It took less than twenty minutes for me to get to our family’s compound on Mercer Island, but I spent the whole cab ride coaxing myself down so I didn’t accidentally grow claws and fuck up the nice taxi driver’s upholstery. If Anders had deemed whatever happened important enough to come down from his high horse for a family meeting, it must have been bad.
Had there been another vampire attack? Things had been oddly quiet since my brothers came back from Alexandria a month ago, but I didn’t trust it. They’d been on a mission to recover a long-lost werewolf artifact from the permie museum it had surfaced in. And while they were there, Rune had killed a vampire to protect the permie girl he’d gone all goo-goo over. Anders had thrown a fit, especially since the Gleipnir Cuff hadn’t been the only thing Rune brought back to Seattle with him.
Of course, that was all water under the bridge now, but I was still waiting for some hot-headed vamp to come calling and avenge his friend.
The cab pulled up to the top of the circular drive and I fisted him a handful of cash before sprinting out the door.
I found my brothers gathered around the kitchen island, like it was month’s electricity bill they’d called me to discuss.
Shit. Had they found out about Roxie? No, that was impossible. I was allowed to have permie friends, I just wasn’t allowed to have permie friends who knew I was a werewolf. Her and I were usually careful not to talk about shifter stuff in public.
Anyway, the gentle expression on Erik’s face told me they weren’t mad at me. I only got to experience one second of relief before Anders pulled the rug out from under me.
“The Gleipnir Cuff has been stolen.”
Instinctively, I opened my mouth to snap back that he’d left his politician voice on again. Then the words sank in.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I looked between them, scouring their faces for any hint that this was all a big joke.
Anders was stony-faced as ever. His blond hair was combed back, not a strand out of place. It was almost impossible to believe that he and Erik were twins. They shared the same face, but right now Erik looked like they’d just dragged him out of bed. His hair was a bit longer, and followed no rhyme or reason in terms of style. His deep blue eyes were bottomless lakes of concern and compassion. Anders’ lake-blue eyes had frozen over long ago.
I barely even noticed Rune standing there. He was only an inch shorter than his older brothers, but he’d always been much slighter. I didn’t spend too long analyzing his expression; he’d be the last one to prank me.
“I wish he was joking,” Erik said, raking a hand through his hair. He had the same voice as Andy, being that they were biologically identical and all, but he always spoke much softer. He had days where his Danish accent was extra strong, and he was downright melodic.
“What happened?” I strode forward, yanking out one of the barstools. “Are you sure you didn’t just—I don’t know—misplace it?”
The idea that someone had broken into the underground library located less than a quarter mile from where I was currently sitting was an unpleasant thought. One that I wasn’t sure I was ready to process.
Anders nodded to Erik. “You should tell her.”
“Because somebody fucked up and he’s the only one whose head I won’t rip off?” I snapped.
I hated when Anders and Rune treated me like I had rabies.
Anders hit me with a glare like a laser beam. “No. Because he was there.”
I clenched my jaw and met the challenge in his gaze, but chose to stay silent.
“I was working down in the library,” Erik began. “I heard an explosion from somewhere up top and ran up to the office. Claire was freaking out, asking if we were under attack. I told her to stay put while I went to check it out.” He winced. “I’d barely gotten to the site of the explosion when the second one went off.”
“Was anybody hurt?” I tried to control the panic in my tone. How bad was this news going to get?
Erik quickly shook his head. “No, nobody hurt. Claire took a hit to the head and she’s a bit shaken up, but she’ll be fine.”
“Wait—“
“You didn’t let him finish,” Rune interrupted.
I tossed a glare his way too for good measure. I was pissed the hell off and he wasn’t helping. He probably anticipated this would happen, which I imagine was why he’d come without his permie girlfriend, Helen. Rune had been watching me with her from the beginning, like he was introducing a new lamb to a flock of wolves-in-sheep-clothing.
Erik launched back into his story. “Something seemed off about the explosions. They’d been set away from the house and the archive. I went back to check on Claire, and when I got there she was on the ground inside.” His forehead wrinkled. I could tell he felt responsible for whatever had happened to her. “She’s fine now, but she had a bit of a bang on the head. Whoever set the explosions had been trying to draw us out from the archive. After the second explosion, she went after me. That was how he got in.”
That didn’t surprise me. I reckoned Claire would have run into a burning fireworks factory to save my brother, not that the giant Viking needed saving. Standing six foot three, and just as bulky as his twin, Erik would not easily be mistaken for a damsel in distress. If he stopped dressing like that one college professor who drove a scooter to work, he could intimidate people as much as Anders did too.
