by Andrews, Jo
Three more Shifters had appeared, sliding out of the shacks to surround him, still in human form, but fast and silent as all Shifters were. They were all males, an adult and two more adolescents, dressed in leather vests, pants and boots. Disappointingly, the adult wasn’t Arrhan.
Ian stood lightly poised on the balls of his feet, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice, while they closed in on him. They were looking triumphant, obviously thinking he was at their mercy.
“So where’s Arrhan?” he mocked. “You’re just his flunkies. What’s he doing? Hiding in one of those shacks, waiting for you punks to take me down? Too scared to face me himself like a true Shifter would?”
“Arrhan is the true Shifter!” one of the adolescents said angrily. “You are the corrupted ones. Refusing the challenge is not honorable! It is the Lowe pride-lord who has no courage. Let him come out to meet Arrhan in fair contest. Then this will stop.”
“Kurt Lowe is twice Arrhan’s age. That’s no contest, that’s a massacre.”
“If he does not wish to die, then let him relinquish the pride to the challenger and depart. That is the Way!”
“It is not our way.”
“Don’t waste words on this one, Kihain,” said the adult. “He’s leopard. What does he know of the ways of the prides? Leopards have no honor.”
He said that last word with a sneering twist of the lips. The flick of his glance at Kihain was derisive. The adolescent had meant what he said, but Ian doubted honor had any real meaning to this man. He was a massive, hulking brute with an emptiness in the eyes that Ian had seen before in human thugs. He knew the type. These might be Shifters and they might be from the world beyond the Gates, but their real equivalents were the vicious human predators of the inner-city gangs.
“Cast-outs,” Ian said contemptuously. “Outlaws. The prides in the old world would have nothing to do with you, so you came here. Isn’t that the truth?”
“They will regret it,” snarled the third adolescent, at his back. He was another like the adult, empty-eyed and venomous. “They will learn their lesson when we—”
“Silence, Mahar!” the adult snapped. “Arrhan wishes these Corrupted to know nothing of us.”
“What does it matter, Grathen? He will tell no one. When we gift Arrhan with him, he will be nothing but food for the scavengers.”
“Arrhan commands. Do you challenge him?” Grathen smiled nastily as the adolescents cringed. “I thought not.”
“I challenge Arrhan,” said Ian softly.
“You are leopard and of no consequence. He will notice you only to kill you and you will be a long time dying.” Grathen’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a panting laugh. “It will be enjoyable to watch. But not as enjoyable as the death of the human female we await. That will take even longer and you too shall watch until she is finally in little, little shreds, strewn across Eliara’s grave.”
“That’s your honor? To kill a defenseless human female who can’t fight back?”
“She killed Eliara!” Mahar snarled. “With a distance weapon! She will pay!”
“What did Alison Lowe do to be shredded?”
Grathen frowned. “Who?”
“The little female Lowe who was killed yesterday. Not much more than a cub. She was tricked out of the pride and not even permitted a fair fight. She was just torn apart.”
The color rose in Kihain’s face and the adolescent turned his face away, refusing to meet his eyes, though the others laughed, even the lion on the pickup’s roof, huffing through his open jaws. But Kihain at least seemed to feel a decent shame.
“So much for honor,” said Ian scornfully.
“A message was needed.” Grathen shrugged. “We provided one.”
“So it was you four.”
“With Arrhan’s approval. It was you who breached custom first. Let Kurt Lowe meet Arrhan and the killings will stop. Should he not, they will continue. But worse.”
“Dasari, all of you.”
“We are not!” choked Kihain. “You are the ones who are mad, who have forgotten the Way!”
“Your Way seems to be to harm those who have not harmed you. To attack children or helpless humans. You don’t even have the guts to fight me fair. No, you have to gang up on me. No balls, the lot of you. Cowards!”
“I will fight you!”
Furious, Kihain swung at him. Ian ducked the blow smoothly.
“You’re nothing. Let Arrhan fight me and prove me wrong. But he won’t. He’ll find some reason not to fight.”
