by Jeff Hale
“I need to get to Dave’s,” she said, teeth clenched.
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” I told her.
“No, you don’t understand. A song just played on the radio, one of the ones that Dave used to play for me, and I almost fell asleep, I was so relaxed, because it made me think of Dave.”
“I’m not so sure Dave would want to be your pacifier right now,” Alex said, laughing.
Nina cast a dirty look his way. “Very funny, Alex, I know damned well what Dave thinks of me at the moment, you don’t have to rub it in. No, he made me a CD a couple years ago, I left it at his apartment. Maybe if I had it to listen to, it would help. I just want to go get it, but I need someone to go with me.”
“Might work, sure worth a try anyway,” I said.
We all got into my car and Nina directed us to Dave’s apartment. When we got there, she took the lead, climbing the stairs and knocking on the door while we stood behind her. After the third time she knocked, we heard a male voice on the other side of the door yell, “Go away, bitch, you’re not wanted here!”
“Dave!” Nina pounded on the door again. “I just need something I left here, please?” There was no response, and I watched as Nina put her eye to the peephole as if she could look inside. She rubbed her arms with her hands in distress.
“You’re positive it’s in there?” I asked her, moving past Alex and Kris. Nina nodded. I grasped the door handle, pulled energy from my Aspect and pushed, hard. The door popped open, splintering the frame around the lock.
“What the fuck?!” exclaimed the young man blocking the way through the entry as he stared at the now broken door. He had shoulder length dark-blond hair, eyes a shade lighter brown than my own and a wiry athletic build that was easy to see since he was only wearing boxers. “You broke my door, asshole!”
“Next time open it when someone knocks,” I told him. “Nina just wants to pick up something of hers that she left here.”
“There isn’t anything of hers here,” Dave said, giving Nina a cold look. His glance went from me to Alex. “You guys her new playtoys?” The question was asked with derision. “Waitaminute. Aren’t you Kat’s boyfriend? Darien?”
“Not currently, but at one time, yes,” I said.
“Dave, Nina just needs to get a CD she left here, something you made her,” Kris spoke up, shouldering past Alex.
Dave seemed to temporarily forget that he was upset. “Oh, hi, Kris,” he said, his voice actually sounding friendly. He was staring at Kris, possibly entranced by the skin that was peeking out of strategic ventilation holes in her AC/DC t-shirt and blue jeans.
“Dave,” Nina said sharply, catching his attention again. He scowled at her.
“I don’t have it, it’s not here, I don’t know what you did with it. Now just take your friends and leave before I have to do something I’ll regret.”
“What seems to be the problem here, boys?” a new female voice asked from the bottom of the steps.
I looked down to see a very young girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old, squeezed dangerously into a black leather corset with front lacings and matching leather pants. Her hair was black and long, eyes a deep blue, skin almost alabaster, and she was beautiful; for a moment, she reminded me of Sasha.
“Val? Is that you?” Nina asked from next to me, looking down as the new girl came up the steps. Dave was staring as well, and Alex seemed to be mesmerized by the cleavage that was doing its best to stay inside the leather.
“While I appreciate the flattery, my eyes are up here, sweetie,” this Val said to Alex as she walked past him. She was only a few inches shorter than he was. He blushed. “Yeah it’s me, Nina. What’s going on here? No one looks very happy to see one another.”
Dave screwed his face up in distaste. “They won’t leave. I was just about to try to call Aerick’s office,” he said, glaring at us.
“Why don’t you guys do what Dave asks and leave?” Val suggested with such calmness that I wondered if someone had trained her in diplomacy.
“We can’t,” Nina told her. “I need something I left over here when we were still together. He won’t hand it over.”
“What is it that could be so important?” Val asked.
“I’m… not who you remember, Val. I’m different now,” Nina said beseechingly.
“Aren’t we all? It’s been over a year.” The dark haired girl shrugged. I was beginning to sense something about her, something that suggested she might not be entirely human either.
