"I will hurt you, Sylvie. I'll bleed you, do you understand," Richard said.
"But you won't kill me, will you?" she said. Her arm flexed, long claws tickled down my face.
I put my hands on her arm, trying to hold it away from me, and not succeeding. "I'llkill you," I said.
She went very still against my body. "For changing you into one of us? For losing you Richard's love when he sees you monstrous and furry?"
I spoke very low, very carefully. "You hate what you are, Sylvie."
Her arm convulsed tight enough that I couldn't breathe for a second. "I don't hate what I am. I accept what I am." Her arm loosened.
I took a shaky breath and tried again. "I saw the look on your face when I accused you of being jealous. You are jealous of me being human, Sylvie. You know you are."
She held her other hand up in front of my face, letting me get a good look at the long, thin claws. The hand at my throat combed claws through my hair.
"You know that Raina has forbidden us to make you lukoi. She's afraid if you joined us, you'd be a better bitch than she is."
"How flattering," I whispered. I looked at Richard through the backs of the werewolves. His eyes had gone amber and alien. Even now, I knew, he wouldn't kill Sylvie. Even if she bled me, infected me, he wouldn't kill her. It was there in the pain on his face. The confusion replacing the fear.
Maybe Sylvie saw it. Maybe she'd made her point. Whatever, she uncurled herself from my body and stood carefully on the other side of me.
I scuttled away on all fours as fast as I could go. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't slick, but it was effective.
I crawled until I came to the far wall. I stayed sitting against it, as far away from everything in the room as I could get.
The other werewolves had faded away. Sylvie and Richard stood facing each other. Sylvie's eyes had gone a strange liquid grey, wolf eyes.
Richard flung his power outward. It ate along my skin, tore a gasp from my throat.
Sylvie stood in that flood of power and didn't flinch. "The power is impressive, Richard, but it means nothing as long as Marcus lives."
He backhanded her, in a blur of motion that was too fast to follow. Sylvie careened into the wall and slid to the floor, stunned.
"I am pack leader," Richard's voice roared, and he raised clawed hands to the sky. He fell to his knees, and I didn't go to help. I stayed huddled against the wall, wishing I'd packed an extra gun.
Richard crouched on the floor, rocking gently. He curled on his knees into a ball, and I felt him swallow the power back. I felt it drain away. He stayed crouched on the floor, hugging himself for a long time after the power vanished from the room, head down, his hair hiding his face.
Sylvie got to her knees and crawled towards him. She crouched beside him, smoothing his hair back on one side. "We would follow you anywhere if you would kill for us. She will kill for us. If your mate, your lupa, will kill for us, it might be enough."
Richard raised his head up with a shudder. "No one is to be infected against their will, that is my word, and my order." He raised back on his knees.
Sylvie stayed crouched down, face near the floor, a sign of abasement. "But you will not kill to enforce it."
"I will kill to protect Anita," Rafael said.
Everyone looked at him.
He met their eyes and didn't back down. "If anyone touches her against her will, I and mine will hunt them down."
"Rafael," Richard said, "don't do this."
He stared at Richard. "You bring a human among us, but you do not protect her. Someone has to."
I wanted to say I could protect myself, but it wasn't true. I was good, but I was just human. It wasn't enough.
"I can't let you do my dirty work for me," he said.
"I am your friend, Richard," Rafael said. "I do not mind."