by Sarah Piper
Her eyes were just like mine.
I couldn’t look away.
She cocked her hip and leaned against the doorframe, piercing me with her intense gaze as if she were daring me to start trouble.
I almost laughed.
Decades vanished in a blink, and suddenly I was a kid again, sipping maté on our front porch in the Mendoza foothills, grinning at my big sister like I knew all her secrets. She was supposed to have been on a camping trip with her girlfriends, but her boyfriend had just dropped her off, and I’d caught them making out in his car. It was clear she’d spent the weekend with him.
Mamá would’ve skinned her alive if she’d found out. Not because she’d lied and snuck off with a boy—my parents were pretty liberal about things like that.
It was because my sister was the alpha fated to lead our pack, and that boy was human.
You can’t tell on me, Meelo. You’ll ruin everything!
I extorted the hell out of her that summer. Got fifty bucks for my silence, which was basically a million dollars in my kid mind.
But in the end, her secret cost her a hell of a lot more than that.
I cleared my throat, trying to swallow the knot that’d suddenly lodged there.
“How long was I out?”
“A few hours. Ronan came to about an hour ago.”
“Care to explain the welcome gift?” I snapped, rubbing the fresh lump on my head. I had to stay mad at her. The moment I let that anger slip away, the moment I let the memories take hold of me, the guilt would rush in and eat me alive. “And give me back my weapon, while you’re at it. Unless you’d like me to get in touch with your supervisor.”
She pressed her lips together and sighed loudly through her nose, but she retrieved my gun from on top of the tall china cabinet behind her. A wave of her scent hit me as she approached, tightening the knot in my throat.
I held my breath until it passed. Nostalgia never helped anyone. It just confused the hell out of us, making us believe we could travel through time on a scent, on a song, on a smile. Making us believe we could go back and fix all the fucked-up shit we’d done to each other.
Even in this crazy world of witches and vampires and shifters and magic, life just didn’t work that way.
Handing over the weapon, she said, “It was for your own protection, Emilio. If you can’t see that—”
“You knocked me out. Left me with a hell of a headache, too. Maybe even a concussion.”
Ronan laughed. “Toughen up, wolf pup.”
I growled at him. Fucking traitor. What the hell had he and my sister been chatting about for the last hour, anyway? They should’ve woken me up.
“How did we even get here?” I snapped. “Did you wake up with a headache, too?”
Ronan rubbed the side of his head and winced. “Yeah. One of her wolf pups got me good. Then they threw us in the back of the van and brought us here.”
“Where are these wolf pups now?” I asked.
“My men are out working the Landes case.” Elena shook her head. “It’s not them you’re mad at. It’s me. They were just following orders.”
“Orders to assault an officer of the law and his companion?”
Elena lifted her shoulder in the most casual shrug I’d ever seen. “So you’d rather be dead than pop a few aspirin?”
“You should’ve warned me, not cold-cocked me.”
“There was no time to explain.” She headed to the windows that overlooked the backyard, peering out into the daylight. When she spoke again, her voice was heavy with worry. “This whole town is crawling with dark fae and human outsiders we’re pretty sure are witch hunters. If they’d found you snooping around the Landes place, they would’ve either killed you or taken you, and who knows what—.”
“Hunters and dark fae?” I followed her to the window and grabbed her elbow, forcing her to turn around and face me. “Christ, Elena. When we spoke on the phone about the Landes murder, you told me there hadn’t been any witch killings or other supernatural crimes in the area.”
“There haven’t been.” She jerked her arm out of my grasp. “Just the Landes case, which we still haven’t solved. For all we know, it was a spurned ex. We can’t prove the out-of-towners are hunters, and until they make a move on any of our witches, we can’t charge them with anything but the occasional speeding ticket or drunk and disorderly. And last time I checked, it’s not illegal to be dark fae.”
“Yet you felt they were dangerous enough to warrant knocking Ronan and me out without explanation for our own good?” I shook my head. Fucking Elena. Leave it to my sister to keep me in the dark about something so important. “You’re truly unbelievable, Elena.”
A familiar fire blazed in her eyes. “Forgive me, brother, for not keeping you abreast of the population demographics of Raven’s Cape. Would you like a tour through our case files, while we’re at it? How about the keys to the city?”
“Stop. Just… Listen to me.” I grabbed her chin and tipped her face up, refusing to back down from her steely gaze. Keeping my tone as measured as possible, I said, “Whatever your feelings for me, you need to put that aside. People’s lives are at stake. Our cases are overlapping here, and something tells me the violence and mayhem we’re experiencing in the Bay is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“What do you want from me, Emilio?”
“I want you to be straight with me. That’s it. Keeping secrets is liable to get a lot more people killed.”
Fire still lit her eyes, but her shoulders relaxed, and she blew out a soft breath. In a softer voice, she said, “You wouldn’t have listened to me, anyway. You never have.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but even after all our years apart, no one knew me like Elena.
I wouldn’t have listened. Not until it was too late.
