Song of Midnight Embers

by Dana Marie Bell

  “Yeah. Some of the blood work from the victims of the Van Helsing abductions had gone missing or had been tainted, and he asked Mollie and I to look into it. So to cover our asses, we let people believe we were dating. This way when we were seen together, no one questioned it.”

  Greer’s mouth fell open in shock. “What the fuck?” He took a step toward Carter, his fists clenched. He was ready to punch the stupid furball into next week. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “We didn’t tell anyone, not even my alpha.” Carter kept his gaze on Greer, his expression becoming remorseful. “I asked her not to. For one, the alpha could come down on me pretty damn hard for doing this without permission. Also, if you knew the truth, you might have given us away without meaning to.” Carter pointed toward Lily’s corpse. “But now that someone’s obviously trying to frame Mollie, all that is shot to hell and back.”

  So Greer had been pining away for nothing. Nothing. He didn’t know if he should kill Carter or thank him for standing up for Mollie when Greer couldn’t. He gritted his teeth and reminded himself that the town was going to have enough death on their hands for a while. Killing Carter would get him nowhere but in jail. “Fine. But I want to know what you two found out as soon as possible.”

  “Of course,” Carter said quietly. “I’m sorry. I wish we could have told you, but you of all people had to react naturally or it never would have worked.”

  On some level Greer understood it. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to rip Carter’s head off. “So you knew she’s mine?”

  Carter nodded. “It was kind of obvious, especially when Ash confronted me and Mina treated me like I have the plague.”

  “Can we fight over Mollie later, boys and girls?” Dr. Kogon gestured toward the gurney. “Oliver, get me the body bag.”

  “On it.” Oliver seemed grateful to have a task to do.

  “We’re going to have to report that Mollie’s scent was found here,” Roxanne said quietly. “We don’t have a choice. We have to be impartial.”

  “I understand,” Greer replied as Oliver wheeled the gurney past them.

  “We’ll figure this out, I swear. There’s something off about the scent.” Roxanne watched as Oliver and Dr. Kogon put Lily’s corpse into the body bag and zipped it up. “Anything the fire department can do to help, we will. There’s something fishy about all of this, and I want to get to the bottom of it.”

  “They’re going to arrest Mollie.” Carter shook his head. “God, this sucks ass.”

  “Who did you suspect?” When Carter looked reluctant to answer him, Greer snarled. “It’s too late now. She’s a suspect herself. Who do you think was stealing the blood work?”

  Carter closed his eyes. “Mollie suspected Bernadette Alden. That’s who she was supposed to be following tonight.”

  “She did, and Bernadette attacked her. Mollie had to kill her in self-defense.” And if Greer never saw his mate so injured again, it would be too soon. “Who else?”

  “Wait.” Carter appeared shocked, his face going pale. “Bree is dead?”

  Greer nodded. “Seems she wasn’t as squeaky clean as we thought. She told Mollie that she arranged for Lily’s death so Allan would also die, leaving the beta spot open for her.”

  Carter leaned against the wall. “So Mollie was right after all.” He closed his eyes. “Damn it. I didn’t believe her.”

  “There’s no time for that. Tell me who you suspected.”

  Carter stared at where Lily’s body had been. “Dr. Webster Whittaker. He had more access to the blood than Bernadette had, he’s a black witch and no one would think twice about it if he had some extra tests run.”

  “Then you should also suspect Inigo,” Roxanne piped up. “He’s got the same access Web does.”

  “But he’s not a black witch like Web.” Carter scowled. “We all know the black will do whatever it takes to gain power.”

  “That’s not—” Greer put up his hand as his cell phone rang. When he saw Lore’s number, he answered immediately. “Greer here.”

  “I’ve arrested Mollie for the murder of Lily Wulfenbach and Bernadette Alden.”

  Shit. “I’m on my way.” Greer hung up and glared at Carter. “We need to go to the police station now.”

  Carter nodded. “I’ll drive.”

  Chapter Four

  Mollie sat down on the hard cot and wondered when her life had gone to hell. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t allow herself.

