“He doesn’t want control of the pack,” Darinda said desperately. “He said so under a truth spell.”
“That’s as may be. He does want you, and he’s ready to take on his pack leader to keep you. Let him do it. Let him fight for you and for himself. You can’t protect him in this.”
“I can’t just walk out on him. I won’t.”
“Yes, you can, and you will, better than a wolf could. You can turn your back on a rank fight and it won’t destroy you. Humans are resilient that way. We’re not. I always felt so sorry for Detty. I know what it cost her, running the family. But if she weren’t alpha, she wouldn’t be Detty. And Roddy wouldn’t be Roddy. Do you understand, dear?”
She did. Hecate blast them all to hell and back, she did. She knew what burned in Roderick’s heart better than what smoldered in her own. As much as he wanted her at his side, he wanted more to finally settle accounts with his alpha bitch of a mother. If she left him now, she could only guess what he’d think of her. But if she took this chance from him, what would he think of her then?
Voices rose in the parlor, mostly snarls. Letty gestured frantically at the back door. “Please. Do this for Roddy’s sake, if not for me. Go now. I promise I’ll call you when it’s over.”
Not without telling Roderick first. Darinda reached for his mind, and hit a seething mass of raw red fury she barely recognized. He fairly roared at her. This was not Roderick, her solicitous mate. This was the wolf, poised to attack, primed to kill. She flinched involuntarily from the force of it.
What? Even his thoughtvoice had teeth.
I’m going. Faced with were reality, she had to concede Aunt Letty had a valid point. I’ll be back when it’s over.
Darinda!
She shut her mind against his mental howl and fled—yes, this was definite flight—out the kitchen door. By the time Roderick realized her intentions she’d got into her car and was backing down the drive. She spotted him rushing after her car with Letty grabbing at his arm. His dumbfounded expression accused her from the rearview mirror as she gunned the gas and put Meadowlands behind her.
He was a wolf, she reminded herself. Not a man, no matter what he looked like. She could love the wolf, but she would never try to tame him, or break him. For the best, she told herself. Do no harm.
The painful clenching in her gut, the horrible sensation that maybe she’d just made the worst mistake of her life, was not so easily left behind.
* * * *
Gone. She’d abandoned him. Run off with her tail between her legs like a gutless omega, or a human. She’d fled like panicked prey before the fangs of the pack.
He didn’t hear a word of whatever Aunt Letty was yipping at him. He only felt Darinda’s agony, like shards of glass grinding inside him. She had some silly notion her flight would do him good, for some reason. Lycaon bite it, she didn’t have to fight Bernadette. She need only remain at his side, like a proper mate, as any true were would have known.
Perhaps he’d had been mistaken. Perhaps she was a monkey after all.
“Well.” Bernadette came up beside him, a self-satisfied sneer on her face. “Your little primate’s gone and left you. Weak, like all her kind. Certainly not worthy of you. Eugene’s called Ellis Duquesne. He’ll be here shortly. You’ll forget all about the apes once you have a wolf for a mate.”
He whirled on her, fangs bared, hair starting to the surface of his skin. Bernadette didn’t even blink. She’d ruled the family for longer than his lifetime, and knew bluff from challenge when she saw it. “Oh, don’t make such a scene. You wouldn’t want to rip that lovely shirt.” She turned her back on him and returned to the house.
Aunt Letty, at risk of maiming, put her hand on his arm. “Come inside, Roddy,” she pleaded. “Darinda will come back. She knows a pack meeting is no place for a human. She’ll come back to you, I promise. Let’s go inside. I’ve got broth ready. This isn’t worth shedding blood over.”
So you say. He didn’t speak aloud. He didn’t trust his voice. He allowed his aunt to lead him inside, confident in the now-empty pit of his heart that someone was going to die.
* * * *
When Darinda walked into Set A Spell Peri took one look at her face and let whatever quip she’d been planning die on her tongue. “Pekoe and honey,” she said instead, and went to put the kettle on the hotplate. “You okay?”
Not by a long shot. “I’m fine.” Darinda plopped her shoulder bag on the counter. “They’re holding a werewolf summit meeting. No outside species allowed.” She shot Peri a significant look. “His mother’s there.”
