Mercy Blade (43 page)

Beast is alpha. All day. In daylight.
I turned and padded from house into yard, across sun-heated ground, into barn. Wolf smell was everywhere, thick carpet of it. I entered stall and dropped Jane collar in shadow near barn door. Drank from horse water in stall to remove metal taste from mouth. Smell of pregnant female horse everywhere, in water, in straw on floor of stall, old urine and dung strong. I sneezed to force dust and horse smell out of nose.
Pregnant horse would be much meat. Winter food to replace deer stolen by wolves.

No!
Jane thought.
No horses!

I hacked and spotted hole in ceiling. Cave to sleep in. Leaped up wall, paws on railing, against window sill, pushed up into hole, front claws scrabbling, pulling body through. Moments later, was in darkness of hayloft and lay across pile of hay. Hungry again. Lay still, listening to mice. Too small to hunt. Only one mouthful crunch. Across barn, female cat hissed in warning, showing killing teeth, saying she would protect. Smell of kittens and milk showed reason. I yawned and lay head down.

Heat felt good. Closed eyes and slept.

 

Not long later, I woke. Dusk was near. Light like skin of fruit in sky. I was hungry. Barn was still silent but for horses below, milling and frightened. Scent of wolves and big-cat predator in their barn.
I could kill and eat horse
.

No!
Jane thought.

I hacked in amusement and padded to end of barn. Door for hay was latched closed. I unsheathed claws and caught latch with one claw. Let it fall.
Beast is smart. Good hunter.

I pushed open door. Movement in tree line pulled eyes. Black shape. Spots showing beneath black coat.
Kemnebi
. The black were-leopard leaped over a downed tree, long, slender tail moving like tail of house cat, different from stubby Beast tail. His legs were short, his body long
.

Graceful. Lissome, elegant. He’s beautiful
, Jane thought.
Almost as beautiful as you are.

I chuffed, the sound nearly lost in the movement of horses below. But the leopard flicked his ears, swiveled his head. Found us in the gloom. His eyes were greener than Beast’s, his skull larger, snout angled down.

He spun and jumped to the downed tree. Crouched. Stared at us, tail whipping. And he roared. Leopard roar, jungle cat roar, chuffing hollow sound. Beast pelt rose as air vibrated with his call. Horses milled below, snorting and stomping. One bugled. Barn shook as horse kicked wall. And Kem pushed away from tree, his body rotating, spinning, twisting in mid-arch. The scrub claimed him when he landed. I looked at ground fifteen feet below. And dropped down. Headed back to Bitsa. Jane could be alpha now. Next time big-cat was alpha in daytime, wanted to be in mountains, near loud stream. Sleep on sun-warmed rock. Hunt and eat deer. Better than chicken.

 

I came to lying on the dirt in my dried blood. I was starving, naked, and worried. I sat up and inspected myself, checking for new scars. And, yep, I had a new one. The bullet wound was an angry-looking, round, puckered, red hole under my left arm. The bullet had entered between my sixth and seventh ribs and punctured my left lung. And nicked a major vein or artery, to take me down so fast. The new scar was a handspan away from the other bullet scar on my chest, the one that had likely resulted in my shifting from Beast’s cat form to human when I was twelve. I’d wandered out of the forest shortly thereafter and lived as human for a long time before I’d found my Beast form again.

I didn’t scar much, except for life-threatening injuries, and most of those decreased in severity over time as I shifted back and forth from Beast to human. My throat, arms, and chest were ridged with scars from this gig, however. Working for the vamps was proving to be dangerous business.

I pulled my clothes out of the brush and shook them. My undies had been ruined by one of Beast’s claws. My bra had a bullet hole in it and was so caked with dried blood that it flaked off when I shook it. My silk long johns were crusty with blood. I knew from experience that I’d never get the stains out. I couldn’t make myself put them on. Ants had found their way into my leather pants, swarming the caked and clotted blood, and they didn’t want to leave. I turned the pants inside out and beat them against a tree. Ditto my leather jacket, which had a bullet hole under the left arm, to complement the wolf-teeth rips in the elbow. All the leather gear would need work. As soon as the clothes were free of insect life, I dressed, commando style. I thought about putting on the church skirt still in the saddlebag, but combined with the butt-stomper boots and the bloody jacket it wouldn’t look or work any better.

