“Yes, that part came easy. Thank you for helping me despite how I treated you.”
He smiled. “I’ve done worse to my sire, sometimes on purpose.”
“Oh, really, you have to tell me about it.”
“Some time I will. Now, more practice. Let’s go for the cat shifter.”
“He’s so far away.”
“Distance is an illusion, Rue. Focus.”
Chapter Eight
I had a date with a cat…and a human. A woman shouldn’t be so lucky. Really, she shouldn’t. Now that I had semi-mastered the use of mind reading, I thought I should try it on one of the cats, and with this idea, I revisited the garage where I first encountered the shifters. What a surprise to me when Hyatt responded to my lure. I was growing by leaps and bounds.
“Are you sure about this?” Violet asked, doubt written all over her face. She had stopped by my apartment when I told her my plans, surprising me with her concern. Or perhaps she considered it a stupid idea, and she wanted to see it fall apart for herself. “I don’t think he’s going to be fooled by your tricks, Rue. Hyatt’s been around a while, and he has a reputation for being cold-hearted and cruel even toward his own people, if it serves his purpose.”
I twitched this way and that in my mirror. My skirt was short enough to show off most of my legs, and my blouse accentuated my bust. Daring to undo just one more button took all my willpower, and yet it was still nothing as crazy as Pammie displayed on a daily basis. Back home in Summit’s Edge, I would never have ventured out of the house with clothing this skimpy. There was also no guarantee my appearance wouldn’t provoke disgusting thoughts in Hyatt’s head to the point that the killer wouldn’t enter his mind.
“I’m not trying to win his heart, Violet. Merely to distract him into letting his guard down. I doubt I’ll be able to read his thoughts otherwise.”
She wasn’t convinced. For a moment, I considered trying my new talent with her, but thought better of it. Violet was liable to shoot me.
“Well where are you meeting him? Maybe I’ll find a excuse to be in the area.”
“You’d protect me? How sweet of you, Violet. We’re going to be friends after all.” My tone rang too cheery and false to my own ears, but I maintained the wide eyes and smile. She snarled at me.
“For all I care he can have you as an after midnight snack! I want you around to help me get Nathan out. That’s all.”
I dropped the act. “Have you heard if he’s still calm?”
“Yeah.” Grudging respect came into her expression. “He stays in a corner most of the time like he’s waiting. They give him food. He eats it, and then it’s back to the corner. Not a sound out of him.”
“That doctor has left him alone?”
Violet snorted. “She says it’s her professional opinion that she should give him some space. He needs it to come to terms with what he’s done. You told her to leave him alone, and she is. That glamouring comes in handy and not just for fooling humans into forgetting you fed off them.”
“So I see.” I refused to take offense. I knew Violet would never see past what I was. Maybe we weren’t enemies, but that was because of Nathan. If I failed to save him—no I wouldn’t think that way. After all, I had made Nathan a promise, and I would keep it.
Cute heels on my feet and bright red hair in perfect order, I did a twirl before the mirror and then waited for Violet’s reaction. She shrugged. The funny thing is my old friend used to bug me about dressing better so that I could go on dates and snag myself a boyfriend. I had resisted because I never had the budget for it and raising Jake meant everything to me. Now, with no one in my tiny apartment but me, and few needs, I could spring for something nice.
“I guess I’m off,” I told Violet as I grabbed my purse. “Don’t wait up, Mom.”
She grumbled something rude under her breath and stomped after me toward the door. A short while later, I arrived at the address where Hyatt had asked me to meet him. I peered up at the building with its weather-worn sign, supposing I shouldn’t have been surprised. A corner spaghetti restaurant, and peering through the window, I spotted maybe five or six tables, none covered, all scratched and worn. Why were their classes so different? Was it by choice or temperament?
I walked into the restaurant and was blasted with the scent of tomato sauce and cheese. I liked both and feasted, if only on the smell. Once I had selected a table to sit down and wait. I speculated over whether this place served wine or just beer and soda, and how I would approach Hyatt. What would I say to convince him to betray one of his own?
