Gatsby Wolves, Vol. 4

It was both a perk and an annoyance that Celine was generally capable of getting her chores done early. Cleaning was less time consuming when you could move at hyper speed. Sometimes Celine found herself a little bored and stir crazy in the early afternoons, when Emelie was still in school and Kade was at his office across town. So on days when she wasn’t filling the time with baking or music, she went exploring. She had found that if she went into the more densely wooded area at the far edge of their neighborhood and wandered in far enough, she wound up near the fairy district. There were all manner of interesting things to see in and around that part of the city, and Celine went there often, stroking through town or simply wandering the woods; spotting strange creatures and patches of jewel-colored mushrooms that she was fairly certain would either get you high for a solid week, or possibly transport you into another dimension.

These little excursions made her feel like a storybook character, it felt so far away from her usual world. Occasionally she’d pick some pretty, unusual flowers to put in the window vase back home. Other times she just window browsed the shops. She had a bookstore she liked to frequent, and regularly bought candles from a gnome who hand carved them in equality detail to look like animals. She tried to avoid anything magical, knowing that fae magic had a tendency to be addictive or full of tricks. But fairy creatures also just liked pretty things, so there was no shortage of beautiful but non-enchanted things to be found. With her powers of vampiric perception, she was getting good at being able to tell the difference.

Today Celine kept to the woods, strolling leisurely among the big trees and the lichen covered rocks. Giving a wide berth to a patch of the beautiful mushrooms, she crested a small hill and found herself looking down at a pool of beautifully clear blue water. She scampered down and put a hand out over the water, testing to see if it was secretly boiling hot, but it was merely warm, and seemed a bit effervescent. She could see all the way to the bottom. She trailed her fingertips across the surface, creating bubbly little ripples. She would’ve been content to stay there a while, maybe take a nap in the sun like a lazy cat. But her daydreaming was interrupted by what sounded like someone in pain.

Celine sat up, listening for the sound again. It definitely sounded like a whimper; maybe an animal cry. She stood and followed the sound cautiously. It took her a moment to spot the source of the pitiful little cries, small as it was. She hurried over to find a small creature, no bigger than a house cat, curled inside the trunk of a tree. It was trembling in fright and seemed to have hurt one of its hind legs. It stared at Celine with big, luminous eyes.

“Oh, you poor little thing,” Celine cooed. Something must have attacked it and the creature crawled into the log to hide. She reached into the log, gently pulling the animal out. She gasped when she saw it clearly. It was possibly the most beautiful animal she’d ever seen. A long, slim body and fluffy tail covered in pale seafoam green fur that was velvet soft. Pearlescent scales adorned its back, with a tiny set of matching horns poking up between its cat-like ears. And a pair of iridescent wings were tucked in against its sides. It looked something like a cross between a cat and a tiny dragon. Even its feet looked like kitten paws.

“Oh, my goodness. Aren’t you just precious? Did you hurt your leg? That looks broken, poor baby. And you hurt your wing too?”

The creature stared up at her with its giant blue-green eyes, looking quite forlorn. Celine cuddled it to her chest. “Well don’t worry, I’m not going to just leave you out here all alone. We’ll get you fixed up, okay? It’s about time to go home and start dinner anyway.”

Celine stood, brushing some moss off her dress. Then she sped home. She laid a towel down on the kitchen table, then set her little patient on it and inspected the damage. Being a dhampir and surrounded by shifters all the time, everyone tended to heal quickly from any injuries they received but from time to time a bone needed setting or a more severe cut needed to be bandaged to help it heal properly. Celine had decided, particularly after having Emelie, that knowing some basics of first aid would probably come in handy. She worked very carefully, since the animal was so small. And the wing was very delicate; she surveyed the damage warily. It seemed banged up, but thankfully not torn. She fashioned a sort of sling for it, to keep it in place. She’d just have to keep an eye on it.

“Would you like something to eat?” she asked. “What does a…whatever you are, have for dinner?”

She was startled when an image of milk and honey appeared in her head. “Oh, you're smart too, are you?” She smiled and poured some milk into a bowl, adding honey and mixing it together. The creature perked up when it saw the bowl, its little pink nose twitching. It lapped delicately at the milk. Celine gently stroked its fur and it made a sound like purring, which made her smile. The creature lifted its little head, looking her right in the eyes and reaching out a paw to touch her face. Celine suddenly knew that the creature was female, very young, and had hurt her wing trying to fly in a storm. While she was grounded, a hungry fox had tried to attack her and that’s how she’d broken her leg.

