“The experiment was a failure,” Gil was saying, his hands in the air.He was wearing a green Christmas sweater with brown reindeer on it, I noticed irrelevantly.“But that doesn’t mean we can’t come to an arrangement.I’ve heard about you.You fought your brother for the title and lost.They kicked you out of the clan, removed their protection, made you an outcast.Wouldn’t you like to get a little of your own back?”
“Give me Lia and I’ll think about it.”
“I thought Were hearing was supposed to be sharp,” Gil said disdainfully.“The bitch is dead.Like you’re shortly going to be if you don’t—”
I blinked, and in the space of time it took to get my eyes back open, Cyrus was gone, and a huge black and tan wolf was tearing apart the living room.A moment later, five guards who must have snuck up on the outside of the house decided to hell with discretion and burst through the bow window.Gil dove behind the sofa, Cyrus followed him, and everyone else ran screaming for the door.
Within seconds, the Christmas tree went flying, the presents got mushed, and someone crashed into the cheerfully burning fireplace.It was a mage with his shields up, because he didn’t get so much as singed, but he managed to fling firewood across the floor while climbing out.It turns out that wrapping paper is pretty good kindling, because the scattered presents were soon burning merrily.
A few guys managed to keep enough of their wits about them to try a spell or two, but I emptied the guard’s clip into them.I couldn’t see straight, so my aim was off, and most of them had shields up anyway, but at least it provided a distraction.Only one of the people it distracted was Cyrus, who glanced at me and then did a swift double-take, which looked really strange in wolf form.
It wasn’t much of a slip, but it allowed a couple of mages to get a net spell on him.Only that spell usually takes a minimum of three people, which might explain why, when Cyrus reared back, they both went sailing over the couch.The unraveling strands of the spell trapped them and a pissed-off werewolf in a snarling, flailing ball.
Instead of trying to help his beleaguered men, Gil took one look and ran for the back door, taking him straight in my direction.I smiled, and he put on the brakes.“Lia.You’re...”
“Alive, yeah.”
Sweat broke out on his bald head.“In the nick of time, I was about to say.What took you so long?Help me contain that thing!”
“Nice try.But spells have a flavor of the caster, Gil.And I broke through yours on the cage downstairs.”Not to mention that, judging by the portraits on the mantel, the idiot had been running his scheme out of his own basement.
He changed tactics without so much as a pause.It was actually kind of impressive.“Don’t be a fool.You’re in as much trouble as I am.Help me, and I’ll return the favor.Otherwise, it will be my word against yours.And who do you think the clans are going to believe?”
The one who doesn’t smell like a liar, I almost said.“Out of curiosity, what is the point of all this?I know you hate Weres, but—”
“I could give a shit about them.But the deaths of their leaders will cause chaos in the clan system and make them look like the unreliable allies they are.It will also discredit my brother, who talked us into this alliance in the first place.”
“And you would want to do that because?”
“Because the position should have been mine!”Gil snarled.“The coalition decided his youth and good looks would appeal to more voters, and ran him instead of me.He used my contacts,mypolitical clout, to his advantage, and what did I get?A clap on the shoulder and a handshake, then left in this dead-end job!What do you think about that?”
“I think it’s crazy,” I said, and he relaxed slightly, although he didn’t take his hand out of his pocket.“Youth and good looks?‘Cause, seriously Gil, I’ve seen your brother—”
“The clans hate you, Lia!”he snapped.“Why do you think I chose you for this job?”
“Because you knew they wouldn’t talk to me.”
“Exactly.But if you join me, I’ll shield you from them.”
“Right.You’regoing to protect me.Someone so ignorant of Were customs that you don’t even understand the hierarchy?”
“What?”And it was obvious that he really didn’t know.That he’d killed seven people, maybe more, for nothing.It was sickening.
“Any of your test subjects could have told you,” I spat.“Even if your plan worked, there’s a clearly delineated line of succession, with an appointed second coming forward immediately to take the place of a fallen leader.And if he dies, there’s a third, and so on, down to the last member of the clan.And the first thing each and every one of them would do on assuming power is to hunt you down.Protect me?Thanks, but I prefer to take my chances.”
“Sure about that?Life without allies can be a bitch.”He pulled his hand out of his pocket and pointed the weapon it held at me.
I didn’t bother to reply because in order to fire, Gil had to lower his shields.And as soon as he did, I threw one of the dead guard’s potion vials in his face.He dropped the gun, screaming, as its corrosive properties went to work.I watched him trying to claw out his own eyeballs for a moment; it was oddly satisfying.“Yeah.Fortunately, so can I.”
I staggered over to Cyrus.He’d gotten his hind legs caught in a bunch of tinsel that had fallen off the ruined tree.“I’d offer you a hand, but.”I tried to wave and fell on my ass.
He crawled over to me using only his front paws.It looked like his hind legs weren’t just caught; they were useless.He collapsed by my side in a great furry heap.
We lay there quietly for a few minutes, listening to the crackle of burning gifts.On the plus side, the fires eventually went out on their own, and no one else attacked us.Not too surprisingly as most of them didn’t still seem to be in one piece.Even Gil had finally stopped screaming.
“How are you?”
I blinked blearily at him.Oh.He’d changed back.