“He will fight you!” Kihain panted.
“Will he? I think not. Take me to him and you’ll see.”
“It’s a trick,” Grathen said suddenly. “He wasn’t surprised to see us and he doesn’t smell afraid. The human female isn’t coming, is she? He wants us to show him where Arrhan is. It is a trap of some kind. Kill him! The human is the one Arrhan wants. This one’s skin will be enough to please him.”
Ian leaped back as the lion on top of the pickup sprang at him. There was a flat crack of sound and a bullet hole bloomed in the center of the lion’s forehead. It fell to the ground, blood spraying from the substantially larger exit wound. In the confusion, Ian tore out of his clothes, shifted and flung himself on Grathen, who had reacted as quickly and turned to lion.
The rifle cracked two more times, but neither Ian nor Grathen paid it any heed, too busy trying to kill each other in a snarling, tearing whirl of fangs and claws. Ian’s rage put him on an even footing with a lion who should have outmatched him. His hind claws scored Grathen’s belly and his fangs closed on Grathen’s throat. The thick ruff of mane there prevented him from using the full force of his bone-crushing jaws for a second, and as he jockeyed for a better hold, Grathen tore free.
But instead of flinging himself back into the fight, Grathen ran. It took Ian by surprise. A lion would not normally run from a leopard. But it seemed Grathen liked easy prey and a one-on-one fight with a justifiably vengeful adversary was not to his taste.
Ian raced after him. Leopards were faster than lions. He should be able to run Grathen down.
The rifle cracked once more. Grathen suddenly somersaulted head over heels like a rabbit and landed with a crash on his belly. Ian skidded to a halt, then stalked angrily forward and checked the body. It was stone dead. The bullet had got Grathen cleanly through the back of the head.
Engine noise abruptly broke the silence, then Nick Korda cruised to a stop beside him on the dirt bike he had used to get here ahead of them all.
“Dammit,” snarled Ian, shifting back into human. “I wanted to kill him! He’s the one responsible for Alison’s death.”
“Yeah, I got close enough to hear. Maybe you’d have liked to tear him apart, but trash like that isn’t worth anything but cold execution.” Nick’s face was grim and hard. “Like offing a rattlesnake.”
Ian made a frustrated gesture, then swung around to head back toward the pickup and his clothes.
“It didn’t work the way I wanted. I was hoping that they would take me to Arrhan’s hideout and you could track us there.”
“That was a long shot and you know it. I told you that when you called and said what Sierra had come up with. You don’t matter to them. Sierra is the one they would have taken to him.” Nick gave him a tight smile. “But somehow I don’t think you’d have risked her.”
“Got that right.” Ian reached the pickup and started searching for his clothes in the dust, ignoring the three lions sprawled limply on the ground. “He’ll change his location now. I would if I was him and any of my people didn’t come back. One of them might have talked. I wouldn’t take the chance.”
“Yeah, I’d move. But if we knew where he used to be, that might give us a handle on how he thinks. That boy might be able to tell us something.”
In the middle of buckling his belt, Ian looked up, surprised. “You mean you left one of them alive?”
“The one who seemed to have a sliver of conscience. He’s just c
reased, not dead.” Nick gave him an amused glance. “Once you realized tracking them wasn’t going to happen, you just wanted to rip that scum’s throat out. I’m with you there, but we need info and this way we might get it.”
Ian yanked his tee on. “I didn’t think we’d really be able to grab one of them.”
“I’m a damn fine shot. We’ll haul him over to the Lowes. They’ll get something out of him.” Nick grinned nastily. “Shouldn’t be hard since the kid’s gotta know he’ll be singing soprano if Kurt allows the Lowe females to get their hands on him.”
“True.” The Lowe females were in a killing mood after Allie’s death. Kurt would have a hard time keeping them off Kihain.
“The other three we’ll leave for the scavengers, the way they did our people.” Nick’s face went cold. “Our message to Arrhan if he finds them. If he doesn’t, they can rot for all I care.”
