Wild Card (62 page)

I sneered theatrically and twisted the key in the ignition. The Hill Bitch coughed and shook like a wet dog before settling down to her customary snarl. It was going to take more than being buried in snow to faze her.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t treated her like I treated my car, as an extension of my personal space with spare shoes and clothes in the trunk.

“Okay, I guess back to Manassah,” I said. “I need to change.”

As I spoke, I turned the TacNet headset back on.

The emergency communication alert squealed.

“Farrell, where the hell have you been? I need you here urgently.”

“Gray, the hunt is supposed to be stood down.”

“It’s not that.”

He gave me an address uptown and killed the connection without answering any more of my questions.

Chapter 65

“The problem is that fucking cowboy.” The guy screaming at me was one of Verano’s pack, and he’d pissed me off before he’d even finished the sentence. The irony of calling Gray a cowboy just spiced it up. The man was pointing up at the second floor of the building from where we stood at the base, next to a door that Gray had apparently been able to open and close behind him. Also apparently without setting the alarm off. I needed to talk to this guy.

Alex growled softly behind me, unhappy at the shouting.

“Where’s Verano?” I said, quietly, forcing them to lower their voices.

The man himself emerged around the side of the building. He’s ditched the fashion designer outfit. He and his pack were wearing everyday work clothes with bulky parkas and snow boots. I wondered what weapons they had beneath those parkas.

“I wondered if you’d show up,” he said.

“You just wondered rather than calling me?”

He shrugged casually. “It would have been premature until we caught him.”

“Caught him at what?”

“While we were out searching, Gray’s been talking to the Matlal Athanate.”

“Is that so?” I’d had a feeling that was what this was about. “And you know this how?”

“We spotted him with her. One of the Matlal Athanate.”

“You just happened to spot him,” I said. “Hell, that’s lucky.” I had no idea where this was going but I trusted Gray much more than I trusted Verano. And Gray had called me here.

“So? We were following him,” Verano said. “It didn’t impact on our job.”

Verano’s pack was milling around behind him. The man himself maintained a calm face, but I could feel the Verano Call, seething like marsh gas.

His animosity was feeding into the Call and affecting the whole pack. Couldn’t he sense what he was doing? How had he gotten such a recommendation from the Athanate on the Eastern Seaboard?

“And talking to one is talking to them all?”

He ignored my jibe. “Why are you on his side?”

“I’m not, but I’d like to hear what he has to say first, not judge him guilty immediately.”

“You’re claiming we’re lying?”

A ripple passed through his pack, and I felt their Call. It was angry. It felt unbalanced, as if it was the sort of anger that was just looking for an excuse, any excuse, to blow.

“No. But I’m sure you don’t know the whole truth. That’s what I intend to find. In the meantime, I’m pissed you’ve been acting on your own without informing me.”

Verano grunted. “Well, you can ask them yourself now. She’s in there with him.”

I looked up at the building and its neighbors. Standard office blocks, packed in too close together. I thought about what I would do.

“She may have gone in, but I doubt she stayed long,” I said to Verano. “I think you’ve been suckered.”

That was stupid of me, given how worked up the whole Verano pack was about this, but I’d had enough of talking to him.

I flicked the TacNet. “Gray, let me in.”

“Just you,” he said.

“Just me.” I held the door and turned to Verano. “Back off.”

He walked back to join his pack. They fell into a hushed conversation and my trust of them found a new low.

The electronic lock on the door clicked open.

“Alex, watch them, please. Call me on the TacNet if there’s a problem.”

“Will do.” His voice got quieter. “I don’t trust Verano either.”

“Yeah, but how much of that is because of my attitude? Are you picking that up from me? Like his pack is wired into his attitude toward Gray?”

He shook his head. “Packs shouldn’t react like that unless he encourages them. I’m not just channeling everything you think.”

“Good.” I caught myself brushing against him unconsciously, and tried to focus. “What are you carrying?” I’d seen him load up from his SUV before Olivia took it. I’d arranged for her to stay with Tullah and her family for safety at the moment.

