Recovering the Siren

by Erin R Flynn

  “We don’t want anyone dirty in the alliance,” Virgil added, going to a place I wouldn’t have. “My pack is clean. We do everything by the law, and I’m not letting them get dragged down because someone’s dirty or will use this idea to help all of us move drugs or steal or whatever. If you were hoping for some sort of mob network or an alliance to screw humans, fuck off. She is not playing the FBI to help us.”

  I couldn’t even hide my shock at that. “Who was saying that? I’ve tossed a shit ton of dirty paranormals to their councils or queen. How could someone think I’m like a dirty mole for paranormals?”

  “I don’t know, but several think that, and apparently certain parties have been pushing the rumor,” he admitted, shooting a look at Martin and Haton, but then shook his head.

  So not them but someone on the council. I was going to gut those mother fuckers if they weren’t careful.

  I didn’t even know what to say to that, so I didn’t. No good could come from it or my chewing on someone no matter how much I wanted to right then. I didn’t even know who to chew. Always the shit though, and it had to stop.

  It just had to.

  21

  The rest of the convention went off without a hitch, and even though some people packed up and left after my speech at the shifter party, we still did well. And now we knew what people to investigate because leaving after we stated we didn’t want any shady people around just screamed they were up to no good.

  Like wow, they were stupid, it screamed that so loudly.

  But it was over and worth the time and effort it seemed, which left us with the funeral none of us wanted to go to. Sunday night wasn’t the normal time to have it, and that was on purpose as we announced it was friends and family only… Meaning we hoped to piss off our killer that they didn’t get in the invite.

  I couldn’t do the undercover part, as I had to be visible as Alpha. All the leaders needed to. We did have some visiting vamps, and one was more than willing to play the part of Vlad’s grieving fiancée. Also, we were putting Noah up front because the revenge could be against Chicago’s coven in general and they focused on Vlad’s lovers. It didn’t seem so if they went that route, but we wanted all bases covered if we only had one chance.

  Having a funeral for a vampire at a church was out of the question. None would want that when most considered them demons, plus, there was a strong chance of damage being done in the bust and we couldn’t warn them. Also, the PR on us tearing up a church would be a nightmare.

  Instead, we had it at TimeQuake, breaking up the viewing separate from the condolences area so we could spread things out. Mina—who was the pretend fiancée—was a fantastic actress. She played the part so well my wolf couldn’t even tell her tears were fake when I was right next to her. I shared several looks with Carter, and both of us clearly were thinking of giving her the Oscar or some award for the performance.

  Along with thinking she might have a future in undercover work. Seriously, she was that good.

  The paranormals of Chicago and even some visiting came and went to help the show. The best was when Jessica and Freddie went to pay their respects with Ashley and I saw all three flip off Vlad’s body. Yeah, there were a lot of us who felt that way.

  Apollo stayed to play the part along with Sousa who hadn’t been a problem again. It helped because about an hour in we had our first possible suspect arrive.

  “I was shocked to hear Vlad had a fiancée when he was clearly still involved with others,” a woman said, simmering anger coming off of her.

  “The match was in the works for a while, but it only became official recently,” Apollo told her, sounding bored and playing the part well, dismissing her by turning to the next guest like she didn’t matter.

  Which she did not like. She went right for Vlad, and once close enough to smell he was really dead, her anger leaked out, turning to rage and grief. So scorned lover, lovers, or lover and friends it was.

  Damn, I owed Carter and a few other ancients another favor. I had put my bet on Vlad screwing people over in business since he was such an asshole in that area and someone was getting back at him through lovers.

  Another suspect showed up while our first was acting the part of grieving friend but clearly doing all she could to check out Mina. The second one was exchanging glances and looks with the first, so clearly they knew each other and Mina was the prey they wanted.

  “Two of four is good, and they can give us who we need,” Carter breathed in my ear at a volume others couldn’t hear. “Or we can reset the trap after we get them.”

