Forsaken (34 page)

I
rubbed my throat and then nodded. "I won't say anything. What's
next?"

"We
go back out there and watch while my people get blood transfusions
going for Jasmin and Isaac. Then we just wait for Alec to arrive or
for the bricks to come crashing down. No telling which will happen
first."

I
checked on Isaac and Jasmin, but Shawn was right. They'd each been
hooked up to an IV and strapped into cages. I protested their
treatment, but I couldn't deny that they were moving around too much
now that the drugs were wearing off for anything else to keep the IVs
in. Apparently the cages were standard issue for dealing with
severely injured shape shifters.

We'd
been waiting in the hangar for almost forty minutes before Shawn's
phone rang. I wasn't close enough to overhear any of the
conversation, but he didn't look happy when he hung up.

"Agony
arrived twenty minutes ago. Dad tried to keep a lid on things but
apparently we had a leak. Six of the Coun'hij bully boys are on their
way out here already. We've got maybe five minutes before they
arrive."

"Your
people leaked?"

"Of
course they did, Adri. No pack the size of ours could possibly hope
to keep everything a secret. We keep whatever we can on a need-to-
know basis, but this little expedition was put together too quickly
for me to keep it out of the pack grapevine."

My throat went dry. I still had nightmares about the last time
Agony had shown up.

"What
do we do?"

"We
wait for them to arrive and then we go back to the compound with
them. If I try to get any of you away before they arrive, they'll
know and it'll be my people who suffer."

I
opened my mouth to argue with him, but he turned on me with a flare
of power that rivaled anything I'd ever seen out of Alec. I was a
slow learner sometimes, but I could tell that Shawn had been pushed
as far as he was prepared to go.

Two
white SUVs pulled up a few minutes later, and half a dozen tattooed
and heavily pierced men got out. I thought at first that Abaddon was
running the show. He'd been with Agony last time, and he'd been one
of the top dogs then, but when Oblivion stepped out of the second
vehicle, I knew who was really in charge.

Abaddon
might run his mouth the most, but it was Oblivion who made any
resistance futile. He was one of those relatively rare hybrids who
had manifested a power and his, at the very least, included the
ability to strip memories out of a person's mind with a simple touch.
He was the one who had wiped Jess's mind clean, and in some ways, it
was every bit as bad as Agony's scarring power.

The
Jess we all knew was long dead. The person walking around inside her
body was someone else, someone who wasn't sure whether or not she
could trust any of us.

Abaddon
walked over to Shawn and then looked us all over.

"What
brings you out to the airport on this cold frickin' day?"

Shawn
shook his head. "I don't have to tell you that. I've just been
informed that Agony has arrived, so I do have to return back to the
compound with you, but nothing says that I have to tell you jack."

"Agony
isn't going to accept that kind of answer."

"That's
his prerogative, but you're not Agony."

They
were working themselves up to a full-blown dominance fight. I'd seen
it a dozen times before, but I was starting to see just how much
sense it made. Shawn was dominant to his people and Abaddon was
dominant to everyone but Oblivion. Rather than having everyone
present kick the crap out of each other, it was faster and easier to
have the two top dogs fight it out.

I
didn't have a lot of hope that Shawn would come out on top. Abaddon
had wiped the floor with Isaac, and Isaac had several inches and
twenty or thirty pounds on Shawn.

Oblivion
stepped between the two of them, and suddenly, neither Shawn nor
Abaddon could back up fast enough. Oblivion was the only person from
the Coun'hij without extensive body art. He didn't need it to
intimidate people because his reputation was plenty scary all on its
own.

That
should have made his expression easier to read, but when he looked at
me, his face was a perfect mask. He was at least as good as Alec when
it came to his poker face, but I got the sense that Oblivion was
tired. Not physically tired, more like emotionally and morally tired.