“Ooch. The in-laws. Never a good thing.”
“Especially if she’s behind this.” For once she regretted she wasn’t a wolf. She could do with a good ripping snarl right now. “This is wrong. I should be there. I don’t care how much sense Letty made. This is werewolves. It’s not about sense. I should be with Roderick right now, and Hecate take the smug fleabag.”
“So why aren’t you?”
“His aunt didn’t want major bloodshed in her house. I can’t fault her for that. She’s a tough lady to say no to.” Darinda’s anger seeped away. “And she was right. I can’t fight this battle for him. It would destroy who he is. But dammit, you didn’t see her. That Bernadette Chase is an uberbitch.”
“Piffle. You could take her.”
“Probably. That’s why Letty insisted I leave. There’ve been too many death threats this week already. And don’t you ever say ‘piffle’ again.”
“Only if you listen to this. You know that sale we were talking about? Well, I mentioned it at Tina’s and some of the other shop owners were there and they think it’s a great idea and they want in. They want to make a day of it. Specials, entertainment, the works. A Philadelphia block party.”
“Like South Street needs an excuse to party. Don’t let my bad attitude fool you. That’s a great idea. Who’s in?”
Peri gave her a rundown of tentative partners. A couple of customers came in. While Peri took care of them, Darinda perched behind the counter and tried to occupy herself with hashing out the details of their now block-wide sale.
Of course, it didn’t work. The hoped-for distraction eluded her. Her thoughts kept returning to Meadowlands, and the growing conviction she should return there as well. She was his mate. She had opened her defenses to him and allowed him to claim her. He had announced her as such. She shouldn’t have let herself get shunted off like this, no matter how hard Letty pleaded. They should be protecting each other. Especially if Bernadette had come to Philadelphia with murder in mind.
“Hey, Dar?” Peri came up to the counter. She brought along a tall, willowy young man with startling green eyes in a bark-brown face. Darinda sat up. Few hamadryads ever came into the paved-over city. “This is Carson. Can you do a reading for him?”
“Sure.” Darinda pulled her deck out from beneath the counter. “Poker okay?”
“Great.” The hamadryad smiled. His teeth were the color of peeled bark. “I hate Tarot. So pretentious.”
Darinda shuffled the cards. “I thought you folks could do your own readings. Breezes whispering through the leaves and that.”
“I don’t like what the leaves are whispering. I wanted a second opinion. Okay, so that means what?”
Darinda frowned at the card she’d dealt. The Queen of Hearts. The King of Spades followed, then three diamonds, then the two of clubs. She swept the cards off the counter. “Sorry. That’s my personal reading. Let me try again.”
Her second deal yielded the same results. She had the hamadryad shuffle. No change. Queen, king, three diamonds, then the dark began and persisted right up to the end. The Ace of Hearts burst through the black in defiance, but in the end love fell before death.
Peri had finished up with her customers. She wandered over. “How’s it going?”
“Not so good for her.” The hamadryad nodded at Darinda, then at the cards. “That is one ominous hand.”
“Here. You shuffle.�
� Darinda thrust the deck at Peri. “If it doesn’t work this time you’ll have to do the reading.”
Peri shrugged, shuffled and cut the deck. Darinda dealt the first card. Queen of Hearts. “Why does it keep doing that?”
“Unfinished business,” the hamadryad said. “It wants to tell you something awful bad.”
“It’s been telling me the same thing for a week, and I still can’t figure it out.”
The two of clubs came up. She stared at it. Slowly she dealt the next card. The two of spades appeared, black as inevitability. As always, the cards knew what they wanted to say. It just took her a while to catch up. How long had this pattern been playing out without her seeing what sat right in front of her?
“Dar?” Peri waved her hand in front of Darinda’s eyes. “Hello?”
“Goddess,” she whispered. Then louder: “Oh hell. I know who’s trying to kill Roderick. I think I even know why.” She jerked her head up, panic in her eyes. “One of them’s at Meadowlands right now. The whole pack’s in danger.”
“Who’s Roderick?” the hamadryad said.
