Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

worse for wear. She looked up briefly as we walked in, but then turned her attention back to the mug of coffee she was sipping with deliberate calm.
    Neither she, nor Rachel, paid any attention to the young man curled up in the corner of the room, next to the sink. I couldn’t see his face because he had his back to all of us. He was rocking, the rhythm of the motion interrupted by the infrequent sobs that made his shoulders jerk forward. He was muttering something just under his breath, and even my ears couldn’t catch exactly what he said.
    â€œCoffee?” asked Rachel, ignoring my question.
    â€œNo.” The food I’d eaten was sitting like a lump in my stomach as it was. If I added coffee to it, I wasn’t sure it would stay down.
    She got down a mug for herself and poured some coffee out of an industrial-sized coffeemaker on the counter. It smelled good, French vanilla, I thought. The scent was soothing, better than the taste would have been. I pulled up a chair next to Naomi, the same one I’d used last night, and, glancing again at the man curled up in the corner I asked again, “What happened to you?”
    Naomi looked at me and sneered. “Vampires. What happened to you?”
    â€œVampires,” I replied. Naomi’s sneer sat oddly on her face, and seemed out of character—but I didn’t know her enough to be sure.
    Rachel tugged a chair around so she was opposite Naomi and me. “Don’t take it out on her. She’s Stefan’s friend, remember. Not one of them.”
    Naomi looked back at her cup and I realized that she wasn’t calm at all, she was in that place beyond fear where nothing you do matters because the worst has already happened and there’s nothing you can do about it. I recognized that look. It’s an expression I see a lot around the werewolves.
    It was Rachel who told me what had happened.
    â€œWhen Stefan didn’t come back yesterday morning, Joey—that’s short for Josephine—decided to leave while she could.” Rachel didn’t drink her coffee, just turned her cup this way and that. “After you left, though, I heard her motorcycle in the driveway. Can’t mistake the sound of Joey’s hog.” She moved her hands away from the mug and wiped them on her thighs. “I was stupid. I know better—especially after Daniel. But it was Joey…”
    â€œJoey has been here the longest,” Naomi said, when it became obvious Rachel was finished speaking. “She was bound to Stefan already.”
    She saw my puzzlement because she explained, “That means she’s almost one of them already. Everything except the actual changeover. The longer they stay bound before they die, the better the chance they’ll rise again. Stefan is patient, his people almost always rise because he waits for years longer than most vampires.”
    She was telling me all this so she wouldn’t have to go on with the story.
    â€œDaniel?”
    She nodded. “He was bound, just barely. It doesn’t happen to all of us—but Daniel was still too new for the changeover to be certain. It was a miracle he survived. Stefan was so angry.” She took a sip of coffee and grimaced. “I hate cold coffee.” She took another sip anyway. “Andre did it on purpose, you know. One of those stupid one-upmanship games. He was terribly jealous of Stefan because Marsilia favored him—and at the same time he loved Stefan like a brother. So when he was angry he attacked one of us instead. Vampires don’t usually care too much about the sheep in their menageries. I don’t think Andre realized just how angry Stefan would get.”
    â€œWhat happened to Joey?” I asked.
    â€œShe’s dead,” Naomi told her coffee cup.
    â€œPermanently dead,” Rachel said. “I thought it was her on the motorcycle. She was wearing a helmet, and she doesn’t let anyone, not even Stefan, touch the hog. When I finally realized the rider wasn’t tall enough to be her, I tried to run back to the house.”
    â€œShe grabbed your arm?” I suggested. It wasn’t a difficult guess, with the armband of bruises she wore.
    Rachel nodded. “And covered my mouth so I couldn’t scream.” About then, a car drove up—one of the seethe cars.”
    Like the one Andre had driven last night. I worked on them from time to time in lieu of making a cash payment