by Jayne Hawke
He smiled and leaned in a little closer.
“You’re very welcome.”
I had to shift into my wolf form to run over to Cole’s house. I wasn’t quite sure where it was without my wolf sense of the world. The moment I was on four legs, I ran with everything I had to get away from Valentin. The part of me that wanted to curl up in his arms and let me feel safe was fading fast. A slithering darkness and deep sense of wrongness filled that space. There was no doubt in my mind that Valentin was the rogue. Now, I just needed to take him down.
Cole was standing in his driveway talking to two fae mercs when I arrived. My ears flattened reflexively as I watched the fae leave with smiles on their faces. Once they’d driven off, I shifted back into my human form. My throat was parched, and my stomach growled. I ignored all of that and walked up to Cole’s front door. He threw the door open and pulled me inside.
“I told you not to run alone or during the daylight. Did anyone see you?”
“I came straight from Valentin’s,” I said flatly.
His eyes narrowed.
“Did he try and hurt you?”
“No. I didn’t manage to get any evidence, either. There’s a darkness and wrongness to him; I’m not sure if his control is slipping.”
Cole nodded but maintained his deep scowl.
“Why were you dealing with fae mercs?”
He glared at me.
“I’m a councilman. We deal with all sorts of beings.”
I stared him down in a hope to push him into explaining himself better. It failed. He simply walked off into the kitchen, leaving me standing in the hallway.
I followed him.
“You need to stay away from Valentin,” Cole said with his back to me as he started making a sandwich.
My stomach growled loudly, and I flushed with embarrassment.
“I need to prove he’s the rogue and hand him over to the council,” I said, crossing my arms.
Cole turned to face me and approached with a sandwich. Thick white bread surrounded heavy chunks of roast beef. My mouth watered just looking at it.
“You need to be careful. The Blackthornes are itching to torture a garou.”
I flinched.
“Torture?”
Cole sat down at the table.
“Yes. So they can get full details on all the garou and shifters in the area.”
“And take them out?”
“As many as they can get away with.”
I sat at the table and ate the sandwich as slowly as I could make myself.
“Why me?” I finally asked.
Cole raised his eyebrow.
“Why did Valentin turn me?”
Cole sighed and looked away. He rolled his jaw before he looked back at me.
“Guardians are rare. They’re also the only thing that can bring a rogue back to something resembling a real garou.”
“What are guardians? How do they do that?”
Cole’s scowl deepened once more.
“Guardians are as they sound. And no one’s quite sure. The theory is that because they’re tied to the very essence of whichever being they are, that pulls the rogue back from the edge.”
I crossed my arms.
“Are you saying I’m a guardian?”
He said nothing.
“You should be more careful about what you eat and how often. You need a high protein diet. Your body will become more efficient in its calorie usage so you’re not ravenous after you shift, but it will take a little time. Don’t let yourself starve.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He shrugged.
“Why did you come to me?”
He watched me closely as I tried to think of a suitable answer. Why had I gone to him?
“Because you’re the only one who knows he’s a rogue.”
His lips thinned with dissatisfaction.
“I’ll drive you home. Do not see Valentin again. Not until we have enough evidence to take him in.”
Like hell was I going to sit back and let him take all the credit. Valentin was my bounty, and I was going to be the one to take him down.
51
I felt something was different when I stepped over the threshold into the apartment. Pausing, I pricked my ears and listened. A familiar scent filled my nostrils, and my chest clenched. Jake. And blood.
He was sprawled out on the couch looking very sorry for himself. His pretty face was bloodied with a black eye and split lip. The blood on his clothes suggested that his body wasn’t faring much better.
“The wanderer returns,” I said sarcastically.
He jumped and looked up at me.
“Rosalyn!” He sat up. “I’m so sorry for abandoning you like that. Let me explain. Please.”
I sat on the far arm of the couch and waited.
“I just wanted to keep you safe.” He held up his hand. “I know you’re not weak. A while ago, now, a group of pixies approached me. They knew who my father was.” He dragged his fingers through his hair. “They said if I didn’t help them steal an artifact, they’d kill you and your dad. I didn’t have enough magic to take them on. They had me over a barrel, and they knew it. At first it was just little things, introduce them to a pretty half-fae, retrieve a package, nothing too bad. Then things escalated. I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t risk them killing you.”
He reached out to touch me. He looked at me with pleading eyes. I could feel the sorrow rolling off him, and it didn’t soften my resolve at all. He’d abandoned me, after he pushed me away. I understood that he was trying to keep me safe, but I couldn’t forgive him for shutting me out like that. After everything’s we’d been through.
“It’s over now. I know I should have told you, but I couldn’t live with myself if you died because of me.”
He tried to edge a little closer to me.
“You’re sure it’s over?”
He looked away.
“I don’t have complete control over my magic. I was trying to weaken their life essence enough that I could overpower them in a physical fight and scare them. My magic took control and killed them. I felt their life essence shatter between my fingertips.” His voice wavered.
