“Hell, no.” Adam backed away. “I am not—”
“You can do it,” Damon said. “Or you can apologize to him in front of the entire clan. Take your choice.”
I gave Adam a sunny smile. Issuing a public apology like that would go down real well.
A growl rumbled in his throat and he stood there, hands clenched. “Fine.” He glanced around. “In here?”
In response, Damon nodded at the couch. “Doyle?”
Before Doyle had a chance, though, it lifted in the air, floating back, gentle as a feather. It was followed by the table.
“Allow me, Alpha,” Nova said.
Adam’s eyes tracked the movement before they slid to the psychic’s face.
“Even meat likes to be helpful.”
Adam said nothing. He just backed away, cracking his neck one way, then the other.
Hands loose at my sides, I waited.
I felt the energy gathering while behind me, Doyle said to Damon, “Is it wrong to bet money on this?”
“You’re welcome to, but if you think I’d bet against her, you’re nuts.”
“Shit.” Doyle rubbed at his jaw, sounding disgusted. “Oughta do it in front of everybody. I bet there are a few suckers stupid enough.”
A muscle twitched near Adam’s eye while the energy gathered and gathered. Right as it culminated, I whipped my blade out. Pain slashed through the back of my head, catching me off guard but I shoved it down and moved, tucking my body tight and darting forward.
Adam had no half-form, it would seem. He went straight into a medium-sized cougar and I brought my blade up, dragging it down his belly. Hot blood splattered as I came up out of the shoulder roll and turned, staring at his downed body.
Low whines came out of his throat as he melted from cat back to man, nude now.
Walking over, I bent over him, the tip of my blade on the ground.
He looked up at me, eyes dazed from shock. “You can wait until you’re healed up before you offer that apology. But do us all a favor and be sure to let people know…if somebody comes asking for me, I decide if they are welcome or not. You could have cost lives with this bullshit of yours. And if my friends do die…” I pressed the tip of the sword against the underside of his chin. “So will you.”
I turned and met Damon’s eyes.
The corner of his mouth tilted up faintly before he looked at Doyle. “Get him out of here.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Kit.”
Chang stood in the doorway.
He’d changed into a fresh suit, had combed his hair—likely showered, too. I nodded at him. “You look steadier.”
His mouth twisted in something too…dour to be considered a smile. “That was unsettling. In the future, if I ever seem to doubt you again, smack me—or shoot me—sooner.”
“I think I’ll avoid using the shooting thing in the future.”
“For Damon’s sanity, that might be wise.” He came inside and shut the door. He handed me a slip of paper. “More of the missing. I’m sorry.”
I looked at it, felt something inside me clench in denial and I had to shut it down. Missing…they are missing. You need to help find them. “Thanks.”
“Of course.” He flicked at some imaginary speck of lint on his sleeve. “I need to ask you something about these…jobs you’ve been doing.”
“Ask me what?” Uneasy, I checked the time. I didn’t have much, and I still had to call Whitmore. Technically, for another few hours, I was still in his employ and I owed him a follow-up for what had happened with Chaundry.
“Damon told me that Justin had some valid concerns about your client.”
Heaving out a sigh, I turned to look out the window. “Valid. You could say that.”
“Is it possible the man you’re working with is an imposter?”
“Anything is possible, Chang,” I said quietly. “I could always sit around go over video of him from the time he started—in my copious free time.”
“I’m already having one of my best men tackle that.” Chang folded his hands in front of him, staring at the floor, his brow creased with some heavy, dark thought. When he looked back at me, the intensity of his dark eyes made me even more nervous. “You mentioned something about caves…in Alabama.”
“Yeah. So?”
“What about these caves?”
Nerves had my hands going slick and I turned away before swiping my palms against my thighs. “Why?”
“Please, just answer.”
“He insisted there was something important inside a series of privately owned caves and he wanted me to check them out, see if anybody might have been squatting. Said he’d give me more detail after I’d been out there.” I hitched a shoulder, remembering the malevolence that all but dripped from those caves, like water had dripped from the mouth of the limestone opening.
“And?”
He had one hand clenched into a fist. A tight one.
Yeah…something wasn’t good.
“Something was in there. I wasn’t going to check it out without backup and I didn’t want his backup. I wanted people I knew and trusted with me.” I lifted one shoulder. “If Justin had made it clear he was ready to work, I would have looked him up regardless. But I didn’t think he was ready to work and Wh—my client shot down the option of letting me reach out to other contacts.”
I don’t know what it was that kept me from saying his name, but instinct was screaming at me. Don’t do it…don’t do it… “Anyway, long story short, I didn’t go in. Just gave him my general impression of the place and four hours later, I was given the information for the next job.”
“Which was…?”
“The one that almost ended up turning me and Justin into toast,” I said sourly. “My turn to ask questions—what’s going on?”
He reached inside his coat and handed me his tablet.
I flicked the screen—he’d deactivated the password and the images flared to life.
Freak wildfire—
I took in the headline, saw the date. Right before Justin and I had left East Orlando.
