ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
If this book is enjoyable, it is due in no small part to the people who have helped me get things right. In no particular order, this book owes a lot to the following people: Michael Briggsokay, he gets thanked first because hes my husband; Ginny Mohl, M.D., Ph.D., and my sister, who cheerfully answers questions about all things bloody and painful; Anne Sowards, who doesnt get cranky with late... late books and is a huge help in making each and every book the best that it can be; Jody Heath, intrepid guide and volunteer at Columbia Hills State Park; and last, but not least, the very nice women who helped me with Samuels workplace in Silver Borne: Crystal Kalmbach and Danielle Hernandez.
Titles by Patricia Briggs
The Mercy Thompson Novels
MOON CALLED
BLOOD BOUND
IRON KISSED
BONE CROSSED
SILVER BORNE
RIVER MARKED
The Alpha and Omega Novels
ON THE PROWL
(with Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, and Sunny)
CRY WOLF
HUNTING GROUND
MASQUES
WOLFSBANE
STEAL THE DRAGON
WHEN DEMONS WALK
THE HOBS BARGAIN
DRAGON BONES
DRAGON BLOOD
RAVENS SHADOW
RAVENS STRIKE
Titles by Patricia Briggs
The Mercy Thompson Novels
MOON CALLED
BLOOD BOUND
IRON KISSED
BONE CROSSED
SILVER BORNE
RIVER MARKED
The Alpha and Omega Novels
ON THE PROWL
(with Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, and Sunny)
CRY WOLF
HUNTING GROUND
MASQUES
WOLFSBANE
STEAL THE DRAGON
WHEN DEMONS WALK
THE HOBS BARGAIN
DRAGON BONES
DRAGON BLOOD
RAVENS SHADOW
RAVENS STRIKE
MERCYS LETTER TO ADAM
Dearest Adam,
If you are reading this, I guess it means I didnt make it out this time. Damn. I was really worried about this one, and if there had been any way out of it, Id have found it.
Words arent my best thing, not when its time to tell you how I feelbut you know that. Im much better with actions than explaining myself. I think its because I dont think in words about you. How can I reduce what I feel for you to mere letters on a page? I love you doesnt seem big enough somehow, and everything else I tried (you can go through that little garbage can under the sink if you want to see the drafts of this letter) sounds like really bad poetry, which is even worse, so Ill just stick to the simple words. I love you, Adam.
I want you to know that I fought to get back to you. I didnt take the easy way out. I didnt give up. I fought this death because I had you waiting for me on the shore. If it had been possible to drag this puny mortal flesh back to you, I would have done it, if I had to crawl to do so. I would have walked through Hell to get back to you, and only failed because of the weakness of my body, not of my heart.
Dont push Jesse away. She needs you more than shes willing to admit. I was going to tell you to go hunt down a woman who will love you, but I find that Im not a big enough person to do that. Still, dont feel guilty when you do, okay? And dont leave her waiting for years (like you did me) because you think you are too old, too Alpha, too whatever. Just make sure she treasures you properly.
Love you,
Mercy
UNDER THE GLARE OF STREETLIGHTS, I COULD SEE that the grass of Stefans front lawn was dried to yellow by the high summer heat. It had been mowed, but only with an eye to trimming the length of the grass, not to making it aesthetically pleasing. Judging by the debris of dead grass in the yard, the lawn had been left to grow long enough that the city might have demanded it be mowed. The grass that remained was so dry that whoever had cut it wouldnt have to do it again unless someone started watering.
I pulled the Rabbit up to the curb and parked. The last time Id seen Stefans house, it had fit right into his ritzy neighborhood. The yards neglect hadnt spread to the houses exterior yet, but I worried about the people inside.
Stefan was resilient, smart, and ... just Stefanable to talk Pokmon in ASL with deaf boys, defeat nasty villains while locked up in a cage, then drive off in his VW bus to fight bad guys another day. He was like Superman, but with fangs and oddly impaired morals.
I got out of my car and walked up the sidewalk toward the front porch. In the driveway, Scooby-Doo looked out at me eagerly through a layer of dust on the windows of Stefans usually meticulously tended bus. I had gotten the big stuffed dog for Stefan to go with the Mystery Machine paint job.
I hadnt heard from Stefan for months, not since Christmas, in fact. Id been caught up in a lot of things, and getting kidnapped for a day (which was a month for everyone else because fairy queens can apparently do that), was only part of it. But for the last month, Id called him once a week and gotten only his answering machine. Last night, Id called him four times to invite him to Bad Movie Night. We were a person short of the usual as Adammy mate, fianc, and the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Packwas out of town on business.
Adam owned a security firm that, until recently, had dealt primarily with government contractors. Since the werewolvesand Adamhad come out to the general public, though, his business had started to boom on other fronts. Werewolves were seen as very good security people, apparently. He was actively looking for someone else who could do most of the traveling but so far hadnt found the right person.
With Adam away, I could give more attention to the other people in my life. Id decided Stefan had had time enough to lick his wounds, but from the looks of things, I was a few months late.
I knocked on the door and, when that got no response, gave it the old Shave and a Haircut knock. Id resorted to pounding when the dead bolt finally clicked over, and the door opened.
It took me a while to recognize Rachel. The last time Id seen her, shed looked like the poster girl for the disenchanted goth or runaway teenager. Now she looked like a crack addict. Shed lost maybe thirty pounds she didnt have to lose. Her hair hung in limp, greasy, and uncombed strings down her shoulders. Mascara smudges dripped over her cheeks in faded smears that would have done credit to an extra in Night of the Living Dead. Her neck was bruised, and she held herself like her bones ached. I tried not to show that I noticed she was missing the last two fingers on her right hand. Her hand was healed, but the scars were still red and angry.
Marsilia, the Mistress of the Tri-Cities vampires, had used Stefan, her faithful knight, to oust traitors from her seethe, and part of that involved taking his menageriethe humans he kept to feed fromand making him think they were dead by breaking his blood bonds to them. She seemed to think that torturing them had been necessary as well, but I dont trust vampiresother than Stefanto speak the truth. Marsilia hadnt thought Stefan would object to her use of him and his menagerie once he knew that shed done it to protect herself. He was, after all, her loyal Soldier. Shed miscalculated how badly Stefan would deal with her betrayal. From the looks of it, he wasnt recovering well.
Youd better get out of here, Mercy, Rachel told me dully. Tisnt safe.
I caught the door before she could shut it. Is Stefan home?
She drew in a ragged breath. He wont help. He doesnt.
At least it didnt sound like Stefan was the danger she had been warning me about. Shed turned her head when I stopped her from shutting the door, and I saw that someone had been chewing on her neck. Human teeth, I thought, not fangs, but the scabs climbed the side of the tendon between her collarbone and her jaw in brutal relief.
