Seduced by Crimson (18 page)

"And hungry," Patrick added. He was hoping to distract the sentries into dealing with the immediate problem and not dwelling on—

"
You
poisoned him," snarled the original sentry. "And now you bring him to us and pretend to be friends?"

"No—" Xiao Fei began, but the two others took up the charge.

"You want safety in our tunnels after you poisoned one of our children?"

"She gave him human medicine," Patrick cut in. "She didn't know it was poison to werewolves."

"And he risked his life to save the cub," Xiao Fei put in. "Do you know how hard it is to activate a wolf's DNA? It's not something just anyone can do."

The cub twisted so that two of his paws poked out from beneath the blanket—two blood-red paws that were quite clear in the tunnel's light. All three sentries gasped and took a step back. It took a moment for Patrick to understand, but the sentries were all focused on those paws, which clearly meant something to them. He just wished he knew what, and whether it was good or bad news.

"Shut up! Shut up!" growled the largest sentry, though no one had spoken.

They remained silent, all but the cub who had been woken by the argument. He squirmed harder in Xiao Fei's arms; then, when she didn't release him, he began to howl.

"Shut him up!" bellowed the angry sentry.

Xiao Fei was trying, but the cub was hungry. He wasn't going to quiet until his belly was full. And Patrick was watching where the cub's claws were digging at Xiao Fei's chest. If she were to start bleeding…

"Down.
Down
," snapped the first sentry. "Take 'em to Keeli."

Patrick had just enough time to take one last deep breath; then one of the sentries led the way into the black maze of the werewolf domain. It started in the back of the subway station, off a tunnel where the lights had long since been broken. Werewolves had keen vision and didn't need more than a fraction of the light that a regular human did.

Patrick immediately calmed his thoughts and expanded his senses. He touched his chest, reaching through the fabric to grip his amulet. He was nowhere close to seeing in the dark—such was not his skill—but with the amulet's help, he could sense more of the energy that surrounded him: concrete, iron grate, werewolves, and Xiao Fei. She was the easiest of all, a beacon to his senses, growing brighter to him with every moment they remained in each other's company.

Right now, he could sense her sidling closer to him in nervousness. He touched her lightly with one hand, then reached into his bag with the other. He withdrew a small flashlight the size of a credit card. When he pushed down on the switch, the slick concrete was illuminated. Her sigh of relief made him smile.

Silly as it was, it gave him a warm feeling to protect her in this small way. She was not nearly as tough as she pretended. He touched her back with his fingertips, and hovered near her.

"Get back," she practically growled. "You're standing on top of me."

So much for the warm feeling. "Sorry," he muttered.

She flushed and shook her head. "No. I'm sorry." He could barely hear her over the howling cub. "I don't like being underground," she admitted.

He thought he understood. She had probably spent far too much time hiding underground from the demons in Cambodia. "Why don't you carry the light? I'll hold Jian Ying," he suggested.

"No, I've got him."

He could see that her hold was tenuous at best. Especially as… He narrowed his gaze on one of those squirming red paws. "Has he cut you? Are you bleeding?"

She didn't answer, which suggested exactly what he feared—she was bleeding and couldn't stop it, not while they were bumping along in dark tunnels behind an angry and nervous werewolf.

Patrick reached down and gathered up the cub. Xiao Fei started to protest, but he spoke
over
her objections. "Can you stop the bleeding? Do we need to get you to a doctor?"

"I'm fine." Again, she gave a half growl that told him she was anything but. She touched his arm. "I'll manage."

They stopped moving. The sentry was in a whispered conversation at a grate-covered doorway of sorts. Even the cub had temporarily stopped howling to sniff the air. Clearly he smelled his people nearby. And when he wasn't sniffing in curiosity, he was extending his claws to play with Patrick's amulet through the fabric of the T-shirt. Patrick tried to stop him, but the cub was extraordinarily curious. In the end, he had to shift the puppy around, specifically turning its eyes and paws away, which only made the creature yap in frustration.

