Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

forward near a mail box post. “So… death really follows him?”

Deidre shrugged. “Sorry, but yeah. In the most literal sense.”

“Stop trying to scare her,” Jessica swatted Deidre’s shoulder, making angry eyes at her.

“I’m not trying to scare her,” Deidre retorted, hardly indignant though. She was matter of fact about it. “I just think that she should only proceed forward with her eyes wide open. She is going to see things anyway. It is too late. She may be a regular girl, but she is no longer shielded by ignorance—which makes her susceptible.”

“Why do death angels follow him?” Audry asked more time, just to make sure.

“He’s a marked soul,” Deidre explained. But then with a shrug she added, “However, I have heard a rumor that the famous Carlos could not predict his death. I think the death angels also know this. Matthew says Rick does not believe in fate, so there is no set future for him.”

“Matthew?” Audry gazed more at this woman, wondering when Deidre had entered among these friends. Deidre had not been mentioned once, though Eve had been a subject of conversation as had Selena. “As in Matthew Calamori?”

Deidre nodded, perking up. “The one and the same. Do you know him too?”

Audry pressed a hand to her head. “Are you also from Gulinger Private Academy?”

Jessica chuckled, peeking to Deidre who shook her head as if it didn’t matter anyway.

“No. But my cousin did. Joshua.”

That’s right Officer Joshua Johnson. It was just a reconfirmation.

“But…” Deidre added, smiling with private pleasure. “Matthew and I are dating.”

That took Audry aback with a laugh, taking Deride in more. She was pretty and in many ways quietly wise. This was good news. And it explained a lot of the back and forth that afternoon.

Jessica sighed, pushing the stroller with a peek to see if Ivy was asleep. Her eyes tracked to Deidre. “How is that going, by the way?”

“You promised not to ask.” Deidre was smiling though. He cheeks were pink. “But I can report that maybe we’re considering following Randon and Silvia’s lead.”

Audry perked up. So… she knew Randon and Silvia also. Audry wondered if she ought to visit them next, just to reconnect. That, and maybe Silvia had a thing or two that could protect her—something stronger than Juma’s evil eye charm. 

“Don’t elope.” Grabbing her arm, Jessica whined at Deidre, “I want to be at your wedding! You promised that if it got serious—”

Deidre blushed more, strolling a mite slower. “I know. But Matt and I have been counting up the cost of a wedding. And I don’t want the huge expense. Besides, he can’t contact his mother. My father is… well, you know.”

Jessica nodded.

But Audry did not know. However prying for details seemed rude, so she just listened. One thing she knew was that all these folk had broken families of some kind. Matthew’s father had been murdered, and Matthew had been taken into protective custody as a child for testifying against the mafia—so his mother and he were not in communication. Audry wondered if broken homes and lives affected connection to the supernatural. Or perhaps (more likely) the supernatural in a human life often created broken homes.

“So, we figured we elope, then come back with a small party with cake at his—soon to be our—apartment.”

Audry smiled. This was one happy thing at least. Matthew had found someone.

Deidre shrugged. “I was just hoping Eve would be back and free from the stupid reapers to attend.”

“You know Eve too?” Audry asked. It had been implied.

Deidre nodded. “Yeah. I moved into her town during our junior year. We were in the same grade. She and Jane were my two best friends when I lived there. Eve saved my butt with something huge, and… well, anyway, she’s like that.”

“We just have to end Eve’s curse,” Jessica muttered. They were at the park.

“It’s a curse?” Audry was confused, glancing around at the street lamps as their luminescence increased with the approaching twilight.  

Both Jessica and Deidre exchanged looks before Jessica said, “Eve is a rare sort of demon called a vimp. There is only one every three hundred years. She is supposed to be an assassin born to kill, well… us. The Holy Seven. Only… well, Eve defied her DNA and her purpose. She chose a different path.”

“Which is to just live her life,” Deidre cut in approvingly. 

Jessica nodded. Yet with a look to Audry, she added, “This is why Eve is now a destroying angel. A demon that chooses to be good is unheard of in most lore, except it does happen. So, she’s sort of in a kind of purgatory. But for her to leave it and return to life, well… we have to end whatever it was that created the vimp in the first place. Because if we don’t, even if she finishes off this three hundred years of life as a good soul, a new vimp will be born to replace her. And we don’t know exactly how much Eve is affected by that. Is she reborn with no memory? Or is it a new, totally different vimp that comes? I’ve heard so many different theories and stories on it.”

“What?” Audry’s head felt too full.

Drawing in a breath, Jessica explained slower, “If we don’t end the curse, Eve might not win salvation, basically.”

“But ending the curse might kill her,” Deidre muttered, a little pale on that thought.

Shaking her head, Jessica sighed with a peek to Audry. “Maybe, but we promised Eve we’d help her.”

Audry felt dazed, even as Darth finally found a place to dump his load. They waited for him to do his business.

“Well, at least we now know where she is.” Deidre nodded to Audry with a grin, ignoring the dog. “What’s it like in Africa—besides certain diseases passing through?”

Audry shook her head. The stereotype was annoying. “Don’t think of Africa like that. I’ve been back and forth from Tanzania to Kenya to Sierra Leone all the time, and I never got sick like now.”

