Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

helpless. If any of the dominants had aspirations to become Alpha, they’d kill him. I also couldn’t just bring him to my house. First, as soon as someone realized he was missing, they’d check my place out. Second, a badly wounded werewolf was dangerous to himself and everyone around him. Even if I could trust his wolves, there was no dominant in the Columbia Basin Pack strong enough to keep Adam’s wolf under control until he was well enough to control himself.
    I knew where one was, though.

chapter 5
    A Vanagon resembles nothing so much as a Twinkie on wheels; a fifteen-foot-long, six-foot-wide Twinkie with as much aerodynamic styling as a barn door. In the twelve years that VW imported them into the US, they never put anything bigger in them than the four-cylinder wasser-boxer engine. My 1989 four-wheel-drive, four-thousand-pound Syncro’s engine put out a whopping ninety horses.
    In layman’s terms, that means I was cruising up the interstate with a dead body and a wounded werewolf at sixty miles an hour. Downhill, with a good tailwind, the van could go seventy-five. Uphill I was lucky to make fifty. I could have pushed it a little faster, but only if I wanted to chance blowing my engine altogether. For some reason, the thought of being stranded by the roadside with my current cargo was enough to keep my foot off the gas pedal.
    The highway stretched out before me in gentle curves that were mostly empty of traffic or scenic beauty unless you liked scrub desert better than I did. I didn’t want tothink of Mac, or of Jesse, scared and alone—or of Adam who might be dying because I chose to move him rather than call his pack. So I took out my cell phone.
    I called my neighbors first. Dennis Cather was a retired pipefitter, and his wife Anna a retired nurse. They’d moved in two years ago and adopted me after I fixed their tractor.
    â€œYes.” Anna’s voice was so normal after the morning I’d had, it took me a moment to answer.
    â€œSorry to call you so early,” I told her. “But I’ve been called out of town on a family emergency. I shouldn’t be gone long—just a day or two—but I didn’t check to make sure Medea had food and water.”
    â€œDon’t fret, dear,” she said. “We’ll look after her. I hope that it’s nothing serious.”
    I couldn’t help but glance back at Adam in the rearview mirror. He was still breathing. “It’s serious. One of my foster family is hurt.”
    â€œYou go take care of what you need to,” she said briskly. “We’ll see to things here.”
    It wasn’t until after I cut the connection that I wondered if I had involved them in something dangerous. Mac had been left on my doorstep for a reason—a warning to keep my nose out of someone’s business. And I was most certainly sticking my whole head in it now.
    I was doing as much as I could for Adam, and I thought of something I could do for Jesse. I called Zee.
    Siebold Adelbertsmiter, Zee for short, had taught me everything I knew about cars. Most fae are very sensitive to iron, but Zee was a Metallzauber—which is a rather broad category name given to the few fae who could handle metal of all kinds. Zee preferred the modern American term “gremlin,” which he felt better fit his talents. I wasn’t calling him for his talents, but for his connections.
    â€œJa,” said a gruff male voice.
    â€œHey, Zee, it’s Mercy. I have a favor to ask.”
    â€œJa sure, Liebling,” he said. “What’s up?”
    I hesitated. Even after all this time, the rule of keepingpack trouble in the pack was hard to break—but Zee knew everyone in the fae community.
    I outlined the past day to him, as best I could.
    â€œSo you think this baby werewolf of yours brought this trouble here? Why then did they take our kleine Jesse?”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “I’m hoping that when Adam recovers he’ll know something more.”
    â€œSo you are asking me to see if anyone I know has seen these strange wolves in hopes of finding Jesse?”
    â€œThere were at least four werewolves moving into the Tri-Cities. You’d think that someone among the fae would have noticed.” Because the Tri-Cities was so close to the Walla Walla Fae Reservation, there were more fae living here than was usual.
    â€œJa,” Zee agreed heavily.