Splintered (13 page)

Ben grabbed a chunk of his hair and pulled
until I was worried it was going to come out. "I need to see
her."

I'd thought I'd understood what it meant when
I'd told Jasmin Ben was addicted to her. I hadn't, not
really.

"Ben, listen to me. This isn't like you. I
can't explain why, but I think that you're addicted to the
sensation of Jasmin's touch."

"No, that's not it. It's love. I know what
addiction feels like and this isn't it, it's too
strong."

We'd arrived and I hesitated, torn between
whatever vital information Mallory might possess and the need to
protect Ben from the monkey that'd latched onto him while he hadn't
been looking.

"You say you've been through addiction. Really
sit down and think about what you feel. It's beyond
obsession."

Ben's fists clenched white around the steering
wheel. "I think you should get out now."

I slid out of the car and then watched as Ben's
Mustang peeled out of the parking lot.

The code worked exactly as promised and the key
was where it was supposed to be. I started the Mercedes up, spared
a moment to hope I wouldn't crash it, and then dropped it into
gear.

As I drove past the estate I saw
movement in the underbrush. My stomach dropped down even with my
knees, but I didn't have any choice but to just keep going and hope
none of the Coun'hij hybrids jumped out in front of the
car.

I found the overhang Alec was talking about,
parked the Mercedes underneath it and then started hiking in
roughly the direction I remembered from my last trip.

When I was nearly ready to give up I started
calling out for Mallory. She appeared five minutes later, put a
finger to her lips and guided me back to her cabin.

"Well, child. Either you've decided to come
here against Alec's orders, or the Coun'hij has sent a group. I
don't believe it's the former, so you'd better fill me in on how
bad things are."

"They arrived last night. Alec, Jasmin, Rachel
and I were all gone. Donovan called and we hurried back, but by the
time we arrived their leader was claiming the rest of the pack had
disrespected him or something."

"Slow down and start with the basics. How many
of them where there?"

"Seven. The leader's name was Agony.
There was also someone named Oblivion, one named Abaddon, and
Vincent was there too."

Mallory flinched slightly at Agony's name, but
took a deep breath and continued. "Why were you there? I wouldn't
have expected Alec to expose you."

"He wasn't going to but Donovan said they
requested me by name."

Mallory was pacing now, slowly dragging her
frail body around the room. "That might not mean anything. Vincent
was with them, but that's not his manner of thought. Nobody else is
truly real to him, and humans even less so. Tell Alec you may have
a spy in your midst. If so it's likely one of the three
newcomers."

"No. They're all loyal to Alec."

"Truly, child? You've never heard
them express dissatisfaction with their lot? I never liked the
thought of bringing them into the pack but Alec was right that we
need more submissives. The pack needs an outlet in order to avoid
ripping itself apart."

I felt like I'd been slapped down. This was too
important to let my feelings get in the way though.

"Agony said Donovan was the worst offender. He
wanted to punish him, but Alec stepped in and offered to fight one
of them in Donovan's place."

Mallory was smiling now. "Smartly
done. It's all a dance to figure out who will blink first, Alec or
Agony. Agony immediately put one of the pack under threat of pain,
but Alec spoked his wheel by taking Donovan's place."

I nodded. It made a weird kind of
sense. "That was when Agony told us Vincent was here and said
Vincent would fight Alec."

"Excellent. If Agony had been sure
of his ability to defeat Alec he would have taken the challenge
right then and broken him. Alec's gamble helped keep the loyalty of
his pack and showed them the Coun'hij is bluffing all at the same
time. So Alec fought him, tapped into his power, and dropped
Vincent where he stood?"

"No, he fought him hand to hand. He won, but it
wasn't until after that he told me he tried to use his ability but
nothing happened."

Mallory's good humor evaporated. "He
told you that? Not where anyone else could hear, I imagine. It's
important that the pack not realize how bad our position
is."

"Has his power evaporated? Are we vulnerable to
whatever other pack comes along?"

"Powers, abilities like the one Alec
manifested, shouldn't just go away. It's possible it manifested
prematurely in the fight with Brandon and just needs more time to
come in fully, or more practice before it will heel when called. I
just don't know. It's not a science and almost anything could be
possible."

I felt my heart sink but she mustered up a
smile for me. "Don't despair. What we need most is more time. Agony
used his only truly expendable piece in the fight last night. The
rest of his men will all be reluctant to fight."

"I don't understand. Isn't that why they are
here?"

"Yes, but generally they don't have
to fight and the Coun'hij's enforcers generally take an odd pride
in the fact that they don't usually need to fight. You saw the
tattoos and piercings?"

"On everyone but Agony and Vincent."

"Those all go away when we change
shapes. Generally the more tattoos and piercings one of the
enforcers sports, the higher up the food chain they
are."

I thought back over the shadowy
figures half glimpsed in the torchlight. "Abaddon had the most.
Oblivion had relatively few, towards the bottom maybe. Agony had
none."

"Agony had none because he is the one who does
most of the fighting. He's somewhat unique in that way. Most of the
Coun'hij uses their minions. He knows the fear of what he can do is
the best weapon available him."

"What does he do?"

"He scars. When he wounds someone he
can will them never to heal again. That's how I got like this, how
Donovan acquired his limp. Agony rides a thin line between enough
terror to keep everyone in line and too much terror, the kind of
terror that would cause a general uprising. As long as the packs
all feel they still have something left to lose they'll allow him
to keep doing what he does."

"Keeping everyone in line?"

