Madhouse (Cal Leandros, #3)(49)
"Alpha," she identified decisively as she settled back. "You lead your pack. Protect your pack."
She wasn't wrong. Niko had been born an Alpha. If you screwed with him, screwed with his own, there wouldn't be much left of you to regret that decision.
Niko flipped the blade and made it vanish under his coat. He didn't comment on her conclusions. Alphas had no need to brag. "We would like your help. Yours and anyone else you could convince to accept our pay."
She dropped her booted foot to the sticky floor and licked away the single drop of blood on her upper lip. "You come about Sawney Beane?" His presence in the city was evidently not a secret, not anymore. "He kills." There was a shrug that said clearly, "Who doesn't?" "He wastes." That was entirely different from the haughty lift of her chin, a sin seen only with contempt. I remembered the body parts floating in the water, disgusting to us, squandered to Delilah. It reminded me. She had helped us, she might help us again, but she also was a wolf. Some wolves didn't eat people, but she was also Kin. Kin ate whatever the hell they wanted. I wanted to like her, and I rarely wanted to like anyone, but liking involved trust and truth, things I'd only started to put into play in the past year. I wasn't good at either one yet, and I didn't know that Delilah even deserved either one.
But this was about Sawney and the revenants. If and how she could help us now was what was important, not wondering about the ethical implications of her diet. "He's in the subway tunnels," I said, hooking a leg around the chair leg and wearily resting my elbows on the table, "with a whole shit-load of revenants."
"We saw at least forty." Niko picked up the story. "And there could be more. They're oddly organized. They act as one with none of the usual revenant squabbling and infighting. We've enlisted a boggle, but I don't believe that even she will be enough. Not if Sawney is there with them this time."
Delilah tapped her foot against the floor with eyes distant for several seconds. "Sawney is Sawney. Not Kin business. But…" Her upper lip, now blood-free, lifted with distaste. "He is careless. He brings attention. Bad attention. Kin will not help, not you." Tracing a reflective finger along the tattooed wolf eyes around her neck, she said, "But I will help." She took a drink from a passing tray and popped a slice of orange in her mouth. "If price is acceptable."
"I thought the Kin wouldn't help us. You are Kin," Niko pointed out, gray eyes focused with skeptical caution. It had been his plan to ask for her assistance, but while he was capable of trust and truth, you had to earn it.
"I am Kin, but I am also free," she announced as if it were common knowledge.
"Free being?" I asked.
She tossed back the rest of the drink and gave a sly smile. "Not caught."
14
Delilah was a wolf of her word. She took the pay, and two days later she showed up in the tunnel as shown on the map of the Second Avenue subway project Niko had sketched on a bar napkin. She also brought four other wolves with her. Big ones, all half-and-halfs and wearing hooded sweatshirts to cover the fact. It didn't stop an experienced eye from spotting the glitter of golden-brown irises, thickened black nails, and jagged teeth made for the ripping out of throats.
Niko, Promise, Robin, Boggle, Delilah with her wolves, and me, if we couldn't take care of the problem, we might as well grab a walker, move south with the snowbirds, and let Sawney have New York.
"Did you leave the kiddies with a nanny?" Robin asked as he looked up at the boggle. He didn't have any better memories from the fight with her mate than Niko or I did. It showed in the wary distance he kept from her.
From the contemptuous snap of her jaw and gale-force snort of rancid air, she managed to say without words that the boglets would do just fine on their own. I wasn't sure where she'd gotten into the tunnel system to eventually meet us, but I doubted it had involved a MetroCard.
"This is quite the mix." Promise's hair was in a braid this time, one woven with black cord, then wrapped in a thick club at the base of her neck. She smiled to show the tips of pointed canines. "The very best parties always are."
In contrast, Delilah was already frowning in impatience. "We go now. Skipped dinner. Mealtime is now."
"You didn't eat simply to work up an appetite for this?" Niko had brought his axe again and raised it slightly in respectful salute. "You are the warrior."
"Devious and ravishing." Robin sidled closer. He'd made the sacrifice called for by filthy tunnel water and wore jeans. My jeans. He didn't own any. Hit men after his ass he had plenty of, but casual wear for revenant hunting—that he was lacking.
"Devious, ravishing." She snuffled his hair, neck, and shoulder and it wasn't in what I would call a sexual way. "Hungry."
"All right, then. Moving along. Let us return Sawney to the hell from whence he came." Goodfellow was in the lead and moving with alacrity. He was armed with a sword, as was Promise. I had my guns, and the wolves and the boggle had what nature gave them. As we moved, Boggle … if she had a name, she also wasn't sharing…slid under the water with the slow grace of a crocodile. When she surfaced, the mud was gone, and her mottled scales held the pattern of an entire desert full of rattlesnakes. Then she went under again. The water here had been thigh deep; now it was almost waist high. It didn't cover her completely. You could still see the ridge of her spine and the glow of her eyes in the dim light, but she moved fast. So fast that within seconds she had disappeared—past Goodfellow and gone.