Bold Mercy

by Cane, Laken

  But there was also Joe and Zach, and along with Rick, they were the most vulnerable. Not that they weren’t holding their own. These vampires were not as strong, fast, or deadly as they usually were. They began to fall.

  And I understood suddenly why.

  These vampires were newly turned. Perhaps a night ago, or an hour ago, they’d been human. They were fighting out of desperation. They’d been ordered to do so. Mostly, though, they just wanted to eat.

  Their fangs were almost as grotesque as Avis’s, and their claws, though long, bluish black, and sharp, were delicate. They hadn’t had time to strengthen. The vampires hadn’t had time to grow their power. They were still infants. Starving infants.

  It was…horrifying.

  We killed them, of course, because they were vampires, and there were no other choices. And the humans who saw what happened tonight were going to forget their temporary hope. They were going to forget every word I’d said, because they would see that the vampires were turning humans—and so very quickly—and things were going to go to a whole new level of horror.

  I turned, plunged a stake into a vampire’s chest, and as he fell, I looked up and saw two of the newly turned vampires take Joe down. Every single person in the security detail had already fallen or fled, because they were human, and they were not hunters.

  They should not have been fighting there that night, and Joe should not have been fighting either. But if he survived, he was going to end up being a spectacular fighter. He had a hunter’s blood in his veins, and he was too good not to end up a hunter—and it was clear that he loved the work.

  But first, he had to survive the night.

  I’d help him with that. If I’d have been thinking clearly and if the air hadn’t been so veiled with blood that I felt I was isolated in that courtyard, then maybe I would have been more careful. I’d have slowed down a little. I’d have been less…nonhuman. But I threw myself into the vicious joy of the fight, and I forgot to hide.

  When I reached Joe, he was buried beneath the bodies of four hungry vampires, and at least one of them had his blood on their nasty fangs. I could smell it. And that just pissed me off. I flung them against the brick wall, hard, so hard, breaking bones and smashing skulls. I left them there for one of the others to stake and behead. I was intent only upon making sure Joe was okay. That he would live. That his scars and trauma would not be bigger than his desire to fight another vampire another night.

  He was my friend.

  But when I pulled the last vampire off him, Joe’s face was a mask of blood and his eyes were closed, and for a millisecond, I thought I was too late.

  “Joe,” I yelled, and when I felt for a pulse, it was there. Barely, but it was there. I looked around at the waning battle and spotted Jared loping toward me.

  “I’ve got him,” he told me. He scooped him off the ground and tossed him over his shoulder, then held his hand out to me.

  But the night was not finished with us yet. As my fingers touched his, Farrow, the vampire who’d first asked me to save Bastien, leaped from the brick wall and landed hard in the courtyard, crouching on the pavers like a wild thing.

  She only ever came to me when Bastien was in trouble. I guess I knew now why the county master had refused my invitation to meet.

  Most likely, he’d found Avis.

  Or she’d found him.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Immediately there were half a dozen wolves surrounding her, low growls floating from their mouths. But Zach shoved his way between them and stood with Farrow, his blade in his hand. “Stand back,” he told them. “She’s not here to fight.”

  “She’s here to die,” Remy muttered, holding Dolly, his favorite, bloodstained stake. He wanted to stake the vampire, but he would have to fight the wolves for that honor.

  “Kill her,” Wyatt snarled.

  They were seconds away from ripping each other to shreds when I interfered. “Stop,” I told Wyatt, who was shaking with his need to control his shift. I dropped to my knees beside the vampire girl. “Farrow. Why are you here?” I didn’t have time to talk, really, with Joe possibly dying in the alpha’s arms. Still, she wouldn’t have come if there hadn’t been an urgent reason for her to do so.

  “Bastien sent me. We are under attack. Avis knows the property better than anyone, and she is ripping through the glamour shields and exposing us to the humans. She wants the humans to bring their pitchforks and torches to the clan, so they will die. So we will all die.” Her fangs were elongated—apparently she was too stressed to retract them. “Bastien sent me to you. You have to come, now.”

