shifted to stand upon two legs, Kawosa seemed more comfortable on four. He scampered away from Minh, planted his paws so his chest was lower than his hindquarters and turned his head toward Nadya, to spit something petulantly in her direction. The charmed metal projectile, still smeared with Minh’s blood, hit the dirt and rolled until some of the Amriany markings glinted in the moonlight.
“Feel better, girl?” Kawosa asked.
Minh shook her head to clear whatever had compelled her to blindly chase the charmed device gripped tightly in Nadya’s hand. Although she wasn’t about to recklessly throw herself at Nadya anymore, the promise in her glare was sharp and spiteful.
“Even while I was locked beneath Lancroft’s floor, I knew what our biggest weakness had become.” Kawosa snapped his eyes toward Liam and said, “You are all too damn loud.”
“You want peace and quiet, trickster?” Liam grunted. “You can crawl right back into that hole where you were caged and forgotten.”
Paige glanced at her companions. Although they weren’t fighting for their lives at the moment, there wasn’t anywhere for them to go that didn’t require passing dangerously close to one of the werewolves. In fact, as more seconds ticked by, the panting breaths of encroaching Half Breeds from the nearby town drew closer.
“I gave you a gift,” Kawosa said. “And I passed on knowledge of how to use it. Instead, you either disappear into the forests or bay at the moon like common dogs. Pathetic.”
This time Minh was the one to step forward. “Pathetic? The Torva’ox moves through our veins like never before. You must feel it as well.”
“I do.”
“And you have us to thank for it. Without taking steps like the ones we’ve taken here, we would have simply watched another Breaking Moon rise above cities infested with humans and leeches, above mountains that look down upon lands that are being torn apart by machines. We bay at the moon because we are choking on air that sticks in our throats while the old ones like you are either too far removed to notice or buried too deep to care.”
Kawosa settled into a seated position, looking like a twisted version of a large dog waiting calmly for its supper. While the Full Bloods needed to change their physical shape to speak clearer, his voice was smooth and slippery regardless of the mouth that formed the words. “Interesting that you should mention the leeches. While the human armies now mass to strike against you, the Nymar have taken residence in comfortable businesses and homes after dispatching with the Skinners. Isn’t that right, Paige?”
Having been content to fly under the shapeshifters’ radar, Paige felt her nerves clench when one of them called her by name. Before she could respond to the challenge, Bill stepped forward and said, “We aren’t letting the bloodsuckers get away with what they’ve done. There’s more goin’ on than anyone here knows about.”
“So,” Kawosa said, “there is more than anyone knows. More than, I assume, your so-called friends here even know? Go on, you must tell me.”
When those words slid from the coyote’s mouth, Paige could feel the chill beneath her scars slice even deeper. She turned to Bill and said, “No, you don’t have to tell him anything!”
But the other Skinner shoved her aside in his haste to step forward. “I don’t take orders from fuckin’ Gypsies and I sure as hell don’t take them from someone who favors working with bloodsuckers and Mongrels over her own kind. When the Full Bloods get cleaned out, so will you.”
“You’ve come this far,” Kawosa urged. “Might as well go all the way.”
Nadya drew a breath and stood by Paige’s side. Milosh stopped her from going any further by grabbing her arm and shaking his head. Whatever information Kawosa was pulling out of Bill, he wanted to hear it as well.
“The Vigilant will take it all the way, asshole!” Bill roared. “What was started by locking your ass in Dr. Lancroft’s cell will be finished once we collect our own piece of this pie.”
“What pie?” Kawosa asked as his brow furrowed and the smug look on his bestial face drifted away.
“He means the Breaking Moon,” Liam said. “They know.”
Bill nodded triumphantly. “Hell yes, we know. Some of that juice that flows through your veins goes through Skinners as well. The difference between Vigilant and the rest is that we ain’t gonna squander what we’re given, like the Skinners that have been stepping up to get killed over the last year.”