by RJ Blain
Old memories stirred. I wondered if eleven-year-old me would still have had a rabbit for a friend if a rampaging wolf had been cut down instead of being allowed to run loose until proof of his insanity surfaced. Would I have delved into the dark world of assassination if my friend hadn’t been murdered by his father?
So many things would have been different if I hadn’t killed that wolf. I’d been too late to save the woman he’d bitten. Would Ferdinand walk the same road?
I drew in a deep breath. Not all wolves were bad folks. Someone like Blossom couldn’t thrive with a bad father. “Not all wolves are bad.”
“Ferdinand is.” Gentry hesitated, and his sigh came out heavy and pained. “And I repay him for decades of loyalty by speaking poorly of him.”
“If he bites her…”
The threat in Anatoly’s voice froze me in place, and my skin crawled.
Gentry turned to face the tiger. “If he bites her, I will file the bounty for his life myself, and I will set a big enough price tag on his head he won’t live a day. It will be a sanctioned kill. Should she kill him for attempting to bite her, you can take the case with my blessing, and I will provide all the evidence you need to pass the case through court.”
I considered Gentry’s words, and one thing stuck out to me. “Question.”
“Ask,” Gentry replied.
With a little bit of luck, I wouldn’t reveal how much I knew about killing people for a bounty. I’d try to act innocently curious and ready to kill anyone who tried to force me to do anything I didn’t want. “If he bites me, couldn’t I claim the bounty?”
“If he bites you, you won’t be capable of killing him. That’s the problem with wolf magic. It makes the victim incapable of acting against their mate. That’s why wolves are killed for biting someone who didn’t consent to their bite. Tigers have similar magic, but tigers behave differently from wolves. Wolves want results. Tigers live for the hunt and the chase. By the time a tiger is ready to bite, it’s very obvious the couple is a couple. There’s no doubt of consent. There are no known cases of tigers biting someone without their consent. It is unfortunately common for wolves. Longfellow can tell you more about wolf bites. It’s ugly business—and uglier for the wolf’s mate after death. Most recover, but it’s strong magic, and it’s damaging.”
Great. Not only did I have to worry about Ferdinand, I had to worry about my teeth doing something to someone—something irrevocable. The thought of binding someone to me without their full consent sickened me.
It also hammered home what Anatoly risked with his agreement with the Blade Clan. I turned and stared at him. “You knew what would happen if you agreed to the Blade Clan’s terms?”
“I’ve been a tiger for a long time. The subject may have been discussed from time to time.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
A faint smile touched his lips, and the softness of his expression startled me. “I honor my agreements.”
Realization slammed into me, forcing the air out of me. He had given me a mare who might grow to be the equal of Dipshit and Devil Spawn. His claims and possessiveness made sense.
Anatoly knew.
I forgot how to breathe, and I started trembling. He knew who I was; maybe he didn’t know I was Jesse Alexander or the Water Viper, but he understood what I was, what I should have been, and who I had become. “Maybe you shouldn’t honor that one. You deserve to have your hunt and chase, don’t you think?”
“Maybe I’m interested in seeing how it plays out.”
“Even if you end up trapped?” I demanded, my voice rising an octave.
Anatoly’s smile widened to a grin. “When I decide to bite, my mate will beg me for it, as I will have hunted and chased her down until she is the one who wants to be trapped by me. As if I would accept anything less. Maybe the situation with the Blade Clan currently serves my purposes. I need a strong mate—one willing to fight off an entire clan for me if need be, just as she deserves someone who would defy an entire clan for her. It’s not my fault there has been no woman willing to take that gamble.”
I gaped at him, my mouth hanging open, my mind blank. Beside me, Gentry snorted and coughed in his effort to mask his mirth. “What?”
“If you want me, little tigress, you’re going to have to fight an entire weapon clan for me. Are you woman enough to do it?” He brushed past me, hummed a merry tune, and headed for the door out of his suite, leaving me to stare at his back in stunned disbelief.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Mayor Longfellow met us in the hallway, and my katana in his hand distracted me from the confused tangle of thoughts and emotions Anatoly’s declaration caused. The sight of the beaded sheath reminded me of my hair, and I reached up to touch the feathers clipped to my braid. I likely still had blood caked in my hair, but I hadn’t had time to remove and replace the beads in their proper order.
