Chapter Twenty – Octavia

The sound of screaming echoed around her head. She knew it was the sound of her own voice, but she had become detached to it. These screams were a residue from last night. Last night when she had been a normal human.

Today she was an Other.

“How are you feeling?” Cade asked Octavia for the fiftieth time that day.

“Better,” Octavia answered, thankful that this time her words were not a lie.

“You should eat.” Cade set a plate of food down in front of her. “It smells different.” She looked down at the steak and potatoes, the scent playing over her taste buds.

“It might take a few days to get used to, but once you do, it will seem natural. You’ll forget what it was like before,” Eva said, sitting opposite her at the table. “You need to eat too, Cade.”

Cade sat down next to Octavia, but didn’t pick up his knife and fork.

“If you sit and stare at me, I will not be able to eat,” Octavia said. “It is the one thing I do not need an audience for.”

“Sorry,” Cade said, and began to eat.

“Tell me what’s been happening while I was out of it,” Octavia said. She kept glancing nervously at her phone. Matthew had said he would call tonight, now it was late afternoon, and nerves were building, not just in Octavia, but in the other people sitting around the table too.

They all knew that once Octavia got the call, and told Matthew they had the Dragon’s Tear, they would have little time before Taro came knocking on the door.

“We are all ready to act. Lucas is over at Kurt’s house, and so is Tally. They are trying to persuade Locke to stay with Helena.”

“Someone has to stay, and watch over Zinan. Since I don’t want Locke mixed up in this, it should be him,” Cade said. “He’s been through enough.”

Eva set her knife and fork down on her plate, and then got up. “Sorry. I need a moment.” She left the room, and Cade and his brothers all looked at each other, worried expressions on their faces.

“Mom shouldn’t come either,” Tobias said.

“She won’t stay, I’ve asked her,” Cade said. “And don’t tell me to command her, because that won’t work and you all know it. I might lead the squad, but Mom leads this family.”

Octavia placed her hand over Cade’s. “I know how she feels, she needs to protect those she loves.”

“And you will do that too,” Seth said. “New bear claws and all.”

Cade glanced at Octavia, and smiled, a haunted look in his eyes. “How do you feel now?”

“Hungry,” Octavia said, and started to eat again.

Eva came back to the room, and sat down. “Eat up, I have made dessert.”

“No fighting on an empty stomach, that’s my mom’s number one rule,” Tobias said to Octavia.

“That is a good rule,” Octavia answered, and they all finished in a subdued silence, wrapped up in their own thoughts of how the day was going to end.

***

When Octavia’s phone finally rang, they were all standing outside, huddled together in a small group. Zinan had been sent to wait in the workshop, where they hoped the smell of varnish and lacquer would disguise his scent.

“Ready?” Cade asked, giving Octavia a nod.

“Ready.” She took the phone from her pocket, and swiped to unlock it. “Hello, Matthew.”

“Hello. I hope you are all well. I’m sure you have a little posse rounded up, but let me tell you that my degetty is one of the strongest you will ever meet, and you will not tame him. So, let’s all do this in a civilized manner, and then we can go on with our lives.”

“So that’s it, you get the Dragon’s Tear, and then you leave us alone?” Octavia asked.

“Well. For now. We can’t all expect a happy ever after, so just make do with being happy for now. After all, now is all we have,” Matthew said. “I’m sure you and your mate have babies to make.” He sighed audibly. “I should have prolonged our relationship a little longer and bedded you, Octavia. That would be quite a notch on my bedpost, and one I’m sure Cade would always remember every time he rutted with you.”

“Get to the point, Matthew,” Octavia said.

Matthew chuckled down the phone. “Put Eva on.”

Octavia, her face hot with embarrassment, handed the phone to Eva. “Hello.”

“Eva. Do you have the Dragon’s Tear?”

“I do.”

“Then take it to the place you first retrieved it. Do you remember? Of course you do. Go now. You have thirty minutes. And I would tell you to go alone, but I’m sure you have some kind of plan. So let me warn you, if you take anyone else with you, there will be casualties, and those casualties will be on you. Not me. You.” The line went dead.

“Damn it,” Cade said. “I thought he would send Taro here.”

“We need to move,” Eva said. “Deadman’s Gully is a good twenty-minute drive from here.”

“We’ll split up. Uncle Kurt, you drive the Land Rover. I’ll take my truck.”

