Galiani was still speaking. “At the moment we’re investigating, and it’s pretty clear that this was no natural death. We don’t take kindly to supernaturals killing each other. I suggest if you were involved, turn yourself in before we find you. If you have any explanation … well, the punishment might be a little less severe.”
I doubted that, the fey could be the most hard-assed. They had a cold, clinical sort of approach to many things. Which was something that separated them from the rest of us. Vampires, shifters and the demi-fey contingent were more animalistic, the magic users very earthy and grounded.
The council were still looking around the hall. Did they really think someone was going to jump up and say, ‘Yeah it was me, I killed your fey?’ I noticed they hadn’t named the victim. I wondered if they were keeping the identity a secret for a reason.
“Fine,” Galiani spat out after a few tense moments. “The magic users are working on it and there will be no place on Earth you can hide where we won’t find you.”
My father cleared his throat and I could see the apology in his eyes as he opened his mouth. Great, seemed we were ready to move onto my mother – I mean Lienda – I had no mother.
“We have welcomed the shifter wolf, Lienda Jackson, back to the community,” Jonathon said. “She has journeyed far and is resting now. She brings with her a daughter.” He turned his head to the side. “Come out, Mischa, and say hello to everyone.”
Wait, what?
My ears were buzzing and there was some sort of weird fuzziness descending over my eyes. What was happening? Was I having a breakdown or was this just shock? Had I heard him correctly?
Pain knocked the disorientation from me. I looked down to notice I’d half shifted my hands to claws and they were cutting into my palm, drawing blood. I heard Maximus grunt as the scent hit him. He’d told me on more than one occasion that my blood had a very distinct scent, one he’d never encountered from any other supernatural. Easy to recognize.
The black-haired female was hesitant, head down as she crossed the front stage. She looked small and nervous, shuffling across the floor to stand beside my father. As she lifted her face, I gasped. What the hell? She was a carbon copy of me, but instead of blue eyes hers were a light turquoise green.
Jonathon spoke over the murmurs from the crowd. “This is Mischa, my daughter and younger sister to Jessa.” As the second bomb was dropped on me I barely noticed the multitude of faces that had turned in my direction.
Holy hell, knock me over with a feather. How was this possible? This wasn’t just Lienda’s daughter, it was Jonathon’s also. I had a sister he’d never told me about. Her wide doe eyes scanned the crowd before landing on me. We stared at each other for an indefinable amount of time. Tearing myself from her gaze, I let out a howl and took off from the room.
Chapter 2
My wolf washed over me and I was shifted before I hit the edge of Stratford. I didn’t think, I just ran and ran, tearing through the fallen and decaying undergrowth. I was not big for a shifter; my wolf was the size of a large human dog. My coat was the same blue-black as my hair, and since the sun was setting I blended right into the dark of the forest – the forest which my father had just laid down the law about running alone in.
Good thing I didn’t care for his rules.
The canopy was thick in this wilderness. It was against our laws to tamper with our forest; it was allowed to grow free on its own. Though the magic users and fey often poured their energy into the land, which led to some unusual flora. As I dodged and darted through the dense undergrowth, the landscape was flashing in shades of black, gray, and green. In wolf form my senses were sharper, and I always relied heavily on scent and sound, sight was almost secondary. Before my very first shift I’d had fears of what it might be like to turn into an animal, but besides the fact I was guided by instinct more, it was still me. I didn’t lose Jessa to gain the wolf, we coexisted and were really the same being. Two sides of the same coin.
I’d been shifting for over six years and now didn’t even have to think about the process. It just happened when I called on the energy. My wolf stayed curled inside of me until I reached for her. On occasion she fought her cage but mostly we lived in harmony. But there was another small part deep inside that I didn’t touch, an energy which frankly scared the shit out of me.
I called it the demon. My wolf and I had lived with the demon my entire life. When I was seventeen I’d tried to explain this dark energy to my father. I’d hedged around the fact that it was a large, unknown power hidden deep below my wolf. He’d had no idea what I was talking about. Despite my fear of this unknown energy, I treated it like my wolf, although I kept it caged permanently. So now the three of us sort of coexisted.