“Unhand me, you illegitimate beast,” the newcomer complained. Dren bent him over and kneed him in the chest, then shoved him to kneel on the ground.
“It’s rare to see one of you out at night. Or ever.” Anna wound her fingers in his short gray hair. “What was the point of this?”
“We play a larger game.”
“Fuck you. I lost a friend. Tell me truths now, or you’ll pay.”
“What can you do to me, little girl?”
“Unless you want to be nailed on my car’s hood when the sun next comes out—”
The gray vampire laughed. “When does the sun ever come out up here?”
“Dren, cut off his arm.”
“Whatever you say, lady Sanguine.” Without a second thought, Dren hauled out his sickle and snicked off the gray vampire’s arm at the shoulder. It turned to dust, and the fabric fell to the ground.
“I meant the other one,” Anna said. Dren moved and—over the side of the car, where there was a gap in the wall of bear-weres, a wolf leapt into our clearing, bowling Anna down.
It was a yellow-gray wolf, almost the size of the car.
“You—” Anna said in recognition. Helen had bloodstains on her side, meaning Sike hadn’t gone down without a fight, but—Anna screamed in anger. She rose and rushed at Helen, who jumped to one side. Helen followed Anna’s turn and lunged for her. At the same time Anna turned back, grabbing Helen’s front paw. She yanked and there was a crunch as bone crossed bone and broke, jutting out through skin. Helen whined and gnashed her teeth at Anna, who danced back. In a moment the leg was straightened, back in place. Steady on all four feet now, Helen made another lunge.
“You know them all?” Gina whispered to me. I nodded.
Anna ran forward again, so fast I could hardly see, another blur in this crazy night. She bowled into Helen’s side, tearing with raw angry force. As soon as she hurt Helen, though, Helen healed. Anna leapt for Helen’s neck, trying to get her arms around it to snap it. The wolf bucked like a bronco, flipping Anna around. Anna’s teeth were out as she held on, sinking her jaws into Helen. Blood poured out of Helen’s neck with each fresh bite, and Anna kept biting, as fast as Helen could heal. I knew how those teeth felt, I’d once been bitten by them—and now Anna kept gnawing, through fur, down to bone.
Anna stood up near Helen’s sinking form. The tear in her neck was wider now; Anna had worked her hands inside. The edges still tried to heal, but Anna kept the center from meeting. Helen howled her frustration, lashing her neck from side to side—and a nearby howl answered her.
Jorgen began shoving his way through the circle of bears, howling again.
“Is it a team match now? I can hardly guard Master Grey and also play,” Dren asked of no one.
“Enough!”
Anna, Helen, and Jorgen were all forced backward, like they’d been shoved by a wall.
“I will not allow this insolence to continue!” Meaty’s voice didn’t sound like Meaty—it resonated with something older and more wild.
Meaty reached down and snatched a piece of the shadow of the tree we were near, as though pulling fabric free, and cast it up into the sky above us, saying, “The only magic mine.” We would have all been in the dark had not Meaty began to cast an eerie light. Gina and Rachel stepped away quickly. “No moon now. Time to answer for your crimes.” Meaty pointed at Helen, and her wolf form slipped away, shedding off her, leaving her naked. Jorgen’s form changed too, lessening, the beast flowing out of him, leaving only human behind. “But before that —”
“Who are you?” Anna asked.
“This body is quite old. It suits me well.” Meaty inspected both thick arms, as if seeing them for the first time. It didn’t look like Meaty anymore. The physical space my charge nurse held was overlapped with light, and that light had a slightly different shape. It was like a sheet of disembodied power draped down, turning Meaty into a glowing Halloween ghost. “In answer to your question, bloodslave—I am an avatar of the Consortium. This body was the only thing nearby large enough to hold me that wasn’t wearing fur.” Meaty cast about on the ground. I wasn’t about to ask what they were looking for.
“You. There.” Meaty turned over a rock with a toe. “Get up here and explain yourselves.”
Had I seen anyone else talk to the ground, I’d have deemed them profoundly insane. But I had a hunch who we were ringing up now.
More shadows oozed away from the base of the tree, thickening like oil, folding in on themselves till they made a creature waist-high.
“Your Grace, honorable Dr. Swieten—” the tar-like creature said. Despite the fact that the Shadows were amorphous, I got the feeling they were groveling.
“Do not say my name like you know me, dark things.” The phosphorescence around Meaty glowed brighter.
“Never again, Doctor, never again. Please, take pity on us.” The Shadows thinned, dropping lower into the ground in the face of this brightness.
“You know how valuable this territory is. What possible reason could you have for leaving your post?”
“Santa Muerte escaped. We had to go and find her.”
One of Meaty’s eyebrows rose, both the glowing and nonglowing one. “And did you?”
“No!” A hundred different tones of wailing combined in that one word. “Should she gather—”
Meaty’s avatar cut a glowing hand down. “Your foolishness is no excuse for this. Abort your search, and fix this mess you’ve made.”
I was pleased to see there was something in this world that the Shadows were frightened of—and then realized that if they were frightened, than I almost certainly should be too. The howling behind us had ended, and the surrounding weres were still. I didn’t think they were waiting—it was like they’d been frozen in time. I scanned for Jake in vain.
Meaty gestured behind our group, toward the hospital. “Those poisoned people were not meant to become were, Shadows. Heal them or kill them off.” The glowing began to fade, and the sense of having another presence there receded.
“Wait!” I called out. Gideon put a hand on my arm to stop me. “What about everything else?”
The light returned, and the Consortium’s avatar looked at me through Meaty’s face, condescendingly. “Several unexplained fires have been set in the city, to help explain the chaos. The rest, I’m sure you’ll deal with.” Meaty looked from Anna to Helen. And then the light drained away—although the shadow overhead remained. Abandoned, Meaty stumbled, and Gina caught our head nurse.
Anna walked over to Helen. Her bestial half was gone now, but Sike’s blood was still on her hands. Jorgen clutched her to him.
“She fought well, but—” Helen said, the words apologetic, the tone not.
“I loved her.”
“Then you are broken. Vampires do not love,” Jorgen said. Muscles rippled under Jorgen’s skin—furless or not, he was a force to be reckoned with. He held Helen protectively.
Ominous howls began again.
“What did her blood buy?” I asked aloud, because I needed to know that I hadn’t sold it too cheaply.
“House Grey said that if we stole the blood from here for them, they would give us their blood in return. As they had once given it to Winter, prolonging his life.” Helen’s eyes looked over to the emissary from House Grey. “Their devil’s pact with my father cost me my husband’s life. How I loved my husband and hated my father for killing him.” She freed herself from Jorgen’s arms and threw herself at Anna’s feet. “Show us mercy. We repent.”
The House Grey vampire coughed. “Your sentimentality is unbecoming.”
“Dren, please kill him,” Anna said.
The Husker hesitated. “To kill him will make you a large number of enemies, Sanguine. Enemies you might not want yet, in your illustrious five-hour-old career.”
“I don’t think I care.”
Dren shrugged and set his sickle to the Grey’s throat. “Don’t you want to know about Santa—” the Grey began. Anna didn’t look up. Dren finished his move and the vampire dusted like a cloud.
