Only Human (37 page)

“How are the positions given out?”

“They are challenged for, of course, fought for. Though, in recent times the pack must approve of a challenger before they can fight for a position above that of the fifth spot, Epsilon. The idea is to keep a tyrant from gaining control, but this is a new development, maybe forty years or so old, and Bevering has been Alpha for around ten of those.”

“Do wolves have rapid healing abilities?”

“Yes, like most shapeshifters, when they shift they heal. The dominance fight for Alpha is often a fight to the death, and I believe although challenges for Beta through Epsilon
can
be a fight to the death, they are usually called when someone begs for mercy or is unconscious.”

“Did Randall kill the old Alpha?”

“No.”

He didn’t offer any more information, so I went to my next question. “The Greek letters are ranks for them, then, like general and lieutenant?”

“No, just a ranking of hierarchy. The Alpha assigns jobs based on who is best fit for each.”

“If the pack likes the current leaders, couldn’t they just vote down anyone who wanted to challenge them? Doesn’t the new way negate the way the pack has worked for however long?”

“If it were a matter of someone challenging and then being voted for, then yes. However, that is not the way it is handled. Once a year the pack must choose twenty percent of their numbers as being eligible to challenge above the fifth spot. They are given a list of the pack members and told how many they must vote as being eligible, and each person is required to select the prescribed number. The votes are tallied, and the top twenty percent of votes are announced. There have been challengers to Randall over the years, but he has defeated them all. And, of course, Cora is now in third place, and she continues to be voted into the twenty percent, so if she wanted to keep going, she could.”

“Do Cora and Randall get along okay? I’m not stepping into a political fight, am I?”

“They get along fine and they work well together. They appear to mutually respect each other.”

His cell phone rang and it was Randall letting us know he’d arrived.

“Are the shapeshifters on the doors wolves? Are they his?”

“No, they belong to me, and are bound to me. Do not mention them around Randall, please.”

Two men stepped through the door a few minutes later, and Randall introduced himself to me before Abbott had a chance. I shook Randall’s hand, and then he introduced me to his Beta, Zach. Zach shook my hand as if he was being careful not to hurt me, which was fine with me — sometimes it’s better for strong supernaturals to think I’m a weak female. Technically, I
am
weak when it comes to muscle strength, so perhaps I should say it’s sometimes better if they think of me as a female who isn’t capable of defending myself.

However, Randall had given me a nice firm handshake. Not enough to try to hurt me, but enough to show respect. I liked him, so far.

“I’m glad you agreed to meet with me, Ms. O’Shea,” Randall said with a polite smile.

“The feeling is mutual, but please, call me Kirsten. I’d kind of like an answer to the riddle myself. I wish I knew what happened, but I don’t, and if I did something metaphysical then it’s probably important I understand it. Come, let’s sit down.”

Everyone took a seat, and Randall started. His eyes were ultra-focused on me as he asked, “Can you tell me what happened? You and Cora were sitting on your bed watching the events transpire on your laptop, correct?”

“That’s really all there is to tell. At some point I realized the wolves should be coming to the rescue and they weren’t, but I couldn’t tell what was happening with the one feed still functioning by that time. I can’t remember if Cora reached for my hand before or after we saw some of the wolves staggering, which was when I realized there was a reason they hadn’t come to the rescue. We didn’t know
all
of the wolves had collapsed, even those not present, until Cora’s phone call a good bit later. If I did something to protect Cora, I wasn’t aware of it.”

Randall gave me a level stare for a few seconds before shifting his gaze to Abbott. “I’m going to tell Cora to come in now.” He looked back to me. “Please remain seated. I want to sense your energies from a distance, when you first see each other.”

“You left her in the car?” Abbott asked.

“Yes, I’ll have her walk to the back door.”

Abbott reached for his cell phone and made a call, saying, “There should be a tall female wolf at the back door, her name is Cora. Please bring her to me.”

A few moments later, the door opened and Cora took one step in and stopped.

