Bold Mercy by Laken Cane

Chapter Twelve

I felt naked without my demon blade. As I left Jared’s house, planning to see my mother, Lucy, and Ash before I went hunting, I called the detective.

“I was getting ready to call you,” he said, when he answered. He sounded rushed, exhausted, and angry. Overwhelmed. And it wasn’t even dark yet. “I had an ID badge made for you in case you get stopped.”

“Good. It’ll be easier to hunt the bitch if there aren’t so many humans in the way. I’ll be in the city within the hour. Can you bring my blade?”

How quickly things could change.

“I’ll meet you at my house in forty-five minutes,” he told me. “I’ve secured your weapon there.”

“Thanks.” I hesitated. “How bad is it, Rick?”

“It’s daylight,” he said, somewhat dryly, “and people are still killing each other. We’re doing what we can.” He blew out a hard breath. “It’s like the fucking end of the world out there, Kait. How the hell did this happen?”

I squeezed my phone, my heart aching. “I’m sorry, Rick.”

“Not your fault,” he murmured.

But wasn’t it? I was one of “them.” One of the nonhumans. My kind was killing his kind. And I absolutely felt responsible. Jared would feel the same. The supernaturals were going to be as traumatized by the changing world and the horror as the humans were.

As just as the other nonhumans would be, I was terrified and heartbroken. Not just for the humans, but for my people. Even the vampires—at least some of them. Not all—or even most—of them wanted to be yanked out of their shadows so violently and abruptly. Those who were eating humans or killing them were not all evil butchers like Avis, but the madness, confusion, freedom, and fear had overtaken them. They would rush from their dark prisons, drunk and giddy after centuries of repression, of existing for so very long in a world that would never really belong to them, and they would do the wrong thing.

For a few seconds, I lost my breath, and I shoved my fist against my mouth to keep from sobbing. Better I should rail and curse and embrace my anger.

“Suck it up, Princess. It’s time to fight.”

I nodded, straightened my spine, and let my rage smother my fear. “I’ll see you in a little while,” I said. “Be careful, Detective.”

I was eager to have my blade in my hand. It would take out Avis and her crew as easily as my wolf would, and I wouldn’t need to shift. Right now, shifting was a bad idea. People were searching for killer monsters—vampires, yes, but wolves were next. It was just a matter of time, and I didn’t want to rush it by getting seen. I had to protect my people.

My mother and Lucy had been given rooms in the Rose Inn, and as though they had known I was coming, both of them were waiting inside the little common room when I walked inside. My stress immediately lessened when Ash, wooing and snuffling, rushed to greet me.

I fell to my knees and caught him to me, hugging his wiggly body, laughing as I turned my face from side to side, attempting to keep his tongue out of my nose, mouth, and ears. When Ash was loving on me, all the bad stuff melted away.

Finally he tore himself away and got a case of the zoomies, sliding on the shiny hardwood floors and crashing into furniture as he raced around the room, grinning at the attention he was getting. The more we laughed, the harder he ran.

But time was running by as fast as Ash, and I needed to get to work. I hugged my mother and then Lucy. “Thanks for bringing me clothes, Lucy. I hope you didn’t leave Shadowfield without half a dozen guards.”

She laughed, but she had new dark circles under her eyes and her face was paler than usual. “I wish we could go home.”

I wished that, too. “Are you okay, Luce?”

“She isn’t sleeping,” my mother said. “She can’t sleep for the bad dreams.”

Lucy tried to grin but failed rather miserably. “Every time I close my eyes,” she said, then shrugged. “I’ve had them my entire life, but somehow, this is different.”

“Because your dreams are about you,” I said. “But you’re safe here, and you have to get some rest.”

She avoided my stare. “I know.”

“Kait,” someone called, and I looked up to watch as Lennon walked into the room. “Welcome to my inn.”

I lifted an eyebrow, surprised. “Your inn?”

She grinned and held out her hand, then retracted it before I could actually take it. It was painful for a seer to touch people, sometimes for both seer and the other person. Mostly just for the seer, though. “It’s a special place. You’d be surprised at the things that happen here. Someday, you’ll have to stay for a few nights.”

“The alpha likes her right where she is,” my mother said serenely. “In his house.” And there was a mother’s pride in her voice.

I hastily changed the subject, even as my face heated. A woman didn’t want others to know when she pursued a man and he rejected her. “Why Rose Inn?” I asked Lennon. “Your favorite flower?”

She laughed and the sound was like the tinkling of glass. The seer was just otherworldly. Still, there was the tiniest of lines between her brows and her laugh didn’t quite ring true. I didn’t think I’d done anything to upset her. Probably, she was simply upset over the bad shit that had happened, just like the rest of us. “It’s my last name.”

“Oh,” I said. I was a bit new to the pack, but I really should have known Lennon’s last name. Then chills chased each other down my spine, and my heart stuttered hard for a few breathless seconds. “Jared’s coming,” I said.

Moments later, he pushed open the inn door and strode into the room. The guards Wyatt, Avery, and Brian were at his back, and Zach was beside him. It appeared as though the alpha and the hunter had become fast friends, and I was glad to see it. Zach needed someone like Jared.

And maybe he wasn’t the only one. But I frowned at the thought. I didn’t need him—I wanted him. There was a big difference.

“I need to speak with you before you go,” Jared said.

Which meant he wasn’t hunting with me tonight. Only something big would have kept him from accompanying me on the hunt for Avis Vine and honestly, I dreaded hearing what it was.

“Good afternoon, Alpha,” Lennon said, her voice serene. But it looked to me like there was a sort of…warning in her eyes when she looked at him, and I felt a tension between them. Maybe it had nothing to me, and I was being a little paranoid.

