“Still—”
“Dante, no.” She struggled to sit upright.
He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently back down. “Lily, don’t.”
She collapsed onto the bed with a sigh. “You love her. She loves you.” She took a deep breath. “If you suspected me of a crime, would you tell someone as soon as you suspected?” Her voice was stronger now, steady. “Or would you wait until you knew for sure?”
“I wouldn’t wait if I thought people’s lives would be in danger.” He stared at his hand holding hers. “She should have told me.”
“And that’s the problem, isn’t it?” His sister sent him an arch look.
“What is?”
“That she didn’t tell you.”
“We’re partners,” Dante said in defense. “Colleagues.” That was a more accurate term than “partner.”
“You’re more than that and you know it.” Lily closed her eyes. “Don’t let this come between you, Dante. I’m all right.”
He studied her, his heart finally beginning to relax from the galloping pace it had been keeping since he’d found her lying on the floor of her bedroom. “I can see that.”
Her eyes opened. “I feel a little strange.”
He frowned. “Is something wrong? Should I call a nurse?”
“N-no,” Lily said slowly. “But I feel different.” Wonder filled her voice. “I feel strong. Really strong. For the first time in a long time.”
Dante tightened his hand around hers. He knew what this meant. His sister was now a werewolf.
His jaw tightened. Damn Tori and damn her brother. It was a good thing she didn’t have any other family members here. Who knew what kind of havoc they’d wreak?
And what did this mean for him and her? Was there even a him and her? He knew he loved her, but he wasn’t sure what kind of future they could have together after this.
Two hours later the doctor who’d patched him up came into Lily’s room. In deference to the sleeping woman, he whispered, “We have the results of your test. All negative.” He gave an encouraging smile. “You won’t turn into a werewolf.”
Dante murmured his thanks and stared with unseeing eyes at the hospital bed. This was what he’d wanted, wasn’t it? To remain human? But now, hearing it stated in definitive terms, his heart sank.
His only family in this world—his sister and his lover—would live forever. All too soon he’d be just a blip on their memories.
Chapter Nineteen
Tori paced the hallway outside the main council chamber. When she’d called Tobias and told him about her brother, he’d ordered her to report in immediately. To say he hadn’t been pleased would have been a massive understatement. She’d arrived at the council building almost three hours ago and had been kept waiting. That was never a good sign.
She figured they were trying to determine what to do with her. She heaved a sigh. She’d be silvered for sure, she knew it. And it was no less than she deserved. She’d really mucked this one up.
Finally, the door swung open and one of the guards, a werecat named Jeff, came out. “They’ll see you now,” he said. He was blond haired and had a husky build, not at all like most other cat shifters, who were lithe and sinewy.
As she walked forward she asked softly, “Who’s in there?”
“Caladh, Tobias, and Vida.” His voice sounded almost apologetic.
She blew out a breath. Caladh and Tobias she was fine with, but Vida Undset…Oh, boy. The werewolf member of the council had come through the last rift in 1939, so she wasn’t that old, but boy was she formidable.
Tori walked into the chamber, forcing herself to keep a confident stride even though she was quaking on the inside. She came to a halt a few feet from the large mahogany table behind which sat the three council members. She bowed her head and waited.
“This is most distressing, Victoria.” Caladh’s voice was low and rough with disappointment. “We had higher expectations of you.”
She looked up. “I know, my lord.”
“If you suspected your brother, you should have come forward immediately, not waited until people died. Until a police officer and his sister were attacked.” Caladh shook his head. “Most distressing.”
She looked at Tobias and then Vida. Both wore the same censure on their faces. “Do we know for certain if either of them have been turned?” she asked. It was killing Tori, that she could have prevented it by simply doing her job.
The three councilors looked at her in silence for several long moments, then Caladh said, “The young lady has been turned. Detective MacMillan has not.”
Tori pressed her lips together to keep them from trembling. Two lives forever changed. Dante would never forgive her.
