The cat meows and runs off.
"Should I follow her?" Lennox asks. I nod, then let my head sink back to the floor. I'm so tired.
Maybe a nap isn't such a bad idea after all.
I let darkness wash over me, removing all worries of missing tails and missing sirens.
Chapter Seventeen
My boobs are still there. So are my ears and fingers. I run my hands over my body, searching from top to bottom to see if anything is missing.
"All there," I report to the guys.
"Thank the moon," Lennox sighs in relief. "Let's see if your tail has grown back next time you shift."
We're all in the Tailor mansion's living room. Lennox and Gryphon have pushed the bodies to the side, but they couldn't do anything about the carpet that's wet with blood. Ryker and his cats have found the Tailors, all three of them, and have brought them to us. The daughter - I don't even know her name - is the calmest, surprising me. She's got red marks around her mouth where the tape had stuck to her skin.
The human male, her father, is on a chair, looking very pale. His wife stands behind him, her hands on his shoulders, both to steady herself and to reassure him. She's covered in blood, just like the guys and me. We're all going to need a shower before we leave this house or we're going to cause a riot out there.
Gryphon hands me a glass of water. "Drink up. You've lost a lot of blood."
"I'm fine."
"You're pale as a ghost. Drink. I'm your doctor and you better do what I say."
I grimace but down the water as instructed. It feels good to wash the taste of blood from my mouth. As much as I sometimes like licking a bit of enemy blood, right now I want to concentrate on what's more important.
"Why did you leave your target alive?" Ryker asks and takes a seat on the floor next to me. He gently strokes my hair. I want to purr, but it doesn't look good doing that in front of our prisoners. That's what they are, I suppose. Until we know more, anyway.
"Because she may not be working for the Fangs voluntarily," I say, my voice hoarse. "I wanted to find out more before I decide whether to kill her."
I'm fully aware that they can hear me, even without supernatural hearing. The man sucks in a breath, but both women stay silent.
"Well then, let's find out," Gryphon says and claps his hands. "I've got other things to do, like looking after my mate and making sure she doesn't overdo it with those injuries."
I growl at him. "Your mate's just fine. Help me up."
"Oh no, you don't. You stay there until I give you the all-clear. You're still healing. Now drink more water."
"Water isn't exactly medicine."
He raises an eyebrow. "It isn't? Oh my goodness, that means my entire medicine degree was for nothing!"
I can't help but laugh at his dramatic antics. He can be adorable when he tries to cheer me up. Not that I need any of that. I'm happy now that I've had some kills, my boobs are still intact and I'm about to interrogate a siren.
"If I'm not allowed to get up, then at least bring those people closer to me," I demand. "It's hard to look menacing from the floor."
"The blood on your clothes makes you menacing enough," Lennox whispers. "Do you want me to threaten them a little?"
"Nah, they've just experienced a battle with mutant shifters. I think they feel threatened enough already."
The human male groans as if to say that I'm right. He's shaking and the only thing that seems to stop him from completely freaking out is his wife's firm grip on his shoulders.
Gryphon escorts the two women to me, pointedly ignoring the human. He makes them sit on the floor, something I'm sure they've never done before in their lives. Rosalind's pretty dress is torn in places and stained with various body fluids. Mostly blood but I'm pretty sure there's other stuff on there too. Her daughter has escaped relatively unscathed and she looks the most confident of the three. It surprises me a little, given her earlier hysterics upstairs.
I turn to Rosalind. "My name is Kat and I'm an enemy of the Fangs. If what your daughter says is true, so are you."
"Enemy," she splutters. "No, not an enemy."
"Mum," her daughter interrupts. "None of them are left to listen. You can tell the truth."
Rosalind looks me straight in the eye and I see some steel in there, a strength hiding behind pretty dresses and formal etiquette. She was the one who kept singing, I remind myself. She stood there and kept fighting even when everyone else was dead. Maybe she could make a good ally.
