Night Broken

Page 12

Before the guards touched him, he fell off the chair, body writhing for a moment, then every muscle in his body seized. His back arched off the floor, and his eyes rolled back in his head. I dropped to the floor and pulled his head into my lap so it wouldnt slap the floor a second time. Honey protected his tongue by putting her fingers in his mouth. She didnt flinch when he bit down.
When he lapsed into total unconsciousness, it was so sudden that it was more frightening than his sudden fit.
Luke crouched beside me. Weve called for help. You need to leave now.
Honey and I were escorted out of the room with more speed than gentleness, but when we retrieved our IDs, Luke found us again.
He has these fits, sometimes, Luke told us. The doctor thinks its the result of doing hallucinogenic drugs when he was young.
Luke didnt, quite, ask me what Id been doing therebut only because Honey growled at him.
Thank you, I said. He was helpful. Treat him kindly when you can. Something in me rebelled at leaving him here, caged like a zoo animal. My half brother, hed said. Coyotes children. I shivered and hoped that his last words were hallucinogenic remnants, but it had felt, had smelled, like magic to me. It had smelled like Coyote.
Luke nodded at me, lips disapproving, but went back to his job obediently enough.
Some of the pack like to forget who you are when Adam isnt around, Honey said softly. Ill have a discussion with Luke.
I gave her a sharp look she didnt see because she was watching Luke. Honey didnt like being dominantshe avoided situations in which her natural temperament showed through. Id thought Honey didnt like me at all. So why had she just decided, out loud, to squelch Luke?
I opened the locker and collected the Vanagons keys. I walked out the prison door a free woman, but it wasnt until I turned the van out onto the freeway that I really relaxed.
So all you have to do to summon Coyote is be interesting, Honey mused. Shouldnt take you long.
You could stake me out na**d in the desert near an anthill, I suggested.
She shook her head. I dont do clichs. Besides, Adam might object.
My phone rang.
Could you see who that is? I asked.
She picked it up off the floor between our seats and, after a glance at the readout, answered it. Adam, its Honey, she said. Mercy is driving.
Why hasnt she picked up her phone for the past hour? he asked.
She held the phone my direction and raised one eyebrow in inquiry.
Ive been in prison, I said in a sad voice. And left it at that. Honey flashed a grin at me, the expression startling because I was so used to the reserve shed been carrying around with her.
There was a brief silence. Okay, Adam said. Was your undoubtedly brief sojourn the cause of your phone call earlier today? Christy said you didnt leave a message.
Christy answered your cell phone, and you thought Mercy should leave a message? Honeys voice let everyone know exactly what she thought of that.
No, said Adam with gently emphasized patience. I thought that she should have told Christy to give me the phone.
You were unavailable, I told him.
Silence followed. Unhappy silence. And then I remembered who the enemy was and what she wanted to do to Adam and me.
Im sorry, I said. I let her get to me. But not to the point I did something stupid, I promise. I called Honey, and she came with me to see a man about summoning Coyote. Hank gave me his name. It was safe enough.
Adam made a man sound that could have meant anything, but I took it to mean that we were okay again. When he used actual words, the subject wasnt Christy anymore. What did you learn from Hanks contact?
A lot. Important things I didnt want to talk about on the phone. So I gave him the least of it. He doesnt summon Coyote because hes pretty sure thats the stupidest thing anyone could do. But apparently Coyote has a habit of showing up when he finds one of ushis descendantsinteresting.
Adam laughed ruefully. Shouldnt take you long, then.
Thats what I told her, Honey said.
Any word on the fire? I asked.
Arson is confirmed, Adam said, though there seems to be some confusion about the accelerant used. Whatever it was, it got really hot, really fast.
Do you think hes done this kind of thing before? I asked.
The fire investigator seemed to think so. Were looking for suspicious fires tied to an overzealous lover. Were also looking at the European angle. Theres another trail, too. Warren got descriptions of this mans dogs out of Christy. Looks like they are some sort of mastiff. She said they were valuable and difficult for anyone except Juanher stalkerto handle.
That doesnt sound like a mastiff, I told him. Theres a guy in the Montana pack who was breeding all sorts of big dogs. The mastiffs were mostly big sweeties.
Im not sure shed know a poodle from a sheepdog. But Juan Flores apparently took special pleasure in pointing out that both of his dogs outweighed Christy, who is a hundred and ten pounds.
Hah. Christy was at least twenty pounds heavier than that.
Hah. Honey snorted with derision. Christy is at least one thirty or one thirty-five.
Big dog, I said.
Adam laughed. Ill let you know if there is anything new, and Mercy?
Yes?
Dont do anything too interesting.
He disconnected before I could reply.
Dont underestimate Christy, Honey said. Shes not nearly as helpless as she pretends to be.
I know that, I said. I glanced at Honey, then looked back at the road. I thought you liked her.
She growled. Helpless bitch had the whole packAdam includedhopping to her tune. Couldnt mow the lawn, change a tire, or carry her own laundry up the stairs. Even Peter fell for it, and he usually had better sense. She didnt like WarrenI thought at the time she was worried he was going to make a play for Adam, but mostly, I think, he didnt fall over himself to be her slave. Darryls helpless against her, but at least he knows it. All that might not have been too bad, but she played them all off each other. I had my own private celebration when she left Adam.
