Kitty Steals the Show (Kitty Norville) (24 page)

“
I
didn’t think you’d really done it,” Antony said, spreading his arms. “It was just a possibility.”

“This cannot stand,” Ned said. “Any neutrality they’ve enjoyed, they’ve lost.”

“So the war begins,” Marid said. “At last.”

Ned shook his head. “They’ll go to ground when their minions don’t return. Move to new lairs. It’ll take time to find them, and it’s getting too close to dawn to search.”

“Dawn’s a perfect time to go after vampires,” Ben said. “Get ’em when they’re woozy.”

All the vampires gave him a look, even Emma.

“It’s a perfect time for
you
to go after vampires,” Ned said. “But I intend to twist Jan’s head off myself.”

“I can track them,” Caleb said.

“How?” Ned said roughly, skeptical.

Caleb curled a smile for him. “They’ve got their wolves standing guard. Like they always do. I may not know where the vampires are, but I can find their wolves.”

Antony stepped forward. “Then we’ll attack—”

“No,” I said. I started pacing, trying to catch a thought before it fled. “If we know which of the werewolf guards have moved, we’ll know who was in on the attack—which of the Masters are allied with Jan and by extension Mercedes—”

“And therefore Roman,” Ben said.

“So we can attack,” Antony reiterated, frowning.

“That’s not the point,” I said. “An attack is going to end up like the one we just had, lots of fighting with no real result. We can’t take the vampires on their home ground so there’s no point fighting their wolves. We don’t
want
them fighting us, we just want—”

“We want them to leave,” Caleb said. “Kitty’s right. My folk and I killed eight werewolves tonight. You lot can have your war, but it’s us that keep dying, and I’m sick of it. Go after your vampires, but I won’t let you go through more wolves to do it.”

“That’s just it—we can talk to the wolves. Oh, we can do this,” I said. My thoughts had caught up with my subconscious. Wolf and I both knew what to do here. We just had to prove to them that we were the stronger alpha, smarter even than their Masters. And they’d listen to us, right?

Ha.

“Caleb,” I said. “We have to find them. I need to talk with them—all of them.”

“You think they’ll just stand still to listen to you? Are you daft?” Ned glared, but I stood my ground. I was right. I was sure I was right.

“Don’t underestimate her ability to talk,” Ben said, his expression wry. He was enjoying this, the bastard. “It’s her superpower.”

“I don’t believe you,” Ned said. “I don’t believe you can manage this.”

“Caleb,” I said. “Will you help?”

His smile turned toothy. “I’m in. I want to see this. How about it, Ned? Give us your blessing, won’t you?”

“Do I have a choice? As soon as the sun rises you’ll do what you want, am I right?”

“You’ll just have to trust us,” the werewolf said. “Isn’t that what this is all about? Look at us—working together.”

“We should get going,” I said, my eyes bright, my nerves jumpy. Cormac—we had to call Cormac and let him know what was happening. Maybe he’d have some advice, however unlikely that seemed. He was used to shooting, not talking.

Caleb nodded, and we headed for the door.

“Before you go,” Ned said. “You mind if we take care of this one for you?” He pointed at their prisoner.

Caleb scowled at the inert body. “Be my guest.”

Apparently, advocating for the benefit of werewolves in general was one thing. But this one had attacked him and his people. Sympathy was forfeit. I couldn’t say that was the wrong attitude.

“Marid, have you eaten tonight? Would you like a bit?” Ned said, nudging the unconscious werewolf with a booted toe. “Antony?”

“I think you’re still in need of a boost, wouldn’t you say?” Antony answered.

“I daresay there’s enough for all of us to share.”

Antony actually rubbed his hands together.

“That’s it,” I muttered. “I’m out of here.”

“I’m sure we could
all
share,” Ned said. “The four of us will only take his blood, after all.”

He was only being polite. I glanced at Ben, whose face had gone scrunched up, bemused. It was what happened when your stomach turned and your mouth watered at the same time.

