Lilith Saintcrow - Taken

“Exactly.” He nodded. “The majir .”

“Right.” I am handling this very well. She stole a glance at Zach. He was looking at her like she’d just won a prize, and there was something else about that smile that made her breath refuse to come properly. Something warm and interested, adding to the musk threading through his scent. I am handling this very, very well. Even if it’s weird as fuck.

“Well, if you’re seeing them now and you were just triggered a couple days ago, you’re going to be one hell of a shaman. I’ll bet you’ve always heard weird things, seen things out of the corner of your eye. You were a big daydreamer when you were a kid, right?” Cullen outright grinned, though it wasn’t the feral baring of teeth he’d shown to Zach.

She gave a half-guilty start. “How did you—?” Well, that’s a useless question, Sophie.

“I was the same way. It about knocked me sideways when the old shaman from our sleuth—that’s a group of bears, a sleuth—found me. It was kind of a relief to find out I wasn’t crazy.” He tapped his fingers on the bar’s surface, meditatively.

“So you were normal? Before?” This was the most information she’d gotten from anyone .

“Yeah, sort of. Nobody’s really normal. Being a shaman, though, it’s a lot of fun. Wait until you take a run.”

Take a run? Is that like taking a bowel movement? “A run?”

“I hate to interrupt.” Zach’s knee bumped hers again. “So that first upir we killed was a Puppet? Armitage’s? And there was a—”

“Right. He was spitting mad about it, too. Or so I heard. I guess there was something about the target not being hit.”

“Wait.” Sophie clutched at the edge of the bar. “Target. The target means me, right? The vampire wanted to kill me? ”

“It’s certainly looking that way.” Zach tried to shift closer, his knee hitting hers again, and Sophie hopped off her bar stool. “Hey. Sophie—”

She took two quick, nervous steps back. “No. It was after me, right? And it killed Lucy. That means—”

“I’m not sure yet, and there’s other questions to answer.” Zach slid around on the bar stool, leaned back against the bar, and eyed her. “I’m guessing you didn’t spend a lot of time out partying, right?”

“I…no. It was the first time I’d gone out in ages. Lucy said I needed to have some fun.” She said she was going to get me to have fun if it killed her. I guess it did.

“So maybe they were watching your friend—the only friend you had—and waiting for you to show up someplace out of daylight. And the—”

“Hold on,” Cullen said. “Can I get a word in edgewise? The target wasn’t hit. Only one of the two people they were looking to kill ended up dead. Then a shaman got mixed up in it. That’s what I heard.”

Zach tensed, muscle by muscle. “What exactly are you saying?”

Sophie stared at the bear-man. He held her eyes, and his expression was kind. Her mouth closed with a snap, and she found her voice right afterward. “He means someone wanted both me and Lucy dead, and they just waited until we were together.” It means it’s my fault. I knew it.

“Maybe it was efficiency.” Zach nodded. “You were pretty hard to find. I’ll bet you were even registered under a different name at school.”

“My mother’s maiden name,” she whispered. “The degree would have been issued in my name, though, when I finished. Because of the domestic, ah, the divorce.” Because of the police reports and the pictures. Lucy went in with me, and the Dean said they saw so many others like me, that things could be done. And that once I got my degree I could get a job and move, and I’d be safe.

Safe. Oh, God.

Zach let out a sharp breath. “Your phone was probably unlisted, and the address on your driver’s license was that mail drop. You were smart, and hiding probably saved your life.”

“I was over at her place all the time, all they had to do was wait.” The urge to just lie down on the floor and let the world go on without her was overwhelming. If I hadn’t given in, if we hadn’t gone out dancing…God.

“It’s not your fault,” Cullen said softly.

How the hell did he know whose fault it was? She squeezed her mouth shut. The entire place had gone very quiet. She would have bet money, if she’d had any, that they were all looking at her, and she hated that. She hated being the center of attention.

The only thing to do was look at Zach, who had a line between his eyebrows and a firmness to his mouth suggesting that he knew what she was thinking. Whether or not it was true, it was comforting. He was the only thing she had, now.

“What do we do?” She hitched her purse higher up on her shoulder and hugged herself, palms cupping her elbows.

“Can we count on the support of the Ursa?” Zach didn’t look away, but she had the idea the question wasn’t directed at her.

“Well, you’re Carcajou. And they’re trying to kill a shaman. Maybe.” Cullen scratched at his neck and sighed. “At least, the Bear Tribe won’t stand idly by if it gets any worse. But my advice? Take your shaman and run. Train her up and keep her safe. You don’t want to fuck with Armitage. He’s not just upir, he has the means to make a lot of people uncomfortable enough to come looking for you. Weight of numbers—and weight of cash—tells.”

Zach looked puzzled again. “Huh. The Tribes around here, they all feel like this?”

“Don’t get cute. The Tribes here have lost two shamans to Armitage. I, for one, don’t want to lose more.”

“Lost two shamans? And you’re just sitting around? ” Zach slid back around, like a kid on a malt-shop stool, and leaned on the counter. “What the hell is going on here?”

“We’re not Carcajou . We’re just Tribe. They have numbers on us and Armitage has cops with long-distance assault rifles. We step out of line and it’s open season in the whole city.”

Zach shook his head. “Jesus.”

“Take my advice and get her out of town.” Cullen set the bottle on the counter. “Sooner or later Armitage will self-destruct. It’s what they do. He’ll get a batch of bad blood, or one of his little goons—like Harris—will take him out.”

“Excuse me.” She felt like an idiot for even speaking, but both of them went still. “Mark’s not a vampire. I lived with him. He’s just…” What words could she pick? The old instinct to lie rose under her skin, and she shut her mouth with an effort. Better to just be quiet if she couldn’t tell the truth.

“Harris has been his regular daylight hatchet man for a couple years, but he just took the Change. He was supposed to offer a sacrifice, but I gather he’s in Dutch because he didn’t.”

“A sacrifice?” What does that mean?

Cullen now looked acutely uncomfortable. “That’s how Armitage runs it. It’s an old upir trick. In order to buy the Change into bloodsucker, you’ve got to sacrifice a member of your family.”

“Now we get to it.” Zach hopped off the bar stool, his hair falling over his eyes. He looked furious, his mouth a tight line and his eyes alight. “Killing two women with one stone. God damn, but I hate that type of man. It doesn’t even deserve the name.”

“Wait. So he was supposed to kill me, so he could get turned into a vampire? ” Well, if I can believe in werewolves and vampires, I should have no trouble believing this. And it’s just like Mark, too. God.

Zach halted right in front of her. “That’s what a sacrifice is. I’m just surprised nobody’s done it on this large a scale before, in a city.”