It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to further our relationship in the past. Read that as bed me. If I could ditch Jed, he might find me a bit more amenable to that plan tonight.
Jed led us to the crime site from the night before and we let the dogs get a good sniff. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Wolf-not-wolf. The same as before. I gave Reb more leash and we took off through the rocks and into the creek. It was a good thing we had so little rain in the summer. The creek bed was practically dry and it was easy to cross where we needed to on big dry rocks jutting up above the water. Any other year, we would be wet up to the knees by now.
The skin-walker had a good run this time, circling trees and doubling back taking us back and forth over the same area multiple times. We ran for almost an hour, and I got to see a side of Mason I hadn't seen before. He could be a jock as well as a scholar. He was definitely a runner and had no problem keeping up with us. Two points, Mason.
The scent died out in the middle of a clearing, circled in by huge pine trees. No tire tracks, no car parked to the side. Nothing but grass and trees. After reading Lilith's information on Skin-walkers, I realized that this must be where he ditched his skin and became human again. We sniffed around, but there were too many human scents. It just wasn't feasible to track them all.
Closing my eyes, I tried to Find the wolf skin. Even off the body, it still had to exist somewhere. And I should be able to lock onto it. Nothing. If the skin existed, it did so in the equivalent of a scentless black hole. Which up to this point, I didn't know existed.
SPENCER DOESN’T HAVE a lot of selection when it comes to gourmet dining. Since Jed didn’t want to take the hour of driving time to make it to Bloomington and back, we ended up at McDonald's. Not that I complained. Two huge sandwiches later, I was feeling on top of the world and a little tipsy.
Humans get drunk on beer, wine, and spirits. Wolves get drunk on meat. Pretty much the same effects, although like wine in humans it affects each wolf a little differently. Me, it makes very, very relaxed. I could go to sleep very easily after four whole beef patties, with all the fixings. I had thrown in a large order of fries, too, to satisfy the whole veggie thing, even though Mason said they really don’t count as they are actually a complex carb.
Whatever. To me, if it doesn’t come off a living animal, it’s a veggie.
The men spent the meal tossing stories of hunts they had been on back and forth. I ate. After a while, I noticed the men staring at me and realized their conversation had stopped.
“I’m sorry, did I miss something?” I asked.
“No, we were just dazzled by your ability to put away two huge sandwiches in less than fifteen minutes,” Mason said, smiling to take the sting out.
“Hey, I’ve been spending a lot of time with vegetarians. This is the first guilt-free meat I’ve had in days. Besides, Jed ate as much as I did, plus a salad.”
Jed laughed. “I weigh almost twice what you do.”
“Don’t blame me if my metabolism is higher than yours.”
“Metabolism, right,” he said.
“Okay, kids,” Mason said, “no arguing at the table.” He looked over at Jed. “Are you going for a little sleep before heading back to the park? Or are you up for an all-nighter?”
“I’m game, and Taz had a nap earlier, so she should be good to go, too.”
A nap? I kicked him under the table and he grunted in pain. I was wearing my boots now.
“I slept for like ten whole minutes, but I’m sure I’ll be able to keep up with you big strong manly men.” I gathered up my pack and started toward the restroom.
“You can leave your bag here. We’ll watch it for you," Jed said.
I smiled sweetly. Jed was afraid I was up to something. “You watching it here wouldn’t do me much good in there, now would it? Or do I have to explain all the reasons a lady needs her purse in the restroom?” Actually, I needed my cell phone to call and update Rose, and he probably didn’t like the idea of being out of earshot while I made the call. Tough. I waited for a second to see if he would risk more with Mason listening. He didn’t.
Luckily there wasn’t anyone in the ladies room, so I shut myself in one of the small stalls and dialed Rose. She picked up on the first ring.
“I take it the truce is still holding?” She asked.
“For now, though I’d wait to see if he’s still alive in the morning before I’d count it a victory,” I answered. “Did you guys have any luck narrowing down the Skin-walker search?”
