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I turned to Barabas. “Can I have a word before we go?”
“Of course.” He walked off with me. I put a hundred yards between us and the rest of the shapeshifters, made sure my back was to them, and said, “Barabas, before you leave the city, I need you to stop at a courier and send a few messages. Call in every favor we have with the city and whatever goodwill we have with law enforcement. Use anything we’ve been saving for a rainy day, because the hurricane is here. Please call Evdokia or one of her kids. Tell her what happened.”
Evdokia was one of the prominent witches in the Atlanta Covens and one of the few people who knew my background. The Covens would fight Roland to the end, and letting them know Hugh was on the warpath would buy them time to prepare.
“Will do.”
“As soon as you get to the Keep, please put together a combat team and send it into North Carolina to find Curran. Keep it quiet. We don’t need a panic.”
Barabas nodded.
“Jim will want to send one, but I want you to oversee it. Use renders, use combat people, the best you can get without leaving us too vulnerable. I don’t care if they have to take the mountains apart rock by rock. They need to find the Beast Lord and they need to do it fast.”
“I understand. What about the Pack Council?”
“They are Jim’s problem. If you can, try to stall them. Delay any decision making until tomorrow. We should be back by morning. If I don’t check in by noon, I am dead and you’re on your own.”
“Understood.”
“Find him, Barabas.”
“Kate, I will. I promise you, I will.”
“Also, please tell Jezebel to take Julie out of the city. She’ll need backup, because Julie is good at escaping. If Hugh takes Atlanta, Julie can’t be here. He will use her and make her into something terrible.”
“He won’t take Atlanta,” Barabas said.
“I know. Please do this for me.”
“Of course. Good luck.”
“Thank you. We’ll need it.”
We went back to the cars. Jim’s face looked grim. “For the record, I’m sick of being left behind,” he said.
“For the record, I’m sick of Hugh being alive.”
The weremongoose was waving at our people. “We’re moving out.”
Jim paused. “Don’t get yourself killed and don’t make me come and rescue your ass.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you, too.”
Jim growled under his breath and went to the Jeep.
“Jim!” I called, too loud.
He turned.
I waited a second to make sure I had everyone’s attention. “If I’m not back by tomorrow evening and the Beast Lord is still gone, you have my blessing.”
Jim blinked. His mouth opened. “Understood, Alpha.”
Someone would have to run the Pack. He had done it before and if I didn’t come back, he would do it again, and now I had a dozen witnesses who would support his right to do it.
Jennifer shook her head. She and her bodyguards got into their vehicle. The dark-haired man who had cut Desandra’s back open lingered. Desandra stepped close to him. “Go with our alpha. When you get to the Keep, send someone to Orhan and Fatima. And if Jennifer tries to do something stupid, delay her as much as you can. Get George to help you.”
So she had gone to see the retired alpha couple.
The man nodded and took off.
We turned and trotted down the bridge, hidden from the vampires’ view by the cars. The shapeshifters began to chant, cajoling the Jeeps’ enchanted water engines into life.
“Orhan and Fatima?” Robert asked.
“Mm-hm,” Desandra said. “I have their blessing to take over the clan. Can you believe that bitch threw me under the bus?”
• • •
WE FINISHED CROSSING the bridge and jogged another quarter mile along the forested road, then turned off the barely visible trail to the left. Trees choked the path, their roots thrusting across the dirt, all but invisible in the night shadows. Perfect. Maybe I’d trip, break my neck, and save Hugh the trouble of hunting me down.
“It’s not that Jennifer shoved me off the cliff,” Desandra said. “I understand. It’s that she was so ham-fisted about it. The woman has been an alpha now for what, six months on her own? It’s fair to expect some subtlety.”
“When did you go to see Orhan and Fatima?” Robert asked.
“A few days ago,” Desandra said.
“They don’t want to be involved in the Pack’s operations,” Robert said. “They’ve made it abundantly clear. An alpha who steps down surrenders all right to meddle with their clan. You’ve put them into a difficult position.”
“They invited me to meet with them. I didn’t ask. You want to know why Orhan and Fatima sent for me?” Desandra pointed at me, then at Robert in turn. “Alpha, alpha . . .” She pointed at herself with her thumb. “Beta. One of these things is not like the other. Jennifer should be here instead of riding with her bodyguards in a comfy car. That’s why.”
“I’m not an alpha,” Derek said.
“You’re like Curran’s baby brother.” Desandra waved her hand. “You don’t count. So no, I didn’t break the rules and go and bother Orhan and Fatima on my own. Give me some credit.”
Robert tried his best to look quietly unapproachable. His best was pretty good, but it didn’t stop me.
“So, Robert, how does that foot taste?”
Robert looked at me, clearly unsure how to react.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Desandra said. “About Hugh having planned all this. You’re right.”
She shrugged the jacket off her shoulder and turned her back to us. A bright red bullet wound, still wet, marked the skin above her shoulder blade. The bullet must’ve penetrated from the front and torn straight through the top of her chest to the back. A dark gray stain bordered the wound. She’d been shot with a silver round. As the toxic bullet passed through the body, the Lyc-V in the surrounding tissues died. When the other wolf had cut her back, she must’ve bled gray.
Nobody carried around silver bullets unless they meant to fight shapeshifters. Silver was too expensive and there were better and more accurate rounds available.
The eardrum-bursting roar of enchanted water engines announced the Pack vehicles passing along the road behind us. We kept moving.
The last echoes of the engines faded.
“Where are we going?” Desandra asked.