“No. I mean really different. I’m a werepanther.”
“Whoa! Really?” Val looked surprised.
“Yeah. Really.” Nina nodded and sighed. “Look I’m having a hard time coping with my other half, my more… animalistic half—”
“She almost ate me,” Kris broke in jokingly.
Nina inhaled patiently. “I did not. Besides, Darien wouldn’t have let me eat you.” She turned back to Val. “Anyway, I wanted a mix CD that I left here, to help calm me down. Dave won’t give it to me.”
“That’s because there’s nothing to hand over. I burnt the damned thing okay, bitch? Now leave!” Dave shouted at Nina, getting in her face.
She took a step back, shaking as she tried to keep herself under control. She actually cared what this guy thought about her and his comment had stung. She was trying not to cry. I took a step toward Dave, put myself between them, flared my Alpha aura to help calm Nina.
“I would do what he asks. He doesn’t have it, and he wants you to leave,” Val said tightly, stepping forward as though to get between me and Dave.
I was getting a little bit irritated that something so apparently easy as retrieving a music CD was turning into a prime time soap opera.
“And you’ll do what if I don’t leave?” I let my voice drop to a growl, facing this girl and flaring my Aura again, this time to try and intimidate her.
She almost backed off, but she gave a little shake and squared off with me. “I would suggest you not test me,” she whispered menacingly, flaring an aura of her own that was all I needed to figure out what she was.
She’s just like Aerick and that bitch in Germany; another fucking Sentinel.
I took a step back. “Fuck it all! You guys are just crawling out of the damned wood work! I can’t turn around without running into your kind! What? Is every mortal eventually going to turn into one of you?” I demanded.
“Only the talented, sexy, and lucky ones,” she returned, smiling sweetly at me.
I made a frustrated noise and stomped down the stairs. I was not dealing with a Sentinel right now.
I heard light steps on the stairs behind me, then Kris commenting in amusement, “Talent is keeping those things inside that corset, girl. I don’t know how you do it. I’m sure my boy Alex is wondering the same thing.”
Someone cleared their throat at the top of the stairs. “Eyes. Up here? Remember?” Val said.
Kris and I waited at the bottom of the stairs for the other two.
“So, I guess I’ll see ya around, huh?” Nina said to Val as she walked towards the stairs and Alex joined us at the bottom.
“Yeah. Here. Give me a call sometime.” I saw the Sentinel hand Nina a card and Nina smiled.
“Okay. I will. Anytime?” Nina asked.
“Yeah. Anytime.”
“Thanks. It was good seeing you again.” Nina skipped down the stairs towards us and we headed back to my car.
“You too,” I heard Val from behind us.
I wasn’t sure what we were going to do about Nina now. The CD had been a good idea, anything that could induce calm and focus. I considered calling my mother again, but I doubted she would have any new advice. Nina was just incredibly different, had been for the last few months, from any new shifter that I had dealt with or heard about before.
My head snapped up as we got closer to my car, and I noticed that both Alex and Nina were searching the area as well. There was power here, strong power that I had felt befo
re, in Germany. Grimm.
But it wasn’t Grimm that stepped out of the shadows and approached us. It was a woman, maybe five foot six, with a slim, lithe build and feline grace to her as she walked, her brunette hair in a long braid that fell to below her hips. Her skin was bronzed, her eyes the color of pale desert sand and when they met mine, it took all my willpower to not fall on my knees at her feet; the only reason I didn’t was because she was damping her aura. Alex was already crouched near my feet, while Kris just stared at the woman with avid curiosity. Nina was frozen in place next to me.
This woman might not have been Grimm, but she was cast from the same mold in age and power, even though she looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties. She bestowed a benevolent smile on me that told me she was not like Grimm in temperament.
“Darien, son of Nascha and Stefano, it’s good to finally meet you in person,” she said, her voice a purr that stroked up and down my skin like so much warm velvet. She stopped in front of me, head twitching to the side as she reached out and caressed Nina’s cheek with the back of her hand.
