“Not ‘fuck what Roman said’, Nicky. We’ve got exploding bodies right in our neck of the woods and he warned us that this was too dangerous, that there were things in play that we shouldn’t get involved in.”
“Jesus, Lex. All the more reason to let us know, to at least let Ginny know. I thought we’d gotten past the lying and the games.” He looked over at her, and he saw she had her head turned toward the dark, early fall morning sky, where not even a slight ray of sun had yet to join the fading starlight. Maybe she did feel shitty about not sharing, but that distant look wasn’t enough to stop him. He looked instead toward her mate. “Devon, you can’t tell me you were okay with this. I was the asshat who did this the last time, kept secrets, but things are different now. We need to trust each other.”
Nicky stopped pacing for a minute. The damn movement could only help so much. “We’ve got to know what’s going on in our area. We’re useless to you, Lex, if we can’t protect you. And we’re useless in protecting this town too. You want what happened a year and a half ago to happen again?”
Shit, he’d gone too far again. He always went too far. But damn it, it was like they’d learned nothing. He felt her gasp as much as he heard it, but he also saw the pain in her eyes. He didn’t want to see pain in Alexia’s eyes ever. No matter that she wasn’t his mate.
Instead of yelling, though, he watched as she stared at her bear, as though they were having a silent conversation, and he guessed maybe they were. Her expression went from pained and pissed to resigned and regretful.
“You’re right, Nicky,” Alexia finally said as she stepped down from the front entryway of the double-wide. She seemed to take in the guarded stance of those on her mountain and then she looked at Nicky again. “Shit. I’m sorry. We should have said something. You’ve done right by us, and fuck, we should have trusted you.”
“Yeah,” Nicky said, without heat, and a bit stunned that she hadn’t turned him into dust. The bear let out a loud, bellowing laugh that Nicky could have sworn shook the trees around them, and Alexia’s answering smile was so contagious, he found himself chuckling as well.
“You all act like I don’t know how to apologize.” Alexia looked like she had when she and Nicky were teenagers and she’d stick her tongue out at some comment he’d made.
“It’s just rare is all, Red,” Devon said donning an amused smirk.
And Nicky had to smile at the exchange. Fated mates. A part of him wanted that.
Aw, hell no. No. Fucking. Way. He squashed that part of him down deep.
“So, lots of murders and no idea who or what the fuck is doing this? Roman give you any leads?”
“No. Just said to let it be. Said, and I quote, ‘There are dangerous things afoot. Don’t get involved.’”
“Well, shit. If Roman’s that scared, now I’ve got to dig,” Nicky said to no one in particular.
“Or…if he’s that scared, maybe,” Alexia said and then exhaled slowly before her eyes lit up and she gave Nicky a mischievous look. “Fuck, that’s what we said too. We couldn’t stay away. We’ve got some research and photos from the past three months since it started, but honestly, not much. All the scenes had been wiped by the time we’d gotten there. We only heard about the locations through a contact of Matt’s.” Alexia looked to the Luna.
“That’s all I’ve got,” Matt added, shrugging as he sat on a discarded log, and pulled Gemini with him. “But the Others have their own ways of cleaning up the messes their kind create. The Enforcers would have already cleansed the scene.”
“So, we’ve got eight scenes where bodies exploded and little else to go on?” Nicky looked at everyone in turn, but no one had anything else to offer. “Shit. Well, we’ve got a scene now.” He saw Alexia straighten, but better than that, he saw her bear straighten as well. She’d follow her bear anywhere, just as they all followed her.
“So, what are we waiting for?” the big bear asked, walking towards him and clapping him on the back. “Let’s do this.”
It seemed Devon was just as ready as Nicky. He’d probably been holding back for Alexia. But Devon was all heart. No way he’d let these murders continue – Others or not.
Nicky just hoped they’d be prepared for whatever ‘this’ was.
Daniel Rios was once again the only human in the midst of a massacre. He wouldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t seriously considering throwing up his 5:00 am breakfast sandwich and coffee from just over an hour ago.