  “Or they will rabbit if they don’t see their friends here they knew were coming first,” I countered. “Give it a bit more. There’s only an hour left.” I waited until he nodded. “But you won it looks like. What are you going to do with your favor?”

  “As much as you’ll let me,” he chuckled as his tongue teased my ear faster than anyone could have noticed. “Are you still tired from your fun with Bijan? That was quite the marathon.”

  “You going to try and outdo it?”

  “Not just me,” he purred, chuckling again when I shivered. Damn. That sounded like some fun I wanted in my life for sure. “I think we might have gotten number three. Maybe add fuel to the fire of the first so the other two are interested and distracted.”

  “Good call. The sooner this is over we can burn his fucking body.”

  “Amen,” he grumbled, everyone ready for that part and this to be over.

  I went over to the first suspect and smiled at her. “I’m sorry, I don’t think Noah or I greeted you yet.”

  “Why would you?” she asked, giving me a funny look.

  “Well, Noah took over the coven and he’s mine,” I answered, filing it away that she was far enough out of the loop to not know that.

  “Oh, really? Everyone’s been a bit vague as to what happened,” she muttered, eyeing me closely. “You’re a wolf though.”

  “Yes, I’m Alpha of Chicago, and I’ve bonded with some vampires.”

  Her eyes flashed shock. “So you bonded with Vlad and stabbed him in the back?”

  “No, I bonded with powerful vampires, and Vlad was a bit put out he didn’t make the cut,” I lied, smirking at her. “He tried to take what I wouldn’t give and died because of it.”

  She gave me another onceover, turning up her lip, her shell of perfection finally cracking. “You turned down Vlad? He could have had anyone.”

  I snorted, not even meaning to, but it just came out. “No, he couldn’t. I’m sorry if you’ll miss him, but I wasn’t interested. At. All.”

  “Then you shouldn’t really be at his funeral, should you?” she sneered.

  I shrugged. “Job of being the Alpha. It’s almost over. I’m here to comfort his fiancée mostly because she’s a wonderful woman. How Vlad snagged her astounds me.”

  “He could have done better,” she snapped, glancing in Mina’s direction. “No one even knows her.”

  “We know her, but we’re not gossips in Chicago,” I corrected. “She’s from a powerful coven, and she would have been good for Vlad if he’d realized his place.”

  She shot me a look that could have frozen ice on my ass if I was a weaker woman. “I’ll have to pay my respects.”

  I shrugged again. “If you want, but if you didn’t even know he was engaged, you couldn’t have been all that close.” I walked away, noting the amusement in Hagan’s eyes as I just threw a lot of fuel on that fire.

  It worked because not two minutes later she was getting a drink from the bar along with suspect number three. Carter caught my attention and subtly nodded towards the door. A female vampire was there that I didn’t recognize, but I wasn’t close enough to discern if she was our last holdout.

  I moved over to Hagan, accepting a soft kiss as his eyes danced with his wolf and the hunt. It made me smile. Yeah, it was a bit of fun to set the trap even if we really didn’t want to spare one more ounce of anything on Vlad.

  We also didn’t
want anyone else dying in Chicago if we could help it.

  Four had the same rage level as the other three, and the moment she started glancing at her cohorts, I gave Noah the signal to move forward. He went to Mina and hugged her, muttering that maybe it was best to get some air when Mina started the water works again.

  Damn, she was good.

  Apollo and Sousa took the cue as well because when I followed moments later they had the four female vamps easily restrained.

  I glanced between the councilmen, glancing at Apollo. “You’re both so good at cloaking they didn’t even have a clue, did they?” I leaned into him, brushing my lips over his. “Thank you for the help.”

  “It was worth the kiss,” he chuckled.

  “Oh, well, I booked us a dungeon tonight too, but I can cancel it if you don’t want to play,” I teased him. “Maybe I’ll chain you up and bring friends.” I smiled as he groaned.

