by Laura Taylor
“Okay, fuck this,” John snapped suddenly, leaping up again and striding across the foyer until he was facing up to Baron. “You want to kill me, that’s fine. But I am telling you, with one hundred per cent certainty, she is not going to kill anyone. I’ve been sitting with her in that damned tree for weeks, and she’s never made the slightest move against me. She’s never even tried to cross the boundary wall. She’s still not crossing the wall! She just wants to talk! And no, I have no idea why, but for fuck’s sake, shouldn’t someone at least go and listen? I’ll do it if you don’t want to risk your own lives, since you’re pretty set on killing me anyway.”
“Silas! Get up here,” Caroline snapped suddenly. Seeing what she was about, Silas wasted no time taking over her post, and then she was hurrying down the stairs, pulling up the video feed on her own phone. “This is complete madness,” she muttered, eyes fixed on the screen as she arrived beside Baron. “I want to know what the fuck has been going on. Starting with you, Alistair. What do you know of this woman?”
What indeed. What did he actually know about her, compared to all the lies she’d told him? He hauled himself to his feet, his legs still wobbly, but he felt a touch silly sitting on the floor with everyone standing around him. “I met her in a pub in Penrith a couple of weeks ago. As far as I knew, it was a completely random encounter. I initiated the conversation, not her, then we had dinner a couple of times, we talked... we slept together,” he forced himself to say, avoiding Caroline’s gaze. “But it was exactly the same as any other romantic interlude I’ve had before. She told me she was here on a short business trip and she’d be going back to China in a couple of weeks.” He shrugged helplessly. “It was a holiday fling, nothing more. I never told her anything about the Den or the existence of the shifters.”
“And you?” Caroline asked, turning to face John. “What’s your role in all of this?”
“I found her hiding in a tree a couple of weeks ago, on the outside of the boundary wall near the east gate. Took me about three seconds to realise she wasn’t going to kill me. So we talked. No secrets, nothing about the Den or the Noturatii. Just about... stuff.”
“What stuff?” Andre demanded impatiently.
“Childhood stuff. How many broken bones each of us had had. How old we were when we made our first kill. Nothing that would give her any advantage over us.”
“And can anyone tell me what she wants now?” Caroline asked, a hypothetical question that everyone nonetheless took absolutely seriously. “Why is she standing at our gate holding a sign that says she comes in peace?”
There was dead silence, even from John; for all his apparent insight into her psychology, he was unable to answer that one. But another question was creeping up on Alistair, another conundrum lingering in his mind, gradually becoming more and more insistent in its need for an answer.
“I slept with her,” he repeated, catching John’s eye. “And in hindsight, I’m pretty sure she knew what I was by the time we did. So why didn’t she kill me?” he asked, not a rhetorical question, though it could easily have been taken as one.
John tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowed, pondering the question for a long, quiet moment. “She’s like me,” he said finally. “She was raised in the pit of hell, but although the fire has shaped her, she refuses to become what her masters are. My best guess – but it is a guess – is that she really actually likes you.”
“A vampire in love with a slayer,” someone muttered. “How sweet.”
Andre made a sound of disgust. “You can’t trust anything that a Khuli -”
“Shut up,” Caroline told him flatly. “Answer me this,” she said to John. “If we take a small team and go down there and meet her, what do you honestly believe is going to happen?”
John took a deep breath, giving the question appropriate consideration. “I think she’ll tell us whatever it is she wants to tell us, then vanish out of our lives forever. She’s not going to kill us. Maybe she wants to warn us about something. But she has a mission to complete, and if she’s somehow decided she’s not going to complete it, I would expect her to eventually commit suicide. One way or another.”
Caroline nodded, a stern, thoughtful expression on her face. Finally, she turned to face Baron. “I’m going to go talk to her,” she announced.
“Over my dead body.” The words were delivered with a cold finality that sent shivers down Alistair’s spine, but it wasn’t Baron who had spoken. He looked around to see Andre glaring at Caroline, a look of unyielding steel on his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Caroline strode across the lawn, taking a direct route to where the Khuli was waiting. The video on her phone still showed the woman standing by the gate, though Caroline was well aware that the feed could have been tampered with. She made no effort to disguise her arrival – the Khuli would see them coming long before they could see her – but then again, this entire exercise was based on the idea that somehow, against all odds, John was right, and she didn’t intend to murder them all.
Andre strode beside her, a low growl emanating from his throat. John was behind her, with Alistair to her left. Baron wasn’t with them because, as someone had rightly pointed out, if the Khuli was actually deceiving them, then if she killed both their alphas, the Den was going to be in dire straits.
They made it across the lawn and headed into the forest, the east gate a short walk through the trees, and Caroline felt her heart kick up a notch. It was possible they were about to be thrown headfirst into a fight for all their lives... but if not, this was a unique opportunity to speak directly to the most fearsome enemy the wolf shifters had ever faced. For all the recklessness of her own actions, Caroline couldn’t suppress a tight thrill of curiosity at what they were about to discover.
