Burnt Offerings - Laurell K. Hamilton [13]
That made me laugh. “So Sylvie’s forbidden anyone to help the leopards. Where does that leave Stephen?”
“He went against her direct orders, Anita. For someone as low in the pack structure as Stephen, that took guts. But Sylvie won’t be impressed. She’ll tear him up, and she won’t allow anyone to come down and baby-sit them. I know her that well.”
“I can’t do this twenty-four hours a day, Irving.”
“They’ll heal in a day or so.”
I frowned at him. “I can’t sit here for two days.”
He looked away from me and went to stand beside Stephen’s bed. He stared down at the sleeping man, hands clasped in front of him.
I walked over to them. I touched Irving’s arm. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
I turned him around, made him face me. “Talk to me, Irving.”
“You aren’t a shapeshifter, Anita. You aren’t dating Richard anymore. You need to get out of our world, not further into it.”
He looked so serious, solemn, that it scared me. “Irving, what’s wrong?”
He just shook his head.
I grabbed him by both arms and resisted the urge to shake him. “What are you hiding?”
“There is a way for you to get the pack to guard Stephen and even Nathaniel.”
I took a step back. “I’m listening.”
“You outrank Sylvie.”
“I’m not a shapeshifter, Irving. I was the new pack leader’s girlfriend. I’m not even that anymore.”
“You’re more than that, Anita, and you know it. You’ve killed some of us. You kill easily and without remorse. The pack respects that.”
“Gee, Irving, what a rousing endorsement.”
“Do you feel badly about killing Raina? Did you lose sleep over Gabriel?”
“I killed Raina because she was trying to kill me. I killed Gabriel for the same reason, self-preservation. So no, I didn’t lose any sleep.”
“The pack respects you, Anita. If you could find some pack members that are already outed as shifters and convince them that you’re scarier than Sylvie, they’d guard them, both of them.”
“I am not scarier than Sylvie, Irving. I can’t beat them to a pulp. She can.”
“But you can kill them.” He said it very quietly, watching my face, searching my expression.
I opened my mouth, closed it. “What are you trying to get me to do, Irving?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Forget I said it. I shouldn’t have said it. Get more cops in here and go home, Anita. Just get out of it while you can.”
“What’s going on, Irving? Is Sylvie a problem?”
He looked at me. His usually cheerful eyes, solemn, thoughtful. He shook his head. “I’ve got to go, Anita.”
I grabbed his arm. “You go nowhere until you tell me what’s happening.”
He turned back to me slowly, reluctantly. I let go of his arm and stepped back. “Talk.”
“Sylvie has challenged everyone higher in the pack than she is, and won.”
I looked at him. “So?”
“Do you understand how unusual it is for a woman to fight her way to second in command. She’s about five foot six, small-boned. Ask how she’s winning.”
“You’re being coy, Irving. That’s not like you. I’m not going to play Twenty Questions with you. Just tell me.”
“She killed the first two people she fought. She didn’t have to. She chose to. The next three challenges she made just agreed she was dominant to them. They didn’t want to risk being killed.”
“Very practical,” I said.
He nodded. “Sylvie’s always been that. She finally picked one of the inner circle to fight. She’s too small to be one of the enforcers; besides I think she was afraid of Jamil, and Shang-Da.”
“Jamil? Richard didn’t drive him out? But he was one of Marcus’s and Raina’s flunkies.”
Irving shrugged. “Richard thought the transition would go smoother if he kept some of the old guard in power.”
I shook my head. “Jamil should have been driven out or killed.”
“Maybe, but actually Jamil seems to support Richard. I think it really surprised him when he wasn’t killed instantly. Richard has earned his loyalty.”
“I didn’t know Jamil had any loyalty,” I said.
“None of us did. Sylvie fought and won the place of Geri, second in command.”
“She kill for it?”
“Surprisingly, no.”
“Okay, so Sylvie’s tearing