Grave Rites: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Grant Wolves Book 6)

by Lori Drake

  “Well,” Joey said, eyeing Amber from across the room. “At least it narrows the suspect pool a bit.”

  The witch stiffened, returning a glare. “It wasn’t me. Or anyone from the coven.”

  “How do you know that?” Joey asked with a smirk. “Your coven runs any witch out of town that doesn’t join your club. Who does that leave? Never mind the fact that your High Priest has been nothing but stand in the way of our investigation.”

  Amber’s eyes narrowed, arms unfolding as a golden glow wreathed her. “How dare you.”

  Cathy held up a hand. “Enough. We’re all on the same side, here.”

  Amber huffed, but her magical aura faded away.

  Chris put a hand on Joey’s shoulder. “Cathy’s right. But we can’t ignore the fact that our suspect is almost certainly a witch. A female one.”

  “Or a male with a female accomplice,” Quinn rumbled quietly from the corner. Despite his size, Chris had almost forgotten he was there, he’d been so quiet.

  “Right.” Joey covered Chris’s hand with hers and squeezed. “But maybe we should keep that little tidbit to ourselves and see how the witches react to the news tonight. If the killer is there, maybe they’ll give themselves away.”

  “I still don’t think anyone from the coven has anything to do with this,” Amber said. “But I’ll scan their auras. This kind of act… it can’t help but leave a stain.”

  “Good idea, child,” Cathy said. “But, speaking of suspects, do we have any?”

  Chris exchanged a glance with Joey. She shrugged, so he said, “Nothing firm, but so far we’ve got Ethan, Naomi’s boyfriend, and one of her co-workers—but if she’s a witch, she’s not a coven witch.”

  “Isaac? Why is he a suspect?” Cathy tilted her head.

  “He stands to inherit a tidy sum in life insurance,” Joey said. “And there’s something… off about him. My wolf reacted strangely to him.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she did…” Cathy murmured with a small smile, then shook her head. “There’s no way Isaac is behind this.”

  “Wait, back up,” Chris said. “Why aren’t you surprised that Joey’s wolf reacted to him?”

  Cathy shook her head. “A topic for later, perhaps.”

  “Give us the room,” Joey said, though her eyes didn’t leave her godmother.

  Justin rose immediately and gathered up a few books from the table. “I’ll start packing the car. Amber, would you please help me?”

  Amber glared at Joey but rose to assist. Within moments, the two vacated the room, and Quinn followed them out with a shrug. Chris shut the door behind them, then rejoined Joey across the table from Cathy.

  Cathy let her reading glasses drop onto her chest, held by a slender chain around her neck, and sighed. “So impatient.”

  “This is important, Aunt Cathy,” Chris said. “What is he, and why are you so sure he wouldn’t be behind this?”

  Cathy’s wizened gaze drifted between the two of them. “Isaac is a selkie. A seal-shifter, if you will. But his kind is… different from lycanthropes. You can shift freely between wolf and human form. Isaac cannot shift back to seal form without his skin, and he gave that to Naomi years ago as a promise not to swim away from her.”

  “That’s…” Joey began.

  “Romantic?” Chris said.

  “I was gonna go with freaky. But it also explains a lot of his behavior. He was grieving, but also on edge. And remember how I said he smelled briny? Maybe he hadn’t been for a swim. Maybe that was his natural scent. Selkie. Damn.” She shook her head, wonder in her eyes.

  “Do you know what Naomi did with his skin?” Chris asked.

  “Yes. It’s in a safe deposit box. I’ll make sure he gets it once we take care of the more immediate matter.” Cathy pushed to her feet.

  “Agreed,” Joey said. “But there’s one other suspect that hasn’t made the formal list. I hate to even bring it up, but…”

  “Who?” Chris asked.

  Joey glanced at the door with a grimace. “Justin.”

  Chris rocked back on his heels. “Justin? What—? How—?” He couldn’t find the words.

  “Wolves can be witches,” Joey said. “And he’s super interested in the occult, always eager to stick his nose in Cathy’s library…”

  “Justin is not a witch,” Cathy said with an air of finality. “And while that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have a witch accomplice… unless you have more evidence, I think that one is a stretch.”

  Chris glanced between the two women, torn between supporting his mate and rejecting her wild ass theory. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it does seem fairly unlikely. We haven’t known him for long, but I like to think we know him well enough to know if he’s capable of something like this. Let’s back burner that one for now.”

