CHAPTER TEN
The gods must have heard Martha’s fretful teething cries. She was in much better spirits after breakfast. She bounced gleefully on Lily’s hip during the hike back up from the lake.
“They’re still not back yet,” Lance said as they approached the trailer and van.
“No.” Lily let out a weak huff of air. “Anything from Blue?”
“Nah. My watch says it’s barely after seven. Hopefully, he’s still asleep. I’m sure he’ll get cracking again once he gets Willa out the door for work.”
“Do you think we’ll see Regina today?”
“Doubt it.” Lance blew a raspberry and guided Lily over to the Jaguars’ van. If the ladies were going to be absentee campers, he was going to take the opportunity to see if he could find out anything about them. Any bit of information could go a long way in demystifying who they were and whether or not they were dangerous.
“Kenny texted saying Regina wanted to take a side-trip over to White Sands because she’d never been. She doubted she’d ever have a chance to get on the other side of the mountains in the near future. She’s a ‘let me do it before I die’ kind of lady, apparently.”
“They may as well go before she registers him for school in Maria, I guess,” Lily said. “The older he gets, the harder it’ll be for them to make the time. I’ve lived in New Mexico almost all my life and I still haven’t been over there.”
French Fry jumped up from his pallet he’d made in front of the tents and bounded over, barking in greeting. He trotted to the van and nosed the door.
“Yeah, that’s where we’re going.”
He barked again.
French Fry jumped into the cluttered vehicle, rooted around, and returned a moment later dragging a kibble bag half his size.
“That dog is frightening,” Lily murmured.
“Probably someone’s familiar. They tend to be a little smarter on average, even if they look silly. Willa kinda has one in that dorky Boxer of hers. King’s more like an emotional support animal than a true familiar, though. He’s way more mellow than this keyed-up creature.”
French Fry’s next bark sounded a hair indignant.
Lance shrugged and grabbed the bag. He found a bowl that looked clean enough in the bin of dishes, poured some food bits into it, and emptied the contents of a bottle of water into another.
“You said he might be someone’s familiar,” Lily said, “but whose? People generally don’t share those. No, actually, that’s not true. Claude and Gail share one, but they’ve got a weird connection.”
“Who are Claude and Gail?”
“Oh. I forget that you haven’t been in Maria that long and you don’t know everyone I know. You know my cousin Mason’s wife Ellery?”
“The witch? Yeah.”
“Well, Gail’s her sister.”
“And she’s a witch like Ellery, I take it.”
“Yep. And so is Claude.” Lily’s brow creased. “Sort of. I’m not entirely sure what Claude identifies as. His mother was a powerful voodooienne.”
“And his father?”
“Yeesh.” Sucking some air in through her teeth, Lily rocked slowly back on her heels. “Have you met Gulielmus? Calls himself Bill sometimes. The big blond guy in nice suits who always looks like the scents of the world are disturbing to him?”
“The fallen angel who hangs around Tamatsu and Tarik?”
Lily nodded.
“That guy has kids?”
“That guy has so many kids that he’s stopped counting.”
“So, you’re telling me you not only have cougar shifters in your extended family but various other dangerous creatures who could probably move continents with a breath.”
She shrugged. “Pays to be nice to me, I guess?”
Lance let out a reflexive guffaw. He wouldn’t have gone anywhere near her—with or without the mescal—if he’d had any idea how interesting-in-a-bad-way her network was. His sense of self-preservation was churning into overdrive at the mere mention of her relatives. As far as he was concerned, Lily Baxter was not the marrying type. She was the staring-at-from-afar type. Safer that way.
“Anyway, people don’t usually share familiars,” she said, “so French Fry likely belongs to only one of the Jaguars.”
“Does it really matter which?”
“I think so. My understanding is that not just anyone can bond to a familiar. Of course, there are plenty of witches who have them and who aren’t technically bonded with them. They call those familiars, but really, they’re just pets. They’ve got to have a certain kind of wild magic to get the right kind of link. Ellery explained this to me once when her cat got out. I asked her why she wasn’t worried, and she calmly informed me that the cat would return as soon as Mason left for work. Apparently, they’d had a fight.”
“Mason and Ellery?”
“No, Mason and the cat.”
Lance could only blink at her. She had to know how ridiculous that sounded.
She didn’t laugh, though. In fact, she just shrugged again. “Did you expect an alpha Cougar to get along with an incontinent Persian?”
“I feel like there’s no good answer to that.”
“Probably not. Anyhow, it’s interesting to think that the ladies may not all have the same degree of magic or that their magic might be different from one person to the next,” Lily mused and tapped her chin.
“You think he’s Estela’s? She’s the leader, right?”
“She is, but Estela said that Nayeli named him.”
“Which is Nayeli?”
“The youngest one.”
French Fry’s head popped up at the mention of Nayeli’s name.
“Huh.” He bent and gave the dog’s ears a scratch. “Is Nayeli your lady?”
French Fry nudged the palm of his hand in what was probably the closest thing to an affirmative he was going to get.
