Alpha's Solace (Black Moon Saga Book 1)

Visitors in the Woods - Part 2

Adam sits with Tian on the couch attempting to carry on a conversation but finding himself lost in his worry about what the tattoo on Kylie’s shoulder could mean. He regrets not mentioning it to anyone sooner, but it had seemed like a normal birthmark. Even werewolves were born with birthmarks occasionally, so it wasn’t something that seemed suspicious to him. In hindsight, the coincidence of a human girl who lived near to werewolves ending up with a birthmark shaped like a wolf is intriguing, especially considering the circumstances that led her to him.

“Tian?” Adam interrupts whatever the vampire had just been telling him.

“Yes?” Tian gives another slight smirk, realizing that Adam had not been listening to him again. He would be frustrated with the man except he understands his absentmindedness in this case and easily forgives it.

“You are quite familiar with magic yourself, aren’t you?”

“Sure, I’m familiar with it. I understand how it works. I do not practice it, however. My abilities are something else entirely.”

“So, whenever you were around Kylie in the past, you could not tell that she was affected by some spell or whatever is on her shoulder?”

“Correct. I may understand magic in theory, mostly from my long-running association with Anya, but I can neither cast nor identify spells and I lack her ability to sense magical effects. I do have a similar sense for vampire powers, though, so I can tell you that whatever affects her is not of vampiric creation.”

“Well, I suppose that’s something, at least.”

“I will say that when I have entered her mind in the past, much of it is locked away. With some effort, I could penetrate most of those barriers, not that I would violate her privacy like that. Barriers like that usually indicate private thoughts and I’m not the sort to poke around except in extreme cases. There is one area of her mind that I have noticed, however, which I would not be able to force my way into. I can just sense that it’s that well-protected. I’ve never tried. I always assumed it was a result of whatever trauma she endured surrounding the loss of her parents, some area she has locked away because she wants to forget it. Now I wonder if it might be magically protected. That’s just my own speculation, though.”

“Your own educated and experienced speculation, to your credit. It’s not a thought I would dismiss lightly. Hopefully, Anya can tell us more.”

“Speak of the devil.” Tian turns his attention to where Anya has just emerged from the bedroom, Kylie following closely behind.

“I heard that,” Anya chides, “and I know you meant it literally.” She playfully slaps Tian’s shoulder. He regards her with an expression that she recognizes as fondness, but to most he just appears serious and unimpressed. Then she sits in the nearby chair. Kylie takes the seat on the couch between Adam and Tian and unconsciously scoots closer to Adam.

“Well,” Anya begins to explain to everyone what she had been working on with Kylie, “I completed a pretty thorough examination and attempted some things. I did what I could, but mostly all I could do was tend to her broken arm. It should be healed in a few days. The rest is more than I have the power to help with.”

“I’m pretty excited about the arm though,” Kylie enthuses. “If it works, I’ll be able to use my crutch properly again and that’s a pretty big deal.”

“I’ll say,” Adam agrees. “Thank you, Anya.” Anya nods in acceptance.

“Kylie, what do you say to a walkthrough of this place with me?” Tian requests. “I’d like to get your perspective of what I’m looking at, as a person who lived here. Maybe you can point me to places that I haven’t thought to look.”

“Uh,” Kylie looks around and thinks for a moment. “This is pretty much it. Kitchen, family room, two bedrooms, and bathroom. Nothing fancy or tricky about it.”

Tian’s mouth turns up at the edges again as he smirks at Kylie. He looks around and considers how to ask what he needs to, eventually deciding she is too clever for all this vagueness and skirting around the issue at hand. “Okay, maybe it will help if I just tell you what I’m looking for. All reports from co-workers and anyone who knew your father told of his meticulous note-keeping and his fondness for keeping journals. Yet when I looked, I found no evidence of notes or journals here in the home or in his office at work. Maybe you know of a private place he kept them?”

“Oh.” Kylie remembers that her Papa did love to write and was always scribbling in a book or notepad, unless he was busy with chores. Even then, he carried notepads in his back pocket and a pen in his shirt in case something randomly occurred to him. She thinks carefully about places she had seen him put things, and finally something occurs to her. “Actually, yes. There is a thing I saw him do once that never meant much to me, but now that I think of it, it might be related to what you’re looking for. Follow me back to the bedroom.”

She leads Tian to the back bedroom and instructs him to move the bed. He does, and she begins tapping the floorboards with her crutch until she finds the loose one. She points to it, and he bends down to remove it. Inside the compartment hidden under the floorboard there is a small box that appears to be a jewelry box. Tian grabs it and examines it.

