Marked Page 7

  "I've never seen anything like it. Some of the enforcers slit their own throats. Most of them just stood there and let our guys kill them without even trying to defend themselves. Only a couple in the whole group managed anything even remotely like effective resistance, and even they were swarmed down in seconds. I saw wolves well into their second century, wolves with enough experience to know better, throw themselves directly into the claws of some of the baddest hybrids on the planet like they were hotheaded kids with more brawns than brains."

  "How many did we lose?"

  "Only one, but it was one we didn't need to lose. If she'd just stayed out of things then Grayson could have held them all in place for the minute or so more we would have needed to dispatch all of them. That death is on her head; more than that, it's on Alec's head and if you supported his decision then it's on your head too."

  Chapter 5

  Adriana Paige

  Interstate 15

  Southern Idaho

  I wanted to throw up, but I hadn't eaten anything since the evening before so there wasn't anything in my stomach to come back up. I couldn't have said how I got off of the phone with Tasha, but I had vague memories of telling her to make sure that everyone was taken care of and that they cleared far enough out of Nephi that the authorities wouldn't be able to track them down.

  There were two calls waiting for me in the administrator phone queue, but I couldn't bring myself to answer them. I looked over at Donovan, who now had blood smeared all the way up to his elbows in addition to the blood on his face from when he'd killed the sniper.

  "I have to know, Donovan. Is Alec going to survive or has all of this been for nothing? I'll get back on the phone and lie to all of those people if that's what needs to happen to make sure that the wheels stay on long enough for Alec to take back over, but I can't do it if he's not going to be around to pick up the pieces when I fall apart in a few days because of all the stress and the lies."

  Donovan looked up at me and for the first time I could remember he looked old in the I-have-one-foot-in-the-grave-and-it's-only-a-matter-of-time-before-the-rest-of-me-follows way. I'd seen Donovan face with equanimity the destruction of the house that had been his to maintain for more years than I'd been alive. I'd watched as he dealt with Rachel's disappearance with the kind of serenity few parents could have hoped to match, but now he looked exhausted in ways that went much deeper than just a lack of sleep.

  "Ruby, you've been an outstanding assistant, I'm sorry to have to do this, but I need your word that you won't breathe a word of what has transpired in this room to anyone."

  "Of course, Mr. Harringsford."

  "I'll need you to bind your beast to it."

  "Very well. I promise not to breathe a word of what has transpired in this room to anyone."

  "This ye so swear, unto this you bind yourselves?"

  "Yes, this we so swear. Unto this we bind ourselves."

  "Thank you, my dear. You can leave now. Please activate the white noise generator on your way out and then shut the door behind you."

  Donovan watched until Ruby was gone and then resumed working on Alec for several seconds before he finally sighed.

  "I can't say for sure, Mistress Paige. To be honest I should have lost Alec four or five times in just the last hour. The bullet passed within a centimeter or two of his heart."

  "So it missed it then, that's good, right?"

  "With a different bullet, yes, but a bullet of that caliber moving at supersonic speeds doesn't just tear through flesh it creates a shockwave that destroys everything in a cone around the entry wound. By everything I've seen since I began practicing medicine Alec should have been dead before he hit the ground."

  "But he's not, right?"

  "No, he's not, but we've used our entire store of whole blood and there is still severe damage to the area around his heart. I think that I've got the bleeding stopped, but if I don't then he could very easily end up dead before we can find more blood."

  "What's his blood type? He can have a pint of mine."

  "I don't think that's a good idea, Mistress Paige."

  "You're not even going to ask what my blood type is first?"

  Donovan didn't even look up from his sewing. "No, I'm not. Your idea has merit and if in an hour his blood pressure has continued to drop, I'll search among the rest of our people for someone who has the correct match, but we will not be using your blood."

  "Why not, Donovan?"

  "Because you are Alec's heir and we are still in the middle of a war. I'm not going to do anything that might put you at risk."

  "That's ridiculous. People give blood all of the time. It's perfectly safe."

  "Indeed that is the case for civilians, but what do you think it would do to your chances of survival if you were injured just after giving blood? You're too important to the monarchy to risk in such a way. You need to be preserved at all costs so that you can rule over our people."

  I was almost too shocked for words. I had to shake my head incredulously several times before I finally managed a verbal response.

  "Donovan, we both know that isn't true. The only thing that makes me even remotely important is the fact that Alec cares about me. I'm not fit to rule over anything. If I'd been the one in charge today everyone would have died. You were the one who killed the sniper, you were the one who operated on Alec, and you were the one who sent the police chasing their tails so that we could flee the scene of the battle."

  I took a deep breath and said the words that we both knew needed said. "Donovan, you need to be the one in charge of things until Alec is back on his feet. I can't do it, I'll just get everyone killed."

  Donovan looked up just long enough to give me a sad smile. "Quite to the contrary, Mistress Paige. You are the only one who can hope to keep Master Alec's coalition together in his absence, temporary or otherwise. My close association with Master Alec has imbued me with a certain amount of his authority, but I'm a shape shifter and that means that I'm part of the normal dominance hierarchy. No matter how good my opinions actually are, I will eventually be challenged for my position and the fact that I am or am not viewed as Master Alec's logical successor will never even enter into the equation.

