Bran looked at me with keen yellow eyes, weighing something in his mind. “Fear is a good thing,” he said at last. “It teaches you not to make the same mistake twice. You counter it with knowledge. What are you afraid of?”
“I don’t know.” Which wasn’t the right answer.
“Gut check,” Bran said. “What does your gut tell you?”
“I think that maybe it’s the vampires again. Stefan lands in my lap to give me a good scare—and look, here’s a way out. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
Samuel was already shaking his head. “Marsilia isn’t going to send you to Spokane to get you out of our protection before she takes care of you. Not that it isn’t a good idea, but she’d send you to Seattle maybe, she has some allies there. But in Spokane, there’s only one vampire, and he doesn’t allow visitors. There are no packs, no fae, nothing but a few powerless creatures who manage to stay out of his sight.”
I felt my eyes widen. Spokane is a city of nearly half a million people. “That’s a lot of territory for a single vampire.”
“Not for that single vampire,” said Samuel at the same time Bran said, “Not for Blackwood.”
“So,” I said slowly. “What will this vampire do if I stay in Spokane for a few days?”
“How would he know?” Bran asked. “You smell like coyote. But a coyote smells a lot like a dog to someone who doesn’t hunt in the forests—which I assure you, James Blackwood doesn’t do—and most dog owners smell like their pets. I wouldn’t want you to move to Spokane, but a couple of days or weeks won’t put you in danger.”
“So do you think it’s a good idea if I go?”
Bran raised his hip and pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket.
“Don’t you break them like that?” I asked. “I killed a couple of phones by sitting on them.”
He just smiled and said into the phone, “Charles, I need you to find out about an Amber… ?” He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry to wake you, Charles. Chamberlain was her maiden name,” I told Samuel’s brother apologetically. “I don’t know her married name.” Charles would hear me as clearly as I heard him. Private phone calls around werewolves needed headsets, not a cell phone speaker.
“Amber Chamberlain,” Charles repeated. “That should limit it to a hundred people or so.”
“She lives in Spokane,” I said. “I went to college with her.”
“That helps,” he told us. “I’ll get back to you.”
“Arm yourself with knowledge,” said Bran when he hung up. “But I don’t see why you shouldn’t go.”
“Take some insurance with you.”
“It’s Stefan,” I shouted. Before I had the last word out of my mouth, Bran had Stefan up against the opposite wall from where he’d been sitting.
“Da.” Samuel was on his feet as well, a hand on his father’s shoulder. He didn’t try to pry Bran’s hands off Stefan’s neck—that would have been stupid. “Da. It’s all right. This is Stefan. Mercy’s friend.”
After a very long couple of seconds, Bran stepped back and dropped his hands from Stefan’s throat. The vampire hadn’t fought back, which was good.
Vampires are tough, maybe tougher than wolves because vampires are already dead. Stefan had been one of Marsilia’s lieutenants, powerful in his own right. He’d been a mercenary in life… which had been in Renaissance Italy.
But Bran is Bran.
“That was stupid,” said Samuel to Stefan. “What part of ‘never sneak up on a werewolf’ don’t you understand?”
The Stefan I knew would have bowed gracefully, expressed his apologies with a hint of humor. This Stefan gave a stiff jerk of his neck. “I’m no use here. It’s a good idea to get Mercy out of the line of fire—she’s the weakest target. Send me to keep her safe in Spokane.” He sounded almost eager… and I wondered what he’d been doing since he’d left Adam’s. What was there for him to do? Maybe I wasn’t the only one who was trying to find some action to take that wouldn’t get me and everyone I cared about killed.
Still, I couldn’t let him get away with calling me… “Weak?” I said.
Samuel turned on Stefan with a growl. “Stupid vampire. My father had her nearly talked into going, and you ruined it.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I hoped going to Spokane would keep my friends safe, and they hoped me going to Spokane would keep me safe. Maybe we were both right.
Bran’s phone rang, and we all listened to Charles tell us that Amber was married to Corban Wharton, a moderately successful corporate lawyer about ten years her senior. They had an eight-year-old son with some sort of disability, hinted at in various newspaper articles but not expressly stated. He rattled off an address or two, cell phone numbers and real phone numbers… and social security numbers and most recent tax reports, personal and business. For an old wolf, Charles knows how to make computers sit up and beg.
“Thank you,” said Bran.
“I can go back to sleep now?” asked Charles. He didn’t wait for an answer, just hung up his end of the connection.
I looked at Samuel. “It will make your life easier if I leave.”
He nodded. “We can protect ourselves… but you are too vulnerable. And if you aren’t here, if Marsilia doesn’t know where you are, we can get her to the table for negotiations.”
Bran looked at Stefan. “A vampire might draw too much attention in Spokane.”
Stefan shrugged. “I’m not without resources. I was in this room for a quarter of an hour, and none of you noticed me. If I feed well, no one will know what I am.”
“You always smell like vampire to me,” I told him. Vampire and popcorn. The good buttery kind. No, I don’t know why. I’ve never seen him eat the stuff—I don’t know that vampires can.
He raised his hands. “No one without Mercy’s nose, then. If I’m in the room with the Monster, then perhaps he’ll notice. Otherwise, he’ll never know I was there. I’ve done it before.”
“The Monster?” Samuel asked.
“James Blackwood.”…
Vampires give titles to some of the more powerful ones. Stefan was the Soldier because he’d been a mercenary. Wulfe was the Wizard… and I knew he could do some magic. I resolved to stay away from any vampire that other vampires called the Monster.