Daytime was safe enough, for the most part. Nights were getting bitter, and bloody.
Traditional means had gotten the Elite no closer to rousting Lacroix from city hall. He was simply too well fortified to be forced out like an annoying splinter wedged in the Society’s heel. And, thanks to his ability to compel vampires to join his cause, the numbers were on his side.
The Lyceum itself remained secure, due to the Grande Dame’s forethought prior to its evacuation, but that also meant we were cut off from using the tunnels running beneath the Lyceum to infiltrate the building from underneath.
All this meant it was time to pursue nontraditional means.
We needed more allies who were naturally immune to Lacroix’s influence. In a word, we needed gwyllgi. Lucky us, we knew just where to find the largest pack in the southeast. Between Linus and me, we would convince their alpha to play ball, no matter how slim Lethe judged the odds of her mom joining our team.
And the odds got longer from there.
Our petition for an audience with Alpha Tisdale Kinase had been granted, under the condition we groveled in person, and that meant a return to the dreaded Atlanta. That was bad enough, but while Linus and I were asking to borrow sugar from our neighbors, I got the dubious honor of holding out my beggar’s cup to my grandmother, Dame Severine Marchand, in the hopes she would fill it with an education on the goddess-touched condition. The CliffsNotes version anyway.
For Lacroix, an ancient, to wear a pendant for protection against my kind, I must be capable of bringing him down.
If Plan A failed, I was a solid Plan B.
“We’re packed and ready.” I pushed out a long breath then let Linus pull me to my feet. I turned to Amelie, whose eyes shone with a determined light, and let the worry come. “Are you sure you guys will be okay here alone?”
Woolly was packed to the gills with guests, and she was thrilled about it, but I still worried for them.
Neely had refused to budge, and that meant Cruz wasn’t going anywhere either. Busy having the time of her life, Marit was doing her best to convince one of the gwyllgi with a passing resemblance to Hood that she was mate material. Amelie had no choice but to stay. Neither did Oscar, or Woolly. For the last two reasons, I was grateful I would be leaving my home in the capable hands of friends who were more family to me than my own blood.
“We’ve got shelf-stable food and candles if the generator goes.” Amelie flashed a silver lighter on her palm to show they had that covered too. “We’ve got enough clean water to keep our throats wet and the toilets flushing thanks to the creek out back.”
“The gwyllgi pack will be hard on your resources.” But they were a goddess-send when it came to protecting what I was leaving behind, however short the trip. “Remind them to hunt before they hit the fridge. There’s plenty of wildlife to keep their bellies full.”
More than a dozen gwyllgi originally from the Atlanta pack, the same hotheads who’d come to Savannah demanding Lethe’s head on a platter after I killed Ernst Weber and she killed his sister Tess, had sworn themselves into her service.
Predators in those numbers would put a strain on the local wildlife, but that only motivated me more.
“Does that go for Lethe too?” A hesitant smile accompanied the question. “Or does she get special privileges?”
The former bestie checking on the current bestie left me twitchy with awkwardness.
“Ah, no. I would never get between Lethe and food unless you’re tired of having hands, arms…” I shrugged, “…a head.”
“We’ll secure resources once we’re out of the city,” Linus cut in, nudging me along. “We’ll have them delivered to the barricade so the Elite can transport them to Woolly. She will act as a distribution hub for the Society. The Elite will hand-deliver food, clean water, and medical supplies to anyone in the city.”
Using our linked hands, I tugged him into me and brushed a tender kiss across his lips.
Heat flushed his cheeks, sparkling in his eyes. “What was that for?”
“For being you.” I kissed him again, slower. “For caring.”
This was my mess, my family’s mess, and I couldn’t thank him enough for helping me clean up after them.
“As much as I love watching you guys make out,” Amelie said, averting her gaze, “I hear your window of opportunity slamming shut.”
With a quick nod, I whipped a modified pen out of my pocket and popped in a fresh cartridge that smelled of copper and herbs. Before Linus could protest, I drew what we had nicknamed the impervious sigil on the side of his throat, right below his collar, in a tempting hollow I had learned turned his knees to jelly when I nipped him just hard enough to make him gasp.
I told myself it was his delicious reaction, not the thin pink scar, that caused me to fixate on that spot. The smell of his skin caused water to pool in my mouth, but the mark was a brutal reminder that I had almost lost him. That Odette, who I had loved as family, almost took him from me.
