Moon Called mt-1

by Patricia Briggs

  "He said he'd talk it over with you," I told him at last. "After this business is finished."

  He raised his hands to his face abruptly, in a gesture very like the one Kyle had used. "At least it's not over, yet."

  He wasn't talking to any of us, but I couldn't stand the bleakness of his voice. I touched his shoulder, and said, "Don't screw it up anymore and I think he'll be okay with it."

  Samuel and I headed out to meet with Zee and his informant, and I was still trying to figure out if I should have been mad at Adam for manipulating me like that. Except that he actually hadn't done any manipulation, had he? All he'd done was claim credit for my actions afterward.

  The light turned red, and I had to stop behind a minivan a little closer than I usually did. Samuel's hand braced itself on my dash and he sucked in his breath. I made a face at the kid in the backseat of the van who had twisted around in his seat belt to look at us. He pulled his lower eyelids down and stuck out his tongue.

  "It's not that I object to being in a car wreck," Samuel said. "I just prefer to have them on purpose."

  "What?" I glanced over at him, then looked in front of us. The back of the other van made an all-encompassing wall about two feet from our windshield. Sudden comprehension made me grin. "Vanagons have no nose," I said gently. "Our bumper is about a foot from your toes. You could walk between our cars."

  "I could reach out and touch that boy," he said. The boy had made another face, and Samuel made one back, sticking his thumbs in his ears and spreading his fingers out like moose antlers. "You know, one of Adam's jobs was to make sure you didn't run around telling the world about werewolves."

  The light turned green, and the kid waved sadly as his van accelerated onto the interstate ramp. We were accelerating, too, but the ramp curled around in an uphill slant so it would take us a while to get to interstate speed.

  I snorted. "Kyle's not the world." I glanced at him. "Besides, you knew what I was going to do as well as Adam did. If you'd really objected, you could have stopped me before I left."

  "Maybe I think Kyle is trustworthy."

  I snorted. "Maybe the moon is made of green cheese. You don't care. You think the werewolves need to come out in public like the fae." Samuel had never been afraid of change.

  "We aren't going to be able to hide much longer," Samuel said, confirming my guess. "When I went back to school, I realized just how far forensic medicine has come. Ten years ago, when it was just the military and the FBI labs we had to worry about, having a few wolves in the right places was sufficient. But there aren't enough wolves to infiltrate every small-town police laboratory. Since the fae came out, the scientists are paying closer attention to abnormalities they used to attribute to lab equipment failure or specimen contamination. If Da doesn't pick his time soon, it'll pick him."

  "You're the reason he's considering it at all." That made sense. Bran had always given close consideration to Samuel's advice.

  "Da's not stupid. Once he understood what we faced, he came to the same conclusion. He has a meeting scheduled for all the Alphas this coming spring." He paused. "He considered using Adam-the handsome Vietnam war hero."

  "Why not you?" I asked. "The handsome, selfless doctor who has been keeping people alive for centuries."

  "That's why Da's in charge and you're just a minion," he said. "Remember, popular culture holds that all you need to become a werewolf is to have one bite you-not unlike AIDS. It will be a while before they're comfortable rubbing elbows up close and personal. Better to leave them thinking that all the wolves are in the military and the police. You know-'To Serve and Protect'."

  "I'm not a minion," I objected hotly. "Minions have to be followers." He laughed, pleased at having gotten my goat again.

  "You don't mind that I told Kyle early?" I asked after a while.

  "No, you were right. He has too much to lose by going to the tabloids, and he's the kind of people we need behind us-to keep the mobs under control."

  "Educated, well-spoken, well-bred lawyer?" I tried. Yes, that all fit Kyle. "But he's not exactly mainstream."

  Samuel shrugged. "Being gay has a certain cachet today."

  I thought of the story Kyle had told me about his family and thought Samuel was mistaken, at least in some quarters. But all I said was, "I'll tell Kyle he has a certain cachet with you."

  Unexpectedly, Samuel grinned. "I'd rather you didn't. He'll just flirt with me some more."

