"Why don't you go check on Aldric? I think he could use some help.” She met his eyes and would swear she saw the wolf in them, but he just nodded and spun on his heel and stalked back down the hallway. Faith took a deep breath and turned back to the detective who looked surprised and a little impressed.
"I understand that Mr. Keller is upset. I can't blame him in the slightest. I don't have kids but I can't imagine I'd be as calm as he is if my son was taken in such a violent manner," Lincoln said. His voice was pitched to be soothing, and he took a small, shuffling step closer to Faith.
Faith just stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind her. "Detective. I appreciate that you are simply doing your job. I also understand that you are doing your best with limited resources. It's nothing against you," she held up a hand to stop his protest. "It's just a fact that smaller towns like this and government services in general aren't funded at a level that would prove actually useful. And even when it is, that money is usually spent on toys and shiny initiatives that politicians want rather than what the people actually need. That's nothing against you."
"Miss Latham–"
"The fact is that Marc and Aldric have investigative resources that you simply don't have access to," Faith mentally flailed around a little, trying to find a way to make it sound even vaguely legal that their vampire clanmate hacked the ATM camera already and was probably hacking the police database right this moment to track down the car. "They've already contacted an investigator who is trying to find more information about the people you showed us yesterday. We think that's who took Kaylee and that Jake was just grabbed as leverage or something. No, we haven't heard anything from the kidnappers. No, we don't know why they would target Crissy or grab Kaylee and Jake. What we know we heard from the doctor at the clinic who’s taking care of our friends who were injured. As soon as we have anything for you to work with or names for you to hunt down and arrest, we'll be sure to let you know."
Faith tried not to look incredibly nervous and guilty of lying, which probably made her look shady as hell as the detective let her finish her little rant. When she wrapped it up, he looked faintly irritated, but impressed despite himself.
"I see. Well, I suppose I should tell you that we know the names of the two men in that photo we showed you yesterday. Jesse Honeyford and Justin Simmon. Honeyford is the brother of a man named Greg Honeyford, who happens to be known to many as Mister Greg when he's teaching preschool. Greg Honeyford is currently in custody in your hometown, and the local police there are interrogating him, but unlike his brother, his record is fairly clean. It seems that all the trouble he's ever gotten into is due to his older brother.” Lincoln fixed Faith with a hard stare. “If you know anything about these men, now is the time to tell me."
Faith blinked at him. "You arrested Kaylee's preschool teacher?"
"That's what you got out of that?" Detective Lincoln's eyebrows rose.
"I'm sorry, detective. I'm just a little bit stressed," Faith ground out. "Was there something more vitally important in there somewhere?"
"Well, there is the fact that the police are far from useless in these situations. We have a BOLO out for Honeyford and his known associates. If that is who has your sister and your niece, as well as Mr. Keller's son, I would be very concerned. Jesse Honeyford is not someone to be taken lightly, and is not someone to be confronted unprepared." There was an edge to his voice that hinted at something, and Faith wasn't in the mood for subtle.
"If you have something to say, Detective, say it. You have about two minutes before I go back inside."
"Please don't let your friends rush out and think that they can affect a rescue. That’s a job for the police, who have the skills and training to rescue hostage victims. If your investigator finds Honeyford's location, please call me with that information. Don't try to go in yourselves."
Detective Lincoln gave her a hard stare as an SUV rolled up the drive and almost skidded to a stop on the gravel parking area. A cloud of dust billowed up between the car and the porch, but the sound of several doors closing was clear as a bell. Out of the dust cloud five people emerged, and Faith couldn't help but think of action movies. All four of them wore some version of cargo pants and a dark t-shirt. Two of them wore matching heavy leather jackets and one had his head shaved in a short mohawk that made her think of that guy from the A-Team.
They all smiled at Faith as they reached the porch and the mohawk guy and the one that looked kind of frighteningly bland walked inside like they lived there, but the biggest of them turned to stand behind her and the small woman in the spiked leather jacket that matched the mohawk guys' coat leaned on the porch railing.