  Joey nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I just wish we had more to go on at this point.”

  Cathy walked around the table and put a hand on Joey’s shoulder. “We’ll find the culprit, child. Don’t worry. Quinn’s friend may hold the key. Keep him close.”

  Chris turned to Joey while Cathy let herself out of the room. “She’s right, we should keep Quinn close. You should invite him to stay at the house tonight.”

  “That shouldn’t take much convincing. He wants to find Jordan and get to the bottom of this almost as much as we do.” She stepped closer to him and slipped her arms around his waist. “I still don’t like leaving you like this, but… I guess I’ll head home for the night. Don’t forget to text me when you get to the safe house, and keep me in the loop. Okay?”

  “Yes ma’am.” Chris touched his forehead to hers and closed his eyes, breathing in her scent. She smelled like sweat and blood. It’d been a long day for both of them, but underneath it all was that unique aroma that was just hers. It was like a balm for his soul. He didn’t want to let her go, but he had to. Still, if he could steal just a few more seconds, he would.

  He kissed her again, this time deeper, but something about it seemed off. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy the kiss, or that she held back, or that there was any lingering tension between them. It took him a few moments to figure out what it was, and when he did, it chilled him.

  His wolf wasn’t responding to his mate’s presence, her touch, at all.

  Chris woke when the car door opened beneath his head. It might’ve spilled him right out of the car if not for the seat belt holding him in. Opening his eyes, he blinked against the brightness of the car’s dome light in the otherwise dark surroundings.

  Amber held the door open and motioned impatiently for him to get out. She held a stack of books like a toddler against her hip.

  Yawning, he unbuckled and climbed out. “Sorry, must’ve fallen asleep.”

  “Obviously,” Amber said, shutting the door once he was out of the way.

  Cathy came around the side of the car to join them while Chris blinked, his eyes adjusting to the change in light level more slowly than usual. Another symptom of his fading wolf?

  He shivered and rubbed his eyes. “Where are we?”

  “Kirkland,” Cathy said. “Let’s get inside. We’re too exposed out here.”

  Chris scanned the suburban street as they walked down the sidewalk. Kirkland lay on the east side of Lake Washington, but it was still technically part of the Seattle Metropolitan Area. Chris hadn’t spent much time there, or really explored it at all. His house in Granite Falls was well to the northeast, and Kirkland wasn’t on his usual route in or out of the city. The houses they passed were ranch-style bungalows that could’ve existed in just about any modern American city. Cars lined the curbs in between every driveway for several houses, probably a result of all the extra visitors to one of the houses.

  Chris made a note of the house number on the mailbox when he turned to follow the witches down the driveway of their destination, but he had to get his phone out to figure out what street he was on. Rather than spend too much time trying to orient himself—and still a bit thick
-headed from his nap—he ended up just sending Joey a ping with his current location and called it good.

  The woman who answered the door had skin the color of dark honey and coarse, curly hair barely contained beneath a tie-dyed kerchief. Chris recognized her easily from the coven meeting he and Joey had crashed. But her welcoming smile died on her lips when she noticed Chris standing behind Amber and Cathy on the porch, and she stopped well short of inviting them all in. Could she be the killer? Chris watched her carefully.

  “May we come in, Lisa?” Cathy asked, the soul of politeness.

  Lisa sighed, a weary look lingering in her dark eyes. “He’s not going to like this…”

  “He is ill and under my care. I couldn’t leave him behind.”

  After another moment’s hesitation, Lisa stepped back, holding the door open. “Come in.”

  Cathy murmured a thank you, and they all traipsed inside. Chris took care to wipe his feet on the mat, and ducked his head politely to the witch holding the door.

  After shedding their outerwear, they were led down two steps into a sunken living room. People lounged about the room in chairs and on sofas, some sitting on stools brought in from elsewhere or hunkered down on the floor. Chris recognized most of them from when he’d crashed their emergency meeting. His eyes slid past the men, focusing on the women present until Ethan unfolded himself from an armchair and stood.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded, his disapproving gaze locked on Chris.

  Amber stepped aside, distancing herself from the entire affair as she hitched the heavy stack of books on her hip. “Got somewhere I can set these down? We’ve got some research to do.”

