I wanted to guffaw at that, but kept my face neutral. I was simply haggling for information, distracting them from the boots and making them think that I could offer them protection in exchange for information. Turning them from sellers into buyers. A subtle psychological ploy. But I did realize they hadn’t answered my question. Sneaky versus sneaky.
“What if we found independent information that aided you? Would this prove our motive?”
I nodded after a brief pause to consider it, which was really just for show. Making slow decisions kept people on edge. Answer too quickly and they wondered what they had unnecessarily given up. “That might suffice for our bargain,” I said slowly. “Do you have any useful information for me right now?”
Dear nodded happily. “Oh, yes. Cain has been keeping you safe from… something.”
I wanted to curse out loud, realizing another suspect was clean. “Cain… Son of Eve, Cain?”
Darling nodded vehemently. “Quite unlike him, really. Especially for a stranger.”
I let my vexation show slightly. “He was a second suspect,” I said softly.
“Well, that’s great. We’ve saved you time,” Darling said, clapping his hands together.
“Unless you are lying. With all due respect, I place high integrity on my tasks, and never want to wrongly accuse… or excuse anyone.”
As one, they sighed in defeat. Then they sliced open their palms, drawing a bloody circle on the ground with acute skill, as if it was a regular occurrence to work with one’s blood. From inside the complete circle, they stated their names, bound their words to their blood, and then began. “We vow to always speak the truth to you, Callie Penrose, lest our enemies immediately and swiftly come for us, only to find us powerless.”
I nodded as they climbed to their feet. Although it was different than any oath I had heard given, I could feel the magical thrum in their promise, and the important part was that they mentioned my name, their names, their promise, and that the result of breaking the promise included some form of them being powerless. Even if the names they had given me were false, those names had been bound to their blood, so in essence, whether those names had been false or sincere, they were now a very literal part of them. And those names now had power.
“Okay. I need you to keep digging. I need to know what’s going on. There is a third or fourth player in town. One is a demon named Amira, but I don’t know exactly who she’s working with. Needless to say, whatever she is doing is against me. And it’s happening tonight at midnight.”
They nodded, shivering at mention of the demon. Not that it was in town, but that it was hunting me.
“Right, child. You better be off. It’s been a few hours. And we need to move quickly if we’re to be of any use. Return to us in the evening. You can leave through the front door. No one will notice. Trust us,” they said, giggling to each other playfully.
I tried not to cringe to hear that a few hours had magically disappeared, but after everything else I had just seen, I wasn’t entirely surprised. I climbed to my feet and took a few steps. If possible, the shoes were even more comfortable than they had been sitting down. It was almost as if the earth gave way a little more than normal, just for my comfort.
I walked through the store, noticing that different goods were broken down by section.
One section was all satchels, and I found a grin splitting my cheeks. Maybe I would get Nate a new man purse. Not now, though. I didn’t want to press my luck on my bargaining skills.
We reached the glass windowed door that neatly said Darling & Dear, We Do it in Leather! on the front. I wondered if we were still nearby or on the opposite end of town.
Darling placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. I turned to face him. “You’re a good bargainer,” he said winking. “Don’t think we didn’t notice your tricks. We just decided they were worth it.”
Dear rolled her eyes. “Men! Always trying to save face. I can assure you he isn’t aware of anything unless it hits him in the forehead and talks to him,” she said, smiling teasingly at him.
I grinned back, dipped my head, and stepped outside.
I glanced around curiously, staring up and down the street. I was pretty sure I was right around the corner from the alley where I had met them. Maybe even opposite the brick wall.
I looked up at the sun, and decided that I needed to call Claire. A bear had been murdered, and I hoped to god it hadn’t been a new friend of hers.
