by Deanna Chase
She jumped, clearly startled by my voice, and half the books spilled out of her pack and scattered over the wooden porch.
I rushed over to help her gather them. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
She waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I just seem to be really jumpy the past few days.” The shifter glanced up at me. “Do I know you?”
I handed her a biochemistry textbook and shook my head. “I doubt it. I was sent here by the Arcane.”
She stiffened and froze like a deer in headlights. “Oh gods. This is about the other night at the party, isn’t it? I swear on everything that is sacred that I had nothing to do with that love spell.”
“Love spell?” I asked, standing and leaning against the wrought iron railing. “You mean like a potion?”
She bit her bottom lip and glanced away as her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink. “I should really learn to shut my mouth.”
I chuckled. “It’s all right. Really. I’m not here for that.” I pulled out one of my plain business cards and handed it to her. “You’re not in trouble.”
“I’m not?” She stared at the card, then glanced up at me. “Phoebe Kilsen. I swear I’ve heard that name before.”
It was possible. I’d been in the news a couple of times in the past few months. Solving high-profile cases like rescuing Allcot’s consort made excellent headlines. But I wasn’t one who thrived on attention, so I just shrugged and got to the point. “I’m here about the drug overdose you suffered last week.”
“You’re… what?” she gasped out, then covered her open mouth with her hand. “Why?”
I nodded to the small table and chairs sitting next to her front door and said, “Maybe we should sit down?”
“Yeah, maybe we should.” She stared at her shaking hands.
I slipped my arm through hers and guided her the few feet to the table. “There you go,” I said as I helped her into one of the chairs.” Sitting across from her on the side closest to the porch stairs, I took in her pale face, the fear radiating off her, and added, “Maybe we should start over. I’m Phoebe Kilsen, a witch and a tracker for the Void. And the only reason I’m here is to help you.”
She curled her fingers into a fist and said with a fair amount of defiance, “I don’t need any help.” Then she stood and added, “So would you please just leave me alone?”
I rose as well, blocking her path. “I’m afraid it isn’t that easy. See how agitated you just got when all I did was offer help?”
“You want me to go to some religious drug treatment. I know how you people are, always thinking God can cure something. Wake up! That’s not how this works.” Shaking her head, she tried to make a move past me.
I intentionally let her go just to prove a point. My orders were to bring her in even if I had to force her, and I would because it was for her own sake. But I wanted to build a little trust first and see if I could get her to go willingly. “I’m not religious,” I said. “And I don’t think God is going to cure whatever ails you. But healers and science can help.”
She paused and glanced over her shoulder at me. Frowning, she said, “I don’t have a drug addiction, but thanks for your concern.”
“What if I told you there is a chance that the Scarlet you took was tainted with a poison? And that drug caused a shifter to succumb to his inner wolf, resulting in the death of all his friends?”
Fear flashed in her pretty blue eyes, and I didn’t miss the way her hands started to tremble again. “That’s not… It can’t be true.”
I sighed. “Listen, Hailee, I don’t want to cause you any trouble and I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to help you. That story really happened, and there’s a real chance that you could be infected with the same poison. All I’m asking is that you come back to the Arcane facility with me so that the healers can run some tests and make sure you aren’t a risk to yourself and others.”
Hailee’s face turned white just before her knees buckled.
11
“Whoa!” I rushed to her side, catching her just before she toppled down the porch stairs.
“Oh my god.” She moaned. “That’s why I’ve been light-headed and fighting a headache the past few days, isn’t it? I never get headaches. Never. And now I’m shaky and craving red meat like you can’t believe.” She turned to me, tears standing in her eyes. “I ate two steaks and a half-pound burger yesterday, and this morning all I’ve thought about is the steak tartare appetizer at the restaurant down the street. It’s because I’m losing control of my wolf, isn’t it?”