  "You on the other hand are a human being. That means you stand outside of the normal dominance hierarchy and the fact that you're gifted with an ability means that you're still somewhat of our world. More importantly you'll be viewed as a fairly neutral party.

  "The authority Master Alec has invested you with will guarantee your position for at least the next several days, possibly as long as a few weeks. With any luck, Master Alec will be back on his feet by then, but if the worst should come to pass, you'll have had a period of time in which you were able to show yourself as a reasonable, competent, fair ruler. If you can come to a favorable arrangement with Jaclyn Annikov or Grayson there is a chance that you'll be able to cement your position and continue ruling long past the time when the Coun'hij is defeated."

  "I don't have anything to offer Grayson or Jaclyn."

  "You have Alec's half of the Graves fortune, but more importantly you have the qualities that Master Alec saw in you so long ago. You have the potential to be an excellent queen, you merely need time to grow into the role."

  "And if I say no?"

  "Then it won't matter whether Master Alec lives or dies. In the absence of a strong central authority, especially after a setback such as we suffered today, our coalition will evaporate in a matter of days or possibly even hours. With no other significant distractions to worry about, the Coun'hij will hunt all of Alec's closest confidants down and none of us will survive the month."

  Chapter 6

  Adriana Paige

  Interstate 15

  Northern Utah

  After Donovan put things like that I couldn't refuse to do whatever it took to try and hold things together. I took a deep, bracing breath and then I put my headset back on and answered the first of the calls that were waiting for me. />
  "This is Adriana Paige, what do you need, Ms. Marks?"

  The communications software on Donovan's laptop told me who had been waiting to talk to me, but I knew far too little about Tiffany Marks. I was about to continue the high-stakes negotiation that Alec had started with her a few hours previously with nothing more to go on than an overheard conversation between her and Alec.

  "I was told I was being put through to Alec Graves. Nobody said anything about making me dance for his skirt."

  "Really? I rather suspect that you were told you were being directed to the person in charge. Right now that is me, and I'm feeling generous right now, so I'm going to let you apologize and start over rather than telling Alec to go ahead and carry out the threat he leveled against you earlier today."

  I could tell based on the lungful of air that she sucked in that she was about to reply with something hasty, so I beat her to the punch.

  "I'm the one who has been sitting in on Alec's conferences for the last two months, Ms. Marks. Unlike you, I know what's really going on and if you cause me even a single moment more unpleasantness you're going to find yourself very, very alone in the middle of a world that is much, much more dangerous than you've been led to believe."

  A tiny part of me wondered what Daphne would have thought of my performance. I wasn't any better at misdirecting people than I had been earlier in the day, but this time I was the one calling the shots and that was surprisingly liberating. I didn't have to dance around the truth because as long as Vik and the rest of our people were willing to obey me, in a very real sense I could create my own reality and the reality I could see for Tiffany Marks could become very bleak indeed.

  "You're much more than I was told to expect."

  "That's the funny thing about rumors, Ms. Marks. They rarely turn out to be accurate. I'd suggest you spend some time pondering that little gem of wisdom over the next few days. I suspect there will be some very wild rumors spawned because of today's events. Now what do you need? And be quick about it. I have a number of other pressing things that still need to be done."

  "Graves steamrolled me into helping, which means that everyone else in my pack who didn't fly here on the plane with me is currently in cars headed north with no destination in mind and very little cash. It took everything we could scrape together on short notice to charter a jet that had any hope of making the deadline we were given."

  "It will be some time, a few hours at the very least, before I can give you a solid idea of where your people should be headed, but I'll see to it that you are all taken care of. I'm going to transfer you back to Vik and he will see to it that a reasonable amount of money is made available to you. Tell him I told you to ask for two hundred thousand dollars."

  I heard a soft inhalation and wondered how Tiffany had ended up running the Del Rio pack. Even I could tell that she was much too transparent to last long in the position. It was a useful piece of information, as was the knowledge of just how impoverished her fellow pack mates were. Money couldn't buy loyalty, but it could buy obedience and I was more than happy to settle for that for now.

  "The money is for all of your people, Tiffany. If you try to run off with it, things will not go well for you."

  "You're not afraid of throwing your weight around, are you?"

  "I'm simply doing what needs to be done, Tiffany. It's not always pleasant, but right now there is more to be done than Alec could possibly get to."

  "I guess there are a whole lot of people who've underestimated you."

  I started to say goodbye, but Donovan's words about needing allies were still ringing in my ears. I was pretty sure that I'd taken things as far as I could with Tiffany for now, but that was okay. She wasn't any more or less powerful than any other hybrid. In fact, the only reason that I was talking to her was because Alec had made promises to her and the only reason that Alec had called her in the first place was because she was the one currently holding Lori's leash.

  The real question was whether she understood that, and if she did whether she actually wanted to be responsible for keeping Lori from doing something even worse than what she'd already done.