“If only the dog could tell us whose child this is,” Lily muttered.
“You don’t know?”
Lily gave her head an emphatic shake. “Can’t even make an informed guess. I’d assumed Estela at first, but the attachment didn’t look quite right to me. I did ask who her mom was, but they kinda brushed the question off.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Want to hear my suspicions?”
“Feel free to speculate.” Lance climbed up into the van, recoiling with a shudder at having to reacquaint himself with the location of his humiliating defeat. The fact he’d been outnumbered and distracted didn’t make him feel any better about being so easily suppressed by a bunch of Cats. Kenny was probably never going to let him live it down.
“I think there might be two reasons,” Lily called from outside the van.
Lance got busy sifting through the contents of the glove compartment.
“The first may be that they do it in case anything ever happens to her mother. The shock wouldn’t be as severe if she doesn’t actually know which woman gave birth to her.”
“Interesting.” There wasn’t much useful paperwork in the glove box. No registration or insurance documents. The niche looked to him like it was being used as a filing cabinet. There was a stack of gas station and oil change receipts, parking passes, craft fair and expo pamphlets stacked in order of date, maps of the U.S. Southwest, and so on. Nothing personal or official. “What’s your other speculation?”
“Alternately, they don’t want anyone else to know.”
“Because?” He peeked outside in time to see Lily shrug. “Why wouldn’t someone want to claim an association with their child?” he asked.
“Perhaps because of reputation? Either theirs or the kid’s? I’m pretty sure Randall would state at this point that he’s never seen Blue or Diana a day in his life. Goes the same in the other direction.”
“Maybe, but we’re talking about a six-month-old. I can’t imagine that she’d have much of a reputation, though her mother might locally. That wouldn’t explain why they wouldn’t tell people they’ll never see again whose baby she is, though. The logic doesn’t follow.”
Lance moved on to the back of the van that was piled high with crated ceramics. Nothing stood out to him. Even the scenes depicted on the sides of the water jugs showed nothing of either personal or cultural significance. Pretty pictures, but nothing that elicited any a-ha sentiments.
“Just spitballing here,” he said, “but another reason they may suppress information about her parentage would be if the mother has a peculiar sort of magic.”
“And therefore it’d be expected that the child would have it as well.”
“Exactly. They’d be hush-hush about it to keep the kid safe from perceived enemies.”
“Hmm. I think that’s as good a theory as any.”
“Yeah. File that away to the back of your mind and see what Blue thinks of it later.” Lance turned over a ceramic bell and looked inside for inspiration. He found none, so he nestled it back into its wrappings and box.
“Nothing in there?”
“Nothing obvious.” He stepped down from the van, gathered up the empty dog bowls, and shoved them behind the door. “These ladies have been operating in stealth mode for so long that leaving behind no traces of themselves is second nature to them.”
“Check the tents, maybe?”
“Yeah, just to cover all bases.” He scooted French Fry away from the opening and slammed the van door shut. “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
They didn’t.
Fifteen minutes later, they were walking back to the trailer empty-handed.
Exhaling a weary sigh, Lily shifted Martha to her other hip. “You little chunk…”
“Want me to hold her?”
She gave her head a hard shake and bounded up the step.
“I can, you know,” he said as he checked his phone for messages. “She might not even scream at me.”
“It’s fine.” Lily took a seat on the sofa and hastily gathered up the diaper bag. From within, she pulled a bottle and a tin of formula, and then she seemed to notice she only had two hands.
Lance folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow, waiting.
She cleared her throat, trapped everything that wasn’t Martha beneath one arm, and somehow managed to get herself to the sink. She filled the bottle one-handed, gave it a shake, and gave it to the giddy child.
“What in the hell.”
“Multitasking.”
“I can see that, but you’re doing it unnecessarily. You could have just handed her to me. Or given me the bottle.”
“And then I would have had to explain to you how to mix the formula.”
“I could see how talking to me would be a grievous ordeal for you, but did you miss the first part of the offer? I told you to hand her to me.”
“Thanks. I’m okay.”
He groaned. Frustrating woman. He didn’t know how to deal with her. Coyote women weren’t prone to arguing. They’d either submit or get bored and walk away. Of course Lily didn’t make sense to him. He kept expecting her to behave like what was familiar, but she was made of the wrong stuff.
Obviously, he needed to change his tactics.
But to what?
And why did he even care, anyway? A person he was in the process of legally detaching himself from didn’t need to make sense.
He scratched his chin through his beard, pondering if they could sort out the divorce paperwork without getting lawyers involved. Between the two of them, they were smart enough to follow the instructions.
He hoped.
“Any news?” Her gaze was locked on the phone he’d forgotten he was holding.
“Hold on.” He hit the callback button on his phone in response to Blue’s text.
“You know, this mystery frustrated me so much that I had to recruit Artemis for assistance,” Blue said without prompting.
“Putting you on speaker,” Lance warned.
“Yep.”
“So, did she find out anything?”
“Not a whole hell of a lot, but the supernatural creatures of Central America aren’t really her purview. She did catch up with Lola, though.”
