“To what end?” I asked.
Jael closed his eyes and sipped his coffee, lingering over every drop. He seemed to be avoiding the question, but just before I could press him again, he finally lowered his mug and met my gaze. “According to the official news reports, which are of course controlled by Darkwinter now, the storm has resulted in the closure of the two main bridges into and out of the Bay and all ferry service to and from Seattle and the surrounding areas. Without access to the city, vendors cannot deliver necessities like food, bottled water, medical supplies, and gasoline. Prior to announcing the road and waterway closures, Darkwinter Knights—with the backing of the law enforcement community that’s also under their influence—seized control of the city’s grocery stores and gas stations and began rationing out food and supplies.”
“Holy shit,” one of the witches—McKenna, I’d heard someone call her—said. “It’s like martial law.”
“Yes,” Jael said. “Under guise of protection from the dangerous conditions of the storm, they’ve instituted a mandatory travel ban and curfew.”
“And no one in the Bay has questioned this? Not even the humans?”
“Everything has been designed to look like a genuine emergency, including the extreme response,” Jael said. “For the first few days, people were calm and orderly, trusting that the storm would pass, that the city officials would deal with any issues. But my sister tells me that panic has started to set in. Because of the curfew and restricted travel, many people—humans and supernatural alike—have not been able to go to work or open their businesses, and there have been reports of widespread looting and property damage. The Knights could easily quell this, but we believe it’s all part of their plan to destabilize the city. Children are being kept from school. People can’t get medical care. Sanitation services have been suspended, so garbage is piling up, and the water supply is now at risk. Boats have been frozen in the marinas, bringing the local fishing industry to a grinding halt. There are intermittent power outages, many of the older Victorian homes and original buildings do not have modern heating systems, and now the people are almost out of food. Rations or not, that is a terrifying proposition.”
“It’s a powder keg,” I said, the implications hitting me full on. “All the pieces are in place.”
“All that’s left to do now is light the match.” This from Elena, who’d just emerged from her bedroom. She’d excused herself to check on Reva soon after Gray and Haley had locked themselves in the guest room, and we’d all given her some space.
Her face was gaunt, with deep lines around her mouth and eyes. She’d showered, but she still smelled of wolf’s blood.
My stomach twisted. The worse part? If I could detect it, she could, too.
I met her gaze, but then realized I had nothing to offer her. No compassionate smile, no words of encouragement, nothing that would truly help. For all intents and purposes, I was as much a stranger to her brother as most of the other guests in this house.
She nodded at me anyway, a gentle smile touching her lips.
Then, crossing to the center of the living room and addressing the group, she said, “The problem, of course, is that we don’t know what that match looks like or when they plan to strike it.”
“Sounds like we’ve got some things to sort out,” I said, moving to stand at Ronan’s side. I put a hand on his shoulder to let him know that for my part, all was forgiven. I had no interest in fighting with my brothers, even if I didn’t remember them as such, and I wanted him to know that.
“Darius is right,” he finally said, making no move to shake off my hand. “We need to make a solid plan.”
“I’ll put on more coffee,” Deirdre said. “Something tells me this endless night is about to get a lot longer.”
Ten
RONAN
It was damn near impossible to concentrate, but I was grateful for the challenge. It kept my mind off Gray and Emilio and Deirdre and all the other fucked-up shit swirling around inside, and right now, that was the best I could hope for. Distraction.
“So Darkwinter is amassing an army in the Bay,” I said, still pacing, “where they’ve subdued most of the population and seized control of the city’s resources. Meanwhile, we’ve liberated the witches, but not the hybrids the hunters created, or the other supernaturals they were experimenting on in the cave prisons.”
“We’re assuming they’re being held elsewhere,” Lansky said. “Possibly another warehouse in town, or—depending on how fast they bailed out last night—possibly in the Bay.”
“You’re assuming they’re evenalive,” McKenna said. “From what we saw in there, none of them looked healthy. The hunters treated those guys even worse than they treated us.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, though I suspected I already knew.
“Beat the shit out of them,” McKenna said. “Tortured them. Basically, they were trying to trigger their predator response.”
She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know, but fucking hell, those hunters were some sick bastards.
“If we’re going to be prepared for all possible scenarios,” Elena said, “we need to consider theworst-case scenario here. So yes, we’re assuming they’re alive, strong, and ready to attack on Darkwinter orders.”
“You think the experiments worked?” I asked her.
“I think it’s possible, and therefore I want to be prepared for that possibility.” Despite the dark circles under her eyes, she glanced at her notes with extreme focus, tapping the notebook with her pen, totally absorbed in the task at hand.
Seemed I wasn’t the only one who thrived on distraction.
“Before the warehouse mission,” she continued, “Gray and Liam confirmed that Jonathan was still alive, albeit trapped in her magical realm. As Gray described it, he’d essentially transformed himself into some sort of human-shifter-vampire hybrid. If that’s true, then there’s a chance similar experiments were conducted on other beings, and possibly worked in the same way.”
