again or not. This..." Adam's voice deepened into a rough growl "... thing has drawn a line in the sand and dared me to cross."
Adam knew how to play mind games. I think it's a requirement for being an Alpha. Or maybe it was just from his time in the army, which, according to his stories, wasn't that different, politically speaking, from the pack.
"And the others?" I asked.
He didn't say anything, just shook his head. I hugged myself again, feeling cold.
"So what are you going to do?" I asked.
He smiled unhappily. "I'm going to play Littleton 's game. I have no choice. I can't leave him running around in my territory."
Just then Warren 's breathing, which part of me was listening to with rapt attention, stopped. Adam heard it too, crouching as if there were an enemy in the room. Maybe there was. Death is an enemy, right?
Samuel swore, but it was Kyle who came off the floor, tipped Warren 's chin and began CPR with silent desperation.
I hadn't been able to hear Warren 's heart, but it must have stopped, too, because Samuel started chest compressions.
Useless again, I watched them fight for Warren 's life. I was really tired of being unable to do anything while people were dying.
After what seemed like a long time, Samuel pulled Kyle away saying, "It's okay, he's breathing. You can stop now." He had to repeat himself several times before Kyle understood.
"He'll be all right?" he asked, sounding quite different from his usual airy tones.
"He's breathing on his own, and his heart is beating" Samuel said.
It wasn't exactly an agreement, but Kyle didn't seem to notice. He sank back onto the carpet and started telling a story as if he'd never been interrupted. His voice showed none of the strain in his face.
"Tell me what I need to know about demons," I told Adam, though I couldn't take my eyes off of Warren. I had the strangest feeling that if I quit watching him, he would die.
There was a long pause. He knew why I wanted to know. If he didn't tell me what he could now-didn't help me with what I intended-then he wasn't the man for me.
"Demons are evil, nasty, and powerless unless they manage to attach themselves like a parasite to some damned fool. Either they are invited in as a guest-which is what makes a sorcerer, or they sneak in because someone weak of will does an evil thing. A simple demon possession doesn't last long because the possessed man cannot blend in: a demon in control wants one thing-destruction. A sorcerer, someone who controls the demon by means of a bargain, is far more deadly. A sorcerer may live undetected by the human population for years. Eventually, the sorcerer will lose control, and the demon takes over."
Nothing I hadn't known.
"How do you kill a demon?" I asked. Samuel's hands were once more sliding needle and thread through bloody flesh.
"You can't," Adam said. "All you can do is remove the threat by killing its host. In this case, Littleton, who is a vampire, bolstered with the demon's magic." He took a breath. "Not any kind of prey for a coyote. You can leave it to us, Mercy. We'll see that he is dead." He was right. I knew it. I was useless.
I noticed that Kyle was staring at us with wide eyes, though he didn't pause in his baseball story, something about when he was in Little League.
"Did you think that werewolves were the worst monster in the world?" I asked Kyle in a nasty tone. I didn't know until I spoke how angry I was. It wasn't right, taking it out on Kyle, but I couldn't seem to stop my mouth. He had rejected Warren for being a monster-maybe he ought to learn more about monsters. "There are a lot worse things out there. Vampires, demons, and all sorts of nasties and the only thing that stands between the humans and them are people like Warren." Even as I said it, I knew I wasn't being fair. I knew that being lied to had bothered Kyle as much as finding out that Warren was a werewolf.
"Mercy," said Adam. " Shh."
It seemed as if his words carried a cool wind of peace that swept over me, washing away all the anger, the frustration and the fear, the Alpha werewolf calming his wolf-only I wasn't his wolf. He had done it again.
I jerked around to stare at him; he was