Damn it!It was no surprise that Yuki had lied, but I hadn’t thought Jezebel would help him.And now he had an hour’s head start.Even worse, Gil was on his way to raid some norm’s Christmas party.
I pulled the door shut and started to turn, only to hear someone’s voice from behind me.“About time you showed up,” it said, and the world exploded in pain.
* * *
Iwoke up an indeterminatetime later, feeling as if I’d run into a wall.I tried looking around, but my eyes didn’t seem to be working.My memory is usually pretty good, so it probably wasn’t a positive sign that I had no recall of whatever had happened. Just fragments of conversation that didn’t make sense.
...mother was a Were.I always suspected...
If she’s human—
She’s not.And we’re running out of time.
I’ll prepare...
I felt a needle prick my arm, and then nothing but cold creeping painfully over my body.I strained, desperate to move an arm, to open my eyes, to think, but for a long time all I felt was the dragging weight of a body that wasn't obeying my commands.And then feeling returned, and there was nothing but agony.
When I finally forced my lids open, a terrible white light was pouring in, stabbing at my brain.I tried to block it, but I couldn’t lift my hand.I also couldn’t see straight, and all I could hear was an awful, inhuman noise coming out of my own chest.For one horrible second, I needed air and couldn’t remember how to get it, my lungs refusing to work.There were suddenly voices all around me, blurry faces peering down, and a smug voice saying,“I told you so.”Then darkness again.
I came around the second time mainly because of the absence of pain.It didn’t feel like it was gone for good, more like it had taken a break and would be back to torture me again soon.But for the moment, I could breathe, although my ribs ached with each shallow attempt.
My wrist had fallen near my face, and my watch informed me that it was 12:05 A.M.Christmas morning.I’d have traded all the presents in the world for the ability to sit up, to know what had happened.I flexed a finger, and it was stiff, like a dried twig that would snap if I pushed too hard.My brain was screaming at me to do something, to move, to get into a defensive position, but I couldn’t manage it.I did finally lift my head, though, and saw that I wasn’t in the foyer anymore.Not unless the owners had decided to renovate it into early-industrial ugly while I was out.
I also wasn’t alone.
“I’ve been looking for you,” I croaked, and a blonde head snapped up.The girl had been seated on the other side of the small cage we seemed to be sharing, staring at its iron bars.She stared at me now instead, blue eyes wide.
“You’re alive.”Daniela seemed surprised.
I licked my lips, but couldn’t feel it.“The jury’s still out.”
She grabbed a water bottle hanging from the side of the cage.She couldn’t stand up; the cage top was too low, but she scuttled over on hands and knees.“None of the others lasted this long,” she said, as I tried to drink through numb lips.
I spat water all over my shirt.“What others?”I croaked.
“The other Weres who were here.They’re all dead.”
“How, why?”
“Failed experiments,” she said angrily.“Some mages are planning to blow up the clan leaders at theUlfhringtomorrow.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I’m the bomb.”
I tried to drag myself into a sitting position, but failed.“What?”
“They need me to get past security.That’s why they took the daughters of highly placed members.If I say it’s an emergency, security will let me in.They know me.”
“And they think you’re just going to carry in a bomb for them?”
“They plan to put me under a compulsion.”
“That doesn’t work on Weres,” I pointed out.
“I know that!But they’ve come up with a potion that’s supposed to help the suggestion to take.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