“Not once?” Deidre leaned back, startled.

Heavily shaking her head, Audry said, “I don’t think so. I get my shots every time. So no malaria. No yellow fever. No Dengue—” yet she stiffened. She had just nearly died from yellow fever. “I swear that snake who bit me did something to me. And Eve took it away.”

By the time they cleaned up the dog droppings and dumped it in the trash, they made their loop and headed back to the house. Audry got the feeling they were being watched. When they went back into the house, Jessica put Ivy to bed. She was fast asleep. Deidre and Jessica settled down to the rest of supper, the soup now cold. But Audry decided it was time to go.

“You won’t stay the night?” Jessica asked, looking hopeful. Maybe she had more to say.

Shaking her head, Audry headed to the front door with Darth again. “No. I think a motel is good enough. I don’t want to burden you.”

“It’s no burden,” Jessica rose, looking around the living room for a possible sleeping arrangement.

Yet Audry wanted to be on her own for a while. She wanted time to think by herself without anyone pressuring her either way. “Sorry. No. I should go.”

When she stepped out the door, Jessica walked with her to the car. “Be careful out there. Now that you are seeing things, you need to start thinking up strategies for self-defense.”

Audry nodded, leaning against her car.

“I can give you tips and all that, but in the end you just have to keep on your toes.” Jessica then shook her head as her mind raked up more ideas. “Also, if you are not going to just forget Rick like he wants you to, but are going to continue to pursue answers among his friends, you had better watch your back with more than just a dog. Rick has a lot of enemies, and not just supernatural ones.”

Audry knew she meant people like the mafia and the SRA.

Jessica handed Audry a silvery key fob the shape of an Egyptian ankh with a sun symbol on it. “Put this on you key ring. It’s for emergencies.”

“What is it?” Audry examined the fob.

“It’s not magic. It is tech.” Jessica pointed to the parts. “If you are ever in danger and need our help, just press the front and back half together, and it will alert me and the other Seven to your location. We give it to every one of our at-risk friends, and you are officially now one of them.”

A tracking device. It wasn’t usually something she liked. It felt so Orwellian. Yet Audry took it, reluctantly. She hoped it only tracked her when she pressed it.

“Let’s just keep our communication back to the normal stuff,” Jessica said, “and keep the supernatural stuff low key as we ever did. We can make up code words, if you want.”

That was best, Audry guessed, nodding. She had a kind of code speak when she had been with Silvia. It did not do to talk about the kind of things Silvia was up to in public.

Audry opened her car and let Darth go on first. He happily did so, leaping in, thrilled for another car ride. Audry got into the driver’s seat and started it up. Jessica watched as she drove off.

Before returning into her apartment, Jessica noted another car that left the road, most likely following Audry. Mentally noting the license plate, she intended to run the numbers as soon as possible. Silently, Jessica prayed for Audry’s safety.

But almost two minutes after going indoors, someone knocked at her door.

“I’ll get it,” Deidre said, “You can go back to that investigation you were working on earlier.”

Yet, Jessica waited, listening as Deidre opened the door.

“Hello?”

“I am sorry this is so late, but is Audry Bruchenhaus here? I’m her brother, Doug.”

Jessica peeked around the corner to the door. Standing in the doorway was a healthy man with brown hair, average build, and eyes the same bluish green as Audry’s. 

She approached, but secretly grabbed her sword, which was mostly concealed in a dimensional pouch. The hilt was barely visible, but enough to grip it. “I’m sorry. I don’t think we’ve met.”

Deidre stepped aside, letting Jessica deal with him.

The man calling himself Doug shook his head. “No. We’ve never met. Michael Toms gave me this address.”

He produced the business card.

Immediately Jessica lightened up, glancing at the penciled writing. It was Michael’s handwriting alright. “And how did you get this from Michael?”

Doug shook his head. “I know this is weird, but Audry—who was a friend of yours—just came back from Africa with some crazy stories. And long story short, when she was supposed to be resting, she snuck off and left a note saying she was gone visiting an old friend. We guessed maybe she would come to see you. Did she come here?”

Exchanging a look with Doug, Jessica nodded. “You just missed her.”

“Ugh!” Doug groaned. “Do you know where she went?”

Jessica and Deidre both shrugged. “Hotel?”

Heaving a sigh, Doug nodded.

“I offered for her to stay,” Jessica added, watching his expression.

He nodded. “Yeah… She probably wants to be alone.” But then he peeked to Jessica. “Can I ask what she came to talk about?”

Heaving another shrug, Jessica stepped aside, “Do you want to come in?”

He looked to the street, then shook his head. “I have to get home. My wife will be waiting. Just, how did she look to you?”

Nodding, Jessica smiled. “A little agitated. But, mostly fine. She just needed to talk.”

“Well, if she calls you again, can you tell her to call her mother?” Doug said. “She’s not answering her phone, and our mom is freaking out.”

Chuckling, Jessica nodded. “I’ll do that. But try texting her. I bet she’d look at those.”

“Was there a dog with her?” Doug asked before heading back to the car.

“Yes,” Jessica laughed. “Quite a beauty too.”

He waved walking away. “Thanks.”

When he was gone, Jessica double-checked the road. This time no one followed Doug. At least the SRA wasn’t aware of him