The instigated werewolf threw up his hands. “Your mom’s words, not mine.”
My father, crestfallen, continued. “You have always wondered how I could stand by while your mother grew stricter by the years. It is because she is my mate, niña. I am bonded to her, and I love her no matter what she did to me, or what she did to you.” His hand sought mine across the table. “I saw the pain it caused you, every time, and I suffered with you.”
The little girl inside me who longed for her father’s comfort melted, if only for a moment. Until, that was, the woman I’d become seized back control. I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest and turning my attention to the alpha seated to my father’s left.
“And you?” I said to Cody, jerking my chin. “Why are you here? Last time I saw you, you were kicking me out of your packlands.”
My father turned on the alpha. “What?”
Cody guffawed. “I mean, she didn’t give me a choice. She questioned my authority in front of the whole pack.”
“She is a hood!” my father said, his Latino-hands-of-reinforcement bobbing through the air. “That is her nature.”
“And I’m an alpha,” Cody shot back. “Geri was causing some of my wolves’ fealty to falter. The pack knows her, loves her like one of their own, and believe it or not, some of them actually think I’m a bastard for mating Lisa, just like Geri, even though I only did it because of alpha’s prerogative. I was going to have wolves going rogue if I didn’t do something.” Then, the focus of his rationalization swung my way. “But I’ve never stopped caring about you. And then when Pietro came to ask me to come along, letting me in on your secret... I realized how much it all made sense. Your instincts on lupine nature, your ability to understand some of our wolfish, how we were so attracted to each other...”
“Well, guess what? You finally got your wish!” I said. “I don’t love you anymore. I only love—”
Even the pain of saying his name cut deep across my tongue.
“Tobias.” Cody grinned. “And that’s great, Geri. I’m glad to hear that. Only, Little Red, you know that’s a dead-end street. Tobias already had his mate; his heart is always going to belong to Kara. It’s obvious to anyone you two are good friends. Great, even. But it will never be more than that. I’d hate to see you throw away any chance of a full life.”
“Oh, my god.” I turned to my dad, and away from the unspoken words I knew Cody wanted to say, by falling in love with another werewolf you can never have. “Mom banished you.”
Pietro’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know?”
“Because if you were still getting communiques from a matron—any matron—you’d know what Markus reported to the council a few days ago.” I crawled to the edge of my chair. “Vlad Tepeş has some personal, historic beef with werewolves. He’s exacting his revenge by unraveling their mating bonds using some sort of genetic therapy. He wants to destroy them from the inside out, and he doesn’t care how long it takes. Tobias’s mate was one of his victims. He undid her mating bond.”
“Does it affect both mates, or only the one subjected to this...” Pietro’s hand turned circles in the air. “...therapy?”
“We’re unsure. When Kara died, Tobias still went through the same pain I’ve felt in other wolves who’ve lost mates. But was he unaffected?”
I remembered both the kisses we shared: one under the full moon in Paradise, the other moments before I’d lost him in Istanbul. I remembered that he loved me, had loved me for who knew how long before either of us had said anything.
It’s not just because of the serum...
“He must have been,” I surmised.
Cody barked a laugh. “Be that as it may, genetically altering all the wolves in the world would take decades, centuries maybe. If old Drac really wanted revenge, he’d just kill them. He seems more than capable.”
I held up a finger. “You’re thinking like a mortal, but Vlad doesn’t. In his opinion, the wolves undid his country, his family, and his legacy, so he’s going to do the same to them. A vampire has the luxury of time, as long as he has the right kind of blood for fuel.”
My father narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean, the right kind of blood?”
I didn’t know how many hoods were in on the vampire secret that they were not, in fact, immortal, that after five centuries or so, death would still claim them as it did any creature. Unless, of course, they fed off other supes. Even in such circumstances, I wouldn’t betray the whole species for the sins of the few.
