Dante got up and dressed as River set the hot tea she’d made for Evan aside to steep and cool.
“I can go with you, you know,” she said.
“No. Stay here. You aren’t a heavy. I don’t want you in the line of fire.”
She nodded. “Be careful, okay?”
He flashed her a smile. “Always.”
He stepped out of the tent and met Trevor and Étienne, who were outside waiting for him.
“We’re almost ready,” Trevor said. “Angel’s doing some last-minute arranging with vehicles.”
River stepped out of the tent behind him, and Étienne’s face suddenly brightened.
“Good evening, Mademoiselle River,” Master Étienne greeted.
She flashed him a smile. “Good evening, Master Étienne,” she said. “You’ll bring my brothers and his guests back all in one piece, won’t you?”
“But of course. Not one scratch. You have my word.”
River smiled again. “Good, I’ll hold you to that.”
He inclined his head. “As you should.”
She left to go fetch something more for Evan, and Étienne turned back to Dante. “Your sister is very… independent. It is hard to find a moment with her.”
Dante smiled. “She’s been busy.”
“Yes, she has. Already she knows more people than me. She speaks with everyone. You encourage this?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Dante asked. “She is alpha. Strength and independence in an alpha is very important, wouldn’t you agree?”
Étienne shook his head. “Of course, yes. But some here are… not so nice.”
“River is capable of handling herself,” Dante assured him. “And I’m not far away.”
“Even if she is speaking with your rivals?”
“You’re speaking of Master Nuh? Yes, I’m aware of that. She hides nothing from me.” Dante wondered why he was bringing that up. He and River spent hours after each long day discussing the packs here and how they were polarized in the politics of everything. She gave him a much fuller view of the packs after speaking with the alpha females.
His brows creased with confusion. “You send her to make peace?”
Dante snorted. “Are you serious? I don’t send my sister to do what I can do myself, and I have no intention of going to Nuh for anything. And unless he’s apologizing, I don’t need to see him. She likes his mate. They’re friendly. That is all. It has nothing to do with me.”
Angel arrived with his heavies. “Two vans and two cars. That should be enough, I hope,” he said.
Étienne glanced around at their group. “My pack will take the cars ahead and behind the vans. You can each take a van and split the darklings—”
“Nephilim,” Angel corrected.
“Yes, them.” Étienne didn’t seem worried about the potentially offensive name. “They can be split in two groups in the vans.”
Dante rubbed his temples and took a deep breath. This was going to be a very long night.
River returned right before they were getting ready to leave, and Dante caught her worried look.
“Be careful,” she told him.
“We will,” he said.
She flicked her eyes to Angel’s group. “You too, Master Angel.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Lazarus said.
“I’m sure you will, Lazarus,” she whispered and disappeared back into the tent.
They met Odin’s group a half an hour out at a roadside café. There were six Nephilim total, including the very young boy, Baardsen, the Elder Bauninsheg, the female Morgana, and two others Dante hadn’t met but had seen at the Meeting earlier in the week. Odin introduced them as Enoch and Tobin.
Odin moved across the room to speak with him while Angel spoke with the others and gave out introductions.
“What’s been happening on your end?” Dante asked.
Odin made a face. “Complications, and I still don’t have the answers they will want. Elder Bauninsheg has agreed to speak and try to answer the questions the best he can, but it’s all I could do.”
Dante sighed and rubbed his hand over his temples. “It’ll have to do. What was this about a problem you mentioned on the phone?”
Odin led him off to one side of the room away from the others. “We’ll have to have a more private conversation very soon, but there is someone who doesn’t want this to work.”
“That’s no surprise.”
“No, but… you must be very careful. Even among your own people.”
“Do you know who?”
Odin shook his head. “No, but someone doesn’t just wake up from what was done to put her to sleep in the first place. And it’s best not to point fingers, don’t you agree?”
Dante grunted his agreement. The complications were adding up. His brain was going to explode by the end of this week if they kept piling on him like this.
He grabbed his phone and called River as Odin rejoined the group. The low battery sign flashed at him, but a quick call was all he needed. He might not want her here, but she had other talents that could be very useful when they brought the Nephilim to the meeting tonight.
The long trip to the edge of the pack gathering was quiet and uneventful. The chain along the road leading into the pack gathering was opened for them, and they drove through.
“It’s pretty here,” Odin said.
A large house stood in the middle of fields, hills, and little spots of woods. Tents sprawled out in small clusters surrounded by small fires, and in the middle of the yard, a massive bonfire stood blazing, casting yellow light over the camp.
“I miss the mountains,” Dante said.
“Do you ever host these gatherings?” Odin asked.
“My pack house isn’t big enough. I don’t have the spare rooms for the top alphas.”
“It looked very big,” Odin said.
Dante smiled. “I have a big pack. If worse came to worst, I suppose I could, but it would be more like this. A bunch of tents for everyone, and all the woods would make situating them all a bit of a task.”
“Ah yes. I can see that.”
