Kitty Goes to War

by Carrie Vaughn

  Still naked, Tyler moved around the copse of trees, hunched over, nose working, looking for scent.

  “Find anything?” I asked. Stupid question. But I was afraid that if I didn’t keep talking to him, he’d decide to run off, too.

  He shook his head. “The snow’s messing up the trail. Washed it clean.”

  “You have any idea where he’s gone?”

  “Yeah. I think he’s gone after Van.”

  “He has to know he can’t get to him. Vanderman’s locked up, Walters would have to get through an entire city—”

  Now that was a terrifying image. And why had I trusted Walters? Why hadn’t I seen this coming?

  “I should have known,” Tyler muttered, echoing my thought. “I should have known, I should have stopped him.”

  “Think maybe he’d planned this all along?” I said. “That he fooled both of us?” I found my clothes, grimacing as I pulled them on. The jeans were stiff and stuck to my skin, and the T-shirt sagged. Wet T-shirt, no bra—yeah, I was looking classy this morning.

  Tyler shook his head. “I’d have known if he was planning something. He couldn’t hide it. I think maybe he never went to sleep. That he decided to run when there was no one to stop him, and he just took off.” He wrung out his damp T-shirt. “I have to go after him, I have to find him.”

  “No,” I said, putting a hand on his arm. His muscles were taut as piano wire. “I need you upright and able to talk. Get dressed, please.”

  “It’s my fault,” he said, his expression drawn, staring out at nothing. But he pulled on the shirt and found his sweats.

  “Kitty?” Ben called from the grove. The pack, all dressed now, appearing relatively human, had gathered, everyone looking at me, waiting for instructions. Like I had any clue. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to act as if I did.

  “Everyone go home,” I said. “I’ll call if we need help.”

  “Let us know if you see anything strange,” Ben added.

  My wolves moved off, leaving in small groups the way they’d come, jogging across the fields back to their cars. As the group dispersed, Becky faced me and stopped.

  “Should I be worried?” she said.

  I couldn’t honestly say no. Any reassurances would sound false, and that wouldn’t exactly put her at ease or make her trust my leadership.

  But Tyler was confident when he shook his head. “He’s not after you. You’ll be all right.”

  She nodded and seemed comforted. I touched her arm. “Shaun will take you home. Stick with him while I take care of this. Shaun?”

  He nodded and put his arm across Becky’s back. The touch made her relax. They left together.

  I felt better, knowing everyone else was on the way home, safe, warming up and drying off.

  “What do you think happened? Why take off now?” Ben said. He stood next to me, the skin of our arms pressing together. I shivered. We may have been able to withstand a lot of cold, but we were going to have to get out of this weather soon.

  “I think he got scared,” Tyler said. “Or mad.”

  “Where’s home for him?” I said. “Do you think he may be trying to reach family?” His original pack, I thought. If he didn’t feel safe with us, he’d try to find someplace safer.

  Which brought us back to Tyler’s original guess: he was going to find Vanderman.

  “No. Gordon picked us because we weren’t married, didn’t have kids or girlfriends, didn’t have big families. So we wouldn’t have any other loyalties.”

  I scowled. “If he was so smart why’d he go and get himself blown up?” Tyler ducked his gaze, his shoulders tensing even more. He looked like he wanted to tip his head back and howl. “I’m sorry,” I said softly. “That came out wrong.”

  “Yeah,” he said, with a grim chuckle. “I’ve been asking myself that every day since it happened.”

  “Let’s get out of this mess,” I said, and started on the hike back to the car. Ben matched my stride, caught my hand in his, and squeezed. I pressed near to him. Tyler followed closely. He didn’t have to, I supposed. But I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to fight with him about it.

  I didn’t want to have to make the call to Dr. Shumacher. I didn’t want to listen to her tell me that I was wrong, and she was right. Actually, we were both half right. Tyler seemed to be doing just fine.

  “We need a plan,” I said as we reached the car. I couldn’t wait to start drying off. Maybe then I could think straight.

