by R. J. Blain
Chapter Eleven
By the second week of my stay with Ferdinand’s pack of trophy women, I’d learned two critical things: his Charlotte informant would make or break him, and her information would determine the dates of his plans. Ferdinand hadn’t meant for me to overhear any of his hushed conversation with a cloaked man outside of the pack house’s front door, but he forgot about the study on the second floor, the one few used and held volumes of books about living off the land and other things survivalists might need to know to remain breathing.
“When will we know?” Ferdinand’s guest hissed through clenched teeth, but the sound carried to the window I hid near. I thanked the sky for the bright, sunny day, which had coaxed me into throwing open the curtains to read a book about identifying toxic plants.
“The day after tomorrow. The train gets in at noon, and we’ll meet at sunset. The train will leave in the early morning. We’ll make our plans then. Our courier will be ready for them. She’s adapted to my bites well, and while resentful, she’s settling in. She is well liked in the pack and has proven to be a good addition to it.”
What an asshole. All I’d done was make sure they got a little extra food, something any half-decent person would do for a group of abused pregnant women with no choice in their lives. I curled my lip in a silent snarl. I didn’t deserve to be praised for helping to provide them with food.
For that reason alone, I’d slit his throat while looking him in the eyes, and make certain the last thing he saw was my hatred for him while he failed to draw another breath. I’d spend the rest of my limited time in my closet, practicing how to transform my hand into a lethal paw armed with sharp claws.
I should have practiced earlier, but I wouldn’t beat myself up over it. Extra pain wouldn’t have helped me control my already flagging temper. I focused on breathing and remaining quiet while I listened in on their conversation.
“Assuming she survives.”
“She better. I’m loaning her to you only so you can use her to burst the Starfall stone. That’s it. I will come for you myself if she doesn’t live. She is mine.”
I scowled at that. The only man I’d ever allow to stake any claim over me had fiery orange and pristine white fur with perfect black stripes, a temper the match of mine, and more loyalty than he knew what to do with. I’d have to make sure he left work long enough to test my temper every day, but none of my life’s plans involved staying with a traitor wolf and his accomplices.
“I’ll make sure she’s as safe and shielded as possible during the transfer. We’ve already done some tests that seem to work for what we need, so she should emerge mostly unscathed. Any decent mystic should be able to care for her in the aftermath. You’ll have to retrieve her yourself from the site once we’re finished. Getting her out is your problem.”
“I’ve already made arrangements for that,” Ferdinand replied. “How is the rest coming together?”
“Assuming the new intel is good, we’ll be ready within two weeks. More time is better if we can manage, but we’ll have everything in place then.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Where will you be meeting her this time?”
My eyes widened, and I froze, afraid to breathe in case they became suspicious and stopped conversing outside the pack house’s front door. If I could get to her first, I’d create a break in their plans. They needed information. Killing their informant would put a kink in whatever their plans were—and I’d be free to deal with Ferdinand sooner than later, too.
I’d play dumb when he discovered his informant had refused to show or no longer lived. Either would work. Ideally, I’d learn what she had to say, but it could go to her grave and do less harm if she managed to pass word to Ferdinand. I waited, taking care to keep my breathing silent and steady.
“The clearing off the trail from the crater. If you’ve time, come.”
“I don’t, not today. We trust you to get what we need for our venture.”
A pity. Had all three of them been in attendance, I might have considered just killing them all and asking questions of the bodies. As it was, I might get a two-for-one special if Ferdinand beat the informant to the site. But, if Marie was the informant, she’d show early.
She hated being late, especially when society demanded she be late for the sake of fashion. If she showed up and told me she’d caused so much pain and heartache because Todd made her attend things late, I’d believe it without question.
The fool woman, throwing away a perfect life from greed and jealousy. I didn’t want anything from Todd beyond his friendship, something I would treasure even if everything fell apart.
I wanted to cry, but beyond a few stray tears, I couldn’t seem to figure out how to grieve for everything I’d lost. Sometimes, I turned a corner and expected Simmons to be there, a disapproving scowl on his face for having given him the slip again.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll send a messenger if I can’t meet you after the train departs; it’s possible. I need to take the pack out. It’s been a while since the ladies have had a hunt, and it’s upsetting them.”
“It can wait a few days. We can’t do anything for two weeks anyway, unless there’s something she tells you that’s important. Let’s plan for three nights after your meeting in the same place and skip the messenger.”
“I can work with that. I’ll send a messenger if it’s critical. It should just solidify the window, so I don’t expect it’ll be critical. We’ve already got the supplies to our staging points.”
Damn it. I wanted to know what the staging points were; if I could find those, a single telegraph or phone call could put an end to the rebellion before it could begin.
“Good. Don’t let that tiger of yours escape.”
“She’s got so many of my bites on her she can barely see straight. She’s docile, so don’t you worry about that. Within a week, she won’t be able to breathe without my consent.”
I’d enjoy the moment my claws tore through his flesh and ripped the life out of his body.
“Good. Keep her docile. Bring her by train to the first staging point when the time comes, then you can handle your part.”
Ferdinand grunted his consent, and I wanted to snarl curses that they hadn’t mentioned the location of their staging point.