Nobody had arrived at the house we were asked to watch twelve hours after us…and we’d been late getting there. Three days late, thanks to getting sidetracked by Colleen.
The media article speculated about the arcane nature of a fire that had swept through an isolated patch of private property, possibly started by a fire set by non-human vagrants who had been using a privately owned cave. Five bodies had been taken from the deepest section of the cave, but the damage had pretty much made identifying them impossible. However, the bones were not human.
“I have police photos of the bodies.”
I handed him the miniature computer and a moment later, I was staring at long, thin skeletons, hands that were more claws than anything else. Oversized heads. Photos had been taken of the teeth and I grimaced, pushing it back to him.
“There were bones hanging in the trees,” I said. “When I approached, I saw bones. The smell...”
“Do you know what they were?”
“If I had to make a guess? Black Annis. Lots of Scotsmen settled in Alabama a few hundred years ago.” I slid him a look. “I don’t know much about history in general, but when it might be associated with monsters…” I shrugged. “When you move a lot of people around, their monsters tend to follow.”
“Yes,” he murmured. “We do.”
I handed him the tablet, shuddering at the thought of possibly having to face the ghoulish things.
“If he sent you there to die…” Chang let his words trail off.
“They weren’t always deadly.” I shrugged and turned away, shooting one more look at the clock. “If he had Chaundry wipe them out first, then I assume it was because he did want something in that cave found. The question is, why not tell me what it was?”
“He’s leading you around on a string, Kit. Be cautious with him. I don’t trust this man.”
“Yeah.” I met Chang’s eyes. “Me, nei
ther.”
After Chang left, I placed the call I’d been putting off.
This wasn’t going to be fun.
Jaw tight, I braced my hands on the surface of the table and waited, counting off each ring of the phone.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
It didn’t go to voicemail which made me think he’d been waiting on my call and was now sitting there, staring at the phone and making me wait. Tension knotted between my shoulders and I thought of Justin and Colleen, dread so heavy in my gut, I could practically taste the sourness of it creeping up my throat.
Just when I was about to hang up, the phone was answered.
There was no change on the video feedback and silence greeted me on the other end of the line, but I knew he was there.
Going to try and play cat and mouse? Irritated, I stayed quiet, waiting. Damon played the game a little too well for me to be thrown by some prick not speaking on the other end of the line.
“Hello, Kit,” Whitmore finally said, breaking that interminable silence.
“Hello, sir.”
There was a humming pause before he spoke again. “You rarely use my name. Is there a reason for that?”
Don’t say his name, don’t say it, don’t say it…
I blinked at the question, a little surprised. But he was right. I’d only grown conscious of my aversion within the past few hours. However, I’d avoided it for quite some time. Whenever I thought about saying it, there was just some sort of…reluctance.
“While I’ve got a reasonable expectation of privacy where I am, I prefer to take utter caution,” I said, thinking of that deliberately just so it would ring true. I did have a reasonable expectation of privacy here but if I were ever overheard, questions might be asked. Thus, a good reason to not use his name. I knew a hundred ways to circumvent telling a falsehood. I’d been doing it for most of my life.
“I appreciate your dedication, Kit. Truly. I am…concerned, though, for how things have been going of late. That display earlier, your apparent lack of concern in reaching out to me…”
I kept my gaze on the blankness of the monitor and resisted the urge to flip it off. “I had an urgent matter arise, sir. That’s why I ended the call. A…security breach here in the Lair, as matter of fact.” Chang and I had discussed what I’d tell him and he’d decided there was no harm in letting Whitmore think Damon’s protections might be…weak.
Let him send his goons in if he feels the need to test us. We’ll peel the skin from their bones and send him the remains. Gift-wrapped.
I wasn’t entirely certain he’d been joking.
“Oh?” Something that might have been interest stirred in Whitmore’s voice. “I hope nobody was hurt.”
“No. No, of course not. But in the aftermath, I received disturbing news about Justin, as well as another friend of mine. Which leads to why I’m calling. I want to finish detailing what happened with the final job and then I’ll be unavailable for some time. As our business concludes this afternoon, I imagine there will be little concern, but I wanted you aware.” There was still no life on the monitor yet I had the strangest feeling that while my video feed was inactive, his wasn’t. Slowly straightening, I took the phone and went to audio only, tucking the phone in my hip pocket.
“You wanted me…aware.” Cool displeasure filled those three words.
“Of course.”
“Kit, you failed me in several of the jobs—you can’t believe I’m really going to let our business be concluded.”
“It is concluded. You asked me to find a dryad—I did. You gave no specifics beyond that. You wanted me to pursue information about a possible Green Man—I did. I found no sign that a Green Man was ever in Alabama, and I even continued researching it after you put me on another assignment. You sent me on several information runs pertaining to Blackstone and each of those was quite…illuminating. Several people have already been questioned by their respective Alphas. You asked me to observe a witch who should have been harmless enough and she almost fried my ass. I don’t believe you can call it a failure that we had to defend ourselves against her.”
