Blood Heat

by Maria Lima

  “Is bringing in new wolves something unusual?” Adam asked. “My apologies for the question, but I’m not at all familiar with werewolf pack etiquette.”

  “In the past decade or so, it’s become more common,” Mark said. “It’s harder and harder to survive in a more modern world by yourself, so packs like ours that have been around for a long time have extended an open call to loners and couples. We’ve added about twenty new wolves in the past three years.”

  “When did these folks go missing?” I asked. “Is it two or three?”

  “At least one couple,” he answered. “Newbies from New York City … Manhattan. They jumped at the chance to have land and hunting privileges. I sent a guide with them that first day. You know city folk, not too keen on the raw land thing. Tame wild, here in the Hill Country, but still full of snakes, brown recluse spiders, things that can be fatal, even to wolves. We’re strong but not immortal. The guide’s a wolf, just joined the pack about a month ago—from outside the Houston area. He’s mostly country-bred, owned a small farm outside Katy until the area got too citified. I figured he’d be good to show them around, find a place to build their cabin.”

  “They didn’t come back?” Niko asked.

  “Not a sign of them,” Dixxi answered. “They went out a couple of days ago and never showed back up at the lake. No one really noticed right away, because everyone was out working and/or just doing their own thing. Without Mark and Levon over at the lake, sometimes things slip through the cracks—”

  “Slip through the cracks?” I interrupted. “That’s a hell of a way to put it.” I didn’t know how to take her comment.

  “Sorry,” she said, “But no one’s really in charge up there, because the three most senior wolves are here—in Rio Seco, that is. Didn’t really think that anything would happen. It isn’t hunting season, and it’s our own land.”

  “That’s the weird part,” Mark said. “There’s no sign of them on the land at all. It’s a big parcel, about a hundred and fifty acres of unimproved land, but several wolves went out to scope it out.” He looked at his nephew. “Even those that weren’t supposed to be there, evidently.”

  “Have you reported this to the sheriff’s office?” Adam asked.

  “And say what? I’ve got some folks missing that might be wolves?”

  “Why would you need to say that?” Niko asked, obviously puzzled. “Your people are human most times, correct?”

  Mark shrugged. “They like being in wolf shape in the country.”

  “Are you telling me they were out there in broad daylight in wolf shape?” My jaw dropped. “You aren’t really saying that, are you?”

  “Why not?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Mark, in case it’s totally escaped your attention, most of the land around there is either state park or pretty open—no fencing, no way of keeping trespassers off. Was the land posted at least?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet, we just signed the papers right before we came to Rio Seco.”

  “Anyone could’ve gone joyriding around there. And—wait. Greg, you never did say how you got injured. So, ‘fess up, what do we not know yet?”

  Gregor, Mark, and Dixxi exchanged silent glances. Mark nodded. “Tell them.”

  “I was shot,” Gregor said.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  TUCKER, NIKO, AND I spoke simultaneously. “Shot?”

  “As in bang-bang rifle kind of shot?” I continued. “How, I mean—wait, we saw you before the game without a shirt, I didn’t see any bandages.”

  Gregor twisted in his seat and pulled out his left hip pad as best he could. I leaned over to see a dirty gauze bandage, taped tightly just above his left hip. Niko leaned over the back of the seat, nostrils flaring. Even I could smell the fresh blood as Gregor’s ill-timed movement broke open the wound.

  Niko nodded at me, trying to communicate something. I shook my head a little, not understanding.

  Gregor hissed as he let the pad go back to its normal position. “I was stupid, that’s all.”

  “Getting shot isn’t being stupid,” I retorted. “That’s some idiot’s criminal behavior. Did you see who shot you?”

  “A machine.”

  “Yeah, right, a Cylon robo-hunter shot you.” I didn’t hold back the sarcasm at all. But damn, I was already tired of people keeping information from me. I mostly understood political caution and the fact that they didn’t know us well, but hell, we were smack in the middle of this now and frankly, I wanted answers.

  “Not exactly,” Mark said. “But Gregor’s not lying.” He took a huge breath and let it out slowly. “I think I’d better come clean.”

