Edie Spence [02] Moonshifted

by Cassie Alexander

  “She fought well, but—” Helen said, the words apologetic, the tone not.

  “I loved her.”

  “Then you are broken. Vampires do not love,” Jorgen said. Muscles rippled under Jorgen’s skin—furless or not, he was a force to be reckoned with. He held Helen protectively.

  Ominous howls began again.

  “What did her blood buy?” I asked aloud, because I needed to know that I hadn’t sold it too cheaply.

  “House Grey said that if we stole the blood from here for them, they would give us their blood in return. As they had once given it to Winter, prolonging his life.” Helen’s eyes looked over to the emissary from House Grey. “Their devil’s pact with my father cost me my husband’s life. How I loved my husband and hated my father for killing him.” She freed herself from Jorgen’s arms and threw herself at Anna’s feet. “Show us mercy. We repent.”

  The House Grey vampire coughed. “Your sentimentality is unbecoming.”

  “Dren, please kill him,” Anna said.

  The Husker hesitated. “To kill him will make you a large number of enemies, Sanguine. Enemies you might not want yet, in your illustrious five-hour-old career.”

  “I don’t think I care.”

  Dren shrugged and set his sickle to the Grey’s throat. “Don’t you want to know about Santa—” the Grey began. Anna didn’t look up. Dren finished his move and the vampire dusted like a cloud.

  The distant howling came nearer. Anna looked down to Helen now. “Such a meal I have not had before. No wonder we used to keep your kind as pets. Perhaps that can be your punishment. I’ll chain you to the end of my bed and drain you every night.”

  Lucas the wolf crouched at the edge of the circle, then bounded in. His wolf left him as fluidly as I knew it had arrived. He landed softly, on one knee, both hands touching down. Two other weres leapt in beside him.

  “Their punishments are ours.” He stood and turned to look at Helen. “What were you thinking? How could you shame us so?”

  “My father killed my husband to hide his secret, to buy his extra years of life. Fenris—my Fenris—died for my father’s secret use of vampire blood, so that no one else would know.” Helen picked up a handful of the slush beside her and threw it at Lucas’s feet. “Fenris Jr. was too young to lead, and the pack would never pick a woman. I had to let that bastard live until my son’s position was secure—then he went and got you to rule us!” Her face curdled in anger. “That was when I made my pact and told House Grey I’d raise an army to get the blood from here. They denied him vampire blood and Jorgen tried to kill him, but the bastard wouldn’t die. All of it was going to be ruined. All my waiting, all my patience, and for what?”

  Lucas’s face held pity for her mixed with horror. “I told you I was only going to be pack leader for the interim. Why didn’t you believe me?”

  “Have you ever known a man to step away from a throne?”

  Lucas clenched his fists at his sides. “I am not like him, Helen.”

  “That’s what all men say.”

  Anna moved to stand in front of Lucas. “I demand her life. A life for a life—it is the old way.”

  “We will punish her in our own manner. Take Jorgen instead.” The weres beside Lucas moved to grab Jorgen, and he fought back.

  “No!” Helen screamed, reaching for him as they dragged him off.

  “Is that the one who attacked you, Edie?” Anna asked. I nodded. “We’ll accept him then. His death shall be as you prefer.”

  I took two steps back. “What … if I don’t prefer it?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Sike did not die so that this one could live.”

  I waited, unable to speak.

  I could use needles on patients; I could debride painful wounds; I could hold a crying child down to push a feeding tube up its nose—and I could bleed a vampire. But could I, with my voice, give the command to kill a man?

  “If I may make a suggestion, ladies,” Dren said, stepping in. “I’ve always wanted a were for a Hound.”

  Anna looked at me, then back to Dren. “Do it.”

  It was better than death. Right? I didn’t fight when Dren took Jorgen in hand. I knew then I would always regret it. Dren pulled him outside the circle, and it was dark, so I couldn’t see, but I could hear Jorgen cry out.

  “No—” Helen whispered. “Samson, Lars, Nichola—when they questioned how Winter was living so long, he bought some of them off with blood. Take one of them instead!” she pleaded. At the back of the pack, in the shadows, some weres peeled away and ran off.

