"Abbey likes them even less," She said. "Poor thing. She's seen more at three than most of the adults in Diagon Alley. Tear the shirt, please. I can't see. There's too much blood," she said calmly. She would have just taken it off, but the idea of having Eli see her in her bra was distasteful for her, despite the fact that her bra covered more than her bikini. That was hardly the point.
"I have to pull the shirt away from the wound. My mother's going to kill me for putting these pashminas to such shameful use. Oh well. The best we can do is bandage this for now. I'll have to try to find my father to close this later. They seem to be soaking their claws into something that makes ordinary touch healing completely ineffective. Annoying as hell."
She tore what she could of the shirt and got even further annoyed seeing how long and deep the claw marks were. Her father would not be pleased--whenever it was that she could find him. It would be time consuming to heal. "Damnit," she cursed softly.
She listened to his questions. "Good questions," she said, picking up a snowy white silk pashmina, wadding it up, and pressing it to her shoulder as best she could. She could hear her mother's voice in her head. "Khaat Karina! My best silk pashminas! You couldn't use the cotton shirts, could you? Or the boxers? No...It had to be stacks and stacks of my pashminas!" Her mother would be far more irked with the pashminas than the fact that she was bleeding out all over the floor in the Madam Malkin's showroom. No, Kate Lupin had become accustomed to seeing someone almost entirely bleed out right in front of her eyes and seemed to be about as immune to it rattling her as the average papercut. The pashminas were, however, fair game for criticism.
"This bonehead who is the alpha of this rogue bunch, from what I can figure, is the brother of one of my bodyguards. He goes by a totally bogus alias now of James Blood. Tacky, I know, but there it is and he's taken Fenrir's whole business of werewolf supremacy way too seriously. What he's said to me is that all he wants is to replace us mere humanoids with the superior werewolf race. That's all," her last remarks falling as bitter sarcasm. "And here's the thing. He seems to be quickly mastering Fenrir's ability to transform partially or fully at will, without any relevance to moonlight. And that in itself is horrifying and has horrendous implications.
"He's particularly irked with us because Remus betrayed 'his own kind' by being benevolent towards humans and desiring to be more human than beast. Apparently that galls him for some odd reason. And, the fact that my family supports tolerance and inclusion rather than segregation pisses this jerk to no end.
"The other thing that supremely jangles his nerves is this..." she fingered the necklace around her neck. "So far, its one of the few things that slows him down. He wants this stone in the very worst way. I'd gladly give it to him but I can't seem to find a way to do that without beheading myself. And he's very eager to solve that dilemma for me, but I don't think I want him to do it." She was frustrated by how hard this was bleeding.
"How about using however many of those you need to, to try to soak this up a bit? I have no ruddy idea where my father is today. His schedule's been a bit schizophrenic lately. Might take me a bit to find him.
"This guy isn't afraid of anything," Khaat said. "Since we're all inferior beings in his book, he sees this as some grand murderous game and we're merely hunting sport for him. He's rather enjoying watching us all squirm. The good thing is that some of our protection spells, when we've layered them upon each other, seem to be somewhat effective. The werewolves haven't been able to breech into the house. We keep the kids there. Its the safest place we know. That, and we believed that off the estate was better than being on it Clearly, we're wrong about that bit now.
"What Daddy and I have been trying to do is to keep him focused on us while we research some way to track them, find out where they're based out of, and, most likely, kill them all. I don't see a choice, and neither does my father. Blood's turning more people all the time to werewolves either by force or by the lure of immeasurable power--or at least that's his sales pitch. He's got a pack of young aggressive males that are eager to do anything he asks for his promises of power and promotion, and his women hang on his every word because of his, alleged,...virility." She saw no further need to explain the women's irrepressible need for Blood's affections. "Honestly, I've seen him fully transformed, and I have to admit, I don't think its all that, so unless werewolves are different in that regard, there has to be something else that is more alluring than his anatomy."
"We've always been safe off the estate. I dont' know how they got the location of our unplottable estate, but the whole pack comes there, day or night and just intends to make a bloodbath out of it. We've hired extra guards and fighters, and we've recruited Edward Donohue who literally wrote the book on werewolves and werewolf slaying. He's been staying with us. We brought Edward out of retirement, and so far, he's kept most of us alive. We've lost a total of seven fighters since this began--three of them last night. But we've worked on keeping this a private matter, because as long as it was local, and directed at us, we saw no sense in spreading panic.
"I have a sneaky feeling that keeping it secret is really going to be blown all to hell. Eli, I don't think we're going to have a choice. They're not based on the estate that we can find. They've now decided to infiltrate London. This is now not just a battle for my family. This is now becoming a battle for all of humanity.
"The best weapon you've got right now is me. Frightening as that is." She pointed again to the stone. It was the only thing that they had found that would drive him off even temporarily. "But so far as we know, I have the only one in existence, and Flamel must have taken the secret of its creation to the grave. I see no choice but to inform my father, then alert our allies and then tell the public so they might protect themselves. Perhaps a task force amongst the aurors, and allow Edward to either lead it or consult and advise them. Do you see any other choice at all?"