  “And me?” Sousa asked.

  I bit back a smile. “I asked Apollo for help, and you wanted to be involved. But thanks. Nice to know you can cloak yourself too.”

  His eyes flashed shock. “You tricked me into showing if I could or not.”

  I clucked my tongue. “That doesn’t sound like me.” It was hard to laugh when both Apollo and Noah snorted. I focused on the women. “So did you kill some people while in town?” Their hearts didn’t stutter but more went into possum mode and slowed down like vampires did.

  Which meant they were guilty as sin.

  “Fine, just to settle the bet, scorned lovers, right?” I asked the first one. Her rage shot up, but that wasn’t the answer, and I blinked at her. “You didn’t even get the chance to be lovers, huh? He wouldn’t even look at you four, so you decided to take out who he was interested in so maybe he would?” Their hearts said it all.

  “Shit, that’s not the same,” Carter grumbled as he joined us. “Still not Vlad screwing them over in business.”

  “So we both lost.”

  “We get at least like half a favor as it was sexual, not business,” he argued.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Fine, a naked rooftop swim and maybe some sex, but not whatever you were planning because you were way too excited.”

  “Deal,” he accepted. “What happens to them?”

  I nodded behind him to Annis and Shaw as they showed up. “They’ll take it from here. There are reports and whatnot.”

  “Boring,” Sousa grumbled, turning one to face him and removing his hand from her mouth. “Confess for the reports and I’ll make your death painless and give you the honor of the punishment being carried out by a councilman instead of Chief Thomas blowing out your brains where you start to heal and then it gets worse before you die.”

  She shot me a scared look but then nodded. “Yes, I helped kill four of Vlad’s lovers.”

  “Four?” I muttered, shooting a look at Shaw. “We only have three bodies.”

  “One hasn’t been found from what we heard,” she admitted.

  She confessed everything, Shaw quickly taking down the notes and everything we’d need for the report. “Councilman, if you sentence her, we’ll need you to sign some reports please.”

  “Understood.” He gave me a curious look. “No quibbling from you?”

  I shrugged. “That’s the law. If you’d enjoy the kill, have fun because I don’t particularly like shooting people to death. I won’t get in trouble either way, so fine, don’t waste the blood.”

  He studied me closely, clearly wanting something after I admitted I wouldn’t enjoy killing the four women. He glanced at Apollo and seemed to think better of what he might have started with. “Would I be welcome to join you for dinner at a Chicago favorite of yours?”

  I smiled but not because of what he thought probably. “Sure. It’s not fancy, but it’s one of my favorites.”

  “Sounds good,” Apollo agreed.

  Noah called a few people in to get blood since one vampire couldn’t drink one down fully and he had a growing number of younger vamps in the coven that never seemed to get enough blood. Then Sousa finished them, and my eyes went wide as the woman cried out in pleasure, so full of ecstasy she didn’t even care he drained her.

  Sousa licked his fangs as he dropped her dead body. “Yes, my bite is orgasmic if I want. Any of my bloodline.”

  I nodded, thinking of the trait that Igor and his bloodline had, also Dubois… But I didn’t know what Apollo’s was. And I had a bunch of vampires he’d sired.

  One would think I would know it by then. Maybe it would be best to know, but right then wasn’t the time, and I was learning that knowledge wasn’t always power.

  We called the right people, and Vlad’s body was put into a bag along with the four females after they arrived. Shaw promised to get the right forms to Sousa before he flew out tomorrow, and then we headed off to dinner at Portillo’s.

  And the reactions of the two councilmen were enough to wipe away my bad mood from having to hold a funeral for Vlad. Even better, they both loved it.

  Maybe old dogs really could learn some new tricks if they dropped the egos.

  Then again, maybe not, but I did give Apollo several reasons to want to that night as Axel and I had fun with him in one of the club’s dungeons. It did help my ego that I could make Apollo beg still.

