Jade (15 page)

I took another bullet, this time in my thigh, almost lost my footing from that one, it had to have hit my thigh bone, leaving splinters of bone spread out inside me, but at least this bullet passed on through me. Another took off part of my right ear as I begin firing downward with the machine gun, switching to the gun on the other side as I finished the clip, not taking the time to look for another. The open area worked against the guards as the Winter Queen intended. A couple had tried for the front door and I saw one fall back, breaking into pieces of ice and flesh as he fell back in the yard. None of the others tried the door in the few seconds they had remaining. The guards were dead by the time I finished the clip on that one, walking back to one of the others on the back side, ripping it off it’s mounting and firing holding it in my arms as I picked off the hounds. I had to use the last machine gun to finish them off, most required several shots to put them down, even with silver bullets. My arm was not moving quite right and my aim was starting to be off, somewhere in the exchange of bullets I had taken another hit, this time to my collar bone. That one really started hurting as I moved.

Jill came out of the house followed by Jane, with the traitorous fae draped over her shoulder. The car must have seen it’s last usefulness because they were heading for the jeeps under the carport. There was not a mark on either one of them. Somehow I think I had gotten the raw end of this one. The jump down was painful. I made it then collapsed on my butt, holding the Queen’s dagger in my left hand.

“I am so glad I am getting my dagger back,” Jill said, pulling the Jeep up beside me.

“Piece of cake,” I said.

Chapter Twenty-One

I woke up at dawn. Jane was next to me, nude, a natural redhead for sure, and the freckles were everywhere I noticed, admiringly. I was naked as well, and feeling no pain whatsoever. I felt a little tipsy actually, now remembering that I didn’t really remember much after Jill picked me up at that place with guns and dead bodies. I had felt Death, the new primary aspect of Death, swoop in as I left the building so to speak. That was about the only thing I remembered, although I did remember a dream of drinking blood and doing a few other things. Jane was dead to the world, the sun was up, and she was sleeping soundly. I knew it would be hard to wake her from such a sleep. She had a now-fading bite mark on her neck and one on her left breast.

My clothes were in a corner of the bedroom at Tanglewood. They were a bloody, holy, smelly mess. I didn’t have anything else to wear and I was so not going to swipe Jane’s clothes. I should not be hung up on nudity, I told myself, I was a shifter, I just loved wearing things. I tried to remember how the shifter girls at Emily’s change had handled this no clothes thing in front of people and did my best to copy that attitude.

Jill was in the living room, watching the news. There were several empty bottles of wine here and there in the room and I could smell the coffee brewing. She must have heard me get up and made a pot.

“Good morning, Jade,” she said. “You look lovely, and completely healed. And that without even a shift change, very impressive.”

“You got any clothes?” I asked.

“No, but Diocletus is bringing some. I managed to contact your Queen last night and she is sending Diocletus over with a few items she thinks we may need, along with a change or two of clothes for all of us. Jane spoke to her crew last night too, they anticipate getting here with the RVs this afternoon sometime. They are bringing supplies, bottled blood, weapons and clothes as well.”

“Did we have a party?” I asked, indicating the wine bottles, now unfortunately empty.

“You had lost quite a bit of blood by the time we made it back,” she said. “ I carried Alexis and Jane carried you. I am afraid I slowed her down a good bit. She broke into the winery and swiped five bottles, she thought it would help you recover but you really wanted blood, even after four bottles of red wine. She said it meant something that she gave you back the blood you had given her on the same night, some kind of vamp thing. I did offer but you only had eyes for Jane.”

“It’s starting to come back to me,” I said. It was but I was going to avoid thinking about it for now.”So, there is a fifth bottle of wine still here?”

“I had a few sips, but most of it is still in the fridge,” she responded.

It took me about half a second to cross the room to the kitchen area and pull out the bottle of wine. “Yummy,” I said as I plopped down into one of the leather recliners and started drinking it down, no glass required. I was trying to time it so the wine would last me until the coffee finished brewing. It almost hurt my head to think about it.

