“Like a song would bother me.” I plucked a non-existent thread on my vest.
“A picture, then. Damn it, Kit. How do you land yourself in this kind of trouble?”
“Beats the hell out of me,” I muttered.
“Well, it looks like they are already working on that.” She reached up and touched my throat.
Truer words…
We made it to the car before Damon spoke.
I enjoyed the reprieve.
But the second the doors closed, he laid back into me. “You don’t seem to get this…you’re stuck with me, Kit.”
“Nope. Not quite getting it yet, sorry.”
He leaned in, staring at my face, then he cocked his head, studying my throat, craning his head to look at my face. When he went to push my hair back, I smacked his hand away. Surprisingly, he let me.
“Your voice is different.”
“Allergies,” I lied. “Colleen’s a wonder. I didn’t have the tea I usually drink so I came by for a refill and had a cup while we chatted.”
“Liar.”
I didn’t respond.
“You had her heal your throat.”
I tapped my nails on the steering wheel and contemplated the night sky as I started the car.
“Shit. I…” The thick slashes of his brows dropped low over his eyes. “You’re weaker than I thought. You’re not human and…hell. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that much damage.”
Years of abuse had taught me how to hide my emotions. I hadn’t had to use it as much in recent years, but I was going to have to brush those skills back up, I suspected. Starting now.
Without responding, I put the car into drive and pulled off.
“How human are you?”
I turned on the radio.
He turned it back off. “I asked you a question, little girl.”
Sighing, I looked over at him. “Where exactly is it in your job description or in that so-called contract that you get to bully me? How much human blood I carry doesn’t affect the job I’ll do.”
He stared at me.
I could feel the weight of it as I sped back toward town.
But when I reached over and turned on the radio, this time, he was quiet.
Ah…finally. Silence.
Chapter Six
There was a time when the town had been called Winter Haven. Full of snowbirds and pretty little houses and condos.
Now it was a hell-hole for some of the wolves and cats and witches who didn’t want to fall in line with the local packs, and who wouldn’t pay the tithe to join the witch houses. The witch houses weren’t a bad thing, per se. They offered protection and the strength of numbers, but you had to live by their rules. Some of us didn’t do rules very well.
Those people often ended up in places like this.
I wouldn’t call it the slums, exactly, because plenty of people here had money.
They just usually came about it in less than ideal ways.
The little sign that used to read Winter Haven now read Wolf Haven, thanks to some ingenious soul and his clever hand with a can of spray paint. It looked like they’d tried to cover it over with Cat and witch several times. But the wolves were the first ones who had come here, more than fifty years ago when the human world had first found out about us.
This place had been called Wolf Haven for a very long time.
It wasn’t going to get changed to Cat Haven just because somebody tried to spray it on a sign.
I parked the car but didn’t climb out. This was the very last place I wanted to be. I had good memories of this place…and bad. I’d still been broken when I finally stopped running. This was where I’d stopped. Sometimes, I wished I’d never left.
I could understand why some people thought Doyle might have come to Wolf Haven. A place where almost anybody could lose themselves. Lose themselves…hide. I’d hidden here for a few years myself.
Had hidden here very well, but I’d done it by being inconspicuous, something I couldn’t do with the demonic Damon next to me. Tapping my nails on the steering wheel, I stared at the square, squalid building in front of me. TJ still worked there. I liked TJ. She was…well, TJ was TJ. And if anybody had seen Doyle in the area, TJ would know.
It might cost me some money, but that was fine.
“I don’t suppose I can convince you to let me go inside there by myself, can I?” I asked.
He shot me a disbelieving look.
“I didn’t think so.”
I reached over the back seat and closed my hand around my blade. She warmed under my palm. In the back of my head, I could feel her pleasure and it made me smile. “I’m taking my sword. I don’t care how many damned shifters we run into, I don’t care how many problems you think it will solve for me to be unarmed. I’m not walking through Wolf Haven unarmed.”
