Secret of the Wolf (21 page)

“Rand, there are all kinds of things you could have chosen to believe in, like honor, courage, and virtue, which mean more than money and power. That money and power mean nothing if you’ve sacrificed your integrity for them. And, maybe most important, that good
always
wins over evil. Always.” She stared down at him. Lifting a hand, she stroked the hair at his temple. “Those are things worth believing in, aren’t they?”

“Maybe.” His breath rattled in his throat. “What if I needed more? I’ve never been strong like you. Independent, not caring what other people think of you.
I
care. I wanted to have someone, just one person, look at me and say, ‘There goes a man who’s made a difference.’”

“Instead, you’ve helped increase the tension between humanity and the rest of us. You’ve probably cost me my job.” She held up her wrist to show him the silver wrapped around it. “And you hurt people I care about.”

He didn’t seem fazed by her accusation or by her current predicament. He ran his tongue over his dry lips. “But in the end the cop and his sister are fine, aren’t they? I mean, they didn’t die. And you, you’re good at a lot of things. You’ll be able to get another job. Me, on the other hand…Stefan’s been in touch with people in the other dimension. Additional holding cells are being built and criminals of all species are ready to be stripped of their bodies so they can start new lives here on Earth. There’ll be even more of us.”

“New lives? Or will they just keep doing what they’ve been doing, only in a new place?” She could hardly believe what she was hearing. How had all of this been going on under her nose and she’d had no clue?

“Stefan told me I would be a leader when the next Influx happened.” His eyes held pleading. “There isn’t a whole lot I’m good at. But making people like us…” His eyes took on the shine of fanaticism. “That was something I could do.” Pride joined the madness. “And I was good at it, wasn’t I? None of you had a clue who the rogue was.” A slight smile curled his lips, before his eyes fluttered then closed, and he slumped in her arms.

Her heart stuttered, but then she saw his chest moving. She blew out a sigh of relief. Even though he’d done terrible things, she didn’t want him to die, though that outcome would most likely come about once the council rendered their verdict. He was still her brother, and she loved him.

“We know who the rogue is now, don’t we?” she whispered, fighting back tears. “So in the end you weren’t good at that, either.”

She sat with her unconscious brother, two burly bodyguards standing behind her, and waited for the ambulance.

T
he next morning, Dante woke from a restless sleep with a crick in his neck from sitting in a chair at Lily’s bedside. Seeing that she still slept, he rose as quietly as he could and stretched, biting back a groan as stiff muscles protested the movement. He stared at his sister. The bruises on her face were gone, the split lip healed. She looked as if nothing had happened.

Except she had been forever changed. And he, he would go on as before. Human, with a finite life span. The knowledge had eaten away at him ever since the doctor had confirmed Lily’s transition just after midnight, though Dante and Lily had both known it before then. His sister had taken the news better than he had, and in the light of day, he had to admit it could have been worse.

She could be dead. At least now she’d be around a long, long time.

He used the bathroom and then washed his hands. He splashed cold water on his face and rinsed his mouth out. When he came out of the lavatory, Lily was awake. “Good mornin’,” he said, sitting on the mattress beside her. “How’re you feelin’?”

Her smile was more carefree than he’d seen it in a long while. “I feel great.” Her smile faded. “But you look like crap. Have you been here all night?”

“Thanks. And, yeah, I have.” He took her hand in his. “I couldn’t go home until I knew you were gonna be all right.”

“I’m gonna be fine, Dante. I can feel it.” She turned her head to stare out the window. “It’s terrifying and wonderful at the same time.” She looked at him, her eyes dark and wide. “It’s a little creepy to be honest, but I know I’ll be okay.”

“Do you…feel different?” He couldn’t contain his curiosity. Not too long ago he’d thought perhaps he’d be going through this same thing, after all.

She tilted her head to one side, considering, then her gaze met his again. “Everything looks brighter. Smells are crisper, and my sense of touch…” She turned her hand over to grip his. “It’s almost like I can feel the ridges in your fingertips.”

“That particular sense will fade soon.”

Dante turned toward the voice from the doorway. It was Ash.

“You’ll keep your enhanced sense of smell and vision, and wait until you eat something for the first time…” The werewolf liaison gave a brief smile. “Your sense of taste, well, you’ll be amazed.” He looked at Dante. “Can I talk to you for a minute? In private?”

“Sure.” Dante glanced at Lily. With a squeeze of her fingers, he said, “I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here,” she said with a smile.

He went with Ash down to the end of the hallway. “What’s up?” Dante asked.

“I want to talk to you about a couple of things.” Ash leaned one shoulder against the wall. “First off, how’s your sister?”

Dante lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Physically she’s fine. The wounds are gone and she’s in no pain. Emotionally, she seems to be adjusting surprisingly well.”

