by Laura Taylor
Genna clawed at Sempre’s face as she fought for air. Just a few weeks ago, she’d been in the exact same position with Feriur, her unique ability coming to her defence then to kill her attacker and save her own life. Distractedly, she brought the gun Sempre had used back into her hand, but with Sempre sitting on top of her, she couldn’t get it into the right position to shoot it, and she was dimly aware that doing so could backfire again, just as it had the last time. But what else could she do? She wasn’t strong enough to fight the woman physically. She had no other weapons tucked away that she could use to defend herself.
Or did she? Her mind went back to that poor little bird, lying dead on the table after she’d sent it out of reality and brought it back again. Her gift could be used not just to move objects, but also to harm living flesh.
As her vision was turning black, Genna wriggled her hand up between herself and Sempre, pressing her open palm to Sempre’s chest. A mere thought initiated the spark of electricity in her hand, and Sempre slumped down on top of her, her hands suddenly loose around her neck.
“Get the hell off her,” a loud voice shouted, and then Sempre was physically lifted off her, Kajus holding the woman up by the collar of her cloak, a knife pressed to her throat, until he registered that she was limp in his arms.
“Are you all right?” Luna asked urgently, dropping to her knees beside Genna and checking her over. “Did she hurt you?”
“What the fuck?” Kajus asked abruptly, dropping Sempre as if he’d just been burned. Her lifeless body crumpled to the ground. “She’s dead?”
“What happened?” Luna asked, then all three of them flinched as yet another gunshot was fired.
Enough of this, Genna thought, a wave of fury at the stupidity of it all rising up inside her. She scrambled to her feet and took in the sight around her. Half the Panel had guns out and were aiming them at Sempre’s pack. The assassins were still protecting the Council, their guns out and ready, and five or six of Baron’s pack had somehow produced weapons as well. Four bodies lay still on the ground, with several more people apparently injured, and Genna knew that if someone didn’t stop this madness, more were going to end up dead.
Faeydir had said that her gift was far more powerful than she had ever imagined, Genna remembered. She’d said she could lock onto multiple targets, over a significant distance, if only she could figure out how. One of the assassins was raising his gun again, his finger tightening on the trigger as he aimed at Lucia, the woman striding angrily towards the Council. Another millimetre or two on that trigger and Lucia would be dead.
Like a living flame, Genna felt the magic well up inside her. Before when she’d done this, she’d always tried to reach outwards with the magic, a strategy that was doomed to fail. But this time, by pure instinct, she reached inwards, the flame rising to become an inferno deep within her chest… and every single gun on the battlefield vanished.
Linnea froze in shock as the gun in her hand disappeared into thin air. Cries of alarm went up all around her, and she looked around to see that the same thing had happened to everyone else as well. What the hell? Was she dreaming? Or had someone just hit her very hard on the head, perhaps?
But then she heard a low chanting, an incantation of sorts, and all eyes were focused on Genna. She was standing in the middle of the lawn, eyes half closed, a serene expression on her face while she spoke words that Linnea had never heard before, and then she flung her arm in a wide arc. Some thirty metres away, on an empty section of lawn, the pile of guns suddenly reappeared, metal clanging as they collapsed in a small heap.
“Enough,” Genna said simply, as everyone stared at her in shock. “This will not be solved by trying to kill each other.”
Sempre was lying still on the ground near Genna. Ignoring any potential danger to herself, Linnea rushed over. She turned the woman onto her back, checking for breathing, a heartbeat, but there was nothing, though there were also no obvious signs of injury. “Is she dead?” she asked Genna.
Genna took two steps towards her, then reached down to lift Linnea’s hand. She placed her own hand over it, and something warm and wet seemingly fell out of nowhere into Linnea’s palm. She looked down… and shrieked, jerking backwards and dropping the object onto the grass in horror. It was a human heart.
