“Yeah, real bang-up job they’ve been doing of it so far.” I tore away from him. “Who died and left you in charge of me, huh? I’m not going back to the Order. I’m heading we—oh.” I shut up. Telling August where I was headed was not a good idea. Except I’d already spilled the beans to Christophe.
Christophe grabbed my arm again, his fingers sinking in. His eyes burned blue. “The Maharaj have decided to ally with my father instead of with us. For what reason I cannot guess, unless they know something we do not and wish to treat with the victor instead of the vanquished. The Order will have a difficult enough time fighting on two fronts, and if the djinni-ji are watching for you as well, I prefer you safe within the Order’s defenses. Gather your things.”
All this time I’d been wishing for someone else to show up and take charge, and now that he was doing it, I seriously wanted to smack him. “The Order’s not going to protect me.” I tried yanking away from him again, but his fingers bit down and I stopped, glared at him. “Or Graves. Look how well that turned out. Why should I give them another chance to screw up and make my life miserable, huh? At least out on my own I know who to depend on!”
“Oh, I don’t think you do.” The aspect settled over Christophe, his hair slicking down, the blond highlights eaten by darkness. He looked as grim as I’d ever seen him. “I think you trust entirely the wrong people, kochana. Now.” Either he was shaking or I was, I couldn’t tell. “If you do not pack your things, August will, and I will drag you to whatever extraction point they’ve managed to hold in this city. Do you understand me?”
I stared up at him for a long moment. Ash whined softly, deep in his throat. The entirely mad idea that I could use the touch to make him jump Christophe floated through my head, but that would be stupid.
Still . . . the thought had some merit.
“Dru.” Augustine stepped forward, avoiding Christophe’s malaika on the floor in front of the TV. “Dru-girl, princess, please. There’s me and Hiro. And your wulfen friends. Reynard’s right, if the Maharaj are playing fast and loose we need to get you under cover. I know you’re scared, but please. Listen to us. We’ve got to get you out of here. There are nosferat all over the city; they’ve been on your trail since the warehouse. I don’t know how you’ve stayed alive so far—”
I don’t know either, Augie. It’s been a hell of a ride. For the first time, August was talking to me like I was a fellow adult. I couldn’t even feel happy about it.
“Let go of me.” I didn’t sound like myself. Christophe eased up a little, and when I took my arm away from him I could feel the aspect smoothing over bruises his grip had left. “Thanks, Augie. You’re the one who asks me instead of tells me whatever-the-fuck to do.”
He actually looked shocked. “Language, kiddo.” It was the same thing he would have said during the month I spent with him while Dad was up hunting something out Canada way—hunting, probably, for Sergej. I’d figured out that much later, at least. “Come on. Please?”
“I think we ought to move it along.” Graves stood, his hands in his pockets and his head cocked. “Whatever we’re going to do.” He sounded . . . weird. Flat, monotone, and a little bored.
The words had a completely unexpected effect. Christophe tensed, raising his head and staring at him. August let out a long soft breath, the aspect flickering through him too and his fangs growing with a slight crackle, touching his lower lip.
“Bad.” Ash weighed in, a thin whisper. “Bad.”
I half-turned, and he was staring at Graves. Ash’s eyes glowed orange, and he braced himself, legs tensing and shoulders hulking up as he crouched on the bed.
“Because I am Broken,” Graves continued in a low uneven singsong, his eyes now black from lid to lid, “I can’t fight him much longer. He wants her captured, or dead.” His head tipped back, and the Other—the thing wulfen use to change and loup-garou use for dominance—swelled through him, a colorless tide that smelled of strawberry incense and smoky fury. “And if he has to use me to do it, he will.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It happened so fast.
Christophe shoved me, hard. My malaika flew out of my hands and I hit the bed, going down with Ash in a tangle of arms and legs. We spilled over the side, hitting the floor, Ash letting out an oof that would’ve been hilarious if I hadn’t clocked my head a good one and got an elbow deep in my ribs. We rolled, Ash supple as a writhing snake, and there was a sickening crunch. A couple of thumps, a shivering crash, and it was official: we were making a lot of noise.
“Don’t—” August sounded breathless. “Reynard—Christophe. No. She won’t thank you for it.” A low grunt of effort. “No.” Then a long string of foreign words, the k’s and z’s all sharp as a djamphir’s fangs.
I struggled. Ash flowed away and I leapt to my feet, my T-shirt flapping where it had torn along the collar. My boxers were all messed up too, and air conditioning lay cold and slick against my shivering skin. I was freezing, every inch of me coated with ice. Oh, Jesus, please—
I had no idea what I was about to ask for.
Graves lay, flung back under the window, his long frame curled up around an invisible beach ball. His eyes were closed, and he was deathly still. The paleness under his coloring turned him a weird chalky yellowish color, and I let out a half–sob.