  "Speaking of uncomfortable," I said, "what had you and Warren so uptight?"

  "It was mostly Warren," he said. "I'm a stranger, a dominant wolf in his territory-and he was already upset because he thought he was losing the love of his life. If I'd realized how dominant he was, I'd have taken myself elsewhere for the night. We'll manage, but it won't be comfortable."

  "He's Adam's third."

  "Would have been nice if someone had seen fit to tell me that," Samuel groused good-naturedly. "With Adam wounded and the second not there, that sticks Warren in the Alpha role-no wonder he was so wound up. I was ready to go out and take a walk myself when you showed up." He gave me a sharp look. "Odd how you showing up let him back down. Just as if Adam's second were there-or his mate."

  "I'm not pack," I said shortly. "I'm not dating Adam. I have no status in the pack. What I did have was a long overdue conversation with Kyle-which is what distracted Warren."

  Samuel continued to watch me. His mouth was quirked up, but his eyes were full of things I couldn't read, as he said, "Adam's staked his claim on you before his pack. Did you know that?"

  I hadn't. It made me suck in an angry breath before I realized why he might have done that. "He had to keep his pack from killing me somehow. Wolves kill coyotes who are in their territory. A formal claim of me as his mate would keep me safe. I understand that was something Bran asked him to do. It doesn't make me pack, it doesn't make me his mate. The first is out because I'm a coyote, the second because somebody has to ask me before he can claim me for a mate."

  Samuel laughed, but there was no amusement in it. "You can think as you please. How much time do we have before we find this bar?"

  "It's in the far side of Pasco," I said. "We'll be there in ten minutes."

  "Well," he said, "why don't you tell me about Zee and this fae we are supposed to meet?"

  "I don't know a lot," I told him. "Not about the fae. Just that she's got some information we might be interested in. As for Zee, he's a gremlin. He gave me my first job out of college, and I bought the garage from him when he retired. He still helps out when I need him-or when he gets bored. He likes to take things apart and see what's wrong with them, but he usually lets me put them back together again."

  "There's a fae reservation near here."

  I nodded. "About forty miles away. Just outside of Walla Walla."

  "Adam says that having so many lesser fae around has attracted more of the greater fae."

  "I don't know about that," I said. "I can smell their magic, but I can't tell how strong they are."

  "He thinks that's also why there are more vampires, ghosts, and whatnot around the Tri-Cities than, say Spokane, which is a larger city."

  "I try to stay out of the other species' business," I told him. "I can't avoid the werewolves, not with Adam living right next door, but I try. The only fae I associate with are Zee and his son Tad."

  "The fae are willing to talk to you." Samuel stretched his legs out and clasped his hands behind his neck, sticking his elbows out like wings. "Adam says your old boss is one of the oldest of the fae-and, just so you know, the metalsmiths-gremlins-are not included with the lesser fae. Also, Warren told me that Stefan the vampire visits you quite often. Then there's this human police officer. Drawing the attention of the police is dangerous."

  It did sound as if I had my finger in all sorts of pies.

  "Zee was forced public by the Gray Lords," I said. "So someone considers him to be one of the lesser fae. Stefan loves his bus, and I let him help me fix it."

  "You
what?"

  I forgot he'd never met Stefan. "He's not like most vampires," I tried to explain. Even though Stefan was the only vampire I'd ever met, I knew how they were supposed to act: I went to movies just like everyone else.

  "They are all like most vampires," Samuel said darkly. "Some of them are just better at hiding it than others."

  It wouldn't do any good to argue with him-especially since I agreed with him in principle.

  "And the police officer wasn't my fault," I muttered, taking my exit into Pasco. It seemed like a good time to change the subject, so I said, "The Fairy Mound in Walla Walla is the bar where tourists go to see the fae. The fae who don't want to be gawked at mostly hang out at Uncle Mike's here in Pasco. Zee says there's a spell on it that makes humans avoid it. It doesn't affect me, but I don't know about werewolves."

  "You aren't going in without me," he said.