“She’s dead,” Genna confirmed. “Though I was a little surprised to find out she actually had a heart in the first place.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
With the guns taken care of and Sempre no longer a threat, Genna looked around for Tank. She found him sitting in wolf form, Silas by his side. “He’s been shot,” Silas informed her, at her questioning gaze. “It’s not fatal, but the bullet’s still inside, and he’s bleeding pretty badly.”
Genna walked over to them, kneeling down in the grass beside Tank, who nudged her with his nose, then licked her hand. “If I remove the bullet, can you control the bleeding?” she asked Silas.
“I’m going to need a med kit before we do that,” he replied.
“I’ll get one,” Dee volunteered, watching on from nearby. She shifted and took off towards the manor.
As they waited, everyone else looked around at each other, the disappearance of the guns having stunned them all sufficiently that the various fights had paused, and now they all seemed to be at a loss as for what to do next.
“Eleanor’s dead,” Feng reported numbly, too shocked to yet begin grieving as he sat beside her body.
“And Sempre, too,” Linnea said, apparently having recovered from the shock of having a fresh human heart deposited into her hand. “So any justice that’s required as payment for Eleanor’s death has already been meted out.”
“Not so,” another voice said coolly, and everyone looked around to see the assassin who had first attempted to shoot Sempre standing there, his skin pale, a stricken expression on his face. Stiffly, he walked over to the pile of guns and chose one at random, then walked back over to Feng, handing the gun to him handle first. “I have failed in my duty to protect you,” he said flatly, kneeling down on the grass before Feng. “My life is forfeit. End it as you see fit.” He sat calmly, hands resting on his knees, his gaze firmly on the ground as he waited for Feng to deliver a swift death.
Feng eyed the gun, not seeming to know what to do with it. “Eleanor’s death was not your fault,” he said awkwardly.
“She died from a bullet that came from my gun,” the assassin replied. Clearly, he felt there was nothing more to say about it.
Feng looked helplessly up at the other two assassins waiting nearby, but neither of them offered anything in the way of assistance. Genna didn’t know what sort of code they lived by, but it was quite possible that they thought their comrade should die for his perceived failure.
For a long, awkward moment, nobody moved. Then finally, Andre stepped forward, crossing the lawn towards Feng with a calmness that seemed oddly out of place. “Do you wish for Kyle to die as payment for Eleanor’s death?” he asked Feng bluntly.
Feng shook his head. “No. Screw whatever rituals or honour or whatever it is that you lot cling onto. Sempre killed her, and she’s already dead.”
“Very well,” Andre said, then gently took the gun from Feng and handed it to the female assassin standing nearby. “Come with me,” he said to the assassin still kneeling on the ground. “We’re going to go have a chat.”
Stiffly, the man got up, shaking his head sadly, but he followed Andre without protest, the pair of them disappearing into the forest just as Dee came dashing out of the manor. She loped back to Tank’s side, then shifted, handing a medical kit to Silas.
“Do you need a hand?” she asked, and Silas nodded.
“Probably will do.” He opened the kit and set a variety of things out, then turned to Genna. “You ready?” he asked, and she nodded. He looked at Tank. “Ready when you are.”
The beautiful white wolf took a deep breath, then a crackle of blue static covered his fur. Tank was back a moment later, and Silas
wasted no time in pressing a compress to the wound. Blood had already soaked Tank’s shirt, but Genna was relieved to see that his colour was still good, so he couldn’t have lost too much yet.
“What do you need me to do?” Silas asked.
Genna held her hand over the wound, her magic probing for the bullet. “When I say so, move your hand out the way,” she said, trying to stay calm. Despite her newly discovered talents, she was still nervous about accidently targeting something she shouldn’t, and the last thing she needed was to inadvertently remove Silas’s hand for him. She felt the magic probing deeper, wrapping itself around the bullet, and she sent Tank a wobbly smile. “I’m really not sure if this is going to hurt or not, so I’ll apologise in advance.”