Exploding bodies. Damn. His partner hadn’t been kidding. Partner. Even after a year, it was hard calling someone else his partner. He threw on a charming smile and made his way further into the clearing.
If the sight was horrifying, the smell was worse. Nothing like a person’s intestines and innards splattered all about to make him want to change his job. He thought his time in the service had prepared him for crime scenes like these. The monsters, the demons, but shit. No, it hadn’t. This world never got fucking easier. Ever.
“See anything?” Alexia shouted from the edge of the opening in the forest, and even he felt the resounding of her voice as it touched all of the supernaturals on the other side of the barrier.
Rather than looking at her, he turned to his partner and saw the muscle tick in his jaw. Nicky had told him the echo in the area made him cringe, crawled up his spine in an uncomfortable way, but what he was seeing wasn’t just uncomfortable. Alexia’s reaction was the most intense. Red eyes burning bright, fur sprouting from every layer of her body. Her body bending in an unnatural way that reminded Danny of the horror movies he tried to avoid watching. A couple of the others were bent over in pain or had fur sprouting from their faces.
Danny so did not want to be in these woods with whatever the hell was dicking with his friends. He also had no desire to be the only one caught in the epicenter of the crime itself, but the metaphysical barrier was keeping all the Clan members out. Matt’s mate, Gem, the only other human around, didn’t do crime scenes so he was the one to step through.
“Sorry,” Alexia mouthed to everyone around her, even as she shook off her own transformation. What the fuck could make the future Clan leader of the Skröm and the Vuković lose control? Alexia had seriously upped her game since Mindy’s death, and despite the loss, she’d moved forward, pushed harder, become faster and fiercer, and she was learning from the best.
On the outside, the Vuković and the Skröm were accepting, but there were sects within those Clan groups that had no problem sharing their disapproval of the newly inherited powerhouse that was Alexia Maria Garda-Martinez. Danny thought it more than likely that her ability to obliterate any Clan member, and not just the Shadows, had probably saved her from any serious attempts on her life.
Everyone stayed quiet while Danny looked around. Blood everywhere, and not the red liquid people saw in movies. No, this shit was filled with bone fragments and tissues of all kinds. He had to watch his step, but even then, he was fucking proud of himself that he always brought an extra pair of crime scene booties with him everywhere he went. His Ma, Caty Rios, the local coroner and medical examiner, had trained him well.
Nicky hadn’t been exaggerating about the scene when he’d shared the details over the phone and then later as they’d hiked up this way. Five fucking miles of hiking. They always forgot they had a human among them.
Danny looked back at the crowd and naturally zeroed in on the short, dark-skinned, scarred up woman toward the back. Carrie Oliver. Tinkerbell. His Tink. Shit, but he needed to stop think of her as his. She wasn’t. She was her own, and even that was questionable at times.
The woman was damaged.
So damaged.
But Danny’s Ma had always said that he was quick to fall, and he’d fallen for Tink lightning fast. And because he wanted nothing more than to get to know her better, he noticed things the others missed. Noticed her lighter days. Her darker days. Hell, the Darker parts to her in general. She pretended those small fragments of Darkness didn’t exist, but Danny saw. He
saw those pieces so clearly.
And then, just like that, that Darkness would be gone the next day, like magic, like she’d washed those dark parts away somehow.
She pushed that Darkness down or away, and what was left was such deep apathy that he wanted to scream at her to let it out. Let out the anger. Let out the pain. The only way to truly heal was to let it the fuck go. And then throw around a joke or two.
He’d only looked at her for a second, but as much as she denied it, as much as she tried to forget their connection, the way her eyes collided with his let him know she wasn’t truly immune to his charm. He smiled at her roguishly, winked, and went back to looking around the scene, knowing some of the others hadn’t missed the moment or the desire he didn’t bother to hide.
And he knew, without a doubt, that Alexia was keeping quiet, hoping he’d be the one to pull Carrie from the path she was on and save her. He was okay with that burden. He wanted to be the one to make her better, to be her safety net, to be her shelter in the storm.
