“I’m waiting for yoooo to turrrrn, woof. I drrrag your bloody brrroken carcass to Kate. At least trrry to poot up a good fight.”
Derek smiled. It was a cold humorless smile that bared the edge of his teeth. “I can’t wait.”
Ascanio leaped.
THE BOUDA FLEW THROUGH THE AIR, HUGE CLAWS poised for the kill. Derek shied out of the way. Ascanio hurtled past him and whipped around.
“When you’re airborne, you can’t change your direction,” Derek said. “Try again.”
Ascanio snarled and charged him.
Derek stepped into the charge, pivoted on his left foot, and kicked. The lower part of his right shin connected with Ascanio’s ear. Ascanio rolled sideways, crashed into a wall, and surged up.
“Mind your flanks,” Derek said. “You have peripheral vision for a reason.”
“I fucking kilr you!”
“Left foot, right foot, left foot.” Derek raised his arms. “Watch.”
Ascanio lunged. “Left foot.” Derek met him halfway and sank a vicious left kick into the bouda’s stomach.
Ascanio staggered back.
“Right foot.” Derek took a quick step, building momentum. “Left foot.” He jumped and hammered the ball of his foot into Ascanio’s forehead. Like taking a sledgehammer to the face.
The impact sent Ascanio flying. He smashed into my desk with a wicked bone-snapping crunch.
“Go easy on the furniture,” I said.
“My apologies, Alpha.”
With a brutal cry, Ascanio launched himself off the floor.
“Left kick. Right kick. Uppercut. Arm bar. See, now I control your head. That’s not good, because I can do this. Oh, and now while you’re lying there, your opponent can kick you like this.”
Julie winced. “He’ll kill him.”
“Derek’s being very careful. What did I tell you about plastic ties?”
“Only for humans,” Julie murmured.
“If you don’t listen to me, I can’t teach you anything.”
Derek rolled his head left, then right, popping his neck. “Come on, shake it off. Back on your feet. You’re a shapeshifter. You can take a lot of punishment. It will all heal, but meanwhile it hurts doesn’t it? Kick—groin, elbow—throat. No, don’t raise your hands up, you leave your stomach exposed. Side kick.”
Ascanio hit the wall. The building shook.
“You know who doesn’t heal as well as you do? Humans. They are smaller and weaker than you are, and they break easily and stay broken. That’s why we don’t put our hands on humans. Especially girls. And never ever that girl.”
Ascanio’s claws fanned Derek’s throat. The boy wonder grabbed the bouda’s left arm and twisted. With a soft crunch the arm popped out of the socket.
“You’re done.” I walked down the stairs.
Derek raised his hands and took a step back.
Ascanio moved to chase him. I snapped a single punch to the back of Ascanio’s neck. The boy crashed down to the floor.
I grabbed his left arm and jerked sharply, popping the shoulder back into place. Ascanio gasped. I flipped him over and stared into the red-hot eyes. “It’s over.”
He bared his teeth at me. I slapped his nose. “I said, it’s over. Or you’ll find out what the loup cage looks like from the inside.”
The red glow in Ascanio’s eyes died down.
I glanced at Derek. “Where is Andrea?”
“She said she had an errand. She’s coming back to the office right after.”
“Wash up.” I nodded at his bloody knuckles and turned to Ascanio. “You—come with me. We need to talk.”
Ascanio followed me to the side room.
I pointed at the chair. “Sit.”
He landed his shaggy body into it.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
He shrugged.
I sat in the other chair. “People practice for years to create a good half-form. You’re barely fifteen and you already have it. And you can speak in it. That takes talent, the kind that’s rare and difficult to come by. Normally when a young shapeshifter displays talent like that, there is a bidding war. Curran’s guard wants him. Jim’s security people want him. And the warrior trainers want him. Nobody wants you. Not even your own alpha.”
“My apha ikes me!”
“Of course, Aunt B likes you. You’re witty, and handsome, and a smartass. She buried two sons, boys just like you. She has a soft spot for you. That’s why she sent you off to me.”
