Driven (24 page)

"How
are you feeling?"

"Like
I nearly lost my first hybrid-on-hybrid fight and almost died in the
process, but other than that I'm okay. What about you?"

"I'm
getting tired…and hungry, but I'm okay for now. The rest of
the pack has been milling around in the house. They are staying just
out of sight, but apparently haven't realized that I'm a mentalist so
they haven't been staying far enough away to stop me from sensing
their presence."

"How
much hungrier are you?"

"A
lot hungrier. I didn't realize how much of a relationship there is
between using my gift and the growth of the hunger. Don't worry
though, I've still got things under control."

Jasmin
had been walking towards the long hall that led to the front door,
but Geoffrey's admission made her stop and look at him.

"You
used your power on Stekensbridge, didn't you?"

Geoffrey
would have been much happier if that particular fact hadn't ever come
to light, but he wasn't about to lie to Jasmin, not when she asked
him a direct question.

"Yes,
right after you killed Branson. I helped tip the scales so that he
ordered everyone back. I knew he needed to listen to your
justification. If I hadn't pushed when I did, then he would have had
the rest of the pack just rip you apart."

Jasmin
pursed her lips. "I didn't think you were that strong. Invading
the mind of a shape shifter like that is no small accomplishment."

"Honestly
I wasn't sure that I would be able to pull it off either, but I knew
I had to try something. There was no way that we were going to cut
our way out of there."

"I
won't deny that it cheapens the victory a bit to know that you had
your hands in it, but the truth is that you're probably right, so
thank you for saving my skin—several times as I recall."

Jasmin
seemed to sense that Geoffrey wasn't particularly comfortable with
the direction of the conversation. She only let the silence stretch
out for a couple of seconds before continuing.

"How
much have you been able to pull from the minds of my pack? Have any
of them started spreading the news of what happened yet?"

"Mostly
I've just picked up surface thoughts. I haven't wanted to penetrate
too deeply, not after you warned me that your beasts are able to
sense intrusions and then help you fight. Still, nobody seems to be
in a state of mind to do anything other than just wait and see what
kind of an alpha you're going to be."

"Nobody?"

"The
hybrid, Jorge, seems like the one most likely to give you trouble,
but you don't need me to tell you that."

"Right,
he's the next most dominant, but is that the only reason?"

"I'm
not sure. If you can get the two of us alone with him for a few
minutes I might be able to get more out of him. Are you ready for
another fight if he realizes what I'm doing?"

Jasmin
rubbed her side absently for a couple of seconds before nodding.
"Yeah, I can take him if it comes to that. It won't be pretty,
but it should be doable."

The
seven remaining original members of the pack were waiting in a large
solarium that was mounted on the south side of the house. Geoffrey
followed Jasmin into the airy, sunlit space and found, not to his
surprise, that they were all standing, uneasily watching the two new
arrivals.

"Please
be seated, all of you. We have a lot to discuss and not much time to
do it in."

A
tall, slender guy who looked like he was in his late twenties shook
his head. "We'd all just as soon stand."

Geoffrey's
mental probes confirmed that this was Jorge, the one he'd felt, the
one who'd spent the last two hours trying to work up the courage to
confront Jasmin. This close it was easier to pick up more of what was
skittering across the surface of Jorge's mind and Geoffrey wasn't
surprised to find out that Jorge had been trying very hard to follow
in Branson's footsteps and win himself a spot on the Coun'hij.

"Jorge,
is it?"

Jorge
stuck his chin out truculently. "Yeah, that's me."

Jasmin
smiled and then backhanded Jorge hard enough that the older hybrid
fell back over a heavy black metal chair. Before Jorge could claw his
way back up to his feet, Jasmin stepped on his right arm and looked
down at him with a face that had suddenly gone colder than the snow
outside.

"Unless
you've got a mouse in your pocket you should probably stop using the
royal we. Based on the fact that your friends are all sitting
politely in their chairs just like I asked them to, you don't speak
for them anymore than you speak for me."

"I'll
see you dead for that!"

