Bonarata was charming, but I couldn’t forget or forgive him for Lenka. Honey stayed away from him, and I noticed that Libor kept Jitka and the other female werewolves in his pack away from the vampire, too.
Elizaveta was remaining in Europe, a guest of Bonarata’s, for a full month. He was paying her to remove his addiction to werewolf blood and to do all the things that Mary had once done for his seethe. He was going to try to hire her away from us, Adam said, but he hadn’t sounded worried. She would come home—a lot wealthier than when she’d left.
Marsilia had pursed her lips when Adam had told us what Elizaveta intended.
“It won’t work in the long run,” she said. “Addicts have to want to be clean. As long as Jacob thinks that it gives him more power, he won’t quit.”
When she spoke of Bonarata, she didn’t do it the way she used to. There had been so much energy wound up in her voice, but now that spring had worn down. He was someone she had once known well, but now was an acquaintance.
Bonarata was staying at Kocourek’s seethe, helping him rebuild. I didn’t think too hard about what that meant. Kocourek had pulled me aside and asked me not to tell anyone about how Mary had managed to create vampires so much faster.
“With her and the other vampires dead,” Kocourek said, “no one knows what she managed except for you, me, and my people. It is better that way, no?”
“Agreed,” I assured him. But part of me couldn’t help but think of that saying about how two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead.
Adam and I spent two days playing tourists. We explored the castle complex, which included a cathedral and a church nearly as old as I think Bran is, and walked through the streets of Old Town. Adam bought me an amber necklace and matching earrings. I found an antique crystal goblet with the figure of a wolf on it.
—
ADAM AND I WERE CUDDLED UP WATCHING A MOVIE in one of the meeting rooms in the jet when Bran came in bearing a bowl of ice with three soda cans buried deep. He closed the door behind him, set the bowl on the floor, and watched the movie with us for about ten minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Matt Smith?” I said. “Really? You are not the Doctor, Bran. At your age, it is important to keep a lookout for excessive hubris.”
“Thank you,” he said. He took a drink of his soda. “Your mother put you in my arms when you were less than three months old. I knew that I had no room in my life for such a fragile thing. I gave you to the best man for the job.”
“Bryan was amazing,” I told him, wondering what his point was.
Bran nodded. “Leah would have killed you if I had kept you.”
“She almost killed me anyway,” I said dryly. Bran’s wife and I had a hate-hate relationship that worked quite well for both of us.
“And yet,” Bran said softly, “you were mine from the day I first held you. No matter how hard I fought it. It isn’t safe to be in my family, Mercy. And you were this fragile creature who put herself in the path of destruction on a daily basis.”
He had abandoned me twice. First when he sent me away because Samuel wanted me. Samuel was nearly as old as Bran, who is older than dirt, and I’d been sixteen. Bran could have sent Samuel away—but Samuel was his son, and I was only an annoying stray. It had taken an Adam to make me trust people again. The second time Bran had abandoned me was worse, because it was the second time. He’d cut his ties to my pack, for all the right reasons—and it had felt just as bad as it had when I was sixteen, only I felt stupider.
And then he’d risked everything he believed in—because if Bonarata had known who Matt Smith really was, all hell would have broken loose—to help Adam rescue me. He’d risked war between the werewolves and the vampires to keep me safe.
Carefully I said, “Thank you for coming after me.”
“You rescued yourself,” he said. “I should have stayed home.”
Adam laughed. “I’d have been in trouble if you hadn’t been there. And why do you think Libor was so cooperative? If it had just been me, we’d have had to fight it out before he agreed to go hunt down Mary’s seethe—I know his type.”
I sat up and looked at Bran while my body was warmed by Adam. “What did you do to Zack that made his father hate you so much?” I paused. “I think his birth name is Radim, right?”
“Zack?” said Adam.
Bran made a Bran sound. “Radim. Poor Radim. I can’t tell you the details. Let’s just say that being a submissive in Libor’s pack would not be something I’d wish on my worst enemy. Particularly if, as in Radim’s case, he was Libor’s son.” He tapped a finger on the top of his empty soda can. “I might have kidnapped him,” he said finally.
