by Petra Landon
San Diego, California
As Sienna and the First Wizard walked into Wizard Headquarters, Jason strode up to them, his body thrumming with tension.
“I need ten minutes of your time” he said to Lady Esmeralda, his voice urgent. “This cannot wait.”
“Of course. We can talk in my office.”
“You should join us, Sienna. This concerns you, too” he added, as Sienna hung back.
Once in the First Wizard’s spacious office, Jason announced precipitously “I just got off the phone with Duncan. There’s been an assault in San Francisco — Wizards targeted the Alpha.”
“What kind of assault?” Lady Esmeralda inquired, her brow furrowed. Her relationship with the Guardians was at its lowest point during her twenty-five year tenure. If the assault was the GCW’s attempt at stymieing the investigation into Bethesda, she’d be forced to make some uncomfortable decisions.
“He was shot with silver bullets and exposed to silver for over a day.”
“How is he, Jason?” Sienna asked urgently. The Alpha had enabled her to be part of the investigation into the past. Without his assistance, she’d have been relegated to San Diego. She had a lot to be thankful to him for.
“Duncan says he’ll be fine” Jason assured her. “He’s recovering.”
“Is it the Guardians?” Lady Esmeralda asked, her expression grim.
“The Shifters suspect it might be. Duncan says the attack was very personal. He thinks it’s someone with a serious grudge against the Alpha.”
Sienna looked puzzled. “Using silver against a Shifter is rare, but not unprecedented, Jason. Why do they think it was personal?”
Jason hesitated. “The Shifters don’t want to advertise this yet” he warned with a glance at the First Wizard. Sienna, he knew, understood how the Pack worked by now.
Lady Esmeralda nodded. This was very serious. If a Guardian or someone from Headquarters was involved, it would place her in an uncomfortable position.
“After poisoning him with silver, they confined him with a Wizard.”
“They were hoping he would lose it” the First Wizard whispered.
Sienna, her eyes stark with fear, looked at Jason. “Which Wizard?”
Jason shot her a glance from the chocolate brown eyes and she blanched in response. “Not … Tasia?”
“It was Tasia” he admitted. “But she’s safe, Sienna. You can guess how enraged the Pack is. There was a camera to capture the attack when it came.” The last was added softly.
Sienna collapsed heavily into a chair with a blind look on her face.
The First Wizard, her visage bleak, stared at her niece.
“It’s starting again” she murmured. “Just like twenty-five years ago.”
She turned to Jason. “If this has anything to do with us, the Shifters will not forgive us. Faoladh will not forgive me” she reiterated.
“The Shifters are out for blood” Jason admitted. “We have a day until Merceau is back on his feet. Duncan hinted strongly that we ferret out quickly if anyone at Headquarters is involved.”
Lady Esmeralda paled.
“If it turns out to be a Wizard, we have to distance ourselves from him or her, First Wizard.” Jason’s warning was blunt.
Lady Esmeralda roused herself. This was no time to crumple.
“Yes, we do” she agreed soberly. Faoladh had stood by her, on this and other matters. She could not betray him like this. If she did, he would never forgive her.
“There are still some Guardians who listen to me.” She knew Jason was persona non grata because of his work with the Shifters. Even his friends in the GCW would not help him openly, and time was something they did not have. She’d have to put other Guardians on this to resolve it quickly, before it got completely out of hand.
“I’m checking on the whereabouts of Ted Anderson as we speak” Jason said. “He has reason to hate Merceau’s guts.”
“I can’t believe a Wizard would do something like this, Aunt Minnie.” The words were compelled out of a shell-shocked Sienna. “And Tasia — to throw her to the dogs as a means to an end, to exact revenge on the Alpha … I can’t believe it!”
“We have a history, Sienna” the First Wizard said heavily. “You know some of it about Bethesda. But in the past too, there have been Guardians willing to look the other way when one of our own has stepped beyond the pale. And before the GCW, we had her. We’ve a long history of putting on blinders with our ambitions, willing to destroy everything in the misguided notion of building a better and more equitable world.”
