Just as Jason is about to stop the car I see a figure dart from the back of the house into the woods. Before Jason can stop the car I’m out the door giving chase. As I’m about to clear the tree line into the woods I remember all I have is my cricket strapped to my thigh and a dagger at my ankle.
I hike up my dress and pull the cricket. I can’t shoot far with this damn thing so I have to get close and personal. I stop all thoughts and clear my head and focus on catching up to this son of a bitch.
As I’m running through the woods my dress gets caught on everything I pass or duck under or the bottom gets snagged on everything I pass or jump over. Good thing I didn’t pay for this dress because I’d be mighty pissed right about now.
The assailant is nowhere in sight so I stop for just a minute to let my instincts kick in. I stand stock still trying to hear anything. To the right of me a twig snaps so I turn and dart off into that direction. Just up ahead is the silhouette of a man.
I finally get close enough to fire off a shot. I aim and shoot. The figure spins around to face me and I stare in complete and utter shock at the man standing before me. Before I can open my mouth to say anything he disappears into thin air. Just poof gone. What the hell?
A branch breaks behind me and i whirl around and aim my cricket again to come face to face with Jason.
“Jesus Rodgers I almost put a bullet in your head. Don’t ever sneak up on me again.”
“Sorry Jessi. Who was the guy? Looks like you at least shot him in the shoulder. But my real question is why did you let him get away?” he said throwing his hands in the air, “he was right in front of you.”
“One question at a time Rodgers.”
“I see we are back to Rodgers again,” he says sarcastically.
I snap my fingers in his face, “fuck what I call you! Pay attention and stay on track. To answer your work related questions, that man was Kincaid. If I would've known it was him I would've never shot him in the first place.”
“Kincaid? Your dad and Boss’s old partner?”
“Yes the one and only. No one has seen him since the attack on my parents. I only know what he looks like because of pictures my mom has of all of them together.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“Not sure. I was in too much shock to even grab him when he was 2 feet in front of me let alone carry on a conversation with him. We’ll let Boss know we seen him and what happened. But in the meantime we should probably get back to our crime scene. I did see him coming from the house so maybe we will get some clues there.”
We walk in silence through the woods and back to the house. In the front drawing room there are words written repeatedly along the wall from ceiling to floor. It looked like someone tried to cover it up with spray paint. I reached out a hand to touch the wall and sure enough the paint was still wet.
“Paint’s still wet looks like someone tried to cover it up.”
“Looks that way.”
“Only thing I can make out is, GIRL, PANWERE HALF VAMPIRE, REPOPULATE, MOTHER EARTH, GOD PAN, HAIR THE COLOR OF OBSIDIAN, OBSIDIAN PROTECT, 25th Day 25th year, Heat, Destroy, Create, 3 possible Mates.”
Jason turns to me grabs my arm and drags me through the rest of the house. I jerk my arm free from his grip, “what is wrong with you? I was trying to make out the rest of that mess on the wall.”
“That’s what forensics is for. Watson is on his way here now. He can figure it out and let us know later. We however are here for a possible dead body. So let’s do our job and find us a body.”
On that note he walks off up the staircase. I follow behind even though I want to see the rest of the message on the wall. But since he’s being an ass and my pretty dress is already messed up beyond repair I might as well see what else is going on around here.
I follow Jason into the last room on the left. Jason is standing in the doorway so I lean around him. In front of Jason on the floor lays a man. Well his body anyway. His head however was across the room by the closet door.
Jason steps aside so I can see better. We can’t get closer because Watson hasn’t been here to secure the scene yet. Jason looks over at me, “so what do you think of this?” he asked while pointing at the body.
“Well, obviously his head was decapitated. Looks like a clean cut from here. But I can’t tell for sure without getting a closer look.”
“When you chased after Kincaid did you notice a weapon on him?”
“No. I didn’t see any weapons at all. But now that I think about it he did have paint all over his hands and arms.”
“Well maybe he decapitated are victim here and painted the walls and threw a knife or sword down when you chased after him.”
“Yeah maybe. We can always go out and sweep the area.”
“No we will get regular agents or locals to do that. We got more important things to worry about right now.”
“Like what?”
“The man lying on the floor is the local alpha’s nephew.”
“Oh shit!”
“Yeah my sentiments exactly.”
We both turned from the room and headed back outside to make phones calls. Jason called in the locals to scour the area for a sword or knife. I got the pleasure of calling Boss.
After three rings he picks up, “talk to me Jessi.”
“Hey Boss. Well, we have a decapitated body which Jason ID'ed as the local alpha’s nephew.”
“Well shit.”
“Yeah that’s what I said.”
“Alright what else.”
I continued to tell Boss about everything including Kincaid and how I knew it was him. He seemed very surprised by this. When I finished telling him about the writing on the wall he asked to speak to Jason. So I handed my phone over to him and he walked away. Why I have no clue. But things around here are starting to get strange and I’m not just talking about my new abilities. Jason and Boss are being secretive, dead bodies are dropping everywhere and not just in our division, old family friends popping up at crime scenes, and let’s not forget mom acting strange.