Suddenly, Xiao Fei's energy flared before Patrick's heightened senses. There was no visible light, only a quick surge of power that faded almost as soon as it appeared. Patrick waited a moment, then asked, "Were you healing yourself?"

Xiao Fei spoke, her words shaky, but they quickly evened out. "It was harder than usual. The gate is draining my strength."

"Then we'd best get it closed soon," he said.

She didn't answer. She hadn't yet accepted that they could close it—or how. In truth, he had trouble believing that himself, but then he remembered what it had been like in the storage room. Kissing her had been like kissing the wind and the sky. She was a flesh-and-blood woman, yet she had also been clear summer days and hot, sultry nights.

"We can do it," he said firmly. "We must." Then there was no more time for talk as they passed into another tunnel, and then more tunnels, and then…

Werewolf central. Patrick had no idea if that was the area's real name. It was obviously the central gathering place of the Crimson City werewolves. They were everywhere—dashing about or knotted in tiny, worried clumps. The air was ripe with all sorts of smells, but overriding all was a quiet sense of terror.

Fear was the slowest energy vibration, and Patrick felt it permeate everything—depressing all sounds, movement, even the sense of life. Fear deadened the living, and no more so than right here where the wolves congregated.

Except, as he walked, he began feeling flashes of hope. It came from the clusters where they passed, where the wolves turned to stare at them and whispered. Two words were repeated:
blood claw
. Patrick looked at the cub. Just how significant was that bloodred fur? And how could a mere child bring such faith to the frightened?

"He's just a child," Xiao Fei whispered as she tucked the boy close.

"They think he's more," Patrick replied.

Jian Ying let out a howl of hunger. Xiao Fei looked around. "We have to get him some food," she said. "He's starving."

And just like that, food was provided. A nearby woman pulled a small bottle of milk from a bag at her feet. She had two little children holding on to her skirts, but she passed the milk to them.

"For the blood claw," she said.

Patrick wanted to refuse the gift. Xiao Fei apparently did, too. The woman would need the milk for her own children, but there was no refusing. Jian Ying was in sore need. Except, how did one use a milk bottle with a large puppy?

A saucer appeared, and many hands helped to clear space on the ground. The milk was poured into the dish and Patrick set Jian Ying down near it.

Two saucers full of milk disappeared in moments, while a crowd gathered to watch. Patrick's own stomach rumbled. He didn't say anything, but apparently the wolves heard. Within moments both he and Xiao Fei were given food: fruit, bread, someone's cold french fries. He ate it all and bowed his head in thanks. And when the cub was on its third saucer of milk, Patrick at last found breath to ask the question burning in his thoughts.

"What do the red paws signify?"

No answer. For all that they welcomed the bringers of this strange cub, the werewolves were obviously not prone to sharing secrets with outsiders.

Xiao Fei straightened. "He's just a boy. Nothing special. Don't make him feel like he's a symbol. He's just a boy." She kept repeating that, and Patrick heard an echo of desperation in her words. Jian Ying was just a boy in the way that she was just a girl. Except that her blood made her the possible savior of her entire people, and this boy's red paws made him… what?

"The beginning of great change," came a woman's voice.

The crowd parted, and Patrick saw… a vampire? In these wolf tunnels? Such was unheard-of, and yet here he was: a tall man with an energy that felt sharp and deadly. The vampire frowned in curiosity and studied Patrick and Xiao Fei. Then a young woman stepped up beside him.

She was obviously the werewolf leader. The crowd had parted for her, not the vampire—and yet the two of them were obviously together. Wolf and vampire intertwined their fingers even as the vampire looked away, over his shoulder toward the exit.

"I have to go," he said to the woman, his voice low and intimate. "Tell me everything later." He glanced significantly at the cub.

The crowd let him pass as he moved away, but it was an uneasy parting. Then the woman spoke to the group at large. "He goes to help those trapped beneath the Harbor Freeway—wolf, human, and vampire alike."

