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  Perhaps, if I could just keep Esther out of their way long enough for the new pack to take care of Mac, I wouldn’t have to worry. If anything, I could try to align myself with the new shifters, providing they weren’t more obnoxious than Mac was. Although being that obnoxious seemed impossible.

  Still, I had to know if Phoenix was going to come back soon. Even before he left so abruptly, I hadn’t spoken to him much. I wasn’t sure he was still on our side, but Lorcan certainly was. Esther had been injured while helping the twins back in Liverpool. That was something I could use should Phoenix stand on Mac’s side.

  Willow had said I was bored, and right then, I was really wishing for that boredom again. Well, almost.

  ***

  The next day, Willow called me and begged my forgiveness.

  “I had no idea Mac was going to do that. The Senate didn’t bring this to everyone.”

  “Just enough for a majority vote,” I said. “Daimhín was given two nice shifter bodyguards to say yes.”

  “Bribery?” Willow sounded disgusted. “And Vega isn’t in Dublin, so she hardly had a say. I’m sure Callista wouldn’t have voted against you. The commissioner is gone for meetings in the north, so I doubt he was included.”

  “It doesn’t matter much anymore,” I said. “The Senate is disjointed. Nobody knows what anybody else is doing. You need somebody to take charge, somebody who isn’t afraid to include everyone, even if they might disagree.”

  “You’re right. Initially, I thought Phoenix would be the one, but then he left without notice, barely saying a word. How can we trust him with the Senate now? It’ll come to the point where Mac is the only viable option. He has warriors on his side, after all.”

  “Can’t you try to get in touch with Phoenix?”

  “No. He’s left us a handful of messages, probably to reassure us of his safety, but I have no way of speaking to him.”

  “That’s strange. Where is he?”

  “I have no idea.” She paused. “I’m worried, to be frank.”

  “I haven’t heard from the twins, either, except for a postcard a few days after they left. I didn’t think people even did that anymore. Anyway, thanks for calling. I did wonder what was going on.”

  “Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you need my help,” she said anxiously. “I really hope this doesn’t interfere with your advocacy.”

  “If anything, Mac just makes me more determined to help,” I said. “I’ll talk to you soon, Willow.”

  After I hung up, I debated going to see Val. She probably didn’t know when Phoenix would return, either. But I was worried about her. Val had been acting off for months, and since Lucia left, she had retreated completely out of our lives. Whenever I asked Peter about her, he tended to clam up. I had the distinct feeling that the half-hellhound was avoiding me, but I had no idea why.

  With that in mind, I headed over to Peter’s house before he left for the office. I sat on his wall and waited for him to return from dropping Emmett at school. He seemed surprised to see me waiting.

  “I want to see Val,” I explained.

  “Ah. Want a coffee to go?”

  I shook my head and got into the car. We had run from so much danger in that car, but now I had to keep dealing with boring politics. I noticed that Peter looked uncomfortable when he came back out of his house with his flask.

  “I can see her at home if this is a bad time,” I said hesitantly when he sat in the driver’s seat.

  “No, that’s not it. I’m just not sure how helpful Val will be, and I don’t want you to…” He looked away. “Let’s just go.”

  “No, tell me.”

  “Just try not to mention Lucia too much when we get there,” he said, ending the conversation.

  I supposed that made sense, but it was odd that Peter would even think of Val’s discomfort if I brought up her relationship with Phoenix’s daughter. I chanced a sly look at him. Was Peter actually warming up to the fact even supernatural people had feelings?

  “Stop looking at me,” he said after a moment, as he pulled away from the cul-de-sac.

  Laughing softly, I turned on the radio, just in time for a talk-show discussion about supernatural beings taking all of the “normal” jobs.

  Peter soon switched it off in disgust. “Idiots. As if we’re not all walking on eggshells as it is.”

  “Wasn’t so long ago that you hated supernaturals with every fibre of your being,” I teased.

  I’d meant it lightly, but he gave me a serious look in return. “That was before I fell for you.”

  After that, the conversation dried up as the tension grew overwhelming. I just could not with Peter.

  We arrived at the premises of my solicitor, Martin Breslin, shortly afterward. I had given Val and Peter the room above Breslin to use as their office while they were getting things together. Their business wasn’t exactly booming, but they were still eating out on their high-profile success from months ago.

  Martin came to the front door to greet me. His very-pregnant secretary was sitting on a chair, with her shoes off, looking extremely uncomfortable. I made a mental note to suggest a few replacement options for when she went on maternity leave. We exchanged pleasantries, then I followed Peter upstairs.

  The office of Valeria Brannigan Investigations was furnished with a narrow desk, two plastic chairs, and a sparsely filled bookshelf.

  Val was sitting at the desk, writing in a notebook. I knew she must have caught my scent, but she didn’t even look up from her writing.

  “Wow,” I said. “You’ve really turned this into a home away from home. How do you ever make yourself leave this place?”

  Peter took the second chair and cleared his throat. Val looked up at me and made an attempt at a smile.

  “No hello?” I asked, curious at the change in her attitude.

  “Hello, Ava. Can I help you?”

