Two bullets buried themselves in the wood of the door and Ari dropped into a crouch. She twisted around the door, hunched over, and launched herself across the room. Katherine fired again, her bullets hitting Ari's vest and altering her trajectory. Ari hit the ground just in front of the desk and jumped up as Katherine came around to finish the job. Ari swung her paw out and knocked the gun away from her, viciously clawing the back of Katherine's hand in the process.

  "You killed my best friend."

  Katherine backed away, cradling her bloody hand as she moved to put the desk between them again. "What in the hell are you?"

  "I'm the monster you were afraid of when you were a little girl. Now I'm here to kill you." Ari put her hands on the desk and pushed. Katherine was hit in the hips, pushed back until she was pinned between the desk and the wall. Ari jumped up and stood on the edge of the desk, breathing heavily. Her muscles were on fire. She felt like thousands of small needles were pricking her over and over again. Her lips puffed out with each sharp exhale of breath.

  "You wanted to preserve your family's legacy. And in doing so, you killed the first Gavin in generations who was worthy of respect. You and your ancestors sat in this gilded cage for a hundred years. Hiding behind money. Slapping your name on things so people wouldn't forget you. But Laura was actually doing something. She was helping people. She would have ensured people remembered your family."

  Katherine's face was pale and her fingers were dripping on the desk. "She was still a humiliation. It was just a matter of time before she became Guzzling Gavin."

  "She'd changed."

  "Oh, please. You can't honestly believe people can change in two months."

  Ari bent down and put her face in Katherine's, breathing through her nose until Katherine leaned back.

  "Look who you're asking," Ari growled.

  Katherine's eyes were frightened, but she refused to let the fear spread to other parts of her face. "It's not a full moon, so I know the myths aren't all true. But are some of them?" She swung her uninjured hand, and Ari felt something slice across her bicep. She recoiled and saw Katherine jabbing the letter opener at the spot where her throat her been. "Will the silver in this kill you? Or will it kill you just because it's slid between your third and fourth ribs?"

  Ari swatted at the blade and got another cut along her fingers for the trouble. She retreated off the desk and Katherine pushed it just enough to get free.

  The gun she'd knocked out of Katherine's hand earlier was lying on the floor and Ari snatched it up. She aimed it at Katherine's head.

  "How amusing. A werewolf with a handgun."

  "How much of what Echols did was on your order? Were you the one who told him to sneak into Laura's room when she was a girl? Keeping it in the family?"

  Katherine made a face. "Oliver was supposed to be a brother to her. When I discovered what he was doing, I was appalled. His father was a blue collar factory worker, for God's sake."

  "And that's all that matters in your twisted world." Ari cocked the gun with her awkward combination of pad and thumb. Her body was rebelling at its current state. Sweat was pouring down her body underneath her vest. "You killed your daughter because she was sleeping with the wrong people."

  "I did what I had to do. Gavin is more than a name, it's a legacy. The members of this family have a responsibility to protect it. Laura was a mistake, and she didn't deserve to carry on our name. I gave her so many chances, Ms. Willow, and she squandered them. Every time I thought she changed. Every time I thought it would stick. And then I would get yet another bill for rehab. I let her die redeemed."

  "You killed her."

  "She was going to die anyway. I just made certain it was in a way befitting the Gavin name and not in some opium den. I told Oliver to make sure it was painless. He gave her some of the drugs she was so fond of, and then he did what he had to do."

  Ari bared her teeth.

  From the edge of the property, they heard a spattering of gunfire followed by a revving engine. Something metallic screeched as it was pulled in a direction it wasn't meant to go. Katherine kept her eyes on Ari, but her brow knit together.

  "That would be the police."

  "No. I own the police."

  "You own a lot of police. Not all of them. I didn't have to find someone who was untainted by your influence; I just had to find one with his own influence. Someone who was as pissed off at you as I was." Ari reached under her vest and pulled out the microphone of the wire Neal Bradley had given her. "He may not have been appropriate for your daughter, but he brought the full force of the Seattle Police Department down on you."

