10
ONCE THE MSDU took over the scene, they found the Order’s petition and released us. The last I saw of Nick Feldman, he was surrounded by soldiers. There was no getting to him. We had convinced the National Guard to give us a lift to one of the Pack offices. From there Robert and I had loaded Desandra, Derek, and Ascanio into a Pack vehicle and driven to the Keep. None of the three moved. They were still breathing, but we needed to get them to Doolittle.
I walked into the Keep two hours before dawn, covered in drying blood and limping. My face must’ve been terrible, because people moved out of my way.
The Keep was crowded. Every shapeshifter in the city who didn’t evacuate had traveled here.
Barabas came running down the stairs.
“Curran?”
“No word yet.”
“Julie?”
“Should be in Virginia by now.”
I turned around. The Keep had gone quiet around me. People stood in the hallways and on the stairs, waiting. I was the Consort. I was their alpha.
My voice rang out in the sudden silence. “Bring me Dorie Davis! Bring her to me alive!”
Everyone moved. People dashed in all directions, some human, some furry. The Keep sprang to life.
Behind me Robert roared, “We need a medic!”
Jim appeared as if by magic.
“I need to tell you some things. Come upstairs.”
I marched upstairs into one of the conference rooms and landed in a chair. Some time ago I had gone to a place where pain didn’t matter, but now it was coming back again, gnawing at me. Everything hurt. Jim followed me.
Thirty minutes later I finished talking.
Jim leaned forward and flashed his teeth. “Hugh fucked up.”
“Yes. He’d had the advantage, what with us being the guilty party, and he pissed it away by attacking the Order. He’ll still bring the People here, but now the city won’t help him.”
“We can use this,” Jim said. I could almost see the wheels in his head spinning.
“We need Dorie Davis.”
“I’ll find her,” Jim promised. “We can work with this, Kate. The MSDU and PAD were staying neutral, but this just changed the game.”
“Maxine called Nick the crusader Nikolas Feldman,” I said.
“Interesting last name,” Jim said.
“Is he related to Greg Feldman?”
“I don’t know,” Jim said.
“Nick showed up right after Greg was killed, he involved himself in the investigation, and he has the same last name. When this is over, I need you to find out if Greg Feldman had a younger brother or a son.” Because that would just be the cherry on the bloody sundae of the past twenty-four hours.
“Likely a brother. Greg was about forty when he died,” Jim said.
“No, Greg looked about forty. He looked like that for the last fifteen years I knew him. Who did you send to North Carolina?”
“A unit with three renders and our two best trackers. They’ll find him, Kate. No worries.”
If they didn’t, I would. I would look for Curran and I would not stop.
“I’ve got this from here,” Jim said. “Rest. I’ll send Doolittle up.”
Last time I checked, the good doctor was still in a wheelchair. It would be a lot easier for me to go down the stairs than for him to come up. “Not now. There are three sick people downstairs. He’ll be busy for a bit anyway.”
I still didn’t know if they would live or die.
Jim rose and leaned on the table, closing the distance between me and him. “You look like hell.”
“Thanks.” I felt like hell. I felt like I had walked through it, wading through blood and dragging a giant rock behind me.
“Go upstairs, take a shower, and sleep. You pulled us out of the quicksand. We’ve got a fighting chance now. You earned an hour of sleep.”
I forced the words out. My voice was hoarse. “A whole hour, oh boy!”
“An hour, then I’m sending Doolittle up. I need you to be at the top of your game. Go,” Jim said. “I’ll wake you up if the sky starts falling.”
He left.
I sat alone in the chair. I felt completely empty, like someone had drained me of all anxiety, fear, and anger. It was still there, simmering under the surface, but fatigue had taken over.
I was so tired. My God, I was so, so tired.
I covered my face and waited for the tears. I’d brought this on us. It would’ve happened eventually. The Pack had grown and Roland wanted to limit its power. But my presence had accelerated the process. I had watched as the entire Atlanta chapter of the Order was slaughtered. I wanted to cry just to let the pain bleed out of me, but my eyes were dry.
