Leader of the Pack (21 page)

Cullen heard the tremor in her voice. He had been concerned that this might come up. He pulled her to himself and hugged her. “I know. Don’t worry. I think Keith was more interested in the possibility that you might be able to do something to help the situation.” He gave Keith a meaningful glare over Aislinn’s head so that she wouldn’t see it.

Keith wasn’t sure he liked the way Cullen was coddling her. There were times that Aislinn appeared strong and intelligent. But all it took was mention of Rafe and she seemed to crumble. The guy had gotten to her badly, and Cullen was dangerously protective of her. Keith only hoped that the situation would improve once they were mated. “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” he said unconvincingly. “Look, what we know is that we’re about to be at war with a pack that was already our equal and has now added lions, tigers, bears, and the Gods know what else to their numbers. To make matters worse, the new alpha has no trouble randomly killing anyone who might see reason and can play games with people’s heads. I don’t know about you, but I’m scared shitless. You’ll have to forgive me if I start grasping at straws and being suspicious.” Keith’s joking demeanor was completely gone. Cullen knew that the only thing keeping him from joining Keith in serious terror was Aislinn. It was impossible to think about anything unpleasant when she smiled at him.

Aislinn got down off of Cullen’s desk. Keith was right. She knew how he felt or worse. Rafe terrified her. She thought back to the night at the mating ceremony, as much as she didn’t like that. With a great deal of effort she pulled herself into the moment and tried to be as helpful as she could. She knew that if she was going to fit in around here, then someone other than Cullen needed to trust her. Otherwise, they were all going to start thinking that the only reason Cullen liked her was because she was doing something to him when no one was looking. Well, beyond having sex with him. She smiled to herself. “I don’t know what I’m capable of. I seem to be able to manage things when I put my mind to it. I’d never tried getting into other people’s minds before that night at the ceremony, but I managed a little. I don’t know. Maybe if I put some effort into it I could do some of the things Rafe does. But it’s more than just some mental ability he has. He uses something else too. He’s always got a smell about him. That’s part of his ability to mess with people. Maybe you could all wear gas masks or something.”

Cullen considered that. “Maybe not gas masks, but I think that figuring out what was in those bonfires just became top priority.” Keith nodded, impressed at Aislinn’s thought process. Cullen figured that there were only two ways to figure out the herbs Rafe had used. Involve the feds, which he desperately didn’t want to do, or find the druids. He looked at Keith. “Do you have any more word on the Senachs?”

Keith shook his head. “They’ve all disappeared. Every address we’ve found is abandoned.”

Aislinn looked at them uncertainly. “Senach?”

“Yeah, that’s the name of all the people who were involved with the book shops and such from your vision,” Cullen said and pulled the report out of the pile on his desk. He looked at her with interest. “Mean something to you?” He half wondered about suggesting she touch the files again, but she pulled back from it when he showed it to her, so he set it back down.

“That was my grandmother’s maiden name. Brinah Mong Senach,” she said uneasily. “Do you think I could use your phone?”

Keith sat forward in his chair and cocked his head at Cullen with a look as if to say, ‘see she’s trouble’. Cullen ignored Keith and reached across his desk, picked up his phone and handed it to Aislinn. She stared at it a moment, the old familiar number from her childhood running through her head. She hadn’t spoken to any of her family in so long. “When you say they’ve all disappeared, do you mean in a bad way,” she asked with fear tinting her voice.

“We don’t know,” Keith said suddenly sympathetic. “Some are dead,” he said slowly, and Aislinn winced at the phone. “But most are just gone. No trace. They could have left on their own.”

Aislinn nodded and dialed the number. With each ring her heart sank a bit. As the fifth ring cut off and an elderly female voice said “Hello,” Aislinn was so relieved she almost jumped for joy. “Grandma?”

“Who is this,” Brinah asked not wanting to hope.

“Grandma this Aislinn,” she said softly. “How are you?”