"You can trust us," Gryphon suddenly says. Of course, he's a siren. They might trust him more than me. "I'm not a Fang even though I'm a siren like you. Some of us have left the families in protest of what's happening. You're not alone in wanting no part in it."
Rosalind looks at him for a moment, then sighs. "Yes, I'm not exactly friends with them. All my life, I've tried to run away from my heritage. I married a human against my family's wishes. At first, they banished me for it, cut me off, but I made my own fortune, built my own life. Then they came, seeing what I'd become, and wanted me back. They wanted to profit from the influence I have, the trust I've built with the human community. When I refused, they threatened me, my family."
"The Fangs or normal sirens?" I ask.
She laughs coldly. "There are barely any sirens left who've not joined the Fangs. They don't take no for an answer. I'm not proud of giving in to their demands, but I also won't apologise for it. They threatened my family, so I did what I had to."
"We understand," Gryphon says gently. "We've seen the things they do."
"You have?" Again, she laughs. "I doubt you know the full extent of their plans or you wouldn't have killed them all. Their revenge is going to be terrible."
Her husband gasps from the other end of the room where he's still sat next to an overturned table. Rosalind turns to him and gives him a tense smile. "Don't worry, darling, I won't let anyone hurt you or Sinéad."
Now I finally know the daughter's name. She stares her mother down as if she's angry. Huh. Curious.
"I don't need your protection. Haven't I proven that in the past weeks?"
Rosalind's expression softens. "Yes, you have. But maybe keep that quiet or you'll be in even greater danger."
"What?" I demand. "What have you done?"
Sinead looks at me, her entire demeanour suddenly changed. Gone is the immature, frightened woman. Instead, her eyes have become diamonds, a little rough yet ready to cut whatever gets in her way, and her posture is one of confidence and strength. Interesting. She's an actor.
"I have killed Fangs," she pronounces, eliciting a groan from her mother. "I killed them like they've killed humans. Like they threatened to kill my father."
Several jigsaw pieces flutter excitedly in my mind before coming together, forming a complete image. "And you left Fang coins on their corpses as a warning for other Fangs."
A tiny flicker of surprise shows on her face before her mask slips into place again. "Yes. You know about them?"
"I was asked to investigate the murders. My client thought it was the work of the Fangs rather than the opposite."
"And you didn't figure it out?" she asks with a disdainful smile.
"I haven't even seen the bodies yet," I hiss. "I had no idea that they're sirens. I got a little distracted by killing mutant shifters in your living room, in case you didn't notice."
"Who wouldn't have come here if you hadn't appeared," Rosalind says. "I've never seen them in action. There were rumours about them, abominations stronger than any other being, but I thought they were just that, rumours, created to intimidate us." Her gaze softens a little. "Are you very hurt?"
"I'll be fine." Embarrassment rises up in me. I hate showing vulnerability in front of these people. Especially in front of Sinead. A human who's killed FIVE Fangs. Ridiculous. I give her that, I totally believed her hysteric-stupid-human act earlier. I suppose she must have years of practice at it if she's been surrounded by sirens who believe humans are nothing but cattle.
"How did you do it?" I ask her. "How did they not enchant you?"
She grins triumphantly. "I'm immune. I was born deaf and only gained my hearing after an operation. It's what we think made me immune to a siren's song. Most aren't aware of it; otherwise I'd probably be long dead by now. The Fangs have grown careless. They know they're close to achieving their goals and they're no longer careful about not showing themselves. With lots of them visiting our home, it was easy to choose the ones that would be my next kill."
"Sinead," Rosalind admonishes. "You shouldn't talk like that. I don't want you to be a murderer."
"It's too late for that, mother. I am a murderer but I'm proud of it."
"Not a murderer," I correct. "An assassin. Nothing wrong about that. You're in good company."
Lennox raises a hand. "Assassin."
Gryphon does the same, grinning wickedly. Ryker just shrugs, staying quiet. He's killed, today even, but he doesn't see himself as a killer. I think in his mind he's simply behaving like the cat he was born as, hunting his prey and killing it in the process.