“It’s a puzzle box,” he determines. “Do you know the combination?”

“I think so. My mom gave this to me one time when I was too sick to get out of bed. She thought I might enjoy something to occupy my mind. Of course, at the time there was a necklace for me inside. Now I don’t know. I saw my Papa put it there, but I know my necklace couldn’t have been in it.” Kylie sits on the bed and reaches for the box. She fiddles with the knobs and levers on the outside of the box for a moment until there is a click and the lid springs loose. “There you go.” She hands the box back to Tian.

He studies her a moment longer, appreciating that this was given to her as a toy when she was but a child. He opens the lid and finds only one item inside. It is a large antique brass key. “Do you know what this key opens?”

Kylie thinks for another few moments, chewing her bottom lip as she tries to remember her parents and recall if she witnessed them doing any other odd things. Tian moves to sit beside her on the bed, and his fingers make brief contact with her forehead as he brushes the loose hair out of her face. For a moment, she feels a bit uncomfortable with the intimacy of that action, but it is soon put out of her mind because she realizes where she had seen the key used. “The fireplace in the family room!”

Tian already knows this, because he had just searched her mind for her memories of the key and then erased her recollection of him doing it, but he plays along and lets Kylie lead him back to the family room.

*************************

After Kylie and Tian leave the room, Adam looks at Anya and gestures toward the front door. He wants to have a conversation about all the things the witch might have discovered that Kylie should not hear. Anya nods and rises to follow him outside.

As soon as the front door closes behind them, he turns to Anya and eagerly demands answers. “What did you find out about that birthmark?”

“Just a moment. Let me start at the beginning,” she requests. He nods and motions for her to continue. “I examined her whole body carefully, as I said. To be honest, there is a lot I could heal. It’s kind of tearing me up inside that I ultimately decided not to because all I was finding were symptoms of a greater problem. Without solving the greater cause, I would just be giving her temporary relief and she would have to endure her body returning exactly to how it is now. It would be false hope and probably not worth the later suffering. So, I focused on a problem I could solve.”

“Her broken arm.”

“Yes. Broken bones are easy. I could have healed it right now today, but I figured that would seem suspicious. Plus, it would use too much of my energy, and I wanted plenty left for that birthmark.”

“And?” He is getting impatient now but trying to remain respectful.

“Just one more thing, then we’ll get to that. At first, I couldn’t reconcile how it is possible, so I did multiple passes across her abdomen to be sure. I went deep, and I guarantee I am not wrong about this – she’s pregnant.”

“How?” Adam has mixed feelings about this since he can’t make sense of it and is also thinking back to the night in front of the fireplace when he assured her that he could not impregnate her. “She’s human and was a virgin until the other night. She hasn’t been with anyone else but cannot possibly carry my child.”

“It does make sense that it’s recent. I could feel that it’s very early. I was also stuck on the detail about how humans cannot conceive with a werewolf, but then I realized I was ignoring something very important. She didn’t feel human. Not just then. She never did, but I was attributing it to the magic affecting her initially.”

“If she’s not human, then what is she? She smells pretty damn human to me.”

“I’m getting to that. At first, I wasn’t certain. Then, I turned my attention back to that birthmark. My stone helps me identify magical effects and basically go in and figure out how they are constructed so that I can undo them. Since I wasn’t limited by being careful not to wake her this time, I was able to go deeper. There is one magical effect on Kylie that is essentially an add-on to the main body of magic, and it would be easy to reverse. Except, it seems to have been cast by an inexperienced caster who did not successfully keep it separate from the underlying spell and it is now attached to it.”

“You’re being very vague, and I feel more confused than ever,” Adam complains.

“Fair enough. Let me just cut to the point then. Kylie has been cursed and the caster who did it is very powerful. Not as powerful as I am, but the problem is that I only had so much time to examine Kylie because eventually it started to be uncomfortable for her, and I stopped. I will need more time, better equipment, and hopefully more witches to add more power to my own to be able to go deep enough and learn all there is to know about the curse affecting her.

I don’t know the full effect of the curse or how to reverse it at this time, but I intend to find out. This curse is what I am calling the main body of the magic. I believe she might have been born with it attached to her, and that is why the caster chose a birthmark to conceal it. Because her mother shares the same mark, one can assume she shares the curse as well and this might be why Kylie was born with it. Then, at some later point, a weaker and much more inexperienced caster attempted to modify the effects of the curse by adding another spell on top of it.