Lily sat up straighter and stared his way, no longer pretending to be disinterested.
“So, she asked Lola about the women outright, I take it?”
“Yes. With them being of approximately equal power, probably, I suspect that Artemis doesn’t have to worry about beating around the bush when it comes to getting people to speak.”
“What did Lola tell her?” Lily asked.
“You know how Lola is. Even when she’s talking, her statements are so sterile that you can’t actually glean anything from them.”
“But what did she say?”
“She said ‘interesting.’”
Lily scrunched her face. “What?”
“Right? I didn’t think to ask Artemis what expression she was wearing.”
“Yeah,” Lance said. “Her body language probably would have said more than her words, but she’s pretty good at masking that, too.”
“As old as she is, I imagine she’s had to learn to keep some secrets. She did say one other thing, though, after Artemis pressed her a bit. She asked Lola if you’re in any imminent danger. Lola said ‘depends.’”
Lance waited for the rest of the statement, but Blue seemed to be out of words.
“Seriously?”
“We’re talking about Lola Perez,” Lily said with a sigh. “She doesn’t open up to people. The only person who can get inside her head even the slightest bit is my cousin-in-law Miles, and even her position in the Cougar group has been phased out since Lola outed herself to them.”
“What do you mean?” Lance asked. “What position? I thought Miles was plain-old human with no freakish tricks.”
“Oh, she is, but she…” She stopped talking then and looked at Lance as though she’d just noticed he was there. Pressing her lips tightly together, she pulled her stare from him and studiously examined the contents of Martha’s bottle. Almost empty.
“But she what?” Blue asked.
“Nothing,” Lily said.
Lance growled.
“Don’t you dare growl at me.”
“You’re withholding information.”
“Not everything is your business.”
“You brought it up!” Lance threw up his hands. Surely, she understood the ridiculousness of having thrown out the bait like that only to snatch it before he could latch on.
“I shouldn’t have. Let people have their secrets.”
“Why does it have to be a secret?”
“It’s Cougar business.”
“Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re not a Cougar.”
“I could be,” she murmured.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She raised one shoulder and then let it fall.
Blue cleared his throat.
Shit.
There they were, bickering like a married couple—which they technically were—and Blue was probably wondering why Lily had even wanted to suffer through tagging along with Lance.
He dragged a hand down his face and then put his elbows on the counter.
Lily was looking anywhere but at him.
“Give us a call when the Jaguars show up,” Blue said. “I’ll keep researching and trying to squeeze some more words out of Lola.”
“Yeah. I’ll do that.”
“Just be safe. Don’t pick any fights. Avoid those women if you have to when they return. We don’t really know what we’re dealing with here, and this isn’t a situation where you could cut and run. Hold your ground, but be smart about it.”
“I wouldn’t cut and run, anyway. Not until I know if this kid is going to be all right.”
He caught Lily’s head popping up in his periphery.
“Catch you later.” Blue disconnected.
Head pounding, Lance closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as he ground his teeth. He never got headaches.
Lily was murmuring to Martha in Spanish and making little clucking noises that made the baby coo.
“What’d you mean by what you said?” he asked. “Huh?”
“About what?”
“You said ‘I could be.’ What were you talking about?”
“Take it to mean whatever you want.”
“No, you see, that’s how Coyotes get themselves in unnecessary trouble. They don’t investigate things thoroughly and use good judgment.” He straightened up and opened his eyes.
She was staring at the top of Martha’s head.
He was starting to suspect that she was using the baby as a miniature living shield and a means of occupying herself rather than actually having to engage him.
That wasn’t going to work. They still had issues to work out. A divorce to file.
“When you tell me to find my own meaning,” he said, “I can only assume that there’s been some discussion about you going Cougar.”
She shrugged again.
“Is that what you’re saying?”
“I’m not revealing anything to you that could be categorized as Cougar business.”
In his opinion, that was as good as a confession, and he didn’t know why, but he didn’t like that idea. Perhaps it was that he couldn’t imagine her being turned into one of those things her cousins were. They were already fighting like cats and dogs. Their relationship would be so much more toxic if they were cat and dog in truth.
Doesn’t matter.
They weren’t supposed to be anywhere near each other, anyway. He scavenged through the cabinets in search of the first aid kit, hoping there were painkillers in it. They were probably expired, but he needed to take the edge off. Anything would do.
He checked everywhere. Kitchen. Bathroom. Even in the gun safe.
Not a single damn aspirin or anything close to that to be found.
“Fuck it.” He heeled off his boots, yanked off his shirt, and kicked his pants off.
“What are you doing?” Lily asked, eyes bulging.
Even if he’d wanted to answer, he couldn’t have. He was halfway shifted before he got to the door. He swatted the handle with a paw and took off like a bolt.
He’d let his coyote body do the work of fixing the ache in his brain.
Maybe if he was lucky, being in that form would do something about the knot in his belly, too.
Lily as one of those scheming Cougars? He couldn’t picture it.
Not her. No fucking way was she theirs.