Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7)(29)

"So our halos are nice and bright," I told Kyle. I looked at Stefan. "Is calling the police smart? Won't we be putting pressure on the bad guys to get rid of their hostages?"

"No." Stefan turned his gaze on me. "If this is a government operation, having the local police involved will force them out into the open, and they cannot afford the bodies any more than the werewolves can. If it is something spearheaded by renegade agents - which is what it sounds like - involving the police will alert the agency involved and bring us new allies. That's how we'll do this, Mercy. If we can, we trap them in their actions until the only move they have left is what we want them to do."

He took a breath - which he doesn't have to do unless he wants to talk, though he usually does if only out of consideration for we breathers who get distressed if the people we're around don't breathe for a few minutes. "You were right, Mercy. I was thinking like a vampire before. These people want to separate the werewolves from the protection of society. So we'll get society on our side instead. It helps that Kyle is human."

Kyle smiled like it hurt. "Quite human. I am a black belt - got it ten years ago and haven't practiced much since. But it could explain how I took down two trained men with Mercy and Ben's help." He looked at the dead man, and nodded sharply. "Thank you for that, Stefan. He's no loss to the world."

"Will you get in trouble for his death?" I asked Kyle. He was a lawyer - family law - but he should still know.

He shook his head. "Self-defense in a slam dunk." He looked at Stefan. "Do you know who is responsible?"

"Renegade Cantrip agents is our working hypothesis," I said. FBI agents would have had too much experience to react out of fear the way Mr. Jones had. Homeland Security, I didn't know enough about. But Cantrip - short for Combined Nonhuman and Transhuman Relations Provisors - had attracted a number of anti-nonhuman zealots. I knew that they had training but not much field experience - and they'd have access to as much information as the government could amass on the werewolves. For firepower, they'd have to have help. "And a hired troop of competent mercenaries for muscle. Here" - I jerked my chin toward the two men on the floor - "we have the mercenaries. There are at least three more downstairs. I didn't see anyone else, but they'd be dumb not to have someone out keeping watch."

"Mercenaries mean money," said Stefan. "A lot more money than most Cantrip agents make."

Kyle smiled briefly. "Follow the money. Fine. You're sure that the police would be helpful?"

"Wait." There had been a click. Everyone fell silent - and then air started to blow out of the registers in the floor. I'd heard the heat turn on. Stefan went to the door, cracked it open, and took a quick peek outside. He shut it noiselessly and shook his head.

But he was quieter when he talked than we'd been before. "They only really need one person alive to blackmail Adam. The rest are just a precaution. If Adam and the pack are hostages, they need every one they can keep their hands on." He frowned at us both. "That doesn't mean they are safe - idiots are the hardest people to plan around, and anyone who captures a werewolf pack without killing every last one is an idiot."

"Okay," said Kyle. "Let's see if we can't make this a little uncomfortable for them." He walked to the side of the bed and picked up his cell.

I grabbed his hand and looked at Stefan. "What if they're listening to the phones?"

Stefan smiled. "Then they'll have warning and either run - or they will attack us up here."

A lot of things could have gone wrong. We settled down to wait, ready to defend ourselves if the men downstairs decided to check on Kyle.

Stefan left when the sun started coming up. Ben and I waited with Kyle, despite Kyle's protests that he could handle this on his own. We were safely out of it; if we left, we gave the enemy no one to follow ... Kyle had a lot of arguments, which he delivered with the cell on mute.

I wasn't leaving Kyle alone in a house full of bad guys. I finally stole his phone, took it off mute, and introduced myself to the operator. I explained that I thought that these same men were responsible for launching an attack at my house - yes, I was married to the local Alpha. One of the pack had escaped and found me - and we'd figured out something was wrong. We snuck in through the upstairs window just after Kyle had managed to free himself. I told her about the blood we'd found in the backyard that belonged to Kyle's boyfriend, a pack member, who had been taken off the premises by these bad guys, presumably to be held by whoever had taken the rest of the pack.

Kyle listened hard, since it was the first time he'd heard a lot of what I said. I didn't give the police the whole truth. There were too many things the werewolves didn't want getting out, and I wasn't mentioning Stefan. But I stuck to it as closely as I could.

When I'd finished, it was not just the SWAT team who were headed our way, but a fair percentage of a number of different police departments - and, to my relief, someone was going to go check at the firehouse where Mary Jo worked as well as the houses of our married pack members who hadn't come to our Thanksgiving dinner but had been taken just the same. They'd make sure that there were no other hostage situations.

I handed Kyle back his phone. He shook his head at me but took it in one hand, put it against his ear, and opened the gun safe in his closet with the other. The safe held two handguns and Warren's rifle - it was a Spencer repeating rifle dating back to the Civil War. He'd let me shoot it a couple of times.