  "Fine." Never argue with werewolves before you need to, I reminded myself.

  Uncle Mike's was across the Columbia River from my garage, which put it near Pasco's Industrial Park. The old building had once been a small warehouse, and there were warehouses on either side, both heavily tagged by the local kids. I wasn't sure if magic kept the kids away, or someone with a lot of paint and a brush, but Uncle Mike's exterior was always pristine.

  I pulled into the parking lot and turned off my lights. It was about seven, still a little early for the regular crowd, and there were only four other cars in the lot, one of which was Zee's truck.

  Inside, the bar was dark enough that a human might stumble over the stairs that led from the entry to the bar proper. Samuel hesitated in the doorway, but I thought that it was a tactical thing and not a reaction to a spell. The bar took up all of the wall to our right. There was a small dance floor cleared in the center of the room, with clusters of small tables scattered around the outside.

  "There they are," I told Samuel, and headed for the far corner, where Zee sat looking relaxed next to a moderately attractive woman in conservative business dress.

  I've never seen Zee without his glamour; he told me he'd worn it so long that he was more comfortable in human guise. His chosen form was moderately tall, balding, with a little potbelly. His face was craggy, but not unattractively so-just enough to give it character.

  He saw us coming and smiled. Since he and the woman already had the defensive seats, setting their backs against the wall, Samuel and I sat across from them. If having the rest of the room behind him, mostly empty as it was, bothered Samuel, I couldn't tell. I hitched my chair around until I could at least get a glimpse of the rest of the room.

  "Hey, Zee," I said. "This is Dr. Samuel Cornick. Samuel, meet Zee."

  Zee nodded, but didn't try to introduce his companion. Instead, he turned to her, and said, "These are the ones I told you about."

  She frowned and tapped the table with long, manicured nails. Something about the way she used them made me think that beneath the glamour she might have claws. I'd been trying to pin down her scent, but finally was forced to conclude that either she didn't have one or that she smelled of iron and earth just like Zee.

  When she looked up from contemplating her nails, she spoke to me and not to Samuel. "Zee tells me there is a child missing."

  "She's fifteen," I said, wanting to be clear. The fae don't like it if they think you've lied to them. "The local Alpha's human daughter."

  "This could be trouble for me," she said. "But I have talked to Zee, and what I have to tell you has nothing to do with the fae, and so I am at liberty to share it. I would not usually help the wolves, but I do not like those who take their battles to the innocents."

  I waited.

  "I work at a bank," she said at last. "I won't tell you the name of it, but it is the bank that the local seethe of vampires uses. Their deposits follow a regular pattern." Meaning that most of their victims' payments were monthly. She sipped her drink. "Six days ago, there was an unexpected deposit."

  "Visitors paying tribute," I said, sitting up straighter in my chair. This sounded promising. A single fae or wolf or whatever wouldn't have paid a tribute high enough to catch anyone's eye.

  "I took the liberty of speaking to Uncle Mike himself before you came," said Zee quietly. "He's heard of no new visitors, which means these people are keeping very quiet."

  "We need to talk to the vampires," said Samuel. "Adam will know how to do it."

  "That will take too long." I took out my cell phone and dialed Stefan's number. It was early for him to be up, but he'd called me not much later than this.

  "Mercy," he said warmly. "Are you back from your trip?"

  "Yes. Stefan, I need your help."

  "What can I do for you?" Something changed in his voice, but I couldn't worry about that.

  "Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, a group of people including out-of-territory werewolves kidnapped the Alpha's daughter. She's a personal friend of mine, Stefan. Someone told me that your seethe might know of a visiting pack."

  "Ah," he said. "That's not in my area of responsibility. Do you want me to inquire for you?"

  I hesitated. I didn't know much about the vampires except that smart people avoid them. Something about the formality of his question made me think it was a bigger question than it sounded.

  "What does that mean, exactly?" I asked suspiciously.

  He laughed, a cheerful unvampire-like sound. "Good for you. It means that you are appointing me your representative and that gives me certain rights to pursue this that I might not otherwise have."

