Unconditional

by Lauren Dane

  He brushed a loose tendril of her hair back from her face. “It’s all right. I do. We’ll figure it out together, okay?”

  Her gaze flicked up from where it had been at her feet, locking with his and everything stilled, even his wolf who’d been pacing, urging him to protect her. She swallowed hard and licked her lips.

  “I’m so afraid I’m going to fail her.”

  He sighed, slowly taking her free hand and squeezing. “I will help you in any way I can.” She might fail. Not because of anything she did, but this enemy…

  His phone buzzed, and he knew Damon and GiGi were waiting downstairs. He wanted to kiss her so badly it was all he could do to step back and grab his keys. “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  “Drink your tea and I’ll be way happier. Think of it as keeping the wolf happy.”

  “The wolf? Why would it, he, whatever, why would the wolf care?”

  He guided her out and then into the elevator. “What I do, who I am now is all about protection. An Enforcer is more than just a cop. It’s my job to be sure everyone I’m responsible for is safe and in line.”

  “I’m not a werewolf. I’m responsible for my own self.”

  The set of her mouth screamed out for him to kiss it softer, to ease the stress lines there. She could think whatever she wanted, but his wolf believed otherwise. And frankly, so did he.

  He lifted a hand to Damon, who ambled over and filled him and GiGi in on the newest developments. “We’ll go to the address, looks like a gas station, to get a scent.”

  “I’ll do a quick canvass while you guys do that.” Michelle slid sunglasses on, and he watched as she pulled her cop around herself like a coat.

  They headed over, but it was already three and traffic made it slow going. She sipped her tea and stared out the window.

  “When did you become a cop?”

  “Seven years now. I was twenty and I’d gotten my BA but I didn’t want to live in Eugene and I couldn’t see myself in marketing, which is what I got my degree in.” She chuckled.

  “Twenty and you got your BA?”

  “I graduated early from high school and headed off to college. I just ended up taking a really heavy load to stay busy, summer courses too, and I finished early there as well. I was rushing off to do something but once I finished I just didn’t know what.” She leaned her head back against the seat, and the sun, pale though it was, hit her just right and she seemed to glow.

  “I was working as an admin person at city hall, and I started hanging out with a cop.” The smile on her face told him hanging out might have been of the naked, horizontal nature. “He was satisfied with his life. He liked his job. He and I had started working out, and I ended up taking the exam because Allie dared me. I did really well and so I got the job, and thank God Mark, my friend, had been working out with me because the physical part was hard. I guess it was meant to be because they had an opening.”

  “And the friend?” He would hate it if she was with someone. Not that it would necessarily stop him from pursuing her. His wolf wasn’t that noble.

  “He moved to Seattle. He’s engaged to be married next summer. He asked me to move up there with him. But…I’m a witch. It was hard to hide that from him, and I never felt like it was something I could share. I’m not sure how he would have taken it.”

  “Ah. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I was sixteen when you went away to school. I had planned on telling you when you came back at summer. I believed you loved me in only a way a sixteen-year-old girl can. But I felt like I needed to be sure. I guess it was a good thing I waited. Because you never came back.”

  He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry. Not that I left. It was the best decision. My parents don’t know and they sure as hell wouldn’t understand. It took years for me to get my shit together, but once I did, I was something else. It wasn’t about you and I was a dick for not at least telling you goodbye.”

  “We were young. It’s over and done with.”

  The gulf remained between them. But it felt a little smaller.

  “It’s up here on the left.” He indicated the small gas station as he turned into the drive and pulled into a parking space.

  “I’ll walk with you. Use my othersight to see if I can sense any of the mage energy. Then you let me talk to the people inside, please.”

  “Will you let me watch if you get rough?”

  She snorted as she got out. “Maybe. If you’re good.”

  A breeze sent cold air over her face as she stood, throwing open her othersight and taking in the area. She noted the way the wolves looked, their magick deep green with hints of earth and sunshine.

  The paler blues and reds of human energy. The deep azure of witches. She paused, moving closer.

  Allie had been here. Michelle’s heartbeat picked up as she eased her way around the side of the building, and a wave of nausea hit from the mage energy hanging thick in the air.

  “They were here.”

  Josh stepped in front of her, Damon and GiGi to either side. He wrinkled his nose. “I can scent her magick. Just a hint. Yours is rich and powerful. Hers…”

  “She’s weak.” Michelle tamped her panic down.

  “I can scent the difference between the witch magick and the mage. The mage smells like rotting things.” Damon’s lip curled.

  “Stolen magick is perishable,” Michelle murmured.

  “What do you mean?” Josh stuck close, and she could far more easily sense his dual nature now. His wolf seemed to press against the human skin.

