Out of Smoke and Ashes Read online

  She couldn’t help but grin. He was so predictable. For such an old wolf, he was pompously arrogant in addition to being painfully predictable.

  And now she was back on his trail.

  “Oh, you think you are the biggest, baddest wolf out there,” she muttered as she sat back and waited to see what happened next. “You have no idea what’s ahead for you.”

  * * * *

  Callie let out a whoop from the backseat. “Sir just texted me. They’re on their way, with Mai. She’s safe and sound.”

  Lina sighed with relief. Now if she could just fast-forward through all of this, give birth, and get on with finding Fat Boy.

  She had balls to fry.

  She glanced at the spirit of Maureen Alexander, who still hovered in the window behind Jan. She couldn’t deal with the ghost of her best friend’s birth mother right now.

  She had baby dragons to birth.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on her breathing. She wasn’t currently feeling a contraction, just trying to calm her frazzled nerves. As she focused inward, the sounds around her melted away, as did the sensation of riding in the car. When she tried to open her eyes, she realized she’d transported herself to Baba Yaga’s living room.

  Not that the Immortal herself was anywhere to be found.

  “Oh, come on!” Lina called out as she turned in a circle in Baba Yaga’s living room. “Really? Now?”

  * * * *

  Callie watched Lina’s face. Something was happening, but she wasn’t quite sure what. She felt more than saw a shimmer around her friend, as if the very air became charged.

  Then Lina opened her eyes. However, Callie knew with every ounce of her formerly Immortal being that it wasn’t Lina’s soul in residence.

  The woman looked at her, then around at everyone else. “Hello?” she nervously asked.

  Jan frowned and started to speak, but Lacey reached over the seat and held up a hand, hushing him.

  Callie leaned in close. “You’re not Lina.”

  Lina shook her head.

  Elain looked more than confused. “What the hell are you talking—”

  “Wait,” Callie told her, channeling some of her previous authority as The Cailleach, younger sister of Baba Yaga and Brighde. “Who are you?”

  Not-Lina glanced around again, her gaze settling on Liam. “My mate,” she softly said. “How I’ve missed you.”

  Even her voice sounded different.

  Lacey waved everyone quiet again as startled rounds of exclamations filled the minivan. “Eyes on the road, Rick,” Lacey gruffly warned him when the van swerved as he tried to watch in the rearview mirror. “Callie’s got this.”

  “She called Liam her mate,” he said. “I heard her. What the fuck is going on?”

  “Eyes on the road, Rick!” Callie yelled. “Don’t make me go sort-of-Immortal on your ass!”

  Jan looked from Lina to Callie. “Callie?”

  “Shh.” She glanced at Lacey, who nodded. Then she looked at Liam and back to Not-Lina. “Maureen?” she guessed as a result of Not-Lina’s reaction to Liam.

  Not-Lina nodded.

  “Oh, boy,” Callie said. She glanced up. They were just a few miles south of the turnoff to take I-275 and the Skyway Bridge. “Rick, were you planning on taking the Skyway?”

  “Yeah, why? And will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?”

  “Pull over at the southern rest area.”

  “What?” Jan asked.

  “Just…do it. We need to get this sorted out.”

  Elain looked as confused as Callie felt. “I think we need to get her to the hospital.”

  “Yes,” Lacey agreed, “we do, but we need to figure out what’s going on first without scaring a bunch of innocent humans half to death and calling a lot of unwanted attention to ourselves.”

  “That’s for sure,” Callie said. She felt the minivan speed up as Rick switched lanes to aim for the turnoff.

  * * * *

  Elain didn’t have a clue what was going on. All she knew was she’d felt something in Lina’s energy shift.

  Is this a new Seer skill I don’t know about?

  Tentatively, she reached out and gently clasped Lina’s arm. Her friend looked up at her, but it wasn’t Lina.

  In her mind, she saw the woman she’d never met in real life. The woman she only knew from a couple of photographs.

  The woman who’d given birth to her.