  Lore had been forced to arrest her when someone came forward and told him that they’d seen Mollie follow Lily into that alleyway. They didn’t say they’d seen any flames, and claimed they hadn’t thought anything about it until word of Lily’s death came out. With that, Lore had no choice but to arrest Mollie and charge her with murder.

  Damn it. Lore wouldn’t even tell her who it was who’d said they’d seen her. He’d been grim-faced as he slapped the cuffs on her wrists, refusing to say anything other than was strictly necessary to her. Nothing she said or did would get him to say a word. He’d read her rights, made sure she replied clearly that she understood them, then clamped his lips shut. In fact, he’d marched her through the station, placing her in the holding cell himself. Then he’d left without a word.

  Mollie was going to rot away in here while the real murderer got away with it. She just prayed the mix-up was fixed before things got much worse.

  Exhausted but too keyed up to sleep, she stared at her fingernails. Her eyes were sore, her hands trembling, but the flutters in her stomach were too great. If she lay down she might vomit rather than nod off.

  “What are you in for?”

  Mollie glanced over at her cellmate. The dark-haired, black-eyed beauty who looked back at her seemed vaguely familiar. “Murder, but I didn’t do it.”

  The woman slid away. “Oh.”

  Mollie stared at the woman, trying to place where she’d seen her before. “You?”

  The woman smiled weakly. “Vandalism. I keyed my boyfriend’s car.”

  Mollie bit back a yawn, unwilling to explain that it was her being tired, not her cellmate boring her. “Let me guess. He cheated on you.”

  “Big time. I caught him making out with the bitch in the back of Slim Shady’s.”

  Slim Shady’s was a bar, a notorious hangout for hooking up. “I’d say I’m sorry, but you’re better off without him.” Mollie held out her hand. “Mollie Ferguson.”

  The woman blinked, looking shocked. “You’re the proprietor of The Greenhouse! I thought I recognized you.” She took Mollie’s hand and shook it firmly. “Vijaya Desai.”

  Mollie grinned. “You brought those sixth-graders through a few weeks ago.”

  Vijaya nodded eagerly. “Yeah, the kids loved it, especially the dryads and earth elementals.” She frowned. “Why are you in here for murder?”

  “They say I killed Lily Wulfenbach, but I didn’t.” Her best hope was Greer. He would look into the death and hopefully find proof that she hadn’t done anything to Lily, no matter what anyone said.

  Vijaya put her head against the cement wall. “Well, I hope they find whoever really did it. I can’t see you killing someone.” Vijaya inched away from her. “Then again, they didn’t see Ted Bundy as a killer either.”

  Mollie hoped she hid her wince. “Yeah.” Hell, she was going to be in here awhile, wasn’t she? The last thing she wanted was to find her ass in jail for something she didn’t do.

  “Desai!” A cop opened the cell door and gestured toward Vijaya. “Your bail’s been met.”

  Vijaya stood. “Hey. Good luck, Mollie.”

  “Thanks,” Mollie replied. “You too.”

  For just a second Vijaya looked sad, but then she straightened her shoulders and pasted a smile on her face. “Hell, he’s the one who needs some luck. Bernadette
will eat him alive.”

  Mollie sat up rapidly. “Bernadette? As in Bernadette Alden?”

  Vijaya stiffened, her expression becoming suspicious. “Yeah, why?”

  “When was she in the bar with your boyfriend?”

  “Around dinnertime.” Vijaya narrowed her eyes at Mollie. “Are you friends with her?”

  “Hardly. She attacked me in the forest tonight, and I was forced to kill her.”

  Vijaya’s eyes went wide. “Oh?” She edged toward the jail cell door, staring at Mollie like she was Ted Bundy in drag.

  “Wait!” Mollie held up her hand, ready to beg if need be. “Who was your boyfriend?”

  “Desai, let’s go.” The cop tapped his baton on the door. “Unless you’d like to stay with your new friend.”

  “I have to go.” Vijaya ran for the door. “My boyfriend was Dr. Inigo Andreadis.”

  The door shut behind Vijaya, leaving a shocked Mollie alone. “Fuck me.”