Her lips twisted. I dont like you, she told me, but there was a lie in her voice, and she stopped talking, looking almost surprised. Shestarted again, her tones softer than they had been. I dont enjoy change, she said. And you are change, Mercy. I am comfortable with the old ways, and you are tossing them aside whenever they dont suit you, while Adam looks on with satisfaction. But one thing Ive always known is that you were trying your best to make things better. Christy, she looked out for herself first. I dont imagine that has changed. Only a fool would say the same about youthough I frequently disagree with your methods and goals.
I cleared my throat. So. Do you want to see a man about some dogs?
5
I pulled into Joels driveway, and our presence was announced by a chorus of barking fit to wake the dead. Joel might work in the vineyards and fix cars as a hobby, but dogs were his passion. He and his wife bred, showed, and trained dogs. I figured that he might be able to help us figure out what kind of dogs Christys stalker had. It was a shot in the dark, but I was willing to do anything to shorten Christys time in my house. Id called Joel, and hed told me to meet him at home.
Mostly, the dogs barking at us were just excited, but I heard the true anger of a dog whose territory is breached in at least one bass voice.
Maybe I should wait, Honey said. Dogs are afraid of me.
I shook my head. Most dogs get over their fear of werewolves pretty fast, given a chance.
I hopped down out of the Vanagon. While I waited for Honey to come around the vehicle, the front door opened, and a small woman came out of the door with a leashless dog that was nonetheless at heel. The dog was white, female, and looked to be a purebred Staffordshire terrier. The woman greeted me in Spanish.
I get mistaken for Hispanic a lot.
I shook my head, but didnt bother objecting to her assumption. Sorry. No hablo Espaol. Esta Joel aqui?
She stopped when she was about ten feet away, and the dog sat as soon as she quit moving. All of the dogs attention was on the woman.
No, the woman said, then paused. Maybe shed had to take a moment to switch languages. You must be Mercy. Joel called and told me what you wanted. I told him to stay at work because I know the dogs as well as he does. Her English was good, with only a touch of accent.
She gave Honey a slightly wary look, and the dog focused on her, too. I am his wife, Lucia. Joel tells me that you are the Mercy who keeps him in parts for his old cars. Come into my house, and I will help you as much as I can.
Her house, when she ushered us in, was not fancy or large, but it was clean enough that I would have eaten off any surface. We sat on an old leather couch while Lucia retreated to her kitchen.
The big white dog whod accompanied her outside followed her into the kitchen, leaving us under the watchful care of the three lesser dogs who were occupying the living room. All of the living-room dogs were male and all the same brindle tan. One of them ignored us entirely as he tried to destroy a hard rubber bone. One sat across the room and stared at us. I fought the urge to stare him down and nudged Honey when she started to do just that.
Were guests, I reminded her. Neutral territory.
The third dog, the biggest of the three, sat on my foot and put his chin on my knee. I rubbed him gently behind the ears. He closed his eyes and made snuffly-content noises. The dog whod been staring at us heaved a disgusted sigh and wiggled around until his back was to us, not happy about the intruders but too well trained to object.
None of the dogs seemed to have an issue with having a werewolf in the house.
There was not a lot of furniture, but what there was was good. Some of it handcrafted, so maybe Joel did some woodworking. Maybe Lucia did the woodworking. On the wall across from me was a framed Texas state flag flanked by good amateur paintings of dogs. One of them could have been the big white dog that followed Joels wife around, and the other was a yellow Lab with a Frisbee in its mouth. There was a case with a display of championship ribbons. On a bookcase were a number of trophies, some of which had dogs on the top of them.
The dogs Joel bred were expensive, well trained, and obtainable only when he was certain the person buying them was capable of taking good care of them. They were good dogsbetter, hed told me seriously, than most people he knew. He had no use for idiots who didnt respect the damage dogs could do when left untrained or put in situations where they felt they had to defend themselves.
In addition to breeding, he and his wife rehabbed the aggressive dogs that were brought to the local shelters that would otherwise have just put the dogs down. Joel had scars on his arms and a huge one on his leg from a terrified, half-grown Rottweiler who now, Joel had assured me, lived happily with a huge family. Mostly, they had success, hed told me, but a few were too badly damaged to ever be safe in human company.
The Marrok took damaged werewolves into his pack, where he could control the conditions under which they interacted with the rest of the world. Joel had told me with tears in his eyes about a battered pit-survivor hed had to put down a few months ago. He was as passionate in his desire to save his dogs as the Marrok was to save his wolves.
Joels wife brought in three glasses of sun tea and sat down in the chair opposite the couch while I explained about Christys stalkerand how I thought that if the dog breed he had was rare, maybe we could find someone who knew him in the dog world. I gave her the bare-bones description Christy had given me.
Molossers, Lucia said, then gave Honey a grin. It is a type, not a breed. It includes mastiffs and Saint Bernards. How familiar is your husbands ex-wife with dog breeds?
I called Adams cell phone.
Christy answered yet again. Adams phone, she said. He
So how much do you know about dogs? I asked her without giving her a chance to tell me why she was answering his phoneagainand why he couldnt talk to me.
I grew up with golden retrievers, she said.
Do you know what a molosser is?
No, she admitted reluctantly.
Ask her if she could recognize a Newfoundland, Lucia suggested.
I decided this three-way had gone from awkward to ludicrous, and I handed the phone over to Lucia. Eventually, Christy got on the Internet to look at dog breeds.
Cane corso, Christy said. They look right.
Cane corso are smaller than you describe, Lucia said. Also, they usually have nice temperaments. But poor handling can turn even a Labrador into a dangerous animal. We will keep the cane corso as a possibility. You said these dogs were black.
Yes, Christy agreed. Really black. In the sunlight, it looked like they were black striped on black.