“Okay,” I said, and settled back against Adam.
“No wonder Zack doesn’t like you,” Adam said.
“That’s a different story,” Bran said. “You’ll have to ask him.”
We watched the rest of the movie without talking. When it was over, Bran said, “I love you.”
I said, “I know.” Adam nudged me with his shoulder, and I laughed. “I love you, too.”
—
WE TURNED DOWN OUR STREET JUST AFTER DARK. THAT made it easy to see the flashing lights of the fire department trucks. Adam didn’t say anything, but he put his foot down on the gas pedal.
We parked on the lawn to avoid blocking the driveway for the fire trucks. The garage roof was a blackened ruin, and there was at least one wall that was a burned wreck. The whole house and yard were soggy with water. I could smell char and burnt things, but I couldn’t see anything burning. People—werewolves and firemen for the most part—were wandering all over the place.
In the bustle and hum, no one noticed us except Aiden, because everyone else was focused on the garage.
He had his arms crossed and a militant expression on his face as he marched up to us.
“Hey, Adam. Hey, Mercy,” he said in a tight little voice. “Welcome home. I stopped the garage from burning down, but that was after I started it. Apparently I burn down garages when I fall asleep doing homework. I’ll find somewhere else to live.”
“Hey, Aiden,” I said. “I destroyed a whole apartment building.” It had been the golem, but I thought I was entitled to claim his damage for my own. “Can I come live with you?”
Adam just laughed, reached out, and ruffled Aiden’s hair. “It’s good to be home.”
“Yes,” I agreed wholeheartedly. “I think I should go make some chocolate chip cookies.”
CAST OF CHARACTERS
by Ann Peters
Columbia Basin Pack
Mercy Athena Thompson Hauptman, our VW mechanic and coyote shapeshifting heroine, mistress of snark and subtle revenge.
Adam Hauptman, aka Captain Larson, Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack and married to Mercy; his revenge is less subtle than Mercy’s.
Jesse Hauptman, aka Barbary Belle, Adam’s human daughter by his ex-wife, Christy; Jesse’s snark makes her worthy to be Mercy’s stepdaughter.
Aiden, fire-touched fae who looks like a young boy but is centuries old; Aiden and Jesse have reached a sibling-like rapport after a rough start of mistaken identity and grabbed bottoms.
Joel Arocha, tibicena member of the pack and not totally in control of his connection to volcano-god powers; Aiden is helping him decrease the number of fire department visits.
Ben Shaw, aka Sodding Bart, werewolf, our favorite British IT guy and world-class potty mouth.
Mary Jo, werewolf, a tough Pasco firefighter who doesn’t like Mercy much.
Darryl Zao, werewolf, second in the Columbia Basin Pack; when not protecting Adam’s back, he can be found using his PhD analytical skills on something brilliant.
Auriele Zao, werewolf, Darryl’s mate; a chemistry teacher.
Honey Jorgenson, a dominant wolf moving up in the ranks and shaking up the hi
erarchy; she recently lost her husband.
Peter Jorgenson, deceased husband of Honey who still follows her in ghost form; he was the pack’s submissive wolf before Zack.
Sherwood Post, the only three-legged werewolf; he doesn’t remember his past.
Zack, the pack’s current submissive wolf; he has a mysterious past and currently lives with Warren and Kyle.
Warren Smith, third in the Columbia Basin Pack and the pack’s only gay wolf so far; he becomes very “Southern” when riled, and lives with his partner, Kyle, and their tenant, Zack.
Kyle Brooks, human divorce lawyer—partner of Warren.
Tri-Cities Seethe
Marsilia, aka Bright Blade; aka Queen of the Damned, per Mercy; Mistress of the seethe.
Stefan Uccello, aka the Soldier, a vampire with a heart who loves Scooby-Doo.
Wulfe, aka the Wizard, a powerful, magically talented, and bug-nuts-crazy vampire.
Friends and Foes
Tony Montenegro, bilingual Kennewick police officer and longtime friend of Mercy, even after recently learning of her supernatural nature.
