by Cynthia Eden
“Where are you going, Jimmy?”
He strained, trying to see if he heard cop cars coming. “I’ll go to my uncle’s place in the swamp. Lay low there just a bit.” That was as far as he’d planned. “Forget me, man. Believe me, I’ve already forgotten you.” He hung up the phone and raced for the back door.
***
Jane had visited the Voodoo Shop before. If you lived in New Orleans, you pretty much had to visit the shop. It was just…well, a thing.
But when Jane knocked on the door, she didn’t hear any movement inside. And the CLOSED sign hung at a slightly diagonal slant on the front window, a window that also featured a grinning skull wearing a black hat. Jane glanced over at Aidan with raised brows.
“She’s in there,” he said. “Let’s go around back.”
Well, that was easier said than done. Because there wasn’t a way to get to the back, not unless you scaled a six foot wall and managed to avoid the broken bottles that rested on top of said wall. Those bottles were a mainstay in New Orleans. Security that dated way, way back. You didn’t want someone climbing your wall and sneaking onto your property? Put some broken bottles up there. That way, the would-be intruder couldn’t get a handhold without slicing himself deep and hard.
“Don’t worry,” Aidan assured her. “I’ve got this.”
Good to know. Truly but—
He leapt over the wall. Seemed to fly over the thing.
She spun around, her gaze frantically searching the street to make sure no one had just seen that crazy move. He couldn’t freaking bound up over six foot tall walls like that in public! But, luckily, no one else seemed close enough to see him. She rushed toward the front of the shop. Jane put her ear to the glass. There was a crash inside and then a woman screamed. Fear and fury were in the cry.
She screamed a second time, and the sound held only fear.
Hell. What is happening in there? Jane kicked at the door. Her second kick actually got it open. “Police!” Jane yelled as she raced through the shop. It smelled strongly of incense and…beignets? “Police!” She rushed through the beaded curtain to the back.
And that was when she found Aidan…and the woman she guessed had to be Annette Benoit. Aidan had his hands up—his clawed hands—and the woman was trapped between Aidan and the back wall.
Beside them, what looked like a dozen beignets—all covered with gobs of powdered sugar—littered the floor.
“Stop!” Jane yelled. She hadn’t meant to have a partner who’d go off into crazy town at the drop of a hat. “Move away from her, Aidan!”
“She’s working with Thane.”
The woman’s light brown gaze flew toward Jane. She gave a frantic shake of her head.
“She was eating beignets for goodness’s sake. Not working with a Master Vamp.” Jane put up her gun. “Back away, Aidan, now.”
Growling, he did.
Relief flooded across Annette’s face. “Glad someone can control the beast.”
“Annette…” Her name was a dark rumble from Aidan. “You think I can’t smell him here? Can’t scent the fire you the made for him?”
Jane peered closer at Annette. She couldn’t scent any of that stuff that Aidan was talking about, but her attention had been caught by the green scarf that the woman had around her neck.
Annette was, quite simply, stunning. Her hair was long, black, and perfectly straight. Her eyes deep set and exotically tilted at the corners. Her skin was a soft cream, smooth, totally unlined. Her chin curved gently, her cheekbones stretched high, and her full lips trembled a bit with fear.
Jane’s gaze drifted over the scarf. And there, right at the upper edge of the silken material, she saw the faint mark on Annette’s throat. “He bit you.”
Annette’s hand flew up and she repositioned her scarf. “I don’t know what you’re—”
“You’ve got vamp bite marks on your neck,” Jane said flatly. “Thane was here. You made fire for him.”
Thane. Just saying his name made Jane feel sick. When she’d seen that video—seen the monster from her nightmares on the computer screen—she’d nearly lost it.
Her knees had shook. Bile had risen in her throat. And deep inside of her, the girl she’d been had been screaming.
He’s real. He’s real…Not a nightmare.
A monster who was back in her life once again.
But she’d kept her shit together, barely. She hadn’t freaked out in front of Jimmy and even though her stomach was still in knots, Jane was doing her job. Later, when she was alone—maybe she could break apart then.
