Silent Cravings

by E. Blix

  He wouldn’t get what he was looking for. She had to remember that this was an enemy of her pack. Her alpha would want her to be brave and to follow the Code.

  Like most Goliaths, she wasn’t good at subtlety or thinking things through, but if she waited and watched the vampires, maybe she could learn from them how to get back at Christoph for getting her stuck in this mess.

  That in mind, she rose, rubbing some of the food grease on her jeans. Mouse ran a hand down her face in what even Analie could tell was exasperation.

  “Sorry, but I don’t see any napkins around here and I’m not wiping my hands off on the sheets,” she huffed, newly embarrassed.

  Mouse shook her head, gesturing for her to follow. They had a lot of work ahead of them.

  Chapter Eight

  Analie spent the day huddled under her sheet canopy texting Freddy, having the strangest conversation. It had started with, “OMG >:-B everywhere”, graduated to “I think chicken might be really hard to cook, but I don’t know” and, finally, “I’m going to go insane if I don’t get to run tonight”.

  Freddy: Are you allowed to run around the streets fuzzy?

  Analie: No, I get that they’d call the SWAT team. No joke.

  Freddy: Lame. Maybe you can run pink.

  Analie: I’m fine with running stark naked with a bowl of fruit on my head, I NEED TO RUN.

  Freddy: Please don’t. Maybe you can go to Central Park?

  Analie: And get eaten by the Moonwalkers.

  Freddy: Oh. Amelia’s calling. Hang in there. TTYL.

  Analie: K, bye.

  Analie slid the phone under the mattress and sat back. She supposed it could be worse. She could be locked away. She could be dead. She could be lunch.

  Her stomach rolled at that last thought. Anyone tries that, I will gut them. She picked up the stuffed bear and hugged it.

  Meanwhile, Royce considered his options as he gunned the engine of his car, weaving through traffic with the absentminded expertise of one who has had nearly a hundred years of practice behind a wheel. He had deliberately put off contacting the Goliath alpha about Analie, giving the wolves time to stew. Now that he was done seeing to his businesses, he was ready to see just how much they were willing to sacrifice in return for the girl. The first step being to have Analie speak to the pack’s representative to see that Royce had not done her any harm. Yet. It didn’t take him long to get home at the breakneck pace he set.

  Once he arrived, he made a beeline to Mouse’s apartment, pausing in the threshold. The door was ajar, and Mouse was going through sword forms with one of her donors. Mouse held up a hand for Brian, her sparring partner, to halt, then relaxed as he saluted with his rapier and withdrew. She let her own sword drop to her side as she returned Royce’s greeting, her brows furrowing as he hurried by the two, headed straight for Analie’s room. Realizing it wasn’t her place to question, and seeing as he hadn’t made any indication he needed her, she signed on guard to Brian and resumed her previous stance.

  Royce scrolled through his contacts on his phone until he found the number Analie had given him for the Goliath second in command. He rapped lightly on Analie’s door, clamping down on his worries so the wolf wouldn’t be able to detect his agitation.

  Analie crawled out of her den at the sound of the knocking. She was wearing a new blouse and pants, quite nice, but they felt weird and overly fancy on a frame used to shrugging on yesterday’s T-shirt. She still wore her corduroy jacket.

  She opened the door and took a couple steps back from the outline there. A few surreptitious sniffs told her who she was sort of looking at.

  “Hi?”

  The shadows on Royce’s face shifted. Was he smiling? Maybe. She stepped aside reluctantly to let him in. He immediately held out a cell phone.

  “I need you to call your pack’s deputy.”

  Analie gingerly took the phone and looked at the screen. A number was waiting. She hit send, shifting her weight from foot to foot. It didn’t take long for Gregory to pick up.

  “Hi, it’s, um, Analie,” she said, belatedly adding a respectful cough and mentally putting her tail between her legs.

  “Analie! Are you all right? Is Royce there?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay. And yeah, he is.”

