by Cara Villar
Was this a trick question? “Right,” I dragged out the word and eyed him suspiciously.
“Well, the wolf version is a little different. Little girl was the wolf’s mate and grandma didn’t want a Were husband for her granddaughter, so she had the local butcher set a trap using the girl, captured the wolf and butchered him. Grandma died under the blood feud laws of our kind. Laws that have been around for as long as Immortals have been. We have a lot of these kinds of legends, Red.” He watched me intently. “Such as, specifically in this case, what happened with The Cutter and his wife.”
The Cutter.
Glenn Cutter.
I swallowed hard and stared out at the pink sky, the weight in my stomach like lead, my heart clenching. “Glenn was a woodsman. A carpenter.”
“He felled trees for a living. Carried an axe everywhere he went. Liked to whittle and carve. We know, Red. He’s part of our archived history.” Vince’s fingers brushed over my hair, drawing my eyes back to him. “He and four others went out every day with axes in their hands and blades on their belts. They cut down trees and then set traps for animals. Big animals. The kind of traps that maim and incapacitate.”
“No.”
“They were poaching.”
“Please.”
“And killing.”
“Stop.”
“Not for food, but for money.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, and then coughed. Physically, it felt like he’d just struck me in the chest so many times I couldn’t make my lungs work anymore. I couldn’t breathe, choking on my own shock. “He’d never…never…he wouldn’t…not my Glenn.”
So much blood…Run, Willow…
“Our archive documents say that he, and several others, were killing wolves and selling their pelts for gold.”
“No.” Blood…
“Killing a species that, in England, was already considered endangered. Nearly extinct.”
“Stop it!”
“We have the survivors’ accounts, Red,” he told me softly, and I stared at him. “You are welcome to read them.”
Read eye-witness accounts of how the man I loved butchered innocent creatures that ultimately brought about his death and the end of my world as I knew it? Somehow I think… No.
“So, my husband is a wolf-killer.” I swallowed past the dryness in my mouth, past the lump in my throat, as I remembered the band of gold he gave me on our third anniversary. “Why?” The thick woven blankets from the market. The new axe he bought himself. The shawls, dresses and cloaks. “Oh, God.” My cherry wood trunk…
“The night you were bitten, a pack of Weres went after the men in your village responsible for the death of a teenager who’d wondered beyond our safe zone. Glenn was one of those men. The teenager had been missing nearly a whole day when they’d found her. She’d been caught in a bear trap—,”
I swallowed convulsively.
“—then had her throat slit and her pelt removed.”
I might throw up at any moment.
“Her body was found by our search party, the rot scented out, in a cave high up in the cliff face, along with the remains of several other wolves. Immortal and wild.”
Our cabin repairs and new furniture, acquired over time, but excessive in those times. How could I not have seen? Luxuries bought at the expense of innocent lives.
And yet…
And yet, if you think back three hundred years, Glenn thought he was only hunting wild wolves. Not only was he making a profit, but he was keeping safe the people he loved. Wolf attacks weren't common, but a predator in the area is enough to freak out any human, especially one as fond of children as Glenn was. So, in his mind, was he evil, or was he just ignorant? Glenn’s heart had always been in the right place. I couldn’t believe he’d intentionally go out and murder… He was a good man. I have no doubt of that.
Ambrose, however, was a whole different kettle of fish.
“Why does Des call me wolf-killer?” My voice was void of emotion, my expression blank.
Vince stared right back at me. “Many believe you were aware of your husband’s activities.” His hand brushed my hair again, a slight tugging where he pulled my braid free, and I tilted my head at him.
“But you don’t believe that.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I could smell your honesty and your grief, and your heartbeat told me you weren’t lying.” He leaned toward me, and cupped my face in warm, calloused hands. “When the wolves went to take their blood feud, they were too late. When they got to your cottage, a Vampire was there.”
I stared at him, uncomprehending as his fingers threaded through my now-loose hair.