“When did you first suspect your brother of these crimes?” Vida asked. Her posture erect, the woman clasped her hands and rested them on top of the table.
Tori drew a bracing breath. “Not until Ash told me about items being arranged in rows of six. I couldn’t believe that my brother would do something so…so heinous, and I talked myself out of it.” She wet her dry lips. “I can only say that my love for my family clouded my judgment, and beg for the council’s understanding.”
“So this is why you did not tell Tobias about his nemesis being in town?” Vida’s eyes fixed on Tori.
Tori glanced at Tobias, whose gaze remained steady on her. So Tobias had told them about her relationship to Stefan. She’d expected it, really, but somehow it was still a surprise to get it thrown back in her face.
“Even knowing that Tobias has a formal writ,” Vida went on, “you delayed in telling him that Natchook is here.”
“Yes.” Tori clenched her fists to hide the trembling of her fingers. “Until Rand showed up two weeks ago, I had been alone in this world for almost a hundred and fifty years.”
“We have all been alone here, Victoria.” Caladh leaned back in his chair. “Tobias and I have both been here since 1793. We have no family here. In the last two hundred years we have made friends who became our family. Why could you not have done the same?”
“I did, but I also knew my brother was here. How could I not long to have him with me?” They had to understand. They had to.
Tobias folded his arms over his chest. His gaze held sympathy warring with chastisement. “And Stefan?”
This one she knew she was going to lose. “Many…most of the prets who come through the rift were criminals in the other dimension. It’s just a few, relatively speaking, who were considered to be political dissidents or religious heretics. Everyone who comes through the rift is given a second chance. Crimes they committed prior to their Influx are forgiven.” She spread her hands. “Why not Stefan’s?”
Tobias stood and slapped one hand flat on the table. “Your cousin used the rift to escape justice. Had he not, he would have stood trial and been found guilty. And while other murders would have resulted in a rift sentence, the penalty for assassinating a political figure—especially the leader of an entire planet—was death.” His nostrils flared. “Natchook…Stefan has been on borrowed time the moment he came through the rift. And it’s up.” He sat back down, no less intimidating. “Where. Is. He?”
“I don’t know. I swear.” When they all wore identical expressions of skepticism, she repeated, “I don’t know.”
“Phone number, then.” This from Caladh.
She shook her head. “I didn’t get it from him.”
“Oh, come on.” Vida’s eyes narrowed. “You honestly expect us to believe that you saw a cousin you haven’t seen since before your Influx and you didn’t even get his phone number?”
Tori took a breath and held it for a few moments, trying to hold onto her cool. She knew how this looked. And she didn’t like looking like an idiot, especially in front of her bosses. She exhaled through pursed lips and then said, “I saw him by accident for all of sixty seconds at the Devil’s Domain. I barely had the chance to say hello before he ducked into the back rooms where I’
m not allowed to go,” she added as if they didn’t know.
“Got hungry, did he?” Tobias asked.
Tori pressed her lips together. “I think, looking back on it, he saw Dante and didn’t want to be recognized.” She shot Tobias a look. There wasn’t much else she could say without opening things up for questions that might lead to the rift device. And at this point, neither of them knew if Caladh or Vida were aware of it. She could only acknowledge that she was aware Stefan was the one who had attacked and turned Nix into a vampire, nothing more.
Tobias seemed to realize he was treading on quicksand, for he leaned back in his chair with a low grunt and kept quiet.
“Getting back to the most pressing matter at hand,” Caladh said as he rested his forearms on the table. “Do you know where your brother is at least?”
“I don’t.” Tori knew she wasn’t scoring any points here. “But I give you my word, if I find him I will bring him in.” She couldn’t cut him any more slack. Not now, not after he’d killed people. Not after he’d attacked Dante and Lily.
“I’m sure you understand why we don’t trust your word.” Vida’s tone was as dry as cemetery dust. “You have failed us, Victoria. In no small way.”
