Samara, Russia
six months after Cait’s 22nd birthday
“Kotik!”
The words were spoken with such warmth and excitement. In Cait’s opinion Davith Razavi was a delightful contradiction of a man. Half Russian, half Persian, his Persian mothers genes were dominate, giving his skin a rich golden tone. He was a witch, one of many in the Razavi Coven, his family. His long black hair was pulled into a man bun that on him, Cait thought actually looked quite good. That casual hair choice and the warmth of his demeanor, the light in his green eyes, always seemed to Cait something you would not find on a man who spent a fortune on clothes. Davith was always well dressed, even when he was casually dressed. In Cait’s experience, men who dressed like Davith were usually assholes, but not him. She’d met him two years ago. He was her favorite person, and the only one she considered a real friend.
David bounded towards her, all smiles and excitement. He was well built, his long black coat fitting him as well as the black shirt underneath. The rose gold chain of his pocket watch, his talisman as he called it, was visible at the waist of his jeans, the watch itself in it’s constant place inside his pocket. Three of his tattoos were visible. She knew he had others, but she’d only seen a few. Some magical, some just for the love of the art. A crescent moon adorned the column of his neck, the crest of the full moon that followed it, peeking out from underneath the open collar of his shirt. On the top of his right and left hand were symbols of two deities he worked with, Hekate and Lilith. From what Cait knew of Lilith, she did not have many sons she allowed to work with her. Davith, and the other male members of her coven were some of the few.
His excitement at seeing her made Cait shake her head in amusement as she came down the steps of the private plane. He met her at the bottom of the stairs, and Cait jumped on him, wrapping arms and legs around him in a tight hug. He laughed, cupping a hand around the back of her head, his opposite strong arm anchored around her and spun them around in a circle, as he made happy, grunting noises at her.
“You stayed away too long.”
Cait snorted. “It’s been six months.”
“Too. Long.” He emphasized and squeezed her tighter before setting her down on her feet. “You still dating, what’s his face, that hairy one? Conrad? Connor?
Amusement shone in Cait’s eyes and her tone. “Connor.”
“Yeah that one.”
“No. I broke it off when I left.”
“Good. He was bad for you.”
“You think everyone is bad for me.”
“Not everyone.” Davith gave her a sly smile and took her hand in his. “You have bags?”
Cait shook her head again, a fond smile sitting on her mouth at the first. “No, I still have my apartment.”
“Good. We go to my place first though.”
He lead her over to his SUV, pulling open the door for her. She settled in, her eyes moving over the familiarity of the interior. When he was settled in the drivers seat, Cait gave him a pointed look. “Why am I here?”
“Coming to see me, isn’t enough?”
“You know it is, and we also both know that’s not why you called.”
“I’m going to wine and dine you before I ask you for a favor.”
“I don’t drink wine and you already asked for the favor, love. Here I am.”
“All the more reason for me to dine you, with vodka then.”
“You know you don’t have to do shite but tell me what’s going on.”
“Are you in a hurry to get back to, where ever it is you went?”
Cait paused, considering his words. “No. I like it there though.”
“Russia is better.”
Cait snorted.
“Okay, it’s not but I’m here,” he grinned, taking her hand in his own again.
“You could be elsewhere too.”
Davith sighed. “One day, kotik. One day.”
_______________________________________________________________________________
The Razavi Coven were loud, happy people who would cut your throat in the shadows, or worse, work baneful magic and curse an entire generation of your bloodline if you crossed them. Baba Razavi, current head of the Razavi coven, was boiling the ingredients of such a spell when Davith opened the front door of her home. The Razavi Coven did well enough, they owned ten acres an hour outside of Samara. A collection of the family’s small houses and two communal buildings for business and spell craft adored the land.
“Look who I found,” Davith said in Russian.
“Cait! My Cait!” Baba Razavi took her hand off a spoon that continued to stir in a counter clock wise direction, bounding over to Cait and hugging her as tightly as Davith.
Cait laughed, returning the woman’s hug just as tightly. She was not released, the room simply got louder as Davith’s two younger brothers and their twelve year old sister joined the pile. Shortly after they were joined by the rest of the family, until the room was full, the bottles were opened, and Baba Razavi was yelling about food, because Cait apparently wasn’t thick enough to be a wolf. Davith’s father tried to playfully clam she wasn’t, couldn’t be, then lost ten arm wrestling matches in a row, because he assumed, if he kept feeding Cait vodka eventually she’d loose. Davith’s mother called her husband an idiot, lovingly, several times in both Persian and Russian during the entirety of the shenanigans. At some point, Davith’s younger sister, Katrina broke out a deck of cards, begging Cait to help her improve her card counting skills. Cait obliged of course.
