So she had gone to see the retired alpha couple.
The man nodded and took off.
We turned and trotted down the bridge, hidden from the vampires’ view by the cars. The shapeshifters began to chant, cajoling the Jeeps’ enchanted water engines into life.
“Orhan and Fatima?” Robert asked.
“Mm-hm,” Desandra said. “I have their blessing to take over the clan. Can you believe that bitch threw me under the bus?”
? ? ?
WE FINISHED CROSSING the bridge and jogged another quarter mile along the forested road, then turned off the barely visible trail to the left. Trees choked the path, their roots thrusting across the dirt, all but invisible in the night shadows. Perfect. Maybe I’d trip, break my neck, and save Hugh the trouble of hunting me down.
“It’s not that Jennifer shoved me off the cliff,” Desandra said. “I understand. It’s that she was so ham-fisted about it. The woman has been an alpha now for what, six months on her own? It’s fair to expect some subtlety.”
“When did you go to see Orhan and Fatima?” Robert asked.
“A few days ago,” Desandra said.
“They don’t want to be involved in the Pack’s operations,” Robert said. “They’ve made it abundantly clear. An alpha who steps down surrenders all right to meddle with their clan. You’ve put them into a difficult position.”
“They invited me to meet with them. I didn’t ask. You want to know why Orhan and Fatima sent for me?” Desandra pointed at me, then at Robert in turn. “Alpha, alpha . . .” She pointed at herself with her thumb. “Beta. One of these things is not like the other. Jennifer should be here instead of riding with her bodyguards in a comfy car. That’s why.”
“I’m not an alpha,” Derek said.
“You’re like Curran’s baby brother.” Desandra waved her hand. “You don’t count. So no, I didn’t break the rules and go and bother Orhan and Fatima on my own. Give me some credit.”
Robert tried his best to look quietly unapproachable. His best was pretty good, but it didn’t stop me.
“So, Robert, how does that foot taste?”
Robert looked at me, clearly unsure how to react.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Desandra said. “About Hugh having planned all this. You’re right.”
She shrugged the jacket off her shoulder and turned her back to us. A bright red bullet wound, still wet, marked the skin above her shoulder blade. The bullet must’ve penetrated from the front and torn straight through the top of her chest to the back. A dark gray stain bordered the wound. She’d been shot with a silver round. As the toxic bullet passed through the body, the Lyc-V in the surrounding tissues died. When the other wolf had cut her back, she must’ve bled gray.
Nobody carried around silver bullets unless they meant to fight shapeshifters. Silver was too expensive and there were better and more accurate rounds available.
The eardrum-bursting roar of enchanted water engines announced the Pack vehicles passing along the road behind us. We kept moving.
The last echoes of the engines faded.
“Where are we going?” Desandra asked.
“We’re going to Blue Ribbon Stables,” I said. “It’s the closest place to rent a horse.”
“Why?” Desandra asked.
“Because I can’t keep up with you on foot,” I said.
“And she runs like a rhino,” Derek added. “You can hear her a mile away.”
Traitor. “I thought you had my back?”
“I do,” Derek said. “The rhino running is nice. Makes it easy to keep track of you. If I ever lose you, I just have to listen and there you are.”
“Yes,” Desandra agreed. “It’s convenient.”
I laughed.
“Are you always this casual?” Robert asked.
“Derek and I worked together for a long time,” I told him. “He’s allowed some leeway.”
“What about Desandra?”
“She only bothers with protocol when she wants something. The rest of the time it’s lewd jokes and descriptions of plums.”
Desandra snickered.
Robert’s eyebrows crept up. “Plums?”
I waved my hand. “Don’t ask.”
Ten minutes later the wooded path spat us out into Troll’s Ferry Road, and fifteen minutes later we stopped next to the fence near the gate leading to Blue Ribbon Stables. Half an hour gone. We didn’t have much time.
“You better go in by yourself,” Desandra said. “Or they might get scared that Derek and I intend to blow their house down.”
“If there is an issue,” Robert said, “we’re only a few feet away.”
I heard a low guttural sound and I realized it was Derek laughing. Well, at least his sense of humor was coming back. Thank the Universe for small favors.
I jogged to the door and knocked. The door swung open and an elderly black man leveled a crossbow at me. I held up my hands. “Mr. Walton? I need a horse. I called you yesterday and asked you to hold one for me.”
Mr. Walton squinted at me. “About that . . .”
“Yes?”
“I’ve done rented them all.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. “You said you had one and would hold it for me. I sent one of my people here and he told me you took the money.”
“I did say that and I did take it. But you know. Money is a funny thing. The more of it, the prettier it looks. You said you might need a horse and it wasn’t a sure thing.”
Argh.
“You want a refund?”
“I want a horse.”
“I’m all out of horses for this week, but I’ve got a mammoth jenny.”
“A what?”
“Come, I’ll show you.”
He led me to the stable. Inside in the third stall something large moved. It looked like a horse, about sixteen hands or so tall. The man raised a feylantern. A long face with two-foot-long ears looked at me with big blue eyes. A donkey, except it stood about eight feet tall, hoof to ear. Big white spots painted its black shaggy hide.
“What is this?”
“That right there is a mammoth jenny. A female American Mammoth donkey.”
“Is she magic?”
“Nahh. They developed them in the early twentieth century, primarily for mule breeding. She’s a good mount. Good on a trail. She’ll give you a twenty-mile-per-hour gallop in a pinch, but not for long. One thing, though. Most of her kind are sweet. She’s what we call in the business a freak of nature. Smart, stubborn, and ornery.”
“What’s her name?”
“Cuddles.”
Perfect. “I’ll take her.”
The moment I walked Cuddles out of her stall, she turned to face me, stood erect, and put her ears forward. Okay. When a horse was ready to be aggressive, she typically put her ears back. This, I didn’t know. Donkeys were a new territory for me.
“What do the ears mean?”
Mr. Walton shrugged. “Means she isn’t sure about you. Donkeys are stoic animals. They’re not horses with long ears, you know.”
Okay. If Cuddles were a horse, I’d wave the lead at her to make her take a step back. In horse dominance games, whoever moved first lost face. Something told me it wouldn’t work here. “Do you have any carrots?”
Mr. Walton crossed the stable to the front and brought me a large carrot.
“Thanks.” I took one, bit into the top, and made loud chewing noises. “Mmm, yummy carrot.”