by Jenn Burke
“Whose head should I slap?” Lexi wondered. “His or Iskander’s?”
“Neither.” With a sigh, Hudson wrapped his arm over her shoulders.
She deflated a little and leaned into him. “Yeah. I know. This whole ‘they have to work it out themselves’ thing is stupid. Just so you’re aware.”
“Oh, I’m aware.”
I was about to add my two cents when a wolf came tearing around the corner of the house from the backyard. Iskander. He skidded to a stop in front of us and barked.
I chuckled. “Seriously?”
He barked again.
“What is it, boy? Did Timmy fall in the well?”
He squinted, then snapped his impressive jaws at me.
I lurched back. “I don’t remember Lassie being such an asshole.”
I swear, if wolves could roll their eyes, that’s what Isk was doing right now. He gave up barking at me and leaped at Hudson. I choked on a shout, but all he did was grab the sleeve of Hud’s jacket and tug.
“Okay, okay,” Hudson said. “We’re coming.”
Iskander took off into the backyard again. The shadows were deep back there, thanks to the mostly set sun, but I could see Sam, still in wolf form, digging at the fence.
“Hey!”
She jerked up at Hudson’s shout, then snarled at Isk.
“Yeah, yeah, he’s a nasty rat. Now c’mon, shift and let’s talk.”
She lay down instead, her snout between her paws. It was an adorable yet pathetic pose.
“Shit,” Hudson muttered. “I’m not mad, okay? None of us are.”
She seemed to sink even lower, as though she were willing her body to become one with the earth.
I crept forward, keeping my movements slow and smooth, until I could sit down close to Sam...but out of range of her teeth. “Hey,” I said softly. “Are you trying to say you’d rather stay with someone else?”
Almost instantly, Sam was a girl again. “No!”
Hudson swept off his coat to cover her. “Then why—”
She closed her eyes and turned her head. “Instinct. Fight or flight.” Her lips quivered. “I can’t fight what I’m feeling, though, so...”
“Honey.” Lexi approached with her arms open. “Do you want to come upstairs? Have a bath?”
Sam nodded and rose to be enfolded in Lexi’s arms. Before Lexi could guide Sam toward the house, I held out a hand to stop them. “Sam...if you’d rather stay with the Garcias—”
“I don’t.” She closed her eyes and leaned heavily on Lexi. “I’m sorry for what I said before, Wes. I didn’t mean it. I’m not mad. I just... I wish...”
“We know,” Lexi murmured. “We wish too.”
I rubbed Sam’s arm. “We’ll find out who’s responsible. I promise.”
She shot me a weak smile, and then she and Lexi headed for the house.
Magic swirled behind me, and wordlessly I held out my jacket so I wouldn’t have to see Isk’s junk. I mean...from the glance I’d had, it was nice junk, but I wasn’t interested in it.
“That’s a dangerous promise to make,” Iskander said, his voice full of gravel. “We’ve got nothing to go on except what she remembers, and she’s a traumatized kid who was a hundred meters or more away from the action.”
I glanced at Hudson. “Is that all we’ve got to go on?”
“What?” Hud asked.
“You froze up when she was describing the lead bad guy. And your face went—” I scrunched up my expression to mimic Hudson’s Asshole Cop look “—when you smelled the rifle.”
“I looked constipated?” He pressed his lips into a thin line when I glared at him. “It’s nothing.”
“Hudson—”
“I swear.” He sighed. “The description made me think of Pike.”
“Wait—your asshole sire? But—”
“He’s dead. Exactly. So it’s not him. But it might be someone emulating him. Some young vamp looking to cash in on old memories? I don’t know. It’s a place to start, though.”
“And the scent on the rifle?”
“I thought I recognized it, but it’s not clear. I must have met that vampire before. Maybe she was one that came around the club when I was in Pike’s band? I don’t know.”
“Okay. We can talk with Ren and see if he’s heard anything.”