"Yes, keeping all of us in line."
Mallory resumed pacing. "It's good news that Abaddon is the most
freakish. He's an incredible fighter but he doesn't have any kind
of special gift. Oblivion is actually a bigger threat. He's the
only powerful enforcer who doesn't go in for ostentatious
ornamentation. Just enough to keep the new enforcers from giving
him grief. It saves him from having to use his power as
often."

"What's his power?"

"He steals minds. One moment you're walking and
talking. He touches you and you're a blank slate."

I waited while she paced back and
forth for several seconds. "So what do I tell Alec?"

"You tell him what he already knows. Bluff for
as long as he can get away with it, but when push comes to shove he
needs to give Agony whatever the Coun'hij wants. We need time. Time
for his power to stabilize or be trained or whatever it is going to
take to give the pack a chance to survive."

The fear and anger that had been simmering in
the back of my mind since I'd seen Agony came to the
fore.

"That can't be the answer. He's going to kill
people. He'll hurt them badly at the very least, but I think he's
going to kill someone."

"I expect you're right. The question is not how Alec stops
him--without his power working right now, the question is do we let
Agony kill one person, or do we let him kill the whole
pack?"

Chapter 18

Mallory followed me back to the car, dragging
some kind of pungent bush behind us to cover up my scent. She
extracted a promise to drive further along the road for another
half hour before I turned back around and went home. Apparently
automobiles didn't have a distinctive enough scent to track unless
they were the only one that'd passed by in quite a
while.

Normally Alec and Mallory didn't employ that
level of deception, but with the Coun'hij delegation in town she
was understandably jumpy.

I was still a few minutes away from the estate
when two massive shapes suddenly stepped out onto the road in front
of me. I managed to come to a stop without running either of them
over. When I realized who it was I wished I'd floored
it.

I didn't recognize the second shape shifter,
but Oblivion was unmistakable. His hulking form crossed over to my
side of the car and opened my door, but it was the second man who
began interrogating me.

"You're Graves' pet human. You passed by this
way a couple of hours ago. Where were you going?"

I felt my mouth go dry. Lying was pointless.
They could hear my heartbeat, smell the nervous perspiration
gathering on me.

"None of your business."

He didn't even blink and I never saw the
backhand coming. He must have really pulled the blow. He could have
easily snapped my neck without thinking about it, but it still left
my ears ringing.

"You can address me as sir, or
Master Marco."

I'd been nervous before, now I was terrified.
Marco walked over to me, his right hand shifting over to claws as
he got closer.

I opened my mouth, but he wasn't
interested in anything I had to say yet. He sank the longest claw
into my upper arm. I screamed and nearly passed out, but he kept
eye contact with me the whole time.

The sadistic light in his eyes amply
communicated that information would be nice, but he was mostly
interested in hurting me.

I was shaking now. Shock, fear,
pain--it didn't matter the reason, I was suddenly very much aware
of just how much trouble I was in.

Marco pulled the claw out of my arm and brought
it up towards my face.

"Be a real shame to ruin such a pretty
face."

A heartbeat before the point would
have raked across my cheek, a tattooed arm grabbed a hold of
Marco's hand, effortlessly immobilizing it.

For a second I thought Marco was going to turn
on Oblivion, but he glanced nervously at the hand and backed down
with an immediacy that was nearly unbelievable.

"Fine, do it your way. I was just
trying to save you from getting your lily-white hands dirty. We all
know how carefully you conserve your ability."

Oblivion gripped me by the upper
arms, locked gazes with me and then suddenly my vision stopped
working. I was still trying to orient myself in the black void when
I started hearing voices. Each voice was different, most only got
one word out before being replaced.

"Stolen…Memories…Leave…Holes…Secret…Trusting…You."

Before I could fully process the meaning of the
chorus of voices, I found myself in another place. My eyes worked,
too well in fact. The normal faded colors of near darkness were
overlaid with the inner glow of a shape shifter's
vision.

I couldn't control my body. Eyes,
head, hands, nothing. I was midway through a full-blown panic when
I saw Donovan. His face was the same gentle, lined canvas I'd
always known, but his leg wasn't injured.

The wonder of seeing Donovan move around
without his habitual limp was enough to make my panic jump the
tracks. I inhaled and found a hundred new scents. Many of the
scents were other shape shifters, rivals by the way my muscles
tensed up every time I thought about them.

I scanned the crowd. I'd never seen so many
shape shifters in one place at the same time. Gradually I started
picking other familiar faces out. Mallory was there, standing tall
and regal to the right of a man who looked oddly
familiar.

There was Andrew and a little ways over I could
see Addison slightly behind a man nearly as big as Brandon had been
before Alec had killed him.

I wanted to continue looking at the people but
something made me turn and look at my surroundings. We were in a
bowl-shaped valley with a stream cutting through one end. My
hearing was keen enough to make out the sound of a full-fledged
river, likely the ultimate destination of our little
brook.

It was autumn, I could taste the slightest hint
of chill on the air and the leaves felt like they'd present a riot
of colors if it were light enough for their full glory to
manifest.

A wiry figure that I quickly
recognized as Agony, was talking now. "Your man has crossed too
many lines this time, Graves."

"He does what he's done under my
order."

"The ancient prerogatives aren't in
effect anymore. Your line lost that right centuries ago. He's mine
now to do with as I will."

Alec's father shook his head. "The
prerogatives may not be in full force but the obligations are. I'll
not give you leave to maim him."