I was trying to learn and retain all of the shit Patrick had had drilled into his head from Ethan, the previous Liege in our territory. All the rules. The people. The territorial lines. Plus, the werewolf rules and packs. It was a lot. And sorry, I couldn’t remember everything all the time. It also didn’t help that I zoned out a lot while Patrick was talking about it. It was boring.
“Was Trumbolt’s vampire left to the sun as well?”
“No, his heart was cut out, sliced and spread out on a nearby table like a deck of cards,” Savannah said and clenched her teeth so her jaw went granite-hard. Her neck muscles tightened until tension extended straight down into her shoulders in a visible line.
“That’s . . .” Ev started, searching for the right description.
“Gruesome,” Diego finished for him.
“It’s difficult,” I said, almost not hearing Diego as my mind started to swirl, considering the time it would take, the precision of the cuts you would need, and the sharpness of the knife to cut through the hard tissue of the heart.
“You speak as if you’ve cut out a heart before,” Redrum 1 said. When I met her mocking gaze with the hard truth of my own, her smile faltered. “Have you? How many?” she asked with a gleeful smile cresting her lips and her blue eyes bright with what I interpreted as excitement.
“Several,” I answered absently, picturing the process in my mind. “It’s the connective tissue that makes it hard. Plus, the ribs. You have to crack the ribcage open like a claw or else you’ll never get to the heart.”
I glanced up and both Redrum 1 and 2 were smiling appreciatively. Savannah’s upper lip curled in a snarl and Ev shivered beside me. Look who was the monster in the room now. Diego only nodded as if he too understood the difficultly in what had been done to Trumbolt’s vampire and his wolf.
“So,” I said trying to draw everybody back to the issue at hand and not the fact that I’d cut out hearts. “All of these are very showy. Whoever is doing this wants someone to find them and the gruesomeness suggests they want to get under your skin.”
“Why do you say that?” Diego asked, his tone suspicious.
“If they just wanted to kill someone,” I replied, “there are less cumbersome and more efficient ways to do it. Ways that take less time, less staging, and draw less attention. These are demonstrations.”
“How did they get them to sit still?” Ev asked, absently.
A damn fine question. I turned to the group. “Silver?”
“There was no scarring,” Redrum 1 answered.
How do you restrain a preternatural being with the strength of ten men . . . without actually restraining them? “I think we should see the site,” I said, stepping forward. “I have questions that need answers.”
Chapter 10
Savannah led Ev, Booker, and myself from Diego’s Presidential suite. We left the Redrum twins behind and I was more than a little thankful for that. Following the Tiger Queen through the thick crowds on Bourbon Street, we kept a little bit of distance between her and us. I wanted time to react if this was an ambush. I didn’t trust her. Flanking me on both sides as we moved through the throngs of drunken tourists, Booker and Ev clustered close around me. They didn’t trust her either.
We rounded another corner and were faced with a narrow street, lined with old wrought-iron hitching posts. Neon gleamed from the signs lining Bourbon and ricocheted off the cars parked along the sidewalks. There were only a few signs for off-the-beaten-track places. Places not as heavily trafficked by tourist, and somehow just that much seedier. One of those signs was for a strip club. Women strutted down the sidewalk out front, dressed in next to nothing. Passing out flyers, they called for people to “Come on in, Suga’” and “Come see the show.”
Savannah stepped into the street and circled the building directly across from the strip club. We hesitantly followed into the shadowed alley and up two floors worth of fire escape ladders on the back end of the building. One by one, we hauled ourselves up over the lip at the top. I gripped the edge and propelled myself up. Booker, behind me, placed his hands on my ass and shoved. Ordinarily, I would have been offended, but my upper body strength just wasn’t what Booker’s was. I could do it but it would take longer and tire muscles I might need to wield Gladi. I swung my legs over the side and used my momentum to land on my feet just like a true pummel horse gymnast.
“And she sticks the landing!” Ev said with his arms in the air like a soccer fan yelling GOOOOAAAAL!
I bowed at the waist with a smile on my face. “Thank you. Thank you.”
Booker vaulted himself over and landed beside me. “I apologize for the familiarity,” he began but I stopped him.
“Booker, thanks for the lift.” I nodded and patted his shoulder with a smile. He gave me a relieved grin back, and I headed toward Ev. “Time to earn your keep, kid.”
“Yes, Ma’am!” Ev said and turned on his heels before I could chastise him or smack him across the back of his head for calling me ma’am. He was quick.
Crouching down close to the spot Savannah had indicated the wolf had been murdered, Ev took in a few deep breaths, closed his eyes and focused. “I smell the wolf,” he said taking in another deep breath, “and the blood.”
“I told you,” Savannah snapped. “The place is clean.”
I waved her away and listened to Ev. He got down on hands and knees, the closest he could get his nose to the surface without physically changing into a wolf. I strode over and knelt down beside him. “Ev, what’ve ya got?”
He leaned back up onto his haunches and glanced at me, then back down at the pavement. “There’s something here. I can’t quite get it in my man skin. I need to shift.”