He stared at me.
I stared back at him.
Minutes ticked away until I finally broke visual contact and climbed out of the car.
Since he wasn’t snarling at me or demanding to pat me down for weapons, I had to assume he saw the sense in letting me keep the sword.
He was really going to be happy with me in a minute.
TJ didn’t let anybody in her place with a weapon.
I locked the car and hoped it would be in the same condition when I got back. I wasn’t terribly attached to the damn thing, but it was the only car I had and I didn’t have the money to get it fixed if they did a lot of damage. My insurance also wouldn’t pay for anything that was done to it if I was in Wolf Haven—I hadn’t picked up the vandalism rider for it because I just didn’t have the damn money.
As we crossed the street, somebody ducked out from TJ’s and a grin split my face.
Hey, maybe luck was smiling on me.
“I’ll be a son-of-a-bitch.”
“You always were,” I said cheerfully to the mountain standing there.
His name was Goliath, and like his namesake, he was big. I’m talking big-as-a-mountain big. He had hands the size of dinner plates, a massive, deep chest and when he spoke, his voice rumbled out of him like it was coming from deep within the earth. When he shifted to the half-beast some of them used, he was so damned big, the ground shuddered under his feet when he walked.
Goliath had come to Wolf Haven after the alpha of his pack had tried to kill him. He’d failed—Goliath had beaten the shit out of him. With his own hands. Before he’d spiked. You’d think people would respect that kind of strength, but instead, they’d turned on him and chased him out, threatening to kill him and his kid sister.
Goliath and his sister had settled here under TJ’s protective wing. Sort of.
A lot of people came and went around here. Even his sister had eventually drifted off. But not Goliath. He’d never leave TJ.
“What the fuck you doing here, Colbana?” Goliath grumbled, his watery blue eyes peering down at me as I crossed the road.
“Slumming. Wanna run away with me?”
The sidewalk was a crumbled ruin under my feet and I sidestepped a pitted hole as I came to a stop a few feet away from Goliath. At my back, I was all too aware of Damon’s presence, hot, edgy and breathing down my neck.
In contrast, Goliath’s wolf hovered around him all nice and snug. Curled up like he was taking a nap or something. Big as he was, Goliath was one of the most peaceful, restful people I’d ever met in my life.
“If I did that, TJ would have both our hides.” But he smiled at me and reached out, patting my head with one of those plate-sized hands.
I felt Damon tense behind me.
“Knock it off, he’s a friend,” I said, glancing over my shoulder.
Goliath snorted. “Colbana, kid, you need to watch the company you keep. That’s one of the Alpha cat’s little toy soldiers. Why you running with him?”
“‘Cuz he’s pretty?”
Goliath stroked a hand down his goatee and made a strangled sound deep in his throat. Most people wouldn’t recognize it as a laugh. “
Hell. Nobody is that pretty. Find somebody else if you just want a pretty shadow.”
“I can’t.” I grimaced. “I’m doing a job. Speaking of which…I need to talk to TJ.”
“Figured. Weapons.”
I grinned a little as I heard Damon’s snort. Then, as I slid my sword out of her sheath, he swore. “What the fuck—?”
I smiled at him. “I need information and I don’t get it if I go in armed.”
Goliath tapped his chest. “I’m all the weapon Kit needs.” Then he gave Damon a dismissive look. “You are on your own.”
I finished stripping away my weapons and turned them over to Goliath who stored them in a chest for just such a reason. He lingered over the sword, stroking a hand down it. “Try to behave this time, Kit.”
I blinked at him, giving him my most innocent smile.
He wasn’t fooled. Sighing, he locked it up and gestured us through. I was prepared for the magic.
Damon wasn’t. I tried to act like I didn’t take a little bit of pleasure from his startled grunt, but I didn’t pretend for long. Inherent honesty is a flaw of mine. “Keep moving,” I said over my shoulder. “Easier that way.”