Jason walks back over and hands my phone back to me. “So what did Boss have to say?” I asked.
“I just told him my version of events is all.”
“And....”
“And what?” he says shrugging.
“And what’s next?”
“We go home and let forensics and the locals do their jobs and wait for their reports that’s what?”
“Well Rodgers after you,” I say sweeping my hands towards his car.
On the way home I start to wonder how Jason knew that the victim was the local Alpha’s nephew. I mean he just transferred here from New York. So I decide to ask.
“So Jason. How exactly did you know that was the Alpha’s nephew?” I ask with one eyebrow raised.
He continued to stare straight ahead, “I just do.”
“I just do is not an answer.”
He looks at my then and blows out a puff of air clearly aggravated with the questioning.
“His uncle is a friend of my family that’s how.”
“Wait so you have friends that are supes?”
“I didn’t say he was my friend. I said a friend of the family.”
“Is that how you know about preternaturals or did your so called knowledge really come from school?
“Both.”
“That’s it? No explanation?”
“Nope.”
I sat back in my seat and stared out the side window. Apparently he wasn’t gonna give me any more information than that. Is he not giving me info because he’s hiding something or is he not giving it because he’s still pissed about our almost kiss. If it’s the latter jeez the guy needs to get over it already and move the fuck on, if it’s the former than one way or another I will find out.
Meanwhile back at the MacGriogair Estate Nikolaos is in a temper. First, he had to watch his own brother pawing at his woman then he finds out that one of his Alpha’s nephews was murdered which can caus
e an all out war.
Nikolaos turns to Jackson, “do they know who did it?”
“No. We are still waiting on my forensic team to get that information to us.”
“Well as soon as you hear something let me know right away and keep my brothers ass in line. I didn’t put him in your unit to paw all over my woman, I put him there to keep her safe!” he growled the last part.
Jackson sighs, “I know. I will have a talk with Jason about his actions tonight later when Jessi’s not around. As for the information Watson said he found some hair. Looks like wolf hair. He’ll have the DNA results within a couple of hours. Then we hunt.”
“Very good,” Nikolaos turned around to stare out the window overlooking the gardens.
“Also, Jessi said she saw Kincaid,” said Jackson quietly.
Nikolaos turns around to look at Jackson, surprised to hear a name he hasn’t heard in 25 years. “Kincaid? I thought he was dead.”
“As did all of us.”
“Is Jessi sure it was him. After all she’s never met the man.”
“She’s positive. She was able to ID him because of photos Belinda has of me, James, and Kincaid. Apparently Jessi was able to get close enough to Kincaid to shoot him in the shoulder with a cricket.”
Now Nikolaos was puzzled. “A Cricket? Where on earth would she hide any weapon in that dress?”
“She had it strapped to her inner thigh and a dagger strapped to her ankle,” replied Jackson smiling like a proud father.
“Interesting. And how did she get close enough to Kincaid to shoot him with a cricket. We both know his ability is speed?”
Jackson looked thoughtful, “either her powers are kicking in sooner than we thought and she was so engrossed in the chase that she didn’t realize she was moving that fast or Kincaid wanted her to catch him.”
“Her powers’ kicking in is explainable, but if he wanted to be caught the question is why.”
Nikolaos took as seat behind his desk and rubbed his face. Clearly things were not going as planned. Jackson took a seat in front of Nikolaos’ Desk.
“My Liege Jessi also told me Kincaid had paint all over his hands and some on his arms. So maybe he was trying to cover up the prophecy that Mark wrote on the wall. His power is of foresight after all.”
Nikolaos thought on this for a moment because something didn’t seem quite right. Foresight doesn’t make someone go into trance like it does with a soothsayer, foresight you have in dreams.
“Get the results from forensics Jackson then we’ll talk further on the issue. I got a feeling that whoever killed Mark was a soothsayer and he’s the one that put that message on the wall. I think someone is trying to get Jessi’s attention enough for her to find out about the prophecy. Which according to our prophets she cannot whatsoever find out about or everything will be lost.”
With that Jackson left King Nikolaos in his study to ponder over the information that was dropped in his lap tonight. He will let Nikolaos handle letting the Alpha know. If the news shall come from anyone else this city will be ripped about by a very angry alpha wolf. The only one strong enough to command him to not retaliate would be Nikolaos. I’m actually strong enough but that would be considered a direct challenge and that I don’t need. I have enough to worry about without adding pack leader to my agenda.
8
HUNTING
I woke up to excessive banging on my door. I finally for the first time in a while got a peaceful night of sleep and some asshole has to be banging on my damn door. There are only two people it could be, because only mom and work have my gate code.
I crawled out of bed wearing nothing but a thin silk nighty that just barely cover my butt and snatched my front door open. All I see at first is a broad chest. Then I look further up and it’s Jason with his mouth hanging open.
“Well are you gonna stand there all damn day with your mouth hanging open looking like a gaping fish or are ya gonna come in?”
