District Shifters Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  She couldn’t very well say no, though. It was a free country, and he had every right to sit anywhere he wanted to. She shrugged, going for casual, like she had no real interest in what he did. He sat down.

  “I’m Archer,” he said.

  “Brianna,” she replied. Her voice came out breathy and unlike her own voice. She could barely pull her eyes away from Archer’s face, and she told herself to get a grip.

  “I hope you don’t mind me approaching you like this, but I wanted to ask you a couple of questions,” he said.

  “About what?” she asked. What could this perfect specimen possibly want from her?

  “About Caroline Maynard. She was a good friend of mine, and I heard you were with her when she… you know.”

  Brianna felt her heart break a little. His words caught as he said it, and she could almost feel his pain. She was glad now that she hadn’t sent him away. And it would make not flirting with him easy. She couldn’t do that, knowing he just wanted answers about his friend’s death.

  What exactly should she tell him? She decided to stick to the sheriff’s story. That was safer for everyone involved. She wondered fleetingly if Archer knew Caroline was a shifter. No; if he did, he wouldn’t be here questioning her. He would have a damned good idea of what she had been shot with.

  “This is going to sound crazy, but the sheriff said she died of blood loss. I saw her body in the morgue, and the wound didn’t look deep enough for that,” he said.

  Brianna felt her instincts kick in almost immediately. Archer wasn’t what he seemed any more than Caroline had been. He knew something, and he wanted her to confirm it.

  “I’m no doctor,” she said. “There was blood, though. The sheriff told me the bullet nicked an artery.”

  “Yeah. That’s what he told me, too. I just… oh, I don’t know. I’m probably just grasping at straws, trying to make sense of something that makes no sense to me. I mean, Caroline didn’t have any enemies. She was liked. Who would want to kill her?”

  “I think it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time,” Brianna said, trying to make him feel better. Although her suspicions had been up about Archer when he mentioned not believing the sheriff’s story, he seemed nice enough and genuinely upset by Caroline’s death.

  “Maybe. Did you see anything odd?”

  “Odd how?” Brianna asked.

  “Her skin looked kind of weird,” Archer said. “Like it was the wrong color or something.”

  “Death does that. The blood pools in the back of the body, and it leaves the face and the front of the body a weird color. Waxy, almost,” Brianna said.

  She instantly regretted it. How would she feel if someone was talking about a good friend of hers that way?

  “I’m sorry,” she said quickly.

  “It’s okay,” Archer replied as quickly. Too quickly.

  Brianna studied Archer’s face for a moment, ignoring how it made her feel. He wouldn’t meet her eye now, and she knew he was lying to her. She just wasn’t sure about what.

  “So you didn’t see anything weird on her skin or anything when she died?” Archer asked.

  He knows, Brianna thought. He knows about the silver poisoning. About the black lines. He’s trying to work out how much I know. She took her time answering the question, trying to work out who he was and what was going on. He wasn’t with the sheriff’s department; she was sure of that. The sheriff just wanted this to go away.

  “I was kind of distracted by the blood and the fact that there could still have been a crazed killer in the area,” Brianna said carefully, neither confirming nor denying what she had seen.

  “Yeah. Yeah, of course,” he said. “So you thought there was a chance he could have killed you, too?”

  “Well, sure. Like you said, Caroline didn’t seem like the kind of girl who had enemies. Not enemies who shoot people, anyway. I figured he might decide to take out the one witness.”

  “You saw the gunman?” Archer asked.

  For a second, Brianna saw panic in his eyes. She knew then with certainty that Archer had been the one to kill Caroline. She knew that should terrify her; she should run from him, but he didn’t give the impression of being a threat to her, and she was intrigued rather than afraid.

  Archer clearly knew Caroline was a shifter. That meant one of two things: he was either someone like Raina, who had known she was a Matchmaker, or she was wrong about the Matchmaking thing, and Archer was a hunter. Either way, that meant he was unlikely to kill her. Unless she gave away that she knew too much.

  From what she had learned about Matchmakers, if that was the case, then Caroline had gotten what she deserved. But if she wasn’t, and Archer was just a hunter, then that didn’t seem fair at all. Not all supernatural creatures where bad. She had seen that firsthand.

  “No,” Brianna said. “So, technically, it could have been a gun woman.”

  Archer smiled, and she saw the relief on his face. She had to push it. She had to know for certain if Archer had killed Caroline.

  “I don’t think it was totally random, though. We had just had lunch in the diner down the road. And as we walked back to my apartment building, I felt like we were being followed. Caroline laughed it off, said I was paranoid. But now, I’m not so sure.”

  “Maybe she had a stalker,” Archer said carefully.

  “Maybe,” Brianna agreed. For all she was sure that wasn’t true, a shiver went through her anyway. She thought back to her and Caroline sitting in the diner eating their burgers. She imagined a face pressed up to the window watching them.

  Her blood turned cold, and she had to force her face to stay normal, to remain seated. Because when she had let her mind go back to the diner, she saw him there. Archer. She knew it with a certainty now. Archer had killed Caroline.