“If you want to do that, we’ll watch your back,” I said, and he tugged his shirt over his head. “Booker!” I called, motioning him over. “Ev is going to go furry to get a better read on the scents,” I whispered out of earshot from Savannah. “Can you watch his back until he’s finished? I’ll get rid of the Tiger Queen.”
“As you wish.” He picked up the clothing Ev was strewing about, folding them neatly before tucking them under his arm.
I turned and stalked over to Savannah, putting all my best Alpha in my stride. “I think we’re done here, Savannah,” I said. “You can go. We’ll find our own way back.”
“What’s he doing?”
“You were right. He’s just going to shift and take one more shot. I don’t think we’ll find anything but there’s no need for you to stay too.” I wasn’t a very good liar but I was trying like hell to phrase it in a way that wasn’t a lie. I didn’t really want Savannah to know if we found something. I wasn’t interested in sharing anything with either Raine or Isidro. I didn’t work for Lebensblut and I wasn’t about to make their lives easier. Call me petty.
“I should stay,” she said but there wasn’t the conviction in her tone she’d had earlier in the night. It seemed my Alpha stare and voice was better than I thought. She peered around me, trying to get a glimpse of Ev as he shifted but I stepped in front of her, blocking her intrusive gaze. “Go.”
She eyed me, her green eyes moving over me as if I was much bigger and scarier than I was. Hesitating, her shoulders squared as if she was going to argue. She didn’t. In the end, Savannah huffed and flipped her hair back off her shoulders. “I have a date anyway. I don’t care and your dog won’t find anything.” With that little pout, she jogged and leapt from the roof. I ran to the edge to see if she’d gone splat on the pavement but she didn’t. In the narrow alley, she crouched with her gaze fixed on me. I guess it was true. Cats did always land on their feet. I envied the grace of her landing. Shit, I would’ve broken both legs and made a complete fool of myself.
Ev’s groans drew my attention and I turned as he finished his shift. Panting with the exertion of his change, he shook his entir
e body from head to tail as if he’d been drenched in water. Wobbly but strong on four paws, he took a few steps and his stride grew steadier as he went. He placed his nose to the roof, scraping against the tar, taking one deep breath after another.
I strode over and out of his way as he circled around a small spot a few feet from the HVAC system. He sneezed once and then put his nose back down to the ground and circled again. Following a direct trail across the roof and to the edge, he barked and then growled before turning back to me.
“You got something?” I asked.
He barked again in confirmation, his sea-foam green gaze boring into me.
“Can you follow it?” Booker asked, stepping up next to me. Ev growled in response.
“All right, let’s head down.”
Booker pulled a collar and a small leash from his back pocket and handed them to me. I understood why Booker didn’t feel entirely comfortable putting a leash around Ev’s neck, especially with his teeth gleaming in the neon. I smiled back at the vampire and knelt before the werewolf. I didn’t have to go that far down. Ev, who was smaller than Dean by a good foot in height and at least 50 pounds, was still big for a regular dog. People saw what they wanted to see though.
I snapped the collar in place and attached the leash. Booker picked Ev up and slung him over his shoulders before we headed down the fire escape. At the bottom, I grabbed his leash and let Ev lead the way.
We rounded the corner and re-entered the street traffic. The strip club was in full swing, half-naked women sauntered out front, passing out flyers for the next show. Ev dragged me to the sidewalk directly in front of the building and immediately dropped his nose to the pavement. He paced, searching for the scent. Picking his muzzle up, he stared up at the roof, hunting for the connecting spot from where the scent had bolted. Back and forth, he paced, his nose to the cement. He huffed and snorted before turning for a fourth pass.
“Anything?” I asked, seeing the frustration etched in the raised hackles across his spine. He snorted and I took that to mean he’d lost it. “All right, then let’s head home.”
We trekked through the quarter and back to the SUV parked in the garage at the casino along Canal Street. We got a couple of awkward stares as we took the elevator up to the top floor with a giant dog. However, we didn’t say anything and Booker whistled a little as if we didn’t have a werewolf on a leash.
The guy who got on the elevator and didn’t realize we were still going up, edged his way over into the corner. His gaze would dart from Ev and then back to the floor. The scent of fear filled the small space and I knew we had to get out of the elevator quickly. Sweat beaded across his upper lip making a savory aroma permeate. Ev’s stomach growled. Yep, we definitely needed to get out of here. The doors opened to the fourth floor and the guy dashed out the moment there was enough room for his body to slide through the gap.
“He seemed uncomfortable,” I said as the doors closed. Booker laughed and it was the first time I’d ever heard him actually enjoy himself.
The elevator stopped and we strode out onto the roof. There were only a few cars parked across the top floor and we made a beeline to the rental Cadillac Escalade. Booker tossed Ev’s clothes and shoes into the back seat, opened the door for the werewolf and then hopped into the passenger side. I got behind the wheel and started the SUV, heading back to the house in the Garden District.
It was a quiet ride home, Booker didn’t say anything, Ev groaned as he shifted to human in the backseat, and we left the radio off. I pulled into the garage behind the house and got out. Ev stepped out gingerly, his skin still sensitive after the change. Walking across the lawn, I nodded to Tag who was on patrol duty on the ground and Bethany, one of our vampires, circled the balcony surrounding the top floor of the mansion.
