"I'm fine," she said, forcing herself to follow Dain's partner even closer down the line. But Fleur wasn't fine. She'd never in her life put herself in the unfamiliar territory of the dog lairs. This many dogs at once would be hard to handle. The animal in her felt the presence of its natural enemy. The feeling was incredibly strong.

Cyd led them straight toward a platform labeled for train car maintenance. It branched slightly off from the main track and housed an off-duty train car parked to one side. The cars and the architecture of the subway were as much a work of art as a service. Everything was technologically prime, sleek and fine in its aesthetic. It was nothing like the rest of the werewolf territory, and nothing like what Fleur would have expected of the dogs. She'd heard their Grand Dame was clever, but this showed an ingenuity that was positively terrifying. And that fact scared her more than if she'd walked into the most dangerous, squalid dump of a neighborhood. She felt a brief moment of grat.i.tude that the dogs were still oppressed-at least, if they were as untrustworthy as she'd been taught. Her body seemed to believe they were.

"Stay behind me for a moment," Cyd said. She continued on ahead of Fleur and Dain, and a figure suddenly emerged from where it had been camouflaged against the grayish tint of the tunnel.

Fleur's adrenaline surged; she lost her footing and Dain had to reach out to keep her from falling. "That's him?" she asked.

Dain nodded and they watched the informant walk down the tracks toward them. He was tall and skinny, walked with his shoulders hunched over and had a habit of looking behind him every third step. He looked like a typical down-on-his-luck human. In other circ.u.mstances, she might not have guessed his species at all. Not by sight alone. As it was, he must have been scared or angry or both, and the smell of him, the sense of him as "other" was strong. Too strong.

Cyd met him in the middle of the tunnel on the tracks. She put her arm around the guy's shoulder and was taking her time explaining something to him. The informant looked up at Fleur, and she felt her skin crawl as his nostrils flared. He was taking in her scent, evaluating her.

Dain put his hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her toward Cyd and the dog. "C'mon. We have to talk to him."

Fleur's panic spiraled; she couldn't even concentrate on what Dain was saying-nor what the werewolf was saying, however valuable the information might be. The dog looked about as uneasy as she felt, undoubtedly beginning to sense her internal struggle. He suddenly looked her square in the face.

Fleur gasped... and he saw her half-grown fangs.

The dog gave Cyd a look of utter contempt. "You b.i.t.c.h. You brought a vamp." He leaned forward and snapped his teeth together in Fleur's face. He reached out and- That was all it took. Fleur's animal nature sliced through her in an uncontrollable wave. She put her hands up on the dog's chest and shoved him back. She bared her fangs and hissed, proud of the fear appearing in his eyes.

The informant was as far gone as she, and he squared off with her, beginning to cycle toward the Change.

"Oh, s.h.i.t." Suddenly Cyd was between them, struggling to get the informant to turn around. "Get her out of here, Dain. Now!"

Dain put his arm across Fleur's chest, trying to drag her backwards, but she'd discovered the true inherent strength of her Warrior nature. Feeding off each other's energy, vampire and werewolf pulled free of the restraining humans. And as the werewolf moved further from man and closer to beast, Fleur's own deepest instincts surged.

The dog lashed out first, his claws slicing her arm. Fleur saw Dain and Cyd in the blur of her peripheral vision but they meant nothing to her anymore. Her emotions were completely out of control. She struck back, unaware of any pain in her bleeding arm, expert efficiency behind her furious yet precise attack. Right hook, left jab, reverse pattern, uppercut...

The dog roared in pain and leaped forward with what looked like the Devil in his eyes, saliva dripping from his mouth. He fended off her blows, driving her back, but Fleur came at him again in a flurry and she could tell that she was wearing him down.

Then she made the mistake of pausing to catch her breath. He saw the opening and backflipped in the air, finishing his Change. By the time he came up from the landing, he had twisted into a more monstrous form; his body had taken on greater musculature and strength.

Fleur saw she had less of an advantage, and tried to get off an attack before he did. They both leaped into the air simultaneously, each with a jumpkick aimed at the other's chest. Fleur was slightly more on target and she caught the werewolf almost square, knocking him off balance. He fell, landing hard against the tracks.