  She had seen him from the side, walking past the diner window. And then he had been on the street when they had. He had been her stalker. But why? That was still what she needed to know more than anything.

  “Can I ask you something now?” she asked, keeping her voice neutral.

  “Sure,” Archer answered, but he looked nervous.

  Yeah, you should be nervous, Brianna thought. And my God, I should be terrified. If I ask you this, then you’ll know I know. And that will make me a loose end, something to be dealt with.

  She still had to know. She just had to hope that, whether Archer was a Matchmaker hunter or a more general hunter, he was a decent guy who wasn’t in the habit of killing mortals.

  “Why did you kill Caroline?”

  6

  A shockwave went through Archer’s whole body at Brianna’s question. She knew he had killed Caroline. Perhaps she had known all along, or perhaps something he had said had given it away. Whatever it was, it was obvious to him now that Brianna knew a lot more about immortals than he had thought. She was far too calm to think he was just some random killer. She had to know Caroline was a shifter, and that he was one, too.

  Maybe she was one. Maybe she had taken some sort of enchantment that had fooled his wolf into believing she was a mortal. However, he didn’t think that was true. His instincts were usually pretty spot on. She had gotten brave and asked her question, but before that, he had smelled the nerves coming off her. She had been testing the waters, trying to work out whether or not he was a danger to her. She had obviously decided he wasn’t.

  Archer should kill her. She knew too much. He wasn’t worried about being arrested. Stanton would never let that happen, and he figured Brianna was unlikely to go to the police and tell him she knew he had killed her friend because she was an immortal. She wouldn’t expect that to be believed.

  He was more worried about who exactly she was. He didn’t think she was the hunter. There had been nothing on her face to suggest he repulsed her, and hunters never showed their fear. Maybe she was working with the hunter, feeding him information for some reason.

  The thought was enough to get Archer moving. He wasn’t going to kill Brianna. He woul
dn’t be able to bring himself to do it. But sitting out here passing the time of day with her was a bad move. He had made a mistake coming here at all.

  He stood up abruptly and walked away from Brianna. He could hear her footsteps behind him. He should run; she would never catch him. But something about her intrigued him, and he couldn’t bring himself to run from her. Instead, he whirled back around to face her.

  “Why are you following me?” he demanded.

  “Because you didn’t answer my question,” she said.

  “That’s because your question was fucking offensive,” he snapped.

  Her steely expression slipped slightly, and he thought maybe he could still pull this back. Brianna was a complete mystery to him, and no matter how hard he thought about everything she had said and done since he had sat down with her, he couldn’t work out exactly how much she knew.

  Maybe he could still have her think she’d made a terrible mistake. If not about what Caroline was, then at least maybe about what he was. There was no way Caroline would have told Brianna she was a shifter, so she had to be getting her information from somewhere. Likely from the hunter who was after his pack. If he could convince her he wasn’t a shifter, it might turn the hunter off their trail for a time.

  “Offensive, huh?” Brianna smirked, her composure back in place.

  Archer set his face in what he hoped was a convincing impression of a grief-stricken friend. “I came to you because I wanted answers about my friend’s death, and you accuse me of killing her. How can you think that’s anything but offensive?”

  Brianna threw her head back and laughed. It was far from the reaction Archer had expected and hoped for. He had hoped for a guilty look. An apology, maybe.

  “I’m sorry,” Brianna said through her laughter. “I know it’s not really funny. But you almost had me there. You do play the wounded friend pretty well. It’s just a shame it’s too late.”

  “Too late for what?” Archer asked. Where the hell was she going with this? Was she going to attempt to take him out here? No, it was far too public. And with those tight jeans, he would be able to see if she was carrying a weapon.

  “Too late to play the friend card,” Brianna answered. “I admit you had me at first. But then you said Caroline’s name, and you let your guard down. I could see the disgust on your face. So I’ll ask you again. Why did you kill her?”

  Did Brianna not know how fucking dangerous it was to stand and outright accuse him of this? Did she have no fear that he would end her? Apparently not. It seemed like she knew he wouldn’t have it in him to harm her. If anything, he felt protective of her somehow, even though she had mocked him and drawn information from him—information he should never have revealed.

  “You know, you’re acting like Caroline is the wronged party here,” Archer said.

  “Well, she is the one that’s dead,” Brianna pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

  “True. But she wasn’t so innocent herself, you know.”

  “Really? So what did she do that was so bad you murdered her?”

  “You know, you seem pretty invested in this. And yet you don’t seem in the least bit pissed off that I killed your friend,” Archer said. There was no point in denying it any longer. Brianna clearly knew the truth about that much. He had to find out how she knew about the immortal world and why she was more curious than afraid.

  “Oh, I’m plenty pissed off about it,” Brianna said. “But at this point, I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and giving you a chance to tell me why she deserved to die.”

  “Or what?” Archer asked.

  “Huh?” Brianna replied, her confusion clear to see.

  “What are you going to do if I refuse to answer your questions?” he pressed, taking a step closer to Brianna.

