Carrie Vaughn - Kitty's House of Horrors

“Well. Good luck. You’ll need it.” She gazed outside, like she had just commented on the weather, or the lovely shadows on the grass.

Hand on hip, I turned to her. “Okay, now you’re just baiting me.”

“We don’t move through time,” she said. “We exist outside of it. We build our own worlds and carry them with us, cultures within cultures, orbits within orbits. And we look on you as we would on rats in a cage. Studying you.”

“If you feel that way, why are you even here? Why bother interacting with us? Is someone like Dorian just your milk cow?”

“Some of us feel differently,” she said quickly, almost an apology. “Some of us resist the urge to see the rest of you as livestock. I know you understand—you resist the same urges.”

“But I’m mortal. Changes the outlook a bit.”

She said, “I’m trying to explain what you’re facing. The players in the Game—why consolidate power except to use it? What does anyone use power for but to impose their worldview over everyone?”

“That’s a little epic for me to wrap my head around.”

“Live long enough and you see where the patterns lead.”

“How long?” I took the flyer.

She smiled, thin and wary. “I should retire now. Thank you for speaking with me.”

When she offered her hand, I took it—it was smooth, cool, firm. I still wouldn’t meet her gaze, and this seemed to amuse her, as well. Then she left, disappearing around the corner to the basement door.

I flopped onto the sofa and buried my face in a cushion.

Imanaged to get a couple hours of sleep. I should have slept more—it’s not like I had to be anywhere—but I kept turning that conversation with Anastasia over in my mind, and I kept worrying.

When I got up, it was still before anyone else. I went for the phone and called Ben. My hand cupped over the mouthpiece, I spoke as softly as I could.

“What’s wrong?” he said instantly. I was being so obviously conspiratorial.

“I need you to check on something for me.”

“You’re still managing to find trouble, aren’t you?”

I should have argued this on principle. But really, I didn’t have a leg to stand on. “This probably isn’t important, but I don’t want to be blindsided. You may need to talk to Rick about it.”

“Do I have to?”

Rick, Master vampire of Denver. Ben didn’t like vampires; I couldn’t much blame him. “Come on, Rick’s a good guy.”

“For certain values of good.”

“There’s a vampire here. Her name’s Anastasia. I’d just like to find out more about her, where she came from, if she has any kind of reputation.”

“Is there a reason for the cloak-and-dagger routine?”

“She’s been asking me about Roman.”

He paused a moment, then said, “Oh. Shit. Is she working for him or something? How are they connected?”

“That’s what I need to find out. She didn’t seem to be all that thrilled with him, which is a little encouraging.”

“The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend.”

“I know that. She seems to be trying to find out which side I’m on. Why can’t people just leave me alone?”

“You’re a popular public figure who volunteered to be on a reality TV show. And you want to be left alone?”

“Okay, point taken.” I pouted.

“You know I’ve got my own situation going on here. I have Cormac’s parole hearing in two days.”

Crap. I was frustrated all over again that I wasn’t going to be there. “How is that going? Are you okay? Is he okay? Is everything going to be okay?”

“If he can keep his nose clean for a couple more days, we should be golden.”

My first thought: he’d kept his nose clean for almost two years—surely the next couple of days wouldn’t be a problem. But then I thought, this was Cormac we were talking about. “You sound nervous.”

He sighed. “I am nervous. This is the perfect time for the universe to drop a bomb on us.”

“Don’t think like that. It’s going to be fine. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Just keep saying that. We could use the good vibes.”

“You got it,” I said, wishing hard that this would work out all right. “Don’t worry about my problems—springing Cormac is more important.”

“I think I can spare five minutes for a call to Rick. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Thanks. I love you, Ben.”

“I love you, too. If Roman shows up, run. Don’t try to talk to him, don’t get into an argument with him. Just run.”

“Yeah. I’ll run.” Roman wasn’t going to show up. Hell, no. That would be too much.

We signed off, and I cursed the universe’s bad timing that all this was happening at once.

After the talk with Ben, I emerged from the back of the lodge to the living room just in time to hear Tina yell.

“Oh, gross! What the hell?”

A half-dozen of the others were awake by then and ran to the picture window, where Tina was standing, mouth open, looking out with a horrified expression. The usual cameras were there to capture the fun.

A mauled carcass lay at the edge of the meadow. It wasn’t very clear, but blood was visible, along with a mound of meat—pink flesh that gleamed wetly in the morning sun. There might have been legs sticking out, maybe a scrap of tawny hide.

“Is that a deer?” Jeffrey said. “It looks like something shredded it.”

Conrad said, “Maybe a bear. Or a wolf. A real wolf, I mean.” He eyed me.

“They wouldn’t leave a kill like that this close to people,” Lee said.

I looked around. Tina, Jeffrey, Conrad, Lee, Ariel, me. I had an idea of what had happened.

“Has anyone seen Jerome?” I said wryly. So maybe I hadn’t been the first person up this morning.

“What?”

Lee raised a brow. “Seriously?”

Yeah, he knew what I was talking about. I stepped outside, went down the porch steps, and took a breath of air. The smell hit me: blood and guts, decay setting in. Crows would be here soon to start picking at it. Circle of life and so on. I also caught the scent of lycanthrope all over the place. I wondered if Macy was trying to be cute, dragging his kill back here.

At that moment, he emerged from around the side of the lodge. He’d probably retreated to the forest on this side of the valley to sleep his wolf off. And he hadn’t bothered to bring clothes with him: he was naked. I could see every inch of his sleek, muscular body. He was huge, solid as a brick wall. Well built, all the way around. A-hem.

He’d even managed to clean most of the blood off his face and hands, but I could still smell traces.

When he saw me, he stopped. I met his gaze and smiled. “I see you managed alone just fine.”

“You missed out,” he said. “The hunting here’s great.”

“Yeah, that’s why they call it a hunting lodge. You’re putting on quite a show.” I tilted my head toward the window and the audience standing there.

Macy grinned. “I thought I’d shake things up a little.”

“Uh, yeah.”

I went back inside, leaving the man to his lack of modesty. He followed me in, not caring a bit that the others suddenly looked everywhere else but at him. Except for Lee, who was smirking right along with me. Something about being a lycanthrope made being naked not all that big a deal.

“Convinced yet, Conrad?” I said.

He shook his head. “It’s a trick. Provost probably dumped that carcass out there.”

The bummer thing was, he wasn’t wrong. A scene like this would have been easy to stage.

Macy didn’t pause for conversation but went straight to the stairs, where Grant was descending. The two passed each other awkwardly.