She answered on the first ring. “Callie!” she shouted excitedly. “This is so freaking amazing! It’s a veterinarian’s dream! Maybe I should start a union or something,” she said. I heard a low growl in the background, and my back instantly stiffened protectively. “Back off, Kenai. You’re not a vet, so you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Claire snapped at the sound in her best no-nonsense tone. I heard him grumbling something else, and Claire laughed lightly. “Wait until my first shift, and we’ll come back to that comment.” The phone rustled in my ear, as if she was walking or getting up. “Callie, have you had any luck? Anything exciting going on?”
I let out a breath. “Things are okay. I just… heard about a murder today. A bear…”
Claire growled at that. “We heard.” She hesitated for a moment, then spoke in a low tone. “He was a friend of Yuri’s. He was never part of the Cave. A drifter. His name was Ragmussen. We didn’t even realize he was still in town.”
I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment. Yuri again. “I really, really want to find this asshole.”
“No luck?” she asked, voice tinged with concern.
“Not yet. But I’m narrowing down a lot of options.”
She paused. “That wasn’t code for your killing a bunch of people, was it?”
Despite it all, I laughed. “No, Claire. But… well, I did slap a priest. Twice.”
She gasped. “Oh, no, Callie. Not that sweet one we met!”
“Yeah. Not one of my finer moments. But in all truth, I was pretty confident he was my guy. Now, I’m back to the chalkboard. But I have help. How about you? You haven’t shifted yet?”
Claire sighed. “No, but they say it will happen any time now. Likely in the next few days. They keep talking about a trigger. Most experience some emotional trauma that sets them off. If not, it can take some time. Not like the damned mutts that get a recruitment call during the full moon, whether they want it or not. The bears seem much more… passionate about it all. Almost spiritual. Call me crazy, but they remind me of Buddhists. Sure, there’s plenty of tough talk and wrestling, but for the most part, bears take a pretty mellow view of the world. Just kind of hang out and do their thing. Eat. Play. Sleep. Defend their territory when threatened, but otherwise pretty even-keeled.”
I nodded thoughtfully, glad to hear she wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of alphaholes. “Keep me posted if anything changes, or have one of them call me if you shift. I want to see you turn into a tiny Panda or whatever silly flavor you turn into. Unless you’re going to turn into the same kind as the one who cut you. Is that how it works?” I asked, frowning to myself.
She took on a lecturing tone. “Yes, and no. Sometimes you take after your, well, the person who changed you. But most times your genetics take effect. So, if you’re bloodline is American, you’re likely to turn into a Grizzly, black, or brown bear. Something native to that geography. Then again, we’re all mutts in the DNA pool, sharing a dozen races and nationalities. Maybe I’ll be something new and fresh. Because I am unique,” she said adamantly.
“Entirely,” I agreed, smiling. I reached the corner ahead of Pastor Benjamin’s church and hesitated. That probably wasn’t a good idea. For all I knew, they were begging Father David to bring me in for assault. I leaned against the wall, glancing up at the sky. The sun would set soon.
I blinked in surprise. “Claire. I need to go. Stay in touch, okay?”
“Is everything alright?” she asked nervously, sensing my tone.
“Yeah, I just didn’t see what time it
was.”
“Oh, okay. Stay safe, Callie, and don’t slap anymore priests. They’re as gentle as lambs.”
I groaned. “Later, Claire Bear.”
“You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that already.”
“I can imagine. Later!” I hung up, staring up at the sky again. Darling and Dear had been right. Time had flown in their shop. But… why? I definitely hadn’t been in there as long as they said. Was it some kind of safe house? A spell? Seemed like they would want it the other way around, where you spend an hour inside and only five minutes had gone by in the real world, letting them produce more shoes faster, and making shopping uber-convenient.
Maybe I would trade them my business analysis for another pair of shoes.
Chapter 37
I needed to get a hold of Beckett, but I didn’t want to call him in case he was in front of others. They would think it odd to see him answering a burner phone, wouldn’t they? Or maybe that was a typical thing with cops. I just didn’t know, and with me not wanting to get too close to the investigation, I didn’t dare risk it.
