by Cathy Clamp
“Go on,” rumbled the big guy, even though I couldn’t see him. But at least I knew I wasn’t talking to thin air. He was listening. I concentrated, trying to sense what he was thinking and feeling and trying to keep him alive long enough to reveal what I needed. His heart was trying to stop and I’m not a healer, or a doctor.
“I don’t have much longer. I have to speed this up. Hang on.” I pushed forward, which is usually a bad idea. Point A to Point B isn’t always a straight line. Fortunately, in this case it was. “Stuart grabs the woman before she hits the floor and they carry her to the back door. Ricky’s going to go dump her body in a hole he saw out back and Stuart was supposed to keep watch for Giodone—for me.”
Why? C’mon Ricky. Give me a reason. But he wouldn’t turn backward. All I could do was keep moving forward and hope I learned something. “He passed a series of window wells and heard growling coming from one of them. But there were bars and he didn’t see a door, so he didn’t worry.” His arms started flopping and I realized the nurse wasn’t dead yet. She was starting to struggle. Now I understood what Liz had meant. “Sarah started to struggle and he hauled off and punched her in the temple. It was in clear sight of the window wells.”
I could hear Charles in the background asking questions at the same time that Ricky was remembering a rumbling sound underfoot. “Did you witness this man hitting Nurse Franklin?”
“Yes.” Her voice was steadier now. Maybe she’d figured out the talking stuff all on her own. Another good sign she’d be alphic. “Hurt her.” She let out a hissing growl. “Not supposed to hit women.”
Well, I couldn’t disagree and in her altered state, I understood why she attacked. I’d paused Ricky’s memory, but it was starting to fade at the edges. He was nearly gone. I figured I’d better speed it up so I had some memory of the events. “Going to have to go internal now so I can play this out. You guys have fun chatting.”
I let loose the figurative reins and I was suddenly along for the ride as Ricky played out his final minutes again. The ground rumbled underfoot and it was hard to keep his balance all of a sudden. He dropped the woman and pulled his gun, spinning around like I would, looking for a target. The speed that the hole opened was astounding and then Liz was on him with a shout. “You hurt her! Asshole!”
Wow, that was pretty good for her first words, if they were, in fact, her first. It occurred to me then that she’d tunneled out from the basement. I’d visited once before with one of the former residents, and had gotten the grand tour. The basement was composed of individual concrete cells with silver-clad doors and alarms on the doors and windows. They’re normally only used in case of feral turns or as makeshift jail cells. I was starting to see the scenario that happened. Sue begged to go to dinner with the girls and Amber probably let her go with the condition that she call in if she felt anything weird . . . the same orders she gave me. Then Amber probably went to hunt and took the local healer with her. I remember the girl saying that she wasn’t hunting with the pack anymore, since they kicked her best friend and uncle out of the pack. That left only Sarah watching Liz, but Amber probably wouldn’t have allowed that, unless she was in one of the cells. I was betting she was in the second cell. I seem to remember that one was unusually plush—wide-screen television built into the wall, kitchenette, recliner, and a double bed. The animal side wouldn’t care, but the human half would appreciate the comforts.
I witnessed the chase again a second time, from Ricky’s point of view. But what surprised me was that it wasn’t Liz who put him in this state. Oh, she tore him up pretty bad, but no worse than a guard dog might have. And she’d stopped short of killing him. It had been his own hand that had reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin push dagger. He’d closed his eyes, placed it over his heart, and waited. Technically speaking, she had pushed him into the dirt wall again, but without claws, and he was holding the blade. Oddly, it wasn’t because she was slicing him up. He had no fear of being eaten alive. It was because he feared he would live and wind up in jail because he couldn’t run. The memory faded at the edges. Little pixels of the last sight he saw froze and dissolved as he gave one last shuddering breath and died. It was an earthworm wiggling in the dirt. Ironic, that. “Okay, verdict time. He killed himself. Case closed.”