  “A rather cold greeting for an old friend.” I wandered over to the bookshelf. “I take it you heard about the trouble we’ve been having from Mac.”

  “I know he’s been showing up, asking for Esther,” she said.

  “He came with permission from the Senate,” Peter said. “They searched every house in the cul-de-sac and trashed Ava’s for good measure.”

  The pen in Val’s hand cracked apart. She threw the pieces into the bin next to her desk. I had a curious peek to see if it was full of broken writing utensils—and found fewer than I expected.

  “No,” she said. “He wouldn’t dare.”

  “Oh, he dared.” I grimaced at the memory. “I got in his face, and he said he didn’t think the children would survive the battle.”

  Val jumped up from her seat, a growl emanating from deep in her throat. “I’ll kill him. I’ll separate his head from his shoulders.” Her own shoulders appeared to have enlarged before my eyes.

  “The Senate is backing him,” Peter said.

  “Then I’ll come back to the cul-de-sac and wait for his next visit.”

  I hid my smile. Val might have distanced herself from us, but she still cared. “Daimhín told me some other shifters might be displacing him this year. Mac has more to worry about than us, apparently. The thing is, Daimhín let him bribe her for her vote, but Willow never even heard about this. The Senate is unreliable now. Have you any idea when Phoenix might return?”

  She visibly deflated and exchanged a look with Peter. “No idea at all,” she said.

  “Esther thinks she should challenge Mac herself.”

  Val looked aghast. “She wouldn’t survive.”

  “She won’t survive if Mac manages to find her.”

  “You can’t let her do this,” she insisted.

  “You know how she is. The bear can’t let things lie. I need your help with her. The thing is, Mac’s making a big deal about a shifter not having a pack, and he’s boasting about her being the first on his list. You’re technically a shifter, Val. He might come after you next.”

  She chewed on that id
ea for a moment. “And if he succeeds with us, he’ll move on to the werewolves.”

  “Bingo. Phoenix needs to be here, if only for that. I’d beg you to come back to us, but you might be safer in the sanctuary. I’m afraid they’ll come for you while we’re distracted with Esther. She said that every free shifter she knows of has disappeared. Either they’re dead or are being forced to stay with the pack. What’s off-limits to people like that?”

  She swore under her breath. “All this because of Aiden.”

  “So they say,” Peter added.

  She jolted. “What does that mean?”

  “We think it might be an excuse,” I explained. “A lot of people have targets on their backs right now, and you’re strong, Val. You could win a challenge against Mac.”

  She released a sound of disgust and sat back down. “I could, but I don’t wish to run a pack. Especially not his.”

  “Right, but in Mac’s eyes, you’re still a threat. Your strength and dominance makes you a risk that Mac won’t want to take. That means taking you out of the equation completely,” Peter said.

  “Add that to the fact you’re a woman—and Mac wants women barefoot and pregnant—and you can see why we might worry,” I said. “Leah will get caught up in the aftermath if you take on the shifters that might come for you.”

  “Are you sure I shouldn’t return?” Val asked, almost desperately. “What about Anka and Dita?”

  “What if they came here for a while?” I suggested. “The cul-de-sac is supposed to be protected, but I have doubts about the authenticity of that claim. If someone like Mac can walk right in…”

  “Unless he hasn’t wanted to harm anyone before,” Peter said.

  “Can I trust that, though?”

  “I trust it,” he said firmly.

  “Anka won’t come here,” Val said. “She trusts in it, too.”

  “At least she’ll have the option to change her mind,” I said. “All of them do.”

  My phone rang in my pocket. “Hold on.” I frowned when a familiar name popped up on the screen. “It’s Margie.”

  The old woman was upset when I answered, and by the time I hung up, I was shaking with anger. “Margie and Anka just arrived at their shop. It’s been completely trashed.”

  “Let’s go,” Val said. Peter was already on his way out the door.

  Anka and Margie’s “little” potion-making business had been so successful that they had persuaded me to rent them a shop. I used the income to buy half their stock on a regular basis, and everyone was happy. The sweet, homey apothecary shop provided both women’s only income.

  Peter broke red lights while driving to the shop, where we found Anka and Margie cleaning up glass on the footpath outside. I stared at the damage in horror, having to cover my nose from the smell. The windows had been smashed completely. The signs had been torn down and urinated on. Furious, I stepped inside.

  “Careful,” Anka said. “Some of it is potent.”

  I turned to look at her. “I’m so sorry.”

  Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “This isn’t your fault.”

  I gave her a brief hug then moved inside, careful not to inhale too deeply. The shop was only large enough for one centre aisle and shelves on one wall of the unit. All of the glass bottles had been smashed, and other containers had been crushed.

  Glass crunched underfoot as I trod carefully around the shop. I wanted to burst with anger, but I was careful to keep calm. Whoever had damaged the shop had destroyed literally every item. The non-breakable containers had been opened, their contents upended onto the floor, and in some cases, the scent of urine was intense enough to make my eyes water. The message was their strongest yet: don’t screw with the shifter animals who liked to scare women.

