“Of course I was little!”
“No, I mean, sorry, I keep thinking of pups. Wait, don’t get offended. Since I changed, I’m so darn blunt.” I cleared my throat. “You have family here, other werewolves?”
We were both silent as a couple humans strode by. Violet waited until we were alone again to speak. “I have family, but no, they’re not in New Orleans. I’m originally from Virginia, and yes, I was born wolf. My entire family is wolf.”
“Wow, interesting. Born. You give it emphasis as if it’s different.”
She rolled her eyes. “Werewolves can make other werewolves with a bite, but most people will die from our bite, no matter how minor. Humans, I mean. One never knows if a victim will live and turn. All of the survivors are weaker than us who are born this way.”
I loved learning more about her, and I hoped we could be friends. Maybe she would even bend enough to tell me how many brothers and sisters she had and their names. For myself I was an only child, and I had no family except for my fifteen-year-old son, Jake, who lived with his dad. I missed him to pieces, and I had recently set up a schedule to see him. He didn’t want to live with his vampire mom, but I insisted on visiting him, and he accepted it. His dad was still in the dark about the radical changes his ex-wife had undergone.
“So do you have—” I began.
“I’m not going to stand on this corner all night with you, Rue. Go meet the pack. Talk to them and see what they can add to what we already know.”
“Jeez, you’re bossy,” I complained. “We can be friends, too.”
“I’m not looking for a friend. I have enough, and Nathan is one of them. Or have you forgotten?”
“You know I haven’t.”
She made me feel sufficiently guilty for delaying. I left her to return to work, and I needed to get to the bar anyway. Almonester wouldn’t hear of me taking off one more night. I wouldn’t hear of it either, because money was always a need what with sending child support for Jake and saving for his college fund.
The Rusty Ankle, Almonester’s bar, was jam-packed with human customers as usual. I had to squeeze through the bodies to make my way toward the counter. Hands grabbed for me, men tugging to get my attention. I don’t know what it was about me and human men. They were drawn, as the old expression said, bees to honey. Perhaps it was the magic that peppered the air in the bar, all created to part the humans from their money. I don’t know how every one of them didn’t go broke and was too poor to continue to come. Maybe the fae magic caused them to stay away until they made enough to return.
I never bothered to look into the humans’ faces long, hating the thought that I might glamour them just because the atmosphere pushed for it. Apparently, Orin and Pammie, my fae fellow bartenders didn’t have the same convictions. They flashed loaded smiles in every direction, and when they weren’t careful, the humans would climb onto the bar itself to get to them.
When I reached the bar I had to pull one such human woman down, who was determined to offer her body to Orin. I glared at him when I dropped the woman on the floor. “Would you tone it down, Orin?”
He wiped up spilled drinks and made more without missing a beat. “It’s just you and me tonight, baby vamp. Can you handle it?”
I glared. “Where’s Pammie?”
“She’s got something.”
“Got what?”
I didn’t believe he meant she had caught a cold and was lying in bed somewhere. Come to think of it, where did they live? Anyway, I had learned not too long ago, the fae used herbs and such to heal themselves. I wasn’t sure if fae suffered illnesses common to humans, but Pammie wouldn’t have dealt with it long, and Almonester would have insisted she fix it fast and make him more money.
As I waited for Orin to explain, which he seemed loathe to do, Almonester appeared with Pammie behind him. Pammie was nonsocial most of the time, but she could turn on the high-wattage smile the same as Orin. Her long, beautiful hair and deep cleavage had men drooling over her, but her usual outfit at the bar was a simple miniskirt and blouse unbuttoned enough to show off her assets.
Tonight, Pammie dressed in an outfit so skanky, one could hardly call it being clothed at all. The spiky heels could break an ankle should she stumble. She hung her head, lips pressed together, hands clenched before her as if she were being led off to the guillotine. I didn’t think before I zipped ahead of Almonester.
“Where are you going with Pammie? This place is packed, and we can use the help.”
