Way of the Wolf: Shifter Legacies 1 (56 page)

“You will anyway, or she’s dead.”

He snarled at the threat, taking an involuntary step, and suddenly Terry had Marie’s throat in his hand. She gasped, her eyes bulging and pleading.

“Stop!” he shouted in horror as Terry squeezed the life out of her. Goddess damn it stop him! I swear if she dies I’ll kill every one of you!”

The vampire audience shifted unhappily but they did nothing.

Stephen dropped to his knees and clasped his hands behind his head. “All right damn you!”

Terry grinned and allowed Marie to breathe. She gasped and sucked at the air greedily. “Very good. Put the cuffs on him.”

One of the vampires advanced nervously. He was carrying a pair of heavy-duty rune cuffs; police issue by the looks of them. Constructed of titanium steel alloy to withstand a vampire’s strength and electroplated in silver, the runes engraved in the metal of each cuff would prevent shifters from changing shape and would absorb magic of any kind. If those went on his wrists, he would be helpless.

He cast about for ideas, but one squeeze of her neck would send Marie to her judgement before the Goddess. If he could get Terry to let her go for just a few seconds, he could kill him and his friends. None were strong enough to withstand him one on one, or even two on one, but there were five including Terry.

The cuffs closed upon his wrists, and suddenly his anger drained away with his strength. The last thing her heard as he spiralled into oblivion was Marie crying his name and Terry’s laughter.

* * *

32 ~ Missing

David shook Craig’s hand and took his leave of him. Another two down without violence, he thought with heavy satisfaction at a job well done. Craig and his mate were strong betas and a good addition to the pack. They had good jobs, had never been in trouble with the law unlike some of the others he’d been forced to recruit, and although both had tried their strength against him and Ronnie, it was for form only. Craig and Maggie had known the moment they tried they would lose. They must have, because it had been obvious to him the moment he met them, and he assumed, to Ronnie as well. Mist had been exceedingly smug about it too.

Craig and Maggie were strong willed, and could almost be alpha. That had pleased Mist and was a big part of why he was so smug at besting them, but although they were strong, they lacked that little something, that extra spark that could have tipped their Presence from beta level to alpha. That was to the pack’s benefit. The
Blood Drinkers
were already top heavy, and already had too many strong males in the alpha range. True, it did strengthen House Edmonton and that was important, but as Lawrence had stressed earlier, a healthy pack needed balance to function well. He needed to recruit betas to turn the
Blood Drinkers
from House Edmonton’s enforcers into a proper pack.

“That went okay,” he said as they headed back to the SUV. “What do you think of them?”

Ronnie shrugged. “He’s okay.”

“But?”

“But Maggie is a little quiet for my taste. It’s lucky they have good jobs already. They wouldn’t fit in at the club, and there’s no way she would make a good enforcer for Stephen.”

“Well, we knew that from the start. We don’t need more fighters.”

“I know, but we don’t need liabilities either.”

He frowned. He didn’t see them that way. “Are we adopting trouble?”

“We’ll see. Probably not. They’re strong enough to stand up for themselves if they need to, it’s just...” she grimaced. “Maybe I’m just spoiled. Living among so many big dogs at the club makes these two feel timid.”

“Strong in Presence but timid at the same time? That doesn’t sound like any shifter I’ve ever met.”

“You haven’t met many outside of the pack.”

“True. Maybe Craig and Maggie are the norm, and we’re the freaks. How would I know?”

“You could ask me.”

“Okay. Are we?”

“Are we what, freaks?” she said and he nodded. “Not freaks, but unusual, sure. That’s why we’re recruiting people like Craig and Maggie. We’re trying to dilute the strangeness in a way. Look, we all gave ourselves to Stephen because we were running from a situation in our pasts, right?”

David nodded.

“But running from your pack is very unusual to begin with. It’s a really big deal rebelling like that. It takes a certain kind of person, not just Presence. It takes determination to throw away all you’ve ever known based only on the hope of something better around the corner.”

“Okay, I haven’t been in that situation, but I understand what you mean. So our pack is full of rebels.”

He unlocked the doors of the SUV with the remote and Ronnie climbed into the passenger side. He climbed behind the wheel and buckled up. Ronnie rolled her eyes at his safety conscious attitude. She knew, and so did he really, that he could be ejected through the windscreen and take no long term harm from it these days, but that wasn’t the point. It would still hurt, so why not wear the belt?

Ronnie powered the window down on her side to hook her elbow on it, and fiddled with the stereo. She found a station she liked but lowered the volume so they could continue talking.

David started the motor and pulled into the sparse nighttime traffic. “Do you know the way to the next one?” he said, glancing at the blank GPS in the dash.

“Keep going straight, I’ll tell you when to turn.”

“Okay. So we’re all rebels?”

“Yes, except for you and one or two of the others. We’re not timid, even our few betas aren’t. We’re a really powerful pack in terms of pure strength. I don’t want you thinking we’re not, but we’re so top heavy that the pack is a little...
unstable
, I guess is the right word. Stephen has kept everyone in line until now. We knew that without House Edmonton, we would have no sanctuary in LA. You’ll have to do that for us from now on.”

“No one has challenged me since that first day.”

“They will though. They’re still settling into the new situation. Once they have, they’ll start to look around and make a move. We need to fill out our numbers with people who can settle them down without challenging them.”

“And you don’t think Craig and Maggie help us there?”

“It’s not that they can’t, it’s that I doubt they’ll feel motivated to try. They’re mated and too timid. Like I said.”

“The opposite would be bad in a different way.”

Ronnie nodded.

“What’s the answer?”