  “You do that.” I met his gaze square on. “Talk, wolf.”

  “Five years ago, when I became Fenrir, I presented myself to your leader. To Minerva.” He hesitated. “I got the invitation to the reception a month ago. I really wanted to just chuck it in the trash bin, but Lev had a cooler head.”

  “I take it you and Minerva didn’t hit it off.” Niko’s voice held a note of empathy. “She’s not the most likable sort.”

  Mark shook his head. “I don’t think I’d use ‘likable’ to describe her. Sorry, Keira, Tucker.”

  “No apology necessary, Mark,” I said. “We all know Minerva’s more than intimidating.”

  Mark closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You could say that. She took my oath and gave me the traditional greeting and then pretty much implied to go on and get the hell back to my territory.”

  I waited to hear the rest. So far, I hadn’t heard anything unusual. What had he expected? Sunshine and roses and a feast? I didn’t cotton to Gigi’s brusque attitudes, but a “hey, we’re here” acknowledgment was pretty much just that. Nothing special, just, I see you and okay, we know you’re there.

  “Yes, well, I asked you to the game to check you out.” A note of defiance crept into Mark’s voice.

  “To see if we were trustworthy,” Adam said.

  “Not really, more to see what kind of people you were. Minerva Kelly is trustworthy—”

  I snorted. “Trustworthy, yeah, right.” Tucker shot me a look. I had no problem interpreting. He was telling me to keep my opinions concerning Minerva’s Machiavellian machinations to myself. Family matters within family.

  “In any case,” Mark continued, ignoring my aside, “I wanted to ask for help. To find out what’s happened to our missing wolves, but I was afraid you might be like her.”

  Me, too, I thought and caught Adam’s soft smile. I’d unburdened myself to him in Vancouver and that exact same fear had kept me in a state of anxiety. Now, I knew I could forge my own path as heir. I wondered what Mark thought of Gigi other than trustworthy. I noticed he hadn’t actually said. “Uncaring” was the immediate word that came to my mind. Well, perhaps more intimidating than uncaring. She’d have probably helped the wolves, but with a price. Neither Adam nor I would put a price on a rescue, if that was what this was.

  “I knew you were with the vampire and were part Sidhe,” Mark continued. “I don’t—didn’t—trust either of those two. You’re different.”

  “You think so?” Adam asked, and gave a full-on vampire stare at Mark, who cringed visibly.

  “Stop it, Adam,” I said. “Mark, what Adam’s trying to get at is that we’re not really that different. You have to trust us and let us help anyway, even though we are vampire, Sidhe, Kelly. You’re probably still seeing me as that drunk seventeen-year-old girl who threw herself at you at a football game.” Tucker’s outright laugh reverberated throughout the van. “Enough from the peanut gallery,” I warned. “Mark, I’m not her anymore. I’m the Kelly heir and heir to a lesser Seelie Court, niece of the current May Queen. I’m also your ruler alongside Adam. He’s—” I stopped, then continued as Adam gave me a silent go-ahead. “He’s king of the vampire tribe here as well as heir to the Unseelie Court.”

  Mark, Gregor, and Dixxi all three seemed stunned.

  “I suppose that was a bit much to lay on you at
once?”

  “I’ll say,” said Dixxi. “Y’all aren’t kidding around, are you.” There was no question in her statement, her tone as flat as Kansas.

  “Nope. That’s why I said we are who we are … but that also means I’m the Keira Kelly who grew up in Rio Seco, in Texas. Among humans, as well as my Clan. I … all of us, will help you.”

  “My thanks, m’lady.” Mark placed a hand over his heart and gave me as much of a bow as could be accomplished inside a moving vehicle.

  “So, a robot hunter?” I prompted.

  “You sure about that, Gregor?” Mark asked.

  The boy shrugged, then hissed and put a hand to his side. “What else could it be? It’s not hunting season.”

  Mark explained. “A few years ago, some jerk set up remote hunts on the Internet. He’d rigged some blinds with all sorts of controls and such. Set out feeders for deer. Last year or so, a law finally passed to make those illegal. He went bankrupt, all his property went into receivership, and we were able to buy it really cheap.”

