Burned (10 page)

I pulled myself
back to the present conversation. "Good work all around. Go
ahead and split up the money according to the number of days that
everyone was involved in containing the problem in LA. A double share
goes to Jack as the person running point, but there should still be
plenty of money to go around."

It was a small
gesture, but it was important to let them see some kind of benefit
from all of the fighting and killing they'd just been through.

"Thank you
for that report, Jack, everyone is to be commended. I know we didn't
fundamentally change the state of things in LA—a lot of
innocent people are still going to die there every year—but at
least now they are going to be killed by other humans rather than
sucked dry by a gang of vampires.

"The long
and the short of my most recent trip is that I've found out there's
an operation going down outside of Tucson. The Coun'hij is targeting
Jaclyn Annikov's pack. My contact thinks that the Coun'hij wants to
make an example out of them."

"Thereby
scaring all of the smaller packs into lining up behind them."

Jack's words
were bitter beyond anything I'd expected out of him. I'd known that
he was struggling with having lost so many people in LA, but I'd been
hoping that sitting out the Minnesota operation—combined with
helping take down what was left of the gang that had kidnapped James'
mom—would be enough to help him start to put the loss behind
him.

"Yeah,
that's the general idea."

"Does your
contact have a name?"

The
belligerence in Jack's voice was only getting worse. I'd missed
something in my response to his report, but I wasn't sure what.

"Yes, my
contact has a name, but that information is strictly need-to-know,
and none of you need to know."

"I could
figure it out, and we both know it, Alec. Brindi probably knows—if
not, she at least knows where you went. It wouldn't take much to get
that information out of her."

I stood as
straight as I could, reaching for every inch of height I could
muster. At the same time, I relaxed my grip on the greedy rift at the
center of my being. It wasn't enough to actually bring Jack to his
knees, but between one second and the next I manifested a tiny,
insubstantial black hole just above his navel.

I'd never tried
something so tiny before now, but my ability had precisely the effect
I'd been hoping for. Jack was suddenly faced by someone nearly as big
as him at the same time that a wave of weakness and exhaustion rolled
over him.

"I'm sure
you could make Brindi talk, Jack, but doing that would be a very big
mistake. I'm prepared to admit that I may have gone too far in
stopping everyone from establishing a clear dominance hierarchy
inside of our group. If you all want to beat the tar out of each
other so that you can figure out who is the most deadly, I'm fine
with that. I will not, however, stand by while members of my pack are
intimidated or tortured. If you want to know something you come and
ask me. If I tell you no, then that's the end of it. No bullying
Brindi, no pulling mileage readings off of the SUV, none of that."

"I didn't
sign up to be part of your pack, Alec. I signed up as an equal
partner, not as some kind of subordinate."

"I know,
Jack, and I'm sorry if you feel like you've gotten a raw deal out of
this, but half of the rebellion's problem is our inability to work
together under a central authority. I would give just about anything
to bring back your people, but I can't. All I can do is deal with
reality as it stands right now."

"Reality."

Jack
practically spat the word out, but he hadn't shifted and thrown
himself at me yet, so that was better than I'd expected.

"Yes,
reality. The reality of our situation is that for the last several
weeks you've been eating and sleeping on my dime and giving orders to
my people. That isn't a complaint—I'm more than happy to cover
your expenses while you're helping me out—but it's past time we
stopped pretending that this is some kind of alliance of equals. We
moved beyond that when I finally manifested my ability.

"I don't
plan on abusing my power, but as long as I'm the one who has to deal
with the ultimate consequences of our actions, I should also be the
one to be making the decisions."

Everything hung
in teetering, shifting balance for several seconds as Jack tried to
settle on a course of action. I considered cranking up the strength
of the absorption field nested inside of Jack, but dismissed the
idea. Reminding Jack exactly why I should be the leader of our little
group was reasonable, but beating him down with my power would be a
step too far.

I felt odd
surges of power flickering across my absorption field. It reminded me
a little bit of what I'd experienced the night before when Adri had
been trying to find me so that she could pull herself into my dream.
It was definitely similar, but there were differences. With Adri, all
of the surges had felt like tiny points of heat. This time it was
more like the tendrils were coming across from multiple directions.
It was like having a mass of cotton candy pressed down on me, cotton
candy that melted away as soon as it touched Jack.

Just before
Jack made his decision, I realized what was happening. It was Carson.
He was trying to influence Jack's emotions, trying to calm him down
enough to defuse the tension. It was tempting, but I couldn't let
Carson break his oath like that. It would only mask Jack's actual
feelings. Besides, there was no guarantee that Carson's ability would
take effect quickly enough to offset the surge of energy Jack would
feel as I shut my ability down.

I looked Jack
in the eye and refused to blink. It was enough—barely.

"Fine,
this is your show, Alec. If you want to send us all into some kind of
massive trap again and get us killed, I guess that's your prerogative
as the alpha."

"You don't
have to stay here if you don't want to, Jack. I want you here—I
value your knowledge and experience—but I'm not going to force
anyone to stay with me who doesn't believe in what we're trying to
do. If you stay things aren't going to get any easier. We should
start having additional recruits showing up over the next little
while, and I want to put you in charge of the wolves.

"You've
got a ton of expertise when it comes to taking a group of submissives
with no common ties and turning them into an effective force. Just as
important, you know how the world works. In addition to training
them, you'll be in charge of making sure that none of them are
sleeper agents of one kind or another."

I turned to
Carson. "I'd like you to take responsibility for the hybrid
recruits, Carson. Your ability makes you uniquely suited to keeping a
group of dominants from killing each other. I know that you have a
certain code of behavior when it comes to using your powers, but it's
possible we can think of a solution that will let you help out
without violating your personal code."