“We keep doing what we’re doing, but I think we need to advertise for some single female betas.” She noticed his grimace. “You’re going to have to get over that. It’s human silliness anyway. A couple of dozen females will calm things. I’ve seen it in action and it works. The
Alley Dog
pack is mature and it’s a big one. Pederson is a bastard, but he knows how to run a good pack. We could do worse than copying him. Well, in this at least; not so much in the screwing every bitch not nailed down arena. You’re—” she broke off frowning herself now.

“I’m what?” he said with a crooked smile.

We are hers, she is ours,
Mist said smugly.

“Never mind. Turn left here.”

He made the turn. “Who are we meeting?”

Ronnie didn’t have a chance to answer as her link chose that moment to chirp. She dug in a pocket for it and answered the call. “Yeah?”

David tried to listen in, but although the stereo’s volume was low, he couldn’t hear who was calling. He noticed Ronnie’s frown as she listened, but when it turned to alarm his heart sank. What had gone wrong now? He began searching for a place to park.

“What does Edward say about it? He should be able to...” Ronnie was saying. “...yeah but that’s impossible. He said that, or you think that? Right... no but we can lock the place down. Let me... no he’s here with me. Driving. Okay I’ll tell him. Just hang... no don’t do that, Lawrence. I want to get a sniff of the place myself. Screw that... yeah... okay. We’re on our way. Yeah, bye.”

“Trouble?” David asked.

“Yes. Turn around; we’re needed back at the club. Stephen’s missing.”

A chill swept through him. “What do you mean missing?”

“Like Michael. That kind of missing.”

“But
how?
He was visiting Marie wasn’t he? That place has top flight security.”

Ronnie shrugged. “Lawrence didn’t know. Something went down though. There are cops all over it apparently. There’s something else weird as well. Edward says he can’t feel Stephen anymore. That should mean he’s dead, but he can’t be dead.”

“Why?” he said hoping she was right.

“Edward is Stephen’s human servant. They’re bonded. Edward is alive, so Stephen must be too.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Edward is.”

David turned down another street and got them pointed the right way back to the club. He preferred to drive manually and not use the autopilot, and always had. He enjoyed it, but it was hard keeping his speed down right now. He wanted to race back and learn exactly what had happened, but getting pulled-over by a traffic cop or sanctioned by the AI traffic control system wouldn’t improve his mood.

He tried to plan what he would do when he got back to the club. He could send the pack out listening for any word about what went down, but he would need to check Marie’s house himself, or Mist could depending upon what he found waiting there. There might be a way to track Stephen’s scent. How they had managed to get the drop on such a powerful vamp puzzled him. Stephen would have fought and probably killed them unless seriously out numbered.

“Does Lawrence have any leads at all?”

“He didn’t say, but taking out Stephen after what we found at Michael’s estate? It has to be AML again.”

“Hmmm. Hoberman might know something,” he said, frowning in thought. “I wonder how far into their circle he really is.”

“Who is Hoberman?”

“My ex-boss. Doctor Hoberman tried to recruit me for AML and wanted to use me in his bid for the Mayoral election.”

Ronnie snorted her derision.

“It’s not as stupid as it sounds. He didn’t know me that well, obviously, but I can see it working with someone else. If I’d been racist or the kind who wanted to lash out, I might have accepted his offer. As it turned out, all I wanted was the one responsible punished, not every shifter in the city. He couldn’t understand that.”

“And he’s part of AML?”

“I’m not entirely sure. The bodyguards with him were, but I don’t know if he’s a card-carrying member himself. They might just be using each other.”

“It’s worth thinking about,” Ronnie said. “We can squeeze him if necessary.”

“Let’s talk to Edward first. He might have an opinion on it, and I guess he’ll call Gavin and Rachelle too. You know, we should think about their security. AML, or whoever is behind them, has taken out two of four Houses. They might try for the entire set.”

“I hope they try Gavin. He’ll shred them.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I would have sworn Stephen could protect himself, but here we are and he’s missing.”

“Yeah.”

The rest of the trip to Lost Souls went quickly by in silence. David concentrated upon his driving while going over scenarios in his head. He wanted to know what was happening right now at the Stirling house before choosing a direction. Was OSI involved in the investigation? That would make things trickier, but they had their own cop, and she could probably find out more than he could with a single link call to her friends in the department. He would wait for Edward’s opinion, but he had a feeling he would need to visit the detective tonight. Angel would know her address.

The club was in full swing when David parked in the lot, and it reminded him that he couldn’t just send the entire pack out to search for Stephen. Life went on despite the disasters sent his way. Stephen wouldn’t appreciate it if he closed down the club. Still, the
Blood Drinkers
had the numbers to do both. He glanced at Ronnie as they marched across the lot side by side. He would leave Ronnie in charge of the club. He wouldn’t leave it unprotected. The
Alley Dogs
had been quiet recently, but they might think of Stephen’s absence as an opportunity to make trouble. The other city packs were sniffing around the borders as everyone had warned him would happen, but they were a lesser concern compared to the huge danger the
Alley Dogs
represented.

They found Edward in his office standing with Lawrence watching the news on the vid. The big screen had Channel 5 on and the reporter was speculating upon what had happened. The pictures were very clear, provided by hover cams buzzing overhead, recording the police and forensic teams investigating the scene and collecting bodies.

“That’s right, Dave,” the reporter doing the voice-over said cheerfully. “The police have now confirmed that billion dollar industrialist William P. Stirling died along with eighteen others in his home around 10:15pm this evening when it came under attack. Rumours are spreading that the Anti-Monster League has claimed responsibility for the atrocity already, but the police have so far failed to confirm or deny the story. Instead, they stated in their initial bulletin that their investigations have barely begun, and that they will inform the public at the appropriate time.”