"Having trouble, Miss Faith?" the man asked in a voice that left no doubt as to what he would do if she said yes.
Faith wasn't sure how the guy knew her name, but she just nodded a greeting at him like they were old friends, and shrugged. "Not really. Detective Lincoln was updating me on the status of his investigation, but he was just finished. Thank you for all your hard work, Detective. If we hear anything that will help you, we'll let you know."
Lincoln glanced at the man behind her, then at the woman who was for all the world just hanging out, one hip propped on the railing. With a look back at Faith and a deep sigh, Lincoln just shook his head sadly and turned and stepped back down to the driveway and climbed into his car.
As the sound of his engine receded into the distance, both wolves– because Faith wasn't foolish enough to think they were anything else– tipped their heads and continued listening before nodding in satisfaction. The woman turned and grinned broadly.
"I like your style, lady," she said, reaching her hand out. "Annette Borland, but everyone calls me Kenya. Nice work getting him out of here."
Kenya's grip was firm, but Faith got the impression she was being careful. "Thank you. Faith Latham, but I guess you know that. And I don’t think that the human cops are going to be much help with this. I don’t want them to get hurt because they’re up against paranormals they never knew existed.“
"Aldric speaks highly of you," the man behind her said, extending his own hand for shaking. His nostrils flared slightly as he took in her scent, she guessed. "Rodolfo Addams. Rod to my friends and packmates. I'm glad to meet you."
"Likewise," Faith said, not knowing what else to say.
"Let's go see what the boss has for us," Kenya said, clapping Faith on the shoulder.
18
Aldric leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He could hear Marc slamming around in the kitchen, Ori and Kenya with him, half to help and half to keep him as calm as possible. His clan leader had been prowling back and forth and snapping at everyone until Faith had quietly suggested that maybe they would all think better with some food in their stomachs. Aldric almost kissed her for that.
Faith had sent him a wink at that point and said she would bring him some coffee in a bit, and ushered the clan leader and enforcers out of the room.
Rod had gone to meet up with Mia at the site of the abduction. They had called a short while ago that the place, while not exactly crawling with human police, was far from empty. They managed to meet up with their human clanmate Steve and get a few details of the official investigation, which sounded like it was following similar lines to their own. They, however, had the added benefit of knowing the bastards' pack affiliation and probable motives.
They also knew that the wolves were still in the area, somewhere. As soon as Aldric knew there were rogues in their territory at all, he had posted sentries on every road in or out, even the tiny logging and camping access roads. With three human hostages— Crissy and the kids— they weren’t going to be able to get far cutting through the forests. Marc and Aldric might not know exactly where in the Frostwalker territory they were hiding, but no strange wolves had left it, at least.
"How are you holding up?" Faith asked. She walked carefully across the carpet to put a steaming mug in front of him, then leaned a hip against his des
k and took a sip from her own mug.
"Leo should get back to me soon. He wanted to call in a friend of his to help, but also wanted to keep a cushion of deniability between us."
Faith chuckled softly and had another sip. Aldric groaned as he tasted his own coffee. His eyes slid shut and he just breathed for a few minutes. The bitter-warm scent of the coffee mixed nicely with the familiar scents of his office and his clan, and with the new, bright scent of Faith herself. He felt it settling into him, grounding him and helping him focus.
"I know that you and Marc and Leo will find them. And that we'll bring them all home," Faith's voice broke into his silence, and the certainty in her voice dovetailed with her words and made him smile. Still, the blame for this rested on his shoulders.
"Thank you. I wish that we had more information already," Aldric sighed. "I failed you, and I failed Kaylee. I swore to keep you both safe."
"Stop that." Faith put her mug down and crossed her arms to glare at him. "Don't you dare take responsibility for some jackass's actions. The only people at fault here are Honeyford and his goons. And if I get my hands on the guy that drove that car into Simon and Tamika, I'm going to wring his neck myself and being a werewolf isn't going to help the jerk."