After heaving a sigh, the wolf replied, “I already have the tickets, as we can wait there however long is necessary. I’ve a place remote enough to avoid detection until we’re prepared.”
Well, if he had the tickets, I could find them and get the location that way—after I slaughtered the traitor. I wanted his accomplice, but the best I could do was remember his nasally, obnoxious voice and hope I ran into him again later.
The two men exchanged pleasantries before the cloaked figure departed. I returned my book to its place in the study, headed to my nest, and hid in the closet so when Ferdinand came to bite me again, I could feign having been asleep, something I did with such frequency I worried the other women. I rarely slept, but the ruse served me well.
When he came in and asked Rachelle where I was, she would say I was probably in my closet resting. He, as always, would assume his bites wore away at me, pull me out of the comfort of my bedding, and tear into my throat again.
Ferdinand didn’t waste much time with Rachelle before ordering me out of my nest so he could take another chunk out of me. My tiger’s marks burned as hot as usual whenever the wolf attempted to use his magic on me, but I breathed through the pain despite wanting to scream or roar. I couldn’t afford to blow my cover, and he hadn’t given me permission to make a sound.
“Do as Rachelle tells you.” Without another word, he left me in the hallway, my blood trickling down my neck.
I waited for the door to slam downstairs before allowing a single growl.
My time had come, I just needed to wait until the day after tomorrow.
What felt like an eternity passed before the time came to deal with the first of the traitors on my list.
As though somehow understanding I needed to be out of the pack’s house before I went mad, Rachelle, with a little encouragement from Lauren, sent me out on a pointless little errand to fetch her some herbs I doubted she really needed and didn’t want to waste the limited budget on. To give me the chance for some fresh air, she handed me a precious five dollar bill. With a smile, she told me to take my time. She issued the order where the other women in the pack could hear her. For all I remained an outsider to them, they watched my back anyway.
Then, as she seemed to believe I might get lost, she gave me directions to all of the markets in the city and told me where the interesting sites were, including the Starfall crater at the edge of town. Her smile turned sly, and she hinted everyone who came to Knoxville should see it at least once.
The other women agreed, but Lauren said, “I wouldn’t mind a worry stone. It might help on the bad days.”
If asked, the pack could claim I’d been sent out to the markets—all of them—and tasked with finding a worry stone for Lauren.
I would somehow repay them for the opportunity I needed to begin my bloody work despite their lack of awareness of what I meant to do.
On my way out the door, I grabbed a scarf to hide the Hope Diamond and pocketed the only weapon I could, one of the steel letter openers the women used to keep from breaking a nail. No one would miss one of the dozen littering the entry’s table. I figured they’d had the same thought about weaponizing the pieces of metal.
Unlike them, I had Steel Heart. I could only hope it or the Hope Diamond would aid my cause. If not, I’d shift and deal with the first of the traitors that way. Once certain the Starfall stone was covered, I headed down the steps, pausing long enough to listen to Rachelle’s instructions for her latest batch of herbs, which she wanted to use to make stew.
It would be a challenge to keep Marie’s blood off Rachelle’s herbs, but I would figure something out. Somehow. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about Ferdinand. If he asked where I was, they would all tell him the same story.
In several hours, I would return with the herbs Rachelle had requested, paid with the small petty fund Ferdinand offered his women. She would make certain dinner included the herbs I’d purchased. The women would, if he showed up for dinner, thank me for running the errands.
No one in the pack, save for Ferdinand, cared what I did. Ferdinand only cared that I did as he ordered, which meant staying in the pack’s house unless ordered by one of his trusted pack women to run an errand. Then, in an act I viewed as pure defiance, they’d concocted an excuse to send me out.
I hoped they savored the moment. It would become their freedom within the next few days.
Unbeknownst to them, their defiance would become death in my hands. First, the informant, likely Marie, would die. That evening, she would fail to show, thus damaging Ferdinand’s plan. Thanks to Ferdinand, I wouldn’t have to work hard to find her.
Because Marie was Marie, she would arrive early. I couldn’t imagine the pair of traitors wanting to delay their meeting.
The information Marie carried, likely from snooping on Todd’s work, would die with her.
I left the pack’s house, headed for the market the pack had recommended closest to the crater, and purchased everything they’d asked for. With a little haggling I managed to get a waterproofed pouch for everything, which solved the problem of Marie’s blood. With a single touch of my tribe feather, I could purify my clothes and hide the evidence of my scent.
It would serve as a precaution, eliminating my trail at the market. I made certain to set the precious herbs down so they wouldn’t be caught up in the tribal magic before purifying my clothes and removing all of my scent markers. After I dealt with Marie’s body, I would invoke the tribe magic again to eliminate as much of the evidence as possible.
For my plans to work, Ferdinand couldn’t discover the cause of Marie’s failure to show up for their meeting. I wanted him to suspect betrayal.
If he suspected betrayal, he might change his plans—and Todd, Gentry, and the rest of my family might be spared from his treachery. Or, at least spared long enough for me to eliminate the wolf’s threat and warn them of the ploy.
