Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega #2)(79)

"Not an answer," he told her. "But I suppose the life of a human does not matter, not to you. They are so short-lived anyway. What was her life worth? Or Chastel's-he was a monster, right? What were their lives worth when measured against a sword such as this?"

"Sarcasm does not suit you," Dana said with dignity.

"No," Charles said. "I suppose not. He hired you to kill my father?"

She nodded. "I refused until he offered me Excalibur. She was entrusted to me, she is the reason for my existence-and this fool had found her."

"And my father didn't come." While he had the sword, she would talk to him-and Charles wanted to know exactly what she'd done so he could inform his father.

"No. I knew Bran wouldn't-the elements told me so. But I had to find a reason for that fool to bring Excalibur to me. His fortress in Cornwall is guarded against fae; I needed him to bring her here. I intended to make no bargains with Arthur-just get the sword back."

"You would not have killed my father?"

"Not if he stayed in Montana. And he did stay in Montana, didn't he? But then you chose to come in his stead-and you brought something with you that Arthur wanted more than he wanted your father's death. I was to engineer matters so Chastel killed you. It would have accomplished two things: ensured that Chastel was not at his lethal best when Arthur's assassins came to call-and your death would leave your mate free for Arthur's claiming."

Charles took a deep breath. He had no grounds to convict her of wrongdoing. She had killed no one, spilled no blood-not even Arthur's. Intent was not enough for him to act against her nor was his dislike of her moral compass.

Suddenly, urgently, he wanted nothing so much as a shower to rinse off the blood, sweat, and dirty deeds of this night. He opened his hand until he held the sword's hilt by two fingers and held it out to her. "This is yours-he admitted to the theft. Take better care of it this time."

She took it with her left hand and her knuckles whitened as she sighed like a lover satisfied at last. She held out her right hand. "No hard feelings?"

He looked at the hand and felt no urge to take it. He had hard feelings aplenty.

"Please," she said.

He took her hand. "My father will talk to you about this. You broke your word to him."

Her hand tightened on his, and she looked down. "I know. I know. And I can't have that. No one must know. If no one knows, it will be all right. You understand."

For the second time that night Charles found himself on his knees with very little idea of how it had happened. He looked at his hand, still in Dana's grip-blue patterns ghosted down his arm from her hand.

As he collapsed fully on his side, the pain began, but he couldn't open his mouth.

"If you had been human, you would already be dead," Dana said. She brushed a strand of hair that had escaped his braid away from his face. "This will take longer, but it will leave no traces that can be followed. Your father will suspect, doubtless, but as long as no one knows my part, it will be fine."

She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "I do like you, Charles. I would never have made a bargain with Arthur to slay you but that I owe your death to your father. He gave me a reminder of that which I can never regain-I only return the same to him, as I promised you I would."

Brother Wolf growled, but the pain kept them motionless on the hard floor.

"TELL her we're about fourteen minutes out," Angus said as soon as he answered the phone. "And, as tempting as it is, I won't be driving randomly around the block, so I suspect the next time she makes you call, we'll be thirteen minutes out."

Alan had been holding his phone out to make sure Anna heard it. "Yes, sir," he said, and ended the call.

Anna knew she should apologize, but it was beyond her. Once they realized that the noise they'd heard a few minutes after Charles had closed the door was a locking mechanism-and that the room they were in was as secure a place to hold werewolves as she'd ever seen, they'd discovered Alan's phone didn't work. It had taken them a while to find the stupid black box that had kept Alan's cell phone from calling out-a cell phone disrupter.

When they called Angus, he'd already been on his way, alerted by a text message from Charles. The Marrok was about thirty minutes out of Seattle. He'd had a bad feeling earlier, and when Charles hadn't answered his phone, Bran had climbed aboard the jet and headed to Seattle.

At this rate, Anna thought, he'd beat Angus here. It had been ten minutes since the noise-identified as a sword fight by Alan-had stopped. Eight minutes since Charles had shut down their bond so tightly that all she could tell was that he was nearby and not moving.

Her wounds had closed, though there were a few itchy spots and a couple of sore places. She'd grabbed a sheet and wrapped it around her like an impromptu dress. As she paced, the short lengths of chains that dangled from her wrists and ankles made cheerful sounds that annoyed her. They probably annoyed Alan worse, but he didn't say so.

Sixteen minutes after their last call, the door unlocked.

"Sorry," Tom said. "We had a little trouble finding the electronic lock-it was in the room with Arthur's body."

"Charles?"

"Moira's looking after him," Tom said.

Anna found Charles lying on his side in Arthur's trophy room amidst a scattering of steel shards, blood, and gore. Moira was kneeling beside him with both of her hands on his bare shoulder. "I have him stabilized right now, but it's not going to stay that way. Someone put a death curse on him. He's fighting it, and I'm helping."