Ambushed (22 page)

A
second later, she hit the barrier. It was like trying to pull an
elephant through a mailbox. She was moving so fast that it seemed
impossible that anything could stop her, but I could feel reality
flexing and shivering as it tried to keep from allowing her into my
dream.

I
pulled with everything I had left—even though I was pretty sure
that nothing I could do this late in the game could possibly make any
difference—and I felt myself start to lose my grip on my dream.
That was terrifying. The last thing I wanted was to send myself into
the gray plane of nonexistence that I could feel her traveling
through, but I needed her here.

I
gave one last desperate tug on the cable between us even as I clawed
at my surroundings to keep from being pulled in after her. The
universe tore and then suddenly she was standing before me, confused
and wary.

"I'm
sorry, I hope that wasn't an unpleasant experience for you."

She
looked around at our surroundings, taking in the school behind me and
the shop building we were standing next to.

"I've
been here before."

"I
know, I was there too. You were letting four girls beat you. I
stopped them without realizing that you didn't need my help."

She
nodded slowly. "And in return, I warned you that one of your
companions was dangerous."

"You
were right. Jackson was a vampire. That's why he was there with me.
Before then he'd found me in the dream world, but at that point he
hadn't figured out my real identity."

I
hadn't changed my appearance, so I knew she recognized me, but she
seemed to take a degree of comfort from the fact that we'd both
described an event known only to a handful of people. I was realizing
that there weren't any bulletproof guarantees when it came to the
supernatural world, but this was as close as I could get to proving I
was really who she thought I was.

"So
you're a traveler then? I'd heard rumors of someone who could do
this, but I didn't know that there was more than one of you."

"I
call it dream walking instead of travelling, but you're right, there
weren't two of us, at least not until a few months ago."

"Why
have you brought me here?"

"I
need your help again. I know I don't have a right to it, but I had to
ask regardless. I've learned a lot since we last talked. I know
you're a shape shifter, that's the only way that you could have known
that Jackson was a vampire. You could smell him, but he and Tristan
were standing so close together that you couldn't tell for sure which
one was the vampire."

For
a long time she didn't say anything. Her brown eyes seemed to be
taking stock of me in ways that I didn't understand, that or she was
just trying to see if I would crack under the pressure as the weight
of the silence between us continued to grow.

"Let's
say for now that you're right and I'm a shape shifter. What
difference does it make?"

"I
need to know about the Coun'hij. I need to know everything you can
tell me about them."

"Why?"
Her voice had changed. It wasn't that her beautiful accent had gone
away, although for a second I thought that was the reason. It was
because her voice had gone flat. It was like someone had stripped
away all of the emotion and life from her.

For
a moment I couldn't get any words to come out. I was skirting
dangerous ground now. Everything I revealed could potentially make it
back to the Coun'hij, could potentially be used against Taggart and
me at a later date.

"You
know the other one like me?"

"Dream
Stealer?"

"Yeah,
that's the one. Together we could be a much bigger threat to the
Coun'hij than he's been so far. He's asking me to help him, to…kill
the Coun'hij's agents, and I don't know if that's the right thing to
be doing. I like Dream Stealer and I think I trust him, but it's hard
to kill people based off of the word of just one man."

She
sighed and then started walking toward the football field. "What's
your name?"

"Adri."

"Very
well, Adri. My name is Dominic. Let's go find somewhere to sit down,
somewhere that will let us stay far enough away from each other that
we're unlikely to attack each other, but close enough that we can
talk comfortably. I've had a long day already."

I
thought about creating a pair of benches out of thin air in front of
us, but I didn't want to spook her. Besides, it was just as easy to
let her lead me over to the bleachers. She waved me up onto the
stands, then selected a bench several rows down from me and turned
around so she was facing me.

"I've
never heard anyone say that they liked the Dream Stealer. His methods
are said to be brutal, but no more brutal than the Coun'hij. I'm not
sure that you can fight a superior force without being at least as
vicious as they are."

"So
the Coun'hij is bad then, just like he said they were?"

"I'm
not sure I'm the best one to answer that question, Adri. I come from
somewhere much worse than here. I expected to live and die down
there, probably at the hands of one of the self-styled rulers of my
people. The Coun'hij is much less corrupt and murderous than my own
father is."

"You're
saying it's all relative?"

Dominic
looked away from me for a couple of seconds before nodding. "I
guess I am, at least partly. The Coun'hij is prosecuting a war
against my people, a war that they had no real reason to fight.
Hundreds have been killed already, many of them for nothing more
nefarious than wanting to cross the border from Mexico so that they
could lose themselves here in the United States where they might have
a chance at a normal life."

I
tried to remember everything that Taggart had let drop during the few
short weeks that I'd known him.

"So
you're a…jaguar then, not a wolf? Dream Stealer said that
there was fighting going on between the wolves and the jaguars. I
guess I didn't really give it a second thought. He's always seemed a
lot more focused on the Coun'hij than anything else."

Dominic
nodded. "Most people seem to find their own pet causes and
ignore the rest of the bad going on in the world. It's like we can't
simultaneously think about all of the terrible things out there so we
just pick one and put everything else out of our mind."

I
felt like I was in the middle of the ocean without a life preserver.
I needed
something
to hold onto, something certain, something that could anchor me
against all of the things that I didn't know.

"So
what should I be doing then? Forget about the Coun'hij and try to
stop the worst of the jaguars instead?"

"Are
you really so eager to kill that you have to find a target?"