“Where’s the little traitor fae?” I asked.

“Trussed up in the other bedroom,” Jill replied. “I think he peed his pants this morning, no way am I taking him to the bathroom. I slept on the couch, a little small but not a problem.”

“If he does something else, I’ll just dump him in the Yadkin river to clean him off” I answered. “Or maybe Diocletus can take care of him when he gets here.” I had heard him coming, and the smell was definitely him. There was a knock on the door just as I said “here,” and I giggled. For some reason I thought that was pretty damn funny. “Don’t get up,” I insisted. “I’ve got this. Piece of cake.”

Fae are not as open with nudity as shifters or witches are, they are quite prudish in some respects. The look on Diocletus’ face when I threw the door open and dragged him inside was priceless. Two teenage boys were walking by on the trail in front of our cabin, stopped, staring. I took a moment to step outside and wave before going back in, still giggling. I had made somebody’s day, yet again.

“I hope you brought some clothes for Jade,” the Winter Queen said. Diocletus was in mid bow, it had taken him a moment to decide which one of us was Jill. He probably decided she wouldn’t be walking around naked and waving at teenagers.

“Ooops,” I said, remembering the large antiquated-looking suitcase Diocletus must have set down beside the door before knocking.

“I’ve still got this,” I said, opening the door again and grabbing the suitcase. The two boys were still standing there, looking stunned.

Jill led me back to the bedroom to put some clothes on, leaving Diocletus where he was.

“Watch the news for any updates on our adventure last night,” she told him, closing the bedroom door.

A hot shower and a change of clothes felt great. Jill had a matching set, we were continuing with the twins theme as students at the local college. Faded jeans, ones with holes premade here and there. White Nikes, and a ‘Get Your Eyes Checked, You’re Seeing Double’ pair of T-shirts. Jill was continuing with the ‘avoid-suspicion-by-drawing-attention’ strategy.

The coffee helped clear my head. I was learning that a loss of blood vamped me out and four bottles of wine followed by some blood got my system pretty much tipsy. Some of the events of the night still weren’t real clear to me but I did remember enough to know that Jane and I had gotten up close and personal. I was still avoiding thinking about that too much. I had never had a lover before. I simply didn’t know what I was supposed to do or how I was supposed to act. The shifters have a saying, ‘play it by nose instead of ear, depending on which way the wind is blowing.’ I was going to do that.

The news was full of spin and misinformation. It was being played as a combined vamp and shifter attack on a prominent businessman at his horse ranch. Pictures were shown of the crashed in gate at the entrance to the compound, pictures of several dead horses with their throats ripped out, and a picture of the man I had seen falling back out of the front door of the house, frozen and breaking into chunks. He had melted, it seems. It looked like he had been torn apart limb by limb. It was shocking and gruesome. The cops evidently had a witness, supposedly a cook that had hidden in the pantry. She indicated that a large group of vamps working together with huge wolves had attacked the ranch, killing all the farm hands and the owner. The police released a taped interview with her—her description of the carnage was convincing. No mention was made that the owner was fae. The interviews and pictures were shown on all the national news channels and most of the local ones.

Only one station showed a report that seemed to challenge the authorities. They showed a Google satellite image of the compound, taken a few months ago. It wasn’t very clear, but there were no horses and it looked like you could make out the machine guns mounted on the roof of the former barn. The reporter had managed to grab an interview with the fae FBI agent we had met at my place, Randi, who complained that the FBI had been denied access to the crime scene, as well as the witness. The Mayor’s office released a statement that they would not share any further information with any law enforcement agency that allowed supes to take part in an ongoing investigation against supes.

“That is the reporter we will contact,” Jill said.

We had to start fighting back in the press. Diocletus was the Summer Queen’s negotiator and had gone into the other bedroom to make a deal with Alexis, the traitor fae.

I was hoping for a little torture but Jill explained to me that Alexis knew he had us over a barrel.