While the feathers’ magic would have cleaned away the evidence of the fight, Anatoly had distracted me so much I’d forgotten to activate them when I’d taken them out to shower. I’d been too focused on how best to kick the tiger in the face, and his amusement over my aggression only made me angrier.
“Your sword,” Mayor Longfellow announced, offering me my katana hilt first, the straps of my belt dangling.
I closed my hand over the braided leather and sighed my relief. Not caring the belt and sheath clashed with my purple skirt, I buckled the belt into place around my hips, adjusting it so I could move without the blade impairing me. “Thank you.”
“The Secret Service had it as evidence, but I suggested it would be more problematic for them if it wasn’t returned. They saw things my way. It’s an exquisite blade.”
“Thank you.” I forced myself to smile and made certain I kept my eyes locked on the mayor rather than glancing at Todd, which might betray where I’d gotten the katana. I’d done a lot of work to mask the original design of the blade, but it wouldn’t take much to uncover the truth of the weapon’s origin.
The tribe-fashioned sheath wouldn’t disguise the katana for long.
The mayor turned to Gentry. “I may have borrowed Ferdinand. I’ve sent him on a list of errands that should take him several weeks to complete. I thought, all things considered, it might be wise if he wasn’t under foot. In exchange, I coerced Gabriel; he’ll take Ferdinand’s place for the interim. I’m sure you’ll find the arrangement beneficial. He’s in one of the conference rooms with a handful of your mercenaries being briefed.”
“Where did you send Ferdinand?”
“Knoxville.”
The grizzly chuckled. “Wolf country.”
“Exactly. Maybe he’ll get bit, then we won’t have to worry about him anymore. I doubt it, but we can hope for the best, right? I have him delivering a letter to Knoxville’s mayor, and while I’ve made arrangements to send him there by train, Cole’s making arrangements for him to meet with the heads of every single town on the way back. That should keep him busy.”
I assumed Cole was Knoxville’s mayor, and it puzzled me Mayor Longfellow would go so far out of his way to send Ferdinand away from Charlotte. Maybe I wanted nothing to do with the wolf and worried about his bite and his interest in me, but the mercenary was one of the best. Losing him as a resource could hamper Dawnfire’s ability to retrieve the Hope Diamond.
“I’m all right with the arrangement, especially if Gabriel’s going to bring his pride in for the hunt. He knows his business. He also knows who might be best to do more subtle infiltrations if required.”
“My thoughts exactly. My daughter has also come up with an interesting proposal to help us uncover the circumstances around the Hope Diamond’s theft. She wanted to hold her cards close to her chest, but I thought it prudent to ask for Dawnfire and Lancers’ for their cooperation in her activities.”
I glanced out the corner of my eye and caught Todd and Gentry exchanging looks. Todd frowned and shrugged, while Dawnfire’s guild master narrowed his eyes and huffed.
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Anatoly took a step forward, coming between the grizzly and the mayor. “They’ll cooperate. What do you need from them?”
“Two good mercenaries from each guild, who will be briefed on parts of the situation. She is hoping to retrace the theft, and your mercenaries will be assigned roles. I’ll need a mystic and a shifter from each of you.”
“Offensive, defensive, or healing mystic?” Todd asked, his tone so neutral I shivered.
“Your choice. If we could get a healing mystic on the team, it would make me happier. When my daughter starts scheming, someone gets hurt. Unfortunately, I’m never quite sure who it’ll be.”
“I’ll ask Cleo. He needs to stretch his legs every now and then, and while he normally operates as a healer, he has some other tricks up his sleeve. If you want covert ops, you want Paulus. He should be available. Gentry?”
“If Todd’s going with the brains, I’ll deal with the brawn. I’ll ask Kaylie and Felicity. I’m sure they’d enjoy a challenge.”