Fleur might have delivered a solid blow then, but she landed askew, the high heel of her right boot tripping her up on the tracks. As she fell to the ground, the werewolf took his opportunity. It was his turn to give her what she'd given him-blows rained down on her, and she caught a glimpse of horror on Dain's face.

On the sidelines, as it were, Dain was nearly going mad watching Fleur fold before the dog's attack. He pulled his gun and checked that it still had silver bullets loaded.

"Don't do it, Dain." Cyd yanked on his arm. "I'm telling you. If you get involved, it's no longer one-on-one. He's gonna call his pack. Then we'll all be sorry."

Dain looked over to see the werewolf rake his claws down Fleur's thigh, ripping through the armored layer of her pants. He almost had to cover his ears when she cried out in pain. Pacing the narrow ledge above the tracks, nearly sick to his stomach, he said, "I can't take it. I just can't."

"We can't help," Cyd said darkly. "It'll cause another incident. Besides, maybe this is good for her highness. She obviously had no idea what she was getting herself into. Let her get a taste of reality."

Dain gave his partner an incredulous look. "What if he kills her?" Of course, that wasn't the point, and he knew it. The fact of the matter was, as far as his job went, his partner was completely right. This was a one-on-one between the two nonhuman species. They should stay the h.e.l.l out of it and let the species settle things between them. Yet, even though it was unlikely the werewolf had the materials to kill Fleur, Dain just couldn't stand by and watch him tear her apart.

Not to mention, when Dain was in trouble, she and the Protectors had defended him against their own kind. This wasn't right.

He jumped down and kicked the werewolf away from Fleur. Just as Cyd had warned, the dog delivered a war cry to his pack. The howl reverberated down the tunnel.

"d.a.m.n it!" Cyd cried. She jumped down and pulled Dain back, and the vampire and werewolf faced off anew, seemingly oblivious to them.

If Dain had had any doubts, the rumble suddenly generated at the back of the transport shaft made things very clear. He had no idea how far away the dog's reinforcements were, but there were clearly enough of them to make it sound like an earthquake coming down the tube.

Dain moved closer to Fleur, who was in some kind of trance as she sparred with the dog. "Fleur, it's Dain. We need to go."

As if in slow motion, he watched from little more than a handshake away as Fleur drew a tiny silver dagger from her boot and jammed it into the dog's heart. In a kind of fascination and disgust, he watched her follow up the dagger blow by digging her fangs under the werewolf's jaw and snapping its neck in some sort of otherworldly fury.

Dain reeled back onto the platform in horror. Aside from the rumbling getting closer in the tunnel, everything went silent. Fleur was just staring down at the body at her feet. Cyd was probably in shock behind him. Dain managed to release the breath he'd been holding. And when he finally collected his thoughts, he was insanely p.i.s.sed. "What kind of rookie move was that, Fleur? You're the G.o.dd.a.m.n head of vamp street intelligence. You're supposed to be trained for this..." His words trailed off as he remembered the truth of the matter.

She finally looked up at him, and they stared at one another for a moment. A couple of different emotions pa.s.sed over her face, and then all Dain could see was her shame. Fleur dipped her head to her hand and just looked at her fingers wet with blood.

"They didn't train you for this," Dain reminded himself softly. "Oh, man. You had no idea what you were getting yourself into."

He stood up straight and looked over his shoulder. Cyd had her hands on top of her head and was pacing the length of the platform, her eyes like saucers. "Oh, Jesus. Oh, s.h.i.t. Oh, man. Oh, I'm not believing this."

Dain wheeled around. "You didn't help me break them up. What the h.e.l.l did you think was going to happen?"

She stopped in her tracks, her arms flailing out. "I thought they'd beat each other into a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp and leave it at that! I figured she'd know enough not to go and kill him."

In a kind of daze, Dain turned back to Fleur. She was still silent, her eyes bright with unshed tears, her cheeks hot and flushed.

Cyd grabbed him by the arm and wheeled him around to face her. "Do you hear that? That's the patter of little paws," she said sarcastically. "Your stupid vampire girlfriend just killed my top informant and now his buddies are going to get involved. I can't wait to read your report on this one."

Dain shook off her hand. "Okay, let's figure this out." He exhaled, watching Fleur stare in shock down at the dog she'd just killed. "Let's figure this out." The pounding got louder and then suddenly it was drowned out by a whistle and the faint glow of a headlight as a train turned a corner and started toward them. It was still quite a ways away.

