Page 11 of Mate

Next to her, Lowe winces but pulls her closer. If things go to shit tomorrow, today, in five minutes, at least I can be reassured that the person I care about the most is in excellent hands. I’m genuinely happy for her.

Though maybe a little less when she tells me, “Serena, you look like shit.”

“Seriously?” I scowl. “Is no one interested in sparing my feelings?”

Misery’s and Koen’s “nope” are perfectly in unison. He takes a seat next to me, close enough for our thighs to touch, legs stretched out on the coffee table and calves crossed. The picture of relaxed boredom. “So,” he starts, “what the fuck just happened, and who do I kill?”

I refrain from pointing out the obvious: Bob the Vampyre and You already have .

Lowe sighs. “We are producing a list.”

“Nice.” Koen sounds ready to roll up his sleeves. “I’ll take the first ten names.”

“What happened up at the cabin?” Lowe asks.

“Yeah, Serena,” Misery adds. “How hard did you maul the guy who tried to come for you?”

I freeze, loath to admit how much of a wimp I am.

“He won’t be bothering her anymore,” Koen says flatly. “She made sure of it.” Definitely not the whole truth, but Misery equivocates and gives me a proud, fangy smile.

“Actually,” I start guiltily, “if Koen hadn’t been there— ”

I stop, because suddenly the screen is fully taken up by a pair of piercing light green eyes.

They blink at me as a small, sleepy voice asks, “Serena, did they tell you I lost two tooths?” The angle shifts, and a small tongue wiggles in and out of a wide front gap.

For way longer than is needed for a demonstration.

Ana. My heart nearly bursts with love for her. For some reason, my hands start trembling. “Nope.” I try to firm up my voice. “They rudely kept it from me.”

“I thought so.” She pulls back, just enough for me to see her give the adults behind her a disappointed look. “Someone will bring me money. A fairy. A creepy fairy made of tooths.”

“We’ve been over this, pest. The fairy takes the teeth, but she’s not made of . . .” Misery waves her hand. “You know what? Sure. The damn fairy is made of enamel and pulp.”

“Ana, it’s too early for you to be up,” Lowe says, failing to sound stern. “Remember that you promised that after saying hi to Serena, you’d go back to bed?”

“Okay. Bye, Serena,” she says cheerfully, stopping to kiss her brother on the cheek and to blow a raspberry on a resigned Misery’s arm.

I watch her disappear, trying not to think about the fact that there are people out there who would be willing and capable of hurting her, until Koen says, “I thought the Vampyre council had agreed to stop fucking with Weres.”

“It’s a complicated situation,” Lowe acknowledges. “As you know, Owen, Misery’s brother, has been trying to consolidate control over the Vampyre council and convince them to agree to a trilateral peace treaty with the Weres and the Humans.”

“With mixed results, given the frequent mentions of his suddenly receding hairline,” Misery informs us. It’s unclear whom the recap is for. Probably me, the one voted most likely to forsake an internet connection and melt into the underbrush.

“After Serena’s interview,” Lowe continues, “Human public opinion has become highly favorable toward Weres. Disclosing the genetic compatibility was a gamble, and it paid off. The alliance Maddie and I have formed is stronger than ever. Peaceful coexistence, demilitarized areas, softer borders— none of this would have been possible even six months ago.”

“And the Vampyres are feeling left out?” Saul asks.

“The Vampyres have been invited to the playdate,” Misery says. “But for interspecies alliances the council needs a supermajority, and some members think it’s all a trick to weaken their position in the Southwest area.”

Koen snorts. “These crusty Vampyres really believe other species think about them that much, huh?”

“That’s exactly what I said,” Misery points out.

They share a look, brief but full of contempt.

Shocking, how well they get along. “Basically,” Misery continues, “someone on the council wants to blow up the alliance between the Weres and the Humans, and they put a bounty on Serena’s head, and now any Vampyre in want of a fortune is after her. ”

“How did they track her down?” Koen asks. “Only Amanda and I knew her location.”

“That is my . . . well, I don’t know that one would say fault , per se, but .

. .” Alex timidly clears his throat, wringing his hands.

I suspect he finds regular Koen terrifying— and angry Koen bloodcurdling.

“When I gave Serena the satellite phone, I, um, recorded it with her initials to keep, uh, track of it,” he finishes in a hush.

“How thorough of you. Why not add a couple recent pictures, just to give the kidnappers a visual aid?”

“Actually.” Alex swallows. “There may have been one.”