“We don’t know that for sure. You could just have an iron deficiency.” I was feeding her a line of bullshit. The headaches, the cravings, the shakes, it was likely all connected. Something was seriously off. “But we definitely need to get you to the healer just to be sure.”
Tears rolled down her flushed cheeks. “I’m late for a class.”
“I’m sure you can make it up.” I pulled her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s get going so they can start observations.”
She bit her lip and glanced at her apartment. “Can I get a change of clothes? Maybe some toiletries, just in case they keep me there?”
“Sure,” I said, pleased this was going so well. She seemed to understand just how serious this was. That was refreshing.
She dug in her backpack, found her keys, and while still shaking, she got the door open and led me inside.
The place looked like a tornado had rolled through it. Clothes were strewn all over the floor, a plate and matching mug were lying in the corner, both of them broken in multiple pieces. To the left, a framed poster hung askew and a hole had been punched in the wall.
“Uh, Hailee, what happened in here?” I asked, suddenly on guard.
“This!” She spun around, wielding a knife in one hand and baseball bat in the other. Her eyes glowed yellow and her teeth were bared.
“Shit!” I dodged to the right, barely avoiding getting stabbed in the shoulder. Instead, her fist came down and the blade sliced into the back of her club chair, leaving a nice long gash. “You really don’t want to do this,” I said, knowing I was wasting my breath trying to reason with her. She was already out of her mind and had managed to set me up by luring me inside. There was no telling how many people she’d already attacked.
She let out a growl and came for me again, this time swinging the bat at my head. I grabbed a table lamp and held it up, blocking her blow. It shattered, the ceramic pieces raining down on me while she spun, coming at me again with the bat.
It was just enough time for me to roll backward and come back up on my feet. I reached for the knife concealed at my ankle, but she came at me with her bat again, and this time she connected with my shoulder.
I was knocked to the side as pain shot straight down my arm, leaving it momentarily paralyzed. Son of a… that bitch. I blinked up at her and took in her twisted smile and gleeful expression.
“King is going to love this. Imagine his surprise when I tell him I’ve bagged a Void agent,” she said, holding her stomach as she laughed like an evil villain in a cartoon.
“You knew who I was all along, didn’t you?” I asked, trying to distract her.
She pressed the end of the bat into my chest and leaned on it. “I told you I thought you looked familiar. Once you said your name, it clicked. You’re one of Allcot’s bitches.”
I let out a huff of incredulous laughter. “Hardly.”
“Don’t fuck with me,” she said, crouching down to stare me in the eye. “I know all about how you saved his consort and the special arrangement you have with him. Every shifter in this town knows you work for him.”
I ignored her taunts, recognizing them for what they were. Someone had trained her well. She was using basic knowledge of my past to twist it into something she knew would piss me off. But too bad for her, because I wasn’t going to take the bait. I glanced at the tip of the bat still pressed into my chest and asked, “So, what are you going to do?
Beat me to death?”
“No. That wouldn’t be any fun.” She scanned me from head to toe, her expression turning hungry. “I’m going to get that steak I’ve been craving. Extra rare.”
My stomach turned. Was this the plan? Feed shifters Scarlet and then turn them into bloodthirsty murderers?
The bat lifted off my chest and was replaced with her foot as she swung again, this time aiming for my head. I grabbed her ankle and twisted.
The shifter lost her balance and her momentum as she crashed to the floor beside me. I took that opportunity to retrieve my knife, and the moment she landed, I jammed it into her chest, just above her heart.
She let out a grunt of pain, and it was quickly followed by an agonized howl the second I pulled the knife out of her flesh.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I whispered into her ear as she writhed in pain. My sunlight, which, was infused in my dagger, could kill vampires if I asked it to. In shifters, it just burned. The wound would never heal unless she found a healer willing to reverse the effects. And I was just guessing that neither Imogen nor Talisen was going to be very helpful in that regard once I got her back to the Void. At least not at first.