  “Witches, Weres—our magick is natural. It comes from what we are. In the case of witches, from the earth, the air, all the energy from natural things. For you I’m told it’s the magick of the shift. Of the way you hold your forms. I guess Vampires have it too in their own way. Anyway, it’s inborn. We use it, we get more. It’s part of us like our blood. Mages steal it, but it’s not natural for them. That’s why it’s magick with a k when it’s ours and what they have is magic. Mages use it to feed their own power but it doesn’t renew like ours does. So they need more. And the turned witches? Well they’re like junkies. They use the stolen magick so often that it eventually burns out their connection to the earth. To their own magick. They have been working with the mages to get a hit of the witches they’ve been kidnapping. What they steal can’t be kept around. It will eventually, for want of a better word, evaporate. That’s probably why you smell rotting things.”

  “I didn’t really know all that background. I mean I knew this was happening, but not all the detail.”

  “There’s more detail I’m sure. But I’m a coven witch, we aren’t a clan, and we don’t really know a whole lot about all the rest of the Others. Gage told me some, and when we got some training from Clan Owen about this stuff, they did a brief history lesson. There’s a whole world of information I need to know.”

  “I’ll help however I can.”

  She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, a guy running out the back door of the convenience store.

  “Shit.” She took off after him. “Stop! Police, stop and put your hands up,” she called.

  Adrenaline pumped through her system as her feet hit the pavement. He led her away from the main road and through a stand of trees. In the distance she caught the scent of water.

  She heard the pounding of feet behind her. “Don’t leave that gas station! I need to know if someone else tries to run away.”

  Josh pulled next to her, running easily as her lungs began to burn. “Damon and GiGi are keeping watch.”

  She indicated he head to the right and she’d go left. He nodded and peeled away. She drew on her reserves and sped. Their runner was so close. She ordered him to stop one last time and he ignored her.

  Drawing a deep breath, she gathered her strength and her power in the soles of her feet and sprang, leaping forward, grabbing a handful of him and taking him down just as Josh sped out of the trees from the right, his teeth bared in a snarl,
eyes narrowed.

  The guy beneath her tried to buck her off so she dug her knee into his back and bent his arm up, pinioning his wrist enough that if he continued, he’d break something. He shrieked and stilled.

  “God. I don’t know why you guys always do this. This is the eventuality. I will get you, and if you make me run, I’m going to be cranky.”

  “I didn’t do anything!”

  “I told you to stop. I identified myself. You kept running. Now, back to my earlier point about eventualities.” She managed to cuff him before getting to her feet and toeing him to his back. “Hi. I’m Officer Slattery and I’d very much like to ask you some questions.”

  “I didn’t do anything!”

  “We’ve covered that. I want to ask you some questions.”

  “Fuck off, bitch.”

  Josh growled. Honest to goodness growled and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. The guy on the ground stilled and she got to her haunches.

  “That’s officer bitch to you. Now, what’s your name?”

  He didn’t answer so she patted him down and pulled out his wallet, flipping it open. “Charlie Hixton.” She pulled out her phone. She really should have checked in with Portland PD when she arrived in town, but it was too late for that now so she’d go through her own people first and then do the checking in. Easier to apologize than to ask permission.

  The dispatcher had her hold on while she ran a check on him.

  Very quietly, Josh leaned in and told her they had a contact in the police department and gave her a name.

  “You work here at the gas station, Charlie?” She hauled him to his feet and nudged him to walk back.

  “Priors. Armed robbery. Reduced sentence because you testified. A few assault raps. Did some time for that.” She kept listening as dispatch continued to fill her in. “Car theft. Check forging. You sure do like getting arrested, Charlie. Burglary. Felons aren’t supposed to be carrying weapons, and here you are with a handgun and a knife. Tsk tsk.”

  Damon and GiGi waited, as Josh had said they would, in the parking lot. She instructed dispatch to call Portland PD, giving them the name Josh had told her, and get them out to pick Charlie up. He was in violation of his parole, and if he was in jail, she’d know where he was.

  “So, while we wait, you want to answer my questions so I can say you were helpful? Probably knock some time off for you.”

  “Fine. No I don’t work here. I do odd jobs for my brother-in-law. I was visiting Bobby, the owner of this place.”

  “Why’d you run out the back door and do not waste my time telling me you were on your way home and you like running.”

  “Just stopping by. I looked out the window and saw you get out. You got cop written all over you. I didn’t need the hassle. Bobby’s a felon too.”

  A double parole violation with the weapons possession.

  “You ever see this woman?” She held out a picture of Allie. He shook his head.

  “I’d remember her. I like blondes.”

  She curled her lip, barely restraining the urge to shake him.

  “Know anyone with a blue SUV? Jeep Cherokee.”

  That he did know. She saw recognition in his features even as he tried to school it. Christ, no wonder he got arrested so many times. He was a dumbass.

  “Everyone and their brother has an SUV. Hell you drove up in one.”

  “Sure I did. But we both know you know exactly which SUV I mean.”

  “I really don’t. I know at least ten people with SUVs. Can’t say I notice the colors much.”

  “I think I need to talk to Bobby about this whole thing.” She stepped away, her hand still at his back, and he leapt at her, knocking her down, snarling as he tried to bite her.

  Her head cracked against the asphalt so hard she saw stars, and the edges of her vision grayed slightly.

  Josh hauled him off and slammed him against the car hard enough she heard the air burst from his lips. “I should gut you for that,” he growled low, the words laced with menace enough to bring a little fear even to Michelle.