There was dead silence on the other end of the line for a moment, and Aislinn could hear a soft sob. “How am I? Child how…where are you?”

“Grandma, a lot has happened. Uh, I don’t think that the whole story should be said over the phone. I have to ask you something strange,” she paused and tried to think of what exactly to say. “Do you know anything about a Circle?”

There was dead silence. “Aislinn,” she said seriously, with the authoritative tone that can only come from a person’s grandparent. “If someone has approached you saying things about that, then you need to get away from them. Do you understand me?”

“Grandma I wish that I could. I’m not with them, but I guess a lot of people with the last name Senach have been disappearing. I was worried about you. Has anyone been bothering you?”

There was some more silence as Brinah tried to figure out what to say to her granddaughter. “All these years and now this. Sweetheart, are you in trouble? Have you been in trouble? Is someone making you call me?”

“Yes and no. I’m okay Grandma.”

There was a heavy sigh. “I left all of that a long time ago. I don’t use the name and I didn’t think that I could be tracked down easily. When Fearguis called and warned me that we were being hunted I didn’t take it seriously. You tell whoever is bothering you that if they let you go, I’ll not fight them.”

“Grandma I don’t really know exactly what you mean. I’m okay. I’m safe. I’m not with them or the people hunting them.”

Brinah sighed with relief. “Then where are you child, and how do you know about this?”

“I’m sorry about everything Grandma. I wish I could explain.”

“Just tell me that you aren’t involved with the Senach. Things are too dangerous right now. If you want to learn about that part of you then I’ll help you. You don’t need the Circle.”

“I’m not involved with them, Grandma.” She could see Cullen and Keith staring at her. She knew they needed information. From the way her grandmother was talking, Aislinn knew that her grandmother could give them the information that they needed. “But one of them is after me. I’m safe. Don’t worry. I’m with some people now who are protecting me. But I can’t come home. I just called to see if you were safe, and because maybe you could tell me something about what’s going on.”

Brinah was getting nervous. “I don’t know what I can tell you child. I haven’t associated with them a long time. I left when I married your grandfather.”

“So tell me what you can. I mean anything might help. The man who’s after me, he does strange things. I need to know if there’s a way to stop him from doing them.”

“That depends on what he’s doing Aislinn. You’re scaring me. It doesn’t sound as though you’re safe. Who is this man who’s after you?”

“His name is Rafe.”

Brinah nearly dropped the phone. She caught herself and tried to stay calm. She knew that she needed to get to Aislinn as quickly as possible now. “Okay, I can tell you that he is not someone to play games with. If he completed the training that he had been chosen for, then he’s an alchemist.”

“I don’t understand what that is. Alchemy went out in the dark ages. Isn’t that turning lead to gold and nonsense like that?”

Brinah smiled into the phone. She had always been very proud of her granddaughter. She was impressed that Aislinn knew even that much. “There’s a great deal more to it than that. Wasn’t your thesis on the fact behind myths child?”

Brinah thought about that a minute. “Okay, so what kind of alchemy makes someone able to control someone else’s mind?” She said it before thinking. She was getting caught up in learning something new. Her brain had been hungry for learning for so long now. It was part of why the pack wasn’t bothering her. She felt like she was back in school again and absorbing new information. The kind of thing her grandmother was now suggesting fascinated her even more than pack dynamic.

“A very dangerous kind. Aislinn you need to get very far away from this man.”

Aislinn felt guilty that she was scaring her grandmother so much. That shocked her out of her desire to learn something new. Aislinn had been missing for seven years, and here she was on the phone leaving her grandmother with the certainty that she was in danger. She owed her grandmother more than that. “Grandma, I really am okay. I’m safer here than anywhere else. These people can protect me better than running away can.”

There was more silence. “You have a great deal of faith in these people you’re talking about. You seem to have acquired a lot of knowledge about things I worked very hard to make sure our family wouldn’t have to be concerned about. Who are you with Aislinn?”

