Lost (42 page)

"Acceptable
losses."

Celeste looked
like she was going to rip her brother's head off, but I grabbed her
hand so that I could hold her back if necessary.

"And what
happens if you bleed out while you're sitting there waiting for Onyx
to show himself? You'd never buy off on such a hit-and-miss plan if
our roles were reversed, Ash. You need to go get fixed up. Go to a
hospital, or at least get your hands on enough blood to survive if
you start bleeding again. Once you're not at risk anymore you can
reach out to your contacts and start putting a plan together, one
that will let you take down Onyx and his guys at the same time that
you get Celeste and her people out."

"You're
making this an either-or choice, Isaac. Isn't there any way we can
get them and you all out?"

"Yeah, I
go in and win my fight. It's not a guarantee, but I honestly believe
that I have a chance of accomplishing my mission. I learned some
things while I was with Set, things that Onyx doesn't understand,
things that he won't see coming."

I'd very
carefully not said that I had a chance of winning. I wasn't that good
a liar. Ash and Celeste both should have seen through my attempt at
deception, but desperate people are naturally prone to believe that
there is a way out, a magic bullet that will solve all of their
problems. They bought it and first Ash and then Celeste finally
nodded.

"Okay. If
this is really what you want to do, then I won't keep trying to stop
you."

I gripped Ash's
arm and smiled. "This is definitely what I want to do."

No lie needed
there.

Celeste got the
boat moving again, and less than five minutes later I was helping
offload Kristin and Ash's bags onto an old wooden dock. I unzipped
Ash's duffle and slipped my tablet into it.

"Everything
you need to get started is in here, but give Jasmin a call before you
get started, she might have a plan that will work even better for
finding Dream Stealer."

"Thanks,
Isaac."

"You're
welcome. Are you going to be okay with all of this stuff and Kristin
at the same time?"

"Yeah,
I'll call a cab and take her over to a motel so she's safe while I go
out and secure transportation."

Ash turned to
Celeste and looked at her for several seconds before shrugging. "I'm
sorry about the way that I left all of those years ago. I couldn't
stay there and be everyone's punching bag, but I shouldn't have
involved Bennet like I did."

Celeste stepped
out of the boat and walked over to where she could give Ash a hug.
"I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't hate you for
leaving, but it makes it easier to know that you weren't off sipping
drinks on a beach somewhere. You've turned yourself into someone who
has a chance of taking down an entire pack with the right help and
some planning, and that counts for something in my book. I hope that
Isaac wins and there's no need for you to put your plan into motion,
but it will make things a little easier knowing that you're out there
ready to back me up if it comes to it."

Ash watched as
we motored off, and then just before the shoreline hid him from view,
reached down and picked Kristin back up from the bench where she'd
been resting.

The rest of the
trip went by in a flash and then we were pulling up to an artificial
shoreline of earth behind a retaining wall of rocks. I recognized one
of the guys waiting at the floating wooden dock. His scent was the
same, even now when he was in human form.

The house was
remarkably secluded, which was about what I'd expected to find. It
meant that there were fewer nosey neighbors around to notice if
someone slipped up and transformed out in plain view. It also meant
that Ash would have plenty of spots to pick from when it came to
stationing snipers around the perimeter of the property.

I turned to
Celeste as she cut the engine and let us coast the rest of the way
in.

"Do you
trust me?"

"Yeah,
more than I should, probably, but so far you've always managed to
come through."

I gave her a
smile, but maintained my distance. It wouldn't do to give Onyx any
idea that we had feelings for each other. He'd be quick to exploit
that kind of weakness.

"Just
follow my lead then and try not to look surprised."

I turned
towards the closest of Onyx's men and tossed him the free end of the
mooring rope. "Tie that off and then take us to see Onyx."

He let the rope
fall to the wooden dock at his feet. "I don't take orders from
you."

I was wearing
the jeans and t-shirt that I'd gone into the swamp wearing, which
made me happy. I wasn't going to get a chance to wear them again, but
I would have hated destroying any of the clothes Set had given me.

I could pick up
new jeans anywhere, but the clothes that the lamias had made were one
of a kind.

I flashed an
easy smile at Onyx's man as I stepped out of the boat and onto the
deck. He shot me a frown in return, but even so he wasn't expecting
what came next.

I shifted to
hybrid form in a roar of power and shoved my hand into his chest.

Most people,
even shape shifters have to work themselves up to a fight. There is a
predictable series of steps that anyone other than a psychopath or
someone expecting trouble has to go through in order to commit real,
bone-shattering violence. There are even more steps that most people
have to go through in order to actually kill someone.

That's why
normal people are usually so shocked when things turn deadly. If
you're not in a frame of mind that would allow you to hurt someone,
then on some level it's hard to believe that anyone else is in that
state of mind.

I'd moved
through all of those steps on the trip to Celeste's house. I didn't
have to dehumanize Onyx and his men, I just had to accept the fact
that they were evil and the only way to save Celeste and her people
was to kill the New Orleans hybrids at the slightest provocation.

My attack
caught Onyx's man off guard. He'd only just started shifting when my
claws pierced his flesh. I let his body drop down onto the dock and
took a step towards the second guy, who'd just finished transforming.

"Are you
insane? You're a dead man. Even if Onyx wasn't planning on killing
you before he'll make an example of you now. The Coun'hij has
forbidden fights out in the open."

"I don't
care about the Coun'hij, they're a petty bunch of children who are
about to be swept aside and replaced with a new order. I asked to be
conducted to Onyx and your fellow refused me. Will you at least
deliver a message for me, or must I kill you as well and go looking
for your
master
myself?"

"Stay
here. I'll go get him."

"Really? I
care little for such things myself these days, but you seemed alarmed
at the fact that I was in this form. Would you not rather I wait
inside of your hovel?"

