William waved his bloody hand.
“Yes, we’re done,” Declan said.
“Good,” she said, getting up. “Jack, help William inside the house to wash the blood off his face.”
She crossed the grass to Declan. “How are you?”
“Perfectly fine,” he said.
“Are your ribs broken?”
“Probably not. Cracked at most. We fought very carefully.”
“Did this settle anything?”
“It made me feel better,” he said, sitting up. “Did you see me kick him in the kidneys?”
“I saw.”
Declan gave her a sharp predatory smile. “He’ll feel it tomorrow morning.”
JACK watched William wash his face in the sink. The water ran red. The scent of blood, sharp and salty, was everywhere in the room. Jack didn’t care for human blood. It made him jumpy. The skin under his bracelet itched. He scratched at his wrist and fought the prickling pain of his claws wanting to come out. He couldn’t help it. William was bigger and stronger and bloody. He was a threat. A very nasty threat.
That fight was the best thing he had ever witnessed in his whole entire life.
“You got a towel?” William said.
Jack pulled a towel from the kitchen chair and brought it over to him. William pulled it from his fingers, wiped his face, and glanced at him. William’s eyes flared with gold. Wolf, shot through Jack’s head. He’d known William was some kind of changeling because he saw his eyes glow while he and George watched William talk to Rose, but he didn’t know what kind. Now he knew.
William lunged at him. Jack jerked back, but William caught him and dragged him up to his face.
Jack jerked, but William’s hands held him like big iron pinchers.
William stared into his eyes, his face completely white. “Show me your teeth.”
Jack hissed.
“You’re like me,” William whispered. He looked like someone had hit him in the gut.
“No,” Jack told him to make him feel better. “You’re a wolf, and I’m a cat. We’re different.”
William swallowed. “You live here?”
Something was wrong with him, Jack decided. Of course he lived here. But William was a big wolf, and it wasn’t wise to make him mad. He simply nodded.
“Do you have a room?”
Jack nodded.
“Where?”
Jack pointed with his head. His arms were still clamped to his sides by William’s hands.
William strode through the house, carrying him, stepped into his room, and sagged against the door. All the strength must have gone out of his arms, because they let go, and Jack squirmed out and landed on the floor.
William stared at his room. Jack looked, too, just in case there was something surprising there that William saw and he didn’t. It was a regular room. Two beds, one for him, one for George. Rose had made them both blankets with a crochet hook. His was blue and black, and George’s was red and black. He liked the blankets because even after you washed them, they still smelled like Rose.
He looked past the beds to the windowsill, where the seven-inch plastic Batman duked it out with Superman. In the corner, a beat-up shelf held some matchbox cars, books, and more figures. Jack went over to the shelf and pointed out the guys. “This is He-Man,” he said. “He’s my favorite. Rose bought him at a flea market, because I liked him.”
William just watched him. His eyes looked huge, and they were glowing.
“This guy, I don’t know what he is, but I like his armor. I think he might be like a knight. Only I don’t have a sword that fits into his hand, so he has a gun. So he’s a gun-knight, I think.”
Jack made He-Man and Gun-Knight fight a bit and looked at William. William didn’t look any better.
“I think you might be not right,” Jack said. “That’s okay. I get like that sometimes. When I’m real scared and I just want to hurt something. It’s okay. The important thing is don’t panic.”
He came over and took William’s hand. Rose was better at this than he was, because he never had to do it for anybody else, but he remembered what she did. “You’re safe,” he said. “You’re in a good place. Nobody can hurt you here. You don’t have to be afraid.” He hesitated. “There is some mushy love stuff that goes here, but it probably won’t work for you. The important thing is, this is a good place. It’s safe and warm, and there is water and food. And you don’t have to be scared, because there are ward stones and they keep bad people away. And Rose won’t let anybody hurt you.”
William looked like he might be sick. This called for emergency measures. “Stay here,” Jack told him, ran over to the fridge, and brought him a chocolate bar. “Eat this,” he said. “Rose gives me one when I get not right. It makes you feel better.”
William’s hand shook.
“I’ll get Rose,” Jack said.
“No.” William’s voice sounded like he had eaten some rocks. “I’m good. I’ve got it.”
He got up to his feet and handed him the chocolate. “You eat it,” he said and walked out onto the porch.
Jack looked at the chocolate bar. It smelled so good. But chocolate was for emergencies. He sighed and went to put it back into the fridge.
When he came outside, William was leaning against the porch next to Declan, who sat in the grass. Rose was chewing George out for something. Jack went over to Declan and sat by him.
“How long have you known?” William said.
“I came across them my second day here. Casshorn’s hounds attacked him, but he hadn’t turned, so I wasn’t sure at first.”
“It hurts to change shape here,” William said. “You go into a fit.”
“That’s what I gathered.”
The muscles along William’s jaw went tight. “Are you sending him to Hawk’s?”
Declan shook his head. “If she comes with me—and she hasn’t said she would—he’s staying with us. No Hawk Academy, no special schools, no empty rooms. His childhood will be as normal as is in my power to make it.”
William didn’t look like he believed him.
“He’s lived with them all his life,” Declan said. “You think she’d let me send him off?”
They both looked at Rose.
“You got me for this fight,” William said. “For the boy. After that, I’m gone.”
Declan nodded.
“You have a plan?”
Rose came up to them. Jack tensed, but no chewing-out seemed to be forthcoming.
“Several locals are cursing Casshorn into sleep as we speak,” Declan said. “Once he’s out, we’re going to send an electric current through a local lake. The current should be strong enough to weaken the hounds. Rose and I will wait for them on the dock in the middle of the lake. We’ll flash a few times to pull them to us and kill the survivors. Once the main body of the hounds is gone, we go after Casshorn.”
William squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.
“If you have a better plan, be my guest, don’t keep it to yourself,” Declan invited.
William leaned back and stayed quiet for a few minutes. “Flashing won’t be enough. You need to draw as many hounds as you can to you.”
“You want to run it?” Declan asked.
“Who else? You’re too slow.”
“What do you mean?” Rose asked.
“He means that he’ll turn into a wolf and draw the hounds to us,” Declan said.
“That’s suicide,” she said flatly.
William grimaced. “This is coming from a woman who’s willing to crawl onto a dock in an electrocuted pond.”
“How do you even know what ‘electrocuted’ means?” Rose asked.
William glanced at Declan. “You didn’t tell her?”
Declan shrugged. “It didn’t come up.”
“We had training in industrial sabotage,” William said. “In case of a conflict between the Broken and the Weird, the Legion will send soldiers into the Broken and they will cripple the industrial centers.”
“The Broken runs on electric power,” Declan said. “Destroy the power plants, and everything stops. No power equals no water, no communications, no logistics, nothing. Even fuel is pumped by electric pumps. Take away electricity, and you’ll have anarchy.”
“The Weird has a lot less people than the Broken,” William said. “If it comes to war, destroying their infrastructure is our only option.”