Bold Mercy by Laken Cane
Chapter Twenty-Four
The alpha nosed me gently, then licked a tear from my face. Or maybe he was only after the blood. I brushed my fingers over the wound at the back of his head. “Run, Alpha,” I murmured. “Heal.”
He wheeled around and staggered away, his wolves, howling and yipping and full of joy, at his side. They would forget, for a little while, the horror of the humans.
“Lucy,” I said, my voice raw but calm. “Call the detective.” I stood and dusted off my pants, trying not to look at the men I’d killed. There was work to do.
“First,” she said, more rattled than I’d ever seen her, “I’d like a hug.”
I pulled her small body into my arms. “Get packed, Luce. We’re going home.” At least she was. I was probably going to prison. But the promise made her happy, and she hurried off to call Rick, pack up whatever items she’d brought to Shadowfield, and get Ash. I was thankful beyond words that she’d left him at the inn instead of bringing him outside with her.
“Joe, call the mayor and then get Max over here.”
“Why Max?” Joe asked, his hand on my shoulder.
I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I told him. “I just need to see him.”
“I’m on it, boss. But the mayor is going to kick my ass.” He went to stand by the bodies of the humans while he made his calls.
I looked at Zach. “Are you okay?”
“Fucking vampires,” he said. “And fucking November.”
“Why?” I asked him. “Avis and her crew sent the humans. They planted shit in those humans’ minds. It had nothing to do with November.”
He lifted an eyebrow but there was something careful in his eyes. I was different to him now. I understood. I was also different to myself.
“Didn’t you see their eyes?” he asked. “Every human here today had demons in their eyes. The humans were in there, somewhere, but they were sharing space with demons, Kait.”
I sucked in a breath, both shocked and hopeful. And suddenly, I did remember, vaguely, seeing the shine of red in dull human stares. I’d been too locked in crazy mode to consider it at the time. “Are you saying the demons are somehow…working with the vampires?”
“Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.”
“Uh, Kait?” Joe called. “Could you come here for a minute?”
His voice was so deliberately casual that both Zach and I hurried to him. “What now?” I asked, but when I reached his side, I saw what had caused him such shock.
The humans I’d cut with my blade were not dead. They were stirring, and their deep, lethal cuts from where I’d slashed them with my blade were knitting. One of the men opened his eyes and groaned, but there was no red shine to his confused gaze.
“How?” I murmured. “How did I do this?” But the longer I thought about it, the surer I was. If I had completely shifted and let my wolf attack the humans, they’d be dead. But I had used my demon blade, and it had gone after the demons inside them. They’d expired. I knew they’d ceased to exist, because if I’d sent them back to hell, I’d have seen their spirits leaving the bodies, the way they’d left the couple whose baby had been held by demons.
No. They’d died, and their spirits had been absorbed by their hosts.
I clutched Joe’s hand, caught somewhere between extreme relief and enormous disbelief. “I killed the demons,” I said. “I didn’t kill the humans.”
“The wolves are safe,” Joe said, patting my hand.
“For now,” Zach agreed. “But this thing that happened here today is a preview of what’s to come.”
I pulled away from Joe and knelt beside the groaning human. “Jared will be ready now,” I said. “He will make sure it doesn’t happen again.” I stared down at the man on the ground. “Why did you come here?”
He tried to sit up but failed. Finally, with Joe’s help, he managed to climb to his knees. He stared around him with a dazed expression, but one that was fast turning angry. “What is this?” he demanded. “What the fuck is this?”
I stood, then pointed at the discarded weapons littering the ground, then at the three other men who had yet to awaken. “You and your friends came here with guns and attacked this community,” I told him, grimly accusing. “You got your asses kicked.”
But he shook his head and finally managed to get to his feet. He stumbled to one of the men and gave him a solid kick. “Kev,” he said. “Get the fuck up, man.” He ignored the other man, as though he didn’t know who he was.
When Joe and Zach took a step toward him, he backed up, pointing his finger, his eyes wild. “Stay away from me.”
“Sir,” I said, calmly. “Joe can drive you home. You need to get out of here. The cops are on the way.”
