by Cathy Clamp
Papa let out a sigh. “I think of this too. I get letters a week ago. I have been trying to fix it since. I have asked Elizabeth Sutton to check. She is doing this for us, but said not to have hopes. All of America is dangerous now for refugees, and we cannot tell State Department people why we cannot go home, or who threatens us. That is how they decide whether to grant asylum.”
Anica hadn’t thought of that. The Sazi stayed in the shadows always. How could they explain that because they broke up a plot to make more shape-shifters now snake shifters wanted them dead and they had to hide here?
Bojan kicked the table leg, hard enough to move the table a foot away from Papa. “I’m going out.”
She wanted to leave too, to run away. But that would not solve the problem. Patience was needed now. “Thank you for telling us, Papa. And for trying to keep us together.”
But he wasn’t watching her. Didn’t even acknowledge her words. Instead, he watched Bojan grab his jacket and stalk out, slamming the door the same way he had when he got home. But now for a different reason.
“I am going to office,” he announced after a long moment. “I will be home late. Don’t wait awake.”
He closed the door quietly, but it sounded loud to her in the suddenly silent house. It was probably time to do the dishes and get some rest. It had been a very long and traumatic day. But first she made a call to Rachel. Anica needed to talk to someone and she was the closest thing to a friend in town. But Rachel didn’t answer and the call went to her recorder. “Can we talk tomorrow? It’s important.”
She was worn-out, emotionally and physically. It was like someone had turned off a switch on her back and she couldn’t keep going. Her eyes kept closing as she did the dishes, making it hard to focus. Finally, she gave up when the scrubbed dishes were rinsed and she staggered down the hallway. She didn’t remember hitting the bed.
CHAPTER 12
“Okay, I’ve blocked the connection. Let the pining begin.” Amber had changed from her blue scrubs with ducks into yellow ones with cartoon mice scattered across the fabric. Apparently, she slept in them too, since they’d woken her up on a cot in the back of the clinic. She saw him looking and shrugged her shoulders as she wiped her hands on a paper towel. “Don’t judge. They’re comfortable and I never know when people—and I use that term loosely—are going to drop by, expecting me to jump through hoops for them.”
That part wasn’t worth commenting on. “I don’t know why you say there will be pining. We haven’t had sex.” Tristan couldn’t gloss over what Bobby had told him. When his friend suggested telling Amber, he had agreed. She was a noted healer and would know for certain if a mating had happened.
By the time he felt the connection break in his mind, she didn’t need to confirm the mating. The echo was gone. He hadn’t realized that’s what it was, but ever since the fire he’d heard a hollow sound in his own mind, like tapping on a coconut while it was next to his ear. He assumed his head had been a little scrambled by the log hitting him. And in a way, he was right.
“Perhaps not. But it was stronger than you think it was. Maybe not sex, but something happened between you that locked the mating tie. I have no idea what it is with matings lately, but they’re stronger than they’ve been in the past.
“I shared some power with her when she wasn’t getting air. Would that be enough?”
Bobby let out a laugh. “If you add in the near sex in the forest, I’d say yes.”
Tristan shot him a dirty look. He didn’t see why Amber needed to know about that. “We didn’t have sex. End of story.”
Amber’s thoughts might as well have been tattooed on her forehead. She didn’t approve, but since it was a mating, she couldn’t disapprove either. “Sharing energy, sharing spit—” She apologized with a shrug and a scent when he shot her a similar annoyed look. “Sorry. Crude but accurate. It was probably enough. Not that it really matters how. It just matters that.”
“So, now what happens? It’s sort of my first time being the one who’s mated.”
Bobby chortled. “Now, life begins to suck. You’ll think of her every day. Every minute. You can’t stop thinking about her. You throw yourself into work … which is sort of good, in your case. It’ll keep Ahmad off your ass and you’ll probably catch Lagash. We’ll get the girl to safety.”
“That should be easy,” Amber added. “Zarko came to me today to say her visa application had been denied by the State Department. Without a declared major and with no discernable skills, plus no government trying to kill her, she’s not a priority.”
“So what happens to Anica?” All of a sudden it mattered. A lot, which bothered him more than he liked.
Bobby laughed again, which was really getting annoying. “And there’s the mating kicking in. Having her matter will take up most of your head space until you learn to shield. Pretend she’s your mom and lock the big metal door in your head.”
“I know how to shield.” Except he didn’t want to shield. In fact, he wanted to know where she was right now, wanted to go to her, take her in his arms, and explore her body fully until they were both exhausted.
“Wow, has the mating kicked in.” Amber fanned her hand in the air, bringing him back to the present abruptly. “Different shielding than danger, Ris. I can add a shield in, but I’ll be stuck in your head for the duration. Any secrets you don’t want known by the world? Or at least by the Council?”
“I’ll handle my own shields, thank you.” There was no need to go into the things he would rather not share with the Sazi hierarchy.
“Okay, then here’s problem number two. Your new status is going to be broadcast to the whole town unless you can find a way to tamp it down in your scent.”
“Peppermint soap is great for that,” Bobby inserted with a raised hand. “I know just how much you’ll love smelling like a candy store.” He was enjoying this conversation far too much. That was likely Tristan’s own fault for his constant teasing when Bobby and Asri had first gotten together.