He also wanted to help relieve that burden for Alexia as well. She’d become not only a friend, but a leader they could all count on, and she carried too much. They’d all seen her hollowed out eyes these past few months, the fact that she rarely got any sleep, and damn it, but it was a hard thing for any of those on the mountains to stand aside and watch Alexia hurt when all she needed to do was ask, and they’d take on whatever she needed.
But that wasn’t her way.
Hell, it wasn’t the way any of them dealt with their shit. Even charming Danny who cracked a joke and pushed his problems aside in order to be more positive, more ready for anything…even he didn’t share every damn thing that was eating at his insides.
Insides. He put the back of his hand over his mouth and his nose and took a deep breath before forcing himself to return to his observations of the scene.
He noted the various bodily fluids, tendons, and muscle, but honestly, the gore gave him nothing to go off. When he walked to the middle of the clearing, he noticed a small puddle of water about an inch deep and only wide enough for one or two people to stand in. Fog wisped off of the puddle, suggesting that the water was warm and reacting to the cold of a November morning. As he considered the puddle, blades of grass peeked out as if from another world and he felt a heaviness move through him as though he were staring down a long tunnel-turned-maze he knew he would never find his way out of.
His stomach growled, not an unusual occurrence for him, and he lifted his gaze, breaking the spell the image in the water had put on him.
Danny moved to the edge of the clearing, and he tried to find footprints, clothing, anything, but there was nothing of the sort, at least not to his very human eyes. And he might have had booties, but the other forensic gear he had was limited to a camera, gloves, transfer paper, and other odds and ends. The clearing itself was surrounded by a hundred different kinds of trees, but each of the four largest trees that surrounded the circle of gore had a small pictogram of a wolf-like creature, maybe even a coyote, on the trunk.
He looked over at Alexia and Nicky. It was possible someone was after Alexia, if the crudely drawn image was in fact wolf. He couldn’t be sure, but he’d run it by the group after he got what he could. Fuck if he knew what he was looking for, though. The murders had started in Syracuse. Why there? And were these wolf carvings at every scene? He’d have to check what everyone knew.
There were slight swirls drawn on the outside each of the wolf images, but as he bent over to transfer the image using his pencil, a piece of paper, and some elementary-school level shading skills, he felt prickles along his back. Danny turned quickly, assessing the group on the outside of the barrier and the surrounding crime scene, but nothing was there. He rubbed his hand along his face in exasperation and the latex from the gloves he had forgotten about burned along his skin. He pulled them off in frustration. He wasn’t going to get anything else from this scene.
As he made his way to the edge of the clearing where everyone stood, he felt another prickle along his skin, and in the blink of an eye, he found himself staring across the way at what he knew was a Trow. He’d met a few Trow in his time. Not many. A couple had been friends, but one had been a man he’d had to put down after the poor beast had lost his mate and gone on a murder rampage across four counties. That case had been the one to seal the deal in making sure he got Nicky on the force.
But at the Trow’s side was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. Long, dark hair, tied up in a ponytail. Strong cheekbones set high. Eyes green as emeralds, but cold as though she lacked even a small spark of human emotion. Lips red like she’d just drank a cup of Kool-Aid, but set in a line of stern focus and determination. Fuck, a couple years ago, he’d have definitely taken this obvious ice queen to his bed, but he had a woman. Or at least, with time and patience, he would have his woman.
He hoped.
And he’d done cold, hard bitch before and those always left you feeling like you’d swam in an ice bath after a really good night of getting drunk with friends. Fucking best time ever, but goddamned worst hangover.
“You missed something.” She moved into the circle, the Trow following behind. “You’re human,” she added as she breathed in the scents around her. “Your sense of smell is abominable.” When Danny looked behind him to his friends to see how they had reacted to her voice hitting the barrier, he saw everyone huddled in on themselves in awaiting pain, but it never came. No black bear eyes. No fur sprouting. No near hurling.
“We’re Other,” the Trow said in answer to the unasked question.
“Kieran?” Danny asked examining the newcomer again. He regretted raising his voice right away, but again, there was no reaction from everyone waiting, if not patiently, at least at the edge of the clearing.
