by Kelly Meding
“You’re protecting him, aren’t you?” I asked, directing my question to all three Marshals. “You’re protecting Damian and this place.”
“This place is a private business whose work you interrupted,” McGovern said. “You’re lucky Dr. Ferguson isn’t pressing criminal charges against any of you.”
I gawked at the guy, so flustered I couldn’t find the words to tell him how I felt about Dr. Ferguson and criminal charges.
“What about Jaxon?” Novak asked. “That bastard Damian took our friend with him.”
McGovern turned his blank stare to Novak, who still stood just behind me. “According to our records, Jaxon Dearborn returned to his residence in Maryland three days ago. We’ve found no proof he was ever here in Gabriel.”
“You have got to be shitting me!” I threw both hands in the air. “Isn’t there security footage somewhere in this town that shows him? Officer Murphy met him when we first got here yesterday. Two days ago, whenever.” My sense of time was totally skewed. I didn’t even know how long I’d been unconscious.
“We’ve spoken with local law enforcement, and no one remembers seeing Marshal Dearborn here.”
Fucking Damian. He probably whammied the entire goddess-damned town to forget Jaxon had been here, simply to cover up his kidnapping. Because maybe Damian hadn’t wanted Jaxon bound to him, but now he had the perfect hostage. And leverage against me, the person he really wanted by his side.
“What about Rosalind and Gideon?” I asked. “They both interacted with Jaxon this whole fucking time. So did Alpha Kennedy.”
I swear McGovern was trying to hide a yawn. “The werewolves were gone when we arrived, and when I attempted to speak to Alpha Kennedy, I was informed the Marshals Service is not welcome on Pack land, they’ll deal with the matter internally, and he has no further use for us. Under federal law, I’m required to abide by the Alpha’s wishes.”
The part about sorting things out internally sounded about right, but the second part sat wrong, and I suspected McGovern was lying about that phone call. Especially when Novak told me ten minutes ago that Kennedy owed us a favor.
But challenging McGovern wouldn’t help, so I made a mental note to call Rosalind myself.
It just meant that we were at an impasse—which was almost certainly what McGovern wanted.
“This is insane,” Novak said. “A US Marshal has been kidnapped, and you idiots couldn’t care less.”
“Watch your tone, Mr. Smith,” McGovern replied. “You are a civilian speaking to a government agent.”
“Civilian?”
“Yes.” McGovern carefully looked at Novak and Chandra, and then seemed to take intense pleasure in meeting my eyes when he said, “You’re all fired. Turn over your weapons and badges immediately.”
“Fired?” I squawked. “What gives you the authority?”
“My boss does, and as I said, you’re lucky you are all getting off with simply losing your jobs and not jail time. Guns and badges.”
“I want to speak to my own superiors. I don’t know you. For all I do know, you’re rent-a-cops with stolen badges.”
“The order came down from the top, Miss Harrison, and I guarantee you it’s legit. You don’t have a choice here.” He tilted his head, and I saw the trump card before he landed it. “You see, I’ve been informed that a civilian named Elspeth Juno rented three rooms at the local motel recently, and that she’s yet to check out. I’d hate to see her connected to or implicated in the crimes you and your teammates have committed today.”
Fuck it all sideways.
Novak growled softly at the implied threat from McGovern. He’d never admit it, but Novak loved my mom, too. And if saving her meant temporarily losing my badge and gun? We’d both do it in a heartbeat.
I considered loosing the Quarrel on those three numbskulls just to see them start beating the crap out of each other, but I was a freaking adult, and I could get fired like one. But as I eased my badge out of my wallet, my chest squeezed with grief over what I was losing. Temporarily, I hoped. The Para-Marshals had been my life for the better part of six years. It had given me direction and purpose when I was lost and floundering. It had given me a family of strays who knew how it felt to be alone in the world.
