Chapter 63
WHEN WE OPENED the door, Zeke had a picture of Cherry in front of his chest. His first words were, "Shoot me and they both are worse than dead."
So he took a seat on my white couch, still breathing, though if he said the wrong thing, I was hoping to change that.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"I was sent to fetch you for my master."
"Define 'fetch'," I said. I was sitting on the low wood coffee table in front of him. Bobby Lee was standing in back of him with a gun pressed to his spine. At that range with silver ammo there wasn't an alpha in the world that would survive, or at least none that I'd met, and I'd met a few.
"He wants you to be his mate."
I shook my head. "I heard that, but didn't he try, twice, to have you guys kill me?"
Zeke nodded. "Yes."
"And he suddenly wants me to be his honey bun,"
Zeke nodded again. The gesture looked odd in the wolfman form, kind of like a golden retriever that was nodding sagely.
"Why the change of heart?" I asked. The fact that I was asking calm questions while the Polaroids of Cherry and Micah sat beside me on the coffee table was a testament to both my patience and my lack of sanity. If I'd really been sane I couldn't have been calm, but I'd hit that switch in my head that let me think when awful things were happening. The same switch that let me kill without much remorse. Being able to divorce myself from my emotions kept me from shooting pieces off Zeke's body until he told me where Micah and Cherry were. Besides, there was always the very real possibility that we could do it later. Talk reasonably first, torture only if you had to, conservation of energy.
"Chimera was told that you would be a panwere like himself."
I raised eyebrows at that. "Panwere, what the hell is that?"
"A lycanthrope that can take more than one form," Zeke said.
"Not possible," I said.
Bacchus spoke from the kitchen doorway. He'd stayed as far away from Zeke as he could and remain in the room. "Chimera can take more than one form, I've seen it."
I looked back at Zeke. "Okay, fine, he's a panwere. Why would someone tell him that I was one, too?"
"Before I answer that question, I have someone waiting in a nearby car. I would like her to come in and speak with you."
"Who?" For a wild moment I thought he might mean Cherry, but he didn't.
"Gina."
"Micah's Gina?" I asked.
Zeke nodded.
I looked behind him at Bobby Lee. "Do we trust him to go back out and come back in without reinforcements?"
Bobby Lee shook his head.
I shook my head, too. "Sorry, Zeke, but we don't trust you."
"Send Caleb then." He looked at the wereleopard, who had been very quiet throughout everything. Caleb was sitting in the far corner of the room, keeping away from Zeke, a lot like Bacchus, come to think of it. But then Gil was huddled in a different corner. I'd assumed I was surrounded by scaredy-cats, hyenas, and foxes, but now ...
"How did you know his name?" I asked.
"I know a lot of things about Caleb."
"Explain," I said.
The doorbell rang again. I didn't jump this time. I was in that far away place where I didn't get nerves, though the Browning was pointed at the door. Did that count as nerves?
I went to the door, and Bobby Lee stayed with his gun pressed to Zeke's back. "Y'all better hope that that is someone friendly," Bobby Lee drawled.
Zeke's wide nose flared, scenting the wind. "It's Gina."
Call me paranoid, but I didn't trust him. I peeked out the window. This time there were no nasty surprises, just Gina standing on the small porch, a thick gray shawl hugged around her upper body. It was nearly ninety outside, what the hell was the shawl for? I let out a deep breath. The shawl was thick enough to hide all sorts of unpleasant surprises. Damn.
"What's she got under the shawl?" I asked Zeke.
"You might say a message from Chimera."
I glanced back at him. "Talk like that isn't going to get the door opened."
Zeke moved his shoulders, and Bobby Lee must have pressed the gun barrel deeper into his back, because he stopped moving abruptly. "She's been tortured. Chimera sent her with me to show what will happen to your leopard if you don't come with me."
"Why the shawl?" I asked again.
Zeke closed his eyes, as if he wanted to look away but was afraid Bobby Lee would take it wrong. "It's to cover her, Anita, just to cover up her nakedness." He sounded weary, not just tired, but weary. "Please, let her inside, she's in a great deal of pain."
"He smells like he's telling the truth," Bobby Lee said.