“A wolf didn’t rip out your husband’s throat, Red. A Vampire did.”
Black hair, pale skin, a voice as rich as wine and as smooth as honey. He bit me too, feeding on the blood weeping from the wolf’s bite. He fed me his blood when I was too weak to act on my disgust to refuse him. All the strength I had left went into lifting the axe and ramming it into his face. He’d staggered back, cursing words I didn’t understand.
“But—”
“The wolf who bit you was trying to save you.”
My mind flashed through my memories of that night. They zipped past behind my eyes as fast as I could process them. I never saw the wolf rip out Glenn’s throat, and I always thought the Vampire was trying to save us from the wolf. Not the other way around. “But I saw him—”
“Did you?” Vince interrupted, his ice-blue eyes never leaving mine. “Or did you only think you did?”
The dark blur sitting low over Glenn’s body…it had been the wolf…right?
“How did the wolf get from Glenn to you so fast? You said the wolf ran off before you got to it, then tackled you from the side. Weres are quick, but not that quick.” He tugged a wavy strand of my hair.
I think his constant touching was all that was grounding me. Gentling… Clever puppy.
“What if the wolf was trying to save you from the Vampire?”
The image of something dark hovering over Glenn kept flaring in my mind, along with the memory of the impact of the wolf hitting me. The blurred, pale face only inches from mine and that voice that lulled… It had been over three hundred years ago, my memories could be flawed but…something in my gut said Vince might be onto something, but I would never be sure.
Hindsight is a bitch. “Why was a Vampire after Glenn?”
Vince shrugged. “Why did he bite you after the wolf did?”
“Probably because I was dying.”
“True,” Vince conceded, “but that doesn’t explain his interest in Glenn.”
“Do you know who the Vampire is?”
“His name is probably in the archive with the statements. We have a lot of Vampires on file that have had direct interaction with our ancestors.”
“Like a government database?” I perked up with interest. What kind of pack keeps Vampire records? Once again, I got the impression that Vince and his lieutenants were more than they presented themselves to be. “Vampires and their Sires on file, eh?”
And then something clicked.
Look to the sire. Natasha’s last words slammed through my brain so hard and fast that for a moment I was giddy with realization. I gripped Vince’s sleeve. “The buried file!” I jumped to my feet, dragged Vince with me, and bellowed, “Fletch!” Just as the back screen door flew open and narrowly missed my nose.
“I broke it!” Fletch grinned breathlessly. “I broke the code!” I grabbed his shirt and stared intently into his bloodshot eyes.
“What is it?” I demanded, practically shaking him.
His smile dropped. “Now there’s the thing.”
Bloody hell.
23
Jade and Fletch’s rented house was bigger than I had thought. Not only did they have four bedrooms upstairs, each with an en suite, but two of them had balconies. Downstairs, in addition to the lovely kitchen I’d made a mess of, and the ro
omy lounge where a dozen people could laze about quite comfortably, it also had a pantry, a utilities room, and two additional large rooms that they used as offices.
I had a brief chat with Jade about the state of her club and the health of her employees. Some had taken themselves off to healers, such as the snake Shifters who had had the misfortune to be dancing right in front of the bomb blasts. After that, I headed off to find Fletch’s little hide-away.
Fletch’s office-away-from-the-office smelled like lemons, pomegranates and the clinical spice that technology has. His new toy, which he took great pleasure in telling me was my next security up-grade, was a veritable portable interface. It reacted to some snazzy little two-finger gloves that glowed blue when he touched the screen, and a little head unit that looked like a really light-weight pair of blue-lit spectacles. I was starting to think Fletch had a thing for blue. They made him look like a handsome geek and turned his lavender eyes a funky shade of pink. His hands flew through the stream of data running over a section of the interface lit up before him, and if I hadn’t been so utterly baffled by what I was seeing, I might have been overwhelmingly awed.
