The arms of my chair creaked a protest under his hands. He took a deep breath of my scent and then pulled back a little so he could look me in the face. Very slowly, giving me plenty of time to pull away, he kissed me.
I thought I might love Adam. Samuel had hurt me once before-very badly. I knew that he might only want me now for the same reason he had wanted me then. Even so, I couldn't pull away.
I had come so close to losing him.
I returned his kiss with interest, leaning into his body and threading my fingers through his fine hair. It was Samuel who ended the kiss.
"I'll get you some cocoa," he said, leaving me in my chair.
"Sam?" I said.
He stopped at the door, his back to me and his head lowered. "I'll be all right, Mercy. For tonight, just let me get us both some cocoa."
"Don't forget the marshmallows," I told him.
CHAPTER 14
"He's not come to trial yet?"
"No," Stefan sipped at his tea, which he had requested. I hadn't known vampires could drink tea. "How's the ankle?"
I made a rude noise. "My ankle is fine." Which wasn't strictly true, but I wasn't going to let him change the subject. "It took them only a day to bring you to trial and it's been two weeks for Andre."
"Weeks that Andre spends in the cells beneath the seethe," Stefan said mildly. "He's not out vacationing. As for how long it is taking, I'm afraid that is my fault. I've been in Chicago to see what I can ferret out about Andre's activities there. To make sure that Littleton was the only person he managed to turn."
"I thought Andre didn't have enough control to turn his people into vampires."
Stefan set his tea on the table and gave me an interested look. "Rachel said you'd been over to visit. I hadn't realized how much you learned."
I rolled my eyes at him. "I grew up with werewolves, Stefan, intimidation isn't going to work. Tell me how Andre managed to turn a sorcerer when he can't turn one of his minions."
His face lit up in one of his generous smiles. "I don't know. I'll tell you what I do know. Cory Littleton has been flirting with evil since he was a very young boy. His apartment in Chicago — which Andre has paid for up until next December-had a secret room I sniffed out. It was full of interesting things like black wax candles and books on ancient ceremonies that would have been best left uncatalogued. I burned them, and the notebooks he kept his journals in-written in mirror writing of all things. At least it wasn't in Greek."
"Does Andre know how Littleton became a sorcerer? Could he make more of them?" asked Samuel, his sleep-roughened voice emerging from the hallway.
"Hello, Samuel," Stefan said. Medea came out of the hallway shadows first, meowing sharp little complaints as she trotted across the kitchen floor and hopped onto Stefan's lap.
Samuel followed, half dressed and sporting a day's growth of beard. Samuel hadn't been himself since Littleton captured him-or maybe since that night he told me about the baby his girlfriend had aborted. His temper was shorter and he was too serious-when I tried to bring up the subject of that kiss we'd shared, he wouldn't discuss it. I worried about him.
"Does Andre know how to create a sorcerer?"
Stefan nodded his head slowly. "According to Littleton 's journals he does. Littleton told him."
Samuel pulled out a chair and spun it around so he sat on it backwards. "Was it something about Littleton being a sorcerer that allowed him to survive being turned?"
Medea batted Stefan's hand and instead of picking up his cup, he rubbed her behind her ears. She purred and settled more firmly on his lap.
"I don't know," Stefan answered finally. "I'm not certain even Andre knows. He fed off Littleton for several years before turning him. I don't think that he has any more Littletons waiting in the wings, though. It's not all that easy to find someone willing to sell his soul to the devil."
Samuel relaxed.
"He was a sorcerer before he was a vampire?" I asked.
"Yes." Stefan wiggled his fingers in front of Medea's nose and she batted at them. "He was a sorcerer before he met Andre. He thought that being a vampire would make him more powerful-Andre told him so. Neither he nor the demon was pleased to find out that being a vampire meant that they had to follow Andre's orders."
"He wasn't following Andre's orders that night in the church." Samuel reached over and grabbed a cup and filled it from the teapot on the table.