“They’re not a pride,” said Ian as they heaved Kihain’s limp body into the back of the pickup. The bullet that had struck the side of his head had knocked him out cold, but he was still breathing. “They’re a gang.”
“Got that. Unusual.”
A pride was a family group of related females with their cubs of both sexes, headed by a male pride-lord or coalitions of two or more males sharing lordship. Male cubs who reached maturity either accepted the pride-lord’s authority or were forced out to become nomads. In the other dimension, those young males might seize another pride by successful challenge. In this one, they were either taken in by a pride that needed new blood or formed a new family group with females willing to accept them.
Troublemakers or those showing vicious or unacceptable behavior were also cast out by the prides. But those didn’t tend to band together. They were usually loners. Sometimes cousins or brothers forced out of a pride would stick together for company, but large groups of unrelated males were unheard of.
“A charismatic leader with a grudge collecting the ones thrown out of the prides for cause. The ones that are not just nomads, but outcasts,” Nick said thoughtfully. “Did you catch that bit about teaching them a lesson?”
“Yeah. But it doesn’t make sense. To do that, Arrhan would have to get back through the Gate. How would he manage that?”
“Dunno. The whole thing’s odd.”
They called Kurt to tell him they had captured one of Arrhan’s followers and were bringing him in. By the time they got Kihain over to the Lowes’, he had gone into the healing fever and was beginning to shift uncontrollably back and forth from human to lion. There wouldn’t be much they could get out of him until he was well again. Kurt had called Doc, who did what he could, then co-opted a couple of the more stable Lowe females to nurse and stand guard over Kihain—ones who could be trusted not to give way to homicidal impulses.
Kurt had also called Abel Painter and what other clan leaders still remained in Wade County. They and their lieutenants all arrived within the hour to discuss what had been learned. Maud and those Lowes not on watch also joined in. There must have been over twenty people there, all talking at once and not getting any further, thought Ian as he stood quietly to one side of Kurt’s living room, watching them while he sipped at the scotch Kurt was handing out. It was all speculation and would remain so until Kihain recovered enough to talk. That bullet crease had rattled the boy’s brain and given him a severe concussion.
Ian was feeling at once let down and triumphant. He’d hoped for more out of the trap Sierra had come up with, though Nick had been right when he’d said that finding Arrhan was a long shot. Still, they were revenged on the group who had killed Alison. Even though it wouldn’t bring Allie back, her killers would never hurt anyone else again. That was at least something. And even though they were no closer to Arrhan than they had been before, perhaps Kihain might help them to understand exactly what was going on.
His eyes closed for a moment as he leaned against the wall. He was still wired, high on adrenaline and longing for action. From the excited voices minutely turning over this possibility or that, the rest of them were feeling the same way too but had no outlet for it except talk.
Someone moved past him to close the living room drapes against the night. It was that late. The fuss had gone on for hours. He shook his head in irritation and eased over to where Abel was standing talking to Nick.
“One of the Lowe boys caught sight of a lion near Perdur,” Nick said as Ian joined them. “We haven’t checked that part of the country yet. How about the three of us do that tomorrow?”
“Without waiting to see what Kihain says?”
“Who knows how long it’ll take him to heal enough to talk? Rather do something instead of sitting around with our thumbs up our a—” Nick broke off abruptly as one of the older Lowe females passed by and frowned at him.
“Yeah, sure, why not?” Ian shrugged. He didn’t expect some brief sighting to turn into anything useful. They’d be better off waiting to see what Kihain would tell them. But Nick never could stand hanging around doing nothing. “Think I’ll leave now.”
“Yeah, go,” said Nick, looking around with exasperation. “Nothing much is gonna get done tonight. They’re all just flapping their gums.”
“They need this,” said Abel leniently. “It’s the first break we’ve had. The talk might not be getting anyone anywhere, but it’s therapeutic.”
Nick gave him a sardonic glance. “That sensitivity training that they put you cops through is finally paying off, huh?”
