Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel) (10 page)

"Awful. You should have seen Dad's face." Then I laughed softly. "And wonderful, too. Three non-walker women threw the pack law back in their faces. It was brilliant."

He chuckled "I heard. A lot of people are impressed with them. So what happens now?"

"Now the couples stay away from each other until things settle and they have a better handle on where the clans stand in relation to the High Council."

I leaned back to study his face, my stomach a little queasy as I wondered if I could trust him with the whole truth.

His eyebrows rose. "Sounds like they got it bad for your dad. What'd he do to them?"

"What makes you think he did anything?" I asked, unable to keep the defensive note from my voice.

"Well, they aren't likely to have picked his name from a hat. Whether he did something on purpose or it's just because he is the man he is, they have a reason. Find that reason, then you find the way to break them."

Good point.

Logan ducked down to scan my face, took my chin in gentle fingers. "Nothing you say to me will ever be repeated beyond this room."

"Really?" I patted him down, shoulders, hips. Butt. "What if you're wired?"

He frowned, seriously considering it. "If I am, I actually have no way of knowing. So good point. Let me verify our security before you say anything you regret."

I frowned too. "I didn't mean--"

He shook his head. "Kai, it's got nothing to do with anything you said. If I'm bugged, something I hadn't even considered until now, then I'm a danger to us all. What we discussed at O'Hagan's could have incriminated us."

I shook my head. "I'm just not sure that either your or the djinn are buggable."

"What do you mean?"

"You guys are both hot."

He smiled. "What can I say?"

"Shut up." I smacked his shoulder, then skipped around him and headed into my room where I grabbed my messenger bag and returned as fast as I could.
 

"I meant your body temperature. I'm not sure any electronics can survive that kind of contained heat. Not unless it's the NASA kind. And that's bloody expensive."

"Both Sentinel and Omega have access to a lot of money."

I sighed. "Just great." There was a very real possibility that all my secrets were out there for anyone to see.

"So where are you off to?" he asked too brightly.

"The DeathTalker Estate. To see Kira."

Silence stretched between us as a flicker of flame flared in Logan's eyes. It wasn't often that his fire showed.

Not good.

"She collecting?"

"Yup. And something big is going down. Nerina was so jittery, she looked like she was about to explode into shadows."

"I'm coming with you."

I lifted my chin. "Not on your life. You saw how angry she was the last time you tagged along. How many hours did you wait outside for me?"

His cheek twitched, as if he didn't care that the high priestess had made him wait more than two hours outside her library.

"You're not coming."

Logan's eyes narrowed. "Fine. If you don't take me, then at least ask Lily to go with."

"Just to make you feel better?"

He almost blinked.

I grunted. "Fine," I said ignoring the surprised arch of his eyebrows as I dug inside my bag for my phone and texted Lily to come over.
 

Knowing her, she'd bring Anjelo and I'd have to kick him out before dragging her with me.

Fabulous.

Just fabulous.

T
HANK
GOODNESS
I'
D
GIVEN
L
ILY
a key to my apartment. One more knock on the door and there was no telling how safe she would have been.

She flung the door open, kicked it shut and staggered in hunched under the weight of her rucksack.

"Did you rob a bank?" I asked, tapping my finger against my wrist as I leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed. I'd gotten tired of pacing.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Almost." She set the rucksack on the table. "I brought whatever I thought would be needed." She opened the flap and untied the mouth. "What do you think?"
 

I walked over and peered inside. Laughed. Shook my head. "We're going to see a high priestess, not to fight the whole wraith army."

Lily sighed, looking from the bag to my face then back again. "Can we fight the wraith army
after
we see the queen B-word?"

"Empty it and let's go. We don't want to keep the B-word waiting." It surprised me Lily had actually used a clean version of the term. She'd never been one to couch her thoughts in niceties.

"No Anjelo?" I asked.

Lily jerked her head. "Nope. He's otherwise occupied."

I stopped in my tracks and turned around.
 

I'd known Lily long enough to recognize when something was bothering her. Her inability to shift had always been a chip on her shoulder but she'd learned soon enough that I wasn't the judgmental type. Having her at my side in a fight had taken getting used to but now I used her skills to my advantage.

And she'd become more than just a sidekick.

I waited until she caught up with me at the front door. Then I blocked her exit. "Talk."

Lily gave the way out a longing glance over my shoulder. Then her shoulders sagged. "Oh, all right. Anjelo's been in a mood since we got back from Wrythiin."

"Mood?" I prompted, hoping I wasn't going to have to pull every detail out of her like some deranged dentist.

