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Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7) Page 23
Author: Patricia Briggs

Stefan had stood up so there was room for Ben to put his head on the ground next to me and look below the curtain, too. When he saw Kyle, the werewolf went still.

Ben was not the largest werewolf in the pack - though he was big enough. But he was among the most dangerous. He was fast - and he wasn't bothered by the thought of killing someone, even when he was as human as he ever got. He had been abused, severely abused when he was a child. People, outside the pack and Adam's family, just weren't real to him. We were working on that, Adam and I, but I discovered right then that Ben considered Kyle one of the pack.

Better to aim my weapon than to let it go off half-cocked. I bumped him, and when I had his attention, I pulled my nose out from under the curtain. Then I looked up at the top of the curtain and back to him. Shapeshifting makes all of us pretty good at charades.

Ben stood up and kept going until he stood balanced on his good hind leg with a front paw on the side of the house next to the sliding door. I backed out of the way - and realized that Ben and I were alone on the balcony. Stefan had disappeared.

I nodded sharply, and Ben's free front paw slammed the curtain, rod and all, onto the ground, where it would not interfere with us. I'd gathered myself to leap, but what I saw made me pause because there was no one to attack.

Stefan was already in the room, lowering the bald man to the ground with gentle care. The first man, the man who'd hurt Kyle, was dead, his eyes starting to fog over and his body draped over Kyle. Stefan had incapacitated both men without either making a sound. Pretty efficient, the coyote in me thought, and the rest of me was very, very glad that Stefan was on my side.

Despite my earlier stand, even knowing it could come back and bite us, I couldn't deny that I was happy that Stefan had killed Kyle's assailant.

I changed back to human and hauled the dead man off Kyle while Ben aimed himself at the bindings on Kyle's wrists that held the rest of him into the chair. Stefan touched Ben's nose and moved it out of the way.

He looked at the bindings for a moment. Yellow nylon rope wrapped Kyle's wrists and wove in and out of the sturdy wooden chair. "There is no way the police are going to believe you broke out of that."

And that was the first sign I had that Stefan really had taken what I'd told him to heart. We were going to call the police - and Kyle, very human Kyle, was going to rescue himself.

Stefan put a hand on the seat of the chair and the other on the back. "Brace yourself," he warned Kyle, then pulled the chair apart. The ropes fell away like magic.

Everyone but Kyle froze, listening for any sign that someone else had heard us.

"Sweats," Kyle whispered to me, rolling off the chair like it hurt. "Top drawer of the bigger chest of drawers. You can steal a pair, too." He looked at the chair pieces, and murmured, "The bedroom is supposed to be soundproofed. Doesn't work on Warren, but maybe we'll luck out with less gifted listeners."

The first drawer I found had underwear, so he must have meant the other top drawer. They were sorted and army neat, matching bottoms and tops folded together. I grabbed the top two sets.

No one came boiling up the stairs, so either they hadn't heard the chair go - or they thought it was part of the interrogation.

Stefan helped Kyle up and steadied him when he was a little wobbly on his feet. I handed over a pair of bottoms. Stefan continued to hold him upright while Kyle pulled the sweats on with great concentration. Once Kyle had the pants on and both feet on the floor to steady himself, Stefan took the rope and started to tie up the bald man.

"How often do the people downstairs come up?" Stefan said.

"The only time anyone has come up here was a few minutes ago," Kyle told him. "Could be back in a minute, or next week."

I handed Kyle a sweatshirt. He shook his head, and said, "That's the wrong top for these."

"Fashion princess." I rolled my eyes and gave him the other top, noticing only as it unfolded that it proclaimed, "I'm prettier than your girlfriend," in purple glittery script. I recognized it because I'd given it to him for his birthday.

"I have news for you, Kyle, it'll be a while before you are prettier than anyone's girlfriend. Bruises are not your best color. Are you sure you don't want the other top?"

He glanced at me and gave me a crooked smile. "You look worse than I do. These goons get to you, too?"

We were all keeping our voices as quiet as possible.

"Car accident." I pulled on the sweatpants. They were tight, but Warren's would have been tighter and left me with a foot of material to trip on.

"They have Warren," Kyle said, his eyes, briefly, looking as terrified as I was.

"I know," I told him. The top that matched the sweatpants I wore was a spiffy teal. "They have the rest of the pack, too."

"So I gathered." Kyle indicated with a tip of his head that his information had come from the bald man. "Are we on the side of the angels?" Kyle pulled on his top, though not without wincing.

Stefan looked up from the bald man, and said, "The first one I killed because I don't let people who hurt those I care about live. He is dead in such a way that a human could have killed him. Since Mercy has been so concerned with the body count, the second man is merely out - and I made certain he did not see me. If you choose to call in the police, there is nothing that can be used against us - werewolf or vampire."

"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."

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Patricia Briggs's Novels
» Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson #9)
» Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega #2)
» On the Prowl (Alpha & Omega 0.5)
» Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1)
» Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega #1)
» Fair Game (Alpha & Omega #3)
» Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega #4)
» Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson #3)
» Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson #4)
» Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson #5)
» River Marked (Mercy Thompson #6)
» Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7)
» Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8)
» Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson #2)