by Laura Taylor
Alistair strapped a bullet-proof vest to himself as he stood in the weapons storage room off the side of the library. The manor was currently in a state of controlled chaos, rapid preparations underway for the shifters to make a stand against the Satva Khuli that Andre had just reported. For the moment, the manor’s residents were scattered. Getting armed was the first priority, along with donning bullet-proof vests and the custom-made armour that fitted onto their wolf forms. Baron had gone upstairs to contact the Council, asking for reinforcements. Skip was preparing one of the laptops to be brought down to the foyer, a wireless connection to a satellite link ensuring they could continue accessing the internet and its wealth of information even if the Khuli infiltrated the house. George and a few helpers had gone to the kitchen, boxing up some basic food supplies. A few others were going from room to room, making sure every window and door to the exterior was closed and locked. Something so simple as a pane of glass wasn’t likely to stop a Khuli, but there was no sense in leaving them an open invitation. Once everyone was prepared, they would congregate in the foyer, and Alistair headed there now, two loaded pistols at his side and two extra clips of ammunition in his pockets.
The foyer was crowded and getting more so as people finished up their duties elsewhere and arrived back, checking in with Caroline, who was currently in charge of keeping a head count and assigning duties. Alistair caught her eye and gave her a nod, watching as she ticked his name off her list, then he made his way to the edge of the room, finding a spot that wouldn’t be in anyone’s way.
The sight around him filled him with mixed emotions; admiration at the way the Den came together as a well-oiled machine and fear that despite their best efforts, they wouldn’t be able to repel this most sinister of predators. Pride at being a part of this team of warriors, mingled with sorrow at the thought of losing even one of them to the Noturatii – an eventuality that was all but inevitable. Either himself, or one of his brothers and sisters was going to die before this was over. He could feel it in his bones.
The foyer itself was well designed, and this was where they would make their stand. All of them together in one room presented a united force with no opportunity for the Khuli to pick them off one by one. Yet this room also had many potential exits, just in case anyone got the bright idea to do something lethal like drop a grenade in their midst. They would remain here until the assassins arrived, and then, barring further instructions from their rescuers, stay here longer still, until the Khuli had been sought out and put down.
Following that, of course, there would be an emergency evacuation to their secondary residence in Scotland. As yet, the Grey Watch hadn’t been informed of their impending arrival, both because they didn’t want to risk a Khuli hacking their communications, thereby putting the other pack at risk, but also because there was a slim but realistic chance that either the assassins or the Council might decide to just bypass Scotland and move them directly to another country.
Either way, they wouldn’t be able to stay here.
Across the foyer, John leaned against the wall, irritated by the weight of the gun at his hip. Keeping quiet and out of the way, he contemplated the news that had just rocked their world, trying to decide what he should do next.
A part of him was disappointed. He’d enjoyed the long chats with the Khuli, and there was no way they were going to continue now. He was also annoyed she’d been careless enough to allow herself to be discovered, yet at the same time, thoroughly impressed that Andre had managed to find her. The fact that he himself had done so weeks ago didn’t factor into his assessment at all. He’d discovered her by chance, rather than by any deliberate effort or refined skill, and he was careful to always leave room in his worldview for the vagaries of pure luck. Perhaps there was a higher power with a purpose in these random encounters. Perhaps not, but they seemed to keep coming up all through people’s lives, so he didn’t want to discount the possibility too quickly.
Should he tell Andre what he knew about the Khuli? His loyalty was to his Den, and always had been – Li Khuli knew that, just as she must have known that if she hung around in that tree for long enough, she would eventually be discovered. But even now, with the Den being locked down and panic in the eyes of those around him, he didn’t truly believe she was going to harm any of them. Could he really just leave her to die?
Once he’d finished speaking to the Council, Baron hurried down the stairs back into the foyer. Most of the Den was gathered here now, and he needed to catch up with Andre, to find out more about what he’d discovered, and also put on his own body armour. But as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he happened to glance around and saw Dee loitering in the corner, Taya in her arms, a human baby sucking on a bottle, and Luke prancing about at her feet, tail wagging as he pounced on her shoelaces. Changing direction, he headed over to her. His gut churned at the idea of what a Khuli could do to the children. “I want to evacuate you and the pups,” he told her softly, reaching out to stroke Taya’s hair gently. “Whatever goes down here, these two shouldn’t be a part of it.”
“Silas told me we couldn’t evacuate,” Dee objected. “He said the property could be being watched, and if a small group leave, they’re an easy target for a Khuli. As bad as the situation is, we’re safer here.”
It was true, and that was the reason why the whole Den couldn’t be evacuated until the Khuli was killed. Despite the risk of a Noturatii battalion landing on their doorstep, if they tried to leave, the Khuli would just follow, making any Den who tried to help them a target as well. But even so... “The Khuli’s after Miller,” Baron argued. “We wouldn’t send you by car. Andre could get you and the pups off the property on foot without you being followed. Please, Dee. There’s too much at stake…”
Dee looked down at Taya, then gave a watery smile as she watched Luke playing on the floor, oblivious to the drama going on around him. “There’s no guarantee the Khuli is only after Miller,” she pointed out, a pragmatic statement that was nonetheless entirely unwelcome. “The Noturatii have been wanting to get me back ever since I escaped from the lab. It’s perfectly possible they’ve got two targets, and I’m the second one. Which still makes here the safest place for us to be.”
