Kelly Meding - Requiem for the Dead

"You have my word, Vale," Marcus said.

"I'll call at six." He hung up.

"A duel?" I said. "Seriously?"

Marcus shrugged, unable to pull off casual when he was that tense. "It's a tradition of our kind, to settle disputes. Although we usually fight over mates and not to the death."

"I can't believe you agreed to this," Astrid said.

"You don't think I can beat his ass?"

"I know you can, but then I won't get to kill him."

"Get in line," I said. "But at this point, I just want the asshole caught or dead."

"Agreed," Marcus said. "And if this gains us the vampire cure, as well as the safe return of the Lupa boy, then it's worth a few scratches."

"You won't feel that way if he bites your ear off," Astrid said.

"You can glue it back on if he does. I want you there."

"So I can kill him after he kills you?"

"Exactly."

Affection passed between the Dane siblings. Something was coming full circle for both of them, and they were united to stop a threat to their Clan. It was kind of awesome to see.

"You don't have to agree," I said, "but I'd like to go as a witness. I want to be there to ensure John's safety, and if he's awake and scared, he'll react better to a familiar face."

Marcus considered me a moment. "All right. The boy will need someone to ground him, and there's no way Wyatt is going."

"No kidding." He was too damned volatile right now. Peter and Mark needed him here. "Who's your third?"

"I'd like it to be Tybalt, if he's back from his errand in time. He was with us when Prentiss was captured. He's part of this."

"Speaking of Tybalt, who is Castle?"

"Someone who helped us locate Prentiss when he was holding Keenan. If Castle's still around, he may have information on Vale. It's worth a try."

Informant. Gotcha. And speaking of valuable information… "Astrid, can I speak with you? In private?"

In private was somewhat relative when it came to Therian hearing. Since we had no one currently residing in our re-built jail, we walked down the corridor to speak there. Astrid kept pace, probably full of thoughts of her brother's impending fight, no idea of the bomb I was about to drop in her lap.

The interior of the jail had seen some damage a few weeks ago, when a Halfie blew himself up inside of it. The three reinforced cells were good as new, the desk had been replaced, and not a sign of gore remained. The only thing still haunting this place was the memory of that Halfie. He'd been a friend of mine once, suffering through a brief, uneasy existence as a monster he'd once sworn to eradicate.

"What's going on, Stone?" Astrid asked.

"Remember the newbie, Alejandro? I think he identified our mole."

"What? How?"

"Apparently he was sneaking around, getting to know the place, and he was snooping around the old vampire quarters when someone came inside to make a phone call. This person told someone about me and Wyatt coming back with the Lupa. Called them puppies."

"It could have been a personal call."

"Done in secret? Who the hell would care, at one in the morning, that I'm back at the Watchtower?"

Astrid's expression darkened. "Who was it?"

"Our very own flying fox. Autumn."

Our search for Autumn lasted exactly the two minutes it took to turn a corner and run smack into Shelby, sweaty and dressed in gym clothes.

Astrid and I stared at him, dumbfounded. "Why aren't you with Tybalt?" I asked.

Shelby wasn't one of my favorite people socially, but he could turn into a huge polar bear and was an asset in a fight. It was why I tolerated the impatient look he tossed my way. "Because I was working out when he asked for my assistance."

"Did he go alone?" Astrid asked.

"Of course not. Autumn was there, and she said she'd go with him."

"Shit."

My heart jumped into my throat. Astrid pulled her phone first and dialed. Shelby gawked at both of us. "What is going on?" he asked.

I waved him off and followed Astrid down the corridor. "Voice mail," she said. "Damn it."

I tried with my phone. Same thing. "I can't believe this. Would she take Tybalt to Vale?"

"I don't know, Stone, I really don't." She dialed again. Listened. "Autumn isn't answering, either."

"Does that really fucking surprise you?"

"Stone—"

"I'm sorry, I'm worried, okay? In case you missed it, I get mouthy when one of my friends is in trouble."

"We don't know for certain that Tybalt is in danger."

"We don't know that he isn't. God, Gina is going to flip out."

"Come on."

"Where?"

"Ops. I want to reread Autumn's file. Perhaps there's a clue in there as to what she's up to. In the meantime, we'll get all our eyes in the field looking for Tybalt and Autumn."

I hovered while Astrid did her leadership thing. She made calls to the teams in the field, telling them to report back if they saw Tybalt or Autumn, and she never had to explain why. The team leaders did as asked without question. She then gathered the small group of me, Eulan, Marcus, Kismet, Rufus, and Alejandro into the large conference room.

Then she explained what we thought was going on.

"Son of a bitch," Kismet said. Her expression fluctuated between horror and anger. "Why would Autumn feed information to Vale? She's not even Felia, she's Kitsune."

"I don't know," Astrid said. "We're still speculating, but the evidence is stacking up against her. Until we hear from one or both of them, we're going with this scenario."

"Do you think Vale will use Tybalt to pull something at the duel?"

"It's possible. Vale is a coward. He's shown that many times these last few days. He won't leave victory to chance, and he knows Tybalt is important to the both of us." She glanced at Marcus, who was equally furious and… well, no, just furious. I didn't know the complexities of the relationship those three shared, only that it extended back to childhood. More theirs than Tybalt's, considering the Therian aging thing, but they had a history.

We all loved Tybalt. We'd fight for him.

Rufus, our computer guru, was typing away at a laptop on one end of the table. "I may have found the connection we're missing," he said. He connected the laptop to the monitors on the far wall, and one of them flickered to life.

Three children, each with pale green eyes, mugged for whoever had taken the picture. Two girls had auburn hair, and the boy blond. They seemed the same age, but the identical eye color made me wonder. "Kitsune?" I asked.

"Correct," Rufus said. "The girl on the left is Autumn at her first year."

Explained why she looked like she was in pre-school. The resemblance was there, but I wouldn't have pegged her right away. Her face was thinner, hair darker. The other girl didn't seem familiar, but the boy… the boy did.

"If you make us guess the other two, I'll punch you," Kismet said. "Wheelchair or not."

Rufus gave her a wry look. "I won't drag out the suspense, Gina. The other two children are Snow and Rain."

"Fuck me sideways," I said. No wonder the boy had seemed familiar. "Snow is the asshole who tried to kill me."

"You may be required to narrow that down more," Eulan said.

Holy shit, the vampire made a joke.

"Five years ago, under orders from the brass, Wyatt killed a Kitsune woman named Rain," I said for those not in the know. "He was supposed to kill her human lover, too, Wyatt's own Hunter. His name was Cole." Rufus and Kismet knew this story, but by the expressions of horror on Astrid and Marcus's faces, they hadn't heard it. Maybe it wasn't my secret to tell, but the connection had to be made. "Wyatt faked Cole's death, tried to wipe his memory of the whole thing, but Cole remembered and he came back this spring for revenge. He called himself Leonard Call then."