Death's Dark Horse

by Ruby Loren

  “Oo, I would love a slice but I’ve just visited the doctors and they said I’m getting close to being overweight. Got to try and lose some of it!” Mr O’Reilly patted his belly.

  January tried not to laugh. Mr O’Reilly was a beanpole.

  January could tell Lucy wasn’t convinced.

  “Lucy, would you mind doing a couple of coffees for me? You’re much better than I am with the machine.” That wasn’t true, but Lucy was pleased to hear it and marched off.

  Mr O’Reilly shot her a grateful look.

  “Say you’re suffering from indigestion next time.” January whispered the suggestion out of the corner of her mouth, and he nodded, seriously.

  January was faintly aware of the phone ringing in the corridor. She finished resetting the table and tucked a few loose curls back behind her ears. She’d seen no sign of any shifters all day and was in a far brighter mood because of it.

  “January, it’s for you.” Charlie raised the handset.

  January walked behind the counter. Her boss shrugged to show she didn’t know who it was and January felt her happy mood fade.

  “Gregory Drax, ten million.”

  The line went dead.

  January felt cold all over. The fee had just been doubled. If she went to her bank account right now, there would be five million pounds there. It was more than all of her earnings so far put together.

  “Someone really wants you to die,” she said aloud, thinking of Gregory.

  Her mysterious employers seemed to know everything about her. Perhaps they’d also spotted her hesitation and thought that more money would solve it.

  She chewed her lip. It was the kind of payoff you’d retire on, but the problem was - she’d never be able to retire. What are they going to do about it if I just stop? She thought, not even brave enough to say it aloud. It was an interesting idea.

  She returned the phone to its cradle and got back to waiting tables. Her problems were only getting bigger.

  The cat was on her doorstep when she got home that afternoon.

  “You’re not here to curse me, are you?” January asked and gave it a closer look to make sure that it really was a cat. Yes, there was nothing shifter about it.

  “I told you someone will be round soon. You’re just as stalky as your owner was. I texted Mike. He’ll probably be round there now.”

  The cat mewed and stared.

  “Seriously? No offence, but it’s kind of incriminating you being here.” She pointed to the woods, just in case the cat needed help understanding.

  “Who are you talking to?”

  January jumped and stared in disbelief at the person who’d just appeared from around the side of her house.

  It was her sister.

  17

  “Where have you been?” Those were the first words out of January’s mouth.

  Her sister shrugged and moved round to look at the cat.

  “Oh, you know. Nowhere in particular.” She bent down and stared at the feline. “He’s not one of us, is he?”

  January ground her teeth together, ignoring her sister’s question. “I’m going to need a better explanation than that. I’ve been searching for you ever since you galloped off when I found you at the vampire place. You have no idea what I’ve been through.”

  Her sister’s mouth twitched. January felt her anger grow. She knew exactly what she’d been doing, and she still thought it was all a huge joke.

  January tried to stay calm, but it was impossible. “I thought you were dead. When I found out you weren’t, I was even more concerned. You’re staying right here until I’m satisfied you’re telling the truth.” Oh no, I sound like our mother, January thought with a frown.

  Jo shrugged. “Yup, sounds good to me.”

  January raised an eyebrow. That had been way too easy.

  “I really need to talk to you about something.”

  To anyone else, it might sound like she was going to ask if January would mind watering her plants while she went on holiday, but January knew her sister well. She was in some kind of trouble.

  Jo stretched her hand out to the little black cat on the doorstep. It hissed a warning and then a paw shot out in a blur of claws. Jo sucked on her scratched hand.

  January turned and unlocked the door, hiding her smile. The cat was growing on her.

  “Where’s the cake?” Jo asked while she raided January’s cupboards.

  “There isn’t any. I don’t have time to make cakes for myself and what I make for work always sells out.” She couldn’t help but inject that with a little bit of pride.

  Jo stopped looking through the cupboards and raised her dramatic dark eyebrows. “Work?”

  “Yes, some of us have to work in order to get by. Perhaps if you worked, you wouldn’t have to stay with mum and dad,” she added, pointedly.

  Jo shrugged and went to raid the fridge instead. “Well, I’m not living with them, am I?”

  January mimed pulling her hair out behind her sister’s turned back.

  “I work at Madam Rose’s Tearooms,” she said, knowing it would score a point.

  Jo gave a choking laugh from the depths of the fridge. “Good luck. Charlie’s a slave driver. The only decent people there are Lucy and…” She trailed off.

  January knew exactly whose name she’d been about to say.

  Her hand found the back of her sister’s polka dot top and she yanked her out of the fridge.

  “Hey, that’s vintage, you mare!” Her sister complained.

  January didn’t apologise. The years she’d spent looking out for Jo and the gratitude she’d never received all rose in her throat until she was worried she might actually be sick.

  Jo examined her pale pink nails, completely oblivious.

  There were so many things January wanted to scream, but when she opened her mouth, her voice was calm. “You knew Matt. You worked with him. What else did you do together?”

  Jo looked up from her nails. “Excuse me? I do have my standards.”

