Kitty and the Silver Bullet

'What the hell are you guys talking about?' I interrupted, dumbstruck. 'Hold what back?'

They both fell silent. Oh, this was the big story. This was the secret lives of vampires coming to light for all to see. 'What are you afraid of?' I prompted. 'What are vampires afraid of?'

'Losing control,' Rick said softly.

'Control,' I said. 'Is that it? Like, freaking out, going nuts, singing show tunes, that sort of control?'

'Vampires are about control,' Rick said.

'Power,' Arturo added. 'What kind, and who controls it.'

'I have news for you, guys. That's what everyone's about. Most people only aspire to having the power to control their own little lives, but there it is. The only difference is how completely enamored vampires are of their own perceived importance.'

Rick started to interrupt. 'Kitty—'

'You, too, Rick! You're not exempt from this. You may be better than most but you're still sitting here talking about how you know what's right and you know what's best. Well I'm sorry, but you're going to have to start taking the rest of us into account!' Whoa, that rant had been building for a while. I managed not to apologize for it; it needed to be said.

A pause hung for a moment—dead air. My thoughts had scattered, and I quickly marshaled them to try to follow my diatribe with something clever.

But Arturo spoke first. 'Rick. You do not have the resolve to play this part. You want a salvo, I will show you a salvo.'

He hung up.

That was when I noticed Matt waving over the board, pointing at his watch. I hadn't been watching the time, and I'd almost missed the end of the show.

I talked fast. 'Right. I have about twenty seconds to explain what just happened. I'm not sure I can, except to say that yes, Ricardo here's a friend of mine and he's got some rivals out there. Any of you looking to vampirism to solve your problems, keep that in mind. You'll only trade one set for another. Stay safe out there and I'll return next week. This is Kitty Norville, voice of the night.'

The on-air sign dimmed, and I could see Matt's sigh of relief from here.

'You're right, of course,' Rick said quietly. 'We've spent centuries ruling our worlds at the expense of others. It's a hard habit to break.'

I tried to make my smile friendly. 'Nice of you to say so. But we'll have to discuss the political philosophy of the whole thing later. Remember, that was only phase one.'

Matt came in from the booth. 'Kitty, what's going on?'

Rick and I were already on our way out the door. 'I'll let you know when it's all over.'

'I don't like the sound of that.'

'Good. You shouldn't. Matt—do me a favor and if anything weird starts happening around here, you see any people who don't look right, anyone who shouldn't be here, or if anyone turns up missing unexpectedly, call 911. Don't wait, don't hesitate. Just call.'

'Kitty, what the hell—'

'I'm sorry. I can't explain. I'll see you later.' I hoped. My heartbeat felt like a jackhammer in my chest. Carl and Meg wouldn't have to lift a claw to kill me. Stress would do it just fine.

We left the studio with about four hours until dawn and waited in front of the building. Not much time for what I wanted to do. Ben was already waiting in the parking lot. Shaun pulled up in his car right on schedule, just after the show, like I told him to. My pack was growing, I thought with trepidation.

We'd ruffled Arturo's feathers, now it was time to ruffle Carl's. I had to keep moving, plowing ahead as fast as I could, before I had second thoughts. It wasn't too late to back out of the whole thing, was it? As Ben and Shaun approached, I said, 'Hi, guys.'

They eyed each other warily, and their gestures were uncanny. Their wolves were speaking in their sideways glances, the way they avoided staring at each other directly, the way they made sure not to approach each other, but to approach me in parallel, not coming near each other. They were sizing each other up without offering a challenge. Did they even realize they were doing it?

I made myself relax, to keep the tension in the air from spiking any more than it already had. I needed these two to cooperate. To trust each other. I needed them to be a pack, even though they'd never met each other.

'Ben, this is Shaun. Shaun, Ben.' They didn't offer to shake hands. Just nodded in acknowledgment, keeping their gazes down, maintaining an easy distance between them. Their noses were working, though, their nostrils flaring.

'He's yours?' Shaun said, and I heard an unspoken question in his tone: He's your mate, your alpha, and I must defer to him as well?

'That's right,' I said. He nodded, then moved a step back, giving Ben precedence. Making way.

God, this was weird.

'All right,' I said. 'Let's get a move on.'

'Kitty, good hunting,' Rick said, moving off to his BMW. He was going to the hospital to keep watch over my mom, at least until dawn. 'And be careful.'

'You, too.'

The three of us piled into my car.

'Where we headed?' Shaun finally asked as I turned onto Highway 6 toward Golden. I hadn't told him the details. I just said I needed a warm body for an expedition. He'd been trusting enough not to ask any more questions.

'We're going to the Park and Ride on 93. We'll drop the car off and head into the hills. Then we start marking territory.'

'You're kidding,' Shaun said.

'Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'pissing contest,' ' Ben said, grinning.