  “She doesn’t have to do anything,” Wyatt snarled. “We will—”

  “Wyatt,” Jared said, interrupting him. “Quiet. Carlos, Avery. You’ll drive Joe to Shadowfield, call Ben on your way. Kait, do you know his blood type?”

  I stood and took Joe’s cold hand. “No. I don’t know it.”

  Then Max was shoving through the big wolf bodies. “He’s O positive? And I’m going with him to Shadowfield.” He got a look at Joe’s face when Jared handed him over to one his wolves and he turned to me, his lips pressed into a tight line. His eyes were too wide, and I could see terror in his stare. He wasn’t afraid of the bodies on the ground or the wolves or the vampire Farrow. He was terrified for Joe. “Kait?” he whispered.

  I gripped his shoulders. “Dr. Hayes will fix him up, Max. Go.”

  “Kait,” Farrow said, her voice hard with impatience. “We have to get to Alexandria. Bastien needs your help.”

  “We don’t help vampires. We kill them,” Wyatt said, unwilling to give an inch. He gestured at the ground. “As you can see.”

  “We’ll go to Alexandria,” Jared told him, getting angrier by the second. “We’ll do whatever it takes to end the rogues. We will fight with the county master’s vampires tonight. Do you understand this?”

  Wyatt nodded, but reluctantly. “We’ll fight.”

  “I’ll be there,” Zach said.

  The sudden paling of his face told me he didn’t want to go, but the determination in his eyes said he would anyway. I wished I could have forced him to stay behind.

  “Want a ride?” Remy asked him. He patted his stake. “Dolly is still thirsty.”

  “Thanks,” Zach said, and without another word, the two of them jogged away.

  I wanted to speak with the mayor, and I wanted to check on Lucy and Ash. I also needed to give Lucy my demon blade. I would shift to fight Avis and her rogues and didn’t want to lose the blade. Also, I was slightly afraid that Avis might somehow end up with it again, and I was happy enough not to have to take that chance.

  “Go,” I told Jared. “I’ll catch up.”

  Then I turned and ran to the house, eager to get to Alexandria before Avis took off. Lucy, Rick, and the mayor were waiting at the door, and I noticed immediately that Rick grimaced when he moved. Ash rushed to me and shoved himself against my legs, and I leaned over to pet him as I spoke to the detective.

  “You got hurt out there,” I said, unable to keep the accusation out of my voice. “You promised me you’d go inside with Louis.”

  He shrugged. “I’m all right. I did some of what I needed to do.” He seemed angry that he hadn’t killed a couple of vampires in the process.

  “Are you all right, Kait?” the mayor asked, and didn’t seem convinced when I nodded. “Let me know as soon as you can if you get that awful woman.”

  “I will, Mayor.”

  I handed Lucy my blade.

  “I can take the blade,” Rick offered.

  I shook my head. “I have a feeling you’re going to have your hands full without adding blade-sitting to the mix.”

  “It’s safe with me,” Lucy said. “It’ll be waiting when you return.”

  “I’ve asked Lucy and Ash to stay here until you’ve handled the vampires.” Louis smiled at my relief. “Amy and I,” he told me, “are happy to do anything to help you, Kait.”

  “Thank you, Louis
,” I murmured.

  I straightened after giving Ash one last pat and took a second to gaze at them all, just in case by some chance I didn’t make it back. In my life, not making it back was always a distinct possibility. Many of the mayor’s security detail—the ones who’d lived through the attack—stood quietly in the room, shellshocked but ready to act should they be needed. They’d be better against human attackers, and if a certain serial killer attempted to get his hands on Lucy, they would take him down. She was safe.

  Five minutes later I’d ripped off my clothes, my lanyard, and my thin, protective vest, shoved the entire bundle against the exterior wall of a dark, silent house, and shifted. Honestly, there wasn’t much that felt better than becoming my wolf.

  And she was ready to kill some vampires.

