Green Flame Assassin (Demon Lord series, book 2) (20 page)

He smiled.  “If that’s a court summons from my ex-wife, no thanks.”

The bigger contender for Alpha stood over by Josh.  The wolf’s baleful glower caught Red-tips.  “You know better than to bring them here.  I will speak to you about this later.”

The other contender, a man with dirty blond hair and mean eyes, interrupted.  “
I
will speak to him later, once
I’ve
been confirmed as the new Alpha.”

In my mind, I nicknamed the first contender Big Stupid.  He laughed without amusement.  “That is not going to happen.”

I continued to hold out the envelope.  “I’d read it if I were you.  It’s from your Fenris.”  The title brought a shocked silence.  “Whoever becomes Alpha here will still answer to Achill.”

Red-tips brightened.  I’d just proven myself to be here on wolf business.  Our submissive escort was off the meat hook, so to speak.

Mean Eyes reached out to snatch the envelope. 

The shaman smacked his paw away and took the letter.  He opened it and read silently.

Big Stupid frowned at the shaman.  “Well?”

“The letter identifies its bearer as a personal friend, one Caine Deathwalker, also known as the Red Moon Demon.  We are instructed to render him ‘all assistance.’”  The shaman folded the letter and stuffed it back in the envelope.  He looked at me.  “I will, of course, have to authenticate this.”

I nodded.  “I would.”

Big Stupid was glaring at Josh now.  “I suppose the liger is with you?”

“Yeah, but I’m the one you ought to worry about.”

Josh looked at me, lips twitching with humor.  “You think highly of yourself.”

“Nobody I love more,” I said.

The shaman spoke and the bones in the grass rattled in a threatening manner, “We’ll be in touch.  Meanwhile, if you’ll leave, we have business to wrap up.”

I took the hint, backing away.

Josh paused another moment.  “I don’t care who your next Alpha is.  Walk softly around my cats, and I’ll walk softly around you.  That’s all I came here to say.”

The shaman nodded curtly.  “I wasn’t here when our wolves took your woman, and you ripped out the heart of our Alpha getting her back.  I’d have done the same, but that doesn’t mean I’ll let you get away with it again.”

Big Stupid grinned in an evil sort of way.  “Liger, you did me a favor, opening up a position for me to move into, but don’t expect gratitude.”

Showing no fear, Josh turned his back on the wolves and followed me up the bank.  He spoke over his shoulder, “Where you’re concerned, my expectations are
real
low.”

As we crested the depression, snarls broke out behind us.  We turned to see who’d win.  Big Stupid leaped, coming down with his heavier body, but Mean Eyes pivoted, sliding away.  Not too far away.  His claws lashed out and red, dripping furrows appeared, winding around Stupid’s torso.

Stupid lashed out with a back hand that almost spun Mean Eye’s head clean off.  I winced in mock sympathy.  Mean Eyes spun with the blow, borrowing its energy for a back-fist of his own.  Stupid’s head rocked, a ribbon of red blood flying from his split lips.  The two wolves closed, tearing chunks from each other.   Even with the werewolves’ rapid healing, this wasn’t going to drag on much longer.

Big Stupid stumbled and fell.

With a shout of triumph, Mean Eyes pounced.  Only to impale himself on a splintered piece of thigh bone. 

Big Stupid twisted his improvised knife, and ripped it upward to widen the wound.

Despite what had to be horrible pain, Mean Eyes gestured with clawed fingers.  Wolfen pack magic in the air made my tats tingle, without quite coming awake.  The bone exploded in Big Stupid’s hand like a grenade.  In that moment of distraction, Mean Eyes completed his change to full wolf form.  Such a thing normally takes minutes.  For it to happen so quickly meant that Mean Eyes had wrested the pack magic to himself, leaving nothing for Big Stupid to use.

A wave of crushing power rolled off Mean Eyes. 

The shaman dropped to his knees and bowed in submission.

Big Stupid resisted, fighting to advance against the unseen current.  The pack magic wrapped around Stupid, crushing his arms to his side, driving his face into the ground.  Mean Eyes leaped and bit the fallen man’s neck, severing vertebrae with a loud crunch.  Bigger than a normal wolf, Mean Eyes used his grip to whip his opponent over.  The transformed wolf stared, nothing more, but Big Stupid’s choking breaths stopped.  His eyes clouded in death, going dull.  The only thing that made sense to me was that Mean Eyes had used pack magic to keep the fallen wolf from healing, opening the door to death.

“Well, I guess that settles that,” Josh said.  “Now we know who we’ll be dealing with.”

