by C. C. Hunter
“I do. Kind of,” Miranda added. “It was the armadillo who woke me up when the smoke was coming right at us. And when things started happening in the room, the armadillo scurried to the door and then just stood there, like … trying to say we needed to go.”
“So you don’t think it was a real armadillo?” Tabitha asked.
“Why would she chain a real armadillo?” Miranda asked.
“To keep it from running away,” Tabitha offered, but her tone said she didn’t believe it.
“What do you think the armadillo wants?” Holiday asked Miranda.
“I don’t know,” Miranda said.
The room went silent. Miranda’s thoughts traveled back to Perry … in danger. She looked at Holiday. “What’s going on with Perry?”
The fae frowned. “I … I don’t know…” Guilt pulled at her expression. “Everything.”
“What do you know? Is he hurt?”
Holiday twisted her hair as if considering her answer. “I don’t know if I’m allowed … You should ask Burnett.”
That made it sound bad. “Is he on a mission or something? Burnett told me Perry was with his parents.”
The fae’s expression flinched. “He was.”
“Then why would Kylie and Della need to check on him?”
The door slammed open. Burnett walked in.
“Did you find it?” Tabitha asked.
“No.” Frustration tightened the man’s eyes. “We’ve checked everywhere. It got away.” He groaned. “You didn’t see it in here at all?”
“No,” Miranda and Tabitha said at the same time.
“How could it have gotten away without being seen?” Holiday asked.
“Hell if I know,” Burnett answered. “There’re three exits out of the hospital and we had them covered immediately. Armadillos aren’t what you would call fast!”
“Maybe it’s a shape-shifter,” Tabitha said, then stiffened a little as if Burnett’s presence scared her. Miranda understood. Burnett, tall, dark, and slightly gruff, could be intimidating—if you didn’t know him.
The vampire stood like a rock, as if considering her statement. His presence seemed too loud for the small room. He finally let go of a low growl. Holiday walked to her husband and offered him a touch, no doubt to calm him.
He turned his focus on Miranda. “If it was a shifter how could it have been imprisoned at that house like you thought it was?”
“A curse maybe?” Tabitha offered the obvious that wouldn’t be obvious to a vampire.
Burnett swiped a hand over his eyes, eyes bright gold with frustration. “But if it could shift to get out of here, why not shift into something less noticeable while it was here walking around the hospital?”
Miranda looked at Tabitha to see if she might offer some insight. Her sister appeared as clueless as Miranda felt.
Burnett let go of a puff of air.
Holiday spoke up again. “Miranda thinks it’s possible that the armadillo saved their lives. She doesn’t think it’s trying to hurt them.”
“I know,” Burnett said. “But until I know that for sure, I’m not taking that chance.”
“Good. I’m glad you don’t jump to conclusions.” Fear leaked from Tabitha’s words. “While I don’t know anything about the armadillo, I do know Anthony isn’t involved in it. You can’t blame him.”
Burnett took a step toward Tabitha. Her sister shrank into the chair.
“Why would Anthony have been at that house?” he asked.
She hesitated, but finally spoke. “I told Della that she had to be wrong. She just smelled him on me.”
Burnett didn’t flinch. “Vampires know the difference.”
Her sister’s posture tightened, frustration won over fear. “He’s not into drugs if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
“He wouldn’t have to do drugs to be involved.”
“Involved how?” Tabitha asked. “Just because he’s French you think—”
“I don’t care if he’s half chimpanzee. If he’s not guilty, he’ll walk away.” Burnett’s eyes brightened. He looked at Holiday. “Now, what’s this tattoo thing about?”
Miranda glanced at her arm. “It’s gone,” she said hoping to take a notch out of the tension in the room. “But I took a picture of it.” She picked up her phone, found the photograph, and passed it to Holiday.
“I’m sending it to my phone,” said Holiday. “I’ll look into it.”
Burnett stared over Holiday’s shoulder at the screen then at Miranda and her sister. “Being witches, you don’t have a clue what this could be?”