I handed over that part of my life to Marshal McGovern, whose knowing smirk told me one thing for sure: Damian had set us up to fall. And maybe we had fallen, but we were still strong. We’d pick ourselves back up and continue the fight, with or without the support of the US Marshals behind us. With vampire support, Pack support, and the friendship of at least one goddess, we’d find Jaxon and take Damian down for good.
Chapter 20
We picked up Mom at the motel and drove straight out of town. Even if I’d wanted to stay around and try to find some evidence, some trail Damian might have left behind, the Marshals had the place under a tight lock and key now, and if we got caught snooping, we probably would see jail time. So would my mother, and I couldn’t allow that to happen. Not after everything she’d done for me, protecting me my entire life.
This time, I’d protect her.
Mom’s rental car had been hidden in the old silo, of all places, so at least we had that. I didn’t care about the other rental, since it had been paid for with our government card. We left town in Mom’s car with only our personal belongings. I felt naked without my gun and badge, and I tried to doze as we drove, but the constant itch of my neck healing kept me awake. Chandra drove, with Novak riding shotgun, me and Mom in back. It felt so strange to have entered Gabriel with so many others and to now leave without them.
I did make that phone call to Rosalind, and she guaranteed me that no one from the Marshals’ Office had called with questions. Her wolves were happy to be home, Gideon had been promoted in his position within the Alpha’s home, and she reiterated Kennedy’s promise that he owed us. That news made all the other losses more bearable.
Kathleen was probably with her own people by now, doing whatever it was they did for her mystery employer. She had come through with backup and the helicopters, though, so . . . Tennyson was off healing, and I hoped to hear from my friend soon.
Jaxon . . . frustrated tears welled up every time I thought of him, stuck with a magical maniac, who was doing goddess knew what to Jaxon right now. My heart ached for him.
Chandra pulled into a hotel on the outskirts of Wichita and got us a room for the night. All they had left was a double, which was fine. I ordered room service, because food would also help with the healing process—and I was coming down off vampire blood again, so the two rare steaks were exactly what I craved.
While I ate, Mom got red-eye flights back to Los Angeles for Chandra, and Philadelphia for the rest of us, and then arranged for rental cars to get us all home. I tried to sleep for the three hours we had before leaving for the airport, but I was too restless from the fight. Or, more likely, from the aftermath. Keyed up when I should have been exhausted. And I was ashamed of myself for losing the fight against Damian, especially with a teammate as powerful as Tennyson and his blood injection.
No one talked about it, though. Not the fight, not being fired, not what’s next? We all wallowed in our losses.
When we landed in Philly, I had an unexpected voice mail from McGovern stating we’d be allowed to return to our headquarters in Maryland to collect any personal items we might have left behind. My clothes and toiletries weren’t a big loss, but I was grateful for the chance to say good-bye to my second home of the last six years.
Not that I’d ever tell McGovern that, the smug bastard.
I offered to drop Mom off on the way south, but she declined and I was glad. Maybe I was twenty-eight years old but right now, I needed my mom.
And I’d been sad to say good-bye to Chandra, but I had a feeling we’d see each other again soon. She was just as fired as the rest of us, after all, and I considered her a friend. And Novak maybe considered her something more, seeing how long they lingered on their good-bye.
The house was dark and quiet, the usual security shields offline, which was strange—except I realized why the instant I walked into the house.
We’d been ransacked.
The dining table that held K.I.M.’s equipment was empty. Our weapons were gone, our cache of extra phones gone. Even the silver-laced cage we kept in the basement for emergency imprisonments had been dismantled and removed. Anything that remotely belonged to the Marshals’ Office had been removed, leaving the house feeling barren and cold.
We hadn’t just been fired. We’d been ejected without a parachute.
“Surprised the fuckers didn’t change the locks and burn all our clothes,” Novak grumped.
“They couldn’t,” I said. “According to their official report, Jaxon wasn’t there, and this is his official residence. He wasn’t fired, and it would look suspicious if he was kicked out of his home, if he’s still technically on suspension.”
