I turned back to them as Andrew stood up. Kage, sitting back on his heels, had his jeans on and was fumbling with his shirt.
“Kage?”
“Fine.” He didn’t look up.
“Can you see?”
“Fine,” snapping. “Go talk to the vampire.” He had to feel the back of its collar to be able to pull his shirt on the right way, but must have been able to make out shapes and light as he reached next for his socks and boots beside him.
Blinking back tears, I stood … stepped forward to hug him, kiss him, tell him I was sorry. But I didn’t. I only stood, trembling, while he focused on the sock, breathing fast with pain, struggling with one sock at a time.
Andrew touched my elbow. I turned away with him, holding the book, wiping my eyes with the back of my free hand.
“He’ll be all right,” Andrew said under his breath as we walked back out to the courtyard to meet Gavin.
“How do you know?”
“It’s soft tissue. I’m not an optometrist, but chances are. Give it time. A few days, a few changes, whatever’s going on will knit itself back together.”
“It was my fault. He was saving me and it took me an age to get myself together enough to help him.”
“Hey.” Andrew stopped on the shell and faced me. “None of this is anyone’s fault. We all thought this was the lead to follow. We all wanted to be here. We all fought back. It just is. Moon’s luck. No one’s fault. And he’ll be all right anyway.”
I nodded, wiped my eyes again, and took several long breaths before we went on to Gavin.
It had stopped raining. The night still, damp, thick with the scent of lavender, a hint of lingering cinnamon, and death.
“I’m sorry for all the trouble,” I said carefully.
He crossed his arms, glaring at me. “Sorry enough to do something?”
“What do you mean?”
“About the shifters? These attacks?”
“I told you, we’re not hunting you. No one in the South Coast Cooperative is running around after vampires. We didn’t even know about your losses.”
“Fine. I believe you. Cold, dark eyes boring into mine. What does that leave? A whole world full of shifters who hate vampires and break truces. If you think everyone’s living like your quiet coastal packs you really do have your head in the sand.”
I watched my own thumb rub along the corner of the tome. “You still think shifters are doing this, then?”
“Who else? Mundanes? They don’t have the abilities. That leaves shifters, casters, or the fairy folk—and they never hurt anything but themselves by their own curiosities and bond to an Earth that mundanes are set on ravaging.” He held up right and left hands like scales. “Shifters, casters. Here you both are.” Glancing between me and Andrew. “Which one of your people has the greatest thirst for blood?”
I hesitated. “I don’t know how, or why, casters could do this. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It did cross our minds that it could be other shifters. In fact … someone suggested as much right from the start. But that hasn’t led anywhere because we couldn’t find urban shifters or any other leads to follow as to which shifters could do such a thing.”
“Have you asked?”
“Asked?”
“Before you harass my people? Did you ever go to the Mountain Pack? Or that classless bunch in Wales? And ask? Did you investigate the shifters? Or only break and enter—?”
“Okay, I get it. But we had motives and solid evidence for vampires. We don’t have anything on shifters.” That wasn’t true, but I didn’t elaborate.
“You have history, my girl. Why do you think we think it’s shifters savaging us?”
“There … were once wars between shifters…”
“Once?” He snorted. “Is that what they’ve told you? Please.” With a wave of his hand and roll of his eyes. “Those barbarians have been killing each other off for thousands of years. The only reason they’ve changed tactics today to slay wolves and vampires undercover would be to throw off suspicion and save their own tails so they don’t start an all-out war. Simply pick off the shifter groups and undead they don’t fancy.”
I glanced at Andrew.
He shrugged. “I don’t know our history. You’d have to ask lady-hair.”
“Of course you don’t know anything or you wouldn’t be here,” Gavin sneered. “Shifters have been their own worst enemies since the dawn of time and blamed mundanes and undead for all their problems so they don’t have to feel bad about themselves. I don’t know all the lore of the shifter wars. It takes a shifter. But find someone who does. Find the truth of what has gone before. No sugarcoating, no blaming outsiders, and find where it adds up to today.”