I’ve been holding it together for so long. I’m scared to let go.
“Jane?”
She blinked. Aidan was frowning at her, and that was definitely a beast glow lighting his stare. Crap. He was probably scenting her fear and thinking that the woman caused it.
As if having the same fear, Annette cast her a desperate stare. “Control the beast!”
It wasn’t an order. More of a plea. Like Jane was supposed to be able to magically keep Aidan from going all wolf. Jane cleared her throat. Keep that shit together longer. “Your fire nearly killed me last night!”
“But it didn’t!” Annette spoke quickly. “Because Aidan was there. I knew he’d be there. I knew he’d get you out. And I knew…” She exhaled on a deep sigh. “That he’d eventually come to me.” She twisted her hands in front of her body. “What was I supposed to do?” Annette asked, eyes flashing. “Thane would’ve killed me if I hadn’t given it to him. He left me alive only because I’m useful to him. If Thane can’t use you, then he eliminates you.”
Thane. Jane’s heart raced in her chest. “You seem to know an awful lot about him.”
Annette gave a nod. “About him. About Aidan. About what’s going to happen to you, Detective Hart.” She inched toward a table in the middle of the room. A black mirror rested on that table. A broken mirror. “I saw a lot of death today when I scried.”
“You should have called me immediately!” Aidan threw at her.
Annette swayed a bit on her feet. Her hands curled around the table. “He took too much blood. I passed out after he left. When I woke up, the fire was over and I was just happy the sun was up.” Her fingers slid over the broken glass. “Do you know how many people are going to die before midnight?”
What kind of question was that? “Tell us where he is,” Jane said. “Tell us where this Thane is and we can stop him.” She wanted to find the bastard and make him pay for all his crimes. Personal? Hell, yes, it is.
Annette glanced at Jane’s right side. “The end,” she said, her voice suddenly sad. “It never looks the way we expect, does it?”
Omega means the end.
Annette picked up a piece of glass, then she sliced the broken shard over her hand.
“What are you doing?” Jane shot forward. She yanked the woman’s scarf from her neck and started to quickly wrap her wound. Blood was dripping everywhere. “That’s crazy! Why are you—”
Annette’s blood had hit some of the broken mirror. Annette leaned over the table staring down into the glass. “Others know,” she murmured, her voice strangely hollow. “Others have figured it out. You were missing, but now you’re found.”
“Um, okay…” Jane started to edge away from the other woman. Creepy-ville.
Annette’s hand flew out and locked around hers. Her grip was tight, almost painful, and Annette’s gaze never left the mirror. “There isn’t an escape. Death will come for you.”
“I wasn’t really looking to have my fortune read,” Jane said. Especially not such a shitty fortune. Why couldn’t happiness come for her? A long life? Wealth?
“Easy or hard, that is the only choice. Which do you want, Mary Jane Hart?”
Unease slithered through Jane. Okay, so she knows my full name and we just met. Apparently, the woman was very, very in the know. “I’ve never been one to do anything easy, and as for hard—if you’re talking about some kind of violent death…” And she totall
y thought that was what Annette meant. “Then I’ll just pass on that option, too. Give me what’s behind door number three.”
Candles had been lit around the table. Thick, white candles with flames that danced, but at Jane’s words, the candles sputtered out.
Annette exhaled on a shuddering sigh. “Then door three is yours.” Her fingers fell away from Jane’s. “Though I don’t think you will like what you find there.”
“You’re a creepy woman, you know that, right?” Jane murmured, deciding to be straight-up honest with her impression of the lady.
Annette laughed, the sound tired. Bitter. “You think I asked to be this way? Spirits have been haunting me my whole life. I talk to the dead more than I do the living.” She finally looked into Jane’s eyes. “I didn’t ask for this life, just as you didn’t ask for yours. But we’re both screwed and we just have to make the best of it.”
Jane glanced at the broken, black mirror. “Were you talking to the dead then? When you did the whole blood dripping thing?’”
