I stayed behind him and even in his wolf form, he had an assurance and majesty to him that radiated outward. No one in his presence would confuse him for anything less than what he was; Pack Alpha and Gaoh. After leading me to my car, he sat his rump down in the tall, wet grass and waited as I opened the car door.
“You know, when I see you again, we are going to talk about that Eithina thing. This is the second time it’s come up. I don’t remember what it means but I am sure I’m not gonna like it,” I snipped. Danny had told me but I couldn’t remember. Dean snorted at me, which I could only take to mean I shouldn’t count on it.
I got into my car and slammed the door. Raising his muzzle, Dean sniffed the air in all directions, and like a bolt of lightning, he was gone. I turned the key in the ignition, and turned on the air full blast. Damn, it was hot. The tension in my shoulders relaxed as the cold air smacked me in the face. I put the car in reverse and backed out of the drive. So much to do, so little darkness to do it in.
Chapter 7
My house was ablaze with light. In fact, every light in the house was on. One of the Pack newbies was on patrol duty while Nova worked the door at Damsel. Nova took the patrol and guard of my house very seriously. If this guy was on duty at my house, then Nova trusted him.
Nova, who lived his entire existence in the dark, always left every light in the house on. So I knew he’d been there at some point. Once, I’d asked him why and he’d said, “Evil things lurk in the dark.” He hadn’t been kidding and he wasn’t wrong either. The vampire was afraid of the dark. That was one of the reasons I adored him.
Jade’s car was parked out front, but Kurt was in the woods with the Pack. Somewhere in the house, Jade was alone which was perfect for me.
I went down to the basement where I would most likely find Jade, holed up in the computer room. Computer room was an understatement. After Midnight Ash, Patrick had taken the threat to me and his territory very, very seriously. He’d installed the most up-to-date computer system, for security and for Jade to work her magic. She was a world-class hacker and Patrick wanted to stay ahead of Lebensblut’s board and anything else that came along. He’d gone overboard but I didn’t dare tell him that.
Dean had come in with his contracting crew and remodeled the other side of my basement to set up the command center.
THE COMMAND CENTER!
A single wall was filled with screens and government grade processors. Jade told me when they installed it that I didn’t want to know how much it cost or what it could do. When she, a trust-fund baby, got squeamish about money, I knew enough to believe her. Dean’s crew had to relocate my laundry room to the second floor and add a small addition to house it, when there wasn’t room for it in my basement any longer. I couldn’t have Amblan going downstairs to do her laundry and stumbling upon NORAD, now could I? The door to the basement remained locked at all times.
Turning the corner into the command center, I stopped. Jade sat at the keyboard watching several screens at once, her head twisting back and forth as she glanced at the screens. Faces, mug shots, really, filled six of the monitors. One on each screen as task bars ran at the bottom. Images of documents and binary code flashed beside each picture.
Patrick’s grim face was on the seventh screen. He sat in his office at Damsel talking to Jade on the web cam. Neither of them noticed my entrance as I stepped silently into the room.
I scanned the faces of the three men and three women without interest until I came upon the last one, which seemed vaguely familiar. I tried to place the light brown hair, the sharp, angular features, and the deep, penetrating chestnut eyes that seemed to look through me from the computer screen. I’d seen that face before.
“I’m telling you, Patrick, they’re all coming up clean,” Jade snapped, frustration making her rich alto voice an octave deeper and her words sharp as razorblades. Her fingers pounded the keys with brusque strokes.
“We need to be sure,” he said.
“I get it,” Jade said in a huff.
I took a step forward into the room to get a better look as Patrick continued.
“I apologize for my rude behavior, Jade,” Patrick said. “You can’t imagine how difficult it is negotiating with the Fae without something up our sleeves. They twist and turn the truth as if it were made of rubber,” he said, running a hand through his coarse hair, finally showing some exasperation. “I don’t want to leave us open to anything that could harm us.”
I stepped into web cam range and Patrick’s gaze drifted up. He smiled knowingly at me, the way a man does when he knows what you feel like under his fingertips.
“Don’t worry,” Jade snapped, “if there’s something there, I’ll find it.”
“Good,” Patrick purred. The dark, hungry look in his dark eyes caressed me from head to toe. “Will you be coming over tonight,” Patrick asked, looking at me as if we weren’t separated by more than two miles.
“Am I what?” Jade asked as her head snapped up at him. She turned in her swivel chair when she realized he wasn’t looking at her anymore. She rolled her eyes as she caught sight of me. “Oh.”
“I don’t think so,” I whispered, my voice hesitant as I spoke. “I think I’ll get some sleep tonight.” I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down, knowing exactly what he was thinking as desire burned through me.
“I’ll check in on you long before dawn then,” he whispered. His need burned inside of me like a furnace and a shiver ran through me, resting low in the core of my body. He opened himself up completely, without shielding me and without fear of overwhelming me. His admiration, his love, his fear, and his dedication to make things right consumed me, overshadowing all my doubts.
I nodded.
Gagging noises to my left filled the meaningful silence. I turned. Jade had her finger down her throat, mocking us.