The pins and needles sensation would only get worse if we lingered, although it was enough to drive anybody but the determined right back outside.
Once TJ trusted you, she could have it keyed so that the ward didn’t hit so hard, but I’d been gone a long time. Spells didn’t have long memories.
As I finally crossed through, the familiar smell of beer, fried food and magic flooded my head.
TJ was looking right at me and she had a cross-bow aimed at my chest. Pretty much exactly like the first time she’d met me. “Well, well, well. Look what the cats dragged in.”
“Hiya, TJ.”
She sneered at me and laid the crossbow down over the stumps of her legs.
Damon hissed in a breath.
TJ’s eyes, glowing in the dim light, shot to him. “What, you ain’t ever seen a werewolf before?”
Oh, I was pretty sure he had.
But a werewolf who was missing her legs from below the knees…that was a different story.
The local cat Alpha was a nasty piece of work.
Goliath’s Alpha had been a jackass.
But TJ’s Alpha had been a sadist of the highest order.
She had been one of his…toys, she’d told me. And she’d tried to run. So he’d made it to where she could never run again, severing her legs just below the knee. A shapeshifter can heal from almost anything. But she hadn’t been given the chance because a healer had been forced to heal her, cauterizing the flesh and leaving her damaged legs as they were.
Sometimes I wondered where the bastard was.
I’d liked to find him.
I’d like to kill him.
But I knew he was out of my league…if he was still alive. TJ had a way of catching up with her enemies. A fact I’d learned here in Wolf Haven.
As her eyes continued glow and swirl in the dim light, I glanced at Damon over my shoulder and then back at her. “Hey, TJ, it’s okay.”
She harrumphed. “You got lousy taste in men, bitch.”
“Not like that.” I hunched my shoulders.
“Then get rid of him. If you can’t fuck him, he ain’t no use.” She grabbed the wheels of her chair and made her way over to the table. “Josie—I need a beer. Get one for my friend.”
She gave Damon a dark look. “You ain’t my friend.”
Damon lifted his hands.
Josie—at least I assumed that was her—was a girl I hadn’t met, working back behind the bar. I’d worked there for a long while. Before I was old enough to be legal, truth be told, but TJ had taken care of me. She’d been the first person to do so. As I sat down, I positioned myself so I could see both doors and the bar. TJ didn’t bother watching either one. Nobody would get through that door without Goliath approving them.
“Been a while since you came this way,” TJ said softly, her eyes resting on my face. “Still running?”
“No.”
Josie came over and plunked two beers down in front of us before stomping back over the bar. There were a couple of men hunched over their drinks there but they weren’t looking at us. People in TJ’s joint made a study of not noticing anybody.
Unless, of course, they were TJ. TJ made of a study of noticing everybody.
“So if you’re not running, what you up to?” TJ asked, taking a drink from the mug in front of her.
“Working.” I shrugged. I glanced around, remembering the day when I realized I had to do something other than pull drinks behind the bar. TJ had pushed that on me. She knew a witch, she told me. They needed grunt work. Wasn’t much, but they needed somebody decent, trustworthy…that was how I had met Colleen.
“Hear you’ve worked your way up…doing shit for the Assembly.” Her eyes narrowed. “That can be dangerous. You okay with that?”
“Sometimes.” I shot a dark look at Damon. “Lately? Not so much.”
“I could help with that.” She smiled at me.
Damon’s eyes flashed.
Sighing, I said, “Not necessary, TJ.” Reaching into my vest, I pulled out the picture. The only reason why it wasn’t necessary. It was nice, though, realizing she’d be willing to help me out. Of course, if she knew who he was…
Even before I had the picture out, though, she grimaced. “Just keep the option open, Kit. Don’t know why you’d wanna work for that crazy bitch in Orlando.” She looked at Damon. “Only reason why he would be with you.”
“Damon, your rep precedes you.”
He skimmed a hand back over his head. “Can we hurry this along?”
