Crimson Death (48 page)

Everyone nodded, including me, and finally Edward joined us. “There's only one way to find out if your new unit is good enough to fight monsters, Nolan, and that's to fight some.”

Nolan stopped arguing with Edward and with us. I wasn't even sure what had convinced him to stop being pissy, but I didn't care. If we were going to hunt vampires here, I wanted the guns, and that meant we needed Nolan and his weird clout. Thanks to Nolan and maybe even the mysterious Van Cleef, we were allowed to load our potentially illegal firepower into the vehicles, and divided our people up between the three vans. We were in Ireland; we had the firepower we needed to hunt vampires and win. Winning meant saving lives. Winning meant we survived. Winning meant the monsters died. It was simple math and anyone who didn't understand that vampire hunting was just that simple wasn't going to be very good at the job. Not being good at most jobs meant you got fired; not being good at my job meant you died. I hadn't come to Ireland to die or get any of my people killed; I'd come to win.

B
RENNAN DROVE OUR
van but didn't like the fact that Nolan got in back with Edward, me, and some of our people. He pushed the point up to arguing with Nolan about it, but one of the pluses to being military is that when your Captain tells you to do something, eventually you just do it. Period.

“What's his problem?” Dev asked, as he settled down on the other side of Nathaniel, who was snuggled up against me. Damian was at our feet, still curled up in the lightproof bag. It felt almost like there was more than just him in the bag, as if Nathaniel had stuffed in padding. I'd ask later when we were more alone. Right now we were about as not alone as we could possibly be. Nicky sat on the other side of me, so that I was snuggled between him and Nathaniel, something I normally enjoyed, but not at work, and not with Dev on the other side of Nathaniel. It was the broadness of the shoulders of all three of them that made us all have to sit very close to each other. I didn't mind, though it probably would have made more sense to have either Nicky or Dev change places with Kaazim or Jake, who were slender in comparison. Pride was on their side of the van, too, but his shoulders wouldn't help the issue. I wanted Nathaniel beside me and I knew that Dev preferred to sit beside either me or Nathaniel. Nolan was watching me too closely for me to want to get into an explaining match with Dev about why he couldn't sit beside either of his sweeties.

Dev repeated, “What is Brennan's problem?”

“He is afraid we'll lose control of our beasts,” Kaazim said as he found a seat beside Jake.

The van doors were closed from the outside and I heard a click, almost like we'd been locked inside. If Nolan hadn't been inside with
us, I'd have been more suspicious. Apparently, I should have been, because Edward looked at Nolan.

“And you're back here with us, because . . .” Edward said.

“To let you know I trust you.”

“But you still locked us in.”

The energy in the van flared. I was suddenly sitting in the middle of Nicky's beast. I could smell heat and sun and that heavy musk that meant male lion. My lioness lifted her head in the dark and gazed up the long tunnel of my body with eyes that were so dark an amber they were almost orange. I started doing my deep, even breathing exercises, because the last thing I needed was to have an issue with my own inner beasts with Nolan right there. Nathaniel's energy rose, but not like Nicky's did, but then if it came to fighting our way out only one of them would be helping do that. Dev's lion responded to Nicky's, not just because they both held lion in them, but because Nicky was his Rex, his king. They were pride together, and that meant a lot to the two of them.

My lioness started padding up that long, dark corridor inside me, attracted to all the male lion energy. Damn it.

Pride's energy flared from across the small space and his gold tiger spoke to me and Dev, because that was still his original beast. The wash of gold tiger helped slow down my lioness but woke up the shadow of gold inside me. Her base color was white with pale golden stripes, but I knew she wasn't a white tiger, because when that rose inside me she was almost completely white with few, if any stripes. It was like snow with muscles and teeth. Gold was like honey that could bite.

“Guys, tone it down until we need the muscle,” I said, and my voice was breathy.

Jake and Kaazim didn't flare any more than Nathaniel did. His regular job was stripping onstage and shapeshifting onstage. He had to have nearly perfect control of his inner leopard to be safe around the customers at Guilty Pleasures. The other two were just older than dirt and had the control of millennia of practice.