  “Are you sure you’re fine?”

  “Yeah, I mean—I think I am. Are... are you coming to... um...”

  “No.”

  Analie felt the blood drain from her face. “What?”

  “There is a situation in California that requires safety measures to be taken for all underaged Weres.”

  Safety measures for underaged Weres? That sounded like a cub-hide. Gavin had told her about them.

  Analie glanced at Royce before shifting into the secret River-Goliath dialect. “A cub-hide?”

  Gregory sounded surprised. He hadn’t known Gavin had educated her in their secret tongue. “Yes. You’re in the safest place possible—for now.”

  Analie felt a little dizzy, a little sick. “I’m staying here?”

  “Yes. Am I going to hear anything unfavorable, or are you a Goliath?”

  Analie snapped to attention, adding a respectful cough. “I’m a Goliath.”

  “Good. Keep your location secret. You will be contacted when the cub-hide is over.”

  “Okay.”

  “Stay strong.” Gregory hung up.

  Analie held the phone out for Royce. She was staying here. They weren’t coming to get her. Per cub-hide rules, she couldn’t even call Gavin and tell him where she was or how she was doing. Would he worry? Of course he would. Where was Jo-Jo going? Where was Freddy going?

  She needed her bear.

  Royce watched the exchange with narrowed eyes, particularly when she shifted into that strange dialect the alpha had been using. He noted her deliberate coughing and started piecing some things together.

  By coughing, Analie had been paying some odd form of respect to someone. It was a key to pack structure. They used this other language to hide things from him. Judging by Analie’s expression, Gregory’s news couldn’t have been good.

  He took the phone when she offered it, his tone concerned and expression as neutral as possible. “Is everything okay?”

  Obviously it wasn’t. He hoped that by acting as a sympathetic ear, she might let something slip. It would save him the effort of having to call Clyde Seabreeze, the master vampire of Los Angeles, for more information about what the Goliath pack had been up to since he took Analie under his wing. He prayed she’d let something slip.

  In times of agitation, Analie would normally leave the house and run around in the hills until she wore herself out or she’d knocked over enough trees. Right now she had no hills or trees, so she stood awkwardly in an unfamiliar room across the country and felt bad.

  “The deputy called for a cub-hide,” she said quietly, staring at the floor.

  Royce was silent, waiting for her to continue. Analie rubbed her arms. It couldn’t hurt to define what that meant. Besides, she couldn’t tell him where anyone was going and he already knew where she was. “It’s this thing we do during wars where they take all the kids and spread them out all over the country. For safety. No one likes them.”

  She realized that in addition to not knowing where her best friend Freddy was, or any of her other friends, she might not hear from them for the duration of the cub-hide. It could last months or even years.

  Don’t barf. Analie closed her eyes and tried not to breathe so much. The reek of vampire was getting too overbearing.

  Curse that miserable alpha to the deepest pit in Hades, Royce thought, clamping down on the initial reaction to extend his fangs and let his eyes turn to pools of burning crimson. Are the Goliaths planning to go to war with me? If that’s what this is about, I’ll hunt dow
n every last one of those pups and slaughter them in their sleep.

  Aloud, he said, “That is unfortunate. I’m sure it’s for the best. Whatever the trouble, you’ll be safe enough here.” He made an effort to modulate his intake of breath so he wasn’t hissing every other word. She didn’t seem to know the cause behind the cub-hide or think it was related to him, so he’d be forced to call Clyde anyway. Fuck. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  Royce was tempted to run with his anger and use her drained carcass as a warning to the Goliaths not to keep messing with him. He needed to wait and make sure that was what was really happening. Not too long. He’d have to hurry before it was too late for him to do anything to slow or stop the gears of war from turning in his direction.

  Analie didn’t want to ask the vampire for any favors, but the more she thought about the cub-hide, the more anxious she got. She needed to call Freddy, and she didn’t want it widely known that she still had her own cell phone. It probably didn’t make a difference either way, but it felt like a handy knife in her boot to have it.