Randall stood, took two steps towards Cora, and my heart quailed as he turned to me, his eyes furious. “
What have you done?
” His voice was half wolf, and my heart skipped a beat at the visceral, unadulterated fury.

“I told you, I don’t know,” I said, keeping my voice placating but strong. I didn’t want to show weakness, but I also didn’t want to intentionally piss him off even worse. “I came here in good faith, hoping you could help figure out if I’d done anything, and if so,
what
. I assume you think I did something?”

“She is mine! My wolf! You had no right to bind one of my wolves to you!”

I wanted to stand up, but something told me to remain seated, so I did. “I can assure you, I did not mean to do whatever I did. If you can help me figure it out then perhaps we can work out how to undo it.”

Abbott spoke to me, in my head.
I can feel it, too, Kirsten. Cora’s tie to you is much stronger than her bond to him. This is a dominance issue, a wolf thing. He feels as if you’re challenging him.

That doesn’t sound good.

Not even a little.

The wolf looked out of Randall’s eyes now, and his words reverberated through the great room. “If you want to challenge me for dominance then do it the right way, do not try to steal my people from me.”

What will it take for him to see reason?
I asked Abbott.

If you weren’t human I’d say you should fight him with clear rules so no one is badly hurt, but your fighting skills don’t allow for it. The only way you can successfully best him is to kill him, which isn’t at all what we want. However, if you don’t then you will lose.

Maybe not.
I told him as a few ideas came to me.
Let me see what I can do.

I remained seated as I told Randall. “I don’t want to challenge you for dominance. I have zero interest in doing so.”

“Of course not. You would have no hope of winning.”

I finally stood, but tried to do so without looking like a threat. I kept my voice clear and even, strong but not loud. “I will say again: I have no reason to fight you. I do not want anything of yours. Cora’s my friend but I don’t want to own her, nor do I want her bound to me. I want her friendship as an equal. However, if you need to fight me so we can establish a pecking order then I will spar with you, but I won’t fight you. As a human, though, I must insist upon a few stipulations as to how the match will go.”

His demeanor changed, not quite as hostile as he asked, “You’ll spar with me? What are your stipulations?”

“I can’t shift so neither can you, if you shift you concede. I want the winner of the match to be kept a secret — we’ll bring Cora and Abbott in as witnesses and no one else will know who won. Also, I get to pick the equipment — the quarterstaff. I have my own.” 

“Cora is more yours than mine right now. We’ll bring Zach and Abbott.”

“I want Cora to know who won so I can talk to her about it. Like I said, she’s a friend.”

“Very well, Cora, Zach, and Abbott will watch.” He turned to face the vampire, his voice formal. “Abbott, do you have a place suitable for sparring? Do you have a quarterstaff I can use?”

“Of course.”

Abbott led us to a door I hadn’t been through, yet. Unless I was mixed up, any rooms it would lead to would be under the yard, not under the house. We walked through the door into a cavernous room with concrete floors, walls, and ceiling, and my initial impression was they’d allocated space to expand into.

On second thought, it would make an ideal shelter, should they need to protect a bunch of vampires. The huge room was well lit, and I noted weapons hanging on the far wall, including quarterstaffs. The room was half the length of a football field, and no one spoke as our steps echoed while the group made their way across the room.

Randall handled several of the quarterstaffs before choosing one, and I took my shoes and suit jacket off to stretch a little. The pants were plenty loose but the top was a bit tight. However, if it ripped I’d be able to put the jacket back on later to cover it up, so no big deal. I stood straight, drew energy in, and created and solidified my nángùn.

Everyone froze.

Kirsten, you can’t use that on him,
Abbott said, his ‘voice’ coming across as more than a little concerned.

I don’t intend to hurt him. Or, not hurt him bad, anyway. I just intend to break his quarterstaff and barely injure him so he’ll have to shift to heal, and then I’ll win.

I don’t like this.
Abbott was glaring at me, and I wondered if it were obvious we were talking, or if it just looked as if we were having a stare-down.

