Riven (21 page)

I
flipped to the second page and a low whistle escaped me. "Group
paralysis. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

Jaclyn
found the entry I was looking at and frowned. "So you're saying
that Grayson is part of the ghost pack?"

"No,
that's what I thought at first too, but when you look at the heat map
of the sightings you see that there are two epicenters. Grayson might
be part of the ghost pack, but it's more likely that he's part of
this second group which I think is based somewhere in Florida."

My
beast chose that moment to act up, but I got ahead of it and stopped
it from completing the transformation. I wouldn't have expected a
casual observer to have understood the sudden flash of anger, but
Tasha surprised me with her bitter smile.

"Exactly,
we've been doing this to ourselves. There is a goldmine of
information out there but the various packs have never trusted each
other enough to pull it together into anything useful. The Coun'hij
has kept control over our entire race simply by keeping us at each
other's throats."

I
made a throwing-away gesture. "We're doing what we can to change
that but it's going to take some time. I'll talk to Grayson and see
if I can get some kind of confirmation out of him as to which group
he's in, but for now let's assume that Grayson isn't part of the
ghost pack, and that his group is the one in Florida. Where does that
leave us?"

"Flying
mostly in the dark, if I'm totally honest with you. Grayson's group
is the one that is the most active, so I have more data on them, but
even that isn't saying much."

It
had taken me longer than it should have, but I was getting the hang
of how she'd organized the data. I flipped back to the list of powers
and found the section that dealt with the ghost pack.

"These
two are the important ones. Tracking and speed. The speed guy is the
pack's alpha."

Jaclyn
looked at me consideringly. "What makes you think so?"

"Every
rumor I've heard has been in agreement that the alpha of the ghost
pack is unbeatable. Some of these powers are impressive, but none of
them are as dangerous as pure unadulterated speed."

Tasha
didn't look convinced. "Some of these are pretty intense, Alec.
I've got everything from invisibility to some kind of Jedi mind
control. Do you really think speed trumps all of that?"

"You're
right, some of this stuff is more powerful, but your average shape
shifter doesn't think that way. I'm not talking two-minute-mile fast,
I'm talking you-never-even-see-the-blow-coming fast. If someone was
really that fast they could kill me or Grayson, or even your mom,
before we could even react."

Jaclyn
frowned, not at my explanation, but at the implications. She'd been
the king of the hill for decades, but new threats were practically
falling out of the sky these days.

"You
wanted me here because you're sending me in against that?"

I
gave her a tired smile. "I'm not asking you to go in and kill
the entire pack singlehandedly, but yes, you're my best bet for
finding them."

"What
if they decide that they don't want to just talk? If this guy is as
fast as you think he is then I won't even stand a chance."

I'd
known that Jaclyn was probably going to bring that point up, and I'd
been debating the best response for a couple of days now.

"I
have it on good authority that you haven't reached the extent of what
your power could actually be. I think that you should spend some time
trying to expand what you're capable of. If you generate a standing
field and make it strong enough, then anyone physically attacking you
would be knocked down. It wouldn't matter how fast he was."

I
could see the wheels turning in her head. My statement wasn't proof
that Mallory was still alive. It was always possible that she'd told
Donovan before she'd been killed and that he'd then passed the
information on to me. It was possible, but it was incredibly unlikely
and Donovan said that there had been rumors for years that Mallory
hadn't actually been killed when Agony had come to town.

"How
good is your authority?"

"It's
extremely good authority, Jaclyn, and that's all that I can tell you
for now."

She
considered my response for several seconds before nodding. "Okay.
I'll go. How much help are you going to send along with me?"

"I'm
open to requests."

"Okay,
let me spend the afternoon thinking about it. I'll get back to you
tonight with a proposal and we can get started first thing tomorrow."

I
stood and shook her hand before she left. "Thank you for doing
this, Jaclyn. This is incredibly important. We need to find the
Coun'hij and we need to find them soon. Best case you find this
tracker guy and he tells us exactly where to find Puppeteer and the
rest. If you can't find him and recruit him to our cause then I've
either got to get my hands on a southerner who can track and then
lure one of the Coun'hij into place so that he can track them, or
I've got to hope that the Coun'hij makes a mistake that will let us
track them back using more conventional means."

"I
understand. I'll do my very best."

It
wasn't until after Jaclyn had been gone for nearly a minute that
Tasha stood up and walked over to my desk.

"So
what do I do now?"

"Keep
doing what you've been doing. With any luck we should have more packs
joining us in the next few days. I want you to continue to correlate
as much information as you can and stay in touch with your mom so
that she's as well armed as possible."

"What
about after that?"

I
sighed and put down her report. "I meant what I said, Tasha.
I'll keep you in an advisory position and make sure that you're not
sucked into all of the petty dominance crap."

"And
if I want more than that?"

"You're
not my slave, Tasha. If you want something else then go for it. I'm
not going to stop you."

"What
if what I want is you?"

"That's
just as much off the table now as it was the last time we talked. I
love Adri and that isn't going to change. Find someone who can love
you like you deserve."

She
shook her head at me. "I'm not stupid. Any idea that love might
enter into things went by the wayside a little while ago. When I
marry it will be because I've finally found someone who can protect
me from all of the threats out there."

"There's
more than just physical security to a relationship, Tasha."

"Not
for me there isn't."

Jasmin Bianchi
Sanctuary Airport
Sanctuary, Utah

The
estate was a complete zoo, but that was all magnified a hundred fold
here in the hangars where both of Alec's planes were housed when they
weren't in the air. Donovan, and Ash were doing the best they could
to make sure that all of the logistics were running smoothly, but
there was no way to organize an operation of this size without a few
hiccups along the way.