While I knew Paulus, one of the best in the business and a good choice, I had no idea who Gentry’s women were, and I clenched my teeth so I wouldn’t betray my knowledge by asking the wrong question.
“Felicity’s going to love that.” Todd sighed. “Blossom is going to rue, lament, and regret this within ten minutes of finding out who we’re giving her.”
I decided Todd’s statement left me a safe opening. “Why?”
“Cleo is a handful on a good day. On a bad one, he can make more things combust than I care to think about. He’s a closet fire tamer. If he can get his magic to work, he’s dangerous. Paulus deals with counter-assassination, espionage, and is my guild’s resident poison expert. Kaylie’s sixteen, and she’s better at ranged combat than most mercenaries I know. Felicity is Gentry’s wife, and the co-leader of Dawnfire. Put them together, and I suspect it’d take an army to stop them.”
“That just leaves you, Runs Against Wind,” Mayor Longfellow stated, staring at me with a disconcerting smile.
“Me?” I squeaked.
“You. Your knowledge as a courier will be invaluable. Your fighting skills are commendable, too.”
Anatoly straightened. “Absolutely no—”
I unsheathed my sword and jabbed my katana’s pommel into his gut, driving the breath out of him. “Next time, I turn the blade around. You will not dictate what I can and cannot do. Understood?”
“Understood,” he croaked.
A woman without secrets had no reason to reject the invitation to join the team, and the reasoning made sense. “If I can help, I will. There’s the matter of returning to my work, however. I’m not a mercenary. I’m a courier.”
Henry cleared his throat. “Conditional to a health exam this evening. She’s got some sort of illness, and Cleo said he’d try to identify it tonight. I don’t think it’s contagious, since I haven’t seen any evidence of it on either myself or Anatoly, but that is a factor.”
“Condition accepted. Runs Against Wind, you will be offered a lucrative contract for your assistance. I have someone drawing up the paperwork. You will be compensated well for your time and effort. From what we’ve managed to deduce from your satchel, you only have one outstanding contract. Coincidentally, this was for the delivery of a horse to my daughter. I will arrange for the documentation to be transported by train if you’re concerned about the timing of your delivery confirmation.”
“There was a flexible return date for the confirmation of delivery,” I stammered. If someone else delivered the confirmation, the possibility existed they could determine I was the person behind the contract.
“It would benefit me to open lines of communication with a tribe from the west. They’re the primary contract for the delivery, are they not?”
Shit. Mayor Longfellow must have utilized the mystic network or sent a wire to get more information on my work. Considering the duration of my kidnapping, he would’ve had plenty of time to research the case. “The tribe was hired to handle the specifics of the delivery, yes. As I’m of the tribe, the contract went to me.”
“That’s what I understood of the situation. I have a message for you.”
I recognized trouble when I heard it, but without seeing any way to escape it, I asked, “Oh?”
“I was asked to tell you, ‘I should have named you Dives Headlong Into Trouble.’”
A laugh bubbled out of me, but I cleared my throat in an effort to contain it. “I see.”
“Would you like me to send a reply?”
“Tell him I’m grateful for his lack of foresight and the preservation of my dignity.” I sheathed my katana, hesitating long enough to decide if I was truly ready to face the consequences of what I wanted to say. “Tell him I’ve earned my next feather.”
Maybe I didn’t fully understand the meaning of each bead and feather I wore, but I did understand the purpose of the feathers and the reasons they were given. In Cheyenne, someone discovered their true self step by step.
The feathers signified progress.
I’d received my first when the tribe welcomed me among them. I’d earned my second along with my name. Growth mattered, and I’d finally earned one on my own.
It had taken a Starfall stone bursting to begin the process, but I’d managed a partial shift without help to protect Todd. For that alone, the tribe would accept my petition of progress. I had found a missing part of myself.
Mayor Longfellow’s eyes widened, and he turned to one of the men dressed in the clean-cut suits that served as a uniform of someone in the Secret Service. “Send someone for the package. We’ll be on the move to the private dining hall.”