Fleur put her hand in front of her eyes. "Dain?" she asked.

Dain knelt over the side of the platform. "Fleur- number one, you need to keep your mouth shut right now. Just don't say anything. Number two, you need to take my hand and get off the tracks." He held out his hand and she stared at it listlessly. It was as if the kill had completely sapped her energy. He wondered morbidly if she would have been better off drinking the werewolf's blood, and for a moment he wondered why she hadn't.

"Fly out or take my hand," he ordered. He reached down, grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him. "Take my hand." She did as he asked, and he half pulled, half dragged her over the side. She stood, then bent over like she was going throw up, but just kept her head down and, as he'd requested, her mouth shut.

Cyd had jumped down onto the tracks and was trying to get the dog's body up over the side. As he died, the dog had changed back into human form and now looked like the slightly wacked-out thug they'd first seen.

"Leave him, Cyd. Let the train take the body. You know it's just going to open a can of worms if he's found. A random vampire doing this down on dog turf is bad enough. But n.o.body-and I mean, n.o.body -in this city can afford to believe that Fleur Du-mont just killed a werewolf. It would be a political nightmare."

"They don't have to know it was her." Cyd kept trying to pull the body up.

"They aren't going to understand what happened."

She glared at him, the werewolf's blood all over her hands. "I don't understand."

"I'm telling you, you gotta let him go. You know I'm right."

Cyd looked down at the body at her feet and threw her arms up in disgust. She hopped the ledge and folded her arms. "n.o.body deserves this kind of end. It's a matter of honor. He was here because he was my informant."

The wolves coming down the tunnel from the pa.s.senger platform were all howling now, perhaps calling to the one who'd sent up the alarm. Once they arrived, there would be no talking or explaining. The light for the opposite track switched to green, and the train whistled again. They had two choices: train or angry dogs.

No contest.

"I've never seen one turn like that," Fleur suddenly blurted, shaking uncontrollably.

Dain put his hand on her cheek and tried to get her to focus on him. "Get ready to jump on the train," he ordered. "You hear me?"

Fleur just nodded numbly. He put his arm around her waist, preparing to haul her alongside him.

The train shot into the runnel like a bullet. Everything seemed to happen at once; the train raced over the informant's body, and Fleur suddenly slipped out of his grasp. He turned to find her but could only watch in shock as the same three guardian vampires from before appeared and pulled her into their protective circle. Fangs fully exposed, eyes dilated, and hovering in readied fighting stance, they were clearly up for blood and ready to attack if necessary.

But with Fleur in their care, they had what they wanted; they headed straight up the tunnel toward street level ahead of the train. Dain had no time to think about anything besides jumping onto the caboose ladder as it pa.s.sed. Cyd was by his side as he made the leap, shadows of the approaching dogs a flicker against the tunnel walls as they rode up to street level far behind the vampires. As soon as the train stopped, they hopped off the back and casually walked away from the station. Dain could only hope they'd gone unnoticed.

He headed back in the direction of the car.

"Where the h.e.l.l are you going?" Cyd asked. "Don't even think about going to her."

Dain wheeled around, his emotions out of whack. A combination of rage, sorrow, confusion- everything was swirling inside him. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Cyd's strange behavior, that was for sure. "I'm going to get the car. Do you want me to drop you off somewhere?"

"Don't bother. I have some relationship bridges to repair ASAP," she snarled.

Dain stopped in his tracks and ran his hand through his hair. He forced himself to be rational. "Cyd. You know that I'm sorry about your informant."

She shot him a look of total disgust. "Let me tell you something. I've known you for a very long time. I also know something about coming undone. And you, my friend, are coming undone. And it's because of that girl."

He shrugged helplessly. "I knew she wasn't totally trained for her position. But I swear, I didn't realize she was so... green."

Cyd whirled around. "That's because you were concentrating on the wrong things, buddy. Your head was somewhere else. You're not focused on the job. You're only focused on how everything relates to Fleur Dumont, and how to keep yourself from getting to the point where you have to admit that she's a vampire and you're a human and you can't have her!"

"That's bull-"

"I'm not done." Cyd threw her arms up in disgust. "You're on a slippery slope. And if you think that I'm f.u.c.ked up, then you already know what you have to look forward to after you mess your life up." She stared at him. "If you can come to terms with what just happened in there, then there's something very dark in you that I don't think either of us fully understands."

