Page 1 of A Deeper Blue
Episode 1
Montana
Azure
Azure Lucas stepped out of the station somewhere in Montana to await her connecting train to Oregon. The train station was a flat tarmac of hopelessness and cars that stunk of oil. Or maybe that was just her mood. She had accepted that visiting Oregon was to be her penance for endangering her sister a few months earlier, but that didn’t make her happy about it. Azure didn’t really think that some werewolf’s dream of a Supernatural Super PAC was going to come to anything. In her experience, trying to rope any of the Supernaturalothersinto doing anything to make changes in the world was next to impossible. It wasn’t that she didn’t want this summit of the Supernatural to be a beautiful meeting of the minds and potentially world-changing—she just didn’t think it was going to happen. At barely thirty, Azure found it a little bit sad that she was so jaded, but having the second sightandcommon sense made her the least romantic person she’d ever met.
The second sight—that ever-present sixth sense that would periodically grant her glimpses of the future, insight into the people around her, and a chance to change destiny—was like a semi-permanent itch in the back of her brain. And like any other itch, she was only somewhat in control of it. Sometimes, she could call it to heel, and it would answer her questions, and sometimes… sometimes it shoved information into her skull or, even worse, dropped out entirely, usually when she needed it most. And currently, when she asked the magic eight ball in her head about the summit, it said:very doubtful.
Azure sighed and rubbed the spot behind her ear that sometimes relieved the pressure. The second sight wasn’t always her friend. She’d listened to it a few months ago about a protest against a logging company. She’d seen that there was an opportunity to change things, but there was just one catch: she’d needed her sister Scarlet to tip the balance fromcould change the worldtowould change the world. But Scarlet showing up meant danger for Scarlet. Azure had known that, and she’d gone ahead anyway.
And she’d won. The trees had been saved. Hearts had changed. And Scarlet had been OK. Mostly. Except that Scarlet’s weakened state after the protest had left her and her wolf boyfriend vulnerable to being attacked by warlocks.
Every time she thought about Liam Grayson, Azure had to stretch her head to the left and right in an attempt to make her jaw unclench. Scarlet was over the moon about him. Azure was trying to withhold judgment, but she failed to see how everyone could be OK with Scarlet moving in with a guy she’d barely been dating a few months. Not to mention that Liam had been Scarlet’s boss. How was that OK? Azure predicted that it would end in disaster, and then she was sure to be called away from something important to help Scarlet move out. The second sight didn’t show that at all, but Azure’s common sense definitely did.
Admittedly, Liam did appear to be trying very hard to be helpful by setting up this meeting with one of the oldest wolf packs on the continent. Wolf packs were notoriously private, but everyone had heard of Albert DeSandre and the Portland pack, and the fact that they were taking this extraordinary step should have been exciting. But the second sight was giving the meeting a hard thumbs down, and because of that, Azure was having a hard time working up enthusiasm for the trip.
Most of the other passengers headed across the street to a family restaurant that might have been an Applebee’s at some point but now was independently owned. The new owners had strung a banner over the old sign location that read Family Food—as if that was a restaurant name.
She looked across the blacktop to a cluster of stores and shops that surrounded the train station—her other options were a grocery store that looked filthy and a pool hall with a string of motorcycles parked in front of it.
Magic eight-ball head wanted her to go to the pool hall, common sense thought that seemed like a bad plan, but second sight did not care. She looked back at the Family Food place and debated ignoring the second sight. She always had a choice.
With a sigh, Azure hoisted her one piece of luggage—a durable black backpack—higher on her shoulders and headed for the bar. The second sight was her gift, her calling, and her burden. She tried her best to do it justice, but sometimes she just wished she could have a night off. The massive bouncer at the door raised his eyebrows, but she stared him down and went inside.
The bar was everything she’d expected from outside. Which she found strangely soothing. She liked all the pot-bellied old men shooting pool dressed in more leather than a gay pride parade. She probably wouldn’t like them if they started talking to her, but the second sight said that wouldn’t be a problem. There were a fair number of younger guys in the room too, but the mood was mellow. The smell of French fries wafted out of the kitchen and pool balls clacked against each other under hanging pendants that spotlighted the tables and left everything else in the gloom. She looked around and decided that second sight was on top of things.
She parked herself up at the bar and smiled at the bartender.
“Hey,” he said. “What can I get you?”
“What’s good?”
“Well, we’ve got a local pale ale on tap and an elk taco plate that people seem to like.”
“Elk tacos and beer,” said Azure. “I’m in.”
“Coming up,” said the bartender.
The elk tacos turned out to be what she needed. Not to mention the beans and rice that she was pretty sure had been made with about eight pounds of butter. She was on her second beer and third taco when a text popped through from Scarlet.
Are you still on the train? Is it awful?
Just made it to Montana. Waiting on a transfer to my next train. Elk tacos, though.
She took a picture of the remaining taco and sent it.
Azure didn’t want to admit it, but her family had been right. Azure had risked Scarlet’s life at the protest. Their grandmother Diana had emphasized that point with a raised eyebrow and a look. Their brother Ochre had taken her out for a beer and said it quietly and a little bit sadly in a way that made Azure writhe with hot twists of guilt. It didn’t matter that Azure had thought that she could protect her sister by building a foolproof spell that had turned out to be not so infallible because, as usual, Scarlet had refused to stay within the boundaries. And it didn’t matter that the cause had been just or that Scarlet would have helped anyway. The point was that Azure had skipped the step where she asked Scarlet for help, permission, and consent. Azure had focused on the future and forgotten that there was a whole lot of present between here and there. The second sight was always accurate, but it didn’t always spell out the consequences.
Yum! Let me know the second you get to Oregon! I’m so excited about this. Can you live stream while you’re there?
Reluctantly, Azure smiled. As always, Scarlet’s enthusiasm was infectious.
Probably not. Unless you want them to eat my phone.
They might not know what a phone is. Some of Liam’s pack seem kind of techno-phobic.
Azure took a sip of the beer and sighed. The worst part was that Scarlet wasn’t even mad at her. Because Scarlet didn’t hold grudges and thought the cause was as worthwhile as Azure did. Azure wanted to be like that, but she found that every time Scarlet bounced off to some grand new adventure that she gritted her teeth and waited for it to implode. Scarlet always got to leap first and look never, counting on Azure to catch her and clean up the mess. Azure sometimes wondered if she’d developed second sight to protect her little sister out of an evolutionary necessity. Only this time, it hadn’t been Azure—it had been Liam protecting Scarlet. That thought burned too.
