To Skin a Wolf

by A. L. Kessler

  “Levi, you and I both agreed that I am capable of taking care of myself.”

  “And we both agreed that you would stay out of vampire politics as much as you could. This is one of those times.” He stood. “I’ll be in touch once Mario and I are done with the case.”

  I snorted. “So that’s it? You disappear until it’s taken care of and I have to watch my back constantly?”

  “How is that different from any other time?” He asked before disappearing.

  I snarled and slammed my hand on the table. The blow vibrated through my arm and hit my wound. “Damn it.”

  “Take it easy.” Merick came up from behind.

  I didn’t want to take it easy. “Nick.” I suddenly said and spun around. “Did you know about Nick?”

  “I know everything that you have in your notes downstairs, just what you leave lying around. I don’t pry.”

  I snorted. “You invaded my life as a cat; I’m pretty sure that counts as prying.”

  “Again, I have orders that I must follow. Would you have rather I just started camping around your house?”

  I leaned back in the chair and considered it. Would I have? “No, I would have shot you.”

  “And I prefer to be lead-free. Now, what are you going to do about Levi?”

  “What makes you think I’m going to do anything?” I downed the rest of my wine. “I have a bunch of dead wolves to worry about. Let him worry about the bodies and experiments. I’ll just keep my eye out for Ira and death threats. When Levi returns, things will go back to normal.”

  Merick sat across from me. “Do you really think that? I saw the pictures of Mario’s board.”

  “You were prying; those are only on my phone.”

  “You should have a stronger password.”

  I put my head on the table. “Okay, new plan. I’m going to take a shower and sleep for a little bit.”

  “I think you’ll feel better in the morning.” He stood. “I assume that you’ll be going to the office in the morning?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I need to contact a few more people and do some more research on a supposedly deceased alpha.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “I’m learning quickly that sometimes the system lies.” I stood and stretched. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” I didn’t wait for a response. I went upstairs and shut the bedroom door. My life was going to hell in a hand basket.

  I woke up to find Merick on the couch watching television. “No longer keeping up the facade?”

  “I’ll change back when people come over. This takes less energy.” He motioned to the TV. “Morning news is on.”

  “I hate the news.” I sat down with my coffee. “What did they get a hold of this time?”

  “Protests are starting here soon. Downtown by the PIB building.” He leaned back. “Glad you don’t work down there again yet.”

  I sighed. “I don’t know, Boss Man might keep me up at the north location since I have my own office.” More like because I didn’t want to face my old office without Nick, even if it would be a new building.

  “You miss him?”

  I blinked at him. “Who?”

  “Nick. I can see it in your eyes every time something related to him crosses your mind. You said he disappeared that night?”

  My notes had, it was under his picture on my board. “His body disappeared from the morgue. I saw him outside not ten minutes later. He literally disappeared into the air.”

  “And you don’t think that you were seeing things, or he could have been a ghost?”

  I shook my head. “Someone sent Oliver Nick’s office keycard.”

  “Interesting. I’ll ask around to see if any of the Cult have seen him elsewhere.”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about this new arrangement. It would have been easier just to go back to him being a cat, but at least someone was here in case Ira decided to visit again. “Okay, I’m going to work now. You know, in case you need to know where I am at all times.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

  “It’s daytime; you can take care of yourself.” He glanced at me. “I’ll be here.”

  I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I walked out of the house and let out a giant sigh at the sight. “Merick. Did you see anything last night?”

  I stared at the mangled car sitting in front of the house. It resembled my car, but crushed.

  He came out and looked at the car. “No, but please don’t tell me that’s your car.”

  “That’s my car. Well, it was my car.” I growled. “What the fuck?”

  Merick walked around the car. “This looks like it was done by a metal crusher.”

  “Great, how did it get here though?”

  “I had it towed here.” Mason stepped out from behind the car.

  Well wasn’t that awkward, being caught with Merick without explanation.

  “Merick.” Mason nodded. ”I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “I had to drop some things off to Abby, some research that belongs to her dad. She’s continuing his language studies.”

  It wasn’t really a lie. “Why did you have my car towed here? You should have just let it stay where you found it.”

  “We found it at the protest grounds.”

  I raised a brow. “That’s interesting. I don’t know why it would have been there.”

  “Or why it’s destroyed?”

  “Nope. I reported it missing the other day. It was stolen from outside of the morgue. I just assumed some punk thought it’d be funny to steal a car. Did your guys dust it for prints?”

  “Yeah, before we moved it. I’ll see if anything comes back, but you know how it is printing cars.”

  “There are prints all over the place, and there’s no promise of finding anything.” I nodded. “Just let me know if something unusual shows up.” I walked to the Hummer. “I’m going to go down to the protest grounds. See who the PIB in charge is and talk to them about a few things.”

  Mason raised a brow. “Just like that? You’re not worried about the car?”

  “It’s the least of my worries right now.”

  “What happened?”

