by Liz Schulte
“Werewolves,” Holden said, curling his lip in disgust. “There has been a werewolf outbreak. You might have nine lives, but would you like to spend all of them confined, or would you rather I kill you nine times in a row? One scratch, one bite, and that is your future. They are impossibly fast and strong. You need a team of people to take care of a werewolf problem. That’s how they were eradicated the first time. I don’t know why Leilah is insisting just one hunter can handle this. It’s a suicide mission.”
I waited a moment for him to say he was joking, but he glowered at me instead. Werewolves weren’t possible, mainly because, as he said, they had been eradicated—mostly. A few might have remained in the one place the Abyss had to send their undesirables to. When no race would take responsibility for them and they couldn’t be killed, those beings were sent to Hollowfield. “It isn’t possible. First, I haven’t heard anything about an outbreak, and news like that travels fast, especially in the bounty-hunting circles. Second, there are no werewolves unless there was an escape from Hollowfield, which again I would have heard about, and werewolves are too stupid to escape. They don’t have the ability to plan or the temperament to work together. Whatever the problem is, it isn’t a werewolf problem.”
Hollowfield was next to impossible to escape from. It was a magically made remote island with a single building on it. Its design was a collaboration of all the Abyss races (light and dark) to house the worst, most uncontrollable of their kind. Some beings couldn’t always be killed. Those were taken here to spend the rest of their days confined to a 6x6 cell. That place was probably the closest thing to a hell on earth as the world had ever come. Every defense imaginable was in place because, above all our differences, exposure wasn’t good for any of us. No one wanted to see anyone in there go free.
“Hollowfield hasn’t had any problems,” Sy said. “They were the first place I checked when the news of the outbreak reached the council. Everything is secure there. It doesn’t change the fact that people are being mauled in a very wolflike manner.”
My teeth ground together. “How long have you known?”
“A while,” he said. “I didn’t believe it either. I sent a couple people to look into it, but none of them have come back. Just a second, I have to check on something.” He ducked out of the room, and a faint scent of something sweet and cinnamon-y filled my nostrils. It was a fae of some sort. Must have come from the bar.
“What about you? How long have you known?” I asked Holden. He gave me a bored look, but didn’t answer. Figured. Why hadn’t either of them told me? Hell, why didn’t Holden just go to whatever this was and take care of it himself? It wasn’t like he didn’t have the power to eliminate any threat. “You could have ended this before it began.”
He shook his head. “As hard as it is for you and Olivia to understand, I do not feel the need to insert myself into every problem the world has. Sometimes they just have to be figured out on their own.”
How those two ever got along was mind-blowing to me. He was a jinni who worked with demons most of his existence. She was an angel. There was nothing like opposites attract.
Sy came back in the room. “How many are there?” I asked him.
“As far as our contact can tell, just the one,” Holden said. “The bodies have been too mutilated to regenerate. But the problem can quickly get out of hand if the wolf figures out how to grow his pack.”
I rolled my eyes. “One werewolf is hardly an outbreak—not that it is a wolf. Regardless, it won’t be a problem.” These guys and their overreactions. I’d be fine. “I’ll be home by the end of the week.”
Sy looked at me. “Four bounty hunters have already died. Do not underestimate this creature. If it’s new, who made it? If it is old, then it has stayed off everyone’s radar for the last twenty years or so—which is a feat in itself. Why is it popping up now? Four bodies have appeared in the last week, and those are just from the Abyss. We don’t know if it has targeted humans or not. It has to stop. I told the council I could take a group there and take it out, but Leilah had other ideas.”
“She wanted me?”
Holden looked grim. “You should have read the contract. She not only wants you to do this, she wants you to do it alone.”
Why should she care if I hunt down a fake wolf attack alone or with someone else? “Why?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. Leilah designed the contract. I didn’t get to see it until after you signed it. The best I can come up with is she wants to see what you are capable of. It clearly states that you have to resolve the crime on your own, with no assistance from anyone on the council or any other Abyss resident. If you fail, the council can punish you. If you succeed…” He gave me a stony look. “For some reason, their attention is focused on you, Femi. I don’t know why. But you should be concerned about that. The council is full of agendas. That’s why Baker got out. I’m only on it because it was the best choice at the time, and groups like this shouldn’t go unmonitored. Neither of us can really tell you what’s in store.”
The corners of my mouth rose before I could stop them. So the dragon was testing me. “Mark my words, it’s not a werewolf. I don’t know what it is, but I will find it and I will bring its head to the council.”
