Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

you as faithfully as you have served all these years. We need you if we are to survive.” He had begun pacing again. “Marsilia will see us all dead. You know that. She is crazy—only a crazy woman could put her trust in Wulfe. She’ll have the humans hunting us again, not just this seethe but all of our kind. And we will not survive. Please, Stefan.”
    Stefan went down on one knee and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He bowed his head and whispered to me. “I am sorry.” Then he stood up. “I am an old soldier,” he told Bernard. “I serve only one, even though she has forsaken me.” He stretched out his hand, and this time I felt him pull something from me as his sword appeared in his hand. “Would you try me here?” he asked.
    Bernard made a frustrated noise, then threw up his hands in a theatrical gesture. “No. No. Please, Stefan. Just stay out of it when the fight begins.”
    And he turned and ran. It wasn’t like the way Stefan could disappear, but it would have pushed me to keep with him—and I’m fast. It was fast enough that he probably didn’t hear Stefan say, “No.”
    He stood beside me and watched Bernard until the vampire was out of sight. And he waited a little more. I watched the female slip out of the trees and found another one as he left his cover. That one Stefan raised a hand to and got a salute in return.
    â€œIt will be a bloodbath,” he told me. “And he is right. I could stop it. But I won’t.”
    I wondered suddenly why Marsilia had let him live. If he knew where she slept, and no one else did, if he rose before her and could take himself wherever he chose, then he was a threat to her. She surely knew that if Bernard did.
    Stefan sat on a likely boulder and linked his hands over a knee. “I meant to come to you when darkness fell,” he told me. “There are things I need to tell you about this link between us—” He gave me a shadow of his usual smile. “Nothing dire.”
    He looked out at the water. “But I thought I’d clean up my front porch a little first. The newspapers have been piling up because no one is living there now.” I had the sinking feeling I knew where this was going. “I was thinking I’d have to call and have the newspaper stopped—and then I read the newspaper. About the man you killed. So I went to Zee and got the full story.”
    He looked at me. “I’m sorry,” he said.
    I stood up deliberately and shook as if my fur was wet.
    He smiled again, just a quirk of his lips. “I’m glad you killed him. Wish I’d been there to watch.”
    I thought of where he’d been, tortured by Marsilia, and wished I could watch him kill her as well.
    I sighed and walked over to him, then put my chin on his knee. We both watched the water flow under the sliver of moon. There were houses nearby, but where we sat it was only us and the river.

9
    I LEFT STEFAN FINALLY I NEEDED TO GET UP EARLY TO get back to work, and it might be nice to have some sleep. When I glanced back over my shoulder for a last, concerned look, he was gone. I hoped he hadn’t gone back to his house—that didn’t seem like the smartest place for him to hang out—but he would do as he pleased. He was like me in that way.
    The lights were on at home, and I redoubled my pace as soon as I saw them. I dove through the dog door and found Warren pacing in the living room. Medea sat on the back of the couch and watched him with an annoyed look on her face.
    â€œMercy,” Warren said with relief. “Get changed; get dressed. We’re attending a peace powwow with the vampires, and you were specifically requested.”
    I ran into my room and shifted back to human. What with one thing and another, I had a roomful of dirty clothes and nothing more. “We’re talking peace-treaty time?” I asked throwing dirty pants over my shoulder.
    â€œWe hope so,” Warren said, following me into the room. “Who shot you?”
    â€œVampire, no biggie,” I said. “He wasn’t aiming to kill. I don’t even think any of the shot stuck.”
    â€œNope, but you won’t be happy about sitting down tonight.”
    â€œI’m never happy sitting down when there are vampires around—Stefan usually excepted. What did Marsilia say?”
    â€œShe didn’t call us, and we couldn’t get a