"Essential y, a magical Taser," he said. "Sorcery, no doubt." He paused, then gave us a veiled look. "Want to make a bet it has something to do with that new club--the Energy Exchange? Just a gut hunch."

I held out my hand. "Let me see it."

Shaped a lot like a one of the old-fashioned phasers off of the original Star Trek shows, it was lighter than it looked. A simple button control ed the trigger, and there was a digital readout that showed the number ten in the green LCD display. A smal icon was flashing in another window. Meaning it needed to recharge? Or was it ready to shoot?

We were about to find out, because down the hal , a set of double doors to the left flew open, and a group of men rushed out. They were al wiry and thin, and while I didn't see any more of the magical stun guns, at least two of them carried basebal bats, and a third had a very nasty-looking stiletto--and I'm not talking shoes.

"Incoming, and they don't look friendly!" I yel ed as I brought the contraption up and aimed it at the leader. He paused. I decided that we weren't going to get out without a fight, and fired.

"Cripes!" Camil e let out a shriek, and I heard a commotion, but I didn't have time to look back. The leader was down, but the four other men rushed us, and I knew I couldn't get al of them before they came in swinging.

I tried another shot, but the stun gun sputtered, and I saw a red minus sign in the display. It was out of juice--I didn't need an expert to tel me that. I tossed it to the side and pul ed out my dagger just as the first shifter came swinging, bat poised to take out my head.

Moving just in time to avoid getting a concussion, I stil managed to get clipped on the arm. He hit me ful on the shoulder, and I yelped as he raised his bat for another swing. I took advantage of the opening and darted in, my dagger at the ready. Lysanthra sliced through the air, whistling as she came singing down across his arm, gashing the bicep wide. He let out a shout and dropped the bat as he tried to stanch the blood.

While he was down, I whirled to lend a hand to the others. Smoky had dropped two of the shifters, but I saw why Camil e had yel ed. She was kneeling beside Tril ian, who was woozily sitting up, rubbing his head. Three dead shifters were lying near them, and Vanzir was wiping blood off his knife.

I noticed that my guy was trying to get up and, in a flash, I was behind him, Lysanthra poised at his throat.

"It doesn't get any better than this from here on out, but it could get a whole lot worse," I said. "Where are the werewolves? Al of them?"

He stared up at me, his eyes narrow. "Bite me, bitch."

"I can do better than that. I can turn into my panther self and rip you to shreds. I can let our friend over there," I nodded to Vanzir, "suck the life force out of you. I can let my sister throw an energy blast into that dynamite you've got and blow this whole fucking place to smithereens. Or you can tel me and maybe

. . . just maybe . . . get out intact with your skin." Of course, I thought, I'd be turning him over to the Supe Community Council for charges, but he'd be alive.

For a while.

He cleared his throat. "Fuck it . . . in there." He gestured toward the double doors. "There are stil guards, though."

"Good boy. Now, time to sleep for a bit." Chase should be outside by now. He knew enough to wait for us to come out instead of barging in on his own. I glanced around. Crap, we didn't have anything to put our prisoners to sleep. "Okay, go nite-nite for a while." And with that, I gave him a good wal op to the back of the head. He conked out with a low groan.

"What you want to do with him?" Vanzir helped me lift him up.

"Take him out back and see if Chase is here yet. Tel him this man is a high-security-risk prisoner for the Supe Community. He'l need to be treated and then locked up. Get your ass back here as soon as you can."

Vanzir tossed the coyote shifter over his shoulder and took off, backtracking the way we'd come.

I motioned to everybody else. "How are you? Tril ian, you going to be okay?"

Tril ian was rubbing his head but looked steady enough on his feet. "Yeah, got one hel of a headache, but I'l be fine."

"Then let's do this. Our Weres are in there, along with more guards." I headed toward the doors. No use giving the enemy more time to prepare than they already had.

"Should we wait for Vanzir?" Camil e asked.

"No, he'l catch up." I wasn't in the mood to take any more time with these bozos than we'd already spent.

