Tarnished (8 page)

Into the silence of the fragile stalemate, Susan spoke. “John. You have to get here right now.” Her voice stretched high and thin until it broke. She spoke more, details of their location Silver couldn’t make herself follow at the moment. It was enough to know help would arrive soon. For now, she needed information.

She planted her feet and let the chain trickle from her hand until she had only a single loop over her fingers. She waited a beat, letting them second-guess their instincts about the danger she posed, letting them relax. Then she lashed out with it. The underling, smarter, flinched faster. She caught the alpha across the cheek, smelled the sizzle-burn of his skin under the metal, and showed him her teeth.

“And you call me a drama queen,” Death said, but his tone approved.

“What was your name again?” Silver dimly recalled it from Dare’s discussions with her cousin, but she wanted to force the man to give it to her in his own voice. To give her some shade of Death’s power over him.

“Sacramento. You crazy cat.” The man put fingertips to his cheek, disbelief sharpening into rage, and hissed in surprised pain. The silver-made wound hadn’t healed as a normal one would have.

“What’s your plan?” Silver let the chain hang loose. Not a weapon to be overused. Just the threat of it held the underling back. “You could challenge Dare to a fight in revenge for your son’s death this moment. But instead you talk, you attack me, you attack a human under Seattle’s protection. Why? Are you so certain you’d lose?”

Sacramento tried to sneer but it caught at wounded muscles and he stopped with a gasp. “Death in a fight is short, pussy. The world holds far more painful and fitting punishments for what he did to my son.”

“Short?” Death used the voice of the one who’d killed Silver’s pack, jagged with his madness. She had to suppress a shiver. “Only if you ask me nicely.”

Silver stepped back. “How very human of you. They’re the ones who invented—” She hesitated, not finding the saying she wanted among the more slippery of her former memories.

“An eye for an eye,” Death supplied, and Silver repeated it. With that prompting, the rest followed.

“And the whole world goes blind.” Silver stepped to Susan’s side.

Sacramento ignored her and gestured his underling to circle around behind Susan. The underling herded her, and by extension Silver, even farther from where other humans hurried back and forth. “Perhaps Seattle will be crashing our party this time, but I’m still staying to make sure Dare receives my message properly. Get comfortable.”

7

Andrew beat everyone out of the pack’s minivan. John had to slam it into park before his feet hit the asphalt a second later. The rest of his Were followed shortly. John had said Susan was garbled on the phone about their exact location, but the scents came starkly clear from the side of the store. Andrew ran. John followed, the limp he’d picked up hunting hardly slowing him down.

Silver was first in his mind, but strangely Andrew couldn’t stop thinking of his wife as well. Something was wrong, and he was running to her, but would he get there soon enough this time? He had to. He refused to believe otherwise, but his heart still pounded in his ears, rabbit-fast.

“Susan? Selene?” John called as they all turned the corner. Silver stood beside Susan, confident and patient in her waiting stance, her silver chain in hand. The rush of relief was so great, Andrew didn’t bother to correct John about using the wrong name for Silver.

Sacramento had a fresh silver burn on his cheek. The bleached-blond man who had attacked Andrew at the pass blocked the women’s path to the parking lot, but he skittered aside on seeing Andrew, as if the silver metal had weakened his confidence.

Under the stink of Sacramento’s burn, Andrew smelled blood. When he spotted it on Silver’s temple, panic changed to rage as easily as shifting in the full. Sacramento would pay for that blood. Andrew could imagine the feeling of the man’s throat in his teeth even now.

John crossed immediately to his girlfriend and enfolded her in a tight embrace. He drew her away from Sacramento and toward the pack’s fighters massed near the minivan, waiting for orders. Andrew would have loved to do the same to Silver, but he knew better than to imply she needed such reassurance in front of an enemy. He came to stand behind her and she backed up to create contact between their bodies without his hands touching her. She was all right, he reminded himself to try to slow his heart. Hurt, but all right.

“Hello, Nate. Long time no see.”

Sacramento snorted at the borderline insult. Technically, Andrew was out of line to drop Sacramento’s title when he didn’t have a personal relationship with the man, or wasn’t another alpha. The years since Andrew had seen him had sharpened his face, especially since he’d shaved the beard that once softened his jaw. Maybe he’d want to grow it back now, to hide the scar, Andrew reflected with satisfaction. “I hear we have a problem.”