There'd
been plenty of debate about whether or not to believe Dominic's
contact, but in the end Alec had decided that it was just too good of
an opportunity to pass up, so we were headed to the other circle on
Dom's map and we were going loaded for bear.

Alec
was staying to protect the non-combatants, who included more than
just Addison, Andrew, Rachel, Adri and his mom these days. He'd flown
all of the non-fighters in to Sanctuary and he was keeping a handful
of wolves and hybrids back to help him hold down the fort, but
everyone else was gearing up for the largest excursion since shortly
after the border wars when we'd kicked the cats back down into South
America.

Jaclyn
had disappeared a couple of days ago, but I was pretty sure that
she'd been sent off on some kind of mission by Alec. She wouldn't
have been much if any extra use if we were really going up against
werewolves like we were expecting to, but it still would have been
nice to have her along. She'd seen more combat than just about any of
the other alphas. A couple of the other border packs had mixed things
up just as much against the cats, but Jaclyn's pack was the only one
that had been so active when it came to hunting down werewolves.

Even
without the ability to drop them with a million volts of electricity,
she still would have been a definite asset to have around. Instead we
were going in with old-fashioned muscle power to deal with any
werewolves and Grayson to back us up if this turned out to be some
kind of trap.

I
knew Alec wanted to be in on the fight, but I couldn't argue with the
logic that kept him here in Sanctuary and sent Grayson out in his
place. Alec was good, but once he dropped a group of shifters then he
was the only one who could go in and put them down without being
caught up in the draining effect of his ability.

Grayson
on the other hand was selective enough that he could drop a dozen or
so of the bad guys and keep them down while the rest of us delivered
the coup de grâce. Even so, I would have felt a lot better if
it had been Alec with us rather than Grayson. The terrible trio had
always seemed a little bit off to me, but Grayson was far and away
the most creepy of the three. There had been something about the way
he'd acted after the fights with the cats that had rubbed me the
wrong way. I'd never seen anyone so emotionless, especially not after
telling someone else that they'd been ready to sacrifice them.

Isaac
wasn't the controlled pillar he'd been in years past, but even at his
best he'd never been like this. Grayson hadn't just been controlled,
he'd been a blank slate. I couldn't think of anything more unnatural,
not for a shape shifter. Emotion was what drove us. Intellect might
direct our routes, but it was emotion that kept us going in the face of
odds that would make most humans give up and die.

I
still didn't know what Grayson's deal was, but there was something
very off about him.

Somebody
was making a bunch of noise over by the main entrance. I didn't have
to check and recheck my gear like Ash and a couple of the others, so
I drifted over to see what all of the excitement was about. I was
beyond bored. Once we hit the ground and the fur and fangs were
flying then I'd be missing the boredom, but right now I was even
willing to listen to some of the ridiculous drama going on in the
pack lately if it would break up the monotony.

Wyatt
was standing in the doorway arguing with Carson. Grayson was watching
impassively from a few feet away, which was yet another oddity. No
dominant hybrid should watch quite so calmly when one of his guys was
defying orders, even if the orders weren't actually his orders.

"Rex
agreed to stay and watch Rachel, so there isn't any good reason for
me to sit this one out."

"You
know very well why you should be sitting this fight out. You have
responsibilities that you shouldn't be forgetting."

"That's
crap and you know it. I could get offed tomorrow and it wouldn't make
one damn bit of difference."

"You
agreed to obey Alec's orders. He told you to stay at the estate."

"I
already know that Alec assigned me as a babysitter specifically
because you asked him to keep me out of the exciting stuff. I just
told him that Rex would watch the kids and he told me it was up to
you two, so here I am."

Carson
didn't look happy, but he also didn't seem willing to lay all of his
cards on the table, not with everyone else around at least.

"Think
of what your grandfather would say."

"He'd
say that our line should have died out centuries ago."

Wyatt
pushed past Carson as he spoke and apparently his shot succeeded
because neither Carson or Grayson made any motion to stop him.

It
was pretty apparent that the show was over, so I drifted back to the
far corner of the hangar where I'd been sitting before Wyatt
showed up. It had the benefit of being far enough out of the way that
most people had been leaving me alone.

My
thoughts lapsed back into their normal, well-worn grooves once I was
back by myself. I already knew that there wasn't a single thing I
could do to help Ben at this point, but that didn't stop me from
banging my head against that particular wall over and over again.

It
was darkly funny when you got right down to it. Ben had left town
because I'd addicted him to my touch. It hadn't been on purpose, and
I hadn't had any other choice, at least not one that kept him alive,
but he hadn't been able to deal with it.

What
he hadn't realized was that he'd addicted me years before any of that
had happened. I'd spent years trying to get him to just stop moving
around so that I could sit him down and get him to listen to me, and
now he was finally stuck in one place and I still couldn't talk to
him. Rather I could talk to him, but it wasn't doing any good.

I
was mentally reviewing the results of his last test when I heard
someone behind me. I spun around and had Rachel up against the wall
with my hand on her throat before I realized who I was dealing with.

"Rach,
how did you even get here?"

The
question was pure habit. I didn't really expect an answer out of her.
These days she mostly just ignored all of us.

"Rex
is nice, but he's not the brightest cookie out there. I lost him
twenty minutes ago. Once he was out of the picture it was easy to
steal the keys to my car and the key to the back door here."

"Don't
you mean brightest lightbulb?"

Her
shrug didn't fool me. She was smiling because she was yanking my
chain.

"I
don't have much longer, Jasmin. Alec's looking for me already."

"You're
right, he's probably freaking out by now. We should call him and tell
him that you're okay."