Tori glanced at the three councilors. The sadness in Caladh’s eyes held her.
“Go home,” he told her. “We will contact the rest of the council and determine the punishment fitting of such dereliction of duty.” His voice softer, he said, “While I personally can understand your inaction, even your desire to believe the best of your brother, I cannot excuse the fact that because you did not speak up, lives have been forever altered. Lives have been lost.” He looked over her shoulder at the security guard standing by the chamber doors. “Jeff, you and Conal go with her.”
So they were placing Tori under house arrest, sending her home with a werecat and a fey warrior. It wasn’t like she had even thought about running, but they were going to make sure she didn’t.
Caladh turned a stern gaze on her. “If you hear from your brother…”
“I’ll let you know.”
“You’d better.” This came from Vida.
They dismissed her, and she turned and walked out of the chamber with her head held as high as she could. She knew she’d screwed up, but what else could she have done? She didn’t have concrete evidence that Rand had gone rogue. A hunch wasn’t enough to turn in her only brother. As soon as she’d had definitive proof, she had come forward.
Only it had been too late to keep Lily from being hurt. Damn it. She should have said something sooner. Whatever punishment the council decided to lay on her, she deserved it.
“Hang on a minute,” Jeff said. He went to the security desk, picked up the telephone receiver, and punched in a number. When it was picked up on the other end, he said, “You and I have guard duty.” He listened for a moment, then muttered, “Tori Joseph.” He glanced at her. “I’ll explain it later. Just get up here. We need to go.” He hung up the phone and walked back to her. “At least they didn’t tell me to chain you up,” he said softly, a slight smile tilting one side of his mouth.
Just then Vida came out of the chamber holding a silver bangle.
Tori drew in a breath and extended her arm. The werewolf councilor fastened the bangle around her wrist, using a small key to lock it in place. She pocketed the key and went back into the chamber.
“You were saying?” Tori asked, trying to ignore the slight discomfort she felt from the silver against her skin. At least it was no longer a full moon. She didn’t want to go through that again.
Though she should prepare herself. That might be what the council decided was warranted.
“Sorry.” Jeff appeared as uncomfortable with the situation as Tori was.
She heard the door to the basement open and looked to see Conal Riordan headed their way. The fey warrior was about six five or six, broad shouldered, lean hipped, with a loose stride that would put a cowboy to shame. He wore a gun strapped to his thigh. Dark hair brushed his shoulders, and green eyes held irritation as they fell on Tori. “I was winning,” he muttered. “Aces over eights.”
“That’s the dead man’s hand,” Jeff said. “It’s probably best we interrupted the poker game.”
“Hey, just ’cause Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back while holding that hand doesn’t mean everyone who draws those cards is going to die.” Con scowled at Jeff as he stopped beside them. “Are we ready?”
Tori sighed. She wasn’t scoring points with anyone today. “Let’s go, boys,” she murmured. They exited the building and she stopped beside her Mini Cooper. “How do we want to do this?”
Con took one look at the vehicle and scowled. “You ride with her. I’ll drive my car.”
Yeah, she figured he’d have a hard time folding that big body into her Mini. Without a word, Jeff got in the passenger seat. Tori seated herself behind the wheel and started the car, waiting until she saw Con pull his cherry-red Camaro behind her. She pulled out and drove home, making sure not to lose Con at any traffic lights.
Once at home, she parked the Mini in the carport and headed inside, Jeff and Con right behind her. As soon as she unlocked the front door and pushed it open, she knew something was wrong. So did her bodyguards. Con immediately shoved her behind him. “Stay with her,” he said.
Obviously not talking to her.
Rand was home—she could smell him. There was also another person’s scent, one she hadn’t smelled in over a week. Stefan. He’d been here, too.
She could also smell blood. Someone had been wounded. Rand? She put her weight on one foot and then the other, anxious to get inside to check on her brother.
In a few seconds, Con called out, “Tori, you should get back here.”
