Kaci had been closer to Ethan and Jace than to any of the other toms, and though shed known him less than three months, she was taking my brothers death every bit as hard as the rest of us. Maybe worse. At thirteen, Kaci had already been tragically overexposed to death and underexposed to counseling. And in addition to the grief and anger the rest of us suffered, she felt guilty because Ethan had died defending her.
Come on, Kaci, lets get you something to eat. My mother tried to herd her away from the office, but the tabby shrugged out from under her hand.
Im not hungry. And Im tired of being left out. You keep me cooped up on the ranch, but wont tell me whats going on in my own home? How is that fair?
I sighed and glanced around the office, loath to miss the rest of the discussion. But now that Ethan was gone, no one else could deal with Kaci as well as I could except Jace, and I wasnt going to ask him to leave. The impending war had as much to do with him as it did with me; Calvin Malone was his stepfather, and Ethan was his lifelong best friend.
Come on, Kace, why dont we go kick the crap out of some hay bales in the barn?
She looked at me like Id just gone over to the dark side, but nodded reluctantly.
Marc took my hand, then let his fingers trail through mine as I stepped past him toward the door. Then I stopped and deliberately brushed a kiss on his rough cheek on the way, inhaling deeply to take in as much of his scent as possible, lingering for Blackwells benefit, as well as my own. To reiterate for the old coot that I would choose my own relationships.
But on my way into the hall, my gaze caught on Jaces, and the tense line of his jaw betrayed his carefully blank expression. As did the flicker of heat in his eyes. Wed agreed not to talk about what happened between us the day Ethan died. There was really no other way to keep peace in the household, and keep everyones energy and attention focused on avenging my brother. And Id sworn to myself that Marc would be the first to know. That I would tell him myself. He deserved that much, as badly as I dreaded it.
And there had been no good time for that yet. Not even an acceptable time. Every time was a rotten time, in fact, and each time Jace looked at me like thateach time I felt myself respond to the connection I wanted to denymy internal pressure dialed up another notch.
If I didnt break the tension soon, I was going to explode. Or do something wed all regret.
I forced myself to walk past Jace with nothing more than a polite, sad nodexactly what I would have given any of my other fellow enforcersand closed the door as I stepped into the hall.
My mother was already standing there with my leather jacket and Kacis down ski coat. Sometimes I forgot she could move just as fast as the rest of us, if she chose.
Sometimes I forgot she had a mouth on her, too. Guess thats where I got mine
Thanks. I took the jacket and shrugged into it. Mom, that wasawesome. There was just no other way to describe it.
Her lips formed a straight, grim line. It was the truth. She pulled Kacis long chestnut waves from beneath her collar and forced a smile. Come in and warm up in half an hour, and Ill have hot chocolate.
On the way down the hall, Kaci shoved her bare hands into her jeans pockets and glanced up at me, her frown almost as stern as the one my father typically wore. And in that instant, I wanted nothing more than to see her smile. To see her lookjust for a momentlike any other thirteen-year-old. Like a teenager who knew nothing of violent death, and soul-shredding guilt, and spirit-crushing fear.
What was awesome? she asked, shoving the front door open.
I grinned, my mood momentarily brightened by the memory of my mothers bad-ass monologue. My mom just handed Blackwell his shriveled old balls in front of everyone.
Kacis eyebrows shot halfway up her forehead. Seriously? I nodded, and for a second, I caught a glimpse of what a happy Kaci could look like. Cool.
We stepped onto the porch and I had actually gone two steps before I realized we werent alone. Mercedes CarreñoManxsat in the wrought-iron love seat with my brother Owen. They both looked up as we approached, but their easy smiles said we hadnt interrupted anything. No conversation, anyway. They were simply sitting together, enjoying the winter silence. And somehow their easy comfort seemed more intimate than many kisses Id seen.
Hey, Kaci said, oblivious as I raised a curious brow at my brother. Wheres Des?
Manx shrugged deeper into her wool coat. He is sleeping.
My eyebrow went even higher, and Owen flushed, sliding his cowboy hat back and forth on his head. Manx never left Des. Never. The baby slept in her bed, and she sat with him when he napped. And she wouldnt even go to the bathroom until shed found someone she trusted to watch him while she was gone.
Yet here she sat next to my cowboy-gentleman brother, doing nothing, her hands resting easily in her lap, butchered fingernails concealed by stretchy, crocheted gloves.
