Derek let out a deep breath. “The other two from our pack—Gregory and Jackson—were good friends. Marshall is a good pack leader. As families go, ours is closer than most—and he doesn’t tolerate drama.”
I chuckled at that, trying to picture a shifter version of the Brady Bunch. “How about the other packs?”
“Nico lost Rick—his cousin, but they were close. Patty’s daughter was one of the ones taken. Sarah’s best friend—or lover, depending on who’s talking,” Derek replied. “I’m not sure about the rest, but their packs are pretty tight, so I’d bet that at the least, they lost friends.”
“Then why not work together, if they all lost people who were that close to them?”
Derrek looked away. “That would mean exposing weakness—which could be used against them later.”
I could think of a million arguments, but none of them mattered. “Well, the secret is out now, I guess. They’ll have to deal with it.” Derek gave me a look suggesting how unlikely that was. “Now what?”
“Now I go looking for the lobo who tried to drug you.” Derek raised his head and met my gaze as if he expected an argument. “Marshall and the others don’t want to be bothered. They won’t believe anything a lobo would do could be important. But whoever drugged your food knows something, or he wouldn’t have come after you—and I want to find out what he knows.”
“We’ll come with you.”
Derek shook his head. “You can’t. It’s dangerous—”
I met his gaze and set my jaw. “Marshall assigned you to us. So, we’re coming.”
“Lobos trust non-shifters even less than the regular packs,” Derek argued.
“Then we’ll hang back. Be your bodyguards for a change. Teag and I aren’t your average humans. We have… skills.” I didn’t want to elaborate too much on our magic since I wasn’t sure that the shifters were long-time allies. On the other hand, we all had a stake in the game, and I had a strong feeling that Derek was going to need backup.
Derek bit his lip as he argued with himself. He knew that we could shut him down completely with a call to Marshall. I didn’t want to go that route because I thought tracking down the lobos was a good idea. Now it was a battle of wills between me and Derek.
“All right,” he growled, with a look that let me know he was distinctly unhappy. I resisted the urge to smile. Before either of us could say anything, the door opened.
“What’s up?” Teag walked out, glancing from me to Derek and back again.
“Just checking in to get Derek’s impressions of our guests tonight,” I said, with a look, I knew Teag would interpret as “not now.” Sorren was in the cabin, and while he might not have overheard my conversation with Derek with the door closed, he’d surely hear anything we said now. I wasn’t sure that Sorren would like the idea of going after the lobos, so I decided to beg forgiveness instead of asking permission.
“You’ll have to fill me in,” Teag replied, and I knew he got my unspoken message.
Sorren stepped out onto the porch a minute later, turning off the lights and locking the door. “Not too bad, considering,” he said in a tone that suggested the opposite. “No one’s bleeding, no hearts got ripped out—pretty much of a win.”
“Sometimes, you’ve got to take what you can get,” I said, mustering up a tired smile.
“Hey, do you know where Derek went?” I glanced out of the big windows in the front of the store, used to seeing Derek either in his truck or lounging nearby. If he kept this up, someone might report him for loitering. But now he was nowhere in sight, and that worried me.
“Maybe he needed to use the bathroom,” Teag suggested. “Or he went for coffee—and lunch. He can take care of himself, Cassidy.”
I frowned. “I know that,” I snapped, then regretted sounding so sharp. On the other hand, something was getting the drop on shifters. Teag and I might be in danger, but so was Derek. A few moments later, I heard a knock at the back door.
Derek stood in the alley. He didn’t try to come inside. “I went down to the pizza place where you and Teag ordered the take-out that night,” he said. “Found out who the guy was I tackled. Seems he quit the next day, but I gave the manager a line about how I was a bill collector, and he gave me the guy’s address.” Derek added. “Seems pizza boy—Caleb—pissed off his boss by quitting like that, so his manager didn’t mind handing him over.”
“Nice,” I replied drily.
Sarcasm didn’t bother Derek. “Hey, I didn’t have to rough anyone up—I’d say that was successful.”
“Now what?”
