by your scent, she thought. I had no idea what she meant.
"What is she?" Katie asked Leo. "She is delicious. I like it."
"Unknown. Something cat, of course, though not were-cat. They stink. She is elegant, like this wine" - he tilted the glass, and I could see the ruby fluid coat the crystal - "rich and earthy and heavy with the tannins of aged oak." I knew that Sabina could have answered Leo's question. Instead, she looked at me over her shoulder, no expression on her face.
I reached up and pushed away the sword at my throat. Gee DiMercy must have considered me no threat now, for he stepped back. Any movement hurt all over, and I thought I might fall, but I pulled myself to my feet, unsteady. Bruiser rushed back and reached out to stabilize me. I growled at him and he stopped as if a puppet master had wrenched his strings. When I spoke, the words were slurred, my cat-mouth not meant for speaking human sounds. "I' no' a vintage," I said, my vocal cords tight and aching, my voice rough with pain and with Beast's nearness. "This was no gift. It was my punishmen' for claiming to be your Enforcer."
"You transgressed," Leo said. "That transgression bent the law and forced us into this war. Now we can rectify the problems you have created and turn the balance of the war in our favor. You will assist us in this endeavor."
I felt the pull of his will, his pressure of his commands, and I said, "I'll fulfill my . . . responsibilities."
Leo's brows went up in surprise. "Of course you will." And I felt his compulsion caress me like a huge hand smoothing my pelt.
"I would have fulfilled them anyway. Without . . . this." My voice broke and I struggled to find my breath. "I'll do my duty. But if you ever t-t-t-try to drink me down again, I'll shhtake you and cut off your head." And eat his heart, Beast added. Leo went still at that, as if he could hear her promise.
I turned and walked to the sliding door and extended my hand. At the end of the palm was a golden-furred paw/finger, human shaped, but bigger, knobbier, with a retractable claw at the tip. My index finger found the button that made the door rise. It whirred up and I walked under it and into the night. It closed behind me. I made it to my bike. Pulled my sleeve down over my aching inner elbow. Straddled Bitsa. On the third try, my fingers folded around the handlebars, mostly human-shaped again. I managed to kick-start her. And I rode away.
Tears flew from my eyes, snaking with the wind across my face, into my hairline. I wasn't wearing my helmet. My loose hair blew out behind me as if the wind ran fingers through it, unbraiding and tangling. I could still feel Leo's fangs at my throat. Katie's against my arm. Still feel my own fangs in my mouth, sharp against my tongue, and knew my jaw and lower face were still misshapen. If a cop stopped me for riding without a helmet, I'd scare the crap outta him.
I sobbed with misery and what might have been despairing laughter. I had been delusional, thinking I could work for vamps and not get bitten, not be forced to drink from them. Delusional and stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
* * *
I dropped the bike on the far side of the Mississippi. Just pulled off the narrow, unmarked road into nowhere, into the brush beside the road, and propped her against a tree. I stripped off my shirt, the stench of vamp and my own blood strong in my nose. So much had happened in the converted warehouse. I had learned so much. And lost so much.
Have you used the bones? Sabina knew what I was. She knew I was a skinwalker.
"What is she?" Katie had asked Leo. He had replied, "Unknown." I hadn't realized it at that time, but he had scented of the truth. So Sabina hadn't told the Master of the City about me. Why not?
I stepped away from the bike into the woods. Briars tore at me. As I walked, I dropped my clothes and boots, leaving them where they fell.
I had clawed Katie. My face had transformed. They knew I was something. Something cat. Leo and Sabina had talked into my brain, something gained from the magic ceremony, the taking of my blood,