“If he decides he wants to talk.” Iskander hitched up his makeshift loincloth. “Oh, and, Wes?”
“Yeah?”
“You pull the Lassie shit again and I really will bite you next time.”
I chuckled, until I realized Iskander wasn’t smiling. “You’re joking, right?” I looked at Hudson. “He’s joking.”
He arched a brow. “I wouldn’t recommend finding out.” His phone chirped and he retrieved it from his pocket. “Hudson Rojas, Caballero Investigations. Okay—whoa. Slow down. What’s your name again?” He met my inquisitive look. “Colin Phillips. Yeah, I remember you from Alleys.”
One of Logan Marchand’s pack members. The calm and levelheaded one.
“How many?” Hudson’s brows rose. “Yeah, that’d scare the shit out of me too. Listen, stay put, all right? I’ll be there soon.”
“What the hell?” I asked as he hung up.
Hudson started for the garage and his car. “Three vampires were stalking Colin Phillips near the U of T campus downtown.”
I jogged to catch up. “No kidding?”
“He had the card we gave Logan and decided we were a better bet than the cops.”
“Fair.”
“Hey!” We stopped and turned at Iskander’s shout—which was odd in itself, because as far as I knew, he couldn’t raise his voice with the damage to his throat. Maybe being a shifter was helping to heal that? “Let me get dressed and I’ll come with.”
Hudson shook his head. “Not tonight.”
“What? Why?”
“Isk, you look like you’re about to vibrate out of your skin,” I pointed out.
“I’m not that bad.”
“Can you guarantee you won’t shift in front of humans?” Hudson asked seriously.
Iskander opened his mouth to respond—then let his gaze slide sideways, which was answer enough.
In a few strides, Hudson was in front of Iskander, his hands on his shoulders. “You’ll get there. But let’s not push it, all right?”
Isk rolled his shoulders to dislodge Hudson’s hands. “Fine.”
“I know it’s not what you want but—”
“Just go.”
Hudson gave Isk another searching look, but Isk wouldn’t meet his eyes. “This transition phase isn’t forever. You know that.”
“Sure. Right.” Iskander offered nothing else and headed toward the house.
Hudson watched him for a moment, and over our bond I could feel his confusion. Seeing Iskander like this was so weird—almost like he was an angst-ridden teenaged version of himself. I’d only ever known him as a stoic peacekeeper type, so seeing him so easily riled, so volatile, was difficult to understand.
“University student in peril,” I reminded Hudson softly.
He blew out a breath and nodded. “Let’s go.”
* * *
It took us about fifteen minutes to get to the Tim Hortons on Bloor where Colin was hiding out. Parking was nonexistent—no surprise there—so Hudson pulled over and put on his four-ways.
“You go get him. I’ll circle the block and see if there’s anything hinky.” He grabbed my hand before I could jump out. “Be careful.”
I brought his knuckles to my lips for a quick kiss. “Always.”
At this time of night, it wasn’t all that busy. It was too late for the after-dinner crowd and too early for the after-partying crowd. I scanned the interior, looking for Colin—what I remembered of him, anyway. He was white, clean
-cut, preppy, almost. Definitely jock-like. Short dishwater-blond hair. Average, but a nice average. A black woman sat at one table reading a book and sipping a frozen concoction. The only other occupied table held a pair of older gentlemen who looked to be arguing good-naturedly over something.
No twenty-something preppy jock.
Maybe he was in the washroom?
I walked up to the counter with a big smile for the cashier. “Hi. I was supposed to meet someone here. He’s taller than me, blond, a student?”
The guy nodded. “Oh, yeah. He left...maybe ten minutes ago?”
Shit. “Did you see which way he went?”
“Sorry, no.”
I thanked him and exited the store, my phone already to my ear. “He’s gone,” I said when it connected.
“What do you mean gone?”
“The cashier said he left ten minutes ago.”
“Fucking moron,” he growled. “Can you haunt him?”