  January noticed the blush on her sister’s cheeks that always showed when she was lying. Gross.

  “Not what I meant.” January gave up on giving her sister a chance to come clean. “I think you were helping him to kill all of those vampires.”

  Jo looked like she’d just swallowed a golf ball. “I haven’t killed anyone. That’s what I came to talk to you about. You and Luke both think the same thing.” Jo frowned. “Actually, I don’t think he cares about the dead bloodsuckers, but Mr Drax thinks I was with Matt when…” She chewed her lip, caught between half-truths.

  January shook her head, brushing aside the recognition of one of her own nervous habits. “Jo, you’d better tell me everything - absolutely everything - or I’ll hand you straight over to Gregory. He’ll make you tell him the truth - only it will hurt a lot more.”

  Jo shot her a thoughtful look. “Gregory? You’re on first name terms?”

  January gave her a thin smile. “Yes we are.”

  There had been a grudging admiration in her sister’s voice. January had never managed to impress her sister before.

  Jo sighed and slumped down on the over-padded sofa.

  “If I think you’re holding back on anything at all, I’ll give you to him,” January reiterated.

  Jo rolled her big, dark eyes and tossed her enviable mane of waves over one shoulder. “So much for sisterly loyalty,” she said under her breath.

  January heard it easily. “Sisterly loyalty was when I threw away my life in Paris just to come back here to make sure you were okay. I wanted to get to you before mum and dad did something stupid - like locking you in your room and throwing away the key.”

  Jo snorted. “Mum and dad don’t know anything about anything.”

  January remembered a time when she’d probably have said something similar. She shook the memory away. “All that’s irrelevant. I came back and found you hanging out with vampires. When I tried to talk to you, you ran away and then I couldn’t contact
you. You have no idea how much mum was on my back about it.”

  Jo opened the Tupperware of leftover noodles from two nights ago and sniffed, thoughtfully. “You didn’t know where I was?”

  January got up and grabbed her a fork from the draining board so she wouldn’t just use her hands. “No, of course I didn’t.”

  Jo looked surprised. “Luke said that he’d tell you.”

  January looked away so Jo wouldn’t see how seriously peeved she was.

  That sounded like a Luke thing to do.

  He’d probably hoped that not knowing where her sister was would put her off her game, or something. It had certainly caused her a lot of stress.

  “Let’s get back to the part where you were going to tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  Jo took a too-large mouthful of noodles, but January just waited. A few seconds more wouldn’t make a difference.

  “You know I lost my job at the tearoom, so I needed to get money somehow.”

  January felt her lips thin as she fought the urge to comment again on Jo living at home. If she’d been that serious about becoming self-sufficient, she shouldn’t have lost her job in the first place.

  “You wanted an easy way of making money. One that didn’t require much work,” January suggested.

  Jo opened her mouth to argue but then shrugged. “Yeah, well, Matt said he knew a way of making cash. All I had to do was hang out in the vampire bar and get to know who was who. I remember how freaked out I was when he mentioned the vamps because I hadn’t known he was a shifter - let alone one of us.” Jo raised her eyebrows.

  January ignored the attempt at bonding. She was nothing like Matt.

  “Join the club. His aftershave worked its magic on both of us. I’m guessing the pack didn’t even know about him.”

  Jo shifted nervously. “I thought it was an easy job, so I took it! I just told him who was who and where the vampires went. When they were hard to trace, I’d persuade them to go outside with me. Everyone just thought I was being a rebel. Then Luke gave me a job working with the vamps.” She shrugged. “It was perfect.”

  January tapped her foot impatiently.

  “When the vamps started turning up dead, I didn’t put two and two together. I didn’t know Matt was killing anyone.” Her big brown eyes implored January to believe her.

  “You might not have known at first, but there’s no way you didn’t work out something was up when the vamps you’d been looking out for started turning up dead. What about the dead wolves in the woods?”

  Jo pushed another forkful of noodles into her mouth. “I thought you did that.” She looked down at her food, not meeting January’s eyes.

  January finally felt her patience end. “No. You know I didn’t do it, because you’re the one who told Matt how to make me look guilty. No one outside of our family knows that secret. I’m done. I’m calling Gregory. He can do whatever the hell he wants with you.”

  January glanced at the window and saw the sky was dark outside – one of the benefits of the changing seasons. She pulled out her mobile phone and suddenly Jo was on top of her, pushing her hand into her face, while she grabbed the phone. January was so surprised, she didn’t put up much of a fight and could only watch as Jo threw the handset on the floor and triumphantly stamped on it.

  “Fine, I’ll go and use the landline.” January stood up, keeping her eyes on her sister.

  Jo sat down on the sofa again, the smile still on her face. “Try it, the line’s dead.”

  January finally understood that her sister had been playing her. She’d always used her devious tricks to fool their parents, but this was the first time she’d turned her talent against January.

  It really hurt.

  “You don’t understand what you’re getting into. When this goes wrong, you’ll be dead.”