I sat back down on the couch and blew out a breath. My sister may have spent the last twenty years dreaming about my death, but she’d made one thing clear: when it came down to it, she didn’t really want me to die. Despite her caginess, she was trying to help us.
The thought was more comforting than I wanted to admit.
“I want to know what’s going on,” I said, forcing my voice to remain calm. Escalating things would only waste time—time we needed to track down Gray and Asher. “You owe me that much.”
It was the wrong thing to say.
A sliver of laughter escaped her lips, cold and sharp as those killer cheekbones. “So now we’re talking about settling debts? That’s rich.”
Shame burned in my gut, twisting me inside out. Ghosts of the past tried their best to pry their way out of the box I’d locked them away in, but I grit my teeth against their onslaught, forcing them back inside. We’d had twenty years to sift through the relics of the past, but we’d wasted it avoiding each other instead, and now there was no time to reminisce.
“Our friends are missing—witches from Blackmoon Bay and the surrounding areas,” I said. “We have reason to believe they’re being held captive somewhere in Raven’s Cape.”
“What reason might that be?”
I looked across the room to Ronan, who’d remained mostly silent throughout the conversation. How could we explain all of this to her? Where did we even start? Gray’s scrying? The amulet? Everything the Grinaldi-sired vampire, Fiona, had confessed about Jonathan’s twisted plans? It was too much to get into.
“You’re just gonna have to trust me,” I said.
“Not happening.”
“Elena—”
“Not. Happening.” She folded her arms in front of her chest and raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t surprised. Elena was as stubborn as they came. The entire world could be burning around us, and she’d wait me out until her hair caught fire.
Maybe even longer than that.
Still, she was right not to trust me.
Everyone she loved was dead because of me.
I leaned my head back, staring up at the ceiling. We needed the cooperation of the RCPD, or we’d neve
r get off the ground in this town. Gray and Asher—along with Haley, Reva, and countless others—didn’t have much time.
Elena had backed me into a corner, and I had no recourse but to give in.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ll tell you what I know. But it’s a long story, and like I said, people’s lives are at stake. Innocent people, including at least one teenage girl.”
Elena gasped. “Fair enough. You share your info, then I’ll tell you what we know, too. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“See? Was that so hard?” she asked, and I swore I felt her smug smile beaming at me from across the room. “Let me put on some fresh coffee while you clean up.”
“Clean up?”
“No offense, wolf,” she said with a wink, “but you smell like you spent the morning passed out in the back of a van.”
I laughed. It was the kindest thing she’d said to me in twenty years.
Six
Emilio
My sister made a phone call, and fifteen minutes later, two of the three shifter detectives that had put Ronan and me into sleep mode appeared on her doorstep.
Ronan and I had just finished briefing Elena on all of the pertinent information about Gray and the ongoing supernatural crime wave in Blackmoon Bay—pertinent being the operative word. I saw no reason to bring up Gray’s Shadowborn powers and her relationship with Death.
Darius had notified Liam about Gray’s disappearance, but we hadn’t heard from him since. I had no idea if he’d been in touch with her—or just out of touch with us.
I hoped it was the former. Just because we couldn’t trace Gray didn’t mean she was totally alone. If Liam could sense her—if he could connect with her through their strange, otherworldly bond—he might be able to help her.
The thought buoyed me.
And for Elena’s part, all indications were that she’d uphold her end of the deal and help us pool our resources on this.
I could’ve done without the two big wolves looming over us, but we needed the intel, and if that’s how my sister wanted to roll, we’d play it her way.
For now.
“Boys,” she said, “meet Detectives Aiden Hobb and Russel Lansky, my right-hand men. Detectives, meet the boys of Blackmoon Bay. Ronan Vacarro and…” She looked at me and hesitated, weighing her words before finally settling on the truth. “My brother, Detective Emilio Alvarez.”
She’d said the word brother like she’d just bitten into a lemon, but at least she hadn’t tried to pass me off as someone else.
“You’ve got a mean right hook,” I said, shaking Hobb’s hand. For the sake of the investigation and a shot at saving our friends, I was willing to overlook the assault. I even smiled to let him know there weren’t any hard feelings.
Hobb shook my hand, but he clearly wasn’t interested in my humor. Or my smile. Or anything even remotely human. He held tight a few seconds longer than necessary, sizing me up the whole time. Aggression and distrust rolled off him in waves.
“Thanks for coming over,” I said, hoping to ease the tension. “We appreciate the cooperation on this.”
His grip tightened, and he arched an eyebrow. We were about the same height, with similar builds, but now he lifted his chin and peered down at me, as if he needed to feel taller than me. Better. “Who said anything about cooperation?”
I squeezed his hand right back and grinned.
I had no intention of submitting—I had no loyalty to him, and he’d yet to earn my respect—but I wasn’t about to challenge him outright, either. Like it or not, the RC was his territory. Ronan and I were outsiders, and Hobb wanted us to know it.
A pack of lone wolves didn’t have the same structure as a traditional pack, where one alpha typically led. Wherever he’d come from, this guy was clearly an alpha, but so was my sister—and she was his boss. They seemed to make it work, but I was betting it hadn’t been an easy ride for either of them. Alphas butted heads a lot, and the power dynamics were a minefield—one of the many reasons I’d kept to myself after Elena and I parted ways.