“Mother,” Nina whispered softly, leaning into the caress.
“You haven’t been home in too long, daughter,” the woman said softly, still ensnaring my eyes with hers. “We were worried.”
“I’ve been kind of dealing with some stuff, I didn’t have time,” Nina said.
“Yes, I see that. I give thanks to the Adjudicator pack for helping you through this trying time, but even this Alpha,” her other hand came up to rest on my shoulder and I had to fight to stay on my feet again, “realizes his limitations. I’ve come to take you home, Nina.”
“What if I don’t want to go?” Nina took a step back from her mother.
The woman’s smile never faltered as she said, “You will,” and flared her aura.
I dropped to my knees next to Alex, head bowed, unable to keep myself from doing so. Even Kris made an odd sounding noise in her throat, stumbling and landing on her hands and knees on the pavement.
“Yes, Mother,” Nina whispered hoarsely, allowing the woman to draw her away from us.
As they disappeared into the shadows, I felt the woman’s hold on us release and I took a deep, shuddering breath.
“What the hell was that?” Kris asked from next to Alex as she leaned into him.
“She was like the one in Germany, wasn’t she?” Alex asked, standing shakily and helping Kris to her feet.
“Yes,” I said. “But unlike Grimm, I didn’t feel any malevolence off of her.”
“We were helping Nina.”
“Maybe, maybe she’s just different. Either way, let’s get out of here.”
I didn’t want to stick around to find out if she would change her mind.
THIRTY
KATELYN
The week after Kris moved back in with me was tough on both of us as we tried to muddle through the wrecks of our love lives. We talked a lot, we cried with each other, and we watched lots of sappy romantic movies accompanied by ice cream.
When she got a desperate call from Nina, I refused to go with her, instead hiding in the bedroom when Darien and Alex came to pick her up so I wouldn’t have to face Darien. Kris called me later that night to tell me that Nina was having a rough time, shifting uncontrollably, and that Darien had taken her out to his home for Nina’s own safety. Kris said she was going to stay out there with them for a few days, partially because she felt sorry for Nina, but also to make sure Nina didn’t make any moves on Darien.
My dear best friend, who even in the midst of her own relationship crisis, was preserving my own interests, even though Darien was within his rights to fuck anyone he wanted and I would have no right to complain.
I started to think she might be lucky when the next night the air conditioner decided to give out. I called the apartment handyman, but was told it would be two days before he would be able to get to it; apparently my broken air conditioner was the eighth on the list.
I spent a hot and sleepless night, it was the last part of July in Las Vegas after all, then went to the store the next morning and bought multiple fans. Talon had disappeared, complaining that he was tired of my complaining about the heat.
By late afternoon, I was still trying to figure out the most efficient way to set up the fans to cool the apartment, Angel lying on the dining room table with a fan directly on her. It was so hot and I was sweating so badly that I was wearing nothing more in the apartment than my turquoise bikini top and a pair of sweats I had trimmed down into a tiny pair of shorts. I would have gone around naked if I didn’t think that Talon might pop back in at any time.
There was a knock at my door and I went to answer it, surprised to see Dave standing there when I looked through the peephole. When I opened the door, I realized he wasn’t alone. There was a girl with him, a little bit taller than me, with black hair and blue eyes, wearing leather pants and a corset that I would die to own.
I met her blue eyes, and even though I knew she looked vaguely familiar, I could have sworn that I knew her. There was something about her that I found very attractive, despite the fact that I didn’t like girls that way. I suddenly felt a bit self-conscious in my barely there clothes.
“Heya, Kat,” Dave said to me. “Got an old friend that wanted to visit. Do you remember Val?”
I was still staring at the other girl. “I think so… can’t place it though,” I said to her.
“We had a class together, can’t remember which one,” she said, staring right back at me in a way that made butterflies take off in my stomach.