Almonester stared, waves of rage coming off him. He could have killed Dalton, if they walked in the same circles, and not blinked an eye. “Get out of the way, Rue, and do your job!”
I moved past him and grabbed Pammie’s arm. “Is he making you do something you don’t want to do? No job is worth that. This is the twenty-first century, Pammie. Stand up for yourself.”
She said nothing.
I leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear. “I know he’s scary and mean, but he’s just a little fat man who’s got more money than he needs to have. Plus the only reason he has most of it is because of your magic. Don’t give him any more.”
Almonester jerked me backward, holding my arm in strong grip. An overwhelming sense of evil washed over me, gagging me and threatening to make me lose my liquid dinner. I swallowed and wrenched myself free, then shoved him so hard, he rolled head over heels across the floor. Shrieks rose all around as Almonester flattened several people. A drunk nearby shouted “strike” when he hit the wall near the door.
I thrust through the gawking crowd to reach Almonester and leaned over him. He blinked up at me in confusion and then increasing anger, but I wasn’t afraid. “Don’t you ever put your hands on me again, Almonester, or you will be sorry.”
Orin appeared at my side, but he didn’t try to pull me back. “Come back to the bar, Rue. Just let it go.”
I ignored him as I gave room for Almonester to get to his feet. Curling my fingers into fists, I waited for him to strike, but he brushed dust and peanut shells from his clothes.
“She’s a feisty little one, I’ll give you that,” one of the human men said. “What I wouldn’t give…”
“To be beat up by her?” a woman asked.
The man laughed but didn’t comment again.
Almonester glanced in Pammie’s direction. “Let’s go, Pammie.”
My mouth fell open. He wasn’t going to fight or at least fire me? Maybe he was too embarrassed and he would do it later after he had time to calm down. Pammie joined us, and I turned to her to try to talk some sense into the woman. For the first time since appearing, she met my gaze and shook her head. She didn’t want my defense. Why did Almonester have such a hold over this fae couple? If they were so powerful with magic, they could take his head off and leave him lying beside Dalton in the morgue. Yet, they wouldn’t raise a fist against him. Were they pacifists? None of it made sense.
Pammie and Almonester left the bar, and Orin and I manned it alone. Later, that night, when all the customers had gone, I locked the front door and started sweeping the floor. When Orin completed several trips to the storeroom to restock the shelves, I approached him.
“Orin, are you ready to tell me what’s going on?”
He eyed me and stooped behind the counter. I set the broom aside and hopped up on the bar. Leaning over, I found him fiddling with a bottle and staring at the clean glasses down there.
“Orin?”
He sighed and looked up at me. Orin looked so much like Pammie in his beauty, blue eyes and long blond hair. I had assumed they were brother and sister, and while Orin hadn’t denied it, he admitted their looks were a spell. I didn’t know what he meant.
“Let it go, Rue. You will get yourself into trouble if you allow your curiosity to get the better of you.”
“If you tell me, I won’t be curious anymore.”
He stood. “Yes, you will. It’s in your nature, and you have a hero complex.”
“The nerve.”
&
nbsp; “You think you have to save everyone.”
“I don’t remember volunteering to save anyone. People come to me.”
“Because they know your nature. It’s written all over your face. You exude it from your pores.”
I was so offended, I couldn’t think of anything to say for a few moments. “If you’re talking about taking on cases for the humans, I have no choice. My sire commanded me to look after them. You may not know this, but a vampire can’t disobey his or her sire when they give a direct command.”
Who knows why the heck I was so proud of announcing this, as if it settled our argument. Yet, Orin was less than impressed. He shook his head, giving me to understand I was as hopeless a case as they came.
He set aside the bottle he had been holding and extended his hands to me. I hesitated a second and then laid mine in his. A tingle of energy sparked between us, but I didn’t believe Orin was casting a spell. Perhaps I broke one or two. His wince gave truth to this theory, and I’m sure I glimpsed a wrinkle or two around his eyes before he pulled away from me.
“That’s another thing,” he said, his back to me.
“What?” I tried to lean around to see his face. He spun in the opposite direction.