"Yeah. I think he's taking it bad. You know, the whole how-could-I-have-trusted-Illyria song. You'd think he had feelings for the bitch."

That's more like it.

I shook my head. "I don't think it's that, and nor do you."

She shrugged. "Maybe. Yeah, okay. But she played him and he risked your mom's life with his carelessness. That's more or less what he believes."

With a sigh, I set my hands on my hips. "I should have gone to talk to him but I've been crazy busy with all the hell that's breaking loose. It didn't cross my mind he'd be taking it this hard."
 

"Not your fault."

"It's not
his
either and it's time he faced it."

"I've tried to make him face it," Lily said. "Believe me, I've tried. But it's like he can't hear me."

I snorted. "Yeah, that's usually the case with the people we care about the most. We don't listen when they talk because we take them and their opinions for granted."

Lily's mouth turned down. "You think he still cares?"

So
that's
what was really going on.

"Lily," I admonished as I walked toward her. I held onto her shoulders, tipping my head to meet her gaze. "You know he cares. His feelings haven't changed. He's just taking longer than most to adjust. Guilt is a difficult burden to bear."

She nodded, sniffed, shifted her gaze. Anjelo wasn't the only one taking it hard.

"Look. If I makes you feel better, I'll go talk to him after I see Kira." I spoke softly, hoping she wouldn't take it the wrong away.

She turned to face me, her eyes shining. "Yes. That's probably the best thing. He'll have no choice but to listen to our Alpha, right?"

Their Alpha.

I'd forgotten that Anjelo had declared me his alpha before he'd ended up being pulled into the wraith plane. Now it looks like Lily had taken up the same standard. It probably wasn't legal to acknowledge an alternate alpha and I wasn't sure how I felt about it since it meant he was divesting himself of my father as his pack leader. Too late now.

"Right," I said. "No choice. Let's go."

I slung my messenger bag over my shoulder and headed out of the apartment and toward the stairs, a pensive Lily in tow.
 

No choice.

Heading for the stairs, I wondered when I'd grown up and chosen to stop using the rickety fire-escape at the back of the building?
 

Sure, it had always been untrustworthy and its rusty bolts had had me clinging on to both walls and guts a few times as I teetered above the street.

Could that need for excitement, for the rush of death defying stupidity, have had something to do with my panther's needs? Since I'd chosen to give her more freedom, time to run as a cat, perhaps I no longer required the rush of adrenaline that came with choosing to risk becoming a chalk outline on the pavement below.

Who knew?

But even that rusty-lattice web of doom was better than the Birdcage. I could deal with troubled teens and a certain death talker B-word, but nothing--not even imminent death--would get me to choose that clunking monstrosity over the stairs.

I
DIDN
'
T
HAVE
A
CAR
, so we'd run to the meeting.

What was the point of a walker owning a vehicle anyway, when they run like the wind?

Oh yeah, for times when you want to appear cool, calm and collected instead of looking like you'd been hit by a windstorm.

I should have though this through, but it was a little late now.

The street outside my apartment was deserted enough but we made for the back alley. None of the surrounding buildings had windows facing the alley.
 

There, Lily tightened the strap of her rucksack. She'd only removed the heaviest weapons from it. Good thing even Pariahs--walkers who couldn't shift into their animal form--could run or I would have had to leave her behind.
Then
she'd have been mighty peeved.

I gave the nod and we both set off, Lily following close behind me so she could see where I was going.
 

It was difficult to enjoy the scenery as we went. Our speed meant most things passed by in a blur while wind dragged our hair away from our faces and flattened the fabric of our clothes against our bodies.
 

Still, what would have taken forty-five minutes in a car took us a mere fifteen.
 

I slowed as we approached the final turnoff, hung a left, and jogged along the dusty road. A few moments later, however, we were deep into a forest of elms and ash, following a shadowed trail. The trail ended at an imposing pair of black iron gates set into a twenty-foot high wall of rugged gray stone.

As I'd expected, the gates opened as we approached, their grating sound of metal-on-metal setting my teeth on edge. High on the wall a security camera swiveled to follow our progress as we entered the property.
 

Behind us, the gates grated shut.

We followed the graveled drive hedged in by expansive green lawns to its end--an impressively large stone castle complete with three towers, one on each front corner and the third on its back wing. With its dark, diamond-shaped paneled windows the castle looked foreign, with edges of fantasy and danger. Not at all like something that belonged on United States soil.
 

We walked up the steps to a large, ornate door. As I reached out to knock it, like the gates, opened before us. A small woman, wrapped and hooded in stone gray, her eyes trained on the honey wood floor held the door open with one hand and gestured down the wood-paneled hall with the other.