Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,35

been since we flew together in dreams. Dream sex was so light and effortless, quite a contrast to the rough, earthy, messy sex I had with Graham, although…shit, now I was thinking about that too.

Byron grinned. “You don’t have time for this right now.”

Right. I could hear some growling in the front yard so I knew Jake and Billie were still fighting, and I was worried about Jasper with his bad leg. I ran back to the front of the house.

“Back’s clear!” I yelled.

“Help Jasper!” Billie cried, as I noticed Jake was locked in battle with one of the serpents. He had one in his jaws, but the serpent’s tail whipped back and wrapped around Jake’s leg, trying to knock him off his game. Jake was trying to kill it before it could try anything, shaking its head. The serpents were pretty strong against a physical attack, it seemed.

“Where is he?”

“In the maze!”

Oh, great.

I ran into the hedge maze. I could hear growling somewhere. The hedges were so overgrown that I couldn’t go down the paths without little branches snagging at my hair and sleeves. I followed the sound.

Then I saw a serpent slither past me. I dashed after it but when it heard me in pursuit, it suddenly snapped back toward me and launched into the air toward my face.

Now I made the girliest shriek in my arsenal. These things could leap? What the hell!? I felt its slimy skin slam into mine as it knocked me back against the bushes and started wrapping itself around me, its little feet gripping at my clothes as it went.

Screaming. Face. Off.

My wand was useless when I couldn’t focus to cast a spell out of my disgust and shock. A big bitchin’ sword would have been welcome right about now.

I heard someone coming and I thought it would be Byron because Billie was up a tree and the Sullivans were wolves, but instead it was a strange, strapping man with a pitchfork, which he raised like a trident, pointed at me.

“Le—feu—!” I managed, and my wand sputtered some flames toward the serpent.

Unfazed by my pathetic fire spell, the man speared the serpent dead and pulled it off me. Then he held out a hand to yank me out of the hedge.

“Thank you,” I gasped.

“You must be a witch,” he said.

“Yes. Hi.” I had no time to process this man or this question. I bolted toward the growling.

Jasper was bristled, in a standoff with another serpent. Plus there was another one circling around from behind; I could hear it moving around the bend in the hedge paths. It was only moments before they could get him in a pincer attack, and he wasn’t putting any weight on his bad leg.

“L’eclair!” I summoned up another good flash of light and another one bit the dust. The stranger had gone a different way and I heard a very matter-of-fact goring noise before he came around the corner with the other serpent dangling off his pitchfork. He offered it to me casually.

“Good eating, yes?”

“No,” I said. “Are you all right, Jasper?” I crouched to check on his leg. He wasn’t putting weight on it.

Jasper nodded and nudged his head against my knee before running past me. He moved faster now, with three good legs in his wolf form. I knew he wanted to make sure Jake was all right. I followed him, but I glanced back at the stranger. He was tall, well-muscled in a laborer sort of way, mostly around the shoulders, but quite thin otherwise, with sandy brown hair of ruffled length. He killed the serpents so I was hoping he was on our side, and maybe a friend or relative of Deveraux Greenwood.

When I emerged from the maze, Billie, Jake and Byron were all talking in a cluster, so it seemed the threat was over.

“Oh, hello…did you still work here?” Byron said, looking at the newcomer.

“Oh, it’s you again,” Billie said. I guess they’d had an encounter while we were out.

“No, as Deveraux was getting near the end, he wanted most of us to go so as not to see him in decline,” he said. “But I’ve been keeping an eye on the old girl.” He put down the pitchfork and pulled the serpent off the tines with his boot.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Ston, the groundskeeper. I live down the ways a bit, with the horses.”

“Stan?”

“Ston,” he said. “Gaston.”

“So you’re the one with those pretty horses!” Billie started to sing, “No—one’s—slick as—”

He