As I kept my eyes on the church, making sure there wasn’t a mob gathering, I tried to focus on the facts.
Cain was keeping someone off my back. The black stalker?
Amira was playing games, baiting me. Was this all to get the Spear of Longinus from me?
Shifters were dying all over, and they all had ties to Yuri. His friends. God is dead. And I still needed to find the hairy bastard and deliver him to the bears, proving he had turned Claire.
Roland had showed up in Rome to find the mole who betrayed us to Johnathan. And suddenly the Vatican gets bombed. Since I hadn’t heard from him, I had to assume he was dead.
But… only a very small handful of people had known about Roland’s trip to the Vatican. Father David, Pastor Benjamin, and Disciple Desmond.
But Dorian Gray – the big fat liar – had done me wrong, there. Sending me on a mission where I concluded it was entirely acceptable to slap a priest, and almost give mild heart attacks to his disciples. None of them were strong enough to kill a Freak, and I hadn’t sensed a whisper of power from any of them.
Which left Father David, and I highly doubted him. Johnathan had tried to kill him a few months ago, so I didn’t see him teaming up with Amira. Not even considering that he was the head of the Catholic Church in town.
Darling and Dear were magical shoemakers who wanted my protection from what they saw as a new Salem Witch Trial bubbling up in town.
The church was up in arms about a murder of one of their own, and someone was going around killing Freaks in retaliation.
My guess was this mysterious stalker.
Or… Dorian Gray.
Or Yuri.
Or… my phone rang, and I jumped, so absorbed in my thoughts.
I glanced down at it and almost dropped it in my excitement. “Roland!”
He answered with a tired sigh. “I’m okay, girl. But if I ever felt like cursing, now would be the time.”
I realized I had tears in my eyes, and that I was shouting at him incoherently.
He let me finish, and gave me his soft, comforting chuckle. “I deserve all that and more… Listen, Callie. What I did before I left is… unacceptable. I was raised in a different time. A… harsher time—”
“Oh, don’t worry, old man. We’ll talk about that. In person,” I promised, sniffling.
“Any luck on your… quest?” he asked, grunting as he did. Likely trying to get out of a hospital bed early, if I had to guess. The stubborn bastard.
I hesitated, feeling guilty. “I should probably be the first to tell you. I slapped Benjamin.”
Roland was silent for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing. “Good for you!”
“Wait, did you hear me?” I asked, confused.
He laughed harder. “Callie, you have a fist like a brick, and I only wish you would have used that instead. Any man of God who actively condones hatred of another group, especially blanket hate for any people different from himself, has lost his way. Truly. We don’t have to personally accept a different way of life, and can even disagree with it, but to use hatred as a tool for promoting your agenda? The church foundations are sacred, and building one with a cornerstone of hatred is wrong. He should have begun with love. Hate should have never entered the equation, but especially not as the first stone.” He chuckled, then. “I imagine Father David was none too pleased. You probably have a confessional booth in your future.”
I straightened slightly, feeling significantly better. Sure, I hadn’t succeeded yet, but at least I didn’t need to carry the guilt of slapping a priest on my shoulders tonight. “Listen, Roland. I actually suspected his involvement in this. And I’ve met a few new people in town. We have a lot to discuss…”
And I told him. Pretty much everything. Because I wanted to know what was new and what was old news to him. Maybe I was just being introduced to people that he was already familiar with. But if not… the problem was exactly as bad as I now thought it was. You could say I was telling Roland because I was a good student, and that would be partially right. More accurately, I was trying to prioritize.
And hoping he would reassure me that he was already aware of most of it…
“Are you sure?” he asked in a gravelly tone once I had finished.
I swallowed audibly, not liking his response. Not one bit. “Yes. As well as I can be.”