Tank, however, seemed to share none of her misgivings. “I trust you,” he said simply, and the truth of those words hit her hard. After all, she had just removed someone’s heart in a manoeuvre not dissimilar to this one, and the fact that Tank had no hesitation at all about letting her do it to him spoke volumes.
Genna took a breath, closed her eyes to focus, and then said, “Okay, now.” She felt Silas slide his hand out of the way. A faint crackle of electricity made the bullet vanish, and it was all over.
“Done,” she said, moving aside and depositing the bullet on the grass. A moment later, Silas was back, applying pressure to the wound, getting Dee to hold a torch up so he could get a good look at the hole the bullet had left behind.
As Silas turned his attention to Tank’s wound, Luna saw that various other people had begun treating the wounded all across the lawn. Feng and Paula remained beside Eleanor, Baron crouched by their side, heads down in a serious conversation.
Beside her, Kajus let out a deep sigh. “What a bloody mess,” he breathed, and Luna remembered that he’d said right from the start that he disagreed with the Panel’s decision.
“This is ridiculous,” she told him, looking for support. “Killing half the pack achieves nothing. Help me turn this around before it gets any worse.”
Kajus gave her a long, hard look. “You just don’t quit, do you?”
“Never,” Luna shot back. “How do I get the Panel to change their minds?”
Kajus simply nodded to her, then raised his hand for attention. “The question still stands of the fate of Sempre’s pack,” he said loudly, gaining the attention of everyone present.
“Eleanor is dead,” Paula snapped back at him. “Shove your politics up your arse for a bleeding moment.”
“Half a dozen people here still stand with a death sentence on their heads,” Kajus said forcefully, not at all intimidated. “I rather think they have a vested interest in resolving this.”
“The decision was made by a majority vote,” Linnea said, from where she was treating a knife wound on Fawn, one of Luna’s pack mates. “There’s no reason to change it now.”
“That blood on your hands is a perfectly valid reason to change it,” Luna snarled at her. “Fawn is a low ranking wolf. There should have been absolutely no reason for her to be injured, but your ‘preventative measures’ nearly killed her.”
Fed up and pissed off, Linnea stood up and faced Luna. “Then by all means, dazzle me. What would you suggest as a better option?”
Despite the sarcasm in Linnea’s voice, Luna wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. “Sempre is dead,” she said loudly, addressing the whole gathering. “Lita was a key part of her grip on power, and she is also dead. And Feriur, Lita’s replacement, was killed before this hearing began. The path is open not just for a new leader, but for a new leadership structure to be put in place. It’s our chance to undo the mistakes of the past and move towards a new, far more productive future.”
“And I suppose you think you’re the right person to be that new leader?” Paula asked, bitterness heavy in her voice.
“I say let the pack decide,” Luna said, her heart suddenly beating quicker. “Let them choose between me and anyone else who thinks they can hold the position. If we can’t decide by a clear majority, then you may do with us what you will.” Years of planning, of conspiring, of slowly winning confidences by small kindnesses was about to prove its worth. Either she could pull the pack together now, to save all their lives, or…
“I have another suggestion,” Lucia spoke up. “As part of a new leadership structure, I think we should have a male alpha, as well as a female. It would be a sure-fire way of stopping us from falling back into bad habits,” she said, a clear reference to the way they had treated their males in the past, “and it would avoid the pitfall of one person holding all the power.”
“Where would you get a male from?” Baron asked. He was looking rather pale as he knelt in the grass beside Eleanor’s body.
“Anywhere in the Grey Watch,” Lucia answered. “Any willing pack could offer a worthy male to fill the role.”
“In the short term, I could stand in for that purpose,” Kajus announced. “You all know me well enough to have seen that I’m fit for the job. And it would help the pack get on the right track until a permanent alpha could be found.”
“What about your pack in Lithuania?” Linnea asked.
Kajus shrugged. “They’ll get along well enough without me. We’re only talking a month or two, until the pack stabilises.”
“This is all well and good,” Paula interrupted sharply, “but we haven’t even solved the primary problem yet. Luna fancies herself a good alpha, but there are half a dozen wolves who rank above her. I strongly doubt that the pack is going to fall in behind her now.”
