Nine

Around noon, Karrde rolled out of bed. He wasn't worried about waking Alyxandra. Besides the fact that he'd kept her up about an hour after her normal bedtime, it took nearly an act of God to wake her up before she was ready. As he did every time he woke up, Karrde glanced around to make sure there was no sunlight coming into the bedroom. With several layers of protection covering the windows, it was highly unlikely, but he hadn't survived by assuming everything was safe.

After his morning routine, Karrde checked the messages on his answering machine. A local company was looking to hire him for an information security upgrade. He'd have to get in touch with his nephew Alex, his business partner, to lay the ground work. Just as he was grabbing a glass of juice there was a knock at the front door.

Stunned was probably too gentle of a word to describe Karrde's feelings when he opened the door. Standing there was a tall, sun-darkened woman. Her long black hair was in a braid draped over her shoulder. She had on a light shirt over denim shorts and wore a hiking vest, complete with a survival knife and other trinkets needed for a wilderness survival expert.

"Sara!" Karrde said. "What are you doing here?"

"WarCry," she said with a small smile. "Are you going to invite me in, or are you going to make an old girlfriend wait outside?"

Karrde motioned her in, noticing two large men sitting out in an SUV by the curb.

"Your friends don't want to come in?" he asked as she walked past him.

"Nah, they'll behave themselves. I left the windows cracked for them," she added with a chuckle.

Closing the door, Karrde followed her into the living room. She was admiring the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf covering the west wall, studying the titles.

"An original edition of 'Tale of Two Cities', 'A Brief History of Time', and the entire 'Harry Potter' collection. As eclectic as ever, I see."

"Sara, what the hell are you doing here? I haven't seen you since I was nineteen, and if I remember right, the phrase 'never want to see you again' was thrown at me."

"We'd been seeing each other for two years, Mike, and you just decided it was time to move out, head out west. You knew I wasn't going to go with you, but you packed up anyway."

Karrde heard a lot of hurt still in her voice, even after all these years. The fact that she was pretty much one hundred percent right didn't help. As a member of the Sept of the Great River, Sara Hileni Whispering Water was a Galliard of the Uktena. The Sept were the guardians of the great caern of the Cahokia mounds in southern Illinois. After a few years in New Orleans, Karrde's father had moved them here, to Riverton. While not technically part of the Sept, they spent a lot of time there for Karrde to learn the ways of the Garou. Karrde met Sara when they were seventeen, and he thought he was in love, thought she was the one – all despite the fact that they were both Garou. But after his father died, Karrde found instructions directing him to seek out his Tribe near San Francisco, at the Western Eye Sept. He hadn't told Sara any of that, just that he was leaving and didn't know if he'd ever be back. He knew that she felt, as did all the Uktena in the area, that protecting the Mounds was her mission from Gaia. He didn't think she was here looking for excuses, though.

"I'm sorry, Sara. I know it means nothing now, but I never did mean to hurt you."

"I know. I know two Garou wouldn't have worked anyway. It did hurt, though." Sara took a deep breath, focusing herself. "But I didn't come up here to kick up an old flame. Keeper-of-Gateways sent me, said you needed some help, so I brought a few Ahroun with me to help save your hide."

"Lushenko sent you? Why? Why you?"

"Boy, you have been out of touch," she laughed. "My parents were Kinfolk, so when Grandfather died, I was next in line. I'm the youngest Sept leader ever. So, tell me, what's the problem you've got?"

"Sabbat," Karrde said. This was about to become an argument, and he wanted to ease his way into it.

"Vampires are trying to take the town? How many and where, we can take 'em out."

"It's not quite that easy, Sara." Karrde proceeded to explain the whole situation.

After a few minutes of silence, Sara grabbed him by the shirt-front.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" she snarled in his face. "You called for help to defend one group of leeches from another?"

"I called for help defending my home, Whispering Water!" Karrde snarled back, yanking back out of her grip. "I live here, and the status quo has been working. But if the Sabbat take over here, it's going to be a bloodbath in this town, and how long do you think it will be before they start moving south?"

"You decide to set up shop in a Cadaver-infested hole and then come whining to the pack when it gets dirty? Either you've gotten stupid over the years or… no, that's really the only excuse I can think of."

"Well, I guess while you're yelling at me, you might as well have the whole story. I'm married, Sara. To a Malkavian."

Sara looked at him, her expression unreadable but her scent running from incredulous to angry to utter disgust.

"Whatever, Karrde. You've got friends in high places. Lushenko would be pissed if I bailed on one of his tribe who asked for help. But you better be damned sure about this. The leeches here – the 'good guys' had better be on the up and up, or you know we're going to be back."

"You help me out here, Whispering Water, and you'll get your wish from all those years ago. You'll never have to see me again."

Karrde saw the pain well back up in her eyes only to be crushed a few moments later by anger.

"We're staying in a cabin I rented down by the river. Let me know when you're having a planning session, or whatever." She handed him a slip of paper with an address and cell phone number, then walked out the door without another word.

After a few minutes, Karrde took a deep breath.

"I guess that could have been worse," he said to himself. "Not sure how, though."

He finished his juice and then went back to bed with his wife.