I sighed. That was probably as good an assurance as we were going to get. I opened the door, gun at the ready, staying out of the sight of anyone who might be watching from the yard. Because I was hiding behind the door, I didn't see Gina until she was well into the room. I closed the door behind her, and she jumped, then gasped, as if the sudden movement had hurt her badly. When she looked at me, it was all I could do to keep from gasping. I thought at first she had two black eyes, then realized it was just hollows under her eyes so deep they looked like bruises. Her skin was so pale with an undertone of gray, and I understood for the first time what they meant by ashen. She was ashen, as if her body was covered by something thinner, more delicate, than skin. Her tall body was hunched in on itself, as if standing upright would hurt. Her lips were nearly bloodless, but it was her eyes that hurt me the most. They were filled with horror as if she were still seeing whatever had been done to her, as if she might always see that awful thing over and over again.
She spoke in a voice that was hollow, hopeless. "I got worried."
I didn't need to see what was under the shawl to believe that she'd been tortured. I didn't need to see anything but her face.
"Can she sit down before she falls down?" Zeke asked.
I nodded a little too rapidly, realizing that I had been staring. "Please, sit down."
Gina looked at Bobby Lee, standing behind Zeke. "Have you told them?"
"I wanted you here to back up my story," Zeke said.
She nodded once, then moved to sit beside him on the couch. She sat close to him, almost touching. If he'd had anything to do with what had happened to her, I don't think she'd have been so cozy.
In fact she was so cozy that I was almost certain she knew Zeke. Knew him not just for Chimera's fun and games, but knew him before. How did one of Micah's cats end up friendly with Chimera's top goon?
I asked. "You two seem to know each other." Alright, maybe that wasn't a question, but it would do.
They exchanged a look, then Zeke turned to me. I wished that he was in human form. Even after years of dealing with lycanthropes, I still had trouble reading their expressions when they were in animal form. The fact that his eyes were human helped some, but you never realize how much of the expression isn't really the eyes but the facial movements around the eyes, until you don't have them as clues.
"Let me start by saying that Chimera wants you alive and well and in his care in less than two hours or he will start doing permanent damage to Micah and your leopard."
I felt my eyes go a little dead. "We have a deadline then," I said. "Talk faster."
"Shortest version that I know is this. Chimera has always been a harsh master, but never sadistic, until the last few weeks. He's unstable, and I believe he's going mad and will kill us all if he remains in charge."
"This is the short version?" Bobby Lee asked.
"I agree," I said, "speed it up."
"I want you to help me stage a palace revolt, Ms. Blake. Is that quick enough for you?"
"Maybe that was a little too quick," I said. "Why do you want to revolt, and why do you want my help?"
"I told you, I fear that Chimera will destroy us all. The only way to prevent that is to kill him."
Well, that was blunt. "So, why my help?"
"You have a certain reputation for deadly force."
"You talk like an English professor," I said, "or an expensive lawyer. Why not just kill him yourself?"
"The others that follow him, fear him, they would not trust that I alone could guarantee his death,"
"And I can?"
"You and your people, yes."
"My leopards are not going inside."
Nathaniel said, "Anita ..."
I shook my head. "No, I won't endanger the rest of you to save one of you."
"What kind of pard would we be if we allowed our Nimir-Ra to go into danger alone?"
"A pard that obeyed orders," I said.
He leaned back against the wall, but there was an unusually stubborn set to his face that said maybe, just maybe, he'd been picking up more than just weapons skill from hanging around with me. Was stubbornness catching?
"Not your leopards, but the wolves, and the rats."
"The rats aren't mine." And I'm not the wolves' lupa anymore.
"Rafael is already on his way here with some of our people," Bobby Lee said.
I frowned at him. "Well, nice you mentioned that."
He shrugged. If he was getting tired of pressing the gun into Zeke's back, it didn't show. "Rafael is my alpha, not you, ma'am."
"I understand that, but if we're going to get along, you still need to keep me informed. I've had enough surprises for one day."
"Amen to that," he said.
"Where are Micah and Cherry being held?" I asked.
Zeke shook his great wolfish head. "No, not until you agree to help us."
"Chimera wanted to blackmail me into being his sweetie, you want to blackmail me into helping you kill him. I don't see much difference."
