“Heather!”
“Not now, Harbinger,” she snapped.
“I gave him my word. We deal with the Alpha first. We’re going to need Nikolai alive.”
Heather sighed. “Fine.” Nikolai was staring up at her, shocked. She followed his eyes as they tracked up her bare arm to her outstretched hand. Her nails had already stretched into deadly claws. She studied the claws absently. “Well…huh. Where’d those come from?” Hadn’t even felt that. She turned her attention back to the stunned werewolf. “What? Didn’t expect that from a pup? You know what I can’t stand? Bullies. I’m sick and tired of bullies. I’m done screwing around. You get me, Nicky?”
The madness in his eyes seemed to subside. There was no way he could breathe, but he managed a spasmodic nod. Giving one last squeeze, as if to say Got you, fucker, she reluctantly let go and stood up. Clenching her hand into a fist, she felt the claws shrink automatically. It hurt a little bit, but in a good way.
The four other men were just watching her, mouths agape. She picked Harbinger’s jacket out of the snow and actually put it on this time. It was long enough that she was able to retain a tiny amount of dignity. She zipped it up as she walked over to Harbinger. Even he seemed surprised at how quick she’d been.
“What the hell is she?” the Fed shouted.
“She’s with us. That’s all you need to worry about.”
“But werewolves can’t do that!”
“Do what?” she asked innocently, making sure to bat her eyes at Stark. The mannerism seemed to unnerve him even more, and she got some enjoyment out of that. I told Harbinger I’d try not to eat anybody, but maybe he’d make an exception for that one. Heather banished the thought immediately. She was no murderer, and besides, Stark was probably high in cholesterol.
“He’s talking about you partially transforming some body parts at whim…and moving damn near master-vamp speed,” Harbinger said. “Impressive, even by my…or Nikolai’s standards. Those are some neat tricks, even with a lot of practice. For somebody on their first night? I would’ve said impossible.” He handed her the blanket. Heather threw it over her shoulders like a robe. It hung to her ankles. “But this night’s just full of surprises.”
The tall stranger and Aino were still gawking at her, obviously scared. Aino had been a friend of the family since before she’d been born. As her curmudgeonly grandfather’s only friend, she’d always thought of him kind of like an uncle. To see him staring, wide-eyed and fearful, broke her heart. He was probably waiting for her to just zip over and shred him. He must think she was a complete monster.
Nikolai had stood. There was a terrible crack as he jerked his arm back into the socket. Bones realigned, he could begin to heal. He was watching her carefully, but it looked like the slightly less evil side was back in control. How bad was it that even a werewolf assassin with multiple personalities didn’t trust her? If a monster like him couldn’t trust her, how could she expect relatively normal humans to? She was really scraping the bottom of the trust barrel here, but she needed all of them if she was going to break the curse.
Heather tried to sound as contrite as possible. “Listen, all of you, please. I’m not like those others. I know this is a little weird, but I’m on your side. All I want is to get that amulet back so I can be cured. Please, I’m begging you. I need your help.”
Aino surprised her then as he came over and put an unexpectedly gentle hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, girl. You didn’t ask for this. We all know you’re doing the best you can. Besides, I didn’t shoot you when you got real ugly earlier, not gonna start now. You’re the same person as you’ve always been, and you’ve always been okay by me.”
Heather almost choked up at the unexpected display of affection. “Thanks…I…”
The old miner had exhausted his supply of empathy. “Eh…More? You need a hug or something? Come on, let’s go get you cured already. I’ve been up for like twenty hours. I’m tired.”
“My apologies, Deputy Kerkonen.” Nikolai’s words were polite, his attitude not so much. “It will not happen again.” She didn’t believe him at all. It will not happen again could just as easily be referring to her surprising him and getting the upper hand.
“Thank you,” she said. “We cool?”
Nikolai nodded curtly and climbed back on his snowmobile. The others followed suit. Stark was still scared of her. The big one, Jason, seemed ambivalent but kept a real close eye on her. The air filled with the sound of high-pitched engines. One by one, they pulled off to spoil the pristine white swath covering Cliff Road.
Only Harbinger waited. She stepped closer to him. “So, how was that?”
“Unexpected…The amulet’s magic is doing different things to you than the other recently bitten, and I don’t know why. You know, Kerkonen, there’s something really special about you.”
“Why, Mr. Harbinger, are you flirting with me?”
“Huh? No,” Harbinger answered before he realized that she was messing with him. He rolled his eyes. “Special, as in you’re one peculiar werewolf. You’re exercising a surprising amount of control for somebody who shouldn’t have even turned yet. I just saw you do things that took me forty years to get the hang of. There’s got to be an explanation.”
Heather found herself grinning again. Why does he have that effect on me? She barely knew him, but there was something about Harbinger that just felt right. He was a gentleman, but she also liked his no-BS honesty. He was completely fearless but not a brute. This one was a keeper.
Heather had never been the social type. She’d always been the prettiest wallflower, but being a werewolf made her feel kind of fun. “Bummer…On the flirting that is. I’d gotten my hopes up.”
For the first time since she’d met him, which had only been yesterday but seemed like an eternity ago, Harbinger didn’t seem to know what to say. “Well…I’m…”
“Flattered?”
Harbinger actually laughed. “I suppose. You’re an impressive lady. Maybe if we don’t die, we can…” There was an awkward pause. “I don’t know, catch a movie or something?”
She’d done the impossible. She’d found somebody who sucked at this kind of thing even more than she did. “You’re pretty rusty on the whole dating scene, aren’t you?”
“The last picture I took a woman to starred Humphrey Bogart, and it was new. What do you think?”
“Cradle robber.” He was over a hundred, after all.