  I sprinted away, gathering my legs beneath me, the wind whipping my face as I ran very nearly as fast as any vampire, eager to reach Alexandria and Avis Vine. I felt the alpha a few seconds before he burst from the darkness to run with me, and even my wolf’s feral heart softened. But only for a moment. It was not a night for a soft heart.

  We were fast, the alpha and I. We kicked up great clods of earth and sent stones and debris flying as we ran faster than any animal should have been able to run, and we reached Alexandria faster than we would have in a car. The wolves who’d gone on ahead were already there, already fighting.

  But that wasn’t what made me stand, my breath whooshing in and out, and stare in frozen silence.

  Alexandria was a small town full of humans. They’d had no idea that vampires lived in a nice part of town in a cluster of homes that no fictional vampire would ever have lived in. The community where the county master lived with his many, many children looked like any other community one would find in any town. It blended, it was clean and quiet with well-manicured lawns and playsets and bikes and flowers and nicely tended trees.

  None of that was real, of course. It was a glamour created by sorcery to fool the humans. The real cluster, the tiny community into which the county master’s main house spread like a grim disease, was the stuff of nightmares.

  The glamour was not just fading, it was blinking in and out violently, black and red and flashing like explosions of blood against the dark sky, showing the humans more than they would ever have wanted to see about the reality that lived within their world.

  The vampires were not just in danger of being exposed, they were exposed. By the time we got there, the street was lined with cop cars, flashing lights, and policemen standing behind their open vehicle doors with guns drawn.

  News vans, screaming reporters, and terrified humans who wanted to run to safety but were unable to tear themselves away. And all that mattered to me, really, was catching Avis.

  It mattered that the humans were seeing the wolves—Jared and I weren’t the only ones who had shifted—but I shoved the worry away. They weren’t going to know my wolf was me. I could still hide my shifter side.

  It looked like the world was on fire. I shot through those fake flames and up the driveway, not even hesitating as I caught glimpses of wolves and vampires fighting. There were rogues, yes, but the wolves weren’t just trying to kill them. They’d lost their human commonsense in the fight, and all the wolves cared about was killing vampires. Any and all.

  I knew how they felt. My natural instinct was to rip out the throats of the bloodsuckers as well, but I was single-minded in my need for Avis. If I caught her, all the bad stuff would stop. It wouldn’t really, of course—it was much too late for that—but that’s what I kept in my head. Everything would be okay if Avis were dead and held up like a gory trophy for the city to see.

  The scents were overwhelming and hard to separate but finally, I caught Avis Vine’s scent—that particular smell of rot and magic and evil that had burrowed inside my brain and might never leave again. It was there, and it was strong.

  The “house” was nothing like the vampires had spelled it to look to outsiders. It was massive, sprawling and dark and full of nooks and crannies and rooms, both up and down, that would take a person a very long time to explore. But I wasn’t there to explore. I concentrated solely on the smell, ignored the screaming, the growling, the huge, hot wolf bodies, the vampires, the fires, everything.

  Until I saw Bastien. He flung himself at me, forcing me to stop, and I went for his throat before I realized he was simply trying to talk to me. Farrow was there, as well, trembling against the wall. I’d never seen her look so afraid.

  Bastien took my face between his hands. “You should not be here. She is going to take you tonight, and she is going to kill you if she gets you. Go home, Wolf.”

  “Bastien,” Farrow started, and then fell into a quaking silence when he snarled at her.

  I understood suddenly the reason for his rage. He hadn’t sent for me at all. Farrow came to get me because she believed I could save Bastien, even if I had to be sacrificed. He wasn’t willing for me to die in his place. She was.

  I didn’t care what either of them believed or wanted or feared. Avis was there—I could feel her. She was close. She was waiting for me, and I was going to get her. For as much as she wanted me, wanted to hurt me, wanted to kill me, I wanted to do those things to her a hundred times more. Because she was fueled by revenge. I was fueled by the need to save my people.

  Would I sacrifice myself to end her?

  Fuck yeah. In a heartbeat.