"The only way to stop Chimera and those still loyal to him is their death. I propose that we pool our resources and accomplish that."
"You talk awful pretty for a goon."
"I am his goon because when he conquered my small pack of wolves, he forced me into this form and kept me in it. When he allowed me to try and change back, this was the best I could do."
I looked into those human eyes. "Only your eyes," I said.
"Only my eyes."
The eyes were usually one of the first things to go animal if you stayed in beast form too long at a time. His eyes being the only thing human was odd. But I didn't ask him to explain, because we were eating up our time and I wanted Micah and Cherry back.
"In this form," Zeke said, "I can be nothing else but a goon, an enforcer. I cannot be human."
I didn't try to argue that he was human. I let it go. "Let's cut to the chase. Bobby Lee, will Rafael help on this?"
"I think so. He's coming with enough soldiers to make a good show."
I looked at Bacchus. "Will the werehyenas join forces with their, what, oppressors? Will you guys help Zeke and his people?"
"Zeke always tried to save us pain. He always spoke for moderation." Bacchus nodded. "I think the others will agree to work with him, but whether they'll agree to let everyone live afterwards, that I can't promise."
"If we help you destroy him," Zeke said, "then you turn around and slaughter us, we have gained nothing."
In looking between Bacchus and Zeke I'd glanced back over the photos. I'd spent the last few minutes not thinking about them. I'd managed to concentrate on other things, but it was as if that one glance had torn through all the barriers that usually kept me from doing stupid shit. I stood up, abruptly enough that everyone looked at me.
"Would you kill Zeke?" I asked.
"No, but Marco, he has to die," Bacchus said.
"Why?" I asked.
"He and the snake men have to die," Bacchus said.
"Agreed," Zeke said. Then he looked up at me. "And I think I know a way to have the wolves involved."
"I'm listening."
"Chimera is wolf, hyena, leopard, lion, bear, and snake."
"He's behind the disappearances of the other alphas," I said.
Zeke nodded.
"Are they alive?"
"The lion and the dog are. Chimera hasn't been able to force them to change form yet. He never kills anyone unless he can break them first."
"Is Narcissus alive?" This from Bacchus.
"Yes," Zeke said. "Chimera has not been able to break him either."
"How will any of this interest the wolves?" I asked. I'd gone to stand on the other side of the kitchen doorway, opposite Bacchus. I couldn't see the pictures from there.
"Chimera's never been able to find a dominant animal group that was weak enough to be taken over by outsiders before, until he heard of your wolf pack."
I stood up straighter, pushing away from the wall. "What do you mean?"
"Jacob, Paris, and a few others are what's left of my pack. Chimera couldn't send me because my condition would raise questions."
"Are you saying that as soon as Jacob becomes Ulfric, he turns the pack over to Chimera?"
"That was the plan," Zeke said.
"And now?" I asked.
"Now either Jacob and the others agree to leave your pack where it is, or they die."
"You'd kill what's left of your own pack, just like that?" I said.
"They stopped being my pack a long time ago."
"So let me get this straight," Bobby Lee said, "you want the rats, the wolves, and the leopards to join forces with the hyenas and whatever people of yours will join you and destroy the rest."
"Yes," Zeke said.
"And if we don't?" Bobby Lee asked.
"You talk as if you have many choices here," Zeke said. "You do not. Chimera will do worse than kill your leopards. What he has allowed done to the hyenas is beyond any civilized tolerance. His sanity is slipping away, and there are those among his people that will do terrible things without a master to tell them no."
"It takes time to arrange an offensive like this," Bobby Lee said.
Zeke said, "I do not see a clock but time is running out. Anita must be in Chimera's presence before two hours is over, or it will go badly for Micah and the leopard."
"You keep saying Micah and the leopard," I said, "like you know Micah." I had an awful thought, and I'd been slow not to think of it before. "Jacob was supposed to get the wolves for Chimera, and Micah was supposed to get the leopards." I said it in an empty voice. My body felt empty, as if I were falling away inside myself, drowning in that great white static that allowed me to kill and not to think.
"We thought their alpha was dead and it would be easy enough." He looked at me. "We didn't know about you, or rather didn't understand what you were."