Rosalind seems shocked, but Sinead smiles. "I've never met an assassin before."
I laugh. "Most people only meet them once before dying. But now that we know you're not Fangs, we won't harm you. On the contrary, you're going to help us take them down."
"Will we?" Rosalind asks drily. "I don't think so. As I said, they've threatened my family. After today, we're going to be even more in the spotlight. I'll be able to say that we survived by some miracle, that you thought we were dead, but I don't know if they'll believe it."
"Which is exactly why we have to fight," her daughter argues, her voice swinging with passion. "It's time to end this charade. I'm tired of tiptoeing around them, pretending I'm just a stupid girl who knows nothing of siren business. I'm ready to take revenge for what they did to you."
I look at Rosalind questioningly. "What did they do?"
The woman doesn't reply, so I turn my gaze to Sinead. She averts her gaze, clearly aware she's said too much.
To my surprise, Mr Tailor speaks up. I'd completely forgotten about him.
"They made us lose our child. They sang until it was dead. Said a siren-human-child didn't deserve to live."
Gryphon gasps. "They did what?"
Sinead looks like she wants to attack one of the corpses. "They stood around her. Sung one of their eerie songs. They killed the foetus. I was going to have a brother and they killed him."
A shiver runs down my back. It was bad enough that the Fangs killed shifter children back home, but they did that by proxy. They never got their hands dirty. And now they killed one of their own, a siren? Fuck them. It's time to put an end to them once and for all.
"You know what they're planning at the conference?" I ask.
Both women nod.
"We're going to stop them before they even have the chance. I've killed eight Fangs today. My mates have assassinated more. They're going to be on high alert now, but we won't let that stop us. Rosalind, you're going to provide me with names and addresses. Then we're going hunting. By the time the politicians meet, there won't be any Fangs left to put collars around the humans' necks."
Rosalind scoffs. "Even if I did give you names, you don't stand a chance. Look at you. You're injured. Your men don't look in the best state either. The Fangs you killed here today weren't the top dogs. Those will have security. They won't be easy targets and they're going to kill you before you even get close." She points at the little black box lying broken next to me. "That anti-siren tech? They're already working on a solution against it. They'll have warned their bodyguards to destroy them so that they can pick you off one by one. You don't stand a chance. No, you better pack up and leave town. That's your only hope of surviving."
"Mum," Sinead protests, but Rosalind motions her to be quiet.
"Sinead, this isn't a game. I've tolerated you going after those people because I knew they were harmless. And you didn't think you were out there on your own, did you? I always had people follow you, ready to step in if necessary. Your little assassin illusion ends now. We're leaving and if you know what's good for you, Kat, you will too."
I shake my head. I won't accept this. I need her on my side. She can give us names that would take us forever to find out. Yes, we could go through every one of today's Fangs' houses and search for information, but we don't have the time. We need Rosalind Tailor, as much as I hate relying on a siren.
"You're going to help us," I order her, my voice as sharp as my blades. "Because you want revenge. I can see it in your eyes. Look around you. Look at those bodies. All these people will no longer be able to force you to do things against your will. They're history. Why do you let them banish you from your home? You've made a life for yourself, you said so earlier. Don't leave all that behind. Fight and make sure no one is left to hurt you or your family."
"She's right," Gryphon says, much gentler than I ever could. "Even if you flee, they'll find you eventually. You're used to a certain standard. If you want to live the same way, you're going to draw attention. And do you think you'll be happy, being on the run? Always looking over your shoulder. Always being ready to pack up and leave. Believe me, I've been there. It eats you up from the inside. You don't want that."
"You don't stand a chance," she repeats, but she no longer sounds as convinced. "How many of you are there?"
Lennox smiles, letting his wolf come to the surface for a moment. His eyes change colour, his entire presence transforms, showing the predator inside. "There's an entire wolf pack waiting for me to tell them where to go. We have assassins, thieves, poison experts. We're not alone."