“No,” they said in unison.
He stood completely still as if mentally taking some tally. “Here’s what we’re going to do. The doctor just informed me that Miranda can go home.” He motioned to Tabitha. “They’re keeping you overnight. I’ll put a guard—”
“No,” Miranda said. The thought of leaving her sister did not sit well. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not with the feeling I got. Let me stay so … if something crazy happens, we’ll be together.” She looked at her sister. “We can do blood magic if we had to.”
Burnett shot forward. “Feeling? Do you … you think some shit’s going down, like before?” Burnett asked. “A premonition? Do you feel that?”
Burnett’s and Holiday’s auras darkened, and they stood there staring.
“Just”—Miranda held up her hand and posed her fingers less than a half an inch apart—“a little bit.” She glanced at Tabitha, curious if she agreed.
As if reading Miranda’s mind, her sister nodded. “It’s small.”
Burnett looked flabbergasted, and that wasn’t a good look for him. “Are you saying that you’re just getting a little bit of premonition, or that the shit coming is small? Tell me.”
Tabitha’s face paled. “Wh … which one do you want me to say?”
He frowned. “Small shit. If I get a preference, I want small shit.” No sooner had his words echoed in the tiny white room than he looked over his shoulder and cringed.
The door swung open. The doctor looked at Burnett. “You got a problem with constipation?”
The fact that the doctor looked so serious shattered the tension and had everyone laughing.
Everyone but Burnett.
* * *
Shawn parked in front of the address Mrs. Crow had given him for Lily Chambers—the employee she’d finally admitted was there at the time of the robbery. The woman’s excuse for not mentioning her earlier was that the girl was hiding from her family. The story went that Lily, at sixteen, had been placed in foster care with Mrs. Crow’s niece. A human foster home from what Shawn assumed. Assumed, because it wasn’t a question he could ask.
But if so, that surprised Shawn. The FRU had its own foster care and had people working that system just as the police did. Why wouldn’t Lily have been placed in a supernatural’s home?
According to Mrs. Crow, six months after Lily’s placement, her family showed up to get her. She refused to leave. While they didn’t take Lily, they’d beat Mrs. Crow’s niece pretty badly. After Lily had gotten her foster mom help, she’d run away—leaving a note saying she didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.
Six months later, the Crows had run into Lily while visiting Houston. She’d been living on the streets. The Crows had offered her a job and a place to live. Only when they agreed not to tell anyone who she was did she agree.
“She’s a good girl,” Mrs. Crow had insisted. “We just didn’t want to put her in the spotlight so her family could find her again.”
Perry asked if Lily had seemed to recognize the robbers, and she insisted that the girl had been in the office getting a deposit together and had barely seen them. But, since Officer Johnson was convinced that there were several different traces of shape-shifters in the store, Shawn couldn’t help but wonder if Lily’s family, also shape-shifters, wasn’t behind the robbery. And considering that the girl was part vampire she might have the gift of scent. So she didn’t have to see
the robbers to recognize them.
Or was there more to this? Could she be behind the robbery?
He hated thinking that because … because she’d had such kind, pretty eyes. But Shawn wasn’t stupid. Pretty didn’t equal innocent. And when Mrs. Crow had admitted it had been Lily’s idea not to mention her, it made Shawn even more suspicious.
For all he knew, Lily’s family might be here right now, counting the booty they’d stolen.
He got a flash image of her in the store, looking soft and feminine. He hoped his suspicions were wrong.
He got out of his car. In the distance he heard thunder. One of the sudden summer storms was rolling in, he smelled it. The sky had gone dark. There were no lights on in the house, but Lily didn’t live in the house. His footsteps tapped quietly as he moved to the back of the house where there was a garage apartment.
As Shawn moved away from the streetlights, the storm seemed to close in on him. The sky had turned to a deep dark gray.
Slowing down, he reached back to confirm he’d brought his cuffs. Not so much for Lily, the girl probably didn’t weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet, but for any company she might keep.
