Darknight(96)

Voice firmer than I’d hoped, I said, “I’ll do what has to be done. But it can’t really be as easy as just standing in the middle of the woods somewhere and shouting ‘come and get me.’”

A thin-lipped smile. “No, it’s not that easy. And that’s why we need your help, Connor.”

At that he stood up, fists clenched at his sides. “Are you kidding me? You want me to help lure my brother somewhere so you can murder him?”

“How can you murder something that isn’t human?” she asked calmly, unruffled in the face of his anger. “As I said yesterday, this is more like putting down a rabid dog before that animal can cause any more misery or harm.”

At first Connor didn’t reply, but only stood there, color flaring along his high cheekbones as he stared at a spot on the wall, refusing to look at his cousin. I waited quietly, knowing he’d have to wrestle through this himself. Goddess knows I would hate to be placed in a similar situation. I had no siblings, so I couldn’t quite understand that kind of bond, but what if Marie had been asking me to do the same thing to Sydney, or my Aunt Rachel?

A little shudder went through me at that thought, and I wished I could put my arms around Connor, tell him how much I loved him and how I knew no one should ever be put in such a position. But because Marie was standing there watching us, and because I could sense he wanted no interference from me, nothing that would keep him from making this decision on his own, I kept still, and waited.

Time ticked by, unbearably slow. At last Connor shifted and met Marie’s patient gaze. “What do I have to do?”

She didn’t quite let out a breath, but I saw the tense set of her shoulders ease slightly. So she hadn’t been as sure of him as she wanted us to believe. “As Angela pointed out, we’ll have to do a little more than have her simply offer herself up to him. He is still canny, watchful. There are very few people he trusts. And you are no longer one of them, Connor, because he knows you love this girl, and have put her before him. Since the solstice, he no longer trusts me, either, because he thought I should have warned him that there was a possibility Angela would bond with a Wilcox other than the primus. But the one person he still trusts implicitly is Lucas.”

It clicked into place then — Connor’s features shifting to those of Lucas. That gift of illusion, of taking on someone else’s form. It was the one thing that might draw in the Damon-wolf. Might.

“So I pretend to be Lucas, offering up Angela as a sort of gift?”

“Exactly. It would make sense, because the one thing Lucas hates more than anything else is disruption. Angela was the catalyst that made Damon turn to the magic of the yee naaldlooshii. So it doesn’t require that great a leap to have Lucas think that by turning her over to the primus, somehow he’ll get his old friend back. Everything returned to the status quo.”

Connor ran a hand through his hair, clearly turning the idea over in his mind. “Maybe. That is, I know in real life Lucas would never do such a thing, but Damon would…and he does have a tendency to believe that everyone thinks the same way he does.”

Marie did not exactly reply, but she did give the barest of nods. “So you will do it?”

“I — ” A long pause, so long that I wondered if he was going to reply at all, or throw his hands up and walk out then and there. After all, this was the moment when he would have to commit to her plan, as much as every cell in his body must be protesting it. At last he murmured, “Yes.”

“Good. I am still analyzing the pattern of his attacks and trying to determine the most logical place where he will strike next. And perhaps a vision will come to me, but I can’t will that to happen. If it’s meant to be, I’ll have a clear seeing.” Her shoulders lifted. I could tell she didn’t much like admitting even that slight deficiency. Tone brisk, she added, “For now, go home. I hope I’ll have a location for you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I said, and finally reached out to take Connor’s hand in mine. He didn’t resist, and I felt a tiny flicker of hope. Maybe he had begun to resign himself to the situation. “You know where to find us.”

We left then, and walked back through Marie’s quiet neighborhood to the busier streets of downtown. By then it was almost noon, and people were hurrying to lunch, or maybe to do some shopping.

My appetite had deserted me, and I guessed Connor felt the same way.

After we were back in the apartment, I asked, “Why Lucas?”

He shot me a mystified look. “You heard what Marie said. He and my brother have always been friends.”