A waitress about my age but more beaten down by life slapped a menu on the table and set a hand on her hip. “We only have spaghetti and meatballs today, but we ran out of meatballs because my last customer wanted extra.”
I blinked at her. “So you have spaghetti today, and I don’t need the menu if that’s all you have.”
Her mouth tightened, and she licked the end of her pencil for some reason and poised it over her notepad. “So that’s one spaghetti?”
Such a terrible desire came over me to antagonize this poor working woman and ask whether she needed to write down my order if she had one item to offer. I had mouthed off enough to her, and I swear it was the darkness in my lost soul that was the cause of it all. Somehow I managed to keep my comments to myself.
“Do you have wine? Preferably red?”
She glared at me. “So that’s no to the spaghetti?”
I gave in. “Yes, one spaghetti dinner and one glass of red wine, please. Thank you.”
The pencil scratched over the paper, and she tucked it behind her ear and wandered off. Not ten minutes later, my order arrived, and she plunked it down. I checked the time on my cell phone. Hyatt was late.
While I stared at the steam rising off the spaghetti, I took a sip of the wine the waitress had brought along with it. I winced. This must be the cheapest wine in existence, and I dared not swallow just in case it upset my stomach in public. No thank you.
Debating between dribbling what I had drank back into the glass and letting it soak instead on a bundle of napkins, I smelled Hyatt coming. He moved at a leisurely pace, from what I could judge, and I frowned. While I never called them dates, the times I spent with Silvano, at least the man always had the courtesy to be on time.
The bell over the door jingled, and Hyatt stepped into the tiny restaurant. His presence, although significant because he was a shifter, seemed small by comparison to Ian, Nathan, and Silvano. Nathan being the biggest of all of them would have made the eatery feel impossible to stay in. I confess I missed him.
I leaned back in my chair and crossed one leg over the other—not to look sexier but because Hyatt’s attitude annoyed me. “You’re late.”
He smirked at me and nodded to the waitress. She didn’t ask what he wanted but brought over a giant plate of spaghetti just as he sat across from me. The portion was twice that of my own untouched food. The words “where do you put it all” trembled on my lips before I realized that would insult him.
Flattery, Rue.
I forced a smile, recalled the disastrous effect in the past and then let my expression return to something more natural. Mentally, I attempted to exude vampire pheromones, if such a thing existed. Hyatt lowered his head and tucked into his food. I gritted my teeth.
“So, you just get off work?” I asked. Hyatt’s hair was wet as if he had just stepped out of the shower, and the subtle scent of soap lingered on his skin. He had changed out of the greasy clothes and wore jeans and a clean T-shirt.
His suspicious gaze met mine. “No, I’ve been taking care of some business. Why did you ask me out? You playing around on your boyfriend while his back is turned?”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
Hyatt broke off a piece of thick bread and ran it around his plate, gathering up sauce. The chunk disappeared into his mouth, but he didn’t let that stop him from talking. “He’s locked up.”
“You mean Nathan. He’s jus
t a friend.”
“Not what I heard.”
“It doesn’t matter what you heard, does it?”
He shrugged and rubbed his hands together. When his gaze slid to my plate, I pushed it toward him. Hyatt snatched the plate to him and started in. Seriously, where did he put it all?
“You’re beautiful, vampire. I’ll give you that. I wouldn’t mind having a little horizontal fun with you, but I’m not going to have the werewolves after me.”
I widened my eyes and leaned toward him. “You’re scared of them?”
At the same time his temper erupted, I opened myself to receive his thoughts. A storm of them bombarded my mind. Hyatt owing taxes, late on the garage’s mortgage, Mew staying out late, images of me naked—how dare he!—and best of all, “Where is she?”
