What price does a vampire have to pay to feel safe?
All Leonard Badrick wants is to get out of Oakmouth and find a place where he doesn’t have to fear for his life every single day. Somewhere he can live without the threat of his neighbors telling on him. He hopes that place is the community in Myrfolk, if only he can get Gertrude to agree to take him in.
Lynx Kot is a former blood slave. Last summer, the Myrfolk community saved him from the cage he and three other shifters were kept in. He’s been living with them since then, but he isn’t sure community life is for him. He’s contemplating hitting the road when a vampire he’s never seen before places beehives near his favorite tree.
Leonard is willing to do whatever it takes for a ticket out of Oakmouth, but when Lynx realizes Gertrude is taking advantage of his desperation, something ignites inside of him. He might not be a fan of vampires, but he knows what it’s like to live in fear, and if Leonard isn’t going to stand up for himself, then Lynx will. Someone has to, right?
“Lynx was watching us today.”
Leonard widened his eyes before he could think not to. “Okay.”
Gertrude blew out a breath and more or less slumped in her chair. “I haven’t managed to connect with him. Pomona still lives here with me, and she’s doing well considering what she’s been through. She comes and goes, talks to people, participates. She’s visiting Kage and Gilbert, and sometimes she’s over in the garden with Rue, Noah, Chaton, and Asher. We only have seven vampires, and she’s friends with three of them. Granted, all of them gay and all of them paired up and well-fed, but still.”
Leonard nodded, not sure what she wanted him to say. He dared to take a piece of apple and savored the sweet and sour taste.
“Channing and Duko have also chosen to stay. They don’t take part in any activities, but they talk to the wolves, and Ylva is keeping a close eye on them. Channing has a pack, but she’s not ready to rejoin them. She’s in contact with them, so I don’t know if she’ll stay with us or leave at some point, but for now, she’s here. Duko has a house on Wolf Street, and while not on guard duty, he has come to a few meetings when I’ve called them. It’s a little depending on what kind of day he has, but he’s ... doing okay considering.”
Leonard nodded again. He was afraid if he spoke, he’d say the wrong thing. Ylva was the leader of the wolves. She’d been involved in freeing the blood slaves too, and Leonard had been stunned. Not about her wanting to help, but about Gertrude allowing a leader of the wolves. Czar was the only leader. He would not allow the shifters to have a leader other than him.
Then it was the whole thing about Gertrude allowing people to leave if they wanted to. Once you were part of the Oakmouth community, there was no way out unless you did like Jinx and fled like a thief in the night.
“But Lynx ...” She shook his head. “He hisses at me if I get too close, he speaks to no one, asks for nothing.”
Leonard blinked since his eyes were drying out from all the staring. “He hisses?” In Oakmouth, he’d have been killed a long time ago if he had hissed at the leader.
“It’s hard with solitary animals. I understand. I’m not the most social of creatures myself. Whenever we’ve taken in traumatized wolves, they find their feet pretty fast. It doesn’t erase their pasts, of course, but they learn to function way faster than the solitary animals and the magic users -- Pomona being the exception. Though I suspect having Kage here has helped a lot.”
Once again, Leonard nodded. He couldn’t imagine Czar having a conversation like this with anyone.
Gertrude blew on her tea before taking a sip. Then she focused on him again. “I’ve wondered where Lynx goes all day. I never see him, and I swing by his house at least once a week, but he’s never there. Seeing him today made me both happy and a little worried.”
“Why?” Leonard was careful not to show any emotions.
She shrugged. “If the area around the house with the hives is where he feels safe, and I’ve promised you access -- you, a vampire -- I fear I’ve messed up.”
Cold slithered through him. Would she demand he take the hives back, that he doesn’t come here? He couldn’t breathe. Driving back with them to Oakmouth would not only be humiliating, it would also have people question what he was up to.
She groaned and rested her head in her hands. “If you see him when he’s there, don’t ... I don’t know, approach. He hissed at me when I neared the tree he was in.”
“He was in shifted form?”
She didn’t look up but nodded into her hands. “He most often is. I guess he feels safest in shifted form. He can run, climb, bite, and scratch. I don’t judge. Had I been through what he’s been through, I’d want my claws too.”
Yeah, had he had claws, he’d want easy access too. Though from what he’d seen, a shifter could have their claws out in the blink of an eye. Still, whatever made him the most comfortable. “So if I see him, I should pretend I don’t?” Did it mean they’d proceed as planned?
“I don’t know.” She met his gaze with a huff. “So far, no one’s managed to reach him. I’ve tried, and when I failed, I sent Rue, and when it didn’t work, I had Chaton talk to him. I even sent Namir, thinking maybe they’d connect cat to cat.” She shrugged. “He ignored them all, didn’t say a word. He has spoken to me, but it’s most often a whispered yes or a no, nothing more.”
So he wouldn’t talk to Leonard.
“I’m not sure how he’ll react when he sees a vampire.”
Right. Leonard allowed a sigh to slip out.
Gertrude waved a hand. “It is what it is. I only wanted you to be aware and to tread lightly if he’s there.”
“Of course.” What did you do if you had a feral cat near your hives? He drank some more tea.