“Hud, I barely remember what the guy looks like.”
“Shit. Okay. Let me find a parking spot and we’ll do this on foot.”
A few minutes later, I spotted Hudson walking up the street. He greeted me with a kiss, then focused on sniffing the air.
Which didn’t look weird at all.
“Might want to tone it down a little,” I murmured. “How can you even know which scent is his?”
“Predator, remember? I don’t forget a scent—if I’ve smelled it when I’m lucid.” He shot me a wry grin. “This way.”
He started down the street toward the Shoppers Drug Mart on the corner—then suddenly veered to the right, through a private parking lot. In the middle of the concrete expanse, he stopped again and sniffed. After a couple of seconds, he continued on through the parking lot and around the back of the building that housed the Shoppers. There was a large garbage receptacle that smelled pretty ripe to me—I couldn’t imagine how Hudson could follow any scent other than that, but he continued on.
We wound our way over to Walmer Road, not-quite-high-rise apartment buildings looming on either side. Hudson picked up the pace and I trotted behind him as the street became increasingly residential, apartment buildings giving way to single-family homes and duplexes, with lots of mature trees lining the roadway. Some still had leaves clinging to their branches, but more than a few were bare. We slowed down only twice, when Hudson lost the trail, but before long, he was running and I was struggling to keep up. He raced across Dupont Street and skirted around a building, and we were suddenly in the brush next to some train tracks.
Hudson skidded to a stop.
Faintly, as though from far away, I heard, “Help. Please.”
Hudson plunged forward again, his eyes glowing and his fangs down. He pushed aside some branches and we discovered a tiny clearing, barely big enough to house Colin and the two male vampires hissing at him. The shadows were deep, almost impenetrable to my normal vision, but enough ambient light was cascading through the leaves from the surrounding buildings’ security lights for me to make out what we were facing. Another vampire lay on the ground already—not dead, because she wasn’t dust, but down for the count. Colin was bloody—his face, his arms, his hair—and the other two vamps barely looked at Hudson as he approached, too focused on their prey.
“New?” I guessed.
“Very. How you doing, Colin?”
“Been better.” He coughed. “If the cover was a little thicker, I would’ve given these assholes a better fight, but—”
“Ours!” one of the vampires screeched. He got too close to Colin, and Colin lashed out with a well-placed kick to shove him back.
Hudson roared at them—which seemed to finally clue them in that maybe they were messing with someone they shouldn’t be messing with. “Who’s your sire?”
They looked at him in confusion.
“The vampire who made you,” he clarified.
“I don’t remember,” one of the male vampires said.
“He never said his name,” the other said.
So it was a him...not that having a gender narrowed it down much.
The female vampire, the one who’d been knocked down and out of the fight, levered herself up on one arm. “The only thing I remember is a scent—a scent like his.” She nodded at Colin.
“Your sire smelled like him?” Hudson asked, clearly as lost as I was.
“No—it was just there. All around. And I remember someone telling me that it meant food.”
In the distance, a train blew its whistle and we all flinched. One of the vamps took advantage of the momentary distraction to leap at Hudson. Hudson extended his claws and slashed, separating the vamp’s head from his body. Both parts were dust before they hit the ground. The other two scrambled away, into the leaves and darkness, and Hudson made no move to chase them.
“We’re going to let them go?” I asked.
“Unless you want to hunt them down and kill them in cold blood.”
I grimaced. When he put it like that...
Hudson extended a hand to Colin and helped him up. “Why’d you leave the Tims, man?”
“One of them came inside,” Colin gasped, one arm hugging his chest as he stood. “I panicked.”
“Pretty dumb.”
“Sorry. Never been hunted before.” Some of the snark dropped from his voice. “Thank you. Seriously. They’d already gotten in some good shots, and I couldn’t take the risk of shifting. If you hadn’t...”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Did I understand them right, though?” Colin glanced between Hudson and me. “Is someone making vampires and training them to hunt shifters?”