“He wants you to go alone. Turning up in two vehicles is going to tip him off.”

“What do you have in mind, Lucas?” Eva asked.

“We only take the Land Rover,” Lucas said.

“We won’t all fit,” Kurt reminded him.

“We might,” Lucas said.

“Magic?” Eva asked.

“Of course,” Lucas answered. “Why have a druid on your squad if you aren’t going to use him?”

“Good point,” Cade said.

“We all go in the Land Rover, but if anyone is watching they will only see Eva. And Kurt of course, but Kurt will stay in the Land Rover and act as a lookout.”

“I can fight.”

“You are getting on, my old friend,” Lucas said. “Sit this one out.”

“And you are not old?” Kurt threw back.

“I don’t run around on four paws.”

“There is no time for this,” Cade said. “Whatever your plan is, we’ll go with it.”

“Here, Eva, you take this. It’s a fake, but it’s the best we have if we plan to buy you some time.” Lucas handed Eva a small stone that shimmered in the gathering dusk.

“It’s beautiful,” Octavia said, mesmerized by the stone, which looked to be made of dragon scales.

“It’s a replica of the real Dragon’s Tear. It’s good enough to fool someone for a short time, but it lacks heat and power.”

“We can look at it later.” Lucas ushered them to the Land Rover. Eva climbed in the passenger seat, while the rest of them went to the back. As they climbed in, Lucas uttered a word and they turned into rabbits.

“What the hell?” Octavia asked, more shocked about this, than everything else she had discovered. “A rabbit!”

“You won’t be seen, you won’t be smelled. And you will all fit. I will turn you back as soon as it’s safe to do so,” Lucas promised.

“Never trust a druid, that is what my dad always said,” Isaac mumbled as Lucas turned him into a black and white bunny.

“You won’t feel any different,” Lucas promised. “It’s like a glamor, only one step further.”

Octavia stepped forward, and then stepped back. “What if something goes wrong?”

“I am the leader of the druid Council. I don’t do wrong,” Lucas said haughtily.

“It’s fine, Octavia. I promise, and if it’s not we can make Lucas’s life hell by eating our way through his garden.”

“Mature,” Lucas said, and then tapped his wrist. “Tick tock.”

Octavia stepped forward. “Do it.” Being a rabbit could not be any worse than being turned into a shifter, surely.

Lucas lifted his hand, waggled his fingers and said a couple of words she didn’t understand. “Get in.”

“It didn’t work,” Octavia said.

“Yes, it did. It’s a glamor. Not a transformation spell,” he said, as if she were an idiot.

“But…” Octavia peered into the back of the Land Rover, and saw the other rabbits sitting in the back.

“They see you as a rabbit, they see themselves as a person. Now get in,” Lucas said.

Octavia climbed in, and sat down next to a white rabbit, whom she guessed was Tally, since she was so pale and small. The others were an assortment of colors and sizes. When the last rabbit popped in, she couldn’t mistake it for anyone other than Cade, when she looked into its eyes. She never thought she would call Cade cute, but when he twitched his nose, and his whiskers moved, he sure did look like a cute bunny.

Good enough to eat, said a voice in her head.

Octavia jumped, and turned her mind inwards. Are you my bear?

Yes, just as you are my human, the voice answered. From out of the shadows, a large bear ambled and sat down. When this is over, we will run free.

We will, Octavia said excitedly.

As the Land Rover lurched forward, Octavia had this odd feeling that perhaps she was still back at the house, lying in Cade’s bed, hallucinating under the influence of the venom Cade had injected into her body. Because that made a whole lot more sense than sitting in the back of a Land Rover with a half-dozen rabbits.

The journey was fast and bumpy. Kurt, knowing they were up against time, sped through the lanes, expertly steering the Land Rover around bends and over cattle guards.

“This is the place,” Kurt finally said, as he slowed and then stopped.

“Right. I have the Druid Box. If the degetty comes for the Dragon’s Tear, we capture it and then unbind it. If Matthew comes for the Dragon’s Tear, you just cut his head off with your sword, Eva.”

Octavia shuffled uncomfortably as she listened; she had not given much thought to killing the degetty, or sending it back to the Underworld, but she did not like the idea of killing a man in cold blood. Neither, it seemed, did Eva.

“I can’t chop his head off,” Eva said.

