by Natalie Grey
“Maybe he will. We can always hope.” Alexi looked around as Nathan came in the door. He grew wary at the look on the man’s face. “What is it?”
“One of your neighbors came to ask for your help,” Nathan said grimly. “He says a man named Mihai was taken from his home by men in suits, and that Mihai’s grandson, Andrei, was seen running away from those same men, only to be dragged back and put in a car and both of them taken away. They want to know what to do.”
Alexi looked at Ecaterina.
“We’re going to go and get them back,” Ecaterina said decisively. “We’ll give Andrei the chance to show his true colors, and judge him on that.”
Chapter 8
They hauled Andrei down into the basement of a house, his feet scrabbling and bouncing off the wooden stairs, and tied him to a chair. When they wrenched the hood off, he squinted in the light of a single bare bulb. All of them were blurry shapes, hidden in the shadows.
This was the sort of thing you laughed at in TV shows, Andrei thought despairingly. It was just psychological; they were trying to scare you.
The thing was, it was scary. It was terrifying because he was already hurt and he couldn’t see them, and they were going to hurt him more. They would hurt him until he told them what they wanted to know out of sheer terror, trying to get them not to kill him.
And then they would kill him anyway.
He knew that.
He wished he had the courage to defy them so they would kill him now, but he wasn’t that kind of person. He wasn’t like those people in the forest, who had truly believed they could fight Ioan.
“Why don’t you tell us what’s been going on?” Ioan suggested. His voice sounded eminently reasonable now. He settled down on a couch on the other side of the room, and Andrei saw the glint of his eyes and the bright flash of flame as he lit a cigarette.
Deep breaths. Calm. Andrei grasped at what little sanity remained and swallowed.
“Two days ago I scanned the hill, and there were no new pelts. It seemed odd so I went to go check the traps, but many of them were missing.”
“Did you notify Grigore?”
“No. I wanted to solve the problem on my own.”
“I see.” There was a touch of dangerous amusement. “And how did that go for you?”
“Right before you…found me at my house, I went into the forest to confront the people taking them. I had figured out who they were. It was a woman who had just come back to town to visit her uncle. She used to live here, but she left to marry an American. She brought two pelts with her—magnificent. I was going to take them after dealing with her.”
It was a lie, Andrei realized. When it came down to it, he hadn’t wanted to shoot her in the forest. He could have killed them both easily; he was a good shot, and they hadn’t immediately thought he was an enemy.
He was fairly sure he could have killed them anyway, but if what happened next wasn’t just some nightmare…
“Was that the end of the story, Andrei?” Ioan’s voice was sharp now, and at his nod, one of the guards stepped forward to give Andrei a hard blow on the jaw.
Andrei forced himself not to cry out. “No.”
“Then continue, and do not waste my time.”
“I swear to you I am telling the truth,” Andrei whispered. He had a sudden fear that if he explained what happened with the wolf they would beat him until he passed out. “The woman—she turned into a wolf. A massive wolf, bigger than anything I had seen. She pinned me to the ground and asked me questions about you.”
There was a silence.
“I didn’t answer her,” Andrei lied desperately. “And she was too weak to kill me for it. I was coming back to tell you, but I thought you wouldn’t believe me and I was afraid. That’s why I ran.”
“That is…” Ioan’s voice trailed off, then came back strongly “The stupidest set of lies I have ever heard. You know I can’t just let that go.”
“No, please! I’m telling the truth. I’m telling the truth!”
But the blows fell, and they were so hard that the chair tipped over and Andrei tasted dirt until he was flipped onto his back. He thought he felt wooden rods raining down on him, and fists, and the jolt of the chair as it was kicked, and he began screaming again.
This was how it ended, but he wasn’t ready to die. And it had been the truth!
When at last he fell silent one of the guards looked up at Ioan. “Do you want me to kill him?”
Ioan threw his cigarette onto the floor and strolled over to study Andrei’s prone form. He considered.
“No. When his friends arrive, have them bring him and his grandfather back home. They’ll serve us better as living reminders not to cross me.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
Bobcat leveled off the top of the grain scoop and eyeballed it. “Eh, close enough.”
Brewing was as much an art as a science, after all. Plus, he had a secret weapon. He gave a look over at the myrcene oil and grinned as he dumped the wheat into the boiling water. He inhaled, waving the steam toward his nose. It was already smelling sweet.
The hops lay nearby and he dumped scoops of those into the wort as well.
“One, two, three… Eh, add a bit more.” His list lay nearby with the measurements, and he took a moment to scrawl and a bit next to one of the types of hops.
Art.
Excellent. He sat back on a couch and took a pull of one of his latest beers. It had been a rousing success, yet another reason to suspect that he was going to win this competition by a mile.
He indulged in the happy daydream of Yelena throwing her arms around him in front of everyone. Good beer to drink, Yelena’s adoration, and bragging rights—it really didn’t get much better than that. Throw in some tinkering on his newest vehicle and he’d call that a perfect day, in fact.
He was especially going to enjoy leaving Barnabas in the dust. What did Barnabas know, anyway? He was relying on outdated techniques. The world of brewing had moved on, and Barnabas would be telling Marcus just to use the old Trappist methods and nothing else.