Oblivion
gestured for Shawn and the rest of us to mount up and then gave
Abaddon a look that seemed to say it was time for the other hybrid to
get back to business. I could feel an incredible, almost
inconceivable amount of power roll off of Abaddon. It was obvious he
didn't like being pulled up short in front of us peasants, but after
several seconds of locked gazes with Oblivion, he finally nodded.

"Did
anyone important leave yet?"

Shawn
shook his head. "A pilot who doesn't know anything. Everyone
else is here."

"All right.
Mount up, and no funny business or Agony will kill dear old dad for
your sins."

**

Shawn
pulled his phone out and started texting as soon as the vehicles were in
motion. "I can't do much to head things off at this point, but I
can at least make sure Alec knows what he's about to step in."

"Will
it help?"

"Probably
not, but I can't just sit around and do nothing."

The
drive to 'the compound' was about half an hour, and the sun was just
starting to send weak beams of light over the horizon as we pulled up
to a massive gate.

A
couple of minutes later we were tromping through the snow up to a
manor house that was even older than the Graves Estate. Shawn had
gestured for his guys to pick up the cages holding Jasmin and Isaac
and he'd picked up Ben himself. I followed along behind them and
hoped somebody would clue me in before things got too serious.

We
filed through a house that had obviously been built with entertaining
in mind. A grand central staircase dominated most of the entryway,
but that wasn't where we were headed. Instead, we walked down a hall
you could have driven a car through and then turned off into a much
less ornate staircase. This staircase led down to a basement that was
nothing more than bare concrete and sparse fluorescent light bulbs.

The
gathering of people waiting down there was bigger than I'd expected.
On one side of the room stood Agony along with another six or seven
of the Coun'hij enforcers. The other side of the room was filled with
a large group of men and women who all gave off a noticeable vibe of
power. When everyone had said that the Chicago pack was the biggest
I'd thought that meant the pack consisted of a dozen people, or maybe
twenty at the outside. I'd been way off though because
there were at least seventy people here.

Even
if only a quarter of Shawn's pack were hybrids they still should have
been able to easily crush Agony and the rest. The fact that they were
going to allow Agony to dictate to them finally drove home for me
just how much power the Coun'hij wielded.

Agony
stepped into the center of the gigantic room and waited for us to
reach him.

"I'm
very disappointed that you weren't here to greet me, young Bishop."

Shawn
shrugged nonchalantly. "When you choose to drop by without
announcing yourself, you can't expect everyone to be here. Dad's
perfectly capable of working through whatever you need to talk about.
I don't need to be around for any of this."

"Oh,
but you do. You see, some concerning rumors have reached me. I was
reluctant to believe them at first, but I just can't seem to dismiss
them no matter how hard I try."

All
I could figure was that Shawn had ice water in his veins. He didn't
even blink despite the fact that Agony was easily within arm's reach
of him. The silence stretched out for several seconds before Agony turned
and looked at the rest of us who had just driven in from the
airport.

"I
think my little rumor can wait for another day though. I'm much more
interested in learning why it was that a significant portion of the
Sanctuary pack has arrived on your doorstep looking like they've been
through a war."

Shawn's
cool cracked slightly. "That's not my business. I got a call
requesting that I provide assistance for the Sanctuary wolves, so I
helped. I've broken no rules by doing so."

"A
call from young Mr. Graves?"

"Yes."

I
could tell Shawn was going to make Agony drag the information out a
word at a time, but Agony didn't seem to mind the game.

"Are
you offering the hospitality of your pack to these four individuals?
Do you stand ready to answer for their sins?"

"I
have no right to extend that kind of offer on behalf of my pack. That
decision lies with my father."

Agony
smiled like he had just received the answer he'd been looking for.

"What
say you, Ulrich? Are the Sanctuary wolves under your protection?"

I
turned to look at Shawn's dad and was amazed at just how big he was.
If you'd given Brandon an extra inch and forty more pounds of muscle,
you would have had a younger version of Ulrich. The grizzled alpha
stared at Agony for several seconds before shaking his head.