She. Who was she? The shifter I was looking for? If so, then even the leader of the cats didn’t know where to find her. I might have believed Hyatt sent her into hiding to keep her safe until Nathan was convicted. However, with him not knowing, it made me suspect the clowder hadn’t sanctioned her actions. I needed to know more.
“Why would I be scared of the werewolves?” Hyatt snapped, and his fork clattered to his plate. He slammed a fist on the table. “I’m sick of hearing how everybody thinks the wolves are stronger and better than us. They’re nothing!”
I winced and glanced at the waitress, who sat at another table flipping through a magazine. There were no other customers. “Keep your voice down. She’ll hear.”
Hyatt waved a hand in dismissal. “Her cousin’s a witch. She’s got it in her blood but can’t practice. She knows about us.”
I peered at the woman. She was a witch? There was no difference that I could tell in her, and her blood smelled like any other human’s. I hadn’t met a witch since I turned, but magic was so distinct and obvious. This woman had a practicing witch in her family, yet she could do nothing but run this restaurant? How sad.
I forced my thoughts away from the waitress and back onto Hyatt. His anger simmered, and he returned to the food that must be cold by now. I reached across the table to touch his hand. “Like I said, I’m not involved with Nathan, but maybe you and I could get to know each other better.”
Once again he dropped the fork, and this time I knew I had him. He looked into my eyes, and I did my best not to cringe at the look of desire reflected in his. “I’ve got a place,” he said. “It’s not much, but there’s a bed. We could go now.”
I swallowed. “Slow down. A woman’s got to feel she knows a man before… Why don’t you tell me about yourself?”
“Talk is cheap.”
“I’m not.”
He ground his teeth. I waited. He began to speak, but I ignored his words and listened to his head, throwing my senses wide. Too wide. I picked up the waitress’s thoughts too.
“She thinks she’s so special because she owns a shop. So what?”
“Why hasn’t she called me? What she told me that last time…”
“I’m going to get more customers. You watch and see!”
Wait, go back. I struggled to focus and block out the waitress. Hyatt had thought something significant. What was the rest? I tried harder, but he fell silent, looking at me. A mental wall slammed down between the two of us. Hyatt jumped to his feet, knocking over his chair and making the waitress yelp.
“I know what you’re doing,” he ground out. “You’re trying to read my mind. You filthy vampire, I should have known better than to let a pretty face and a pair of boobs distract me.”
“Hyatt, calm down,” the waitress said, coming over to us.
He reached out and grabbed both my arms to drag me to him. The strength in his hold took me by surprise for such a wiry man. Definitely not human. “You’re going to pay for trying to trick me.”
He raised me up, and my feet swung in the air above the floor. The grip tightened until I felt like my arms would pop beneath the pressure.
“I think not.” I head-butted him, sending reverberations of pain through my skull. When that did nothing, I kicked as hard as I could between his legs. His feet slipped out from under him, and he slammed to the floor, howling and grabbing his crotch. I landed on my feet. Good to know even shifter men were sensitive down there.
Unfortunately, Hyatt didn’t stay down long. He healed fast and leaped up to grasp me around the throat. I found myself slung across the tabletops and landed on the other side of one, wood splintering around me.
“Stop, stop,” the waitresses shrieked. “You’re destroying my home.”
Home? I thought. Oh crap.
“You’re uninvited,” the waitress shouted, and I was thrown again, this time by an unseen force that propelled me out the door and onto the sidewalk.
Moaning, I rolled from my stomach to my back and peered up at the building I had just been tossed out of. A small face appeared in one of the lighted windows then disappeared. I heard the little girl’s voice inside the restaurant. “Mom, what was that noise?”
“Nothing, go back and watch TV, baby. It’s over now.”
She lived there, above the restaurant, and at some point she had opened her establishment to all, a very dangerous thing to do. I climbed to my feet and looked through the window of the restaurant. Hyatt hadn’t followed me out. He wasn’t cursed to be repelled on the word of a human. Instead, he righted tables and talked to the waitress about getting one of his men to come over with tools to fix what was broken.