“Can we skip to the part where the most valuable thing we have stored down there got stolen?” I asked. “I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around this. It’s an underground bunker with biometric security, not a small-town Wells Fargo.”
Anders bristled. Erik merely sighed. Rune was tapping his fingers against the granite counter top, probably wondering how much longer this family meeting was going to take.
“It was a vampire,” Erik said.
His statement sucked the air from my lungs. I gritted my teeth and the cool edge of the counter bit into the flesh of my palms.
“A vampire?”
Erik nodded. “He was in and out too quickly for Claire to fight him,” he said. “I guess he used her handprint to unlock the doors, grabbed the cuff, and hit the road.”
“Used her handprint?” I repeated. My voice dropped. “You mean he… cut it off?”
“Christ, Anna.” Anders rolled his eyes. It was probably the most human thing I’d seen him do all week. Bravo Anders.
Erik took my assumption a little more seriously. “No, she’s fine. He just carried her I guess. Dropped her on the way out and she banged her head. She said she’d feel safer staying at the compound tonight and I told her she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted.”
Although I was relieved Claire was okay, the rage in my veins began to bubble. “Who was it?”
No inflection. No curiosity. A demand.
“We don’t know,” Erik replied.
I studied his face, the way he held my gaze just a little too long. “You’re lying.”
Anders stepped in front of Erik and crossed his arms. He loomed above me, obviously trying to remind me who was in charge.
“We don’t know,” he repeated. His voice was deep and challenging. “Not for sure.”
“There’s cameras outside the archive though, right? Let me see the footage.”
Anders’ jaw ticked. “Somebody hacked the cameras right before the first explosion. They’re back online now, but they were out during the whole theft.”
“So how do you know who it was?” I asked.
“Like I said,” he said through clenched teeth. “We don’t know. I’ve been in contact with the council already, and they’re going to investigate.”
I was always a little put off that Anders insisted on referring to the Supernatural North American Council as The Council rather than what everyone else called it: SNAC. It was like he was too cool for it or something. But the real reason my heart began a steady crawl up my throat was that a vampire had been on our property, had hurt our friend, and had stolen our relic. Worst of all, my brothers hadn’t already found the perpetrator and punished him for it.
“That’s bullshit!” I cried, slamming my feet to the floor. I squared up with Anders and glowered at him. “That could take forever! He’ll get away!”
“What would you have me do?” Anders was as riled up as I ever saw him, but even that was contained and composed compared to a normal person. “You want me to violate the laws that I help enforce? Do you have any idea what kind of position this has put me in?”
“What position it’s put you in? Is this just some annoying disturbance to you?”
My skin was hot. Hotter than it should have been. Sharp points pricked at the skin inside my mouth. I needed to take a step back. I needed to stay in control. But I felt so betrayed. So helpless and angry at the same time. And so fucking violated.
“I don’t care about the fucking position it puts you in, Anders! Someone came into our home and took something from us—something that could mean the deaths of thousands if it gets in the wrong hands. Fuck procedure! Fuck the Accords! Fuck SNAC! We need to go after this guy and make him pay!”
My panting breaths echoed through the kitchen. The scent of blood in the air caught the attention of Anders and Rune. Erik looked away.
I knew I’d gone too far.
“You need to get control of yourself,” said Anders, voice measured and calm. It was a false calm, one he’d cultivated over many years of negotiations and diplomacy. I hated when he used it on me, like I was just another one of his unruly subjects. Like he hadn’t practically raised me.
I glanced down at my now-bleeding hands, curled into fists at my sides. I didn’t want him to see the tears gathering in my eyes. They were from rage, I told myself. Just from rage.
Erik spoke again. “You can’t break down like this if you want—“
“I know.” My voice had lost all its venom. I turned on my heel and headed toward my room, dripping blood from the gashes on my palms that were the result of my claws breaking out. The result of me showing how little control over my wolf I really had.
“Anna, don’t go,” Erik called after me. “Let’s talk.”
I didn’t want to talk. “I’m going to get changed and then I’m going for a run.”
None of them questioned me. They knew that if I got like this, the only thing that helped was physically draining myself to the point of exhaustion. If I turned around, I’d probably see Anders’ hand on Erik’s shoulder to stop him from coming after me. But I didn’t turn around.
After changing into some running clothes, washing the blood from my hands, and making sure that all my teeth and fingernails were back to human, I headed out the door and hit the pavement at a sprint.
***