  I shoved Bastien back against the wall with my big wolf’s body, then stared into his eyes. Finally, I pressed my nose against his throat, and then, when he sighed and whispered, “Kait. No,” I wheeled around and streaked toward where Avis’s scent was the strongest. I sped down a long, endless hallway until finally, there was an old stone staircase, heavy with decades of dirt, blood, and mold, and I bolted up stairs that seemed to go on forever, and waiting at the top, as I had known she would be, was Avis Vine.

  The awful thing was…

  She was not alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Lennon. Shit.

  Avis had her arm wrapped around Lennon’s neck, and the witchwolf’s own wand pressed to her throat. “Kait. Finally. We were beginning to think you weren’t coming.” Avis laughed and when she did, two of her teeth fell from her mouth, long tails of blood trailing from their ends. “Fuck,” she said. “Oops.”

  She was dying. Her dead master’s magic had kept her alive long enough for her to fuck up the city, but it was failing fast. I padded toward her, but not too close, because I didn’t want to get a surprise hit with that wand.

  What I couldn’t understand was how she’d gotten her hands on Lennon, who I hadn’t seen much of lately. Lennon’s magic was strong, yet somehow, Avis had gotten her and her weapon—the wand I had coveted for myself.

  “Kait,” Avis said, “Your wolf would be fun to torture, but right now, I want to discuss things with the woman. Shift.”

  I only growled, my head low between my shoulders, imagining how much pleasure it would give me to tear out her throat and carry her head back to the humans, proof that she was dead. Then Lennon shrieked as Avis drove the end of the wand into the soft flesh beneath her jaw and Avis waited for her to go quiet before she once again ordered that I shift. “Time is running out, Wolf. Don’t make me tell you again. Shift, or I will hurt this bitch.”

  I could have walked away. I could have let Avis do whatever she was going to do to Lennon, and I could have waited patiently for another chance. But why would I do that? The vampire was right there in front of me, and she already had Lennon. Even if I traded myself for her, there were no guarantees that Avis would let her go. So I tensed my body to pounce, gathering my legs beneath me as I drew back my lips in a snarl of rage, and I started to attack.

  “I have Lucy,” Avis said, freezing me in place. “Well, I don’t physically have her, but she’s under my control. It was stupidly easy to get her. Stupidly easy. I’ll tell you about it after you shift.”

  I did nothing. She was lying. I couldn�
��t say that, because my wolf couldn’t speak, of course, but she knew what I was thinking.

  “Listen,” she said. “Do you hear that? That’s the sound of your city crumbling, Kait. The vampires, wolves, humans…all of them are all tied up together, and all of them are dying. You killed my love, and you killed me. So I’m going to kill the world.”

  I pawed the hard floor, trying to shut out the sounds of the battle. The room we were in was a circular room with a stone floor, short stone walls, and no roof. If I shifted, I could try to sling her over those walls so she’d smash herself on the ground far below. I would fight her, but as my woman, I wouldn’t be quite as strong as a vampire—especially one who, though it was failing, was bolstered by a mad magic. And I didn’t have my blade.

  She sighed. “You don’t believe me.” She caressed Lennon’s throat with the tip of the wand. “That hurts my feelings.”

  “Kait, please,” Lennon moaned. “Make her stop.”

  But still, I hesitated. I did need to shift. I could think more clearly than my wolf. She simply wanted to kill. She wasn’t as concerned as I was with saving people. She wasn’t as attached to Lucy or worried about a witchwolf.

  I slipped another couple of steps closer to Avis.

  “Larry,” she yelled, suddenly.

  A vampire moved from the wall, a vampire neither I nor my wolf had seen, sensed, or smelled. He moved and suddenly he was there. Fucking vampires.

  “Show her,” she said. “Kait, don’t eat my friend Larry. You’re going to want to see what he has to show you. Oh don’t worry, it’s just a picture.”

  The changes in Avis were astounding, really. No longer was she the mad, wild creature who seeped magic and showed little of the human she’d once been. Now she seemed more human. Maybe as the magic faded, so did the feral creature Axton had created.