He held out his hand.
I handed him the book.
“Did you know that gamekeepers on large estates like this used to be poachers?” Gavin asked as he took it. “Gamekeepers, of course, being responsible for catching poachers, you know.”
I looked back into his eyes. “No, I didn’t know that.”
“It’s a pity you’re so inept at what you are doing. Perhaps you should consider asking a poacher if he knows anything about poaching. Instead of asking the pheasant.”
“Thank you. And … sorry for the rough night. For all of us. Gavin? Do you … have a mobile? Any kind of phone?”
“Certainly not,” he snapped and spun away, passing the book to one of the two vampires waiting with him, then waving them off. “Go, wait for me. Do not take it to Mother.” He turned back to me, dropping his voice. “Aside from electricity and a very few other modern conveniences, technology is not permitted under Mother’s roof. We live in the old ways, plus lightbulbs and horseless carriages, you see.”
As he talked, Gavin produced an iPhone in a slim black case from an inside pocket of the silk and velvet smoking jacket. “I would say we’re waiting for her to die so we can get on with our lives. But she’s already been dead nearly three hundred years. That’s the trouble. And so are the rest of us. So what’s a fellow to do? Are you going to give me your number or not?”
I did, warning him about needing to add the exit code and US country code. Then I added his to my phone.
“Since, it seems, we have every reason to believe the persons slaying your particular class of shifters and the English undead are one in the same,” Gavin said, pocketing the phone again, “perhaps we could correspond should either of us make an enlightening discovery.” He looked over my head as he spoke, as if busy considering a change in the weather.
“Yes,” I said. “I was thinking the same. And … good luck, if we don’t meet again. I hope we find who’s responsible.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to meet me again,” Gavin still looked vaguely around. “I’ll be quite beastly in another six months. Unrecognizable in a year.”
“I forgot. Sorry to hear that.”
“Yes, well, don’t go the same way.” He looked at me. “The way your merry band is currently operating as if you haven’t an eggcup worth of brains between you, I’m surprised we’re meeting while you’re still alive at all. You should try harder to keep it up if you want to solve this crime. Death makes so many normal things one used to enjoy extremely inconvenient, or downright impossible. Sunlight, for example. And food. You know what I miss?”
“What’s that?”
“Soft, salty, creamy Munster cheese. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” He sighed.
“You can’t eat once you’re dead?”
“Oh, no, no, no. We have no proper digestive system at all. Human blood sustains us. But, fancy fettuccine Alfredo? Too bad. Ever craved a dill pickle for seventy years?”
“You haven’t been dead seventy years, surely.”
“No, I was born earlier this year. But give me time, my girl, give me time. I hope you have a license to keep all those animals. They appear to be ready for the off.”
I looked around. My pack did indeed seem to have mostly gotten themselves up, dressed, not vomiting, and major b
leeding under control. Now rolling the bikes out of the shelter into the clearing night.
“Well…” He offered me his hand. “Don’t die too soon to catch the killer.”
“Thank you.” Though Andrew tensed beside me, I took Gavin’s hand in a brief shake. “Maybe we’ll be in touch. And I hope you have a pleasant death. You could … smell a pickle? How did you make that cinnamon roll smell so strong, by the way?”
Gavin smiled smugly, rocking back on the heels of his polished shoes. “One of my more clever ideas, I must say. That smell, my girl, was all in your heads.”
I smiled also. “I’d begun to suspect as much. And will you be able to get the Blood Tome back to the bookkeeper?”
“Oh, yes. I shall likely have to take it myself, it’s so terribly important to keep up the records and events and note the losses of late.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“No, no—” He flapped his hand. “If it gets me out of the house and away from Mother it’s worth any voyage as long as it can be accomplished by night. The old bat doesn’t like to let me out of her sight. At least in another fifty or hundred years I can look forward to being too mental to care.”
“That’s looking on the bright side. If you do find anything out on your side, you’ll let us know? And maybe we’ll solve this thing soon enough that you’ll still be sane to enjoy the moment.”
