Oath Sworn

by Kristen Banet

  “I swore an oath to her!” I growled, louder than anything I had been able to say before. “She’s mine!”

  “You lost her. I’m sorry.” Brin stood up and stepped away, heading for the exit. He looked back once and sighed. “Let it go, Jacky. No one would fault you for walking away right now, not after the beating you took.”

  No. I stayed silent until he left. No. I’d promised, and I wasn’t going to back out of it now. My Duty was to keep her safe as if she were my own child until I could put her back into the hands of those who have the longer claim, her family or legal guardians. Neither of which were the ones who took her, which meant I wasn’t done.

  I was slow to get up—which was to be expected, since it was only ten hours after I had been shot four times and died for two minutes. I stumbled to the doors, checking each. One was a closet, one was to the hallway, and just my luck, the very last was the bathroom I needed. I caught a look at myself when I sat down to do my business, seeing the dark circles under my eyes and the pain in the gold. I wondered if I was ever going to feel in control enough to get my hazel back. Someone had washed the blood off me, cleaning me up quite nicely, which was one small blessing.

  There were bruises, too. One on my jaw and another on the opposite cheek. My neck had hand prints. The smaller injuries would be gone before the end of the week, but the more pressing ones, the gun shots? I would be nursing those for a while, and they would become a myriad of new scars I would have to live with.

  Just like the night I left the apartment with Carey, I knew I didn’t have weeks to get back to my best. I had to act, and quickly, so I began to formulate my plan as I washed my hands, then my face. I gingerly tested my body, bending over and wincing in pain as scabs tore and my muscles screamed in revolt at my movement.

  When I went back into the bedroom, I found clothing set out on top of the dresser and got dressed. That took longer than anything I did in the bathroom.

  Plan. Take Carey back and protect her to the best of my ability, which admittedly hadn’t been too great so far.

  How? I really had no idea. Brin was right. If I showed up in Dallas-Fort Worth, I would have to get involved with the mess going on there. I figured the wolves attacking me were working against her father, which meant if I took them all out on their own turf, I was giving Heath the upper hand in his fight, if he was still fighting. It was everything a werecat shouldn’t do. We were supposed to be impartial protectors, guardians for humanity when the supernatural ruined their lives.

  I curled a fist as I sat back down on the bed. It was a defensive role. I was tired of defensive, and in the end, I had failed at it. The only course of action I had now was to be on the offensive.

  I had sworn an oath. Carey was mine and they took her from me. My throat tightened as I thought about everything that had happened. Tears flooded my eyes, even as I battled with a deep, unsettling rage growing in my chest. I killed people. A lot of people. I tore a man’s throat out with my bare hands after I blinded him.

  Ten years ago, I was just an EMT. I had saved people.

  Now I was killing them.

  I’m a monster.

  And the other monsters had taken something that belonged to me.

  Hasan once told me there would come a moment when I had to embrace what a werecat truly was. That I would have to accept the beast instead of just living with it. He’d said there was nothing wrong with violence in our lives, because we weren’t human. We were built to be the top predators of whatever region we claimed, and it was in our nature to defend that claim to the last breath.

  He probably never thought it would be over a human. He had probably just wanted me to stop feeling bad for knocking around other werecats when they accidentally or purposefully walked into my territory. It had always felt like needless violence to me.

  Fighting for Carey didn’t feel needless, though.

  “She’s mine,” I growled, continuing to feel the instinctual pull to protect and care for her, accepting it and holding on to it with everything I could. And I’m going to defend that claim to my last breath.

  I found the energy to stand up again and walked out of the bedroom, staggering only once and using the wall as my support. I found the fae-human family in their dining room.

  “I need to go back to my room and get my things,” I said softly, grabbing their attention. Brin was the one who sighed. I saw the young men around their human mother, who wore such an expression of worry that I nearly opened my mouth again to comfort her. I decided against it as Brin closed the distance and pointed to another door.