“I don’t …
eat
people,” I said.

“Not at all?” Antony said. “Ever?”

I paused, wincing. Bringing up the issue ignited the memory of a taste on the back of my tongue, flesh and blood, the iron warmth of it squishing between sharp teeth, gulping down my throat. It wasn’t even my memory, it was Wolf’s. I hardly remembered it, except that the sensory detail had never gone away. “Just that one time.”

Ned gave me an inquiring look. “You? Really?”

“The other one was just a nibble…” I really did have to stop and think about how many people I’d taken a chunk out of. I put a hand on my forehead. The night had gotten very long indeed.

“I’m not sure I know about the other one,” Ben said, looking at me with … curiosity? Admiration?

“It was that guy in Montana,” I said.

“Ah.”

“Ms. Norville, you are constantly intriguing,” Marid said, leaning on his cane. Even Caleb regarded me appraisingly.

“I really think it’s time for us to go. You guys have fun.” I grabbed Ben’s hand and pulled him from the parlor.

Emma put a hand on my arm in the doorway. “Thanks. For sticking up for me.”

I shook my head. “They were just grasping at straws. I don’t think they were serious.”

“Ned would have killed me himself if he thought I’d turned spy.” She gave a nervous hiccup of a laugh. “I didn’t want to be a vampire. I thought I’d rather be dead. I can’t tell you how many times I almost opened the curtains at dawn to kill myself. But now, it’s almost funny. I don’t want to die.”

“Good,” I said. I touched her hand, surprised as I always was at how cold she was—she had no heat, no blood of her own.

“It should be night in D.C. by now,” she said. “Do you think I should call Alette? Tell her what’s happening?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” I said. “Let me know what she says.”

She stayed behind to take part in Ned’s leftovers. I didn’t want to see it.

Back in the hallway, Caleb waited for us. When footsteps sounded in the back foyer, we all jumped, then stalked forward. I had a sickening vision—that Jan and Mercedes had anticipated us, sent their own attack first—

We met Cormac coming in through the back door, smelling of the city’s chill nighttime air. He studied us with curiosity. His shoulders tensed—all the surprise he showed.

“There’s been a fight,” he said.

Was it that obvious? Caleb must have changed his clothes on the way over—he was clean. Ben had on a new clean shirt, but rusted streaks of dried blood still marred his face. Most of the blood was mine. My shirt and jeans were torn, soiled with mud and grass stains. I was cradling my injured arm, which sported an impressive red welt where the wound had been. Cormac would know it had happened recently.

“You two okay?” His voice was calm, and he eyed Caleb with suspicion.

“Yeah,” I said, and Ben nodded. “I just got a little cut up.”

“I should have been there—”

“No,” Ben and I said at once.

“It’s good that you weren’t,” Ben said, finishing the thought for both of us. “It was all werewolves, and you don’t have any guns—it was a mess.”

Cormac considered, then nodded. “Right. Want to tell me what’s happening then?”

“You trust him?” Caleb said. “He’s not one of us.”

“We trust him,” I said, my gaze on Cormac.

“You can’t bring him in on this,” the alpha said.

“If there’s trouble, you’re not leaving me out,” Cormac said.

I wanted to tell Cormac no. To protect him. He would say he was doing the same. We were a pack, right? I looked at Ben, who didn’t seem inclined to argue. But he and Cormac had been a team for a long time. Including him no doubt seemed natural.

“All right, then,” I said. “Introductions: Cormac, this is Caleb, alpha werewolf of the British Isles. Caleb, this is Cormac. He’s—” Words failed me, as they usually did when I tried to describe him.

“He’s family,” Ben said.

They regarded each other, gazes suspicious, yet curious. They both obviously had questions that they weren’t going to ask. That was fine. I just had to be sure I kept myself in between them.