It’ll work. It has to. This is who I am, and if people want to fight me they have to understand how I will fight. In the world of supernaturals you can’t back down, right?

Very well, but you must not hurt him badly.

I’ll do my best.

No, you can’t just do your best. You don’t understand the political ramifications if you were to badly injure the leader of a supernatural group at this time. You
must not
hurt him badly. If you kill him then Aaron and I won’t be able to save you from what would come next, Kirsten. You must not kill him or badly injure him.

Randall took a step towards me and said, “I see. I understand now how it is that you had your weapon with you.”

“I don’t want to do this, Randall. If I wanted to hurt you this would be a sword, not a quarterstaff. I’m trying to do this in a way so I can show you who I am without hurting you. Call it now and we can go back to the great room, sit down, and figure out how to undo whatever I did.”

“No, I accepted the challenge, I will spar with you.

“Very well, but you’ll strike first. I will not.”

He came at me with no warning, and I raised my nángùn in self-defense as he attacked. His staff melted in two as it touched mine, but he deftly tossed half of it away and swung the remaining portion like a baseball bat at my head.

I ducked under it and didn’t do anything aggressive back. Randall was incredibly fast, but I was used to sparring with shapeshifters at Drake Security. I could’ve been aggressive if I weren’t worried about killing him, but there wasn’t time for me to be carefully aggressive, so I stuck with being carefully defensive.

He went at my midsection, I blocked with my quarterstaff, and he lost another eight inches of his staff. He then came up underneath to try to knock my elbow to make me lose my grip but he ran his forearm through my quarterstaff and he fell on the ground howling in pain.

It was bad, and the stench of burning flesh was horrible.

I didn’t say anything. I wanted him to shift, but I had a feeling telling him to shift would make him refuse to do so.

“Finish me off.” I could hear the pain in his voice, but he still sounded strong. Demanding.

“No,” I told him, standing far enough away to not be seen as a threat. “This isn’t a fight. We were only sparring and you’re injured. I’m not going to attack you while you’re injured. That’s not the way I spar.”

“Dammit!”

And he shifted. I’d seen it before, of course, and it wasn’t that different, though a bit quicker, as it only took maybe ten seconds for the Change to be complete. It was kind of like the Michael Jackson video where people morphed into other people before your eyes, and then he was standing there as a wolf with clothes hanging off him. Zach untangled him from his clothes, and Randall’s arm, now a front leg, appeared to be fine. Zach looked it over and glared at me.

“No one outside of this room will know who won,” I told him, still holding my nángùn. “How long until he can shift back so we can talk?”

“If the three of you can go back into the great room, we’ll be along in five or ten minutes.”

I let my staff absorb back into me without giving anyone a hint of the discomfort, put my suit jacket back on, and followed Abbott and Cora out.

Once we were back in the great room Abbott asked me to see if I could talk to Cora metaphysically.

I looked at Cora a few seconds, considering how I did it with Abbott, and then aimed my thoughts at her.

Cora, can you hear me?

Her eyes grew wide and she answered,
Yes, how did you do that?

I shook my head, a little sad I could talk to her this way. I didn’t know what it meant to have bound her to me, but I wanted her to be my friend, not some kind of metaphysical subordinate.
I guess they’re telling the truth. Do you feel as if you’re bound to me?

I didn’t before, but, now. I... I don’t know.

“It would appear the two of you can speak to each other, then.”

“I’m sorry, Cora, did you feel me do anything that night?”

“No.”

“How does the binding process work for wolves?”

“It takes blood. I drink some of Randall’s and he drinks some of mine, and there’s an oath attached. It’s an actual ritual, but you and I didn’t do
anything
.”

“Abbott, how does it work for the vampires?”

“Very similar, blood is exchanged and an oath, but I also do some things with energy when I bind them to me.”

“Oh, yeah,” Cora said, “Randall does something at the end, too. More power than energy though, I think.”

I looked at Abbott. “Is it possible I just did the energy part without realizing it?”

“It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”