“My, but that would be a treat. Cheerio. Mind the fleas.” He strode back to the dimly lit doorway while Andrew and I returned to the bikes.
Zar and Andrew were in the best shape of anyone so I rode with the former, Kage the latter, and we made our slow way out of the courtyard, around the outbuildings to the private road, past the bridge to our right, then off down the long straightaway in the dark while the vampires watched us go.
Chapter 21
We had to stop a few times on the road. Jason and Isaac were so sick and feverish from the venom they’d received without changing their shape that they could hardly drive. And certainly should not have been if anyone had had a better idea for getting both them and the bikes back.
The second time we pulled over and Jason sank to his knees with his head against the front tire of his motorcycle, not moving for five minutes, I told him to leave it. We would call a cab, leave some of the bikes, and get us all back to The Gables.
They seemed to feel I was overreacting, possibly hysterical. Zar only offered soothing words, telling me not to worry. They never actually considered calling for assistance.
We got there late, over an hour after we’d left the manor. But we got there.
I tried to take stock, to see what they needed, help if I could, when we returned quietly to the three rooms. Again, they seemed to regard this at best as my being in a fragile state myself, needing to go lie down. At worst, that I was mettlesome.
Kage had reverted to not acknowledging me. Jason’s fever had spiked so fast he was apparently delirious by the time Andrew got him upstairs—sweat streaking his face, mumbling about the beach and how far they would run. Andrew was photophobic and greatly favoring his left shoulder, hair still matted with blood. Somehow, he seemed to have escaped the vampires without a bite.
Isaac went up to my room, also feverish, more bloody, but more clear-headed than Jason. He was weak and shaking, but assured me he would be all right after a change. Zar had been bitten, but was in far better shape than the rest besides Andrew, also having suffered only light injuries. Jed had already changed, healing over several flesh wounds and bruising, but had taken a lot of venom and there was something wrong with his left arm that he kept tucked in against his chest.
I asked if the bone was involved, and did he need anything. He growled something indistinct in Lucannis and tried to shut the door in my face. Zar was following him into the room, however, and caught it.
I looked in at the next room to Kage feeling for the edge of the bed. Andrew had just helped Jason into the bathroom and he was vomiting again in the toilet.
“We’ll set you up a pallet, mate. Change when you’ve got your guts back and we’ll get you a spot right here by the door.”
I returned to my own room where there was an extra blanket in the small wardrobe. Isaac was in the bathroom in there, hunched over the counter and painstakingly peeling off his bloody clothing, panting in fast, shallow breaths. I grabbed a bottle of water as well and returned to the room down the hall.
Kage lay across the bed, face down. Andrew was helping Jason undress, swearing in mixed English and Lucannis. I moved aside the one chair in the room and spread the folded blanket in a spot beside the bathroom door for Jason to curl up, then looked in at them.
“Jay? Come on, meat-head. Got to change or you’re going to get worse. Stay with me. Jay?” Andrew was on his knees on the bathroom floor, holding onto Jason, who seemed to be trying to lie down.
Shirt off, skin running with sweat, he shivered violently, making the long, slender chain around his neck vibrate. Bite marks and trails of blood crossed his back, shoulder, neck, and left forearm. His abdomen was a mass of dark bruising where Gavin had kicked him. His eyes were shut and he was talking constantly in a low murmur.
“One for you and one for me. We’ll go the same day, Switch. And she’ll make one for you and one for me. You want caramel, don’t you?”
Andrew pulled the shirt free of his arm and dropped it on the floor.
“Jason, can you hear me? You’ve got to change, buddy. This will get really bad if you don’t change.”
I crouched down to pull Jason’s boots and socks off. Andrew glanced up, but did not seem pleased to see me.
“One for you and one for me,” Jason repeated thickly, hushed, as if talking in his sleep. “What did Sarah bring you? I can’t remember, Switch. Can we do it again? Why are they just once?”
“Moon, Jay. Look at me. Jason?”
Jason tucked his head against Andrew’s chest, streaking Andrew’s shirt and the floor with blood while he curl down as if in bed.