He cut the corner around the house, staying on grass instead of concrete, hoping to silence his steps. There were a few lights on in the apartment. He spotted movement through one of the windows. Just Lily? Or did she have company.
A blast of wind stirred his hair—moving past him and hopefully making it harder for other supernaturals to pick up on his scent. Still, he reached inside his shirt and drew out his gun from his shoulder strap.
Heavy in his hand, the weapon had been designed to look like a regular Glock.
It wasn’t.
It had two settings: to stun, and to kill. The first setting sent out a minuscule dart with enough drugs to stop an elephant. The second shot a bullet with enough power to take out any lunar-enhanced were or ticked-off shape-shifter.
Right now it was on stun, but, with a flick of his thumb, he could change that.
Chapter Seven
Shawn neared the porch. Someone moved past the front window. The door opened. He darted to the side of the building.
Careful not to breathe, he leaned forward to see who’d walked out. The long dark hair swaying from shoulder to shoulder told him it was Lily.
He stared as she moved almost seductively in a pair of red high heels. The roll and grind sound of the large suitcase she pulled behind her echoed in the dark. The tapping of her heels bounced on the concrete walkway. A large backpack hanging over one of her shoulders swayed back and forth.
Suitcase?
So Lily Chambers was skipping town, huh? Generally, only the guilty run.
Disappointing, since he’d wanted to believe Mrs. Crow. He waited to see if anyone else walked out. When they didn’t, he lowered his guard and eased away from the house.
She stopped as if she’d heard him.
She lifted her nose up. No doubt, to catch his scent.
So the girl did have the gift of sensitive hearing and scent. But probably not like a full vampire, or she’d have detected him earlier.
“What are you doing here?” she asked without looking back.
“You going somewhere?” he asked.
She turned around on her heels and faced him. At first she looked baffled, but then her gaze shot straight to the gun. Fear filled her eyes.
She gasped. “You’re with Jax!” she screeched.
He didn’t have a friggin’ clue who Jax was, and while he hadn’t known how she’d react, he hadn’t expected the suitcase that came hurling at him.
She took off in a dead run. Too late for him to duck, the damn case, weighing a ton, slammed into his gut—knocked him on his butt.
The gun flew from his hand.
Bolting to his feet, not even taking the time to snatch his gun, he hauled ass after her. “FRU, stop!” he yelled but she never looked back.
She ran fast. He was faster. He caught up with her around the front of the house.
Taking one hard flying leap, he tackled her. She went down with a soft whoosh, and he went down on top of her.
One side of his brain, the male side of it, reminded him that it had been a while since he’d been on top of a girl. The other side of his brain, the FRU-trained side, rolled off her, flipped her on her back, yanked out a pair of you-ain’t-going-anywhere cuffs and had them on her before she caught her breath.
Unfortunately, before he caught his, she’d flipped back over.
“Don’t try to run,” he said. “Because—”
Before he could state the handcuff warning, before he put up his proper guard, she kicked him right in the face with the toe of her red shoe.
He fell back—again—tasted blood, and ran a hand over his busted mouth. “I wouldn’t run,” he screamed. “The cuffs are charged.” He patted his right eye—which felt swollen—and checked to see if any of his teeth were missing. Then he waited.
Patiently.
Miss Lily Chambers wouldn’t go far.
He heard her yelp and watched her hit the ground.
Whoever had invented those handcuffs should get a silver star.
Shawn wiped the blood from his lips, stood up, and walked over to where she was lying face up on the ground. The electric shock, set to go off if a perp got more than ten feet from the agent, wasn’t strong enough to kill, but it hurt like hell. He knew. Burnett’s policy was that an agent had to experience it before they were allowed to carry the cuffs.
Seeing her on the ground, still jerking, brought on a guilty frown.
“Take deep breaths.” The pain in her face sent him deeper into guilt mode. But then he saw the backpack she’d carried over her shoulder lay tossed on the ground and its contents spilled out. An unzipped deposit bag and money, lots of it, littered the ground. He immediately recalled Mrs. Crow telling him that Lily had been in the office preparing a bank deposit.