"No,
I've killed before and I didn't like it, but I think that Dream
Stealer is probably right. I'm a weapon. I didn't ask to become like
this, but I have the ability to do things nobody else can do. If I
don't chart my own course then sooner or later I'm going to end up
manipulated into doing something I don't want to do. Besides, if I
can make a difference and don't then in my own way I'm just as bad as
the people who are making the world crap."

Dominic
flinched a little at my last statement. I hadn't been trying to make
her feel bad, but apparently that was a little too close to home for
her.

"Very
well, I'll tell you as plainly as I can, Adri. There are hundreds,
maybe even thousands of wolves who live their life out in security,
safe from any kind of harm other than what they deal with by being
part of a pack. In almost every way the wolves live better lives than
us cats, but you can't measure the Coun'hij by that one fact any more
than you could say that they are good simply because they are doing
their best to wipe out the vampires."

I
opened my mouth, but she talked over me. "The truth is that the
wolves are happiest when the Coun'hij doesn't notice them enough to
interfere in their lives. Once you come to the attention of the
Coun'hij things go badly. For them, might
is
right. There is nobody that the Coun'hij wouldn't murder if it was in
their interest, no law they wouldn't break, no right that they
wouldn't abridge if it suited their purpose. They surround themselves
with murderers and thugs because, at its heart, the Coun'hij is the
biggest collection of villains around."

"So
you would agree with Dream Stealer then, anyone that works with the
Coun'hij is someone who the world would be better off without."

"No,
I think that is a step too far. I think people can end up working for
the Coun'hij for a variety of reasons, fear being not the least of
them. You can't blindly kill the Coun'hij's pawns without risking
injustice, but you are more in the right to be fighting them than you
would be if you were aiding them."

Alec Graves
Club Pure Vertigo
Chicago, Illinois

The lights were back on, which meant that I could see the full
destruction that had been wrought on the club. Ulrich had arrived
with a force of more than forty shape shifters and he'd come prepared
to contain the situation in more ways than one.

He'd
had a group of hybrids march away the surviving Coun'hij loyalists
who'd attacked Shawn and then turned his attention to keeping the
humans out of the club until his people had cleaned up enough that
nobody would know the damage had been done by
six-and-a-half-foot-tall monsters.

Two
hundred years was plenty of time to get really good at your chosen
profession and Ulrich's medics had obviously been practicing their
craft for a long time. One of them, a big male who communicated
mostly in grunts with the occasional gesture thrown in for good
measure, took over Brindi's care within seconds of Ulrich's arrival.

I'd
been edged out of the way by another of the Chicago pack while the
medic got to work running an IV drip and hanging a blood bag off of a
metal rod similar to the one I'd used to impale the wolf that had
been such a problem during my fight with the hybrid. My beast
probably would have resented being managed like that, but I was too
tired and shocky to protest right at that instant.

I
stood with a vague plan of checking on James and the girls, but it
took less than a second to locate them. They were all bruised and
bleeding, but they each had a medic or two attending them and now
that the bootlickers were all gone nobody seemed noticeably on edge.

Shawn
got my attention and waved me over to where he was talking to his
dad. I hid a grimace and nodded as I started picking my way over to
them.

I
could hear the white noise generators when I was still several feet
away from the booth. There were several of them, which meant that
Ulrich was serious about keeping our conversation a secret.

Ulrich
and Shawn had already disappeared into the booth by the time I
arrived, so I took a deep breath and followed them inside. Shawn was
even bloodier than I was, but he seemed in good spirits, so there was
a reasonable chance that most of it belonged to the other team.

I
opened my mouth to apologize to Ulrich for having entered his
territory unannounced, but he cut me off before I could even get
started.

"Do
you have any idea the kind of position you've put me in by coming
here, Alec? By all rights, I should just kill you and your friends
and save myself the headache."

Shawn
winced, but I didn't wait for him to come to my defense. "You'd
be well within your rights to try, but unless you're planning on
executing the next Coun'hij enforcer who shows up on your doorstep
unexpectedly, you'll be creating a dangerous precedent when it comes
to your prized neutrality."

He
didn't like that, but then again I hadn't expected him to. I was in
as deep as I was going to get, and there wasn't anything to be gained
by being timid.

"Don't
push me, boy. I was here before your dad was born and I intend to be
here long after you and he kill each other off, assuming that you're
up to that kind of challenge."

We
locked eyes, but I refused to back down. After a handful of seconds
Ulrich finally smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"You've
got guts, and not just because you were sneaking around in my
backyard plotting with Shawn. I like that. Besides, I owe you for
keeping Shawn alive."

Shawn
looked like he was going to protest, but Ulrich stared him down.

"Despite
what you might think, not even Vicki can pull you through against
three-to-one odds, Shawn."

Satisfied
that Shawn was suitably cowed, Ulrich turned back to me.

"You've
earned yourself a bit of leniency this time around, but don't come
back through here without permission again."

Ulrich
worked his way around the table until he could stand and leave the
booth. "I've got some things to check on. Finish up your
conversation quickly, I can only hold off the police for so long."

I
looked over at Shawn with a raised eyebrow. He ran his hands through
his hair and sighed.

"Thanks
for standing by me when we got jumped."

"I
didn't really have much of a choice. Most packs will turn against the
outsiders before they'll fight amongst themselves. Standing with you
was my best chance of getting my people out in one piece."

"Was
that really what you were thinking at the time?"

I
hesitated for a second before shaking my head. "No, it didn't
even cross my mind. You'd been good enough to talk to me without
ratting us out. It just seemed right to fight with you guys instead
of against you."

Sometimes
not being able to lie was a real pain, but other times—like
now—it was a lot easier. Shawn knew that I'd just told him the
truth.