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I looked up at him. “What will you be doing?”
“Trying to hold the Pack together.”
“How can I help?” I asked, since we hadn’t talked about it yet.
Something seemed to blossom in his eyes, and he lowered his forehead to mine. “I don’t think you can. And I’m afraid I can’t,either. The Pack is scared. Furious. Pissed at the demon. Pissed at me because I didn’t stop it. Pissed at vampires because it happened on their watch.”
“And the interlopers?”
“They were surprisingly quiet,” he said. “Maybe felt some actual concern that their Apex was gone. But more likely just planning their next move.”
“How... vampiric.”
He made a sound that might have been a chuckle but stood there for a moment. I rubbed his arms, trying to soothe him, and could feel the tight tension in his muscles.
“You can let it out,” I said. “It’s just us right now.”
He shook his head, a lock of hair curling over his forehead. “If I put down this weight,” he said, “I’m not sure if I can pick it up again.”
I knew what it cost him to make that admission, even to me.
“The world needs to change,” I said quietly.
He looked down at me, tugged on a lock of my hair. “We’ll change it when we’re in charge. But we aren’t in charge yet.”
***
I ate, less because of the enjoyment of food than because I knew I’d need the energy. I’d either be fighting a demon or hunting one, and that was going to require every skill at my disposal. I added two bottles of blood and was feeling nearly (un)human again.
I was cleaning up—it seemed only fair given he’d done the cooking—when Connor’s screen rang.
“Alexei,” he said. “What’s up?”
I hadn’t even known he’d left the town house. I’d assumed he was still asleep upstairs.
Alexei must have requested Connor put him on speaker, as Connor swiped the screen, and Alexei began talking. “Lulu left the town house a couple of hours ago. She was crying. I don’t think she slept last night.”
I didn’t know she’d left, either, and I really didn’t like the sound of this. “Do you know where she went?”
“Yes, I followed her in an Auto. She was crying,” Alexei said again, as if that fully explained and justified his behavior. And maybe it did. “She rode around for a while in an Auto. And then she went to the fairy castle.”
I froze, even as my heart began to pound. Chicago’s mercenary fairies were dangerous and sly as vipers. They weren’t exactly evil. But they were powerful and old and arrogant, and they didn’t much care how their plans would affect others. They’d once guarded Cadogan House during daylight hours—until they’d sold out the House. One had nearly destroyed Chicago in their effort to bring back the green land—their homeland—and return the fairies to power.
“Why the hell is she there?” I finally said when I’d wrapped my brain around what Alexei had said. Lulu had been to the castle before, with me, just after I’d come back from France. It was after that trip that she’d re-upped her decision to avoid magic.
“I think she’s convinced they made Cadogan House disappear—and she’s going to make them pay for it.”
***
The rain kept coming, creating a terrific noise in the SUV that Connor drove while I passed messages—to Theo, to Gwen—advising them what Lulu had done and promising an update as soon as possible.
“She could start a war,” I muttered when I’d gotten their acknowledgments and put my screen away again.
“How?” Connor asked. “She doesn’t use magic.”
“Humans don’t, either, and how many wars have they been involved in? Consider history—and fairies.”
“Right.” He hit the accelerator. “We’ll get there,” Connor said, putting a hand over mine. “We’ll get there, and we’ll stop her. We’ll stop all of it.”