"Cyd-"

"I'm not done! Look, there's obviously really nothing I can do or say that's going to matter. You're blind when it comes to that chick. You think in a job like ours we can afford to be partial? That we can cover for some green fang who goes apes.h.i.t and kills one of my best informants? All that's left for me to do on this one is to remember to duck and cover when you go down. So, go see your girl and feel free to start making your excuses for what she just did. But I don't want to hear 'em. Not now, not ever. I'll see you later."

"Cyd. Do not walk away from me. Cyd. Cyd! Dammit!"

Chapter Fifteen.

Fleur sat curled up in a ball on the couch with her head on Marius's shoulder. Ian and Warrick sat in club chairs facing her; they'd helped clean up the worst of her battle wounds and Warrick was now putting the supplies back in the kit while Ian finished tying the ends of the bandage around her thigh. She'd come down completely from any high of the kill and just sort of collapsed, totally devoid of energy and more than a little shocked by what had happened in Dogtown. The leg wound had stopped bleeding and the rest of her wounds, sc.r.a.pes, and bruises were beginning to heal. Some things, however, did not seem to be improving.

"Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong," she mumbled. "I don't understand. If I'm meant to lead us, why doesn't it show?"

Marius chuckled softly. "It shows, Fleur. Believe me."

"I may come from the purest lineage of fighters and leaders, but apparently inheriting the genes doesn't ensure I'll be any good at it."

Warrick shrugged. "It will come. You weren't trained to face the dogs."

"Why not?" Fleur asked.

"You know that. n.o.body thought it would come to this," Ian said. "n.o.body thought Christian and Ryan

would go down during peacetime. And after Hay den..." He trailed off. Fleur felt a flush fill her cheeks. She tapped her index finger gingerly against her mouth and was relieved to feel that the swelling had gone down. She gathered her courage. "Well, let me put it this way... if there's anything else I wasn't trained for, let's get it set up."

Eyebrows rose all around. Fleur sat up straight and searched the faces of her three cousins. "What? Is it so ridiculous? Am I such a hopeless cause?" Ian pushed her gently back against the couch. "Relax. You're doing fine. You're doing everything Christian or Ryan would have." "All right then. And I want to be properly trained on how to fight a werewolf," Fleur said firmly. Warrick threw back his head and roared. The more he laughed, the more furious Fleur became. "I'm not joking. I want the roughest beast you can find. You should have seen what happened. I feel as though I've been trained as befits a lady of the house. I want to be trained as befits a man of the house-as befits the Dumont heir! Do you understand what I'm saying? Train me as you did my half-brothers."

Marius looked at her somberly. "Our training did them little good against that mech."

"Marius, get it done."

He looked a little surprised by the tone of her voice, and he put up his hands in surrender. "Fine. Of

course. You'll get whatever training you want. You're absolutely correct. I just don't think you understand yet."

"Understand what?"

"That you did nothing wrong," Ian said.

"How can you say that? I shouldn't have killed that dog. And even after I'd stabbed him with that dagger, I bit him. I was like some sort of wild animal."

Marius looked at her a little sadly. "It's our nature. It's what we fight against."

"Then how can you say I did nothing wrong?"

The Protectors looked at each other. "Okay, it was wrong. But nothing could have prepared you. We all have the one," Warrick said. "The one, first kill. The one that makes us understand what we must stop. Until then, everything we've been taught is merely words. As you've just discovered, knowing the theory behind why we use blood banks isn't the same as experiencing why for yourself. We don't truly understand why we have to fight so hard for our humanity until we actually fight for it."

"I'm surprised you didn't drink his blood," Ian said. "That's the usual for a first kill, and it's why you feel so terrible, now."

Marius tipped his head and studied her face. "I actually think you showed admirable restraint-under the circ.u.mstances."

"Well, in all fairness, there didn't seem to be time. I don't know. I... don't quite remember everything," Fleur said, blowing her nose distractedly into a rather nice handkerchief she'd scrounged from Ian's suit pocket. She looked up from the cloth with a lopsided smile. "And he was a bit... grungy."

Ian elbowed Marius. "She didn't want to suck werewolf blood. That's our little princess."