by Lucy Lyons
It occurred to me that this apparent power Clay had only worked on Ashlynn, and I concluded that what she felt for my best friend and brother in arms was much more than simple lust. Silently, I wished them both luck. Ashlynn’s volcanic temperament was enough to make me want to tear my hair out, and I only spent a handful of hours with her when I was forced to. I couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like as the object of her jealousy and affection.
“I repledge my wolves to you, and offer your master a blood offering to seal my words and my bond,” she said, her hand still in Clay’s. “I don’t do it for the vampires, but for my own people. If you betray us, we will scatter the pieces of your clan across the globe.”
“Well, that’s a lot more violent and threatening than necessary. The master of the western clan will choose who gives the blood, and I will choose who sits at our table. We’re a limited democracy,” I explained, letting my lips pull into a thin smile.
“I’ll take the seat if that’s okay, until you find someone else,” Clay offered, and I nodded.
“Nick would approve of that. Hell, he’d probably approve of you sitting at the table, Ashlynn. But, I don’t like you. Nick’s learned that his nights go a lot better when he doesn’t cross me.”
“And what would it take for me to take my rightful place among the clans’ leaders?” She snapped.
“It isn’t your rightful place, just as the seat Jeremy occupies isn’t his right. The seats belong to the clans. Who sits there, is the worthiest of their people. You’re argumentative, undiplomatic even by my loose standards, and you’re divisive.” I ticked the items off on my fingers as I spoke. “When I know you have the best interests of the whole in mind and you’re not just looking to be on top, then I’m sure there will be a chair added for you.”
I enjoyed watching her bristle, but time was growing short, and Clay and I needed to return to Nick, to be briefed on our specific duties for the kidnapping. I grinned thinking about it, and Ashlynn “hmphed” loudly.
“What’s so funny?”
“I keep thinking of rescuing professor Eldritch as ‘the kidnapping’, even though he’s doing this of his own free will. If you’d grown up in the Venatores school, you’d know how satisfying it is to think of the most perspicacious, but most curmudgeonly teacher being kidnapped,” I explained, more for Clay than Ashlynn.
“Like every pre-finals daydream I ever had in high school,” Clay chortled, and Ashlynn’s eyes flashed with irritation that he and I had such a closely woven history.
“We finally get to kidnap the professor and make him disappear. Certainly, the irony of this isn’t lost on him.” I grinned broader, and even the snarky alpha softened up a bit.
“I had a coach like that, once,” she said, I assumed in reference to her past as a professional fighter. “He was the worst, yet he’s still my favorite. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up the phone to call him and tell him I’m…” Her voice broke, and she bit the edge of her lip.
“You wanted to tell him that you were all right, maybe even explain why you couldn’t fight anymore.” I didn’t ask, just made the statement and waited for her to agree.
“It’s stupid,” she huffed.
“Nah. One day, you’ll call him. He’ll probably be mad as hell, but I guarantee, if he means that much to you, he’ll be glad to know you’re alive and well.” I stood up and shook my arms out at my sides. “Okay, now we’re just making this weird. Enough emotions.” I pointed at Ashlynn. “You get some wolves here, in case the Venatores come for us.” I turned to Clay. “You get your guys together and do whatever it is you have to do. I’m going in the limo, so I get to go steal a limo. It wouldn’t do us any good to have it traced back to a rental and lead the Venatores here by the hand.
“I’ll take the professor with me after he gives you the information you seek.” I nodded and held out my hand to her. She exhaled hard and raised an eyebrow at me, but with less hesitation than the first time, she shook my hand properly. “You are so human,” she snorted, and I smirked at her.
“Well, maybe I’ll learn to sniff butts to say hello, if it makes you more comfortable, wolf-girl. But until that day, you’ll just have to suck it up and deal with handshakes to bind your promises, or magic.”
“Handshake is fine, thanks,” she spat. “Please don’t ever put your face near my butt, or I’ll have to kick you in it.
“Then I’ll let Clay show you out. I really must prepare a room for our upcoming guest’s arrival.” I left them and hurried down to the living quarters below the club. Professor Eldritch had been to Pulse before, and never under happy circumstances. The romantic in me wanted to give him a space of his own to relax and freshen up before he was rejoined with Henny. I was sure she was the real catalyst behind the professor’s exodus from the holy city.
Nick met me at the bottom of the elevator, and I pretended to be surprised, even though I’d felt him the same way he felt me coming to him. He pulled me into his arms the way he had when I had to leave him and return to my home with the vampire hunters, making sure I knew he loved me.
“This is the first mission I’ve been on without you since I came here, isn’t it?” I snuggled against the firm comfort of his chest and sighed. “That’s probably why they made sure the flight got in early. But you could still go. We’ve used limo’s before for the dark tint on the windows. Why can’t we make a date of it?”
“Because in the daylight, I’m a liability, and I don’t want you distracted from the professor because of me.” I pouted at his response, even though I knew he was right.
“Then I guess it’s time for me to get strapped and ready to go pull one over on the Venatores,” I grinned, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
“You know that it’s a little sick to want to go after your old mates as much as you do,” he snickered.