  Dr. Inigo Andreadis was a gray witch who’d worked tirelessly to cure the kidnapping victims of their Van Helsing infections. Why would he cheat on Vijaya with Bernadette? Was Bernadette using him to further her agenda, or was Inigo in on her whole scheme?

  She needed to speak to Lore. It was looking more and more likely that a witch was somehow involved in Lily’s death. If it was a witch who’d told Lore that they’d seen Mollie in that alley, perhaps that would help get her the fuck out of jail.

  “You have a visitor.” The same cop opened a slot in the door. “Put your hands through and hold still.”

  Mollie did as told, praying Greer had come to see her. She had to tell him what she’d learned about Inigo and Bernadette. He’d have to be the one to look into things now.

  The cuffs were a chilly surprise. Mollie pulled her hands back when told and backed up, allowing the guard to open the door. She followed him down a hallway into an examination room, where Greer and Carter both were waiting for her.

  When the guard left, Greer cupped her cheek. “Are you okay?”

  She was so tired, so fucking tired. She’d used so much energy protecting herself from Bernadette, and the chill of the jail was seeping what was left of her heat. She’d needed him like air, and he was finally here, touching her like she mattered. “No.”

  He took a deep breath, a quirky half smile crossing his face, one she’d never seen before. Greer’s laid-back, happy attitude was one of the things she liked about him, but this...this looked odd. Wrong. Dangerous, somehow, in a way she didn’t understand. That he was angry was obvious. His jaw kept ticking, like he was clenching his teeth over and over. “Neither am I.”

  She glanced at Carter, who nodded. “I told him everything.”

  Mollie closed her eyes and leaned into Greer’s touch, wishing to hell she’d ignored Carter and told Greer everything. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for lying to me? Sorry for putting yourself in danger? Or sorry you don’t look good in silver bracelets?”

  She opened her eyes again and glared at him. “Yes.”

  He laughed, but it was bitter, angry, so unlike the cheerful Greer she was used to. “Okay then.” He settled into one of the two seats and put his feet up on the table. “So. What have we learned?”

  She ignored his obvious sarcasm to fill them in on Vijaya’s boyfriend troubles. “It seems Inigo Andreadis was caught cheating on his girlfriend with Bernadette Alden around dinnertime last evening at Slim Shady’s.”

  Carter whistled low. “Huh. Wonder what he was doing with her?”

  “Could they have simply been dating?” Greer shrugged nonchalantly, but that bitter half smile was back as he glanced between Mollie and Carter.

  “When Bree was the one who tinkered with the blood work? I don’t think so.” Mollie began to pace, trying to bring her temperature back up. “No. You’ll have to look into Inigo for me. I think...” She eyed the door. “I think they’re going to transfer me today.”

  “Maggie’s Grove has only one real jail, and that’s in the mountains.” Carter sagged against the wall, his expression grim. “If the wolves really think you killed Bree and Lily without provocation, they’ll make sure you don’t survive your stay.”

  “I didn’t kill Lily.” Mollie stared at Carter, terrified when he grimaced. “What?”

  “Your scent was found at the scene.”

  “What? That’s not possible.” She’d been to the coffee house but she’d never been in that alley.

  “I smelled it myself.” Carter held up his hands when she went to protest. “We had to tell Lore, or it would have looked like we were trying to hide something.”

  “Besides, Roxanne was there, and so were Dr. Kogon and Oliver Zuckerman.” Greer reached out with his foot and kicked a chair toward her. “Sit, and tell me everything.”

  Mollie sat. The glacial tone in Greer’s voice told her he wasn’t fucking around. “Bernadette wasn’t just an EMT. She also worked part-time in the phlebotomy lab, doing blood work. She was one of several volunteers who offered to help process it all, and since she had medical experience, they put her right to work. When things started going wrong, Dr. T noticed that it happened most frequently during Bernadette’s shift.”

  “Dr. T figured she was the one messing up, either intentionally or unintentionally,” Carter picked up. “I thought there was something else going on, that maybe someone was out to make Bernadette look bad. She’s the first cousin of the alpha and one of his favorites. Make her look bad, make him look bad. She seemed loyal to us, to the pack, so I couldn’t picture her doing anything that would jeopardize us.”