We came to the double doors, and I stood back, motioning to Menol y. She grinned and with one massive blow, broke through both, slamming them open with a thunderous noise.

The room was massive, and I wasn't sure just what it had been used for, but giant meat hooks that lined the ceiling gave us a good clue. I stared at them, feeling slightly queasy as I noticed the dried blood dappling the rusty hooks.

There were hundreds, in lines, on what appeared to be some mechanized pul ey system. And then I saw something dangling from one of them a little ways down the line. It was a body, skinned from head to toe. Sucking in a deep breath, I turned, wanting to give myself another moment before I took a closer look . . . before I saw that it might be Saz or Doug or . . . even Amber.

The chamber was fil ed with old stainless steel carts and sinks and . . . near the back, cages. From where I was standing, I could see that at least three of the cages were occupied. And in front of those cages stood four more guards, waiting. We could take them out--even if they had their magical stun guns, we'd push through and exterminate them.

"You know, we can make this a lot simpler," Menol y said. "You guys head over there, away from the door and away from the cages." And within a blink, she was gone. We'd barely complied with her orders when she returned, carrying the box of--oh fucking hel .

"What are you doing with that?" I pointed to the dynamite.

"Making use of their stupidity. It appears to be stable, but they don't have to know that, and they don't have to know that I don't have the blasting caps."

She removed a stick, fiddled with it for a second, then started to walk toward the guards, the stick held clearly out in front of her so that they could see it.

"You've got til I get within throwing range to put down your weapons and move to the side. I'm a vampire--one stick of dynamite might tickle, but it's not going to destroy me. But you guys are a little more vulnerable. Think wisely; you only get one chance."

Her voice was so commanding, so clear and resolute, that I found myself backing up. I wasn't sure she actual y hadn't found a blasting cap. In fact, I noticed that Roz, Camil e, and Tril ian took a good step back, too.

The guards bought it hook, line, and sinker. Which was good for us. They dropped their bats--thank gods that only one of those stun guns had been around, and it probably cost a pretty penny--and backed away from the cages, hands up.

As Menol y hustled them into a group, she cal ed over her shoulder, "Go get Chase and some handcuffs. He can take this lot in, too."

Vanzir sped off, while Smoky went to help Menol y keep guard. Roz steeled himself and began to climb a nearby freestanding ladder up to the body on the hook. The rest of us headed over to the cages. Three were occupied. Two men, one woman--Amber. And she did, indeed, have a spirit seal around her neck. I found the keys and unlocked her cage, but she stopped me before I could open the other two.

"They're crazed. They aren't in their right minds, and they'd attack." She rubbed her arms as I unlocked the manacles around her wrists and ankles.

"Thank you. I'm Amber--"

"You're Luke's sister. We know. We've been searching for you. And ten to one, those two are hyped up on steroids?"

Amber nodded. "I thought that's what they might be giving them, but I don't know why. Only that . . ." Her voice cracked, and she glanced up at the body that Roz and Vanzir were wrestling down from the meat hook. "Oh, Great Wepwawet. I couldn't see what they were doing to him from my position in the cage. That's why he kept screaming and screaming."

A stricken look washed across her face, and she hung her head. "He was nice to me. He was one of them, but he was nice to me, and they caught him trying to loosen my manacles so that it wouldn't hurt so much. They beat him in front of me and dragged him off, laughing. An hour or so later, I heard him start to scream. Another hour . . . and nothing."

That answered my question. The two men stil caged were sure to be Doug and Saz. Paulo had been tortured and murdered. And if Amber was right, then we knew they treated their own just as badly as they treated their enemies. Which would seem to lead to dissent, unless the fear of repercussions won out.

Chase cal ed in his team, and they set about trying to deal with the drug-crazed werewolves and the flayed body. I told him we'd take Amber over to headquarters to get checked out and give her statement. He glanced at the pendant around her neck but said nothing, just nodded.

As we gathered our things--Roz picked up the magical stun gun and stowed it in his belt--and left the building, part of me wanted to see it blow sky high.