Ian laughed. Abel jabbed an elbow at Nick’s ribs.
“Hey, watch it!” Nick steadied his glass hurriedly as it threatened to spill. “Have some respect. That’s thirty-year-old Glenfiddich Kurt’s handing out in celebration and the only reason I’m still here.”
Ian had been appreciating Kurt’s scotch as well. He knocked back the rest of his, set the empty glass down on an end table and eased his way quietly out. It was past ten by the time he got home and the main house was dark, though there were still lights on in the bunkhouse. The man on patrol that night stopped beside the pickup as Ian got out.
“All’s well and the li’l lady hasn’t left the house, boss.” He grinned. “Mike said to make sure of that ’cause our jobs depended on it.”
Ian had to laugh. “Thanks, Tom.”
A faint light was falling into the hall from the living room when he let himself in. Only one lamp seemed to be turned on in there and he could hear the low mutter of the television. He closed the front door behind him and locked it. At the click of the latch, the TV went abruptly silent. Then there was a patter of footsteps and Sierra erupted into the hallway.
She stopped and glared at him, her hands on her hips. “So you’re back.”
“Um, yeah.”
Her eyes were furious, just about shooting sparks at him, a blaze of vivid blue. “Finally. It took you all this time to hunt them down.”
“No, they were waiting for me. Nick and I managed to get things wrapped up almost at once. But then we had to lug one of them over to the Lowes’ and I got caught up in stuff over there.”
“So you had the sense to call Nick.”
“Sure. Would have just been asking to get my throat ripped out, walking in there all by myself.”
“Funny, that’s just what I was thinking. But you called Nick and set a trap and it paid off. It was a success.”
“Sort of. We got the guys who killed Alison. But we didn’t get Arrhan. Still, it was a great idea of yours and we’re a lot further ahead than we were before.”
“Well, that’s something.” There was a tense, dangerous note in her voice. If she had been a Shifter, she would have been snarling.
He tilted his head, looking at her curiously. “What’s wrong, Sierra? Are you mad because I called Nick in?”
“Of course not. I’m guessing that’s the reason you’re still in one piece.”
“Pretty much.”
“You didn’t get hurt.”
“No.” He frowned at her. “Why are you so angry
?”
“You couldn’t have called and told me that?”
He blinked. “What?”
“Abel called. Abel had the sense to know that I might be worrying and he called to say everything was all right. Why didn’t you?”
Ian stared at her. “You were worrying about me?”
She flew at him suddenly and shoved him hard with all her strength. Off balance and taken completely by surprise, he stumbled backward and fell with a thump against the wall.
“You are the most stupid, brainless, insensitive…oh!”
She whirled and raced up the stairs, leaving him gaping after her. Then her bedroom door slammed so hard the walls rattled.
Ian rubbed a hand across his face. Okay, maybe he had been dumb. That much was starting to sink in. Guess he could use some of that sensitivity training Nick had kidded Abel about. He should have called her. But he hadn’t even thought that she might be worried about him. He was the monster after all. She was terrified of him. It didn’t make sense.
Maybe it would make sense tomorrow. Right now he wasn’t thinking clearly, his brain busy trying to figure out what Arrhan was up to and his body hyped by the adrenaline still racing through his veins. Food would help settle him down. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He turned off the light in the living room because Annie would be upset if he didn’t, then ate the dinner that had been left for him before going upstairs to take a shower. The gashes Grathen had given him were superficial and had already healed to white scratches, but the bloodstains and the dust were still there and Annie wouldn’t appreciate him getting those all over the bed sheets.
He dried off, then yanked on a bathrobe in case he ran into Sierra on his way back to his room. But her door was firmly closed, though a thin line of light under it showed she was still awake.
He stopped outside her room as he did every night, so aware of her presence behind the door that it was a major effort to force himself past it and continue to his own room. An almost impossible effort to keep himself from knocking and asking—no, demanding admittance. He wanted her so badly.