Alistair felt sick as he followed Caroline towards the east gate. The last few weeks were on instant replay in his head, every conversation he’d had with Lee, every idle glance and stray gesture. That night they’d slept together... was it possible she’d discovered what he was that day? That he had been the reason she was so upset when he arrived? Or was that giving himself too much credit? She’d said she’d discovered something unexpected, something that had turned her world upside down…
Then again, if John was right, and she had in fact come to care for him, then maybe that had been the point at which she’d realised she couldn’t complete her mission. Had his wayward romance somehow saved his pack?
Or maybe it was all nothing to do with him and his involvement was just an unpleasant coincidence.
There she was. He stopped in his tracks, then realised that Caroline and the others had done the same. Lee was standing just on the other side of the east gate, and she backed away as she saw them coming, looking calm and confident, a far cry from the quivering mess that Alistair felt inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Andre raise the gun that was already in his hand. John, meanwhile, was slouching with his hands in his pockets, looking almost bored as he waited for Caroline to decide what to do next. And Caroline and Lee were staring at each other, each warrior trying to take the measure of the other and decide what sort of threat they posed.
Alistair felt a lurch in his chest as he gazed at Lee’s face. She looked exactly the same as she had the last time he’d seen her; somehow he’d expected her to have changed, given the weight of the revelation as to who she really was. But she still looked as beautiful as ever, young, almost innocent, though her eyes held a worldly sorrow. But she didn’t look back, didn’t meet his gaze even for a moment. Her attention was fixed on Caroline, and slightly to the left, where Andre stood, and perhaps his second guess had been the right one: he didn’t mean all that much to her after all. An assassin and an alpha wolf were far more important issues to attend to than a man whose heart was slowly breaking.
Lee braced herself as the four shifters came to a stop, roughly ten metres away from the boundary wall. The assassin had come – no great surprise there – and the alpha femal
e. Somehow, the fact that both had needed to come bolstered her confidence and stroked her pride; she was a serious enough threat to their home that they had sent their best to meet her.
She was dimly aware of John, looking bored as always. He did nothing for her pride, but everything for her peace of mind. All through their discussions, he’d remained steadfast in his belief that she wouldn’t harm his family, and if luck was on her side, he’d somehow managed to persuade them to hear her out now. They wouldn’t trust her completely, of course, but all she needed was a chance, a couple of minutes to explain herself.
And then there was Drew. She didn’t dare look at him, knowing it would break her. She hadn’t wanted to come here, hadn’t wanted for him to find out in such an abrupt and callous way. But circumstances had taken the choice out of her hands.
When the four of them gave no indication of coming any closer, Lee held up her hands, letting them see clearly that they were empty. “I mean you no harm,” she called, loud and clear.
The alpha female stared at her a moment longer, then strode forward, her hand on the gun at her hip. She came to a stop a few metres from the gate. “What do you want?” she asked bluntly.
“To give you a warning,” Lee replied swiftly. This was her chance, and she wasn’t likely to get another one. “The Noturatii are looking for this estate. They haven’t found it, but they have found another one, a little to the north of Lancaster, that they believe to be yours. They plan to attack it at dawn tomorrow.”
Silence, as the four of them processed the news. “I have a map of the estate,” Lee said next, when none of them replied, producing a neatly folded sheet of paper from out of her sleeve. She held it out, and the woman stepped back sharply. “It’s just a piece of paper,” Lee told them, not sure whether the words would do anything to reassure them, but she stepped forward anyway, while they backed away, and placed the map on the top of the stone wall. Task complete, she backed away again.
“Don’t touch it,” the assassin snapped as the woman stepped forward. He pulled on a pair of gloves, then carefully unfolded the paper where it lay. They both peered at the details, keeping an eye on Lee at the same time, then stepped away again, leaving the paper where it sat. He was smart, Lee decided. Cautious. There were plenty of chemicals in the world that could kill by being absorbed through the skin alone, and she’d killed a handful of people using that very method. A simple dusting on the paper would have been sufficient... if she’d been that way inclined.
“Why have you come to tell us this?” the woman asked, after a long moment of introspection.
Why? Li Khuli was never supposed to ask why, and yet it was a question she currently seemed unable to avoid. “There are innocent people living on that estate, people who have nothing to do with our war. I intend to fight the Noturatii and to save as many civilians as I can. I came to ask you to do the same.”
“It’s a trap,” the assassin said flatly. It was a totally unsurprising response. “She means to lure us away from this estate, then kill those left behind. Maybe this story is a simple lure to get us to leave, or maybe the Noturatii will actually show up and kill those of us to go to ‘defend’ this other estate. Either way, she is not to be trusted.”
The woman said nothing, looking Lee slowly up and down. “The Noturatii have a long arm and a plentiful supply of both weapons and soldiers,” she said finally. “If they wanted to kill us, it would have been far more feasible to do so here, and most likely several weeks ago. It’s perfectly plausible that this woman wants to kill us, but luring us about the countryside with such a ludicrous story makes no sense.”
