Wolf Tracks - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,65
Inside, wrapped in a tight circle—almost a fetal position—was a young wolf, looking at Jim with tired, scared eyes.
“Calum?” Jim whispered low so that only the wolf in the crate could hear him.
The wolf’s head lifted, but every motion seemed a struggle. The wolf had been drained of most of its magical energy. That much was clear to Jim.
“I’m an ally of your Pack. Your Alpha sent me to find you,” he told the boy.
There was more to Jim’s presence, of course, but Calum didn’t need to know about any of that right now. No, at this moment, Calum needed reassurance. Jim wasn’t part of Calum’s Pack, and he might very well suspect a trick. It was up to Jim to convince the teen that he had legitimately come to rescue him.
“Everybody’s on the hunt for your trail, and I was asked to check out this location because I came here on the trail of a very evil individual who was thought to be in the area.” Jim walked closer as he talked, noting the way the wolf’s ears moved to catch his words. “I’m guessing you fell into their trap, and they’ve been stealing your energy for the past day or two.” Jim crouched down in front of the crate and casually broke the small lock that had kept the latch closed. “I’m going to let you out, and if you can walk, we’re going to get out of here. If you can’t walk, I’m going to carry you, okay?”
The wolf tried to stand, but it was too weak as Jim opened the wire door.
“That’s okay, Calum,” Jim told the wolf. “I’ll help you, all right?” Jim was about to reach in when he froze in place at an unexpected sound.
“I don’t think so.”
A man’s voice came from the other side of the long room. There was an archway there, and fans blowing the air out of it, which was why Jim hadn’t scented the newcomer. Jim stood and turned to face the man in the archway.
“Well, if it isn’t Buford Somersby. I’ve been looking all over for you,” Jim said, trying to evaluate the threat level posed by the man and any help he might have hidden around here somewhere. Jim had to remember, this guy practiced black magic—the art of the unseen. Jim could take nothing at face value.
The man made a dismissive gesture. “That’s just one of my names. You may call me master.”
Jim scoffed. “Fat chance.”
Buford smiled, and it was an evil looking thing. “You don’t think so?” He moved a step farther into the room. “I will have you begging for mercy before you die. Mark my words.”
“Funny,” Jim said, taking up a casual pose, leaning against the crate and thereby shielding the teen within as best he could, “I was just about to say something similar to you. Only, I don’t go in for long goodbyes. When you die at my hands, I promise to make it quick. You’ll have time enough in the next realm to be tormented by what you’ve done here.”
Buford’s eyes narrowed, and his expression grew cold. “Perhaps you are unaware, but you cannot leave the circle. Once you stepped inside my ward, you were trapped here, never to leave.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Jim said, as if it didn’t matter to him. “Just tell me one thing, if you wouldn’t mind satisfying my curiosity… Were you Carol’s apprentice or merely her errand boy?”
Carol, the potion witch in West Virginia, had used a very similar kind of ward, and Jim wondered if Buford had learned it from her. If so, maybe he wasn’t as advanced a mage as the woman had been.
“My husband went north to liaise with the potion witch, nothing more.” A female voice sounded from a side door that had opened noiselessly. Jim regarded the woman who stood in the opening with wary eyes.
“That’s not how I heard it,” Jim said, as if this new development didn’t worry him at all. In fact, he was starting to wish he’d called in the cavalry before setting foot over that ward. “From what I understand, old Buford here was in charge of the warehouse freezer section where Carol stored her victims. Pretty gross, if you ask me, putting them on ice like that.”
“It was I who showed Carol the benefits of the blood path,” Buford stated proudly. Jim’s stomach turned. Not only black magic, but blood magic. This couldn’t really get any worse. “My lovely Otalla and I have been