Blood Trade

see Rick siding with any male this close to the full moon. “Only one way to find out,” I said.

I began to divest myself of weapons and put them into a go-bag I had brought for that very purpose. I hadn’t been able to sleep back at the house, but had spent the time sitting with Eli in the breakfast room, him binging on coffee, me binging on strong tea, brainstorming, coming up with a plan, talking through the equipment we might need and gathering it all up. I’d have felt better if Eli had brought a shoulder-held rocket launcher, but he didn’t have one handy. That was his reply when I mentioned it. I was relatively certain that meant he had one somewhere. My partner was scary. In a totally cool, macho, U.S. Ranger kinda way.

“Eli, you want to tell them what we have planned?” I asked.

“I’ll plant explosive devices at every corner of the building, right up against the ward. Jane and Soul will move over the opening, shielded by the dead-thing charm on Soul. If Jane shifts, Soul will open the harness and let Jane’s cat fall through the opening. Then drop her clothes. Then drop her weapons. The cat will snag everything with her claws, prop them in the cleft of the roof and chimney, jump up on the chimney, and look down to see if the chimneys are open passageways or sealed, which they could be. If they are open, Jane will gauge the size, shift back to human, and eat to restore her energies, and catch you as you drop.”

He looked at Soul. “If she doesn’t shift, she’ll catch her equipment and you, when you fall through the ward opening.”

“And then?” Bruiser asked.

“Then I’ll drop an explosive device or three into the chimney,” I said, “and Soul and I will hide on the far side of the roof. Eli will set off the devices at the corners of the building to attract the attention of the guardians, and three seconds later, I’ll set off the ones in the chimney. Hopefully it will blow a hole in the roof big enough for me to get through, and disrupt the ward long enough for Soul to get you guys through the opening and onto the roof. While she’s doing that, I’ll drop inside, and you guys will follow as fast as you can. If we time it right, the sun will be rising and will scorch some bad guys. We’ll kill us some guardians and save the witches. And hopefully find out where the leaders of the Naturaleza are.”

Bruiser smiled that quirky smile I liked so much. Rick snarled. Soul tilted her head, considering. “It might work,” she said. “I can make my clothing part of my death charm and extend a scarf, so that as you fall, the charm will extend with you. However, I put the chances of us all surviving at forty percent. The chances of us escaping unscathed at less than twenty percent. Are these acceptable to you all?”

“I put them much higher,” Eli said. We shared a smile. Eli was really, really good at setting explosives. And he’d brought enough to do the job.

I just hoped he had calculated the necessary explosives with the age and construction condition of the old building and didn’t blow it up around me. “Yeah. I think we’re looking at a seventy percent chance of survival.” To Bruiser, I said, “I saw a fire escape on the back of that building,” I pointed to the one on the right. “That the best way up?” At his nod, I said, “Meet you on the roof, Soul.”

•   •   •

With Beast vision, the hedge ward was fiery in the early dawn light. I tried to measure the size of the hole I needed to fall through while I pulled off my boots and stored them in the second go- bag. If I shifted in the harness, I needed to be mostly clothes free to allow me to fall and catch myself with my claws. Beast thought it looked like fun. I thought it looked risky and potentially deadly, no matter my seventy percent claim.

I had brought shoes with a grabby sole, loose pants, and an oversized tee, and I quickly stripped, putting my leathers into the bag with the boots.

While I changed, I also checked the stability of the zip line, which was attached to the highest point on the roof—the fake fourth-story wall. I had taken a mountain-climbing class a year or so after high school, and the line was wrapped around the entire wall instead of attached with gear into the mortar, which was smart. The height on this side allowed the line a slight angle across the chasm of the hedge to the building on the other side, where it was secured, out of sight.

I didn’t think I would have done anything different had I set it all up myself, and I wondered who had arranged the gear, Rick or Bruiser. I was betting on Bruiser, not the boy from the Deep South.