  Katherine lunged with the letter opener. Ari didn't want to fire; she wanted Katherine to be tried and convicted for what she had done, so she backed away. Katherine used years of fencing lessons to drive Ari back toward the door. Ari swatted back with her claws and managed to tear the cuff of Katherine's blouse and the skin underneath.

  "I should have told Echols to make it look like a murder-suicide."

  "Keep digging your grave, Mrs. Gavin."

  She lunged and buried the letter opener in the soft skin above Ari's clavicle. Ari howled and Katherine bum-rushed her out the office door. Ari hit the railing and tumbled over, claws tearing at Katherine's blouse as she fell. Katherine grabbed the splintered railing and managed to stay on the landing as Ari plummeted into the living room below. She hit the table and felt something in her back protest and then go disturbingly silent.

  Katherine came down the stairs and picked up Echols' discarded gun. Echols himself was still lying sprawled on the carpet where Ari had thrown him. Katherine's blouse was stained with ribbons of dark red blood, her face as pale as a death mask. Through the open door, Ari could hear the police barking orders at the guards who were still protecting the property.

  "Former soldiers," Katherine said. "Police officers. They believe in defending the front at all costs."

  "They'll get in eventually," Ari gasped, her voice slightly more human. Her body felt like it was melting, her strength seeping out of her as she slowly changed back.

  Katherine aimed the gun at her. "I've dug my grave. Nothing left to do but dig it deeper." She stumbled a bit. "Congratulations. You've destroyed a name it took my family centuries to build."

  "No. You destroyed it. You and all those Gavins who cowered instead of taking a chance. Laura was the best of you. She made some mistakes when she was a teenager. And you killed her for them. Now you're going to die in prison."

  "I'll be long gone before those buffoons get in here. The only consolation is that I'll take you with me." Katherine aimed the shotgun at Ari's head. "And my only regret is that I'll never find out just what the hell you are, werewolf."

  "She's not a werewolf."

  Katherine swung the gun around to see Dale in the doorway, a security guard's gun gripped in her bound hands.

  "She's a canidae, bitch."

  Dale fired and Katherine Gavin was knocked back.

  The gun fell from Dale's hands, and she hit her knees. The left side of her neck was coated with shiny blood, and her hair was matted.

  Ari took the gun from Katherine Gavin and managed to crawl through the wreckage of the living room, up onto the platform, and she pulled Dale to her. Dale's head lolled against Ari's breast, her lips parted and her eyes closed. "Dale... wake up. Dale?"

  Dale was limp in her arms, weighing much less than she had any right to. Ari stroked her hair, Dale's blood mingling with hers. A SWAT team came up the driveway with their guns drawn and Ari raised both her hands in the air. She was relieved to see they were entirely human hands. Detective Lorne looked like a kid who had dressed up like a turtle for Halloween when he approached them on the porch.

  "Ms. Willow?"

  "She's hurt." Other SWAT members ran inside, while Lorne stayed with Ari and Dale. "What the hell was she talking about? Werewolves?"

  "It's a long story. Help Dale."

  Lorne motioned for someone to join them on the porch. The police swarmed past them and into the Gavin House. Ari didn't notice any of them. She bent down to kiss Dale's forehead, still stroking her hair where the bullet exit wound should have been but miraculously wasn't. "It's okay. Hold on just a little longer, Dale. Just a little longer."

  #

  Ari moved carefully down the hall, still trying to figure out her crutches. They wrapped around her forearms and it was awkward angling her body between them. She took a deep breath before she stepped into the doorway, smiling despite herself when she spotted Dale. She looked small in the hospital bed, her hands pale and fragile on her stomach. Ari expected to see the top of Dale's head entirely encased in white gauze, but instead there was just a small square on the left side of her head, above her ear. She opened her eyes at the sound of Ari's crutches on the tile, and she grinned brightly.

  "You bought me flowers."

  Ari looked at the bouquet on the nightstand. "Yeah. Kind of lame, right?"