“I’m not going to hurt anyone. That’s why we need to be coordinated, and hit them during daylight, when they’re not expecting it.” I paused and thought. “Since I still haven’t caught up to what you and Clay and Fin talked about, do they have any idea who’s going to be meeting the professor?”
“Vladikk’s men, no doubt,” he replied, “but Clay said he has a ringer, someone loyal to him.” I was surprised, but it made sense. If I still had friends on the inside, when I was a geek and an outsider, then of course Clayton would have people who were loyal to him. He was one of the best hunters the Venatores had, and they’d betrayed him by experimenting on him and turning him into a werewolf.
So, yes, I was excited to finally go up against the Venatores. I wanted to show them up, make them pay, even just a little, for what they’d done to us. I could let my own betrayal go. I’d chosen to let myself fall in love with Nick, so let the consequences abound, I knew to expect it. Clay, on the other hand, had been chosen because he was already the fastest, the strongest, and the most loyal. They’d banked on that loyalty to keep him with them when they turned him into a monster. It was time for a little mischief, and I only wished I had thought of it sooner.
Chapter 7
I went to my room and changed into my favorite black tank top, a Venatores special with woven steel bullet proof lining, and black leather leggings with the same material sewn into the lining. Soft-soled hunter boots in black suede and my shoulder holster completed the outfit.
The holster was custom made to hold my Glock 9 mm for a right-hand draw, along with a short sword I carried. Colette had named it Sting, after ‘The Hobbit’, because it was almost short enough to be a long dagger, instead of a sword. I lifted my waist-length hair over my shoulder and slid the blade home, then tied up my hair and slid two small, curved blades called ‘karambit’ into the leather thong that held my hair.
Next came the wrist and thigh sheaths, although now that the potential enemy had the same guns I did, the extra knives were more habit than necessity. Nevertheless, it made me feel better to wear them, and I justified slipping one last knife into the shaft of my right
boot, because with the Venatores, you had to be ready to expect anything.
Fortunately, despite being sunny and bright, it was still a cool, breezy Pacific Northwest day, and I pulled a long leather trench coat over the entire ensemble to cover up the weapons when we walked into downtown Seattle to grab a car.
The others were already in the conference room when I arrived, and all of them were, I thought, woefully under-armed.
“I understand that we aren’t planning on killing anyone,” I interrupted as Fin was showing the wererats their positions on a map of the private airfield, “but they will be ready to kill us, so I’d feel better if I wasn’t the only one there who can defend us.”
A wererat named Meiko flicked his hand and showed me his claws. I gaped at him, then face Fin, pointing at his guard and scowling.
“Do any of you asses understand that we’re up against Venatores? This is not a drill, folks.” I took a seat, silenced by my exasperation.
“Pfft,” Meiko rolled his eyes. “What can they do to us, anyway?” I didn’t have a plan in mind, but he’d said just the right thing to piss me off, and before I realized what I was doing, I had the shapeshifter on his back with a viciously curved blade kissing his throat.
“Hey, asshat. You think they can’t hurt you? Well, consider this. Before I came to live here, I was one of them. Not one of the scary ones, mind you, I was just a librarian. Now. You want to rethink your unforgivable stupidity, or are you sitting this one out?”
I watched his throat work, a thin necklace of scarlet appearing on his throat when he swallowed hard. Growling low, I fought the urge to press ever so lightly on the blade and watch it sink into his cartilage.
The wolf in me bared her fangs and I knew it wasn’t my magic that wanted him dead, but the part of me that answered to the pack. That magic was still hard to control, and harder to understand. I leaned back so I was just straddling him, and looked down into his eyes. They were open so wide they seemed almost all whites, and his nostrils flared as he tried to control the fear I smelled rising off him.
“All right, you’ve made your point Caroline,” Clay drawled. I stood up and looked around me. All the shifters had lunged out of the way when I threw myself across the wide mahogany table, and the ones closest to me were pressed against the walls as far from me as they could get.
“Oh, for the love of God. I’m not going to kill him,” I huffed, and squeezed behind the chairs, making my way to the end of the table where I expected Nick to join us.
“As Caroline so eloquently pointed out, you need to bring guns and at least one blade, unless you’re strong enough to shift claws without going all furry,” Fin directed. “No egos here, please. If you can partially shift, great. If not, bring a knife, at least.”
Most of the shifters had moved back to their seats, but Meiko stood with his back to the wall, slender crimson droplets sliding down his throat to his collarbone. I glanced over at Clay and he nodded. Meiko would not be joining us on the front lines any time soon.
There were half a dozen wolves going with us, and twice as many wererats. I was, of course, the only human, and as far as I could tell, no one had told Dominique about the extraction. It was a big ol’ party, unless I’d just made the shifters too afraid of me to watch my back.
I twirled the blade I’d held to Meiko’s throat. The wicked edge sparkled with ruby jewels that reflected in the glossy stain on the table. I checked my pockets, but hadn’t thought to include a cloth to clean the blade with, because as heavily armed as I was, even I hadn’t honestly thought I’d be using them.