Flashing a grin at TJ, I said, “He’s cranky.” Then, as I laid the picture flat, my smile faded. “We’re looking for a kid. He’s young. Close to spiking. He ran.”
TJ reached out and caught the bottom edge of the picture, drawing it close as she hunched over it. “Lots of bad shit happening with kids lately, Colbana. You heard any of it?”
“Seen all sorts of runaway reports, but that’s it.” Impatience gnawed at me, but I didn’t rush her. I knew better. Instead, I studied the mug in front of me. I hadn’t taken so much as a sip yet and I was kind of nervous. This was a shifter bar. And although shifters couldn’t get drunk the way humans could, if they worked it right, they could get a little bit of a buzz. TJ made her own beer. Think 200 proof. Maybe 400 proof.
Curling my hand around the mug, I lifted it up. One sip had my eyes popping open. “Wow.”
TJ snickered. “Couple drinks of my brew and I’ll have you dancing naked, Kit.”
“Then I’ll stop at two.” I took one more and eased it away. A comfortable buzz settled in my head and I studied the mug consideringly. If I didn’t have to work…
A big, bronzed hand closed around it.
Scowling, I watched as Damon pulled it out of my reach.
“She already said you ain’t her friend,” I muttered.
“I ain’t,” he retorted. “But I am your bodyguard.”
Then, with a smile, he downed half of it.
“Jerk.” I looked at TJ and asked, “Why do I always end up surrounded by jerks?”
She shrugged. “Beats me. There was that one kid from the Banner unit. He was nice.”
“Oh.” A smile curved my lips. “Yeah. Justin. I liked Justin.”
TJ snickered. “A girl would have to be dead not to like Justin.”
Sighing, I muttered, “I ain’t dead.”
Justin had moved on to more profitable, more pleasurable pastures. The kind where he could kill many, many things without getting in trouble for it, and get paid lots and lots of money.
“Josie. My friend needs water. I forget what a lightweight she is.”
Balefully, I glared at TJ. “You’re the one who ordered the damn beer for me,” I pointed out.
“You’re the one who drank it.”
We grinned at each other for a minute. Then my water appea
red and she went back to studying the picture. “He’s a nice looking kid,” she murmured as I guzzled my water. “If he’d been around, I would have heard.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“I haven’t heard.”
“Shit.” I finished off the water and then pinched my nose. “What were you talking about, trouble with the kids?”
She shrugged. “Just odd shit. I can’t pin it. But they disappear. Not the drift-on sort of shit. When they drift on, I hear where they go. This…it’s like they just…aren’t there.”
“Okay.” I reached for the picture and put it back in my pocket. As I stood up, I pulled a bill from my pocket.
TJ glared at me. “I ain’t needing that.”
“I didn’t say you did.” I left it on the table as I circled around the table. I’d like to hug her, but I knew she’d hurt me if I did. Instead, I rested a hand on her shoulder.
She covered my hand with hers. “Don’t stay gone so long next time, Kit.”
“I won’t.”
As I headed to the door, she said my name. I paused.
The two men at the bar pushed around me and I glared at them as they crashed into me.
TJ curled her lip in their direction and muttered something and then ignored them, focusing on me. “Maybe next time you can plan to crash for the night,” she said. “I’ll get you wasted and you can really can dance on the bar.”
“Oh, no.” I shook my head. “I did that one time.”
“And it was a fun time…”
Snorting, I headed on out the door. The pins and needles of her containment spell tore into my flesh, no less severe in its intensity on the exit. It was designed to drive people away. Odd, really. She ran a fucking bar. She should be drawing people in.
But she never lacked for business.
And nobody fucked with her.
Ever.
The spell spat us out in a rush and I stumbled out, groaning as the final slash of it dug into my skin.
A big hand caught me. “Easy, girl.”
I glanced up at Goliath. “How do you ever get used to that?”
“Hey…it’s keyed into me. Besides, a person can get used to most anything.” He grinned at me. “You know that better than anybody, don’t you?”
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