  “But when Bernadette confronted me after I followed her, she told me she was after the beta position.”

  “Why?”

  Greer’s question stopped her for a moment. She glanced over at Carter and prayed her friend understood. “She made it sound like she believed the position should have been hers all along. She thought it was the beta who held the pack in the palm of their hand, not the alpha.”

  Carter nodded. “In a lot of ways, that’s right. The beta is the one the pack turns to. The beta then brings the concerns he or she can’t handle to the alpha. It means the alpha can focus on the big picture while the beta deals with the day-to-day things.”

  “So Bree wanted power and decided to kill Lily to get it?”

  “I guess so.” Mollie began to shiver. She was going to have to ask for a heat source soon, or she’d pass out. “She knew Lily had died by fire, because she thought they might blame me.”

  “Is this what you told Lore?” Greer dropped his feet to the floor and sat up.

  “Yes.”

  “But without witnesses, it’s he said/she said.” Carter cursed. “We’re going to have a hell of a time proving you innocent.”

  “I know.” Mollie couldn’t keep her eyes off Greer. He still looked pissed, and he hadn’t touched her except for that one, all-too-brief caress. “Greer?”

  He sighed and stood, leaning away from the hand she held out to him. “Chin up, we’ll see what we can do.”

  Okay, so he was seriously pissed at her. “What do you want me to say?”

  He started walking past her. “I’m not sure yet. When I figure it out, maybe you will too.” He knocked on the door. “We’re ready.”

  Mollie stood, frozen in place as Greer walked out the door without a backward glance.

  * * *

  “That wasn’t very nice.” Carter climbed into the car and glared at Greer.

  Greer slid into the passenger seat with a smile. “What wasn’t?” He wasn’t in the mood to deal with Carter’s protective instincts where Mollie was concerned. The wolf was lucky Greer hadn’t killed him already. So he kept the smile on his face, well aware it tended to throw people off.

  No one understood that when Greer smiled a c
ertain way, he was at his most dangerous. No one except Ash, perhaps. But then again, Ash had seen Greer when he was truly angry and knew what Greer was capable of. He’d been told the smile made him look harmless, but it wasn’t like he could see his own face. He had to take Ash’s word for it that he looked like an idiot.

  So that smile was on his face when Carter tried to call him to task for walking away from Mollie. If Carter hadn’t shown up, he’d be a toothless little wolfie.

  “You just walked away. And she was cold.” Carter started the car and drove away from the police station. “Is Lore planning on freezing her to death?”

  Greer took a deep breath, trying desperately to hold on to the rage rampaging through him. “She’ll live.”

  Carter shot him an ugly look. “Yeah, she will.”

  “My job is to find out who put her there.” And then kill them. They would pay for making his mate suffer.

  “Our job, asshole. Ours.”

  Carter was about to go flying down the street without a car. “Could you pull over?”

  Carter did as asked, his expression confused.

  “Thanks.” Greer got out, walked to the front of Carter’s car and punched the hood so hard the engine fell out. “See ya.”

  “Jesus!” Carter was getting out of his car, but Greer didn’t stick around to see what the wolf would do. Better to kill the car than piss off his future brother-in-law by taking out one of his wolves. Noah wouldn’t like that.

  Of course, if Carter kept pushing it, Greer wouldn’t really give a shit what Noah liked or not. He’d be down one annoying-ass wolf.

  Greer ran as fast as he could toward Inigo Andreadis’s house. The good doctor should still be home, but if he wasn’t, that was fine with Greer. He’d call Ash, and together they’d do a little B&E. Ash would cover his ass, just as Greer would cover his.

  Already he felt better. He had a solution, a way to bring Mollie home where she belonged. He wasn’t pining any longer for something he couldn’t have. He was beyond pissed that his mate had been withheld from him, no matter how good their intentions had been. Claiming her now, when he was this angry, wasn’t an option. Keeping her in jail, where she was safe behind those bars and under Lore’s thumb, would help him calm himself before he took her home.