He held his jacket half open, letting me see one of the ugly P90s he must have borrowed from David or Pia.

“Be careful.” Alex let the door close behind me and leaned against it, somehow managing to look both tense and relaxed.

I was standing in a lobby. The streetlights outside barely shone through the smoked glass windows, but I could see the location of the stairwell from the illuminated exit signs. I made my way up mostly by feel to the second floor. I was aware that Gray was watching me when I started on the stairs, just as I was aware when he left me to it. Presumably to check that no one was creeping up another way.

The second floor was spookily lit by computer screens, all displaying the company’s pale green log-in screen and making the room seem like it was underwater. Movable chest-high partitions created dozens of Dilbert cubicles on my left, leaving a corridor ahead down to a set of double doors.

Gray was a shadow standing against the doors.

I felt the sigh of air currents as he let them close and turned toward me. There was no sign of anyone else, as I suspected. A lingering marque teased my memory. Matlal, yes, but not only that. Still, the Matlal woman had been here and she was now long gone. But he’d waited for me. Interesting.

“Consorting with the enemy, Gray?” I said. “Didn’t think to keep me posted?”

“She’s not the enemy. I think you understand.”

“Why?”

“Because of Larry Dixon.”

Larry’s name still hurt, but I kept my face blank.

“He wasn’t Basilikos,” I said. “He wasn’t even really House Matlal. He was House Romero, acting under compulsion.”

“I know.”

So, we’d both met someone from House Matlal, and I’d been slower to report Larry to Bian than he’d been to report this to me. But that wasn’t at the forefront of my mind.

“If she knows about Larry because she was one of those that tortured and killed him, then I’m not dealing, Gray.”

“I didn’t think you would.” He opened the doors a crack and listened again. “She wasn’t involved. You know her, by the way.”

“Huh?”

“You met her at Cheesman Park.”

“The platinum blonde. Kick-ass martial arts.”

“The same. She wants out, like Larry did.”

I huffed. “She’s been compelled? She’s House Romero?” He could push that Larry button once too often.

“No.” He was quiet for a moment. “I won’t argue her case for her, Farrell, but I’m asking you to talk to her.”

Okay. She was here to trade. What would she want, other than not to be killed? Could I promise even that? Clearly, she was Basilikos and all that went with that. Blood slaves. Feeding on fear.

I would have been happier if I could have simply said no, to have said that Basilikos were beyond the pale. But who was I to point fingers?

I tried to think like Bian would.

“What’s she got to trade?” I asked.

“Locations of others, including the toru.”

It was a good gambit. Toru were an emotional issue all right, and the option of clearing the rest out quickly would go down well with Bian.

“And her own toru?”

“Basilikos don’t own toru privately, toru are owned by the House. She isn’t using toru. More than that, you’ll have to discuss with her.”

“Why did she come to you?”

“She didn’t. I found her.”

Interesting. We had a long talk coming up, Gray and me.

“Okay. It’s enough to talk to her, but I can’t promise that Altau will accept her.”

He shook his head in the darkness. “She’s not appealing to House Altau. She wants to join House Farrell.”

Crap
.

“Freaking hell, Gray. I’m
not
the person she wants to ask for asylum.” The thought of what Naryn would make of this sent shudders through me.

Gray opened his mouth to answer and Alex’s voice came through the TacNet.

“Amber! I think they’ve split up. Some of them drove away, but I think four have gone around the side. Do you want me to come up with you?”

“No. Make sure the others don’t come back.”

“I got it.”

I turned to Gray, but he was already responding. He was listening again through the double doors.

When I moved to join him, he shook his head and pointed at a spot about fifteen yards from the door. He stood to one side, moving surprisingly lightly for a big man.

I understood. I was the distraction. Not the most comfortable thought. I had twelve rounds in my magazine, which was plenty in theory, but things can get difficult in a firefight with paranormals. Verano couldn’t be pushing to kill me though. Surely not? How would he explain that to Bian?

Easy enough to explain it to Naryn.

Gray slipped out of his clothes, stood against the wall and closed his eyes.