As I dressed, I had to wonder why no one had called in the peculiar situation at Leo’s. Was the stasis spell strong enough to take all the blood-servants and -slaves over? Maybe it was combined with a keep-away spell. I wondered how much a spell like that might cost. But mostly, I was hungry. Ravenously hungry. And I remembered the boudin balls and the peanut bar—because chocolate would melt—the chips—for starting a fire, not that I needed one—and bottled water in the saddlebags. I ate everything and drank all the water, relieved myself, and dug out my GPS cell phone. I dialed Bruiser and he picked it up on the first ring.

“Why haven’t you returned my calls!” he ground out. I could almost see his teeth gnash.

Been busy being ambushed, shot, shifting into a mountain lion, and taking a nap
, didn’t sound like a smart thing to say. And if Bruiser had access to the GPS tracking on the phone, he’d know I was lying if I said I’d lost the signal. “I was ambushed by some werewolves on the way to Leo’s and got shot at. Furry little yappers are awful shots. All they got was a nick along my ribs. Get out here, and bring me a change of clothes, would you? Jeans, T-shirt, undies.”

Bruiser swore softly and the anger dropped from his tone. “Pawing around in your lingerie drawer would sound interesting if you hadn’t just said you’d been
shot
.”

“It’s not bad. Looks worse than it is.”Which was a lie, though I looked okay right now; not like the shot had nearly killed me. “Anyway, I got away, and went in through the woods.” I filled him in quickly about the scene in the clan home. “You need to get out here, because we’ll need to call the cops.”

“It will be dark soon. Leo and Tyler can handle it,” he said. I could hear the faintest tang of bitterness in his words. Why should he help his former boss and his replacement?

“According to the security monitor, Leo is injured and Tyler”—I thought back to the people gathered inside—“isn’t there. I think he’s involved with all the problems. Involved as in responsible for. And responsible for framing you for murder.”

“Sod it all,” he cursed. “I’ll be there, with our lawyer, in an hour.”

“Bring me some food. A half dozen burgers. I’m hungry.”

“A half—”

“And make it fast.” I hit the END button and tucked away the cell. There was something very satisfying in ordering the MOC’s prime blood-servant around. Remembering the bite marks on the blood-servants gathered in Leo’s, I called Gee; left a message on his voice mail. “I know you’ve been trying to bring the wolves and the vamps together. But the wolves attacked Leo’s today. He’s hurt. He might need the Mercy Blade.” I closed the cell. I didn’t know if Gee was taking my calls, not after I’d accidentally stabbed him while trying to break his hide-me spell, but it was worth the shot.

I picked up Bitsa. She seemed little the worse for the bullet /claw/fang-based contretemps. Her paint was scarred and a wheel spoke was bent and coated with werewolf blood, but I could get that fixed with a little side trip to Bitsa’s maker in Charlotte, North Carolina, when I went back to the mountains. For now, she was roadworthy and that was what counted.

I motored through the deepening dusk to Leo’s. When I got there, the place was still shut down under the stasis spell, though the evening security lights had come on.

I down-clutched and rode through the twilight light into the azaleas, where I parked Bitsa and waited in the shadows for Bruiser.

Dry Cleaning Bills Are Outrageous in My Line of Work

Bruiser didn’t come alone. He had Evangelina in the car with him and a second car followed behind with two people in it, headlights casting bright beams across the drive and landscaping. They parked and all four got out, slamming doors. Two lawyer types were wearing suits, ties, and polished shoes. Bruiser and Evangelina were wearing jeans, boots, and white T-shirts, almost as if they had
planned
to look like the Bobbsey Twins. Something green and pointy twisted deep inside.

Keeping my bloody clothes out of the headlights’ glare, I met them at the bottom of the steps, our shadows going in all directions depending on how the spotlights in the shrubbery hit us. Taking the bag full of hamburgers and the bag of my clothes from Bruiser, I rolled the food bag open as we climbed to the front door. The smell was greasy and wonderful and I tore into the first burger instantly, standing aside, chewing, as Bruiser leaned in through the open front door and flicked on a light. Stasis spells don’t always stop electricity from working. Good to know.

Bruiser shook his head. Evangelina nodded to Nettie and said, “She’s under a stasis spell.” Well duh. But I kept that to myself. No need to antagonize the witch who was going to make it all go away without something exploding. She studied the room, seeing the spell from different angles. “The whole first floor is under a series of them, and they overlap like soap bubbles in a tub. This was not a cheap undertaking. Give me a minute to study it.”

