by K. N. Banet
I could have gotten away, but there was something thrilling about how Heath worked. He put very little effort into being anything but a werewolf, while I worked so hard to pretend I was human.
“Take it somewhere else,” Landon growled from the next room.
“Move out,” Heath growled back. “My house. My rules.”
Landon’s grumbled response was lost to me. I raised an eyebrow at Heath.
“We haven’t lived together for this long in decades. We’ve remembered why he and Richard got their own homes,” he explained, leaning back in to put his forehead on mine.
“Is he going to move out?”
“He’s looking around at houses.”
“How are you and Carey going to do without him?”
He shrugged. “He’ll probably be over here all the time, but it’s the principle of the matter. He’s an adult man, and I think we’re all recovered from the Dallas coup and relocating. Time for him to reclaim his own space.” He slid a hand down my back and brushed over my ass. “Now, why are you running away? We don’t get much time during the week, and I promise, there’s no one watching my house. We could steal a few hours.”
I went through what I had to do for the day. The only reason I wanted to get home was to get some sleep before I dealt with bar work in the evening. Kick Shot was closed on Mondays, but it was a good day for Oliver and me to break down what would happen during the week.
“Sleep,” I finally answered. “Something you won’t let me have if I stay here.”
“You’re right.” He chuckled and released me. “I wouldn’t. Drive safe.”
We kissed one more time, and I headed out.
When I made it back to Kick Shot, I noticed someone parked in the driveway who hadn’t been there when I left. It wasn’t uncommon for people to stop their cars in my parking lot to check maps, but I had them towed if they stayed too long. It was such a rare occurrence, I could remember every time it was needed.
I went to the car, frowning, seeing no one was inside. I took a picture of the license plate for future reference. The windows were dark, but I could see it was kept clean, and there was nothing out of place to me. It belonged to humans or was used by humans because there was no scent of magic or any sort of supernatural on it.
It’s too normal.
I didn’t like that I couldn’t see anyone around. I sniffed, catching the scent of two people, and started to follow, wondering where these two people had gone after dumping their car in my parking lot. I didn’t like where I was going as I headed around the bar toward the trail to my house. The Private Property sign was still standing as I walked past it. I followed the scent into the trees off my trail, wary what these humans were doing. I didn’t have a gun on me, something I wished for now. While I didn’t particularly need one, it was useful when I needed to keep up appearances as a human.
I didn’t move quickly, keeping my eyes open for anything. Nothing seemed out of place except their scents. I never caught them. They kept moving, leading around in a semi-circle back to the bar. When I made it back to my parking lot, the car was gone.
At least I got the plate. I’ll give it to Davor and see what he finds out.
The entire event left me bewildered and paranoid. I went into Kick Shot, knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep now. I locked my office door, an unnecessary security feature but a comforting one. I emailed Davor the license plate with an explanation from my office computer, which was a keyboard and mouse on the desk and the monitor attached to the wall to my left, out of the way. The tower was carefully hidden away in the bookcase built around the monitor, so no one could do something crazy like ripping the hard drive out. It was somewhat paranoid but also very nice and high-end. Heath and I had spared no expense making this office, with his years of advice about security involved in its planning.
It didn’t take long for Davor to get back to me, only five minutes, which told me the man was bored with whatever else he was doing.
Davor: Probably some idiots considering buying the land from you. We’ve dealt with it before.
Jacky: Can you look into it anyway?
Davor: Obviously. It’s you, so the probability it’s something dangerous is more likely. Even then, with how many dangerous incidents you’ve had over the last two and a half years, the likelihood of another is very slim.
Jacky: Let’s play like the odds aren’t in my favor, okay?
Davor: Are they ever?
I cracked a small smile. Davor was an asshole, with little capacity for normal emotion, in my opinion. A genius of ridiculous levels, he spent his days coding, building new systems, and managing the electronic security for most of the family. Not me, though. He let me use what he developed, but he didn’t offer his free time to help me. I either had to ask and make a good case or go without. I was pretty good at going without since I wasn’t willing to get into stupid fights or involve Hasan. It helped that I went without for several years for my own reasons. It was good training for Davor’s continuous coldness. The good thing was, I had learned something important about him. He liked numbers. When he was talking numbers, he was in a good mood.
Not twenty minutes later, my phone rang, and I answered without looking.
“Jacqueline, Davor said you had trespassers on your property.” Hasan’s immediate concern was touching but made me want to roll my eyes. I was hit with the sudden realization Dirk was right.
Hovering was shitty.
“It’s fine. It’s going to be fine. It was two humans and a car. I sent everything about the car to Davor. He didn’t need to tell you about it.”
“He didn’t. I’m sitting next to him,” Hasan said. “Davor can’t help but mumble to himself as he types.”
Shit. I forgot Davor was spending time with Hasan right now. It’s the anniversary of Liza’s death, isn’t it? They warned me like a month ago, and I completely lost track of the date.
“Tell him he can work on it later. I don’t want to impose on your time with him,” I said, rubbing my temples. “I wasn’t thinking when I sent it over.”
