The werewolves needed to be stopped before any other innocent bystanders got hurt or killed because of a connection to the werewolves. If I turned into a monster at the end of the month, I’d be one of them. It was imperative that I found and stopped Chaz, Dillon, and any of the other Sunstrikers who were responsible for the deaths of a number of people who had been infected outside of a legally binding contract with an Other and then killed before they could press charges. Even if not for myself or those other victims, I owed it to Jim Pradiz, also murdered—most likely due to his last big story that leaked the names of the victims and the local Were packs involved—to do my best to stop them.
I met Jack’s expectant gaze with a steady look of my own, praying he would consider my request. After how I’d walked out on him and the rest of the White Hats some months ago, declaring them too extremist for my tastes, to join forces with Royce against Max Carlyle, it wouldn’t be out of line for him to flip me off and send me on my merry way.
“I’m here to ask for your help. There isn’t an easy way for me to say this, and I’m too tired for tact. There’s a chance I might become a Were at the next full moon.”
Nikki stared. Jack said nothing, a tic starting in his cheek.
“I came here because someone from my ex’s pack might have infected me. I want to find him. I want to make him and the rest of the Sunstrikers pay.” I left out the part about what Chaz had done. He might have been the alpha of the Sunstriker pack, but he was a poor decision maker, and I wanted cheating on me to be the last mistake he ever made. “There are people after me, including police. If I do turn into one of... into an Other at the end of the month, I know I can trust you to end it. Until then, I need a place to stay, and someone to work with me to find where the Weres are hiding. Will you help me?”
Nikki’s wide-eyed stare grew into a rather unbecoming gawp that made me want to walk over to shut her mouth, if only my feet didn’t hurt so much.
For his part, Jack wasn’t showing any emotion. His only reaction was to lift one hand to rub at the pale stubble on his jaw. I think it’s the first time I’d ever seen him anything but clean-shaven.
He edged around Nikki and rested both palms flat on the display case as he loomed over it. The intensity of his gaze was a bit much, and I found I couldn’t meet his eyes directly as he examined me.
“You realize what you’re asking? You know what we’ll do if you turn?”
That question gave me enough courage to meet his eyes again. “Yes, I know. I’m counting on it.”
His smile, white and shark-like, sent a shiver down my spine. “Welcome to the White Hats.”
Chapter 3
“Not that I’m not pleased that you came to us first, but what changed your mind? As I recall, you were more interested in siding with the monsters last time we spoke.”
The smell of the place—cigarette smoke and stale beer—was getting under my skin. Though I was bordering on too-tired-to-care territory, I used the back of my hand to rub at my eyes, hoping I wasn’t grinding dirt under the lids. “Yeah, I know.”
Nikki gave a growl that would have done a Were proud. “That’s it? Just ‘I know’? No apology?”
It took a great deal of effort to muster the energy to give Nikki a glare, but once I did, her already pale skin whitened, and she couldn’t meet my gaze. There was something eminently satisfying about her reaction, but it also gave me the feeling I was turning into something I didn’t want. Forcing my eyes away, staring at some of the pithy T-shirts and posters plastering the walls behind the counter, I mustered up the apology she and Jack so obviously wanted.
“I’m sorry. You were right when you warned me not to trust them. Blind, stupid luck is all that’s kept me alive this far. I’m surprised I survived that vacation, to be honest. Though I’m wondering how you knew something bad would happen to me there, Jack. You tried to warn me ahead of time. How did you know something was up?”
Jack had folded his arms over the counter and was using it to support most of his weight. He shifted, his boots squeaking on the cheap tile, not answering me right away. He coughed and mumbled something, so I dragged my attention back to him to see what was wrong.
So help me, the man was blushing.
“Come on, Jack,” I said, smiling despite myself. “You can tell me.”
The big bad hunter covered his eyes with one hand. “We never stopped watching you. Didn’t have a choice.”
Didn’t have a choice? That sounded ominous. Odd to think the hunter was embarrassed about spying on me. Or maybe it was due to his failure to recruit me?
“I kept hoping you’d change your mind. Leave the leeches and the dogs alone. There was some word on the local OtherNet message board that the Sunstrikers were planning a trip, and that you’d be going with them. There was a group of people calling themselves the Nightstrikers who were making threats and saying they were going to cause some kind of trouble.”