Baron said nothing, not at all happy about her stubborn refusal, trying to come up with a convincing argument that might persuade her otherwise.
“I want to keep them safe,” Dee said, when she saw he wasn’t going to let it go. “Even more than you do. But every way I look at it, this is the safest place for them to be. We have a team of nearly twenty warriors standing at our side and assassins on the way.” Her eyes grew bright with unshed tears, and she hugged Taya closer to her chest. “The Khuli will only get to them over my dead body,” she said, her voice trembling just slightly. “I mean that absolutely literally.”
It was just after half past two in the afternoon when Alistair’s phone rang. The foyer was relatively quiet, considering there were nineteen people scattered around the room, and the shrill jangle made several people jump. Alistair answered it quickly, unsurprised about the call. In his line of work, there was always someone needing to give him some piece of information, or wanting an interview, or a colleague checking in with a story that needed covering.
“Drew?” a breathless voice on the other end of the line said, and Alistair’s mind was so caught up in the current drama in the Den that it took him a moment to place it. “Lee? Hey, how are you?” Damn it. He’d told her he’d be back from London in a few days, and she’d said she wanted to see him again before she left England. But now that the estate was under siege, that was going to be all but impossible.
“I need to speak to you,” she said. The not-quite-frantic waver to her voice immediately told Alistair something was very wrong.
“What’s up? What’s happened?” He glanced around the foyer. There was no quiet corner where he could score a few moments’ privacy.
“I can’t talk over the phone. I need to see you in person.”
Fuck. Damn this fucking Khuli! Alistair’s heartrate doubled its pace. He’d tried to be a true friend to Lee and was loath to just leave her there...
“I can’t,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m sorry. I’m just... I’m caught up in something of a crisis at home, and I’m not going to be able to get away.”
“This is important! And urgent. Please, Drew.”
“I’m sorry. I believe you when you say it’s important, but I -”
“It’s a matter of life and death. Not mine – I’m fine,” she added, just as Alistair thought he was about to have a heart attack. “But if I don’t speak with you, then other people are going to die.”
Alistair sat very still as that announcement settled in his mind. “Which people?” he asked finally.
“I can’t tell you over the phone. It’s not safe.”
Damn it all to hell. What was he supposed to do now? How could he just turn his back...?
“I’m sorry,” he heard himself say, as Baron caught his eye from across the room, giving him a hard, warning stare. “I’m really, really sorry. I really want to come and help you. But I can’t. I’m sorry, I just can’t right now.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“All right,” she said, sounding strangely calm. “I’m sorry, Drew. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
Alistair felt his whole body tense and a chill slid down his spine. “Find out what?”
The phone went dead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Half an hour dragged by, each second an unbearable weight. After Lee hung up so abruptly, Alistair had tried to phone her back, but each time, the phone just went to voicemail. Baron came striding over and asked what the hell that had been about, and Alistair just shrugged, told him it was something to do with work and that it wouldn’t be a problem. And then he’d been left to imagine all manner of horrors that might have befallen Lee. Though she’d said her own life wasn’t in danger, it was hard to believe her when she’d been so adamant that other people were going to die.
But then again, that was much the same situation as the one he was currently in. One misstep and members of his family could die.
After half an hour of miserable waiting, however, a soft chiming from three different parts of the room had everyone instantly on alert. Andre, Silas and Simon all ripped their phones out of their pockets in response to the gentle notification that their boundary wall had just been breached.
Baron was beside Andre in an instant, peering over his shoulder at the screen. Caroline, on the other hand, stayed where she was, halfway up the stairs. The chapter on ‘diversion’ had been well and truly covered in all of their training, and until or unless Baron or Andre told her otherwise, her place was there, guarding the entrance to the foyer from the upper floors.
“We’ve got this,” Andre called to Simon, and he obediently put his phone back in his pocket and returned his attention to the hallway door.
“Good god,” Andre breathed as the video feed came up on his screen. There she was, decked out in camouflage clothing, her face covered in a balaclava-style hood, standing brazenly just outside the eastern gate.
“She’s not even trying to be subtle,” Silas said, a note of confusion in his voice. “Why is she just standing there?”
As they watched, the Khuli glanced around the forest, as if wondering where everyone was – on a normal day, a good portion of the pack would have been outside roaming the estate – and then looked directly back at the camera. There was no doubt she’d worked out exactly where it was, despite it being hidden inside a hollow log high up in a tree. She lifted a large, white, square board, holding it up in front of her, in clear view of the camera.
‘I come in peace’ the sign read, in large block letters.
“What the fuck?” Silas asked, astounded, staring at the video on his own phone.
“Some game she’s playing,” Andre said darkly. “Ignore it. There is no peace to be had with these creatures.”
