Renegade (Ministry of Paranormal Research & Defence) (15 page)

“
Now honey,” said the woman, pulling a chair over so she could sit next to Kyle. “I need you to change.”

Kyle closed his eyes and I politely looked away. When I looked back Kyle was human. He had a thatch of light brown hair and hazel eyes set in a pleasant, open face. He had a lean body with a deep tan and the kind of calloused hands that spoke of long hours of hard work.

Changing had triggered a fresh flow of blood from the wound and the woman busied herself peeling the bandages off.

“
Now I’ve told you before, don’t go playing with the hunters,” she said.

“
Aw, Mom,” said Kyle.

“
Oh he just loves to tease the hunters,” she said, winking at me. “Sometimes they manage to clip him.”

“
Mom, I wasn’t teasing them,” said Kyle. “I was watching them. You know they took a shot at young Willie the other day.”

“
Willie’s human!” burst out the old man. “I’ll to go see Sheriff MacKenzie about that. Those hunters are a menace.”

“
See that you do, Perry,” said the woman. “And where are your manners? Show our guest to the downstairs bathroom so she can tidy herself up.”

I gave her a grateful smile. Changing in front of strangers was a big no-no for most wolves—Kyle had been an emergency and he was on his home turf—so her offer of privacy was much appreciated.

The older man led me down a corridor to an open door. He reached in and flicked on the light, revealing a small bathroom every bit as neat as the kitchen.

“
There’s a brush on the sink and clean towels in the closet if you want a shower. Just come on back to the kitchen when you’re done.”

“
Thank you,” I said, aiming for politeness in my horrible wolf voice.

“
Oh, you’re welcome, miss,” he replied.

I closed the bathroom door and took a look at myself in the mirror. I looked wild. There were twigs and leaves in my hair and my fur was sticking up in clumps, so I peeled off my fighting suit and went to work with the brush.

After a few minutes I felt and looked a whole lot better. Once I was done with my fur I changed into my human form. Normally I enjoyed the feeling of changing, the sensation of my entire body flowing from wolf to human, but I was tired and on edge. I was glad to get it over with. The face in the mirror had dark circles under the eyes. I was covered in grime and didn’t smell very sweet, so I decided to take that shower and felt much better afterwards.

Then, dried, dressed and refreshed, I made my way back to the family.

Kyle was sitting at the table, his arm neatly bandaged, wearing a sleeveless t-shirt. His eyes widened when he saw my human form.

“
Well hello,” said the woman. “Aren’t you just the prettiest little thing? I’m Pauline but everyone calls me ‘Pol’, this is my husband, Perry, and our oldest son, Kyle.”

“
I’m Marie,” I said, smiling. “Is Kyle going to be okay?”

“
Oh he’ll be fine, miss,” said Perry. “But what about you? You’re not from around here?”

“
Oh well of course she’s not. Just listen to her accent. She’s from Louisiana.”

I opened my mouth to say something but Pol winked at me.

“I think she’s from a little east of Louisiana, Pol,” said Perry.

“
I’d say so,” she said. “Why don’t you sit down and tell us why you’re so far from home?”

Home. Just the sound of the word brought a lump to my throat. I sat down and Perry placed a mug of coffee on the table in front of me. I told them all about what had happened as Pol made us something to eat. I was hesitant at first but Pol was making nasty comments about “those damn vampires”. That relaxed me.

“So how are you going to get home?” asked Perry.

“
I don’t know,” I replied, tucking into the gigantic stack of pancakes Pol had made for me. “If you have a phone I could use I could try contacting the British embassy.”

“
We don’t have a phone,” said Kyle, who was paying serious attention to his own pancakes. “Dad won’t have one since our local cooperative sold out to the conglomerates.”

“
Damn straight,” said Perry. “Thirty years I gave them and the new owners fired the lot of us because it wasn’t ‘cost effective’ to keep an office in the area. Why we’re worried about the vampires when we have so many human bloodsuckers around is what bugs me. No vampire ever sat me down and told me I was going to lose my job because they wanted to ‘take a synergistic approach to the business paradigm’ whatever that means.”

“
Aw, dad,” said Kyle. “The vampires are worse. They want our blood
and
our money. You remember how hard it was before we came out? The vampires could hunt us whenever they wanted. At least now we have rights.”

My eyebrows shot up and I almost choked on the mouthful I had.

“You’re werewolves too?” I said to Perry and Pol.

“
Well of course we are, hun,” said Pol. “Why?”

“
So you were born a werewolf?” I asked Kyle.

He nodded.

“Then you’re in more danger than you thought,” I replied, pushing my plate away. “I didn’t think there were any purebreeds left in the USA.”

“
Purebreeds?” asked Perry.

“
He was born rather than made, that means he’s a purebreed,” I turned back to Kyle. “That means vampires can’t dominate you in your wolf form. They
hate
us.”

“
You’re one of these ‘purebreeds’ too?” said Kyle.

“
Yes, and as soon as the vampires become aware of you they’ll kill you.”

“
Why would they do that? I’ve never done anything to them!”

“
They’ll kill you because they can’t control you,” I said quietly. “You’re a threat to them.”

I told them about my pack, about how the vampires had attacked us, killing many and scattering the rest, because we represented a threat to their plans for England.

“Well how can we protect him?” asked Pol.

“
Do you belong to a pack?” I asked.

“
No, dad’s a traditionalist,” said Kyle in an exasperated tone of voice.