Shaun whistled low. 'Carl's going to hate this.'

'That's the idea. It's not a full moon, so he won't be out. None of the pack’ll be out. He won't know what we've done until he steps out of the house tomorrow morning and takes a big breath of air.' I didn't want to be anywhere near him at that moment. If we did it right, he'd smell it on the air: foreignness, invasion, another pack moving in. He'd smell us.

'I've never done anything like this before. It sounds like fun,' Ben said. I couldn't tell if he was joking. And I felt terrible, because even though he'd met Carl and Meg, he really had no idea what I was getting him into. He might have helped Cormac hunt vampires and werewolves on occasion, but he'd never had to fight for dominance as one of them. His battles were usually in courtrooms, where people followed rules.

Flying by the seat of my pants didn't begin to cover this.

'You're crazy,' Shaun muttered. 'We are so dead. We're so gonna die.'

Ben looked at him over the car seat. 'Then why are you even here?'

'We're not going to die,' I said. 'We'll keep moving. We won't stop long enough for them to be able to find us.'

Shaun wouldn't let up. 'That's fine for you to say as a human. But are you going to remember that great plan as a wolf? How am I going to remember it?'

'I'll remind you,' I said, low enough for it to be taken as a growl. That and a quick glance in the rearview mirror made him settle down. He actually cringed a bit.

A girl could get a big head over that kind of power. Not now, though. I had a job to do.

'Shaun, if you're not sure about this, you don't have to do it. I'll let you out, take you back, whatever.'

'No, I'm sure. I'm just nervous. That's all.'

He might have said scared and it would have been as true.

'I know. Just keep thinking about the big picture. This is supposed to make everything better in the long run. This is supposed to keep people like Jenny from getting killed.'

'Yeah, I know.'

Ben put his hand on my thigh—a touch of comfort. I hadn't realized how tense I was until I twitched at the pressure. But his touch transmitted calm. Stay calm. This'll work.

We arrived all too quickly. Quicker than I thought we would. No traffic at 2:00 a.m. Maybe that was it.

'We can still change our minds,' I said after I shut the engine off.

'You're the alpha,' Ben said. 'Isn't that what you keep saying? It's not up to us.'

'Ben—' It came out as a whine.

'Are you guys married?' Shaun said. ''Cause you sound married.'

I leaned my forehead on the steering wheel and groaned. 'How did my life turn into this?' I didn't even want to see how Ben was taking the comment.

Shaun quickly said, 'No, it's in a good way. Way better than Carl and Meg.'

'What do they sound like when they argue?' I said.

'They don't argue. They don't even talk to each other. Compared to them, you guys are Ozzie and Harriet.'

Ben patted my arm. 'Come on, dear. When this is all over, we can go home and you can make me a martini and fetch my slippers.'

We climbed out of the car. 'Oh, no. I don't think so.'

Ben glanced at Shaun. 'See? No Ozzie and Harriet here.'

Shaun shook his head, and I had a sneaking suspicion he wanted to laugh.

A ridge of hills and ravines ran north and west from here, leading up to the Flatirons, roughly marking the western edge of Carl's territory. He and his wolves ranged farther into the mountains on occasion. But the foothills and plains along this stretch were their favorite stomping grounds. Kicking the wasp nest. Yeah.

Wolf coiled inside me, like my insides were pacing even though I wasn't. For once, we agreed on something. She was as pissed off at Carl as I was. Carl was breaking trust with his wolves; he'd killed wolves under his protection. He wasn't a good alpha, and we had to do something about that.

I walked up the side of the hill, beginning the trek into wilderness. I sensed rather than saw Ben and Shaun hesitate, then follow. Even if one of them had spoken, had called to me, I didn't think I could answer. Not with human words. I was entering Wolf's world.

First thing was to find a den. I found one where stands of pine trees started growing, up in the hills near Coal Creek Canyon. Trees stood over a sheltered hollow. It couldn't be seen at all from downslope. We could stash our clothes and have a safe place to come and sleep it off. And it was relatively near the car for that fast getaway come morning.

I started stripping, pulling off my shirt. Shaun did the same. Ben watched us.

'This is weird,' Ben said. 'Doing this in front of a stranger. It's like having sex with the curtains open.'

He didn't have any experience with a real pack, where naked wasn't sexual, it was just natural. He'd only ever Changed when it was the two of us. And yeah, curled up together the next morning, sex was usually involved. I couldn't blame him for making the connection. But I did anyway.

'Would you get your mind out of the gutter?'

'Can we trust him?' Suddenly he sounded serious. And he was right. This was war, and there were spies. I only knew Shaun as someone from my old life who didn't like Carl.

'You can trust me,' Shaun said, his shirt off, his jeans unzipped, half undressed. 'I trust her.' He gave me that look that a subordinate gives his alpha. That focused gaze, waiting to be told what to do, when to jump.