail, I raced through the woods in my black leopard form, the forest floor silent under my paws as I ran. The scent of blood filled my nostrils and I slowed my pace to a careful walk, not wanting to rush up on a predator. My senses told me Sin was nearby in his wolf form, but I didn’t see him. I climbed a tree to edge out on a branch, the view better from on high. I saw a black wolf laid out in a small clearing, blood splattered around it. A fight had left the wolf injured, but he wasn’t the only one. A large brown wolf lay a few feet away, clearly dead.
Something in this dream felt wrong. It felt too real to be just a dream. I woke, confused and disoriented, replaying what I’d dreamt until I realized the black wolf looked like my father’s shifted form.
I didn’t care that it was only four in the morning, I pulled on the running clothes I’d left out the night before and pounded on Sin’s door.
“Wake up, I had a dream, we need to go check it out,” I yelled.
“What the hell, Sid? You had a dream. Go back to sleep.”
“Come with me,” I yelled again.
“Let me go back to sleep,” Sin yelled back.
Not willing to waste more time arguing, I pulled my hair up into a ponytail as I walked away. “I’m going into the forest behind the storage barn,” was yelled in his direction. I stuffed my phone into a pocket on the way out the door. It was almost three miles from the cottage to the forest edge behind that barn, so I stretched against the porch railing before starting my run.
I pulled on my magic and my shifter energy to sharpen my vision in the predawn light. Everything stood out in sharp relief as I crossed the fields. The scent of various herbs rose in the air when crushed under my feet. Even staying on the paths, some still spread out and I enjoyed the perfume of lavender, sage, and different types of mint.
A sense of urgency washed through me and I took a deep breath, putting on a burst of speed. I cleared the tree line and slowed my pace. Sin had got out of bed and followed me. I could sense him about five minutes back. As I worked my way through the trees, the scent of blood grew stronger – just like it had in my dream. I could feel the shift coming but pushed it back. If I had to shift to fight, it would only take a moment, but if I had to save a life, I’d need my hands.
Sin moved up behind me just as I reached the clearing. I lifted my hand and signaled him to stay quiet as we crept up and looked through the trees. It was just like my dream, and yet it wasn’t. There were two wolves lying in the clearing, but both were dead – and neither one was our father. He was standing between them, growling at us, blood dripping from his muzzle.
“Dad? Hey, it’s okay, it’s me, Sin,” Sin said as he pushed through the brush, hands held out, palm up. “We’ve been looking for you. Can you shift back?”
The huge black wolf growled louder and snapped at Sin, stopping his movement forward.
I slid out of the trees behind Sin and pushed my magic senses into the clearing. “Sin, don’t move. There’s something under the brush at about ten on the clock. A trap of some kind. I can sense the electrical pulse of a battery or a timer.”
Wolf Dad turned toward me and whined. I nodded, closed my eyes and focused. “They’re all over the clearing. Levitate Dad straight up and do not put him down until he’s past that little spruce tree at nine on the clock. Got it?”
“Yep, got it. Dad, don’t wriggle, okay?” Sin said and let out a breath. Wolf Dad lifted straight up about two feet off the ground. A slight wriggle from Dad had him bobbing up and down about six inches. “Don’t move, Dad. Please,” Sin gasped out, the strain clear in his voice. Once Dad was clear of the tree, Sin put him down, then backed himself up until he was beside me again.
“I didn’t sense any life in those two – do you?” I asked Sin. I needed him to double-check because we couldn’t get in there after them.
“No life. And none in the bear shifter about ten feet to your right, either.”
“Jeezus, what the hell happened here?” I turned to ask Dad, and he was gone. “Dad, come back,” I called out, but no reply. I looked at Sin, and he nodded and shifted into his wolf. Nose to the ground, he whined once and then took off after Dad.
I backed up a few more feet, then turned and ran back to the farm. We were going to need a lot of suppression magic to deal with the booby traps someone had planted all over the forest. As I got closer to the main house, I realized that if I hadn’t had that dream, Dad would’ve probably been killed, and we wouldn’t have known about the explosives. Not until one of us ran over them.
Auntie Sett came to the door, a cup of coffee in her hand. “Siddie, what’s going on?”
“We need a power circle. Someone planted IEDs inside the state forest,
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