Ascanio opened his mouth.
“She can’t control you and she’s worried you’ll cross the line in public and she will have to kill you.”
The bouda’s jaws clicked shut, flinging drool onto the table.
“It would devastate her, but don’t think for the tiniest second that she won’t do it. Aunt B’s been alpha longer than I’ve been alive. She didn’t stay in power because she bakes great cookies.”
Ascanio stared at the table in front of him.
“You ended up here because of all the people in the Pack, I’m the least likely to kill you.” I dipped my head so I could look into his eyes. The monster at my table looked ready to cry. I’d managed to make a teenager depressed. Maybe I could shoot some fish in a barrel for an encore.
“What were your orders?”
He didn’t answer.
I didn’t say anything. The silence lay empty between us. Eventually the need to fill it won.
“To guarrrd the doorr.”
“And?”
“To keep people I don’t know ouoot.”
“And you let Julie in. You had no clue who Julie was, because if you had known she was my ward—”
Ascanio’s head snapped up.
“—you wouldn’t have put your hands on her.”
He stared back at the table. That’s right, you just physically assaulted the Pack princess. Not that she didn’t give back as good as she got.
Poor kid. His day had gone from bad to worse.
“Derek was trained by Curran,” I told him. “After that, he worked for Jim. He was his best cover agent. After that, he ran Curran’s personal guard. Derek thinks of Julie as his little sister. He wanted to skin you alive. He didn’t do it, because you belong to me and he respects my authority, but he could’ve. It wasn’t a fair fight. He kicked your ass and there is no shame in that. In terms of power, the gap between you and him is about as big as the gap between you and Julie.” I crossed my arms. “Julie also kicked your ass. If she’d had a thicker tie, or if she’d jammed her knife between the vertebrae of your neck while you lay there kissing the floor, it would’ve been all over. If I chop off your head, you won’t grow another one. Not to mention, she could’ve been some creature dressed in human skin. You endangered everyone in the office by letting her in.”
I rose. “Your way of doing things isn’t working. Time for a new strategy. The only difference between you and Derek is discipline and training. Either you can work on both, or you can keep thinking with your balls. It’s your choice. Say ‘pop.’ ”
“Pop?”
“That was the sound of me pulling your head out of your ass. If you stick it back up there again, there is nothing I can do about it. This is the only lecture you’ll ever get from me.”
I headed for the doorway.
“Can I beat him?”
I turned. “Derek?”
He nodded.
“Yes. You’ll have to work your ass off in the gym and learn the rules of the Pack, so you don’t get killed in the meantime, but yes. You can.”
I went out the door. One chewing-out of a teenage misfit down, one to go.
JULIE HAD ARRANGED HERSELF AT THE TABLE UPSTAIRS. She couldn’t quite figure out if she would be better off with defiant or pitiful, so she had managed an odd mix in between: her lip was seconds from quivering, but her eyes could’ve shot laser fire.
I sat in the other chair. “Knife.”
She pulled her knife out and put it on the table. I picked i
t up. Yep, one of my throwing knives, painted black. Two scratches marked the blade near the hilt where something had scraped the paint off the metal.
“Where did you get this?”
“I pulled it out of the tree.”
Ah. So it was that knife. When she was first having trouble in school, I’d tried to help her with her street cred by staging an appearance. It was a dramatic affair, involving black horses, Raphael in black leather, and my throwing this knife into a tree from horseback. It was a good throw and the blade had bitten deep into the bark.
“You pulled it out by yourself?”
She hesitated for a second. “I used pliers to loosen it.”
Explained the scratches. “Why clamp the blade and not the handle?”
“I didn’t want it to break off.”
“Where did you get the pliers?”
She shrugged. “Stole them from a shop.”
You could take the kid off the street, but getting the street out of the kid was a lot harder. “And wolfsbane?”
“I made it in the herbalism class. We had to have a project where we harvested an herb with magic properties and found a practical application.”
She’d found a practical application, all right. “When did you harvest it?”