  “I guess we go after him,” Ben said, sounding resigned.

  “He can’t have gone far, right?”

  “Except that this is what we do,” Tyler said. “We spent the last two years running, evading, hunting. If he thinks he’s on a mission, I don’t know if we can stop him.”

  If Tyler thought this, what reason did I have for optimism? Because I didn’t want to think about the alternatives.

  “That’s not acceptable,” I said. “How long will it take him to get to Fort Carson, if that’s where he’s going? Two days?”

  “If he goes straight there at top speed he’ll be there by the end of the day.”

  A hundred miles in a day. Yeah, that was what we were dealing with.

  Inside the car, Ben started the engine and blasted the heater. Cold air came out, and I shivered. It would warm up soon enough. I dug in the glove box for my cell phone and made the dreaded call.

  “Yes, what is it?” Shumacher answered on the first ring. She’d probably been waiting by the phone all night—she didn’t sound like I’d waken her up.

  “We have a problem. Walters went rogue. He ran and Tyler thinks he’s headed for Vanderman.” I tried to get it all out before she could say anything, ask any questions, or make accusations.

  “And Sergeant Tyler, he’s still with you? He didn’t run?” She sounded surprised.

  “He’s fine. He’s been a big help.”

  “I’ll call Colonel Stafford,” Shumacher said, as if she’d been expecting it.

  “We’ll head to Fort Carson,” I said, glancing at Ben and Tyler for confirmation. Their expressions were set in agreement. “Maybe we can intercept him.”

  “Kitty, I think you should go home. Stafford and his men can find Walters. We’ll take care of it.”

  The others could hear Shumacher’s side of the conversation. Tyler frowned, looking as though he wanted to say something.

  “I’d really like be there, Doctor.” I slowed down my breathing to try and calm myself.

  “I appreciate all of your help, I really do. I’m grateful for the attempt.”

  I could tell when I was being kissed off. “Doctor, I don’t think you’re listening to me—”

  “You’ll be bringing Sergeant Tyler back to the VA hospital as soon as you can, I trust.”

  One strike and that was it? We’d screwed up with Walters and now I was kicked off the team? For once, I couldn’t think of anything to say. I couldn’t think of what would change Shumacher’s mind or convince her to keep me in the loop. I didn’t even have a snappy retort.

  I slammed the phone shut and dropped it on the floor.

  “I’m not going back there,” Tyler said. “I think I’ve earned the right not to be locked up.”

  “You have,” I said. “We’re not going back.” Tyler let out a sigh and slumped against the seat. “And we’re going to Fort Carson anyway.”

  “Of course we are,” Ben said. “But I feel a professional need to point out that messing around the U.S. Army could get us in a serious amount of trouble.”

  “You’re saying we shouldn’t do it?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Ben said with a shrug. “I’m just making an observation.”

  The snow was falling harder, driving thickly at an angle across the country highway. Visibility was low and the asphalt was wet. The windshield wipers banged, and Ben peered forward, turning all his attention on the road.

  Here was the problem: who was the outsider here? We were the werewolves. We ought to be able to
take care of our own. We had every right to go after Walters, not them. They were outsiders. They didn’t understand. They didn’t belong. That was my Wolf’s instincts talking, though. Was that rational? Was I assessing the situation by the wrong standards? Should I just let it go?

  No, because I still wasn’t convinced Shumacher knew what she was doing, and that she and Stafford’s gang wouldn’t make the situation worse. Like, Walters and Vanderman breaking loose and rampaging in Colorado Springs.

  “It should only take us a couple of hours to get there, right?” Tyler said. “We should be able to head him off.”

  “Usually. But I don’t know in this weather,” Ben said, shaking his head. “Plus we’ll hit the Springs in time for morning rush hour. I can try 83 or one of the back ways.”

  “Maybe we should go on foot,” Tyler said.

  “We’d have to go on four feet to cover the same ground,” I said. “I’m not sure I want to risk it.”

