With that, he pulled off his coveralls, and to my shock, started disrobing entirely.
“What, naked?” I averted my eyes as he yanked down his jeans and underwear in one move.
“I’m going to shift. Even if the ward fails, anyone who sees me will think I’m just a stray dog.”
“Good idea.” I peeked to see him stringing the extra wards around his neck. My eyes started to drift southward, and I forcibly pointed them at a stack of pallets. Nope, nope, nope, wasn’t going to look. All my body parts were going to remain true to my boyfriends.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back,” Bane said. Then came that stretchy moist sound that accompanies a were’s shift, and I had just had to watch that because it’s so fascinating. Limbs stretching, face elongating, fur sprouting to cover all that skin … including parts best left to the imagination. Wow. Watching the transformation from manimal to beast never gets old.
He looked amazing. A gorgeous black-furred wolf with gray markings stood where Bane had been, his golden eyes liquid metal in the worklights. Beautiful or not, I saw a problem right away with Bane’s hope of appearing to be a dog. Should he be seen no one would ever mistake him for a mutt. More like an escaped pony.
“Good God. Stray dog, my butt. A stray moose, maybe.” I shook my head at him, noting the intelligence in his eyes. Weres might be more prone to wilder instincts in full animal form, but human intelligence remains. No shifter is allowed to hide behind his beastly alter-ego when it comes to crimes like assault or murder. Science has proven they are fully cognizant of their actions unless mental illness is already present.
Bane was awe-inspiring as a wolf, but it was still him. Agent Levi of the ATF reigned supreme, fur and fangs notwithstanding.
He gave me a wolfie smile then deliberately licked my cheek. He wheeled around and trotted around the corner to investigate the warehouse, leaving me to wipe wolf spit off.
“Gross!” I called after him.
I waited. And waited. And waited. The minutes slipped by, then they stretched into years it seemed as Bane didn’t come back out. I was dancing in place, trying to keep warm. Jeez, I wish I had reclaimed Fizz’s coat from her locker before we’d taken off. At least my arm had stopped hurting.
Still no Bane. I realized we should have arranged a deadline for me to come looking for him or go screaming for help. Surely looking into the contents of a crate or two shouldn’t take so long, right? I got even more freaked out when I heard Hazel’s voice coming close. I scooted to the nearby stack of pallets, praying he hadn’t somehow been alerted to our presence.
I saw him accompanied by a couple of Beasts enforcers I’d seen before, a werehog and bear. Hazel looked like a stick bug between two big cockroaches, but I wasn’t fooled by his lack of muscle. I knew just who to fear in that trio. He walked away from the dock to the parking lot, his escorts lumbering in his wake. I was glad to see him go.
And still no Bane. Forklifts continued to buzz back and forth, loading the ship with Hazel’s cargo. I shifted from foot to foot, concern growing with every passing second. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms furiously, desperate to be discorporate again where temperature didn’t matter. My ears strained to hear yells of discovery. Darn it, he should have been back by now!
I had just made up my mind to take a peek when the big, black wolf finally appeared, a great skulking shadow that slipped around the side of the warehouse. He whined questioningly at me as I trotted over from my cover of pallets.
“Hiding from Hazel. He and his goons left a few minutes ago. Jeez, Bane,” I complained as he shifted back to human, the reversal every bit as amazing as the first go-round, “That took long enough.”
He wasn’t all the way back to his manlier aspect when he started putting on his clothes, but he was close enough to it to speak understandably. “Yeah, well it was in a heavily warded area. It took me awhile to figure out the right counterspell to get to them. As it was, I got a little fried. And the name is Levi.”
He pointed to one of his curved ears, the part of him that never went back to being human. I hissed to see the tip of it was singed, some of the dark fur missing and crispy-curled where it reappeared.
“Holy cow, Bane – I mean Levi. I hope it was worth it.”
He grinned, the effect savage in his still animal face. “It was, and we’re looking at a whole new can of worms. C.K. and Hazel are distributing the tainted blood, not bringing it in. There are crates of Blood Potion going out up and down the eastern seaboard as well as overseas. I’d bet they’re transporting more by rail and truck. They are the source, Brandilynn. Fulton Falls is Ground Zero for this nightmare.”
“How can that be?”
“They’ve set up a distributorship right here. The blood is bottled then sent to this warehouse under the name Philhap Industries, the listed owner of which is Annalisa Capp. Better known in local circles as ‘Bottle’.”
“C.K.’s property. Bottle Capp … so that’s where her nickname came from,” I mused. “Pretty stupid.”
“Keep up, sweetheart. We thought Philhap Industries was a dummy subsidiary of Campbell-Laughton Enterprises. We had no idea it was an active company that actually did something. How the hell we missed this holding of theirs is beyond me.”
“I’m not following you.”
He grinned, pure triumph on his wolfie face. “Campbell-Laughton. As in Mitchell Campbell, a.k.a. ‘C.K.’; and Stanley Laughton, a.k.a. ‘Hazel’. They use their corporation to hide all sorts of nefarious dealings under a lot of different names, but we thought it was just money laundering.”
