Page 3 of Cold Sacrifice

Ael thumped his staff on the floor. “Stupid girl,” he said.

The vampire elder waved his hand, impatient to move past the name-calling. “We will treat you with more respect,” he promised, casting a cold glance at both Kronor and Ael. “We will cause you no harm when you come to us, regardless of the supposed need or excuses to do so. But Kait, there will be times when we need you to bring us a target to study. And if at all possible, you will attempt to capture instead of kill, when we request you to do so. The werewolf, for instance.”

I crossed my arms. “He needed to die, and in the end, I wasn’t the one who killed him.”

“You would have, though,” he said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I would have.”

“Gavin Voss did not come by his abilities naturally,” Ti told me. “He wasn’t born a werewolf, and he wasn’t born with magic.” She leaned forward slightly, holding me with the heat of her gaze. “Someone created those things inside him. We needed that information. What if there are others just like Gavin Voss—or worse—being created by the same unknown who created the werewolf?”

“And yet,” Ael said, “you did not bring him to us. You killed him, essentially, and now the information we needed has died with him.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking. And finally, I decided to tell them the truth. “I shifted into him. I have some of his memories, though they are fading. Thankfully. I can tell you everything I saw. I can go back to his childhood, when he was likely changed by this…person.”

They all stared at me, disbelieving. Finally, the vampire elder stood. He stood slowly, his old bones creaking, and placed his palms on the table to support his body. Two hooded figures who’d been hiding in the shadows of the back wall hurried forward and stood beside him, as though they feared he might fall and crumble into dust.

“Kait Silver,” he said, his voice weak but underlined with something close to joy, “this proves that you want the best for the world. For the supernaturals. I knew this when I took a chance on you, when I brought you in. You are truly…” He struggled for a moment, as though he were about to speak a word he couldn’t quite understand. “…Good. You are good.”

Ti nodded. “As I said.”

Ael only snorted, but the demon, his eyes bright with interest, actually licked his lips and half-rose from his seat before Ti snarled at him. “You cannot have her,” she said. “You cannot extinguish every light you see.”

“Evil,” I said to Kronor, then gave Ti a small smile. “And I am not that.”

I expected her to return my smile, to agree with me. But she avoided my stare and said nothing.

Which didn’t exactly make me feel better about the whole demon inside me situation.

“I would like you to begin sessions with one of our people,” the vampire told me. “He has the ability to pull out the Voss memories inside you.” He held up a hand before I could speak. “And do not worry. He will latch on to the werewolf, and he will absorb only that great beast. Your secrets will remain yours, Kait.”

“Saul will call you when we are ready,” Ti said. “And Aaron will escort you to the sessions.” She did smile, then. “Thank you, Kait. This is more helpful than you know.”

“It would have been helpful,” Ael said, “to have had Voss in our custody.”

I shrugged. “I can bring you his body, if you want him. I’d like him off my land, anyway. He’s marring the ground.”

Again, they only stared at me. Finally, Ti said, “Do you mean you have possession of the werewolf’s physical body?”

“Yeah,” I told her. “The ones who killed him buried him in the woods where we fought.” I frowned. “I seriously thought you people knew pretty much everything, but you had no idea I shapeshifted into him or that—”

“Bring him to us,” the demon said, excitement in his voice. Then he waved an impatient hand. “No, never mind. We will send our people to retrieve him.”

“You’d better call ahead,” I told him. “Or your people might end up buried beside him.”

“We will be in touch,” the vampire told me.

I hesitated. Kronor caressed the hilt of my blade, his eyes gleaming. And then, he took his hand from the knife and as fire licked at his fingers, he burned away the wood holding the blade.

Laughing, he snatched it from the table and held it up for me to see, and I couldn’t resist for a moment longer. If I could steal the blade back, I would steal it back. And if that meant I would fight with the demon elder, so be it.

I couldn’t walk out of there without at least trying.

But just as I opened my mouth, Ti spoke.

“Kait,” she said.

My heart leapt shamefully. “Yes?”