"No. It is possible to break the bond of control the maker has over his children, just difficult." Stefan sipped his tea and I wondered what his careful expression was hiding.
"Speaking of bonds," I said, finally asking the question that had haunted me since the night I'd killed Littleton, "will there be any permanent effects from your sharing blood with me that night?"
I wanted him to say "no." Instead he shrugged. "Probably not. One blood exchange isn't much of a connection. Any effects from it will fade. Have you noticed anything odd?"
I shook my head-no telekinesis tricks for me.
"Why were you able to call her to you?" asked Samuel. "I thought she was immune to vampire tricks."
"Mostly immune," murmured Stefan. "But you don't have to worry about that. Calling is one of my talents. If Mercy hadn't been mostly unconscious-and willing to come-I couldn't have called her. She's not going to suddenly find herself unable to resist coming to my call or the call of any other vampire."
I didn't ask him about the memory I had of him murmuring loving words into my ears. I hoped it was just something to do with how he'd called me.
"Why did you come here tonight?" I asked instead.
Stefan smiled at me with such power I wasn't sure he was truthful when he said, "I had to strengthen my stomach. Visits with you are always bracing, Mercedes, if not completely comfortable." He glanced down at his watch. "But it's time for me to go while you still are able to get a full night's sleep. The Mistress will expect a full report."
He put the cat down with a final pat and got up to leave. In the open doorway he hesitated, and without looking at me he said, "Don't fret, Mercy. I've learned all I can, and she won't hold back the trial again. Andre will face justice."
I waited until Stefan had left before I asked Samuel, "They have that chair, the one that makes you tell the truth. Why did he go out to investigate?"
Samuel gave me a dark look. "Sometimes I forget how young you are," he said.
I glowered right back at him. "Don't think that ticking me off will get you out of answering. Why did he delay the trial?"
Samuel took a sip of tea, grimaced and set it down. He wasn't a tea drinker. "I think he's worried about what questions will get asked and what questions will not. If he knows enough, he can testify himself."
It sounded fine, but I couldn't see why he'd tried not to tell me that. There must be something more.
He looked at my face and laughed wearily. " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Go to bed, Mercy. I need to get ready to go to work."
"Dad told me to ask you when you're going to fix that eyesore the sorcerer made of your house," Jesse said levering herself onto a shelf in my shop.
"When I win the lottery," I told her dryly and went back to tightening the belt on the old BMW I was working on. Jesse laughed. "He told me you'd say that." My shoulder was still pretty sore and I limped, but at least I could work now. Zee had taken over the shop for two weeks-he didn't want me to pay him. But he'd saved my life with his vampire kit, I owed him enough. If I was lucky, after paying him I'd still be able to cover the bills, but not much else. It would be a few months before I could afford to even look at replacing the siding on the trailer.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked.
"I'm waiting for Gabriel to get off work."
I looked up at that.
She laughed harder. "If you could see your face. Who are you worried about, him or me?"
"When you break his heart, it'll be me who'll have to live with the moaning." If there was real fear in my voice, it was on
ly because Zee's son Tad, Gabriel's predecessor, had had a very rocky love life.
"When she breaks my heart? If anyone's heart breaks, it'll be hers," Gabriel informed me grandly, from the office doorway. "Unable to resist my charms, she'll be devastated at my callousness when I tell her I must go to college. The loss will cause her to resign herself to a long and lonely life without me."
Jesse giggled. "If my dad stops in, tell him I'll be home around ten."
I gave Gabriel a stern look. "You know who her father is."
He laughed. "A man who will risk nothing for love is not a man." Then he winked. "I'll have her home before ten, though, just in case."
Alone, I buttoned up the BMW and closed down the shop. Stefan hadn't called me this morning before I came to work, so I didn't know if anything had happened with Andre.
There was nothing to worry about. Andre was clearly guilty of creating a monster. Still, there had been a weariness in Stefan's manner last night that made me fret a little. If it was an open and shut case, why had he spent weeks in Chicago investigating?