"They
aren't under my protection. What are you going to do with them?"

"I'm
merely going to let our laws run their proper course. If there is no
one here who is willing to offer them their protection, then any
individual with unresolved business towards either of them is free
to...resolve that business."

Abaddon
stepped forward almost like he'd been waiting for a cue. "The
boy challenged my dominance the last time I was in Sanctuary, and the
fight was never properly finished. I demand satisfaction for the
slight I suffered at his hands."

Agony
stepped back as if to give Abaddon room to work in. I looked around
at the gathered shape shifters, but nobody looked like they were
going to interfere. Shawn's jaw was clenched, but he was just as
motionless as the rest. I stepped forward and felt every eye in the
room fix on me.

Abaddon
grinned like a child about to pull the wings off a butterfly. "Are
you really foolish enough to challenge me, girl?"

"No,
I'm no match for you, but I think that somebody wants to talk to
you."

Confusion flittered about the room until I held up my phone and
pushed the speaker button.

"One
of Agony's thugs is here, Alec, and he's going to kill Isaac."

Alec's
voice came out smooth and confident. "Agony, everyone there
knows this isn't about Isaac or Jasmin. This is about me. The
Coun'hij has been looking for a reason to kill me for years now."

I
could tell that Agony didn't like this development. If Alec couldn't
come up with a way to save us all then I was going to pay for having
interfered with Agony's macabre theater, but I wouldn't have done
anything different. I couldn't have lived with myself if I'd just sat
there and watched my friends die.

"Alec,
I'm very disappointed that you would level that kind of accusation at
the august body that watches out for the interests of our people as a
whole."

"Yes,
I expect you probably
are
disappointed. Disappointed and
angry, but that doesn't change the fact that it's true. Your careful
evasions aren't going to convince anyone that this is anything other
than a lucky break that allowed the Coun'hij to finally execute on
the assassination they've been wanting to wrap up for ages now."

Agony
shifted slightly and then leaned forward. "What are you saying,
Alec?"

"I'm
saying exactly what you think I'm saying. Leave the four members of
my pack currently in your power alone and I'll give you the chance to
do to me what you did to my father."

There
was an almost inaudible intake of breath from the gathered shape
shifters. Faces that had been grimly stoic looked almost on the point
of protesting.

"I
hardly think you're framing things in the proper manner, Alec, but
there is precedent for what you're describing. If you want to stand
in the place of your pack members then I'm not going to stop you."

There
was no hesitation in Alec's response. "Good. They'd better be
alive when I get there, Agony, or I'll hunt you down, regardless of
how long it takes me."

"Your
people will be fine. If you're standing in their place, then
tradition prohibits them from being harmed."

Shawn
stepped forward and faced the phone I was holding.

"I'll
witness the promise, Alec. Your people will be held harmless."

There
was a general murmur of approval and then Ulrich stood from the
throne-like chair where he'd been sitting. "We all witness it."

It
was obvious to me that Agony didn't like the way the Chicago pack was
prepared to get behind Alec, but he didn't really have many options,
at least not in the short term.

Alec
and the others arrived less than half an hour later. I wondered what
they'd driven, but it wasn't important. All that was important was
the fact that everyone was there.

The
entire pack moved towards me, and Shawn's people shifted over closer
to the rest of the Chicago pack so that there were now three clearly
defined power blocs in the room. Jess and Andrew were in the lead
with Donovan limping along behind them. Then came a guy and a girl
I didn't recognize, but I figured they had to be Ash and his
girlfriend. They were unique in that they were the only people in the
room who were armed. They each had one visible
pistol hanging from a shoulder harness, and Ash had several knives
where he could get at them quickly.

Dominic
and James were next with Rachel close behind. Dom and Rachel came and
stood next to me, each grabbing ahold of one of my hands, but my
return squeeze was an absentminded thing. My attention was completely
captured by Alec's appearance.