She hesitated. "Some interesting candidates have come up, yes. But the big news is that Lily had a break-through regarding the Luparii. I think we all need to have a meeting tomorrow, as early as possible. We have some questions for Jed.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing I want you to worry about now. Just don’t trust Jed, dear. At least not till we get some answers from him.”
I snorted. No problem there.
"And Taz?" Rose's voice had a questioning tone. "It might be a lot safer to not trust anyone at this point. Like I said, some interesting names have cropped up in our search."
I started to ask her who, but as I wasn't in a very trusting mood anyway, I figured it would wait until the morning. I told her about our twosome becoming a threesome and she seemed to be relieved somewhat. How that was going to help me when we got to my cabin in the morning and Mason returned to Bloomington, I don’t know. I didn’t relish the thought of sleeping in the bathroom, but that was the only locking door within the house.
Hell, the only indoor walls, too. For the first time, I regretted having such a small open home.
Turns out, I needn’t have worried at all. After an uneventful night patrolling the park, we dropped Mason off at his car at the park entrance and headed back to the cabin. Jed’s old-fashioned sense of honor wouldn’t allow him to sleep inside the house. He attached small devices to my front door, doggie door, and the windows over my Jacuzzi.
I’d seen them before at Radio Shack. One-half of the device went on the moving part of the window or door and the other half on the non-moving frame. If the magnetic connection between the two pieces was broken, an alarm would sound. And keep sounding until you entered the code to turn it off.
It took effort to hide my grin, but I managed by remembering his dart gun. He didn’t know about my hidden second doggie door as I’d only installed it days before. It was covered on the outside by a pass-through doghouse, and on the inside by an end table covered with a decorative silk tablecloth. It was a close fit for Rebel, but then, it was an emergency exit only. I felt better knowing that I wasn’t trapped.
I also took comfort knowing that I was going to sleep in my nice, soft bed in my nice, warm cabin, and Jed was going to spend the night in a sleeping bag on my cold, hard front porch.
By the time I was tucked into bed, dawn had come and went. I set my alarm clock for eleven, giving me a whopping four hours to sleep. Luckily, I didn't waste time counting sheep. Of course, the manly man didn't need beauty sleep so he was hammering on my door at ten. I fell out of bed and stumbled to the door, setting the chain before I opened it. Luckily, he'd already turned off the alarm.
"What?" I asked.
"You said Rose wanted to meet with us first thing, and I'm hungry."
"And I'm still sleepy. Give me another hour."
I started to shut the door when he said the magic word. "Bacon." As the door stopped shutting, he said, "If you have any, I'll fix it, and if you don't I'll buy breakfast at your choice of restaurants. All the meat you can eat. Sizzling, crunchy, delicious bacon or fragrant, spicy sausage links...your choice."
How dare he use my weakness against me. I slid the chain off and let him in. He did a double take when he saw me. "Don't start," I said. "On three hours of sleep, I deserve to look this way."
He made sure he was out of reach. "Your hair is definitely making a statement. Kind of a short haired version of the bride of Frankenstein."
"Yeah, well, it didn't g
et any more sleep than I did." I shuffled to the bathroom. "There's bacon, sausage, and eggs in the fridge. Knock yourself out. I'm taking a shower." Reb chuffed. "Make extra."
As I shut and locked the bathroom door, I heard him sigh as he opened the cupboard. "Naked coffee, what a shame."
Following the whole get wet, suds ups, and rinse off principle, I was showered, dried and dressed within ten minutes. My hair was still wet, but at least it was now behaving.
I stepped out into the kitchen and inhaled deeply. He had made omelets. "I hope you don't mind that I used some of your cheese, too."
"Being a cheese-thief is the least of your crimes."
"Could we wait until after breakfast for our arguments to start?"
I considered, then nodded. Reb and Maggie were already chowing down and the omelets smelled like a piece of heaven. I could always kill him on a full stomach.