  “You’re just not used to it,” Tyler said. “That’s all we did over there.”

  “And if you could operate a cell phone as a wolf I’d let you go, but you can’t. It’s not a good idea,” I said, twisting to look at him in the backseat.

  “I could just go.” He gave me a stare. A challenge. Ben glanced at him in the rearview mirror, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.

  I so didn’t need this right now. “Or I could haul your ass back to Shumacher at the VA hospital.”

  I was impressed with myself talking back at this big scary Green Beret werewolf, except that for a moment Tyler looked like he wanted to jump me and bite off my face. The only way I kept my gaze locked with his and my back straight was thinking about what would happen if I flinched. If he decided I was weak and he could assert his dominance. That would make our trip real short.

  I pushed, taking a gentler tack this time. “Look, I’ve gotten you this far, haven’t I? You’d still be locked up and climbing the walls with Vanderman without me. Trust me, okay?”

  And he lowered his gaze. “All right. But what are we going to do when we find Walters?”

  The tires sloshed on the wet pavement through several moments of silence.

  “I guess that’ll depend on what happens when we get there,” I said, which was nothing more than waffling.

  With false cheer, Ben said, “Best-case scenario, Stafford gets there with his tranquilizer gun first. Then we show up all huffy and defensive.”

  I snorted in lieu of chuckling. But yeah, that was kind of how I was hoping it would go.

  “Worst-case scenario,” Ben continued after a moment. “The Glock’s in the glove box.”

  “That isn’t going to be necessary,” I said, more as a defensive mantra than any solid belief.

  “You have a gun?” Tyler said, leaning forward.

  “With silver ammo, even,” Ben said.

  My husband the werewolf kept silver bullets in his glove box. I didn’t question it.

  I asked Tyler, “You think he’s headed back to Vanderman. Can he really get past Fort Carson security, into the building? He can’t really break Vanderman out, can he?”

  “We broke out easy enough. We waited until they were moving us into the building. Then we knocked them over and ran. As a wolf, he can get onto the base easy. He’ll be fast and camouflaged, and Fort Carson is huge. A lot of it is open plains. He’ll have to be human to break into the building, though. He’d need his hands.”

  “Could he do that? Sneak onto the base, sleep off his wolf, then break into the building? Isn’t that a little goal-oriented for a werewolf?” I said.

  “We trained to remember our targets. Even if we didn’t remember anything else, we remembered the mission.”

  I remembered a story. One of Paul Flemming’s informants had been an old man, a German soldier and a veteran of World War II. He’d also been a werewolf, and he told me about being trained by the SS to carry messages across enemy lines. People would stand out, but wolves were part of the landscape. Obviously, there were techniques for training werewolves. I wondered how many secret histories there were, how many wars included units of werewolves fighting for one side or the other. Roman centurions, Norse berserkers, Mongol raiders, Persian infantry . . . It sounded all too plausible. Werewolves were too ideal for the job not to use as soldiers.

  The thought sent a chill over me, raising gooseflesh. I shivered and turned up the heater.

  “What’s the matter?” Ben said gently. Maybe he could smell my unease.

  “Implications,” I said, then shook my head. “Never mind. Won’t there be guards? Won’t they be able to stop him?” I looked back at Tyler.

  “Not if they’re not firing silver,” Tyler said. “I think only Stafford’s guys have silver. They’d have to do too much explaining if they started issuing silver ammo to the regular MPs.”

  “FUBAR. Isn’t that what you guys call this sort of thing?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tyler said, chuckling.

  This could be a public relations nightmare. Werewolves had stayed hidden from public sight, behind folklore, for a very long time. We’d stayed secret by policing ourselves. Then people like me started blowing the whistle. The old system was falling apart. Police started getting involved, and one bad incident hitting the news would ensure that everyone saw werewolves as monsters rather than people. So what now?

  We reached a freeway. I-70, it should have been. A string of red taillights flowed like a river before us, distorted by the snow and wet. Rush hour. Bad weather.

