Unfortunately, I also had no doubt Colin would fill his father in the moment he stepped off the plane, and there was nothing we could do about that, other than cross our fingers that the Canadian council wouldn’t decide to make trouble.
We were all full up on trouble at the moment, and had no provisions in place for the overflow.
My dad thanked Councilman Dean, then hung up. “Jace, get on the phone and tell all of our search teams to go back to where they found Tindale’s body for a second look around. We have to find his wife before the humans do. Michael, fire up your computer again and see what else you can find out about Kaci’s father. Where is he? Is he still looking for her?”
Michael nodded and took off toward our cabin at a fast jog.
Then my father turned to me, and my heart tried to beat its way out through my rib cage with one look at his face. I wasn’t going to like whatever he had to say. “Kaci infected Bob Tindale—we know that for a fact—which means she probably knows what happened to his wife, too. We need to know what she knows. What she did. And we need you to find out. Fast.”
I smiled, well aware that my father was emphasizing the necessity of my participation for the other Alphas, as well as for me. “I’ll get your answers.” I stepped back, to look at all four Alphas at once. “But I think you should all be prepared for the possibility that you won’t like what you hear, and I’d rather you not shoot the messenger.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Malone demanded, eyes narrowing at me in suspicion.
My father shot me a warning look, but I ignored it. Ignorance is dangerous, and ignorance on the part of our governing body could prove catastrophic. No pun intended. “That means there’s a good possibility Kaci Dillon is a stray.”I felt the collective scowl on most of the faces surrounding me, but I didn’t give a damn what they thought. There was no scientific basis for the impossibility of a female stray. Rarity, perhaps. But not impossibility. “Her family was human, then her mother and sister were killed by a werecat. Two and a half months later she shows up here on her own. And she’s definitely not human. The conclusion seems pretty obvious to me.”
“We don’t know for sure that her family was human,” my uncle pointed out. “We only know that her father isn’t a Canadian Alpha.”
“Or a U.S. Alpha,” I insisted, reaching up again for the branch overhead. “Yet she speaks perfect English and was obviously raised in a North American culture.” Based on her fashion sense, love of pizza and vocabulary.
“If you’re so sure she’s a stray, why doesn’t she smell like one?” Calvin Malone demanded.
I opened my mouth to reply, but apparently the tact I was considering didn’t show in my expression, because Dr. Carver rushed to reply for me. “I don’t have an answer for that, Calvin. But with a sample of her blood and twelve hours to analyze it, I can tell you for sure whether or not she’s a stray.”
Malone looked intrigued, and I couldn’t stop the smile blooming on my face, in spite of the inappropriate circumstances. The council could argue with me until the day I died—which might be tragically soon. But they couldn’t argue with genetic evidence.
“Can you do that?” I searched Dr. Carver’s face for the truth before my hopes rose too far.
“Me? No.” He gave me an embarrassed smile. “I’m completely unqualified for that kind of work. But John Eames does it every day.”
Dr. Eames. Of course. He was the geneticist Dr. Carver had been working with for the past few years, analyzing werecat DNA after hours in the lab where Eames worked. They were trying to find a way to increase the number—or at least the percentage—of tabbies born. Instead, they’d discovered a recessive gene present in all strays’ DNA—a verifiable difference between natural-born werecats and strays. With his lab already prepared for such testing, we’d have the results in very short order.
My father nodded decisively. “Do it,” he said to Dr. Carver. “Faythe, go with him and make sure Kaci cooperates. And find out what she remembers about the day her mother and sister were attacked, and what she knows about the female hiker.”
I frowned and met my father’s eyes. “I’ll find out what I can about her family, but Daddy, I don’t think she’s ready to talk about the hikers yet.”
“Ready?” Malone glanced around for support from his fellow Alphas. “Being ready doesn’t figure into this equation. If she doesn’t tell us where the woman is, the humans might find her first, and then we’re all screwed.”