I had a fleeting desire to come back after everyone was gone and set off the dynamite, to put this place of misery and torture out of commission, but I knew that was better off left a fantasy. I wasn't a barbarian--yet. But I was rapidly learning just how far the enemy could push in order for me to turn into one.

CHAPTER 20

Along the way, Menol y put in a cal to Luke and asked him to meet us at the FH-CSI building. She made sure to reassure him that Amber was alive and relatively unscathed.

I glanced at Amber. "Do you know what that necklace is you're wearing?"

She frowned. "I have no idea, but al I could think of was, don't let them have it. There's something about this . . . Ever since I found it in an old trunk that I bought at an antique store, I've known I needed to move here, to be near my brother and his friends. It was the final push that got me to leave Rice." Fal ing silent for a moment, she stared at her hands. Then, "I suppose Luke has told you al about him?"

"Yeah, you could say that." I didn't want to dis her husband in front of her--that was the straw that drove some women back into abusive relationships.

She had to come to that point herself.

"Rice . . . the whole Zone Red Pack has a hard time coming to grips with the modern era. The women of the Pack are demanding more. Demanding to be treated with respect, demanding our rights. Some . . . a lot . . . of the men can't handle it. Alpha werewolf males have a tremendous amount of testosterone, and the tendency to bluster is always there. There are so many fights, almost al of the men in our Pack are scarred. You've seen my brother's scars, right?"

Menol y nodded. "I never asked him about them. He just recently told me about the woman--the one he loved."

"That was a tragic situation. Did he tel you that Marla pissed off the Alpha when she refused him because she was in love with Luke? He basical y handed her over to some of the younger alpha males for revenge. She was passed around like a piece of meat, brutal y used. Oh hel , I'l just say it like it real y was . . . she was gang-raped, and the Pack leader watched and forced Luke to watch. It took every ounce of self-control he had not to kil the Alpha right there."

"Luke said she was kil ed?" I hated bringing up painful memories, but talking about her past seemed to be calming her down. And it would help her to trust us when we had to take the spirit seal from her.

"Yeah, she was. When Luke tried to sneak her out, the Alpha caught them--he'd sent someone to spy on them. The Alpha kil ed Marla himself, in front of Luke. Then he scarred my brother and excommunicated him. I wanted to go with him, but I wasn't old enough. Shortly thereafter I was married off to Rice.

He offered the most attractive dowry and situation to my father. Rice is bad . . . but it could have been worse."

"You said you bought a trunk that had the necklace in it. Do you . . . are you attached to the pendant? Why do you think the coyote shifters kidnapped you? Did they tel you?" The time had come. We would be at the FH-CSI building soon, and I didn't particularly feel like airing the info in public.

She paused. "The truth is . . . I can't take the damned thing off. It feels like there are voices in my head, and they're coming from the necklace, but when I go to take it off, they start screaming until I put it back on. I haven't felt the same since I first started wearing it. From the start, it wouldn't let me take it off for more than a moment."

I stared at her, thinking about Queen Asteria. What were we going to do?

Then Rozurial said in a low voice, "The Keraastar Knights. Want to make a bet that . . ." His voice drifted off, but I knew what he was saying. Amber may be making more of a journey than she expected.

"The coyote shifters were after your pendant. Did they try to take it from you?" I couldn't imagine them caring if she went crazy from voices in her head.

She nodded. "Yes, they did. But the minute they put their hands on it, they got shocked. One of them died. And when they tried to make me take it off, the necklace started humming and scared the hel out of them. Why do they want it? What is it? What's going on? And who are you?"

Menol y spoke up. "I'm Menol y D'Artigo, your brother's boss. He asked us to help when you went missing from the hotel. My sisters and I are from Otherworld."

Amber gasped. "I had a dream about Otherworld, even though I've only ever heard of it. I dreamed about a city with cobblestones, and about elves and a circle of people--I have no idea who they were. But there was a werepuma among them, and a young man, and an ancient . . . I guess he was human."