“They were showing me the way. Just like my guides always do.” Her voice was heavy with weariness. “I hope you’re ready for what’s coming.”
“Just what is coming?” Jane wanted to know.
“Betrayal. Blood. Death.”
“Lovely.” Jane paced toward Aidan. He’d been quiet during the exchange, but she could feel a feral intensity practically burning off him. “So she’s the contact who was going to help us?” A proclamation of death was hardly helpful.
“Where is Thane?” Aidan asked Annette.
But Annette shook her head. “I don’t know. Probably out someplace, planning her death.” She pointed one ringed finger at Jane.
Only fair, I’m plotting his downfall, too. He won’t get away from me. Justice will come for him.
Before Jane could speak, her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She picked it up and read the text there. “We’ve got another body,” she said, body tensing. “An anonymous caller phoned it in. Warehouse district. A whole lot of blood at the scene.”
Which probably meant—not a knifing, not a shooting…
A vamp attack.
“Captain wants me there,” Jane continued. She nodded toward Annette. “I, um, may have broken your door earlier.”
“You were trying to save me.” One of Annette’s slender shoulders rose and fell. “You always wanted to be the hero, didn’t you? It’s that trait that will destroy you in the end.”
She could really live without hearing more of Annette’s predictions. Doom and gloom, much?
“My men will fix the door,” Aidan told her. “And they’ll also make sure you have a guard, just in case Thane pays you another visit.”
Annette backed up a step. “Guard…” She tasted the word. “Does that mean I’m a prisoner? Because prisoners have guards.”
“It means my men are already outside. I caught the scent when they arrived. You won’t be making another move without the pack knowing just what you’re doing.”
“A pack betrayal means death,” Annette said simply, as if stating a fact that everyone knew.
Since Jane wasn’t aware of that particular pack rule, she stared at Aidan with wide eyes. “She’s not serious.”
He didn’t speak.
“Aidan, you aren’t killing her!”
“She was ready to have you die, Jane.”
“She was attacked by a vampire!” Now Jane put her body in front of Annette’s. “She’s still got the bite marks on her neck to prove it! You don’t kill a victim—you help her!” Seriously, shouldn’t that be obvious?
His face was implacable.
“Wanting to be a hero,” Annette said, voice nearly whisper soft. “That’s a flaw that you have. Be very careful, Mary Jane Hart. Don’t let it kill you.”
Jane didn’t move. “It’s just Jane, okay? And since I’m trying to save your ass, maybe try to be a little more grateful and a little less doom and gloom.”
Annette gave that faint, husky laugh again.
“She doesn’t die,” Jane said flatly. “Got me, partner? Your men can keep an eye on her—some protection sounds great. But you give the order that they aren’t to hurt her.”
Behind her, Annette cleared her throat. “No one orders an alpha.”
“I wasn’t ordering.” Okay, she had been. “I was asking.” She stared at Aidan. “Don’t do this. I get that there are different rules in your world, but just…don’t, okay?”
He closed in on her. “If I do this for you, what do I get?”
“Um, the joy of saving a life?”
“That won’t cut it for him,” Annette warned darkly. “Be careful making deals with the wolves. They’re slyer than foxes.”
Aidan’s warm fingers closed around her chin. “What do I get?” Aidan asked her again.
They had a murder victim waiting. “What do you want?”
His eyes heated.
You.
He didn’t even have to say the word. She just knew.
“I don’t trade sex for favors,” Jane snapped at him.
Annette grabbed her shoulder. “You are playing with fire.”
“You’re one to talk,” Jane muttered back to her, never taking her gaze off Aidan. “You’re the one selling fire to vamps.”
Annette’s hand fell away. “True…”
“So name something else,” Jane told Aidan flatly.
“Blind trust.”
She knew her eyes widened. Talk about asking the impossible.
“There will come a time when I want you to trust me. No questions asked. You just do what I say. One time. That’s the deal. You agree and we’re done here.”
“Fine.” Easy enough to say.