That’s what I’d gotten out of the exchange too. Which wasn’t at all reassuring.
Hudson shot me a look. “I think I need to talk to Kat again.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m wondering if there were some details on those new photos I didn’t see at first.”
Shit. Like clan markings.
“First killer drugs and now killer vampires?” I whistled. “Someone really doesn’t want shifters in Toronto.”
Chapter Twelve
When I returned from grocery shopping the next afternoon, I discovered a war zone in the family room.
Metaphorically speaking, anyway. All of the furniture seemed intact and there were no casualties on the floor—win win. But the emotions were thick enough that I could almost see them. That might have been my connection to one of the combatants clouding my perception, however.
Iskander was growling at Hudson, his stance screaming his desire to fight. “I need to run.”
“You need to reread that letter,” Hudson shot back, his eyes narrowed. “Or do you want to bring animal control down on our heads?”
I hoisted the full cloth bags up onto the island, then stepped up beside Lexi and bumped her shoulder with mine. She shot me a quick smile, and turned her attention back to the two idiots facing off a few feet away. Evan hovered behind Iskander, his uncertainty of how to handle the situation written across his overly expressive face. Sam was nowhere to be seen, and I hoped that meant she was still sleeping. After the stress of yesterday, she needed it.
“I go out and I miss all the fun. What letter?” I whispered to Lexi.
She handed over a tri-folded piece of paper. “From your favorite neighbor.”
“Oh, shit.” Sure enough, it was signed by our next-door asshole, Marcus Kenworth.
Dear Mr. Rojas and Mr. Cooper,
Clearly you have recently acquired at least two large-breed dogs without informing any of your neighbors. Although we cannot prevent you from harboring whichever breeds you prefer, it is worth noting that none of your neighbors have large-breed dogs. We ask that you keep your dogs on a leash at all times and/or fence your property completely, to protect the smaller animals elsewhere on ou
r street. We believe that one of your dogs has already escaped your property at least once.
And was perfectly friendly and got fed dog treats by Kenworth, but hey, why mention that?
Furthermore, excessive noise will not be tolerated. Barking, growling and/or howling between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. will be reported to Toronto Bylaw Enforcement and dealt with accordingly.
Thank you for your cooperation.
“Christ.” I tossed the letter on the kitchen counter. Like we needed this additional complication. I still hadn’t had time to do any research into Logan’s drug dealer, and I was starting to feel like I was letting Isabel’s parents down.
“I read the letter,” Iskander said. “It said no excessive noise before 7:00 a.m. It’s after lunch. It’s not an issue.”
“You’re not reading between the lines, Isk.”
“My skin feels like it’s going to crawl off of me!” Iskander clutched at his hair with both of his hands and tugged, hard enough that I spotted some black strands caught between his fingers when he lowered his fists. “Let me out.”
Hudson crossed his arms. “Man, I can’t.”
Iskander rushed forward, his eyes glowing, and grabbed fistfuls of Hudson’s T-shirt. “Let. Me. Out.”
I stepped forward and pushed my way between the two of them, and Evan took that as his cue to grab Iskander’s shoulders and pull him back. Isk wasn’t happy about the interference, evidenced by how he tried to jerk out of Evan’s hold, but shifter strength didn’t trump vampire strength.
“I could threaten to call bylaw on Kenworth and all his cats,” I suggested to Hudson. “That might make him back down.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Hud sighed. “What happens if a bylaw enforcement officer comes out here while Sam and Isk are in their wolf forms, hmm? They’ll know immediately that they aren’t dogs. And then what?”
“Shit.” Yeah, I could see the repercussions from that discovery being bad. “Okay, so...no more running here,” I said, my voice firm.
“Wes.” Iskander actually whined, and man, it was strange hearing that.
“No.”
“Just a quick one. I’ll be quiet. And then I’ll be ready for work, I promise.”