“A cover-up.”
“Yup.”
Uncertain and lost, I wandered upstairs. While Jaxon was the only person who had lived here full-time, we each had preferred bedrooms for the occasional overnight, and I passed mine. Novak didn’t technically live here, since he preferred finding a warm bed to share with a willing sex partner whenever we weren’t working, but he had a room with extra clothes and things in it, too.
The next room must have been Jaxon’s, because even though I didn’t know it in my head, my heart said it was as I pushed the door open. Paintings of the forest and streams and wildlife covered the walls, and the room smelled pleasantly of him. I sat on the bed and thought of all the good sex we’d probably had here, while I only had the memory of our motel sex.
I’d traded my memories of him for a way to stop a necromancer whose magic Damian had put into motion, and I was filled with hatred for the warlock. I hated Damian more than I’d ever hated another person in my life. He was evil.
He had to be stopped.
“We’ll find him,” Novak said from the open doorway. He and Mom stood there together, both of them vivid studies in concern.
“I loved Jaxon once,” I said for no reason in particular. “I still love him, and he did what he did because he loves me. I won’t give up on him. Not ever.” No matter what condition he was in when we found him, I’d stay by Jaxon’s side.
“We know he loved you, sweetheart.” Mom sat beside me and gathered my hands in her lap. Squeezed them tight. “We all loved him in our own way, and Novak is right. My father took your friend, and I will help you find them.”
“Mom, you’re not responsible for this. You had no idea he was still alive.”
“No, but perhaps if I’d used my own magic more, instead of hiding it away, I’d have sensed him sooner. Stopped him before things got this far, or before he knew who you were.”
“We can’t change it. I don’t blame you for any of this, I swear.”
Mom blinked hard several times, leaving tears glistening on her eyelashes. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear you say that.”
“How can I blame you for protecting me my whole life?”
“I blame myself. The moment he walked into the room where I was being held, I knew who he was, simply by the energy he exuded. I was so young when he supposedly died that I didn’t really remember his face, but I knew him instantly. And before he’d spoken a word, I knew he wanted you.”
“He didn’t get me, though, thanks to Jaxon.” I looked at Novak, who’d come deeper into the room, and he seemed . . . smaller. As if the weight of his own emotions had shrunk him down. “And you. You guys all fought for me, and for the werewolves.”
Novak nodded. “If we did anything right, we came through for the werewolves. We set out to find them and set them free, and we did that. We got that win, Shi. Just took a few blows along the way.”
He was right. We had completed the mission we’d set out to do a few days ago, when we agreed to help Chandra locate twenty-eight missing werewolves and return them safely to their Packs. We’d done that. We’d also exposed horrific scientific experimentation and gotten ourselves fired for the effort, but I wouldn’t take it back—because now I knew the enemy I was up against.
And not only was my enemy my evil warlock of a grandfather, but also the very establishment I’d once worked for: the US Marshals’ Office. An organization that had been the public face of policing Paras for the last forty years, and had only invested in the Para-Marshals for the last six.
Julius had gone to the Marshals with the idea of a small division of people with supernatural or magical abilities, and he’d been made a unit leader. So had Weller, and both of them turned out to be traitors in their own way. I’d believed in the Para-Marshals once, but now all I could see was a smoke screen and a web of lies. And I wasn’t self-absorbed enough to think the Para-Marshals had come about simply so Damian could keep an eye on my movements, but maybe . . .
The entire thing had just blown up in their faces.
Ours too.
“We can’t do anything to fix it right now,” I said. “We all need to sleep and recharge, so we can think logically and not react emotionally.”
Novak’s eyebrows rose. “Who are you, and where’s my friend Shiloh?”
I blew a raspberry at him.
“Mature, as always,” Kathleen said from the doorway. Appearing as if out of thin air, like usual.
Novak snarled at her. “Where’ve you been?”