I had company waiting for me in the parking lot. Warren had lost some weight and still limped, even worse than I did. It hadn't stopped him from wiping the floor with Paul who now cringed whenever Warren walked by. And if there were occasional nightmares, he still looked much happier than he had been.
Much of that was due to the handsome man leaning on the fender of Warren 's battered truck wearing, of all things, a lavender cowboy outfit complete with purple hat. The only good thing that had come out of the Littleton business was that Warren and Kyle were an item again.
"Who ticked you off?" I asked Kyle, who had exquisite taste.
"I was meeting a client's husband and his high-powered Seattle lawyer. The longer they think I'm a lightweight poof, the higher I'll hang them in court."
I laughed and kissed him on the cheek. "It's good to see you."
"We're going to catch a show at my place," Kyle said. "We thought you might like to join in."
"Only if you change clothes," I told him seriously.
The truck rocked a little and Ben stuck his head over the side of the bed where he'd been resting. His red coat was rough and his eyes were dull. He let me touch his face before curling back up in the truck bed.
"When I got in the cab," Warren said, "Adam thought it would do Ben some good to get out. We thought it would do you some good, too."
"He's still not shifting," I asked.
"No. And he wouldn't hunt with us at full moon."
I glanced out the back window, but, although he doubtless could hear us talk about him, Ben didn't raise his head off his front paws.
"Is he eating?"
"Enough."
Which meant that he wasn't likely to lose control and eat me like he'd eaten Daniel-that's what Daniel had been telling me. Vampires, not even vampires possessed by demons, don't eat other vampires.
It surprised me a little that Ben was taking it so hard. He had always seemed to me like the kind of person who could strangle his granny for her pearls then eat a peanut butter sandwich in her kitchen afterwards. Maybe I was wrong-or else eating someone was tougher. Warren had told me that Ben and Daniel had struck up an odd friendship while they were out hunting Littleton. It hadn't been strong enough to save Daniel, but it might be enough to destroy Ben.
We watched Japanese anime, ate take-out Mexican food, and made rude jokes while Ben watched us with empty eyes. Warren drove us both home in the early evening, dropping me at my house first.
There was a note on the fridge from Samuel. He'd been called into work because one of the other physicians was sick. The phone rang while I was still reading Samuel's note.
"Mercedes," said Stefan's voice in my ears. "Sit down."
"What's wrong?" I don't take orders well: I stayed where I was.
"Andre was tried last night," he said. "He confessed to turning Littleton, confessed to everything: the creation of Littleton, the incident with Daniel, setting me up to meet Littleton at that hotel."
"It was about you," I said. "He was jealous of you."
"Yes. It was during a conversation with him that I decided there was something odd about Daniel's experience. He made sure someone told me Littleton had registered at that hotel."
" Littleton was supposed to kill you," I said.
"Yes. He was supposed to kill me-but that was the night he broke Andre's control. Andre thinks that all the killing strengthened the demon so Littleton didn't have to listen to him anymore. Andre couldn't find him after that night. But he wasn't too worried until Littleton started leaving presents on his doorstep."
"Presents?"
"Body parts." When I didn't say anything Stefan continued. "Andre was getting pretty desperate, and when Littleton captured Daniel, Warren, Ben and me, he convinced Marsilia that you were the only hope of finding Littleton. He was around when the walkers nearly drove the vampires out of the Western territories. It should please you that he was really shocked when you found Littleton so soon."
"He confessed," I said. "So what is bothering you?"
"There was no permanent harm done to the seethe," he said, biting off the words.
I sat down on the floor of the kitchen. I'd heard those words before.
"She released him." I couldn't believe it. "Did she just let him go?"
Samuel had known it might happen, I thought. Both he and Stefan had known there was a good chance he'd be freed: that's why Stefan had worked so hard to get evidence.
