Worth Your While

by Connie Suttle

  "No intention to do that," Rob held up a hand. "What he says could be more than important to all sprites, as well as the demon and shifter communities."

  "I want to know what he knows about the Kings," I growled at Rob. "Since he's in the area, I figure he gave them a ride to Douglasville."

  "That is what Will and I have determined. And, as we have been tracking those two ice demons, we also want to hear what Greenville has to say about them."

  "Let's go, then. The sooner we get this taken care of, the sooner we can get some sleep."

  Rob

  Will and I sat in the back row, with two rock demon guards sitting in the middle. Parke rode up front, while Daniel drove. I'd learned that Ralph Greenville was being held at a vampire safe house outside Athens, Georgia. It took more than an hour to get there.

  A small, frame house stood atop a hidden, underground bunker, which would be light-proof and bomb-proof, if I knew vampires at all.

  We trooped down two flights of steps located inside the house before coming to the locked door of the bunker. Parke knocked; we were let in by one of the rock demons acting as guards. Greenville sat on the cold floor of the bunker in the far corner, while an ice demon watched him closely.

  Ice freezes water. Greenville worried for his life.

  As he should. I doubted he'd walk out of this place, and his water would evaporate soon enough, leaving nothing to mark his grave.

  His eyes grew round when he saw Parke; I believe he knew his death was coming then, if he hadn't figured it out before. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why he'd been placed in the Prince's position in the first place. Averill and I knew he was too weak to be effective.

  Except to get half the Douglasville Pack killed.

  "Start talking, Greenville," Parke hissed at him. "The more useful your words are, the longer I let you live."

  "They threatened me," he began, his voice little more than a whine.

  "In what way?" Parke crossed arms over his chest. "And why didn't you tell me about it?"

  Because they paid him, Will's voice sounded in my head.

  Bribed, I sent to Parke.

  "How much?" Parke shouted at Greenville. "How much did they give you to sell us out?"

  "F-fifty thousand," Greenville attempted to make himself smaller. Parke was already looking down on him. This confession and subsequent cowering didn't improve my already dismal opinion of the former Prince of Alabama.

  "Did you not consider that I'd have paid five times that much for the knowledge of where to find Morton and Dalton King? That reward is posted on every Prince and Princess' website."

  "They threatened me," he whined again.

  "With what?"

  "They said they'd make sure I lost my position."

  "And what are the odds of that happening now?" Parke snapped. "Damn, Greenville, you're dumber than mud."

  "Who threatened you?" I spoke out of turn, but I couldn't help myself. All along, I'd assumed it was Shakkor Agdah, but something in his voice this time warned me it could be someone else.

  Couldn't be the Kings; they're broke, Will informed me.

  He was right.

  "Parke," Daniel warned as Parke's prelim began to manifest.

  "Who?" Parke hissed between growing fangs.

  "Gorham and Franks," Greenville's words trembled on his lips. He'd named two prominent ice demons, who'd moved to Alabama recently after spending most of their lives in Mississippi. They had multiple businesses in Mississippi and I'd wondered why they moved.

  "Looks like Shakkor Agdah likes ice demons," I snorted.

  "That means we have four to hunt instead of two, and I'm not surprised that Gorham and Franks knew Dalton and Morton. I figure they're calling in more favors from ah, old friends," Daniel surmised. "Not just for Shakkor Agdah, but to put this fool in the Prince's position."

  "You think Morton and Dalton have done some things for Gorham and Franks that required less than legal solutions?" Parke turned toward Daniel.

  "Sounds about right," Daniel drawled.

  "What do you know about that?" Parke snapped at Greenville, and the second round of questioning began.

  Cassie

  My stomach growled so loudly it woke me. Turning toward the bedside table, I checked the time; four-fifteen in the afternoon. With a groan, I rolled off the bed and padded toward the bathroom.

  I'd gone to bed with my hair still damp from a quick shower earlier, and now I paid the price for that as I studied my image in the bathroom mirror. A hurricane might have had less impact on it, I decided, before digging through drawers to find my curling iron.