He smiled and his expression softened. “Thank you.”
His whole face changed when he smiled. He became way less intense, not so scary and just…sexy. Jane cleared her throat. “You’re welcome.” She actually wanted to throw her arms around the wolf and hug him. Crazy. “We have a body waiting, so let’s go.”
He nodded and turned to leave the back room. Before Jane could follow him, Annette had reached out to her again. Annette came in close, putting her mouth to Jane’s ear and barely whispering, “Trusting him is a terrible mistake.”
Goosebumps rose on Jane’s arms.
“Annette!” Aidan stood in the doorway, his smile gone. Even though Annette had whispered her warning, Jane knew Aidan had still heard the other woman. And he was pissed.
Jane shrugged away from Annette and headed out with Aidan. She reached for his hand. Curled her fingers with his. “Don’t worry, wolf,” she told him. “I make my own decisions about who I trust.” And so far, Aidan had been there for her. He’d saved her ass. He’d given her more pleasure than she could stand and—
He was her partner. For now. So, for now, she’d trust him.
And she sincerely hoped she wasn’t making a fatal mistake.
Hello, door number three.
Chapter Fourteen
Her captain was at the scene before Jane arrived. The captain, several patrol cars, and even Dr. Bob were already on hand.
And the scent of death was strong.
“Stay back here,” Jane said to Aidan as she slipped under the line of yellow police tape that had been put in place to section off the crime scene. “I’ll go see what’s happening.”
He caught her wrist. “I know his scent.”
She waited, brows raised.
“The victim. It’s the guy who stole the body last night. He’s dead in there.” His lips tightened. “I’m guessing he might have been the new vamp’s first meal.”
Jane glanced toward the entrance to the warehouse. “But…but they were working together.”
Keeping his voice low, Aidan said, “I already told you. When a person becomes a vamp, the bloodlust takes over. Doesn’t matter if it’s a friend, family—your own kid, the bloodlust is in control and all the vamp does is feed.”
Yes, but being told that and f
inding a body that was proof…Two different things. “Stay here,” she said, making sure that her voice was steady. “And if you happen to scent any vamps around, let me know before you go off chasing them.”
“Will do.”
She hurried toward the open warehouse. Her captain had just stepped outside, and the light glinted off her dark sunglasses. Captain Vivian Harris was in her late forties, but her smooth coffee cream skin belied that age. She was dressed in a suit, with her badge clipped to her hip. The holster of her weapon was just barely visible beneath her well-cut jacket. As Jane rushed toward her, Vivian lifted a hand.
Jane stilled in front of the captain.
“I hear you’ve had quite a few…incidents within the last twenty-four hours.”
“You mean my apartment fire?” She didn’t look back at Aidan. Jane kept her focus on the captain, but with those tinted glasses that Vivian wore, she couldn’t tell exactly where her boss was looking. At Aidan? The crowd? “I actually think that attack—as well as the attack behind the cathedral—is related to the death of Melanie Wagner.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Wait, what?
Vivian smiled at Jane, and for an instant, Jane saw that Vivian’s eye teeth were…long. Like, longer than normal.
“I’m in his pack,” Vivian said simply.
Shit. Holy shit. Her captain was a werewolf, too?
“There are more of us than you realize,” Vivian continued. “Supernaturals hide best in plain sight. If you’re stepping into this world, you need to realize that. Never believe what you see on first glance. Always, always look deeper.”
And in a blink, the captain’s white teeth were back to normal.
“When I got promoted to captain, that promotion took me out of the field,” Vivian said. “I need a detective who can handle our cases.”
Our cases. Paranormal cases.
“You think you’re up for that job?”
Jane didn’t know, but she wanted to find out. “I want to try.” Because everyone deserved justice.
“Good.” Vivian gave her a nod. “Because it’s a real freaking bloodbath in there, and most of the cops on scene went green when they walked inside. You are the one we’ll be calling for these cases. You’re the one who’ll handle things, and it will be so much easier because I won’t have to bring in the alpha to make everyone forget shit all the time.”