  22

  The council members all left, no one ever fessing up to whatever was going on in South America that they are worried about. I was honestly dying to ask, but then it wouldn’t be a favor, and I was with Brian that I was getting tired of everyone expecting us to handle too much, so I left it alone.

  Haton did get a ton of shit from the wolf elder for giving me her protection, and I’m sure that will come back to bite us both in the ass, but she’s not worried. She’s been a councilwoman for over a century, and the wolf elder is brand new. Makes sense but just in case, I did send her a bunch of goodies and an offer to help with some of the training for the new council teams if she wanted since I’ve stolen two of her team leads.

  It seems to have put that situation on ice for the moment. Probably only for a moment though.

  Councilman Martin still doesn’t seem to be my fan, but he doesn’t act like he hates me either. That’s cool with me as long as people stay out of my way. He seemed impressed that things were going as well as people boasted on my behalf. That’s progress for someone else to believe the truth.

  Oh, and I found out he’s a crocodile shifter, which I think is cool and would love to see, but asking is going over the line, I know that.

  Apollo left in high spirits after our night in the dungeon along with the massive gift from the Dorcuses. I’d known one was coming, but I was so busy with the convention I’d forgotten to ask. It turned out Alena and Eva had given him three bottles of their blood each. That was quite the gift, and he acknowledged it.

  Eva asked me why I hadn’t thought to call Alena for help when I’d realized I wasn’t in the country, and the answer was easy. I’d been dying. My brain hadn’t been firing on all cylinders, and his was the last out of country number I’d dialed. Fuck, I was just glad I’d been able to think of one and he’d saved me. He will always have a special place in my heart for saving me, and I told him that, which made him happy.

  The murders are solved and the fourth body recovered, but that ended up being a small story since there are a lot of murders in Chicago always and the numbers are growing. They were worse than before I left for New York, and people are worried. I’m worried and wondering what CPD plans to do or if they can do anything. If people won’t work with the police, they really can’t blame the police for not doing what they should.

  Sort of a chicken/egg situation, sad but true.

  Everyone was all over the story of Vlad being gone and the circumstances behind it. Noah’s been hounded and not happy about reporters all over him all the time. I feel the same. People are not letting it go until they get the truth.

  Eventually something else juicer will come up. It has to.
/>   Please let something come take their focus soon.

  I still have Sioux Falls to handle. For now, everyone bad was taken care of and a lot of shit going on around there has been helped. The local police aren’t happy I’m now Alpha and the FBI was crawling all over there. I made it clear that I don’t care if they aren’t happy, and if they make me get on a plane to visit because they are disrupting my people, they will find out just how bad my temper is.

  I am interviewing potential Alphas for under my umbrella. Hestia is doing great in Milwaukee and Linus in Grand Rapids, and they held everything together while I was gone. So the idea has promise. So far.

  I’m cautiously optimistic at least.

  Noah and I have agreed he not have anyone in his bed at the coven. For now. There’s too much unease and worry after the change in leadership. If he needs to scratch his itches, he does it at her place and not with anyone in the coven. He also doesn’t come to my bed to be with me. It sends the signal he’s “too mine” or whatever instead of his own master now.

  Hey, he owns a few hotels, so we aren’t without an array of options. Plus, at the club or any coven events, as there will probably be lots of those I’ll be on his arm for in the future. It’s a good plan for the next few months at least.

  We are swimming in FBI applications after the convention and even people talking through the grapevine. Getting teams into other offices has helped as well, as more now see how much good we do. One heart and mind at a time as long as people are open to it. We can’t change the minds if they’re so egotistical or full of shit they won’t listen to the truth.

  Bijan said something about visiting again when there is snow, as he wants to enjoy the American holiday spirit… And Jason won’t be coming with. Something went on there, but it’s not my business, and neither man is mine. I made it clear I don’t want Jason in my future no matter how big of a part of my past he was. I think it really and truly upset him I barely talked to him during the visit.