Aldric couldn't help but chuckle. "I would be glad to watch that." The humor faded quickly, however. "I wish I knew how many of his lackeys Honeyford has here with him. I only eliminated the one, but clearly there are plenty more."
"I believe in you," Faith said. Her eyes twinkled. "I have faith."
Aldric groaned, and she just grinned. "Look, someone makes that joke at least once a month. I just beat you guys to it."
He just shook his head and sipped his coffee. After a moment he broke the quiet again. "Thank you," he said. "For earlier with the detective. When Marc came back in here I could tell how close his wolf was to the surface. He said that you had banished him back inside and took on guarding the door yourself."
Faith moved her shoulders in a small shrug. "Going all alpha wolf on a human detective wouldn't help anyone, and would probably only cause the Frostwalkers a hell of a lot of trouble. Getting rid of the guy was the least I could do for you all."
"You were fierce, from what I hear. Kenya and Rod were both impressed," Aldric said. He didn't miss that she hadn't included herself as a Frostwalker in her statement.
"You've protected me from way worse than a cop. It's you guys that are impressive," Faith shrugged again.
"You are one of us, remember. You are a Frostwalker, and we protect our own," Aldric said, then he smiled. "Just as you protected us from a threat."
Faith smiled at him for a moment before deflating. "What about those kidnapping werewolves?"
"We will find them and we will end them," Aldric said with as much confidence as he could put into his words. It wasn't a promise. It was a statement of fact. "Those wolves will not be a threat for much longer."
"And then there's the small problem of the dead guy and the possibility that there are still vampires with blighthounds around here somewhere,” Marc growled as he came back into the room. He carried a tray of crackers and fruit and cheese, and set it on the small table by the sofa.
Kenya and Ori followed him in, carrying mugs of coffee and curled up together on the sofa. The couple exuded an oddly sweet punk aura, but Aldric knew that they were two of the deadliest of his enforcers.
"I am not discounting the possibility that Honeyford hired vampire trackers," Aldric nodded. “That is, trackers that were vampires. I mentioned as much to Leo before he went off to do... whatever it is he does."
Aldric truly didn't want to know the details. Human laws were not always practical in helping to solve paranormal problems, but the digital ones made more sense to follow than the physical world ones, in Aldric's mind as they seemed to be largely about privacy. More likely he simply didn’t understand it all.
"That doesn't make sense," Ori spoke up. He had one arm wrapped around his wife and the other was gesturing with his coffee cup. "If Honeyford wanted to get his hands on sweet little Kaylee for transactional purposes," he scowled and cleared his throat before continuing, but failed to repress the growl that laced his words. "Then there would be no way he'd send vampire trackers. Those guys are fuckin' vicious. They'd do too much damage for what he planned, cause they wouldn’t care.”
Marc's snarling crescendoed and then, with a visible effort, he pulled his wolf back. "I believe you're right. I think there may be two different groups involved here."
"But why would vampires be after a little girl like that? I mean, there's a fucked up logic to Honeyford, at least, but..." Kenya shrugged and let the question hang in the air. “What benefit would it be to anyone else? Ransom?”
Faith shifted in her place, still leaning against Aldric's desk, and he rolled his chair closer to her, to put a hand on her arm. She glanced down at him and he could see the battle she was waging with herself. He knew that instinct and long practice told her to shrug and deflect, but there was a growing trust there, also.
Not just trust in Aldric himself, which humbled him enough as it was, but in Marc and the rest of the clan. Faith knew that the people in this room, as well as Tamika and the other enforcers, were the inner circle of the Frostwalker clan, and– he hoped, maybe– Faith was beginning to count herself as one of them.
He watched her suck her lips in to clamp them between her teeth for a long moment, before glancing over at Marc who was still debating with Kenya regarding who might be in their territory and why. Marc was doing a fine job of not revealing the Latham's secret, but still, Faith spoke up.
"Marc, I... I think we should tell them,” she said, almost too quietly to hear, but everyone else in the room had sharp, paranormal hearing, so they caught the words and silenced their own conversation. Marc stopped his pacing and turned to her with a worried frown.