“Does Faoladh know, Jason?” she asked him, as Sienna fell silent again.
He shook his head. “They’re waiting for Merceau to get back on his feet before they inform him.”
“I’d like to fly to San Francisco as soon as possible, Jason” Sienna announced abruptly.
Lady Esmeralda looked surprised.
“These are my friends, Aunt Minnie. They’ve been very good to me and I’d like to be with them right now.”
“I’ll wrap up quickly, Sienna” Jason promised. “But give me a day, just in case the First Wizard needs me. We leave at first light the day after tomorrow.”
Chapter 13
The Alpha reclaims his Pack and Tasia gains acceptance
The Lair buzzed with excitement and anticipation. Shifters thronged the hallways, corridors and stairs for a glimpse of the Alpha. Word had gone around that he would return to the Lair, thirty-six hours after his brush with silver. His black bullet-riddled Audi had been recovered and now sat in its usual spot in the Lair lot. It was a symbolic message lost on no one — the Alpha was still in charge.
Joaquim brought the car to a halt before the Lair’s imposing gates. The Alpha exited the car. Sara and Tasia hopped off in his wake. Four cars drew up behind them and an array of Shifters exited them to flank their Alpha. These were Duncan’s Shifters, the Wyrs deputed to watch over the Alpha while he fought off the poison in his system. Tasia made sure to stick close to Sara, falling into place behind the Alpha with Joaquim and Michael, a big soft-spoken Shifter who Tasia guessed was high on the totem pole in Duncan’s were-pack.
Sara winked at her, her expression one of good-humored exasperation. Sara made no bones that she found the formality associated with Pack rituals and traditions tedious. She would not be here this morning had it not been for the Alpha.
He had stopped her with one softly-spoken sentence.
“It’s time the Pack knows how much trust your Were-Alpha reposes in you, Sara Manotti.”
Sara had stopped in her tracks.
“You and your were-pack mates have held the fort down admirably the last few days. Duncan chose you for the task for a reason. The Pack needs to see what you bring to the table, Sara. There are other qualities in a Shifter than unbridled aggressiveness and ambition.”
And Sara had joined him on his symbolically triumphant return.
They followed the Alpha into the Lair, a solemn procession. At the foyer, they were greeted with throngs of Shifters come to mark the momentous occasion. Some greeted the Alpha, a greeting he returned politely. There was a commotion, and Duncan, flanked by Luis, Atsá and Maartje, with the other Were-Alphas in tow, strode up to the Alpha. Raoul met the English Shifter’s eyes, an unspoken communication between the friends and allies, whose shared history and long friendship bound them together through thick and thin.
“Your Pack awaits you, Alpha.” Duncan bowed his head, a ceremonial gesture signifying the respect accorded to a Shifter he recognized as more dominant. This was Duncan symbolically bolstering the optics — playing to the gallery of watching Shifters.
“Thank you, Duncan.” Raoul acknowledged his friend and mentor before glancing at the avid crowd watching them.
“Show’s over, Shifters” he announced. “Unless you’re interested in continuing it in the Pack Room.”
Some of the Shifters melted away, their curiosity satisfied, while many joined the procession up the stairs. T
he Pack was safe and their Alpha was back, looking his usual formidable self, no worse for wear. Duncan and the other Were-Alphas had banded together to keep the Pack from splintering apart until the Alpha could retake the reins in his capable hands. For many Shifters, this was enough to ease any latent concerns. For others, there were still serious matters to be discussed, like what punishment to mete out to a Chosen who dared force a Shifter to fight for his soul. This went to the heart of what a Shifter was, the code he believed in. The assault had riled them. Eventually, as it became more widely known, it would cause serious disquiet in the wider Chosen diaspora, too.
Hawk slipped in between Sara and Tasia as they walked up the stairs, both Michael and Joaquim making way for him. He linked hands with both girls in the easy way he had.
“So.” He waggled his eyebrows at them. “What’s up?”
Hawk looked almost like his old self, the unusual gravity banished.
