The blue light shifted slightly from the woman’s shape but did little else. “No trail,” Alex said, with some effort.

“Then we’re done,” said Corrigan. “The money will be transferred to your account within the hour. Can you take care of this?” He asked, motioning towards the earthquake monster. Alex nodded and, with that, Corrigan snapped his fingers and shifted back seamlessly to a panther. The other Brethren, and Anton I noted, also shifted, then twisted back to the direction of the keep and bounded off. Just before the tree line, Corrigan’s head turned and his panther eyes, as green gold as his human ones, glanced back towards me for one second, before snapping back to the front and disappearing into the night.

Tom stood there and looked at me hopelessly. The desire in him to join them and be part of the Brethren, even if only just for the brief trip back to the keep, was so overwhelmingly transparent that I waved at him in irritability. “Go.”

Gratitude flashed in his eyes and he was gone, leaving just Alex and I alone in front of the dunes, with the terrametus and a few fading blue smoky tendrils.

Chapter Twelve

Before too long the only sound left was the gentle to and fro of the waves lapping on the beach behind us. Alex pulled a small round object from the pocket of his jeans and began to murmur something. I watched in fascination. The tiny sphere grew and lifted itself into the air then moved to hover the corpse of the terrametus. All of a sudden, light exploded from it, showering the body and causing me to shield my eyes. A heartbeat later all that was left was a faint shadow outlined on the sand.

Alex reached out and the sphere flew back to his hand, returned to its original size and landed in his opened palm. He stuffed in back into his pocket and looked at me.

“Now the beast dudes are gone, perhaps you can tell me what a human is doing here. And why you smell so – different.”

I was still momentarily mesmerised by his display of power but I shook myself out of it and gazed at him assessingly, wondering how far I could trust him. He could reveal my true nature to the Brethren at any point. But there was just something about him that made me feel comfortable and I figured that if he’d been going to tell away all my secrets, he’d have already done so already by now. And he had managed to explain away why I’d ignored Corrigan’s compulsion. I felt the sudden overwhelming desire to unburden myself. I rarely brought the subject up with the pack because it made them feel uncomfortable to be reminded of what I was. Even Tom tried to change the subject whenever I’d spoken about it. Added to which, I was starting to both like and admire the gangly mage. In for a penny in for a pound, I supposed.

“I don’t know who my father was,” I said softly. “And my memories of my mother are rather hazy. I have flashes – I know she was petite and dark haired, unlike me, with a kind voice and a good heart. I remember little things, like driving through the snow and wishing I could make a snowman. She stopped the car in a layby and we got out and did just that – built a tiny one by the side of the road, even though we had no gloves and it had to have been below zero. She made things fun.”

I paused, remembering. Alex stayed silent. “I know that we were always on the move and we never stayed in one place for very long. She discouraged me from making friends and it was if we were always running from something. At least I certainly never knew where we running to, so I suppose that we were trying to escape from something. Or someone.

And then one day we ended up here. It seemed like she knew where she was going and that she knew who the pack were. But she must have been human because that’s what I am so I don’t know how she knew of them. She walked straight into the keep without knocking and was stopped by John in the hall. He asked her what was going on and all she did was push me at him. Then she turned and walked out. Before she left the threshold of the keep, she turned and said, ‘No-one must ever know. You are all bound to keep her secret.’ And she left. She never came back. I’d sit by the window of the library for hours and days, and then weeks, watching for the car to come and for her to jump back out and take me away with her, but she never did.

The words that she’d said must have had power to them because no-one in the pack has ever been able to talk of me to another. They tried – John later told me that he had called up the Brethren for help with what to do with this human child they’d suddenly found themselves lumbered with and found he couldn’t speak. He’d said it was like having a weight clawing his tongue to the bottom of his mouth, and that the pain inside his head when he even thought of revealing to an outsider who I was had been excruciating. After trying to break the geas himself, and failing repeatedly, he compelled the others to never attempt it themselves either.

I laughed, sharply. “They weren’t happy to have me. John was always kind but sometimes back in those early days he had a look in his eyes as if he’d like to just drown me in the nearest well. There were others who were less kind.