"I mean, if you think it will help keep people safe, then it's okay. That's the most important thing." Faith went back to chewing her lip and looking nervous.
Aldric felt her shiver under his hand and had enough. He reached over and slid her off the desk and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and holding her safe, and was gratified when her trembling eased and stopped.
"Are you certain?" he asked her, and she met his eyes steadily though she still chewed her lip, and nodded. He looked up to see Marc watching them, with an amused twinkle once again. The anxiety was not gone from his face, but apparently it was entertaining enough to watch his friend care for someone that it distracted him.
"You trust them, so I do too," she said.
“We’re honored to hear you say that, but it is your secret, Faith," Marc said gently. "It is yours to share or not."
Faith took a deep breath and nodded, then glanced around the room. Nobody said anything, waiting instead to see what she had to reveal to them, but not pushing. Then, settling her attention on the tray of snack foods, she drew another deep breath and held it for a moment, and the plate moved from one end of the coffee table to the other.
Ori's eyes grew huge and Kenya rocketed off the sofa to get her face right next to the dish and squinted at it.
"What the hell?" she muttered.
Faith swallowed then stretched out her hand, palm up, and stilled before a small flicker of fire danced up from her palm for a full minute as the wolves gaped at her. When she dropped her hand, the flame was gone and she seemed to shrink into herself, so Aldric pulled her close and rested her head on his shoulder where she immediately hid her face. It was not a simple thing to show off so spectacularly after living her whole life hiding this gift.
"The Latham sisters are Magaestra," Aldric said into the silence. Ori whistled low and Kenya sat heavily back onto the sofa, an expression of careful thought on her face.
"The girl, too?" Ori asked, bouncing his eyes between Aldric and Marc, who shook his head.
"No, not that we are aware of. From what I understand it is much like shifting in that young children have
no abilities and they wouldn't know if she inherited the skill for another year or two," Marc said. He sat heavily in the arm chair on the other side of Aldric's desk and ran his fingers over his head. "Also, there is the fact that we suspect Honeyford is her biological father, so she may not have a mage's power anyway. Kaylee may be a shifter. She scents like a wolf, though faintly.“
"Hoo boy," Ori said and whistled again. "No wonder they've got vampires after them. That is some very valuable blood. That might be why Honeyford wants them, too. Might not be for his alpha after all, but for the black market. Selling mages would bring him a ton of money. Talk about rare goods."
Faith trembled violently, and Aldric found himself hissing a warning at his enforcer who flicked a surprised look up at them.
"No offence, Faith. Sorry,” Ori said in a rush.
"I hate to admit that it is a thought that occurred to me as well," Marc said with a guilty flash at Faith, then a frown at Ori. "Though I would have been a bit more diplomatic when I mentioned it."
"Yes, Alpha," Ori slumped and looked over to Faith and Aldric. "I'm sorry, Faith. Really."
Faith nodded. "It's okay. I don't like it at all, but you're right."
"So you think the rogues were tracking them for Honeyford and just got too enthusiastic?" Ori frowned.
Aldric nodded. “Perhaps. If Faith and miss Kaylee had been badly wounded, Honeyford would have been extremely displeased, regardless of his intentions.”
Kenya took a deep breath and looked over at Aldric and Faith, her thoughtful expression replaced now by a sad, almost guilty one. "Um, I'm sorry, but... Are you sure we should get too involved in this? If you're right, then whoever is after them isn't going to give up easily. Having Faith here could put people in danger.
Aldric hissed again and Kenya shrank back into Ori's side, baring her neck.
Marc held up his hands, and stood. "Enough."
He turned to Kenya and Ori. "All three Lathams are now Frostwalkers. Faith has been honest with me and with Aldric from the start. Before they were attacked, she was unaware of the existence of the larger paranormal world, and in the face of what she's been through with her sister missing and the Goldfangs attacking, and discovering that monsters and werewolves and vampires are not only real, but are actively hunting her and her family, what has she done?" Marc raised a brow at Kenya, who already looked thoroughly chastised. "Well?”
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