Split at the Seams (27 page)

She passed out while we were cleaning, disinfecting and dressing the deep tear near her throat. We even sprinkled salt on the bite to help keep the virus from spreading and she’d howled like we were killing her. Papan thought it was a strange reaction since most werewolves reacted that badly if the herbs used to prevent lycanthropy were used, not salt. Since Vixen wasn’t a wolf—or had been bitten by one—it confused all of us. I made a mental note to ask Oren, who really should have been here by now.

I suggested we tie her to the bed, but both Papan and Conrad insisted it wasn’t necessary. Obviously, they gave her more credit than I did. I still didn’t trust her.

We were standing outside the closed bedroom door and Papan was looking at it as if he could see through the thick wood.

I tried to catch his eye. “Will she turn into a feral dog tonight?”

“If she’s infected, she’ll turn during the next full-moon cycle. That’s how it happens.” Papan’s eyes darkened. “She’ll have a high fever that’ll last the duration of this cycle, though. What worries me the most is that he’s some sort of canine hybrid, and I can only tell you what happens when a wolf changes. So none of us know what will happen for sure.”

Vixen’s wound was a big mess of gore and missing flesh, a gaping hole. I could have—no,
should
have—suggested we call Jonathan, but considering he blabbed about Papan’s location in the first place, I didn’t say anything. He was the last person I wanted to see right now. If Vixen wanted his help, I’d make sure someone else took her in the morning.

That’s if I make it to morning.

My skin still crawled when Mace’s call replayed inside my head as if it had been recorded there. I hadn’t expected to walk into another severe problem shortly after finding out my worst fears regarding Ebony had come to pass, but now that I had a full house, maybe we could hatch a plan that would work.

Either way, I wasn’t going to wait around much longer. Time was ticking by too quickly for my liking.

I sighed. “Do you think there’s any chance
I’ll
turn furry next month?”

He placed his palm over my forehead. “I don’t think so, Foxy Lady. You don’t seem to have a fever.”

Papan made my temperature rise, and his hand felt scorching against my skin. “Wow, your skin is really hot.”

He removed his hand. “Yeah, it happens to all of us. Our temperature rises dramatically, and the longer we take to shift, the closer we get to a fever.”

“You have to go,” I said, seriously. “I don’t want you getting sick because you pushed back the change so long.”

He shrugged. “I’ll be okay. I’ve got great control over my wolf. I can hold on a little longer before the fur feels like it’s going to tear right out of me. And like I told you before—I don’t want to be anywhere near you when that happens.”

“You changed before and didn’t hurt anyone but the dog.”

“Exactly, I had a target.” His green eyes flashed amber, just for a quick second that made me wonder if it had even happened.

I sighed. “You’re going to have to give me a lesson in werewolves. I want to know all about it.” It was true. I’d wanted to know more about how this affected him before, but if we were headed into something real, I needed to know more. Besides, I wanted to fill in the pages of my grimoire with useful information. I’d eventually quiz Lavie for demonic stuff, and maybe even Conrad for the vampiric info.

Papan backed me up against the door and I gasped, surprised. Tilting my head back enough to meet his gaze, I heard the low growl coming from deep in his throat.

“I hope to teach you a lot of things.” He ran his hands up and down my still moist and sensitive arms.

I swallowed, waiting for him to kiss me. Or maybe I was hoping he would, but he didn’t. It took several shallow breaths to keep my mind from wandering into lustful territory. The effect Papan was having on me made me feel a little stupid, because while he stood so close, I could easily forget about everything going on outside this darkened corridor. And I couldn’t.

The reality of it all came crashing down. Ebony’s life was hanging in the balance and it was up to me to save her. That was definitely enough to sober me up.

“The horrid stench I told you I smelled on Jonathan was also on this creature. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s toxic.” He caressed his fingertips over my arms and I winced. “Sorry.”

I cleared my throat. “Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty sure the dog bruised me. That’s all.” I tried to stay focused on what he’d said. We’d already established that Jonathan smelled funny because of the demonic influence. Did it mean the black dog was also possessed by a demon? “This is a royal screw up,” I said, shaking my head. “The last thing I want to do is help keep the woman who tried to kill you, alive and staying here.” Life could be so strange sometimes.

“I agree, but we don’t really have much choice.” He leaned over and pressed his forehead against mine. For just a few seconds we stayed that way, breathing into each other and letting all the negative energy flow out of us.

“Will you be okay, after the shooting and the fighting?”

“As soon as I change, everything will heal a lot faster.” He lifted his head and looked into my eyes, softly caressing my cheek with the back of his hand. “It looks like we both lead pretty dangerous lives.”

“Yes, we do.”

“At least life will never be dull with you.” He laughed.

“I’m sorry about Jonathan,” I whispered. I could try to avoid talking about him, but it wouldn’t make it go away. It had been on the tip of my tongue since Vixen told us he’d given her Papan’s location. “I hate that he told her where you were.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m more concerned about how she managed to tear down the protection spells. Oren’s protective wards are strong enough to singe the fur right off my back. Yet, she managed to shatter all of them.”

“I don’t think she did it.”

His eyes darkened. “What do you mean?”

“Before passing out, Vixen kept saying she didn’t do it.”

“She could be lying.”

“Sure, she could be…” But I didn’t think so.

“There’s someone at the door!” Conrad yelled from the other side of the closed corridor door.

“That must be Oren.” I took Papan’s hand, guiding him toward the stairs. “Come on, we need to fill him in, and then I need to tell you both what I have to do before midnight.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“I don’t think either of you are going to like it, but I don’t have any choice. Ebony’s being held hostage by the Council and they won’t let her go unless I hand myself over.”

