Tainted Night, Tainted Blood

22



I felt much better by the next night. The day was hard to get through, but I managed. The cry did me good. Without it, I wasn’t so sure I would have made it through the day without going crazy. I itched for action.

As soon as night fell again, I was ready to go. I felt naked without my leather, and the shortened coat didn’t help matters any. The T-shirt was loose enough; it didn’t bother my wounds, though I wish I would have had Ethan come in to rebandage my back. While I managed to cover the gash, I hadn’t done a very good job.

Ethan had at least set everything out for me down in the basement. I gently put on the shoulder holster. It rubbed up against the bandage, but the pain was minor compared with the pain I would feel if I got to Thomas too late.

I checked the Glock to make sure it was loaded, slammed it into the shoulder holster, and then threw on my belt, complete with sword and knives. I pocketed a half-dozen silver packets and prayed I wouldn’t have to use them. A pair of spare magazines came next.

I headed upstairs to find Ethan waiting in the kitchen. “Be careful,” was all he said as I headed out. He knew what was at stake. If this went south, there was a good chance I wasn’t coming back.

The drive to the Luna Cult garage felt like it took forever. I could feel the seconds tick by. I just wanted to get started and get this over with. Once we had Thomas, I could worry about what to do next.

I waved toward the gloomy darkness, hoping someone was watching the cameras and would tell Jonathan I was coming. He was expecting me, sure, but I still liked being careful. I didn’t want one of his guards to get a little overzealous, especially one of the new wolves. I’d hate to have to kill someone.

I reached the Den a few minutes later and pushed through the glass doors. I hardly blinked at the sudden light.

There was a disgusted grunt and my vision cleared in time for me to see Pablo turn and stalk away in a huff. Thinking back to the night I had come crawling in here, I was pretty sure he had been the one to discover me. I doubted anyone else would curse in Spanish. I was surprised he hadn’t killed me when he’d had the chance.

Nathan appeared at the top of the stairs and motioned me up. I followed without question and he led me to the sitting room on the second floor. Two guards were standing on either side of the door, Jeremy Lincoln one of them. He did his best to give me a pleasant smile, but the tremble of his hands gave away his nervousness.

I brushed past the guards and entered the room behind Nathan. Jonathan was seated on the couch, staring into a glass of something ruby red. The faint scent of wine filled the room.

“I expected you last night,” he said, rising. He carried the glass over to the bar. There was no one behind the counter.

“I had some things I needed to do,” I said. “We weren’t planning on doing anything last night anyway.”

Nathan closed the door behind us, leaving just the three of us alone. He crossed the room and took up position behind the couch, arms behind his back. He glowered at the room in general.

“I almost went ahead without you,” Jonathan said. “I was afraid you had gone off on your own.” He crossed the room and stood between Nathan and I. “Of course, I don’t know where you would have gone, so I was left with no choice but to wait.”

“Did you tell Adrian?”

Nathan’s shoulders bunched and his glower deepened. A low rumble came from his chest, but he kept his mouth shut.

“No,” Jonathan said. “But it might be a good idea if we did.”

“Why?”

“We don’t have very many weres at our disposal here. I only trust the three of us to do this, honestly. The others are far too young, far too wild. They might not be able to control themselves, and a lack of control will get them killed.”

“Then we do it without them.”

Jonathan sat down on the couch. He faced me, brow furrowed with worry. “And how will we manage it with just three of us? You nearly died.”

“If it wasn’t for one of them getting lucky, I probably would have had them.”

“And yet you still lost. We don’t know how many of the Tainted your brother has at his command. Are you sure just the three of us can take them?”

I shrugged. “We have to try.”

Jonathan sighed. He wiped his face with his hands, once again giving me the chills. It just didn’t look natural with the glamour. I could almost see his hands passing through it.

“Please,” he said, motioning to the chair across from him. “Sit. You’re making me nervous.”

My nerves were so frazzled, I was nearly bouncing from the walls, but I moved to take a seat. It felt good to get off my legs, though. I was definitely not fully recovered from my last encounter with Thomas.

“What’s our plan?” Jonathan asked as soon as I was seated. “I’ve tried to come up with a way to do this and everything I come up with ends up with us dead. I don’t see how we can pull this off.”

“We go in, take down his Tainted, and pacify Thomas. Seems easy enough to me.”