“Saw it coming,” I said.  “It’s always the small ones you have to watch out for.”

Josh looked me over.  “I’ll remember that.”

Red-Tips had watched beside us.  He turned to us now.   “You guys ready to go, or what?”

“Sure, I can use a drink.”  As we headed back into the oak, I shot Josh a sidelong glance.  “Know a good place?”

“The Zone,” he said.  “A lot of shape-shifters hang there.  Good food.”

We retraced our path back past the ranch house.  Vivian was waiting out in the open for us.  Her clothes now stank of old death.  She’d been inside the house.  From the white, tight look of her face, I figured she had
hella
bad news to tell us.  She fell in as we went by with our escort.  At one point she started to say something.

I held up a hand.  “Later.”  The wolves had heightened senses.  They already knew where she’d been.  What they didn’t know was what conclusions she’d drawn, and what we’d do next.  I wanted to keep things that way for a while.

She nodded.

We passed the two cabins, and went on without the wolves around us.  The female wolf from the cabin was back outside on her porch.  I caught her eyes as we went by.  They were dark with knowledge, full of secrets she didn’t want.  Vivian’s eyes were like that now.  Something very bad was going on, something I wouldn’t like.  I’d have to come back later, alone, under magical concealment to check this out in more detail.

I really do need a drink
.

I stopped by the Jag sedan I’d come in.  Josh started toward the back passenger door.  I stopped him with a hand in his path, turning my head to Vivian. “Someone may have messed with it while we were gone.  None of us are without enemies.”

Josh gave me a knowing look.  “Bomb.”

I shrugged.  “Maybe, they didn’t know we were coming and haven’t had time to get too fancy, but even cut brakes would be a problem.”

Vivian said, “I’ll check it out.”

“Wait.”  I invited a moment of intense, soul-searing agony, activating my
Dragon Sight
tattoo.  My mind flared with heightened clarity, my senses on overdrive.  Nothing felt
wrong
except…  There was something under the car that radiated an amber feeling of threat, but not outright danger.  I told Vivian where to look, as I stared back toward the two cabins.  All the wolves were gone, but I knew they were still watching, listening.  Vivian took her time, doing a thorough search under the car, checking the brakes and fuel lines.  She finished up, brushing her knees off, and returned to me. 

She held out a small black box with a blinking red LED on it.  “This was under the back bumper.”

Josh studied it.  “Transmitter.  Someone wants to know where you go while in town.”

“The wolves?” Vivian said.

I shrugged again.  “Can’t say for sure; the car is borrowed.  Someone might have been keeping track of Mason.”  I moved to the driver’s door and opened it.  “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Where,” Vivian opened the door behind the driver.  Josh circled to the other side.  We all slid in, slamming our doors.  I turned on the radio to make it difficult for the wolves around here to hear us.

I said, “This is no good.  It’s been over an hour since my last drink.”

“Oh, heavens,” Vivian said, “the world just might end.”

I slipped the transmitter in a pocket.
Might be fun to see who shows up following this bad boy around.

FOURTEEN

I don’t mind being dead drunk,

but I draw the line at dead.

                                              
—
Caine Deathwalker

Intent on hooking up with the werekitties, Kat headed off in her VW bug.  Vivian, Josh and I drove to Old Sac where we treaded the dusty boardwalks with shoppers and tourists from the outer reaches of the Sacramento area.  A couple blocks from the waterfront with the riverboats and the fancier restaurants, the crowds thinned quite a bit. 

Soft-voiced, Vivian said, “I can’t get over that house.  All those street people drained of blood, dumped like emptied juice boxes.  It wasn’t the wolves.  They’d have eaten the flesh.  And no scent from the killer or killers on the bodies—”

“Magically wiped clean,” Josh said.

I said, “Wolves could have cleaned up with pack magic, or maybe they’ve allied themselves with a new player.”

“Or a new faction from among the old players,” Vivian said.  “That Mason sought you out privately could indicate a dhampyr splinter group with him at the head.”

“Maybe.”  I didn’t want to voice my real concern just yet, that the wolves had brought stray vampires into their territory to strengthen their power base. 
Vamps drink blood.  So do dhampyr.  And the dark ones among the fey.  We need to eliminate some of the suspect groups.  But for now…

We came across a wooden buffalo outside one store.  I insisted Josh use his phone and get a picture of me riding the beast.  “For my blog,” I explained.  There’s a
shadow web
in a corner of cyberspace only supernaturals know of, hopefully. 
Even there, I am a legend.