It was a low
blow considering that he'd just finished trying to influence Jack
like that, but there was a chance that he didn't know that I knew. If
he did realize that I'd short-circuited his attempt to put a finger
on the scale, he didn't show it.

"What did
you have in mind, Alec?"

"I would
propose that we tell the new recruits that you'll be manipulating
their emotions. As long as they know at the outset what they are
getting into, you won't be doing anything to be ashamed of."

I looked back
and forth between the two of them. "What do you think,
gentlemen?"

Jack nodded.
"Okay, I'm in. Working with younger wolves has always been the
part of my job that I enjoyed the most. I suspect some of our
recruits are going to be older than I am, but that's okay—most
of them will just sail through any training course I could come up
with."

Carson was much
slower responding, which was a bad sign. Of the two jobs, the one I
was trying to hand him was the more difficult proposition. Jack was a
hybrid, which meant that he was automatically going to have a leg up
on any of his recruits. Sure, he might get some particularly
aggressive wolves—someone more like Jasmin than Jess—but
by and large they weren't going to cause him a ton of problems.

That wasn't
going to be the case for Carson. He was good—maybe the single
best fighter I'd ever seen—but his gift didn't necessarily make
him a more lethal fighter. He was going to have to stay on top of his
charges or he could end up in some kind of dominance challenge.

"I
wouldn't hand you any special cases, Carson. I'll deal with anyone
who has a combat-oriented ability myself."

That brought a
ghost of a smile to Carson's face. "That's actually not what I
was thinking about."

"What were
you thinking about then—if I may ask?"

I was beginning
to think that I'd made a mistake asking him in public like this. I
wanted him to say yes, but it was starting to look like this wasn't
going to be as open-and-shut a decision as I'd expected it to be. If
we couldn't sit down and talk his concerns over because of all of the
listening ears then I might not get the response I'd been counting
on.

"I was
considering whether it is a good idea to trust me with such an
important task. My history of carrying out critical missions is not a
particularly good one. I—"

I stopped him
with a gesture before he could disclose anything that he would later
end up regretting.

"I don't
care about what happened before we met, Carson. I care about what's
happened during the time I've known you. Since we started working
together you've been one of the pillars of our success. You were the
one who brought Grayson down to our attempted rescue of Agony.
Without Grayson, none of us would have survived long enough for Dream
Stealer's people to arrive to our aid.

"I was the
one who killed the mentalist and the pyromancer in LA, but that would
have been all for naught if you hadn't used your ability to lure the
rest of the gang into an ambush when they returned to the warehouse.
You've taught me how to use the sword I stole from my father, and you
provided support and assistance in Minnesota that was critical to our
victory there. I need your skills, your experience, and your
contacts."

"All three
of those things are yours, Alec. They are yours regardless of whether
or not I'm in charge of training the hybrids who join your cause.
Perhaps it would be best to use me as nothing more than an
instructor. Let someone else be in charge."

I shook my
head. "I appreciate your willingness to help in a less…glorious
fashion, but there isn't anyone else, Carson. We have some good
fighters, but anyone I put there will face nothing but a constant
stream of challengers. You are the only one I can trust to do this."

Carson sighed.
"A long time ago someone much more like you than you would ever
have believed said almost the exact same thing to me. I failed that
man, Alec. I loved him like a father, and I failed him. If you demand
this of me I will do it, but know that I accept with a heavy heart,
sure that despite my best efforts I will end up failing you too."

"It's
settled then. You'll accept and do your best. It will be enough
because that is the kind of man that
you
are, but if it isn't
enough then I will make up the difference because that is my job."

I turned and
looked at the rest of the people gathered inside of the RV. "Up
until now I've been dancing around the question of who was really in
charge because I didn't feel qualified to lead all of you. I realized
while I was gone that I don't have any other choice. Our culture—our
very nature—requires that the best killer among us step up and
lead. To do otherwise creates confusion when things get difficult and
lives are on the line.

"I've
known most of you for years, and I owe all of you a debt that goes
beyond money. I hope that you will stay, but if you decide to leave I
respect that and you can go without any fear of future reprisals."

I looked
around, but all of them met my eyes without any trace of doubt in
their countenance. For better or worse, they were now mine. I was
going to have to lead and protect them to the best of my ability and
just hope that it was enough to keep us alive.

It wasn't the
beginning I would have wanted, but it was a beginning—one that
I hadn't actually ever expected to see. I spared a moment to wonder
where we would eventually end up.

We'd declared
war on the Coun'hij, but just tearing the old structure down wasn't
going to be enough. We were going to have to replace it with a new
form of government, and it was only logical that whoever led the
rebellion to its final victory would end up heading the new
government.

I knew all of
the other major figures in the rebellion. None of them were my equal
in power. Some of them had more experience, but if I stood aside for
them it would create exactly the kind of problem that I'd been
worried about Carson creating if he refused my assignment.

No, that wasn't
the answer. I was going to have to unite the entire rebellion under
my leadership and just hope that I would be smart enough to keep us
all from being outmaneuvered.

None of the
earliest records of the monarchy had survived, but in that moment I
wondered if this was how Jaldul had felt when he'd begun his bid to
create the first monarchy.

Any sense of
pride I might have felt was swept away as I met Rachel's eyes and
remembered what I still needed to tell her.

"Please
split up between the various vehicles. We need to get moving south
now in order to ensure we arrive in Arizona in time to make sure
nothing happens to the Tucson pack. I'll provide more information
about my plan at our next fuel stop, but right now I need to talk to
my sister."