by Mark Henwick
Weaver’s group came to a halt beside our table. He looked briefly at Kane and Scott, then ignored them and sat down opposite me. The other two stood behind him.
He was a big man, heavy shouldered, dark haired. He had piercing blue eyes, the sort of color they called Persian blue, from the antique pottery glaze. They stared at me from under a heavy forehead and thick eyebrows.
He leaked power, so much it made my skin itch. He was strong, and he’d gotten a lot stronger since I last met him.
There was a different tingling sensation of a working from him. Kane tensed up, but all that happened was the noise of the club around us faded away into the background—still there, but not so loud we couldn’t talk.
“A rogue Were, an outlaw Adept and a human woman who stinks of addiction,” Weaver said. “You keep strange company, Farrell, especially in places packed with humans.”
Scott and Kane both ‘smiled’, but their appearances couldn’t have been more different.
“Says the man using magic,” I replied. “The woman has left and it’s none of your business what my Athanate House does or who’s in it, Weaver.”
“You’re actually claiming these in your House?” His fingers, small for such a big man, flicked to indicate the others.
“Still none of your business. Send any complaints to House Altau.”
Weaver might be powerful, but he would have to be all kinds of crazy to contemplate taking Altau on, given Skylur commanded every Athanate in the country.
“Your leader has his own concerns in New York, I hear.” Weaver gave a dismissive wave. “It’s not important. Where is Tullah Autplumes?”
Not Kaothos? Not ‘the dragon’? Tullah...
“Another member of my Athanate House, and another person who’s no business of yours.”
His eyes narrowed and glinted.
“She is part of my Denver community of Adepts, not your...” He restrained himself. He hadn’t been about to say House. He’d probably been about to call it a brothel or something.
I didn’t wait for him to finish. “She hasn’t been a member of your community since you tried to prevent her from using her spirit guide.”
I’d broken that lock down in New Mexico. A good thing I had, too.
Mind you, saying that she was part of my House was half a lie. She wasn’t bitten or bound. A good thing that Weaver was no Truth Sensor.
His skills seemed more in the compulsion department.
I could feel the power building up from the three of them, like the threat of a thunderstorm.
I locked my eukori down. It wasn’t enough.
The music Electric Breath was playing slowed to a serpent sway; it became cold as a reptile's blood, and it had a need that was insidious, narrow and demanding. It had eyes like a raptor that could see deep into my soul, and a sibilant lizard tongue that spoke of the falling of stars and the death of all dreams.
“HEY! RED! Wanna dance?”
The confused vision of flying snakes emerging from the dark jungle swamps vanished. Sounds returned. Electric Breath were playing van Burren trance music, the bass pumping energy through the floor.
A very drunk, kinda cute guy was leaning over the table, clutching the edge for support. How he’d decided my auburn hair was red under the club’s blue lights was one of those mysteries that will never be known, but he’d arrived like a beautiful car-crash into the complex working that Weaver was attempting.
My heart rate sped back up from the doldrums and air rushed into my lungs.
“Another time,” I said to my savior and managed to wink at him. “When you can dance without me holding you upright.”
My voice sounded raw against the noise that had returned. The boy looked upset, but Julie and Keith returned at that moment. Keith guided the drunk back to the bar. Julie stood behind the Adepts and got real close, so close that I could feel them twitching.
She and Keith couldn’t have known how Weaver had attacked us, but they sensed what was needed.
Scott looked confused by everything, as if he’d woken up in the middle of an argument.
Kane smiled again.
Did he just use magic to lure that guy to come over and interrupt? I wondered.
Anyway, between the notice we were being paid by the rest of the bar now, and the distraction of Julie’s threat, Weaver wouldn’t be able to maintain enough focus to make another working.
“Try that again, Weaver,” I said, to make sure he understood, “and you’ll find out what kind of weapons my team can smuggle into dance clubs.”
I suspected Julie had a ceramic blade hidden up her shirtsleeves. Not very long and probably only good for a couple of stabs, but more than enough to kill.
How the hell we would fix that with the police afterwards, I didn’t know.
Weaver’s face was stiff with anger, but I didn’t care; something else was happening now. I looked around, trying to work out where.
“Farrell!”
Weaver tapped on the back of my hand to get my attention back. His touch was like a discharge of static and I only just stopped myself from snatching my hand away. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of letting him know he’d startled me.
The air right beside us boiled.
It gave him a scare, but I’d had some warning, and I’d seen it before.
This time I was expecting the white hair and cold blue eyes that stared at me across the table.
“The gang’s all here,” I muttered.
Her lips thinned.
She liked my jokes. We were nearly best friends.
A couple of people in the bar might have noticed, but it was dark in our corner and the Hecate wasn’t only half there, like last time she used this trick. I saw a guy hold up his drink and frown as if wondering how strong it was.
“Hecate,” Weaver said stiffly. He obviously hadn’t been expecting her to come here, and certainly not by using her aural projection trick.
They weren’t working together. I didn’t think Weaver even knew that Kaothos had moved to Diana.