“It happens that way sometimes. It’ll hit her a little later and she’ll have second thoughts.” Ash held Dante’s gaze. “We’ll make sure she’s all right, man. You can count on that.”

“I know you will.” Dante pushed aside the thought that the best person to help his sister was Tori. He’d have to figure out later where she fit into his life, if anywhere. Right now he was too angry with her.

“Okay, next thing.” Ash took a breath and blew it out between pursed lips. “I realize you and I don’t know each other all that well, and if I’m really stepping out of line, you let me know.” His eyes met Dante’s. “As you can imagine, Tori’s in real trouble here.”

“She should be.” Anger that Dante had managed to bury beneath worry for his sister roared to the surface. “If she’d come forward about Randall, my sister wouldn’t be in there.” He pointed back toward Lily’s room.

“Maybe.” Ash bent one leg, crossing his ankles. “I understand why she didn’t. Can’t you? She had no proof, just an initial reaction to facts.” He shook his head. “If the situation were reversed, would you have done it differently?”

“If I suspected that my sister might be out there killing people? Hell, yeah.” Dante paused. First of all, he knew he would have dismissed any initial suspicions he might have had because he knew his sister. Not that she wasn’t capable of murder—under the right circumstances, he firmly believed anyone was capable—but he didn’t think she’d go around murdering random people.

Second, someone would have had to have produced some mighty strong evidence for him to have accepted what his gut was telling him and his heart was denying.

He pushed that all back and looked at Ash. “I’m having a hard time getting past the fact that Tori suspected her brother, didn’t tell me, and now my sister’s a freaking werewolf.”

“You could look at it this way,” Ash said. “Now you don’t have to worry about her ever getting sick with some sort of disease.”

As far as Dante was aware, Ash didn’t know about Lily’s bout with cancer, but he had a valid point. Dante looked down the hallway. On one level, he recognized that the attack had, in the long term, saved his sister’s life.

That didn’t change the fact that Tori had suspected her brother yet didn’t say anything to anyone.

Could he have told on Lily? He didn’t know. “It was a tough situation for Tori to be in,” he finally responded.

“Yeah.” Ash straightened away from the wall. “Look, ordinarily the quadrant liaison where the victim lives would handle this part, but since that’s Tori and she’s caught up in all of this, the council’s asked me to debrief your sister.”

Dante hooked his thumbs over his belt. “What’s that entail?”

“Just asking her about what happened, getting details of the attack, and walking her through what her life is going to be like from now on.” He rubbed a hand over his chin. “She’ll need to come to several orientations, and her first full-moon shift will have to be supervised.” When Dante sent him a confused frown, Ash added, “The first full-moon shift is confusing and painful, and the hunger is…” He shook his head. “Left unsupervised, a new werewolf could cut a swath of carnage through town that would demand appropriate retribution.” He pursed his lips. “Being a preternatural doesn’t mean you can’t be killed. It just takes a bit more to get the job done.”

Dante nodded. “Let me talk to her for a minute.”

“Sure thing.” Ash paused, then said in a rough voice, “There’s just one more thing.”

“What?”

“Randall Langston was brought in around midnight. He’s in a room the next floor up.”

“In the secure wing.” Dante clenched his jaw. The bastard who’d attacked his sister had been one floor up this whole time?

Ash nodded. “He came out of surgery about an hour ago. Seems someone plugged him with a silver bullet.”

“Hmph. Only one hit?” Dante braced his palm against the wall. “Guess I need to get to the practice range.”

“Yes, well.” The werewolf liaison gave a small grin. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. He won’t be able to get to your sister while she’s in here. And in a few weeks he won’t be anybody’s problem anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“Preternatural justice is swift. And deadly. He turned people without authorization and killed innocents. His life is forfeit.”

God. Poor Tori. Dante couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. To find her brother only to lose him again, irrevocably this time…He shook his head.

“Yeah,” Ash said softly. “It sucks to be Tori right about now.” His eyes were dark with compassion. “You might want to cut her some slack.”

Dante looked at him but said nothing.

The werewolf liaison shrugged. He pointed toward the nurses’ station. “I’ll be over there, getting to know the ladies.” He ambled off, hands in his front pockets.

Dante went back into his sister’s room. She’d turned on the TV and looked away from the news program when he walked in. She peered over his shoulder. “Where’s the other guy?”

“The other guy is Ash. Uh…” He racked his brain for the liaison’s full name. “Bartholomew Asher, but he goes by Ash.”

“That’s good. He looks more like an Ash than a Bart.” She tilted her head to glance through the doorway and then looked at Dante again. “Is he comin’ back?” Interest brightened her eyes.

His werewolf sister had the hots for another werewolf. Dante knew it was going to take a while for him to wrap his head around this. He was just glad Lily seemed to be adjusting so quickly. “Ash is a liaison to the council. He’s a—”

“Werewolf. Yeah, I could tell. There’s a wild, kinda foresty smell to him.”

