Left for Undead (14 page)

“At first I wasn’t sure, because he never told me.
Then as I sat in the kitchen trying to have some tea to calm down.  
I stared into my cup, thinking, and I saw.” Amy looked between Sasha and
Hunter. “It’s the new house you have built your business in over in the French Quarter.
He went to a shed there.”

“Weapons,” Sasha said, glancing at Hunter. “We have
heavier artillery there than a normal gun shop and it’s closer and has easier
access than the Naval Air Station or the base.”

“No doubt he saw what we saw in New Hampshire,” Hunter
replied in a low rumble. “Let’s just hope we’re not too late.”

“Has the call to arms gone out?” Sir Rodney walked
back and forth along the windowed wall of his war room, looking out of the
leaded beveled glass with his hands clasped behind his back.

“Sent spell-protected by way of the cauldrons of Forte
Inverness to every Seelie Fae magick advisor of the nobles throughout England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland—and all of those present here in the Americas.”
Garth looked at his fellow advisors, waiting on the rail-thin Rupert to set
down food and drink for the monarchs. Garth’s suspicious gaze fell upon Queen
Cerridwen. “And, Your Majesty, should we send a missive to your northern
stronghold so that you may deploy some of
your
resources, as well?”

Queen Cerridwen gave Garth an icy glare but responded
with cool regard. “Trust me, dear Garth, the moment the first Unseelie head
rolled, my resources were fully deployed—and my people are already aware that
we are allied with the Seelie on this. The greater question is, are your people
equally aware of this union?”

Hunter stopped short as he turned off the engine. “Amy
shouldn’t be here, if Shogun has cornered prey.”

“Damn,” Sasha muttered, and then turned around to
stare at Amy. “Half of me wants to tell you to wait here; the other half of me
knows that’s how the innocent always gets killed in a horror movie.”

“Then that settles it: I’m going with you guys,” Amy
said, nervously glancing between Hunter and Sasha.

“All right, but stay on our heels just in case,” Sasha
said, pulling a handheld Uzi out from under the tarp on the backseat.

Hunter had already begun walking toward the house,
stuffing a Glock 9mm in his waistband. Sasha hung back with Amy, visually
casing the house for signs of a struggle or forced entry while Hunter issued a
low, quiet howl to summon Shogun so that they didn’t startle him.

Signaling with two fingers that they should move
forward around the back, Hunter ducked low under the windows and hustled down
the side yard. After a few seconds, Sasha and Amy mimicked his steps and then
waited. The back door was ajar. The shed door was open and the guts of the
alarm system were a jumble of spaghetti wire.

“Shogun!” Hunter called out, leaning against the wall
next to the door frame and then opening the door with a quick side kick.

“Brother?” Shogun called out.

Sasha and Hunter slumped with relief.

“Shogun, I was worried!” Amy shouted, and bolted past
Sasha and Hunter.

Hunter closed his eyes and banged the back of his head
against the wall. “My brother will never forgive us for this, you know that,
right?”

Sasha nodded and placed the safety on her weapon.
“Yeah. But what can you do?”

Hunter stood at the back door as Sasha trudged up the
steps. By the time they got into the darkened house, Amy was hugging Shogun in
the middle of the kitchen floor.

“I was so worried,” she murmured, burying her face
against Shogun’s neck. But he looked over the top of her head at Hunter and
then Sasha with an accusatory glare.

“Did she tell you I was chasing something unseen and
dangerous?” Shogun held Amy protectively for a moment and then stepped away
from her to confront Hunter.

“Yes, Brother.”

“Then why the hell is she here!”

Stepping between the potential combatants, Sasha
intervened. “Because I was trying to talk to Amy and she began telling us about
the invisible entity while driving—and there was no time to double back.”

It was a stretch, but Sasha watched Shogun pace away
from Hunter and rub the nape of his neck.

“My apologies,” Shogun finally said, trying to coax
away his distended upper and lower canines, albeit his eyes still glowed gold
in the darkness.

“Blame it on the moon, man,” Hunter said, trying to
appear casual, but Sasha noticed that the muscles in his shoulders had bulked
in preparation for a wolf fight.