It was definitely William who was the wildcard. Bobcat narrowed his eyes and considered. Yes, William and Pete.
“ADAM?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know if anyone looked up the myrcene oil? You know, since I didn’t block it?” He had minor regrets on that front.
“There have been no searches for myrcene oil or returning results including myrcene oil since then.”
ADAM waited for Bobcat to ask the relevant follow-up question: “And were there any before then?”
But Bobcat did not ask, and ADAM, in the spirit of competition, did not feel it sporting to offer the information that William had already procured some of the oil.
Romania
“Okay.” Ecaterina stabbed her finger down on a crudely-drawn map. “This is where Ioan is hiding out, according to Andrei. It’s this big old house that hasn’t belonged to anybody in years. I thought it was just filled with squatters, but apparently not.”
“Big old house, huh?” Nathan narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like the sound of that. He could be hiding anyone in there, or anything.”
“We don’t think there are many people there now,” Ecaterina explained. “As far as we can tell, Ioan left the day-to-day running of the operation to three men in town: Andrei, Grigore, and Mathieu. Andrei says Grigore was supposed to be in charge of them. Apparently he’s a nasty piece of work.”
“So we should only have…what, six people?” Nathan shrugged. “Or five. Ioan’s here now, or at least I’m going to assume that was who was in the car. Andrei, Grigore, Mathieu, and probably a bodyguard or two.”
“Exactly, and we want to hit now before Ioan calls in anyone else. He might not, but why take the chance?” Ecaterina shrugged.
“You have three Wechselbags,” Yelena pointed out. “You can take on way more than six guys.”
“No sense taking any chances,” Ecaterina said unequivocally.
“I’d rather it be stupidly easy.”
Nathan leaned back against the wall and grinned. He was proud of her. Too often people running their first missions would try to do things the hard way, thinking that it was more heroic to fight more people. They risked a lot of lives that way, and he was pleased that Ecaterina wasn’t falling into the same trap.
“Nonetheless,” Ecaterina said warningly, “I am guessing Ioan can call on backup pretty much immediately. I’ll bet furs aren’t the only thing he sells, and I’ll bet that also means he is prepared for things to go wrong at a moment’s notice.”
“So what do you propose?” Alexi frowned.
“Andrei will almost certainly have told Ioan about us,” Ecaterina explained. “He will probably even have told Ioan that I can shift into a wolf, but there’s no way to know if Ioan will believe him. Either way Ioan now has a target, and it includes two noncombatants.” She nodded at Yelena and Christina.
“I can fight,” Yelena said, irritated. “I’m getting really good with a gun, and I’m a pretty good boxer.”
“Yes, but you haven’t gotten any upgrades for healing yet,” Ecaterina said. “And we need someone to watch Christina. Will you do that for us while we take on Ioan’s crew?”
Yelena knew there was no reason to argue with this. Her pride was stung, but Ecaterina was right. Three of the four adults in this room were much better suited to combat than she was.
“You’re really not missing much,” Ecaterina said softly, “if that helps. People talk a lot about the fights Bethany Anne’s team gets in, but fights are just messy and bloody. You are also integral to the plan.”
Yelena nodded silently.
Nathan nodded as well. Ecaterina didn’t have the silver tongue of an experienced leader yet—she would have headed Yelena’s concerns off at the pass if she had—but she had the good sense to recognize those concerns when they surfaced and address them directly.
“So what am I doing?” Yelena asked.
“We’re all going to go into the forest,” Ecaterina explained. “We’ll make sure they see us. As soon as we’re there, you’ll take Christina and go to a hunting stand Alexi built. No one else knows about it, and that way you’ll be out of sight. Stay there until we come into the hunting stand to get you. Don’t move until then.”
Yelena nodded.
“Meanwhile, the rest of us will go through the forest and pretend that Bellatrix or Ashur has gotten snagged in a trap. While we seem to be distracted by that, we think they will attack us.” Ecaterina looked around. “And I personally think Ioan will confront us to show his superiority before he has us killed. That’s when we strike.” She stood up and looked between Alexi and Nathan. “I think it’s important that we deal with them as fast as possible on the off-chance that he does have more people waiting in the wings. No words, no explanations, no speeches—we just deal with them.”
Nathan nodded. He could feel his smile widening. “It’s a good plan,” he told her honestly. “Let’s go rid this town of Ioan.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds
“Let me just check again,” William said worriedly.
Pete groaned. “You’ve been over this ten times. I’ve been over this ten times. The proportions carry over. You’ve worked out all the timings. The equipment is ready.” He took William by the shoulders. “Enough worrying about beer. Have a beer.”
“I just—”
“Nope.” Pete turned him around and marched him over to the bar. “Sit. As your mentor in this process—”
“Assistant.”
“Mentor.” Pete glared. “As your mentor, you should listen to me when I tell you to stop worrying. We can brew anytime.” He set a mug of beer down on the counter. “Drink.”
“Right.” William drank. “God, this is good. See, this is why I’m worried. This was Bobcat’s last one. Sure, we have the oil, but he’s a good brewer.”