“Wait,” I said, focusing on Evangelina and swallowing the bite I hadn’t finished chewing. It stuck midway down but I talked around it. “Leo’s under a
hedge of thorns
, a silver-tipped stake, one of mine, on the floor beside him, and he’s bleeding.” When I said it was one of mine, Bruiser turned at a slight angle to me, which freed up his right arm and positioned his body for an offensive strike. It was an unconscious move, but one that said he was primed for violence in defense of Leo. Which put me in my place, and said as much as anything where his loyalties lay. He might want to sleep with me, but he’d never put me or my needs in front of Leo. I could have told him that the stake was lost, but why bother? He should have figured that out for himself. I shoved my reaction to that down deep inside with all the other stuff I didn’t want to look at too closely. “There’s a hand showing at the edge of the security screen.”

“You went inside?” one of the lawyers said. “What if you had set off the spell?”

I could see the edges of the spell, which no human could, but I wasn’t about to say that. I made a slight eye roll. “But I didn’t, did I? And it’s a good thing I went, because I saw the security monitor with Leo bleeding and in danger. I have a feeling that his attacker is caught in a stasis spell only inches away. If you break the spells all at once and the
hedge
drops too, he can kill Leo before we can stop him, as weak as Leo is. And I got a good look at Leo’s blood-servants and blood-slaves. Some are hurt. Some look like they have wolf bites. If we have paramedics and the proper emergency equipment ready when the spells go off, we can treat the injured. Maybe even save Nettie.”

“I do not recommend calling the police until Leo is able to speak to this matter,” one of the legal beagles said, his face shadows and planes in the porch lights.

“If you drop the spells and Nettie dies, when you could have saved her by doing it my way, are you willing to accept the legal and moral responsibility?” I asked. “Because if someone dies, I’ll name you in a heartbeat, buddy.”

“Patrick Sprouse, meet Jane Yellowrock.” Surely I was imagining Bruiser’s droll tone.

Neither of us replied to the introduction, but the lawyer’s eyes trailed over my bloody clothes. “I was not suggesting that we allow the girl to die. However, Leo is wounded? And you are covered in blood. A great deal of blood.”

“Dry cleaning bills are outrageous in my line of work,” I said, going for flip and sarcastic. But I knew what he was really accusing me of. “I didn’t set this up and I didn’t attack Leo in his lair. The werewolves who set this up got off a lucky shot.”

Bruiser gave me that half smile, but I could see his concern as he took in the amount of blood on my clothes. Patrick stuck out his chest and said, “My first responsibility is to Mr. Pellissier. If the girl is under the employ of—”

“It’s Miss Yellowrock to you, lawyer-boy. And
the girl
a heartbeat away from dying in there has a name. It’s Nettie. Now call for help. The only reason I didn’t call the cops and paramedics already is to make sure somebody was here to handle the fallout.”

Bruiser laughed as if he’d won a bet. “I shall call in some of Leo’s scions to heal the less severely wounded, and bring healers and Sabina in to heal Nettie and Leo. But unless someone dies, there’s no reason to contact law enforcement.”

The lawyer nodded, his eyes on Bruiser. “I concur. Who would you suggest we bring in?”

Bruiser turned to me. “Describe the lair.”

I understood what he was asking. Leo, as Master of the City, would have several lairs. “Pale gray walls, what looks like sterling silver or polished pewter poster bed, white sheets, except where his blood is, which is practically everywhere.”

“He’s here, then. That simplifies matters.” Bruiser named three vamps and said he would go himself to pick up Sabina. I knew the priestess would have to be the one to heal Leo. Only one of the very old ones could heal a vamp from silver-poisoned wounds. “Do you have their contact information?” Bruiser asked the lawyers.

“Yes.” The other lawyer, not worthy of introductions, perhaps, pulled out a cell phone and started punching numbers. I listened long enough to make sure he was calling vamps, and turned back to Bruiser. I didn’t say thanks. You don’t say thanks for doing the right thing. But I did give him a slight nod as I finished off my second hamburger and opened another. He eyed the fast food bag and shook his head. He and the witch sat on the top step side by side. The lawyers wandered back to their car, voices grumbling as they dialed vamps, grumbling about me, which made me smile.