Normally I would’ve secured both her wrists with magical cuffs that would prevent her from shifting, but my last pair had been destroyed a week ago when I’d gotten into an altercation with a bitchy witch and her vampire boyfriend. They’d been shaking down a tourist when I busted them. I’d come away from the fight with most of my spelled goodies neutralized after she hit me with a particularly nasty spell. I was still rebuilding my inventory.
So, instead of securing Hailee with cuffs, I pressed my foot to her wound, making her howl in agony as she tried and failed to roll out from under me, then flipped open the top of the silver ring I wore on my right hand. Sleeping dust spilled from the chamber and rained down on her face.
“What the hell?” She threw her arms up and twisted to the side, but it was too late. Her eyes were already closing, and her body went limp.
I stared down at her and whispered, “Sleep.”
All the fight drained out of the possessed shifter as she slipped into a magically induced coma.
I let out a sigh and sank down onto the wooden coffee table. The ache in my shoulder had only intensified, and when I pressed my hand to it, I let out a sharp cry of pain. “Fuck me,” I said to no one as tears stung my eyes. The shifter had really done a number on me. There was no doubt I needed a healer, and the sooner the better, but I still had a job to do. Since it was obvious I wasn’t going to be able to stuff her in my car by myself while injured, I pulled out my phone and once again called Zena, my handler.
After she’d confirmed a crew was on the way, I stood and headed for the narrow hallway. As long as I was waiting for the crew, it was a good time to search her place for any clues that could help us figure out whom she was getting her drugs from. Right before I opened the door to her bedroom, I heard her phone ring and rushed back to check her screen.
Unknown caller.
Of course. I pressed the button to see if I could access her contacts, but her device was password protected. That was no surprise. Most were. That was no problem. One of the hackers back at the Void would likely be in within minutes. I slipped the phone into my pocket and made a beeline for the room at the end of the hall.
The room was immaculate, nothing like the mess she’d left in the living room. The bed was made, the dresser free of dust and clutter. And her closet looked like someone with OCD lived there. Every article of clothing was arranged by style and color.
I scanned the contents and quickly moved on to the desk that sat directly under a window. The phone in my pocket went off. And once again, Hailee’s screen read unknown caller. I contemplated answering it but decided against it. I wanted the hackers to see what they could get from it first.
Her desk was just as neat as her closet. Bills were organized by vendor and date. There was a planner with every class and homework assignment listed along with days and nights to study. According to the planner, she was supposed to be at a group study session with two people, Fifi and Bird. The location wasn’t listed. It just had a K that was circled in red.
I grabbed the planner just in case we needed to match up places she’d been or meetings she’d missed, but there was nothing else of interest. I moved on to the kitchen and was inspecting her OCD-like cabinets and drawers when I heard the front door swing open.
“Hailee, where the fuck are you? King is waiting,” a male voice bellowed.
King? Who was that? And who the hell had just strolled into her apartment? I rushed back to the front of the house, wondering how I was going to spin the fact that Hailee was unconscious in the middle of her living room.
But I shouldn’t have bothered worrying. The man who was crouched over her jerked his head up and growled at me, his eyes the same glowing yellow color Hailee’s had been when she’d gone on the offensive.
I quickly grabbed my dagger from the sheath on my ankle and let the light flash as I brandished it in the air. “Get away from her. She needs medical attention.”
He bared his teeth as his gaze locked on my blade. Then he turned his attention to the wound in her chest. He let out a bloodcurdling howl and then scooped her up and ran out the front door.
I sprinted after them, my dagger in one hand and a spell clinging to the other. I had two choices: throw my dagger and aim for his heart, or attack him with my spell and hope it was powerful enough to stop him in his tracks. I opted for the spell.
“Stop!” I cried and let my magic fly. It hit him square in the back, causing him to go down on one knee, but there was no hesitation on his part. He was back up in record time and only steps from his SUV.
Dammit. I couldn’t let them get away. Hailee was too dangerous. I rushed after them and aimed. My dagger flew through the air and would’ve hit my target dead-on, but right at the last moment a gunshot went off, and the bullet hit the blade, shattering it and the light it carried.