“Very mature,” I grumbled. She gave me a contented grin as she wagged her eyebrows at me, teasing. I glanced back up at the computer screen. Patrick was rolling his eyes as well. Maybe I was the only adult around here. I hoped not, or else we were in trouble.
“Jade,” Patrick said, annoyance edged his voice, “I anticipate your information.” He closed his laptop and was gone.
“What’s wrong with you?” I turned on Jade with frustration.
“He pushes my buttons, is all. He’s so demanding,” she snorted as she turned back to the screens.
“He’s demanding because he has to be. You have to admit this city’s better now,” I said, goading her. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, refusing to acknowledge what we both knew. “No more bodies turning up in dark alleys and no more people disappearing, never to be heard from again. The unexplained homicide rate has decreased exponentially, and you know it.”
“I suppose that the murder rate is the lowest it’s been in twenty five years,” she begrudged, not liking to give that one up.
I glanced back up at the screens with a small, satisfied smile on my face.
“So, these are the Fae?” I asked. Staring at the last one, I let my mind wander as his face sparked the synapses of my brain. I knew him, but I couldn’t place him. It was driving me nuts.
“Only the ones coming to negotiate. Patrick wanted them checked out first.” She typed something and sent the search engine into overdrive, task bars spinning and six hourglasses turning. “I suppose if Patrick ultimately agrees to them coming to Columbus, there’ll be more to verify, probably a lot more,” she grumbled with an overly dramatic, heavy sigh. She loved it, loved being needed. She loved being important and in our little community, she was damn near the—be all end all—of computer hackers. She loved testing the limits of Lebensblut’s systems, too, and had gotten in a couple of times before she hit another firewall. I was pretty sure she loved Kurt, too.
“They look like you or me,”
I said, trying not to sound “speciesist” or whatever you wanted to call it. Jade, however, didn’t miss a beat.
“It’s their human appearance so they can blend it. It’s all Glamour,” she said, like she’d been researching the Fae all her life. Then again, I did find her in a Wiccan shop, so maybe she had.
“And how do you know that?”
“I did a little research into their magic, and Kurt,” she said with a secretive little smile tugging the corners of her lips up. I was happy for her. I was happy for Kurt. I wanted everyone around me to be happy, even if I couldn’t be. “He filled me in on the rest.”
“Do you know what they look like without the Glamour?” I asked, still trying to put a name to the face that was taunting me from the computer screen.
“No.” Jade pounded on the keys with a quick steady tap, tap, tap of her fingers.
As I watched her digging deeper into their aliases than any one of the Fae could’ve ever imagined, I was suddenly glad she was my friend. She brought much needed levity to my life without the pressure of keeping secrets from her. I appreciated that more than she probably knew. I needed her support and her help.
“Jade?” I asked, stepping up beside her.
“Oh, I don’t like that tone at all,” she said. I grinned down at her with an apology in my expression. “Now I really don’t like it,” she muttered, turning in her chair to face me head on. “What’s up?”
“I need you to do me a favor.”
“What kind of favor?” she asked as she narrowed her deep green eyes on me, as if she didn’t trust me. She probably didn’t which just made Jade smart. Folding her arms over her stomach in quiet protest, she glared at me. She’d been around me long enough to learn that nothing came without a cost.
“I need you to check on Jackson for me,” I said with a more authoritative tone.
“Are we on this again?” she huffed, turning back in her chair and typing something into the system.
I wasn’t computer savvy enough to get the information I wanted about Jackson on my own. I couldn’t even log into this damned monstrosity of a computer system. I had a password but I couldn’t get to the point on the startup page and security measures to use it. I needed her.
“Dahlia, I know you don’t like the guy but this is bordering on obsession.”
“Jade,” I snapped. “He basically challenged Dean tonight. There’s something going on and I don’t like it.”
She nodded slowly as her electrifying green eyes scanned my face, searching for God knows what. She turned back to the computers and asked, “What do you want to know?”
“The stuff that isn’t in public records,” I said. “His financial records, his personal life, and anything else you can find.” I leaned over the console, breathing deeply. “Also,” I added, standing up and away from her, my back straight and my tone sharp. “I need you to keep this to yourself.”
She glared up at me with hurt shining in her eyes like I’d struck her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked in a familiar defiant and indignant tone. She couldn’t push me around with that tone and that attitude like she did everyone else and I fought the smile twitching my lips.
“No telling Kurt,” I replied simply.
“Why would I tell Kurt?” she asked. “We’re just friends.” She wouldn’t make eye contact with me but I didn’t need her confession. I would have liked her confidence, though. I leaned in close, putting my face next to her hair and took a long deep breath.
“You reek of him,” I whispered. “Any one of them will be able to smell him on you or you on him,” I said with satisfaction. She turned to face me, swiveling in her chair with a horrified expression lighting her wide eyes. “It’s not a secret,” I said, standing back up to my full height and folding my arms under my breasts.
She stared at me for a long moment with her mouth gaping open before she took in a shaky breath to speak.
“You know that’s incredibly creepy, right?” she asked with a long blink and wide eyes. She flung her thick chestnut hair from her face as she shook her head.
