Burned (8 page)

Adri shrugged.
"So go down there and deal with them. Based on what you did in
Minnesota, you can wipe out the entire group of enforcers all by
yourself."

I wasn't sure
whether to be happy that she'd managed to reference the battle where
her parents had died without crying or sad that she'd put on such a
callous front.

"That was
my first thought as well, but what little information I'm getting out
of that area indicates that there are more werewolves active down in
that area than there should be."

"Puppeteer."

Taggart said
the name like it was the worst kind of curse, but I couldn't blame
him. Puppeteer was a big part of why nobody felt safe expressing
their dissatisfaction with the current regime too loudly.

"There is
an uncomfortable amount of similarity between my power and what the
werewolves do. It's not a hundred-percent match, obviously, but I've
seen werewolves absorb an insane amount of power. Jaclyn Annikov's
power doesn't even faze them…"

"You're
worried that your power won't work on them."

"Correct.
I'm eager to find out—preferably in a fairly controlled
setting—but until I know that I can drop them as easily as
vampires, it's a bad idea to depend on my ability to bail us out. We
need a big enough force down there to handle whatever Puppeteer can
throw at us."

Taggart sighed,
and I saw the same exhaustion in him that I'd been feeling before
Adri arrived. "It's not going to be easy to keep that many
people hidden for very long."

"I know. I
wouldn't ask this of you if the stakes were any lower, but if we can
safely extract the Tucson pack—right out from under the
Coun'hij's noses—it will change everything. Even if it doesn't
result in a tidal wave of support from the smaller packs, it's still
worth it if we can stop the Coun'hij from intimidating everyone into
going the other direction."

He still didn't
look convinced, but I wasn't done playing my cards. He was still
thinking of things the way they'd been before I'd manifested my
ability, before we'd pulled together such a strong coalition.

"I know
what you're thinking, Taggart. If we're all in one spot for that long
we'll be giving Kaleb and the rest the opportunity they've been
hoping for since before I was born. The difference is that they no
longer have the ability to wipe us out all at once—they just
don't know it yet.

"It
doesn't matter who they bring, I can neutralize them. At this point
I'm praying to run into Brandon because I'll finally be able to put
him down once and for all. Nobody the Coun'hij has is a match for me,
not when I can immobilize them for the few seconds it will take me to
kill them. The only thing we have to be afraid of right now is
Puppeteer's werewolves, and there has to be some kind of limit on the
number of them he can control at one time."

"You're
saying that now we are more vulnerable apart—in hiding—than
we are together."

"That's
exactly what I'm saying."

I could see the
gears turning inside of his mind. He wanted to believe I was right.
What I was describing was the thing that he'd been fighting for since
he'd first turned against the Coun'hij decades ago.

"I'm sure
you're right that Puppeteer has limits—all powers do—but
he could do the same thing he did when he broke the vampire
strongholds in St Louis. Stage shipments of werewolves a short
distance away from wherever we are staying, and then run them into us
a dozen at a time, wearing us down until we finally break."

"It's a
risk, but the potential benefits are huge. Puppeteer seems to have a
fairly small range. If he's close enough to attack us with his
minions it will mean that he's close enough for us to get our hands
on him.

"I've
already talked to Jack. His contacts say that they can guarantee us a
satellite over the area for at least five days. We'll put analysts on
the video coming off of the bird and we'll look for any vehicles that
are motionless during the time of the attacks. If we can identify him
we can send Heath in with a hand-picked squad. Puppeteer will never
see them coming."

"It's
risky."

"Sure, but
it's also the chance we've been waiting for. If Puppeteer was out of
the picture, the whole dynamics of the situation would change
completely. All of a sudden the packs would only have to worry about
the enforcers. Don't get me wrong, the enforcers are bad news, but
there are only so many of them. Kaleb and the rest have been relying
on the threat of the werewolves to keep everyone in line—there
are too many demands on their manpower to do otherwise.