“Poor thing. You can stay with us, if you’d like.” The creature purred again. Celine left her to her milk and started fixing dinner for everyone else.

“You’ll need a name though, won’t you?” she mused. “Something regal, for such a pretty animal. How about…Illaria? Do you like that?”

The creature made a sweet chirping noise that Celine took as approval.

“What in the world is that?” Jinxie had just roused from his afternoon nap, fluttering into the kitchen in search of treats. He and Illaria eyed each other curiously.

“That’s Illaria, our new roommate.”

“What…is she?”

“No idea. I’ll have to go through my books from the fairy district I suppose, see if I can figure out what she is.”

“She’s not going to eat me, is she?”

“She seems more interested in the milk.”

Jinxie reluctantly landed next to Illaria, and they both twitched their noses at each other. They both seemed to decide the other wasn’t a threat. Illaria went back to sipping her honeyed milk and Jinxie accepted the fruit slices Celine gave him. She was mashing potatoes when she felt Kade and Emelie approaching the front door. She sighed, already knowing something was wrong.

“What happened?” she called out by way of greeting when they entered the house.

“How do you do that?” Kade grumbled. Celine stepped out of the kitchen and frowned at the healing bruise across Kade’s face.

“You broke your nose?” she asked.

“No, Daddy was playing tag with a big scary man,” Emelie said. Celine resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“Oh, I see. Emelie, honey, will you go wash up? Dinner will be ready soon.”

“Yes, Mommy.” Emelie hugged her as she went by, and Celine bent down to kiss her cheek. When Emelie had disappeared upstairs Celine gently took Kade’s face in her hands and studied his nose.

“Tag, huh?”

He grimaced. “It was MacIntosh.”

“Come on, we’ll put some ice on it. That’ll heal it faster. I’m a regular surgeon today it seems.”

“What do you mean-what the hell is that?!” Kade’s eyes flew wide when he saw Illaria on the table, grooming her face. Her fur puffed and she hissed.

“Don’t scare her!” Celine chided. “She’s hurt. I brought her home and patched her up and now she lives here. Her name is Illaria.”

“You found her…I don’t…what’s happening?”

“I found her,” Celine repeated. “Her leg is broken. I brought her home and I think she formed some kind of connection to me. She needs time to heal anyway, so she’s staying here.”

“You found her where? What even is she?”

“I’ll figure that out later. I found her in the woods around the fairy district.”

“The fairy district, what were you doing there?”

“I go there a lot,” Celine shrugged. “I like it. Now, why did Wes break your nose?”

Kade was still staring at Illaria as Celine pressed ice gently against his face. She stared back, flicking her tail.

“Kade.”

“Right. Uh, he seems to think I’ve created some feral shifters. I guess one attacked a member of his pack. I have no idea what he’s talking about. I can’t make shifters.”

“Of course you can.”

“Excuse me?”

“Remember when I got books about shifters after Wes scratched you? If you had read any of them yourself you’d know this. If a shifter becomes a sworn Alpha, they can create more shifters. I’ll have to dig the book back out for more information but yes, you could in fact make more shifters.”

“Why didn’t anyone ever tell me that?” Kade asked, exasperated.

“I’ve had books on the subject for years,” Celine told him. “You were so determined to reject your wolfishness that you wouldn’t look at them. Do you want me to talk to Wes?”

“What? No! I don’t want you going anywhere near that maniac. Your life has been in danger enough the last couple of years.”

“I’m not scared of Wes MacIntosh,” Celine said. She made Kade sit down, telling him to hold the ice in place. “I could do some snooping for you, find out about this mysterious shifter.”

“You know, as amazing as I find your vampire abilities and sense of confidence, I’m starting to think I should worry about this new total fearlessness,” he said warily. “I’ll just have the pack keep an ear out for information.”

Celine ran her fingers through his hair, then gently kissed his forehead.

“Fine,” she agreed. “But if it happens again, I’m going to talk to Wes.”

“Wow!” Emelie had come back downstairs, and she stood wide eyed in the doorway, staring at Illaria. “What is that? It’s beautiful.”

“She,” Celine corrected. “That’s Illaria. Be very gentle if you touch her, Emmy. She’s hurt.”

Emelie crept forward and gaped at the little animal. Illaria stared back, looking curious. Emelie grinned.

“Are we keeping her?” she asked excitedly.

“Yes,” Celine answered, before Kade could say anything. He sighed heavily and slid down in his chair.

“Now even animals can’t resist adoring your mother,” he grumbled. “So sure, why not. I always wanted a pet that I can’t even identify.”

Celine smiled, kissing his forehead again while he sat there looking sulky.