Darinda scrambled the deal and shoved the cards toward Peri. “Peri’ll do your reading. It’s on the house.” She dug out her cell phone and had hit the first four numbers for Meadowlands before she stopped. Her mouth tightened. Determination swept through her, more powerful than the panic. She put her phone away. “No. There’s still the other one, and he doesn’t play by the rules. If I try to tip them off, we’ll have a bloodbath.” She darted out from behind the counter, toward the window and the wall. “I have to get back to Meadowlands. If I act fast I think I can stop it.”
“You want backup?” Peri said.
Darinda picked up her weapon of choice. “Thanks, but I’ve got all the magic I need.”
Chapter 19
She drove up to Meadowlands cautiously, like a deer entering a field during gunning season. Big Alex’s guards hunched beside the fence across the road, their tails hanging at an uncertain angle. They must have had a run-in with Bernadette. A big Lincoln sat beside Eugene’s Buick, shiny and well-kept, worthy of an alpha. Ellis Duquesne must have answered Bernadette’s summons. She wondered grimly if the other player in this drawing-room drama had taken advantage of the situation to invite himself along. With all his victims in one place, how could he resist?
She hoped this were true. It would certainly make her job easier.
She patted the shoulder bag flopped on the passenger seat. Magical weapon, check. Personal protection spells, check. Vow to do no harm, check that at the door.
The sound of her arrival alerted them, as she’d figured it would. Eugene stepped outside just as Darinda climbed out of her car. He looked anxious, with good reason. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“The hell I shouldn’t.” Darinda slammed the driver’s door and circled to the passenger side. She hefted her shoulder bag from the seat and supported it in both hands. It sagged on her arm. “Is everybody still alive in there?”
“Uh, yeah, but it’s tense. Rod and Bernadette are ready to rip each other’s throats out. Having the Duquesne alpha here isn’t helping. Mom keeps putting herself in between, trying to keep hackles down, but sooner or later—hey, did your bag just move?”
“Who else is here?”
“Nobody. Hey, don’t!”
She barged right past him and into the house. “Nobody,” she discovered from her initial glance, was a relative term to a wolf. Bernadette and Roderick stood practically where she’d left them, emotional fangs bared at psychological throats. Ellis also stood, but off to the side, and his stance was neither stiff nor aggressive. He was off his turf in the presence of the pack he’d tried to pull a fast one on and not at all happy to be there. Aunt Letty nervously circled the alphas, making quiet little whimpers of appeasement. No one paid her any attention. Eugene whined at Darinda’s back. Rounding out the “nobodies” were low-rankers Orrin Chase and Cole Duquesne. Cole must have driven Ellis here, acting as beta in Albert’s absence.
Darinda nodded grimly to herself. Exactly as she’d figured.
Bernadette recovered a split second ahead of Roderick. She cut in front of him. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re—”
Darinda waved her arm. Bernadette was thrust across the room and into Aunt Letty’s Barcolounger. “Sit. Stay,” Darinda said.
Bernadette roared and struggled, but the solid air held her fast. Eugene practically howled in distress. Darinda edged aside and gestured with her shoulder bag for him to enter the room. He sidled past her and stood well away from her and close to Aunt Letty, who patted his back soothingly.
Darinda’s glare burned each wolf in turn. None challenged her. Her eyes hit Roderick last. His grin held an accusatory edge. “Welcome back. Although you should never have left.”
“Good thing I did. I know who’s trying to kill you. Just one last thing.” She turned on Bernadette again. “Any problems on your side of the ocean? Any little ‘accidents’ you can’t explain?”
Bernadette bit at the air, as if she would puncture the spell. “Let me loose, you blighted ape!”
“Not just yet. We’re all safer with you where you are. You most of all. You’re a target too.”
That stilled her. “Explain yourself.”
“I thought this was just about Roderick and the marriage, but it isn’t. It never was. It’s a lot bigger than that.” Darinda moved until she had the wall at her back and all the wolves in sight. She held her bag against her side, with one hand inside it. “You’re a pack, with a rigid hierarchy. So who benefits if the alphas die? The obvious answer is the lower ranks. Two packs, two sets of dead alphas, two chances to move up the ladder. Which gives us two connected killers.” She noted, with no surprise, that her suspects had maneuvered to stand together. She’d gotten here just in time. “You, Cole, and you, Orrin. The two low cards in the deck.”