I would’ve given anything to have Curran walk through the door behind me. I could imagine him doing it. He would walk in, put his arms around me, and it would all be better.
I stared at the door.
Please walk through it. Please.
The door remained shut.
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. When we prepared to fight d’Ambray, we always assumed we’d be together. We would be a team. I hadn’t realized how much stronger that belief had made me and how much I had leaned on it until he was gone. Now I felt like my crutch had been jerked out from under me. Well, fate had once again confirmed that when you assume, you make an ass of you and me.
I leaned back and rested my head on the chair’s back. It’d been twenty-four hours since I slept. My side hurt. My left arm was going numb. Breaking Hugh’s ward had cost me. My ribs hurt.
So tired . . .
The Keep would hold against anything Hugh would muster. Of course, it would hold. Even if Hugh had brought every vampire in the People’s stable, it would hold.
I needed to drag myself up and go down to the third floor to see if Doolittle had an update. Just another minute to rest and I would get up . . .
? ? ?
THE PLAIN ROLLED out before me, far into the distance. It looked like some magical giant had cut the world in half: the bottom was a vast field, the blades of dried grass frosted white with snow, and above it, endless, painted with the pink and orange of sunrise, the sky soared. A colossal tower rose from the grass, silhouetted against the sky, impossibly tall.
The wind stirred my hair. It smelled of wheat.
The clouds churned above the tower.
Anxiety drowned me. I gritted my teeth.
A man strode toward me through the grass. He wore black pants and a fisherman’s sweater of undyed gray wool. Ice crunched under his shoes. Magic shrouded his face. It emanated from him, controlled, but too powerful to be hidden, folded around him the way a condor might fold his wings when not in flight.
A voice rolled through the field, lifting the dead grass. “Child . . .”
I jerked upright.
The door of the room swung open and Doolittle rolled in. He looked the way he usually looked, a black man in his midfifties, his hair touched by gray, his eyes intelligent and kind.
“I told Jim not to bother you.”
“First, it’s not a bother, it’s my job. And with you, young lady, it’s also a challenge. Every time you return to the Keep I wonder what new and inventive way you’ve found to injure yourself.” Doolittle looked at me. “Unless you’re implying that my chair is somehow preventing me from doing my work. In that case, I can . . .”
“No, it’s not what I meant. I just thought stairs would be inconvenient.”
“That’s why I have interns. They carried me up here. I thought of commissioning a palanquin. Something understated.”
“With silk and crimson velvet?”
“And golden tassels.” Doolittle rolled forward. “Then I could be transported in a manner appropriate to my vast experience and wisdom. Off with the shirt.”
Arguing with Doolittle was like trying to block the tide from coming in. I pulled off the sweater the witches had given me. Ow. Ow. “It was the guards, wasn’t it?”
“In all fairness, they let you sleep for two hours before they became concerned and called for help.”
I stripped down to my sports bra.
Doolittle sighed.
I looked down. My entire left side had gone blue and purple. “I think I have a cracked rib.”
He examined my side, whispering under his breath. “I think you have three.”
Ow.
I couldn’t avoid the question any longer. “How are they?”
“Derek and Desandra will live,” Doolittle said. “They lost their teeth, nails, and hair and had to have several blood transfusions, but now the poison is out of their bodies. They’re weak, but that’s nothing a few good meals and some rest won’t fix.”
“Ascanio?”
“He’s eating soup downstairs.”
I blinked. “You’re kidding me.”
“No. And trust me, right now he has much bigger problems. His alpha and his mother are both in the Keep, so he’s getting chewed out in stereo. It’s quite frightening. No more questions until I’m done.”
Doolittle put two fingers into his mouth and whistled. The door swung open and Agatha, one of Curran’s and my guards, stuck her head into the room.
“Wheel my cart in, please. I need water, and the Consort needs a fresh change of clothes.”