  Lucas snapped his fingers, and other wolves ran off after their traitors. “Who else?”

  “No one!” she said.

  “All right. Then we decide.”

  A high-pitched snarl began from inside the pack’s group. Helen blanched. “Fenris, no—”

  Fenris Jr. ran in, on four legs, then two, crouching in front of his mom. “Don’t hurt her!”

  Lucas swooped down and scruffed the boy, just like he was a puppy, holding him up by his neck.

  “No, Lucas—no,” Helen whispered.

  “Pack honor demands that your bloodline be punished. That means both of you.” Creatures with teeth and paws reached forward into the circle, grabbing hold of Helen, pulling her back into the dark. Lucas tossed Fenris Jr. to the ground.

  Fenris landed poorly, a tangle of arms and legs. I ran out to stand in front of him.

  “You can’t, Lucas. He’s just a child.”

  “Edie—get out of the way.”

  “I can’t let you do this, Lucas.” I looked to Anna for help, but she raised her hands as if they were tied. “You’ll regret it forever if you kill him!”

  “I’ll regret it forever if I let him live. I’ll be the pack leader who was dishonored.”

  “So? Who cares? No one cares about that! No one has to care!” I reached around behind myself to press Fenris Jr. tight.

  A phalanx of new wolves and wolfmen arrived, and one of them pressed through. It was deep black, with white splotches. When it reached the circle’s edge, the wolf skin fell away. Viktor stood there, finally without his hat. “I care. None of your bloodline deserves to lead this pack, not anymore.” Viktor moved into the center of the circle, shouting loud enough for all. “I figured it all out. All of it. Only none of you would have listened to me. I brought one of the drug dealers here—I interrogated him. Found out he got his drug—his Lobos Luna—straight from Jorgen.” The wolfmen shoved forward a man, who hit the pavement on his knees.

  The dealer was Jake. My heart stopped. How come Jake wasn’t out there with the rest of the crazed new weres? I couldn’t look behind me now to see how the Shadows were “taking care” of things. And Jake was looking down—soon he had to look up and see me.

  Viktor continued. “You’re not fit to lead, Lucas. Look at all this chaos in your pack. So many traitors. Kill the boy—and then fight me for your pack.”

  Lucas watched Viktor as the newcomer walked proudly around. “Who are you to tell me what to do?” Lucas asked.

  “I’ve watched all of your fights. I know where all your weaknesses are. To the Viktor will go the spoils!” Viktor said, thumping his chest, stepping aside.

  Lucas took three steps toward me, as though he were coming for Fenris. Fenris scrabbled behind me, reaching the edge of the circle at last. I heard the snarls as he changed into a wolf, and frightened yips as he ran away. Lucas made like he’d give chase, then whirled and took two low steps back at Viktor, punching out to shove his human hand into Viktor’s stomach, carrying Viktor upward with the force of the blow. Standing, he drew the other were onto his toes, his arm embedded in Viktor’s chest. “It seems I have your heart.”

  Viktor couldn’t say anything. His face went red, his rib cage straining the confines of his chest, gasping for air. Lucas went on.

  “No one tells me how to lead my pack.” He flung Viktor outside the circle, and the black wolf form enveloped him as he left it. “Heal—and heel. Don’t
offer me counsel ever again.”

  Lucas looked out at the rest of his pack, held his arms wide. “Is this settled? Is there anyone else?” His pack gave no response. “Good. No one harms a hair on Junior’s head. Bring him home safe, to me.”

  He turned toward me, sitting in the circle with him, and offered me a gore-covered hand. Since I’d already had one were-shot that evening, I took it. “You were born the wrong species.”

  I sagged with relief and exhaustion. “I don’t think so.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  Lucas left with his pack. I couldn’t imagine how Fenris Jr. would deal with things tomorrow morning. I had no doubt what the punishment for Helen would be. And what exactly had I condemned Jorgen to, giving him over to Dren? I didn’t want to know.

  Jake still hadn’t looked up. I wondered if the weres had hurt him or if he was fighting the Luna Lobos. “Jake?”