It was many hours later, with yet another bottle held between his fingers, Davith sat on the porch steps next to Cait, rolling up a special blend into a cigar.
Cait leaned her back against the post, looking at the night sky, just drunk enough, warm and relaxed.
“They missed you,” Davith looked at her, putting the cigar between his lips. He whispered a single word and the tip sparked, then burned.
Cait smiled, her gaze still on the night sky. “You’ve a lovely family.”
Davith took a deep inhale, blowing out smoke rings that slowly transformed into dancing figures. He gave Cait a look as he passed it to her. “The words you say, and the ones you don’t, kotik.”
“Stop. You know I’m flattered, and that I adore them. I’m here aren’t I?” She took it from him, slowly pulling on the end. Her exhale was just as slow, as she savored the taste of the blend.
“They could be your-“
“Don’t.”
“Why not? We’re just like you. We take, we live-“
“Your family’s last spell saved a village from starvation. Just because you sometimes hex an assholes bloodline, doesn’t make you like me.”
“We’ve done worse, Cait. You know this. This world, it’s not so black and white. We’re not white knights just because we help people too. I see you, and we honor who you are, shadows and light be one.”
“You don’t see me. Not all. And it’s better that way. So,” she took another pull before handing it back to him, “Stop tryin to make this more than it is, and tell me why I’m here.”
He made a dramatic sound, flopping onto his back on the porch. “You wear me out, you stubborn woman,” there was nothing but affectionate in his tone.
Cait grinned. “That easy to wear you out hmm?”
He squinted a playful eye at her. “Don’t tease me with things you won’t offer.”
“Don’t make it so easy.”
“Promise to torture me like this forever.”
“If you’re lucky. Why am I here?”
“I’ll do a love spell.”
“We both know you won’t. You probably don’t even know how.”
“I have books.”
Cait laughed, dropping her head back against the column. “And you say I’m stubborn.”
“Fiiiiiinnnnnne,” He exhaled a self suffering sigh. Silent a moment, before his tone took on a more serious note. “Dmitri got himself into trouble.”
Cait canted her head. “What kind of trouble?”
“There is a gang, Makarov’s. There is a boy in this gang that Dimitri claims he loves. Anyway, a very long story short, Dimitri got himself initiated into their ranks to be with the boy, not thinking at all of the consequences. The things they will have him do…” Davith shook his head. “It is senseless, the stacking of power and acts of cruelty for no reason. I won’t allow it. But they will not release him, not without violence against the whole family unless we complete a job for them. We don’t want a war with with them if we can help it. Our magic is strong but-”
Cait didn’t hesitate, “What am I stealing?”
“You don’t want to know-“
“The details of the job is all I need to know. How much time I have, and where the drop off point is.” Cait looked thoughtful. “Will they honor the deal? Whatever it is I’m taking, and Dimitri is free to go?”
“I have no reason to believe they won’t. Dimitri is just a child.”
Cait was quiet for a moment. “You’d be surprised all the ways cruel men can find uses for children.”
“Surprised no, but…” Davith sat up, his green eyes on her face. “Cait-“
“Details. Just give me the details.”
Davith studied her in silence. Finally he sighed, stubbing out the rest of their cigarra. “It’s for a rival gang. I would have called someone else-“
“But they’re not as good as I am, and this is your family.” Cait reached out, setting her hand over his. “It’s fine, love. I’ll do it. I’ve stolen shite for much less.”
Davith lifted her hand, pressing his lips against her knuckles. “You honor us, Cait.”
“Oh it’ll cost you a case of the Vodka your family makes and regular shipments of Baba’s baklava.”
Davith smiled, setting his eyes on hers. “Done.”
“Good.” Cait gave his hand a small squeeze. “Tell me everything.”
_______________________________________________________________________________
It wasn’t the easiest job she’d ever completed, but it was kind of fun. It took her two weeks to see it through. Robbing something from a rival gang was always tricky, if she didn’t want to go in fangs barred, which she never did.
Cait was on her motorcycle, heading to the rendezvous point when her cell phone buzzed. This close to a drop off, that was usually a bad sign. Cait pulled over, taking the call and was shocked to see Dimitri on the other end, a dark bruise on his cheek, crying.
