“So the war begins,” Marid said. “At last.”
Ned shook his head. “They’ll go to ground when their minions don’t return. Move to new lairs. It’ll take time to find them, and it’s getting too close to dawn to search.”
“Dawn’s a perfect time to go after vampires,” Ben said. “Get ’em when they’re woozy.”
All the vampires gave him a look, even Emma.
“It’s a perfect time for you to go after vampires,” Ned said. “But I intend to twist Jan’s head off myself.”
“I can track them,” Caleb said.
“How?” Ned said roughly, skeptical.
Caleb curled a smile for him. “They’ve got their wolves standing guard. Like they always do. I may not know where the vampires are, but I can find their wolves.”
Antony stepped forward. “Then we’ll attack—”
“No,” I said. I started pacing, trying to catch a thought before it fled. “If we know which of the werewolf guards have moved, we’ll know who was in on the attack—which of the Masters are allied with Jan and by extension Mercedes—”
“And therefore Roman,” Ben said.
“So we can attack,” Antony reiterated, frowning.
“That’s not the point,” I said. “An attack is going to end up like the one we just had, lots of fighting with no real result. We can’t take the vampires on their home ground so there’s no point fighting their wolves. We don’t want them fighting us, we just want—”
“We want them to leave,” Caleb said. “Kitty’s right. My folk and I killed eight werewolves tonight. You lot can have your war, but it’s us that keep dying, and I’m sick of it. Go after your vampires, but I won’t let you go through more wolves to do it.”
“That’s just it—we can talk to the wolves. Oh, we can do this,” I said. My thoughts had caught up with my subconscious. Wolf and I both knew what to do here. We just had to prove to them that we were the stronger alpha, smarter even than their Masters. And they’d listen to us, right?
Ha.
“Caleb,” I said. “We have to find them. I need to talk with them—all of them.”
“You think they’ll just stand still to listen to you? Are you daft?” Ned glared, but I stood my ground. I was right. I was sure I was right.
“Don’t underestimate her ability to talk,” Ben said, his expression wry. He was enjoying this, the bastard. “It’s her superpower.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ned said. “I don’t believe you can manage this.”
“Caleb,” I said. “Will you help?”
His smile turned toothy. “I’m in. I want to see this. How about it, Ned? Give us your blessing, won’t you?”
“Do I have a choice? As soon as the sun rises you’ll do what you want, am I right?”
“You’ll just have to trust us,” the werewolf said. “Isn’t that what this is all about? Look at us—working together.”
“We should get going,” I said, my eyes bright, my nerves jumpy. Cormac—we had to call Cormac and let him know what was happening. Maybe he’d have some advice, however unlikely that seemed. He was
used to shooting, not talking.
Caleb nodded, and we headed for the door.
“Before you go,” Ned said. “You mind if we take care of this one for you?” He pointed at their prisoner.
Caleb scowled at the inert body. “Be my guest.”
Apparently, advocating for the benefit of werewolves in general was one thing. But this one had attacked him and his people. Sympathy was forfeit. I couldn’t say that was the wrong attitude.