“You should discipline your mate.” Sacramento mustered a sneer through the pain of the burn. Andrew rubbed at the ridges along his back through his shirt, and felt not an ounce of sympathy. “Using silver on her own kind. Is that what her leash on you is made of?” He nodded to John. “Like whatever that human has on Seattle. What is she, his fuck-toy? I had no idea he was into that kind of thing.” Sacramento pointedly kept his voice below Susan’s threshold of hearing at her distance.

“You’re trespassing, Sacramento.” John growled, full-throated and threatening. Sacramento’s voice carried fine to werewolf hearing. He left Susan to join them. “And attacking those under my protection. You have an hour to make it beyond the border, or I’ll throw you out myself.”

Sacramento held up his hands. “I’ve delivered my message. I have no beef with you, Seattle. I’ll be waiting on the other side of your southern border tomorrow morning. I’d suggest you send Dare to face the Lady’s clear gaze.” He pressed a hand to his cheek and walked with pointed insouciance toward a truck dimly visible in a parking lot adjoining the back of the store’s lot. The blond hurried after. Sacramento turned over his shoulder to blow a kiss from his fingertips to Silver. “You and me, babe. I look forward to the rematch soon.”

Silver lifted her chin as she watched him go. “I’ve found Death tends to punish those who assume he’ll come at their call like some kind of domesticated pet. Watch out for him yourself.” Sacramento laughed in the slightly awkward way of someone who didn’t understand the joke.

John’s beta, Pierce, came up behind him to bolster Seattle’s appearance of strength, and all of them watched until the taillights of Sacramento’s truck disappeared onto the road beyond. “No point following them on foot,” John told the rest of the pack over his shoulder. “And we need the van to take Susan and Silver home. Do a quick sweep now to make sure they’re really gone. Then I want you all on extra patrols near the house.”

Andrew caught himself before he nodded. John didn’t need Andrew to approve. But since they couldn’t follow Sacramento immediately, John was right. If they wasted time casting around to find his truck to make sure he made it over the territory line, he could circle around to attack the house.

Everyone relaxed as they turned back to the van: Silver allowed Andrew to pull her against his side, Susan sniffed, and John limped over to her. To Andrew’s surprise, Susan noticed the limp, even after the upset and in poor lighting for human eyes. “Were you attacked too?” Her tone wavered, but no tears materialized.

Andrew kept his mouth shut. He didn’t know what story John would choose to tell her. Silver speared him with a look. Even not having been out on the hunt, she could probably guess what had happened. It was common enough.

After a tired sigh, John went with the truth. “We strayed off the land we actually own. Some codger on his back porch with a twenty-two decided to shoot at the coyote or stray dog. Or maybe even Bigfoot, Lady only knows. It’s nothing, I just didn’t have time to dig out the bullet before it healed in. I’ll do it when I get home.”

“Not silver, huh?” Susan said with a weak laugh, then looked back at Silver. “Metal, I mean.”

“Yes, though it’s not so simple.” Silver turned her look on Andrew this time, and it took him a long moment to realize he was supposed to fill in the rest for the human. He frowned and shook his head, but Silver started to pull away, so he gave in as he opened the minivan’s side door and handed her up inside.

“It doesn’t have to be a silver bullet to kill a werewolf,” he explained. “Head shots are generally lethal.” As he knew from experience, but he wasn’t going to mention that. He’d executed Sacramento’s son that way. The Were stigma against guns aside, it had been the cleanest death he could offer the man. European claims about their favored beheading with a silver sword being quick and clean were so much bullshit. The guillotine had been necessary for a reason. “Or enough shots in a row can soak through our ability to heal another injury without rest and food.”

Andrew scooted into the first row of seats beside Silver. The cut on her temple had stopped bleeding so he lifted her arm first to run his hand along it. She winced when he neared purpling finger marks at her wrist, but otherwise she showed no pain.

Silver made a token effort to fend him off. “I’m fine.” She submitted to his touch after that, letting it calm them both down. He could feel her heartbeat pounding under her skin.

The sound of Susan talking to John carried into the minivan. “No, Silver’s the one who got hurt. I was just stunned. I’ll have a goose egg there later, I guess.” The passenger door opened and slammed, though John stayed outside, probably to wait for the patrol. Susan knelt up on the seat to look back at them. “Is she okay?”