  After twenty minutes of mostly fruitless effort to get my hair in some sort of recognizable formation, I pulled it back in a bun and headed for the kitchen. I hoped the werewolves hadn't cleaned out the fridge and pantry while I slept.

  What I found was Cliff and Kent, sitting at the kitchen island eating fried chicken. Cliff didn't try talking with his mouth full, but he pulled out the chair next to his. I grabbed a plate from a stack beside a covered pan of fried chicken and helped myself.

  There was potato salad in a separate covered dish, plus asparagus in another. All of it was wonderful. I tore into a chicken leg while Cliff got another thigh to wolf down. I owed Beverly a hug for this—it was all homemade.

  "Is there any left for us," Parke walked into the kitchen, followed by Daniel, Pete, Jerry, Will and Rob.

  They were only now coming back from their visit with Ralph Greenville, who was now a former everything, including among the living, I assumed. All of them looked as if they could sleep standing up.

  "I take it there's a vacancy for Prince of Alabama?" Cliff asked as Parke and the others took empty chairs around the island.

  "Yep." Parke pulled the stack of plates toward him, then handed them out in both directions so everyone could eat.

  I pushed the flatware caddy toward him, followed by the stack of napkins. At least Beverly knew how to cook for supernaturals—there was enough of everything for all of us.

  "Find out anything useful?" Cliff went on.

  "Found out the Kings have been thick with Gorham and Franks, and that Gorham and Franks have been thick with Black Myth," Parke bit into a chicken breast.

  "Fucking hell," Cliff swore softly. "That means we have four ice demons to hunt instead of two."

  "Just what I said," Daniel acknowledged.

  "Let me guess—dear old Dud and Grand-dud have been doing shady crap for Gorham and Franks," I snorted.

  Parke was chewing, so he tapped his nose and nodded at my words.

  "I demoted Mac for his part in all this—he should have alerted us the moment that call came in instead of waiting until the last minute, when we were helpless to do anything about it. Some present company excepted," Cliff bumped his shoulder against mine.

  "How did he take that?" I asked, lifting the napkin over the fried chicken and searching for another leg.

  "I think he's happy to still be alive," Cliff growled. "He better be—I thought about letting the Douglasville Pack hand out justice."

  "They lost a lot," Kent agreed. "If I were Mac Harbour, I'd be looking for another pack—out of state."

  "He has a brother in the Savannah Pack—he may go there," Cliff said. "In fact, I suggested it. He said he'd consider it."

  "He may not go, because everybody there will know what happened," I pointed out.

  "True. He needs to tuck his tail between his legs and go wherever he can after that stunt. Getting your brothers killed isn't looked upon kindly by any pack."

  "Parke?" I turned toward him.

  "Hmmm?" He was still eating.

  "Did Greenville hear from the Kings after they deserted last night?"

  "He didn't," Rob answered for Parke. "They left him to twist in the wind. No doubt they're holed up somewhere, waiting this out. I doubt Shakkor Agdah is very pleased with them right now."

  "Do Franks and Gorham have any property here in Georgia—except for thei
r overly-expensive homes?" I turned to Cliff.

  "We can get that information easily enough," Cliff wiped his fingers on a napkin before tugging his cell phone out of a jeans pocket. Seconds later, he had someone on the line.

  "Hey, Zach," he said. "Cliff here. How hard is it to check for property ownership by a couple of folks who used to live in Alabama?" He listened for a bit, the said, "Great. I'll get that information to you tomorrow, then. Thanks."

  Cliff ended the call, turned to me and said, "He's at his cabin today, but he'll be back in his office tomorrow. He'll call and get the information from me, then. I can go for a quick visit while you're talking to Kirk Chalmers tomorrow."

  He'd given me Doctor Chalmers' full name. I didn't feel comfortable calling him anything other than Doctor Chalmers. Or my shrink. Outside his werewolf hearing, of course.

  "I'll feel better if someone is there at the office, waiting for Cassie's appointment to end," Rob spoke up.

