Blood Debt (Judah Black Novels Book 2) (18 page)

“If you’re going to tell me it gets easier, you might as well save your breath,” Hunter spat.

“If only,” Chanter answered. “For you, it gets harder. Ten years from now, you’ll be alone, lying bleeding out in a ditch after some other, bigger, smarter, stronger wolf rips your throat out. If you’re lucky, you’ll be so fucked up, strung out on drugs you won’t feel the panic fluttering in your gut as your heart beats its last. If you’re not, you’ll lie there in the mud, calling for your mother while you piss and shit yourself as your body shuts itself down. You die cold and alone, exactly as you’ve lived.”

Hunter’s eyes widened. “How…How do you know that?”

“It’s a scenario I’ve seen many times. You are not the first angry young man in the world, Hunter. But it’s not the only future waiting for you. You can cut the crap, kid, and realize you’re not tough shit. You sit. You stay. And, when you’ve finally extracted your cowardly head from your backside, you’ll learn a thing or two. This is not a life you can live hard and fast and long all at once. Even if you turned out to be a badass instead of some snot nosed brat looking to start a fight because he has nothing better to do—which I promise you, you’re not—then know this: there is always someone out there bigger and badder than you.”

Hunter swallowed. “I…uh…”

“This isn’t a discussion. I’ve said my part. The ball is in your court now, boy. We’re done with it. Now comes the matter of your future with this pack.” Chanter cleared his throat, stifled a cough and lifted his head. “Tonight, you go with Saloso. Do as you’re told. Listen. Learn. How it goes will factor greatly in our next vote on what’s to become of you. Prove yourself and we will see how you shift under one of the next full moons.”

“Really?” Hunter’s eyes lit up. I hadn’t seen him so excited since last Christmas.

Chanter gave a singular nod of his head. Hunter beamed and Chanter allowed himself a small smile. “Go on in, Hunter. Saloso’s in the back.”

Hunter darted by the both of us so fast I was surprised he didn’t leave a miniature tornado in his wake. I moved to follow, but Chanter stopped me, putting a hand gently on my shoulder. “Tonight, you must stay here.”

“He’s my son.”

“Not tonight.” Chanter retracted his hand. “Tonight, he is a prospective member of the Silvermoon pack. He will have to do this without you.”

“He’s twelve years old!” I gestured toward the house. “He’s a kid!”

“He’s a young man, Judah, and it’s high time you cut the umbilical cord before it poisons more than just your relationship with your son.”

“I’m his mother. It’s my job to protect him.”

Chanter nodded and said, “I knew you would say that. How about you and I make a deal? You stay and I will, too. I will stay and help you with your case.”

My mouth worked but it took me a few tries to get out what I wanted to say. “You’re not going with the pack?”

“There will be other full moons for me.” He pulled open the front door and gestured to it with his cane. “Now, come inside. Nina wants to show you how to use the oxygen just in case.”

Inside, Ed, Mara and Valentino were at the kitchen table. Mara was rubbing Ed’s shoulders. Leo was on the floor behind them banging two pillows together. Only Mara looked up when I came in, and I gestured for her to follow me into the living room. Mara, Leo and I would be staying behind while the rest went out. Well, I guessed Chanter was going to stay now, too, but it was his choice. I told myself he wasn’t staying because he had to but because he wanted to. It was easier for me to accept than thinking of him as too weak to shift.

We went into the living room where Nina was waiting. While Chanter went to sit in the recliner, she hurried me through the basics of running the oxygen machine. It was pretty straight forward, I thought, but she made me do it once while she watched, just to make sure I understood.

After she was satisfied with my ability to turn the knob on the tank, she nodded, crossed her arms and addressed her father. “If you’re staying and Saloso is taking Hunter, who’s going to lead the hunt tonight?”

Chanter ignored her obvious power play in favor of Valentino. Instead, he gave her a dismissive wave. “Get everyone together in here. We need to have a little chat.”

Over the course of the next ten minutes or so, the living room filled up. Mara and I slid to the back of the room. No one else took the empty spaces on the sofa next to Chanter. They sat on the floor, on their knees and cross-legged, facing Chanter. Hunter came in with Sal but broke off to stand with Mara and I. Sal stepped gingerly to the front and sat down on his knees just inches away from Chanter.

