Dead as a Doornail

standing beside me, scanning the faces as they went by.
    “I’m going to kill you later,” I told him, keeping my face calm for the Weres passing by. “Why didn’t you explain this?”
    The tall man walked up the steps, his arms swinging as he walked, his large body moving with purpose and grace. His head swung toward me as he went by, and I met his eyes. They were very dark, but still I couldn’t distinguish the color. He smiled at me.
    Alcide touched my hand, as if he knew my attention had wandered. He leaned over to whisper in my ear, “I need your help. I need you to find a chance after the funeral to read Patrick’s mind. He’s going to do something to sabotage my father.”
    “Why didn’t you just ask me?” I was confused, and mostly I was hurt.
    “I thought you might feel like you owed me anyway!”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “I know you killed Debbie.”
    If he’d slapped me, it couldn’t have shocked me more. I have no idea what my face looked like. After the impact of the shock and the reflexive guilt wore off, I said, “You’d abjured her. What’s it to you?”
    “Nothing,” he said. “Nothing. She was already dead to me.” I didn’t believe that for a minute. “But you thought it would be a big deal to me, and you concealed it. I figure you’d guess you owed me.”
    If I’d had a gun in my purse, I would’ve been tempted to pull it out then. “I don’t owe you squat,” I said. “I think youcame to get me in your dad’s car because you knew I’d drive away once you said that.”
    “No,” he said. We were still keeping our voices down, but I could see from the sideways glances we were getting that our intense colloquy was attracting attention. “Well, maybe. Please, forget what I said about you owing me. The fact is, my dad’s in trouble and I’d do just about anything to help him out. And you can help.”
    “Next time you need help, just ask . Don’t trying blackmailing me into it or maneuvering me into it. I like to help people. But I hate to be pushed and tricked.” He’d lowered his eyes, so I grabbed his chin and made him look into mine. “I hate it.”
    I glanced up at the top of the steps to gauge how much interest our quarrel was attracting. The tall man had reappeared. He was looking down at us without perceptible expression. But I knew we had his attention.
    Alcide glanced up, too. His face reddened. “We need to go in now. Will you go with me?”
    “What is the meaning of me going in with you?”
    “It means you’re on my father’s side in his bid for the pack.”
    “What does that oblige me to do?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Then why is it important for me to do it?”
    “Though choosing a packmaster is pack business, it may influence those who know how much you helped us during the Witch War.”
    Witch Skirmish would have been more accurate, because though it had certainly been them vs. us, the total number of people involved had been fairly small—say, forty or fifty. But in the history of the Shreveport pack, it was an epic episode, I gathered.
    I glared down at my black pumps. I struggled with mywarring instincts. They seemed about equally strong. One said, “You’re at a funeral. Don’t make a scene. Alcide has been good to you, and it wouldn’t hurt you to do this for him.” The other said, “Alcide helped you in Jackson because he was trying to get his dad out of trouble with the vampires. Now, again, he’s willing to involve you in something dangerous to help his dad out.” The first voice chipped in, “He knew Debbie was bad. He tried to pull away from her, and then he abjured her.” The second said, “Why’d he love a bitch like Debbie in the first place? Why’d he even consider sticking with her when he had clear evidence she was evil? No one else has suggested she had spellcasting power. This ‘spellcasting’ thing is a cheap excuse.” I felt like Linda Blair in the The Exorcist, with her head whirling around on her neck.
    Voice number one won out. I put my hand on Alcide’s crooked elbow and we went up the stairs and into the church.
    The pews were full of regular people. The front three rows on both sides had been saved for the pack. But the tall man, who would stand out anywhere, sat in the back row. I caught a glimpse of his big shoulders before I had to pay strict attention to the pack ceremony. The two Furnan children, cute as the dickens, went solemnly down to the front pew on the right of the church. Then