I waved for
Celeste and Jax to follow me and set off towards Celeste's ancestral
home, driving Onyx's man ahead of me the way a wolf drives a calf
along before it.

Jax tied the
boat off and then grabbed my bag before hurrying after Celeste, but I
registered all of that based on the sounds coming from behind me. My
eyes never left the enemy hybrid, who was still backing away from me
so quickly that it was all he could do to avoid tripping over his own
feet.

Once we arrived
at the massive plantation-style house, the hybrid once again ordered
us to stay put as he ran deeper inside to find someone else to help
him deal with us.

"Celeste,
where am I most likely to find Onyx?"

"He spends
most of his time in my father's study."

"Lead the
way."

She set off at
a pace that was fast enough that I figured we had a chance of making
it to the study before more of Onyx's people showed up, but she was
careful not to break into a run. That was good, appearances were
everything right now.

It turned out
that Onyx wasn't in his study when we arrived, so I went in and sat
down at his desk, a massive oak number that was the equal of anything
I'd seen back at Graves Manor. Celeste's eyes got big, but she didn't
say anything. Jax looked like he was about to have a coronary.

Onyx stormed
into the room less than two minutes later, eyes flashing.

"Who the
hell… Seriously? A piss-ant two-bit hybrid like you is all
that I get? My guy was talking like the reincarnation of Jaldul
himself had just stormed into the house. I should have known that it
was just another stupid poser."

I could see his
eyes start to tighten up in a signal that he was about to use his
ability on me, but I held up one hand.

"You're
going to want to hear what I have to say."

"Why, have
you decided to beg for your sorry life?"

"Hardly.
I'm here for two reasons. The first is to tell you that Celeste, her
brother Ash, Jax and the rest of the submissives in this pack are
under the protection of his royal highness, Alec Graves. Any
mistreatment of them will bring down judgment upon your head and the
heads of your men."

"Surely
you're joking. I could kill you all and there wouldn't be a single
thing Graves could do to stop me."

"He
doesn't need to stop you, he's more than happy to give you the
freedom to choose your actions, but if you harm any of us then you'll
wish for death when he finally comes for you."

"Torture
hardly sounds like something a Graves would do."

"King Alec
isn't just any Graves, he's someone whose father was killed by your
allies, he's someone whose home was just burned to the ground in a
failed attack on him by Puppeteer."

"He
doesn't sound like much of a king to me. I wouldn't have lost my
house if it had been me."

A trickle of
guys had joined the two who had arrived with Onyx. I let my eyes scan
past each of them, and then gave Onyx a cold smile.

"I
understand that you feel a need to posture in front of your men, but
every person here knows that a force of nearly two dozen werewolves
accompanied by the same number of Coun'hij enforcers would have torn
through your entire pack in minutes. Rather than preen, you should be
thinking of the fact that after the initial surprise, King Alec
destroyed all of the hybrids and all of the remaining werewolves
without losing a single man. Your abilities are considerable, but
you're just as powerless against werewolves as any of your men."

I looked around
the office and shook my head. "You know, I think if you were to
just surrender to him there is even a chance that he'll allow you to
keep this house rather than just burning it to the ground."

"I've
heard enough."

"Very
well, then I challenge you for control of this pack."

That caught him
off guard. He'd thought that I was trying to run some kind of
colossal bluff in the hopes that he would be scared enough to let me,
Celeste and the others go.

I smiled. "I've
surprised you. What you fail to understand is that King Alec is my
liege. He ordered me to deliver my message in such a way as to make
sure that you understood what you are up against."

"How is me
effortlessly killing you going to show me anything of importance?"

"I am one
of the least of those in the King's court, surely you know this. And
yet I am willing to lay my life down simply to deliver a message for
him. Surely even you have an idea of the kind of loyalty required to
do something like that. If you fail to heed my words then the
best-case scenario is that the King is too busy to see to you
himself. If that is the case then you will simply be faced with a
never-ending stream of steadily more powerful hybrids who are happy
to sacrifice themselves if necessary to see the King's justice done."

Something
flickered in the back of Onyx's eyes. He didn't understand what was
going on, but he could tell that I wasn't lying, and that was
frightening to him. He knew how he motivated his men, but he wasn't
familiar with anything that would have made his guys willing to die
for him in a fight they knew they couldn't win.

That was
baffling enough, but I'd just told them that Alec would bring exactly
that kind of fight to their doorsteps if they harmed any of us.

I could hear
the hybrids in the back of the crowd shifting from one foot to the
other. I had them worried. I even thought that maybe I'd managed to
succeed in bluffing Onyx right up until Nicolas pushed his way into
the room.

"I
couldn't care less about his tiny little king, but if you're going to
let this one challenge you then I want to have the pleasure of
killing him."

It was over.
The fear that I'd felt spreading through the rank and file
evaporated. As dangerous as Nicolas was, everyone in the room knew
that he was nothing compared to Onyx. If Nicolas wasn't scared then
there was no reason for Onyx to be scared. As long as they were
serving Onyx they were untouchable.

The one
remaining hope was that I could manage to beat Nicolas. I knew I
couldn't beat Onyx, but if I—self-admittedly the weakest of
Alec's hybrids—took Nicolas down then it would put some fear
back in them. It might even be enough.

I hadn't risen
from my place behind Onyx's desk. Now I looked up at Nicolas and
smiled. "You have no idea how glad I am to be able to kill you
in the service of my king."

Another rumble
of astonishment crept through the room. They'd probably never seen
anyone so unworried at the prospect of fighting Nicolas. In the tiny
pond that was New Orleans, he was the man to beat, the guy that was
second only to Onyx.

I'd managed to
orchestrate nearly everything about our confrontation so far and Onyx
knew that he needed to regain a measure of control.