  “Follow me,” he ordered.

  We walked out of the little house and down a trail that led to the gas station. We were silent until we reached the far side of the motel’s parking lot and he stopped.

  “This is where we scraped your body from the asphalt,” he whispered, pointing down. I could still see the dark stain of my blood there, and it gave me chills. “This is what they’re willing to do to capture a little human girl. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “I’m going to show them what I’m willing to do to save a little human girl,” I answered.

  “And you know what that means? You are going to break so many Laws—”

  “They started it,” I hissed. “They came into my home to take her and I killed them. They came here and I killed as many as I could. They took something that belongs to me, and yes, I know what it means. I have people I can call and warn. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get some backup. I don’t need you questioning me, fae. This has nothing to do with you once I drive away.”

  “Of course.” He inclined his head. “I’ll charge you for everything.”

  “I have the money,” I told him, walking past my bloodstain on the asphalt. The money wasn’t a problem. The card was limitless. Hasan would never let me go out into the world poor, and I stopped arguing with him about money years ago.

  I wasted no time in throwing all of my things back into their suitcases. Then I got Carey’s, growling as I saw that the wolves took nothing of hers. She had nothing but the clothes on her back again.

  It took me less than twenty minutes to load up my hatchback, my body aching in protest. Brin never stopped watching me, shaking his head in obvious equal parts disappointment and dismay. I was about to get into the hatchback when he grabbed me.

  “You could start a war against your kind, Jacky. Please. Remember that there will be other humans who need you one day.”

  “I am,” I whispered harshly. “I am thinking about them. They took Carey from me, and let this be a warning to whoever tries to take something from me again. Next time, they’ll need to make sure I’m dead. Let the world get angry. I’m going to put fear in their fucking hearts before I rip them out of their fucking chests.” I slid in, wincing because of the pain and slammed the door shut before he could say any more.

  Duty was defensive. I wasn’t going to let it stop there, though. I turned the engine on and screamed out of the parking lot, hitting the gas harder when I was on the highway. I pulled out my phone and punched in a random spot in Dallas as my destination. I didn’t care if wolves were going to track me anymore.

  I hope they know I’m coming for them. I wonder what they’re going to think when they realize I’m not dead and I’m coming for their mangy asses. There better not be a hair out of place on Carey’s head.

  I turned on the Bluetooth between my hatchback’s system and my phone.

  “Call last number,” I ordered.

  It rang twice.

  “Jacqueline—”

  “They took her from me. I’ll be in Dallas.” I hung up right after that. I didn’t need to have a long conversation with Hasan, but I felt he deserved to know that much. He tried calling back and I hit reject on the touch screen on my dashboard. Then I flicked through to another number and hit it.

  “Jacky Leon. I heard some news, and I was worried something happened.”

  “Something did happen, Harrison. At least a dozen wol
ves showed up where I was hiding with Carey. Ten or so hours ago. I was shot four times with silver bullets and they took her. There’s six dead wolves at the place. You’ll get a call from the owner soon. He’s called Brin. Get a clean-up crew out there for those guys.”

  “And what are you going to do? With Carey back in the hands of the wolves, I guess this is the last call—”

  “I’m going to get her. You’re going to stay out of my way. Before you ask, damn right I know what Laws I’m breaking. You should ask a more important question than that when you speak next.”

  “And what question would that be?” he asked softly. He was tense, and I couldn’t blame him. I was about to say something stupid, and do something even stupider.

  “Do I care?”

  I hung up on him too.

  I rejected another phone call from Hasan once the line was dead and called Lani.

  “Jacky. I hope everything is okay.” She sounded normal. I nearly felt bad for what I was about to drop on her head.

  “What exactly does the Law cover when it comes to a werecat’s Duty?” I knew the Laws as they were written but I had never sat down and really considered the nuances of them. I knew for a fact that I was about to break the Law, but the wolves had first and I was still, in my opinion, under the oath of Duty. If there was ever a dangerous grey area, I had found it.