Charles swung his shaggy head my way and peered down at me. “Pardon me?”
I let out a short bark when my eyes focused again. It’s really hard not to laugh when you hear a massive polar bear excuse himself with a British accent. Sort of an America’s Funniest Supernatural Videos moment.
“He killed himself.” I repeated it and then tugged his shirt aside with my teeth to reveal the narrow hole that could have been mistaken for a claw hole if not for the hindsight. “Check the bottom of the hole. You should find a bloody push knife with a wooden handle that he used to stab himself in the heart. He probably would have recovered if not for that. He didn’t want to go to jail. Just that simple.”
Liz blinked at me with those little brown eyes and then looked down at the dead assassin. “You’re not lying, are you?”
I shook my head. “I never lie about this crap. It’s not worth the pain. Everybody can smell it and punishment is rough on the body.”
Now she cocked her head, and the straight white lines of fur down her neck turned to zigzags. The pretty pink aura was quite striking with the black and white of her fur. “So I really didn’t kill him? I was actually doing okay with it, but I like it better that I didn’t.”
It was worth repeating in front of witnesses that mattered . . . like Charles. “You really didn’t kill him. And you protected the nurse.” I turned my nose toward where the nurse had been, only to find her gone. Then I looked at the white bear and got a face full of rain for my trouble. “Will she live?”
His shoulders twitched, which was the equivalent of a foot on a normal scale. Another lightning strike shook the ground and raised my undercoat to attention. Yow. That one was close.
“Difficult to say. If Amber returns from her hunt in time, she should. I’ve tried to convince her to take a Bluetooth along on hunts, but she says things clipped to her ears are distracting. So all we can do is wait and hope. I have no healing ability to speak of and Lucas is likely . . . past his reserves.”
That reminded me. It wasn’t like the Wolven chief to not be in on this sort of action. “Where is Lucas?”
Charles sighed and turned away from the pair of dead bodies. We’d have to clean them up later, but for now, I was curious enough to follow him. “It should be safe to go back in now, but stay away from any viscous wet spots you might see on the floor or walls. Ahmad seems to have gone bloody insane, and Lucas has been trying to keep him from killing us all.”
I TRIED TO decide whether I should claim any involvement in that, but it would probably be better if I kept quiet until I learned more. Charles’s scent wasn’t giving me any impression he was blaming the connection I’d mentioned earlier, so neither would I.
A powerful scent was coming from inside the clinic as we approached the doorway. Liz stopped cold in her tracks and reared back her head, clearly unwilling to go farther. I couldn’t really blame her. It was a noxious blend of chemicals, but I couldn’t identify any individual scent that told me it was dangerous. Yet something in the back of my wolf brain knew it was.
Charles listened at the door for a long moment and I tried to tune my ears to hear whatever he was listening for. I could hear hissing, like a broken steam pipe, and something that sounded like a whole wad of jingling necklaces. “Good. It should be safe now. I understand if you’d rather not come in, Elizabeth. I can’t guarantee your safety if you do. But I would like you to come inside, Tony, and see if there’s any possibility of a hindsight to tell us what happened to him.”
I wasn’t really sure I liked the idea of doing a hindsight on someone who might have gone insane. That could be a maze I wouldn’t be able to find my way out of. But right now Charles was asking. I saw what was left of S
tuart Prezza’s neck and those bear claws weren’t to be taken lightly if he decided to insist.
Charles went through the doors first. I couldn’t go with him because he took up the entire space. When the doors finally closed behind him I eased inside only to find that he’d changed back to human form and had either put on a suit and tie lickety-split, or was completely nude and only looked like he was wearing clothes. I didn’t particularly care either way but I thought I should warn him. “The girl can see through illusions. That okay with you if she wanders in?”
He looked at me, startled for a moment, then held out a hand to stop me and pointed down. “Careful of the venom. Don’t move until I come back.”