"Wolf pack?" Sinead asks. "Wolf shifters? An entire pack?" She has a strangely greedy expression on her face as she runs her gaze up and down his body. "Do they all look like you?"
"He's mine," I snarl. "Now tell us where to find the Fang leaders. Most of all, tell me where Lord Delaney is hiding. I've got open business with him."
Rosalind looks me straight in the eye as if she's searching for something. After what feels like forever, she nods. "I'll make you a list. I don't know every Fang in Attenburgh, but I've done my research and should be able to give you the details of at least a dozen or so." She looks around the room. "After I've subtracted some of the people you killed here."
"I'll help," Sinead volunteers. "I may know some that mother doesn't. I made my own hit list, after all."
A meow comes from outside, anguished and full of alarm. Ryker jumps to his feet and I would do the same if I had the strength. Fuck this body. Heal, damn you. Don't grow back the tail if that means I can get up and fight whatever threat the cat is reporting.
Ryker turns around from the window, his face grave. "There's a fire. Someone set fire to our house."
Chapter Eighteen
We run as fast as we can. Lennox and Ryker have shifted and have sprinted off, while Gryphon is by my side. Every movement hurts, but sheer desperation is driving me on.
My home is on fire. Are my babies safe? My siblings? Lily? Bethany? Benjamin? The kittens?
I can't even think of what may have happened. No, I push away my fears and run. I bump into people, not caring that we're drawing attention. I have to get home.
By the time we finally turn a corner to enter our street, the smell of smoke fills the air. A plume of it rises from the house at the end of the street. It's bad. The entire building is on fire. Flames shoot from the windows, all the way up to the attic. Humans have formed a circle around the house, watching and shouting. We push through the crowd, but don't get much further. Burning wood has fallen to the ground, blocking the front door. Sparks are flying through the air, landing on my clothes and my skin, leaving marks. I don't care.
"Lily!" I shout at the top of my lungs. "Caitlin!"
"We're here!"
Lily's voice comes from my right, behind a group of nosy humans. I run over, ignoring the pain in my limbs. Lily's on the ground, her face stained with soot. In
her arms are Donna and Bella. The twins are awake but aren't crying. That worries me. They should be scared, right? Did they inhale too much smoke?
"Where are the others?" Gryphon asks from behind me.
"Benjamin is at the back, trying to get everyone out. I sent Lennox and Ryker to help them. Caitlin has Liat. Sophie's with her too. I sent them to find a phone and call for help. Although I'm sure one of the humans has called the fire brigade by now."
Yes, where is the fire brigade? How is it that we were faster running through half the town than for help to arrive? Fuck humans. They're going to let us burn.
"What about Bethany?"
"I don't know." Lily coughs. "It all happened so quickly. They threw something through the windows. There were explosions. I just ran to the nursery and grabbed the babies. I was trying to carry them all until Caitlin came to help."
"All the babies?" I sound hysterical but I don't care. "What about Shade? You didn't mention her! Where is she?"
"She was with Bethany before it all happened. They were in the kitchen, I think..."
I look at the kitchen window. Thick black fog rises through the shattered windowpane, interspersed with red flames.
Something inside of me stops. My baby. My beautiful little Shade.
Gryphon lays a hand on my shoulder. "We'll find her. She'll be okay. Can you sense her?"
"No, the smoke blocks it all." Tears spring to my eyes. "I can't smell her."
"Let's go to the back of the house, maybe she's there."
He kneels by Lily's side and kisses the twins on their forehead. "We'll be back."
I do the same, hugging my babies, breathing in their scent.
Bella mumbles something, half asleep.
"Shhh, stay with Auntie Lily. I'll be back in just a moment. Go to sleep."
It hurts my heart to turn away from them. It goes against every motherly instinct, yet I have two other babies out there. I trust Caitlin to keep Liat safe, even though I'd give everything to have him in my arms just now. I won't quite believe that he's okay until I've seen him with my own eyes.
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