They stopped in front of the house, and Dante looked over Odin’s group. “Stay close.”
“Trust me, wandering is not something I’m willing to risk doing tonight,” Odin said. “I’ll keep an eye on my people.”
Dante tapped the weave, finding River, and felt her walking on the far side of the crowd with them as they picked their way into the house.
Much to Dante’s surprise, Odin remembered his manners, and each of the Nephilim brought the host pack a gift, which seemed to settle some of the tense crowd.
Dante caught sight of River through the throng as she wandered like a ghost, keeping a constant eye out for trouble. She wasn’t to engage, just warn him if she saw something. Lazarus was doing the same thing, leaving Santana at Angel’s elbow.
With the greetings out of the way, they were led into the main room. Odin bent to Dante’s ear. “Are there rules of conduct here?”
“Don’t insult the alphas, don’t touch anyone, don’t lie, and speak up to be heard if you must. Angel’s better at this than I am. Just follow his lead. And if you don’t understand something, ask. Don’t guess.”
Odin nodded. “And if… something goes wrong?”
“Just don’t kill anyone,” Dante whispered.
“This is not always easy to avoid.”
Dante shot him a hard look.
“Hmm, was that your sister?” Odin asked. “Is she prowling?”
“Yes,” Dante said softly. “Now shh. Pay attention to what you have to do, I’ll pay attention to what I have to do.”
15. Hate and Hybrids
RIVER SLIPPED through the crowd, her eyes on the packs around her and not on Dante and his group. The sense between her and Dante was open to its fullest as she crept in and out of the maze of people. Dante had called on the way home and asked her to do this. Normally he wouldn’t have her anywhere near potential danger if he co
uld help it, but with Evan still sick, he needed the extra eyes.
The tension in the room was thick as Odin and Bauninsheg took the small stage and began to speak. Her senses were too locked with Dante’s for her to pay much attention to what Odin was saying.
“Has Dante taught you to be a heavy?” Lazarus asked suddenly as he passed her elbow.
“Dante has taught me many things, Lazarus.” She flashed him a small smile as she slipped past him and wove through the outer edge of the crowd again.
With extra care, she decided to try something. Holding Dante’s sense, she reached out with her own, and instead of spreading it over her pack, she stretched it over the crowd.
She blinked with surprise as she began to feel the emotions of the crowd around her.
Dante’s sense rippled a bit, but it was just surprise. Through the weave he steadied her, feeding her a little of his energy so she could explore a bit. She paused in the middle of the crowd and closed her eyes to concentrate.
She felt Lazarus move to her elbow, his emotions warm and tinged with the ache of desire. She smiled and forced herself to concentrate on the crowd again, but she got no serious sense of hostility from them. There was the normal stuff but nothing immediate. People were bitter and suspicious, angry and scared, but these were all to be expected considering the beings in their midst.
Something odd tickled the edge of her senses, and she stretched a bit more, farther from the crowd.
Her blood ran cold at the awful sense of hate and anger that reached her.
Her eyes flew open, and she stared up at Lazarus in horror. “Hybrids. Dozens of them.”
“Hybrids!” Lazarus shouted.
River raced for Dante, stripping off her dress as she ran. Heavies shifted around her, but at least there was time for them to ready themselves.
She skidded to a stop behind Dante and Trevor, who had already shifted to beast. Behind them was the Nephilim. She looked up at Odin and fought the shiver that ran down her spine as his eyes turned black.
“Dante, Evan’s still out there.” She grabbed hold of his arm, worry settling in her gut like ice.
“I know,” he whispered. “Shift now,” he told her. “Do not leave my side.”
She glanced in the direction of Evan outside the pack house and winced. There was nothing they could do for him right now. Crouching, she triggered her shift to meet the enemy head-on.
AUGUST STOOD with William well outside the battlefield as the hybrids attacked the pack gathering. He suspected she was testing his loyalties, knowing Dante was supposed to be at this gathering.
“I thought we were going to set them against each other,” William said. “Hitting both the Council and the gathering will only make them come together.”
“It doesn’t matter. The goal isn’t to win. It’s to show them they aren’t safe anywhere. That we can find and attack them at any time, and they still can’t find us.”
“Do you think it will be enough?”
“To draw them in? Yes.” August listened to the screams and shrieks as they rippled over the landscape. The scent of blood was in the air, and he twitched a smile. Many would die tonight. The Mistress would be pleased.
“Do you think your twin is here?” William asked.
August shrugged. “He’s supposed to be.”
William shook his head, confused. “And you don’t care if he dies tonight?”
August paused a moment, considering the question. “I have no doubt that if he is here, he won’t die. He’s much too stubborn.”
“But if he does?”
“Then that’s one less problem I have to worry about. Besides, she doesn’t really want him dead either. She wants to make him like me. But if he dies, she won’t be too upset about it.” August had no doubt Dante would live through this like he lived through everything else. One day they would meet again, and he found a strange sort of comfort knowing one of them would die that day.