“The Ravens have a... condition,” I said. “And the only treatment is supe blood. Werewolf blood works, slayer blood is better. But the best blood is asenaic.” I met my father’s eyes, seeing the understanding form within. “Like the kind that comes from the descendants of Gerwalta Faust and Andreas Baron.”
My father’s olive skin blanched. “This is why your mother was so worried about them finding you. All this time, she led me to believe it was because they wanted revenge.”
“Revenge?” For the first time in this conversation, I was the one left in the dark. “For what?”
“For their capture,” my dad said. “The Ravens were trapped for many centuries, encased in silver urns crafted by the House of Red, and kept in the vaults of Schloss Wolfsretter.”
Though I knew the sky outside to be as clear as a bell, I had no doubt that lightning had just struck my brain and stopped my heart. The world came to a halt, then just as soon, sped up again, all too fast.
When I could find the words to speak at last, my hoarse voice surprised all of us. “What do you mean, we trapped them in silver and kept them at the Schloss?” A dry palate made talking difficult. “Igor told me Inga trapped them with the help of some Wallachian lupines and entombed them in some air-tight wall.”
My father blinked his confusion. “The first time, yes. I understand that is what happened.”
“The first time?” I balanced my temples on my fingers. “The first time?” I repeated, louder, even rudely.
“Yes, the first time. The slayers found out about it, and blamed the wolves for interfering in their affairs. They discovered where the crypt was and opened it, intending to obliterate the Ravens, but they were bested. After that, the House of Red took a contract to trap them in silver urns. The silver was even blood-claimed, so that none might open it.”
Cody verbalized my unspoken thoughts. “What is blood-claimed silver?”
My father’s eyes went to the table as he shook his head. “A barbaric practice, one long banned. A hood can become the sole master of a piece of silver by threading the metal through her veins and passing it through her heart. Once upon a time, it was a rite of passage when a hood took her fire and was presented her silver medallion. As a demonstration of becoming righteous, they blood-claimed it. I have read that the pain was excruciating. There are even stories that some died from it. But as all hoods can command silver and form a plethora of deadly weapons, it is a way for us to gain an advantage over other members of our race.”
My thoughts turned back to the sword I’d been gifted by Vlad in Istanbul. It had felt different from any other silver I’d ever handled, almost like it had its own memories. Could that have been it?
“Looks like you got yourself mixed up in some deep shit, Little Red.” Cody grinned. “Makes me glad you got Tobias here protecting you.” He scanned the room. “Where is he, by the way?”
“Wherever Vlad Tepeş wants him to be,” I retorted. “He was taken prisoner when we freed the slayers.”
My father’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “What?”
“I guess that hasn’t gotten to you either, then.” I folded my arms over my chest. “So, tell me, Papa, if you didn’t come here because of my mate’s disappearance and not because Mom told you to, then why did you come? More importantly,” I turned on Cody, “Why are you here? I hope it’s not for an apology for what I said at Kim’s wedding, because you’re not going to get it.”
The werewolf clear
ly wasn’t ready to mend fences, either. His acidic gaze fixed me long and hard as he drew another pull off his bottle of Schwarzbier before saying, “I’m here because of Amy.”
“Amy?” Okay, that I hadn’t been expecting. Why would my ex-boyfriend care anything about my huey friend? “What does Amy have to do with anything?”
“She took off to Istanbul with you back in June, and she hasn’t contacted her parents since,” my father filled in. “By the time late July rolled around, her mother got worried enough to hire a private investigator, who found out your friend emptied all her bank accounts the day before you left, hasn’t used any of her credit cards since the first day or two you were gone, and other than going through passport control when you landed in Turkey, hasn’t triggered any official records in three months.”
Cody took over from there. “When the PI showed up in Paradise and started sniffing around for clues last week, that raised the packs’ hackles.”
“Oh my god.” My head turned to the stairs, as though I expected to see my bubbly, blond friend there. “I had no idea. I never even asked her... I mean, how would that come up, anyways?”