  “But there were still remote hunting setups?”

  “Yeah, we found out the hard way. One of my guys went out about three weeks ago and accidentally set off a trip wire. Bullet grazed his side. Lev went out to check it out and found several blinds still set up, still with bullets. The guy had really made the blinds weatherproof.”

  “Would have to,” I said. “What the hell did you do?”

  “I sent out a group from the pack as humans in protective gear and a couple of wolves to sniff out the metal. We dismantled four blinds and some camera guns, too. Looks like some trespassers have been there—a couple of the blinds seemed like they’d been used for last year’s season.”

  “So you think you tripped another blind?” I directed my question at Gregor.

  “I thought so, yeah.”

  “Would you be able to tell us where you were when you were shot?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah, pretty close, anyway,” he said. “I was marking territory, left a spray can of paint behind.”

  “Marking with paint? I thought you-all did that the old-fashioned way,” I said. Did these wolves spray paint instead of urine? Even my brothers marked territory with their scent.

  “We do,” Mark answered. “But last weekend, I also asked a couple of guys to go out and mark the edges of the property with orange paint. You know, get a rock to mark boundaries.”

  “Ah, gotcha,” I said. “So you can put up the No Trespassing signs.”

  “Yeah, but then I got stuck at the deli with a late delivery and some officious county idiot delaying my final inspection, so we never got back out there.” He glared at Gregor. “Some people weren’t supposed to go with the others.”

  Dixxi growled a little. “Leave him be, Mark. He’s hurt and he’s young. I’m sure you did stupider things at his age.”

  “I know I did,” I said, and stared directly at Mark, who blushed.

  “You think it was stupid?” He seemed taken aback and not a little embarrassed.

  “More just thoughtless,” I explained. “I didn’t know you and frankly, I was thinking with my hormones. I may not be human, but at the time, I had about as much power as a newborn kitten, compared to what I have now. If you’d been a rapist or mean, you could’ve hurt me.”

  “But I didn’t.”

  “No, you didn’t, and Gregor will heal. We’ll get him to Bea’s and patch him up. I can do some light healing spells—just need a little space and time to concentrate. He’ll probably need to sleep for at least eight or nine hours afterward.”

  “Thank you,” Dixxi said. “We truly appreciate this.”

  “It is part of my duty,” I said. “To take care of you.”

  “That said,” Adam put in, “we need to check this property of yours. Perhaps Niko and I can do a quick reconnaissance tonight?”

  “It’s not close,” Mark answered. “It’s back over to White Rock, kind of off the beaten path.”

  “Then tomorrow night?”

  “I think I should take the boys and go in the daytime first,” I said. “Then perhaps Niko and one or two others can come back in the night after we debrief.”

  “Good thought,” Adam said.

  “Could just be poachers.” Mark appeared thoughtful. “I was planning to lease out for dove and javelina when the season opened to make a little extra cash … that is, if I didn’t have any wolves who wanted to settle there. Margery and Stephen really wanted a place far away from the towns. They’d grown up in Manhattan. Stephen was bitten nearly ten years ago and managed somehow to survive in the city. He was the one that contacted me. Margery—she’s fresh, brand-new. Bitten by a rogue and had no guidance until Stephen found her. They needed some place away from people. So that’s why I sent them to the back end of that property. It’s close enough to the county utilities so that hooking up a double-wide while they build a house won’t be an issue.”

  “Any chance they just ran off?” I asked, just to hear their answer. Me, I didn’t have much of a doubt.

  “They might be newbies,” Dixxi answered, “but Maki, the guy we sent out with them, is an old country hand. He was born and raised on a ranch in Colorado, lived there until he was thirty, then came to buy his place in Katy, then here. He’s been with us only a few weeks, but he’s been great.”

  “Not run off, doubtful they were kidnapped, so …”

  “Yeah, so,” Mark said. “Whatever ‘so’ turns out to be. I want to know.”

  “We’ll find out, Mark. We promise.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “FIRST, WE NEED TO get Gregor to Bea’s and comfortable,” Tucker said. “We’ll work out how to help you-all in the morning.”