“Hey, focus. Just for a second. Come back and change, Jay. If you don’t change this thing is going to fuck with you so bad you could be off your feed for weeks. Do you want that? Come on, Jay.”
“Marshmallows,” Jason whispered, smiling a little as he continued to shiver against Andrew.
I jumped when Kage stepped up beside me. Guided by the bright bathroom light, he felt along the doorframe as he sank to his knees, shoving me aside with his elbow as if I were part of the door. I scrambled to my feet behind him. He felt his way to Jason to drag off his jeans and underwear, then lifted him bodily into a sitting position so he faced Kage.
“Jason!”
Jason also jumped and opened his eyes.
“Put your bloody fur on.”
“What?” Jason blinked, reaching uncertainly to Kage’s shoulder.
“Put your fur on, now, or go sleep in the other fucking room again.”
“I can’t, Kage. Dressed…”
“No you’re not. Change.”
“Don’t feel good…”
Kage shook him. “Where’s your fur? Where do you find it?”
“Find it … inside…”
“Eight fingers, eight toes,” as Kage spoke, Jason began to recite with him. “Two ears, a twitchy nose. Wag a tail, bite a bone, fleet as a deer, strong as a stone.”
Then Kage gave him another shake. “So are you a pup who doesn’t know what you’re doing? Chanting rhymes? Or can you change?”
“I can change…”
“Then change! Find your fur!”
Jason shuddered, twisting in Kage’s arms, and I stepped back, quickly turning so I didn’t have to see it.
Kage felt his way once more to the bed and collapsed while Andrew remained, talking to Jason.
“Starting to feel better? I told you, you daft sod. Going to be sick again? Come on and we’ll get your bed sorted.”
A bit of scuffling and shifting about and I stepped back over as Andrew emerged from the bathroom and almost walked
into me.
“What are you doing?” he snapped.
“I wanted to help. And know he’s all right. If there’s anything I can do—”
“No.” Andrew took my arm. “There’s not.”
Jason lay sprawled full-length across the bathroom floor, his tail in the shower stall and his head almost in the doorway, ribs heaving below the raven coat as he panted, his long, pink tongue draped on the floor—which was still smeared with his blood. He looked like roadkill, but, spotting me, he gave a great effort to heave himself onto his chest and roll up his tongue.
Andrew was pushing me away. “Just stay there, Jay.” Out the door and into the hall, pulling that door shut behind him. “Go to bed. There’s nothing you can do, all right?” Waving me on for my own door. “We’re fine.”
“Why are you all acting like that?”
He was about to leave, but turned back to face me. “What do you want us to act like?” Angry, yet keeping his voice low in the hall. “Like we’ve been through the mill? Like a bunch of dead things just tried to kill us and we barely made it out and some of us might be scarred for life? Do you want us to act like that? To what end? It is what it is.”
“But you need help when you’re hurt. Everyone does. You’re a pack—”
“Yeah. But not from you.”
“So I’ve noticed. Jason will be dehydrated. And your pupils aren’t contracting. You have a concussion—”
“Sure, I probably do. What do you want? Want to cast a spell and make it better? Want me to go to hospital?”
I just stood there for a second, his tone stinging more than the words. “Sorry.”
“Look—” He cast around in the hallway. “We’re … predators. A fight between us, or a rat bite, that’s different. This…” He gestured helplessly, then rubbed his eyes with thumb and forefinger. He let out a very slow breath and dropped his hand. “We don’t want you to see us like this, all right?” His voice had changed completely. “Just go to bed, Cassia. Please.” He’d almost never called me that.
He walked back to his room.
Feeling even more awful, I did so. Isaac had pushed the door shut. He lay in his white fur against the wardrobe, out of the way, on his chest, forepaws extended, head down, wanting to rest his chin alongside them, but just elevated enough to pant. He would have been sprawled on his side with his tongue on the floor—just like Jason before spotting me—if not for his own pride. I was sure of it.
Moonlight Betrayal: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 5) Page 12