“Danny,” the big guy said, his strong Irish brogue a welcome reminder of Danny’s time in the service. The Trow had always been an open sort, and instead of holding back, the Other pulled him in for a back-cracking hug.
Danny wasn’t small. He wasn’t he-man Hercules built like Carrie’s brother, Ben, who also stood on the outskirts of the clearing, but he was six feet tall and he worked out to keep fit. He could hold his own. With humans. Kieran was about six feet tall as well, but that wouldn’t have mattered. The man was a Trow. Beasts were probably as strong as, if not stronger than, the Vuković.
“You two know each other,” the ice queen stated, and her voice was so cold, so unforgiving that Danny got a chill just listening to her. Shit, he hoped this wasn’t Kieran’s mate. Poor guy.
“Knew this guy while stationed in Bahrain back a couple years ago. Boy didn’t know a Trow from a troll at the time, but he learned real quick,” Kieran said, sporting a smile Danny hadn’t seen in years. A couple years? Fuck, it had been eight years. A long time to him. A human.
“Eight years ago, Kieran. It’s been eight fucking years. Shit.” Danny looked from the strangely beautiful woman to Kieran. “Want to tell me what has you showing up at a crime scene at six thirty am on a Friday morning?”
Because he’d take the help from an old Marine buddy, but fuck, he hated getting involved in any politics. These two being here looked like the Others were sending in their cavalry while the Clans were staying far away from whatever mess had just hit the town of Montville yet again.
“Ice and I were called in to investigate and to deal with the situation for the Enforcer’s.” Ice. Appropriate nickname. Kieran shook his head in dismay, and Danny knew the Others were just as worried as the Clan were about this case. “What a way to meet again,” Kieran said, and Danny nodded solemnly.
“Not much different than the first time, though,” Danny said, and then it was Kieran’s turn to nod. They’d met over death the first time as well.
“Gimp, what do you smell?” the dark-haired woman asked, and her stance was stiff, removed, all business. But damn it, now that she was closer, Danny thought she looked familiar. Something in the facial features…like
he’d met her before.
“Danny Rios,” he said, realizing they hadn’t introduced one another. He held out his hand, and presented his most charming smile. She shook his hand, looking at it like it was a foreign object.
“Eire Donovan,” she replied dismissively. For such a beautiful name, a name that suggested breath and life – Air – she was harsh as a winter wind. Her face was stony, and he felt his own smile slip. He quickly righted it, though, and turned to his own people behind him.
“Left to right. Benjamin Oliver also known as Hercules or Herc. Carrie Oliver.” He didn’t share her nickname. She’d kick his ass if he even tried. “Alexia Maria Garda-Martinez. The Queen Bee herself. Her fated mate, Devon Waters, a super badass Luna bear. So, don’t make him mad,” Danny said with a chuckle, pointing to each as he said their names. “And my partner, Nicky Arviso.” Danny noted that Nicky had his head tilted to the side, and he was studying Eire with what Danny would have called a mixture of desire and fear if he’d believed his partner was afraid of anything. Dickhead was fearless. Well, except of humanity. Man hid away in his mountains more than was probably good for him. “None of them can speak without causing a strange-as-fuck reaction. They also can’t get in the circle, so it’s just me, and apparently you two.”
“We’re Other,” she answered, repeating Kieran’s earlier statement. But there was an untruth hidden in her statement. He could hear it.
“So, an Other explodes – according to Nicky and to the intel Alexia and Devon have been getting from our resident Other expert, Matt,” Danny said looking around at the scene, “but Others are okay in this space? I don’t get it.”
Danny saw a look exchanged between Eire and Kieran and he shot off a couple curses. “For fuck’s sake, I will repeat what I’m sure Nicky said earlier to the bear and our Queen Bee over there. We cannot fucking do our jobs if everyone keeps the truth from us.” Danny turned to his old friend. “Kieran, you’ve got to give me something. Anything to go off. I’ve got pictograms of a wolf carved into four trees bordering the scene. I’ve got a puddle about an inch deep and three feet or so in diameter and sending up fog—”
Rage Against the Devil (Wild Beasts Series Book 2) Page 4
