Page 26 of The Bloody Ruin Asylum & Taproom (Sam Quinn #7)

Twenty-One

Werewolves Aren’t Known for Their Trusting Natures

The Alpha snarled something at us and the wolves moved in.

“Stop,” I shouted.

Clive translated. He says we have no right to be on pack lands.

“And we have no desire to trespass in your territory. We’re only trying to return a child to her mother.” I didn’t know how common the name László was, but given his reaction to our touching this grave, I wondered if I was holding the remains of his sister or daughter.

Clive translated. You have Viktoria’s contact. You dumped the bloodsuckers’ victims on us. Made us clean up their mess. Made us cover for those demons! Now you defile my family’s resting place?

Growls filled graveyard.

Vlad turned and moved behind me, facing the pack. I was being caged in a vampy sandwich.

“Not defiled. We were trying to reunite your family, to return her to her mother.” More growls and some snapping jaws. Knowing they hated the vampires, I switched from we to I. “I found the remains of a werewolf child. She was in an old, condemned building—”

The Alpha interrupted with a word. Clive translated for me. Where?

I turned to Clive. Am I allowed to say?

No.

“I can’t tell you that.”

Deeper, more angry snarls answered that.

“But there was a paper with her name on it. We—I looked up where the Csonkas were buried so I could return her to her people.”

Clive translated. There was silence and then the Alpha stalked toward us. If you are lying, I will kill you myself. He stopped, his eyes on the bag in my hand. What’s her name?

At this point, I was looking over Clive’s shoulder at the Alpha because there was no way Clive was letting any of the wolves touch me.

“Her name is Aliz.”

At my words, the Alpha howled and demanded something, his arms outstretched.

He wants you to give her to him.

I lifted the bag. Clive took it from me and held it out to the Alpha, who tore it from Clive’s grip. He unzipped it and looked inside, dropping to his knees.

They did that thing again, moving faster than I could track. I was on Clive’s back. He and Vlad leapt over the ring of werewolves and raced back toward the Danube.

Sorry, love. I had to get you out. There was no more logic or reason at that point. He was mourning and we were the ones who’d brought him his sister’s bones.

Are we sure Aliz is his sister?

Vlad was right, Clive told me. I’d found this graveyard as soon as I started searching.

While he told you about his wife, I texted the San Francisco Historian for any information about this girl, the name, the Alpha, whatever he had.

He responded while you were in the bathroom, washing your face.

László, the Alpha, was attacked by a rogue werewolf when he was thirteen and his sister was ten.

They almost lost her. It’s honestly a miracle that a child survived the attack.

She and her brother shifted that next full moon.

Hunters heard the howls and went in search of them.

Aliz was young and small. She was no match for them.

They wounded her with an arrow and took her, not killing her right away.

In her distress, she began to shift back to human.

Oh, no.

The hunters apparently thought her a devil, but when faced with killing the child of a family they knew, they couldn’t do it. They took her to the asylum and never spoke of it, thinking it a kindness to the searching, grieving family to shield them from their daughter’s dark possession.

László apparently blamed himself. He’d left her, running after a stag. That was how the hunters had found her all alone.

I felt sick to my stomach about all of it.

We were behind the dumpster and in the tunnel before Clive put me down.

“I’m sorry, darling. This puts a damper on you wandering around Budapest on your own. I don’t trust the wolves not to hurt you.” He took my hand and led the way. “We’ll go to the kitchen and find you some food. They didn’t know we were coming, so they can’t have tampered with it yet.”

“Yum,” I grumbled. “I love probably-not-poisoned food.”

Vlad was about to trigger the tunnel door open when Clive said, “Wait please.”

Do you sense anyone on the other side of the door?

I paused, standing behind Clive, out of Vlad’s line of view, and tapped into my necromancy, looking for the green blips of vampires. Yes. Two. Cadmael is right outside this tunnel. Sebastian is waiting in the hall.

“We can go now,” Clive said.

“Why did we stop?” Vlad asked

“Sorry,” I said. “That was me.” I waved over Clive’s shoulder. “All that piggyback riding made my panties ride up. All fixed now.”

The look on Vlad’s face was priceless and it took all my self-control not to laugh.

We stepped out of the tunnel and found Cadmael leaning against a carved rock wall. He pushed off, standing straight as the door closed. “Finally.”

“Has something happened?” Clive asked.