I was weak. I couldn’t shut him out any longer. Despite everything over the last month, he was still my best friend, and I loved him to bits. I hated seeing him so fragile and desperate for forgiveness.
I scooted down the couch and held him gently.
“Don’t hide things from me again,” I growled.
That was his last chance and I needed him to understand that. I was stronger than that. I deserved more.
“I won’t. Promise.”
He leaned into me and rested his head on my shoulder. It felt good to have him back.
He reached up and stroked my cheek.
“Do you forgive me?”
“I can understand your reasoning,” I said coolly.
New boundaries were being laid down, for both of our sakes. Things had changed, for both of us. We were never going to be the happy best friends who shared everything with each other again. There was still a chance we could salvage what we had, though.
He gave me a sad smile that melted the ice around my heart. I’d never been able to stay mad at him for long.
“Go and get a shower. I’ll make you some food.”
“I missed you, Rosalyn. I’m not letting you go again.”
I shooed him away and headed into the kitchen. Things weren’t going to be the same with us again. They couldn’t be.
52
Jake had crashed out right after dinner and slept like the dead on the couch. He hadn’t been awake long enough to get to his bed. I pulled a blanket over him and let him sleep while I made breakfast. I had a Pop-Tart in my mouth when my phone rang.
“Hello?” I mumbled around the Pop-Tart.
“Ms. Mercier. We are concerned that you have not caught the rogue yet.”
I stilled, realising it was someone from the council. I’d
hoped that Cole would keep them up to date and off my back. I knew that the investigation was taking forever, but I didn’t have any access to information. Maybe if the garou would allow me into their archives and such I would have been able to get somewhere far sooner. My suspicions were that Valentin was the rogue, but suspicions weren’t going to satisfy the council. I needed cold hard proof.
“I’m making progress. I just need proof, which I’m sure I’ll get this afternoon.”
“Do that,” the female voice said before she hung up.
Amy was bringing the rogue test over in an hour. I was planning on sneaking into Valentin’s place and snooping around for some hairs or something to use in the test. It wasn’t the best plan in the world, but there was a chance that he wasn’t the rogue. There hadn’t been any new bodies since Jake had been away. I hated to think it, but he was a sidhe prince.
My wolf side refused to believe that it could possibly be Valentin. He had been so good to me from the start, and he fulfilled the need for a pack beautifully. It was so damn easy to be around him. I sighed with frustration, feeling as though the furry part of me was betraying me. Valentin had to be the rogue. Fighting against myself was slowing things down and complicating them. Why couldn’t things be straightforward?
I chewed on my bottom lip and distracted myself by looking through the Grim for any news on the hex breaker. My list of hexed people had come up with nothing. None of them had the ability to break into the coven, and they all had alibis. The Grim showed nothing, so I began looking around for details on the hex breaker itself.
Amy had pointed me towards a hidden website with lots of witchy information on it. There wasn’t much about the hex breaker, but a line about myths stating that it would break the curse on a rogue garou caught my eye. Could Valentin have taken the artifact? I still hadn’t figured out what the witch connection to the rogue was. There was clearly something there, but I’d come up empty when I looked through what sparse information I had. There were theories, but none of them fit together quite right. The rogue’s victims seemed to be random, which made me lean towards a witch using the rogue to show that garou couldn’t control their own.
I looked through Callie’s notebook for a witch in the Hecate coven that might talk to me. There had to be someone who could help me track down more information on Valentin. The notebook came up empty, and I couldn’t think of anyone else. I was going to have to see if I could find it in his house when I went looking for hairs and such for the rogue test.
Amy was very happy to see Jake half-naked on the couch when she came in. Jake took his time stretching out all of his muscles, which distracted the witch frequently. I rolled my eyes and tried to keep her on track.
“You have the rogue test?”
“Oh! Yes.” She handed me a small vial of violet-coloured liquid. “Put a minimum of three hairs or drops of blood into that. It’ll turn neon yellow if he’s a rogue.”
Finally, something was nice and easy.
“Would you like a little help healing those injuries, Jake?” Amy asked sweetly.
“I, er...” Jake said looking between me and Amy.
I glared at him. Amy was my first friend outside of him for a while. He was not going to screw that up.
“No. I’m good, thank you.”
Amy deflated and turned her attention back to me.
“People have given up with the Loki coven and are now scrambling to figure out who it could have been. I think a number of people are trying to track down a puka they suspect might have posed as a simple black cat.”
Puka were shapeshifting fae. They could turn into a black cat, a black rabbit, a black dog, and some said a black deer, but that one hadn’t been confirmed. I could see a puka finding amusement in shifting into a classic witch’s black cat and stealing one of their prized possessions.
I debated whether to tell Amy my theory. She could laugh at me, but that was hardly the end of the world. She might be able to provide insight.
“I think it’s the rogue.”
Amy pursed her lips and lost herself in thought for a minute.
“Valentin Devaux, right?”
“Yea.”
She nodded and began grinning.