Cody grunted. “Maybe by you being a little less self-involved and remembering that the people around you have their own lives, that this isn’t some sort of dramatic play where all the characters enter and exit the stage just to move your plot along.”
My father growled. Actually growled.
But the alpha wolf wasn’t impressed. “What? We agreed we were going to give it to her straight, didn’t we?”
“Straight does not mean cruel,” my dad snapped. “Niña, what Cody means to say is, especially where hueys are concerned, you have to be far more appreciative of that fact that they do not come from our world. They have attachments that will follow them if you bring them in.”
But it sounded like Amy had been trying to break those attachments. Meeting her parents, I understood she and her father didn’t have the greatest relationship, but she seemed to get along with her mom okay. Why would she cut them both off?
“I’ll talk to her, ask her to reach out to the folks with just enough information to pacify them. I’m sorry that hueys infiltrated the packlands. But that still doesn’t explain why you came all the way to Germany. I mean, you could have called. My phone number is different but Markus’s is still the same, and I’m sure mom told you he was with me.”
For the first time since they’d arrived, my father’s face curdled. It was up to Cody, the fount of cruel truth, to explain.
“I’m here to make sure Amy does what needs to be done. And in the event that she doesn’t, assure she’s convinced otherwise. And if it turned out that she hadn’t phoned home because of some terrible fate, I came to make sure any evidence went away.”
I blew a raspberry. “What were you planning to do, eat her?”
His dead stare made a chill run the length of me. “If needs be.”
My spine electrified. “Well, needs don’t be. Amy’s fine. Like I said, I’ll talk to her. So, now that’s out of the way, I’ll trust you two to find your way out.”
“When you’re up against both the Matron Council and Vlad Tepeş?” my father asked. “Absolutely not.”
“I’m sticking around, too. Tobias may not be my packling anymore, but that’s only an official thing. He’s my friend, and I’m going to make sure he’s rescued.” The alpha let out a gravelly laugh. “Oh, Geri, you just have to have some lupine in your life or you get into trouble, don’t you?”
I was too tired to deal with sexist, wolfish crap. “You sure that Lisa’s going to be okay with that?”
“She’ll understand. She cares for Tobias, too.” The empty bottle thudded on the table. “So, where do we start looking?”
I turned the chair around. “We don’t. He’s not my focus right now.”
The alpha went wide-eyed. “Maybe you don’t love him as much as you think you do, then. If it were my mate—”
“But it’s not,” I said, cutting Cody off. “Despite what you think about how self-absorbed I am, the truth is that I have others depending on me right now. For one,” I jerked my chin, “the houseful of slayers upstairs. Maybe the last of their kind, and considered by Vlad to be stolen property. The Matron Council in their magnanimity refused sanctuary. Instead, they offered them a contract. Full social and financial support, but only if they agree to kill the Ravens.”
My father’s jaw dropped. “Dios mio. Surely this edict was not issued with your mother’s knowledge.”
“Who knows?” I said. “Markus says Mom hasn’t been in residence since right after we left for Istanbul, and she hasn’t been checking in, either. I don’t suppose either of you know where she is?”
The men exchanged puzzled looks.
Cody stretched out in his chair. “She was in Paradise over the summer, but since the middle of August, your aunt has been overseeing the roost.”
A fact I was sure his pack was thankful for. Markus’s mom was slightly less regimented than her older cousin, my mother. Still, even a kind warden is still a warden.
I continued. “Matron Chin is sitting in the big chair right now, and she’s not too interested in anything Markus has to say. I tried getting in, but no-go as I’m officially relinquished.”
“And the slayers?” Cody asked. “Did they take the contract?”
“Of course, they took the contract. They have nowhere else to go. Or at least, their best bet for the moment is near the hoods. The council might be refusing to grant them humanitarian support out of the kindness of their hearts, but we all know that if the Ravens stride into Triberg and try to get away with anything, the hoods will have their heads.”
