Jude’s hair had fallen over his face, and his chin was tilted down as he studied the screen of his phone. The easiness they’d shared was gone. And it was Mack’s fault for brushing him aside. No matter how many times he said it was for the best, he wasn’t sure he believed it. Not when he had to tighten his fingers on the steering wheel to stop himself from reaching out and brushing aside that lock of blond hair. He was glad Jude hadn’t set his hair in place. A small smile curved his lips, and he heard Jude’s heartbeat quicken a second before he glanced over as if aware Mack had been looking. Mack returned his gaze to the road. They were almost there.
Jude put his phone down. “You said you’d had to get into your car as a bear, why? Is there something else in the woods I should worry about?”
“Hunters.” He could feel Jude’s gaze on him.
“They were hunting you?”
“Yes.” It had happened more than once. He’d learned to be careful.
“Why not shift?”
“Because then I’d be a naked man running around the woods—that would cause more gossip than I need in my life.” It was bad enough that he’d shut his garage today claiming to be ill. Ned would know that he was faking and suspect all the wrong reasons, which were better than him knowing the real reason. Though it would make for a lot of ribbing at some later stage.
“So you make for the car and get in, because a bear driving a car is so much better than a naked man in the woods.”
Mack shot him a glare. When put like that, it sounded stupid. “When I come out here, I leave my clothes in the car. I hide the keys not far away, but I don’t lock the car.” He had at first. That time he’d jumped into the bed of his truck and pulled the tarp over himself so he could shift. He’d still been naked and had felt horribly vulnerable when the hunters had clattered into the car park, but they hadn’t seen him or the bear they were after. “I get in, lie across the seats, and shift.” Which was very uncomfortable, but better a handbrake digging into his gut than digging a bullet out and explaining a gunshot wound at the hospital. “Then I can drag on a shirt.”
“Can you shift with clothes on?”
“Only if I want to destroy the clothing. My bear ass doesn’t fit my jeans.” Which made Jude lower his gaze as if he was sizing up Mack’s ass. “Why the sudden interest in what I do?”
Not that he minded talking about it. He’d never been able to share this part of his life with anyone who wasn’t a shifter. He’d certainly never had a casual conversation about shifting with someone he was attracted to. He was pushing Jude aside why again? He should make the most of it. He glanced at his hands on the steering wheel. What if he partially shifted again? What if it was his head? What if he got stuck?
And what if he mastered the ability to shift just a part of him at will?
Jude shrugged. “I want to know more about shifters.”
Mack wanted to know more about witches and familiars, but they didn’t have that luxury right now. They didn’t have time to explore what was between them. “We need to know more about aufhockers.”
“Which are shifters. Shifting takes energy, so they must need to eat a lot to change size. We know they are silent hunters and as creepy as fuck. That is all we know. I’ve been scouring every site I know of, and I even put a call out on the Coven database. No one has anything.”
“Then how do other places get rid of an aufhocker problem?” There had to be a way of dealing with them.
“They don’t. The aufhockers get rid of the human problem.” Jude’s voice was flat, as though he’d already admitted defeat.
Mack pressed his lips together. “Well, they were put to sleep before, so maybe you can do that.”
“Not my kind of magic. Also that would mean trapping them first. And that magic clearly doesn’t last forever because they’ve woken up two hundred years in the future.”
It wouldn’t be their problem in two hundred years, but Mack didn’t say that. And he didn’t want to be leaving that kind of problem for someone else to deal with. The road became gravel, and the truck bounced along. “What magic can you do?”
“I can ruin anything electronic and take out the grid of a small city.”
“You know that from experience?”
Jude gave a reluctant nod.
Mack could understand why the Coven thought Jude was dangerous. But sending him on this mission when a different type of witch would’ve been better was a cruel test that would be followed by the barbaric stripping of magic. Not only that, the aufhocker problem wouldn’t be solved. The Coven’s plan sucked for everyone involved, including him. “You can fix bar signs.”
Jude’s lips curved into a smile for a millisecond. He pushed back his hair. He looked younger and less certain, as though the hair and the clothing he usually wore were an armor against the world. Mack decided he liked seeing Jude in one of his old shirts more than he should. Jude was still wearing those stupid boots, although they were more scuffed than shiny after surviving the mine collapse. “And you’ve saved us twice.”
“What? No, I haven’t.”
Mack nodded. “Yeah, you did. The rockfall and the aufhocker deterrent circle.” While he wouldn’t have been looking for aufhockers without