“Cait… Cait they took him-”
Cait went very still. “Davith? When?”
“Just now! We were at the bar, where they told us to be, so I could get this stupid tattoo off me and they took Davith.”
“Easy. Deep breaths Dimitri. Did they say why?”
“Insurance the blonde holds up her end,” Dimitri hung his head. “I’m so sorry, Cait, I was so stupid-”
“You were, but you love this boy, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Love makes you do stupid things, or so I’m told. Tell Baba, I’ll get him back and will be home before the soups done.”
“We could all go, I’ll get Papa, we’re not helpless-”
“Let me handle it first. Yeah? Just tell them to be ready and wait for my call. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, it went south and they should come.”
Dimitri sniffled, and tried to suck in a calming breath. “Okay. Okay.”
“We’ll both see you soon.” Cait hung up, pocketing the phone. She felt her temper rising, something that was easy to spark. She was a hot head, or so Connor always told her. Quick to anger, always punching at invisible shadows.
Except the shadows were always there, even if they were invisible. And she had every fuckin right to be angry. Especially right now. Reving the engine she pulled back onto the street, and sped towards the drop off point.
________________________________________
Cait parked the bike a little bit away, the heavy bag of goods against her back, and walked the last block to the wharf. A cold wind blew from the river. The area was open, not a great defensive position for her, but as she suspected, they were stupid. There were two buildings that could have given someone a height advantage, perfect spots for snipers nests, but as Cait arrived, her senses clocked them all. All ground level. All facing her. A show of force instead of tactical positioning.
Inwards, she smirked. Raising her hands, she approached them, stopping in front of the Yulian Makarov, leader of the gang.
Real power didn’t need to flaunt it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. She knew his kind. She’d spent her whole life dealing with his fucking kind. It made that anger inside burn hotter. Cait tossed the duffel bag in front of him. “It’s done. Let him go.”
Yulian didn’t take his eyes off Cait. “Check it.”
One of his men slung the rifle over his shoulder and bent down, unzipping the bag, the glitter of the jewels hitting his eyes. He pushed a hand through the bag. It wasn’t only jewels, but cash, two artifacts, and a USB drive. “It’s all here.”
“Good. Bring him out!”
Another car door opened and Davith was roughly shoved out of the backseat. He looked terrible, dark red stains on his shirt, his face beaten and bruised. But when he saw her, with the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut, he smiled.
Fury licked up Cait’s spine. She didn’t notice that her eyes went wolf like, or the fire that surfaced there. Her gaze darted back to Yulian. And it was clear he noticed, so did his crew. Guns were suddenly pointed at her, three of them even took a step back.
She heard their Russian whispers
“what is she?”
“why do her eyes burn like that?”
“is she from hell? How can that be?”
Yulian didn’t flinch. He kept his gaze on Cait with the confidence of a man who didn’t usually loose fights. The kind of man who could fight or bully his way into and out of most situations. But before he opened his mouth Cait knew what was coming. She saw it in his smile. The way the expression in his eyes subtly changed. She’d seen this before in plenty of other men, men who were a thousand times better at the game then him. From the corner of her eyes she saw the glint of steel, as the man next to Davith pulled his weapon.
“Thank you, for your service. But you’ve stolen from a rival gang you see, and I need to make sure it doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass. I need scapegoats. You. And D-.”
But she’d already taken note of their positions, and the mistakes they made with how they tried to surround her. Her wolf senses told her how many were still in the cars. She knew how many bullets were in each gun, and she knew the approximate weight of every one of them surrounding her. She knew how much force she’d need to use and she could smell which ones weren’t human, could tell which ones would try to use some sort of magic by the weapons they weren’t carrying. Cait clocked it all in the time it’d taken her to walk up and in the moments of exchange.
Just like they taught her. Tony taught her most of it. But Sam taught her to refine it.
She exhaled.
Cait surged forward, a wolf before they could blink, the whip of her head hitting the man on her right so hard he went flying backwards into the guard who intended to kill Davith. Instead they all fell to the ground.
There were shouts after that. Messy orders that came too late. The bullets that struck her weren’t as many as they hoped. Their screams got louder then the gunfire. The magic users found no success either. Even the one who made her blood boil and momentarily leak out of her fire burning wolf eyes couldn’t contain the spell when Cait’s claws went across his chest with just enough depth to wound him deeply, not enough to kill him. Though he would die, if he chose not to find a hospital first. They were all like that, all with wounds so severe death might have felt a little more welcoming than the pain.