  "Rights over me?"

  "None that I will take advantage of," he said. "I give you my word of honor, Mercedes Thompson. I will force you to do nothing against your will."

  "All right," I said. "Then yes, I would like you to inquire for me."

  "What do you know?"

  I glanced at the woman's expressionless face. "I can't tell you everything-just that I've been told that your seethe knows of visitors to the Tri-Cities who might be the group I'm looking for. If that group doesn't have any werewolves, then they're the wrong ones. They might be doing something experimental with medicines or drugs."

  "I'll inquire," he said. "Keep your cell phone at hand."

  "I'm not certain that was wise," said Zee, after I hung up.

  "You said she deals with the werewolves." The woman curled her upper lip at me. "You didn't tell me she also deals with the undead."

  "I'm a mechanic," I told her. "I don't make enough money to pay off the vampires in cash, so I fix their cars. Stefan has an old bus he's restoring. He's the only one I've ever dealt with personally."

  She didn't look happy, but her lip uncurled.

  "I appreciate your time," I said, narrowly skirting an outright thank you-which can get you in trouble. The wrong kind of fae will take your thanks as an admission that you feel obligated to them. Which means that you must then do whatever they ask. Zee had been very careful to break me of that habit. "The Alpha will also be happy to recover his daughter."

  "It is always good for the Alpha to be happy," she said; I couldn't tell if she was being honest or sarcastic. She stood up abruptly and smoothed down her skirts to give me time to move my chair so she could exit. She stopped by the bar and spoke to the bartender before she left.

  "She smells like you," Samuel said to Zee. "Is she a metalsmith, too?"

  "Gremlin, please," said Zee. "It may be a new name for an old thing, but at least it is not a bad translation. She is a troll-a relative, but not a close one. Trolls like money and extortion, a lot of them go into banking." He frowned at me. "You don't go into that nest of vampires alone, Mercy, not even if Stefan is escorting you. He appears better than most, but I have been around a long time. You cannot trust a vampire. The more pleasant they appear, the more dangerous they are."

  "I don't plan on going anywhere," I told him. "Samuel is right, the wolves don't pay tribute here. Likely they are people who have nothing to do with taking Jesse."

  My phone rang.
>
  "Mercy?"

  It was Stefan, but there was something about his voice that troubled me. I heard something else, too, but there were more people in the bar and someone had turned up the music.

  "Wait a moment," I said loudly-then lied. "I'm sorry I can't hear you. I'm going outside." I waved at Samuel and Zee, then walked outside to the quieter parking lot.

  Samuel came with me. He started to speak but I held up a finger to my lips. I didn't know how good a vampire's hearing was, but I didn't want to risk it.

  "Mercy, can you hear me now?" Stefan's voice was overly crisp and even.

  "Yes," I said. I could also hear the woman's voice that said sweetly, "Ask her, Stefan."

  He sucked in his breath as if the unknown woman had done something that hurt.

  "Is there a strange werewolf with you at Uncle Mike's?" he asked.

  "Yes," I said, looking around. I couldn't smell anything like Stefan nearby, and I was pretty certain I'd have noticed. The vampires must have a contact at Uncle Mike's, someone who could tell Samuel was a werewolf and who knew Adam's werewolves.

  "My mistress wonders that she was not informed of a visitor."

  "The wolves don't ask permission to travel here, not from your seethe," I told him. "Adam knows."

  "Adam has disappeared, leaving his pack leaderless." They spoke together, his words so tight on the end of hers that he sounded like an echo.

  I was relatively certain she didn't know I could hear her-though Stefan did. He knew what I was because I'd shown him. Apparently he hadn't seen fit to inform the rest of his seethe. Of course, someone as relatively powerless as I was of little interest to the vampires.

  "The pack is hardly leaderless," I said.

  "The pack is weak," they said. "And the wolves have set precedent. They paid for permission to come into our territory because we are dominant to Adam's little pack."

  Samuel's eyes narrowed, and his mouth tightened. The vampire's contributors were the people who'd killed Mac, the people who had Jesse.