  She got up, embarrassed she’d let him get the jump on her like that. “See, stuff like that just means you’re not being helpful and it makes me wonder just what you’re so afraid of you’d rather do time than reveal.”

  “Damon, watch this piece of shit.”

  The Were glowered and nodded, his gaze never leaving Charlie. “Boss, you smell that?” He said this quietly.

  Josh lifted his head, closed his eyes and breathed in. Moments later his nose wrinkled.

  “How long?”

  “You ran after this piece of shit, and we hung around, out of sight to be sure no one entered or left. When you brought him back and we got a little closer, the wind changed a bit and I got the first whiff.”

  “Mind sharing?” Michelle gave Josh a look.

  “Something smells dead.”

  She glanced down at Charlie. “Really now? You make something dead, Charlie?”

  He shook really hard, and she sighed. They weren’t going to get anything from him right then.

  Standing straighter, she tipped her chin toward the store.

  Josh tried to get ahead of her, and she grabbed the waistband of his jeans, the backs of her fingers brushing against the bare, hot skin of his lower back. It sent little shocks through her, awakening all sorts of things she had to push away.

  “Me first,” she hissed.

  “What? No.”

  “It’s not a request. I’m the cop. You’re a civilian. Get back or I won’t let you come with me at all.”

  “You can’t stop me.” The green in his eyes deepened at the challenge, the air between them nearly crackling.

  “I will shoot you. Don’t think I won’t. This is my friend and my case.”

  He sighed. “Fine. Not because I think you’d shoot me.”

  Whatever. The hair on her arms stood up and she paused again. “Think I know where the something dead is. Stay behind me. I’m going in low.”

  She pulled her piece out, thumbing off the safety.

  Still careful, moving quicker, she pushed the door open, keeping low, and saw the blood even before the smell hit her. And what a smell. Fear and death, evacuated bowels. She kept an eye on the body even as she swept through the small interior and found it empty. She tried to cling to her training, but she’d never in her life seen anything like it.

  Bobby had been torn apart. Literally. Pieces of him had been flung about. She took in what she could as she huffed shallow breaths through her mouth and fought the nausea roiling through her system.

  Josh touched her gently. “We’ll wait outside. Pam, that’s the cop who’ll come, is one of ours. She’ll get a good scent in here, but there’s no need for us to breathe this in any longer.”

  She should gather some evidence, but her kit was in the car anyway. The Portland cops would come, and for the time being she’d secured the scene so she allowed Josh to lead her out.

  What if they were going to do that to Allie? What if they had done that to Allie? Rage swept through her hot and fast as she headed toward Charlie, who paled at the sight of her. She saw no blood on him, just dirt and some pine needles from when they’d tackled him. His jeans were faded and his T-shirt was pale blue so he couldn’t have hid it. And if he’d been part of what had been done inside, there was no way he’d have come out this clean.

  “What the fuck? You want to tell me what the hell did that to him?” She pulled out her phone and called her dispatcher to report the body and have that relayed to Portland PD.

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  She stared at him for so long he began to move from one foot to the other. “You got yourself a little hobby, Charlie? Hm? Playing all serial killer? It puts the lotion in the basket?” She quoted Silence of the Lambs.

  “I didn’t do that! You can’t hang it on me, no how. I didn’t do that.”

  “Who did, then, Charlie?”

  He clamped his lips together and sho
ok his head. But then he whispered, “Listen, lady, you don’t want anything to do with them.” And said nothing else.

  Chapter Four

  Pam, the wolf cop, cop wolf, whatever, showed up with two others, also wolves. Michelle hadn’t needed to be told because using her othersight she found it rather easy to detect such things by that point.

  If she hadn’t been searching for her missing best friend and dealing with a dead body that had been torn to bits, she might have had the time to be excited and amazed by all the things she was learning. As it was, she barely held herself together. She’d questioned Charlie again thoroughly and had given a sketch of what had been said to Pam, who’d be her liaison in the police department so that was one less thing to worry about. Sadly there wasn’t much to tell. He’d made that creepy comment about not wanting to have anything to do with them but had remained silent about anything else. He stuck to his story about running because he was in violation of his parole.

  “Let’s head down to the rest stops, just so I can see if the scents here are the ones there.”

  “None of this will be admissible,” she mumbled as she headed back to Josh’s car.

  “Probably not. But we take care of our own problems. It won’t need to be admissible. Charlie there is human, as was Bobby. But Allie isn’t. I don’t care about the mages, as far as I’m concerned they’re not human either.” Josh paused. “I need to talk to Damon and GiGi. They have the scent from the SUV here. I want them fanning out north and in the area. There’s already an alert on the car so we’ve got that covered. I want to see if the scent is the same down south, but we can split up some labor now.”

  How far she’d come in less than two days.

  Two days ago she’d never have allowed all this non-police interference in a case. Two days ago she’d never have been silent when someone hinted at vigilante justice. Two days ago she believed in the system and maybe she still did, but her hands were tied by the way things were and she couldn’t let Allie get killed by real-life monsters because of the system.