  “Speaking of … is there a twenty-four-hour convenience store or anything on the way to Bea’s place?” Dixxi asked.

  “Not a thing,” I said. “The store in Rio Seco is only open until ten and it’s long past that. What do you need?”

  “I think that even with a light healing, we should make sure we’ve got ice packs, extra gauze bandages, first aid tape, and such. Probably some ibuprofen or other pain reliever, unless Bea’s got stuff at her place.”

  “Bea’s probably got aspirin or something,” I said, “but I don’t know about any of the other stuff. We could call her.”

  “You know,” Niko said, “there’s a Walmart store over near White Rock that is open twenty-four hours.”

  “Is there? How do you know about a Walmart, anyhow?”

  “I told him,” Tucker said. “We had an idea on how to help the vampires in the heat. Bloodsicles.”

  “Okay,” I said, with disbelief. “If you say so.”

  “No, really.” Niko took up the explanation. “We read somewhere that the San Diego Zoo does that during especially hot weather—freezes blood and water for the big cats. Don’t see why it would be any different for us. We thought we’d get those Popsicle mold things.”

  When I got over the idea of a 400-plus-year-old vampire and a 1,200-plus-year-old Viking Berserker wanting to go to Walmart and buy Popsicle molds, I responded. “Not a bad idea, I suppose, but we’re totally driving in the wrong direction.”

  “You know, that is rather brilliant,” Dixxi said. “We’ve been having a hell of a time staying indoors in the cool. Our nature is to be outdoors, to run. Hunting’s been rough on us recently. Wolves dropping like flies in the heat.”

  “Well, if you guys really want to go, I’m good. Tucker, why don’t you watch out for a good spot to pull over and turn around. If you stop for a few minutes, I can at least do some minor healing on Gregor before we drive any farther.” I didn’t want to alarm the boy, but I’d finally clued in to Niko’s silent message. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he was bleeding pretty steadily under that bandage … which is another reason the trip to Walmart sounded better and better.

  “You said minor healing, what does that mean exactly?” Dixxi asked.

  “I’m still fairly new at this,”
I explained. “I don’t think I can fully heal Gregor, not without a veteran healer beside me to help. Unfortunately, none of those folks came back with us. I can at least help with some of the pain, maybe help with the bleeding a little. When we get to Rio Seco, I can get my cousin Liz to help. She’s not a full healer, but an extra pair of hands wouldn’t hurt.”

  “He’ll be good as new?” Mark asked.

  “No.” I wasn’t going to get Mark’s hopes up. “Liz can help, but healing’s a minor secondary talent that she kept. We’ll supplement with the painkillers and bandages so he can continue to heal.” I mentally crossed my fingers. Between the two of us, Liz and I could maybe come up with a way to help this kid out. Ibuprofen wasn’t going to cut it, at least from what I’d seen so far. That kid was in a world of hurt, even though he was doing his best to hide it. With his youth, his wer nature, and his overall physical fitness level, he shouldn’t be this badly off. I had a feeling his “flesh wound” went a great deal deeper than he was letting on. I didn’t want to scare him, or out his secret. I’d been sixteen once, with secrets that I kept from my family.

  “Walmart, it is,” Tucker said and pulled to the side of the road. “You want to do your mojo now, sis?”

  “No, really, I’m good,” Gregor said before I could approach him. “You don’t need to do any healing right now, let’s just get to the store and get the stuff you guys need. Then we can go home … or to Bea’s or whatever.”

  I studied the boy’s face for a sign that he was playing the macho card, but saw nothing there but exhaustion and the desire to get on with it.

  “Fine, let’s go to the store,” I decided. “Anyone know how to get there from here?”

  “Sort of,” Dixxi said. “I’ll see if I can find the address on my phone.”

  I reached into the glove box to grab the GPS Tucker kept there. “Let me know when you’ve got it and I’ll plug it in here. Adam, could you give Bea a call and let her know the change of plan?”

  “I will.”

  “You mean you don’t have some sort of magickal radar?” Mark teased. “I thought all you Kellys could do that kind of stuff.”