“I wish to stand as alpha,” another voice announced, and Luna wasn’t particularly surprised to see Meili offering herself for the position. Good god, if the pack voted for her, they were all doomed.
“I think Lucia should be alpha,” another woman said, and that got Luna’s attention. In the very recent past, Lucia had pledged her allegiance to Luna, and in response, Luna had offered her own life to save Lucia’s. The woman would be a strong leader, there was no doubt about that, but Luna felt a sudden concern about Lucia’s integrity-
“I have no wish to be alpha,” Lucia said, loud and clear. “But I would proudly stand behind Luna, were she to lead our pack.” Without further ado, she crossed the lawn to stand by Luna’s side, a pronounced limp not hampering her progress one bit.
Rift and Anya were next to move, longtime loyal friends whom Luna had been counting on to support her. “I stand with Luna,” Fawn called from her position on the ground. “Ignoring the fact that I can’t actually stand, right now.”
Several more women moved, two joining Meili, while three more came over to Luna’s side of the lawn. Hasty discussions broke out amongst the rest, the women taking their time to decide, until finally, all but four stood beside Luna. The four who opposed her were all high ranking wolves, but given the strength and determination of those surrounding her, Luna had little doubt that she would be able to hold her new rank well enough.
“So what does the Panel say?” Kajus prompted, when the last decision had been made. “And the Council? And Baron and Caroline, of course. This affects you, more than anyone else. Are you willing to accept Sempre’s death as payment for the breach of the Treaty? Do you believe that Luna is a leader capable of preventing such an atrocity from happening again?”
A heavy silence covered the gathering. “That’s not an easy decision,” Baron said finally. “There are plenty of different angles that need to be considered, and…” He glanced down at Eleanor’s lifeless body. “…some of us would have a hard time making sensible decisions right at the moment. I think we should adjourn for the rest of the day and talk about this more tomorrow.”
“Fair call,” Linnea agreed. “Let’s get the injured inside where we can treat them properly.” She turned to Feng and Paula. “If you need any assistance making arrangements for Eleanor, please, just ask. Kajus? Could you bring Sempre’s body over to the Panel’s cottages-”
“We will take care of Sempre’s body,” Luna said
firmly, in a tone that would brook no opposition. “For all her faults, she was our alpha, and we will see her to the next world in our own way.”
“Very well,” Linnea conceded, before helping Fawn to her feet and supporting her as she limped across the lawn. Rift and Lucia picked up Sempre’s body between them and began making their way back towards their camp on the far side of the manor.
Luna sighed as the rest of the shifters began to drift away, and she turned to Kajus. “Well?” she asked, exhaustion overtaking her. “What do you think our chances are?”
“I think that Baron and Caroline’s opinion is going to weigh more heavily than anyone else’s. They could still lose their estate over this.” It wasn’t what Luna wanted to hear, and while the truth was going to be vitally important, right now she just wanted someone to tell her some comfortable lies. “But I think you’ve done the absolute best that anyone could have done,” Kajus went on, glancing down at her, “and if the Panel doesn’t listen to you, then they’re all a bunch of idiots.”
“Thank you for your support,” Luna said tiredly. “I know you objected to this solution right from the start.”
The expression on Kajus’s face was unreadable. “You’re a rather unique woman,” he said eventually. “I take it you’ve been planning this coup for some time?”
“A couple of years,” Luna admitted, becoming rather hypnotised by the way Kajus’s thumb kept running back and forth across his own lip, an idle, contemplative gesture that was nonetheless captivating. And now that the immediate crisis was over, she remembered the impression he’d made back when she’d first appeared before the hearing; intense, calculating, intelligent… and startlingly handsome. She felt herself blushing, for no apparent reason, and looked away quickly. Kajus might be turning out to be a powerful and unexpected ally, but there was no reason to be ogling him like a slab of prime steak.