  He held his hand up, in a stop. “I’m fine. Just do what you need to do, Edie.” Normally, I would have fought him on that, only Anna interrupted us.

  “Is there anything else that needs doing tonight?” She put her hands on her hips and stood tall.

  I remembered what I’d been doing right before Sike died. “There is one more thing for me to confess to.”

  “Hmmm?”

  “I … destroyed a lot of blood. All of it, in fact. I didn’t think I could risk them getting it.”

  Behind her, Gina heard me and pumped her fist in the air.

  “Well, that was unexpected.” Anna said and looked around, calling out, “Shadows—”

  As the moon sank, the shadows of the trees were growing. The nearest Shadow answered her. “We can return the hospital to the way it was, and also many of these people. But we cannot find individual blood cells and return them to their original state. If they were here, perhaps. But they were washed away an hour ago, and denatured before that.”

  “Denatured by what?”

  “Chemical solvents.”

  Anna’s shoulders slumped. From behind, and the side, she must have looked dismayed. But when she spoke next, her eyes were lit up by power. “When the other Houses find out—” She shook her head, mystified at the future she was seeing, with an avaricious smile. “They will all be indebted to me. I will, of course, have to be gracious, and give them pint upon pint of replacement blood. For a nominal fee.”

  “You have it in you, after all,” I said.

  “That I do.” She gave me a private nod. “So be it, Shadows,” she said louder. “Hurry this process. Dawn comes.”

  I walked over to check on Rachel and Gideon. Gina came over to us.

  “I’ve never seen so many weres,” Rachel said in awe.

  “I’m glad Charles isn’t here. He’d be having a fit,” Gina said, crossing her arms. “I miss him.”

  “Me too.” I looked over at Gideon. “Are you okay? You’ll need a new hat.”

  Gideon held up his hand with his one missing antenna finger, and then gave me a thumbs-up.

  * * *

  Nearer the hospital, the weres were queuing. Where they’d once been intoxicated by werewolf water and controlled by House Grey, the Shadows took them over, setting them in orderly lines to deal with them one at a time. A wave of black washed over them one by one—weres with malformed hands and muzzled faces went in, and mere humans came out the other side. The survivors milled about, confused to find themselves suddenly in a hospital parking lot on a cold winter night, before dispersing.

  Some that went in didn’t come out at all, and others lost the strength to move on the far side—with the were-strength leaving them, some of them couldn’t move at all. One fell like a stone, and a second later a woman’s voice cried out.

  “Don’t worry,” said one of the horrible Shadow-things, feeling my gaze. “We can hide the dead.”

  “That’s awful—” I said.

  “Javier!” a woman screamed.

  “Shit.” I started hobbling over.

  * * *

  Luz held Javier as he gasped for air like a dying fish. She looked wildly around. “Where are we? How did we get here? What’s happening to Javier?”

  Oh, God. He was going to die out here in the cold. We were too far from the hospital to try to carry him in. The Luna Lobos that Luz had given him without me knowing had given him his legs back and healed his spine—but only for a time.

  “Luz—” I began.

  I didn’t know if she recognized me or just my bearing. “You! Help him!” She rocked him in her lap while he turned blue.

  “I can’t.” All the emergency services here were gone. All the technicians gone home. Four nurses, one of them incapacitated by merging with blinding judgmental light, were not going to cut it.

  “He’s going to die!” she protested. “Do something!”

  “Shadows?” I knelt down and hit a fist on the ground. In the shadow made by the ridge of a cement curb, I was answered.

  “His time has passed. We set things right, we do not change them.”

  Luz kept crying and rocking him. “Do something! Fast! I would give my life for his!”

  “Do you mean that?” Anna said as she arrived.

  Luz looked at Anna with fury in her eyes. “Of course I do.”

  “All right then.” Anna crouched and bit her own hand savagely. She shoved her bloody fingers into Javier’s lips, and he inhaled. Then she looked to Luz and held her hand out.

  “He’ll be fine now. Come with me.”

  Luz looked at Anna’s bloody hand.

  “You said your life for his. Are you honorable or not?” Anna shook her hand, blood dripping off it.

