River Marked (Mercy Thompson #6)(58)
Author: Patricia Briggs

"The perfect predator," Wolf purred, leaning forward and rubbing his cheek possessively against Adam’s cheek.

I may have let out a disgruntled yip.

Wolf glanced over at me with cool blue eyes, and his mouth curled up in the beginnings of a snarl.

"That one is mine," said Coyote. His tone was casual, but there was steel behind it that turned the simple comment into a warning.

Wolf looked at Coyote and reached out to swat me with the back of his hand–and Adam caught that hand in his teeth. Wolf spun back with a hiss, and Adam released his hand–but there was blood. Adam flattened his ears, stepping between me and Wolf. He wasn’t quite snarling, but he’d made his position clear.

"Do you see this," Wolf said. "Abomination. Wolves do not run with coyotes."

"It’s a romance as old as time," soothed Coyote. "Rules are set up for the good of society. But as soon as you make a rule, someone feels the need to break it. If it helps, most werewolves mate with humans. Even worse, I would think, than one of my coyotes."

Wolf took a step toward Adam. "She is your mate?"

I couldn’t tell if that made it better or worse, and I don’t think Wolf knew, either. His hand had quit bleeding already. Adam hadn’t done much more than break through the skin. It had been a warning and not a real attempt to hurt Wolf. I’d like to think that Adam was too smart to take on something like Wolf–but I was afraid that wasn’t true, not if he thought Wolf would hurt me. I regretted that yip of possession even though I was pretty sure that I’d do it again in the same circumstances. I didn’t like anyone except me having their hands all over him. There had been possession in Wolf’s touch, and Adam belonged to me.

"You have left her with the river’s mark," said the cowboy Indian in the earth-toned clothes. His voice was silky smooth and beautiful.

"I have, Snake," said Coyote. "Because I have killed the river devil before, she cannot take over Mercy as she does everyone else. But Mercy is now something of interest to the river devil, something that we’ve already proved can get her attention and bring her to where we want her in pretty short order. The river devil doesn’t like its prey to get away from it, and she wants it back." He looked at me. "There are a lot of miles of water between The Dalles and John Day."

And it hadn’t taken her ten minutes to find me when Coyote threw me in the river. He’d been right: we had learned a lot from that.

Calvin had returned from wherever he’d gone. He had a couple of blankets, which he gave to Fred and Hank. Hank took one with a nod of thanks; but Fred just changed back into a hawk and flew up to perch next to one of the candles on a nearby standing stone.

The old man in white hunting leathers said, "I think it might be better to let River Devil have her way. When she has eaten the whole world, it can be made anew again."

"You sound so certain," said Gordon in an interested voice. "Are you? I don’t think it is as easy as all that."

The old man growled at him, a big, rumbling sound that was somehow fitting coming from that fierce old body.

"Friend Bear," said Coyote. "Change is not bad. Change is just change. Startling to those of us who go away, then come back after a long time, yes. But it is not evil."

"Look at the pollution." Bear took a breath as if he could smell smog out there a hundred miles from anywhere. My nose is very good, and I would have called his bluff if I could have talked. "The roads, the railroads. Look at the houses upon houses that destroy hunting ground and leave only a tiny fraction of the forests free. Wolf has said that Mother Earth cannot move underneath the cement and steel, and I say that he is right."

"There are things that are bad," Coyote said. "But there were bad things then, too. Starving times. Freezing times. Times of sickness. There are good things here." He waved a hand at Wolf. "Look at the clothes you wear. That suit is silk and wool woven in a fashion that was not possible a few centuries ago. All change brings bad things and good things to replace the bad and good things that were before. It is natural to look back and say it was better before–but that does not make it true. Different is not worse. It is just different."

"There is some truth in what you say, Coyote." Wolf was petting his suit jacket with the same sort of possessiveness he’d shown toward Adam.

"I don’t like it here," said the man in the darker leathers; he sounded unhappy and uneasy.

"Bobcat." Coyote liked this one. I could tell by the tone of his voice. "There are good hunting grounds here; you just have to find them–as was always true. The sun is still warm, and flowers still smell sweet."

"You should take him to Disneyland," suggested Gordon. "Or I could. I like Disneyland."

The purely human contingent had been very quiet up to this point. But now Calvin spoke. "If you give it a chance, I think you would find it isn’t horrible here."

The man with the belt with the brass bells put an arm around Bobcat. "The problem is this, Bobcat. Things change whether you want them to, or not–unless you are dead." His voice was hoarse, like a three-pack-a-day-for-twenty-years smoker. "Don’t hold so hard to the past that you die with it."

He looked at Coyote. "There is no sense in this, though. We have all agreed to do as you asked, or we would not be here. Where and when?"

"As Raven says," agreed Coyote formally. Then he described how to find our campsite in a way that ravens, bobcats, wolves, snakes, and bears could find it. When he was finished, he said, "As for when, the sooner the better, I think. Tomorrow?"

"After dark," said Jim. "Calvin says the FBI are looking for whoever is responsible for the killing field that this river has become. You don’t want them showing up at the wrong time." He looked at Raven, and said, "Warriors with bang sticks who are river marked is a bad idea."

Raven smiled at him. "I do know who the FBI are," he told Jim. "Coyote is not the only one who still wanders."

While they were talking, the others had left. Some of them seemed to walk away, but I saw Wolf disappear, probably because he did it while still staring at Adam. Who belonged to me.

"Thank you, Raven," said Coyote, after a quick glance to see that the other animal spirits, including Gordon, were gone.

"We may all die forever tomorrow, old friend," said Raven. "But it will be interesting, anyway." ADAM AND I LEFT TO CHANGE AND GET DRESSED, too–but I was the only one doing any changing. Adam’s panicked gaze met mine as I was putting on my jeans.