Deceptions: A Collection

by Shiloh Walker

  I stopped and glanced at him. I wasn’t an idiot.

  Popping my wrist, I turned to the sound of the voice and waited.

  A shadow moved. “Hear you’re looking for Keeli.”

  “You’ve got good ears.” Or you’ve just been in the area for the past few hours, I thought sourly.

  The shadow crept closer. Light reflected off a man’s face before he eased back into the shadow.

  “I can tell you where to find her…but it will cost you.”

  Wow. What a surprise, that.

  Fishing a bill out of my pocket, I knelt down on the ground and found a rock. I wrapped the bill around it and tossed it into the alley. “There.”

  Silence stretched out. “That’ll do, kid. But…trust me. You don’t want me shouting this news. You’re looking for news on the Alpha’s boy, right?”

  Damon tensed at my back.

  “What do you know?” I asked, staring into the alley.

  I could see him.

  Dirty face. Young. Grimy.

  He smiled at me.

  “I know all sorts of things, girl,” he murmured.

  My skin crawled, but if he knew something…

  I slid Damon another look. His eyes were glowing. His hand gripped my arm. But when I stepped forward, he was right there by me.

  They went for him first.

  Through the roar of blood in my ears, I heard Damon swearing. That was kind of funny. There were four of them and he was cussing them out?

  But then one of them howled… A death scream. One that made the skin on my nape crawl as I slashed through the air with my blade.

  She was made like a rapier, but heavier. I could hack away for hours if I had to, and the fool in front of me was bleeding from more cuts than even I could count; he was either too weak or too underfed to heal them well. He made another lunge at me and I drove the blade through his heart, twisting it and jerking upward. Skin smoked as it met the silver and I watched as the life in his eyes faded.

  Jerking my blade free, I turned, braced for another attack.

  All I saw was Damon. Walking toward me with blood dripping off him, falling in fat drops from his fingers.

  “Show off,” I muttered.

  A flash of white appeared in his face. I almost thought he was smiling.

  But that faint smile was gone in another second as shadows came rushing at us from all around.

  I found myself shoved to the ground.

  There was a rumbling sound—something I couldn’t identify.

  And another sound—one I could.

  The ground was shaking, I thought. As I pushed up onto my elbows, I saw a giant shape rushing into the alley.

  Goliath.

  Hell was about to break loose.

  Then a cat roared and I heard somebody scream. Maybe it already had.

  As the fighting raged over my head, I rolled to the side and flexed my wrist. My blade was gone. I managed to get my back to the wall of the busted, broken building behind me, using it for support and shadow as I surveyed the mess in front of me.

  Five, six, seven—yeah. Seven scraggly wolves fighting Goliath and Damon. The wolves had shifted. Damon and Goliath hadn’t. Two wolves were trying to take Goliath down and he casually caught one, ripped its head off. My gut went a little queasy at the sight.

  The second one didn’t fare much better.

  Damon wasn’t quite so casual.

  Quick, brutal.

  But for every one they took down, several more came crawling out of the shadows.

  What the hell—?

  Panting for breath, I flexed my wrist and called my blade.

  Off to the side, I heard a snarl.

  The wolf came for me just as I turned to face it.

  I never even got my blade up.

  I came to at the bright flare of light.

  It wasn’t the light that woke me.

  It was the pain.

  Ripping through my side and eating its way through my veins. I choked back the scream as TJ leaned over me. “Damn, girl. You did it again, didn’t you?”

  I glared at her. Or tried to. The tears in my eyes were pretty much blinding me.

  “Get the fuck back.”

  Well. One thing was clear. I wasn’t dying, because if I was, no way would I be hearing that voice. Even if I was going straight to hell, I’d be deluding myself with angel song to the very end. So if I was hearing the demonic Damon that must mean the wolf bite on my side wasn’t fatal.

  His face appeared in my line of sight and I closed my eyes.