“Is that why I was smelling mint underwater?”
Amber decided that was interesting enough to sit down across from him on the rolling stool. “Underwater? Really? Where were you?”
“In the lake. I shifted and was swimming to clear my head after taking Anica home.”
Amber turned to Bobby for confirmation. “Did you smell mint?” He shook his head, not bothering to speak. So she reached for her mobile phone in her pocket. “Let’s find out where the mint comes from.” She dialed a number on the phone that he couldn’t see. A man answered, but she kept the phone pressed so close to her ear that he couldn’t identify the voice. “When’s the last time you smelled mint, any kind of mint?”
She nodded and then kept repeating, “Uh-huh. Uh-huh.” Another pause and then she nodded. “Okay, thank you. Get some sleep.” She pressed the red button and raised both hands with no particular scent attached. “That answers that. Anica just got done soaking in a mint-scented bubble bath. Her father remembered distinctly because his wife was allergic to the scent and it was the first time he’d smelled it since she went back to Serbia.” She leaned forward until her forearms were on her knees. “You’re smelling through her nose, instead of the other way around. It’s a double mating, Ris. That’s not a good thing for you.”
Oh, he was well aware of that. “I can’t afford to be mated at all. My life really doesn’t allow for someone tagging along.” He lived very simply, in a hut by the ocean on a tiny island off the Sumatran coast, barely more than a large rock. He didn’t even own a stove, preferring to eat his fish fresh and raw. Traveling frequently, he hunted criminals for the Sazi government, with no guarantee he would survive from job to job.
“And a three-day who will need energy just to exist? No. That’s not going to work. How do we fix this?” The moment the words were out of his mouth, he wanted to take them back. The effort to think clearly about the girl … about Anica, which was a beautiful name. Musical, like her voice. He missed her voice
in his thoughts. He put a palm to his forehead, struggling with the warring images in his mind. “What’s happening to me?”
“Mating.” “Pining.” The words came from Amber and Bobby simultaneously, along with the next word, in unison: “Sucks.”
“Mostly, it sucks because she’s now a liability to you. Any damage to her will cut into your energy. Any threat to her will make you do anything … anything at all to fix it. And from what you’ve told me about Lagash, he already knows that.”
I almost hate to interrupt … almost. “No wonder he’d waited. Lagash was hiding in the forest, watching us kiss. He said he almost hated to interrupt. Do you think he was waiting for the mating? Could he possibly have smelled it before anyone else could?”
Amber let out a harsh breath and the scent of her frustration filled the small room with burnt metal. “It’s definitely possible, if he knew what to smell for. He threw the power against both of you. If he wasn’t lying, and he is a local resident in disguise, he would have been here for the mediation. She was one of the challengers in the contest to decide who got the land in Serbia. Everyone who was here knows she’s a three-day. He might well have been curious to see if she would be killed by his blast.”
Maybe it was best to involve them after all. Ahmad wouldn’t like a Monier knowing his business, but he would forgive quickly once Lagash was dead. “Lagash said he had been amused that Ahmad hadn’t spotted him in town and that I hadn’t either. But Anica brought up that he was angry when he should have been smug because he had succeeding in hiding from us. Or at least amused, which is what he claimed.”
Bobby pursed his lips and nodded. “Anica’s got a good mind. We need to get her into school, train her properly. Maybe recommendations from some friends in the sciences can reverse the decision about her visa. We need to keep her here, and out of the shadows. Which means she can’t become undocumented.”
An alarm started beeping in Amber’s pocket, a sharp, annoying sound that made her reach quickly for her phone. “Sorry, that’s my medical emergency alert. Hold on.” Plucking out the phone, she stared at the screen. “Crap. We’ve got another one.”
“Another murder?”
“Alek Siska says so. He’s handling nine-one-one calls tonight, and he’s Wolven, so he can keep this local. Says the cook at the diner, David Haskell, has been strangled. He was found by a customer who was hoping for a late-night snack.”
“The last murder victim was a waitress there. Maybe this isn’t Lagash at work. Maybe it’s related to the diner after all.”
Bobby nodded. “I’ll go with Amber to the scene and talk to the person who called it in.”
Tristan stood up, feeling a little more focused. Maybe Bobby was right that he needed to keep his mind occupied to make his shielding work. “Bring the cook to the ice cream store. I can look at his wounds at the same time as the waitress’s.”
He left while the others were gathering Amber’s medical tools. He could imagine Anica becoming a scientist. She could have a long career, even as a three-day. Tristan had always wondered why Bobby subjected himself to the schooling when he already had a natural talent with his tongue. But Amber also had gotten a formal education, becoming a medical doctor as well as a healer. Perhaps there was value in the human school system he hadn’t noticed before.
He slipped behind the building to stay to the shadows, in case he was being watched by Lagash. The smoke was thicker than earlier, making it easy to stay out of sight as he headed for the basement where they’d left Paula’s corpse. From the smell, the fire wasn’t close by, at least not yet.