This won the smallest of smiles from Holden. “Be careful, Femi.” With that, he vanished into his usual black mist and probably headed home, since he was a family man now.
Thin stress lines barely creased his eyes. So unusual for an elf. “Holden’s right,” he said. “The council is interested in you for a reason. Can you think of anything that would have caught their attention recently?”
I shook my head. “Maybe Baba Yaga is complaining to them?” I had a case not too long ago where I found a thief for a mean old witch named Baba Yaga. I delivered the thief to her, but I didn’t give her back the stolen item, the hand of glory. The hand could unlock any door. Apparently Baba had been using it to steal children, so I kept the hand.
“Doesn’t seem likely. Baba likes to handle those things on her own.”
I shook my head. “Nothing else comes to mind. The selection of bounties has been lacking recently.”
Sy ran his hand through his short blond hair. “I wish there was more I could do to help you with this one, but…”
“They are watching you,” I said, repeating what he had told Holden. “Why?”
“They are down two members. It has been proposed that I fill one of them, which was approved on a trial basis, but they are still deciding if they want to keep me.”
“If they are as bad as you say, why would you want to stay?”
He sighed. “The world isn’t always going to be like this. When it changes, I want a say in how it changes and how it is designed. The council itself isn’t bad, just disconnected. Most of them are ancient and isolated. They don’t know or care how the world works now. Also, the council is unbalanced. Holden ended up taking his father’s position as the neutral vote. The two positions that are open are both on the light side. The council historically has been made up of three dark, three light, and three neutral to give the best representation to all sides.”
I ran my tongue over my lips, kind of wishing for a snack. “So right now there is only one light vote on the council?” That explained a lot of things. If Holden took his dad’s position, then that meant Baker must have been a light vote. How did he ever get mixed up with Holden to begin with? I smiled a little at the thought of him. Eventually his memories would come back, and when they did, I would ask him. “Why has it taken so long to fill the other two spots?”
“I get the feeling Anessa has only nominated me, so far. As the only light council member, it is up to her to select nominations.”
The Abyss needed Sy in the position. He had one of the best hearts of anyone I had ever met. He was certainly better than me, and he had a way with people. We would all be better off if he were on the council. “Maybe they aren’t testing me as much as they are testing you.”
He shift
ed closer to me. “I’ve considered that. Especially since Leilah specified that you had to do this alone. She knows that you work for me. She knows that we’re…”
“Friends,” I filled in for him. Because that was what we were. We may have flirted from time to time, we have even gone on the occasional date, but above all else, he was my friend. The first real friend I ever had.
“I think she might have an inkling that my feelings are more than friendly for you,” he said, his hand brushing down my bare arm.
“We should…” My voice ran out of steam as his fingertips reached my neck and trailed down my collarbone. There was a bar full of bounty hunters feet away and I was being sent on what Holden thought was a suicide mission. There was no time for this, whatever this was.
“You’re always running away from me,” he breathed into my ear. “What are you so afraid of?”
My eyes threatened to flutter closed as he brushed his lips against my neck. He was so tempting with his continual offers of more. And what if he was right? What if we were great together? That was the thought I had to constantly keep at bay. Sy’s friendship meant more to me than that, and I didn’t want it to change. I wanted to know he would always be here. I wanted to know that no matter what happened in my life, I could always walk into the Office and there he would be with a smile and food. As soon as love got involved, even the simplest feelings became complicated. I had enough complications with my family.
“We’re not like your family,” he said softly, his lips inching toward mine. “I will always be here for you. I don’t like you doing this without backup.”
He always seemed to know too much. It was another mystery about him that I would probably never solve, but I couldn’t shake the feeling things were changing whether or not I wanted them to. If Sy took the job with the council, who would run the Office? Would I lose him entirely?
“I work alone,” I mumbled, closing the distance between us.
His lips were soft and warm against mine. Warmth spread through me, making me ache for something I didn’t want to think about. Kissing Sy was a mistake, a wonderful, mesmerizing mistake. He took my lower lip between his and caressed it, coaxing me toward what he wanted—possibly what I wanted too. Definitely a mistake. One that I shouldn’t repeat. His lips became more demanding, and I wanted to give in so much I only had one choice: push myself away.
I turned and took a couple steps away. His eyes stayed with me. I could feel them trying to ferret out a reaction of some sort. I didn’t actually believe he could read minds, but he was astute to an, at times, annoying degree. “Where are the attacks?”