Their knowledge that something was in the works offered me hope we might all make it out alive. Well, most of us.
Of all of the ways I’d killed someone, I’d never used a letter opener before. I expected it would be dire, grisly work giving the mare a more merciful death than she deserved. Without understanding how herd magic worked, I didn’t want her suffering to hurt the others.
They didn’t deserve to share Marie’s misery.
It took me over an hour to reach the meeting point, where the city made way for untamed land. At some point in the city’s past, it had fallen prey to a Starfall stone, and I skirted the crater’s lip. The landmark reassured me I’d found the right spot, although I still needed to hike for another ten to twenty minutes to reach my goal.
There were a lot of good places to hide the body in the stretch of woods, and I wouldn’t even need to work all that hard to make it happen. The crater with its loose stones would serve well. I could bury her beneath a deep pile of stone without having to do more than some manual labor—or deliberately trigger a landslide on one of the more questionable slopes.
I retrieved the letter opener from my pocket along with Steel Heart, wondering how my clan made use of the stone to imbue weapons with its power. On the surface, it remained ugly, pock-marked and pitted without any luster hinting it was a marvel of the world.
In my hand, Steel Heart warmed, and sparks danced over its dark surface, much as it had in the bar in Miami.
I missed that dive of a bar. I missed my tiger. I missed my odd collection of family and friends. After I killed Marie for her treacheries, would Todd forgive me? Part of Marie’s death would boil down to vengeance; she’d played her part in Simmons’s death.
Equines didn’t understand long-term vengeance all that well, although Todd did possess stubborn tendencies and could hold a grudge.
Once I hid Marie’s body, once I gave Rachelle the herbs she’d asked for, I would retreat to my little closet space, close the door, and try to mourn for my agent. Killing Marie wouldn’t bring him back, but her traitorous ways would die with her. She wouldn’t just die for her part in my agent’s murder.
I’d listened enough to Ferdinand to understand she’d betrayed everyone I cared most about—and that they surely had intended for Randal to die as well. They’d planned to kill both of my agents to make it easier to get to me.
Randal accompanying my tiger may have saved his life, but I wouldn’t know until I returned to Charlotte. I could only assume my tiger had survived, as his marks still burned, battling Ferdinand’s morning ritual of taking a chunk out of my throat. Given another few weeks, the consistent pain would likely make me snap and go on a rampage, and I would slaughter the source of my discomfort.
I hated working on a tight schedule, and I hadn’t found enough information on Ferdinand’s affairs to kill him off quite yet.
I needed to keep holding on and pretending Ferdinand had a hold on me. I had until the pack met for a hunt to get the information—or I’d have to hope I could find records after his death. I expected he would die before I found out what I needed to know.
Killing Marie would begin his end, although I worried what price I’d pay for her death. My relationship with Todd would inevitably change.
I went beyond inconveniencing him to striking a huge blow to his herd.
Ultimately, I needed to stop accepting responsibility for the choices of others. I hadn’t made Marie betray Todd. She’d done that all on her own. I would swear in front of a mystic, proving the truth of my words.
If I didn’t deal with Marie, their scheming might kill them all.
I would deal with Todd with my head held as high as possible, despite my apprehension and fear.
I would never be able to forgive myself if I allowed the mare
to live when she sought to destroy everything—and everyone—I cherished. Reminding myself of what she intended to do, that she intended to give Ferdinand information to better help his efforts to dismantle the current government, made it easier for me to resume my march after selecting a suitable place to hide her body after I finished my dirty work.
Steel Heart sparked again, and the letter opener’s blade darkened to deep blue. After a few moments, the blade returned to its original shade, although something about it had changed. I refused to question the Starfall stone’s gift, and I returned it to its pouch. Muttering a thanks under my breath, I resumed my hike, following the creek from the crater through the woods until I came to the outcropping of rock that marked the turnoff for the meeting place.
The hike took me along a deer trail to a clearing beside a larger stream. As expected, Marie had arrived early, sitting on the rocky shore, sheltered from the sunlight beneath the boughs of a young oak.
Marie’s eyes narrowed, and then she smirked. “Ferdinand does have a sense of humor, doesn’t he? Sent you to keep me company until he could arrive, did he?”
She wouldn’t learn from her mistake, but I shrugged to play along with her. After weeks of dealing with Ferdinand, I didn’t have to work hard to keep my expression neutral.
Marie’s gaze locked on my throat, and while I wore a scarf, it didn’t do much more than hide the bastard’s bites. Her brows furrowed. “He said he’d bitten you, but he’s torn you up badly. I’d told him not to hurt you. He said biting was necessary, but that it wouldn’t be an issue. That is worse than I expected.”
If I hadn’t known she disliked me for ruining her picture-perfect herd, I might’ve fallen for her sympathy. I wanted to believe her, but I didn’t. “I guess he paid you a lot to sell out Todd?”
“I didn’t sell out my husband.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t know?”
“Didn’t know what?”
“He means to kill the guild leaders in Charlotte. Active and former guild leaders need to be eliminated. He can’t afford to allow them to live. They know too much. Lancers and Dawnfire are in the first wave to be eliminated.” Technically, I lied, but I believed every word of it.