“Why doesn’t she just take him, then, if she wants him?”
“Because his pack is too strong and he has too many powerful friends.”
“We could take his pack. It would just take more men.”
August nodded. She had been right so far about almost everything. He had no worries things would turn out as she predicted. “Yes, we could. I simply do as I’m told.”
William frowned and shook his head. “It just all seems counterproductive.”
“We aren’t at war yet, William. We’re thinning the herd so that when war does finally come to them, they’re too weak to fight. Soon. Very soon. We almost have enough.” August smiled with anticipation. Things were finally falling into place after so many years of planning.
He could feel his mistress’s pleasure, and it tingled down his spine, making his pulse beat faster. His claws twitched, but he kept it in check, fighting the need for the taste of blood on his tongue and battle in his bone.
How glorious it would be when he finally let them all loose. Blood would run in the streets and fill the gutters. The dead would line the walkways, and they would all bow—
He shook his head and touched his temple with a frown. He couldn’t be sure those were his thoughts or hers. Did it really matter anymore? It would be best if he just let go. Why did he have such trouble after all this time?
He didn’t let himself dwell on it and glanced over his shoulder at the second wave of hybrids. “Do not return unless you have a confirmed kill,” he told them and motioned them to go.
The group surged forward through the low grasses and leaped over the brick wall outside the pack lands.
More screams and roars filled the air, and he let them work for some time before finally calling an end to the attack. The packs were close at the heels of his hybrids, and he called to his pack to intercept. He lifted the back door of the truck and watched as his hybrids piled in.
The remains of the gathering heavies fell back after his pack made its appearance. They were too wounded, scattered, and weakened from the attack to put up a good fight against his heavies.
With the last of his hybrids loaded up, he waited for his pack to join them, then jumped into the truck with William and drove off.
He dropped his pack off at the van a short time later. They would head for home, and he would tuck these away for later use.
They had done well. He would have to find treats for those who had returned. His gaze fell on a pair of human backpackers walking down the side of the road.
“Pull over,” August said.
William shot him a questioning look but did as he was told.
August flashed them his best smile and chatted with them briefly before leading them to the back of the truck. He pretended to be interested in whatever nonsense they were going on about and lifted the truck door. There was a brief scream as the hybrids reached out and snatched the pair up and dragged them inside. He closed the door again and locked it tight. Muffled screams were cut short, and the pounding stopped.
He climbed back into the truck cab, and there were a few more screams and a little more pounding, but it didn’t last very long. He was sure his hybrids would have their fill by the time they reached the temporary nest. They were very good at keeping their toys alive for a long time. He had taught them to share, after all.
16. Working Together
RIVER RAN past Dante as they stepped out of the pack house and threw her arms around the big tawny beast waiting for them.
“I was so worried about you,” she told Evan. “Can you shift? You should get back to bed. Are you hurt?”
“Does she expect an answer?” Odin asked at his side.
“She’s getting an answer,” Dante told him. “You really need to pay better attention. He doesn’t need to speak to answer her. His body language says it all.”
Dante stared out over the destruction. Tents were scattered, blood soaked the ground, and dead and wounded lay everywhere. The fires were stoked to roaring flames and shadows danced like haunted spirits of the dead
. His stomach twisted with grief and disgust, and the scent of blood and cries of pain ate at his soul.
The gathering was three times the size of their small gathering at home and the number of dead and wounded three times as bad. People were still being gathered up and taken to rooms in hopes they would recover from bites and serious injury, and the wounded were limping around, trying to help those who couldn’t help themselves.
A couple of the Nephilim were hurt when the second wave hit and crashed through the pack house, but not seriously. The little bit of warning was key. Just enough time to set up a defense, even if many were hurt and killed. It could have been so much worse.
“What happens now?” Odin asked.
“No idea.” Dante rubbed his sore shoulder, still aching from the fight. The Nephilim had fought well, but the ones who came were not like the general audience that was at the meeting. These knew how to fight; even the child Nephilim killed a few who thought a child was an easy target. Dante would not underestimate him in the future.
Dante knelt beside a young heavy, and he and Odin worked to help set a broken arm and wrap fresh wounds before moving on to the next. Neither of them spoke. They just worked at tending or helping who they could until a healer or someone from their pack took over.
Angel and Étienne met him outside his tent sometime later.
“A truck drove off with the surviving hybrids,” Étienne said. “We couldn’t chase.” He glared off into the direction Dante assumed they went. “A pack was waiting, and there weren’t enough healthy heavies to give chase. And too much here to deal with.” A sea of wounded shifters and ruined and collapsed tents filled the landscape. “I think you and Master Angel have made the point. It will take some time for people to calm down, but maybe another talk sometime before dawn.”
Dante glanced at Odin.
“We’ll stay until dawn,” Odin said.
Étienne rubbed his tired eyes. “If you have a heavy to spare, we could use someone to run patrol until things are a bit more settled.”
“I can take a patrol,” River said.
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