Inked

what happens to him. Not even his own brother!”
    “And White Sun? Last time I checked, he wasn’t vargulf . And you had at least three other victims, two more of which were High Clan wolves!”
    “None of which can be linked to me once you’re dead!”
    The final volley came fast and hard, my shields collapsed, and blood made a dark gash across the ground. I waited for pain and worse—and was still waiting when the smoke dissipated. I saw Grayshadow writhing on the ground, his coat half melted to his skin, one arm and shoulder a livid mass of black leather and red meat.
    I glanced behind me, because no way had I done that, but there was no one. And then there was no time to worry about it, because Grayshadow stumbled back to his feet, snarling. I stared back at him, my hands hanging limp and nerveless at my sides, like they were attached with string. I was going to die, I thought blankly.
    Then Grayshadow took off, clutching his ruined arm.
    I watched him blankly for a second, until the pelting rain hid him from view. And then my knees gave out and I hit the muddy concrete, stunned and dizzy. Cyrus was staring at me, looking equally bewildered as I crawled over to him. He didn’t change back—he probably didn’t have the energy—but it didn’t matter. As soon as I laid my head against the silkiness of wolf fur, the hard ball of panic in my chest shrank until I could almost ignore it. I took the opportunity to breathe deeply for the first time that day.
    Someone fumbled a hand over to grab mine, holding it so tightly that my fingers throbbed with both pulses. And I looked up into Cyrus’s whiskey dark eyes. It seemed he’d had the strength to change, after all. “You okay?”
    “Yeah, but I’m not sure why,” I told him.
    His nod of agreement was a ripple of shadow. “What the hell just happened?”
    I felt something on my arm and looked down to see the dragon tat, frozen in place with a superior look on its tiny face. And something Caleb had said came back to me. “I think somebody decided to change sides.”
    “What?”
    I held up my wrist. “It came off a dark mage, but it chose to help us out.”
    Cyrus looked at me strangely as he tried to heave himself to his feet. He slipped on his own blood and went down to one knee. “Lia. Wards don’t think.”
    “Depends on the ward,” I said, and stunned him.
    A few minutes later, Jamie’s head poked over the side of the channel, red-gray curls plastered to his skull. Caleb followed him out, both looking like hell but still standing. Jamie limped over and looked from the numb stick in my hand to Cyrus’s slumped form. “Isn’t that your boyfriend?”
    “Yeah.”
    He frowned. “He won’t be out long. That isn’t strong enough to incapacitate a Were, even an injured one.”
    I dragged myself to my feet, stiff and soaked. “So take him in.”
    “On what charge?”
    “Suspicion of…something.”
    “Suspicion of something? I don’t think that’s on the books.”
    “Just give him to Michaelson to process once the docs get through. It’ll take at least a couple hours.”
    “And what are you going to do in the meantime?”
    “Something stupid.”

12
    TWO huge Weres in wolf form guarded the almost invisible path that served as an entrance to the meeting place of the Clan Council. One of them moved to intercept me, changing fluidly from Were to human without so much as missing a step. His ebony skin gleamed in the light of a torch that had been wedged into a crack in the wall behind him. A lantern would have been a more practical choice, or nothing at all since I was the only one here without decent night vision. I assumed it was for ambiance.
    It did add to the overall mystery of the place, not that it needed it. A sheer rock face rose five or six stories high, striated in uneven bands of cinnamon and gold. It wasn’t raining here, and the black, clear sky with its pinprick stars and the sighing wind sliding over the cliff was beautiful and more than a little eerie.
    The guard was doing his best to add to the effect. His skin melted into the night, leaving only the rippling muscles of his chest visible in the torchlight. His dark eyes gleamed, pricked with reflected flame. He might have been a creature out of legend, some mythical god of the desert.
    And then he ruined it. He looked me over and one eyebrow went up. “Bad day?”
    My clothes were streaked with mud, cobwebs and runoff, I smelled absolutely foul, and I had at least three