  "They were the first thing I saw when I woke up. It was like you were watching over me. Made me feel safe. Thank you."

  "You're welcome." Ari used one crutch to pull a chair closer to the bed and sat down with a groan. "How are you feeling?"

  "When you wake up in a hospital and ask the nurse what happened, nothing really prepares you to hear 'shot in the head.' I was shot in the head?"

  "Yeah." Ari's voice cracked. "Echols. They said the bullet hit your skull at just the right angle. It kind of ricocheted. You might have a pretty nasty scar under your hair, but other than that you're... you'll be fine." She took the crutch off her right arm and took Dale's hand. She squeezed the fingers to make sure they were really there. "If he had taken the time to aim, it would have been... a lot different. But he was showing off. Trying to make a point to me."

  "So you saved my life."

  Ari frowned. "What?"

  "You made him so mad that he missed from point-blank range. He was a cop, Ari. He knows how to shoot a gun. Your ability to piss people off saved my life."

  Ari smiled. "I guess if you want to look at it that way. Then I guess we're even."

  "How so?"

  "Because... y-you shot Katherine Gavin."

  Dale raised her eyebrows. "I did? After I was shot in the head? Yay, me."

  "You really don't remember?"

  "Mm-mm." Dale shook her head. "A lot of the past week or two is a big blur. I was kind of hoping you could fill in the blanks."

  Ari closed her eyes and touched Dale's hand to her forehead. How could she possibly just tell her about the steps they'd taken? How far their relationship had gone? She felt like she was cast back to square one without a map. "I wouldn't know where to start."

  "Start the day after we got back from the island. After we made love in my apartment."

  Ari lifted her head. "You remember that?"

  "Come on. It'll take more than a bullet dancing over my skull to make me forget that, Ariadne." She winked. "Will you kiss me just so I know it--"

  Ari stood up and pulled Dale to her. She had been aching for the kiss since she woke up in her own hospital room, and it soothed better than any medicine could.

  After a few minutes, they pulled apart and Dale touched her forehead to Ari's.

  "So the other stuff. What happened to Katherine?"

  Ari sniffled. "They managed to stabilize her in the ambulance. They took her to a high security intensive care unit. Turns out the one thing she wasn't lying about when she hired me was her cancer. She'll never live to trial."

  Dale closed her eyes. "That's so wrong."

  "But there's a silver lining. Do you remember talking to reporters about Laura Gavin's contributions to charity?" Dale thought for a moment and then carefully shook her head. "Well, you told them everything she had done for the soup kitchen. The fundraiser. People interviewed Neal Bradley and got even more stuff. It's all they can talk about. Katherine Gavin is a footnote, and her daughter's name is all over the place."

  "I guess that's something."

  "Yeah. I'm just worried Katherine was right. It was only two months. Laura had shown promise before, but she always fell back. What if she was right and it was just the calm before the storm?"

  "Laura had something this time that she didn't have before. Neal." She rubbed Ari's knuckles with her thumb. "When you have someone strong like that in your corner, you can make it through anything."

  Ari smiled. "I guess you're right."

  "What happened to you, though? Why are you on crutches?"

  Ari looked down at the metallic canes. "A couple of really bad transformations and a fall from a high place onto an antique coffee table. I wrecked my hips, my pelvis, and my spine. Detective Lorne got me to a canidae specialist."

  "Ah, our new ally."

  "One of them, yeah. Between him and Neal Bradley, the cops agreed to drop all charges against me. They're pretty pissed off that I left the scene of a crime and fired the murder weapon, but under the circumstances they let me off. I had to tell Detective Lorne the whole story, though. Better him than the whole world, I guess. And it's always good to have an ally in the police to help cover up the stuff that's harder to explain."

  "Yeah. I saw him on the news talking about the unusual content of Katherine Gavin's taped confession."

  Ari chuckled and quoted her favorite part. "'Ariadne Willow had been on the run for several days and did not look her best. Why Katherine Gavin felt the need to attack her personally and call her a werewolf, we'll never know.'"

