“But a shapeshifter child in human form can’t hold on to the bars, because they have silver that will burn their hands.”
She paused.
“Aha,” I said to say something.
“Conlan opened the latch and escaped. There were claw marks on the wall and claw marks on the latch. He did this very fast. George put him down for a nap, and fifteen minutes later, when I came to check on him, he was gone.”
That was how he avoided the silver. He turned into his warrior form, climbed up, and worked the latch with his claws.
“Curran didn’t tell me everything.” Her voice held a gentle rebuke.
“What did he tell you?”
“That my grandson is a shapeshifter, and assassins are hunting him. What else should I know?”
We would need her to watch Conlan. I had to come clean. “He can hold a warrior form,” I said.
Martha startled. “The baby?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“For however long he wants.” I sighed.
Martha fell silent.
I finished my tea.
“What else can he do?” she asked softly.
“We don’t know.” I set my cup on the little table between us. “We know he can’t control his magic, and it makes him visible to people who can sense it. My father put a price on his head. One of my father’s associates was seen bringing a briefcase into the Keep. He was escorted by renders. He left without the briefcase. The next day Robert brought us an offer of friendship and alliance.”
Martha leaned back. “Jim will never betray you.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because she’d cut off his balls and feed them to him,” Desandra said behind me.
“What are you doing here?”
The alpha of Clan Wolf stalked into the light and leaned against the wall. “I was driving by. Saw the spectacle. Thought I’d stop by. What are those furry foul-smelling dead things in the parking lot?”
“They belong to a guy named Neig. He’s ancient, powerful, and he might be a dragon.”
“What does this Neig want?”
“To conquer the world. And for me to help him against my father. This was a demonstration of his power.”
Desandra sneered at the parking lot. “Not exactly impressive. Oh well, most men have trouble with foreplay.”
She had a point. With as much as he’d hyped his demonstration of power, I had expected bigger fireworks.
“Nobody will harm my grandchild,” Martha said. “Clan Heavy won’t stand for it.”
I didn’t say anything. Clan Heavy was powerful, but it was only one clan.
“They say a lot of silly things about us wolves.”
Desandra studied the polish on her nails. They were long, sharpened to a point, and bright yellow like the mane of blond hair falling on her back.
“They say we mate for life, that we have lupine dignity, that we are all stoic and sour. Rubbish. But one thing is true. We forget nothing. We remember our friends and our enemies. If the Beast Lord were to betray his friends, well, he wouldn’t be fit to be a leader. If Martha goes for his balls, someone will have to go for his throat.”
Orange light rolled over Desandra’s eyes. She smiled. “Poor Beast Lord,” she purred. “Why, he wouldn’t know where to turn.”
A vampire dashed across the parking lot. Grape purple. What now . . .
“Aiming for the Beast Lady seat?” I asked.
“If they begged me to take it on bended knee, I wouldn’t.” Desandra grinned, baring sharp teeth. “Too much hassle. I’m a single mother. All I want to do is raise my children in peace.”
“And rule the largest clan with iron claws,” I told her.
“These are plastic.” Desandra waved her nails at me.
“Jim knows what he would face,” Martha said. “He isn’t a fool.”
“All the same, I don’t want Conlan near the Keep. And I don’t want him at your clan house. Too much risk for everyone.”
“We will take care of Conlan,” Martha said. “We’ll do it on your street. Don’t worry about it.”
“And Mahon?” I asked.
“What the old bear doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” Martha said.
“You do what you need to do,” Desandra said. “We’ll do our part.”
An undead vaulted over the balcony. “In-Shinar!” A desperate note vibrated in Javier’s voice.
“What happened?”
“Rowena failed to check in. We can’t find her or her vampire.”
Damn it.
I got up and closed my eyes. Magic spread before me. I couldn’t find someone I didn’t know. I could detect when a significant power breached my borders, but the sahanu were invisible to me. They didn’t have enough power. I didn’t know them well, but Rowena was related to me by blood, a bond strengthened by friendship and a vow of loyalty. It was a tenuous connection, but it would have to be enough.
The sea of magic waited for me. I had to stir it up. I pulled my power in and released it. The pulse of magic rolled through the city like the toll of a giant silent bell. The floor underneath me shuddered.
Pulse.
Another pulse.
Pulse.
There, a faint trail, something weak, something small and insignificant but carrying traces of Rowena’s magic. Her vampire.
It was on the very edge of my territory, just inside the border, left for me to find. And there was something else. Ancient and scorching, like someone had raked the fabric of the magic with white-hot claws. Neig.
I opened my eyes. “Get Ghastek,” I snarled at Javier. “Get your strike teams. Get the bus. Get everyone.”
* * *
• • •
WHEN TEDDY JO carried me into the air, he did it in a contraption he called “the sling” and I called an old playground swing. When Christopher carried me, he picked me up like I was a child. It wasn’t my favorite way to travel, but I needed speed, and he hurtled through the air like a hawk diving for his prey.
We were going southeast, toward Panthersville. The city slid under us, so tiny it seemed unreal. How the hell did people get into planes on a regular basis before the Shift? I did a lot of things well. Heights and flying weren’t among them.
“Would you like me to fly lower?” Christopher asked.
“No.”
What I would have liked was Rowena, safe and sound. I felt as if I were trying to outrun a giant rolling boulder while more boulders fell on me from every side. Whatever was holding me together was wearing thin, and when it broke, there would be hell to pay.
I just had to find Rowena. I had to find her alive, not in a vat of boiling people . . .
The spark of magic was almost directly under us.
“We’re here,” I told Christopher.
His great red wings folded. He went into a dive. Wind tore at me. I shut my eyes.
We swooped and miraculously stopped falling. I opened one eye. Christopher stood in a pasture, holding me. A copse of magnolia trees, their thick branches twisting up, waited in front of us, the boundary of my territory just yards away, beyond the tree line.
Christopher set me down, carefully.
The pasture lay quiet. Insects chirped. Birds sang in the branches, some trilling melody. The heat of summer streamed from a sky so beautifully blue, it almost hurt to look at. The weak “glow” of Rowena’s magic was right in front of me. I pulled Sarrat out of its sheath and walked forward, under the dense canopy.
The sound of someone’s hoarse breathing echoed through the woods, creepy enough to give me nightmares.
A massive tree spread its branches before me. A bloody chain was wrapped around the trunk.
I moved forward, carefully, one foot over the other, circling the tree.
Step. Another step.
The back of the trunk came into view. A dead vampire sagged against the loop of the chain, a massive pike thrust through his heart. Next to it, held in place by the loops of the same chain, a yeddimur sagged against the trunk. Blood stained the fur on its sides where it must’ve tried to gnaw itself free of the chain. Above them, a single word was clawed into the bark. Kings.
“Kings?” Christopher frowned.