Jorge
looked like he wanted to spring to his feet and rip Jasmin's throat
out, but her other foot was poised just inches away from his throat.
Geoffrey knew they were in every bit as much danger as they'd been
down in the circle after Jasmin had killed Branson, but Jasmin seemed
completely unconcerned about what the rest of the pack might choose
to do, her focus was on Jorge and only Jorge.

Geoffrey
rested his hands on his sword's hilt and forced himself to turn away
from Jasmin and Jorge so that he could keep an eye on the other five
shape shifters. It wasn't something that he liked doing. Jorge was
the single most dangerous person remaining in the pack and having him
at his back made Geoffrey's shoulder blades itch.

There
was nothing to do but just suck it up and trust that Jasmin could
control the confrontation. The sense of hot prickles dancing across
his skin suddenly increased as he heard Jasmin lean forward.

"I
don't think that you have the spine to try it, but any time you want
to take a shot at me just say the word. I'd like nothing better than
to kill you and rid myself of the incessant headaches that I suspect
you're going to cause me."

"You
wouldn't dare. Without me there's nobody between you and any
challengers."

"Yeah,
I saw how much help you were for Stekensbridge, I'm sure I would be
completely lost without you. Now are you going to toe the line or
should we just get this out of the way right now?"

The
heat behind him was exponentially hotter than it had been a second
before. Geoffrey couldn't help himself, he stole a glance back at
Jasmin and Jorge and saw that Jorge had gone almost completely white.
Jasmin stepped away from Jorge and then waved Geoffrey to a chair.

"You
too, Jorge, sit down."

Jorge
obviously wasn't very happy about the order, but he took a seat next
to the rest of his pack mates and didn't say anything else.

"Things
are going to change around here for as long as I'm in charge.
Firstly, we're switching to the other side of the war. You will all
do everything in your power to support Alec Graves as the rightful
king and ruler over all wolves everywhere."

For
a second it looked like Jorge wasn't going to be able to hold his
tongue. Even worse, Geoffrey could feel the hybrid's thoughts
shifting. He'd been mostly happy with passively resisting before, but
he'd just gone over to having decided to actively resist Jasmin as
far as he was able without endangering his own skin.

Jasmin
continued, unaware of the silent drama being played out inside of
Jorge's mind. "Next, I don't know how the dominants have been
treating the submissives, but as of right now I won't permit any of
the abuse that is such a routine part of pack life in most places. If
someone who is dominant to you asks you to fetch something then go do
it. If we're in a combat situation then the dominants, me mostly,
will be calling the shots, but beyond that I expect you to treat each
other like actual people. No physical abuse, no stealing, basically
no doing anything that would get you sent to jail if you did it to
someone in the outside world."

There
was obvious hope on many of the faces in the solarium, but it was
equally obvious that they weren't sure whether they could trust
Jasmin to live up to what she'd just said. Geoffrey knew little of
pack life, but it was already plain that the alpha's word was law in
a way that normal people couldn't ever hope to understand.

The
alpha held the lives of every member of the pack in their hands and
there wasn't any higher authority to appeal to if it turned out that
they said one thing but behaved in a completely different manner.

"I'm
not interested in any kind of witch hunt. By and large I'd like to
just give everyone a clean slate and judge you on your behavior from
here on out, but I may make an exception if somebody has done
something truly heinous."

That
last bit was said looking at Jorge, but Jasmin wasn't quite done
making her point. "I will however take past action into account
when doling out punishments for current actions. If someone has a
history of poor behavior in some way or another, I'm not going to let
you work up a list of infractions as long as my arm before I deal
with you."

She
looked around at the pack, at her pack, and then raised an eyebrow.
"Any questions?"

When
nobody responded Jasmin rubbed the side of her head with one hand and
then pointed at a slim fifteen-year-old red-headed girl.

"You,
what's your name? Out of the remaining members of this pack who has
the closest ties with the Coun'hij?"

The
girl cleared her throat nervously and looked around at her friends
and family, but there was obviously no help going to come from any of
them.