“Well, I confirmed that none of the other Shepherds are in Kansas City,” he said helpfully. Not great news, but at least it removed a suspect. “I’m in no shape to travel at this moment. Even if I were, it would take me too long to get back in time to help you tonight. And I’m too weak to Shadow Walk. Can you get any other help?” He paused, as if debating saying the next part out loud. “Nate, maybe?”
I shook my head. “He seemed preoccupied with a war. Or a bad ex’s visit. Maybe both. He didn’t give me details, but he had freaking camps of people on his property.”
Roland cursed. Actually cursed. Now, judging by my advanced skills in this area, it was pretty mild. But still, Father Roland cursed.
Which pretty much told me how much shit I was in.
Surviving a bombing at the Vatican hadn’t made him curse.
But my current situation in the City of Fountains had.
I sagged against the wall. “Have you figured out anything about the bombing? Maybe it’s related to my stuff. It would make sense. Or at least might help me connect a few dots.”
Roland hesitated, not wanting to talk about his own problems. But then he seemed to see the truth to my words. “Nothing concrete. I’ve been digging through records, trying to trace who gave Johnathan his intel. In fact, I can’t even find a trace of the knowledge Johnathan got. As if it was destroyed immediately after the traitor gave it to him.”
I kicked a pebble on the street, pleased to find that I didn’t even feel the impact through my fancy new boots. “How are the girls? The victims we rescued.” I asked, curious.
“They’re… better than I expected, actually. But don’t worry about them, Callie. I need to tell you something.” He paused, as if searching for the right words. “I think it’s time you take off the training wheels. If you’re dealing with all this, you might need to thank God that you aren’t an official Shepherd. That you can’t be held accountable for what happens.” He sighed. “You have permission from the local Shepherd to do as needed, and any mistakes will be forgiven once I return.” He said this very fast, as if wanting to get it all out before he changed his mind.
“Are you… giving me permission to go full vigilante?”
“Don’t make me regret it,” he said with a sigh. “But in all seriousness, none of these things are for… well, what I’m saying is that this is way above your paygrade. But for all of them to happen at the same time? I think you’re right. Someone – likely Amira – is playing you. Personally. Everything else is just a sleight of hand. The murders, everything. And to win, you m
ight have to play by your own rules. Cut loose, if you will.”
I nodded slowly, not wanting to say anything that might change his mind. To be honest, I had pretty much come to the same conclusion on my own, but to hear that Roland backed me was pretty hardcore. “Okay.”
“You don’t have time to play nice. You need to do whatever it takes to get rid of her. If she’s done all of this in only a few weeks, I can only imagine what she would do after a month, a year… And something seems off about the Spear. I can do some digging over here, but I’ll have to be discreet. My concern is why she told you about it in the first place. She could have taken it from you without you knowing. Her motives sound directly contradictory to Johnathan. You need to find out why.”
“Alright. I’ve got a few ideas,” I said, mind racing. “Just know that whatever happens, I’m trying to do the right thing. There will be fallout, and I’m trying to minimize it, but there are too many players for me to be sure what’s really going on, and I’m betting she set it up that way on purpose.”
“I trust you, Callie. I’ll keep working on my end. But I’ll be praying for you, and will have my phone on me at all times. I will not rest until—”
There was an argument in the background, interrupting Roland.
“Woman! I will get out of this bed when the Lord grants me the strength to do so, and if that moment is now, you will pipe down and weep as you witness your first miracle!” he roared.
Silence answered him, and then I heard the phone drop, clattering to the floor, followed by a muffled female laugh. Roland came back on. “I’ll be out of this bed soon, Callie. Speak a word of this to anyone and I will rescind my support of your activities tonight,” he warned.
I tried not to laugh, but couldn’t help it. “Oh, Roland. When will you learn?”
He grumbled unhappily, but I could almost imagine the humbled smile on his face. “She is a very strong woman. Perhaps I should have listened to her…” he mused, sounding like every lecher of a man that had studied a woman out of her view.
Feathers and Fire Series Box Set 1 Page 46