He disappeared into an adjoining room and I got the chance to look around. I saw what he meant. The clean painted walls and floor weren’t so clean anymore. The place looked like a hundred years had hit it—just without the cobwebs. There were holes in the surface now, but not like someone had put a fist or knife through the drywall and marble tiles. No, it was more like they’d . . . melted. Pockmarks were scattered all over, like someone had come in and sprayed acid with a super soaker.
Moments later Charles came back to where I was standing, wearing pale blue hospital scrubs and carrying a second set. I shook my head in disbelief. “Jesus . . . and this is from Ahmad? Are all the Sazi snakes like this?” Because suddenly I wasn’t really liking the idea of confronting a bunch of them in New Jersey.
He shook his head. A line of magic began to flow from him and wrapped around me. It felt different than when Lucas shielded me—like the finest, thinnest leather versus rawhide. But it didn’t change the fact that all of my skin and bones needed to fit back in their original shape, and it still felt like being swarmed by wasps. I keep hoping it’ll get better with time, but I’m betting not.
“No. Just Ahmad,” he said while I was pulling on the oversized cotton pants and pulling the string tight. “He gained some unusual powers during his father’s death. Most Sazi venom burns and is highly neurotoxic, but unless it’s injected through a bite, it’s like scalding water, not acid. This is new. Lucas said he was prepared, but I admit to being a little concerned.”
The jingling increased to our left just as a female voice came from the distance in the other direction. “Charles? What’s going on in here? Where is everyone and why are the lights out?”
He raised his voice until it boomed through the corridors. “Don’t come down here, dear, until we have the area secured. You have a patient in Five-B. Sarah was gravely injured. See to her first and I’ll call you when we’re ready down here.”
The footsteps stopped even as we kept inching forward, continually watching the ground and ceiling for venom. There was a long pause and then Amber’s steady, determined voice. “Holly can manage Sarah. I’m coming your way.”
Lucas’s voice made me feel a little more relieved. “It’s okay. I’ve got him secured. But we’ll need more chains if we can’t turn him back.”
Charles sighed and repeated the advice he gave me down the hallway toward where I could see Amber’s shadow moving. “Watch out for the venom.”
We rounded the final corner and I had to blink a few times before I could come to terms with what I was seeing. I’d seen Ahmad in snake form once on the Wolven training course. He’s a king cobra and had the traditional markings and hood—just a lot bigger than one you’d see in the wild. But something about him had changed. He was broader across at the neck than I remembered and the yellow and brown markings had become gold and black. He was thrashing about on the floor, his tail whipping around like an unattended fire hose. But what I found interesting was how Lucas had “secured” him. My comparison to a fire hose was because that’s what he was wrapped in. Lucas had not only tied him to the wall with the canvas fire hose from a rack on the wall, but the rack had been devised to drop down and hook to a ring set in the floor. Behind the hose was a set of silver chains that were anchored to some part of the building’s structure.
It sort of looked like a dog collar, and maybe it was—considering this was primarily a wolf clinic. But it was high around his neck, just below his fully extended hood. His eyes were glittering angrily and I had no doubt he wanted to spit at all of us. But he couldn’t open his mouth past the duct tape. Ah, duct tape. A tool for all seasons and occasions.
“Good Lord!” Amber’s voice was shocked and appalled. “What’s been going on down here? I was only gone an hour!”
Lucas stepped into the light and I winced. The massive white wolf looked like he had mange. Big honking chunks of his fur were missing and there were reddened welts where apparently the venom had landed. That had to hurt. Even Amber and Charles pulled in a sharp, hissing breath. “An hour can be a really long time some days.” He pointed to the floor just before Amber stepped directly in a puddle of the creamy white acid. “Careful!”
That’s when I noticed we had a visitor. But I wasn’t going to rat her out. Amber rolled her eyes. “I’m immune to venom. Remember? Handy part of being a healer.” She stepped forward and went to Ahmad’s side. He looked at her warily, but his tail stopped thrashing. “I’m going to put you into a healing trance, until we can figure out what happened. Will that be okay?”
