Relinquished Hood

by Kendrai Meeks

  “Five minutes,” she declared, looking at a gold watch on her wrist. “Starting now.”

  IF I DID MANAGE TO get Tobias to take on his human form again, I needed to thank him for forcing me through so many late night and early morning runs. In the span of a minute forty, I’d managed to dash back into Inga’s office, up three flights of stairs, and into the lobby, hardly breaking a sweat.

  Hunched down on all fours, a rumble emanating from his chest and bordering on a bark, the red-and-brown werewolf veritably vibrated with hostility. Six men bearing a smaller version of the gun Inga’s personal security used surrounded him. Some twenty feet away lay a pile of torn clothing and the shattered remnants of a destroyed metal detector. Tobias must have taken his wolf either right before or right after the security check point. The lobby guards may have been in the loop of WWL’s supernatural executive body, but their lack of pink-hued eye protection suggested otherwise. Given that, I had to wonder what they’d thought when a six-foot tall English bloke became a crazed wild animal right before their eyes.

  One of the lobby guards on the opposite side of my approach spotted me running and held up a hand without taking his other one off the trigger. “Ma’am, stay back. This is a ... It’s a rabid... It’s...”

  My feet drove a frantic rhythm against the tick-tock of an imaginary clock inside my head. “He’s not rabid. He’s a werewolf. Step back, I know how to handle him.”

  My voice shifted Tobias’s focus. The moment he saw me, it was too late. He crouched, and before he could pounce, one of the security guards shot.

  “No!”

  He never stood a chance. The rent-a-cop hadn’t spent years training to take on supernatural foes as had I. His femur cracked under the strength of my kick, making him fall to the ground, beating his weapon by a heartbeat, wailing. It took only moments for the other five guards to turn. They’ve only been taught to take on an opponent as an individual, that much was apparent. Falling in on me from all directions, they were too close to each other to risk shooting. They might take down a colleague in friendly fire. I became a tornado of jabs, juts, and kicks, all while conscious of the fact that the werewolf who started this fracas was not in the mix.

  With the guards down, I turned and found myself eye level with Tobias’s maw. His front paws rested on the body of one of the guards I knocked out, giving him the ability to stand face-to-face with me while still in his wolf.

  I held out both arms, showing him my empty hands. “I’m not here to fight you, but you have to think about what you’re doing. Raging through here is only going to get you killed. Is that how you want to die, throwing a temper tantrum? How in the hell is that supposed to avenge anyone?”

  Another growl and two paws forward toward my stance suggested I’d screwed something up.

  “I know you’re frustrated,” I continued. “I know you’re pissed off at me because you think I’m becoming part of the problem, that it seems like I’m wallowing in self-pity because I lost something I never really wanted anyway. Or...” My heart turned traitor, pushing truth to my tongue. “At least, I didn’t think I wanted it. Not until it was ripped from me, and I understood how much it actually meant. But I can’t change it now. All I can do is try to make sure I don’t lose something I know I can’t go on without. Tobias, you’re my friend. Please, you don’t want to do this, especially after what I just learned.”

  Cats may be curious, but canines were rabid to chase down a bone once shown. The wolf before me shrank back, his jowls yipping as he looked to the ceiling. Contemplation, werewolf style. I knew the look well.

  Finally, after a few precious moments, Tobias sat back on his haunches and exhaled. The edges of his being shifted in form, the fur sinking back into skin, the hindquarters growing awkwardly long and limber as his chest disproportionately squared and filled in. In a few tense breaths, the man consumed the wolf. Tobias, however, hadn’t lost his temper. He shot to his feet, shoving a finger in my chest.

  “Explain.”

  A scuffling behind me suggested the others had arrived. The human guards may no longer be a threat to Tobias, but Inga and her personal security detail were not a half dozen minimum wage lobby cops. She was a genetically-perfected killer, and I’d seen enough even in my brief observation to suspect the team surrounding her were ex-military. In the back of my mind, I wondered if my time was up, if they’d rushed up here to see if I was even still alive or just plain shoot the werewolf who caused all the commotion.