“In September. I kept the paste in a zip-lock bag in the freezer so it wouldn’t go flat. In case of an emergency.”
“Like what? Wild shapeshifters attacking the school?”
Her chin rose. “Like shapeshifters taking me back to school.”
And here we go. “I thought I made it clear: you couldn’t get that knife until you graduated.”
“I did. Graduated.”
“Aha.”
“I hate that school. I hate everything there. I hate the people, the teachers, the subjects. The kids are stupid and ignorant and just dumb. They think they’re cool, but they’re a bunch of idiots. The teachers want to be friends with the students and then they say mean stuff behind their back.”
“Who is ‘they’? The teachers say mean stuff or the students?”
“Both of them. I don’t like the schedule, I don’t like how much work they make you put into useless stuff, I don’t like my room. The only good thing about it is going home.”
“Don’t hold anything back. Tell me how you really feel.”
“I’m not going back there!”
“And you’ve made this decision on your own?”
Julie nodded. “Yes. And if you take me back there, I’ll run away again.”
I crossed my arms on my chest. “I can’t take you back there. They kicked you out.”
Julie’s eyes went big with outrage. “They can’t kick me out! I quit.”
I lost it and laughed.
“They really kicked me out?”
“Refunded the tuition and everything.”
Julie blinked a couple of times, coming to grips with that tidbit. “So what happens now?”
“I expect you’ll be a bum. Homeless and jobless, begging on the street for a crust of bread . . .”
“Kate!”
“Oh alright, I suppose if you come by the office once in a while, I’ll give you a sandwich. You can squat in the office on the floor when it gets too cold outside. We can even get you a little blanket to lie on . . .”
“I’m serious!”
“I am, too. It’s an honest offer. I’ll even put some real roast beef into your sandwich. No rat meat, honest.”
She stared at me with a martyred expression. “You think you’re so funny.”
“I have my moments.” I leaned forward and pushed the knife to her. “Keep it. Wolfsbane, too. You’ll need it, since you’ll be staying at the Keep.”
Julie eyed the knife. “What’s the catch?”
I sighed. “No catch. I put you into that school because it was a good place. A safe place.”
Julie shook her head, sending the blond hair flying. “I don’t want to be safe. I want to stay with you.”
“I’ve gathered that. Curran and I are looking into schools in the city. There are a couple that might be a better fit. You’ll stay in your room at the Keep, ride into the city with me when possible, and go to school. When done, you’ll come back to the office and someone will take you back to the Keep. You will be good and you won’t take any stupid chances. While you’re at the office, you’re my slave. You’ll run errands, clean the place, work out, file . . .”
Julie came over and hugged me. I hugged her back. We stayed like that for a long moment, until the door swung open downstairs and Andrea walked inside, asking why the place stank of wolfsbane.
CHAPTER 15
BY NOON, RAGGED CLOUDS FLOODED THE SKY. THE world turned dim and hazy, and as Derek and I approached Champion Heights, the lone tower of the apartment building and the ruined city around it seemed little more than a mirage, knitted from fog and shadows.
Derek scowled at the high-rise. “I hate him.”
“I know,” I said.
We had three leads, of which Saiman was one. The volhvs were the other. The third lead concerned de Harven and the Keepers. Since we could do nothing about the volhvs, Andrea called Rene, notified her of de Harven’s possible secret-society whack-job status, and requested the detailed files on all the Red Guardsmen who’d ever worked with de Harven. Rene had a very controlled fit of apoplexy and promised to deliver the files, with a Red Guardsman who would stand over Andrea as she went over them and take them back when she was done. The plan was for me to go and see Saiman on my own and for Derek to help Andrea look for patterns and possible accomplices.
And that was when both Derek and Andrea dug their heels in.
“No.” Andrea nodded for emphasis. “Hell no.”
“It’s not a good idea,” Derek confirmed. “I should go with you.”
“You despise Saiman. Why in the world would you want to go with me?”
“Because your rabid honey-bunny and Saiman had a giant fight over you.” Andrea spoke slowly, as if to a child. “You said yourself, Saiman’s ego is so big, he has to rent a separate building for it. Curran made him run away like a scared rabbit. You have no idea how he’ll react when he sees you.”