  “You are required to protect the human from all harm until the conditions are met. I take it, you promised Carey to take her back to her family or another keeper when things settled down, so that’s two conditions.”

  “Exactly. That I knew, but…what does it mean for me?”

  “In what case? Jacky, what happened?”

  “Wolves took her from me and left me full of silver. I’ll be fine, though. I’m still under oath, right? The problems in Dallas-Fort Worth haven’t been resolved and I didn’t give her into the care of someone I knew she was safe with. She was taken.”

  “Yes, but if you go to there…if you go after them, you’re going to have to choose a side. That’s…you can't do that!” Lani must have figured out what I planned. I knew it wouldn’t take too long.

  “What’s more important to the werecats? Our Duty, the thing that keeps us useful and safe in the world since the war with the werewolves, or the Law that binds our hands and leaves us lonely?” I demanded. “What’s more important? Do I abandon Carey and walk away? That would be breaking my oath, Lani. I can’t do that. Or do I break the Law and go get her and do what I’m supposed to, do what’s right? There’s a loophole, a conflict here. I need to know that something, anything, is going to back me up in my case on this.” Because if I lived through it, I would be going before the Tribunal for a crime the likes of which I had never heard of. They would probably decide to kill me then and there.

  “You can argue that you were only fulfilling the terms of your Duty. It’s stupid and risky.”

  “I promised to treat her as one of my own, as if she were my child. Now, I don’t have kids. I…wanted to, though, a long time ago. I would never let someone carry any child of mine away and give up on them.”

  “So you’re going to Dallas,” Lani said softly. “I can’t promise it will help, but when they ever get around to putting you in front of the Tribunal, I’ll be there to defend your choice. And they will. Jacky, if you live through this, they will come after you. Probably immediately. You might not leave Dallas.”

  “I know,” I whispered. “I’m driving. I’m going to let you go.”

  “I’ve got your back, cub. You young ones always know how to keep things interesting.” She hung up first, and I focused on the road, staring down the long highway.

  Eventually, I passed through Jacksonville again, and then my bar. As I passed, I was able to see that the dirt bike was no longer in my parking lot, a good sign that the cleanup was either under way or finished. Not like I had the chance to really worry about it, but it was interesting to note.

  An hour out of Dallas, I considered my game plan. I had to find a werewolf and hopefully use him or her to help me find Carey. They could be anywhere, but I figured it wouldn’t be hard to look up some basic information once I was in the city. It wouldn’t be hard to look up Heath Everson, Alpha of the cities, and find out where he worked or maybe even lived. For once, I was kicking myself for not having any connections to begin with. I should have been more active in the supernatural world. I should have known Carey might run to me if there was trouble.

  Even Lani, who was reclusive as well, at least met the werewolf Alphas near her, even if it was to shake hands and show respect both ways. Me? I just dropped into East Texas and proceeded to ignore the world until Lani showed up and started to build up a tentative, if distant, friendship.

  Which brought other questions to mind. How did the werewolves track me? Where did they get their information from? Was it my phone or Carey’s? Was it my credit cards, even though I was using ones under a fake name? Did they know all the aliases I used? If so, how?

  Nothing makes any sense and I’m way out of my depth here.

  I winced as I adjusted in my seat. Out of my depth and wounded. Couldn’t forget that second part if I wanted to live through whatever wasp nest I was about to kick.

  12

  Chapter Twelve

  Dallas was a beautiful city, one I wished I visited more but never did. Werecats didn’t find comfort leaving their own territory and were definitely not comfortable in the territory of a large werewolf pack. Or really any werewolf pack. I had only been in the city once in the last six years, and the visit had been rough on my mental state. Just a two hour drive away from home and I’d hated every second. I hadn’t been able to do anything since I had been terrified wolves would find me and put me down for encroaching on their space. I hadn’t liked leaving my territory undefended either, constantly worried about it

  What could I really say? I was a homebody.