Chanter rolled his eyes over the room, each person stilling as his gaze fell on them. “I will not be going on the hunt tonight.”

A roar of objections followed. Sal and Valentino locked eyes.

Chanter held up a hand, quieting the room. “I wasn’t finished. We’ve long been in closed door talks about Hunter. All of you have made your opinions known on whether or not he belongs here. I know there are a lot of personal feelings, many of them guided by past events that don’t even concern him. Tonight, you will put them aside. It’s time we made him an official prospective member of the pack. Saloso.”

“Yes, Alpha,” came Sal’s answer.

“You brought him to us. These past months, you’ve acted as an informal guide. Are you willing to make a formal bid as his sponsor into this pack?”

I reached over for Hunter’s hand and tried to wrap my fingers around it. He jerked it away and folded his arms.

Sal glanced back at us before answering. “I am.”

Chanter nodded. “Are there any objections? Speak now or else hold your tongue.” In the crowd, Nina shifted, digging an elbow into Valentino who shrugged her off. “Nina,” Chanter barked. “Something to say?”

She lowered her head. “I was only wondering about the timing of this. With you staying home and Saloso going off with a prospective member, who will lead the hunt tonight? Are you sure now is the right time?”

“Are you questioning my leadership?”

“No, Alpha.”

“Are you objecting to Sal’s sponsorship of the boy?”

She shook her head.

“Then be silent,” Chanter told his daughter with a frown before turning back to address Sal. “Very well, Saloso. His successes will be yours and yours his. His failures are now yours and yours his. Hunter, do you understand?”

Hunter uncrossed his arms. “Yeah. I mean, I think so.”

“Hopefully, it will be clearer after tonight. You will go with Saloso and do everything he orders of you. Your future with the Silvermoons depends on it. Everything you do, know we are watching you. Act as if we are. Do you promise to do that, boy?”

Hunter cleared his throat. “Yes, sir.”

“Good,” Chanter grunted. “Now, as to the matter of who leads tonight. Valentino, you seem eager to prove yourself. Take the pack out tonight. Bring back something worthy of your time.”

Valentino lowered his head a little before answering. “Yes, Alpha.”

I glanced around the room, amazed again at how everyone transformed in semi-formal situations like this. Their faces were solemn, reflective, as if they were sitting in a church and not Valentino’s living room. Chanter ceased being a friend, a father or an uncle. He was an alpha and each of them owed him their attention and respect.

Chanter gave a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Judah, Mara, Leo…You’ll sit with me. The rest of you, you have your assigned tasks. I will see you at dawn.”

The pack filed out the back door and into the fenced in yard. It was dusk and a good wind was blowing. The gate to the yard was undone and the wind was blowing the handle into the hitch with a gentle, metallic tap. I followed as far as the patio, standing in silence as everyone but Sal and Hunter stripped off their clothing and started to shift.

I used to have nightmares about the sounds and sights. When they shifted, werewolves weren’t reborn. It was more as if they crawled out of their human skins, shaking off the blood like water. They let free a beast with jaws and claws, capable of killing full grown men. By the sounds of it, it was painful, too. The cursing and cries of anguish made me wonder why anyone would ever choose to shift as they do. As it had been explained to me, not shifting was just as dangerous. It led to all kinds of negative health effects. To hear Sal and Chanter tell it, failure to shift was a leading contributor to the high number of werewolf suicides. For them, it was either the momentary pain of shedding one skin for another or long, drawn out emotional torment faced alone.

I hoped the shift would do Hunter some good, help him sort out some of those negative emotions. There was no cure for teenage apathy and I didn’t expect it to go away overnight. Still, I hoped being a part of something like the pack would get Hunter to open up more. Ever since he’d been kidnapped and nearly killed by two wendigoes, he’d become even more distant. One of them had eaten the meat right off of his finger. The exterior injury had healed, but he was broken inside. I thought counseling would help, but he wouldn’t talk. Eventually, we just stopped going. Perhaps all the emotional support he needed was that of a pack. I watched him on the edge of the patio, standing next to Sal, shifting his weight from one side to the other, wondering if he was as nervous as I was about how this night would go for him.