After a few moments, he faced me. He was back to perfection. “If ever Almonester thinks your sire has left you for good, he won’t hesitate.”
“Hesitate to what?”
A niggling of worry took hold of me because I was pretty sure my connection with Ian had already been severed, from his side. He had abandoned me.
“What will Almonester try to do to me, Orin?”
He met my gaze, his expression grim. At first I thought he would put me off again, but then he worked his mouth a few times as if testing something out. I wrinkled my nose at him, wondering if he had begun to crack under pressure of my questioning. I wasn’t being that pushy, was I?
“He’ll…” Orin said and hesitated again. I grew frustrated, but at last he heaved a sigh and blurted. “Almonester will enslave you the first chance he gets, and you will give him that chance.”
Chapter Seven
We met in a restaurant near Bourbon Street. If you can believe, one of the werewolves owned it. I’m not saying it’s impossible for a werewolf to have such a place of elegance. The problem was, it took me off guard after the shabbiness and grime the cats presented.
Trace La Sirene was situated in the narrow street and included those wrought iron balconies and hanging ferns I had come to love since moving to the area. However, inside the building, the expanse was mystifying. Okay, it didn’t make me imagine the restaurant existed on several planes like the library, but I was impressed.
Tables with white cloths covering them were arranged all over the room. A waitress bent to the task of setting out silverware and cloth napkins. Another brought in platters of food from the kitchen to arrange on a table along the wall. This latter part seemed incongruent with the careful and tasteful arrangement of the place settings.
“What are you doing, Quinn?”
I swiveled my gaze from the woman at the table to the man just exiting the kitchen. As tall as Nathan but not as broad of shoulder, he exuded power but lacked the presence of my friend.
Really, Rue, quit comparing them to Nathan.
The man pointed to the table with the food. “You don’t have to be so fancy. We’re doing buffet style, and nobody’s going to care if they’ve got the right fork!”
Quinn rounded on him. “You’ve got your way to keep calm, and I’ve got mine. Leave me alone.”
The arguing began. Back and forth they went while I watched, amazed. A hand dropped on my shoulder from behind, but I didn’t turn.
“You must be Rue,” came a deep voice, and then he stood before me. I had to crane my head way back to get to the top of his. Taller than Nathan, I thought, but then stopped it there. He flashed a smile at me, but it wasn’t friendly. In fact, by the look in his eyes, I would say he assessed me. This man was determining whether I would be a threat, and I had the feeling if he decided the answer was yes, he wouldn’t hold back from ripping me apart.
When his eyebrows rose, I realized he held out his hand, and I put mine in his. The huge palm engulfed mine, and I swear a bleat like a little lamb rose in my throat. Then I came to my senses and reminded myself that I was a vampire to be taken seriously. “Hi, I’m Rue Darrow. Thanks for agreeing to meet me.”
“I’m Trace Montgomery. Let me make it clear, Rue”—he dropped my hand as quickly as he had taken it—“I don’t appreciate an outsider getting involved in the pack’s affairs, least of all a vampire.”
“Noted,” I snapped.
“I’m agreeing to let you dig around because Violet pushed for it.”
The other two in the room had ceased arguing the minute Trace and I started talking, listening no doubt. I didn’t care one way or another, about them or this man. “Violet said she’s not pack. Is that wrong?”
“No, she isn’t.” No one spoke words with such distaste as he had just done. “She is law enforcement, and while I believe we shouldn’t bother with human law, we’re hemmed in by it because we want to remain beneath the human radar. She could cause a lot of unnecessary problems, so I chose the lesser issue, you.”
“Wow, you know how to flatter a woman, Trace. Let me make myself clear as well. I’m doing this for Nathan, not for you or Violet.”
“I’d heard she was close friends with Nathan.” The man who had been arguing with the woman strode over, but he didn’t offer his hand to shake. “I’m Cecil.”
Not glad to meet me either, I supposed.
Cecil scowled at me. “We’re close to the full moon, and if you don’t want your throat ripped open, I’d suggest you curb your tongue while you’re here.”