“You can’t trust a single word she says -”
“I don’t,” the woman cut the assassin off, and Lee was rather intrigued by the dynamics between them. Who was this woman, if she commanded an assassin with such confidence? The truth was, she was actually rather curious about the man. Though she’d seen assassins before from a distance, and had watched this one over the course of several weeks, she’d never met one face to face before, and had certainly never fought one in single combat. The Satva Khuli started out at the age of sixteen with simple missions, killing low level targets, business men or Noturatii deserters. Then they worked up to killing shifters – a more challenging target, given the rigorous training they all maintained – and eventually, after years of service, they would be sent on a mission to kill an assassin. That was the abrupt end of their career for many Khuli, but Lee knew that hadn’t been her master’s intention for this mission. He hadn’t even known the assassin was here.
“You’re a Satva Khuli,” the woman said, cold disdain in her voice as she said the name. “On a normal day, you don’t just kill our kind; you torture them, dismember them, break them in any way you can. So why do you care if a few innocent bystanders die?”
Why, why, why! Why did she have to ask so many exhausting questions? Why couldn’t she just take the warning and let Lee be? “Someone once told me that the measure of whether we are good or evil comes not just from what we do, but what we are capable of doing.” Lee steadfastly avoided looking at Drew. Why didn’t she just rip out her heart and hand it to him on a platter? He was watching her with silent distrust, a gaping chasm seeming to have opened up between them. “But I disagree. If we have the capacity for good, then it follows that we should act with goodness when the opportunity presents itself. If we do not, then any goodness we claim to possess is worthless.” She held the woman’s gaze as she spoke, partly as a testament to the honesty of her own words, and partly to avoid having to look at Drew. “The world has believed me to be a force of evil for a long time. And for the most part, I have agreed with them. I decided it was time to prove them wrong.”
“You think one act of goodness will erase all the pain you’ve caused? The lives you’ve stolen?” The assassin was far easier to read than the woman. He hated her; it was as clear as day from the expression on his face, the acid in his words.
“I think that if I’m ever to change the course of my life, I have to start somewhere. And this is where I’m currently standing.”
“What sort of force is the Noturatii sending against this estate?” the woman asked, a look of impatience on her face as she moved swiftly on from the debate on Lee’s morals.
“One hundred soldiers. They believe you to have between twenty and thirty members. Odds of four to one seemed adequate to weigh the battle in their favour.”
“And how do you know all this? I was under the impression the Satva Khuli usually worked alone.”
“We do,” Lee told her, not caring if she was giving away pertinent information about the Noturatii. “I hacked their computer system. I have access to certain parts of the organisation anyway. Getting into the rest of it was easy.”
More silence, which stretched on, Lee’s surroundings seeming to fade away as she and the woman continued to stare at each other. “Not that I’m advocating this as a suitable course of action,” the woman said finally, “but why haven’t you told the Noturatii where we really live?”
Lee’s gaze swung around to meet Drew’s. She was unable to stop it. He was watching her with a face so pale, an expression so heart-wrenching that she nearly broke down into tears right then and there. Oh god, she wanted to tell him so badly how sorry she was.
But John was there as well, with a childhood so much like hers, but an ending so vastly different. Why hadn’t she told the Noturatii where they lived? It was easy to drink one beer and pretend it didn’t matter. It was easy to sleep in a bed one night and pretend it didn’t matter. But when the weight of a thousand decisions settled on her shoulders all at once...
“Why didn’t you kill me, after you found out what I was?”
Oh god, no. Please, no. The question, spoken softly and earnestly, stroked nerve endings so sensitive that a painful shiver ran down her spine.
“You are our enemy. My enemy. Why didn’t you kill me?”
“And what if I don’t want to be your enemy?” Lee s
napped, turning on Drew with a snarl. “Did you get to choose to be a shifter? Did someone warn you of the magnitude of what you were to become and give you the chance to say no?”
“Yes,” Drew answered her without hesitation. “Everyone we recruit is given a choice. And multiple opportunities to pull out before their course is set in stone.”
“Then that’s a damn sight more than I ever had.” Was she really doing this? She’d laid herself bare to John, the boy who had been caged and beaten and set on fire by her masters and her enemies, but Drew...
Drew was a gentleman, a romantic, a socialite. What did her world have to do with his?
“I told you before,” John suddenly interrupted, sending Drew a dark glare. “She’s like me. We weren’t given a choice. And you could put a little more effort into respecting the fact that she’s trying to make one now.”
Trying? Trying to make a choice? The words were insulting. Li Khuli was a force of destruction, a demon who made mere mortals tremble in her wake, a shadow that suffocated the very life from her victims, a...
A blind tool of her masters.
“Well,” the woman said finally, apparently concluding that no one else had anything of interest to say. “We have a rather interesting conundrum then. You claim a civilian estate is to be attacked. We have perfectly valid reasons to believe that you wish to kill us. We have two members of our own pack who appear to trust you, and yet we still end up in a situation where we have everything to lose. Can anyone suggest how we break this deadlock?”
“Kill the Khuli,” the assassin said. “It’s pure insanity to do anything else.”
“It’s against both our nature and our laws to let innocent people die,” Drew said roughly.
“What are you going to do?” John asked pointedly, and Lee felt an odd urge to smile at the question.
“I believe that you will end up deciding to save the civilian estate,” she said, not so much because she knew it to be true, but because she wanted it to be true. “And I’m coming with you.”