Jonathan gave me a doubtful look. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

I flipped my coat open a little, exposing the Glock in its holster. “Silver will stop them just as fast as it would any other vamp or wolf. As long as you and Nathan can watch my back, this should be easy enough.”

“And what do you plan on doing with Thomas once we have him?”

I bit my lip. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

“Well, you better figure it out,” Jonathan said. “Silver will only last so long.”

“I know.”

“A cell.” Nathan spoke without looking at me.

The thought of sticking Thomas in a cell made me want to hit something. It seemed almost cruel. Of course, we were going to kill those loyal to him and paralyze him with silver. Was throwing him in a cell while we figured out how to help him really any worse?

“Okay,” I said. “We put him in a cell here.”

Jonathan didn’t seem to like the idea but nodded. “We can keep him until we figure out what to do with him. I don’t like it, but it’s all we have.”

“Then it’s settled,” I said, starting to rise.

Jonathan raised a hand and motioned for me to stay seated. “I still think we need to tell Adrian.”

“Why?”

“Because we have no idea how many Tainted we are dealing with here. It could be half a dozen, or it could be five times that. We just don’t know.”

“Could be,” I admitted.

“Which is why we need to tell Adrian.”

“No.”

“I don’t think we can do this without him.”

“No.”

“Kat ...”

“I said no.” My anger boiled over. “Adrian will kill him without a second thought. You know that as well as I do. I will not allow that to happen. We do this without him or I do it alone.”

“We don’t have the people for this.”

“Then find some.”

A knock at the door brought all our heads around.

“Come,” Jonathan said, his voice tight.

Jeremy stepped inside, his face flushed. He closed the door behind him.

“What is it?”

“I want to go.”

We all stared at him. He might have been a werewolf, but he was still just a kid. Taking him out on something like this was about as smart as taking a bunch of unarmed Purebloods. We all saw how that turned out the last time.

“No,” I said.

“I agree,” Jonathan said. “You are too young, too raw.”

Jeremy’s back stiffened. “I want to help. I overheard your argument and I agree with the Denmaster. You need more men. I might not fight as well as the rest of you, but I can be of some use.”

“How?” I asked. “How in the hell do you think you can help us? You can hardly help yourself.”

Jeremy breathed in and out slowly, as if controlling his inner beast. There was no flare of fire in his eye, no sudden sprouting of fur. I had to admit, he’d gained some control since the night he tried to stalk me.

“I can help,” he said, glaring at us defiantly. “Even if I’m not involved in the fighting, I want to do something. I could watch for others, make sure no one tries to sneak up on us.” He looked squarely at Jonathan. “You said it yourself, you need more people. Here I am.”

“Jeremy—” Jonathan began, but Nathan cut him off.

“It might not be a bad idea.”

Jonathan and I both turned incredulous looks on him. Nathan stared straight ahead, not meeting anyone’s eye.

“It’s a terrible idea,” I said.

“Without Adrian and his weres, we will not survive.” It sounded as if admitting it pained him. “Even though he is young, Mr. Lincoln could be useful. If we are going to do this, we should do it right. Turning away a willing participant will only make things harder than they have to be.”

I stared at him, surprised. I had always thought of Nathan as more of a grunt. He did the heavy lifting, killed who needed to be killed, but didn’t think too much.

Yet here he was, making perfect sense. There was a brain in there, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, he was right. Jeremy might not be a trained fighter, but he was a werewolf. He had his uses.

“Fine,” I said. “Can we just move on and get this thing started? I’m tired of standing around talking about it.”

Jonathan looked at me like I had betrayed him. He was the Denmaster, protector of the Cult. This had to go against nearly everything he has fought for. He was putting his own men in danger when he knew there was an easier way.

I shrugged and gave him a crooked smile. “He wants to come. I’m not going to tell him no again. He’s got to get his feet wet eventually.”

Jonathan closed his eyes and nodded. “Okay,” he said. “You can come, but no one else. I will not sacrifice any more of my own for this.”

A look of defiant pride came into Jeremy’s eyes as he stepped farther into the room. I imagine he had been waiting for the day he could be included in the inner circle. He wasn’t just another Cultist. He was a werewolf, which meant the Purebloods here worshipped him. It was a wonder he wasn’t already lording over them.