  Tobias, for his part, took no notice. He glared, drilling me with the expectations of the righteous.

  I swallowed down my fear. “Stand down and I will.”

  He snarled. It wouldn’t take but a blink for him to lose control and shift back. Two blinks, and at this distance, he could have my throat between his teeth.

  “I thought I could trust you.” His raw tone was still more animal than human. “And you go and spend the night with that... that slayer? Is that the way of it? Why am I even here, Geri? So I’ll protect you when you get in a scuffle, and look the other way so you can buddy around with the enemy and sleep with traitors the rest of the time? I’m through being patient. You’re using me. For protection. For companionship. For your own devices. In return, I’m no closer to my vengeance. You promised me vengeance!”

  Could I deny I didn’t have some self-interest in his presence? The wolf had begrudgingly saved my ass on more than one occasion. “You’re right; I have been using you. But please, if you don’t back down, Inga’s men are going to kill you.”

  Even as I said it, three red dots appeared on Tobias: one on his heart, one on his neck, and one between his eyes.

  The werewolf’s chest puffed up. “I can survive gunfire.”

  I took a step forward, plunging my hand into my back pocket. I pressed my chest to his ribs. “But I can’t.”

  Before he could be any the wiser, I’d managed to swing out my hidden arm, throw it around his back, and clamp the other manacle on my wrist.

  Thrashing, the werewolf tried to shift. One lick of the silver on his skin, however, brought the process to a stop. Luckily for me, Inga sprang for the good stuff. Although the weight of pure silver made keeping the metal aloft and not touching him difficult, its concentration meant that it burned Tobias like a son of a bitch whenever it came in contact.

  “Fucking. Hood!” The words made their way past a jaw clenched in pain. “As soon as I get out of this, I’m killing you. To hell with what my alpha says.”

  Another brief bump sent us both reeling, as Tobias tried to pivot away from the metal, and I became a rag doll being tossed about by a spiteful master.

  “You can’t. Cody made you swear to protect me. You break that vow, you break your connection to the pack. As you Brits say,” I put on my best fake accent, “fancy being a rogue again?”

  “For the last time, I’m English!”

  Inga appeared beside us from nowhere, having moved so quickly even the werewolf I’d chained myself to winced in surprise. Warmness wasn’t a natural display for the daughter of Dracula. I’d have guessed being saddled with that title resulted in an existence requiring vigilance. With a wave of her hand, the surrounding guards took two steps back, lowering their guns slightly. Except for one, who kept his sights set on Tobias. Damn it that I wasn’t taller. Despite my little ploy, the fact that in his human form the werewolf towered over me by more than a head left a vulnerable target exposed. A werewolf could survive a shot to the brain, as long as the bullet wasn’t silver.

  Something told me Inga’s security detail had bullets of several varieties.

  “My name is Inga Rosenthorn, Mr. Somfield, and I’m—”

  “I know who you are,” Tobias growled. “The fangy gobbler that runs this place. Geri tells me everything. Or, at least, she used to. Why did you kill my brother? Why did you kidnap my mate?”

  Inga didn’t bristle the slightest. “I didn’t. My sister did; I had no part of it. But I can tell you why she did it.”


  Another blink, and Igor appeared on the fray, and trailing shortly behind him, Caleb. Igor stood next to his daughter, one of his hands settling on the chain that bound Tobias and I together. I read the strategy in that move; he’d rip it apart if things went south. It wouldn’t help. If Tobias shifted and I was this close, I’d become his prey before even a vampire could intervene.

  “Tobias, listen,” Igor said. “Inga’s figured it out. If I hadn’t been so wary of where her allegiances lay, I would have learned it before now and let you and Geri know.”

  The father and daughter reunion must have taken place in the few minutes since I’d left them downstairs. I only hoped what Inga had shared and what Igor had learned justified me strapping myself to a lupine time bomb if he didn’t like what they had to offer.

