Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson #4)(24)

"They were living, breathing people who were murdered. By you."

"How did you know that Mercy was at Andre's?" Warren's calm voice broke between us like a wave of ice water as he came down the stairs. He walked past me and used the key to open the cage door. "I've been wondering about that for a while."

"What do you mean?" asked Stefan.

"I mean that we knew she'd found Andre because she told Ben, thinking he couldn't tell anyone else because he'd not changed back from his wolf in all the time since the demon-possessed died. Ben changed so he could tell us, but we still couldn't go after her because we didn't know where Andre was. You had no way to know what she was doing. How did you know she was off killing Andre, just in time to cover up the crime?"

Stefan made no move to come out of the cage. He folded his arms and leaned a shoulder against the bars instead as he considered Warren's question.

"It was Wulfe, wasn't it?" I said. "He knew what I was doing because one of the homes I found was his."

"Wulfe," said Warren slowly, after Stefan didn't answer. "Is he the kind of man who would be outraged that Marsilia would call down a demon to infest a vampire? Would he want it stopped at the cost of Andre's destruction? Go to you for help doing it?"

Stefan closed his eyes. "He came to me. Told me Mercy was in trouble and needed help. It was only later that I wondered why he'd done it."

"You've had these thoughts already," Warren said. "So what did you decide?"

"Does it matter?"

"It's always a good thing to know your enemies," answered Warren in his lazy Texas drawl. "Who are yours?"

Stefan gave him the look of a baited bear, all frustration and ferocity. "I don't know." He gritted out. Warren smiled coolly, his eyes sharp. "Oh, I think you do. You aren't stupid; you aren't a child. You know how these things work."

"Wulfe used me to get to you," I said. "Then he told Marsilia what you'd done."

Stefan just looked at me.

"With you and Andre out of the way, there is Wulfe, Bernard, and Estelle." I rubbed my hands together and wondered if knowing what had happened would do Stefan any good. It wouldn't change things, and knowing that he'd fallen into Wulfe's trap wasn't going to help Stefan now. Still, as Warren had said, it is a good thing to know your enemies. "And Bernard and Estelle, Marsilia already doesn't trust them, right?"

Stefan nodded. "They work against her where they can, and she knows it. They are of another's making, given as gifts by a vampire not easily refused. She must take care of them, as she would any such gifts - but that doesn't mean she has to trust them. Wulfe... Wulfe is a mystery even to himself, I think.

You believe Wulfe engineered this as a rise to power?" He looked away and didn't speak for a minute, obviously thinking about what I'd said.

Finally, he wrapped his hands around the bars of the open cage. "Wulfe already has power... if he wanted more, it was his for the asking. But it looks like he had a part in my downfall for whatever reason suited him."

"If Marsilia knows that you helped when Mercy killed Andre, why isn't Mercy dead?" Warren asked.

"She was supposed to be," Stefan said savagely. "Why do you think Marsilia starved me until I was no more than a ravening beast, then dropped me into Mercy's living room? You didn't think I did it myself, did you?"

I nodded. "So she thought she'd get it all without cost to her or the seethe? If you'd killed me, she could have claimed you'd escaped while she was punishing you. Too bad you showed up in my house and killed me. But she underestimated you."

"She did not underestimate me," said Stefan. "She knows me." He gave me a look that let me know that my earlier dig about not knowing him had stung. "She just did not plan on you having the Alpha werewolf in your home to spoil her plans."

I'd been there - and I didn't think he would have done it.

Stefan sneered at me when he saw my face. "Don't waste your time on romantic notions about me. I am vampire, and I would have killed you."

"He's cute when he's mad," observed Warren dryly.

Stefan turned his back on us both.

"She's all by herself, and she doesn't even know it," he said in soft anguish.

He wasn't talking about me.

He'd been hurt a lot recently, and I thought he deserved a rest. So I turned to Warren, and asked, "Why aren't you upstairs at the meeting?"

Warren shrugged, his eyes veiled. "The boss will do better without me to rock the boat."

"Paul hates me more than he hates you," I told him smugly.

He threw his head back and laughed - which is what I'd intended. "Wanna bet? I kicked his ass from here to Seattle and back. He's not happy with me."

"You're a wolf. I'm a coyote - there's no comparison."

"Hey," said Warren in mock offense. "You're no threat to his masculinity."

"I'm polluting the pack," I told him. "You're just an aberration."

"That's because you called him a... Stefan?"

I looked around, but the vampire was gone. I hadn't gotten a chance to ask him about the crossed bones on my door.