Page 81 of Junk Magic

She shot me a look on the way to the opening that passed for a door. “That not the usual response you get?”

“Not so much.” That won me a bark of a laugh, but no explanation as she grabbed a barefoot young girl who was running past and said a couple sentences in a language I didn’t know. But I recognized a name, at least. “Jack?”

“My son.” The girl took off into the milling crowd, and Sienna turned back to me, fast enough to cause her long hair to swing.

She had a strange energy about her, lightning fast and with abrupt, staccato movements that reminded me of something, but I couldn’t place it. Not a wolf, though. But it matched the rapid-fire delivery that left me scrambling to keep up.

“He’s the one who raised the alarm,” she added. “I assume you want to talk to him?”

I nodded.

She looked past me at the butchered remains on the floor, and shook her head in what looked like a mix of sorrow and disgust. “Tell me you’re here on behalf of the Corps. Tell me we’re about to be overrun by investigators who know what they’re doing. That you’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

“I’m . . . here on behalf of Sebastian.”

Keen dark eyes met mine. “Of course, you are. That’s why he adopted you. To keep stuff like this quiet until he could figure out how to spin it. It’s all politics with that one—”

I opened my mouth, but she shut me down.

“I understand the reasons. I know politics better than most; I’ve been dealing with them all my life. But that kind of attitude won’t fly this time. The war isn’t nice and neat with a PC answer for everything. It’s messy and dangerous, and if we’re going to survive, we’re going to have to ruffle a few feathers. Get a little messy ourselves. Or wait to get butchered like those poor bastards out there!”

“Meaning?” I asked, because I wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

“Meaning, call in the Corps, if you haven’t already! We need help with this—no matter what Sebastian thinks.”

“I’m sure he has plans for how to deal with the investigation,” I said uneasily, because that was what I wanted, too, and had since I first saw this place. But I’d just finishing thinking about how difficult involving anyone else was likely to be. “However—”

“However what? They should already be here!”

“—the Corps might not be the best choice. For one, it doesn’t know how to investigate Were crimes—”

“And we do?”

“The clans police themselves, Sienna,” the other woman said. “You know that—”

“Yes, seems to be working well!”

“—and they’re overworked right now,” I continued grimly, “without the manpower to take on the oversight of a new, large, and mostly unknown group. Not to mention that no tribe would submit themselves to Circle justice—”

“Then they need to start! Or we need to come up with an equivalent system. I’ve spent my whole life witnessing Were violence being called justice, and I’m sick of it. Seen too many bastards get away with brutal crimes because they were stronger—as if strength was ever a guarantee of wisdom! Seen too many small clans be bullied by larger ones, while the council does nothing. But you—you could change that.”

“Change it . . . how?” I asked, feeling cornered. Not least because she’d just physically backed me into one. “You’re talking about overturning thousands of years of—”

I stopped before I said the dreaded T word and pissed her off again, but it didn’t help.

“The humans slaughtered each other for thousands of years, too. That was their tradition, but they found a better way. Why can’t we?”

“Perhaps we can, but—”

“Good, I’m glad we agree. So, I take it that you are investigating this?”

“Trying to,” I said, my head spinning.

“And the Corps?”

“I just explained—”

“Why they can’t do it. But you’re Corps, aren’t you? You could put together a crew made up of Weres, train them in the Corps’ investigative techniques, and—”

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