I smelled other tigers and knew it was either Domino or Ethan in the other vehicles thinking at me, asking what to do. I lowered my shields so that I could hear better. I saw the other interior from a
higher height than I had, and it was only the more dominant thinking that let me know it was Domino until he moved his hand enough for me to see it, too. I'd never tried this much mind-to-mind with him, and it wasn't a perfect match yet. Mind-to-mind takes practice, and we hadn't. Ethan was looking at Fortune, and I knew her blue tiger had triggered his, so she wasn't trying to be as calm as her Harlequin counterparts here. I thought soothing thoughts at both of them. Nathaniel sighed beside me and said, “God, I can't keep fighting,” and his inner beast spiraled upward like sweet smoke to join the rest. I managed to say, out loud, “Unless you want these expensive rides torn apart, start explaining why you locked us in, Nolan.”

I smelled wolf, but it wasn't my wolf. It didn't smell right and it didn't smell like Jake, because I knew his scent. I opened my eyes and hadn't even realized I'd closed them and looked around the van until I was looking at Nolan. His brown eyes were paler, almost wolf amber, which isn't the same shade of amber as lion.

“We need to talk,” he said.

“Not while my people are locked in,” I said, and I could feel the men in the other trucks waiting for me to give the word.

“We're moving, Blake. I can't unlock anything until we stop.”

“Why lock us in at all?” Nathaniel asked that.

“Because the government thinks that the wereanimals contained in these three trucks are the most that have been in Ireland in decades. The plan is to take you to our base and meet the rest of my team.”

“And then what?” I asked, in a careful voice, because I was really close to just telling Nicky to make a hole. We were done.

“We're supposed to use some of our own people to test and see if you're what Forrester said you would be.”

“And if we don't pass your tests, what then?” Nicky asked.

“We'd put you back on the plane and send you home as too dangerous to deal with.”

“But instead you're going to share your secret with us, because the government doesn't know what you are, do they?” I said.

“Yes, and no, they don't.”

I thought at Domino and Ethan to wait. We were all right; just be calm.

Edward was leaning away from Nolan as far as the seats would allow. “When did you get attacked?”

“I didn't,” he said in a voice that was more bass than it had been before.

“I can feel it.”

“You weren't this sensitive to it when we first met.”

“I know what I'm feeling now,” Edward said, staring at his old friend.

More wolf filled the room, so that thick, almost sour smell started to override the other beasts. Jake's eyes were wolf amber. “Brother,” he growled.

“We are not pack,” Nolan said.

“Are you saying you were a werewolf when we met?”

“Yes.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“Accurate,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” Edward asked.

“You are a born wolf,” Jake said.

Nolan looked at the other werewolf and said, “Yes.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Werewolves are the only native lycanthropes in Ireland,” Jake said.

“They pride themselves on being lycanthropy free,” I said.

“You can't catch what I have,” Nolan said. “You have to be born to it.”

Everyone's animal had calmed, because we were all surprised, and shapeshifters were willing to give each other more credit, or so I'd noticed. “Explain,” Edward said, and he wasn't happy at all.

“My mother's maiden name is MacTire, MacIntire.”

“What the hell does that have to do with this?” Edward said, staring at him.

“It means
wolf
,” Jake said.

Edward stared at him. “Are you saying your mother was a werewolf?”

“She was a born wolf and so was I.”

“Your da? Your gran-da?” Edward asked.

“No, just my ma.”

“You must have cut off your tail,” Jake said.

“I had to.”

“Then you are tail-less in wolf form, too.”

“Yes.”

“That throws off your balance.”

“Yes, but my ma urged me to do it as I got older and it was harder to hide.”

“I met your family. They were normal.”

Nolan looked at Edward. “They still are.”

“Wait,” I said. “What do you mean, you had to remove your tail when you got older? If you spent that much time in animal form you'd have other secondary characteristics that were permanent. You'd never pass for human again once you got far enough to have a tail in human form.”

Jake said, “As with the eyes for the clan tigers that are their beast halves at birth, so with the werewolves of Ireland.”

“You mean wolf tails, or is it ears sometimes?”

“Always tails, though there are stories of some of us born with ears, but people thought we were part of the gentle folk, not werewolves.”

“I've read stories of Fey with animal ears; are you saying those were types of lycanthropes?”