“Foresty?”

“It’s a word,” she muttered.

“Not much of one.” He grinned at her juvenile response of sticking her tongue out at him. “Mom always said that if you kept doing that your face would get stuck that way.”

She poked her tongue out at him again.

He sobered and sat on the edge of the bed. “Ash is going to talk to you about what happened. You up for that?”

“A lot of it’s hazy,” she said. “I’m okay to answer his questions.”

“He’s also gonna talk to you about what things’re gonna be like for you going forward.” He met her eyes. “Are you up for
that
?”

She sat up. Dante grabbed the pillows and put them behind her back. “Thanks,” she said. As he sat down, she grabbed his hand. “This is kinda scary, you know? Yet…exciting at the same time.” Sudden tears swam in her eyes. “Dante, I won’t ever get sick again. Ever.”

He squeezed her fingers. “I know, honey. And for that I’m glad.”

“But?” When he didn’t say anything, she added, “There sounded like there was a ‘but’ with that.”

“She kept the truth from me.”

Lily frowned at him, knowing exactly what he was talking about. “She did not,” his sister said. “She didn’t share her suspicions with you. She’s like you in a lot of respects, Dante. She takes facts and feelings and mulls them over before she makes a deduction. First conclusions are discarded unless there’s hard evidence to support them.” She stared at him. “Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same.”

That thought stayed with him as he drove home ten minutes later. He’d left his sister with Ash, confident the werewolf liaison would be able to help her more than he could at the moment. As he turned onto his street, he went back over the events of the last couple of weeks and reflected on how close he and Tori had become. The love they’d shared. He knew she’d missed having family around, knew she’d been a little envious of the relationship he and Lily had. So he understood her desire to be reunited with her brother and her willingness to believe the best of him.

Dante couldn’t imagine being estranged from Lily for a week, let alone over a hundred years.

He pulled into his driveway and stopped the truck in front of the house. He needed to take care of the horses and get a shower and some food. He also had to sort through the feelings rolling around inside him. There was hurt that Tori hadn’t trusted him. Anger at her deception.

Love and understanding. And, admittedly, disappointment that he was now the odd man out.

He blew out a breath and turned off the engine. Maybe he could make more sense out of this once he talked to Tori. He climbed out of the truck and went straight to the stables. Both horses nickered a greeting, and Sugarplum set up a loud braying. “I know, boys. You’re all hungry. Sorry I’m late with the feed.”

He got the horses fed and went into the house. Shucking his clothing, he took a shower. It was only when he started getting dressed that he noticed the top drawer of his dresser was slightly open. Towel fastened around his waist, he walked over and pulled the drawer the rest of the way open.

His stomach dropped. The door to his gun safe was askew. He lifted it, knowing what he’d find. Or, rather, not find. Sure enough, the rift device was gone.

He closed his eyes. Son of a bitch. Had Lily been attacked because she was his sister, or because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Just how much culpability did he share with Tori?

He blew out a breath and grabbed his phone from atop the dresser. He had to let Tobias know the device was gone.

Tori cradled a cup of coffee at the dining room table. Jeff and Con were both in the living room where they could see her yet still allow a little privacy. She stared down into her mug. Her thoughts tumbled over each other but centered on the two men in her life: her brother and her lover.

She knew Rand would be put to death. He had made other prets without sanction by the council. That carried a heavy penalty.
The
penalty. It was painful, but she finally admitted to herself that the man known as Randall Langston was nothing like the sweet brother she remembered from before the rift. There was nothing more she could do for him.

Then there was Dante. He might be able to eventually forgive her for not telling him about her suspicions concerning her brother, but once she told him that Natchook was also related to her, that she’d known he was around and hadn’t said anything, well…that might be harder for him to overlook.

She sighed. It was remarkable how quickly someone’s life—
her
life—could go from the top of the world to the lowest abyss of hell. Once again she was all alone in the world.

The doorbell rang. She stood out of habit, and with a warning glance at her Con said, “I’ve got it.”

As he opened the door, a fresh, woodsy scent wafted her way. Dante. He was here. Her heart leaped out of her chest. She sat back down. She wasn’t ready to face him. Not yet and definitely not here, with witnesses. She stood up again. She should tell him to go. She sat. No, that wouldn’t be right. Whatever he had to say to her, she needed to let him say it. It was the least she could do.

“You have a visitor,” Con said as he walked past her. She heard him say to Jeff, “Let’s give them a minute,” and watched her two guards head to the back of the house.

“But…” Jeff started to protest.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Con growled. “Move.”

Tori turned her head to look at Dante. She mustered a smile that quickly faded in light of his grim countenance. “How’s Lily?” she asked quietly.

“She’s fine, all things considered.” His lips thinned. “Damn it, Tori. Why didn’t you say anything before last night?”