Andrew shook his head. “She heals like a human.” Silver braced when he started to slide a hand down her back. He rolled up her top and growled at the ugly spread of the bruise he found low on her back. It was huge. Silver snapped her teeth at him when his fingers just brushed it. He took his hands away immediately and kissed the back of her neck in apology.

Silver’s injuries cataloged, Andrew returned to the cut. He started by licking his thumb to clean away the blood, but that was inefficient and he switched to licking it directly. Silver’s heart slowed.

Then the stupid human made some noise, maybe shock, maybe disgust, and Andrew realized that he’d let his exhaustion in the wake of fear for Silver make him slip into behavior unacceptable to humans. He raised his eyebrows at Susan, daring her to make a comment. She shrank back.

Silver hit him. “Leave her alone. She called you all here quickly, didn’t she? She did well. Otherwise Sacramento might have had much more time alone with me to craft his ‘message.’”

“If one of us had been with you instead, you wouldn’t have been in that situation at all.” Andrew smoothed Silver’s hair away from the cut again, even though it hadn’t fallen forward in the last few seconds. “Silver—” Words deserted him as the fear surged up again in a dozen mental pictures of what could have happened. “I’m sorry…”

“You bear the marks of my enemies,” Silver murmured, and rested a hand on his chest for a moment. “You don’t control your enemies either.”

The rest of the pack returned from their sweep of the area. One peeled off to drive Susan’s car home, and the rest piled into the van, except for the beta, who hesitated at the side door. Pierce cultivated a very pretty image to go with his slimness, one lock of dark, wavy hair dangling over his eyes, but his face was clouded now with annoyance. He added another couple finger marks to the crushed padding at the side of the first row of seats as he hoisted himself into the back. In the normal course of things, he should have been riding shotgun unless John specifically invited Andrew or Silver to join him. Susan had nowhere near the rank necessary for that position in the vehicle. There must be a standing order that the pack wasn’t supposed to call Susan on that kind of thing—Andrew couldn’t imagine that Pierce would have swallowed it otherwise.

As John climbed in and started up the van, Susan punched the passenger light, flipped down the visor, and explored the skin along her hairline with cautious fingers. “I’ve decided, Silver. If I’m going to be that fucking scared anyway, I think I’d rather know why.”

Silver laughed. “Good.”

John swallowed a growl. “Dare? What has your mate been telling my girlfriend?”

Andrew suspected that John knew Silver well enough by now that he’d bypassed her not out of stupidity but to needle her. Silver’s growl in response was instant. Andrew edged away from her and thumped the back of John’s seat. “Talk to Silver. Leave me out of this.”

“She’s been showing me just how much ignorance you’ve been keeping me in.” Susan rounded on John, lingering upset showing now in the shrillness of her voice. “It’s bullshit, John.”

If they’d been in wolf, every pair of ears in the vehicle would have locked on to the human. That was not a tone to use with any alpha without being aware of exactly what you were doing.

Silver closed her eyes for a moment as if pained, then sat forward. Reminded, Andrew buckled first her then himself in. Silver waited for him to finish, then turned to Susan. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t stand up for yourself, but if you’re going to question an alpha’s authority like that, it’s better to do it in private.”

Hearing Silver say it like that snapped things into place in Andrew’s mind. For good or ill, Susan was interacting with Were every day, and he didn’t think any of them besides Silver had stopped to consider how little a human might know about things they took for granted. Of course she’d seem clueless or rude most of the time.

Susan angled the visor mirror to see Silver rather than craning around. “No one’s ever allowed to question the alpha?” Now Andrew was looking for it, the confusion was even clearer in her voice, though stale adrenaline clouded her scent.

“It’s a question of tactics,” Andrew broke in when Silver hesitated. He leaned back with his arm resting along the top of the seat in an attitude of forced relaxation. John wasn’t going to like this at all. Andrew still wished the timing on all of this was better, but Silver was right. The human did need help. “If you ask for something in public, getting your way will always be balanced against his need to appear strong before the pack. Ask in private, that’s out of the equation.” He paused, but his dominant instincts, cooped up with another alpha, wouldn’t let him stop there. “Or you can say whatever you want, to be an asshole.” He leaned forward to throw a flash of teeth in a smile to John.