Quiet strangled the room for a few moments and then
Shogun suddenly looked at Sasha and spoke with unexpected candor.

“Did you and Amy have a chance to speak?”

“Uh.  ” Sasha dragged her fingers through
her hair.

“Yes,” Amy said quickly. “Of course.”

“And you’re still here?” Shogun stared at Amy for a
few moments and then walked deeper into the kitchen’s shadows beyond the light
of the moon.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I love you.” Amy walked toward the
darkness, but Shogun held up both hands.

“Don’t,” he murmured. “What Sasha told you is true. Go
home to your parents’ house, especially tonight.”

“Come on,” Sasha said quietly, guilt lacerating her
soul. She so wished she’d had a chance to speak to Amy, but like everything
else in her life, things had happened too quickly. “I’ll take you back while
Hunter and Shogun go after that thing that cruised you. I can catch up with
them later by jumping the shadows.”

Amy shook her head no and continued advancing on
Shogun. But there was something in her walk, something in the attitude that
seemed to possess her entire body that put the three wolves in the room on high
alert.

“I want to hunt it with you,” Amy said in a slightly
deeper voice than normal. “I want to help you kill it.” She stopped in a pool
of moonlight and stretched like a lazy feline would stretch in the sun.

Hunter and Sasha backed up, glancing at Shogun for a
sign of what he wanted to do. But Shogun quickly sidestepped Amy, looking at
them for answers they didn’t have.

“Amy,” Sasha said quickly. “When we talked, you said
you’ve been feeling a lot of the old things you felt when Lady Jung Suk was in
your body, right?” Sasha looked at Shogun, hoping he’d catch her cues.

“Yes,” Amy said, closing her eyes and rubbing her arms
as though to warm herself. “And I could see with her telepathy tonight. I never
could do that before.”

“Are you cold?” Shogun asked, and then turned quickly
to Sasha and Hunter. “The entity that once inhabited her was a snow leopard,
used to the Tibetan climate. Maybe—”

“I’m not cold or possessed,” Amy said with a sultry
chuckle. “Every full moon since Lady Jung Suk temporarily entered my body,
whatever was left after you killed her seemed to get a little stronger.  
and I said nothing because it frightened me so. First it was just an amazing
rush of energy. Then the next moon left me with clarity like I’ve never
known—keen senses. Now, I really can’t say what is happening to me.” Amy opened
her eyes and her once-dark irises were a deep, shimmering gold like that of an
Amur big cat.

“That’s not supposed to happen!” Shogun said, rounding
Amy to stand by Sasha and Hunter. He glanced at them both. “Is it?”

Amy tilted her head, questioning.

“Your eyes. ,” Sasha murmured in awe.

“What about them?” Amy looked from one face to
another.

“She cannot go home to her parents like this,” Hunter
said, keeping his distance.

“Definitely not,” Shogun said, racing between the
counter and the door arch while rubbing the nape of his neck. “She also cannot
be left alone. Who knows what she might do? And this might have been caused by
whatever I was chasing—”

“
We
were chasing, Brother.” Hunter held
Shogun’s gaze. “It cruised Sasha and me up at the cabin in New Hampshire. Sasha
and I went after it, but it also got away. Something that elusive is
potentially demon in nature. Your aunt was infected..   We don’t know
how bad a situation this could truly be, man.”

“You all speak of me as though I’m not here in the
room with you,” Amy said in a too-calm tone.

The three wolves kept their eyes on her as she moved
around the kitchen.

“I’m hungry. Very hungry.” Amy opened the refrigerator
door and then slammed it shut. “There’s nothing here. I have to go out and
hunt.”

“Not a good idea,” Shogun said carefully. “I will hunt
for you and bring you back something—”

“Raw,” Amy said, slowly licking her bottom lip as she
captured Shogun’s gaze and held it.

Shogun swallowed hard. “Absolutely.”

“Brother.   be advised, she could be
infected.” Hunter turned and placed a palm in the center of Shogun’s chest.
“You need more information.”

