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Something’s wrong.
“I’m afraid they’re leaving immediately. Anything needing his signature can be sent to his secretary in Toronto. I’m sure you have the contact info,” Xiao states firmly. “In the mean—”
There’s a crash and a thud that hits the other side of the bedroom wall, like something has been thrown. Like someone has been thrown.
Then, there’s a roar.
Nathan rushes for the door and I try to stop him, but even with both hands, I wouldn’t be able to hold him back. “Stay here!” he orders, charging into the parlor.
The hell I’m going to just stand there. I follow him, but my feet fuse to the floor in the doorway.
Harriet isn’t Harriet. She’s a fully transformed werewolf in the remnants of Harriet’s prim housekeeper dress.
Even though she’s elderly, her wolf form is still dangerously powerful; there’s nothing frail about the corded muscle rippling under her gray fur. She bats the heavy sofa aside like a housefly and it splinters in midair from the force.
Then what happened to Xiao?
Nathan is helping my bodyguard to her feet, but I’m surprised she’s not dead. I know her uniform is plated with a bunch of tactical armor, but I don’t know how that kind of thing holds up against blunt force trauma. But the second she’s upright, she pushes Nathan behind her, shouting, “Get the queen out!”
That’s when Nathan sees me, standing there defenseless, and that alerts Harriet to my presence.
My first thought is, I’m not losing another fucking hand. My second is, I’ll probably die, though.
Harriet charges at me at the same time Nathan does. He manages to insinuate himself between me and her, toppling me backward and tumbling me into the bedroom, where I should have stayed. Nathan shouts in pain. Blood splashes across the floor and I pray it’s not his while knowing it mostly likely is.
“Her necklace!” Xiao shouts, leaping onto Harriet’s broad back. A gold chain glints against the wolf’s fur. Xiao’s black-gloved fingers close on it, but it slips from her grasp. “Get her necklace!”
Harriet’s teeth snap in Nathan’s face. He pushes her muzzle away with one hand. The other grips the pendant on the chain.
Before my disbelieving eyes, Nathan transforms.
It’s not neat and tidy, like on the ceremonial grounds. It’s violent and instant, tearing the sleeves from his shirt as his arms lengthen and splitting the fabric down his back. With one mighty shove, he sends Harriet—and unfortunately, Xiao—across the parlor.
When Harriet lands, she’s the old housekeeper again, unable to fight effectively as Xiao yanks her upright. Nathan raises his clawed hand, holding the pendant and chain.
I try to think back to the man who attacked me at Aconitum Hall. I can’t remember if he had a necklace. I didn’t get a chance to notice fine details while my arm was spurting blood.
“Why?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper, and probably unheard over the blowing bellows of Nathan’s panting. I ask again, louder, “Why, Harriet? Why would you attack us?”
“Because you will destroy our kind!” she rages, fighting against Xiao’s hold.
“How?” I demand.
“You shouldn’t have invoked the right!” Harriet shrieks at us. “You’ve doomed us all!”
I can’t make sense of what she’s saying, but I know it’s important. Just like I know that it’s important to keep her alive for questioning. Nathan knows that, too.
But Nathan’s not fully himself at the moment.
He goes straight for the old woman.
“Nathan, no!” I shout, grabbing a handful of his fur. It’s about as effective as trying to hold back a train with a refrigerator magnet.
Xiao pushes Harriet behind her, but she just delays Nathan; he shoves my bodyguard aside like a feather that’s drifted annoyingly into his face.
Harriet’s hand shoots out and grips the pendant, returning to werewolf form in an instant. If she gets it away from Nathan, he’ll transform back, I realize. He can’t let the necklace go.
Instead, he covers her massive hand with his other one, effectively trapping her in her own hold on the pendant. He swings her against the fireplace and the marble surround cracks.
Xiao pulls her gun from her hip, and I scream, “No!” because guns make me nervous, and I don’t want her to shoot my husband accidentally.
I don’t expect my cry to actually influence her, but she glances my way and holds her fire, though she keeps the barrel trained on the sparring werewolves.
Harriet falls from Nathan’s grasp and he staggers back. He staggers back on a man’s legs, in a man’s ripped up clothes. Harriet stands up, still a werewolf.
Xiao gets a shot off; it hits Harriet in the shoulder, but it only momentarily slows her, and Nathan rushes back in like a jackass.
“Stay back and let her shoot!” I yell at him, but it’s too late. He snatches the pendant from Harriet’s grasp, and they trade forms, leaving Harriet an old woman in a tattered dress, helpless in the claws of a monster.