  Her sister stuck her stubborn chin out. “You’re the one who’s causing a problem. You should have stayed in Paris, but now you’ll have to fall in line like the rest of the shifters. Only, I’ll be near the top of the pack.” Jo stood up and walked closer to her older sister. “How does it feel to not be the special one anymore?”

  January frowned. She’d never realised Jo felt that way. She wasn’t even convinced her sister did feel that way. Her speech was too planned. It sounded like a script.

  It was one which she’d been talked into believing.

  January’s money was on Luke.

  “Are you going to clue me in on the master plan?” She asked, expecting her sister to refuse while there was still time to make a difference.

  She had forgotten how much Jo liked to celebrate her own achievements.

  “You know so much already, Sis, you just haven’t put it all together. When Mr Head Bloodsucker came to Luke about the vampire deaths, Luke did some investigating. I think originally he’d intended to kill Matt - what with him not being a part of the pack.” Jo shrugged and January chewed her lip to keep from telling Jo that she’d probably been on his kill list too. “Anyway, according to Luke, all of it is a plan to change the balance of power around here.”

  January frowned, suspecting what that meant. “Who were the vampires that died?”

  Jo looked uncertain. “Who cares? Supporters of Drax.”

  “By changing the balance of power, I assume Luke means to rule over all?”

  Jo smiled. “Haven’t you caught on fast?”

  January wanted to throttle her. How could she not see how Luke had seen an opportunity and used her for all she was worth? It wouldn’t surprise her at all if she was the first person he got rid of after it was all over.

  “Jo, please… take my advice and run while you still can. Get out of here and do something with your life away from our parents and all of this. I’ll give you whatever money you need.”

  It was a last ditch attempt.

  Her sister’s expression stiffened. “I don’t need your money. You should have helped me when I needed it.”

  January knew she was referring to when she’d left for Paris.

  “I had no idea what I was doing back then. I didn’t have any money or any clue. Now I do.”

  Jo folded her arms. “Oh yeah? What changed? You’re still working as a waitress. I don’t see that bringing in the millions.”

  Jo snorted and stood up, glancing across at the window.

  January had opened her mouth to correct her about the ‘millions’, but she’d already shared one secret with her sister and had her trust betrayed.

  “Fool me once…” She whispered and realised that Jo’s look out of the window had been far too significant.

  She was about to make a bolt for the back door when the doorbell rang.

  January stared at her sister, who despite her victory, was looking a little nervous. January had seen the same look on other shifters’ faces too many times recently.

  “He’s here, isn’t he?” She asked.

  Jo nodded, automatically moving towards the door.

  January blocked her way. “How much did you tell him? How much does he know?”

  Jo blinked and frowned. “Everything.”

  18

  January stared at her sister, trying to remember how much ‘everything’ was. It had been four years since she’d shared anything with her. How much had changed?

  “Open up, or Ryan will open the door.” Luke sounded as smug as ever.

  January threw Jo one more baleful look before she unlatched the door and wrenched it open. She prayed that after Jo’s outdated description, Luke would underestimate her. She hoped that she had in fact changed enough to make a difference. It was her only chance.

  “I think it’s time you joined the pack,” Luke said, when January walked out onto the doorstep.

  A ring of shifters surrounded her house. She recognised them all as were-cats. This was the heart of the pack. It appeared Luke didn’t value the support of the other species as much as he liked to make out. Sadly, January didn’t think that this particular lie of Luke’s would b
e enough to get anyone to take action.

  She ground her teeth together, her eyes catching Ryan’s but quickly moving on. Whatever happened tonight, she didn’t want to bring him into it.

  Trace was there too, she realised, hiding behind a woman whose second nature was a tiger. Her eyes shone bright with hope and she nodded slightly at January, willing her to do whatever she could to make things better. January wondered how many others wanted an end to Luke’s reign. Unfortunately, none of them would have ever dared to speak out for fear another would inform on them.

  Luke snarled at her silence. January looked back at him, just as his irises started to spread.

  “Join or die,” he spat.

  Spots started appearing on his skin. She watched him change in slow motion and knew her time had finally come. She felt a sad sort of reluctance when she stepped off the doorstep and walked out into the circle of shifters.

  When she killed vampires, she didn’t mind the thought of her death – it affected no one.

  If she failed now, the Witchwood and Hailfield shifters would be caught in Luke Bingley’s claws forever.

  She turned back to face the half-leopard, half-man thing. “I challenge you, Luke Marsh.”

  She used his real name, knowing that at the very least, someone would look into it. Someone would find out his history. Perhaps then they would be able to rally and throw Luke out if she failed.

  The leopard laughed. It was a strange thing to see an animal laugh, but rather than looking ridiculous, it just made him all the more freakish. His tail lashed and she knew he thought she was joking.

  Change…

  It was a suggestion in her mind. Luke sounded curious. She wondered just how long ago it had been that Jo had told him everything.

  It had to be recent.

  There was no way he’d have been okay with her explanation for the wolves dying in the woods if he’d known. Their deaths were something she was now certain that Matt had cooked up in order to frame her and stop her from coming after Jo. He’d probably thought the pack would kill her for their murders, but then - he’d probably also banked on someone seeing her change that night.