Patrick spoke without thought. "You have formed an alliance? Against the demons? That's great news."

The woman grimaced. "That's premature. The alliance is tentative at best," she said cautiously. "But Crimson City is under attack. Only a fool argues with his brother while the house is on fire." She turned as she spoke, looking into the eyes of every person who would meet her gaze. Most did. A few slunk away. She finally looked down at the cub. "So it's true," she said.

Xiao Fei was sitting on the ground beside the wolf-boy, but her eyes were filled with a dark challenge as she looked up at this female leader of the wolves. They were about the same age, these two, and Patrick could sense the unspoken clash of power between them.

"He's just a boy," Xiao Fei said clearly. "Don't make him a symbol."

"She poisoned him!" growled the sentry from one side. Patrick had almost forgotten him, but now the man was stirring the crowd against them.

"It was an accident," Patrick said. "We gave him human medicine. We didn't know…"

"
I
didn't know," asserted Xiao Fei. "But—"

The werewolf leader silenced all with a quick slash of her hand. "We'll go to my chamber."

A loud bang and then a rumble filled the tunnel. It was a distant sound, muffled by many concrete walls, but it still roared in Patrick's head and echoed for a long time in the large room. Instinctively, Patrick reached for his amulet, gripping it with his right hand—whatever came, he would be stronger if he wielded it. But then the sound faded, and he realized he'd overreacted. He released the amulet, feeling foolish for giving away its presence. Still, he doubted anyone noticed. Like his, their gazes had sought out the source of sound, somewhere deep in a nearby tunnel. Even so, it had been a foolish gesture.

The werewolf leader blanched but retained control. "Go to my rooms," she repeated firmly. "I'll be there in…" She bit her lip. "I'll be there as soon as I can. You can tell me everything there."

Xiao Fei nodded and bent to gather Jian Ying. The wolf leader stopped her. "He will go to his kin," she said.

Xiao Fei looked up sharply, fear tightening her face. Then she shoved past the woman and picked up the cub. "I won't let you hurt him."

The woman drew back in shock. "He is one of our own young! How dare you think—"

"She speaks from experience," Patrick interrupted in a low tone. "Symbols are feared as much as they are revered. Her own kind did not always treat her well." He was mostly guessing, but it wasn't such a great leap. Her blood cured all manner of ills. He wondered how many times as a child she had been bled just to cure some disease. And had there been any consideration for her as a girl?

One look at Xiao Fei's face told him he had guessed correctly. Her childhood had been anything but easy.

The wolf leader paused a moment, her eyes narrow as she studied both Patrick and Xiao Fei. Then she dropped to one knee beside the cub.

"I am alpha here. I lead all the werewolves. And as Alpha Keeli, I say to you, this child will not be harmed." She lifted her voice as she spoke so that all could hear her. Looking around, Patrick saw most faces on the crowd nod in agreement. "He is one of our own," Keeli continued, "and every child is precious to us." Then Keeli gestured, and the woman who had given up her milk stepped forward, her two children still tugging at her legs. "This is Arweena. The cub—"

"Jian Ying," Xiao Fei said. "I named him Jian Ying. Jimmy to the whites."

Keeli nodded. "We will add that name to his real one. Meanwhile, Jian Ying is of Arweana's clan. She will find out the truth of his family, and we will care for him."

Patrick could see that Xiao Fei was not convinced. Or perhaps she did not want to be convinced. She cuddled the cub as if it were her own.

"You cannot keep him, Xiao Fei," he said softly. "I know you love him, but we have a great deal to do. He would not be safe with us." She bit her lip. He saw tears tremble on her lashes, and he guessed again at her thoughts. "Do you love him for himself, Xiao Fei? Or because he represents the childhood you never had? The life you would give him if you could?"

She looked up, and he saw surprise flash through her expression. "He's just a boy," she repeated fiercely.