  I paused and looked at Mason. “What do you mean?”

  “I can see the bandage. What happened?”

  I touched the gauze that I thought my shirt hid completely. Apparently not. “I had an altercation last night. That’s all I’m willing to share.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Fine, Mason. Perfectly fine.” I got in the Hummer and slammed the door. Merick gave me a little wave as I left.

  The downtown PIB building was starting to come back together; the windows were covered in film to protect them from the rest of the work on the building. I tried to push thoughts of the explosion out of my mind. The police and PIB were already setting up barriers for the protesters. I assumed the supernatural creatures would be close to the PIB building with the humans across the street. Organized protests were much preferred to the chaos of unorganized ones. I parked my car outside the lines and jumped out. It wasn’t long until I found someone from PIB.

  “Agent Collins.” A man greeted me. “What brings you down here?”

  “I’m looking into something for my case. I need you to keep an eye out for any lycanthrope that doesn’t look like they are part of the protest. Maybe they just don’t have as much gumption as the others, maybe just slinking around the crowd. You see something suspicious you call me.”

  He raised a brow. “Is there any more information that you can give me than that?”

  “I can’t. There’s a chance that the information and the case hitting the media would turn this into a riot instead of a protest. I need to make sure that doesn’t happen because I have a feeling that’s what my suspect would want.”

  “Do you have a picture to go with this man?”

  I shook my head. “Just a name.”

  “Your abundance of information is overwhelming.” His sarcasm was thic
k enough that I got a glimpse of what it must be like to deal with me on a daily basis.

  “High profile cases suck,” I shot back. “I’m working this alone, and that sucks. I just need an extra pair of eyes.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll do what I can, but with that kind of information, it could match several people in the crowd.”

  “Maybe I’ll just come down to the protest.”

  “Might be a better idea.” He turned away from me and walked off. I counted to ten in my head before going back to the Hummer. I really didn’t want to spend my day at the protest, but it looked like I didn’t have a choice. I pulled away from the scene and debated my next move. I didn’t want to go all the way north to the office only to come back down to the protest. Coffee shop was out of the question since I needed to discuss confidential information. In the end, I ended up going to get fast food and parking the Hummer in a parking lot and calling Madeline from there.

  “Hello?” Her voice sounded a bit timid at first.

  “Madeline, this is Agent Collins. I have a question for you in regards to my case.”

  She hesitated slightly. “What can I help you with, Agent? I thought we made it clear we didn’t know anything about the case.”

  “Do you have any connection to a man name Zachary Ingram?”

  There was no answer and the line went dead. I called back, and it went straight to voicemail. Wasn’t that an interesting response? I shook my head and finished my breakfast in the car. I jotted down a couple theories in my notebook, making some scribbles on next steps and where I needed to go from here. My new leads looked promising, but I’d need to drive to the other county, and I wouldn’t make it back in time for the protest. Of course, if part of my theory proved true, I wouldn’t have to go anywhere.

  I finished my notes and breakfast and headed back to the protest site. Parking in the PIB parking lot, I walked out and joined the crowds already starting to gather. Some were shouting at each other about Lycan rights, and humans were shouting back about monsters. I walked around in silence, just observing what was starting now. The police and PIB officers walked the space between the groups. A few of them were in riot gear, just in case things got out of hand.

  “What are you doing here, witch?” Travis stepped in front of me. “Don’t you have some murders to be working on?”

  I looked up at him and crossed my arms. “I’m doing my job. Don’t worry about me. Worry about keeping your people in line so something crazy doesn’t happen.”

  “You’re looking for him.”

  “You say that like you know the gender of my suspect.” I raised a brow. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

  He met my gaze. “No.” He stalked off into the growing crowd of wolves shouting at the humans. He was lying to me. I made a note to talk to Simon about where his second came from. Dread pulled my stomach into a pit. There was no way that he could be Zachary, could he? I’d already seen one case of stolen identity. No. Simon would have done more research on his second. Of course, I would have thought the same about someone he dated. I continued to walk the line and tried to look for something, anything out of the ordinary.

  Someone walked out of the human side holding up something. My eyes grew wide as I realized what it was. A wolf pelt. I darted towards him, drawing my gun. “You’re under arrest.” I looked into the face that I’d only seen once. The alpha from the other county. Joshua Gray looked at me and smiled wickedly. “Hello, Agent Collins. Nice to see you again.”

  He started to shift, but much like Travis, he stopped half way. He launched himself at me, and I fired three times, taking him down. He reverted back to his human form as his body hit the ground. Cries of outrage all around me sounded as the crowd flowed over the barrier and humans and werewolves started attacking each other.

  Someone grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me out of the fray. I turned around and saw the PIB officer that I had spoken to earlier. His eyes were wide as those in riot gear moved into the crowd, and we stepped away to try and give them room. Several wolves came towards us and the other PIB agent pulled his gun out. I pushed it down and pulled him closer to my side before throwing up a purple circle.

