hand grabbed my throat and whipped me around, slamming me hard against the wall. I found myself staring into wild, familiar eyes, open wide above a death-mask grin.
“Hi, Toby—miss me?” chirped Julie. Streaks of dirt were smeared down her cheeks, and her tiger-striped hair was matted. That was bad. The Cait Sidhe are obsessive about cleanliness; if she’d let herself go that far, she probably wasn’t going to listen to reason. Crazy people rarely do. “Enjoying your second childhood? Let’s make it your last!”
She raised her free hand, extending her claws. As a half-blood, Julie didn’t inherit many of her long-dead fae parent’s physical traits; the claws are an exception, but they could be a deadly one. Sunlight gleamed off them, making them look sharp enough to cut through glass. Her grip on my throat was tight enough that I could barely breathe, much less try to escape. Still grinning, she brought her hand down toward my chest in a hard slashing motion.
TWENTY-ONE
RAJ SLAMMED INTO JULIE FROM THE SIDE, his own claws extended. I saw his face for an instant as he rammed into her, and there was a sharp, feral madness in his eyes. I’d seen that madness before in Tybalt, usually just before something died.
Blood was running down the sides of my throat. I reached up to touch it, almost wonderingly, just before my legs buckled and I fell. Something popped in my right knee. I rolled onto my side, biting back a scream. Maybe I was smaller than normal, but my knees still weren’t all that good. The Luidaeg made me younger. She didn’t take away my scars.
The other Cait Sidhe had pulled away from the combatants, giving them room to fight without interfering. Raj’s teeth were buried in Julie’s shoulder, and she was trying to claw his arm off, both of them shrieking. Cats don’t fight quietly. The two of them started rolling over each other with the fury of their attacks, moving away from me. I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the nearest heavy object—a two-by-four I could barely lift—and started forward, trying to avoid putting any weight on my right leg.
A hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me. I turned to look, scowling. The man who had greeted Raj was standing behind me, with the Abyssinian cat still perched on his shoulder. “You must not interfere,” he said. His eyes were the same clear glass green as Raj’s.
I stared at him. “She tried to
“She failed.” He shook his head. “Now my son is fighting and must win on his own.”
“That’s idiotic.” The rules the Cait Sidhe live by sometimes seem positively suicidal. Raj was just a kid. Julie had more than thirty years’ experience on him, and a lot of that experience was gained working for Devin, where playing fair was something that happened to other people. There was no way Raj could beat that. “He’ll be killed.”
“If he can’t defeat her, he can’t hold the throne while she lives.” He tightened his grip on my shoulder, restraining me. Julie slammed Raj against the wall. “Her blood is mixed. She can’t be a Queen for this Court or any other. But she can still stop him from being King.”
“And what if she kills him, huh? What then?” Raj squirmed free and lunged, slamming into Julie’s stomach. She weighed at least fifty pounds more than he did, but gravity was on his side. She went down snarling.
Raj’s father shook his head. “If she can kill him, he was never fit to take the throne.”
“And you think that
I didn’t hit the ground. Tybalt’s hands closed on my waist while I was in mid-fall, flipping me upside down as he hoisted me to eye level. He blinked when our eyes met. I blinked back. Finally, he shook his head, expression composing itself back to its usual feline cool.
“My, Toby, you’ve changed.”
“Yeah, well.” I tried to shrug. It was impossible to do anything but dangle. “Put me down.”
“I … yes, of course.” He actually reddened slightly as he turned me over and lowered me to my feet. “My apologies.” Glancing toward the shrieking whirlwind that was Raj and Julie, he added, “I see you managed to recover my subjects.”
“Yeah. Remind me to kill you later.”
“Of course,” he said, and cracked a smile. “Excuse me a moment, will you?”
“Sure.” I leaned against the wall, trying to ignore the pain in my knee and the glare I was getting from Raj’s father.
Tybalt moved toward Raj and Julie like a shark moving through the water. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for Julie. We were friends for a long time, before an assassin’s misfired bullet killed her boyfriend and made her swear to take revenge on me for putting him in the line of fire. I don’t like to see her hurt. Still, I didn’t look away as he reached down and grabbed her by both wrists, yanking her off the ground. Julie kicked and screamed as he lifted, but didn’t manage to break free. Raj hunched down and snarled, but didn’t try to interfere. Smart kid.
“We don’t attack our guests,” Tybalt said calmly, holding Julie at arm’s length and giving her a brisk shake. She snapped at him, nearly sinking her teeth into his arm.
Bad idea. Tybalt shook her again, harder this time, and roared. The cats in the alley started to yowl, and the human-form Cait Sidhe joined in, blending their voices with his. I glanced back at Raj’s father. He was yowling with the rest. Some things run in the family.
Cait Sidhe are pretty. They’re slim and delicate and feline, and sometimes we forget that when we’re hold a tabby, we’re also holding a lion. Every Court of Cats is a jungle made of concrete and steel, and in his own Court, at least for now, Tybalt was the undisputed King. Julie knew the rules. She had to know how much trouble she was in. She still kept fighting, trying to kick him as he shook her. I guess she was trying to be gloriously defeated.
Julie never was that bright.
She snapped at him again, this time sinking her teeth into his wrist. That was the last straw. Tybalt’s patience visibly dissolved as he snarled and slammed her against the wall. She shrieked at him, and he slammed his foot into her stomach. I winced. The Cait Sidhe aren’t particularly fast healers. Their succession fights have been known to turn deadly. And people wonder why Tybalt makes me nervous.
Julie snarled again, but her rage was gone, replaced by resignation; she was just fighting back for show. Tybalt let go of her wrists and wrapped his left hand around her throat, claws barely breaking the surface of her skin.
“Are we done?” he asked, almost gently.
She snapped at the air, hissing, and he slammed her head against the wall with an audible crack. She whimpered, eyes going glassy.
“
“Yes,” she whispered, licking her lips.
“You attacked my guest.”
“I did.” A trickle of blood was running from the corner of her mouth, and from the way she hit the wall, she’d be lucky if she didn’t have a concussion. Tybalt can play a little rough.
“She was here at my invitation and under the protection of your Prince.”
“She killed Ross!” Julie coughed, eyes blazing. “She needs to die.”
“Maybe,” said Tybalt. “This argument is old, and I’m tired of it. Trevor? Gabriel?” A pair of battered tom-cats leaped down from the wall, becoming human as they landed. They were massive, like linebackers with pointed ears and fangs; next to them, Tybalt looked almost small. “Our Juliet is tired. Take her to her lair and keep her there.”
“Yes, my liege,” rumbled Gabriel. He reached down and wrapped one hand around Julie’s upper arm. She hissed weakly. It must be nice to be seven feet tall and made of solid muscle, because he didn’t bother to hit her; he just hauled her to her feet, keeping his fingers in a vise-grip around her arm. She hung there like a rag doll. “Come on, Julie.”
Damn it. She isn’t a friend these days, but she used to be. Ignoring the pain in my knee, I straightened.