  Tobias’s eyes moved as would have his body, if he were not naked and forcibly embraced by an ex-hood bearing silver. “Make it quick, or I’m coming at you – even if it means through her.”

  “Your brother was an alpha, and your mate, a beta. Is that correct?” Inga asked.

  Tobias let out a gruff grunt and nodded.

  “Your kind’s blood is a powerful restorative for our kind,” she continued. “Supernatural blood is always better to us, but not all supernatural blood is equal. Slayer or hood blood keeps us going a few months. Werewolf a few years. But for some reason, nothing bests unmated alpha or beta blood. A few feedings from one of them can keep a vampire on the edge of death alive for years.”

  The wolf grimaced. “My brother may have been a bachelor, but Kara was my mate, even if she didn’t survive to be formally brought into my pack.”

  Here, Igor took over. “We all are declining in numbers. All of us. There are fewer packs than there once were, and few vampires know of the power of wolf blood, let alone that of an alpha or beta. Cynthia was trying to find a way to reverse the bonding process. With your mate, I fear she almost succeeded.”

  I spoke aloud the realization as it hit me. “That’s why Kara couldn’t sense you, even when you were standing right before her.” Then, a sicker thought. “Cody’s dad?” I asked Igor.

  He shook his head. “Cynthia’s crèche was already reeling from relocating to Chicago from England. It would have been difficult for her to travel that far out of town without her children in tow. I doubt so many vampires could come into packlands overseen by a Red Matron without notice.”

  Inga’s head tilted. “But if she were working with the Ravens, might one of them have wandered through the area to rendezvous with her? You know Vlad’s children have a tendency to stalk forests.”

  “It’s possible,” Igor agreed. “Geri took this internship for the sole purpose of uncovering this information. Even though it took some serendipity to get to this point, we are here. We know why your brother and mate were killed, and we know by who. Inga and I are partially to blame for the Ravens existing, and we’re prepared to make amends. We could really help from both of you.”

  Tobias’s eyes softened, anger ebbing in the revelation. “Can I trust their word?”

  Apparently, he still trusted mine if he credited me with making that declaration. “Yes.”

  “More importantly—” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “—can you still trust me?”

  I turned my neck, offering him my jugular. “I’ve never stopped.”

  Every hair in my body stood on edge when he leaned down and pressed a closed kiss to the pulse point just below my ear. “Never doubt yourself again. Everything you just did, you did without your hood strengths. Dammit, Geri, don’t make me do something this extreme again to prove to you how powerful you really are.”

  “You mean this was all a set up?” I asked, pulling back to gawk at him. “You nearly got yourself killed just to give me a confidence booster?”

  “Well, not just for that.” He looked at the vamps behind me. “We now know who are friends really are, and cleared WWL of any involvement.”

  “Aren’t you a smart puppy?”

  His forehead pressed to mine. “I just tried being a little more hoodish, is all. You might actually have something with this strategy and planning thing.”

  I was just about to turn around to Inga to ask her to unlock the manacles with the key I hoped she still had, when a flash of something at the edge of the room caught my eye. The pain hit me before the sound, a great burning anguish, rending flesh, flaming heat below the skin. I threw back my head, bellowing, trying to pull myself away. The act pressed the silver again to Tobias’s back, forcing him to mirror my pain.

  “Caleb, no!”

  Inga’s cries couldn’t move fast enough. Nor could Igor’s feet. My head turned, following Caleb’s solarium as it flashed across the room. Doug Marsten stood on the second-floor landing that overlooked the lobby, a revolver still stretched at arm’s length. He had a split second of realization to know that his life was over. The solarium hit him like his own personal nuke, burning a hole clear through his gut and setting his clothes ablaze. The body-with-a-peephole feel to its knees, the remnants of a scream on his face, before Caleb’s second volley removed his head.

  Tobias shimmied himself out of my arms, hissing each time the manacles connected with his skin. When free once more, he leaned over me.

  “Someone help! She’s been shot.”