  "You offering?" Cliff frowned at Rob.

  "If she'll have me."

  "Fine. You ride in the back," Cliff grumped.

  I wanted to argue that I could take care of myself, but there was too much testosterone sitting around the island at the moment. If Rob wanted to be bored for an hour, then he could sit there and twiddle his thumbs while I had a tell-all session with my werewolf shrink.

  Dalton King

  "At least it's a double-wide," Morton grumbled as he dropped his duffle in the center of the living room floor. Our new accommodations turned out to be double-wide, pre-fab housing that Gorham arranged for us on property he'd recently acquired. That heavily wooded property lay between Hickory Flat and Alpharetta, and the closest neighbors were more than a mile away.

  I wondered if our seclusion was worth the fact that we had a propane stove, a solar generator and bottled drinking water. If we wanted a bath, we had to go to a nearby creek for that, or drive twenty miles to the nearest truck stop with facilities.

  Franks had arranged for someone to pick us up after we called the night before, and he and Gorham promised to meet with us after we settled in here. I didn't want to tell them that the Chancellor had found a new fire demon, because they'd pass that information along to Vaalenn, with confirmation that the army she'd sent to take him down had not only failed, they were all dead.

  The fact that Morton and I survived would tell her we'd cut our losses shortly after the fire demon arrived. It probably wouldn't matter when we told her it was the biggest fire demon we'd ever seen or heard of; we'd be branded cowards and given shit work from now on.

  Unless she wanted to kill us by sending us after the fucking fire demon.

  Gorham didn't bother to knock; he let himself in, with Franks right behind him. I'd been so lost in thought, I didn't hear them drive up.

  "I suppose I don't have to tell you that Vaalenn is furious about last night," Gorham snapped at me. Morton was in one of the bedrooms stomping around and didn't know we had guests yet. Trust him to let me take all the heat for what happened.

  "We got bad information," I griped at Gorham. "That's on you and your source. The Chancellor wasn't there when we arrived—only the local pack. We did what we could, fighting off sprites and a warlock, until that fucking fire demon showed up. I'm telling you now, you do not want to meet up with that bastard. He filled half that field with fire, he was so big."

  "Vaalenn says there are only two fire demons left, and they're both still in Europe."

  "That's not what we saw last night," Morton walked in and decided to join the conversation. "I don't know if they've had this guy under wraps or what, but that's not something I want to see again. We'd have taken all of them down last night if that monster hadn't shown up."

  "Instead, Vaalenn's entire army is killed," Franks' forehead wrinkled in a deep frown. "She's pissed, as you may imagine. Last I heard, she sent somebody looking for the source of the faulty information. I doubt he'll survive long."

  "Go ahead and say it's Greenville—that's the only thing that makes sense in any of this," Morton stabbed a finger toward Franks.

  "He may already be dead; I tried calling him earlier," Franks admitted. "Don't worry," he held up a hand when Gorham whirled to face him. "I used a burner phone and didn't leave a message. They won't know who tried to call."

  "You think the Chancellor caught up with him this fast?" Morton barked a laugh. "There's nothing to lead them in that direction."

  "Hmmph," Gorham coughed into his hand.

  "What did you do?" I narrowed my eyes at Gorham. "How did Greenville get the information to begin with—the wrong information, as it turns out."

  "He called a Packmaster in the Atlanta area that he'd met once or twice," Gorham stated flatly. "It's possible he may have eventually sniffed the wind and wondered why Greenville wanted to know the Chancellor's whereabouts."

  "Then you better pray the Chancellor didn't get to Greenville before Vaalenn did, or we could all be screwed," I said.

  "You think we don't know that?" Gorham whined. "That's why we're leaving the state. We have friends in Oklahoma, and we're gonna hole up in their cabin for a while. If you two want to go with us, you'd better grab your gear and toss it in the back of my truck. We're getting out of here this afternoon."

  "Get your shit," I snapped at Morton. "I hope that cabin in Oklahoma has running water, at least.

  Cassie

  I found Destiny in Kate's room—they were watching a popular game show and trying to guess the answers.