Cadmael shook his head. “Not yet, but I’ve been talking with—no. I’ve been allowing others to talk near me and so have picked up a few things.”

“And we’re meeting here because?” Vlad asked.

“Do you guys have any folding chairs?” I asked, looking for anywhere to sit down other than the ground. “We could stash some in here for these clandestine meetings.”

Cadmael stared at me a moment, much like one would stare at a dog who’d suddenly begun speaking. “Our goal is not to alert the Guild that we’re meeting in secret.”

“P’fft. Have you met vampires? All you guys do is whisper in secret, foment grudges, and rip off heads.

” I rolled my eyes. “And if you’re that concerned, we can hide them in the side tunnel here.

Of course, that means Vlad has to be invited so he can open the door and get them out, but he’s cool, so no big deal. ”

Vlad just stared, but I saw a telltale crinkling around his eyes. He dug me.

Cadmael looked at Clive. “You may find her lack of respect charming, but I do not.”

“Rude,” I grumbled, moving to a far wall and sitting down.

I felt him pushing in my mind again. I didn’t know if he was looking for information or trying to mesmerize me into shutting up.

Either way, asshole. “And keep out of my head. My thoughts and secrets are none of your business,” I snarled, sick of his shit.

A hairsbreadth later, I was dangling off the ground, Cadmael’s hand tight around my throat. Clive already had his arm around Cadmael’s neck.

“Old friend,” Clive ground out, “if you don’t release my wife, I’ll be handing you your final death.”

I felt my eyes lighten and my claws slide out. What I was focusing on, though, was Cadmael’s cold green blip in my head. Unspooling the gold thread of magic in my chest, I wrapped it around his blip, fulling encasing him, and pulled while stabbing my claws into his chest.

His eyes bugged out and his cheek twitched. Fangs descending, he hissed, his grip tightening.

“Release her now!” Clive demanded.

I yanked the magic cord, squeezing as hard as I could. Unlike the other vamps I’d killed, Cadmael was too strong to crush completely, but I could make him very unhappy.

“Get your fucking hands off me,” I whispered past his grip. Yanking again, I caused him to choke and then drop me as he fell to his knees.

Moving faster than I could track, Clive had me as far away as he could get me in the enclosed area, hidden behind him. I hadn’t yet released Cadmael, though.

Darling, while I’m inclined to kill him myself, please don’t. I’m afraid we need him.

When I snapped my magic back, Cadmael fell forward and then leapt to his feet. His eyes were on Clive, obviously believing Clive was the one who’d had him in a hold. Interestingly, Vlad was watching me, one eyebrow raised.

“You don’t like each other,” Clive said carefully, trying to keep his rage in check. “That’s fine, but you will stay out of her head and keep your hands off her. Do you understand?”

Cadmael turned away, eyes still black. “She needs to learn her place.”

Vlad laughed. “Even I’ve heard tales of how deadly she is.” He glanced at me and then back to Cadmael. “She knows when you’re mucking about in her head. How many of us can sense and block you? If there’s anyone here who doesn’t know her place, it’s you.”

“They can’t be trusted,” Cadmael ground out, turning back to us.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, sliding from behind Clive. Almost immediately, his arm snaked out and held me hard against him. “Jeez, did some wolf hurt you once and you’ve never gotten over it? Try therapy.”

You’re not helping, Clive said.

I’m not trying to. “I’m sick of your anti-werewolf bullshit. Get over it or get the fuck out.”

“This is the Guild,” Cadmael said, his voice low and dangerous. “If anyone should be getting out—”

“All right,” Vlad said. “Enough. Clive’s right. You don’t have to like her. Hell, I hate everyone, but I still know how to tolerate allies, especially useful ones.”

“What use can she possibly have,” he sneered, “besides the obvious one.”

Clive moved, but it was Vlad who got there first, slapping Cadmael with such force, he staggered to the side a step.

When dealing with beings who can kill easily, a slap is particularly humiliating.

“Do you have so many trusted allies in your life that you can throw one away, one the age and strength of Clive?” Shaking his head, Vlad paced away.

“I don’t know what your issue is with Sam.

I don’t think any of us do, but indulging in this childish antipathy you have for her will lose us one of our strongest weapons against this faction in the Guild trying to destroy us. ”

Cadmael took a moment to get his facial expression, if not his emotions, under control. “That was why I was waiting here for you, to discuss this, before she interrupted to demand a chair,” Cadmael said.