The man lifted his hand and touched his ear. I realized he was wearing something in his ear. “Mayor Longfellow requests the package be brought to the private dining hall.”
I stared at the device hooked around the agent’s ear. A tiny plastic piece rested in his ear canal, but if there was sound, I couldn’t hear anything, not even the hint of static.
“Never seen a wireless com before?” Anatoly asked, his tone amused.
I shook my head.
“Show it to her,” he ordered.
If looks could kill, the Secret Service agent would’ve left Anatoly’s body sprawled at my feet. The man sighed, gave a shake of his head, and said, “Off set. Head Tiger has requested a gear check.”
The device he removed from behind his ear was made of black rubber, had a flashing light at one end, and a small bulb at the other. He held it out for my inspection. Without touching it, I ducked my head to get a closer look. A button rose from one side near the bulb. “What is this thing?”
“You put it your ear, ma’am. When you touch the button, it’s spelled to capture sounds, with preference for the owner’s voice.” The agent replaced the device, touched the button, and said, “On set.”
“So you have to touch the button to make it work?”
“That’s restricted information, ma’am.”
“So you have other ways to activate it, not just with that button.” I circled the agent, looking him over from head to toe, and I spotted a disc pinned to the shoulder of his jacket. “Like that thing?”
“That’s restricted information, ma’am.”
When I’d broken into the mayoral palace, the guards hadn’t had any ability to communicate with each other. The Secret Service possessed communication tech capable of operating within a Starfall crater. I stepped back. “Is it like a radio?”
“Similar, ma’am. It’s a hybrid and can function in all zones.”
“But it fits in your ear,” I blurted.
“Forgive her. She’s a bit of a Neanderthal when it comes to these things,” Anatoly said, grabbing hold of my elbow.
I shifted my weight and lifted my hand to grab and toss him, but Todd took hold of the tiger’s hand, ensuring I wouldn’t be tossing either one of them. “Stop trying to get her to kick your ass, Nate. The Secret Service would be obligated to offer protection. Someone would be embarrassed
, and I’m not sure it’d be her.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Of course you don’t. Stop it. If you want her to beat you black and blue, wait for later, and do it on the mat. That way, the Secret Service won’t be too alarmed when she knocks the sense back into you.” Todd sighed, peeled Anatoly’s fingers off my arm, and shoved his way between us. “I apologize for him. It’s been a long time since he’s been around an eligible tigress.”
Understanding flashed over the men’s faces, and the agent I had questioned grinned. “I’ll make certain the other agents are aware it’s a courting issue, Mr. Jacobson. When would you recommend intervention?”
“If she’s using the pointy end of her katana on him, you should probably stop her. If other men approach her and she uses the pointy end, I’d stay well clear of her.”
“She can—”
Gentry clapped his hand over Anatoly’s mouth. “Sheffield, might I recommend including Anatoly in the team? If anyone so much as looks at Runs Against Wind wrong during your daughter’s op, he’ll make my wife look like a gentle little lamb. You may also wish to inform the First Gentleman one of his Clan Council members has taken leave of his senses.”
The mayor laughed. “You’re making a lot of assumptions there, old friend. He has Clan Council matters to attend to. The First Gentleman has called for a meeting tomorrow. Anatoly’s presence is required. He will have to patiently wait for another time for any dalliances.”
“Is the offer to beat him black and blue still open? I’m sure Henry would understand if he were instructed to leave him nursing his injuries for a few days. Maybe he’ll learn to keep his hands to himself. Right, Henry?”
“Stop asking for miracles, Gentry. Please. I can leave him to nurse his bruises, but let’s try to avoid broken bones. I do need to attend to those.”
The mayor cleared his throat. “Enough play. I think it would be a very good idea for the rest of the team to see your fighting capabilities, Runs Against Wind. Despite appearances, Anatoly is a capable fighter. I see no problems with this arrangement.” Mayor Longfellow turned to the Secret Service agents. “If you could notify the appropriate individuals, I would appreciate it.”