  “Stupid little fool!” His voice cut through the pained shrieking in my head. But the hands on my side were gentle. “Shit…shit, shit, this is bad—”

  “Chill out, cat. She ain’t going to change her skin. She can’t—”

  TJ, there. I knew that voice, too. Focus. Stay focused on the voices. Focus. Concentrate…the chills hit me in the next moment. Oh, great. First the chills—

  “Come on, Kit. Breathe…”

  Goliath.

  I tried to open my eyes and focus on his face. “You were supposed to be the weapon,” I panted out.

  I thought I saw a pained look on his face. But it was hard to say as I groaned. The spasms starting ripping me through me.

  This was going to be fun…

  Three hours later, I finally stopped puking up my guts.

  That was when I knew I was done.

  It was another two before TJ decided to let me leave.

  Damon was furious.

  As Goliath eased me into the passenger seat, Damon was already behind the steering wheel, staring straight ahead with a flinty look in his eyes.

  “Sorry things didn’t work out with Keeli,” Goliath said quietly, crouching down by the door and staring at me.

  I grimaced. “It’s okay. If you can just…well. Ask around.”

  He nodded, but there was a troubled look on his face. “She…I don’t know, but I don’t think she’s here. She would have shown up. Keeli likes trouble, and this…this was trouble. Don’t think it was about you, though. Those wolves, they been gunning for the cats and TJ and me a long time. They saw the Alpha’s boy there, figured they’d take a shot, I bet. One of them had been in the bar earlier. Left before you all did. Guess they decided to have some fun with him. Then I show up…” He shrugged and sighed. “You just got caught in the crossfire.”

  “All that for nothing, then.”

  “Sorry, Kit.”

  I shook my head. “‘S’okay.” In the end, it was. Not like a wolf bite was going to do me in. A bad one might make me dog sick while my body dealt with the poison, but that was it.

  “We’re going,” Damon snapped, revving the engine.

  Goliath stood, one massive hand lingering on the top edge of the door. “I’ll be in contact if I hear any more, Kit. But I don’t think your kid has been around here. Don’t think he will be, either. Nobody comes here unless they have no place else to go. He had other options.”

  Did he, though?

  I kept the question behind my teeth.

  Once we were speeding down the road, Damon said, his voice thick with sarcasm, “That was just a brilliant plan. You got any other ideas? Fun ways to get yourself killed?”

  “Oh, please.” Closing my eyes, I sank back into the seat. “I didn’t even come close to getting myself killed.”

  “If there’d been a few more wolves, I wouldn’t have gotten to you,” he growled.

  I laughed. “Honey…you weren’t the equalizing force there. Goliath was. And TJ. They were the reasons I felt safe loitering in the area,” I said, sighing. The pain in my side had settled to a low ache. TJ kept a witch in house. She wasn’t trained by the formal houses, but she was skilled.

  There would be scars. Scars didn’t bother me, though. I could live with them. I had more than my fair share already. And since it was the were virus fighting its way out of my system, any injury I had would heal even faster.

  It tore through me at an accelerate
d rate and I hated every second, but it was done fast. Throw in a decent healing and I’d be good as new in a few days.

  Just in time to be battered, bit or otherwise abused in another day or two.

  Chapter Seven

  Two days later, I found a report from the Banner unit.

  A witch.

  The only name they had for her was Keeli.

  I stared at her face—gaunt, with hollow cheeks, circles under her eyes and scars all over her face, like she’d caught one of the diseases that rarely hit humans these days. Chicken pox, maybe.

  Drugs had hit her hard.

  Death had hit her harder.

  They’d found her a hundred and fifty miles south of East Orlando, her body naked, scraped up, scratched up and marked by mosquito bites.

  Judging by the condition of her feet, she’d been walking a long, long time, I thought.

  I reached for the phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Ignoring you,” I said to Damon.

  He glared at me and came around to study the report.