  By my former supervisor from the mailroom? But why would Doug shoot me? Doug had never worn the pink glasses. He was day shift, so it shouldn’t matter. Only, it did matter, didn’t it? Those without pink glasses weren’t protected by WWL’s anti-enthralling tech, making him the perfect proxy for a vampire who wanted a mole on the inside.

  Like the Ravens, for example.

  Caleb appeared at my side, trying to push Igor away. “Back off, vamp! You shouldn’t be anywhere near this much blood.”

  Modesty be damned, Igor had already started ripping off the bottom of my shirt. The bullet pierced my left side, just below the rib cage. Now that the initial pain had passed, the sensation centralized where the injury had actually occurred. Only, as I took a few deep gasps, the pain itself began to ebb. Warning flags went off in my analytic brain.

  “I’m going into shock!” I called out. “You have to get me to a hospital.”

  Caleb, Igor, and Tobias stayed unmoving, hovering over me.

  “Did you hear what I said?” I repeated. “Hello? GSW with possible internal injuries. Call an ambulance.”

  Tobias fell back on his ass, running his hands through his unkempt hair. “How is that possible?”

  Frustrated, I sat up before the thought of how stupid it was to attempt such a thing while bleeding from the gut was. “Jesus Criminy, what now?”

  I ran a hand over the spot as the vampire and slayer observed, slack jawed. The place where there should have been a wound was only a damp bump. Under the skin, something moved, rising to the surface. A dull burn subsided as my body rejected the bullet Doug had introduced in to it. Fresh skin webbed itself over the entry point as I pulled my hand around to see the pebble of silver on my palm.

  “But, I’m not a hood anymore,” I muttered. “The silver shouldn’t heed my command.”

  Igor grinned. “I suspect it always has.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “The point is that Tobias is fine.”

  “God damn it, Geri, will you stop changing the subject.”

  I had never lied to Cody, but over our years together, I had become very adept at framing things in a way that centralized what I thought was important versus the critical point of telling him anything that would make him go all alpha male. Now that he was actually an alpha male, that method seemed to have lost its charm.

  “You were shot, but you’re not hurt at all? How is that possible?”

  “The bullet was silver,” I said. “I can’t really explain it. Neither can Igor. Relinquished hoods are supposed to be de facto Hueys, but seems like my body didn’t get the message. Somehow, it just kinda said to the silver, ‘demon, be gone,’ and it was.”

&nbs
p; “But if the bullet was silver, it wasn’t meant for you.”

  I exhaled my nerves as I bent and snuck a look into the lab through the glass door. Igor hovered over Tobias, the werewolf in human form laying belly down on an examination table, while the vampire tended to some pretty nasty silver burns.

  “The guy who took the shot was the mailroom supervisor. As far as we’ve been able to find out, he’s never had any firearms training. We found his cell phone in his pants pocket. He called someone just a few minutes before hand. The order to take a shot at Tobias must have been a crime of opportunity, not something planned in advance.”

  Cody hummed his agreement across the line. “You said this was the guy you worked under at the start of the summer?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “You don’t think it’s coincidence that that was the guy who these Raven characters decided to enthrall? Someone who could keep an eye on you and report back to them?”

  I told him I didn’t think it was coincidence at all, before adding, “but that doesn’t explain why the Ravens would want Tobias dead.”

  “What would any one up to something evil want to kill someone? Because they know something they shouldn’t know.”

  The alpha had a point there, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. “I’ll ask him, but I don’t know what that would be. The whole reason I came to WWL was to find out answers. Why would I do that if Tobias already knew?”

  “He might not even know what he knows. Maybe you’re not asking the right questions,” Cody suggested. “Bring him home, Geri. We need to dive deeper into what happened before he showed up in Chicago.”

  “Just have a few things to wrap up here, then we’ll get on the road. Keep in mind that my new semester starts in two weeks, so I can’t stay at home too long.”

  “I like that.”

  My face screwed up as I slid off the counter I’d been sitting on in the lab’s storage room. “You mean, ‘I’d like that.’ Grammar and you still not breaking bread, huh?”