Derek grinned, more like baring his teeth. “We go pay a visit, and see why Caleb came after you. One way or another, he’s in this up to his neck.”
I debated waiting until after the store closed, but if Caleb’s boss changed his mind and decided to give him a heads-up, we could miss our man. “All right. I need to make sure Maggie’s okay minding the store, and Teag and I will follow you.”
Maggie assured us she was fine and offered to stop by my house and make sure Baxter, my little Maltese dog, got fed on time if we were late. I thanked her profusely, and then Teag and I followed Derek in my RAV4. We wove through traffic until we were past the trendy part of town, into neighborhoods that had seen better days. Derek pulled up outside a by-the-week apartment complex. I glanced up and down the street. Even though it was daytime, I was glad Teag and I were armed.
“What now?” Teag asked.
I shrugged. “We go around back, and make sure Caleb doesn’t take a runner.” Without magic, Teag and I would be useless as backup, or worse—sitting ducks. Our human strength was no match for a shifter, and on our own, we weren’t fast enough, either. Magic evened the odds.
Teag and I both carried silver knives. The wicked sharp blades could decapitate if necessary, but even a small cut would burn a shifter badly. Teag had his silver-infused rope net and his fighting stave. I had both my athame and an antique walking stick that once belonged to Sorren’s mentor, and Bo’s collar jangled on my left wrist.
We saw no one as we got out of the car and made our way carefully around to the back of the apartments. I guessed the building started out as a hotel and fell on hard times. The last hurricane had damaged the roof, ripping up shingles that had yet to be replaced. Dingy white paint needed a touch-up, and the anemic, spindly plants in front of the sign looked ready to expire. I’d never seen a better visual metaphor for desperation.
A moment later, a man came clattering around the corner. It was Caleb, though he wasn’t wearing his uniform now. I leveled my athame and caught him with a white blast of pure energy, knocking him off his feet and slamming him hard into the wall. In the next instant, Bo’s ghost leaped past me, pinning the shifter to the ground. Bo kept him down while Teag bound his wrists.
“Let’s get him back inside.” Derek grabbed the man by the arm, holding on although our prisoner put up a struggle. We followed Derek into a sad efficiency apartment with all the charm of a cheap roadside motel. It stank of grease and cigarette smoke. Derek threw the man into a chair, and Teag draped the silver-rope net across his legs, effectively preventing him from changing form.
“Let’s try this again,” Derek began.
I took another look at Derek. I’d seen him contrite and submissive in front of Marshall. Now, I could see him as the predator he truly was. Tension coiled his muscles. Derek circled the prisoner, all lethal energy, and barely controlled anger. He might be our ally at the moment, but Derek could be dangerous if he chose. I wouldn’t forget that lesson.
“Go to hell.”
“I want to know why you drugged the food.” Derek clenched his fist and released it as if fighting with himself about whether to take a swing or to keep using his words. For now, words won out.
“Because I got paid.” Caleb eyed Derek. “Tips sucked last week. I needed to make some extra cash.”
“Who paid you?”
Caleb looked at Derek as if he were stupid. “A guy.”
/> Derek took a swing. His fist connected with a crack, knocking Caleb’s head back. A non-shifter would have gotten a concussion or worse. Caleb just glowered and worked his jaw.
“Another lobo?”
“Maybe.”
Derek’s fist shot out again, and this time, I heard bone snap. Blood started from Caleb’s nose. “I’m not fooling around.”
Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Neither am I. What do you think happens to me if I tell you what I know?”
Derek shrugged and pulled a knife from his belt. “I know what’s going to happen if you don’t tell me.”
I kept my athame trained on Caleb and looked around the room. Beer bottles littered the counter in the efficiency kitchen, and pizza boxes filled the garbage can. Either Caleb hadn’t lived here long or he traveled light. Then I spotted the shirt from Caleb’s uniform and caught Teag’s eye. He nodded, realizing immediately what I meant to do.