Angling away from him while I composed myself, I slid on a backpack stuffed with necromantic paraphernalia before he read the undercurrents of my upset and delayed us longer to soothe me.
Eager to start referring to this trip in the past tense, I was raring to go…and get back home.
Leaving Savannah and my friends vulnerable went against every protective instinct I possessed.
After a final check of its contents, he slung a messenger bag across his shoulders. We were traveling light on the first leg of our journey. All clothes and supplies would be purchased outside Savannah, a cringeworthy expense that left my palm too damp to hold the debit card I would soon be swiping.
Though the truce with Amelie might still be fragile, I couldn’t stop myself from crossing to her and gathering her in a tight hug. “Be safe.”
“You too.” She squeezed me hard, tears in her voice. “I’ll protect Woolly until you get back.” Drawing away, she wiped her cheeks dry with the backs of her hands. “I won’t let those fangy bastards touch one shingle on her roof. I promise.”
Around us, the old house groaned, softening toward Amelie despite her best attempts at keeping her at arm’s—floorboard’s?—length.
That made two of us.
While the old girl was paying attention, I stepped into the corner and pitched my voice low. “Tell Oscar we’ll be home soon.” I patted the wall in front of me. “Make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.”
Ghost boys and full sunlight don’t mix. He and I had already exchanged our goodbyes, but even if he was more than three times my age, he was still a six-year-old boy at heart, and this trip preyed on his abandonment issues.
As he had pointed out multiple times, I could have brought him along in the dented brass button Linus had anchored his spirit to, but he would be safer here with Woolly than with me.
The old house rustled my pant leg with a warm gust from the floor registers, a promise she would do her best to direct Oscar’s energy toward positive outlets.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I told Eileen, who slept on her podium beneath a blanket treated to protect her from UV rays.
I hit the stairs behind Amelie and Linus, and we entered a living room that forced me to squint against the sun pouring through the open curtains.
Craning my neck, I spotted the Torreses in the kitchen preparing an early dinner that made my stomach rumble. Music poured from Neely’s phone as he enacted his favorite moves from some celebrity dance show while Cruz looked on, amused. Several hours into their day, they had moved past the coffee I so desperately craved and onto sweet iced tea.
Having humans in the house was so weird. They were so perky before dark. It was unnatural. Even Keet dozed in his cage, uncovered since he had started attacking the sheet I used to cover him during the day the way a dog might shred its bedding. At least, from the growls, that’s what I assumed was going on.
I really needed to chat with Lethe about how to behave around impressionable parakeets.
With a coquettish flutter of his lashes, Neely convinced his husband to give him a turn around the room. I didn’t interrupt their moment to tell them goodbye. I left them attempting a tango that promised to send them both crashing to the floor if they didn’t get their legs untangled. But then again, maybe that was the point.
Since Woolly still enforced her Boaz ban with relish, we had to meet him and his team on the front lawn.
The sun was so…sunny.
Ugh.
Already my skin felt hot, itchy with the promise of a burn, and I was nowhere near as pale as Linus.
Amelie stayed on the porch, honoring the spirit, if not the letter, of her house arrest, and waved to her brother from there. The casual goodbye told me they had already done their catching up before she fetched us.
“We need to get moving.” Boaz kept his tone distant, his manner professional, and I was glad for it. “I borrowed six men to get you two out, but we need them elsewhere at dusk.”
Unsure of my reception, given our last encounter, I stepped lightly. “Trouble downtown?”
“The looters are at it again,” he said briskly. “Chaos breeds opportunity.”
The conversation died a quick death after that, and I kicked dirt over its grave.
“Take one step, Grier Woolworth, and I’ll rip out your throat. You know I will.” Lethe strode from the tree line with her freshly trimmed and dyed-blue hair swinging, sharp green eyes narrowed, and a cheeseburger in each hand. “As soon as I finish this.” She popped the remainder of one in her mouth and gulped without chewing before pocketing the second. “You were going to leave without saying goodbye? Are you serious? Do your donut promises mean nothing?”
“Do you remember the conversation we had about me telling my nocturnal friends goodbye last night?”
“Hello?” Palms up, she spun a tight circle. “The sun is up there, and I’m down here.”
“You’re not half as smart as I thought you were if you believed for one hot minute you were getting past her,” Hood said conversationally as he trailed his mate with a sandwich bag full of her favorite cereal in hand that he shook to get her attention.