“He can do it now,” Hasan said with a chiding tone. “It’s your safety, something I’m very much invested in, and I know if we don’t do it now, you’ll find some way to get into trouble before we can stop it. Like last time.”
I winced. “Yeah.”
Last time. The time when I flew across the country and got involved in a situation I had no business being in, without telling any of them until it was too late to get out of it—that time. The time my twin sister murdered a man for a self-righteous reason, and I vowed to get her out of trouble for a similar self-righteous reason. The time my human family was kidnapped, and I convinced my family we needed to fight the werewolves instead of making a trade.
That time.
“What are you doing right now, other than trying to find intruders on your property?” he asked.
I considered what to tell him. My life was fairly stable now.
“Well, I’m not normally up this time of day. I took Carey to school this morning because I let her stay at my place last night. I was going to head back to sleep, but…” I let him fill that in for a moment. “Now I’m going to try to get ahead of work before Oliver arrives.”
“Stay safe.” There was no missing the order in those words. “Davor will get back to you, probably this time tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” I hung up first, then leaned over and put my head on my desk. I didn’t like things out of the ordinary. I considered texting Heath about what happened but decided against it for now. There was no reason to worry him so early.
I didn’t want to come off as paranoid either. Deep in my bones, I felt a creeping sensation of something bad coming. Maybe I had finally gotten into enough trouble to have developed a survival instinct.
What can I do? Dirk left me a write-up…
I searched my desk and found it on top of some reports I’d had the two young men working as my managers write. They were personnel reports
, write-ups on their feelings about the rest of our staff. I had no intention of bringing any more humans into my secret. I didn’t want a large staff, but it was good to be prepared, to know my employees, so I could work with them if anything came up.
I looked at them for a moment, wondering if something bad came what I would do with them—even more people relying on me, now for work to pay their bills and support their families.
Well, first, I have to know if there is anything wrong.
I started reading the handwritten information from Dirk, trying to put my troubles at ease. Two people, one man and one woman, each wearing casual clothing. Dirk’s description of their fashion choices was spot on. He was observant, but I had a feeling that was something Niko taught him. He memorized details with apparent ease and had told me about them so casually as if he barely even thought about the two humans looking for me. It was good, certainly better than I could do. I was still working on that, trying to take in details, part of the natural safety precautions of being immortal. Hasan told me a decade ago, memorizing the little details was important—a mole, the density of someone’s freckles, or a small pockmark—anything and everything. As an immortal, you could never really know when someone was going to pop up into your life again or what their motive was.
I was terrible at it. I knew faces but couldn’t remember all those details. Dirk, while frustrating for me, once again was proving himself too useful to ever get rid of.
Shit, and Niko needs a timeline for when he’s getting his adopted son back. I’ll ask Dirk about that today after I tell them about the visitors on my property.
I waited in my office for hours until I heard the familiar sound of footsteps coming up the back staircase. They were quiet, and a yawn made me smirk. I heard Oliver unlock his office, then come to unlock mine. He opened it, looking bright and fresh, his eyes clear with shock as he saw me. Dirk was behind him, with dark stains under his eyes. It was clear who didn’t get enough sleep.
“Why…” Oliver looked down at the doorknob, then back at me, obviously confused by me locking myself in the office.
“Earlier today, two humans decided to go on a walk through my woods,” I explained, leaning back in my chair. “I didn’t see them because I didn’t want to take too much of a risk. I tracked their walk, which went precariously close to my home, then led me back to my parking lot, where I had found their car. I didn’t recognize the scents but sent Davor a picture of their license plate to run.”
They both watched me in a still silence as they thought over what I told them. Dirk gently nudged Oliver farther into the office, closed the door, and relocked it.
“Is there anything we can do?” he asked, looking at me.
“Keep your eyes open like you have been. Davor thinks it might have been some real estate people. It’s a…decent idea, but it could have been anything. I didn’t find anything hidden on the little walk they took other than their footprints.”
“Niko…once had a couple of teenagers trespass his property because everyone knew someone strange lived there. Most people avoided it completely, so it got to be a bit of a legend,” Dirk said thoughtfully as he sat down across from me. Oliver fell into his seat silently, looking between us.
“You think I might have had a couple of dumb idiots, thinking they could get a peek at my house? Have a laugh?”
“Or a make-out session?” Dirk shrugged. “Could you tell how old they were?”
“Adults. Teens normally have messy cars,” I said, sighing. “But…there’s always been questions from the people who come to Kick Shot whether or not I’m human. I could see someone finally deciding to look a little closer…” Which didn’t bode well for me.
“This is why Niko doesn’t go to his businesses regularly,” Dirk pointed out. “You might need to cut down on visits to Kick Shot and let people forget about you for a little while.”
“But…” Oliver frowned. “Everyone knows about werewolves. Why not let them think you’re like Alpha Everson? A wolf outside the pack.”
“Because it’s…” I didn’t continue, knowing Oliver was right. “Are you saying I should stop fighting the rumors?”