“Yeah, but I made my point,” I answered, pursing my lips. “I don’t want Jackson covering his tracks. If the pack knows, he’ll find out.”
“All right,” Jade said, focusing back on her work. “I don’t like it, though,” she bit out as she hit the keys on the console with more force than before. “I just want that on record.”
“Duly noted, and thank you,” I whispered and turned to leave.
“You really think he’s up to something?”
If Jackson challenged Dean and won, it would be disastrous for the Pack and for everyone else associated with the Pack. Including Jade.
We can’t let that happen, she whispered like a fog through my mind. What would that mean for Kurt?
I had a feeling Kurt wouldn’t live long enough to find out. Jackson wasn’t a big fan of Kurt’s, and Jade knew it.
“Yeah, I do,” I replied. “Let me know if you find anything.” I turned the corner and climbed the stairs.
“Will do,” she yelled after me.
Chapter 8
“Hey, Kid, I thought you were a night owl.” Derek’s voice boomed over the other end of the line in a chuckle. I glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. Blaring in angry red digital letters, 3:30 a.m. stared back at me. Either he hadn’t been to sleep yet or he was full of caffeine. I was betting on the latter because he was UP.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I growled, rubbing my eyes and shoving my hair out of my face. “What’s up?”
“I’ve got another body for you,” Derek stated, suddenly sounding very tired.
I was starting to wonder if being a homicide detective was a good idea after all.
I jotted down the address and listened to the edge in his tone as he rattled the numbers off. It had been three days since the last body had turned up. Three days with no sign, no scent, and no rumblings of strays anywhere.
“Derek, that’s a residential neighborhood,” I said.
“Yeah, I know,” he snapped.
“Is Taggar on duty tonight?” If this was our pair, he needed to be there to verify, and I needed back up with a better nose than mine.
“Um, no.”
“Call him in, and I’ll meet you there,” I dictated as I jumped out of bed. “Hey, Derek.” I slid in, quick, before he had a chance to hang up.
“Yeah, Kid?”
“What are you telling the other cops about me?”
“Psychic.” He chuckled.
“Perfect!” I rolled my eyes. “You shouldn’t throw that one around too much,” I cautioned. “You don’t want to become that cop.” I hung up the phone and let him chew on that for a while.
I jumped into the shower and was out the door in 30 minutes, wet hair and all. I headed east to Gahanna, where chain restaurants were king, ranch-style homes lined each street, and every drive had a Ford F-150 parked out front—whether they needed it or not.
The crime scene was easy to spot at 4:20 a.m. It was the only house on the block with all the police cars and flashing lights out front.
Parking several houses away along the curb, I marched the trimmed sidewalks of suburbia to the edge of the police tape. Neighbors of the deceased stood outside on their lawns in groups, watching the police move in and out of the house.
In the dark, the house seemed kept up and clean; the lawn was mowed, the edges trimmed, and the shutters painted. I stepped up to the tape and cleared my throat behind the first cop I saw. He snapped his head around to face me with a grim expression tightening his jaw.
“Excuse me?” I gave him my brightest, friendliest smile. At half past four in the morning, there’s no way he’d be able to tell if it reached my eyes or not. I hoped anyway. “Detective Hamlin is expecting me.”
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He lifted the yellow tape just enough for me to crouch under. On the other side, I took a few steps toward the house, searching for Derek among the bobbing heads. The cop grabbed my arm, his vise-like grip wrapped around my bicep, and squeezed hard, harder than he had to, to make his point.
Every instinct I had screamed at me to draw my knife and gut him like a deer, but my mind stopped my hand and my whole body froze. This was a cop. I couldn’t gut him. Hell, I couldn’t even defend myself. Instead, I shot him a glare that let him know he’d crossed a line. Ignoring me, he turned to the officer next to him. His hand tightened on my arm, yanking me a step to my right and into the flabby mass of his body. I was going to have a pretty bruise tomorrow in the shape of this douchebag’s fingers.
“Hey, Phil, Detective Hamlin’s psychic is here,” he spat out. This guy clearly didn’t like psychics.
I ripped my arm from his grip and took a step away, putting some distance and room for me to move between us. Yep, I was pissed. This bastard’s manhandling set off all my warning bells, making my gut tighten and my fingers itch to unsheathe my knife. I didn’t need to hit a cop. I definitely didn’t need to slit the turkey throat of a cop either. Distance was better, gave me time to think.
My expression shifted to the cold, menacing, dead mien that frightened beings that kill in the dark. Quite a few dead vampires knew that look. The officer registered it for what it was, a threat, resting his hand on the top of his gun with his thumb on the holster clip.
Derek stepped from the front door of the house, unaware of the standoff happening on the front lawn and yelled for me to follow him. He gave me a quick wave of his hand and turned back into the house. I backed away, slow and cautious, from the officer stationed on the line without taking my eyes from his. I stepped up onto the concrete slab, a.k.a. the front porch, meeting Derek’s interested eyes.
Sliver of Silver (Blushing Death) Page 8