  Maureen Alexander.

  Elain jerked her hand away with a startled gasp.

  Lina smiled at her, but it didn’t look like her usual smile. “My beautiful daughter,” she whispered in a voice that also sounded nothing like Lina.

  * * * *

  Ain and Cail stood in the living room, surrounded by their closest shifter friends.

  Wally Medved, a bear shifter and PI, spoke first in his thick, Boston accent. “It would seem from what you’ve told us that Abernathy ain’t givin’ up.”

  The three Montalvo brothers nodded. Jaguar shifters from Bolivia, they had their own ax to grind with Rodolfo Abernathy. “I feared this,” Ortega said, the eldest brother and chief of his Clan. “He considers a blood oath, even one as old as this, a point of honor. It is doubtful he will give up until he is dead or he considers it fulfilled.”

  “What honor?” Oscar Chaudhuri asked. The tiger shifter looked around. “Seriously? I mean, I know technically he’s not our Clan’s problem, but my cousin married an Abernathy wolf and they’ve been in hiding for over twenty years. The guy gives crazy a bad name.” He shook his head. “You still ain’t gonna convince me he didn’t have something to do with Bertholde’s murder in Yellowstone a couple of years back. She was a good woman, did a lot for our Clan.” He looked at Ain. “I want to be in on it if Abernathy’s going down.”

  Ain held his hands up to quiet the men. “Look, I am in total agreement with you. But Daniel Blackestone’s head of our Clan Council. We can’t go running around with no proof and no evidence, killing people and starting a shifter Clan war. There’s more than a few of you here old enough to remember the last time we had to drive Abernathy and his group back. We’ve already got enough problems on our hands with the damn cockatrice.”

  What bothered Ain even more was the quick word Daniel had with him earlier, pulling him aside before he left for the hospital.

  Asking him to consider a spot on the Clan Council, him and Mark Telford both.

  It wasn’t something Ain was sure he wanted to do, and was even less sure he could turn down considering the circumstances.

  He caught Mark’s eye. Daniel had already spoken to him, too. Mark nodded.

  Ortega wasn’t backing down. “Fortunately for us, we don’t need your Clan’s permission to settle our old score. I am the leader of my Clan, and I’ve already discussed this matter extensively with Daniel. If Abernathy is in the area, we want a word with him. In our own way. Daniel has already informed us we are free to carry out our business in this matter in any way of our choosing.”

  “Believe me,” Ain said, “I can’t and won’t stop you. If there’s anything you need, let me know.”

  “A list of local hotels would be helpful to start with.”

  Ain nodded to Cail, who led Ortega to his office.

  “You still got a bunch of guests out there, Ain,” Wally reminded him.

  Ain scrubbed his face with his hands. “I know. I’m heading back out in a minute.”

  Doug McDermott, one of their cougar shifter friends, stepped forward. “I know there’s not a lot of them out there, but someone needs to keep an eye on the clueless muggles in case Abernathy’s goons return or he sends new ones in. You’ve got catering staff, too.”

  “Good point. You, Oscar, and Wally please take care of that.”

  The men nodded and headed outside again.

  * * * *

  Lina stormed through the house, searching for Baba Yaga. When she returned to the kitchen she let out a startled eep! as she found the Immortal s
tanding there in her matron form.

  “What the frak is going on?” Lina demanded.

  Baba Yaga smiled. “You come to my house asking me what’s going on?” She pointed at Lina’s belly.

  It was flat. Well, as flat as it ever had been in her size sixteen prepregnancy days. In shock, she placed her hands on her belly. “What…what happened to my babies?” She stared at Baba Yaga in horror.

  The matron laughed. “Calm down, Lina. They are fine. Only you are here. The essence of you. Not your body.”

  “I’m…whatthefuck?”

  “In spirit only. Well, you’re corporeal enough while you’re here.”

  Lina blinked.

  “Coffee?”

  “Um, no! Sooo not a coffee time! Give me some answers!”

  “I am. You’re not listening, Goddess.”