Harbinger shrugged. “That whole werewolf thing is hell on a social life.…It’s hard when everyone ages but you. Makes anything long term kinda…complicated. I hadn’t even thought about that part of being human again, but we will get you cured, too,” he promised, and she could tell that he meant it.
She got closer. “You’re sweet.” And then she kissed him.
She hadn’t planned on it. Harbinger’s lips were freezing cold. Hers were abnormally hot. Harbinger was too confused to respond at first, but then he seemed to warm up to the idea.
Out of practice, but he’s a pretty good kisser.
A minute later, Harbinger gently disengaged himself. “Well…” He cleared his throat. “We’d better get going.”
“So, that’s a date, then, Harbinger?”
“You can call me Earl. Just don’t take that to mean I won’t still shoot you if you go all homicidal crazy on me.”
Heather put her hands on her hips. “There you go, spoiling a perfectly sweet moment.”
Harbinger winked. “Well, I would feel really bad about it.” He jerked his thumb at the last snowmobile. “Need a lift?”
“Why, I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter 30
The Alpha’s roar shook the building. Dust trickled from the ceiling, dislodged by his bellow, as he stomped down the catwalk.
The wait was agonizing. The amulet was like a burning patch of hate welded to his chest. Even while it fed him, it taunted him with its untapped potential. The power was so very close, nearly at his fingertips, yet the spirit of the forerunner would not give up its secret until this last challenge had been met. He was already a hundred times the man he had been, yet there was still so much more to take.
Dawn was coming too quickly and threatening to ruin everything. Lucinda Hood had warned him that the last vestiges of her spell would fade along with the dark. Soon Copper Lake’s story would be told to the world. Time was slipping away, but still the amulet told him to wait….
He had thought about just denying the amulet’s order and fleeing as originally planned. Having been raised to always be careful, to always plan for multiple contingencies, to never bite off more than he could chew, this was extremely frustrating. The smart thing to do was to retreat, regroup, and assess his next move. For once training and instinct were in agreement.
Fear kept him in place. The Alpha was worried that if he disobeyed the amulet now, then it would never find him worthy again. He would still be the greatest, but it would be like having one hand tied behind his back for the rest of his nearly immortal life. He would never fulfill his destiny like that. The anxiety tore at his guts. His fist left an indentation in a steel beam.
“I need counsel,” he muttered to himself. The pack members that were attending him hung back, terrified at his outbursts. He’d already eaten a few of them, and they didn’t even know why. The shadow that remained of his humanity could understand their fear, but the new part was disgusted by their cowardice. “Bring me the prisoner.”
The werewolves fled, and the Alpha went back to pacing back and forth on the catwalk overlooking the base of Shaft Six. The catwalk crossed the center of the large space. There were stairs up and down at both ends. He was directly above the massive rusting cable spindles of the deactivated elevator. Being cooped up in this tomb was frustrating.
They returned a few minutes later with a ragged human hanging between them. His head had been covered in a bag, but the blood stains on his torn shirt told the rest of the story. It had been necessary to beat him severely during his capture. That had not been part of the plan, but he had resisted fiercely when the witch’s minions had magically appeared in his home. There was no way he would have come willingly, so it had been necessary.
It pained the Alpha’s heart to see him in such sorry shape. He should have realized there was no way he would have gone down without a fight. “Put him down.” His werewolves did so, and they were wise to do it as gently as possible.
“Get your filthy paws off of me!” the prisoner shouted as the pack withdrew. The prisoner struggled to his knees, and the tilt of his covered head indicated that he was already listening, looking for an angle, for some means to escape. The Alpha walked across the catwalk and pulled the bag from the prisoner’s head.
Kirk Conover blinked his blackened eyes as they adjusted from the complete darkness of the bag to the gray dimness of the mine building. Finally, they adjusted enough for him to make out the thin man standing before him in a big black coat and a wide-brimmed hat. “Let me go, Adam. It’s not too late to fix this.”
The Alpha shook his head and chuckled. “Hey, Dad.”
Kirk Conover’s hands had been tied behind his back for his own protection. He was still spry for his age and doubtlessly had a few tricks up his sleeve since he had, after all, been trained by the best. He was already looking for something to use to his advantage. This was an endearing trait to the remaining sliver of humanity in the Alpha’s heart, but it just made the growing power of the Alpha’s inner monster that much angrier. The Alpha whispered for it to be still. He needed wisdom, and his father had always had plenty to spare.
There were cobwebbed chains and pulleys dangling above the catwalk, but nothing that Kirk could utilize with his hands tied. Inventory completed of his situation, still hopeless, Kirk turned back to his son. “You need to listen to me. This is crazy. Stricken will lose it when he finds out what you’ve done.”
The government didn’t like when its supernatural operatives went rogue, and they were usually dealt with harshly. “I’m not scared of Stricken.”
“You should be. I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish here, but it’s wrong.”
The Alpha leaned against the cold metal railing of the balcony. “This is bigger than me, Dad. This is destiny. You wouldn’t listen. Nobody would listen before, but they’re not going to have a choice now.”
“It’s that witch I met earlier. I don’t know what she’s put in your head. She’s a demon’s concubine, Son. I recognize her from the briefings. It’s that Hood girl. She comes from a long line of necromancers. We’ll just explain to Stricken that she brainwashed you.”
“Do you really have any room to talk about brainwashing? I’m not the one that made my own child into a weapon. Oh, never mind.” Long experience told him where that line of reasoning would take them. There was no need to refight old battles. They’d just have to agree to disagree. “I recruited her, not the other way around. This is my plan. Her god is just along for the ride. I’ve been working on this operation for three years.…” The Alpha paused to let that sink in.