  "Tiffany, what have you done with Lori?"

  "She's sitting in a rental car with two of my people who are ready to cut her throat if she so much as twitches. I would have drugged her up already, but we left home in such a hurry that we forgot to grab the tranquilizers. Now that you're sending me some cash I'll go make a quick trip to a veterinary supply store and buy something strong enough to put an elephant under."

  "I want to talk to her."

  "Why on earth would you want to do that?"

  "Because I'm a relatively neutral third party and you're currently sitting on the back of a tiger and praying it doesn't realize that your arms are getting tired. There's a small possibility that I can work this situation around to one that benefits both of us."

  She wasn't happy about giving Lori the phone, that much was obvious from the way that she stomped over to the car where Lori was being held, but she went and for now that was all I could ask.

  "Someone wants to talk to you."

  "H-hello?"

  "Lori, you and I haven't ever met, but my name is Adriana Paige. Do you know who I am?"

  "Alec Graves' girlfriend?"

  "More precisely, I'm Alec's fiancé and future wife. I'm the one you tried to screw over by using your powers to manipulate him into being your sockpuppet."

  "I didn't want anyone to get hurt. You don't know what it's like to be part of a small pack that's besieged on all sides by enemies. All I've ever done is try to protect my father and keep our pack from getting caught up in your little war."

  "Actually, I know exactly what that feels like. We've had a knife to our throat for the entire time I've been part of Alec's pack. The difference is that we've never taken away people's ability to choose their own path."

  "Whatever helps you sleep. I've heard enough stories to know that isn't true. Alec isn't any different than any of the rest of the pack alphas. He's used force and intimidation to get nearly everything he's ever wanted."

  "It's logic like that, Lori, that made me think I was probably wasting my time talking to you. Threats and intimidation are part of the world we live in. I don't like them, but sometimes that's the only way to get someone to see the situation they are actually facing. At the end of the day though, they still have a choice. That's why your ability is such a deviant thing. Someone under your influence doesn't have the ability to choose anymore."

  She took a breath, probably to respond with righteous indignation, but I beat her to the punch.

  "How did it feel to take control of all those people and then order the enforcers to kill themselves?"

  Based on how long it took her to answer me, I'd caught her completely off guard. "It…it was scary. It was the first time I've ever taken out all the stops on my gift like that. Before Alec outed me, I always took a lot of effort to make sure that I used my gift in subtle ways. My father always told me never to push anyone so hard that afterwards they would question a decision they'd made in our presence."

  "Maybe I was wrong about you, Lori. A lot depends on where you choose to go from here."

  "What do you mean? I don't have any choices. Tiffany is going to drug me again so I'm safely unconscious until the next time somebody needs me to wipe out an enemy army for them. Even if that wasn't the case, nobody is ever going to trust me now that everyone knows about my ability."

  "That's the funny thing about trust, Lori. We all trust people who could hurt us, but we trust them because of their past actions. Spend some time thinking about that, and while you're at it try to figure out which side of this war you want to be on."

  "What if I don't want to pick a side?"

  "That's not going to be an option and you know it—at least your dad knows it. That's the only reason for the two of you to have come to Sanctuary in the first place. Now hand the phone back to Tiffany, I have other people I need to talk to."


  There was a pause, almost like Lori was having a hard time wrapping her mind around what I'd just said, and then I heard her pass the phone over.

  "You get enough do-gooder points to salve your conscience after running roughshod over me?"

  "Think what you will, Tiffany, but that was a very necessary conversation. I want you to leave Lori awake. Make sure that she's well-fed, that she's got clothes and is otherwise treated like a human being—her dad too, wherever he is."

  "Are you out of your mind? Lori is one of the most dangerous hybrids in the entire world. I'm not going to just let her run around and build up some kind of army."

  "I didn't say anything about letting her go. I want you to keep her under guard, I just want you to show some humanity in the process."

  "I can't keep her under guard. The only way this has worked up to this point is because we've been able to keep her under sedation. I don't have enough people to keep her under a twenty-four-hour guard and fight off every male if she decides to make them attack us like she did a little while ago with the Coun'hij."

  "I'm aware of the unique challenges involved in what I'm requesting. I'm authorizing you to recruit from the rest of Alec's people to fill out your rotation of female guards and I'll furthermore provide a salary of two thousand dollars per day to each of your guards to recompense them for the long hours they are going to be putting in."

  "I don't think that you're listening to me. It isn't possible to hire enough guards to stop every male in the state—shape shifter, human or vampire—if she sends them all at us at once."

  "I heard you just fine the first time, but you're failing to register the most important fact of all. Lori could have done that already and she hasn't."

  "Only because we've had our claws at her throat the entire time."

  "Maybe, or maybe she's just not as far gone as all of us assumed. Make this happen for me, Tiffany. Hire however many guards within reason that you think you need, prohibit any of our men from approaching closer than fifty feet, take whatever precautions a prudent person would take in your situation, but make sure that Lori is conscious and well taken care of. An awful lot may depend on it."