“Maybe we should bring her to the Sidhe, where they
have, uhm, facilities and a full magick team.   and maybe Silver Hawk
can come, too, so he can divine whether or not she’s been infected?” Sasha
looked between Hunter and Shogun. “But she’s gotta be quarantined in case.  
the less desirable aspects of Lady Jung Suk are also with her.”

“All right,” Amy said calmly with a dangerous smile.
“I like the castle. But I don’t think anything is wrong with me beyond wishing
that I was alone with Shogun right now.”

Amy bolted from the Jeep almost before Hunter had
turned off the engine. He’d driven the vehicle as far as it could go off road,
following a narrow gravel trail that terminated in mud and underbrush. Shogun
was out like a shot behind her, leaving Hunter and Sasha no choice but to grab
the weapons that had been stashed in the vehicle and make a mad dash to follow
them.

Thankfully, Amy stopped at a quarter mile, bent over,
and began panting. Shogun skidded to a halt beside her but then whirled on Hunter
and Sasha when he saw them bringing up the rear with their guns drawn.

“You will not shoot her like she’s some animal!”

“Whoa, whoa,” Sasha said, tilting her weapon up in a
defensive position and holding it so that her finger was nowhere near a trigger.
“This is for the bad guys. The demons out there or Vamps, remember?”

Hunter nodded but only slowly tilted his weapon away
from Amy.

“All right, then don’t forget that Amy is not a demon
or a Vamp. She’s just going through a first moon,” Shogun argued, beginning to
pace between Amy and a nearby tree. “Who among us hasn’t experienced that first
rush?”

“I’m sorry I ran,” Amy said, starting to
hyperventilate. “I feel like I’m burning up. I needed air.” She blotted her
damp forehead with the back of her arm. “I feel like I’m suffocating.”

Hunter approached Shogun cautiously. “Stand downwind
from her,” he said quietly. “You cannot watch her go through this while in your
wolf. You must keep your head and stay in your human, if you’re going to help
her through this.”

Shogun nodded and stepped back but watched Amy with
tears in his eyes as she began to shred her clothes.

“She’s beginning to change, Shogun.” Sasha bit her lip
and looked away for a moment to steady her emotions. “It’s not a normal
transformation like one of us born into our wolf. She’s going into her Were
form but turning like a person bitten.   and virally infected.”

“No!” Shogun shouted, clasping his skull between his
palms. “Give her a chance. See if it’s full-blown. Doc has meds. Silver Hawk
has chants!” He spun on Hunter. “How many times have you and I looked down the
barrel of a gun when everyone thought we were lost to the virus?”

Hunter held up a hand to stay Sasha’s clear shot. “We
will wait. We will watch. But if it becomes inevitable.   Brother, we
will do what we must so that your conscience can be clear.”

“If you murder her and I allow it, my conscience will
never be clear, nor will my soul rest.”

Amy’s wail broke the standoff, jerking everyone’s
attention toward her rapidly changing form. Standing before them half-nude and
shuddering, she tore off her shoes and jeans, shredding the fabric of her bra
and panties, and then dropped to the ground in agony. Shogun rushed forward,
but Hunter caught him by the arm.

“For the sake of your entire pack, your clan, your
federation, you cannot.”

A feral scream made Shogun close his eyes. “But she’s
in such agony.”

“And you and I both know that’s not how we shift when
healthy.”

Shogun’s furtive gaze searched Hunter’s eyes for a
moment before he turned back again to witness what none of them could look away
from any longer. Amy’s once-ivory skin was becoming mottled and stretched as
her spine elongated with her wails. Limbs distended and her skeleton painfully
rearranged itself, cracking and splintering, intensifying her shrieks.

“Merciful Jesus, let me shoot her now, Shogun!” Sasha
yelled, walking closer with her gun cocked.

“No!” Shogun shouted. “I have undergone a hard
transition and I am not a demon! Sasha, remember you vouched for me once when I
looked like this!” He spun around to look at Hunter. “You, Brother, went
against my own men when they were ready to give up on me. Until we have
evidence of an attempted attack or the blood test results back from Doc
Holland, then we wait.”