  “Can I call a friend, please?” she asked. “If there’s a cub-hide, it might be because there’s a thing going on between Goliath and these absolute bastards—Amberguard—who are always at war with us…” Deep breaths. Freddy probably wasn’t lying dead in a gutter with his throat torn out and his limbs broken and— “Seriously, I need to make this call. If it’s a pack war, it’s because this pack did something horrible to start it. They are cub-killers.”

  The piteous request snapped Royce out of his murderous thoughts. Perhaps she was right. The Goliath pack was full of ill-tempered Weres who thought with nothing but their teeth. The bastards must have plenty of enemies he hadn’t given thought to.

  “Of course.” He held out the cell once more, taking and expelling a deep, unneeded breath to calm the rage that had briefly taken him. He needed to feed or do something to work off this tension. “Whatever you need, don’t hesitate to ask. If your friend needs shelter, let me know and I’ll see if there is anything I can do.”

  “Thank you,” Analie said, and she really meant it, instead of spitting out the phrase as a formality. She dialed Freddy’s number.

  “Hi, this is Fre—”

  “You’re alive!” Analie gushed.

  “Wh-Analie! Aren’t you in the cub-hide?”

  “Yeah, what about you?”

  “Yeah, but they won’t say why. I think there was a fight. They won’t say who with, but everyone is seriously on edge.”

  “I’ll bet it is Amberguard,” Analie snarled, feeling a momentary rush of the prickling heat that always came right before a shift. “Those assholes. Goliath will slaughter them.”

  “Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding,” Freddy said hopefully. “Then we can all just go home and call off the war.”

  “When Amberguard repays us in blood for the cub-killing, then I’ll be happy with the war being called off,” Analie growled. “When I get—” She glanced at Royce, then hurriedly changed her tone. “Uh... when I get a bit higher up I’ll... do stuff. I’m really glad you’re not dead.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Analie could hear traffic in the background. Freddy was already being moved.

  Analie bit her lip. “Freddy, do you think you could tell me where you end up?”

  Freddy sounded guilty as he replied. “I dunno. We’re not really supposed to talk to each other about that during the hide.”

  Analie remembered she was making a long-distance call on someone else’s minutes. She felt bad hanging up so quickly on Freddy, but she didn’t want to wear the vampire’s patience thin. “Well, good luck. Keep your wits and teeth sharp. I gotta go.”

  “Yeah. Stay safe, Analie.” Freddy said.

  Analie felt a little dizzy. Everything had been turned upside down. Goliath was going into full battle-mode. LA was going to be a crater.

  Analie gave the phone back to Royce. “Thank you. He’s okay.” As okay as you can be during a cub-hide. Damn it, I need to get my head back on straight. Damn it, I need to run. “And thanks for offering to help him out.”

  Really, the vampire didn’t seem that bad aside from drinking blood, being invisible, and generally being terrifying. Hell, he’d brought her the best fish sticks in the whole world. And offering to shelter Freddy? Offering shelter to cubs from someone else’s pack during something as dire as a cub-hide was an unheard of gesture of generosity.

  Royce pocketed the phone and leaned casually against the door frame, not a thing about his demeanor giving away his concern or that he had been hanging on every word he could pick up from both ends of the conversation.

  He knew of the Amberguard pack only by reputation. Like the Goliaths, they were ancient, but also from territories he had never been to. When he chose New York as his city to claim in the early 1700s, he’d driven out a number of Weres who had settled in the area, destroying any sign of competition. There had been a handful of Amberguard, but he’d driven them off, and they’d presumably settled somewhere in the west. He hadn’t given them much thought since.

  As time passed, the city prospered and grew, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep all Others out. So he did what he could to control the population explosion instead of work against it. When other packs came to the city, he didn’t threaten them unless they damaged his people or properties first. Quietly smearing the offenders into a fine red paste on the walls for the rest of their brethren to find kept the newcomers in line quite nicely.