“Yeah, so I’d invite you guys in, but I think it might actually be cooler out here. Air conditioner went wonky last night. I’m still waiting for the damned repair guy,” I said, rolling my eyes and stepping outside, the hot noon air cool on my skin. Maybe I should have just camped out on my back patio.
“You seen Aerick recently?” Dave asked suddenly.
“Saw him the other night at the Flame, but not since. I assume he’s been spending all his time with Serena.” I sighed, trying not to sound bitter.
“Well, funny, no one’s seen him. Any chances of you giving us Serena’s address? You know since you hung out with her a lot when she was Celeste,” Dave asked me, expression hopeful.
“Sure, I guess it won’t do any harm. I mean you were her friend too, right, Dave?” I opened the door far enough to get the little notebook and pen I kept on the mail table near the door.
“Yeah, I was the one who kept telling Rick that he should take his head out of his anus and see what was right in front of him.”
“Here.” I wrote the information down and gave it to him. “Oh, and you didn’t get this from me. You didn’t see me at all in fact.” I didn’t want Aerick to think I was still pining after him.
“Whatever you say, Kat,” Dave agreed.
Something occurred to me then and I got worried. “Wait. What do you mean ‘no one’s seen him’?”
“No one has seen him,” the other girl said. “Lucien, Dave, someone named Raven that he works with, you. No one.”
“How long?” I asked. Something wasn’t right.
“I talked to him… I don’t know, a few days ago?”
“And he hasn’t been home at all?”
“No, all of his stuff has been untouched,” Dave said. “I’m sure he’s fine, it’s not like he hasn’t just up and disappeared for a while in the past. It’s just Val needs to talk to him.”
“No, something’s wrong. I can feel it.” I shook my head. “Look, you go to Serena’s, maybe it’s nothing. I’m going to get a hold of Darien and Alex and see if one of them can help me track him down. We’ll meet at Serena’s.”
Dave and the dark haired girl nodded in agreement with me, then left as I went back into the apartment to change. I tried calling Darien while I threw a tank top on over my bikini top and found a pair of slightly less dinky shorts. He didn’t answer, so I tried Alex instead. Alex answered on the second ring.
“A
lex, I need you and Darien to come over and help me, Aerick’s missing,” I said breathlessly as I found my shoes.
There was a brief pause, then Alex said, “Darien’s in the middle of something right now, talking to his dad, but I reckon Kris and I can be there in just a bit.” And then the phone went dead. I wondered what could be so important that Darien was in phone conference with his father.
I waited out in the parking lot for Alex and Kris to show up. When they did, I gave Kris a stern look. “You’re staying here,” I told her. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
She gave me a mutinous look.
“Look, Kris, Aerick is missing, that psycho Sentinel is after him so that guy might have something to do with it. Alex and I can take care of ourselves, but if something happened to you, I’d never be able to forgive myself. Besides, I need someone here on the off chance that Aerick might show up here.” I turned to Alex. “Can you leave your car with her just in case?”
“Sure thing.” He tossed the keys to Kris, then slid into the passenger seat of my Civic.
“And please, Kris, for love of my hair not turning grey, don’t follow us, just wait, okay?” I begged as I got in and started the car.
She just nodded and sighed, then pocketed the keys and went into the apartment.
I drove us to Celeste’s… Serena’s; it was going to take a while to get used to calling her that. It was a nicer home over in the Summerlin area. As we pulled up alongside the sidewalk, I could see Serena’s little green Bug in the driveway and Val standing in the open door, a grim expression on her face. Alex and I got out of the car and headed for the door as Val turned away and disappeared inside.
As we came into the house itself, there was an overwhelming reek that pervaded the air, one of sex and blood and shit, all mixed together. Something very bad had happened in here. Dave was in the living room, staring at something on the floor.
I heard Alex make a noise in his throat, as though he were trying not to gag. I felt the same way. I looked around the room, saw the bullet holes in the walls, the overturned furniture, and as I got to Dave, the two bodies on the floor.