The little shop building was dark. Asylin said they hadn’t had a chance to clean up the mousetraps, so it was probably best to go in the same way Anica had come out. Going to the back of the building, he looked in through the window at ground level but couldn’t see through. Black plastic sheeting had been put over all the openings to help hide the new body on the floor. The windows were all locked and he hadn’t thought to ask for a key. That was stupid of him.
He’d have to find another way in, which would be easier in snake form. Shedding his clothing, he was soon slithering around the base of the building, looking for likely openings. The world shifted to light and dark, black and white, which made it easier to see in the near pitch-blackness of the forest. Small mammals in the undergrowth scurried out of his way as he flicked his tongue, feeling for warm air leaking from the cold concrete foundation. He raised his body up to feel along the concrete. The roughness of the gravel skimmed across his skin. When he found what he was looking for, a small series of hissing laughs slipped out. The dryer vent. Of course.
It was short work to slide up through the hose to the edge of the machine and then bite his way through the thin plastic-ringed sheath.
Staying along the wall leading out of the laundry room, he saw the falcon shifter sleeping fitfully in her bed. There was no need to wake her, but if she did wake he would put her in a magical hold until he finished working. Thankfully, there were no mousetraps in her home and the door between her apartment and the main shop was open a crack, so he didn’t have to shift to continue toward the basement. The mousetraps all over the floor in the shop would be a trick, though.
If he thought like a snake, that was—
He looked up. While the counter was also covered with traps, there was a decorative railing that separated the pine paneling on the bottom half of the wall from the painted upper half.
Getting to the railing was no problem, and it was wide enough to stretch out on. But snakes didn’t move in a straight line; their scales generally propelled them in an S-shaped pattern. Still, it was possible to make tiny movements slowly, like walking on a rope bridge over jagged rocks. Fortunately, he’d done that very thing before. A little nerve-wracking, but he managed it.
Once he’d slithered downstairs, he started inspecting the body of the cook. While he knew from television shows that human police preferred a body to be as fresh as possible to get their clues, it was actually easier for someone with tongue scent ability when the body was a little more … ripe. He decided to start with the woman’s body in the walk-in first, returning to human form to pull her out into the main room before shutting the door and shifting back to snake form so he had full use of his talents.
Paula’s body was in a good state for his investigation. Even though she’d been in the freezer, enough time had passed for some natural breakdown of tissue to occur, releasing scents that told of how the damage had occurred. Unfortunately, the woman’s neck and chest were so damaged by tearing that determining the type of teeth would be difficult. He slowly slid along the body, using the taste buds embedded in his skin to try to figure out the scent of the killer. Multiple people had touched the body, so he had to first eliminate those he’d come in contact with. His own scent, along with those of Bobby, Rachel, Dalvin, and Anica, were quickly discarded. Three others had touched the body: two female, one male. Could this have been a coordinated effort to kill the woman? If so, why?
Concentrating on the wounds, he wrapped himself around Paula’s neck, putting the pieces of the skin back together so he could determine the shape of the original tooth marks.
“It was strangulation.” The voice made him look up sharply. The falcon the others had called Skew was standing at the foot of the stairs in human form. Flicking out his tongue, he realized one of the scents under his skin was hers.
“How so?” She didn’t seem concerned that he was a snake, nor that he was slithering around on a dead body.
Moving forward, she knelt down beside him and pulled one of the dead woman’s ears forward, folding it over so he could look at it. “Look at the bruising behind the ears. Someone tore out the throat after she was strangled, to hide the finger marks.” She was correct. There was bruising, darkening the skin to nearly black. “And look at the eyes.” Raising the body’s eyelids, Skew showed him that the whites were bloodred. “There’s clear evidence of asphyxiation that wouldn’t be evident with
animal bites.”
“You’ve already done an exam?”
She nodded. “Of course. I’m the town’s medical examiner. First death by misadventure in years.”
“You seem to know your forensics. Are you trained?”
She nodded. “It wasn’t my major, but I minored in forensic science. It annoyed my parents.” She winked slyly. “There’s no legal requirement in this state that the ME be a doctor, so I fill in.”
Lights brightened the stairwell and they both turned to look as a voice called down, “Ris? You down there?” It was Bobby, but he could also smell Amber and another person, a wolf.
A second voice joined his. Must be the wolf. “Skew? Is everything okay? It’s Alek.”
The change in his companion was remarkable. It was like a switch was thrown. Her head started bobbing and her movements went from smooth and practiced to twitching. “Alek. Alek. Need more vanilla. Must get ready for customers. Ice cream for the children.”
She backed up until she was pressed against the freezer door, her eyes completely vacant. Tristan was stunned. Whatever had just happened was utterly fascinating.
“Bobby? Whoever just spoke needs to say good-bye loudly and then leave. Do not let him come down here. Have him guard the door. And you and Amber should come downstairs in animal form.”
There were muffled noises and then the male named Alek spoke again. He sounded confused and a little annoyed. “Okay, see you tomorrow, Skew. Have a good night.”
Tristan tucked himself under the cot while footsteps sounded and then the bright metal bell dinged and the door shut. As he expected, with both his and the wolf’s stimuli removed the woman stood absolutely still, barely breathing, as though in some sort of stasis.