“I have a panic pager and I hit it when they caught up with me—before I even knew they were feeders, to be honest,” she told me. “I wasn’t expecting Tarvers himself to answer—or for you to show up.”
“And we’re all lucky you did, changeling,” a deep bass growl interjected, and I looked up to see the door to the small bedroom I’d been placed in filled with the hairy form of the leader of the shifters in Calgary. “Our girl here might have managed to escape if you hadn’t shown up, but we would have lost the feeders then. This way, everyone wins.”
The bear shapeshifter crossed the room to me and offered his immense hand. “I know your kind don’t heal as quick as us shifters, so I brought you back with us so we could treat your wounds. We owe you a debt, stranger. I am Tarvers, Alpha of Clan Tenerim, and I and my clan are in your debt. What’s your name?”
“Jason Kilkenny, sir,” I answered politely.
He snorted. “Don’t call me sir, Jason,” he ordered. “Now, listen. I had our doctor check you out, and he says you’ll be fine by morning but you shouldn’t move much till then. So, you’re a guest in this house till this morning and a friend of the clan for your actions. If you have need of us, call. Now, rest!”
With that final barked command, the sheer presence of the man faded as he strode from the room, and I looked back to the girl I’d saved.
“What’s your name?” I asked. “If I almost got myself killed for someone, I’d at least like to know their name.”
She giggled. “I’m Mary,” she told me. “Also of Clan Tenerim. I’m the younger of two lynx shifters in a clan of wolves and bears, so they all treat me like their baby sister. And the Alpha overestimates my chances of escaping—I’d have been toast if you hadn’t intervened.”
Mary inspected me critically, and leaned in to wipe off a last speck of dirt and gravel from my face. She kissed me on the cheek, softly.
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “Now, Dr. Clementine said to let you rest, so I’m going to get out of your hair.” She smiled. “I took the liberty of programming my number into your phone.”
With that implied hint and a brush of her fingers against my cheek, Mary left the room, leaving me in the dark room with some healing bruises and her scent.
I BARELY MANAGED to open the room’s door in the morning before it was yanked out of my hand and I was urged gently back into the room by a shaven-headed young man with a stethoscope around his neck. He was built quite similarly to Mary, and I presumed some relation.
“You don’t move one more step until I check you out,” he told me firmly. “I’m Clementine Tenerim, Mary’s brother. Now sit down.”
Somewhat bemused, both by the energy everyone in the Clan seemed to bring to everything and the care they were showing, I obeyed. Clementine poked and prodded, listened to my heart with the stethoscope and flashed a light in my eyes. Then he apologized.
“Sorry, but most of the folks I work with and on are shifters,” he told me. “Even silver wounds, like that stab Mary took, will heal almost immediately once you abrade the silver out. Even with another inhuman, I have to be a bit more careful.”
“Thanks for the worry, doc,” I told him. “It’s appreciated.”
He nodded, and gestured for me to follow him out of the room. The front room of what turned out to be some sort of townhouse was occupied by Tarvers and three men who were almost as large.
“Have a seat, Jason,” the bear Alpha asked. “We have some questions about last night, though we’re waiting on one more.”
A car pulled up outside and a door slammed. A lean man I recognized as the wolf shifter from last night stepped up to the door, his hand going inside his open jacket. He relaxed at the sight of the man on the other side of the door, and opened it to reveal Oberis.
I bowed my head to the Lord of the fae Courts. I hadn’t seen him since my first night in Calgary, and I was quite content to avoid his attention if possible.
“Per our Covenant with the Wizard, I can only ask you questions with a leader of your Court present,” Tarvers rumbled, gesturing Oberis to a chair by mine. “Welcome to the Den of Clan Tenerim, Lord Oberis.”
“I am grateful for the invite and the welcome, Alpha Tarvers,” Oberis replied with the instinctive grace and charm of a fae noble. “Kilkenny, are you all right?” he asked me directly as he sat.
“I’m fine; these gentlemen took good care of me,” I answered quickly. I didn’t want to get tied up in the politics of inhuman factions. Avoiding them was why I was in Calgary.
“He protected one of our own, at risk to himself and with no call for reward,” Tarvers rumbled. “You should be well pleased with your man, Lord Oberis.”
“So it seems,” the fae Noble replied, impenetrable even to me. I hoped that meant he agreed. I didn’t want to be in trouble with Oberis right now.
“I need to ask you about the vampires, Jason,” Tarvers told me. “Did anything about them stand out? Any tattoos or symbols?”
“Um.” My response was hardly the most eloquent of answers, but I had to think. “Didn’t you have a better look than I?”
“There wasn’t enough left of the bodies to really examine,” the big shapeshifter answered, his voice somewhat self-satisfied.
“I didn’t see any symbols,” I answered, thinking carefully. “But I did notice... I burned one of them pretty badly, and he healed it almost instantly. They had to be very well fed. And one was beginning a blood working when you hit him.”
“Not a lot of vampires can actually work their blood magic,” Oberis interjected grimly. “Most feeders use up most of their power just staying alive and enhancing their bodies.”
“So, well-fed, well-taught vampires,” Tarvers concluded grimly. “A cabal has entered our city. I guess we have to tell the Wizard.”
“I will accompany you and speak for my changeling’s words,” Oberis agreed. Hopefully, his doing so got me off the hook of seeing the Wizard again!
“Now, Lord Oberis, I ask you to stand witness,” the bear Alpha told my lord. Tarvers stood, looming to his full seven feet in height and removing a length of gold chain from a pocket. He crossed to me and draped the chain around my neck.
“By my word and the witnesses here, I acknowledge a debt owed,” he said formally. “Jason Kilkenny is named friend and ally of Clan Tenerim, and is owed a Boon. Call upon us at your need, and we will answer in payment for the life that you saved.”
I inclined my head, accepting the debt. “Thank you,” I said quietly. Boons were a big deal among inhumans—it was more than your life was worth to refuse a Boon without a good reason. I couldn’t have refused the Alpha if I’d wanted to.
With that business concluded, Oberis stood and gestured for me to follow him to his car. I traded a firm handshake with Tarvers, watching my hand vanish in his giant fist, and followed the fae noble out.
I got in the passenger seat of the car, and Oberis handed me an envelope. It crinkled familiarly, and I opened it to be absolutely sure.
“Why?” I asked, eyeballing a sum of cash that was easily two months of my courier salary.
“I make a point of rewarding those of my Court who make my life easier,” Oberis said dryly as he started the car. “The Clans are the dominant force in this city after the Wizard, and you just wiped out a year or more of slowly growing irritation with us in a single moment of selfless bravery. Tarvers is as deadly serious about the Boon as any of us would be—but this is your reward for your service to the Court, not to the Clan.”
I’d learned a long time before not to argue with generous fae—and to count the money very carefully when they’d moved on. I bowed my head in acquiescence. After all, this was money I’d earned, and that meant I didn’t need to borrow from my boss to pay for the apartment.