  My phone rang—”The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” played. I dived for the floor and grabbed for the phone. The music set my nerves on edge—it couldn’t be good. The dash clock said 7 A.M. Too early for normal people.

  “What is it?”

  Cormac sounded as urgent as I’d ever heard him. He didn’t even sound like Cormac. “I think this is it.”

  “What, this is . . . oh. Franklin.”

  “This blizzard isn’t natural,” he said. He sounded like he was in a car, speeding somewhere through traffic.

  “So what are we going to do about it?”

  “I’ve got an idea, but I’m still working on that part,” he said. “I wanted to make sure you and Ben are home and ready to get socked in.”

  “Um . . .” I said, trying to figure out how to explain this. “I’m afraid we’ve had something come up.” Could I sound any more vague? Like this wouldn’t make him suspicious.

  I could almost hear the deep sigh over the line. “What happened?”

  “So you know last night was the full moon? Well, the guys from the army came with us, and one of them kind of went rogue—”

  “And you’re chasing after him? Good luck with that.” How did he manage to sound so sarcastic without changing his tone of voice?

  I grumbled, “Yeah, thanks.”

  “You need help?”

  “Not yet,” I said. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “I’d rather have you figuring out how to stop Franklin. Don’t worry about us, we won’t freeze.”

  “You spend enough time worrying about me, I’m going to return the favor. I’ll call you when I have something,” he said, and hung up before I could argue.

  I stared at my phone a moment.

  “Was that Cormac? Was that about Franklin?” Ben said.

  “Yes. He’s says this is because of him.” I gestured to the massive snow.

  “Great. Now what do we do?”

  “I’m thinking of calling Odysseus Grant.” Grant was the other wizard I knew. He always seemed to have an answer for a magical crisis.

  “Can I make a suggestion?” Ben said. “Don’t pull any more people into this if we don’t have to. If you really think Franklin fried your caller in Louisiana with a lightning strike, you could be painting targets on anyone else you call about this.”

  He was right. I huffed a sigh and stared out the window. “Cormac says he’ll call back when he’s figured out how to stop him.”

  “Then we’ll wait,
” Ben said.

  I tried not to worry—Cormac could take care of himself.

  I-25 was even worse than I-70.

  We were well into morning, well after sunrise, not that we could tell with the overcast sky. Everything had a light gray tinge to it rather than a dark gray one. The snow wasn’t letting up. Plows were hard at work—ahead, a couple of safety lights flashed and reflected against the fog. They’d already piled a ridge of snow onto the shoulder of the road.

  We moved at a crawl, and I wondered how bad it would have to get before the freeway closed. At this rate, even on foot Walters would get to Fort Carson before us.

  “I can’t sit here,” Tyler said. “I have to get out of here. We’re wasting time.” He was gripping the armrest on the door, his hand trembling.

  “Keep it together,” I said. “If you head out and turn wolf they’ll just scoop you up along with Walters.”

  He breathed low in his throat, making a sound like a growl. I reached back and touched his arm; whatever calm I could find in myself, I sent to him. As pack alpha, that ought to be part of my job, right? I was playing it all by ear, though; I hadn’t had too many role models to draw on. But Tyler’s hand relaxed, and he settled back against the seat, staring out the window.

  I turned on the radio and found a news report, which was all about the weather and traffic. Which was good, since I was afraid I was going to start hearing about rogue werewolf attacks. According to the news, the storm wasn’t behaving according to any predictions. While it was snowing across the Front Range, the storm seemed to be centered on Denver—the system had rolled in from the mountains, but didn’t get bad until it had hit the plains. The city was getting more snow than the mountains had. The freeways were being closed in some places—but we seemed to have gotten past those spots just in time. If we got stuck, I wouldn’t be able to argue with Tyler about setting out on foot.

  My phone rang and I answered. It was my mother, with her usual great timing.

  “Hi, Kitty. I’m just checking to see if you’re okay. I know you went out with your friends last night, and I wanted to make sure you got home all right through all this snow.”