  “Fuck!” I kicked at broken glass covered in syrupy, bubbly fluid. It slid across the floor, leaving a dark stain in its wake. Unable to take the stench anymore, I headed back outside.

  Val had her arms wrapped around Anka in an embrace.

  “This was too far,” Val said.

  “I know.”

  “This isn’t your fault.” Peter laid a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get through this.”

  Margie was crying. Peter patted her back; she wrapped her arms around him and wept against his chest. The sound of the older woman’s cries broke my heart. She had been loyal to me from day one, and the shop had been her lifeline. Anka had come from nothing, and the business had filled her with confidence for the first time since we’d met. The pair had put hours into creating the potions and remedies in their shop. Who were the shifters to just take all of that away?

  Val was shaking so hard that Anka stepped away from her. “Stay calm,” she said. “They’re not worth your anger.”

  “Look at this damage.” Val glared at me. “I’m going to kill him. Mac is a dead man.”

  “I’m going to get the Senate to pay for this shit,” I said harshly. “I’m going to organise a meeting with whoever the hell is left in the country, and they’re going to tell me to my face how they let this happen. I’m going to accuse Mac, and I’m not going to let it go.”

  “We have no proof it was him,” Anka said.

  Val made a sound of disgust. “I can smell the shifters all over this. They made a mistake this time.”

  “Not all shifters are with Mac,” I said. “Just… remember that next time you smell a shifter. Please, nobody tell Esther about this. The last thing we need is for her to run straight into Mac’s clutches.”

  “You really think the Senate will listen to you?” Peter asked.

  I thought of Willow and how she had begged me to be an advocate for those in need, how she wanted me to be the voice for those who weren’t being heard. I had my chance to advocate for the people I cared about. And if I stepped back now, people like Mac would keep pushing.

  “I’ll make them listen,” I said. “I’m going to raise hell, and they’re going to hear every word. And that stupid vampire queen is going to regret ever taking Mac’s side.”

  “We need to go back to the old days,” Peter said. “We need to make allies again. Ones who actually stay in the country for longer than five minutes.”

  “No, we need people to beg us to be their allies,” I said.

  Margie sniffed and finally let Peter go. “You all should go on. We can’t leave this here. If certain mixtures combine, they can become toxic.”

  “She’s right.” Anka pulled a headscarf out of her bag and tied it over her hair. “We need to clean this up immediately. We use containers of different shapes and materials to protect the contents even if some are knocked over accidentally. This”—she gestured inside—“took time and effort. We can’t leave this here.”

  “I’ll stay and help,” I said. “Val, Peter, is there any way you can track down known free shifters?”

  “Anyone in particular?” Peter asked.

  “Mac’s ex,” I said. “He did this to her, too.”

  “Wait, the one who left the pack for a human?” he asked. “She was with Mac?”

  “So Esther said.” The story had broken in the papers weeks ago as a barring order against the alpha, forbidding him from contacting his ex, surfaced. According to the female shifter, Mac had stalked and threatened her before finally trashing her house, but the Senate had quickly covered up the story, then it was forgotten. “If we can find her, maybe we can figure out what Mac’s going to do next. I’d start with the human she ran off with.” I hesitated. “If you can find him.”

  “Think he’s dead?” Peter asked.

  “I wouldn’t put anything past the shifters lately.”

  “We should hurry,” Val said.

  Peter nodded. “Let’s go. Ava, call me if anything else happens.”

  The pair left in his car, wearing matching looks of determination.

  “Setting them a task away from here was a good idea,” Anka said. “Val would only have gotten more worked up if she’d stayed with us. You don’t have to stay, eit
her, Ava. I know your sense of smell will make this difficult for you.”

  “Maybe I deserve a little punishment,” I said. “I’ve sat back and let this go on for too long. I’m so sorry you two got caught up in this.”

  “Sometimes, I worry this world will never be right again,” Margie said with another sniff.

  We jumped into the cleaning, trying to figure out how to dump all of the materials safely. I kept my eyes open for any shifters coming by to see the aftermath, but none showed themselves.

  Then another thought struck me. If I owned the shop that Anka and Margie rented, then it should have been protected by the same spell that protected the cul-de-sac. If those under my protection were so untouchable, then how did we keep getting attacked? Were we protected only from bodily harm?

  As soon as I was done with the Senate, I was going to have to have a very long chat with Martin Breslin about the exact rules and loopholes of Baba Yaga’s legacy. The Eleven had allowed me to fight against the first vampire because it had suited their own ends, but I hadn’t done a thing about Mac yet, other than hiding Esther’s location from him. So how had he found a way around the very things that were supposed to protect, not just me, but the people I cared about, too?

  Chapter Four

  Willow was only too happy to organise a meeting with the Senate on my behalf.

  “I do hope you know what you’re doing,” she said over the phone, but she sounded eager to help.

  “As long as I’m doing something, I’m good.” I thought of Margie’s face as she’d taken in the damage done to her livelihood. Being the little person at the whims of powerful people grated on me. The time had come for us to stop making ourselves such an easy target.

  Willow organised the meeting for the following evening. In the meantime, the building that housed Martin Breslin’s office and Valeria Brannigan Investigations had been covered in graffiti.