Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2)
Page 15
“Ruh…ruh,” the tawny wolf barked. “Ruh.”
“Gah! Now you’re just messing with me.”
Daniel turned in a circle and barked. He looked at the door and then back at me. Despite our apparent failure to communicate, it seemed pretty obvious he wanted me to go somewhere. I was deciding what to do, when the door burst open.
“Harry!” Tess rushed in, dropping her gym bag on the floor. “What are you doing? Have you heard anything about Christina?”
“Hey Tess,” I said as she pulled me into a quick hug. “No, nothing from Nash, but I think I may have a way to find her.”
“You do? How?” Tess grabbed my arms in excitement.
“Remember I told you about Nash’s dad? Well, he’s here.”
“Here? There’s a ghost wolf here?” She looked around the room. “Where?”
I grabbed her hand and then pointed to the tawny wolf. “Right there.”
Tess looked to where I was pointing and frowned. “There’s nothing there.”
“What? You mean you can’t see him? They’re both there. The grey wolf from the other day and Nash’s dad.” I pointed to them again.
Tess grasped my hand in hers and peered at the doorway. “Nope, I’ve got nothing.”
“I don’t get it. It worked with Nash.”
“What worked with Nash?” Isaac’s voice startled me. He was walking into the living room looking freshly showered, drying his hair with a towel.
“When there is a ghost around, if Nash touches me, skin to skin, he can see it too. He saw the grey wolf a couple of times. It doesn’t seem to work with Tess though.”
“Interesting. I’ve never heard of such an ability, being able to share your gifts with another.” He stopped beside me and held out his hand. “May I?”
“Sure, go ahead.” Isaac grasped my hand in his. It felt slightly cooler than mine. “Well?” I looked at him expectantly. “Can you see them?”
“Extraordinary!” Isaac’s voice was breathy with surprise.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Aw man, why didn’t it work for me?” Tess crossed her arms with a scowl. “I want to see ghosts too.”
“Yes, I can see them quite clearly. They look very much alive. Do ghosts always look like this?” Isaac was clearly enjoying his first experience seeing ghosts.
“No, human ghosts are usually more translucent. You can tell you are looking at a ghost. These ones though…” I shrugged. I really didn’t know why the wolf ghosts looked so real.
Daniel, who had been turning his head from side to side following Isaac’s and my conversation, let out a little yip and sidled towards the door.
“That’s Christina’s dad, Daniel,” I said. “I think he must know where Christina is and he wants me to follow him.”
Isaac froze, turning back to look at me incredulously. “Christina’s father?”
“Yes, Salvador told me he was murdered by Elian Navarre, who is really a Fae prince named Eliassander,” I added for Tess’s benefit.
“Whoa, no shit,” Tess said, nodding her head. “I knew he had been killed, but no one ever said how.”
“Clearly we must follow the wolf.” Isaac’s manner was brisk.
“I know. I was just trying to figure out what to do when Tess arrived home.”
“I call shotgun!” Tess jumped up and down with her arm in the air. “Let’s gear up.” She turned to look at me seriously. “And don’t even think about suggesting I stay home. I’m going with you.”
“I wouldn’t think of it,” I replied, which was a complete lie. I seriously did not want to bring Tess along into danger, but what could I do? There was no way I could stop her. Besides, she was totally kickass and would come in handy in a fight.
Chapter Seventeen
I rode shotgun. It was the only way I could keep an eye on the two big wolves as they galloped along the street in front of us. Tess complained for a minute or two in the back seat of Isaac’s big SUV, but soon the thrill of an adventure roused her from her pout.
We had geared up, as Tess suggested, donning clothes meant to add a layer of protection and ease of movement in case of a fight. Tess and I both had our katanas. I also had two smaller knives strapped to my thigh and my ankle. I’m sure Tess was similarly decked out. She wasn’t powerful enough yet to shift to a half-were form and would only shift to full wolf if she absolutely had no other choice. She was deadly enough in her two-legged form. I was wearing the long black leather duster I had acquired from Salvador’s wardrobe people a few weeks back. It looked totally badass and I felt like some chick off the cover of a vampire novel.
We were heading north through the city following Daniel and the big grey wolf. It was a little surreal watching them trot up the middle of the busy street. They didn’t even bother to dodge the cars. Watching them disappear as a car drove right through them and then see them reappear farther up the street was a little disconcerting at first, to say the least.
Tess and I had argued over calling Nash. She, the good little pack wolf that she was, felt that we needed to call him, Nash being an alpha and all that. I thought it was best if we followed the lead first. For all we knew it would be another dead end and I didn’t want to pull Nash away from the leads he was pursuing. I told myself it had nothing to do with the fact that I was avoiding having ‘the talk’ with him. Still, when I finally caved and agreed with Tess, I was relieved when his phone went straight to voicemail. I left him a brief message telling him what was going on and that I would call as soon as we found anything then put my phone on silent mode.
The wolves had begun to head slowly towards the northeast edge of the city. I wasn’t overly familiar with this part of town, but Isaac began nodding his head.