Caleb’s attention focused on Derek. I eased around to the side without either of them noticing. Teag shot me a worried glance, and I shook my head. Questionable pieces like the ones from Malcolm’s sale might knock me flat on my ass, but I didn’t think Caleb’s uniform shirt was haunted. I bet that if he’d been wearing it when the person hired him to roofie us, I might catch the resonance of that image and perhaps find a clue to whoever was behind the attack.
Before I could overthink the situation, I put my hand on the uniform. In the next breath, I saw the kitchen at Ciao!, the pizza and pasta restaurant where Caleb used to work. I saw another worker, a man with short, dark-blond hair, replace the phone and I guessed he took our order. He handed in the ticket and walked over to the back door, where Caleb leaned against the door frame, taking a smoke between deliveries. I couldn’t hear what the man said, but money changed hands, and Caleb nodded. The vision wavered, and I saw Caleb with our food in white Styrofoam containers. The blond man slipped him a vial of liquid and then went back to the phone. Caleb opened the containers and sprinkled half of the mixture on each meal and closed up the boxes.
I came back to myself with a gasp. Caleb and Derek stared at me. “What did you do?” Caleb growled. Derek didn’t say anything, just looked from me to the shirt and back again. I could almost hear the wheels turning in his mind.
“You need to do laundry,” I snarked. “Your clothes stink.”
When Caleb’s attention returned to Derek, I gave Teag a brief nod. He answered with a relieved smile. We were both glad I didn’t need to be peeled off the floor after a bad vision.
“What’s a lobo care about these two?” Derek asked. “What did your buddy want from knocking them out?”
Caleb shrugged. “Didn’t ask; don’t care. He paid cash.” He paused. “Whatever he wanted, he was just waiting for a chance. Seemed to recognize the names right away.”
I grimaced. So much for being predictable. Ciao! was one of our favorite options because they were good, cheap, and quick—and they delivered. I decided I was swearing off take-out and delivery for a while.
Derek threw a few more punches, but I had the feeling he did it more to work off frustration than because he believed Caleb had more to say. Finally, he nodded to Teag, who removed the rope net. Bo’s ghost remained in front of Caleb, and a low growl warned the man not to rise from his chair.
“Get out of Charleston.” Derek glared at Caleb. “The packs know what you did. The lobo who paid you won’t have your back—if he’s even still in town. I hope you got enough for bus fare to somewhere far away. Stay out of my sight. If I see you again, you’ll wish I hadn’t.” Derek turned to us. “Let’s go.”
“You’re going to leave him tied up?” Teag asked.
“He’ll get out of the ropes—eventually,” Derek replied. “Even if he has to chew his way out,” he added. “We’ll be long gone.”
Getting out suited me fine, and I only relaxed once Teag and I were back in my car. Bo’s ghost gave a wag and vanished, and I slid my athame back up my sleeve as Teag tossed his staff and the rope net in the back seat.
“You got something from his shirt.” Teag didn’t have to make it a question.
I nodded. “Yeah. Got a look at our man with the roofies. If he’s still at Ciao!, I can ID him.” I got lucky with the vision. I don’t completely control what the psychometry shows me, or where I drop in on the impressions resonating from an object. Usually, I pick up something relevant because situations linked to strong emotions make the biggest impression on the energy of the object. Sometimes, it’s like coming into the middle of a TV show and not knowing when you’ll get to the part you want to see. I might have needed to relive Caleb’s last whole day at work to get to the part I wanted, but I gambled that his nervousness about drugging the food would increase the emotion associated with the memory. I love it when things work out.
“Then let’s head to the restaurant and see if we can track this guy down before he skips,” Teag said. He paused. “Do you think Caleb told the truth about not knowing any more than the target?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I saw it when I touched his shirt. He didn’t care about anything except the payoff.” Sad to think we’d been sold out for twenty bucks.
Derek followed us back into town and parked behind my car. “What’s up?” he asked, looking around warily as we got out of the car.
“Cassidy thinks she knows who paid Caleb to drug us,” Teag said quietly, keeping an eye on the restaurant. We had parked down the block, so no one inside would spot us easily.
Derek gave an appraising look. “You read things by feel?”
I hesitated. “Yeah. I saw Caleb’s memories from his shirt.”