  Dale giggled and set Ari off on a laughing fit. When they both calmed down, Dale reached up and touched Ari's face. "You do look a little haggard. They said you were in a different hospital when I first woke up, but they didn't know anything else."

  "Yeah. Three days in splints and a quickie surgery and voila. I'm mobile again. But the damage I did to my bones and muscles will take a little while to heal so that I'm fully functioning. And he, uh... put me on restrictions."

  "Uh oh. Are you going to have to wear one of those big collars so you won't scratch your stitches?"

  Ari laughed. "No. But I can't change for six weeks."

  Dale's eyes widened. "You've never gone that long before."

  "No. But as someone very wise recently said to me, when you have someone really strong in your corner, you can make it through anything." She kissed Dale's hand again.

  "I love you, Ari."

  "I love you, too. So much."

  Dale looked at the walls for a clock. "Can you stay? Are visiting hours--"

  "Hey. If anyone makes a fuss, I'll just pretend I'm a patient." She scooted her chair closer and put her head down on Dale's hip. "I'm not going anywhere."

  #

  Epilogue

  The rain ended just before they reached the cemetery, so the air was cool and wet. Ari breathed deep as she walked across the droplet-bejeweled grass to where Neal was waiting for her. She wore a tan suede overcoat with a white scarf tucked into the lapels like an ascot. She didn't limp, but she had traded her metallic braces for an ornately carved walking stick.

  Neal turned just before she called out to him and he smiled. He stepped away from the grave and greeted her with a smile. "There you are, wolf girl."

  "I thought I told you to stop calling me that." Ari reached out with her free hand and shook his.

  "Sorry." He looked back at the headstone. "Thank you for this."

  Ari stood beside him and read the carving of Laura's name. The date of her birth seemed impossibly recent to her, and the date of death was definitely a few decades too early. "It was the least we could do."

  "The funeral, the casket, the headstone... you went above and beyond. It all must have cost a fortune."

  "Well, relatively speaking. It took up the rest of the money we had left from the check Katherine Gavin gave us. Dale and I agreed, neither of us wanted the money. Spending it like this felt... appropriate. It belonged to Laura anyway."

  Neal smiled. "Did you hear what the news has started calling her? Giving Gavin."

  Ari laughed. "A much better nickname."

  "Katherine Gavin got the legacy she wanted. People are remembering the good Laura did instead of her mother's schemes. Katherine wanted to erase her, but instead she turned her into a martyr. Laura would have liked that. Foiling her mom's plans one last time."

  Ari glanced at him and saw the pain in his expression. "How are you holding up?"

  His smile faded and he looked up. He scanned the rolling hill filled with gray stones. "I don't know. I'm not doing too well, but Katherine got what she deserved. So did Laura. I'm taking what comfort I can from the fact Laura knew how I felt about her before..." He swallowed. "Not everyone is so lucky, you know?"

  "Yeah."

  "So. You were Tule."

  Ari laughed. "That's awkward."

  "No, not at all. Uh-uh." He cleared his throat. "Well, yeah. Maybe a little bit. I mean, you did walk in on our first night together."

  "If it helps, I don't remember anything I saw when I was a wolf."

  He looked at her. "That's a lie, isn't it?"

  "Just let it stand, Neal."

  Neal laughed. He turned to face her. "When Laura came to us, she said that she was tired of waiting for someone to come rescue her. She decided that she needed to rescue herself if she wanted to get up off the ground. I wish she had gotten a chance to know you. Really know you. Because she should have known that someone finally came along to save her."

  Ari blinked back tears. "I was just doing my job."

  "Your job was to do what Katherine Gavin told you. Instead, you did what was right. Not a lot of people are willing to do that much, especially when it's hard. Especially going against someone as powerful as the Gavin family. Katherine Gavin was going to kill Laura no matter what. I think you coming in when you did... I think that was Laura's guardian angel making sure everything was in place when the time came." He took her hand. "Thank you, Ariadne. And thank your friend, Dale."

 

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