But it was Yulian she saved for last. Yulian, who tried to get in the car and flee when he realized his plan was fucked. She was a wolf when she jumped in front of the the SUV, tanked it. It slammed into her, denting as if it had hit a wall, deploying the air bag, and breaking his nose.
The car was built sturdier than she anticipated and the hit knocked her breath out, might have broken something too. Her breathing was heavy, her blood leaking in places that slowly healed, and underneath the noise of the wind, the tiniest sound of bullets exiting her wounds clinked to the ground.
Everything hurt but she didn’t care. His mistake was he hadn’t killed her.
Cait was on two legs when Yulian kicked open the car door, stumbling out, blood leaking down his face. He cursed at her in Russian of course, a slew of misogynist insults, pulling out a wicked looking knife with a magical symbol on it’s face, since his bullets hadn’t worked. She assumed the knife was enchanted with some sort of spell to halt her healing.
“Mmm. C’mon then. Finish it, if you can.”
He surged at her with fury. His first punch landed because she was curious, he didn’t smell quite human. The strength of his punch proved her senses correct. But he was a street fighter, not a trained one. He was a good one though, a strong one, the kind of tough guy who could take a lot of punishment and wasn’t a pansy ass. Just a coward.
So she let him take that punishment. Let him get frustrated, and watched his sad little fury grow, as he kept spitting insults and tried to cut her, tried to land punches, while the whole crew he’d brought with him bled and moaned in pain around him.
But Cait didn’t hear them. And sometimes, she didn’t even see Yulian. She saw someone else. When she split open the skin on his face with the force of her fist, or her wolf ears picked up the sound of his ribs cracking, it wasn’t him she was hurting.
“Can I go home?”
“I just wanna go home.”
“We have to help him, Tony.”
“You think you get to decide that? You’re NEVER done, Cait. Don’t you fucking get it? Never!”
“You listen to me, you little bitch. You’re going to be whatever I want you to be. Whatever we need you to be.”
“What happened to the boy? Did you kill him?”
“Yes.”
The fury of her strikes weren’t for Yulian they were for someone else. For the child that never got to be. For the woman that was lost, who didn’t know how to feel safe. And as she fought, Cait never made a sound. Not one.
Cait got so lost she didn’t notice her hands were so bloody, didn’t realize she’d beaten Yulian so much he wasn’t fighting back anymore, didn’t realize she’d jacked him up against the side of the SUV and that her hand was around his throat, didn’t realize that all he could do now was wheeze and try to beg for his life.
“Kotik.” Softer. “Cait.”
The world shifted back into focus. Cait blinked a few times, finally seeing Yulian. She blinked. His face was almost unrecognizable. It shifted something inside of her, made her disgusted with herself when she saw what she’d done.
My little killer.
Her jaw tightened. She stopped tightening her grip, but she didn’t let Yulian go. Her gaze snapped to Davith. He’d one arm scooted himself closer to her, and Cait abruptly realized he’d taken a bullet to his leg.
“Davith-“
“I’m okay. It didn’t hit anything serious. Toss him into the river, let him swim a bit, and we go home.”
Cait’s gritted her teeth. She snapped her gaze back to Yulian, the muscles in her hand still tight.
“It’s okay. Save your skill for someone who is actually worthy of it,” Davith said the words gently, kept trying to drag himself closer to her.
Cait exhaled a rough breath. She stared at Yulian still suspended off his feet, still pinned to that car, simply by the force of her grip around his throat.
“Never seen a red wolf before have you? Blink twice.”
He complied, anger and pain in his eyes, but Cait saw the one thing there she wanted from him. Fear.
“Right, here’s the deal. You’re gonna honor the terms set before you fucked up. And now, you personally from this moment, until your dead are going to run protection for the Ravaik family. Do you hear me? Part of your business now is keeping them safe. And I know you’re going to keep up your end this time. Because if you ever see my eyes again I’m going to rip you open slow, and you’re gonna find out why that fur of mine is so red.” The fingers of her opposite hand shifted to claws, just so she could with one quick motion carve a C into the soft tissue at his side. Her cut was deep, enough that blood gushed down over the wound and if her grip on his throat wasn’t so tight, would have made much louder sounds of pain.
She kept her clawed finger in the wound a moment more, shifting her grip around his neck to his face, holding it still so he had no choice but to look at her, or close eyes. Cait stared at him for moments more, before finally dropping him on the ground. Done with him.
She walked past him and literally picked up Davith, carrying him over to one of the empty cars.