  He eyes locked on it, skimming it over. “Keeli…” Then he snorted. “Shit, that bastard was trying to work you over.”

  “No.” I dialed TJ’s number. “Must be sad, Damon, not having friends you can trust.”

  The hand resting on the table curled into a fist.

  I looked away as TJ answered.

  “Hey, TJ. I need to ask you a question…”

  Keeli’s death was so far the only thing I’d uncovered.

  Four days in and I hadn’t found much of anything about the boy I’d been hired to find. The boy I had to find if I didn’t want a death warrant placed on my tail.

  I was about ready to just throw myself off the top of the Epcot Center just to get away from it all.

  The only problem I wasn’t sure if it would kill me. Wolf bites wouldn’t do it, and neither would nearly being strangled. Would that jump? Nah. Probably not. It would just hurt. And probably hurt like hell.

  I wasn’t human enough to die easily.

  The sound of the phone ringing was enough to shatter what remained of my frayed nerves but I pretended not to hear it. No reason to act as though I had, after all. Somebody was calling Damon on his phone and it might not have anything to do with me.

  Except I recognized the odd, blank look that came over his face when he was talking to My Lady. Shit. That title was enough to turn my stomach.

  There was both an upside and a downside to these conversations. He’d be taciturn and quiet for hours. Awesome. The downside? He’d be even more of an asshole after the silence passed.

  Not so awesome.

  Pushing open the front door, I leaned against the doorjamb as he carried on his conversation behind me. Reports being checked, had investigated a number of possible areas in East Orlando where he might have gone—no luck at this point.

  Yes, yes, My Lady—I’m so very sorry…

  I tuned him out. I didn’t need to worry about the asshole behind me because there was a problem in front of me. Walking toward me with a small smile on his pretty face.

  The rays of the setting gilded his features. Golden hair, made silver by the bright light. Long, lean easy grace. Lovely green eyes.

  There he was…Jude in the flesh. Out in the bright light of the evening sun.

  But why now?

  “You keep refusing to come when I call. So I do as you said to Evangeline. I came to you,” he murmured into my mind.

  I tensed, mentally going on retreat, but it didn’t help. He was still a presence crowding into my skull, one I couldn’t shut out no matter how hard I tried.

  As he came to a stop in front of me, I tried not to gape at him. Tried not to glare.

  I also, to my disgust, had to try not to drool.

  Jude was a sexy, sexy work of art, one that got better with age, but I didn’t want to think about that. Didn’t want to think about him at all, really.

  “I wish to hire you,” he said quietly, keeping his voice low.

  That didn’t stop Damon from hearing him.

  I heard the shifter’s voice trip over the phone, then steady. Yes, yes, My Lady, everything is well…

  I stepped aside and gestured. The small, inner office was spelled—work by some of Colleen’s fellow witches. It would work well enough.

  And hello…I could piss Damon off.

  He came off the couch the second he saw Jude.

  I waggled my fingers at him.

  “I assure you, we are making progress, My Lady. Ruling things out is part of the process,” Damon said, his voice calm and easy even as he swiped out a hand for me.

  Jude blocked it, summarily shoving me forward.

  Good grief. I stumbled into my office just in time for Jude to slip in behind me and shut the door.

  That was all it took to activate the spelling.

  I’d have to open it for anybody to enter. Unless somebody busted the wards. A witch could do it. Weaker shifters couldn’t. Vamps were incapable—wards were earth magic, living magic. Vampires couldn’t break them if they tried. Sadly, Damon was a strong shifter. Give him enough time and I knew he could break the damn ward.

  “Well, well, little warrior,” Jude murmured, turning to face me. “You pick unusual company these days. That’s Annette’s most favorite toy. How did you get so lucky? She doesn’t like to share her toys.”

  Annette. The cat-bitch’s name was Annette. It didn’t suit her. Kitty-cat Barbie was so much more fun.

  I sneered at him and dropped down into one of the chairs.