I was beginning to get the picture. “So they own this legit blood distribution business under Bottle’s name. From here, it’s shipped out all over the world.”
“Perfect opportunity to taint the supplies.”
I gaped at him, electrified by his discovery. “Okay, I can see how with Hazel’s witchy skills they could get the bad stuff into the sealed pouches and bottles. But they’d have to have a dragon to make that happen, to actually poison the blood. Unless they’re shipping dragon’s blood in from overseas to put into the commercial stuff?”
“You need to keep up with current events, sweetheart. Even if they could bypass the no-ship laws on dragon’s blood and smuggle it in, the stuff still goes solid within an hour of leaving a dragon’s body, and nothing liquefies it again. The only way to keep it fresh is if it’s mixed in with something that keeps it liquid … like human blood.”
I should have known that. My favorite jewelry always seems to include dragon’s blood gemstones. I could have smacked my own head over its thickness.
Instead, I considered the situation some more. I frowned. “You do realize what you’re saying, right? That C.K. and Hazel have gotten their hands on an actual dragon? Where are you going to hide a barge-sized, fire-breathing, flying lizard in Fulton Falls?”
Bane was dressed again, and almost faded back to normal. Well, normal for a wolfman. He solicitously indicated I could ride wolfie-back and spare my poor tired feet, and I took him up on it. He loped towards the gate entrance, seemingly not affected by the added weight that was Fizz’s body.
As he galloped along, he answered my question. “I don’t know, but we need to find the thing. And soon too, before this goes any further.”
Within minutes we were back at the bike. We mounted up and sped off into the night.
* * * *
The moment we entered his trailer, Bane headed for the bedroom. “Come on back.”
I stood at the end of the hall watching him walk away, my hands parked on my hips. “Yeah, right.”
He paused in the bedroom doorway to look at me. He snorted, as if he had never in a million years found me attractive enough to want to grope. “I said I’d keep my paws to myself. I want to show you something on my computer.”
I relaxed a little. Took a couple of steps towards him. “One false move, and I’m handing you over to Fizz.”
He rolled his eyes at me and went into
the bedroom without another word. Okay then, I guess we were clear. I went in and found him sitting at the foot of the bed booting up his laptop.
He said, “You’re already neck deep in this anyway, and I could use some fresh perspective.” I sat down and looked over his shoulder as the computer came to life. A bunch of files appeared on the desktop. Bane pointed to one. “Under this folder labeled ‘Fave porn’? There are a bunch of files filled with porn stories.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well thanks for sharing, but I’m more of a Mark Twain and Margaret Mitchell kind of reader.”
“Cute.” He clicked one of the files. “This file named ‘Riding Racquel’ has C.K. and Hazel’s dossiers. Here’s a listing of the real estate properties they own or rent.”
I scanned the list, noting the addresses and locations. “A couple of storage units … a garage … undeveloped commercial pieces on the south end of Fulton Falls … a couple of small rental units in Old Town … Hazel’s house a mile away from the Beasts’ club … C.K.’s place out on Highway 82.”
Bane scowled at the computer screen. “I’ve already checked out the rental units, garage and the houses. The structures aren’t big enough to house even a juvenile dragon.”
Well, that left another option. “A baby?” I squirmed to think of a baby anything, even a dragon, in Hazel’s ungentle hands.
“Sure, but how did they get it into the country? Baby dragons are feral, running completely on instinct until they reach six years of age. No way you’d smuggle one in a ship or plane without everyone finding out about it, especially if it’d been taken from its parents. You can’t offer one a piece of candy and say, ‘Come with me’.”
I realized he was right. An angry or upset baby dragon can set off an inferno that would consume an airplane or ship within minutes. Good luck trying to rein in that.
“You saw no evidence of one at the docks?” I asked.
“It would get noticed there, no doubt. It must be someplace we don’t have a record of.” Bane sighed and shut the computer down.
A memory tugged at me, one I hadn’t given much thought to considering. The one time I’d been up close and personal with the witch, I’d been concentrating on the threat and pain factors. “I noticed Hazel smells like he’s been around charcoal. Something burnt, anyway.”
Bane nodded. “Until tonight, I simply figured he was around people smoking at the club. Now that we know he and C.K. are behind this whole tainted blood thing, it’s not a stretch to realize that could be indicative of being in the presence of a dragon.”
My mind was flying along at a furious clip. They were shipping the stuff out now. Vampires all over the world were going to die. “It would be too obvious if you were to track Hazel, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t see much choice. We’ve got to find that dragon.”
“What about your fellow agents?”
A wry smile crossed his face. “Most of them are embedded with other chapters of the gang around the country. We’re badly understaffed and the norms don’t like helping out the paras.”
I stared at him. “Even within the agency?”
“Too scared of contracting the virus.”
Jeez, even the government didn’t abide by the anti-discrimination laws it had enacted. I was reminded yet again how marginalized the shifters were.
