“Because Dylan isn’t ready to die,” Glory said. “He’s not that old, and he’s completely virile. Besides, he has me.”
Her smug statement broke the tension a little. Connor even gave a nervous laugh. “Sure, that would be worth living for,” he said.
“You’re a cub, youngling,” Glory said. “You’ll learn.”
Liam remained silent, the smiling, damn-your-eyes man Kim had come to know fading into a bleak, angry Shifter. When he looked like this he was scary as hell, but Kim walked to him and ducked under his arm. The others had backed off, and for the first time since she’d met this group, they were giving another Shifter space.
Kim sensed that Liam didn’t need space right now; he needed touch, reassurance. She melded to his side, and Liam finally looked down at her, the feral white-blue of his eyes darkening to human blue once again.
“We’ll fix this somehow,” Kim dared to say. “Without anyone dying or Sean shooting Fergus in the back. Although I wouldn’t mind doing that—after I give him a piece of my mind.”
“Don’t you dare,” Liam said, lips flat. “Or I’ll chain you up in the basement.”
“Are there spiders down there?”
“Possibly.”
Kim lifted her hand. “All right, I’ll try to be sensible. I see that I need to speed up my campaign to free Brian, and I have a few ideas about that.”
Liam’s gaze flickered, as though suspicious about her ideas, but his fangs and claws had retreated.
Glory snorted. “The little kitten has teeth, Liam. Watch that when she goes down on you.”
Connor laughed out loud. Liam gave Kim a little smile. “I’m willing to risk it.”
Glory stepped past them. “Excuse me. I think Dylan’s had time to cool from killing rage to an even simmer. Time for me to go be a good little lapdog.”
“I don’t even want to know about that,” Connor said in disgust, as Glory sashayed out.
Connor came to Kim and put his arms around her in a smothering hug. “I’m glad you’re Liam’s mate, Kim, and I’m glad you came home. The full-moon blessing tomorrow night is going to be some party. Me and Sean have invited everyone.”
Kim remembered Liam saying something about his father pronouncing his blessing under the moon, but she hadn’t paid much attention. “Party?”
“Mate blessings don’t happen very often, so all of Shiftertown will want to see it,” Liam said. “Don’t worry, we dress casual.”
“Oh, thanks.” All of Shiftertown, coming to stare at her. Then again, it might be a good time to put some of her ideas in motion. If Silas was dying to learn about Shifters, she could give him a glimpse, and he could help Kim’s cause at the same time. “Do you mind if I invite a friend?”
Liam’s eyes narrowed. “Friend?”
“Someone I know who’s helped me out in the past. Is this blessing something humans can witness?”
Liam gave her a nod. “Sure. It won’t make Fergus happy, but screw him.”
“That’s what I keep saying.” She smiled up at Liam. She knew she couldn’t ease all his tension, but she could tell how far she’d made him relax. “I need to make a few phone calls. Mind?”
Liam released her. “Is this human all right about Shifters?”
“Yes, he likes them.”
“He?”
Kim laughed at Liam’s sudden, possessive stare. “Don’t worry. He’s just a friend. I’ve known him for a long time.”
Liam’s gaze softened a little, but Kim made a mental note to warn Silas not to touch her, not even casually.
“You make your calls,” Liam said, his voice gentling. He’d climbed down a long way from the ready-to-kill Shifter, but he was still tense. “Myself, I’m going to go visit Sandra again. I’d like to figure out why Fergus is pulling out all the stops to keep Brian from going to trial.”
Liam found Sandra in her backyard, alone. She’d wheeled her shallow charcoal-burning grill to the middle of the grass and started a fire in it. As Liam approached, he heard her chanting a prayer to the Earth goddess at the same time she tossed fragments of paper into the fire.
Liam approached silently. He meant to give her privacy to pray, but when he saw what she burned, he stepped forward and grabbed them out of her hands.
Sandra jerked around with a sharp intake of breath. Her wildcat fangs extended, her eyes going white.
Liam looked at the photos Sandra had been trying to burn. One showed Brian grinning at the camera with his arm around his mom, a bottle of beer dangling from his hand. Another showed Brian and his friends at a lake. Then Brian and a human girl, probably the murder victim, Michelle.
“It’s not desperate enough for this yet,” Liam said.
“Don’t stop me. I need to make sure he gets to the Summerland.”
“Brian’s not going anywhere near the Summerland.” Liam put his arm around Sandra’s shoulder, trying to let his warmth comfort her. “That’s why I’ve come, to ask for your help in springing him.”
Sandra looked up at him with dead eyes. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“That’s not true. Now come on, let’s go in and have something cold to drink. It’s too bloody hot out here to be doing any straight thinking.”
Sandra let Liam take her into the house, where he fetched her a cold beer. He opened a bottle himself and sank down onto her couch to drink it. He’d sat here a couple days ago, he remembered, massaging Kim’s feet. She had lovely feet, tiny in his big hands.
Liam tucked the photos of Brian into his pocket, knowing that if he let Sandra have them, she’d go back to burning them after he’d gone. An image of the loved one, sacrificed to fire, was the best way to make sure the loved one’s passage into the afterlife was peaceful.
Sandra drank the beer but made no sign of enjoying it. “What do you want, Liam?”
“I want to know about this human girl, Michelle. Did Brian intend to make her his mate?”
Sandra regarded him in surprise. “I don’t know.”
“Because he would never have killed her if he did, and you know it. I hadn’t thought of it before, because taking a human female for mate wasn’t something I’d ever considered. But Kim, she’s damn smart.”
Sandra eyed him sharply. “I heard that you claimed her.”
“That I did. Don’t worry, it was sanctioned by Fergus himself. He insisted on it, actually, though I intended to make the bond anyway.”