Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

say?” Darryl snapped, his chair rolling abruptly forward.
    â€œNothing that matters to you,” Kyle replied, uncaring of the danger of irritating a werewolf.
    I was more interested in the way Warren’s shoulders were tightening.
    â€œYou’re going to disturb him if you start fighting,” I said. “Darryl, have you heard from Bran?”
    He nodded, his attention still focused on Kyle. “He’s coming up. He’s got some business to finish so he won’t be able to get here until late tonight.”
    â€œGood,” I said. “I want you to go up and eat something.”
    He looked at me, surprised.
    I smiled. “A hungry werewolf is a cranky werewolf. Go eat something before you eat somebody.”
    He stood up and stretched, the stiffness in his movement told me that he’d been in that chair for a very long time.
    I waited until he was gone then opened the door of the cell.
    â€œI’ve spent most of the last few hours with Darryl telling me that wasn’t a good idea,” commented Kyle.
    â€œProbably isn’t,” I agreed. “But Warren listened to me this morning.”
    I sat on the end of the mattress and pulled the blanket down so it covered Warren’s feet better. Then I crawled onto it between the wall and Warren.
    His face was just a few inches from mine and I saw his battered nostrils flutter a little and breathed into them so he’d know it was me. The hours since I’d last seen him hadn’t improved his appearance any, his bruises had darkened and his nose and lips were more swollen. Darryl was right: he should be healing faster than this.
    But Kyle said he had spoken.
    â€œIt’s all right,” I told Warren. “It’s just Kyle and me here.”
    His lashes moved and one eye opened just a slit then closed.
    â€œAdam and Samuel are missing,” I told him. “Daniel is dead.”
    His eye opened a little and he made a soft noise.
    â€œWas he alive when you last saw him?” A shift that might have been a nod. I reached up and touched a place on his cheek that looked unbruised and he relaxed infinitesimally. Among the wolves, body language can tell me almost as much as words.
    â€œDid you tell Adam and Samuel where to find Littleton?” I asked.
    Warren’s heart rate picked up and he shifted on the bed, his eye opened again and a tear of pure frustration spilled over.
    I touched his lips. “Shh. Shh. Not you. I see. But someone told them.”
    He stared at me, tormented.
    â€œDo you know where they went?”
    â€œSamuel got a phone call last night before they left,” said Kyle.
    Dumbfounded I lifted my head to stare at Kyle who was kneeling on the floor on the other side of Warren’s bed. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
    â€œDarryl didn’t ask,” he said. “He assumed I was sleeping the whole time—and wasn’t in the mood to listen when I tried to talk to him. I should have told you earlier today—but to be quite honest, I was a little distracted.”
    I relaxed back on the bed. Damned werewolves. I suppose it never even occurred to Darryl to pay attention to a human. Darryl had a PhD, damn it. You’d think he’d be smart enough to pay attention to a man with the brains to be one of the top attorneys in the state, an attorney moreover with an Ivy League education.
    â€œIf you think being a human around them is frustrating, you should try being a coyote,” I told him. “So what did Samuel say?” I didn’t have much hope of anything useful. If he’d said where they were going, for instance, Kyle wouldn’t have let pride keep him from giving Darryl the information.
    â€œSamuel didn’t have a chance to say anything to whoever called. They called, said a few sentences, and hung up. Samuel grabbed Adam and said, ‘Let’s go.’”
    I gave him a rueful look. “They ignored you, too.”
    He smiled at me this time, a tired smile. “I’m not used to being ignored.”
    â€œIrks me when they do it to me, too.” I shifted my gaze back to Warren. “Did you hear what the caller said?”
    I didn’t expect he had, so his stillness took me by surprise.
    His battered mouth tried to shape a word. I listened carefully but it was Kyle, leaning over the bed, who caught it.
    â€œTrap?”
    â€œWarren, I know the werewolves have to stay away from