“There should have been no we.” The angry pulse in his voice slammed into me.
Clenching my fist, I refused to acknowledge it. “As I wouldn’t be here without having that back-up, I’m finding it hard to be sorry I took a partner along.”
As I paced over to the window, I heard a faint clicking, like nails tapping against a hard surface. Tap, tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap, tap...
It was enough to put my teeth on edge.
“I’m not satisfied you fulfilled your end of the bargain, Kit.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be unsatisfied then. I’ve got two friends who are missing and they need me more than you do. I can give you the names of others who could be of use to you.”
There was a faint pause. “Missing. Who is missing, Kit?”
“Justin Greaves and Colleen Antrim,” I said coolly. “It would appear somebody within Blackstone might have them. And I’m going to get them back.”
“Oh, Kit.” A heavy sigh filled the line. “This…this very thing, it’s what I was trying to prevent.”
“Yeah. It sure seemed like we were getting a lot done on that front.” The words escaped me before I thought about the insult, but I didn’t try to grab them back, nor did I apologize. Instead, I went to the table and looked at the list of names Chang had given me earlier.
“Do you think it’s an easy undertaking I have? I have little support among the Senate, the Congress and my contacts within Banner are resistant to the idea that a subtle strike against Blackstone is the best way to handle this.” He paused a moment before continuing. “Every day those within Banner become more resistant. I need allies who will work with me, not against me.”
I bet you do. Staring at the names, I touched my finger to the first one, then moved down the list.
Seven more in Florida.
Twelve in Georgia. Nine in Alabama.
These were just the names reported.
How many had gone unreported?
“Personally, I don’t care if you want to go subtle or use a micro-bomb to incinerate the place,” I said. “Want to know what I care about?”
“By all means, Kit. Tell me what you care about.”
“Edith Banks. Orin Fuller. Wes and Jen Li, plus their four-year-old daughter. Gayla Tremayne. Jason Nolan.” I stopped after I’d finished reciting the names of the missing from Florida. “Know who they are?”
“I’m a smart man, Kit, but I’m afraid I can’t account for every shifter in the country.”
“Huh. Odd that you know they are shifters.” My hand tightened on the phone as a sickening suspicion began to form inside my mind. “Just how did you know that?”
“You’re more caught up in the lives of shifters than anybody else. It’s called taking a stab in the dark.” His response came on the heels of mine, flippant and hard. I sensed no nervousness or anything else in his words.
But—
That but was there.
“Uh-huh.”
I didn’t believe him. I might as well just skywrite it for all the doubt apparent in my voice. Instead of lingering on it, though, I forged ahead. “I have to head out shortly. I’ll be checking in with Damon regularly, so if you decide you want a name to take this job on, leave word with him.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist you continue this job, Kit. Don’t make me use the weight of my office.”
“You want to force me to do a job that requires stealth, a minimum of fuss, and me being somewhat…discreet.” I smirked. “Sure. That’s going to go over really well when my gut is telling me that I have another priority, sir. You got any idea what my kind are known for?”
“Don’t push your luck, Kitasa.”
“I’m not the one pushing it, sir. You are.” I disconnected the phone and shoved shaking hands through my ha
ir. “This is going to go straight to hell.”
A handbasket wouldn’t suffice, either.
I’d need something more along the lines of a wheelbarrow. Or maybe a dump truck.
“I never figured it would be a party, Kit.”
“And here I was thinking you were the all-seeing, all-knowing Nova.” I scraped the toe of my boot across the tire tracks, wishing I was all-seeing and all-knowing.
There were five others with us and while that wasn’t a surprise to me, it was a few more people than I’d like to have. The good news was that all of them knew how to be quiet. I was probably going to be considered the loud one of the bunch, followed closely by Nova.
It had been decided that this issue was a threat that needed to be taken seriously by both Clan and Pack. As such, the group hunting for the witches known as Colleen Antrim and Justin Greaves would include shifters trusted by each group’s Alpha.
That had been suggested by Chang.
Colleen’s house, while not exactly isolated, was set apart from the others around it and while I was going to ask, I already knew nobody would have seen anything.
Nova had been very rude and done a mind-scan, pulling impressions from surface thoughts. He’d told me he didn’t see it as rude since those surface thoughts were no more than white noise to him—nobody had seen anything out of place. If they had, it would still be lingering close enough for him to pick up on, and there was nothing there.
One woman had seen a black car and Nova suspected it was government issue. She hadn’t thought much of it because one of Colleen’s neighbors actually did work for the government—drug enforcement. He had no problems having a witch close by, and actually came by from time to time when he was going to be pulling some long hours.
And strangely enough, the DEA agent wasn’t home—hadn’t been for a few days—so it wasn’t his car the woman had seen.
But there was nothing more helpful than a vague time of day.
I wasn’t getting much of anything useful myself as I paced around the house, but I continued to do it, because sooner or later, I’d find something. Widening my perimeter check, I moved into the trees. A familiar, overly strong scent caught my nose. Lemongrass.
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