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

breath really long?”

Randon’s eyes widened. He peeked to Audry who was cringing. “Wow… you really had been watching the party for a while, haven’t you?”

Maris shrugged.

Crouching down so they were eye to eye, Randon whispered, “Selena is an expert swimmer. And yeah, it was her. If you really want a cool sea shell, I’m sure she can get you one.”

Maris’s eyes brightened again. She hopped up and down. “Can she teach me how to hold my breath that long?”

Randon shook his head slowly. “Sorry. No. In her case, it is genetic. She got it from her dad. You’re going to have to learn the hard way like everyone else.” He lifted his eyes to Audry, winking.

Audry gave him a grateful nod. Then to Maris and Skyler, Audry said, “You two go on ahead, and tell them to save lunch for me. I want to talk with my friend here for a moment.”

Skyler nodded, tugging on Maris’s arm to hurry with him. They both raced up the sloping dune to the cabin, letting the screen door bang closed when they rushed inside.

“How are you coping?” Randon asked, peering into her eyes.

Shaking her head, Audry heaved a heavy breath. “I don’t know.”

Strolling away from the cabin, indicating it was for privacy, Randon murmured in a voice that would not carry, “I can understand how utterly paradigm-altering this is—”

“Life altering,” Audry corrected with a solid look.

He shrugged. “Only if you step into our world.”

“Our world?” Audry shook her head. “We’re on the same earth. We’re breathing the same air. We’re under the same sky—”

“Physically, yes,” he said, his deep blue eyes raking over her face to read it. “Mentally, no.”

She stared, borderline insulted.

“Audry, a person’s world is more than the physical environs.” Randon laughed, trying to diffuse the offense. “It is a mindset. It is also an awareness.”

“No,” Audry objected, still feeling the slight as she did not think of herself as ‘unaware’. “People who are ignorant of your world, as you put it, can still be be hurt by individuals of your world. We’re not physically separate.”

Pausing thoughtfully, he nodded. “True. But the chances of my world hurting those in yours is higher when those of your world become aware of us.”

She closed her eyes, groaning.

“Look. I want to help you,” Randon said. “Just like you helped Silvia.”

Blinking her eyes open, Audry frowned. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “You helped Silvia leave her coven. That was a near impossibility—especially knowing her coven. They are some of the most powerful witches in the world.”

A shudder fluttered through Audry. A heavy thought rested in her head. She looked to him. “Will… will they be after me? You know, again?”

Randon shook his head. “No. We closed that door when those three who had come to New York were arrested. The coven itself does not know you exist—so you have no worries for that.”

She nodded, feeling only slightly better. Looking to the scars in his knees, Audry asked, “What about you? I heard you were raised by witches. Is that true?”

Blinking, thinking over what might have been said to her about him, Randon finally shrugged. “Yeah. My mother and my older sister were both skilled witches, maybe not quite up to the level of Middleton Village witches, but a close second.”

Audry stared more at him. “Oh my… so then, why did you…?

“Marry Silvia?” Randon chuckled, following the logical train of her thoughts. “You mean besides the fact that she is a beautiful and intelligent woman with a dynamite sense of humor? Or that we hit it off instantly?”

Feeling better, Audry chuckled with a nod.

“Honestly…” he sighed. “It was an added bonus, yet a scary risk, to marry a skilled witch like her. I mean she could go back and abuse me the same way my mother and sister did.”

Startled, Audry drew in a breath. She had guessed right about the abuse.

“But, she is also the best protection against them if, and/or when they break out of prison,” he murmured.

This time she stared. “What?”

Nodding, Randon explained, “Yeah. The last time I saw them, it was in court. They got twenty years to life. Dad can leave witness protection now, if he wants.”

The sound of waves and the ocean wind filled the silence that came with her shock.

“What did they do to you?” Audry breathed out, getting closer.

He chuckled painfully. “The question really is, how did I survive?”

She stared.

“I won’t go into details, but just so you know, they frequently experimented on me as they practiced their magic, and I am now under a curse which will most likely never be lifted until the moment of their deaths. And maybe not even then.” He sighed with a chuckle. “I’ve just been able to use the curse to my benefit, not unlike Bobo.” With a kind smile, Randon then explained more, “I had been hiding from them since I was a little kid. When they caught up to me, I was studying veterinarian medicine. And they tried to kill me that time—human sacrifice for a powerful spell.”

She drew in a breath.

“Luckily, I had already called in Rick for help the moment I saw the signs that witches were gathering in my town…. You see, the cats started to disappear. That’s the first clue.” He cringed. “Witches do not care about nature or life. It’s all about power. 

“But anyway, Rick called his friends in the Seven.” Randon shook his head. “They saved my life.”

 “What is the Seven?” She watched his face, as her heart pounded. This felt important.

Meeting her gaze, Randon nodded gravely. “You have one of their cards, right?

She nodded.

He smiled, assured. “You could say their job is to keep the supernatural world in check. Kind of like… border patrol between the worlds. So don’t lose that card.”

“Border patrol?” She shook her head. “You mean they deport people?”