“Yes, you can. If it’s him or you, you act. Remember, we don’t trust him. He still may want revenge for his father, even though you hand over the Dragon’s Tear.”

“Fake Dragon’s Tear,” Eva reminded him.

“Let’s hope he doesn’t realize that.”

“Deja vu,” Eva said. “I tried to hand over a fake one once, remember. I chickened out, because I knew they would find out. This could all end badly, with Taro still being set on Octavia.”

“If Taro comes anywhere near us, he is mine,” Lucas said. “It’s time. Don’t think, swing your sword if you have to. Cut the head off the snake.”

“Last resort,” Eva said, and opened the door and got out. “What about you?”

“I am going to make myself invisible and then let the bunnies loose. We can follow you. And when the time comes, if the time comes, I’ll turn them back to their human forms. Although I do like the idea of ninja fighting bunnies.”

“This is not a time for jokes,” Kurt said. “You must be ready.”

“I will,” Lucas said. “I have missed coming out on these little trips with you.”

“Good, you can do more fieldwork with us, see the conditions we have to work under, and then give us a pay raise.”

“That would have to go before the whole Council, and I can’t tell you how tight they are with money.”

“They? You are one of them,” Kurt said.

Lucas shook his head. “No. I just pretend to be one of them. Really, I’m one of you.”

“Now you’ve bared your soul to us, Lucas,” Eva patted him on the shoulder, “just make sure you are ready.”

“I will. Trust me, Eva.”

Octavia heard Eva’s footsteps disappearing into the distance and then Lucas was speaking again. If he was making himself invisible, the spell didn’t work on his footsteps, which Octavia could hear, crunching on the loose stones, as he walked around the Land Rover.

“Out you come, bunnies,” Lucas said, and opened the back door. One by one, the rabbits hopped out, standing in a small group. “Come on, and keep together.”

The rabbits hopped after Lucas, only able to see where he was by the slight indents his shoes left in the grass. If they had been taller, they wouldn’t have seen them, but from down here, so close to the ground, it was an easy trail to follow.

“Can you sense anything?” Lucas asked to no bunny in particular.

None of the rabbits gave any sign that they could, and so the druid continued on, the rabbits fanning out, trying to look natural, rather than a like a bunny regiment. Octavia sniffed the ground and nibbled at a blade of grass or two, as she hopped slowly after the others. Then, one by one, they lifted their heads, sitting upright on their haunches, sniffing the air.

“Brimstone,” Lucas said. He rushed forward, Druid Box in hand, and rabbits running at his heels, dodging this way and that, in a bid to not get trampled by his invisible feet.

Octavia felt the warmth of another body pressing against her and knew it was Cade, giving her strength and confidence. She wanted to tell him how much she appreciated it, but all she could do was wiggle her nose and squeak.

They slid to a halt. Octavia quickly assessed the sight in front of her: the degetty, Taro, was here, towering above Eva, with his hand held out.

As the bunnies arrived, Taro turned, sniffing the air, his eyes fixing on Octavia. He could tell who they were, even through the glamor.

Lucas acted fast, his hand waving over them all, like a magician, and one by one they popped up, like jack-in-a-boxes, returned to their human forms. But they didn’t stay as humans: everyone, except Tally, shifted immediately, something Octavia had not had time to practice.

Before he shifted, Cade pushed her back behind him. “Stay back.”

“I want to shift. I can feel my bear waiting to break out.”

“Then let her come,” he said, before shifting into his bear and circling the degetty.

Octavia did as he said, and it was the most natural thing in the world to allow her bear to come forth. Claws dug into the dirt and teeth were bared as she let out a roar. Then she joined the others, circling the degetty, while Lucas began to say words she didn’t understand.

Then Tally’s voice rose up above the noise. “Lucas, what are you doing?”

“I’m doing what needs to be done.”

The degetty in front of them fell down to his knees, and then rose, growling into the night air. He ran at the bears, knocking one to the ground, before another launched itself at him. Through all of this, Lucas’s voice soared, resonating with the very air, saying words she had heard before.

In that moment, she understood why Tally had questioned the druid. He wasn’t trying to contain the degetty in the Druid Box, he was binding it, just as Tally had bound Zinan.

And then the fighting stopped. The degetty dropped to his knees in front of Lucas and said, “Command me” in a voice that sent chills through Octavia’s bear.