"We won't
go looking for a fight. We'll keep a low profile and try to get
Jaclyn's people out quietly, but if it comes to fighting we have a
very good chance of coming out on top. I've asked Carson to reach out
to Grayson again. Carson can't guarantee he'll be there, but I'm
willing to promise just about anything to get Grayson down in Arizona
with us. He has to have a price, and thanks to the money I stole from
Kaleb, I'm in a position to meet it."

"It sounds
like you've got everything planned out. You, Heath, Grayson, Taggart
and me. You've basically put together the dream team of hybrid
superheroes."

Adri's voice
turned something that otherwise should have been a compliment into a
bitter recrimination, but I told myself that she was still hurting,
that I couldn't take it personally. It helped a little. What she said
next just about sent me over the edge.

"Instead
of messing around down in Arizona, why don't you just take a quick
trip up to Sanctuary and wipe out Kaleb, Brandon and the rest of your
old pack? If you really want to change the power dynamic you should
start taking out the Coun'hij's most loyal supporters. You probably
wouldn't have to take out more than three or four packs before the
Coun'hij would start suffering from a massive round of defections."

I realized I
was gritting my teeth, and forced my jaw to unclench. "I lived
in Sanctuary for seventeen years, but contrary to what you may
believe, that isn't the reason that I'm not heading up there and
laying waste to every living thing within twenty miles of the estate.

"I lived
there—here, actually—for long enough to know that not
every member of this pack deserves to die. That's going to be true of
any of the packs in the Coun'hij's court. Every pack is full of both
good and bad people, but more than that, every pack has people in it
who are part of the problem just because they are too scared to stand
up for what they know is right.

"I'll come
back here at some point—when the time is right—and I'll
kill Kaleb and Brandon. Honestly, I'd be happy to kill them sooner,
but I'm not going to do anything that will result in a bunch of
non-combatants being caught in the crossfire. When I start taking out
the key figures who are supporting the status quo, I'll do it in a
way that doesn't get a bunch of children killed."

Adri looked for
a second like she was going to respond hotly, but Taggart put a hand
on her shoulder, and that seemed to bring her back to herself.

"Fine,
we'll do it your way. Unless you need something else I should
probably get back to my body—if we're about to embark on some
kind of extended campaign I suspect I'll need all of the energy I can
suck down each day. There's no need to waste it with small talk
here."

"You guys
came to me—I'm glad you did, but it's not like I'm begging you
to stay."

"Right,
you're probably just anxious to get back to whoever is keeping your
bed warm right now."

Now it was my
turn to nearly say something that I would have later regretted, but
Taggart stepped between the two of us.

"That was
beneath you, Adri. I'm sure that the two of you have already talked
about the situation with Brindi. If you had an understanding about
her back before the…accident…then now isn't the time to
be attacking Alec over something he didn't ask to have happen."

I half expected
her to attack him with her bare hands, but she just stood there
shaking for a couple of seconds, and then whirled and ran away. She
disappeared as she took her second step, and then it was just Taggart
and I.

My anger
evaporated as quickly as it had appeared. My beast had never really
calmed back down after my visit with Shawn. I wanted to blame my fury
on the metaphysical hitchhiker that rode around inside my head, but I
knew that wasn't the complete truth.

If my beast had
been the cause for my feelings then I wouldn't have been able to
master my anger instantly like that. My anger had evaporated because
I'd seen her face as she'd turned to go. For a split second there her
mask had dropped. She
was
angry, but mostly she was just
hurting and using rage to cover up the hole inside of her—the
one that she was afraid would never go away, the one that she felt
guilty about resenting because wanting to get better felt like a
betrayal of her parents.

"I'm sorry
about that, Alec. I'd hoped that seeing you would help remind her of
the connection the two of you share. I fear that I've made a mistake
and pushed her too far, too fast."