“She’s right,” Derek said. “It’s a safety issue. The office is well protected, so Andrea doesn’t need me here. You will be out in the open and two is better than one. Besides, you’re alpha.”
“And that means what?”
“It means that you must be above reproach and avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Saiman’s a degenerate pervert. You should bring an escort.”
I crossed my arms on my chest. “So I can’t be trusted to see him without supervision?”
Andrea shook her head. “Kate, it’s not personal. It’s protocol and it’s common sense. You don’t challenge people under you, you don’t get to skip formal dinners, and when you go to see an unstable coward who screwed half of Atlanta and propositioned you in public, you bring an escort. Deal with it.”
“Three weeks ago a woman from the city came to see Curran,” Derek said.
“Yes, an attorney about the road. Lydia something.” For some reason, Curran had insisted that I needed to attend a boring meeting about the repair of some road owned by the Pack. I hadn’t wanted to go, so I’d decided not to cut my workout short. I hadn’t realized that he held up the meeting until I deigned to make an appearance, so when I’d walked into the meeting room, almost an hour late, he, Lydia, and the two alphas of Clan Heavy were all patiently waiting for me. Mahon had dosed off, his wife had knitted half a sock, and Lydia had shot me a look of pure hatred. I’d felt like a total moron. The meeting had lasted a total of fifteen minutes and neither I nor the alpha couple of Clan Heavy needed to be there anyway . . .
Oh.
The light dawned. “She was one of Curran’s ex-girlfriends?”
Derek nodded.
Curran had followed the protocol. I would do the same. “Fine.”
Derek nodded again. “I’ll get my jacket.”
An hour later we stared at Champion Heights, where Saiman made his not-at-all-humble abode. During the magic wave, chunks of the tower would fade into hard red granite, complete with old moss—the result of spells shielding the building from the magic’s jaws. Right now it was all brick, mortar, and glass, foreboding and dark.
Neither one of us wanted to go in.
Sitting in the Jeep would accomplish nothing. I parked the vehicle in the tower’s parking lot and we climbed the wide concrete stairs to the glass-and-steel entrance. Despite everything that happened, Saiman still hadn’t changed the code word. It took us less than a minute to get through security and ride the elevator up to the fifteenth floor. The elevator vomited us up into a hallway lined with criminally luxurious carpet.
Derek’s frown had graduated to a full-blown grimace. A furious yellow light sheathed his irises.
“Try to look less disgusted.”
He shrugged. “Are you worried I’ll offend him?”
“Your eyes are glowing, and your upper lip is trembling like you’re about to snarl. I’m worried Saiman will panic, and that door is hard to break. Make an effort to look less deranged and threatening. Think of rainbows and ice cream; it will help.”
Derek sighed, but the glow in his eyes dimmed.
I knocked on the door.
No answer.
I knocked again.
Nothing.
“He’s in there,” Derek said. “I can hear him moving.”
“I’m deciding if I should let you in,” Saiman’s smooth voice called through the door. “Our meetings never go well, Kate. You’ll forgive me if I’m less than enthusiastic.”
“Adam Kamen,” I said.
The lock clicked and the door swung open. Saiman wore his neutral form, a bald man of slight build and indeterminable age, somewhere between twenty and fifty. He was a blank canvas, hairless, colorless, without any distinguishing features. If you bumped into him on the street and didn’t notice the sharp intelligence stabbing through his eyes, you’d never remember him.
Saiman’s face wore a martyred expression. “Come in, come in . . .”
I stepped inside and froze. Chaos reigned around me. Usually Saiman’s apartment was a highly controlled environment of white rugs, stainless steel furniture, and ultramodern curves. Not a single carpet fiber was out of place. Today the couch held a variety of clothes folded into neat stacks. Wooden crates littered the floor, half-filled with books and linens. The door to Saiman’s state-of-the-art laboratory stood wide open, and through the doorway I could see more boxes.
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