  “He’s not a toy I’m interested in playing with,” I muttered. Then I mentally cringed, knowing exactly how Jude would take it.

  Yep. Seconds later, his hand stroked over my cheek. “I’m glad to hear it, little warrior. I’m not particularly good at sharing myself…and I’d hate to have to share you with that.”

  I batted his hand away. “Newsflash, vamp. I’m not yours.”

  “So you keep insisting.” He snagged the only other piece of furniture in the room, another chair, and swung it around. He straddled it and stared at me as he rested his arms on the back. “Why are you working with cats?”

  “A job. Money. Same reason I take any job.”

  His gaze flickered down to my throat. “It’s a job that’s gotten you in trouble already. Is it paying well?”

  “Not well enough,” I muttered.

  A fist slammed against the door and I groaned as I felt the magic of the ward crackle. “Open the fucking door, Colbana.”

  “He has a nasty temper,” Jude murmured.

  Absently, I touched my throat. “I can handle it.” To be fair, Damon hadn’t laid a hand on me since that first day, except to push me out of the way a few times. It had been necessary more than a few times, and not just when we’d gone trolling down in Wolf Haven.

  “I heard the Alpha’s nephew was missing.”

  I shot Jude a dark look as the pounding at the door increased. Damon shouted, “Colbana, open the door or I’m going to wring your fucking neck again.”

  Sighing, I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands.

  A hand touched my knee. Cool as death. I knocked it aside.

  Too bad I couldn’t brush aside the whisper in my mind.

  “She does not tolerate failure, Kit. Why did you take this job?”

  I shoved up out of the chair.

  The hell would I answer him.

  Jude continued to watch me while Damon banged away on the door. Each time he did, the magic sparked. He’d break the ward soon. It would cost me money to put it back up if he broke it. “I can’t let him break my wards. I need the safe room.”

  “Look at me.”

  I shouldn’t.

  But I did.

  The green of his gaze started to glow.

  “If you fail her, it’s likely she will try to have you killed. You already know this.”

  With a short nod, I acknowledged that. What was the point in denying it?
>
  “I can help you. Not many can stand against the cat Alpha. But I can.”

  Rolling my eyes, I stared at him. Why in the hell would he?

  I knew I amused him, but my amusement factor wasn’t going to get me that far in life.

  He came out of the seat. “Would you like a way out, Kit? It will not cost you much.”

  “Uh-huh.” I wasn’t about to become another one of his servants.

  A faint smile canted Jude’s lips upward. “I have enough of those. Just…” He brushed his fingertips along my bruised neck. “One taste. For now. Another when you require my assistance…should it come to that.”

  I tensed. No.

  “Why not? It’s just a taste, Kit. And it will not harm you, nor bind you…and if it comes to it, it could be the very thing to save to you.”

  Why in the world would he be willing to fuck with the Alpha Cat just for a taste of my blood?

  A smile pulled his lips back from his teeth and the glow in his eyes started to go red.

  “Fucking with her is reason enough. But you…you amuse me, as you already know. And you are…unique. Now…do we have a deal?”

  The banging at the door grew louder and something that looked like lightning whipped around the room.

  With a curse, I shoved my wrist into his face. The wrist would have to work. My throat had been abused enough lately.

  Jude smiled.

  It had hurt.

  Plain and simple.

  There was nothing erotic or seductive about it, although I know they can make it pleasant.

  I don’t think he wanted it to be pleasant, and I’m actually happy with that.

  He did seal the wounds; another thing I was happy about, despite the fact that it only made it hurt more.

  The entire exchange lasted maybe fifteen seconds.

  I had maybe another thirty before Damon would break the wards.

  Jerking away from him, I went to the door. Under my hand, the door knob buzzed. The magic responded to my touch and the abused wards faded away. Since they hadn’t been broken, once they had enough time, they’d rebuild themselves and be as strong as they had been before the bastard had started beating on them—the beauty of things made from the earth. They healed.