“Don’t ask me, Hawk” Sara retorted. “I’ve to be at work in thirty minutes. Tasia can give you all the gossip.”
True to her words, as they approached the Pack Room, Sara melted away. Her part here was done. The Alpha was back to his usual capable self, and something told her Tasia would be fine, too. She had little to offer for what was to come. Her skills would not be required when the Pack hunted the perpetrators.
Tasia followed Hawk into the Pack Room. It was unusually packed this morning. The chairs and couches had been shoved to one side, making it standing room only. The Alpha made his way to his usual position by the mantel, with Duncan and Luis flanking him on either side.
“Tasia and I were on our way back to the Lair on Friday night when we were ambushed” he opened. “We were shot at. I felt the sharp sting of bullets and the burn as it released its silver in me. When I woke up again, we were both packed in like sardines in a small cage. The floor was rough, the bars were hard and they burnt my skin when I rubbed up against them, which was often, since there was barely room for one, let alone two.”
There was silence in the room, the audience rapt as they listened to the Alpha recount his experience. Until now, it had all been whispers and conjecture. This was the definite account of what had happened.
“It was night, but I didn’t know how long I had been in the cage. I had so much silver in me, I could barely move. She’d been drugged to keep her co-operative. We were both in bad shape. My beotan was awake, roaring his demand to be let out.”
As his words died away, there was a collective intake of breath. He had used the ancient Wyr word for his beast. These were all Shifters and they knew what the Alpha had just admitted to them. The situation had been on knife’s edge. A momentary lapse of control and it would have been catastrophic for the Wizard locked into the cage with him. Had he been imprisoned by himself, he'd have posed no danger to anyone, but she had been placed in the cage for a reason — a sacrificial offering to tempt his beast out to play, after his control had been weakened by the exposure to silver.
Raoul let his eyes wander the room, searching for a pair of expressive gray ones. He found her, right by Hawk, as he had known. Their eyes tangled for a moment before he addressed the room again.
“The witchling was the first to note a camera in the room. It was dark, but she could see the pinpricks of swaying light in the cage. Somehow, the sight of that camera aimed at us helped me fight through the fog in my mind. We took out the camera, broke through the cage, and escaped our captors. I called Duncan, and the rest you know.”
The Shifters said nothing, their eyes glued to him as the Alpha narrated the experience without passion, almost clinically.
“Silver should never be used against a Shifter with the intent to make him lose his self. Therein lies death — or worse.” Like inadvertently savaging an innocent, Raoul amended silently, confident that the Shifters understood him well enough.
“Whoever is behind this will regret it before I’m done.” There was an underlying note of steel in his voice, despite the evenness of his tone. “This was not an assault just on me. This was an assault on Shifters everywhere — a blow to a Wyr’s very soul in an abhorrent and heartless attempt to crush it. Something dark has been let loose. I will bury the Chosen responsible for hatching it so that no one dares attempt this again. Anyone who has a hand in this, no matter how powerful or influential he is, will pay. I promise you this.”
Much later, with his Were-Alphas, Raoul was blunter about his intentions.
“Faoladh will hear about this. But first, I want to know who did it. They will rue the day. I’m done pussyfooting around.”
None of the Were-Alphas raised any objections. As the affair sank in slowly, it seemed to outrage the Shifters more.
“David Hamilton has been helping us trace the Wizards from the house, Raoul” Duncan said to him. “They were not local, and fled before we could get to them — probably took off the moment you escaped. But David believes they had help from the local Registry with renting the house; maybe more. He’s following up.”
Raoul’s expression hardened. Was he always fated to suffer such torture at Wizard hands, he wondered. The first attempt had left scars on him. Scars that would never heal. The latest had been more heinous in the unconscionable sentencing of the witchling, serving her up to be slaughtered without mercy.
“The Wizards can’t be trusted, Duncan” Elisabetta countered. “You know that. After what the Pack did to solve the muggings of Wizards in this city, they still let that Guardian go, and now they assist their brethren to attack us here, in our city. What makes you believe that David Hamilton is not involved himself?”
