“You do that and the wolves will come for us. You’re starting—”
“They started it by taking our next leader. She’s a strong bruja. And now she’s one of them—”
Daniel pulled away, and I was back in the present.
This confirmed what Dastien and my mother said, but I wasn’t sure that I could fix the coven. Or if I even wanted to. It wasn’t like I could be a pack alpha and rule a coven, too. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted either.
I cleared my throat, trying to buy myself time to shake the vision. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Daniel said. “What did you see?”
“Nothing much.” I lied.
“It’s been a while, Chris,” Daniel said, acknowledging Chris for the first time.
“Three years.” Chris had a natural dry rasp in his voice, but his tone of voice was a little rougher than usual. He wouldn’t be able to take those glasses off anytime soon.
Daniel stared him in the eyes. It didn’t matter that there was a pair of sunglasses blocking the gaze from Chris. From the way Chris was standing, completely rigid, every muscle tense, I knew we were seconds away from a code red.
Daniel started to smell like campfire with a hint of sulfur. I’d come to recognize the scent as extreme anger. I took that as my cue to intervene. “My cousin’s house would be?”
“Fourth on the right.” He motioned with a nod.
I started down the road, dragging Chris beside me.
“Teresa,” Daniel said.
I ground my teeth. I loathed it when people called me that. Not even my parents used my full name, except when they were extremely pissed. “Yeah?” I glanced at him.
“It would be good if you came back sometime.”
If I hadn’t seen those visions, I wouldn’t have noticed the plea behind his words. My wolf settled down. He wasn’t a threat. Not right now. But coming back? That wasn’t happening. It was enough of a risk to come when Meredith was so sick. I wasn’t about to pop over for social calls. “Probably not a good idea. I’m not totally under control.”
“We can help with that.”
Chris growled.
Yeah, that had worked out real well for Meredith… The bad thing was that if he’d asked me when I first woke up as a werewolf, I might have taken him up on it. But not anymore. “Not interested. Thanks for the offer, though.”
His shoulders slumped for a fraction of a second before he stood tall again and nodded. “The door is open if you ever change your mind.”
“Sure. Thanks.” But I was never going to take him up on it in this lifetime.
“They want you back?” Chris asked so softly, I could barely hear the words.
“They’re all mad that I’m a wolf,” I said back, my voice equally soft. “They want me here so badly that they’re planning on speaking against Dastien at the Tribunal.”
“Shit.”
“Yep.” Even if I was supposed to be their leader, I couldn’t imagine why they’d be so desperate to have me join. There had to be someone else in my generation with the gift of sight that could take it over. If I could find someone, then maybe they’d drop this whole vendetta against the pack.
Unless there was a bigger agenda. I thought back to the vision and the mention of a war.
Christ. There was no way I had time to worry about that right then. I shoved it to the back of my mind for another day.
In the short time it took to get to the fourth house, people of all ages—some in hippy gear, some in normal clothes—started to congregate on porches. Daniel stood in the middle of the road talking to a few others. They were all eyeballing us. Most stared at Chris like he was the enemy. Some looked at me like I was, too. Most seemed simply curious. Their eyes lingered on me a little longer.
Good thing I was used to being stared at. You didn’t get through seventeen years of visions by letting weird looks bother you.