into
her eyes hoping for some sign that things would eventually be okay,
but there was a guardedness to her that hadn't been there any of the
times we'd talked before this.
"Adri—I'm
sorry. I never—"
"You don't
have to say anything, Alec. You saved Cindi, which is so much more
than would have happened without you. If you hadn't arrived when you
did, everyone who went to Minnesota to help me would have died. Let's
just put all of that behind us. Taggart said you have information
about some kind of Coun'hij operation that we need to deal with. You
and he don't have an unlimited amount of time here—let's get to
brass tacks."
I looked over
at Taggart and saw a flicker of something that was gone too quickly
for me to be sure, but which looked like disappointment. I just
wished that I knew whether he was disappointed in her reaction or
disappointed that I hadn't managed to break through her guard.
"Right.
There's not a ton I can tell you yet. One of my contacts told me that
the Coun'hij wants to make an example of Jaclyn Annikov. Her pack is
small enough that you can pretty much guarantee they will all be
somewhere between Tucson and the border at any given moment. That
means that they are easy to contain, which is a big plus for Kaleb
and the rest. At the same time, Jaclyn is powerful enough that
killing her makes a powerful statement."
Taggart nodded
as though contemplating what I'd just said, but I knew he'd already
considered all of the angles.
"It's a
risky move. The Coun'hij has tried for the last couple of centuries
to maintain an aura of legitimacy. They are brutal when it comes to
eliminating enemies, but only after they find a violation of the laws
they've created. Jaclyn has proven surprisingly good at not actually
doing anything worthy of death despite all of her complaints.
"Destroying
her pack might scare all of the smaller unaligned packs into the
Coun'hij's shadow, but it could just as easily force them all into
open rebellion. This isn't the kind of move I would have expected out
of Kaleb."
I shrugged.
"You're not wrong. He's usually more subtle than this, but it's
possible that they don't feel like they have any other option. We
didn't manage to save Agony, but we did soundly trounce a fairly
large group of enforcers before being chased off. The Coun'hij may
not know everything that happened before Brandon arrived, but they
must have realized by now that we brought someone with an ability
that they didn't expect."
"I suppose
you're right. It's easy to get caught up with worries over the fact
that Grayson isn't a resource we can count on to help us in the
future, but the Coun'hij is probably concerned about the fact that
Carson's people—and Heath—represent a completely
unanticipated threat."
"Right,
and then when you throw in the fact that they haven't been able to
track us down since then, they're probably feeling the heat. They
don't know that we lost a ton of people in LA. My efforts at
diplomacy haven't been bearing any real fruit, but I've been focused
on the packs that are already only half a step away from joining the
rebellion. Maybe I should have been focused on the independents. If
Kaleb and the rest are getting signals that the smaller packs are
already considering jumping ship, the Coun'hij may not feel like they
have any other choice."
I'd been very
careful not to reference Minnesota again, but Adri flinched slightly
when I talked about our losses in LA. It was, after all, only a small
jump from losing people to super vampires in one place to losing them
to super-vampires in another place.
For a moment I
thought she was going to crack under the memory of her parents being
killed, but she pulled herself together with visible effort.
"Okay, so
what next? I take it we can't just call Jaclyn up and tell her to
pack her bags?"
Taggart smiled.
"No, I'm afraid things are rarely that simple. It is difficult
to stay off of the Coun'hij's radar, but it's even harder falling off
in the
her eyes hoping for some sign that things would eventually be okay,
but there was a guardedness to her that hadn't been there any of the
times we'd talked before this.
"Adri—I'm
sorry. I never—"
"You don't
have to say anything, Alec. You saved Cindi, which is so much more
than would have happened without you. If you hadn't arrived when you
did, everyone who went to Minnesota to help me would have died. Let's
just put all of that behind us. Taggart said you have information
about some kind of Coun'hij operation that we need to deal with. You
and he don't have an unlimited amount of time here—let's get to
brass tacks."
I looked over
at Taggart and saw a flicker of something that was gone too quickly
for me to be sure, but which looked like disappointment. I just
wished that I knew whether he was disappointed in her reaction or
disappointed that I hadn't managed to break through her guard.
"Right.
There's not a ton I can tell you yet. One of my contacts told me that
the Coun'hij wants to make an example of Jaclyn Annikov. Her pack is
small enough that you can pretty much guarantee they will all be
somewhere between Tucson and the border at any given moment. That
means that they are easy to contain, which is a big plus for Kaleb
and the rest. At the same time, Jaclyn is powerful enough that
killing her makes a powerful statement."
Taggart nodded
as though contemplating what I'd just said, but I knew he'd already
considered all of the angles.
"It's a
risky move. The Coun'hij has tried for the last couple of centuries
to maintain an aura of legitimacy. They are brutal when it comes to
eliminating enemies, but only after they find a violation of the laws
they've created. Jaclyn has proven surprisingly good at not actually
doing anything worthy of death despite all of her complaints.
"Destroying
her pack might scare all of the smaller unaligned packs into the
Coun'hij's shadow, but it could just as easily force them all into
open rebellion. This isn't the kind of move I would have expected out
of Kaleb."
I shrugged.
"You're not wrong. He's usually more subtle than this, but it's
possible that they don't feel like they have any other option. We
didn't manage to save Agony, but we did soundly trounce a fairly
large group of enforcers before being chased off. The Coun'hij may
not know everything that happened before Brandon arrived, but they
must have realized by now that we brought someone with an ability
that they didn't expect."
"I suppose
you're right. It's easy to get caught up with worries over the fact
that Grayson isn't a resource we can count on to help us in the
future, but the Coun'hij is probably concerned about the fact that
Carson's people—and Heath—represent a completely
unanticipated threat."
"Right,
and then when you throw in the fact that they haven't been able to
track us down since then, they're probably feeling the heat. They
don't know that we lost a ton of people in LA. My efforts at
diplomacy haven't been bearing any real fruit, but I've been focused
on the packs that are already only half a step away from joining the
rebellion. Maybe I should have been focused on the independents. If
Kaleb and the rest are getting signals that the smaller packs are
already considering jumping ship, the Coun'hij may not feel like they
have any other choice."
I'd been very
careful not to reference Minnesota again, but Adri flinched slightly
when I talked about our losses in LA. It was, after all, only a small
jump from losing people to super vampires in one place to losing them
to super-vampires in another place.
For a moment I
thought she was going to crack under the memory of her parents being
killed, but she pulled herself together with visible effort.
"Okay, so
what next? I take it we can't just call Jaclyn up and tell her to
pack her bags?"
Taggart smiled.
"No, I'm afraid things are rarely that simple. It is difficult
to stay off of the Coun'hij's radar, but it's even harder falling off
in the
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