"No, that
was my fault. I should have reacted better. I know what she's going
through right now, it was my job tonight to make sure that I didn't
let her bait me—a job at which I failed miserably."

Taggart patted
me on the shoulder, and I was surprised to find that I was
comfortable enough around him to not have my beast freaking out at
having him so close.

"You were
working at a disadvantage, Alec. Adri has mastered the art of keeping
her feelings secret while she's inside of the dream. Here she doesn't
have a scent unless she wants to, and it isn't strictly necessary for
her to breathe or for her heart to beat. Most people do all of those
things out of sheer habit, but she's come a long ways despite having
not practiced for quite some time."

I was
astonished that I hadn't noticed her lack of involuntary responses,
but Taggart didn't give me any time to really consider that bit of
information.

"You're in
a tough spot, Alec. You feel guilt over what happened even though you
acted in the only way you could at the time. That is compounded by
the fact that part of you knows Adri should be treating you like a
hero. Without you, Cindi would have died, and everyone else we took
into that building would have joined her. It's natural to resent Adri
for treating you so poorly despite everything you've done for her.
Just try to remember that she's not herself right now—not
really. In time she'll go back to being the girl we both care so much
about. Try to be patient."

"I think
that you're giving me too much credit."

"Be that
as it may, the credit is mine to give out as I see fit."

He drew a smile
out of me despite myself. "Was there anything else you wanted to
discuss? I don't want to keep you—I know how valuable your
dream time is."

"Two
things. The first is easier than the second." Taggart passed me
a card with a phone number on it. I memorized it in less than a
second and passed it back to him. "That is my current phone
number. We'll need to talk if we're to coordinate the operation
you've got planned."

"Okay,
I'll send you a text tomorrow so you've got my number. What was the
second thing?"

Taggart was
silent for several seconds, as though he was having second thoughts
about what he'd been planning on saying.

"I respect
your desire not to pull innocents into this war, Alec. What if there
was another way to wage it?"

"I don't
know. It would depend on what you had in mind. I want the Coun'hij
gone as much as anyone."

"It would
mean working together with Adri again, which I know isn't ideal for
either of you right now, but it's possible that we could bring the
Coun'hij down without ever having to face any of them in the real
world."

I felt as
though I'd just been struck. If he was suggesting what I thought he
was suggesting, then I felt like a fool for not thinking of it
myself. The possibilities were endless.

"I thought
you weren't able to kill someone inside of their own dreams."

Taggart nodded.
"That's right, I can't. It's been pretty conclusively proved
though that Adri's gift works in a different way than mine does.
She's killed inside of her own dreams once before. The jury's still
out on whether she can do it inside of someone else's dreams, which
is one of many reasons that I've kept that aspect of her power quiet
up until now, but there is a possibility that between the three of us
we could take down each member of the Coun'hij one at a time while
they are sleeping."

"How would
it go down?"

"Adri's
getting better and better inside of the dream with every passing
month, but she's still no match for someone like Kaleb on her own.
When you get right down to it, I'm not even always a match for your
father. What I would propose is that Adri and I come here to your
dream again like we did tonight. Then she will pull our first target
in—that's another trick she has that I can't do.

"Once we
have them here inside of your dream, you can use your ability on them
while Adri pins them here so they can't avoid death by escaping back
to their own dreams."

I closed my
eyes, not wanting to admit to myself where this was headed, but I
nodded despite my unexpected reluctance.

"That
makes sense. We'll have to test my ability and make sure that it
still works inside of my dreams—it's good that you'll be here
to serve as backup to the two of us—but if it does work, then
we can finish off this war without ever having to lose another of our
people."

Taggart nodded.
"The only price for that miracle will be turning Adri into an
assassin—not just once, but dozens, possibly hundreds of times
as we work our way through the Coun'hij and then move on to
eliminating the known enforcers. It's funny, there was a time when I
was desperate to get her to do exactly this, but now the time has
arrived and I'm strangely reluctant to take this step."