If they’re not working together, can I use that?
Or have I now got twice the enemies at this table?
“Weaver,” the Hecate replied, matching his tone. “Good. As Amber says, we’re all here, and it appears we have a common goal. It would be senseless for us to work against each other. Let’s talk.”
Apparently, her projection power didn’t extend to sending a spell to silence the club around us, and I wasn’t willing to let Weaver do it again, so he and I had to lean forward to hear each other.
“There is nothing the Athanate can provide except risk,” Weaver said.
“Yet they seem to hold the key,” the Hecate replied. “However reluctant they may be, we need to persuade them to share.”
I didn’t rise to that bait, buying some time instead.
“All this getting together. What about the werewolves?” I asked, sweetly, and Scott shifted in his seat again. I was back to holding his hand and willing him to remain calm. I was amazed he had managed it so far.
Weaver was stuck. I could tell he wanted to say that there was no place for animals in whatever plans he was brewing, but he knew I was a hybrid, and I’d seen his nervous glance at Scott.
“What about them?” he said, brushing his hand across his chin. “What part do you think they could play?”
“I think all of us should be in the Assembly, and any issues you have should be brought up there, under rules that are agreed by all.”
Weaver’s mouth twisted. “The werewolves aren’t going to submit to your Athanate lawyers’ club.”
As he spoke, things changed again.
“I think they will,” I said. “If you don’t believe me, you could try asking them yourself.”
The person I was going to suggest he ask had just come into the club. I hadn’t had time to catch his scent, but I knew the feel of him in my eukori.
Zane.
He was the Albuquerque alpha. Both New
Mexico alphas, Zane and Cameron, had a reputation for being crazy. People were starting to understand that crazy behavior was a deliberate mask, but in Zane’s case, I wasn’t sure it was all mask.
Still, his ultimate alpha, Cameron, was now mated to my ultimate alpha, Felix, which meant we were effectively in a sort of super-pack that covered New Mexico and Colorado. Not that it gave me any clue as to why he should turn up here. No problem. I wasn’t looking that gift horse in the mouth.
He reached the top of the stairs and I took a moment to enjoy watching him.
He wasn’t the sort of alpha who bulked up with weights; instead he was tall, balanced, wiry. He had bronzed skin the color of wild honey. Sharp, proud face. Black hair tightly coiled, glossy in the lights. Slim hips, long legs and an unhurried walk.
That’s what every eye in the bar could see, and half of them were watching.
What they couldn’t sense was the paranormal.
Zane put out a werewolf aura of violence on a tight rein, delivered with a double helping of dominance. It was a dangerously attractive mix for werewolves and it had gotten much stronger now that Cameron and Felix had united the packs.
The air seemed thinner all of a sudden.
He set my pulse racing, just like he had back down in Albuquerque, when I flirted my way to beating him at poker.
Down girl, dammit.
Weaver turned, and I could tell he knew who it was by the way his muscles tightened across his shoulders.
Zane arrived at our table.
“What a night out,” the Albuquerque alpha said. “Were, Athanate and Adept enjoying the Denver scene. I’m sorry I have to break it up.”
His voice was rich and full. It was the only thing about him that was false. I knew there was a different voice hiding underneath that studied way of speaking. The real voice would sound like hot, humid nights, sitting on the creaking wooden stoop to catch a breath of wind, the talk slow and the beer warm, sweat glistening on bare skin where the moonlight caught it—
I shook my head.
Why am I mooning over him?
“Amber,” he said, and I looked up to meet his eyes, one green, the other brown. “You’re called.”
I got up, pulling Scott to his feet.
“Hold on,” Weaver said, getting up too. “We need to talk. This is vital, for all of us. I’m not having Athanate and Were screw everything up over some petty territorial argument.”
“Vital enough for you to try and break into my head?”
“That’s interesting,” Zane said. “You’ll have to explain that to me later—magical violence against the pack. But right now, Amber and I have to go.”
“Wait!” Weaver ran his hand across his chin quickly. The man had more tells than Switzerland. “Look, I’m sorry about that earlier. It’s only because this is so very important. We need to get Tullah back. She’s not safe. And you realize, don’t you, if she’s not safe, then neither are we.”
“I can agree we need Tullah back here,” I said, “and she needs to be safe.”
“One step at a time, then.” Weaver reached into his pocket and froze as Julie moved. I held up a hand to stop her from killing him.
Weaver carefully drew out a business card and handed it to me. “When you’ve finished, as soon as you’ve finished, come see me,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what time.”
He made to leave, but Zane stopped him.
“We have a thousand wolves in Colorado and they know you, Weaver. They know your scent. They know every member of your community. They can track you all across the entire country. Don’t mess with us.”
Weaver pulled away. “I give my word that she won’t be harmed or forced in any way other than by the persuasion of reason.”
“Then I’ll come visit,” I said.
He nodded abruptly and the three of them walked quickly toward the exit.
Hecate’s projection was standing next to me like a ghost. “Take his word with caution. You know my requirements, Amber.”