“Hang tight. Have you home in no time.”
Davith wrapped his arm around her, and laid a tried head on her shoulder. “Fuck him. Your my protector.”
Cait’s brow furrowed.
My protector.
Something inside of her stirred. She liked that, a lot more.
_________________________________________________________________________
Davith was adamant he get cleaned up before they went home. They both made the call to let Baba know they were all right, that it was done, and Cait brought Davith back to the flat she still owned.
She got him cleaned up in silence, taking care of the worst of injuries, while he held an icepack on his face, watching her.
“You should have let me kill him,” Cait finally murmured, finished with the stitches at his leg, and began carefully bandaging the area.
“Why, when I know how much it hurts you to do those things?”
Cait stilled. “How do you know that?”
“You didn’t kill one of them. Not any of his men. You could have. You would have taken less shots yourself if you had. But you didn’t.” Davith studied her face. “You were going to kill Yulian. But… I don’t know. Something about your face… I don’t think it was him you were seeing.”
Cait exhaled a rough breath. “Some men deserve it.”
“I don’t disagree.” Davith was silent for a moment, before he asked gently, “Who hurt you, Kotik?”
“No one anymore.” Cait looked away, back at her task, finished applying the bandage to the wound over his leg. “There. Maybe a good idea for your Coven to learn about healing magic, yeah?” She gave him a small smile.
“You’re more wolf than you realize.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“What do you think Wolves do?”
“They don’t steal, that’s for certain.”
“Unless it’s required to protect someone.”
Cait sighed. “That’s different. You’re the only person in the world right now I give a shit about. I wouldn’t have done this for anyone.”
Davith was silent a moment. Finally he shook his head. “I don’t believe that. And, I know there will be others. People, You give a shit about.”
Cait chuckled. “Sure.” Her tone belied her disbelief.
“There will be.”
“Don’t hold your breath. And actually don’t, you’ve taken enough punishment tonight.”
“You’re going to be happy, Cait. You’re going to have a family. Oooh, a daughter maybe. Maybe a few sons too.”
“Oh, did getting your ass kicked turn you into a seer now? Going to have a whole pack am I?” Cait rolled her eyes. What he described… She’d never thought about it. She didn’t know if she wanted that. Honestly, she didn’t know what she wanted.
Cait closed the first aid kit and stood up, but Davith reached out, closing his hand around her wrist. Cait looked at him in question. He broke her gaze, looking to where his hand rested. His touch softened, this thumb gently tracing her skin.
“You’ll find your person, Cait. And you’ll feel safe telling them all the things you won’t tell me.”
“I don’t feel safe anywhere, Davith. And I told you enough.”
“You won’t tell me what happened. Why you hate killing.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Why doesn’t it?”
“Because it doesn’t.”
“Cait… the people meant for you, they’ll love you no matter what.”
Cait stared at him like he’d just promised to pull a star out of the sky, and started laughing. “Maybe you do, love. But that’s because your mental.”
Davith laughed, letting his touch fall away. “Maybe your right. But I’m right too.”
Cait leaned over, gently kissing his forehead. “Get some rest. They’re picking you up in the morning.”
Davith hummed at the kiss, but stared at her as she withdrew. “You’re leaving.”
“Jobs done.”
“The words you say, and the ones you don’t, kotik.”
Cait blinked. “You didn’t call me out here to have dinner with your family and this wasn’t a date. You called me because you needed me to clean up a mess. And I did. Jobs. Done.”
Davith sighed, winced at the motion. “No, no you’re right. I-” He trailed off. “Would you have you come, if it was just dinner? With the family? With… me?”
Cait was silent a moment. Her expression softened, just a touch. “I’m not your person, Davith. I’m not anyone’s. And truth be told, I-” Cait shook her head. “I wouldn’t know how to be.”
His stared at her in silence for a short moment, and finally smiled. “You are my person, Cait, whatever your last name is. You are my friend, and you are family to this coven and you always will be We Ravaik’s have long memories, and we’ll never forget what you did for us today. What you did for me. So you go, but you remember that you saved my life, and you saved Dimitri’s life, and whatever you are, you are also a beautiful, beautiful red wolf. We honor you, kotik. Shadows and light be one.”
Cait was silent a moment. Finally she shook her head, but she returned his smile. “Sweet talker.” She held his gaze a moment longer, to let him know that she did not take his words lightly. That she was touched.
And when that quiet moment passed, Cait backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.
She was on a plane back to [city name] hours later.