“So, where will we find them?” Jonathan asked. “You said the other night that Thomas has gone home, but that means little to me.”

“When the time comes, I’ll show you,” I said.

Nathan frowned, his eyes flickering my way.

“As much as I might want to, I still don’t trust you,” I said. “If I tell the wrong person the wrong thing, it will invariably come back and bite me on the ass. If I keep this to myself until we get there, then no one can betray me to Adrian. Once was enough.”

That got to them. Gregory Hillis had been one of Jonathan’s wolves. He had betrayed the Cult to Adrian and Count Tremaine, nearly getting us all killed. Bringing it up now was a bitchy thing to do, but hey, I never said I fought fair.

“All right,” Jonathan said, resigned. “We’ll follow you in my car. Don’t go too fast. I don’t want to stand out and risk having someone follow us.”

“I don’t like this,” Nathan said. “We shouldn’t be going in blind.”

“There’s no help for that,” I said. “Even if I told you where we were going, you wouldn’t really be prepared. You don’t know the place. I’m just protecting my interests here. You’d do the same.”

Nathan’s jaw tensed, but he lapsed into silence. Jeremy stood a few feet away, rocking back and forth as if he couldn’t control his excitement. I had to admit, the kid had balls. I just hoped someone wouldn’t rip them off and feed them to him if everything fell apart.

“Can we stop arguing and start worrying about how we are going to survive this?” Jonathan said. “We have no weapons here, other than what you brought with you. I for one do not wish to use them even if you were to offer. How do we go about this without getting killed?”

“Very carefully,” I said. It wasn’t much of a joke, but the tension in the room eased a little.

“Look,” I said, “I’ve gone into some pretty bad situations where I didn’t know all the facts beforehand. It’s risky, sure, but we should be able to do this. We have the element of surprise.”

All eyes were on me and I felt like a moron. I didn’t like lecturing a bunch of werewolves. They knew what was at stake. Every time one of them went outside, it was a risk. Was this really any different?

“I think I know where Thomas is.” I hated admitting I wasn’t totally sure. “And if he is there, we won’t have to worry about accidently killing any Purebloods. There might be werewolves, but they will probably stay clear since Thomas is what he is. This should be easy enough.”

Jonathan nodded as I spoke. His gaze traveled past me as if he were lost in thought. Nathan continued to glower, but he no longer had that aggressive stance of his.

“Once we get to the location, I will point out the house we are looking for. We shouldn’t linger. Once we stop, we need to move fast, hit them hard. Don’t kill anyone unless I say it’s okay. I don’t want Thomas getting killed by mistake.” I looked at Nathan when I said the last.

“You make it sound so easy,” Jonathan said.

“Plans like this always sound simple. They never work out that way.”

Jeremy paled a little bit, but it did nothing to lower his excitement level.

“Is there anything else?” Jonathan asked, standing.

“Nope, that’s everything I know.”

“Then let’s get this over with.”

I started to rise, but just then, my back chose to give out. I hissed in pain as I fell back in the chair. Jonathan rose as if I had been shot and came to my side. He reached out toward me and I cringed away.

“I’m fine,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. Fresh blood oozed from beneath my bandage and trailed down my back. I was glad no one could see it. “Let’s just do this.”

Jonathan gave me a concerned look but didn’t object. He turned and led the way out of the room, our little procession following after.

I had no idea how the wolves were going to survive this. I had been armed when I faced Thomas and his Tainted the last time and I had lost. Badly. And here they were, willing to waltz in with nothing but their claws and good intentions. I had a bad feeling they wouldn’t all be coming out of this alive.

Anger broiled somewhere in my gut. I shouldn’t be concerned about what happens to a few werewolves. They weren’t what was important here. If I could get Thomas out of there alive, that was all that mattered.

I knew I was fooling myself. I did care. I was terrified something would happen to Jonathan, to Nathan, or even Jeremy. I wasn’t so sure I wanted their deaths on my conscience.

We walked out of the Den without talking to anyone. The Cultists watched us go. I think they knew we were getting into something dangerous. They looked scared for all of us.

We kept silent as we headed for the Luna Cult garage and went our separate ways once inside. I waited by the entrance, sitting atop my Honda, until Jonathan pulled up behind me in his car. He flashed his lights to tell me he was ready and we were on our way, heading for the house I still thought of as home.