I shoved my sympathy aside, sure Bane didn’t want to hear it. He needed solid help, not a shoulder to cry on. “Tristan’s got a bunch of shifters working for him. They could track Hazel’s movements, maybe find out where he’s hiding a dragon.”
The were shook his head. “That would screw up my case.”
“Not if they were to simply act as informants. Tristan tells you he’s got info on the whereabouts of this dragon, and you act on it. Right?”
Bane sat there and thought about it. I took the opportunity to study his face, caught permanently between man and wolf. I wondered what he had looked like before the Zoo Flu and realized I couldn’t imagine him without that slightly pushed out nose and jaw that was the beginnings of a muzzle, those dark markings, or the furred ears on top of his head.
I wondered what the virus had taken from him, if it had included people he loved who couldn’t handle the changes it had forced upon him. Family? Friends? Maybe a wife and kids? The thought startled me.
Bane finally spoke, reminding me we had a problem of more immediacy. “Okay. If Tristan’s people can do some snooping, that would help a lot. But he and they can’t move against the Beasts,” he warned. “Tristan Keith can’t go hero on this and foul it up.”
I waved off his concerns. “Leave that to me.”
Bane eyed me as carefully as I had him just a moment ago. “You have that much clout with the vampire? Seems to me he likes to get right in the middle of things.”
I grinned. “I can be very persuasive where Tristan is considered.”
“I bet you can.” Bane leaned close, his hand stroking my arm, his breath warm against my cheek, making me all goose-pimply. With a mental sigh, I stood and took a few steps away.
“Fizz needs to take her medicine so I can go talk to Tristan.”
Bane looked at me, those golden eyes taking me in. I wondered for an instant what color they’d been before the Zoo Flu, and then I realized I really didn’t want to know after all. Gosh, he was beautiful as a werewolf.
He finally sighed and said the exact opposite. “I wish I’d had the chance to know you when you were alive.”
Oh yeah, he would have been real impressed with a high-end prostitute. “You wouldn’t have liked me much,” I consoled him.
“Somehow I doubt that. Not liking you seems pretty impossible.” Another long, warm gaze that made my insides bubble. A look that said he could forgive anything in my past, that all he saw was the here-and-now woman. Boy, I could have jumped him in that instant. He was so certain about me, and it made me feel good about myself.
He got up and left the room for Fizz’s sleeping pills, leaving me with a case of depressed arousal. Sure I loved Dan and Tristan, but Bane was worming his way into the feelings department with his hot, tragic self. It was driving me crazy.
Time to stop being stupid over a man I shouldn’t want and get the still quiet and traumatized Fizz ready for her nap. I kicked off the heels and flopped down on the bed, making sure to hide under the covers so Bane wouldn’t be tempted to get snuggly. So I wouldn’t be tempted either.
Chapter 12
I arrived at Para Central and saw that the whole gang minus Dan was gathered, clustered around Tristan’s desk. Busy, busy, busy bunch here. One look at the dry erase board on the back wall told me what had everyone excitedly talking over each other: Representative Diaz’s soon-to-be-vacant seat. Tristan was definitely thinking a run at the state legislature then. Ambitious vampire. Only two states had para politicians in their legislatures. Maine had a gargoyle governor. No paras in Congress.
America does not love her supernatural citizens. It made me think of Bane and his lack of backup in the ATF.
His back was to me, but Augustus seemed to know I was there almost immediately. He turned to me, his wings fluttering a little as if excited about my appearance. “Beloved invader, how empty the world yawns without your presence.”
“Hi Augustus, how have you been?” I hugged the griffin, enjoying the privilege as always. His scent was warm and earthy.
“The centuries pass and I remain as though only a second has drifted by.”
His speaking to me had caught everyone’s attention. Tristan peered at the wondrous creature, his eyes black as night. “One of our ghosts?”
Lana’s upswept Shirley Temple curls bobbed as she nodded, her eyes closed. “Brandilynn. Hi sweetie!”
I released Augustus and skipped to Lana’s side to kiss her fuchsia blushed cheek. One of these days, she and I are going to have a sit down about her excessive makeup and bad wardrobe choices. I loved her dearly, but her fixation on polyester makes me itch.
The fashion
intervention would have to wait. “I need to speak to Tristan, if Isabella doesn’t mind.”
Lana smiled brightly at the cuddly Hispanic woman. “Brandilynn would like to channel, my dear. She has news of interest to Tristan.”
Isabella nodded. “Of course. Just let me prepare.”
Tristan rose from his leather office chair and held it out for her. “Please.”
He was impeccable as ever in a custom suit that had easily cost him thousands of dollars. In contrast, Isabella was mom-casual in jeans and a scoop-neck top. I sure wish I could outlaw jeans for women. They are so darn uncomfortable, and that seemed to be all Isabella and Fizz liked to wrap their legs in. I sighed. My kingdom for a channel who prefers skirts.
Netherworld II: Blood Potion No. 9 Page 16