Can I play with him when he wakes up? Kaci asked.
Manx smiled. Shed already realized that playing with the babythough that amounted to little more than letting the one-month-old grip her fingerset Kaci at ease as little else could. Of course.
Kacis shoulders relaxed, and I couldnt help wondering if two babies might mean twice the therapy, for Kaci and for us all. We hadnt had time to verify it yet, but Ethans human girlfriend, Angela, was pregnant, and I had no reason not to believe that the baby was his.
My mother was cautiously optimistic over the news, with occasional, unpredictable bouts of unbridled delight in the moments when she let herself believe it was actually true. Nothing could fill the hole that Ethans death had left in all of our hearts. But his sonmy mothers first grandchildcould go a long way toward healing the wound. She couldnt wait to meet Angela, but wed all agreed that for the new mothers safety, introductions would best be done after our troubles with the Territorial Council were over.
Kacis gaze roamed the yard in the direction of the barn. Then her eyes narrowed and a frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. I knew what she was looking at without turning.
Ethans grave.
Wed buried him beneath the apple tree, halfway between the front yard and the eastern field, and his headstone forever changed the familiar landscape. But that was the plan. We wanted to see him every day. To remember him without fail. To mourn for as long as we saw fit.
Im goin on ahead, Kaci mumbled, then jogged down the steps without waiting for a response.
I hadnt intended to linger with Owen and Manx, hesitant to interruptwhatever they had going on. But Kaci clearly wanted a moment alone with Ethan, and I had to respect that.
How are the digits? I asked, sinking into a wicker chair at the end of the porch.
Pardon? Manx frowned until I nodded at her hands, then she held her fingers up, as if to check on them. Oh. Much better. They only hurt when she paused, searching for the right word in English bump things. She pushed her hands forward against nothing to demonstrate.
Nearly two weeks after being declawed, her hands had almost completely healed, but the scar tissue where her fingernails had been was still bright red and puffy. She hated the sight of them, and wore thin gloves whenever possible, only taking them off to care for the baby or herself.
Nearly two weeks after being declawed, her hands had almost completely healed, but the scar tissue where her fingernails had been was still bright red and puffy. She hated the sight of them, and wore thin gloves whenever possible, only taking them off to care for the baby or herself.
I turned to glance at Kacihalfway to the apple tree, and loping at her own paceand idly noticed a pair of hawks circling overhead.
How is your arm? Manx asked, recapturing my attention.
I held up my cast, smiling at the doodles Kaci had drawn between the enforcers perfunctory signatures. A flower with purple petals and X-shaped eyes in the center. A pink skull and crossbones. Id sat still for several of her masterpieces. Anything to make her smile. Though, Id threatened to paint over them with black nail polish if she plastered any more pink on my arm.
Still, I had to admit that thinking of Kaci when I looked at my cast was much better than thinking about how Id broken it. About the bastards whod stolen Marc and beaten him to get information out of mewhen beating me hadnt worked.
Its fine. Dr. Carver says I can try Shifting in a couple of weeks. Because broken bones take longer to heal than simple cuts and gashes. I was already itching for the transformationand from the cast, which somehow made my arm sweat, even in the middle of February.
She really misses him. Owen nodded at something over my shoulder, and I twisted to see Kaci on the ground beside Ethans headstone, one knee brushing the freshly overturned earth.
Yeah, she
What the hell? Owen demanded, and I peered over the porch railing. Have you ever seen hawks that big? They must have spotted something to eat, from the way theyre circling.
I was on my feet in an instant, a sick feeling churning in my stomach. Those arent hawks. They were too big, for one thing. And their wings were all wrong. Especially the tips. Even from a distance, the ends lookedweird. The birds must have been really high up before, because now that theyd flown lower, swooping in from over the woods behind the eastern field, they looked huge.
My heartbeat suddenly felt sluggish, as if it couldnt keep up with my bodys natural rhythm. The birds were too huge. And too low. And too fast
Oh, shit Kaci! I screamed as the first bird dove toward her. She looked up and screeched, and I was already halfway across the yard.
Kaci leaped to her feet, then ducked as the first bird swooped, huge talons grasping perilously close to her head. She screamed again, and when the bird rose into the air, beating giant wings so hard I could hear the air whoosh from two hundred feet away, she stood and took off toward me.