I slunk away.
* * * *
I didn’t call Violet right away with what I had learned. After all, I didn’t have a name or anything to take action. “She” could be anybody, and if Violet had a list of all the cat shifters in Hyatt’s group, I suspect she would have shown it to me so we could compare notes on who was present when I visited the garage and who wasn’t. Besides that, if she knew names, she would no doubt have cataloged scents. We were still flying blind.
Instead, I sat in Jackson Square doing my best to concentrate and allow the scents and sounds of the city to wash over me. Once I had used the method to hone in on my quarry, but tonight, it did nothing. The killer had disappeared into darkness. For a moment, I considered whether the murderer was a demon. I’d had dealings with them before and knew unless they had a human host, they couldn’t keep a physical appearance long. Then I dismissed this notion. All evidence pointed to a cat shifter, and Hyatt was looking for her, too.
My cell phone rang, breaking my concentration, and I fished it from my purse. The screen showed Zander calling, and I answered. “Zander, I’m having a bad night. If this—”
“I can make it better, Rue.” His attempt at sounding suave failed, especially with the interference of the snack he munched.
“Spare me.”
He coughed. “I really can. I have some information you might find useful. In fact, I know you’ll love it, but I’m only willing to share if you go on a date with me.”
“No.”
He whined.
“Zander, a big part of my problems have to do with a bad date, so if you think I’m going to do it all over again, you’re mistaken.”
More whining. I might need to drain him.
“Zander…”
A martyred sigh. “This is important. It could help you find out who killed Dalton.”
“Which is why you should just tell me. I could force it out of you.”
“You would never do that to me, Rue.”
I dropped my forehead against my knees while holding the phone to my ear. When did I seduce this man in order for him to behave this way? “You don’t know me, Zander. I’m vampire. We are selfish and cruel and we see humans as nothing more than our next meal.”
There. That should wake him up. He was silent for a while, but I knew he remained on the line from the heavy breathing.
“That’s your nature,” he said after a while, “but I believe it will be different with us.”
“From what evidence?”
“My heart. Please, will
you come to my apartment? I promise, I’m not just trying to see you. Even though I want to. I do have information you can use.”
I grumbled but agreed. A short while later I arrived at Zander’s apartment, and when he opened the door, I assumed I was still allowed in. The instant I stepped across the threshold, it wasn’t a barrier that blocked me but a cloud of cologne. I gagged and pinched my nose.
“Zander,” I moaned, vision blurring, “too…much.”
He pouted, standing in front of me, hair parted on one side and slicked down all over his head. A turtleneck long-sleeved shirt, tan slacks, and a dinner jacket that looked like it would work better on a man three times his age, made up his ensemble.
“You don’t like it?” he asked. “I picked it up especially for you.”
I waved a hand before my nose. “My sense of smell is too strong, and I don’t always think to regulate it. I beg you, go shower that off.”
His face fell. “All right.”
“And it’s a hundred degrees outside, besides the fact that we’re not going anywhere. I’ve already said so.”
A sound caught my attention before he could move, and I zipped across the room to drag the nerd from behind the La-Z-Boy. His digital camera turned to dust in my palm, and I rained the bits on the carpet.
“My camera!” The young man, no more than twenty-one or two, dropped to his knees and sorted through the mess as if he could salvage it. He glanced up at me with tear-filled eyes. “You could have just deleted the pictures.”
“You were taking photos of me without my permission. I went easy on you.”
“Zander,” the man complained, “talk to your vampire.”
I folded my arms and looked at Zander. “When did I become yours, Zander?”
He blanched. “I uh…listen, Rue. Um…”
I ignored him and dragged the little one off the floor. He met my gaze without thinking about it. “Vampires don’t exist. Got it?”
He repeated my words dumbly.
“While I’m at it, neither do werewolves. Now, get out.”
Wolf Ties (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 2) Page 9