We ate in silence, then loaded up the dogs in my Jeep and took off for Rose's. We were halfway to Gosport when I realized that I hadn't told him about my phone call to Rose.
"Sure you did," he said, shifting slightly behind the wheel, "how else would I have known?"
I spared a glare at him. Remembering my brief drunken stupor of the night before, it was possible I told him and didn't remember it. Highly unlikely, but possible. I decided to hold my tongue and pick up a new prepaid cell phone with an unknown number to make any future calls, just in case.
Rose was waiting on the front porch for us. She seemed relieved to see us. Maybe it was a good thing not to keep her waiting just for a silly little thing like sleep.
She ushered us to the table and Reb led Maggie to his yellow rug before the fireplace. We had forgotten it the night before, much to his displeasure. I almost felt jealous seeing the two of them snuggle and groom by the fire. I wanted to wolf out and join them. But no, I had human things to do.
There were two stacks of paper on the table. One for me, and one for Jed. I sat down and started going through mine.
"Where did you get these?" Jed asked, his voice tight.
Lilith came out of her room. It was my turn to do a double take. Gone was the goth teenager. In her place, there stood a small, lovely young woman. Her face was minus makeup, which come to find out had only hidden her beauty rather than enhance it. Her eyes sparkled and she was dressed in jeans and a bright green sweater with pearl drops around the neckline.
"Now that I'm a Benandanti in full, I thought I should try my hand at being a protector, too. So I hacked into the Luparii website." She sat on the last kitchen chair. "You know, until yesterday, I didn't know there was such a site. Aren't computers amazing?"
Jed looked like he wanted to burn the papers right in my hands, but it was three to one odds, even if two of them were rabbits. Besides, it was obvious that they at least already knew what the papers held.
He kept glancing at me as he went through the stack. Probably trying to see just how bad the damage was. It was pretty bad. Especially when you started adding things up. I understood now why Rose had made him remove even his pocket knife. She was right not to trust him. I swallowed and looked across the table at him.
He sat stiffly. Uncomfortable under our glares.
"The Luparii have the ability to hide their scent?" I asked. Now, at least I knew how Jed had gotten the drop on me in Rose's backyard.
"As I've explained before, we are an organization devoted to His work. The ability to mask our scent is a Creator-given blessing to our hunters."
"Uh-huh," I said.
"Obviously given before He realized you would use it to hunt His protectors," Rose said. She sat in her normal chair, closest to the kitchen counter and knife rack. A fact that was not lost on Jed.
"You do realize that would explain why the killer's scent just disappears in the park?" I asked.
He looked at me. "Only if the killer were both a were-creature and a Luparii and no such being exists. Besides, I am the only Luparii assigned to this case, and I am not a were."
I felt my eyebrow arch as I looked at him. "And how do you know? Aren't you forgetting that according to your holy organization, weres don't remember what they do while they are changed? You may be a were and not even know it."
Jed looked at me. I could see the wheels turning in his mind.
"And you are forgetting that we were together when the creature took his last kill. That of your friend."
Oh yeah. I had forgotten that. From Rose's sagging shoulders and heavy sigh, I guessed she had forgotten as well.
"Besides, our hunters are above reproach. We know the evil we fight and would die before allowing ourselves to become that which we hunt."
I laughed. "Yeah, that's right. That's probably why you send out Lil Red Riding Hood albums to all of your intended victims, right? To give them ample notice to change their wicked ways? I mean, you all being so holy and all."
His brows drew together. "Lil Red Riding Hood albums?"
"Don't play innocent. Remember your new best friend Mason was my friend first. He's been helping me track my family's killer for years. Their murders were just one of a series committed by your wonderful organization. And before each murder, the victim received a copy of Lil Red. Just like I did two days ago."
"You received this album before you came to my motel room?"