“I believe I may have an idea of where we are headed,” he said.
“You do? Where?” I turned to look at him in surprise.
“There are several industrial areas on this side of the city and there is also an abandoned cement factory. Any of these places could be used for nefarious deeds.”
I pulled out my phone and brought up the map Bryce had created for me, pinpointing all the holdings of Bellemare and its subsidiaries. “Bellemare doesn’t seem to own anything out this way though.”
“Maybe that’s a sign,” Tess said from the back, leaning forward and resting her arms on my seat. “I mean, if you had some top secret facility where you are doing crazy ass experiments on werewolves, you might want to make sure it wasn’t in your own backyard.”
I shrugged. She had a point and it looked like it wouldn’t take long to find out. The wolves took a left onto a quieter street, heading towards the outskirts of town.
“It looks like they’re going to the decommissioned cement plant,” I said after looking at the map again. The road we were on eventually came to a dead end at the edge of the cement plant’s property which appeared to encompass several acres with four separate buildings. There were half a dozen abandoned quarries, several of which had been allowed to collect water over the years and now were small lakes, attracting migrating waterfowl and other animals. The whole facility was a bit of an eyesore, especially as the city had spread out, its suburbs beginning to encroach on the property. I remembered there had been some talk of the city buying the land to turn it into a park or something, but the owner wouldn’t sell.
The sun was just setting as we drew near to the cement factory. The wolves had stopped at a chain link fence blocking the road. It had been chained shut and was covered with ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Private Property’ signs.
Isaac pulled up to the fence and turned off the engine, killing the lights. The wolves had disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the chain link. Daniel threw his head up and howled only to be joined by the grey a few seconds later.
“Alright, alright, I get it.” I said to them rolling my eyes. “Give us
a second to come up with a plan.”
“Do we have a plan?” Tess struggled not to grin.
“No, but the least we can do is take a minute just to check things out before we go rushing in,” I replied.
“Since when are you the voice of reason?” Tess shook her head in disbelief.
“I guess I’m just more mature even if you’re old…DER.” I gave her a smug smile.
“Ha. Five months, Harry, I’m older by five months.”
“If you two are done with the less than witty banter,” Isaac’s said wryly, “I believe there is some sort of activity going on at the plant.” He had grabbed a set of binoculars and was looking in the distance at the main factory.
I looked across the barren terrain. Headlights flashed as a car turned and parked. There were several other vehicles already stopped there. “Do you think it’s the fight club? We didn’t get a call or anything. Maybe we didn’t pass their checks when we called for the invite?”
“I don’t know,” Isaac frowned. “The fake identities that Bryce created for us were very thorough. They should have passed inspection.”
“Maybe this is something else then?” I looked back across the open field to where another car was pulling in to park.
“Omigod! Maybe it’s a meeting of the Society of Montferrat!” Tess gripped my coat and whispered in excitement.
“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.” I pulled out my phone. “Let’s see if this is going to work.” I quickly typed out a text and sent it.
“Hey, it worked. I’ve got Bryce.” Bryce had set himself up a phone number so that he could receive texts.
….NO U R CLEAR. THERE R NO CAMS IN THE BLDG>
“Okay, we’re clear. There’s no security between here and the factory. At least there are no cameras.”
“You should call Nash,” Tess said quietly.
“Yes, you should wait for Detective Nash.” Isaac nodded, agreeing with Tess. “I’ll go ahead and scout the way.”
“No, we should stick together, let me just call in the reinforcements first and then we’ll all go.” I shook my head, grabbing Isaac’s arm.
“I agree with Harry. We stick together,” Tess nodded.
I checked my phone and there was a message from Nash.
Bossy wolf. I didn’t know whether I should be happy that he was concerned or annoyed that he thought I would do something stupid. I called him back and of course it went straight to voicemail again.
“Hey Cian,” I started, figuring if I used his name it might work in my favour. “We have a solid lead on our end too. We’re at the old Lafayette Cement Plant. There are half a dozen cars out front. Something is definitely going on here. If you can, send us some back up.” I ended the call, shoving my phone back into my pocket.
“Are you sure about this?” Isaac looked at me with concern. “It would be safer if you waited here.”
“We’ll go together,” I replied, giving him a determined stare.
With a shrug, Isaac strode to the back of his vehicle and then reappeared with a large set of bolt cutters. He made quick work of the chain holding the gate shut.
“What do you think? Do we risk taking the vehicle or go on foot?” Tess asked.
“We go on foot,” Isaac replied, stepping through the now open gate.
I took a deep breath and then followed him through. Tess brought up the rear after first going to the back of the vehicle and rummaging around in the duffle bag she had thrown there before we left home. In her hand she held a small crossbow.
“Whoa!” I looked at the weapon in surprise. “Where did you get that?”
“My uncle just got it in and I wanted to give it a try.” She held up a small pouch with about a dozen mini crossbolts. “They’ll punch through Kevlar.”