“So he’s a good brewer.” Pete shrugged. “Wouldn’t be much point in a contest if he sucked at it, would there?”
“I…guess not?”
“Right. Meanwhile, you’ve worked out all the hop concentrations and we’re good to go. I’m telling you, you’ve made a winner. Whatever this myrcene oil crap is, we’d have a good beer anyway without it. Stop making yourself crazy.”
“Right.” William nodded. He drained his beer and set it down. “Then let’s get to brewing.”
“Excellent.” Pete clinked his mug against William’s empty one. “Be with you in one sec… Right, okay.” He wiped at his mouth. “Let’s get to brewing, indeed.”
Chapter 9
Romania
The group dawdled on their way to the forest. It was a nice afternoon so there was no reason to hurry, and Ecaterina and Nathan made a big show of introducing Christina to the forest, as well as the dogs pretending to be total pushovers for anyone who would rub their bellies.
“It’s not entirely an act, you know,” Nathan told Ashur.
Ashur chuffed at him contemptuously.
“You are!” Nathan asserted. “A total pushover for tummy rubs.”
Ashur asserted that he would push Nathan over, and then Nathan would give him tummy rubs and Nathan would be the pushover.
“That’s…not how that works. Oh, you know what, I give up.”
Ashur gave a self-satisfied grin.
About halfway to the forest, Ecaterina and Nathan exchanged a pleased look.
Alexi made sure not to look around himself, “What is it?”
“We’re being followed. I’m guessing it’s Grigore; he has a very smug look about him.” Ecaterina stole a glance behind her in a shop window and tried not to laugh as Grigore darted artfully into a doorway. “Yeah, he’s real spy material. Super sneaky.”
Even Yelena had noticed him by this point, and was trying not to laugh.
As they approached the forest, they were still calling loud hellos to their neighbors and waving delightedly, never once looking toward their incredibly obvious follower. They walked slowly, and it was only when the trees closed around them that Ecaterina handed Christina to Yelena and they all started to run.
“Come on, come on.” Alexi bundled Yelena and Christina toward the hunting stand. “This way. And…there we go, nice and comfy.”
“Are you ready to hide?” Yelena asked Christina. “I don’t think your mom’s going to find us, do you?”
Christina giggled.
“Yeah, and there are a bunch of other people playing too, so we’ll have to be quiet when all of them go past, okay?”
Christina nodded solemnly.
“Awesome.” Yelena held the little girl close as Alexi hurried away again to rejoin the rest and continue their very loud, very easily-followed trail through the forest.
Not long after, she watched Grigore bumble by. He was snapping branches, almost as loudly on his own as the rest had as a group, and he swore every time something snagged his expensive pants.
He clearly had the idea that someday he would run an organization like Ioan’s, and Yelena rolled her eyes at him. She’d seen a lot of men like Grigore in her day. They always ended up petty and mean, taking out their frustrations on their families and pets because they didn’t have the wealth and power they thought was theirs by right.
It was a good thing Ecaterina was taking this group out. Yelena held her finger to her lips and nodded to Christina to stay quiet even though Grigore was gone. Ecaterina was right, she was doing something very important. She was keeping Christina safe.
Her arms tightened around the little girl and she kissed the top of Christina’s head. At her side, in its holster, the gun was waiting.
Just let anyone try to hurt Christina. She’d make sure they didn’t live to see another day.
Ioan adjusted his cuffs as he strode down the hallway to his study. He stopped when one of his bodyguards came out into the hall to incline his head respectfully,
“Sir, Constantinou’s team from the castle will be ready as soon as they are alerted.”
“Excellent.” Ioan looked at Mathieu.
Since he had brought Andrei’s limp body upstairs, the man had been pale and prone to jumping at small noises. He bowed his head instantly when Ioan looked at him.
Good.
“Mathieu.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I will require you to stay here and alert Constantinou’s team, as well as make an emergency call to report the vicious attack these people are about to make on us.” Ioan looked smug. “As soon as I give the signal, tell Constantinou and his men to surround the group.”
“Yes, sir.” Mathieu bobbed his head nervously.
The problem with his excessive deference was, of course, that Ioan could not see the expression in his eyes.
“Mathieu, I understand that you are shaken by what happened to Andrei, but you must understand that Andrei has put all of us in danger. He gave these people our address and they will call in the police, who do not care whether or not you need your family, and who will perhaps arrest you. I will try to keep us safe, but you must remember it was Andrei who put us in this precarious situation.”
“Yes, sir.” Mathieu met his eyes briefly and swallowed hard. He nodded.
“Good. I will send you a signal in a few minutes.” Ioan nodded to his guards and they headed into the forest.
It wasn’t long until they found a trap.
No one had to look behind them to know that Grigore was still following. Anyone with ears could hear the sound plainly as the man struggled and swore his way through the bushes.
His path had not wavered at all since they had started into the forest, and Ecaterina knew he was too stupid even to have counted the figures below to notice that there were fewer people now than he’d followed to start with.
If Ioan was trusting his organization to people like this, he deserved to lose everything from stupidity alone.
She rolled her eyes.
When Bellatrix pawed at the ground and whined, the whole group gathered around.
