Chapter 63
WHEN WE OPENED the door, Zeke had a picture of Cherry in front of his chest. His first words were, "Shoot me and they both are worse than dead."
So he took a seat on my white couch, still breathing, though if he said the wrong thing, I was hoping to change that.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"I was sent to fetch you for my master."
"Define 'fetch'," I said. I was sitting on the low wood coffee table in front of him. Bobby Lee was standing in back of him with a gun pressed to his spine. At that range with silver ammo there wasn't an alpha in the world that would survive, or at least none that I'd met, and I'd met a few.
"He wants you to be his mate."
I shook my head. "I heard that, but didn't he try, twice, to have you guys kill me?"
Zeke nodded. "Yes."
"And he suddenly wants me to be his honey bun,"
Zeke nodded again. The gesture looked odd in the wolfman form, kind of like a golden retriever that was nodding sagely.
"Why the change of heart?" I asked. The fact that I was asking calm questions while the Polaroids of Cherry and Micah sat beside me on the coffee table was a testament to both my patience and my lack of sanity. If I'd really been sane I couldn't have been calm, but I'd hit that switch in my head that let me think when awful things were happening. The same switch that let me kill without much remorse. Being able to divorce myself from my emotions kept me from shooting pieces off Zeke's body until he told me where Micah and Cherry were. Besides, there was always the very real possibility that we could do it later. Talk reasonably first, torture only if you had to, conservation of energy.
"Chimera was told that you would be a panwere like himself."
I raised eyebrows at that. "Panwere, what the hell is that?"
"A lycanthrope that can take more than one form," Zeke said.
"Not possible," I said.
Bacchus spoke from the kitchen doorway. He'd stayed as far away from Zeke as he could and remain in the room. "Chimera can take more than one form, I've seen it."
I looked back at Zeke. "Okay, fine, he's a panwere. Why would someone tell him that I was one, too?"
"Before I answer that question, I have someone waiting in a nearby car. I would like her to come in and speak with you."
"Who?" For a wild moment I thought he might mean Cherry, but he didn't.
"Gina."
"Micah's Gina?" I asked.
Zeke nodded.
I looked behind him at Bobby Lee. "Do we trust him to go back out and come back in without reinforcements?"
Bobby Lee shook his head.
I shook my head, too. "Sorry, Zeke, but we don't trust you."
"Send Caleb then." He looked at the wereleopard, who had been very quiet throughout everything. Caleb was sitting in the far corner of the room, keeping away from Zeke, a lot like Bacchus, come to think of it. But then Gil was huddled in a different corner. I'd assumed I was surrounded by scaredy-cats, hyenas, and foxes, but now ...
"How did you know his name?" I asked.
"I know a lot of things about Caleb."
"Explain," I said.
The doorbell rang again. I didn't jump this time. I was in that far away place where I didn't get nerves, though the Browning was pointed at the door. Did that count as nerves?
I went to the door, and Bobby Lee stayed with his gun pressed to Zeke's back. "Y'all better hope that that is someone friendly," Bobby Lee drawled.
Zeke's wide nose flared, scenting the wind. "It's Gina."
Call me paranoid, but I didn't trust him. I peeked out the window. This time there were no nasty surprises, just Gina standing on the small porch, a thick gray shawl hugged around her upper body. It was nearly ninety outside, what the hell was the shawl for? I let out a deep breath. The shawl was thick enough to hide all sorts of unpleasant surprises. Damn.
"What's she got under the shawl?" I asked Zeke.
"You might say a message from Chimera."
I glanced back at him. "Talk like that isn't going to get the door opened."
Zeke moved his shoulders, and Bobby Lee must have pressed the gun barrel deeper into his back, because he stopped moving abruptly. "She's been tortured. Chimera sent her with me to show what will happen to your leopard if you don't come with me."
"Why the shawl?" I asked again.
Zeke closed his eyes, as if he wanted to look away but was afraid Bobby Lee would take it wrong. "It's to cover her, Anita, just to cover up her nakedness." He sounded weary, not just tired, but weary. "Please, let her inside, she's in a great deal of pain."
"He smells like he's telling the truth," Bobby Lee said.
I sighed. That was probably as good an assurance as we were going to get. I opened the door, gun at the ready, staying out of the sight of anyone who might be watching from the yard. Because I was hiding behind the door, I didn't see Gina until she was well into the room. I closed the door behind her, and she jumped, then gasped, as if the sudden movement had hurt her badly. When she looked at me, it was all I could do to keep from gasping. I thought at first she had two black eyes, then realized it was just hollows under her eyes so deep they looked like bruises. Her skin was so pale with an undertone of gray, and I understood for the first time what they meant by ashen. She was ashen, as if her body was covered by something thinner, more delicate, than skin. Her tall body was hunched in on itself, as if standing upright would hurt. Her lips were nearly bloodless, but it was her eyes that hurt me the most. They were filled with horror as if she were still seeing whatever had been done to her, as if she might always see that awful thing over and over again.
She spoke in a voice that was hollow, hopeless. "I got worried."
I didn't need to see what was under the shawl to believe that she'd been tortured. I didn't need to see anything but her face.
"Can she sit down before she falls down?" Zeke asked.
I nodded a little too rapidly, realizing that I had been staring. "Please, sit down."
Gina looked at Bobby Lee, standing behind Zeke. "Have you told them?"
"I wanted you here to back up my story," Zeke said.
She nodded once, then moved to sit beside him on the couch. She sat close to him, almost touching. If he'd had anything to do with what had happened to her, I don't think she'd have been so cozy.
In fact she was so cozy that I was almost certain she knew Zeke. Knew him not just for Chimera's fun and games, but knew him before. How did one of Micah's cats end up friendly with Chimera's top goon?
I asked. "You two seem to know each other." Alright, maybe that wasn't a question, but it would do.
They exchanged a look, then Zeke turned to me. I wished that he was in human form. Even after years of dealing with lycanthropes, I still had trouble reading their expressions when they were in animal form. The fact that his eyes were human helped some, but you never realize how much of the expression isn't really the eyes but the facial movements around the eyes, until you don't have them as clues.
"Let me start by saying that Chimera wants you alive and well and in his care in less than two hours or he will start doing permanent damage to Micah and your leopard."
I felt my eyes go a little dead. "We have a deadline then," I said. "Talk faster."
"Shortest version that I know is this. Chimera has always been a harsh master, but never sadistic, until the last few weeks. He's unstable, and I believe he's going mad and will kill us all if he remains in charge."
"This is the short version?" Bobby Lee asked.
"I agree," I said, "speed it up."
"I want you to help me stage a palace revolt, Ms. Blake. Is that quick enough for you?"
"Maybe that was a little too quick," I said. "Why do you want to revolt, and why do you want my help?"
"I told you, I fear that Chimera will destroy us all. The only way to prevent that is to kill him."
Well, that was blunt. "So, why my help?"
"You have a certain reputation for deadly force."
"You talk like an English professor," I said, "or an expensive lawyer. Why not just kill him yourself?"
"The others that follow him, fear him, they would not trust that I alone could guarantee his death,"