“What are you going to do?” I asked Sal when he came to stand next to me.

“I’ll put him in the truck. We’ll drive out to the middle of nowhere and get a fire going. If it were Chanter, he’d spout a bunch of Indian mystic bullshit but I don’t think the kid’s going to respond to that. I’m going to give it to him straight. He needs to pull his shit together and man up.”

I turned to face him. “What if this doesn’t work? What if he doesn’t respond or things get worse?”

“I’m not going to let that happen,” Sal answered firmly. “I promise you. Hunter is safe with me.”

“I know. I trust you. It’s just…”

“Nerves?”

I nodded. “He’s my only son, Sal.”

“I know,” Sal said with a small smile. “You’d go to hell and back for him. You pretty much did last summer. I’d hate to have been on the wrong side of that righteous rage.”

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it until it hurt before bending down to try to kiss me on the cheek. I turned my head away, not even thinking about it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be close to Sal. I didn’t
not
want it, either. I just couldn’t afford it, not with my job. And he needed a clear head to make it through to Hunter. I didn’t want those lines to get blurred.

I didn’t want things to progress beyond friendship between Sal and I, no matter how I felt. There are times when I hate my stupid feelings. By moving away, I’d sent a loud and clear message, one I hadn’t bothered with before. I’d been leading him on all this time. It was time to stop.

Sal stopped short and recovered awkwardly, cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head. “You take care of Chanter and that elf until I get back.”

“Will do,” I said with a tight lipped smile.

He let me go and called to Hunter. “Come on, kid. We’ve got places to be.”

I felt a little guilty as I watched them pull away, but I kept it to myself. My head had to be in this case if I was going to make it out alive.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A short while later, Chanter and I opened the doors to the shed. Mara had Leo in her arms and I had the fold-up playpen. Outside, it was a warm, comfortable and clear night with a light breeze. The moon was big and full in the sky, giving us plenty of light. Still, Chanter brought out an old oil lantern and placed it in the corner of the shed, casting shadows over Creven.

The elf’s cheeks were pink. His chest rose and fell with the rhythms of sleep, but he didn’t stir when we came in. An IV drip was still going, though the bag was almost empty. Chanter pulled it down and swapped it out for another while I set up the playpen.

I watched him intently after snapping everything in place. “Everyone around here sure knows a lot about medicine. I’m not sure I could sew up wounds and change IV bags.”

“You pick things up,” Chanter said in a flat tone. “Werewolves like to fight. That means we also have to patch ourselves up.”

Mara couldn’t stop staring at the heavy bandages over Creven’s stomach, even after she lowered Leo into the playpen. “Holy shit. What happened to him?”

“Impaled with iron thanks to a giant,” I said quietly.

“A giant?” Mara whispered in a breath.

“Yeah, and he looks better than the first few victims.”

“Get those lawn chairs, girl,” Chanter said, pointing to some old green folding chairs. I pulled them down off the wall and handed them to Mara, who set them up at the entrance to the shed. Chanter sank into one and asked, “How many are dead now?”

“Let’s see,” I answered, sitting next to him and leaving the one on the end for Mara. “Harry Continelli, the vampire, Annie Cox—”

“Annie?” Mara put a hand over her mouth.

“Did you know her?” I asked turning to Mara.

She nodded gravely. “I mean, sometimes I still go in there, to Aisling. I remember. She was pretty. Always asked for ID so I had to drink virgin when she was working.” Mara directed her attention forward into the empty street. “I can’t believe someone I know is dead…”

“More than just her now,” I added. “There were also three bodyguards and a whole company of private security. It’s got to be over a dozen people now.”

“And you mentioned you thought it was fae,” Chanter said. “What makes you think that?”

“He gave me three chances to stand down. He also said he was under oath to kill Kim. Took it pretty seriously. When I stood in its way after the third warning, that’s when he attacked. He was almost pleasant, except for the part where he tried to kill us.”

“Kim,” said Chanter in a voice that told me he was deep in thought. “You mean Kim Kelley?”

“Creven works for her,” I said, gesturing to the elf behind us. “I thought at first he was behind this considering he’s a pretty powerful practitioner and that he’s fae as well but…”