"Duh. I wasn't sure the Luparii was even in town until then. Once I had a chance to think things though, I came to the correct conclusion of who I was looking for." I looked at him. "I have been meaning to ask you when you were planning on taking me down. On our date, perhaps? Is that how you get all your female weres? What would you call that...dinner and a dart?"
"Newsflash, Taz. I didn't know you were Benandanti before you showed up with your trusty little pistol. A lot of people are named Hunt, you know. I didn't know who your parents were until you confessed to being a werewolf." He actually sounded indignant. "And I would never stoop so low as to trap a female were that way. It wouldn't be right."
Rose and I looked at each other. It made sense. After all, Jed had shot me twice and twice I had lived. Not exactly the modus operands of a serial killer who left nothing but bloody bodies in his wake.
Just great. I had found a Luparii assassin all right. Just not the right one. The one with my name was still out there.
Chapter 24
Before we left Gosport, Rose managed to get me alone for a few minutes. It amused me to note that Jed had no problem bullying me and yet he allowed himself to be bullied by Rose. A grown man that could bench press her if he wanted to.
Rose took that as a good sign that he wasn’t an evil Luparii. I took that as a good sign that he was smarter than he looked. Rose was a very scary rabbit.
In fact, she believed that he was destined to become my father’s replacement as Spirit Hunter. A great believer in divine intervention, her theory was that he had been assigned this area so that he would come in contact with us and be shown the truth through friendship. I doubted that but kept my feelings to myself—for the time being.
Once in the privacy of her room, Rose's manner became serious. "Remember those interesting skinwalker candidates I told you about?" she asked.
I nodded, holding my breath. With all this secrecy, it just couldn't be good.
"Well, first off is them boys that went hunting with little Jimmy. Turns out they're twins with a little sister who was allegedly kidnapped, raped, and killed."
I shuddered. That could mean we were dealing with two skinwalkers instead of just one. It would make sense, though, seeing how easily an armed survivalist had been taken. And Russell probably knew them, too, as the Riley's chicken farm bordered his mother's land.
I was already contemplating the best way to snare dual skinwalkers when Rose dropped the real bombshell. The reason for all the privacy.
"The second is Brian Dunwood." My horror must have shown on my face because she stopped to give me a quick hug before going on. "I really don't think it's him. I just don't believe he could be that evil.
But his brother and him never really got along and his brother's body was found in bad shape in a cornfield a few years back. His killer was never found. Now on the one hand that looks bad on Dunwood, but on the other...well it could be the reason he went into law enforcement."
I nodded, liking the second explanation much better than the first. I just couldn't picture Dunwood as a cold-blooded killer. Hot-blooded maybe. If someone hurt a person Dunwood loved, yeah. But not like this. My money was on the twins.
"I wanted to tell you because I thought you needed to know. But Jed..." Rose trailed off.
"We'll wait till we know more before throwing Dunwood to the Luparii," I agreed. "What do you think about the boys?"
Her face hardened. "They left their friend having a heart attack in the woods. For all I care, the Luparii can have them."
"Jed and I will check them out, then. You'll handle clearing Dunwood?"
"Already on it, dear." She walked over to her small computer desk and picked up a cell phone, then handed it to me. "It's registered to a friend of mine. I got a new one, too. My new number is already keyed in for you. If we need to talk in private, use this phone.
I hugged her. It felt good to have a partner in paranoia. After all, just because we're paranoid doesn't mean the Luparii isn't tapping our cell phones.
ON THE WAY BACK TO the cabin, we stopped off at the store and stocked up on meat. As Jed was checking out, my phone rang. I glanced down at the number. Mason.
“Hey, Mason.”
“Hiya, Babe. Wanted to tell you what fun I had last night helping you guys track the killer wolf. What’s the hunting schedule for today?”
I glanced at Jed. “I’m not sure what the mighty wolf hunter’s schedule is, but right now my plans are for a long and undisturbed nap. I’m running on three hours of sleep and not up to another all-nighter without it.”
Finders Weepers Page 15