Free Tarnished by Rhiannon Held

him her teeth.
    “And you call me a drama queen,” Death said, but his tone approved.
    “What was your name again?” Silver dimly recalled it from Dare’s discussions with her cousin, but she wanted to force the man to give it to her in his own voice. To give her some shade of Death’s power over him.
    “Sacramento. You crazy cat.” The man put fingertips to his cheek, disbelief sharpening into rage, and hissed in surprised pain. The silver-made wound hadn’t healed as a normal one would have.
    “What’s your plan?” Silver let the chain hang loose. Not a weapon to be overused. Just the threat of it held the underling back. “You could challenge Dare to a fight in revenge for your son’s death this moment. But instead you talk, you attack me, you attack a human under Seattle’s protection. Why? Are you so certain you’d lose?”
    Sacramento tried to sneer but it caught at wounded muscles and he stopped with a gasp. “Death in a fight is short, pussy. The world holds far more painful and fitting punishments for what he did to my son.”
    “Short?” Death used the voice of the one who’d killed Silver’s pack, jagged with his madness. She had to suppress a shiver. “Only if you ask me nicely.”
    Silver stepped back. “How very human of you. They’re the ones who invented—” She hesitated, not finding the saying she wanted among the more slippery of her former memories.
    “An eye for an eye,” Death supplied, and Silver repeated it. With that prompting, the rest followed.
    “And the whole world goes blind.” Silver stepped to Susan’s side.
    Sacramento ignored her and gestured his underling to circle around behind Susan. The underling herded her, and by extension Silver, even farther from where other humans hurried back and forth. “Perhaps Seattle will be crashing our party this time, but I’m still staying to make sure Dare receives my message properly. Get comfortable.”

 
    7
     
    Andrew beat everyone out of the pack’s minivan. John had to slam it into park before his feet hit the asphalt a second later. The rest of his Were followed shortly. John had said Susan was garbled on the phone about their exact location, but the scents came starkly clear from the side of the store. Andrew ran. John followed, the limp he’d picked up hunting hardly slowing him down.
    Silver was first in his mind, but strangely Andrew couldn’t stop thinking of his wife as well. Something was wrong, and he was running to her, but would he get there soon enough this time? He had to. He refused to believe otherwise, but his heart still pounded in his ears, rabbit-fast.
    “Susan? Selene?” John called as they all turned the corner. Silver stood beside Susan, confident and patient in her waiting stance, her silver chain in hand. The rush of relief was so great, Andrew didn’t bother to correct John about using the wrong name for Silver.
    Sacramento had a fresh silver burn on his cheek. The bleached-blond man who had attacked Andrew at the pass blocked the women’s path to the parking lot, but he skittered aside on seeing Andrew, as if the silver metal had weakened his confidence.
    Under the stink of Sacramento’s burn, Andrew smelled blood. When he spotted it on Silver’s temple, panic changed to rage as easily as shifting in the full. Sacramento would pay for that blood. Andrew could imagine the feeling of the man’s throat in his teeth even now.
    John crossed immediately to his girlfriend and enfolded her in a tight embrace. He drew her away from Sacramento and toward the pack’s fighters massed near the minivan, waiting for orders. Andrew would have loved to do the same to Silver, but he knew better than to imply she needed such reassurance in front of an enemy. He came to stand behind her and she backed up to create contact between their bodies without his hands touching her. She was all right, he reminded himself to try to slow his heart. Hurt, but all right.
    “Hello, Nate. Long time no