Kaci raced across the dead grass, screaming at the top of her lungs.
I kept moving toward her, unwilling to waste energy on screams of my own. But in human form, neither of us was fast enough. I was a heartbreaking fifteen feet away when the second bird swooped, his powerful wings displacing so much air I was actually blown back a step. His talons opened wide, then closed around her upper arms.
For a moment, as he regained his balance with his new burden, I had a breathtaking view of the magnificent creature. Smooth, brown wings. Terrible, curved beak. Powerful, horrifying talons. And long, sharp wing-claws, protruding from beneath the feathers on the tips of his wings.
An instant later, the bird was aloft again, and I came to a stop with my fingertips grasping air three feet beneath Kacis dangling sneaker.
My heart raced along with my feet as I followed them, knowing my chase was futile. I couldnt fly, and I couldnt run fast enough to keep up. Because Kaci hadnt been picked up by hawks. Our new tabbymy own beloved chargehad just been kidnapped by the first thunderbirds seen by werecats in nearly a quarter of a century.
Two
Kaci! I screamed as I ran, adrenaline scorching a path through my body so hot and fast I could feel nothing else. Not the biting February cold, not the ground beneath my feet, and not the bare branches slapping my face and neck when I broke into the woods behind the house.
Overhead, Kaci screamed and thrashed, skimming mere feet from the naked treetops. If it had been summer, I could never have seen her through the foliage.
The thunderbird dipped and wobbled wildly as Kaci threw her legs to one side, then he straightened and pushed off against the air with another powerful stroke of both wings. In seconds, he was ten feet higher up, and still Kaci fought him, shrieking in wordless terror.
Hold still! I shouted as loud as I could, hoping she could hear me over the wind and her own screams. If she fell from that height, shed be seriously injured, even if the limbs broke her fall. And if they didnt, shed be dead.
Beyond Kaci and her abductor, the second thunderbird flew in a wide arc, rounding toward us again. I had a moment of panic, assuming hed dive-bomb me, until I realized he couldnt while I was shielded by the forest; there wasnt enough room between the trees to accommodate his impressive wingspantwelve feet, easy. Maybe more.
Instead of diving, the second bird simply turned a broad circle around his cohort, playing lookout and probably backup.
If the thunderbirds hadnt been slowed by Kacis weight, I would have lost them entirely. Even with their top speed dampened considerably, they flew much, much faster than I could dodge trees and stomp tangles of undergrowth on two human legs. Especially considering that my focus was on the sky, rather than on my earthbound obstacles.
Within minutes, they were a quarter mile ahead, at least, though they never rose more than about forty feet over the skeletal forest canopy.
How long can he carry her? I shoved aside a long, bare branch just in time to avoid a broken nose. But then I glanced up again and tripped over an exposed root, and tumbled forward like a felled tree.
My hands broke my fall, but the impact radiated up both arms, shooting agony through the still-broken one. I barely paused for a breath before shoving myself back to my feet, brushing my scraped and bleeding hands on my jeans. But before Id made it back to full speed, my tender, broken arm now clutched to my chest, a black blur shot past on my right, leaping easily over a tangled evergreen shrub I would have had to circumvent.
Backup. Thank goodness someone had Shifted. If Id taken the time, wed have lost sight of Kaci.
The tom moved too fast for me to identify by sight, but a quick whiff as I dodged a reed-thin sapling and skirted a rotting stump gave me his identity. Owen. And surely more were on the way.
Not that there was anything any of us could do from the ground
My brother sprinted ahead of me and out of sight, but I could still hear him huffing and lightly breaking twigs, since speed was more important than stealth at the moment. And I pressed on at my infuriatingly human pace, my throat stinging from the cold air, my hands burning with various cuts and scrapes.
After about a mile, I was blindly following both Owen and Kaci, and had completely lost track of what heading we were facing. I was pretty sure wed changed directions at least once, and I could see no logic in the birds flight path, other than trying to lose us. And staying over the trees, presumably so that cars couldnt follow.
So when the birdsand Kacisuddenly dipped out of sight, I totally panicked. My heart tripped so fast I thought it would explode, yet I couldnt urge my feet into motion fast enough. I lunged ahead, slapping aside branches with both arms now, heedless of my cast, barreling through the woods in the direction Id last seen Kaci. I could no longer hear Owen over the whoosh of my own pulse in my ears.