I stared at the screen scrolling random numbers and letters like something from “The Matrix”, and felt my brain slowly begin to implode as it struggled to make sense of the gibberish.
Fletch was rambling on about the technicalities of decoding a half-file, flicking bits and pieces in and out of the stream with his fingers, and it only seemed to add to my complete and unreserved confusion. I blinked and tried to convince myself that this stream of gibberish might just lead us to what I was hoping; the reason Natasha wanted us to go after Ambrose’s sire. My sire. There was no proof, according to what Vince could recall from the wolfy archive, that the Vampire had ever been killed. Despite rumors, he might still be out there somewhere, incognito. If he was out there, I’d find him.
“So, the code is incomplete?” I asked slowly, enunciating each word as my mind tried to unscramble itself.
“Everything on this stick is complete,” Fletch insisted. “But it’s only half of the whole.”
“What does that mean?” Felix asked, leaning on the back of my chair, smelling like the coffee he was drinking and anise, as well as the impatience he was trying to shove down.
I looked up at him, wanting to touch him and get some attention, some touch-hungry affection. But a useless sense of obligation to the husband I once had, and guilt for my one and only kiss with Felix, kept me still. The Vampire’s attention remained focused solely on Fletch and his interface.
“Basically, there’s another USB out there with the other half of this mystery encrypted on it.” Fletch gestured at the gap-filled muddle of figures on his screen. “Once I have the other half, we’ll know what your friend was trying to keep secret.”
And I’ll know if my theory is right.
Felix looked down at me and I met his jade-colored eyes, and by the brief flare of heat that sparkled a bright lime in them, I wasn’t the only one feeling hungry.
“Clever girl,” I said, voice husky. I cleared my throat. “Breaking it in half and hiding each half separately.”
“She enjoyed stories that always had the broken maps scattered across the world.” He smiled softly.
“Hopefully, in this case, it’s just Chicago,” Vince murmured from the other side of Fletch, and Felix’s grin flashed broadly for an instantly. “So, where would your vamp contact hide her info?”
There was a long stretch of silence, then, “Bloody hell.” Felix leaned his hands on the corners of my chair and dropped his head down, exhaling loudly as he stilled in thought. The urge to reach up and touch him grew. “It has to be at her office.”
“There’s nowhere else it could possibly be?” I asked, watching him, longing and guilt intermingling. Those two emotions seemed to be doing that every time I looked at him, and I don’t think I was the only one who noticed, if Vince’s fidgeting was anything to go by. “Nowhere else she would hide it where only you would know?”
“Knowing Natasha, she was probably more concerned with keeping the information away from Ambrose and anyone loyal to him.”
“And you think it’s at her office?” I asked, brows raised.
He gave a sardonic grin, a dimple flashing briefly and making my heart flutter. “Hidden in plain sight, just like the last one.”
“Then I guess that’s where we go tonight.”
Felix straightened and eyed me warily, Vince stiffening almost as fast. “We?” he asked.
I scowled and said in a warning tone, “Yes.”
“I can do this perfectly well on my own.”
“But you won’t have to.” I smiled wolfishly; all teeth. “Isn’t that nice?”
“Then I’ll take a Werewolf.”
“Oh, no you won’t,” I snapped.
Vince growled. Though I didn’t know if he growled at me or at Felix.
“Red—“ Felix started, glancing at Fletch, who had his gazed fixed doggedly on his screen and was sifting as quietly as possible. “I don’t think it would be appropriate—“
“That your partner accompany you on a B and E?” I asked, blinking innocently, as if breaking and entering were more important than the fact that we were hunting the man who used to be my husband. “Why ever not?”
Felix frowned. Hard. It was like having strips of skin removed like a fast band aid.
“You know that’s not what I was going to say.”
“I haven’t the faintest what you were going to say, Vampire.” I replied, pushing myself to my feet and turning for the door. “Most of what you say lately takes me completely by surprise.”