"I'm
Sally, ma'am. In answer to your other question, it's Jorge you want.
He's got a couple of the enforcers he talks to on a regular basis.
The rest of us have been involved in the occasional operation with
them to kill a vampire or hunt down one of the dispossessed who had
crossed some line or another, but it was just the hybrids the
Coun'hij were interested in talking to when they were here."

Geoffrey
had wormed a couple of hair-thin tendrils of thought into Sally's
mind when it became obvious that Jasmin was going to pump her for
information. It was a risk, but he figured it was offset by the need
to know whether or not she was telling the truth. He expected Jasmin
to look back at him for confirmation, but Jasmin just nodded.

"What
do you have to say for yourself, Jorge?"

Jorge
pushed dark black hair out of his eyes and then shrugged. "You
just got finished telling us that you weren't going to hold the past
against us. It doesn't seem like I really have to say anything."

Geoffrey
didn't even see Jasmin move. One second she was sitting in a chair
like everyone else, and in the next she was standing over Jorge and
her hand had been replaced with hybrid claws which now rested along
the side of Jorge's neck.

"Don't
push me, Jorge. I did say that, but I also said that this pack was
now going to be resisting the Coun'hij and helping Alec. Your history
seems to indicate that might be a problem for you. Will it?"

"I'm
not going to help you, if that's what you mean. You can torture me if
you'd like, but you're not going to kill me. I can already see that
you don't have the stomach for it. You'll threaten, but threats won't
stop the Coun'hij when they come to put you down for killing Branson.
You can't stop them from coming, and when they arrive you're going to
die."

Jasmin's
face had gone cold and remote again. "Geoffrey, there is
something I need. Go ahead and pick that particular thought out of my
mind and then take one of the submissives with you so they can find
it for you. The wolf can tell you where it is when you're safely out
of hearing range."

As
Geoffrey cautiously reached a thought out towards Jasmin she turned
back towards Jorge. "You've got things all wrong. I'm actually
hoping that the Coun'hij will be along soon. My associate and I have
some unfinished business with them."

Geoffrey's
probe skimmed off the thought Jasmin was sending in his direction
with so much force that he almost wouldn't have had to be a mentalist
in order to know what she wanted. She wanted wire, thin wire, or
baring that a heavy-gauge fishing line. Geoffrey was so curious that
he couldn't help but probe just the tiniest bit deeper to find out
what she wanted it for.

What
he saw made Geoffrey's stomach heave unexpectedly. He wasn't sure
whether his respect for Jasmin had just grown or decreased, but he no
longer had any qualms about working with her. He couldn't have asked
for a more ruthless partner when it came to his quest to save Melody.

Jasmin Bianchi
Stekensbridge House
Duluth, Minnesota

Geoffrey
had done his job with the signature competence that I'd come to
expect from him. He took Sally with him and when they came back
fifteen minutes later they didn't just have the wire, he had a
multi-tool and he'd fashioned one end of the wire into a noose.

I
spent the entire fifteen minutes they were gone convinced that Jorge
was going to find his courage and transform, but I'd angled my claws
so that if he did the natural movement of his head and neck as he
shifted would rake my claws through his throat. I didn't actually
want to kill Jorge, but I hadn't been lying when I said that I was
pretty sure he was going to cause me more problems than he was worth.

Geoffrey
prepared our little surprise while he was still well out of sight of
Jorge and the rest, so Jorge had no heads-up as to what I was
planning before Geoffrey stepped around behind him and slipped the
wire over his head.

It
was a nasty trick, the kind of thing more suited to one of the
Coun'hij than it was to someone from Sanctuary, but I didn't have a
choice. I couldn't babysit Jorge twenty-four hours a day and I didn't
want to kill him, until I was sure that he couldn't be saved. It was
the lesser of the evils facing me, so I let Geoffrey slip the wire
noose around Jorge's neck and then held the now-terrified hybrid
there with my claws while Geoffrey tied the ends off so that the
loose wire loop wouldn't have any give in it.