My father nodded. “Yes, which is why you should not feel guilty about leaving here to go find Tobias. The slayers will still be shielded by the proximity to the Schloss.”
“I am leaving, but you see, there’s another group of people counting on me for protection. And they’re in even more danger, because they don’t even know it yet.”
Cody and my dad exchanged a questioning glance, but neither knew what I was talking about.
“The other asenaics, the ones in Spain,” I said. “Since Vlad discovered I exist, and since I’m currently out of his reach, he’s going to have to find the next best thing if he wants to continue his... his therapy. You might have been the last asenaic in the Americas, Papa, but there’s still others of our line in the Old Country, aren’t there?”
At least he had the guts not to deny it. “But I do not know where. My line comes from the north part of the country, and this is all I know.”
I pursed my lips. “We need to ask Inga Rosethorn.”
My father narrowed his eyes. “What do asenaics have to do with her?”
“The same condition that Vlad has, she and Igor do, too.” It wasn’t the whole truth but it would suffice for now. “And the two of them have been treating it for years with trips to Spain. Igor was also taken prisoner by Vlad. I’m not sure if vampires are susceptible to torture, but if so, it won’t take long for the Ravens to find out. That’s why I’m going to Spain. It’s not the most likely place for me to find Vlad.”
And since I doubted he’d leave his prizes behind after I’d robbed him of his harem, I could assume Tobias and Igor would be going along for the ride.
My father stood. “I will go with you.”
“Dad, no. I’m going to be traveling light. You’ll only slow me down.”
“Fi! Me slow you down? Don’t be ridiculous. Besides, your Spanish is not so good.”
“What are you talking about, my Spanish is fine.”
“You think that because you only speak it with me. I know what all your mistakes mean. When do we leave?”
I grinned. “Just as soon as I can pack up the car and get supplies together, which should only take me until morning. Oh, and talk to Amy, of course. I’ll just go...”
Without warning, a scream rent the air: a terrifying, shrill cry that took me flying th
rough the house and up the stairs.
Footsteps pounded behind me, even as a voice in the back of my head warned about the slayers finding yet more strangers in the house. None of them would have noticed, however, because they were all too focused on the huffing woman in the midst of them when I got to the third-floor hallway, being braced on one side by Caleb and on the other by Amy.
Alexandra’s face broke into a smile as she caught sight of me, even as her teeth clenched. “Geri, I think it’s time.”
THIRTEEN
At some point, coffee would cease to substitute for sleep. I couldn’t have drunk more of the stuff unless Starbucks introduced an IV Latte. Hour eighteen came and went, with no more babies in the house than there had been when Alex’s labor had started. The screaming had started in the thirteenth hour (my father and Cody agreed as the self-declared senior experts in childbirth, that the first part of the labor didn’t really hurt that much). The slayer women took shifts, two or three at the time in the impromptu birthing suite that heretofore had been Alex’s bedroom, to fetch ice chips, refresh the water basin, or give Alex and a new hand to squeeze the blood from as she suffered through the pain.
Dawn, however, arrived in eerie silence.
No one spoke. I suspected because none of us wanted to acknowledge the obvious. But as I finished my sixth mug and set it on the coffee table in the great room, truth took on a mass that refused to be contained.
“Something’s wrong.”
My father on the sofa beside me pulled me into the wing of his embrace. “We do not know that, niña. Have faith, all will be right.”
A door opened on the floors above, bringing with it a fresh swirl of scented air. Antiseptic, I’d been told, as well as some aromatherapy oils because, apparently, hood medical care had caught up to the 1970s. Petunia Creed (whom Caleb had already nicknamed Patchouli Reed) pawed down the stairs on lithe feet. Doctor though the slender woman in her early sixties was, she was also a hood of the House of Green. Like all supes, her physical appearance belied her years, as did her endurance since she’d arrived at the house.
Rebellious Hood Page 10