“Yes! He’s a notorious playboy, he’s supposed to have slept with the coven leader of nearly every coven in the state.”
My wolf side snarled at the idea of him with another woman.
Amy continued.
“He could definitely have had access. Robin, the coven leader, would likely have fallen for his charm. He’s supposed to be as charming as a fae.”
I could certainly believe it. He hadn’t needed to work very hard to wrap me around his little finger, although a lot of that was the stupid bond between us.
“He’s dangerous, Rosalyn. He has ties to dark fae,” Jake said.
I hated that Jake hadn’t felt the need to tell me that until right that second. How much else had he been hiding?
“I really wish people would stop telling me ‘so and so is dangerous.’ I’m becoming a bounty hunter. I’m not going to sit around and wait for a nice safe person to bring in.”
I decided it was best not to call him on it, especially in front of Amy.
Jake smiled at me before he winced from the pain of doing so.
“You’re going to make both our moms proud.”
He was right, I was. I’d make sure of it.
53
Sneaking into Valentin’s house was one of those plans that sounded great on paper, and not so great when it came to actually doing it. I’d done two circles around his house and not found a single conveniently placed spare key or open window. I was ready to give in and ask Amy if she had some lock-picking spell or something when I spotted a way in. It looked as though the latch on the top floor window was a bit shaky. If I could just climb the tree and jump across, I was pretty sure I could wiggle it loose.
My wolf side was displeased at climbing the tree. I got the distinct feeling that I was supposed to keep both feet firmly on the ground. Maybe Cole had been right. I should have been a feline shifter. I’d been climbing trees since I was a little girl and made quick work of climbing up between the strong boughs.
The jump over to the building was a bit further than I’d anticipated, but I was up the tree by then. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself before I did it. My fingertips scrabbled on the ledge, but I pulled myself up and crouched on the small section of roof next to the window. The cool air played with my hair while I listened, thinking I’d heard tyres. Once I was sure there was nothing, I set about wiggling the latch loose.
It was far noisier than I’d hoped, but after ten minutes of wriggling I was in. I slipped into the window and left it open so I could make a quick escape if I needed to. The house had a feeling of death hanging over it that I hadn’t noticed before. A cold chill ran through me as I crept out of the spare bedroom I’d climbed into and began looking for the master bedroom or office.
Valentin’s tastes were simple and modern with clean blocks of colour on feature walls in otherwise plain and bright rooms. His silk bedding was rumpled from a night of tossing and turning. I rummaged around in his sock drawer and came up with nothing. There weren’t many drawers or spaces to hide something in his bedroom. The walk-in wardrobe was clean and organised by colour and season. Unfortunately, there weren’t any little hidey holes or witch artifacts.
The office wasn’t much better. It was just as clean and simple as the other rooms with a small desk and a few ownership papers for properties in Virginia. This definitely wasn’t going as smoothly as it did in the movies. Heading to the bathroom next for those hairs, I paused and listened again. A faint creak from somewhere within the house made me freeze and listen intently. Nothing more came of it, but I did pick up the pace.
A comb sitting on the glass shelf over the sink provided the hairs that I needed. Amy hadn’t said how long the spell would take to activate. I pushed the hairs into the vial and put the stopper back on wh
ile looking around the bathroom. Everything felt sparse, somehow. There were the bare essentials and nothing much else.
I glanced down at the vial as I left the bathroom, and my heart sank when I saw it was neon yellow. My wolf side had been quietly hoping that we were wrong and the bond with Valentin was something more real. Grinning, I tucked the vial in the pocket of my jacket and jogged down the stairs. I had my evidence now. There on the kitchen table was a small ornate wooden box that looked exactly like the images Amy had shown me. Old blood filled some of the grooves. I snatched it up and ran back up the stairs before I scrambled out onto the roof and closed the window.
This was it. I was finally making some real progress. I had the evidence to prove that Valentin was the rogue, and I had the hexbreaker in my possession.
There were definitely car tyres this time. I leapt into the tree, almost losing my balance when I landed. I swayed back and forth, fighting to remain on the tree limb before I ran along the branch. The car was getting close now. Going against my wolf instincts, I remained up in the trees and moved through the thick foliage, hiding from the driveway.
Valentin’s car passed me by, and I bit my bottom lip. Would he catch my scent and know it was me?
54
I took a photo of the vial and sent it along with ‘have proof it’s Valentin’ to Amy, Cole, and Jake. I’d parked my car by the side of the road a mile away from Valentin’s place. By some miracle, the old Mustang started first time, and I tore off down the road heading to Cole’s. It seemed natural to go there. I put it down to the shadow bond. I was debating whether to hand the evidence to Cole as he was a councilman, or whether I’d be better meeting with all of the councilmen and handing it over myself. Cole might take credit, and that would go against the need to build up a good reputation for myself.
Valentin came out of nowhere. He cut me off at an intersection, forcing me to slam my brakes on and skid to a halt. My heart hammered in my chest. I grabbed my big knife, got out of the car, and prepared for a fight.