  “What the hell? You shot one of them already.”

  “I shot him because he attacked me and he was my suspect. The man was holding a wolf pelt.” I muttered.

  A howl echoed through the street and all the wolves stopped. I knew that howl. Simon. He was calling his pack back. Those who belonged to his part of the pack dispersed. I assumed heading back to their vehicles. The others did not. A handful stayed behind and continued to attack the humans, but it wasn’t long until riot control got everyone broken up and sent back. No arrests were made that I saw.

  When the crowd disappeared, I went to find Joshua’s body. Nothing.

  I glanced at the PIB agent, and he nodded. “You took him down with three shots.”

  “Then where the hell did he go?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t see him get up and walk off.”

  There was no blood splatter on the ground either. No wolf pelt left behind. Fuck. My phone rang and I frowned at the name. It wasn’t one that crossed my phone often. Boss Man.

  “Abigail. Office. Now.” The anger was clear in his voice, and I had a feeling that the news had just shown me firing at a wolf at a protest. My luck on this case was getting worse and worse.

  “Yes, sir.” I looked at the other PIB agent. “Boss Man calls. If they need a statement, have them send someone there.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I walked into Boss Man’s office. He spun around to face me in his chair like we were in a bad mob movie. His fingers pressed together, his beady little eyes deep in his rat-like face. His oily black hair was slicked to one side. “Agent Collins, how do you explain your actions at the riot?”

  “It was a protest; it wasn’t a riot until shots were fired. I had the suspect in my sights, he attacked me in resisting arrest, and I shot until the threat was neutralized. I believe his name is Zachary Ingram under the alias Joshua Gray. He’s been skinning and dismembering members of the local wolf pack and is known for violent behavior.”

  He nodded. “And where is the body? At the morgue?”

  “It seems that he was wearing protection, because he was gone when the riot cleared.” I pressed my lips together. I knew exactly what this sounded like. A gimmick.

  “You know that it is important for PIB to keep up good relations with the paranormal creatures, correct?”

  “It’s one of the core aspects of the job.”

  He leaned forward a little bit. “Then you know how your actions reflect on our branch.”

  “Yes sir, but—“

  “Your actions are currently under review, and you are suspended for poor judgment. Once it’s deemed that your actions were in line for the situation, you can return to work.”

  “I have a case. You can’t pull me in the middle of it.” I shook my head and tried to keep my voice calm. “I did nothing wrong, my life was threatened.”

  “Did he have a weapon?”

  “He was a werewolf…who was half shifted and attacked me. They don’t need weapons.”

  “My decision is final. Your badge? I’ll return it to you when you’re cleared.”

  I tried not to throw it at him as I took it off my belt. My anger settled in me. “Boss Man—“

  “I believe you Abby, but there are people who are higher up than me.”

  That was news to me. I put my badge on his desk. “How long? Who gets my case?”

  “I’ll find an agent capable of it; it’ll be at least a couple days.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “I’ll put my notes in the database before I leave.” I could still do my job correctly before I left so that the agent who took it over had a chance to finish it out.

  “That would be appreciated. It’s nothing personal, Abigail I would have to do the same for any of my agents.”

  I shrugged. “I know
. Just hope that this doesn’t botch up the case.”

  “Hopefully, we need to solve it to make sure things are smoothed over with the werewolf packs.” He looked back down at his papers, dismissing me. I clenched my fists as I walked out. I wanted to scream and shout, but that wasn’t going to do me any good. Neither were the tears at the corners of my eyes. I wasn’t sure how else I was supposed to handle the situation at the protest, but clearly, I had screwed up.

  I got to my office and put the notes into the system, making sure to include my theories before logging out. I walked out and to the Hummer feeling numb. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t help Levi, and I couldn’t finish my case.

  My phone rang when I got into the Hummer. I answered it with a sigh. “Abigail Collins speaking.”

  “Are you okay?” Simon’s voice came from the other side. “I saw the news and what happened at the protest…”

  “I’m suspended from work until they clear the situation. I don’t know who’s going to take your case.” I didn’t really want to talk to him about it. “But yes, I’m okay.”

  He was silent. “So now what? It’s in some random PIB agent’s hands?”

  “Yeah, Boss Man said he’d find someone capable because we have to smooth things over.”

  “Because you shot a suspect. Do you know who he is? Anything at all?”

  “Because I shot a werewolf at a protest. There’s nothing else I can tell you right now.” I scrubbed at my face. “I’m going to go home and wallow in my sorrows.”

  “I’ll bring some pizza.”

  “I don’t want company.”

  “Too bad.” He disconnected and I rolled my eyes. What did it matter, seemed like no one was going to listen to me anyway and at least this way I got food. With being suspended, that also gave me more time to work on my parents’ case and the information that I had gotten from Mario’s board. Of course, now that I wasn’t exactly PIB, maybe I could help with Levi’s case.