I wasn’t getting an eyeful, but he seemed unconcerned anyway. From the way his head bobbed slightly, he might have been listening to his favorite music.

My ears strained to catch the Veranos approaching. They’d calmed down from the over-excited idiocy outside, but I caught a sense of them, their Call, quiet as a breeze slipping through pine woods, a feeling of fierce focus, of being pared down.

I swallowed hard. Whatever Verano had intended when he started, he’d lost control now. What I could sense approaching was a four-man killing machine. Or four-wolf to be more accurate.

My skin tingled with currents. Gray was calling on the energy and some of it was being leeched through me, even though I was fifteen yards away.

Let him do his thing. Concentrate on yours.

I braced and raised the HK. Safety off.

Single shots to wound. Preserve ammunition. Remember there are more of them outside. Keep the shots away from Gray.

Crap, the rest of the Verano pack would go berserk when they knew what was happening in here. I had to warn Alex.

My hair began to float with the force of the energy that Gray was pulling, a witch-wind that stirred and flowed around me.

I caught the scent of Verano. They were here. There was no time to warn Alex.

They didn’t try anything subtle. They gathered behind the door and then they rushed me; four streaks of pale silver death hurtling through the doorway.

It all went slow. I started with the leftmost, furthest from Gray. Tap. Single shot. Difficult to aim for a non-vital spot on a charging wolf. That might be fatal.

One down, three left, eleven rounds.

No time. They’d reach me. I moved, getting ready to roll with the force of their impact. I’d go down but they wouldn’t be able to stop me firing again. I swung the HK to aim at number two.

I didn’t make it.

As the fastest wolf hit me, there was a scream from where Gray had been standing and a shadow streaked out and hammered into the two remaining. All of us tumbled onto the floor. I had no idea where Gray was in this free-for-all, so I didn’t want to shoot again, but I slammed the butt of the HK into my attacker’s skull until his jaws opened and I ripped my left arm out.

I jumped to my feet in time to see a huge cougar hurl one of the wolves into the partitioning, breaking it. The second wolf just backed down with its tail between its legs. A pack could overpower a cougar, but no wolf in its right mind would go one-on-one against the claws and jaws.

Gray screamed again, showcasing his impressive teeth. He was so cool.

I sensed that last wolf was Verano. With him cowed, the fight evaporated from his pack.

I stepped up, the HK pointed at Verano and my voice working on automatic.

“You change back, take your pals and get your pack the freaking hell out of this city, or so help me, we’re going to kill you,” I shouted. I hoped I was getting through to Gray as much as the Veranos. I wanted the Verano pack and their sick alpha out of Denver before they started something else, and I’d prefer to do it without having the deaths of the pack on my conscience. This was Verano’s fault, not his pack.

The two standing changed back, and kept their eyes down as they limped carefully toward their comrades. Only Verano was uninjured, but the other three could walk. The change made their wounds worse, but there didn’t seem to be anything life-threatening.

Gray’s cougar took a slow step back, giving them room.

I made my way around him to the double doors. Their clothes and guns were on the other side. I gathered the guns. They dressed and I watched them slink away, trembling, toward a second set of stairs.

When they’d gone, I went back in and confronted the monstrous cougar. His eyes stared smugly at me. He was over four foot at the shoulder. Must weigh in at over two hundred and fifty.

Damn. How the hell?

“Kitty,” I said, and he blinked at me. “Change back and get dressed now.” I was proud my voice remained level. Pretty much.

“Alex, we’re okay, we’re coming down,” I said into the TacNet and pulled my cell out.

I had to ignore Gray’s pulling energy again. It made me dizzy, but not as dizzy as what I’d just realized.

 I shook my head. I needed to get a team together to answer a question that could nail the rogue, and the snow would make it impossible for them to move through the city.

But there was more than one way to skin the cat, with apologies to present company.

I dialed Matt’s cell, hoping for a miracle. He answered sleepily after a minute.

“Matt,” I said. “Sorry. Is there any way I can get in to Jen’s conference facility right now? I’d need you to talk me through setting up a conference call, too.”