“Tying up loose ends. Do you now believe what I’ve said about how the government is not to be trusted?”
“Yes, we do,” I replied. “Seeing as we all got fired tonight and no one in charge gives a shit Jaxon was kidnapped.”
“I give a shit. Jaxon was my teammate here, and I consider him an ally. As such, my employer has a gift of good faith, as well as an offer for each of you.”
I stood, curious and wary all at once. “What kind of offer?”
“Come see your gift first. It’s downstairs.” Kathleen turned and left.
I looked at Novak, who shrugged, then followed Kathleen down the hall. Downstairs to the dining room, where I stopped dead in my tracks.
All the parts to set up K.I.M. were back, piled on the dining table where they belonged, including the various monitors and our Raspberries—the smartphones connected to her system. I gawked at it, shocked and confused.
“How did you get K.I.M. back?” Novak asked.
Kathleen smiled. “My employer has some pull in a few places. However, this gift is contingent on your acceptance of my offer.”
“Which is what?” I asked.
“Come work for us. Help us find Damian again and stop him once and for all.”
I met Novak’s gaze and saw the same wariness in his eyes that I felt in my bones. Kathleen had betrayed us last week, but she had come through for us this week, and now that I knew she wasn’t one of us . . . trusting her again was somehow easier. She’d proved she had resources at her disposal. Resources we’d need if we had any hope of rescuing Jaxon and dismantling everything Damian had built in his efforts to destroy other Paras.
Novak nodded a fraction of a degree.
I faced Kathleen again, hands on my hips, shoulders squared. “Are you asking Chandra, too?”
“Yes, as well as her companion, Hanson,” she replied. “His unique abilities may prove useful to us. And on the flight to California, Gideon expressed interest in taking revenge on the man who poisoned him, so he may also be persuaded to join our cause.”
“The more the merrier, I guess.” Unless he enjoyed his new promotion too much. I turned to where Mom hovered near the window. “Mom? Are you in?”
She blinked at me in surprise. “Me? I’m no secret agent or spy.”
“This is your fight too, if you want in. Damian is your father. You don’t have to do this, obviously, but you’re powerful, and you’re sensitive to his magic. You’d be an asset, and we’ll do everything we can to protect you.”
Mom studied me a beat, before walking ov
er and taking my hand. “I suppose this gives me the best chance to keep an eye on you. That man wanted to enslave my child, so he needs to answer for that.”
Excellent.
“Sounds like we’re all in, then,” I said to Kathleen.
“What about your werewolf friend?” Novak asked. “The guy who brought the witch to California?”
“Will?” As a forced wolf with no Pack, Will didn’t seem eager to leave the magical protections of his Colorado ranch, but he had allies and ears on the ground. Irena had connections to a line of very powerful witches. And maybe one or two of his strays would be interested in signing up. “I’ll call him.”
“Excellent,” Kathleen said.
I studied the faces of the people in this room, a new sense of hope for the future stretching out in front of me. I knew who my enemies were now, and I was confident in our collective abilities to fight any battle coming our way. Because mankind had instigated a war against Paras when they began experimenting on them—not only in that clinic, but in what the necromancer had tried to do with Tennyson.
Tennyson. I smiled, hoping he’d agree to join us, as well. He and I made a great team, and I already missed the irritating vampire Master.
“Shiloh?” Mom asked. “You with us?”
“Yup,” I replied, grinning with all the newfound confidence bubbling up inside me. A kind of self-confidence I hadn’t felt since Julius died and left me in charge of our squad. I could do this. With my friends.
To our newly formed team of private investigators, I said, “Let’s get K.I.M. set up and start planning. We’ve got a warlock to find and a skin-walker to save.”
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to everyone who’s made it this far into Shiloh’s journey. I hope you’ve enjoyed the adventure so far; I know I have. Thank you to my wonderful editor, David; the team at Harper Voyager Impulse; and my long-time agent, Jonathan. I couldn’t have done this without you.
