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His voice was as gritty as the darkness beyond the glow of the nearest streetlight. “I suggest you release my cousin.”
Ruth bared her teeth. “I suggest you look into New York City gun laws. How long do you think it’ll be before good old Johnny calls the cops?”
So she had set me up. I shifted my weight onto one knee in preparation for rising, and the second pinprick of pain struck dead center, right below my belly button.
“Are you as fast as me?” Ruth purred. “I wonder....”
Her voice trailed off as she arched up beneath me. Our bodies pressed even closer together in a gesture that was oddly intimate...until I realized she was smelling my neck.
To my surprise, Ruth’s eyelids drifted shut as she took in the same scent I woke to every morning. “You idiot,” she breathed. “No wonder they don’t believe I’m the sword maiden.”
I craved further information, but this was my moment. My foe was distracted....
Justice and I had worked together long enough that we didn’t even need a signal. I rolled. He kicked. My sword sparkled as it spiraled through the air.
I might not have been as fast as a skinless, but I was underneath waiting as the weapon descended. The hilt thudded into my hand with the satisfaction of coming home after a long night’s hunt.
“I think Ruth’s trying to suggest we’ll need a good lawyer,” I told Justice as he pocketed the pistol he really shouldn’t have had in his possession. “Do you have any idea where I might find one?”
My cousin snorted, about as much reaction as my joke merited. And Ruth—unfazed by lying naked on the ground between us—disagreed with me.
“No. Nothing so prosaic. I’m telling you that Honor’s failure is harming my brother. It’s time for her to make it right.”
***
“MY FAILURE?”
I was hooked and Ruth knew it. Her smile was more feline than lupine as she reeled me in, never mind that I towered above her while she lay flat on her back.
She inspected her fingernails before answering. “Did Luke tell you what happened last week?”
If I didn’t count dream-visions, Luke had told me nothing. There’d been no texts, no emails, no phone calls between us. I assumed the silence had a purpose so I maintained it on my end the same way he did on his.
Ruth responded as if I’d spoken. “You poor thing.” Her voice was fake-sweet, like sugar-free candy. “Of course he didn’t tell you. Didn’t mention the fact we’re hiding in the forest so the neighbors won’t catch wind of our weakness. Didn’t mention the fact we’re not even safe among our own kin.”
She rose to her feet then and I didn’t stop her. I needed to hear this. Her voice lowered and I leaned in closer.
“Did Luke mention the way he ran right into a bear trap in the woods two days ago? The way he shifted and dragged the metal jaws open with his bare hands then limped home on an ankle that looked like it’d been spat out by a shark?” She paused, raised one eyebrow just the way Luke would have done. “He told the pack that he stepped in a hole.”
Ruth took a step closer. My sword rested at my side, one hair shy of forgotten. Justice was the only one able to speak.
“Who set the trap?”
Ruth shrugged. “Who knows? It was out there so long the scent faded. On a path Luke follows often...but he’s not the only one.”
She leaned in closer. There were new cuts on her skin, interspersed with old scars. As if today’s fight was far from the first she’d embarked on since I’d seen her.
“I tried to do my job as sword maiden,” she continued. “They should have come to me, trying to steal a token. They should have demanded a Hunt if they weren’t happy. Instead, they resorted to subterfuge. Father was right. The pack is starting to rot.”
I took a deep breath. “That has nothing to do with me. Luke told me to leave. I left.”
“You left,” Ruth agreed, “but you didn’t do what I told you to. You kept the bite. I’m here to bring you to the pack so you can correct your mistake.”
For a split second, I considered it. Considered providing the backup my gut said Luke needed.
Beside me, Justice waited in silence. He was willing to go along if I asked him to—I knew that. Between us, we could hold our own amid any number of skinless.
Ruth’s patience didn’t last long in the face of my silence. “Did you ever wonder how I found you?” Her lips widened into an almost-smile. “Luke goes to town once a week for supplies, but he has no reason to drop by the library. He does, though. Logs onto a computer, checks up on a certain forum. Follows the threads of one user alone.”
So that’s how Ruth had known to use the Bounty Hunter’s Forum to reel me in for this meeting. The entire time I’d thought Luke was avoiding me, he’d been reading my social-media postings. Now I was the one smiling.
Still...Luke had asked me to leave. Had sent me away not just once but repeatedly. I had to trust that he knew his own needs better than Ruth did.
I shook my head. “If Luke wanted me there, he’d call me.”
I thought it was a good argument, but Ruth snorted. “Right. My big brother? Ask for help? Not a chance.”
The sky was gradually brightening above us. Skyscrapers loomed above the park in the near distance. A chatter of voices suggested strangers would soon interrupt our tête-à-tête.
So I shut things down. “This conversation is over. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in a city, not a nudist colony. Tell Luke I’ll come if he wants me to. Until then, good luck.”
Of course, it wasn’t that simple. Ruth’s hands flew to her hips. “Is that your final answer?”
I wasn’t sure how to be more clear than I’d been already, so I went for one-word clarity. “Yes.”
“Too bad.” Ruth pursed her lips. “We could have done this the easy way.”
Which made no sense. I held a sword. Justice possessed a gun. Ruth had nothing other than her lupine teeth, and even those weren’t in evidence at the moment.
“Son of a bitch.” Justice slapped his neck one second before a sweat bee stung me.
No, not a sweat bee. This was October rather than July.
The last thing I saw was a tiny feathered dart falling from my cousin’s limp fingers. Then everything went dark.