  “Don’t call me…” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. Trying to blow up an immortal being might not be the wisest of choices. She opened her eyes again. “I’m only here in spirit?”

  Baba Yaga nodded.

  “So my body’s back in the car and still going through labor?”

  She nodded again.

  “But how, if I’m not there?”

  “I never said your body was empty.”

  “It’s…what? What?”

  The matron simply stared at her, apparently waiting her out.

  It finally came to Lina. She softly swore. “Maureen’s in my body.”

  Baba Yaga rewarded her with a smile. “Congratulations. Would you like a cookie?”

  She clenched her hands into fists and struggled not to shoot a fireball at the woman. “Fuck you!”

  The matron held her hands up in front of her. “You are the one who allowed the opening for her to enter. I would think you’d be glad you can give closure to your three friends. As well as miss out on some of the most excruciating pain of your life.”

  “I…what?”

  “Contractions. She gets to feel them.”

  “But…but I don’t want to miss the birth of my babies,” she wailed.

  That was when the matron’s expression softened. She walked over and hugged Lina. “She only needs a little while. Don’t worry. You’ll get back in plenty of time to enjoy the agony of childbirth.”

  “But…but I don’t even know how this happened! Holy crap, I suck at this Goddess shit.”

  The matron’s gentle laugh didn’t piss her off more, miracle of miracles. “You are tending to your loved ones. This is all right. This is a good thing.” She draped a comforting arm around Lina’s shoulders and led her over to the counter. “Come, let me make you coffee.”

  “Coffee? Seriously? Now?”

  “Really good coffee. Have I ever served you bad coffee?”

  Lina took another deep breath and slowly let it out again. “Good point.”

  * * * *

  Parked as far away from other vehicles as they could get, and with the minivan side doors open, everyone had gathered around Maureen. Liam had shouldered Jan out of the way to sit next to her, stroking her hand.

  “Maureen?” he whispered.

  Callie had remained in place just across the seat from Maureen, wanting to keep a close eye on the events.

  Not that she had a clue what to do about them.

  Elain looked like she was in shock. Callie couldn’t blame her. And poor Carla sat there, staring.

  Elain turned to look at her. “How…what happened? This is…” She looked at Maureen again.

  Callie laid a hand on Elain’s shoulder. “The spirit of Maureen Alexander is now in residence inside Lina’s body, yes. Temporarily.”

  I hope.

  Rick’s nostrils flared as wisps of smoke drifted from them and away on the light sea breeze from the Gulf. “Where the hell is Lina? Bring her back, Callie!”

  “Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t do this. Apparently Lina did.”

  Maureen and Liam’s eyes were locked in a heartbreakingly sad gaze. She suspected the two mates were silently communicating.

  Carla finally found her voice. “How do we really know it’s her?”

  “Good question,” Jan agreed. “Prove it.” He wore a frosty expression.

  Maureen looked at Carla. “When Elain was born, you never left my side in the hospital. When you swore you’d castrate Liam if he ever showed up again, I smiled and told you one day, you two would make a cute couple. You told me either I was crazy or it was the pain making me hallucinate.”

  Eyes wide, Carla let out a noise somewhere between a cry and a scream as she clamped her hand over her mouth. “Maureen?” she whispered through her hands.

  Maureen turned her attention back to Liam. “I don’t have much time before Lina returns,” she said. “I love you, mate. I know you had to leave. I never blamed you.” Her features turned harsh. “I blame Rodolfo Abernathy.” She looked at Elain and reached up with her free hand to take hers. “You are a beautiful woman. I’m so proud of you. I got to see the wedding and it was wonderful.”

  Tears spilled down Elain’s cheeks. “I don’t understand this.”

  “I’ve been with Liam all the years.” She looked at him again. “My spirit found you and stayed with you until recently. The hardest part was watching you grieve for me and I couldn’t comfort you and tell you it was all right. So many nights I laid down next to you, wishing you could feel me there.”