Felix was suddenly by my side, his hand pressed to my stomach, halting me. I looked up to find his eyes faintly glittering gold as his intense gaze bore down on me, heat flooding out from my belly button at the press of his hand. I swallowed and held utterly still, the warning in that stare as personal as the touch on my middle.
“We need to have a discussion,” Felix growled, low, smooth as chocolate. “Alone.”
The low rumbling growl that rolled through the room was a physical wave of challenge and aggression, and as my hair rose on the back of my neck, I glanced behind me to see Vince’s eyes go wolf-pale and lips curl back from elongated canines. Waves of Alpha power lapped at my skin, but Felix didn’t take his hand off my stomach, or his eyes off my face.
“Felix—”
“I suggest you reign in your wolf, Alpha.” Felix interrupted, his tone flat and dominant and enough to make Vince snarl louder.
The Were flew forward, flowing with lethal intent across the room.
I spun away from Felix and slapped my hand into Vince’s chest. It was like hitting steal, but the Were stopped dead, lips still pulled back and eyes glowing an icy near-white.
“I’m okay.” I murmured softly, and Vince’s fingers threaded through the loose strands of hair hanging down towards the base of my spine before he finally looked away from Felix. The dismissal was clear. Vince was basically saying that Felix wasn’t a threat, and from the stark burst of sourness in the air, it irritated Felix all too well.
“He should not touch you unless invited,” Vince told me, his voice gravelly and low, his hand lifting to brush my unbound hair back from my face.
“I know, and he won’t again.” I looked over my shoulder at the Vampire who had my emotions all buggered up. “Will you?”
Felix flared his nostrils in annoyance. “Unless invited.”
I swallowed. That statement left the definition of ‘invited’ totally un-clarified. If I did something that he considered an invitation, I doubt I had the strength or will to deny him, however strong my guilt.
“We’ll be in one of the spare rooms,” he said, and then the Vampire turned his back, feeding Vince the same insult he’d sent earlier.
You are no threat to me.
I rolled my eyes as I turned away from the Alpha and followed the Vampire out of the office. Men. All as bad as each ot
her.
I followed Felix up the stairs and turned left to the spare rooms, rather than right to Fletch and Jade’s. I could smell them faintly, all white orchid, lemons and pomegranates. The musky scent of wolves came from the first door we passed, layered with Mark’s spicy aroma, Des’s shockingly delicate enticement, and Vince’s potent Alpha sensuality. And through it all I could smell Felix. I could smell the predator in him coming to the fore, enhancing the icy crispness in his scent while sharpening the anise.
As he swung the door open, an intense wash of his scent smoothed over me, and I had to grit my teeth from giving a shuddering sigh of delight. Damn Vampires and their damn intoxicating perfumes. One sniff and you can see why Mina was helpless against Vlad.
The instant the door closed, Felix began to close in, never taking his eyes off me. But I couldn’t look at him at all. I looked at everything but. The room was simple, tidy, all teals and chocolates and little accents of both in the wallpaper and accessories, the dark wood furniture all matching and the bed a four poster…which made me blush right up to the tips of my ears. The carpet squished under my feet, and I couldn’t help but admire the thick curtains and the plush down comforter lying across the foot of the bed. I stared longingly at the little arm chair tucked into the corner, and then Felix was too close to ignore.
Leaning back away from him wasn’t an option, since his arm snaked around me the moment I thought of it, so all I could do was peer up at him through my lashes, inhale his aroma, and wait to see what he would do.
“He’s not the man you married anymore, Red.”
I stiffened, all thoughts of possibly being seduced gone in an instant. No need to point out exactly who ‘he’ was. “I am overly aware of that, Vampire.”
“You may be aware,” his breath puffed over my face, his lips close enough to brush mine, “but I very much doubt you are unaffected.”
“Of course I’m not unaffected!” I hissed. “I mourned him for three hundred years.”
“And that is exactly why I don’t think you should go.”