“Not all wolves, but many of them, yes.”

“How did you pass the blood test for the army?” Edward asked, and he'd sort of recovered himself, or at least his voice was cold and distant. It was a voice that told you nothing except that you should be wary of him.

“My blood work comes up human.” He looked at the other men in the van as we picked up speed. We were on a highway, I thought, but in the enclosed vehicle we really couldn't tell. “Devereux, Christensen, your card says that your type of lycanthropy is tiger. Blake's file says she runs with clan tigers—is that what you both are?”

They looked at each other—and then both of them looked at Jake. He gave a small nod. “Yes,” Pride said. Dev just nodded.

“You said
their card
. Didn't you smell their beasts just a few seconds ago?” I asked.

“Normally, I wouldn't answer that, because it would be letting you know what I'm capable of, and what I'm not, but I knew I couldn't hide from this many of you, so no, I didn't smell the type of beast. In
human form my nose isn't nearly as sensitive as a more standard werewolf.”

“How do you know that?” Jake asked.

“I've had to trust other shapeshifters with my secret before.”

“But you didn't trust me,” Edward said, and his voice wasn't cold now. There was too much emotion in it for coldness.

“Are you bothered that I didn't tell you my secret, or bothered that I'm a werewolf?”

“The first part, and that I didn't spot it. I pride myself on being able to spot the monsters. It's part of what keeps me alive in this business, and you totally got by my radar.”

“It was a genetic condition that I could ignore most of the time. I didn't tell anyone.”

“A lycanthrope could have smoked me on the PT tests, but you and I were always neck and neck for the top time, number, whatever. Did you hold back so I wouldn't guess you weren't human?”

“No, you pushed me to work as hard as I could to keep up with your arse. Being a born wolf doesn't give you much more than human physical abilities. I'm in the top percentage of most PT and I'm not aging out of it yet, but you pushed me, Forrester, which means you're in the top percentage, too. I'm part wolf—what's your secret?”

Edward tried to keep frowning, and then smiled and stared at the floor as we slowed down. Either we were in traffic or we'd turned onto a smaller road.

“Do I say,
No secret, I am just that good
, or do I say,
Lying bastard
? Every type of lycanthrope I've met is better than human-normal, like superhero better. I'm good, really good, but I'm not superhero good and you should be.”

Nolan shook his head. “I swear to you, I did my best to beat you, or at least keep up with you. I'm too damned competitive for anything else.”

Edward gave a small smile. “You seemed to be.”

Nolan looked at the two weretigers. “Are you both that much above human-normal physically?”

They both said yes, and then Pride added, “Are you saying that
your type of lycanthropy doesn't show up on a blood test that's specifically looking for it?”

“That's right.”

Dev and Pride looked at each other and then back at Nolan. “If we could pass the physical, some of us would have tried for the military,” Dev said.

“I can't picture you in the military,” Nathaniel said.

Dev turned to him with a grin. “Not me, but some of my other cousins would have.”

“Military service would have divided you from your other loyalties,” Jake said.

Pride asked, “Are you saying that even if we could pass the physical, we wouldn't have been allowed to join?”

“It wasn't possible,” Kaazim said, touching Jake's arm, “so it does not matter; it is moot.”

Nolan was watching the interchange. He was trusting us with his secret, but we didn't have to trust him with any of ours, not until I'd had time to talk to Edward in private. “It sounds like the born wolf is different from the clan tigers in more than just flavor of inner beast.”

“It would seem so, but these are the first clan tigers I've ever met, and since I'm almost certain Devereux and Christensen are the same clan, maybe other clans will be closer to my people,” Nolan said.

“To our knowledge none of the clan tigers can pass a blood test for lycanthropy,” Kaazim said.

“Which means,” I said, “maybe what you have isn't lycanthropy. Are you tied to the moon at all?”

He shook his head. “No, we aren't forced to change with the full moon, or forced at all. Once we gain control of the power we can go years without changing form.”

All of us who fought against our inner beasts exchanged looks. It was Dev who asked, “Don't you miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“Your beast.”

“I do, but it's a preference. I could choose to be fully human and never become the other again.”

“Do you know any werewolves who have chosen to do that?” Pride asked.