Gina spoke. "Once Micah met you, he knew it wouldn't work. He tried to get Chimera to leave you and yours alone, but when you went up against Jacob, you became too big a threat. Chimera ordered you killed. Micah didn't find out about the order until after everyone had left to come after you. He saved you."
I just looked at her. My mind was still trying to process the thought that Micah had lied to me the entire time I'd known him.
"Micah told Chimera that you were going to be a panwere like him, and he might never find another one like himself. That's why you can control the leopards and the wolves both."
I blinked at her. "I guess that's one theory." My voice sounded distant even to me.
"Don't you understand, Anita? I don't think Micah believed it, but it was all he could think of to keep you alive and him alive, and not to get the rest of us tortured." She stood up, and pain tore across her face. Zeke steadied her, then she stood straight and she let the shawl fall away.
Burns traced her pale shoulders. The rest of her chest was bare and lovely and unharmed, but as she turned to show her back, Gil gasped. Her back was patterned with burns, no, not burns, brands. Someone had branded her over and over again. The burns were fresh, some of them bloody raw, some with crisp blackened skin, as if the pressure hadn't been even every time. Some of the marks were smeared around the edges, as if she'd moved, struggled.
She turned back to face me, tears glittering in her eyes. "Every time Chimera sent Micah out he had Violet or me with him. If Micah didn't do what he was told to do, then he'd hurt us." She started walking towards me, hands holding her arms, as if to hold herself steady, but every step hurt, and it showed in the flinching of her eyes. "What would you do to keep this from happening to Nathaniel?"
I met her eyes, but it took effort. "I'd do a lot, but I wouldn't betray anyone."
The tears started slowly down her face, as if she were fighting not to cry.
"He tortured Micah because Micah refused to help lure you into the ambush. Chimera is going to kill him, because he says that Micah is no longer his cat, but yours, that the wiles of a woman have won his loyalty." She sobbed, and the movement must have hurt, because she bent forward, body spasming. I caught her by the arms to keep her from falling.
"Oh, God," she whispered, "it hurts."
My throat was tight. I held her elbows until she could stand again.
"I'm Chimera's message to you, Anita. He says he'll do this to your leopard if you don't come back with us."
"You're not going back there," I said.
"He still has Cherry and Micah. If I don't go back he'll do this to her. I don't think she'd survive it." I understood what Gina meant. Not Cherry's body, but her mind.
She began to collapse towards the floor, slowly, me supporting her as gently as I could. "Micah knew what would happen to him when he refused to help trap you, but he still did it." She was on her knees now, her hands gripping my arms tight, tight enough to hurt. "I would have lied and agreed to do anything to keep this from happening to me." She sobbed again, and I held her arms to keep her from falling backwards onto her back on the floor. I held her while she shook in pain, and when she quieted, she said, in a voice more tears than noise, "I would have betrayed anyone to stop him from hurting me. But he didn't want anything from me. Nothing I could say, or do, would stop it. Chimera promised Micah that only he would suffer for refusing, then once he was chained up and couldn't get away they brought me in and made him watch." She looked at me, eyes wide, full of awful things. "Chimera would have made Cherry or me take animal form. He said he'd never had a female beast before."
"That's what he calls those of us trapped between forms," Zeke said.
Gina's fingers dug into my arm, just a little. "Micah took our place. He's alpha enough to have kept human form. He risked his human form for us. Merle was our Nimir-Raj but he wouldn't risk his humanity for us. Micah took his place, our place. He's our Nimir-Raj because he loves us, all of us. Micah offered to betray you to stop them from hurting me, but Chimera said he could smell that Micah was lying and that he would just get away and warn you. So he sent me with Zeke, because he trusts Zeke."
I looked at Zeke over her slowly collapsing form, trying to cradle her as she slid down, and not hurt her, but everything seemed to hurt. She was making small mewling sounds by the time I helped her lower herself to the floor. There was something in Zeke's human eyes that didn't need facial expressions to interpret.
"Chimera must be stopped," Zeke said, softly. "He must be stopped."
"Yes," I said, still holding one of Gina's hands, "yes, he must be stopped."
"Stopped, hell," Bobby Lee said, "we need to kill his ass."
I nodded. "That, too."