She ran to her brother’s bedroom and found him on the floor. Con was already on the phone talking to dispatch. She vaguely heard him order an ambulance and a security force.
Tori knelt beside Rand. His green eyes were glazed with pain. Blood stained the right side of his shirt. She unbuttoned it and carefully lifted the material away from him. A bullet wound between his fourth and fifth ribs still oozed blood. Now she knew which one of them had been hurt.
“Damned cop had silver bullets,” Rand muttered from between clenched teeth. “Last shot caught me in the side.” He gave a short laugh that ended in a moan. “That hurts. Bullet’s still in me.”
She looked up at Con.
“Ambulance should be here in a few minutes,” he said.
Turning her gaze back to her brother, she asked, “You attacked Lily with a bullet in your side?” At the thought of Dante’s sister lying on the floor, bleeding from several bites, anger flooded her anew. Rand was damned lucky he was hurt, or he’d have gotten it from her.
He gave a weak nod. “I thought if I shifted to human and back to wolf again it would push the bullet out, but I think it made things worse.” He coughed and then groaned.
“Why, Rand? Why did you attack Dante? Even worse, why would you attack his sister?”
Rand’s lips tightened. “The cop had it coming. He was taking you away from me. As for the girl…” He coughed, blood mixed with spittle coating his mouth. “She was in the way. I followed you that night, you know. When you went there for dinner and spent the night with him. I saw him put the device into his gun safe the next morning. I knew Stefan would be pleased if I were to return it to him.” He looked highly satisfied with himself. “Plus, I wanted to make the cop suffer. He shot me.”
“You attacked him!” Part of Tori wanted to shush him, keep him from talking about the rift device in front of the two guards, but the larger part of her didn’t care. She needed answers, because she didn’t understand his reasoning. Had he lost his grip on reality? “They’re my friends, Rand. I can’t believe you would…” She reached out and grabbed a jacket off the end of his bed and draped it over him. “I don’t understand any of this. Why did you do it?”
“I never meant…I didn’t want to betray you,” Ran
d whispered. “That’s why the other attacks happened outside of your jurisdiction. I didn’t want to jeopardize your job.”
“Oh, give me a freaking break.” Tori was torn between being worried for him and just being plain mad. “Admit it. You didn’t want me to catch on to what you were up to. Besides, the last attack where you killed someone took place in my quadrant.”
“I lost control. I got a taste for flesh. For blood.” He coughed and winced. “Stefan said…” He bit his lip and then met her eyes. “He said that I could prove my worth to those in the group who didn’t have faith in me. He said I could join him. I could be one of his lieutenants if I turned people.” He drew in a breath and then winced. “I needed something to believe. Someone to believe.”
“Rand, there are all kinds of things you could have chosen to believe in, like honor, courage, and virtue, which mean more than money and power. That money and power mean nothing if you’ve sacrificed your integrity for them. And, maybe most important, that good always wins over evil. Always.” She stared down at him. Lifting a hand, she stroked the hair at his temple. “Those are things worth believing in, aren’t they?”
“Maybe.” His breath rattled in his throat. “What if I needed more? I’ve never been strong like you. Independent, not caring what other people think of you. I care. I wanted to have someone, just one person, look at me and say, ‘There goes a man who’s made a difference.’”
“Instead, you’ve helped increase the tension between humanity and the rest of us. You’ve probably cost me my job.” She held up her wrist to show him the silver wrapped around it. “And you hurt people I care about.”
He didn’t seem fazed by her accusation or by her current predicament. He ran his tongue over his dry lips. “But in the end the cop and his sister are fine, aren’t they? I mean, they didn’t die. And you, you’re good at a lot of things. You’ll be able to get another job. Me, on the other hand…Stefan’s been in touch with people in the other dimension. Additional holding cells are being built and criminals of all species are ready to be stripped of their bodies so they can start new lives here on Earth. There’ll be even more of us.”
Secret of the Wolf Page 23