“Preparing it” all right!
He thought of all Mr. Crow’s blood at the crime scene. No need to feel guilty for this gal. She’d brought it on herself.
His chest still felt heavy. “If you’d listened you’d have known what could happen. But you didn’t. Bet you touched the stove when your mama told you not to, didn’t you?”
“Who the hell are you?” she gritted out.
“I am the FRU agent who is taking your ass in for robbery.” He motioned to the money fluttering in the breeze around her and ignored his throbbing lip. “And let’s just hope Mr. Crow makes it, or you’ll be going down for murder.”
“What?” She sat up. “The paramedics said it wasn’t bad. Tell me he’s going to be okay!”
When he didn’t answer, she got to her feet.
She still twitched, but the fact that she could move this soon after 100 milliamps of electricity ran through her impressed the hell out of him. He checked her pattern to make sure she wasn’t full vampire.
No surprises. Definitely a mixed-breed. With a high tolerance for pain.
“Take me to the hospital now!”
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he asked, his side and face throbbing.
“Not for me, you idiot! For Mr. Crow.” She stomped her foot like an angry child.
Shawn stared, the taste of blood still lingering on his tongue. She’d already made a fool of him twice. He wasn’t going for a third.
“The only place you’re going is a cell. And if you don’t want to get zapped again, you’d better stay within ten feet of me at all times.” Shifting out of kick range, he knelt down and collected the bills and shoved them back into the bag. Throwing it over his shoulder, he walked back to collect his gun and her suitcase.
He heard her dogging his steps. So the girl could learn.
“How bad is Mr. Crow?” The question came out with all kinds of emotion: fury, frustration, and fear. “Answer me!”
* * *
No sooner had the door swished shut, leaving Miranda alone with her sister, than Tabitha blurted out, “I’
m so sorry.”
“About what?” Miranda asked.
“This. All of this. You didn’t want to go.” Tears formed in Tabitha’s eyes. “And look what happened. I brought this on you and Anthony.”
“You didn’t have a clue anything like this would happen.” Miranda reached over with her uncasted arm and gave her sister’s hand a squeeze.
Tabitha squeezed back. “I swear I didn’t. I’ve been there twice. It never happened before. I just wanted to find out about Anthony. I needed something to keep my mom off my back about dating him. Now she’s going to refuse to let me see him. Our dad and your mom are blaming me. Not to mention your friends have more of a reason to hate me.”
“No one hates you,” Miranda said.
“Please, Mr. Scary-as-Shit FRU Agent can’t stand me. And he’s taking that out on Anthony.”
“No. Burnett’s firm but he’s always fair. He comes across grizzly sometimes, but he’s … not. He let me hug him once. And not because he needed it, because I did. And if you ever see him with his baby girl, Hannah, he’s talking sweet to her and making funny faces. He’s more teddy bear than grizzly.”
“I hope to the Goddesses that you are right. Because … I really think I’m in love with him.”
Miranda’s mind started scrambling. “You’re in love with Burnett?”
“No! With Anthony.”
Miranda considered her sister’s confession. “It’s kind of soon for that, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t that what love’s like?” Tabitha asked. “It hits and you know it.”
“It’s not always like that.” Miranda wished she could suck the words back in. If her sister put two and two together …
“So that’s the problem?” Damn Tabitha was good in math.
“What problem?” The skirted lie gave Miranda’s voice an unnatural pitch.
Tabitha eyeballed her.
“I’m just saying sometimes it takes a while.”
Tabitha leaned closer. “You don’t love Shawn, do you?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“No, but…”
“I care about him.” Miranda held up her fingers. “I’m … this close to falling in love with him.”
“That close, huh?” Her sister’s brow narrowed and she got that you-ain’t-gonna-like-what-I’m-about-to-say expression. “How close are you to falling out of love with Perry?”