The sound of Sy dropping a file onto the coffee table turned me around. “Four bounty hunters have already been killed: Hatchet, McNeil, Falcon, and Mace. This is everything I know about what’s happening. If you don’t want to do this, I will find a way to get you out of it. Just say the word.”
I laughed, picking up the file. “When have I ever run away?”
“If it were just another case, but…”
The council thing was obviously freaking him out. “I promise I’ll do a good job and I won’t compromise you with the council.”
He took the file from my hands, forcing me to look at him. “I don’t care about them.”
I took the file back from him and opened it. They weren’t even bodies anymore. With the first picture it took a moment to register what I was seeing. It was just bits and pieces that were left behind. How could he even identify who they were? I looked closer until I saw it: the knife that Falcon always carried halfway under an empty box. Its curved shape was unique. It more resembled a hook than a knife. I flipped through the rest of the pictures. I knew all of the hunters in passing, but wasn’t close to any of them. That didn’t mean I liked seeing their mutilated bodies on the ground. I closed the folder. “If the council didn’t want to bring other hunters into this, how did they find out?”
“Hatchet caught whiff of it on his own, I think. Werewolves were always his particular hang-up. Then when he didn’t come back, McNeil and Falcon went to look for him.”
“Together?”
Sy nodded. “They were friends. When none of them came back, I sent Mace to scout the area. He wasn’t supposed to engage.” He leaned in close and plucked out a picture of an arm. “This is all that was found of him. That’s when I took the problem to the council. Our source in New Orleans had been telling us that he needed to talk, but Leilah said she would handle it. Apparently she didn’t. However, with my independent confirmation, the problem couldn’t be ignored. Leilah chose you rather than letting the council handle it.”
I crossed my arms, a new sort of fire burning in me. No one just killed bounty hunters like this. We were the law. “You should have sent me to begin with.”
“The witches in Selene’s coven aren’t part of the Abyss,” he said. “At least not all of them. So long as you leave Frost and Selene out of it, if you need help at any point, you could call them–”
“Sy,” I said.
He ignored me. “Jessica is good with research. She makes connections. She can help. The council can’t say anything about involving her. She was banished from the Abyss.”
“Sy,” I tried again.
He finally looked up at me with sad eyes. “I can live with a lot, but not with something happening to you.”
I took a deep breath. This was why Sy and I would never work as a couple. I loved my job. I loved everything about bounty hunting: the hunt, the chase, and even the capture or kill. Sure, it was a thankless job at times, and it certainly didn’t win me a lot of friends, but it was satisfying. It was better than sitting around doing nothing or training for wars that would never come, like the rest of my people did. This was my place in the world, and Sy knew that because it was his place too. However, it didn’t stop him from trying to protect me, but how was I supposed to make a difference if I was being treated like a damn flower?
“Nothing is going to happen to me, Sy.” I stayed my hand from reaching toward him. “I’m the best.”
He took my shoulders, turning me toward his entirely-too-serious face. “Femi, you know that I—”
“Stop,” I said firmly. Whatever declaration he was about to make, I didn’t want to hear it. I pulled back from him. I shouldn’t have kissed him. “We’re friends. We’re great friends. Why isn’t that enough?”
A self-deprecating half-grin twisted on his face as he looked down at the table. “Are you ever going to let me tell you how I feel?”
My head shook ever so slightly. He didn’t need to say the words. I knew what they were. “Can’t we just leave this alone?” I didn’t want to hurt him, but this was all I could offer him right now. I didn’t want to be tied to anyone. I was a free agent.
He sat down on the couch. “I have a room already booked for you in New Orleans. It will be waiting for you whenever you want to go.” He crossed his legs. “One more thing, then I promise I will leave this alone. I’m not going to wait forever, Femi. You need to decide what you want. I know what I want.”
His words formed into a pebble within me and sank, disturbing a pool of stubbornness. “I never asked you to wait.” The words came out harsher than I meant them to. I never asked anyone to wait. Not the man I was betrothed to back home, not Sy, not anyone. It was just another way to control me, and I wasn’t having it. I cast him a sidelong glance. “If it were just a one-night stand or a fling…”
Sy met my gaze as if he had been waiting for it. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. We both knew it would never be that between us. He wanted what other couples had. I wasn’t the girl to give him that.
“That’s what I thought,” I whispered.
Chapter 3