In one last attempt at camaraderie, I kept my grin in place and said calmly, “We’d like to tell you what we’ve been dealing with in the Bay. If you guys have got any insights, we’d love to hear them. No obligations beyond that. Fair enough?”
He offered a stiff nod. Apparently, that was as friendly as this guy got.
The other shifter was much warmer, with a youthful smile and an easy-going nature—clearly the good cop in this operation.
“Don’t worry about Hobb,” he said with a wink. “He’s just pissed your sister keeps breaking up with his big dumb ass.”
“Guys.” Elena sighed. “Can we try to keep things professional for one day? Just one? Please?”
“You two are a thing?” I asked, gesturing between them.
“One date! One!” she exclaimed, and Hobb grunted out something that almost passed for a laugh. Smacking him in the chest, she said, “Hobb just doesn’t know how to move on. So.” She clapped once and nodded toward the dining room table. “If we’re done with the awkward trip down memory lane, I’d really like to get down to business. That, and I’m starving.”
There was no point in asking the rest of us. Wolves were always hungry, and Ronan wouldn’t say no to food, either.
As we took our seats around the table, Elena served up strong curl-your-toes coffee and heaping plates of tortilla and fruit salad while I tried to avoid my own trip down memory lane.
Ronan brought her men up to speed, carefully skirting the same details I had about Gray’s other powers and her connection to Death.
“So that’s why you requested the amulet from forensics,” Lansky said when Ronan had finished.
I nodded, spearing a strawberry with my fork. “It belonged to Gray’s mother. It was taken from her long ago by the father of the hunter we’re tracking.”
“And?” Hobb asked.
“And we’d like to return it to its rightful owner,” Ronan said. His face was a mask of steel, but his leg was bouncing under the table. He was just as anxious as I was to get on with the show—to get out there and do something.
Unfortunately, it looked like we’d have to endure more of this dog-and-pony show first.
“Out of the goodness of your hearts?” Hobb drained his coffee cup, then let out a grunt. “So tell me, how long have you two been fucking the little bruja?”
Ronan and I were out of our chairs in a flash, but Lansky jumped in first.
“Lay off, asshole,” he barked at Hobb. “We all want the same thing here—to keep our communities safe and out of the spotlight. The sooner you drop the chip on your shoulder, the sooner we can get back to doing our jobs.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Elena shot Hobb an icy glare before heading into the adjoining kitchen to refill the coffee carafe. “Hobb, this is your one and only warning. Reign it in, or see yourself out.”
Hobb growled under his breath, but he lowered his eyes in submission to his Chief.
I wanted to bust his balls for giving in to her so easily, but we didn’t have time for that shit. Instead, I said, “My gut tells me that whatever’s going on the Bay and the other super communities in the region—including Raven’s Cape—can all be traced back to the same source.”
“You’re basing all this on a hunch?” Hobb said. “From everything you’re telling us, other than the amulet and some visions in a fireplace, you haven’t found any evidence that the witches are being held here.”
This time, I did get out of my chair, shoving it back so hard it hit the wall and cracked the wainscoting. “Look, Hobb. I don’t know what your problem is, but we’ve got our hands full here. We’re talking about several murders, missing persons, a hostage situation, and a violent supernatural crime wave. If that’s not enough to keep you awake at night, there’s also intel from a source close to our hunter suggesting he’s creating some sort of super supernatural army, hybridizing witches with vamps, shifters, demons, fae,
you name it. So if lending a hand isn’t your thing, fine. But do us all a favor—including the women and girls whose lives you’re putting at risk with all this dick-swinging bullshit—and stop wasting our time.”
His eyes glinted with malice, the low rumble in his throat turning into a growl. “Fuck you, wolf. You show up unannounced in my jurisdiction, giving—”
“Fuck me? Fuck me?” Forget keeping things smooth. I was done playing this guy’s power games. I growled right back at him, my heart hammering, my muscles tensing for a fight.
Ronan got up and stood by my side, his eyes demon-black. “Ever been to hell, Hobb? Because you’re about one dick move away from earning your one-way ticket.”
“That’s enough,” Elena said calmly, rolling her eyes as if we were no more than a pack of kids fighting over a toy in the sandbox. Maybe that was the life of an alpha among alphas, but I wasn’t used to this kind of pushback. “All of you, sit down and take a deep breath.”
We glared at each other another beat, then finally took our seats again. This was my sister’s home. Kicking her boyfriend’s ass and destroying her dining room was probably not the best way to patch up our decades-old rift.
“Emilio,” Elena said, “let’s try to remember whose jurisdiction you’re in. And Hobb—”
“Screw jurisdictions. I’m—”
“And Hobb,” she continued, silencing my protests with her patented icy glare, “my brother is right. This affects us all, and it’s all connected.” She put a hand on Hobb’s shoulder as she leaned over to refill his coffee cup—a quiet gesture that seemed to relax him. “There’s no such thing as coincidence.”