"I told them that by calling you into the hunt, the seethe was responsible for the damage to your trailer and for you missing work for almost two weeks. The seethe has retained the services of a contractor to replace the siding, though that may take a while-this is their busy season. In the next few days, though, our accountants will issue you a check to compensate you for your loss of work."
"They just let him go."
"He sent Littleton here, hoping to destroy those he perceived as Marsilia's enemies. The chair witnessed his truthfulness."
"You aren't Marsilia's enemy."
"No. I just stood between him and what he wanted. Such things are understood in the seethe."
"What about all the people who died?" I asked. "The family of harvest workers, the people in the hotel?" The poor woman whose only crime was working a crummy job at the wrong place and time. What about Warren, screaming in agony, and Ben who refused to be human again?
"The seethe does not consider human life to be of much worth," Stefan said softly. " Marsilia is intrigued by the idea of a sorcerer who is also a vampire. She thinks that such a one might bring the end to her exile here. The Tri-Cities is not the deserted wasteland it was two hundred years ago when she was sent here for trespasses against the Old One who rules in Italy, but neither is it Milan. The Old Master would be intrigued by the power of a creature who can make a vampire as old as I bow to his will. Maybe even intrigued enough to call us home."
"She wants him to make another one," I whispered.
"Yes."
Samuel called me from his work the next morning. Ben had been confined to the cell in Adam's house. He'd attacked another male werewolf without provocation-attempted suicide, werewolf style. He was badly hurt, but expected to recover.
I thought of Ben's dull eyes, of Warren 's limp and the dead woman who haunted my dreams. I thought of the "nearly forty" deaths Uncle Mike laid at Littleton 's feet; many of them were killed while Andre was still in control. I remembered Stefan's admission that the vampires didn't consider human lives to be of much worth.
With the vampire's judgement given, if the wolves did anything to Andre it would be seen as an attack on the seethe and precipitate a war that would cost many more lives on all sides. So, even though Bran and Adam were livid, their hands were tied. If Samuel hadn't been the Marrok's son, he could have done something.
Stefan couldn't do anything, even if he wanted to. He had to obey Marsilia. His hands were tied, too.
But mine were
n't.
It was a good thing I hadn't given Zee the vampire-hunting kit back. I was going to need it. The first thing I had to do was find Andre's home, and I had everything I needed to do that-a keen nose and time.
I ran after the ball and caught it, running slowly so the boys who were chasing me would think they might have a chance. They laughed as they ran, which wasn't very efficient of them if they intended to catch me. I sprinted between them, and across the yard, dropping the ball at their father's feet, wagging my tail. Something wild coyotes don't usually do.
"Good girl," he said and pretended to throw it.
I gave him a reproving look, which made him laugh. "Look out you hooligans," he called out to the boys. "I'm sending her your way."
I darted through the trees after the ball, then realized the children's excited cries had died completely. I spun around to see what had happened, but they were both all right. Just staring at the man who'd gotten out of the black SUV.
Adam had that effect on people.
I turned back and looked for the ball, finding it hiding under a rosebush. With it in my mouth I danced back across the yard and dropped it at Adam's feet.
"Thank you," he told me dryly. Then he turned to the man who had called him.
"I really appreciate you letting me know where she was. My daughter took her out to her boyfriend's house and forgot to keep watch."
"No problem."
They shook hands, one of those strong-but-not-painful manly handshakes.
"You need to keep an eye on her, though," the man told Adam. "She looks a lot like a coyote. If she'd gone out a few miles more she might have been shot before anyone noticed the collar."
"I know," Adam gave a rueful laugh. "She's half coyote, we think, though her mother was a German Shepherd."
I jumped in the SUV when Adam opened the door. He got in, gave the little family who'd «found» me a friendly wave. Then he started the car and drove off.
"That's the third time this month I've come to pick you up," he told me. Twice in Richland and today in Benton City. I was costing him a small fortune in gas and rewards. I'd seen him slip money to both boys.
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