  I drove through downtown looking for a place where I could essentially dump my car for the entire time and finally found a grocery store parking lot and parked in the very back. With my luck, someone would tow it anyway, but it was the only place I could think to drop it. I popped my trunk and took stock of everything I had. I tucked my knife into my boot and considered what to do with either of the stolen guns. Gun laws in Texas were more lax than other states, but I still didn’t have any sort of carry permit.

  Hell, up until recently, I barely used the damn things. Hasan always told me to practice, just in case I needed to defend myself…

  I groaned, thinking about the ancient werecat and how he’d now called over a dozen times. They were more spaced out as time passed, but he still called, trying desperately to convince me not to do what I was doing. Probably. I was his ‘daughter’ and he was protective of his family.

  I grabbed one, checking its ammo, and then the second. The first, also the first one I grabbed from the dead, had a lot more ammo, so I decided to take it, tucking it into my jacket pocket. I checked my reflection in my car’s window, then shook my head. That was way too obvious. I couldn’t put it in the waistband of my jeans either. I didn’t own anything loose enough to handle that and didn’t want to shoot myself.

  “No gun, then…” I didn’t like the decision, but I didn’t want to get arrested either. I put it carefully back into the trunk of the hatchback and closed the trunk.

  With a deep breath, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and began the haphazard research I was planning as I walked to the nearest place to find some food and coffee. Coffee sounded great. I was out for ten hours and it was already past dark. If anything was open on a Tuesday night, it would be quiet.

  After dark, the werewolves would be out too.

  I kept my nose trained on any scent that might come by, my eyes on my screen, and my ears listening for anything interesting.

  “We should probably get home, love. With the werewolf thing happening, the governor thinks it’s too dangerous to be out and about,” a woman said to the man next to he
r.

  “They should call in the fucking National Guard and put those animals down. It’s all fine and dandy until someone gets turned, or even better, gets their arms torn off.” The guy was cruel, but I could admit he had a small point. Werewolves were great for a community and its economy, being long-lived, nearly immortal, and sometimes incredibly rich. Wolf packs were generally self-sustaining. They employed most of the pack and a lot of humans on top of that to manage their day-to-day lives and the myriad business Alphas and many old wolves ended up with.

  Until they went and pulled something like this and turned a city into a war zone.

  There’s always a trade-off when humans play with monsters. The wolves were about to learn what trade-off they were going to get by picking a fight with a bigger monster. I let that settle my nerves. I was a god damn werecat. I was built for fighting werewolves.

  In full werecat form. Don’t get overconfident, Jacqueline.

  Oh god, even that thought was in Hasan’s voice. What is wrong with me?

  I stopped, smelling not werewolves, but coffee. I was near Union Station and followed the scent and frowned when I realized it was a hotel.

  Fuck me, I guess. No coffee for me.

  I continued walking, hoping to find anything. As I walked down the street, another scent hit my nose, one that had me grimacing and baring my teeth.

  Werewolf. Got your number, asshole.

  Coffee and food would have to wait. Now I was hunting.

  I tracked the scent down an alley and onto another street. It was fresh, maybe only minutes old. Lucky me. I continued, casually looking at my phone still, trying to learn something about Dallas as I walked. I needed to appear like a casual tourist because I couldn’t go running if I couldn’t see who I was chasing. There was no fear in the wolf’s scent, or really any obviously discernible emotion. He seemed like just a guy on a walk, that baseline everyone had when they were just having a normal day.

  I followed it down the street, wishing I knew more about the city. I didn’t know anything, honestly. The tall buildings could have been from any major city, and the little restaurants dappling the streets could have been New York or Seattle or Atlanta for all I knew about Dallas. I was never a city girl, but then again, I was never really a violent person either. Things were changing fast on me.