  He saw a flash of fear run across her face, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared, and she made no effort to back away. She still didn’t have an answer to his question, and that gave him a good feeling about this whole thing. There was less chance she was working with the hunter. She would have told him in no uncertain terms what she would do to him. He was starting to think she was just someone who had somehow found herself in a whole mess and was completely out of her depth.

  “You know what? It doesn’t matter what empty threat you’re going to pull out. Because you’re in luck. I did have a good reason, so you can go back to your life and just forget all about this.” He didn’t think it would be so easy for him to forget her.

  She shook her head. “Are you kidding me? That’s it? You expect me to just take your word for it?”

  “I don’t see that you have much choice,” Archer snapped.

  “Stop playing games, Archer.” He felt a shiver run through his body as she said his name. He never should have revealed it to her; he saw that now. But hearing her say it in that breathy voice, seeing the way her lips moved as she spoke it made the risk worth it. “Just tell me what your reason was,” she added.

  Archer knew he should just tell her what Caroline was. If she knew as much about immortals as he suspected she did, she would get it. Seeing Brianna again would be playing with fire. She was trouble. He could see it in her eyes. But he had never been afraid of trouble before, and he wasn’t about to start now. There was something about Brianna that made him want to take risks. Something that made him want to see her again.

  “You want my reason? Fine. I’ll tell you. Over drinks. Tonight,” he said.

  “I… Are you seriously asking me out on a date right now?” Brianna demanded. She tried to look angry, but Archer could see something flickering beneath her feigned anger that looked awfully like desire. He had to put a stop to this before it could go any further.

  “Not a date. Just a chance for us to talk like civilized beings,” he insisted. He saw the flicker of disappointment cross Brianna’s face, and he resisted the urge to smile. He might be in trouble here, but so was she. He was having an effect on her, just like she was on him.

  “Fine. The student bar down the block. Eight o’clock,” Brianna said.

  Archer wasn’t used to following orders. He was used to giving them. He was a little disconcerted to know that Brianna had made the arrangements for tonight. For their “not a date” meeting. What if she was planning some sort of stakeout?

  Then he would go in prepared. Regardless of what he might be walking into, there was no way in hell he was standing Brianna up tonight.

  “See you then,” he said. He turned and walked briskly away before she could change her mind. He resisted the urge to get one more look at Brianna. He might have been caught out momentarily, but now he was firmly back in control, and he could feel Brianna’s eyes on him all the way to the corner where he turned and was no longer in her sight line.

  7

  Brianna looked down at herself, wondering, not for the first time, if she was dressed appropriately. She had no idea what to wear to confront a killer. It wasn’t really something that popped up in conversation. She had settled on a knee-length black dress with flat slip-on shoes. She didn’t want to look too overdressed. Archer had made it quite clear he didn’t think this was a date, but she didn’t want to look a mess, either. Date or not, she realized with dismay that she wanted him to think she looked attractive.

  She shook her head at herself and picked her handbag up. She grabbed her keys off the side, walked out of her apartment, and locked her door. As if she was worrying about her outfit and whether or not this was a date. The fact was that Archer had killed Caroline, and that meant he was dangerous.

  She shouldn’t be going to meet him, yet she felt a swirling of excitement in her stomach as she stepped into the street and headed towards the bar. The sensible thing to do would have been to say no, but it was already too late for that. She’d agreed to this. From the moment she had outright asked Archer why he had killed Caroline, it had been too late to go back. She should have just gone along with his grief-stricken friend story and told him she hadn’t noticed anything
odd about Caroline’s death. That would have been the sensible thing to do. He would have left her alone, and she could have somehow moved on without answers.

  Brianna had come here to get away from the supernatural world, and now she had somehow managed to fall right smack bang into the middle of it again, and rather than playing dumb, she had decided to play detective. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she wasn’t just going to meet Archer because she wanted answers. She was going to meet him because she found him attractive.

  By the time she reached the bar, she had successfully convinced herself this had been a wasted journey. Archer had obviously agreed to it just to get away from her and her probing questions. He wasn’t going to show up tonight. She wished she’d realized that before she had gotten to the bar, because now that she had, it seemed so obvious and she felt stupid.

  It’s not like anyone will know, she told herself, turning away from the door and heading back the way she had come.

  “Changed your mind?” Archer’s voice asked from behind her.

  She turned around slowly, steeling herself for the moment she saw him again. As much as she had tried to prepare herself, he still took her breath away, standing before her in black jeans and a short-sleeved, casual blue shirt.

  “No,” she said, walking towards him. If she had thought he was going to let her get away with being caught fleeing, she was wrong.

  “You didn’t think I’d show, did you? You were going back home rather than risk being stood up,” he said.

  She felt brave, suddenly. His tone was teasing, not angry.

  “Why did you show up?” she asked.

  “I promised you answers, and I don’t make promises I don’t intend to keep. Shall we?” Archer gestured towards the bar. He held the door open for her, purposely standing close enough to it that she had to brush up against him slightly to enter.

  Brianna felt electricity flood her body, her bare arm rubbing against his. She pulled her arm back quickly with a gasp, hoping Archer hadn’t noticed. His smile told her he had. She moved towards the bar, trying her best to ignore how close to her Archer was.