“We’re screwed just as hard and fast if I ask her and she freaks out and stops talking,” I pointed out, oddly pleased by Blackwell’s shocked reaction to my phrasing. But I was just expanding the metaphor Malone had started.
“Do you honestly think that will happen?” Uncle Rick asked, shoving both hands into his pockets as he eyed me in skepticism.
“Yeah, I do. She’s been listening through the walls all day and has figured out that you guys are lobbying to have my head detached from my body for defending myself.” My glare settled on Malone for that one. “She’s a kid, not a moron. She has no reason to think you’ll go any easier on her, ergo she has no motivation to tell us what happened. And she sure as hell has no reason to lead you to the proof needed to put the noose around her neck. Frankly, I can’t say I blame her on that one.”
Malone huffed in disgust, and even my father scowled. “Fine. Find out what you can about her family and we’ll keep looking for the other hiker. But if we haven’t found her by nightfall, you’ll have to ask her about it. And you’re going to have to make her answer.”
I nodded, far from placated by the temporary reprieve, and headed toward the lodge—and toward Marc—with Dr. Carver a step behind. Just before I drew out of earshot, I heard one last line of the discussion now going on without me. “Wow,” Colin said, no doubt watching us walk away. “That kid’s almost as dangerous to be near as Faythe is. People around her drop like flies.”
A chill raced through me and I stumbled; I might have gone down if the doctor’s hand hadn’t steadied me. It wasn’t so much Colin’s words that had startled me, though. It was the truth resonating in them.
Kaci and I had a lot in common, in spite of the differences in our age and upbringing. And with any luck, that commonnality would help me get the whole story out of her without shattering her already fragile sanity. Because unfortunately, that seemed to be all she had left.
Her sanity, and me.
Poor kid.
Twenty-Six
Kaci smiled when I opened the door, whirling to show off the one skirt we’d picked out for her. But her joy wilted like a cut flower when Dr. Carver stepped into the room behind me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Yet I regretted my answer immediately, because though I hadn’t meant to lie to her, I certainly hadn’t been truthful. So much was wrong at the moment that I hardly knew where to begin. “Dr. Carver would like to run some tests, and he needs to draw a little blood.”
Cellophane crinkled as Carver pulled the prepackaged, sterile hypodermic from one front pocket. His other pocket contained two similarly packaged rubber-topped plastic vials.
Kaci’s gaze shifted past me and her eyes grew huge. “What tests? What for?”
“We need a little blood to prove to the men downstairs—the Alphas—that you’re a stray. That your parents weren’t…like us. Aren’t like us,” I corrected myself when I remembered that her father was still alive. “Kaci, why did you tell me your father was dead?”
She frowned in obvious confusion. “I never said that.
Why?” Panic stole over her expression and her eyes flicked from me to the doctor, then back to me. “Did something happen to my dad?”
“No. He’s fine as far as I know.” I sat on the empty bed, patting a spot next to me, inviting her to sit. “I guess I just assumed your whole family was…gone.” Though I should have known better than to assume anything. Some enforcer I was.“Do you want to…call him, or something?” Though I probably shouldn’t have made such an offer. If her father really was human, the council probably wouldn’t let her have any further contact with him, to protect the secret of our species.
But I needn’t have worried.
“No!” Kaci’s eyes widened in fear and her hands shook at her sides until she curled them into fists. “Not yet,” she amended, though her heart still raced audibly, and her eyes shone with unshed tears. “I’m not ready. He’s been through enough.”
But so had she.
Dr. Carver cleared his throat conspicuously, and I glanced at him. Since Brett was stabilized and the doc’s return trip had already been delayed for more than a day, he was planning to hop on the next flight to Washington State, to hand deliver the blood sample to Dr. Eames and his genetics lab. Which meant he needed to leave within the hour.
“Will you let Dr. Carver draw some blood?” I asked.
Kaci hesitated, so the doctor showed her his too-friendly-to-be-a-threat smile. “I’m sure we can scrounge up some cookies and soda to get your blood sugar back up afterward.”