He pulled on my hand, forcing me to stop. “Fox, I’m not going to stand back and let you do that.”

I slowly turned to look up at his face. “I know it’s not an ideal solution but it’s the only one I have left. I can’t let Ebony die because of me. Benita died because that dog wanted to get to me and she must’ve interrupted—”

“Benita’s dead?”

He knew her too, and I hadn’t had a chance to tell him. We all worked in the same place and often intermingled.

I nodded. “It happened this afternoon.” A sob caught in my throat. I might not have intentionally gotten her killed but she’d died because of me.

Papan pulled me into a hug and I let a few tears slip out of my eyes—enough that when we drew apart, I was left sniffling and ready to wash the grief down with deep breaths.

“Whatever we need to do, we’ll do it together,” Papan said, kissing my cheek.

As romantic and heroic as it sounded, I wouldn’t let anyone else go down with me. I rubbed the tears away with the back of my hand and said, “Let’s let Oren in before he tears the door down.”

“We seem to get a lot of these tearing-down-the-front-door situations when we’re together.”

Chapter Thirteen

“Sierra, this doesn’t sound like a good idea to me,” Oren said, shaking his head firmly and making his braid sway from side to side. It was distracting, so I chose to concentrate on it rather than providing him with an answer.

I was going to do this, no matter who objected. Now that I’d changed out of my wet clothes and into some comfy black jeans and a high-neck tank top, I was ready to battle the world. I’d also left the dagger in my room for now, and didn’t care about the new bruises on my upper arms.

“I second that.” Papan sat back on his chair, green eyes narrowed. I’d already told him what I intended to do even before voicing it to Oren and Conrad, but I wasn’t surprised by his response.

I licked my lips, trying to come up with the best way to put this without sounding arrogant. “I’m sorry, but nothing either of you says is going to change my mind. I’m not going to hide from Mace and the Council forever. They’ve made it very clear that they’ll do whatever it takes to ruin my life, and I won’t let them destroy Ebony in the process.” I made a move to stand, but Papan grabbed my hand to stop me.

“I know what you mean, but running in there like a headless chook isn’t going to help anyone but the Council,” he said, shaking his head.

“That’s what I said,” Conrad added.

I ignored Conrad, and met Papan’s gaze. “What do you expect me to do, then? Just sit here and spend what’s left of the night discussing this? We have under three hours left before that bastard’s deadline. I need to get over there ASAP, and I’m done talking.”

Taking Ebony seemed desperate, even for Mace, but it could also be his final straw. Maybe there was nothing left for him to bargain with and he was using her as a sure thing. Either way, I couldn’t let him hurt her. I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least try. How could I make Papan and Oren see how desperate this situation really was?

I took a deep breath and let it out. The only way to deal with this was the same way as everything else—with the honest truth. “I won’t risk them hurting her.”

“Personally, I don’t like the fact you have no real plan beyond saving Ebony by confronting a nut.” I opened my mouth to respond, but Papan continued, cutting me off before I could interrupt. “Yes, I agree with getting Ebony out of there, but you’re obviously walking into a trap.”

I shook my head. “They can
try
to take me, but I’m not going down without a fight! Now, let’s stop wasting time! If you don’t want me running there right now, help me plan a way to get all of us in and out of there alive. And make it quick, because time is ticking.”

“That works for me,” Conrad said. “The sooner we stop going round in circles, the sooner we can get Eb out of harm’s way.”

Oren and Papan turned to glare at him.

“What?” He raised both arms in mock surrender. “Gee, why won’t you both just listen to her? I don’t like the idea of Sierra putting herself in danger either, but like she said, we need to go in now and with a plan.”

For the first time since I’d met this guy, I looked at him in a new light. He was full of surprises tonight.

“You don’t have to look so surprised. I know you all have a low opinion of me, but I’m a lot deeper than you realize.” He pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket but didn’t light it, just tapped it against the kitchen table. “Ebony means a lot to me. I already told Sierra and now I’ll tell you. I’m not going to let some bastard take her from me. You didn’t hear that asshole’s message, but I did. He sounded serious and I don’t think he’ll wait around twiddling his thumbs until Sierra decides whether she wants to show up or not. We have to beat him at his own sick game!”

I had to admit he was right. I’d been looking down on Conrad since the moment we met, but he’d gone out of his way to look for Ebony and then demanded he be included in getting her back. Not to mention that he’d been the only one who thought to use silver bullets on the dog-beast.

The fact the feral canine hadn’t died didn’t matter right now. Well, not until I mentioned it to everyone. There was only one problem I wanted to deal with now…

“I agree, but Mace isn’t going to let anyone else go in there with me.” I wrapped my hands around the coffee mug in front of me. The coffee was long gone and the mug was cool, but I needed something to hold and help me feel solid. Taking Papan’s hand would have provided a lot more warmth and comfort, but I didn’t need distractions right now.

I looked up and found him staring at me. What was he thinking about?

“Wait a minute!” Oren pushed the chair back and got to his feet. He paced from one side of the kitchen to the other while the rest of us watched and waited to hear his epiphany. He stopped suddenly and turned to face us, eyes clear and wide. “What if we all go in, but no one can see us?”

“Like what you did in the city, right?” I asked.

“Exactly! But you’d be the only one
not
under the cloaking spell.”

Papan sat forward, suddenly interested.

“What about me, would I be able to see you?” I asked.

Oren shook his head. “If we’re going to cloak ourselves, it’s going to have to be a pretty hard spell. So no, you wouldn’t see us either.”

“Are you sure they wouldn’t be able to detect it? They’ve got some sort of magical security of their own.” Most of the Council’s outward security was technological, but the magical hum in the air couldn’t be disguised. Not now that I knew what magic felt like.