“Cool. Hopefully we won’t need it.” With a quick nod to her, I turned and hustled ahead to catch up with Isaac.
At first the wolves were nowhere in sight, but as we jogged across the open terrain I spotted them pacing back and forth at the side of the building. We made it across the field without incident and pressed ourselves up against the side of the building. The entrance was just around the corner, but now that we were closer, we could tell we weren’t going to get in that way, at least not easily and not unless we managed to go through the two guards armed with automatic weapons.
“Shit. They’ve got guns,” whispered Tess. I rolled my eyes. Of course they had guns. We were dealing with norms. They always had guns. I had complained as much to Tess’s uncle, when I tried to convince him to teach me to shoot a handgun. Tess thumped me in the arm. “Hey, look! Isn’t that the guy?”
I peeked around the corner to look where she was pointing. “You’re right. It’s Douglas Bellemare. I knew he was involved. I just knew it.” I did a little victory fist pump for being right.
“We should look for another way in,” Isaac said.
Luckily, I figured I had already found one. “I think I’ve got that covered.” I grabbed Isaac’s hand and pointed to the far end of the building. There was a fire escape leading up to a second level window. The grey wolf was sitting on the second storey landing, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Daniel paced below the ladder as if waiting impatiently for us to catch up.
“Persistent spectres,” Isaac replied. He grasped me by the shoulders and eyed me critically. “How are they staying so solid and for so long? Are you feeding them? You’ll deplete yourself completely in no time,” he scolded.
“I’m not doing anything, honest.” I sucked in a breath. “At least I don’t think I am. I don’t feel like my aura is getting drawn on. In fact, I feel great.”
Isaac gave me another penetrating look, his eyes suddenly widening. “Oh, I see. Well…”
“Oh. My. God. Did you just look at me and figure out I had sex with Nash?”
“Well…” If Isaac could have, I’m sure he would have flushed with embarrassment. “It’s not that exactly it’s…”
“It’s the fact that you have the equivalent of a big ole’ neon sign on the back of your neck that screams ‘property of Cian Nash’ in big, bold letters,” Tess added gleefully.
“Shut up! I do not.”
“Do too.”
“Why didn’t you say something to me?”
“Hey, I’m sorry, but that’s Nash’s job.” Tess threw her hands up in surrender. “He gave me strict instructions I wasn’t allowed to say anything until he got a chance to explain things.”
“You’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me.” I pushed my fingers through my hair. Damn wolves and their damn hierarchy.
“Excuse me, ladies? Could we maybe have this conversation at a more convenient time?” Isaac swept a hand towards the fire escape at the far end of the building.
“Yeah, right. Like maybe never,” I grumbled as I stomped off towards the waiting wolves. Tess snickered, but kept her mouth shut.
The fire escape was rusted, but looked solid enough. The only problem was that the bottom of the ladder was far above our heads. Isaac could easily make the jump and possibly Tess, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to.
“Not a problem,” Isaac said as he stepped under the ladder. He made a basket with his hands, interlocking his fingers and bent forward, holding them out in front of his thighs. “I’ll give you ladies a boost.”
Tess looked at me and gave a little shrug then laun
ched herself at Isaac. Her foot landed in his hands and he pushed up, throwing her into the air. She grabbed last rung of the ladder easily and pulled herself up. “Easy peasy, Harry,” she called down as she scrambled up to the landing at the top of the ladder.
Isaac had assumed the position again. I followed Tess’s example and found myself launched into the air. The ladder was suddenly right in front of me and I grabbed on. My hand slipped and for a split second I thought I was going to fall and then suddenly Isaac was there, pulling me up.
“Thanks Isaac,” I said with relief.
“You’re most welcome, Harry.”
At the top of the landing, the fire escape was accessed through a window. The pane was broken already, so it didn’t take much to clear away the shards of glass and climb through. We found ourselves in a small office. A quick peek out the door and the coast was clear so far.
“Okay, what’s the plan?” asked Tess.
“We need to find the missing werewolves, find Christina,” I replied.
“Agreed.” Isaac nodded his head. “Our priority should be to locate the missing.”
“But don’t you want to know what all those guys are up to? The ones arriving with your boy Bellemare?” Tess frowned.
“No,” I replied. “Look Tess, I know you want to learn more about the whole cult thing, but we should leave that to Nash and the other cops. Let’s just go in as quiet as possible and see if we can find the missing werewolves.”
“Okay. You’re right,” Tess nodded.
“And one more thing, these are norms; no killing unless they are trying to kill us,” I added. Isaac raised his eyebrows in surprise but didn’t protest. “Check the door again, Isaac.”
He cracked the door ajar and looked out. “All clear,” he said.
The room opened out to a long narrow hallway. To the right the hall stretched out the length of the building, to the left there was an exit to a set of stairs leading down to the ground floor.
Isaac looked at me and gave me a little ‘you decide’ shrug.
“Let’s go down,” I said. “I can’t see them keeping wolves locked up here on the second floor.”