This spell I do know the effect of – it is meant to suppress a werewolf’s attributes to make the individual seem human. It not only masks the scent that would identify the person as a werewolf, but also suppresses traits like slowed aging, fast healing, superb immune system, superior senses, and so on. What it does not do is prevent the werewolf from shifting, so if I were to theorize about the main effect of the curse, that might be it. At any rate, I believe with some degree of certainty that your mate is a werewolf, and she is in fact pregnant.”

At some point during Anya’s discussion, Adam started to feel light-headed and leaned against the outer wall of the cabin for support. After she finishes, he stares ahead without seeing for a few moments, and Anya patiently allows him the time to process what she told him. Eventually, he pushes off the wall and meets her gaze.

“So, can you reverse the spell that suppresses her wolf abilities so she can heal?” he wonders hopefully.

“No, that’s unfortunately not possible without figuring out the reversal trigger for the main curse because of how it is permanently attached to it. I am making this a priority investigation, though, if it is any consolation. It is possible that this curse or more likely the spell added to it could be the underlying cause of Kylie’s health conditions, and I want to do all that I can to help her as quickly as possible.”

“Oh man, this is so much to take in all at once. My head is spinning.”

“Understandable.” Anya reaches out to gently squeeze Adam’s shoulder as a gesture of comfort and support. “Why don’t we go back inside so you can sit down and process it a bit better?”

“Sure, but just one more thing first. Would you say that you have enough evidence to support that Kylie is a werewolf to allow her to return to town?”

Anya pauses and considers this. “I would say that I do not have enough evidence to the contrary to prevent it, at least. So, yes, she can return for now at least, pending the rest of my investigation. Although truthfully, the fact that she is carrying your child tells us she is a werewolf or compatible shifter, so regardless of what more I discover I would say with certainty that she will be allowed freely in town. I suppose now my investigation intersects with Tian’s as well, so I’ll be sure to consult with him about whatever he and Kylie are uncovering in there.”

Adam recalls Marc’s own inquiry involving the DNA testing and decides to clue her in about that as well. “You might also want to consult with Dr. Kosh. Alpha Marcus has her running DNA tests on the whole family because he will never be satisfied either until all the mysteries about this family are solved.”

“Good, that was the next thing I was wondering, and we would have eventually done the same I would suppose, especially with the mother possibly affected as well. This saves us the time.”

Satisfied that they have discussed all there is to tell for now, Adam reaches out for the front door and opens it, gesturing for Anya to go in first. They return to the family room, where they find Kylie and Tian fiddling with the bricks in the wall surrounding the fireplace.

“It’s one of those up there,” Kylie points to the bricks near the upper right corner of the fireplace.

Tian makes a show of tapping a few bricks that he knows are not the correct one before he tries the brick he knows will be loose based on the vision he saw in Kylie’s memory. He wiggles it out of the wall and sets it aside. In the space behind the brick he finds an antique lock box and uses the key to open it.

From the lock box he pulls out a stack of about a dozen thick notebooks and two leather-bound journals. Skimming through the notebooks, he determines that these likely contain David’s missing research notes he has been searching for since the man disappeared. One of the journals contains the same handwriting as the notebooks, and he assumes it is David’s personal journal. The other contains what appears to be a woman’s handwriting, probably Olivia’s. The lockbox also contains various loose pieces of paper with writing and drawings on them and Tian takes those as well.

He turns to Kylie and holds up the stack of books and pages. “Do you mind if I take these to look over in more detail as part of my investigation?”

She looks longingly at what may be the only personal belongings her parents left behind that haven't been confiscated besides the recipe book. “I suppose so, as long as you promise to return them to me once you’ve read them and gotten what you need.”

“I will,” he agrees, gazing at her intently with appreciation before catching himself and turning his attention back to the books in his hands. “Thank you. I can’t promise these will solve the case, but at least it’s information I haven’t seen before. I’ll be sure to report back to you with whatever I find out.”

“I appreciate that.” Just then Kylie’s stomach growls, reminding her that she hasn’t even had breakfast yet.

Anya chuckles. “I believe that is our cue to leave you two to enjoy the rest of your day. Come, let’s be on our way, Tian.”

After their guests leave, Adam returns to the kitchen to continue with the breakfast plans he had in mind before being surprised by their arrival. Kylie knows he won’t let her stay and help, so she heads off to the shower. He uses the time to think about all the revelations from Anya. Now that he knows Kylie is a shifter, he realizes he can finally come clean to her about everything. He just needs to figure out how to tell her the truth gently so she doesn’t freak out, and he also has to sort out how to break it to her that he can, in fact, get her pregnant. And might have already done so.