A couple of Ned’s house staff worked at night, natch. The driver, Andy, and one of the housekeepers, Sara. She was in the kitchen; I begged some extra tea and snacks from her, and she seemed happy to provide.

The four of us retreated with our spoils to one of the smaller rooms in the back of the house. It was cozy, with chairs pulled up around a fireplace where a heater had been installed. We could imagine we were alone. The vampires would retreat to a set of basement rooms when dawn came.

“Tell me what happened,” Cormac said.

We explained our evening, talking over each other in a couple of places with our own take on events. The shadow conference of vampires had turned violent, one faction rising up to try to take out Ned. Cormac sat back, listening, hand on his chin.

“My first thought?” Cormac said. “Get out. You’re outnumbered. They got the jump on you once, they’re not going to just stop. You want to stay safe, get out, get home.”

“He’s got a point,” Caleb said. “You’re not so bad after all.”

“You don’t think they’ll just follow us?” Ben said. “Send another posse after us?”

“There’s that. But you’d be on your home turf.”

“Or we could stop them now,” I said. “The plan isn’t to fight. We want to sow a little dissention in the ranks.”

“You’re going to try talking them out of this war of yours, aren’t you?” Cormac said. He held a cup of tea, the vintage china looking out of place in his calloused grip. He wrinkled his nose at the liquid, but drank anyway. Maybe Amelia would help him develop a taste for the stuff.

“It’s not my war,” I muttered. “But yeah.”

“I think she’s got a chance at it,” Caleb said.

“In my experience, werewolves don’t stand still long enough to listen to much talk,” he said, setting the cup down.

“You didn’t see her earlier this week, at the convocation,” Ben said. “I think they were all so surprised they didn’t know which way to jump.”

“Yeah,” the hunter said. “That sounds about right.” Caleb made a gesture as if to say,
you see?

“What do you want me to do?” Cormac said.

Stay in the car? “Keep watch? You know the kind of defenses panicking vampires are likely to have. We don’t want any surprises.”

“Just what do you know about panicking vampires?” Caleb asked.

“They’re like anything else,” Cormac said. “You corner them, they get stupid.”

“When this is all done, would you mind letting me buy you a pint and wring some stories out of you?”

Cormac just smiled.

Caleb rose from his seat and said, “First thing to do is check in with the scouts. That’ll give us some idea of who’s on the move and where we should go next. If you’ll excuse me.” He drew his phone from a pocket and scrolled through its numbers as he left the room.

Cormac gazed after him. “Alpha of the British Isles, you said? That’s impressive.”

“Yep. Don’t look at him like you’re staring through gun sights,” I said, and he chuckled.

“By the way, where’ve you been?” Ben asked. “Dinner with the Parkers couldn’t have lasted until four in the morning.”

“No. They have an early bedtime with the kids and all, so we went out looking for ghosts.”

I had to ask. “Like, real ghosts?”

“Amelia wanted to check up on some spots she knew from before. The Tower, along the river, Whitechapel.”

“Jack the Ripper?”

“Among other things, yeah.”

“Huh.” He wasn’t going to keep talking unless I prompted, and I was dying to know. “And … how did the dinner go?” Ben and I leaned in to hear the answer.

“It was … awkward,” he said. “Not bad. But you know, trying to make small talk channeling someone’s dead relative…” He made an annoyed movement like he had an itch on his back. “I keep asking how I got myself into this. Stuff like this, what I’ve been doing? Nice dinner at home with the family? Never would have thought of it.” His expression was confused, wondering. Like he really had just woken up from a nap and found himself in another country. “Anyway, his wife got out the photo album and Amelia ID’d faces in old pictures. Broke a little ice that way. The kids are cute. For kids, you know.”

And that was almost as astonishing as Amelia hunting for ghosts in Whitechapel.

Phone in hand, Caleb returned, smiling, a gleam in his eye like a wolf who’s spotted prey. “We’ve got our first stop.”

Chapter 17