“No, Elisabetta.” Atsá spoke up before anyone else could. “This was not about power or getting the upper hand. This was ruthless and cruel. It was also targeted very specifically at the Alpha. Duncan is right. This is not about teaching some Shifter a lesson; it’s about the utter destruction of Raoul Merceau. In the process, if it also shatters the credibility of Shifters in Chosen eyes, that’s a bonus. David Hamilton has more to lose if the Alpha goes down, as does Mistress Franciszka. And we have no animosity with DiZeyla’s Ancients. I don’t believe this was planned by any local Chosen. They might have provided assistance without fully understanding what this was, but the mastermind is not local.”
“We’ve been following every lead to its conclusion, as Duncan asked” Luis summarized the state of the investigation. “David has given us a few more leads to follow, while he traces the Wizards that cut and run. He’ll find them a lot quicker than us.”
“Jason and Sienna will be here tomorrow.” Duncan turned to the Alpha. “He’s keeping his ear to the ground. The First Wizard has authorized an investigation into Wizard involvement in this.”
Raoul doubted the First Wizard would get anywhere, not with the dysfunction at the Wizard Headquarters.
“Bianchi?” he inquired. Bianchi had a Wizard connection — his paymaster. It was precisely the type of revenge the psychopathic leech would mount.
“Mistress Franciszka has confirmed that neither Bianchi nor his leeches have been in San Francisco since they were thrown out by DiZeyla. She’s also assured us that none of her leeches are involved.”
“You believe her?” Simeonov was skeptical. Notwithstanding what Atsá said, the leeches were crazy enough to go off the reservation. In their bloodlust, they might easily forget that the Alpha was their Mistress’ best bet of any kind of relationship with the Chosen in this city.
“I doubt any of Franciszka’s would dare” Raoul said grimly. “They can be sneaky and cunning bastards, but she controls them with an iron hand. I also don’t believe that she means me harm. Not like this. I’m not saying she wouldn’t like to see me taken down a peg or two, but she holds no animosity towards the Pack or me. And she knows me — she knows I won’t take something like this lightly. This is akin to a declaration of war, nothing less. Someone out there hates me like a rabid dog, beyond all reason. Someone willing to compromise everything to bring me down, including his
moral compass and what’s left of his humanity.”
Later, alone with Duncan, he was even more candid and very somber, allowing his mask to slip before his old friend.
“If they’d stopped at silver and caging me up like an animal, I’d be pissed as hell and hell-bent on revenge. Instead, they’ve awakened something far dangerous. A burning rage that won’t let me rest until I punish those responsible.”
“The Shifters feel the same, Raoul. You know that” Duncan said quietly. As will many Chosen when they hear about what was done to you, he added silently.
The gold eyes held a hint of the painful memories from the past.
“I’ve had worse done to me in the past. You know how bad that was, Duncan. But even then, it took ten months for me to reach breaking point because the witch depended on her magic to push me over the edge, not merely silver. But whoever pumped me with silver in that cage ….”
He paused, reflecting on the events of the night in question. “On Russian Hill, I was never in any danger of losing to my beotan. Not even close.”
He met Duncan’s gaze, the wise eyes that understood him as no one could.
“But when they put someone in the cage with me, all bets were off. One slip, a moment of madness, or even lashing out in confusion, would have been catastrophic. With that much silver in any Shifter’s body, the conclusion was almost guaranteed. When I think of how close I came to …” He took a deep breath. With her.
“They were sweetening the pot, Raoul, by dangling a Wizard before you” Duncan muttered. “They assumed that the silver, your past, the cage and her would be enough to push you over. As you say, a momentary lapse would be enough.”
Duncan’s expression changed subtly. Whoever had come after Raoul had done their homework. “Thanks to the San Francisco Registry, it’s well-known that Tasia is under the protection of your Pack. They thought that using her to bring you low would be fitting revenge, Raoul.”
Raoul grit his teeth as the memories of the cage washed over him, his desperation and terror at the dawning realization of his predicament and hers. They’d both survived unscathed, on the face of it, but he suspected that there would be repercussions from that night.