As we entered the kitchen through the French doors, Dean and Patrick were waiting for us. I kissed Patrick first and then Dean as he squeezed me close to him with a firm grip on my ass and turned to Ev.
“What’d you find?”
“It was weird,” Ev said, sitting at the kitchen table and slouching back in the chair.
“How so?” Patrick asked, sitting across from Ev.
“I definitely scented the werewolf and the blood. I didn’t necessarily smell another person but there was something else. It smelled like Brittany.”
“Her scent?” I asked.
“No, there was a sweet scent like candy. I always smell cotton candy when she’s casting but she doesn’t smell like that,” he answered, rubbing his temples. “If that makes sense.”
“A witch then,” Patrick replied, understanding what Ev was trying to explain.
“But you couldn’t find them on the sidewalk?”
“It wasn’t that I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t there. It was like someone had taken a giant eraser and erased all the scents. There was just nothing,”
“How?” Dean asked.
“I don’t know. The sweet scent was on the roof. The void of scents was too and both led straight off the side. But once we got to the sidewalk, there were too many other, newer scents covering up the non-scent.”
“So, the magic has a scent but the witch doesn’t?” I asked.
“Sure,” Ev answered, clearly unsure.
“Where’d they go?” Booker asked.
“I don’t know,” Ev answered, agitated this time.
“Well, I guess it’s time to ask Miss Caroline for some help,” I said, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and the Iced Tea pitcher from the fridge.
“Help with what, Hon?” Miss Caroline called, strolling into the kitchen in her soft pink housecoat and slippers.
“Do you know any witches we can talk to?”
“Well now,” she said, sliding into the barstool along the island. Her movement was slow and exaggerated as if the joints were stiff. I knew the humidity in Columbus made her arthritis ache so the constant New Orleans heat must be killing her. There was a part of me that wished I could do something to help her. She was human though and without doing something I knew she’d hate me for later and didn’t want, she would have to suffer. I could at least live with the consolation that soon, we would be back in Columbus, in the middle of winter and she would get some relief. “I think I might know someone.”
“Really?” Brittany asked with an excited light in her irises as she slipped into the chair next to Ev at the table. Maybe she didn’t realize how close she sat to him, but I sure did. Dean shot me a quick glance and I knew he’d noticed too.
“I think Josephine would like to meet you,” Miss Caroline said as she eyed Brittany up and down.
“Hey, Brit, why don’t you help Ev upstairs,” I said as Ev started to shake his head in protest. “Go, you look beat.”
“Come on Everett, I’ll bring you something to eat,” Brittany said with a teasing smile.
“Twist my arm,” Ev taunted, groaning as he got to his feet. They left the room, Brittany carrying a plate of fried chicken and okra.
Miss Caroline, having been around werewolves and vampires for a time now, understood to wait until Brittany and Ev were upstairs before she started to speak. “I think meeting Josephine would help Brittany. She needs someone she can talk to. Josephine may not be close, but she can help her when she needs it and I think that girl’s gonna need it sooner than we thought.”
“I believe you may have a point, Caroline,” Patrick said, crossing his legs at the knee and leaning back in the chair around the kitchen table. “However, I would not like the information regarding Brittany to get around to the other Territorial Lieges, packs, covens, or the Board. Can this Josephine be trusted to keep Brittany and her power quiet?”
“Josephine doesn’t live in the city and keeps mostly to herself but I’ll have a talk with her ‘bout that when we visit. She’s an old friend. She won’t as
k too many questions.” Caroline’s words were cordial but I heard the edge in her tone.
She liked Patrick and was respectful to his face, probably because of me, but I always knew she was wary of what he was. She adored Dean, cooked for him, and even teased him. Patrick was different and I was afraid that it would always be that way. There was something about the difference in how he was treated that made me just a little bit sad. Jade was the same way. The thought of Patrick and his people being hunted like animals left a hard rock of fear sitting in the pit of my stomach. I would burn the world to the ground before I let anyone harm the two men I loved.
“How’s tomorrow, Miss Caroline?” I asked.
“I’ll be ready first thing in the morning. It’s gonna take us a good hour to get out there.”
“You making breakfast?” Dean asked, his tone full of hope.
“Yes, child, I’ll make breakfast.”
A sigh of relief went through Dean and the corner of his mouth turned up. Werewolves could eat and Miss Caroline could cook. It was a match made in preternatural heaven.
“Tomorrow’s a long day,” Dean said.
“Welcome to Brittany’s coming out party,” I snorted, heading upstairs.
All of a sudden, I was exhausted.
Chapter 11
I stepped out of the shower, my head wrapped in a towel and a robe tied tight around my waist. Near the French doors leading out to our balcony, Patrick sat at a table staring at the laptop screen with a stack of contracts resting next to it. His brow was furrowed and his full lips pursed in the cutest sign of frustration. My chest tightened as I watched him. I loved him so much. So much more than I ever thought I would or was even capable of loving anyone. The possibility of something happening to him made my stomach churn until I thought I would be sick from it. Distracting myself, I tugged the towel from my head and patted my hair, soaking up the excess water.
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