Charla (Char), Mercy’s college roommate and one of her best friends.
Gary Laughingdog, Mercy’s sometime felonious, coyote-shapeshifting half brother who has a thing for Honey.
Coyote, archetype and sort of Mercy’s father; he is the cause of much angst and ulcers.
Siebold (Zee) Adelbertsmiter, aka the Dark Smith of Drontheim, Mercy’s mentor, who appears as a cranky old mechanic, but the Gray Lords walk carefully around him, as he has a habit of strewing around their body parts.
Thaddeus (Tad) Adelbertsmiter, Zee’s half-fae son, who shares his father’s affinity for working metals, even the cold iron that is normally lethal to their kind.
Elizaveta Arkadyevna Vyshnevetskaya, a powerful Russian witch with a fondness for Adam and also for money.
Austin Harris, extremely good-looking goblin pilot and owner of a small airplane company.
Larry Sethaway, goblin leader in the Tri-Cities; he has yellow-green eyes and four-fingered hands.
Matt Smith, not the Doctor, a submissive wolf and competent copilot.
David Christiansen, mercenary and friend of Adam’s; David was the first werewolf to go public.
Gray Lords, the very scary and very powerful ruling class of the fae.
Alistair Beauclaire, a Gray Lord who declared the fae a sovereign nation and no longer under the rules of the USA after the justice system failed his daughter.
Underhill, a not-very-sane fae entity that is also a place, not subject to human physics.
Samuel, werewolf, Cornick Bran’s oldest son and an early crush of Mercy’s; he’s now married to Ariana.
Ariana, silver-borne fae who is learning to get over her fear of canines, thanks to her husband, Samuel.
Aspen Creek Pack (Montana)
Bran Cornick, aka the Marrok, one of Mercy’s foster fathers and Alpha of all the werewolves in America (except, recently, the Columbia Basin Pack); Mercy would have given him ulcers by now if he weren’t a werewolf.
Leah Cornick, werewolf, Bran’s mate and a thorn in Mercy’s paw.
Charles Cornick, the only born werewolf and second son of Bran; he has shamanistic magic.
Anna Cornick, Omega wolf with amazing musical talent; she’s married to Charles and lethal with a rolling pin.
Court of the Lord of Night
Iacopo (Jacob) Bonarata, aka Thug Vampire, aka the Lord of Night, Master of Milan; he is the European head vampire and ex-lover of Marsilia. He meddles more than Coyote.
Guccio de’ Medici, aka Pretty Vampire, snappy dresser with a biting problem and a desire for power.
Lenka, beautiful but insane werewolf, Bonarata’s “pet.”
Zanobi, werewolf, Lenka’s murdered mate.
Ignatio, one of the three vampire minions who hurt and kidnapped Mercy; it’s only a matter of time before Adam finds a reason to pay Ignatio a visit.
Stacia, very young and sweet half (or more) fae healer.
Niki, a human sheep.
Cook, to be feared.
Annabelle, vampire, a servant.
Vltava Pack
Libor, Alpha of the Vltava Pack.
Martin Zajíc, werewolf, Libor’s motorcyle-riding second-in-command.
Jitka, werewolf, a sultry dominant who is Libor’s third.
Pavel, werewolf, ex-lover of Jitka who succumbed to vampire lures.
Danek (Dan), poltergeist ghost of a traitor from World War II.
Mary’s Seethe
Mary, Mistress of the seethe.
Kocourek, Master Vampire of Prague.
Ivan Novak, vampire.
Lars, vampire.
Vanje, vampire.
Dagmar, vampire.
Weis, the vampire hanging on the wall.
Others
The Golem of Prague, animated by Rabbi Loew in the Middle Ages to protect the Jewish Quarter of Prague, and later destroyed—or so the rabbi thought.
Strnad, former Master Vampire of Prague.
Galina, a very sad ghost girl.
Jean Chastel, aka the Beast of Gévaudan, werewolf; thankfully this psycho is deceased!
Historical Characters
Reinhard Heydrich, assassinated during World War II.
Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, human boxers.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs lives in Washington State with her husband, children, and a small herd of horses.
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