Cullen was watching her. His heart jumped a bit each time she professed how safe she was with him. Keith could read the pleasure his friend was getting out of this on his face. He shook his head. Keith had never thought he’d ever see Cullen this gone over a woman. Aislinn was searching for the right words to explain the situation without making matters worse. Hell, if her grandmother knew about druids, and was maybe possibly a druid herself, then who knows what she might know about the lycans.

Brinah could almost feel the pause in the line. “Okay, child, you don’t have to tell me. I’ll just have to trust you. If you insist on staying where you are, and you have Rafe after you, then you’ll need to do something about his abilities. I can’t help you from here. You don’t know anything about mixing compounds.” It had been a long time since Brinah had done anything remotely druidic other than hide and keep secrets, but she knew she needed to get to her granddaughter somehow.

“Grandma, if you think for one second that I’m going to bring you here then you’re crazy.” Aislinn sounded like the original defiant child.

“Don’t you dare use that tone with me, Aislinn Brianne. I’m still your grandmother, and you’ll do as you’re told. Whether you think it or not this is partially my fault. If I had remained with the Circle you would have known how to do these things yourself. Or if I had done a better job with leaving they never would have found you.”

“Grandma,” she tried to interrupt.

“No, you’re my granddaughter. You need help. Whoever is protecting you won’t be able to do it alone, not if Rafe is doing what it sounds like. I would have thought that with your curious nature you would want to know more about all this anyway. I guarantee you that you won’t find any of the things I can tell you in a book.” Brinah paused and her voice softened. “Besides, it wasn’t all bad. Over the years I’ve regretted not passing it on. Maybe it’s time.”

“Hold on a minute Grandma.” Aislinn covered the phone with her hand. She looked at Cullen and Keith with raised eyebrows. “Well, Grandma seems to know something about what Rafe is able to do. She wants to help. But that would mean bringing her here. I don’t know if I like that.”

Keith looked at Cullen. “You said to find the Senach and get what information we could. But, I personally don’t want to lead Rafe to the woman. Especially if he doesn’t know about her. He seems to be taking them out one at a time. She’ll be in danger if we go there. She’ll be in danger if we bring her here. And that will be one more non-lycan in the den. You’re call.”

“I don’t see much choice in this.” He looked at Aislinn. “What can she do here that she can’t do over the phone?”

“She said something about mixing compounds, alchemy, and that I couldn’t do it with phone instruction. She’d have to be here. But it seems that she can do something about Rafe’s mind stuff.” Aislinn’s brow was furrowed, and she was shaking her head. “I didn’t even know that she was a druid. How could she have kept this secret all this time?”

Brinah was getting tired of the silence on the other end of the line. “Aislinn,” she called into the phone.

Cullen nodded to Aislinn. “Tell her we’ll come get her, but she’s not to involve anyone else.”

“I’m sorry grandma,” Aislinn said into the phone. “I was making sure it would be all right. I guess they’re going to come get you. But you can’t tell anyone what is going on. Not mom or dad or anyone.”

“Child I’ve been keeping this secret since long before you were born. I’m not about to start sharing now. But I would point out that your family loves and misses you. Some day you should do something about that.”

Aislinn couldn’t bear to answer that comment. She nearly started to cry.
I miss them too,
she thought. Cullen cut in again. “Tell her that a woman named Sarah Arnauk will come to get her. If your grandmother is close enough I’ll send her tomorrow.” Cullen gave Keith one of his looks that sent his friend into action without the direct order. Keith got up and pulled out his phone to call Sarah.

“Grandma, um, a woman named Sarah Arnauk is going to come and get you. She’ll be there tomorrow. So get everything ready. Okay?”

There was a long pause before Brinah answered. “Druids
and
lycans then. Well at least it’s the Arnauk. No wonder you think you’re safe where you are,” Brinah said to her granddaughter with a knowing tone. “I guess I didn’t do a very good job at protecting you,” Brinah said apologetically.

Aislinn almost dropped the phone. “You know about that too?”