  Luz grabbed it. And when Anna let go, she reached out and stroked a line of blood on Luz’s forehead with her thumb.

  “Good. Stay with him for now. I will return for you.” She stood and began walking away. I hurried after her, and she spoke before I could. “I need a sister, not a child. I’ll turn her tomorrow night.”

  “Anna—Sike’s not a pet that can be replaced.”

  Anna drew up short. “I feel her loss more than you. You merely feel guilt,” she said, and I knew what it felt like to be stabbed by a vampire again. Her face softened as she looked up at me. “It is my right now to build my House. I saved his life, and the girl is willing. It’s the price of blood.”

  A group of vampires I vaguely recognized arrived. They were all the ones that’d been serving Anna-blood cocktails at the ascension earlier tonight.

  Anna gestured to include them in our conversation. “Normally the loss of so much precious blood would be an offense punishable by death. But you have already been at trial once before, and we both know how that turned out. There is only one suitable punishment left.”

  “What’s that?” Gina asked, taking my side, ready to fight.

  Anna smiled at her approvingly, then looked to me. “We will shun you, Edie. No one will contact you, on pain of death. This world will be closed to you now.”

  “Wait—what?” It was what I had wanted, to get away from all this. But I was still surprised.

  She stepped nearer and raised her hand to touch my cheek. “I swore not to hurt you, remember?”

  I nodded silently.

  “I meant it. I will miss you, Edie.” She stepped back from me, and I could almost feel a wall rising between us. She tossed me keys, and I caught them. “Take Dren’s car. Go home. Be safe.”

  “I’ll try,” I said, my throat tightening. It was the least I could do, after everything that had happened tonight.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Anna went to hang out with the others of her kind, leaving my co-workers and Jake in the moon’s dwindling light.

  I’d save Jake to deal with last. He was being so quiet. He must have been stunned.

  Rachel engulfed me in a hug, then patted me roughly. “You did it.”

  Gina was crying too hard to talk. She said it all in her hug.

  I saved Meaty for last. Meaty squeezed me tight, then grabbed my shoulders.
“Don’t look back, Edie. Just go.”

  After all this, Jake finally stood. “Can I get a ride home, Sissy?”

  “Sure.” I held out my hand to him, and he took it.

  * * *

  It was good to have a reason to stay composed on our walk to Dren’s car. Otherwise, I would have lost it. The Shadows spoke from the shadow of a lamppost that they made look like a scar on the ground.

  “Shall we fix him for you?”

  I looked to Jake. He seemed baffled. I shook my head. “No. He and I need to talk.”

  “As you like. No one will believe him anyhow.”

  The Shadow changed back to a shadow, and I unlocked the doors.

  * * *

  Dren’s car was nicer than mine. I wondered darkly if I’d get to keep it. Jake and I drove along in silence. I almost hoped he’d speak first—I sure as hell didn’t know how to start this conversation.

  “Jake—”

  “Turn here.” He pointed at an exit coming up.

  “But that’s not—”

  I looked at the hand. It wasn’t Jake’s anymore. I gasped, and then realized Jake was transitioning to look like Asher.

  “It’s the way to my house. I don’t have cab fare on me. Plus, I doubt we’d see any cabs,” Asher said, in his gentle British accent.

  I hauled my car over onto the on-ramp. A fleet of emergency vehicles was sprinting the other way—the Shadows had a lot to fix, before dawn. “You—you! You touched him, didn’t you!”

  Asher shrugged, as if it wasn’t worth making the point. “It wasn’t hard. Your brother loves you, deep down inside. I just had to convince him you’d be better off without him, to get him out of town. Four hundred dollars didn’t hurt, either.”

  I beat on my steering wheel.

  “Why? He’s safe—I saw him before I left tonight,” Asher said.

  “It’s not that, dammit—” I sank forward, shoulders slumped. I was glad the Shadows had kept him clean so far, despite his four-vial-a-day habit of paw-print juice. But who knew if the Shadows would keep him clean, now that I’d been shunned? Also, with the demise of his hookup for Luna Lobos, I had no doubt he’d find harder things to sell. He’d never know that all of its purported health benefits had been a placebo for him, entirely in his mind.