He scooted back, but he was still closer than I wanted him to be. He sat back in the leaves. "She went crazy, Anita. The pack had to execute her." His eyes went past me into the darkness. I turned to see what he was looking at. Two figures stood in the darkness. One was a woman with long, pale hair and a long, white dress like something out of a 1950s horror movie. If you were playing the victim. But she stood very straight, very certain, as if she were anchored to the ground like a tree. There was something almost frightfully confident about her.
The man with her was tall, slender, and tanned dark enough that he looked brown in the dark. His hair was short and a paler brown than his skin. If the woman seemed calm, he seemed nervous. He gave off energy in a roiling bath that breathed along my skin and made the night seem hotter.
"Are you well?" the woman asked.
"She shared the munin with two of us," Jamil said.
"By accident, I take it," the woman said. She sounded faintly amused.
I was not amused. I got to my feet, a little unsteady, but standing. "Who are you?"
"My name is Marianne. I am the vargamor for this clan."
I remembered Verne and Colin talking about a varga-something last night. "Verne mentioned you last night. Colin said he'd left you at home to keep you safe."
"A good witch is hard to find," she said, smiling.
I looked at her. "You don't feel Wiccan."
Again, I knew she smiled at me. Her peaceful condescension grated on my nerves. "A psychic then, if you prefer the term."
"I'd never heard the term vargamor before last night," I said.
"It's rare," she said. "Most packs don't have one anymore. Considered too old-fashioned."
"You aren't lukoi," I said.
Her head cocked to one side, and the smile was gone, as if I'd finally done something worthwhile. "Are you so sure?"
I tried to get a sense of what had made me so sure she was human, or at least not lukoi. She had her own energy. She was psychic enough for me to notice. We'd have recognized each other without any introductions. We might not have known the exact flavor of each other's abilities, but we'd have recognized a kindred or rival spirit. Whatever power moved her, it wasn't lycanthropy.
"Yeah, I'm sure you're not lukoi," I said.
"Why?" she asked.
"You don't taste like a shapeshifter."
She laughed then, and it was a rich, musical sound that managed to be wholesome and earthy all at the same time. "I like your choice of senses. Most humans would have said I didn't feel right. Feel is such an imprecise word, don't you think?"
I shrugged. "Maybe."
"This is Roland. He is my bodyguard for this night. We poor humans must be watched over for fear that some overzealous shapeshifter might lose control and harm us."
"Somehow I don't think you are that easy a prey, Marianne."
She laughed again. "Why, thank you, child."
Her calling me child made me add about ten years to her age. She didn't look it. It was dark, but she still didn't look it.
"Come, Anita. We will escort you to the lupanar." She held out her hand to me like I was supposed to take it and be led like a child.
I looked to Jamil. I hoped somebody knew what was going on, because I was lost.
"It's all right, Anita. The vargamor is neutral. She never fights or takes sides in challenges. That's how she can be human and run with the pack."
"Are we involved in a challenge or a fight that I don't know about?" I asked.
"No," Jamil said, but he sounded uncertain.
Marianne interpreted for me without being asked. "Introducing two outside dominants to a pack can lead to fighting. Having someone as powerful as Richard is raising the hackles on our younger wolves. Having him sleeping with our pack's only two dominant females makes it worse."
"You mean we may get into a pissing contest," I said.
"A colorful phrase, but accurate enough," she said.
"Okay, now what?" I asked.
"Now, Roland and I escort you all to the lupanar. The rest of you may go ahead. You know the way, Jamil."
"I don't think so," I said.
"No to what?" Marianne asked.
"Do I look like Little Red Riding Hood?" I said. "I'm not taking a stroll in the woods with two strangers. One of them a werewolf and the other a ... I don't know what you are yet, Marianne. But I don't want to be alone with the two of you."
"Very well," she said. "Some or all may stay. I was thinking that you might like privacy to speak with another human tied to the lukoi. Perhaps I was wrong."
"Tomorrow in the light of day, we can talk. Tonight, let's just take it easy."
"As you like," she said. Again, she held out her hand to me. "Come. Let us talk as we all troop to the lupanar as one big, happy family."
"You're making fun of me now," I said. "That won't put you on my A-list."
"I make fun of everyone a little," she said. "I mean no harm by it." She waggled her hand at me. "Come, child, the moon is passing above us. Time wastes away."
I walked towards her with my five bodyguards at my back. I didn't take her hand, though.
I was close enough to see the condescending smile clearly now. Anita Blake, the famous vampire hunter, afraid of some backcountry wisewoman.
I smiled. "I'm cautious by nature and paranoid by profession. You've offered me your hand twice now within just a few minutes. You don't strike me as someone who does anything without a reason. What gives?"
She put her hands on her h*ps and tsked at me. "Is she always this difficult?"
"Worse," Jason said.
I frowned at him. Even if he couldn't see it in the dark, it made me feel better.
"All I want, child, is to touch your hand and get a sense of how powerful you are before we let you inside the boundaries of our lupanar again. After what you did last night, some of our pack fear you within the boundaries of our lupanar. They seem to think you will steal our power."
"I can tap into it," I said, "but I can't steal it."
"But the munin already reach out to you. I felt you call your munin. It traveled through the power we have called tonight in the lupanar. It disturbed it like plucking on a thread of a spider's web. We came to see what we had caught, and if it were too big to eat, we would cut it loose and not take it home."
"The spider metaphor worked for maybe two sentences, then you lost me," I said.
"The lupanar is our place of power, Anita. I need to get a sense of what you are before you enter it this night." The laughter was gone from her voice. She was suddenly very serious. "It is not just our protection I am thinking of, child. It is yours. Think, child, what would happen to you if the munin within our circle rode you one after another? I need to make sure you can control at least that well."
Just hearing her say it made my stomach tight with fear. "Okay." I held out my hand to her like we were going to shake hands, but I gave her my left hand. If she didn't like it, she could refuse it.
"Offering the left hand is an insult," she said.
"Take it or leave it, vargamor. We don't have all night."
"That is more true than you know, little one." She put her hand out as if to touch mine but stopped with her hand just above mine. She spread her hand above my skin. I mirrored her. She was trying to get a sense of my aura. Two could play at that game.
When I raised my hands up in front of my body, she mirrored me. We stood facing each other, hands spread wide, not quite touching. She was tall, five-foot-seven or five-foot-eight. I didn't think there were high heels under that long dress.
Her aura was warm against my skin. It had a weight to it, as if I could have wrapped her aura in my hands like dough. I'd never met anyone with such weight to their aura. It confirmed my first sense of her. Solid.
She pushed forward suddenly, wrapping her fingers around my hand. She forced my aura back in upon itself like a knife thrust. It made me gasp, but again, I knew what was happening. I pushed back and felt her waver.
She smiled, but it wasn't condescending now. It was almost as if she were pleased.
The hair at the back of my neck tried to crawl down my spine.
"Powerful," she said. "Strong."
I spoke around a tightness in my throat. "You, too."