My instincts kicked in and I threw myself to the ground as more shots were fired. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. All four whizzed over my head.
The sound of tires squealing drew my attention, and I glanced over just in time to see the SUV disappear around the corner. I stayed down on the grass for a few more moments, letting my heart rate return to normal and making sure the gunman was gone. There were a lot of things I could fight with magic. Bullets weren’t one of them.
Neighbors from the surrounding houses started to gather in the street and chatter about what had happened. I overheard one of them say, “The gunman was in the back seat of the SUV. I saw it all go down from my front porch.”
At least that answered one question. I got to my feet and ignored the pain in my shoulder as I brushed the grass off my T-shirt, then went inside and called Zena.
“They should be there in less than five minutes,” she said.
“Call them off. My perp has been abducted. Shots were fired. No one was hurt, but I’m sure law enforcement is on its way. I’m going to need backup.”
She let out a low whistle. “On it.”
I hung up, grabbed the planner, checked to make sure I still had her phone in my pocket, and went to sit in my car and wait.
12
Dax pulled his Trooper to a stop on Magazine Street and put the vehicle in park. He turned to Leo. “Once we get inside, I don’t want you to say a word. I’ll do all the talking, got it?”
“So, what? I’m the muscle?” Leo asked as he glanced out the window at the small sandwich shop.
There was an old, faded red-and-white sign that said Po’boys. Felix Axton, the shifter they were looking for, was the shift supervisor. Leo had called after breakfast and gotten the information after insinuating he was interested in some product.
“Something like that.” Dax climbed out of the vehicle and headed toward the front door.
Leo snorted. “I think we can come up with a better plan than that, don’t you?”
Dax paused and glanced back at him. He was leaning against the Trooper, his feet crossed at the ankle and his arms folded over his chest. “Okay then, what do you suggest?” he asked, just to see what the kid would say.
“How about I cover the back door and make sure he doesn’t make a run for it when he sees the Void’s most notorious shifter walk in? That’s what I’d do if I were involved in some nefarious drug trafficking.”
Dax’s lips twitched with amusement. The kid had a point. “All right. You cover the back. Stop him if he cuts and runs.”
“Will do, boss.” Leo gave Dax a mock salute and jogged around the corner.
After he’d disappeared from sight, Dax gave Leo another few moments to get into position, then he walked into the shop.
The place was old and in serious need of a remodel. The vinyl linoleum was curling up at the edges, and the walls were gray with yellowed water stains at the ceiling. But the food case was sparkling clean, and behind the counter there didn’t appear to be a crumb in sight.
A man in his midtwenties walked through the swinging door from the back of house and gave Dax a jovial, “Good afternoon. Need to order lunch?”
Dax stepped up to the counter and shook his head. “Not exactly.”
Felix Axton’s easygoing demeanor vanished as he took a closer look at Dax. Recognition dawned in his gaze and he scowled. “You’re that shifter who turned on your pack and now you work for the Void.”
“That’s not how I’d describe what happened,” Dax said. “But yes, I’m that shifter who works for the Void. And I have a few questions for you.”
“Forget it. I don’t talk to traitors who sell out their own kind.” He pulled the disposable gloves off, threw them in the trash, and disappeared into the back again.
Dax shook his head, suddenly glad he had Leo along for the ride. The kid had called it. Felix’s reaction wasn’t a complete surprise. There were plenty of shifters in the city who hated him ever since the Crimson Valley wolf pack had been disbanded. The problem was that the events surrounding that incident were classified. Most of them had no idea that the leaders had been sacrificing fae every four years for eternal life. All they knew was that the shifters had been a respected part of the community, working to keep the place safe for people from all walks of life, and that Dax had been a part of the law enforcement team who’d brought them down for reasons unknown. To be honest, if Dax hadn’t had all the details, he might be pissed too.