I step back to let him in but he doesn’t go around me. He walks straight up to me and I look up into his eyes which seem to be unusually bright, almost like they’re glowing. He bends his head down yet like he’s going to kiss me. This time I don’t get on tip toes to meet him halfway. I just stand stalk still rooted to the floor. I keep chanting in my head please don’t kiss me over and over again. I’m hoping if I wish it away it won’t happen. We have to work together and I don’t need a repeat of last night’s asshole Rodgers.
Just as my prays seemed to be failing me his phone rings. Holafuckinluya! He finally snaps out of it, steps away from me, and walks around me into my kitchen. While he’s on the phone I get the coffee maker going. I don’t care what time of day it is, if I don’t get coffee when I wake up I can’t function which leaves me completely useless.
“Yes Boss I just got here. No I haven’t had a chance to tell her. I will. We will be ready” he pauses and looks at me, “in one hour.”
He pockets his phone and looks directly at me.
“While you were sleeping we got the results from Watson. Test shows DNA on wolf hair belongs to Charles Devoncourt and we have a warrant of execution issued on him and pick up order on Kincaid.”
“Alright, after coffee I’ll pack a bag and get ready,” I say walking out of the kitchen with my fresh cup of coffee. Before I leave the kitchen I say over my shoulder, “I’ll be ready and packed in twenty.”
As I head down the hallway I hear him chuckling. Laugh it up now asshole while you still can. If this man keeps pushing my buttons I’m gonna sew his mouth shut with twenty gauge fishing line. Its bad enough his moods swings give me whiplash I don’t need his mouth to add to it.
Like I said, I was ready in twenty, out the door, and at the airport within the hour. We take private jets considering all the ammo and firepower we tote with us on and execution. Can you imagine walking through security for a commercial flight with enough arsenals to start a mini war. Yeah I thought so. Not gonna happen.
The jet we use is not the fanciest but it is comfortable and practical. It does have a conference area where we can teleconference with Jackson, a full bathroom, some jobs get messy, and a bedroom for when we are tired. Mostly the bedroom is for me, for privacy because I am the only girl in our specific unit.
I sat down across from Jason, “so what do you think those words on the wall meant? Did you know Charles Devoncourt is a soothsayer?”
He looked surprised by my question, “no I don’t know what they mean and yes I knew about Devoncourt. How did you find out?”
“I did some research. It’s amazing what you’ll find on the internet. How did you know?”
“Family friends of werewolf’s or did you forget?”
“No I didn’t forget. I just didn’t think you would really know anyone past the Alpha’s family. You just made it seem like you didn’t know them much.”
“No I don’t know much but when a werewolf or anyone for that matter is a soothsayer it’s big news. Look Jess about the night out on the balcony I just wanted to.”
“Don’t,” I said cutting him off mid sentence. He looked like he was about to say more so I held up my hand to keep him from talking. “Leave it be. Nothing happened no harm done, okay. We work together and starting something would just complicate things. We can sit here and discuss something that almost happened all day but it’s not gonna get anywhere. The point is nothing happened. So forget that something almost happened and let’s move on please.”
“Okay,” he responded. One word and one word was good enough for me. The rest of the ride to the Colorado mountains was in silence. We were either reading or sleeping. Neither one of us has been in these mountains and there’s no telling what we might stumble across.
After a four and a half hour flight we finally landed in Boulder Colorado where Charles was last spotted. Last we heard he was headed straight into the mountains which we were told have plenty of caves to hide in. Some of which are very difficult to get to.
We checked into our hot
el rooms and I headed out in search of a library to research what I saw on the wall of Mark’s house. I would use my laptop but it’s my work laptop and everything we do on it is monitored. Since everyone is acting so strange I think its best I use the old fashioned means to find info and that would be the local library.
At the library I fill out necessary paperwork for a library card and sit down at the closest computer and type in Mother Earth. The search engine pops up with Gaia. During my research I found that Gaia was the great mother of all. The Mother Goddess; creator and giver of birth to the Earth and all things in the Universe.
So from what I’m reading Gaia created everything from earth, heavens, humans, animals, and also all supernaturals. Apparently she also created a god named Uranus and he became her husband. Most know him as the sky god; supes know him as God Were. Basically he could change the shape of any animal making him a panwere. Together Gaia and Uranus created a son and his name came from nike laos which means victory of the people, but it didn’t say what his actual name was. It also said that he was born to fulfill a prophecy but I couldn’t find anything about his life after he was born or anything about the prophecy. Seeing as I wasn’t going to get anymore information I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Jason to go hunting.
When I arrived back at the hotel Jason was at the front desk yelling at the clerk, “hey, what in the world are you hollering about.”
Jason spins around and grabs me into a bone crushing hug. I pat his back because quite frankly I don’t know what else to do.
He finally releases me and pushed me backwards at arms length while he has a death grip on my upper arms looking me over as if he was looking for injuries.
“Where in the hell have you been! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” he demanded.
Betrayed (Betrayed #1) Page 5