“We can kill him, and we could make that very painful,” she said. “Or he can cut a deal that he keeps his life and maybe some of his status, under certain conditions, the main one being that he cooperate and spill the beans. We are all about making deals. He knows that I won’t allow him to set foot again on my land, this is why your Queen sent her negotiator. He will make a deal with him and the Summer Queen on that part, and I will try not to grow impatient and go in there and turn him into an ice sculpture. He is going to get one chance, if he breaks any terms of the deal it will include the consequences, and there will be no future option of further deals.”

The fae always make deals, they especially love written contracts, and trying to find ways to keep to the terms of a contract but also use it to their advantage.

“Diocletus has a century of experience in this,” Jill added. “There will be no loopholes. I have authorized him to negotiate on my behalf. He will sign as the Summer Queen’s negotiator and I will sign my part as well.”

As we waited, we continued to watch the news, flipping from one channel to the other. What could only be described as a vigilante squad had found a few vamp hideouts and burned them and any vamps within down to the ground just after sunrise this morning. One of the members of the Leadership Council was calling on the National Guard to go into Pack territory and hunt the murderous shifters down that had killed that businessman.

The National Guard had doubled troops around the territory and moved in some armored vehicles, they were now patrolling not only the roads going in and out of Pack territory, but also the woods as well, saying some of the shifters must have moved in and out of the area in animal form, avoiding the roads. Any wolves or other suspicious animals seen leaving the borders would be shot.

That same reporter had managed to reach the pack Alpha, James, by phone. He of course, denied that the Pack had anything to do with the attack. “For heaven’s sake, why?” he had asked. “What possible reason would we have to do such a thing?”

“Why, indeed?” the reporter had responded.

Finally, a journalist with some common sense,
I thought. She was a good choice for us.

While we waited for the negotiations to be completed, we planned our strategy. Jill felt confident we could get that reporter to do an interview, she had a contact at the station, a halfling that would pass one of our cell phone numbers to the reporter. It was just a matter of finding a safe place to do the interview. Tonight, I would attend a charity event that would also have the witch that was running against the Mayor in attendance, we needed to fight back on the political front as well and he needed to know the truth of what was going on.

Jane’s trusted people would be here this afternoon in a series of RVs driven by human servants. Jill felt it would be important that tonight Jane make contact with the other two masters in the city so we could coordinate our efforts. She would also need to contact the head of the UP Union, their business was suffering at this point and they were being watched to make sure they were not providing blood to the vamps. The RVs were bringing a stockpile of bottled blood but something would need to be arranged on a long term basis.

The biggest area of concern was the shifters. If the National Guard went in to Pack territory to hunt them down it was going to be a disaster. Jill felt she would be able to glamour her way in past the lines tonight. The Pack needed an exit strategy as a fight right now would be a PR nightmare for all supes. It was important that we coordinate with James on this. I hoped that Rolfe was there and that he was okay.

Then there was the matter of transportation. The twin Accura we had here would have to remain, Jill felt confident they would not trace the one we had left at the traitor’s compound to her, but it was such an unusual car that driving one like it was likely to result in us getting pulled over. With the three of us going in different directions tonight we would need several vehicles. We would call some rental places and have some of Jane’s human servants bring them to us.

All this planning sounded complicated to me, and I asked Jill about the Mayor and the Police Captain.

“We know they are involved, and possibly a few members of the Leadership Council,” she replied. “Probably the Chief of Police as well and who knows who else in Law Enforcement. Even if we knew for certain everyone who was involved, it is just not a good strategy to go out and kill them all.” She paused, thinking. “War is not just won on the field of battle,” she said. “On this side of the divide, as well as in Faerie it works the same way. It’s not just a matter of the good guys killing the bad guys. What happens then a lot of times is that the good guys are then perceived as the bad guys. You have to have all bases covered so the public understands that you really are the good guys. These people we are fighting probably think they are the good guys in all of this. They think all supes are evil and feel justified in doing whatever it takes to eliminate us as having any influence here. I am sure genocide is something they would love to see happen but they realize that is probably not going to occur, at least at this point. Believe me, they have a long term strategy for this.”