It was Meiko who seemed to understand my consternation. His cut healed quickly, and by the time the blood had congealed in the wound, he wiped it off his throat and it was like I’d never touched him. He examined the handkerchief and folded it, then tossed it down the table to me. Our eyes met, and his held a challenge. I was a witch. Historically, all I needed was the blood on my blade to torture, enslave, or even kill Meiko from a distance.
But I didn’t need his blood to hurt him. I was a sorceress. I could find him anywhere in the city, just by focusing the energy Nick and I shared to reach farther than I could on my own. But, superstitions were hard to overcome, once you were initiated into the world of creatures that had spawned those beliefs in the first place.
I wiped down my blade, folded the blood into the handkerchief so it wouldn’t smear on the table, and spun it back down to him. He twisted it in his hands, folding it again, then unfolding it and looking at the blood that I’d spilt.
Everyone knew their assignments and most of the wererats were dismissed to find themselves a knife or blade of some kind. The wolves split up to get the cars, except Clayton, who was going to act the part of chauffer and help me steal the limo we needed.
I hopped on the back of his bike and we took off toward the rental place parking the bike a mile or so away in the parking for a shopping center. Clay flashed me a grin, then took off, running then leaping to a low overhang and pulling himself up to the roof adjacent. I glanced around me quickly, looking for an alternate route, then took off, running full out.
I pushed myself harder than I had in months, cursing myself for focusing so much on training to fight, that the only running I did was in the woods. Without the give of the forest floor, the concrete bit through the soft soles of the tall moccasins, and I cursed Clay under my breath. I reached out with my power and felt him, just a few rooftops ahead of me. Ahead of us, the road descended sharply, and I leaped out and landed on the roof of a business just off the side of the road. I hit hard and rolled to my feet just as I heard Clay hit the roof behind me with a thud.
“You cheated,” he panted as we jumped to the next roof together.
“Says the guy who took off running without any warning, then used his werewolf jumping skills to leap over a small building with a single bound.”
He laughed hard enough that it tripped him up, and as he stumbled, I pulled ahead. Two rooftops and an overpass later, I skidded to a stop with Clay right behind me. Across the street was the limousine shop, with several stretch limos in white and black parked out front.
“The Venatores would never believe that a stretch limo is there for the professor,” Clay said when I pointed out the one I thought I could get out through the fence the easiest. “We need to go inside and get a Hummer or an Escalade.”
“But the Venatores didn’t send the limo, Clay, we’re pretending the museum did. They would send a stretch or a town car, not a military looking vehicle.”
We argued for a few more minutes while Clay held out to drive something cool, and I countered that our success hinged on not standing out to the professor’s guards.
“You can’t win this fight, Clay. Old man car it is. We’ve got to get going, or we’ll be late and I’ll help the professor roast you alive, provided we get another chance to extract him.”
“Fine, get the black town car over by the fence with the dark tint and the sun roof. I’ll get to work cutting the chain link.” He pointed near the back corner at a glossy black sedan and my head bobbed in agreement.
“I’m just glad they cheaped out on the wall and only built it in the front. I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.” I walked confidently toward the rental office. The gate swung inward as I approached and the guard smiled at me as I thanked him with a nod and strode quickly toward the rental office.
I veered off to one side and cast a minor glamor on myself, shrouding myself in a veil of disinterest. I was completely visible, but no one noticed me, and if I did it right, even anyone who watched recorded footage later wouldn’t be able to focus on my presence.
I’d tried to make myself invisible like Nick did, but I found that people were still always straining to see me. They knew something was occupying the space I was in, even if they couldn’t figure out what. Then I’d realized that I could do the opposite, and it worked much better for me.
When I reached the car, I pulled the panel off the underside of the dr
iver’s side instrument panel and pulled out the wires to test my hotwiring ability. I saw Clay through the chain link fencing, using a set of heavy wire cutters to snip away at the links and roll up the fence so I could drive through. On a hunch, I flipped down the visor and a set of keys fell into my lap. I gave a small victory cry, and from over fifty feet away, Clay’s wolf-hearing picked it up. I held up the keys and he gave me two thumbs up, then rolled the fencing he’d clipped up, driving a metal rod through it to hold it in place.
I rolled slowly through the hole he’d created, and he jumped in the passenger side. We met the wererats at the airport and I used the same glamour to mask us as they took their places as tarmac employees. I slipped into the backseat, pushing myself against the closed door, while Clay put on his chauffer cap and tipped the brim down in case people we knew were included in the guard duty, and he stood by the door, waiting.
An armored car pulled up not far from our car, and I had a moment of panic until I saw Fin in his orange vest, talking to the armed Loomis guard who met him outside the truck. Fin pointed and gestured as the other man’s head bobbed and after a short conversation, the guard climbed back into the truck to await the arrival of the plane and its priceless cargo.
We didn’t have to wait long. The sun was barely sinking in the sky when the plane taxied in and stopped just past the armored truck. The driver back the truck up and a man in a dark windbreaker came out with a clipboard to check the bill of lading.