But the longer I stayed, the more they got used to me. The pack here aren’t particularly violent or even particularly active. They keep the Way and follow the Brethren’s orders from London but they’re not monsters. Before they knew it, I was part of the furniture. I made friends. Tom, the wolf who was just here, and Betsy, a werelynx. And others too.

John started to train me and I quickly worked out that even though I couldn’t shift, I could be just as strong as they could. I helped hunt. I helped keep them safe.”

I swallowed. “And then when it was my eighteenth birthday, John bit me. I wanted it, so badly. I didn’t care what my shift was to be, I just wanted to be like them. And it was a pain that I’ve never experienced before or since. The shifter virus ate through me for days. It felt as if my whole body was crawling and turning itself inside out. And after three days, I was still me. Still human.”

I kicked angrily at the sand.

“But you stayed,” Alex said, his eyes projecting empathy. At least it wasn’t pity, that much I didn’t think I could deal with.

“This is my home. There are still one or two who wish I was gone – or worse - but for the most part, the pack accept me. And besides, where else would I go?”

Alex nodded, understandingly. “So if the Brethren found out, they’d…”

“Kill me,” I answered flatly. “Maybe kill the rest of the pack too, I don’t know. Even though it’s not their fault. The geas my mother placed on them meant that they couldn’t tell anyone. So either they murdered me and disposed of my body, or just accepted me in. And like I said, they’re not monsters. Not this pack.” My last sentence was heavy with meaning.

Alex frowned at me. “Are you sure the Brethren would do that? I mean, I know they used to hold with all that ‘death to anyone who discovers our secret’ shit,” he sketched imaginary quotation marks in the air, “but I don’t think they’re still like that.”

I snorted. “John seemed pretty sure they’d react violently. So do all the others now. And I’ve heard proof with my own ears of what Lord fucking Corrigan himself thinks of humans.”

“Really? Word on the street is that he’s a strong alpha, maybe stronger than they’ve had for centuries, but that he’s not a bad dude.”

“I don’t care what word says,” I answered. “I just need them to do their thing and leave so I can carry on with my life.”

“And the alpha? I mean, John, the Cornish alpha?”

“I will find that bitch who slaughtered him and left him here to die and I’ll kill her,” I said matter-of-factly.

Alex looked at me quietly. “Do you know, I just believe you might.”

I faced him head on. “So you understand the consequences if you tell them who I really am?”

“Tell me why can’t they smell that you’re human first. Shifters have noses like bloodhounds.”

“I wear a lotion that Julia, our new alpha, created. It mimics a shifter smell. I think the actual result is a cross between a hamster and a rodent. As long as I keep applying it, they won’t be here for long enough to smell a rat. So to speak.”

Alex moved a bit closer and sniffed, experimentally, before stepping back and shaking his head. I guessed that mages didn’t have superior smell as one of their super powers then. “I still don’t think they’d do the whole killing you thing if they found out.”

I hardened my gaze.

He sighed. “I won’t tell them. I have nothing to gain from getting involved in shifter politics. ‘Sides which, I wouldn’t want to be responsible for the bloodbath that the Mack Attack would create.” He winked suddenly and punched me on the arm.

I smiled at him. I really did feel better now that someone else knew my secret. It also almost seemed oddly better that he was a virtual stranger. And lightning hadn’t struck me or him down yet either. I punched him back lightly and began to search around in the darkness for my throwing daggers. Alex helped me hunt for them in the gloom. One had landed next to the ring of black coals which I pointed out to him. He stared back down at the tree runes from the top of the dune, frowning.

“So it was a woman who was conjured by the scrying?” he asked.

I was puzzled that he didn’t know and it must have shown on my face because he continued with, “I don’t see who I scry because I need to keep my eyes shut to maintain my power. Which admittedly doesn’t make it a very useful tool for a solitary mage to use.”

I laughed slightly and described the blue vision to him. He nodded slowly as if considering the matter.

“So tell me what else has happened.”

As much as I had decided I liked him, I hadn’t exactly gotten the impression of someone who wanted to help beyond what he was being paid for. “Why do you want to know?” I asked warily.

“’Cos I think I like you Mack. And you need help.” He looked in the direction of the keep for a second, even though its distant outline was submerged in the trees. “A lot of help. I might be able to draw on my wizardly skills to do something. Not physical something, you understand, but you never know what I might be able to do to get this sorted out.”