“Oh,” I said, unable to think of something more coherent to give in response. This was not the first time I’d heard of the OtherNet, but things were becoming clearer to me now. I’d have to investigate it further, once I had access to a computer again.
“I should have stopped it somehow. Should have known there would be trouble like this.”
Nikki lightly punched his shoulder. “Don’t start that shit again....”
“Jack, please don’t beat yourself up over it. Nobody could have foreseen the trouble I ran into out there. The Nightstrikers weren’t after me, they were after Chaz. They’re decent guys, and they wouldn’t have hurt me.”
I hated to think that Jack was looking like hell because he had been worried about me, but I was starting to suspect it. He took his work far too seriously.
His icy response made me blink and wonder whether I’d really seen that chink in his emotional armor at all.
“You don’t understand, do you? Don’t you know why I wanted you to join us?”
I blinked at this sudden turn in topic. This conversation was giving me whiplash. “Uh, no. Not really.” I couldn’t say I had cared before now, either.
Jack rose to his full height, which would have been more impressive if he wasn’t skinny as a rail. He came around the counter and pulled out a chair across from me, studying me intently. I shifted uncomfortably under that probing look, finding both the topic and his scrutiny to be out of place. Though I’d known in advance that this conversation was coming, I had hoped he wouldn’t want to hash all this out right from the start.
“You really don’t,” he said, something like wonder tingeing his voice.
“Just tell her,” Nikki said, using her foot to nudge a box aside from the counter so she could lean her hip against it and watch us from across the room. Her blue eyes, so like Jack’s, blazed with some emotion I couldn’t place. With the two of them staring at me like that, I was starting to feel a bit like a kid caught with her hand in a cookie jar.
“I was hoping Devon would replace me,” Jack said, and I started at the mention of the other hunter’s name. Devon, too, had unsuccessfully tried to reach me before I left on my vacation to the Catskills. He’d also abandoned the White Hats to come play with me on the side of the good vampires about a month ago. I hadn’t seen him since the morning after the fight against Max Carlyle in Royce’s basement. “He seemed like a good choice. He was smart, capable, a fine leader, and an experienced hunter. It’s unfortunate he decided to leave.”
“Why do you need a replacement?” I thought the question was safe, but the sound Nikki made clued me in that it was an uncomfortable topic. “And what does that have to do with me?”
Jack laughed, though there wasn’t any humor to the sound. He reached into his shirt pocket and plucked out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. I shook my head when he offered me one. He didn’t speak again until after he’d plucked out a cig with his thin lips and lit up, taking a deep drag.
“I’m dying.”
Though I wanted to be sorry for him, knew it was the right thing to be feeling, I couldn’t find it in me to react. Maybe I was out of emotional room for surprise with all my own baggage taking up the space in my mind. He took another drag before continuing, meeting my gaze frankly and without any sign of fear or self-pity I could detect.
He was brave. I’d give him that.
“Cancer. Both lungs.” He held up the cigarette. “Always knew these would be the death of me, if hunting didn’t take me first.”
“Don’t say that, you asshole,” Nikki said quietly, her voice hitching. I didn’t dare look at her. She didn’t need me to see her tears. “You won’t die, damn it. Don’t say it again.”
Jack glanced at her, then back at me. His lips quirked in a sardonic smile. Gallows humor. “I’ve known for a long time it was coming. Nobody here was smart enough or ruthless enough to take my place. We tried to groove Devon in, but he just wasn’t a fit. Nobody here could stomach the idea of it. Then I heard about a P.I. Some new girl who hated vampires, but was working with them anyway. Someone trying to save a kid from a leech.”
I stared at him blankly. Though I knew he was talking about me, David Borowsky had been anything but a victim of the vampires. Instead, he’d forced Alec Royce under his thumb. In the end, I’d saved the vamp—and destroyed the kid.
Jack knew that. So why had he pursued me?