“Are you threating me?” I took a step toward him. One couldn’t show fear amid these beasts or even allow oneself to feel it. Werewolves smell fear better than dogs, hundreds or maybe thousands of times better. Nathan had told me that, and he had added that the scent of fear to werewolves was like catnip to cats. Not a fun thought.
I wasn’t afraid anyway, not exactly. Nervous and unsure of how they would behave, but if you’ve learned even a little about me since I turned, you know I had trouble setting a watch over my lips. Common sense said keep them sealed in a room full of angry, grieving werewolves. I must have been insane.
“No, I’m not threatening you,” Cecil bit out between clenched teeth. “It’s a warning. Take it.”
I don’t know why I expected Trace to tell his buddy to calm down. He didn’t. Rather Trace moved around us and continued on into the restaurant. I began to suspect he hoped Cecil would attack me. Then it wasn’t his fault if the vampire was disposed of. The idea that I would go down without taking someone with me was absurd. I had learned a lot in my training with Bill.
A familiar scent reached me, and I turned to see a young woman just entering the restaurant. She wore a hoodie over her head, and it looked like droplets of rain peppered it. The scent had been in the air when I arrived, but the rain hadn’t begun at that time. Looked like it did now.
The woman pushed the hoodie back to reveal long, cinnamon brown hair as silky as the women’s I had seen in commercials. She shook it out as she approached, and I slid my gaze to Cecil, who watched her mesmerized. I stepped ahead of him toward her. “Hello, I’m Rue. I’m pretty sure I met you when you were in your wolf form. You helped protect a young woman I left with Zander.”
Sad, brown eyes met mine. “Yes.”
I started to ask her name, but Cecil took her arm. “You’re all wet, Ella. Come in and get dry. I’ll make you a drink. What do you want?”
She frowned and tugged her arm from his clasp. “I don’t want a drink. I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with.”
Trace raised his voice. “Everybody, get food and take your seats.”
Was this all of them? As I moved to join the others, the door opened again, and a few more people wandered in. From
the clings and clangs beyond the kitchen door, I assumed there were others there. Everyone in the restaurant except me was werewolf. Talk about a sticky situation.
As I took my seat toward the back of the room—because I refused to have any of them behind me—I counted heads. Two distinct scents from the kitchen and eleven in the room with me, that made thirteen. Yuck. If I were a superstitious woman, I might want to make myself scarce.
“We’re still fourteen,” the woman who had set up the silverware said. Quinn had no idea she echoed my thoughts. “Dalton will always be with us in spirit.”
A few murmurs of agreement, a few curses, and several slams of fists against tables, which Trace didn’t appreciate. “Settle down,” he barked. “Getting riled up isn’t going to help us figure out who did this.”
“No, it won’t,” Cecil raged. “If the police let us examine his body and sniff around the scene, we would have this wrapped up before the full moon.”
“We already know who did it.” Ella’s voice scarcely rose above the others, but they all fell silent. “You heard what Violet said. Nathan—”
“Nathan would never hurt Dalton.” Trace clenched his fists. “He loved Dalton like a brother, and Dalton took care of him.”
I drew my knees up to my chest as I watched the werewolf. Looked like there was some jealousy there, but Trace showed himself to be a decent man not giving in to it and chiming in with Ella to accuse Nathan.
“I’m not sure he didn’t do it,” Quinn said. “Everybody knows Nathan can’t control his temper.”
Cecil appeared confused. I had the feeling he believed Nathan was innocent but didn’t want to go against his crush.
Trace responded. “Nathan can’t control his temper, so he keeps losing jobs, but he wouldn’t be stupid enough to bite the hand that feeds him.”
I couldn’t help speaking up here on behalf of my friend. “Excuse me, but Nathan is not the helpless loser you all make him out to be. He’s been invaluable to me with my tracking jobs. I can always depend on him to have my back. I also happen to know he’s been getting more assignments on his own. People are learning they can trust him.”
Wolf Ties (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 2) Page 7