  He clasped her hand against his cheek. “I’m so sorry, Maureen. I’m so sorry I had to leave ye.”

  Jan started to make a noise protesting the contact, but Callie waved him down and shot him a warning glare.

  Maureen sadly smiled. “I know. It’s time to stop grieving now. All three of you.” She let go of their hands and sat up to hug Carla over the seat. “And you, I can’t begin to thank you enough for how wonderful you’ve been, first to me and then to Elain. I love you so, so much.”

  Carla let out a sob. “I missed you so much!”

  “I know.” She brushed her friend’s tears away. “You did good, sweetie. It’s time to live your life now.” She grabbed Carla’s hand, and Liam’s, and pressed them together. “If you decide you want to be with each other, you have my blessings. It’s time everyone heals and moves on.” She turned to Elain again and hugged her. “I love you so much. I wish I could walk this life with you, but you’re surrounded by family and friends who love you and are there for you. Stay strong, my daughter.”

  “Callie,” Rick said, “where the hell is—”

  Maureen’s eyes dropped closed as another contraction hit. She let out a loud cry, doubling over in pain as much as her belly would allow.

  Elain draped an arm around her as Jan struggled to try to climb over Liam and get back into the minivan.

  * * * *

  Lina suspiciously eyed the woman. “Is there anything else you want to lay on me while I’m here?” She sipped her coffee.

  Damn, it really is good coffee.

  Baba Yaga looked down at her mug. “You might find events spinning out of control during the next few months,” she said. “And more players will enter the scene.”

  “Oh, fan-fucking-tastic. Just what I need.” She stared at her cup for a moment. “How do I help Maureen out? Or do I spend the rest of my life being the only one who can see her?”

  “She is waiting.”

  “On what?”

  “That her loved ones find happiness.”

  Lina stared at her. “How will I know?” she finally asked.

  Baba Yaga shrugged. “You’re still new at all of this. It’s all right, child. You’ll figure it out. When the time is right, you’ll be able to help her let go. The Great Wheel is always turning. And as it does, things change. Even what appears to be old and permanent will eventually be replaced.”

  Lina cocked her head. “What are you saying?”

  “I don’t believe you’ve ever met my other sister, Brighde. Not in this life, at least. Not formally.”

  “No. Why?”

&nbs
p; She smiled. “You should.”

  “Wait. Why?”

  “The Great Wheel turns, Lina. Things move on. Out of smoke and ashes things are reborn.”

  “Oh, fuck me. You’re not starting with the fortune cookie crap again, are you?”

  “Drink up. You don’t have much time.”

  “What do you mean?” She immediately had to set the coffee mug down on the counter as she felt a tight band of pain wrap around her midsection.

  “I mean, you don’t have much time here,” Baba Yaga clarified.

  “Listen, you. I’m really fucking—ow!” The contraction hit her full-on, making her double over with pain.

  * * * *

  Callie knew there wasn’t anything she could do except help her friends get through this moment.

  Whenever Lina returned was out of her control.

  “Give her room!” Lacey warned.

  Maureen struggled to speak. “I love all three of you. Please, be hap—oh, motherfucking son of a bitch!” she finished with a shriek.

  “Aaaand, she’s back,” Callie said with more than a little relief as she watched the shimmer happen again.

  “What?” everyone else asked.

  Lina panted her way through the contraction before finally sitting up. “What the fuck are we doing just sitting here?” she screeched. “Why the fuck are we not moving?”

  Jan finally shoved Liam aside. “Because, lovely—”

  “Get this damn car moving!” Lina screamed. “I’m having babies!”

  Everyone scrambled to get back into the minivan. Rick once again got behind the wheel, and in less than a minute they were tearing out of the rest area.

  “What just happened?” Jan asked Callie.

  Lina looked at Callie. “I was with your eldest sister for a few minutes.”

  Callie nodded. “I suspected as much. Did she pull you there?”

  “No, she said I did it all by myself.” She took a few deep breaths. “What’d Maureen say?”