“Ridiculous,” Bernadette snapped. “Monkey thinking. We don’t—”
“Wolves don’t,” Darinda cut her off. “But coyotes don’t play by wolf rules. Neither do half-coyotes. Am I right, Cole?”
Orrin wouldn’t look at her. Cole did. He met her stare dead on, his eyes full of hate. Definitely not omega wolf behavior. “C’mon,” Darinda said. “The Duquesne line has coyote in it. That’s why they dropped out of the Registry. Coraline’s half. What’s your percentage? I know it’s enough to negate your wolf instincts. Using humans to do your dirty work. Buying spells from witches. Thinking outside the box. Enough to make you Alfie’s close relative, too. What was he, your cousin? Half-brother? No wonder I thought he looked familiar.”
Bernadette uttered a strangled yelp. Clearly all this was news to her. She turned her fury on Ellis Duquesne. “Coraline’s what?”
“Not mine,” Ellis said hastily. “Nora had a litter before I married her. You know how lax those Wissahickon families have gotten. Coraline’s mostly wolf. She knows her rank and follows her duties. Unlike some mongrels I can name.”
With one expertly-timed glare he shot all blame, and attention, at Cole. He started forward.
The wicked-looking gun Cole pulled out from under his jacket stopped him dead in his tracks.
“I doubt if that’s the gun that shot Albert,” Darinda said. “You wouldn’t be that stupid.”
“No. We had to ditch that one. Too much chance of Charlie tracing it. Don’t worry, this one’s loaded with silver-plated bullets and they’ve all got spells on ‘em. They’ll even blow you away, witch-monkey.”
“I have no doubt,” Darinda said dryly. Her hand moved slightly within her shoulder bag. The bag moved slightly in response. “They certainly did a number on Albert.”
“It was you?” Ellis’s disbelief momentarily overrode his disgust. “How could you? Why would you?”
“It should have been you,” Cole snapped. “You were at the top of the list. That’s the trouble with using apes. No sense of smell to speak of. The monkey we hired mistook Albert for you in the dark. Oh well, miss
one problem, solve another. Albert never liked me. He never trusted my coyote blood.”
“With good reason,” Darinda said.
“Yeah. How about that?” Cole snickered. “Just as well we got him out of the way.”
“And what was I?” Roderick said. “A crime of opportunity?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” Cole said. “You Chases are tough to get at. Too good at watching your backs. Then Orrin told me you were headed here, alone. Somebody tosses you a bone, you grab it and run.”
“Orrin?” Bernadette turned on her youngest pup. “Orrin? You’re in league with this beast?”
“You shut up!” Orrin exploded. His face flushed brick red and sprouted the beginnings of stubble. Defiance of the higher ranks did not come as easily to him as it did to the coyote-wolves. “Dried-up old dam. You don’t tell me what to do any more. Yes, I’m in it. I’ve been in it from the start.”
“How? There’s been no communication beyond my own—”
“Email,” Darinda said. “The Internet. I know the Duquesnes have a computer. I saw Cole using it the night Albert was shot. Later Roderick confirmed you had a system at home.” Though she spoke to Bernadette, Darinda kept her eyes on Cole, the obvious brains and backbone of this low-rank rebellion. “Chat room, my butt. You were bringing your partner up to speed on the botched assassination. I remember being surprised wolves even used computers. You always struck me as traditionalists. Of course, a coyote wouldn’t think that way. Coyotes are quick to take advantage of anything.”
“First one in my pack to have an iPod,” Cole confirmed. “And it’s only the old farts who won’t adapt to new ways. Ellis doesn’t even know what a laptop is.”
“Of course I know what it is,” Ellis snapped. “It’s what you pups use to cook up harebrained schemes like this. And after I took you in!”
“And treated me like scat,” Cole shot back. “I’m lucky you let me sit at the dinner table. You’re nicer to the strays in the yard. They get a pat on the head once in a while. It should’ve been you instead of Albert. Happy now?”
A London Werewolf in America Page 24