Randon nodded, chuckling. “Yeah. In a way. You see, they’re different from the SRA in that they don’t try to kill. They aim to save. They understand the supernatural better than most anyone—or at least try to. They’re more forgiving. In fact, I’d say they each have one foot in the supernatural, though I could not tell you the details. I don’t know their stories, as I don’t really know them very well. To be honest, they all kind of freak me out. Most of them don’t feel like they are from our time.”

They freaked her out too, similar reason. Despite being people of light, each one of the Seven whom she had met had given off the feeling that they were not quite what they seemed, and freakishly powerful—like a nuclear bomb. One tap and BOOM!

“And they saved you,” Audry murmured, her thoughts still on that last impression.

He nodded. “Them and Rick. Rick got there first, actually. He risked his life to save me. He exposed himself as the wolf to those witches and put himself at severe risk. He has got to be the most loyal friend I’ve ever had.” But then Randon suddenly paled. He put his hands over his mouth. “—Oh! don’t let Troy know I said that!”

She blinked, confused.

Blushing, Randon ducked his head between his shoulders, cringing. “Troy’s my best friend, and I know you’re going to have some interaction with him if your brother Doug continues to do blood work with him. Troy and I have a unique friendship that’s… complicated. And he’s a little petty sometimes—especially when it involves Rick.”

Nodding, she stared. She didn’t know Troy very well, but she had gathered that one detail.

“Ok… that was serious TMI.” Randon continued to blush. He peeked over his shoulder. “Um… what I really came here to say was, Silvia misses you. And, well, we’d like to invite you over for dinner some time. We can answer any questions you have and—”

“No.” Taking a step back and shaking her head, Audry sighed again, closing her eyes. “I don’t think Rick intended for me to jump back into the thick of it when he showed me what he was. He meant the reverse.”

Randon’s face fell. His eyes drooped with disappointment.

“As much as I like Silvia…” Audry let her voice drift. Silence and the hush of the sea prevailed. “And I do think you are good people. I just….”

He nodded, struggling to cover up his disappointment. “It’s ok. You’re right. Rick would not want you to get entangled in our mess. I’m being selfish. I’d like to see Silvia happy, but your ultimate safety matters. And I would not be returning Rick a favor if I put you at risk.”

Her cheeks colored. She lifted her eyes to him considering how grieved he sounded. Randon’s eyes certainly were. His blues seemed bluer, even a little damp.

Nodding once more to her, Randon waved and turned to go. He walked away. “See you around, maybe.”

She heaved a sigh and trudged back to the cabin. What else was there to do?

 

That afternoon, Vicky came back from a beach walk, claiming the neighboring cabin was now empty. All the windows were shuttered and the cars gone. Vivian and Vanessa verified it. They had gone together for one last sister romp before the evening, and Vicky had wanted to introduce people. Apparently she had remembered Selena Davenport from the party and thought her sisters might be interested in getting to know her. She said as much when she came in, mostly accusatory at Audry.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were friends with Selena Davenport?”

Audry blushed, looking up from the book she was reading. “What?”

“I talked with her last night,” Vicky said, a degree put out. “You know, before I passed out. So embarrassing, by the way. I was going to apologize to her today.”

Audry exchanged a look with Vincent, not sure Vicky meant that brief exchange when Selena convinced her to go home. Audry said, “I hardly knew her.”

“That’s not what she said,” Vicky replied, walking to the fridge to get some juice. “She said you stayed the night with her at H. Richard Deacon’s request.” She smirked. “That’s pretty gutsy, him arranging for you to sleep over with his ex.”

Audry rolled her eyes, avoiding Vincent’s raised-eyebrow stare.

“How did that happen?” Vicky smirked, pouring herself a glass of cranberry juice.

All eyes were on Audry now.

Feeling it, Audry heaved a huff. “Ok. Fine. I don’t like talking about because it happened when my roommate Silvia was targeted by three witches of her coven, and I was moving apartments. He felt I was safest with Selena….”

Her eyes drifted toward Vincent, realizing now that Selena would have most definitely been the best guard against three witches, considering her gifts.

“Witches?” Vicky, Vivian, and Vanessa said in chorus. So had their parents. They glanced toward Vincent who averted his eyes. He had already heard the story.

Skyler nodded, looking up from his video game. “Are you telling that witch story again Aunt Audry?”

“It wasn’t that scary,” Maris said. She had been peeking over his shoulder.

“Scary?” Vivian and her husband James said together now.

Vanessa stepped closer to Vincent, tugging on his arm to explain how and why he was not so shocked.

“What story?” Owen asked.

All eyes were on Audry once more.

“It was a story…” her father said from his checker’s game with her mother, moving a piece, “…Audry told us while camping this summer. Perhaps she can tell it at the campfire tonight.”

Audry nodded. She might as well.

 

That evening, after a lazy supper of leftovers to clear out the refrigerator, they roasted marshmallows and made s’mores while they all told stories. Audry finally supplied the story about when she had roomed with a self-proclaimed, former witch (Silvia Lewis, now Silvia Spade) and how three witches from Silvia’s former coven had hunted her down to their apartment in New York City with the intent to punish Silvia for leaving the coven. Audry had been in the crossfire. She described each woman as the Barbie-Hooker Witch, the Girl-Next-Door Witch, and the Horror-Flick-Killer Witch—none of which fit the stereotype of ‘witch’ in their understanding. She elaborated more this time, as she was also explaining how