He didn’t look like the type who’d want to talk to the police. I felt sorry for him, really. He and the other humans would have no idea what they’d done or why they’d done it. The others who’d fled would hopefully lose their demons quickly. They might try again, but I doubted it. They’d tried and failed, and they’d seen a demon slayer with a killing blade take out some of their own. Whatever deal they’d had with the vampires wasn’t worth dying for.
“Kev,” he shouted, delivering another quick kick. And finally, Kev woke up. He was as disoriented as the first guy, but we stood back a comfortable distance and watched as they both managed to stumble down the street toward the stone exit gates.
Rick Moreno slowed as he passed them, but then he drove on to where I stood with Joe and Zach. He took his time climbing out of his car, then stood with his fists on his hips as he surveyed the area. I didn’t rush him. Finally, he made his way to me.
“There’s a dead guard at the gates,” he said. “And a dozen abandoned pickup trucks at the side of the highway.” He looked around at the weapons on the ground, the pools of blood wetting the pavement, and the human lying a few yards away who had yet to awakened. “Is he dead?”
“No,” I said, though honestly I wasn’t entirely sure. He was sprawled face down with one of his arms at an awkward angle, and I vaguely remembered peeling half his face off with my blade. “Wake him up, Joe, and send him on his way.”
Zach went to retrieve the scattered guns. When the detective and I were alone, he said, “The mayor wants you to come see him. I’ll take you.”
“Good,” I said. “I need to speak with him, as well.”
He eyed my bloody clothes but didn’t comment upon them. He was used to seeing me dressed in rags and blood. “What happened, Kait?”
“The humans came.” I couldn’t help but shudder at the remembered image of those armed humans and the damage they’d caused. “They were full of demons. I killed some of the demons. The rest ran.”
“And the humans?”
“They’ll be okay once the demons take off. They won’t remember what happened. The ones you saw had no idea why they were here.”
“That’s lucky,” he said, his voice grim. “How did they get into Shadowfield, Kait?”
“They had help.”
“Just the demons, or from the inside?”
I hadn’t wanted to consider there was a traitor in Jared’s pack. They wouldn’t have appreciated hearing that—not from me. And I’d probably be the first one they’d accuse. Or my mother. “The demons,” I said. “And the vampires, and the magic Avis Vine is using.”
We watched quietly as Joe succeeded in getting the last human up off the ground. He dusted him off and helped him down the street. After a few steps, the man pulled a cell phone from his pocket—probably to call someone to pick him up.
“Joe,” I called. “Get him outside the gates.” I didn’t want whoever he called to come into Shadowfield to fetch him.
Zach walked in the opposite direction with an armload of guns, probably to drop them in one of the small storage buildings for the wolves to deal with later.
“Where is everybody?” the detective asked.
“They came in shooting, Rick,” I said, and I know he heard the sorrow in my voice. “One of them shot Jared.” I swallowed hard, then forced myself to continue. “They shot him in the back of the head with silver.”
“Son of a…” He blew out a hard breath. “He’s dead?”
“No. He’s with his people in the woods, and he’ll heal. This time.” I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold. “But even though they were filled with demons and didn’t know what they were doing, the humans will be back. One of these times, they’re going to find the wolves, and the next time, Jared won’t tell his people to stand down while he tries to calm the humans. They will fight. The wolves will kill the humans. Shadowfield will be lost. The wolves will be forced into hiding. Humans will kill humans thinking they’re supernatural creatures.”
“They’re doing that now,” he said, “because of the vampires. The world is now full of monsters and the humans are losing their minds.”
“We’re not monsters,” I said, but I kept my voice emotionless.
“Sorry.” He squeezed my arm. “Kait.”
Shadowfield began filling up again as the wolves slipped from the woods. It wasn’t something I saw, but I felt it. I felt the alpha, most of all. Gradually, voices began to drift to us, and fully clothed people walked from buildings and stood in clumps to talk. They’d all gather in the admin building where discussions would begin about what had happened and what their futures held. They’d been taken off guard. They were nonhumans, yes, but they’d integrated so deeply into a human world that they’d become careless.
It wouldn’t happen again.