He nodded gravely and blinked his eyelids closed. I read in a book that most regular snakes don’t have eyelids. But the Sazi do. Only they flick upward from the bottom. Weird to watch. Amber’s golden light flowed outward and surrounded the serpent. He slumped against the thick silver chains and went still.
Charles turned to look at me and raised his eyebrows when he also noticed that Liz had joined us. “Can you do a hindsight, Tony?”
“Absolutely not. I refuse to allow it.” Amber stared him down with hands on hips. “We don’t know a thing about what’s wrong with Ahmad and they’re not even the same species. I’m not going to risk either of their lives until I know more. In fact, I’d rather everybody left the clinic except you, me, and Lucas.”
Charles let out a little rumble. “Elizabeth can’t be alone tonight. We don’t have any cells to contain her.”
Apparently, Amber hadn’t noticed her hiding in the dark shadows near the doorway. After all, who can resist the call of don’t come down here? It just screams ooo, look at this! “But she was in a cell. I put her there myself. Who let her out?”
The big bear let out the equivalent of a chuckle, but it sounded pained. “It’s been an eventful hour, my love. But for the moment—” He paused and then looked at me. “Tony, why don’t you take our car and find a hotel in town with your wife. I don’t think we’ll be doing the ritual tomorrow, considering the circumstances. But I do think I’m going to make some calls. It’s time that Nigel came and collected his relative. I’m not going to have her flying over an ocean without an escort, so he’ll have to manage to control his emotions about visiting this country. I’ll want you to take her to meet him. After that, you can begin your investigation as we agreed. But if I ask you to interrupt to finalize the other part of the bargain, I’ll expect you to comply.”
It was hard to argue with that logic. “Have granddad arrive in New Jersey instead of New York to get her and we can kill two birds with one stone.”
While I didn’t mean for it to come out like that, I couldn’t deny it was appropriate.
Chapter Ten
I WAS SITTING in the only recliner in the room, having a scotch, when Sue arrived at the hotel. I could feel her in my head, sliding out of the rented limo, to giving Linda and Babs a quick hug each. I closed my eyes and could see through her vision as she walked through the door of the hotel. She was excited and strangely nervous to be here—and I could see why.
She’d changed.
It wasn’t just that she had a little magic in her blood now. The ritual had changed something really fundamental inside her. Her entire thought process was different. Decisions were quick and final, with none of the what if’s that had plagued her since we’d met. She was reveling in men looking at her, from the
valet who tried to peek down her shirt when he was helping her out of the limo, to the doorman who leered instead of smiled. That was closer to a Linda reaction than a Sue one. I wasn’t really minding it, but it was startling after having been bumping around in her head for a year.
I heard her arrive at the room, and I didn’t move to open the door for her. She should have a key and I found I was enjoying the anticipation of her arrival too much to end it abruptly. Something that hadn’t changed was her scent, which flowed under the door and caught the air-conditioning draft to brush my nose. She smelled of fresh flowers in a summer forest and it was still a scent that pulled at things inside me—made me think of home and permanence. But she also smelled as aroused as the day I met her. The thick, earthy scent made me stare at the door with suddenly tight fingers around the crystal glass, and a rapidly tightening groin.
She slid the card in the lock and I heard it click. The handle turned slowly, in a twitching movement that was nearly teasing. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one aroused. The door opened and the image of her, framed by the hallway lights, made me suck in a slow breath. She was wearing an outfit I’d never seen before, and never dreamed I would see on her. I hadn’t realized the burgundy blouse had buttons and they were now undone to where both milky breasts strained against the fabric and both shoulders were bare. She must be wearing a push-up bra to get the level of cleavage I was seeing. The lowest button was also open, leaving just three buttons holding the shirt on her body. It draped over a skin-tight black miniskirt that hugged every curve and revealed just the barest hint of garters. My eyes raked down and down to the shiny patent pumps with the four-inch heels
