“I didn’t know you could sing, Red.”

I dropped the cage keys with a jerk. It was darker back here in the mornings; the light just wasn’t strong enough. I’d expected him to be sleeping too, and I’d just been caught sniffing his shirt. I blinked into the darkness, willing my eyes to adjust. He was sitting in the corner closest to the cage door, one knee bent up to be modest. There was a tattoo on his thigh, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

“You weren’t all supposed to change,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

“Yes, I do.” I passed the clothes through the bars, a baggie of Oreos on top. He set them to the side. “Menessos manipulated the ritual and took over. He wielded power a vampire just shouldn’t possess, and I couldn’t stop him.”

Johnny stayed quiet and just watched me, like the wolf had last night. Then he said, “He marked you.”

“I know.” My voice trembled. Tears welled in my eyes. To deny them, I snorted and tried to be cool about it. “He lied. Fucker.” I glanced toward Theo. “At least she’s alive.” If Johnny was going to see me cry—me who he was convinced was this tough Lustrata—then I wanted him to think I was crying because Theo was okay.

When I turned back, Johnny was chewing a cookie. He put the shirt and the Oreo baggie aside and grabbed the jeans. He stood to put them on, and I hurriedly looked away again. But my rebellious eyes slid upward just before the denim slid up to cover his buttocks. I got another look at the Celtic knot-work armband tattoos and the Chinese lion-dog and dragon battling on his back.

Across the way, Celia roused and groaned happily as she stretched and made a grab for the goodies. I heard the smack of kissing followed by giggles and “Quit it or I won’t give you the biscotto.”

“Biscotto?”

Johnny reached through the bars, took up the keys, and unlocked his cage himself, but he didn’t say anything else. He just leaned in the open door, shirt thrown over his shoulder like a towel, and munched his Oreos with a deeply thoughtful expression. Apparently, Oreos were the philosophical food of choice.

I, however, felt trapped. I couldn’t just dart out or saunter out past naked people waking and getting dressed. I wasn’t usually down here when they woke up. I opened cages, left doughnuts, and departed ASAP. But they deserved their privacy, and even if they didn’t care about it, I did—so I waited where I was.

Celia came out of her cage and saw me. She started to speak, but Theo roused, moaning and moving very slowly. Then she took the cookies. Celia and I shared a smile. After eating a few cookies, Theo sat up and lifted the sweat suit. The can of nuts rolled into the hay. “This…this isn’t mine,” she said.

“It’s mine,” I said. “I didn’t have anything of yours.”

“Seph? What are you doing down here? Wait—I didn’t change here.”

“No, you didn’t.”

Standing and jerking clothes on, she demanded, “What the hell happened?”

Everybody was dressed now. Erik came out and joined us. We passed looks around like hot potatoes.

In the doorway of her cage, Theo said, “I remember…” She shut her eyes. “My car. I remember tearing it apart.” She looked at me. “I remember…Goliath!”

“It’s my fault, Theo.”

Her expression hardened, and her words came harsh and full of attitude. “You mean that jerk ran me off the road because I took a peek into his public history?”

“He tried to kill you because I asked questions. When I asked for your help, I didn’t realize how dangerous he was. I’m sorry.”

Theodora Hennessey was not a frail woman. She had lean limbs and moved with the in-your-face kind of grace reserved for Paris runway models. When she approached me with smooth, slow steps, her bare feet making no sound on the concrete floor, I knew something bad was about to happen. A slap, a punch, a slash of nails. I didn’t care. Whatever she deemed necessary, I’d take it. I deserved it. Her arm moved, coiling for the strike, and snaked out. I resolved not to wince; I wouldn’t even shut my eyes.

Another hand shot into my view, restraining her.

Theo gave a squeal of pain as Johnny squeezed her wrist.

“Let go,” she growled.

“You would have died in a State Shelter,” he growled back, “if not for her.”

“And I apparently wouldn’t have been hurt if not for her.”

“That’s true. And she could have said nothing and let you go to the shelter and die. Instead, she signed for custody and took responsibility for all the hospital and ambulance fees. She volunteered her home, her own bed, to be your personal hospital. A doctor I know has been tending you since the accident, but not even his skills could save your life.”

Suspicion replaced her anger. “Then why am I alive?”

I knew Johnny wanted me to say it, but I couldn’t. I just stared at the floor.

“Her skills saved you—at considerable risk.”

“Considerable risk? That means what?”

“It means she had to enlist help,” Celia said in a voice meant for easing jumpers off of high rooftops. “Vampires had to be involved.”

“Vampires?”

“She managed to get the very one that injured you to participate in healing you, Theo. It was no light task to gain that service. And it was no light risk to throw aside the barrier of her home protection,” Celia added.

“You asked them inside?” Theo said, focusing on me again.

“I did.”

“Damn stupid thing to do.”

“We couldn’t risk moving you.”

The anger and tension were fading. “So I guess we’re square, then?”

“No. I owe you, still. A vehicle. And repairs to your business and apartment.”

“What happened to Revelations?” Her concern returned.

“Goliath sacked your business and home looking for info on who hired you.” I could see the worries flashing across her face.

“No, you two are square,” Johnny said.

We both looked at him.

“Seph took a vamp’s mark, Theo. She took it to save your life.”

Chapter 25

My unused dining room furniture was getting used. Johnny cooked up everything breakfast-y in the house. Omelets with peppers and onions, blueberry pancakes, biscuits. I hadn’t known I had bacon and sausage. They must’ve gotten them at the store before. Since I had fasted and the wæres had transformed, it was like a feeding frenzy. Theo ate more than Erik did, I noticed, but she deserved it. Beverley and Johnny shared a box of Lucky Charms and giggled and spoke with Irish accents.

Everyone was here except Nana and Dr. Lincoln. The doc had apparently gone home. I didn’t blame him, but I did wonder how much his circle participation would cost me and how he’d word it on his bill. Nana was in the shower; I assumed she was avoiding me. I wanted to ask her about being stained, find out if she knew anything about it, if she’d seen anything in the Codex to erase it. It made me think she didn’t want to be the one to have to tell me I was seriously screwed.

Beverley said, “So, Johnny, last night you herded the other wolves around. Are you, like, the pack leader?”

“Nah. No leaders here.”

“But you did seem to retain an uncanny amount of human sensibility,” I added.

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Weird, huh?” He focused hard on his food.

It was the kind of answer that agreed without offering anything, the kind that said he didn’t want to discuss it. I wouldn’t have pushed him, because I believed that he’d share information if it was relevant. However, Erik, leaning in the doorway to the kitchen and holding a mug of coffee and an omelet-and-buttered-biscuit sandwich, didn’t seem to share my hesitation. He said, “Do you always retain your human sensibilities?”

“Yep.” Johnny kept eating his cereal and staring at the back of the cereal box, as if by sheer will he could force the subject to something else. But it wasn’t working. The tension level rose, though that might have had something to do with Celia and Theo adding their energy to it. Everyone had stopped eating, and the others openly stared at him.