“Yeah. The more you fight them, the more people will want the truth if they think you have a secret. They know you’re…off.” Oliver looked at Dirk for confirmation.
“He has a point,” Dirk agreed.
“Then it’s settled,” I said decidedly. “I can do that. If anyone asks either of you if I’m a werewolf, don’t deny it. Just say I’m a private individual who enjoys owning a bar, and I hope to run Kick Shot for a very long time.”
“That’s a good line,” Oliver said appreciatively. “If they ask about anything else, we’ll categorically deny it. You’re not a witch or fae, which would be the next two most likely questions. Humans don’t really know about the rest of the supernaturals.”
“Shit, I barely know about the rest of the supernatural species,” I commented with a snort. Heath was trying to teach me, though. While my ignorance worked when I lived alone, it didn’t anymore. Four sparse years of education from Hasan was slipping away, thanks to disuse and my personal experience with a handful of species, but there was so much to know. Dozens of types of supernaturals lived around the world. The big five were always mentioned in conversation, thanks to their positions on the Tribunal, but it was the smaller groups that were the most interesting. Like the newly discovered cambions. An entire supernatural species had been discovered and joined the Tribunal. Heath mentioned it over dinner one Saturday evening, laughing when he realized I had no idea it had happened, even though Hasan was one of the people who knew the most about them and worked closely with their leader.
Well, Hasan did say he likes to keep his work separate from his family…very separate.
“Sometimes, I wonder how you made it this long,” Dirk teased.
“Thanks,” I replied dryly, narrowing my eyes at him. “We’re all on the same page, right? Let them believe I’m a werewolf and hope interest dies down?”
They both nodded, then Dirk got up to leave. Oliver and I dove into the start-of-the-week papers, and I tried to ignore the nagging feeling.
Something is coming.
5
Chapter Five
The days continued to turn. An uneventful work week turned into a normal Saturday night off and a lazy Sunday.
“Looking forward to the full moon tomorrow night?” Heath asked as we walked down the trail the night before.
“Ambivalent to it.”
We had talked about a lot but not the trespassers on my property. I told him everything else, though, like the decision I came to with Oliver and Dirk. He’d gotten a laugh out of the idea that people were so willing to believe I was a werewolf.
Now I was reading a book and waiting for the moment I knew I needed to head outside. Like all the moon cursed, I had a sixth sense for it. The curse activated on nights of the fullest moon, right on schedule, and only once the sun went down.
The book was good, part of a long series I couldn’t put down now, a long-running mystery series, something to lose myself in when television started to bore me. I liked to read, even though I rarely found time. Hasan had sent me the Spanish editions for Christmas when he had learned through the grapevine I was studying the language. While I was by no means a conversational speaker of the language yet, I was beginning to make enough progress to read, with some assistance. I looked up words I didn’t understand on my phone more frequently than I cared to admit, but it helped.
I put the book down and looked out the large windows of my home, seeing how the red glow of sunset was taking over the world. Standing slowly, I felt the pull of magic, a whisper asking me to head outside, to wait. I followed it, slowly stripping as I made my way, dropping my clothes wherever. By the time I was on my front porch, I had nothing left on, and the sun was nearly gone. I closed my eyes to breathe in the fresh night air. There was nothing unusual on the breeze, so I let that lull me into enjoying the
night to come, letting go of the paranoia I’d felt for the last week.
There was no one out there.
When the sun was gone, I didn’t fight the shift. I never did. When I was a young werecat, Hasan had taught me to go with the Change, flow with it, akin to going down a river. Like getting swept under a strong current, going with it was safer than trying to swim against it. I had embraced that lesson and learned to swim with the current, taking myself through the Change faster than most werecats my age. I ignored the pain and moved through it as my body rearranged itself into a new form—just under thirty seconds. It was as fast as I could go, and I was damn proud of it. Most of my family took just over a minute. Werewolves took upwards of fifteen minutes. I was the youngest person in the family, and I matched Hasan’s speed through the Change, and it was through sheer force of will.
I shook, feeling the familiar, heavy weight of my werecat body, a saber-toothed feline reminiscent of something from the end of the ice age. I weighed more than an adult male lion and was considered small, thanks to my age. Jabari and Hasan both weighed over nine hundred pounds, practically double my size. Mischa and Zuri were the closest to my size, but both of my werecat sisters were thousands of years old and had finished filling out, unlike me.
I jumped off my porch and headed into the woods. The first thing I had to do was hunt, take a kill, and appease the feral side of my nature that came out to play during the full moon. Thanks to an out-of-control population, finding whitetail deer was easy, and no one noticed something was taking kills year-round. I caught the scent of several that had roamed through my woods over the last few nights and picked a buck over any of the does.
Once my mind was made up, my body entered hunting mode. I lived in the backseat of my own brain, letting the instincts take over and the cat be what it was meant to be—a hunter. It prowled through the trees until it finally caught sight of its prey. I felt my muscles tense as it lowered itself into a crouch, then I felt the twitch of muscles ready to release and take down its quarry.
