Cuddles opened her eyes a little wider.
“Mmm, delicious.”
Cuddles took a step forward. I turned sideways and tried to chew louder. Cuddles clopped toward me and nudged my shoulder with her nose. I held the carrot in front of her and petted her cheek. She ate the carrot and looked at me.
“Very nice,” Mr. Walton approved. “You’re a donkey whisperer.”
“You got more carrots?”
Two minutes later I packed three pounds of carrots into Cuddles’s saddlebags. He let me have them for free “on account of Cuddles isn’t a horse and I did rent your mare out from under you.” If a herd of giant donkeys crossed our path and needed to be subdued, I had it covered.
I rode out of the stables on top of an eight-foot-tall donkey that looked like she had robbed a Holstein cow and was now wearing the stolen clothes. Robert gaped at me. Desandra made a weird face: her right eyebrow crept up, her left went down, and her mouth got stuck somewhere between surprise and the beginning of the word “what.” Derek’s mouth opened and didn’t close until we came to a halt next to him.
“What the hell is this?” Desandra asked.
“This is Cuddles. She’s a mammoth donkey.”
Derek grinned, leaning on the fence. “Do you have any self-respect left?”
“Nope.”
“I think she’s cute.” Desandra reached out.
Cuddles promptly tried to bite her. Desandra jerked her hand away and bared her teeth. “Donkey, you don’t know who you’re messing with. I’ll eat you for breakfast.”
“Where to now?” I asked.
“Hold on,” Robert said. “I’m still . . . coming to terms with your mode of transportation.”
“Take your time.” I nudged Cuddles, turning her to give him a better view. Cuddles flicked her ears, lifted her feet, and pranced. Oh dear God.
Derek put his head down on the fence and made a moaning noise. Desandra chortled.
“Okay,” Robert said. “I think I’ve absorbed. I am ready for strategy planning now. Could you please stop prancing?”
“She isn’t done.”
It took another thirty seconds and a carrot to get Cuddles under control.
“How do we get into the territory without being killed?” I asked.
“We can try the northwest approach,” Robert said. “It’s more lightly patrolled. But with the current state of things, they likely doubled the security. They’ll be looking for us.”
That was the understatement of the century.
“I could go alone,” Robert offered.
“If they find you, we’ll never find your scout or the crime scene,” Desandra said.
He spared her a look. “They won’t find me.”
Sure, they won’t. Pointing out that his pride was getting the better of him wouldn’t be politic. I had to say something neutral.
“Accidents happen.” Kate Daniels, Master of Diplomacy.
“We can come in on one of their usual patrol routes,” Derek said.
We turned to him.
“They know our patrol routes,” the boy wonder said. “So we shift them when there’s an emergency. They’ll likely do the same, leaving the original route open.”
“Likely?” Desandra shook her head.
“Likely is what we have,” Robert said.
“I don’t like it,” Desandra said. “I don’t know about you, but I have two babies to go home to. We could be walking right into their patrol.”
“We won’t,” I said.
“What makes you so sure?” Robert asked.
“We have a real-life vampire detector with us,” Derek said.
It was my turn to be looked at.
“You keep staring, I’ll have to do a dance or something.”
“You can sense vampires?” Robert asked.
“Yes.”
“From how far away?” the alpha rat asked.
“From far enough to give us time to hide.”
“Okay,” Robert said. “Then I vote for the patrol route.”
Desandra surveyed me as if she had met me for the first time. “What other fun things can you do?”
I winked at her. “Stick with me and you might find out.”
“We can go through the quarantine zone,” Derek said. “Even bloodsuckers stay out of there.”
“There’s probably a reason for that,” Desandra said.
“Fortune favors the brave,” I told her. It also kills the stupid, but I decided to keep that fact to myself. “Come on. We need to hurry.”
5
NIGHT DRENCHED ATLANTA’S streets, blue-black and viscous like ink. It slid down the ruined buildings, gathering in the empty holes of the windows, and dripped into the rubble-choked alleys. Cuddles clopped down the street, the sounds of her hoofbeats sinking into the darkness. Robert and Desandra moved with me on my left, Derek on my right. Robert didn’t jog; he glided completely silently, his movements small and fast. Desandra and Derek had dropped into that long-legged wolf stride that would let them go for miles and miles. Derek’s face had gone flat, neither brooding nor hard, just ready.
I didn’t brood either. I had a target. I would take care of it. The trick was not to think of everything I would lose if I failed.
I should’ve made more time for me and Curran. I should’ve . . .
I slammed that door shut. Fix this mess first. Guilt, regret, and moaning later.
Our people would find Curran and if they failed, I would find him. He was okay. We would be together again. I’d bury Hugh’s head next to Hibla’s grave. I already had a spot picked out for her. Right next to Aunt B. Maybe my nightmares would stop then.
Derek stopped and pivoted on his heel, looking behind us. He tilted his head down, his expression predatory, his unblinking eyes staring at a fixed point in the distance, where ravaged houses cast deep night shadows onto the street. His muscles tensed and his mouth opened slightly, betraying just a hint of his teeth, as if he were a wolf frozen in the moment before a strike.
I reached for my sword. Robert put his hand inside his jacket. Desandra smiled.
“Come out,” Derek said. “You’re busted.”
A shadow separated from the deeper night shadows and stepped into the street. An angelic face looked at us with devil eyes.
Damn it all. “Ascanio!”
The bouda sauntered forward, a picture of pure innocence on his face.
“What the hell are you doing?” I growled.
He pulled on a disarming smile like a shield. “Following you.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
So help me God, I would brain him with something heavy in a minute. “Because why?”
“I wanted to come. It’s too dangerous for you and I’m concerned.”
Derek snarled quietly under his breath.
“You can’t blame me,” Ascanio said. “Anybody in my place would be concerned. You don’t even have a proper horse. You’re riding a mutant equine of unknown origin.”
“Don’t disrespect my donkey. If you wanted to come, why didn’t you say so?”
Ascanio gazed at me, broadcasting sincerity. “Because you would say no. And I would never disobey you, Alpha.”
Argh. “Did you tell Jim where you were going?”
He looked taken aback. “Of course not!”
“Why not?”
He spread his arms. “Because he would say no.”
I put my hand over my face.
“Technically, I haven’t disobeyed any orders,” Ascanio said.