  "Come sit with me," Destiny patted the carpet beside her. Kate sat on a chair in a corner; Destiny chose the floor.

  "If I get down here, I may need a hand to get back up," I told her as I settled on the floor.

  "Were you injured last night?" Kate asked. Destiny, who held the remote, muted a commercial so Kate and I could talk.

  "No, but I am a little stiff—I haven't exerted myself that much in a while," I confessed. "I think I'll soak in a hot bath before bed tonight."

  "There's a hot tub by the pool," Destiny breathed, looking at me with wide, hopeful eyes. "Kate says I can't get into it by myself."

  "Did you bring your swimsuit?"

  "I did."

  "Then I have to check and see if I have one, too," I told her. "If so, we'll get in the hot tub after dark."

  "Goody," Destiny clapped her hands in excitement.

  Parke

  The sun was going down when I woke, after getting five hours' sleep. I felt like crap warmed in a microwave and figured Daniel and the rock demon guards felt the same way.

  I didn't care if Rob and Will suffered for their lengthy night and day. Hell, I didn't care whether they'd found a decent bed to sleep on. We had a truce going, nothing more. They could see to their own comfort.

  I needed to talk to Trey and Grim, who'd be up and around shortly. The information I'd gotten from Greenville before Daniel killed him ought to be passed on, and we needed to start looking for four ice demons, rather than two.

  If we were lucky, they'd be together. If we weren't, they could have scattered to the four winds by now. We desperately needed the information Cliff wouldn't get until the following day, plus any help Trey's division could get us on tracking credit card usage for Gorham and Franks.

  We still had the problem of tracking the female Shakkor Agdah, who could be infecting anyone and everyone in her path.

  "Parke?" Cassie knocked gently on the bedroom door.

  "What is it, baby?" I asked.

  "Trey and Grim want to meet with you when you're up and around."

  "I'm up. Let me get dressed. See if Daniel and the others are awake, yet. We need to have a discussion about our newest set of problems."

  "All right."

  I heard her footsteps as she walked away—she was wearing the flip-flops someone had given her in Douglasville. I couldn't decide whether the sound was comforting or irritating.

  Maybe both, I decided and slouched toward the bathroom.

  Cassie

  "I
'll get in the hot tub with Destiny," Kate said. "Go to the meeting with Parke. They need your input, just like any of the others."

  "Tell Des I'm sorry—we'll get in together another time," I told her.

  "Not a problem. My bones are achy after last night anyway. Tension and worry tend to do that."

  "Thanks, Kate. I owe you," I said, before heading toward the living area that Parke had claimed as his office.

  "You don't owe me anything," she said as I walked away. "We owe you, and you ought to know that."

  I didn't have time to turn back and argue with her. Most days, I felt like a fraud; people had a tendency to claim heroism, when it was mostly a frantic preservation of ourselves and those we loved.

  With a bit of interference from Will, the asshole wizard.

  Cassie?

  I stopped still. Yosuke was calling me.

  What is it? Something in his voice told me that I was needed, and it wasn't in Parke's office.

  We have someone watching the house, he replied. I doubt they're innocent in their motivations, either. I need a small fireball from you, if you wouldn't mind.

  Where are you?

  On the east end of the house, near the garages. Here, he sent a mental image.

  Be right there. I had the image in my mind, and the knowledge that I'd gotten from point A to point B in a hurry the night before.

  Yosuke didn't even blink when I appeared next to him. See the car? He jerked his head toward the road. He's recording the house and any movement around it with an infrared camera.

  Do you know who he is?

  An enemy spy. That's all I need to know.

  Fireball coming up, I said.

  I'll enclose it in a shield, and when he drives away, I'll send it after him. He should be at least a mile away before it detonates.

  Will it kill him?

  I'm counting on it.

  I formed a small fireball and left it hanging in midair. Yosuke enclosed it in a shield before sending a fearful feeling toward the car. How I felt what he'd done, I had no idea. Maybe I should ask him to teach me that—if I could learn it, that is.