Never mind Alex, I am scared of Koen. I slide my hand on his leg, feeling the warm flesh of his thigh through his jeans. His muscles clench tight, then abruptly relax.

“Do we know which councilmembers set the bounty?” I ask.

Misery shakes her head. “Owen has a network of informants and thinks that Councilwoman Selamio or Councilman Ross might be behind this. Others might be involved, too. In a way, it’s not a bad thing.

If they are caught participating in something that might start an interspecies war, they’ll be instantly killed, and their seats will pass to their heirs.

Selamio Jr. and Baby Ross are assholes, but they’re not stupid.

They know that entering the trilateral alliance would be for the best.”

“So . . . why are their parents still alive?” Koen asks. His leadership philosophy seems to be if inconvenient, why not dead?

“They’ve been covering their tracks,” Lowe admits reluctantly. “Without proof, Owen can’t make accusations.”

Koen grunts, unhappy with the concept of due process. “What do they even want with Serena?”

“To prove she’s an imposter. To use her DNA to dilute the symbolic power of a Were-Human hybrid by creating Were-Vampyre or Vampyre-Human hybrids.

Who knows?” Misery massages her forehead, like the sheer idiocy is giving her a headache.

“But they’re willing to part with a lot of money to have Serena delivered to them, alive , and .

. .” She presses her lips together. Stares at me with those unblinking lilac eyes. “Serena, did you just shrug?”

“What? No.”

“She did,” the redhead mutters.

“I saw her too,” Jorma says.

“Yup.” Saul.

“Could it have been a shiver?” Amanda asks.

“I . . . Maybe I shrugged.” I glare around the room, defensive. “Is it, like, against pack rules?”

“It’s just, you know.” Misery gestures vaguely. “A weird reaction to have when someone tells you that there are hordes of financially strapped assassins after you.”

“For one, they’re not assassins. They want me alive so they can scrape DNA off the inside of my cheek and use it to grow baby werebananas.

And honestly . . .” I shrug again. Consciously , this time.

“I knew my name was in a bunch of little black books. Now it’s in more, bigger black books, but I’ve maxed out my levels of distress.

” Perspective is a hell of a drug. “It’s fine, really,” I tell several increasingly understanding pairs of eyes, proud of the way I seem to have convinced everyone— and then I meet Koen’s gaze.

Who, clearly, has never encountered a lie of mine he couldn’t shuck like sweet corn.

“I am concerned for Ana, though,” I hasten to add, tearing my eyes away.

“She’s already a bunch of stressors stacked in a trench coat.

There are only that many kidnapping and murder attempts a child can endure before developing serious issues and self-destructive behaviors.

We wouldn’t want her to grow up and, say, go to grad school. ”

“Don’t worry,” Misery reassures me, “every day I drill into her that we’ll be disappointed in anything but a DJing career.”

“You’re such a good role model.”

“I know. Right, Lowe?”

Lowe just looks exhausted, like he did every day of the weeks I spent at his house. In his defense, we are a lot.

“How did the Vampyres even learn about Ana?” I ask. “I thought her hybrid status was strictly on a need- to- know basis?”

“It is. So far, only high-ranking Northwest and Southwest members and her physician know. And the Vampyres, they’re not sure ,” Misery says.

“But they’re hoping. Put yourself in their shoes: someone’s offering a shit ton of money in exchange for a hybrid.

You’re a sure bet but hard to track and known for having disposed of multiple Vampyres. Ana’s a child. Much easier to take.”

“Serena,” Lowe interjects, “the most important thing right now is to make sure that you and Ana are safe and off the radar. We’re going to get you back to the Southwest by tomorrow, and— ”

“But that’s a terrible idea.”

Once again, everyone turns to me. Except for Koen, who keeps looking ahead as though . . . I can’t shake the impression that he knows what I’m about to say.

“Excuse me?” Lowe says.

“They’re going to come back for me.”

“They’re not going anywhere near you,” Koen mutters, arrogant and a little too certain. No one else can hear it, but my cheeks feel hot anyway.

“With a financial incentive that high, they’re not going to give up.”

“That’s the point.” Misery looks at me like she suspects that my brain fell off into a septic tank. “They’re not going to stop, and so we need to hide you away— ”

“No. You need to hide Ana away.”

She frowns. “Ana, yes. And you— ”

“And I’m going to be hidden so poorly, it’ll take them no effort to find me.

I’m going to be in plain sight. I’m going to be such an easy target, it won’t ever occur to them to expend resources to locate another hybrid.

” I smile. “And when they come for me, we’ll use them to figure out who’s behind the bounty. ”