“
Don’t say it like that, son,” said Perry. “The idea of the wolf pack is a human invention. In the wild, wolves don’t form packs like they do in fiction. A wolf pack is just a mating pair and their young. When a young becomes old enough to mate they leave the pack and start their own. This notion of the alpha male ruling by strength is pure human fiction.”

“
Maybe for wolves, but we’re werewolves,” I pointed out. “It’s different.”

“
Only because some werewolf generations ago decided it
should
be different.”

“
Well, humans are hierarchical by nature, and we are from humans,” said Pol.”

“
Mom, dad, let’s not do this again,” said Kyle. “Marie needs our help.”

“
Of course, sorry young lady,” said Perry.

“
We don’t have a phone but you can stay here tonight and in the morning I’ll bring you to Terry’s house,” said Kyle. “You can use his phone.”

“
Thank you Kyle,” I said earnestly.

“
And, in the meantime,” said Pol, smiling brightly, “you can tell us about yourself. Are you married? Because Kyle’s single and he’d make a great catch.”

“
Aw, ma,” said Kyle, rolling his eyes.

I laughed and shook my head.

“I have a mate,” I said. “Jack.”

“
Oh,” said Pol. “Do you have any sisters who are single?”

“
Ma!”

C
HAPTER

38

We were heading down the Interstate in a big black limousine with dark tinted windows and, apparently, armored sides. Several miles behind us sat the KnightStar limousine and its driver. I didn’t like having my movements monitored so my contact had arranged for alternate transportation.

My contact was sitting in the front passenger seat—on the wrong side of the car, from my perspective—looking back at us. He was using the codename Loki. He was a dark-skinned, slender man with a shaven head and a bright, mischievous smile. He looked like what he was, the son of Jamaican immigrants. When he opened his mouth, though, his accent was pure north London.

“
Okay, we ‘ave a lot of information on this suck'ead in Tennessee. This Bollen character was workin' for a vamp name of Antonio DeClerc.

“
DeClerc's little empire was built on the back of two products that 'e'd 'elped develop,” Loki went on. “The first was a range of artificial tannin' creams an' sprays, ideal for any vampire tryin' to 'ide 'is true nature. A vamp can fake anythin' from a just-off-pale look to a full set of tan lines.

“
DeClerc also made a bunch of money from sunblock. Given enough sunblock even a vamp could spend a little while outside.”

“
True,” said Anna with a small smile.

“
But where DeClerc really made 'is money was when 'e financed some scientists in Europe investigating the link between suntanning an' skin cancer in the nineties. You remember that fuss? Once they'd proved the link an' DeClerc spent some more money promoting it, 'is sales of sunblock an' artificial tan just skyrocketed with humans. Made out like a bandit. Also made hidin' easier once pale replaced tan as the way for the fashion-victims to be seen.

“
We still don’t know f'sure what ‘e wanted Ms. Hennessey for. Certainly the law comin' up before the House of Commons is just a load of crap. DeClerc used to be a big fish around here, in charge of most of the south-eastern states, but a few years ago 'e backed the wrong 'orse. There was this vamp who wanted to take over everythin' in the US, but somethin' big went wrong and he was slapped down hard for supporting the fella. Apparently ‘e was the laughin’ stock of the vampire community hereabouts.

“
Ever since then 'e's been tryin' to win back 'is lost prestige.”

“
But kidnapping Marie?” asked John.

“
Well, that would count for a lot,” said Loki. “If 'e can bloody our friend's nose a little 'e'll have done somethin' no other vamp 'as managed.”

“
Seems a bit far-fetched,” I said.

For a few seconds there was silence as we all tried to puzzle it out. I hate mysteries.

“We gonna ditch these uniforms, boss?” asked Jason.

“
No, I think not. With our beloved vampiric Mistress in our care it’ll allow us a degree of freedom. Plus nobody will ask questions about us being armed.”

“
Even with all this hardware?” asked Jason. “I mean, pistols, sure, but we're toting around enough of your actual military issue guns to raise a few eyebrows, even in America.”

“
No, not going to be a problem,” said Steph from the driver's seat.

Steph was an anomaly and an enigma. She was dressed, like the rest of us,
in a KnightStar uniform, but she wasn’t associated with the Embassy, even unofficially. Loki had simply said that she sometimes did jobs for him and left it at that. She’d been polite but distant the entire trip. She had an American accent—which part of America I couldn’t pin down—and with her long blonde hair and green eyes she looked every inch the all-American girl next door from the TV shows. The only thing that was amiss was the dark, wary look in her eyes. This was a woman who trusted very few people and probably for good reason. She apparently trusted Loki, though.

“
The vampires keep going on about being the most hated minority in America,” she went on. “The big vampires already travel around with more security than the President. You guys will fit right in.”

As the limo sped through the night I leaned back, closed my eyes, and tried to relax. My mind was churning. The strange thing was that I wasn’t thinking in terms of rescuing my mate. Now, as far as I was concerned this was about teaching the vamps that the Ministry hunters were untouchable. They had to learn that if they came after us they would lose, and lose
hard
.

The last thing we needed was foreign vampires thinking they could interfere with the situation in England without paying the price.

I examined my conscience. Was that just an excuse? Was I simply trying to justify putting my friends in danger in order to rescue my mate? No, I was happy that my motives were higher than that. The vamps must pay, or some scumbag with an itch in his crotch might decide to grab Anna. Someone might try to kill John, or Cam, or any of the hunters.