By the time I could hear the others climbing to the roof, I was shivering in the cold, dressed and wearing sneakers, all my gear stored in three different bags, watching the sky brighten prior to sunrise.

Bruiser appeared first, Soul right behind him, and I looked over the MOC’s primo. He was dressed all in leather in his Enforcer clothes, but unlike mine, his duds had been custom made and fit him like a glove. Leather pants, leather boots, and a leather coat over what had to be a silk shirt. Bristling with weapons. His dark hair slicked back.

“Nice gear,” I said grudgingly, as he looked me over.

The morning breeze spun by, blowing my clothes against my limbs. His smile widened, making him look lean, mean, and dangerous. “Beautiful woman,” he said.

I didn’t know what to say to that, but felt a flush spread through me, just as Rick stepped from the fire escape. He was carrying standard cop weapons, except for the earpieces and the small wire trailing to his jacket pocket, the sound of tinny music coming from it, a pair of nice vamp-killers strapped to his thighs, and the feral greenish glow of his eyes. All that was nonstandard issue. He had pulled his hair back in a queue, and I was reminded of the way Leo Pellissier wore his hair. Rick stalked across the flat roof, moving like a cat, his eyes on Bruiser.

I stepped between them. “If you can’t keep it together, you can go back to the street,” I said to Rick.

“I’ll keep it together. As long as he keeps his hands off you.”

Anger pumped through me, part embarrassment, part something else that I didn’t take the time to identify. “Just so you know. Jealousy is not a turn-on.” I swiveled on a heel and stepped into the zip-line harness, ignoring the two men.

From behind me, Brute snarled as if he were an attack dog defending his master. He was showing his teeth, which left me confused until Beast pressed in on my brain again and sent me a mental picture of her scratching the wolf’s nose. I/we snarled back, and I growled, “Nice doggie.”

His growl deepened at the insult and his ruff stood up. And while I was itching for a fight, it wasn’t with a wolf. I’d rather hit Rick. Or Bruiser. Or both. But Beast didn’t want to let it go and sent her claws deeper into my brain. “So far I/we have broken your nose two times, little doggie,” she said through me, her voice low. “Scratched you. Are you stupid, dog?”

Brute tensed, but quieted when Soul put a hand into his fur and scratched. Pea scolded the wolf with a burst of chitter. Rick stepped between us. Bruiser chuckled, the sound goading. The wolf turned angry eyes to the primo. For a moment more we tottered on the edge of violence. I pushed back on Beast, knowing this wasn’t helping to create a team. I took a calming breath. “Sorry. It’s the full moon. My Beast is . . . difficult. Come on, Soul. I’ll get you into the harness.”

“I have never done this before,” she said, leaving her team. As she walked, a sense of peace spread outward, and I knew we were being manipulated by her personal magics, but I let it happen anyway. We needed to be calm. We needed a sense of coherence. Or her percentages might become real and half of us could die.

Wolf should die, Beast thought at me. Thief of meat. Stupid pack hunter.

“No problem,” I said to Soul. But it was. Her dress made it difficult to get her into the harness in such a way that she could release the harness and fall without catching the clothing on the gear and maybe hanging her.

Finally we were in position, me in front with a zip-line steering trolley, her behind me in an abbreviated mountain-climbing harness, attached to the line with sturdy carabiners. I showed her how to release it so she could fall. Her scent changed as I spoke, and she tied the end of a scarf to a loop on my pants. Her magics began to rise.

When we were ready, I leaned down to see Eli staring up at me. He raised a thumb and melted into the shadows. The explosive devices were in place.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do this. Soul, let the harness take your weight, and put your feet against the roof wall to hold you still.” When she was secure, I pulled on gloves, eased down on the line, and hooked my carabiner to the zip-line trolley.

“We have to be close,” she said, her voice shaky, “for the death spell to start. I need to put my legs around you and hold you to me.”