“And you know mine. Tullah back first.”
She sighed.
“That may be a problem, but I promise I will do everything I can to get her back to Denver.”
Words were easy, but I could play that game too.
“Okay. I promise I’ll pick you up at your apartment tomorrow, and you’ll get your opportunity to talk.”
She looked suspiciously at me, but I had my game face on.
“A deal, then.”
Her image retreated into the shadows and vanished.
At Zane’s urging, we hurried out of the club.
“You sure you know what you’re doing with those two Adepts?” Zane said.
I shrugged. “Gotta be done. What’s the hurry tonight, or did you just come in to rescue me?”
He snorted and didn’t answer.
We left the club. There were two cars waiting outside, and a group of werewolves I didn’t know. They weren’t Albuquerque or Santa Fe—I would have recognized their scent.
“Just you and him,” Zane said, pointing at David and then waving us toward the second car.
“What? No. Not unless you explain.”
What the hell would the pack want with David?
“Orders.” Zane got in my face. “You and David Thaler. Now. We’re already late, after having had to come down and find you.”
“Not my problem, Zane. And what’s more, I’m not going anywhere without Scott.”
Tension crackled between us. All my team stepped in and backed me up. Zane’s werewolf escort came up on their toes.
Shit! What the hell is going on?
I was still holding Scott’s hand, afraid if he lost that personal contact with me his instincts would take over.
Zane looked at us and exhaled slowly. “The cub can come, at your own risk, but I warn you, a meet is no place for him. The Adept too. Not your House kin.”
I had to reluctantly admit that Julie and Keith were clearly another matter entirely. Yes, part of my House, kin to my Diakon, but not actually paranormal. Not likely to be welcome at a werewolf meet.
They were going to argue, but I shook my head.
Zane couldn’t force me go with him, not here, in sight of people, but he was speaking with the authority of the alphas.
“Yelena’s going to fry me when she finds out,” Julie hissed.
“Going to fry me too,” I said back. David, Scott and I squeezed into the back seat of the second car. Zane and Kane went into the first and we took off, leaving a pissed Julie and Keith behind.
Chapter 22
The driver and his buddy refused to answer my questions: alpha’s orders. The only other things they would say was they were from the Tucson pack and that the biggest werewolf meet ever was going on.
And Alex hadn’t even known about it, let alone me.
Not a good sign.
And meanwhile, now we were out of the claustrophobia and adrenaline overload that had been the club, I could sense the Call of the packs. Scott felt it too, and it wasn’t helping.
His breathing and heartrate hadn’t come down since we’d first arrived at the club. He was sweating, even in the cold. Under the circumstances, I’d say he was holding it together well, but that would count for nothing in the meet.
“You hearing me, Scott?”
He nodded.
I pushed him back against the seat, tried to get him to relax.
“You’re doing great, but it’s going to get harder,” I said.
“Tell me.”
“We’re going to a meet. Lots of different packs in one place.”
“I understand,” he said. “It’ll feel all wrong. The same way it did at the club. The same way those jerks in the front feel wrong.”
I snorted and bit my lip.
“Yeah, like that, but a thousand times worse.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Don’t get into a fight. These werewolves will be on edge. They’ll push and snarl instinctively, testing you out. But if
it gets to a fight, they’ll all be experienced at fighting. You’re not. They’ll kill you.”
He took that in, didn’t like it.
“What do I do?” he snapped. “Look at the floor? Lie on my back?”
His lips stretched as if he were trying to snarl.
“No. That would be almost as bad. Push back. Snarl. But if it goes beyond that, I’ll handle it. Or David will.”
He thought about that for a minute, frowning. “Why?”
“Because you’re in my House, and it’s what we do for each other. At least until you learn enough about werewolf rules to survive.”
He grunted. “They have rules? Werewolves have rules?”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. He smiled.
I felt the Tucson Were in the front turn and look at the pair of us. I could read that look—Crazy Denver pack. Must have caught it from New Mexico.
I sobered quickly. “Yeah. Your instincts are already learning them. All you need is a bit more time.”
His mouth twisted at that, but he didn’t say anything more.
By that time we were headed through Aurora on Colfax and I knew where we were going: the Denver pack owned a huge fertilizer factory out this way. It was close enough to the city while still far enough from the encroaching housing projects to remain isolated and secure.
It was where they processed dead bodies to keep the deaths hidden from the police.
What the freaking hell is going on?
My gut tightened.
Had something happened to Alex? Was he in trouble?
Or was it me? Was I the one in trouble?
Either way, why the hell hadn’t I been told?
In the same way I had arrived here last time, the nearer we got to the factory, the more the Were and Athanate fight-or-flight hormones kicked in, until I was stretched and taut as a violin string.
Desperate to sense Alex, I reached ahead with eukori, using David to boost me, but there was simply too much going on, too many auras and emotions swirling around. There were packs, lots of packs, in the factory. We went around to the back. There were ranks of trucks parked outside. And a couple of buses.