  The girl before him could be invaluable in this time of unrest for the Goliaths, if only for the information she could provide to help him prepare to face the pack once this war of theirs was under control. Perhaps he could mop up the remains before they could rebuild and fortify themselves against him.

  Royce accepted the phone back. “It sounds like something bad must be happening out there. Perhaps that explains Christoph’s inability to control his temper, hm?”

  Analie shrugged, mind awhirl with the new information Freddy had provided.

  “Guess so. We keep Amberguard in line most of the time, but they’re a bunch of assholes.” She tugged her jacket around herself a bit tighter. “I wish I was old enough to fight.”

  Age, rank, and gender had little to do with whether you knew how to fight. She lacked coordination and balance—something Christoph loved to point out at every opportunity—and Gavin had been lax in teaching her the ways of combat.

  Feeling awkward and uncertain, eager to change the subject, Analie gestured to the bags against the wall that contained her new clothes. “Thank you, by the way.”

  She missed econo-packs of T-shirts and Kmart jeans, but she thought it would be ungrateful not to say something. Her eyes had bugged when she saw the receipt in one of the bags. That kind of money could have kept her dressed at Gavin’s for years.

  “You’re welcome. And I wouldn’t be in too much of a rush for that sort of thing. Life can be fleeting. Take enjoyment in what you have, rather than seek new ways to lose it.”

  That in mind, he figured he’d pressed enough for the time being. He had to make a few calls of his own. The idea of talking to Clyde made him grit his fangs, but there were things he needed to set in motion before it was too late.

  “Now, before I go, is there anything else you need?”

  A “Get Out of Jail Free” card, Analie thought, though she managed not to say so out loud. This was a really weird cub-hide. “No, thanks.”

  Royce nodded, wondering if he’d erred in his earlier estimation. She was unhappy, but no longer terrified of him. She might become used to him and play into his hands far sooner than he’d thought if he kept up the “nice guy” act.

  He didn’t mind treating his subordinates or “guests,” however unwilling, as well as he did. The satisfaction in knowing that he could accomplish his
ends by using nothing more than charm or persuasion pleased him greatly. Force was a last resort.

  “I’ll bid you good night, then. Sleep well.”

  With that, he left for his own chamber, intending to call Clyde Seabreeze as soon as he got upstairs. Whatever was going on in Los Angeles, he intended to get to the bottom of it.

  Royce didn’t know what to make of the situation. There weren’t enough vampires in Los Angeles to justify the sort of massacre he thought was being planned. The massive numbers of gathering Weres would attract media attention before long. Clyde had not been very helpful either.

  “Hell if I know. They’re dogs, man. What do you care if they pack up?”

  “I’m trying to find out if what’s happening poses a danger. I’d think you’d be interested in that.”

  “Look, dude, they aren’t a prob. We don’t mess with each other. As long as they leave me and my people alone, they can do whatever they want.”

  “Aren’t you even the slightest bit concerned? Your people could be hurt.”

  “You don’t seem to get it. Look, Royce, babe, if you want to do lunch, give me a ring. Come out here sometime. I’ll get you a walk-on in some TV show. It’ll be great. Don’t worry about the howlers. They’re nothing. Air. We walk through them. They don’t see us, and we do them the favor of not seeing them.”

  Royce sincerely hoped Clyde was right.

  For the time being, he’d keep his ear to the ground. If the wolves brought their war east, or brought their troubles too far into the public eye, he would fly to Los Angeles to personally gut the alphas responsible for starting this nonsense.

  He’d also have to get Analie busy or she would start looking for other avenues to work off her rambunctious adolescent energy. Keeping a teenaged Were idle spelled trouble if he didn’t channel her agitation to something productive as soon as possible. Jacques hadn’t had the time to pick up the things he needed and refused to delegate the task to someone else. It was irritating, but with his skills, the prima donna chef could have worked for anyone. Royce wouldn’t risk losing him to a rival restaurant by insisting on such a trivial matter.