“That’s not how it really played out, I know. But I was grasping at straws. And I was being told to recruit you by someone I couldn’t say no to.” He grinned, again without humor, just a baring of gleaming white teeth. He must be religious about brushing, considering his smoking habit. “I do hope Tiny and I didn’t scare you too badly. At first I was just trying to fuck up recruiting you to our cause. It was necessary at the time. I thought you were a pawn—and you were, no mistake—but not in the way I’d feared. It took me a while to realize that you could be useful.”
Now that was surprising. As far as I knew, White Hats didn’t answer to anyone but their own, and I’d thought Jack was the leader of this branch. “Who was telling you to recruit me? I’m afraid I can see where this is going, but I can’t say I understand it yet.”
“I’d thought you might have guessed by now. Alec Royce told me to do it.”
I stared. Jack stared back.
I tried not to. I really did. But despite my best efforts, I unleashed an explosive laugh right in Jack’s face.
He frowned at me.
“Sorry,” I said, once I got the worst of my giggles under control. “Really, sorry.”
His frown deepened, and some of the red crept back into his cheeks. His discomfiture was due to his connection to the vampire then, not on my account. I should have known.
“I’m not joking, Shiarra. I made a deal when I was first diagnosed. His blood is all that’s kept me alive this long. I’m bound to him, just like you were.”
A loud noise from behind startled me. Nikki had kicked a nearby box into a wall and stalked into the back rooms. I turned back to Jack, wiping any lingering mirth off my face. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“Neither do most of the other White Hats,” Jack confessed. “It would tear the organization apart. Only a select few know. Once I told Devon, he didn’t want to take over. Nikki is too hot-tempered to lead, even if she wanted to, and Royce won’t abide Tiny’s taking my place. He wanted someone he could control to take over for me. It’s why he thought you might be a good fit. I’m running out of time, and we need someone sympathetic to his cause who will still hunt vampires or other dangerous Others under his direction.”
I considered this. The White Hats were supposedly against all things with fangs or fur, the more active of the bunch going so far as to actively hunt them down, so if it got out that one of their leaders was bound to a vampire, the whole situation would turn into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Jack either trusted me more than I had guessed, or he was so far gone in his illness that he no longer cared about the potential consequences of telling me his secrets.
Royce always had a million and one plans roiling in that devious mind of his. It wasn’t unlikely that my becoming a member of the White Hats was some kind of backup plan, or maybe something he’d been considering using me for all along. My potentially turning Other must have thrown some kind of wrench into his plans. Who knew what he wanted to use me for now. Or how he would have broken the news to me if he really had wanted me to take over the White Hats’ New York chapter.
That the vampire had his fingers in so many pies was unsurprising. What worried me was the possibility that he might use his connection with the White Hats to keep tabs on me. Or maybe force me back to his side.
The possibilities and second-guessing were making my already aching head hurt worse than ever.
Maybe the belt was right. I should consider getting Royce out of the way before he dragged me into something even worse than what the Sunstrikers had started.
Or maybe this little hunting trip of mine had been part of the vampire’s plan all along.
“Listen, Jack, I’m sorry—very sorry—that you’re ill. But I’m not leader material. Even if I don’t turn, I’m not the person you need to run this kind of outfit. And I’ll never answer to Royce. Being bound to him once was enough. If you tell him I’m here, I’ll leave and find some other way to deal with this problem. But if you’ll have me and keep my involvement secret, I could use your help. And I’ll do what I can to help you, too—at least until I know what’s going to happen to me.”
Jack regarded me steadily, stubbing out the cigarette on the table. “I wouldn’t expect any less from you. And don’t worry. He doesn’t know. He won’t be able to drag it out of me unless he asks me directly. I’ve figured out how to play some of his games.”
I started to relax, but he leaned forward, holding up a single digit.
“But—here’s the deal. You owe me. Us. You owe the White Hats a favor. One we can call in at any time. In return, I’ll give you a safe place to stay. I’ll make the others help you hunt. It’s something we might have done anyway, but at least we’ll have good reason now.”
Despite my worries, this was the best shot I had at bringing down the Sunstriker pack. I reached across the table to take his cool, dry hand and shake on it. A compact with the devil wasn’t new to me, but I had the feeling I wouldn’t live long enough to pay Jack and his White Hat buddies their favor back. If I did, I’d just have to bite the bullet and pay the price, because there was no way I could get my revenge working alone.
“Yes. We have a deal.”