“That’s how you knew about Malcolm—you got something from the pieces in the box.”
I nodded. “The items filled in some of the blanks. You supplied the rest.”
For the first time, Derek looked impressed. He eyed Teag as if wondering what magic, if any, he might possess, then seemed to think better about asking.
I described the man from my vision to Derek. Once again, Teag and I circled around back, letting Derek go in the front, gambling that the suspect wouldn’t want to make a scene by making a break through the restaurant’s seating area. Teag and I braced for another fight, athame and staff at the ready, but after a few minutes, I saw Derek coming down the alley toward us.
“It’s a bust,” he said, disgust thick in his voice. “The manager wasn’t happy to see me again. First Caleb quit, and now the blond guy—Jim Kramer is his name or at least the name he used.”
“You get an address?”
Derek nodded. “Yeah, but I had to promise to never come back.” He snorted. “Didn’t like their food anyhow.”
“So could you tell if any of the other workers were shifters?” I asked.
Derek hesitated, and I realized that I had asked him to out others of his kind, people who might have nothing to do with Caleb or Jim. “No,” he said finally. “There’s no one else there we need to worry about.”
We weren’t hunting shifters, just looking for individuals tied to the disappearances, so I let Derek’s half-truth slide. “All right then, let’s find Jim—or at least his apartment—and see what we can figure out from there.”
Jim’s address led us to a mobile home in a run-down trailer park on the outskirts of town. The place looked as if it had been deserted for weeks. Weeds grew up around the base of the trailer, and the blinds hung askew behind dirty, cracked windows. Whoever Jim was, domesticity wasn’t his strong suit. Cigarette butts littered the gravel around the hard-worn wooden steps. Since no car sat in the driveway, I bet that Jim had already skipped out.
Derek headed for the front, while once again, Teag and I circled around back. I heard the door slam open as Derek chose not to knock. We waited, ready to capture a fugitive, but the back door did not move.
“He’s gone.” Derek’s voice carried through the thin trailer walls. A moment late, the back door opened to admit us.
Derek stood in the dimly lit trailer, which was
even gloomier on the inside. A sagging, stained couch looked like it had been picked up off the curb from someone else’s trash night, as did an equally sad recliner with a broken footrest and two scarred end tables. I glanced around and saw no personal items. It looked as if Jim had already cleared out.
I heard Derek curse under his breath, and had to agree with his sentiments. “Now what?” Derek asked, an undercurrent of anger and frustration clear in his voice.
“Now we play CSI-Shifter,” I said. “Look around for something that Jim might have touched very recently, the more personal, the better. Clothing would be best, or something he carried with him.
I guessed Jim left in a hurry, because he didn’t do a good job of packing. That might work to our advantage. A few minutes rummaging around turned up some possibilities. Teag found a pocket comb on top of the battered dresser. Derek spotted a t-shirt behind the bathroom door. I found a disposable lighter in a bowl in the kitchen I bet Jim used to hold his keys and wallet.
“Are you going to try and ‘read’ them?” Derek asked, giving me a suspicious look. “Are you some kind of witch or something?”
“Or something,” I murmured. “Why don’t you keep poking around, see if you can find anything—hand-written notes, receipts, even match books from bars—that might clue us in to Jim’s whereabouts. Teag and I will work with these.”
I could tell from the expression on his face that Derek knew we were trying—nicely—to get rid of him for a while, but he did what I asked and headed into the other room. I sat down at the kitchen table and tried not to notice how sticky it was as Teag gathered the objects and put them in front of me.
“You really want to do this?”
I shrugged. “No, but do I have a choice? Jim either had a reason of his own for hiring Caleb to drug us, or he’s working for someone else. Either way, it’s got to be related to the disappearances, and face it—we’ve got diddly-squat.”
Teag pushed the comb in front of me. “Hold on,” he said before he dodged out to the car and returned with a bottled sports drink. “Just in case,” he said with a nervous smile. We didn’t have Teag’s woven cloth strip to let him share the vision, but since we weren’t in a secure location, I was okay with him standing guard while I got trippy.
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