I hugged my mother, Lucy, and Ash goodbye and turned to follow him outside.

“What has happened now?” I asked, once we were striding away from the inn. I didn’t mean to sound hostile, and I gave him an apologetic glance. We were all on edge.

“My scouts have just returned with the heads of three vampires—a small group attempting to infiltrate the compound.” He looked at me, giving me a second to think about what he had said.

It took me about five to really grasp his meaning. And then I could only squint and shake my head, because no way could he have said what I thought he’d said. “No,” I said, finally. And when he only nodded, grim and silent, I whispered, “Show me.”

Ten minutes later I stood in a basement room in the pack’s small warehouse, staring at the three vampires, bloody and gory exclamation points with their severed heads placed at the tops of their shriveling bodies.

Their unburnt bodies.

Sure, there were blackened scorch marks across their gruesome faces, and some holes had burned through their clothes, but the sun hadn’t killed them—and it hadn’t been dark when they’d tried to slip into Shadowfield.

Jared and the others stood back and gave me some time to absorb the awfulness of what I was seeing. I crouched down to examine them, noting the empty eyes, milky with death that had, in reality, claimed them long, long ago. Their hair had been burned to the skull, but the sun had not sunk beneath the skin. The female had blisters on her scalp and her nose, and the two males had black holes in their lips, their eyelids, and their ears.

The sun had hurt them, but she had not killed them.

“Magic,” I said, finally standing. “Frederick Axton and his seer had lots of secrets, didn’t they?” I kept my face blank, and my voice didn’t show the horror in my heart. It didn’t matter, though. There wasn’t a person there who didn’t feel the exact same way I did.

Somehow, these vampires had survived the sun.

“It was nearing dusk and overcast,” the alpha told me, stepping closer as though he thought I might faint and he’d need to catch me. “And what sun there was weakened them severely. My wolves were able to take them easily.”

“But it didn’t kill them,” I said. “And maybe they’ll get stronger eventually. Maybe they’ll be able to walk in the daylight without consequence.” We stared at each other, and I couldn’t help but shudder.

Vampires were powerful and hungry. If the sun wasn’t there to control them, they’d destroy the world—even if some of them might not want to. And vampires walking under the sun? No. That was just wrong.

“And if they could do this,” Zach said, walking to stand beside me, “then how many other vampires or supernaturals are also learning such secrets?” He tilted his head when he looked at me, and his long hair slid down the side of his face. “Who else did Axton and Kaloni give this knowledge to? And where did they get it from?”

I reached out automatically to push his hair out of his face, and I felt the alpha’s immediate tension. I didn’t look at him. “Maybe Kaloni created it,” I said. “When we kill Avis and her rogues, the magic will die with them.” I could hope.

“I want to be part of her death.” Zach caught and held my stare, his own steady and full of a sort of eager, greedy desire to kill that I hadn’t noticed before. “When Avis is captured, I would like to be the one to take her heart.”

“If possible,” I murmured, “I’ll give it to you.” I didn’t tell him that Bastien wanted the woman as well. Sometimes I wondered what Axton and his human servant had done to Zach, but the dark curiosity was fleeting. I didn’t want to know details.

“Right now,” Jared said, “you need to hunt for Avis. Stay in contact. I will join you later if I can.” He looked up when Eli strode into the room. “Eli is going with you, as are these three.” He indicated Wyatt, Avery, and Brian, who remained by the doors, guarding their alpha from a threat none of us could really allow to sink in.

I didn’t want Eli to go with me. Honestly, I didn’t want any of the wolves with me. I hunted better alone. God knew I’d done it all my life. But it would have been pointless to argue. They would simply follow me anyway, because the alpha demanded it.

I could see from the anger in Eli’s dark eyes that he was as reluctant to go as I was to have him, but he wouldn’t argue, either.

“Sorry,” I told him, and maybe he softened a little. I gave my overprotective alpha a small smile. “Be careful out there, Jared. Especially since you’re giving me your best people.”

The little knot of warriors straightened their spines and lifted their chins, pleased, but Jared only grunted. “Eli,” he said.

“With my life, boss,” Eli said.

“Come on, Zach,” I said, when Zach lingered.

“He’ll work with me tonight,” Jared said.

I knew Jared was taking Zach under his wing, but it irked me that he thought the recently tortured hunter wouldn’t be safe with me. I frowned at him. “I’d feel better if he hunted with me, Jared. He’s a hunter, after all.” And it wasn’t that I didn’t trust Jared to take care of him, but I believed Zach needed me. Jared didn’t really understand Zach’s vulnerability—or the fact that his withdrawals could soon take over his existence.

And part of me, a big part, was afraid that the alpha only wanted to keep Zach with him to separate him from me.

“He’s a human hunter,” Jared pointed out. “He cannot keep up in a wolf’s hunt. He will guard with me.” He didn’t wait for me to argue further. Secure in his belief that I would be well defended with his beta and guard surrounding me, he walked away.

“Zach?” I asked, reaching out to snag his sleeve. “Will you be okay?”

There was anger in his voice when he spoke. “Don’t do that, Kait.” He strode away without giving me another glance.

“You understand why he’s angry,” Eli said, watching my face.

“Because I care about what happens to him?” I snapped.

“Because you treat everyone around you like they’re weak and in need of your mighty protection. Even the alpha, Kait.” He didn’t sneer, but he came damn close. “You are not stronger than everyone around you.”

Jared stopped at the doorway, Zach beside him. “She doesn’t think she’s stronger than we are,” he said, catching and holding my gaze. “She just doesn’t show weakness. She was never allowed to.”

Suck it up, Princess.

I didn’t say anything, and finally, he walked out the door with Zach at his side. I waited a few moments before I followed, smothering my worries and fears beneath the excitement of the coming hunt.