The Khuli stood there for a long moment, the sign held high and still, and then she set it down, lifting a second one instead. The camera took a moment to focus, and then all three of them froze, the message utterly baffling. ‘Tell Drew I’m sorry’.
“What the hell?” Silas breathed, his face creased in consternation. “How does... She doesn’t...”
“Alistair! Get over here,” Baron snapped, eyes still fixed on the screen. From his seat by the wall, Alistair leapt to his feet and was by his side in an instant.
“What’s up?”
“What do you make of this?” Baron thrust the screen at him.
Alistair took a look, and his forehead creased in a frown that matched the ones the rest of them were wearing. “I... don’t really...” He shook his head slowly. “I’ve got no idea why she would... Unless the Noturatii somehow linked Drew the journalist to this estate...?” He looked pale, the guilty thought striking him that perhaps he hadn’t been as thorough in covering his tracks as he thought he’d been.
As they watched, the Khuli lowered the sign, apparently having decided they’d had enough time to read it. Then she raised her hand, catching the lower edge of her hood, and in one bold movement, stripped the thing off her head.
“Oh my God.” Alistair’s exclamation came out softly, a thin, reedy sound that was nothing like his usual confident tone. Then his legs seemed to give out, as he very abruptly sat down on the floor.
The noise in the foyer was deafening, but despite the volume, Alistair could hear nothing but the rushing of blood through his own ears, his heart pounding, his limbs weak.
“She’s a Khuli,” he’d said, dimly aware that the statement explained absolutely nothing as he’d answered Baron’s booming demand to know what the fuck was going on. “That’s Lee. I met her in a pub. I didn’t know she was... I didn’t know...” he trailed off, a wave of nausea sweeping through him. Oh god, he’d slept with her. He’d slept with a Satva Khuli. He wanted to go take a shower, to scrub his skin until it was raw.
Now, Baron was yelling a torrent of abuse at John, the younger man having stood up and blithely declared that they needn’t be too worried; the Khuli wasn’t actually going to harm any of them. A few sharp questions had followed, then all hell had broken loose, Alistair too stunned to pay any attention to the details. He was vaguely aware of Andre yelling at Baron to shut up, of Caroline sharply telling someone to get back to their post, of a low rumble of noise from the rest of them, but none of it really registered. Lee was a Khuli. That’s why she’d been so secretive about her family and her upbringing. That’s how she’d been able to have him flat on his back on the hard pavement with little more than a flick of her wrist.
‘Tell Drew I’m sorry’. Sorry for what? Sorry for sleeping with him? Sorry for deceiving him? Sorry for using him as bait so she could kill his family?
Hang on... bait? He’d never told her anything about the shifters. Up until a few minutes ago, he’d had no reason to suspect she even knew what he was.
“You’ve been sitting in that tree with the Khuli?” Andre roared, his tone getting even Alistair’s attention, and he looked up to see him facing off against John. It was the first time Alistair had ever seen Andre lose his temper, the first time any of them had, for that matter, and the sight made his already pounding heart skip a beat. Christ in heaven, he did not want to deal with a furious assassin. Andre’s eyes were glowing a bright gold, crackles of static electricity running in small rivulets over his skin. “I caught your scent there, but I thought you’d somehow managed to pick a time when she wasn’t there. But you’ve been... What the hell have you been telling her?”
“Nothing,” John said belligerently, but he got no further, as Alistair’s mind finally caught up with the situation. Or maybe it had just shut down completely, as even he wasn’t quite able to believe what he said next.
“I need to go out there and talk to her,” he told Baron, knowing full well that there was absolutely zero chan
ce of him actually being allowed to do it. “She was the one who called me before. I met her in a pub a couple of weeks ago. I swear to Sirius himself, I never knew she was anything other than a normal tourist. But she said she needed to talk to me urgently otherwise people were going to die.”
“Yes! Us!” Baron shouted, his face red. “Fucking hell, you’ve been wooing a Khuli! Because that’s the way I take it; it was a romance thing, not just a friendly chat, right?” Alistair nodded numbly. “So if she actually has a heart – and that’s a mighty big if – then she likely wants to get you off the estate before she slaughters the rest of us.”
“She’s not going to kill us,” John said, his tone displaying a marked boredom with the whole situation.
Baron spun around with a snarl. “You shut the fuck up!” he told John. “Collaborating with a Khuli is an act of treason, and the instant we get out of this mess, I’m having you put down.”
John paled at that and retreated quickly, returning to his place by the wall. Alistair wasn’t sure whether Baron was serious or not... No, actually, it was pretty clear that he was serious. Which probably meant Alistair’s life was also forfeit. He hadn’t known Lee was a Khuli, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d been actively seeking out her company.
“She seems pretty insistent about this peace business,” Silas interjected, still keeping an eye on the video feed from his phone. He turned the screen around to show the rest of them, and Lee was once again holding up her ‘I come in peace’ sign.
“It’s a damned trick, nothing else,” Andre snapped, even his legendary patience wearing thin. “For god’s sake, I’ve fought them, I’ve hunted them, I’ve been hunted by them. They do not negotiate peace! They deceive, and trick, and trap, and then they torture people.”