  “Sure, you can put them in the dining room.” Lisa motioned for Amber to follow her.

  Cathy put a hand on Chris’s shoulder. “He’s with me.”

  “My invitation was very clear, Catherine. Coven only,” Ethan said.

  “I’m aware. But I felt an exception was warranted.”

  The High Priest pressed his lips together into a thin line and shook his head. “It’s up to me to decide what exceptions are warranted, not you.”

  All around the room, curious eyes watched the exchange, none willing to interfere.

  “I know I’m tall, but really… I won’t take up much room.” Chris paused for a jaw-cracking yawn. “Just show me to a pillow and I’ll go back to sleep.”

  Ethan pointed at Chris, eyes narrowed. “I’m not talking to you. Be silent.”

  Chris lifted a brow, but he was too tired to care much about the dismissal.

  “Is that any way to treat an esteemed guest?” Cathy asked. “Need I remind you, Christopher is the Alpha of Seattle?”

  “She said he’s sick,” Lisa said, having taken up a position at the entrance to the adjoining dining room.

  Ethan crossed the room to stand in front of Chris and put a hand on his chest, eyeing him skeptically. Chris let him, even as the glow of magic surrounded the High Priest. His skin itched under Ethan’s hand, and he had to fight the urge not to recoil from the less-than-familiar man’s magic. He had to trust Cathy would keep him safe.

  “He’s fine,” Ethan concluded after a moment, dropping his hand and stepping back. “Why even try such a flimsy ruse?”

  “Look closer,” Cathy said, tapping her head beside one eye.

  Ethan’s eyes unfocused briefly. He blinked. “Who or what did that?”

  “It’s a long story.” Cathy laced her fingers together at her waist, her quiet poise and power a stark contrast to the blustery coven leader.

  “I’ll bet it is. And you’re bringing this trouble to our doorstep, when we already have more than our share. Really, Catherine.” He shook his head. “But seeing as how the damage is already done… he can stay. As long as he stays out of the way and minds his own business.” His eyes met Chris’s and held until Chris gave him a small nod.

  “Just so we’re clear,” Chris said, “the search for Naomi’s killer is very much my business. She was a friend, and I won’t stop until justice is served and the Seattle coven is safe once more.”

  Ethan’s face tightened, but he sighed and waved a hand. “Fine, whatever.” He shifted his attention back to Cathy. “Now that everyone’s present and accounted for, let’s get started. Lisa, the map if you would, dear?”

  Lisa nodded and walked over to a bookshelf, fetching a long cardboard tube propped up against the wall beside it. She brought it over to Ethan, who popped open the tube and shook out a large roll of paper. Lisa helped him spread it out on the coffee table after they moved it out from the couch a bit, then weighed the map down at the corners with heavy stone coasters. Around the room, witches stood and relocated until about ten of them ringed the coffee table, kneeling around it. Cathy joined them, leaving Chris standing on the fringes, uncertain what was going on. One by one, the witches began to glow with magical light.

  “It’s a magic detection spell,” Amber said, now standing beside Chris.

  Chris jumped, having not noticed or heard her approach. “What are they trying to detect?” he asked, pulling on an earlobe and shaking his head. Was there water in his ear or something? How had he not heard Amber approach?

  She rolled her eyes. “Magic. When they’re done, the map will show hot spots as they pop up. It’s something we use to detect uninvited guests.”

  “Uninvited… oh. Witches, you mean? That’s cool.” He shifted his attention back to the witches gathered around the table, watching as they joined hands and the glow around them turned into a bright ring, one magical aura bleeding into the other until he couldn’t see where one ended and the other began. Other than the presence of the magic, nothing else seemed to happen.

  “Speaking of uninvited guests…” Chris took out his phone and brought up the pictures of the twelve missing women Harding had sent to him and Joey. He held the phone out to Amber. “Do any of these look familiar?”

  Amber took the phone, thumbing through the photos. He wondered briefly how the screen detected the presence of her finger through her gloves. They must’ve been special gloves designed for just such a task.

  “This one.” Amber held up the phone, showing Chris one of the photos. “She’s a witch. Showed up in town a month or so ago. Wouldn’t join the coven, so we told her to get gone. We never saw her again.”

  Chris nodded. “None of the others are familiar?”

  Amber shook her head and handed the phone back. “No, why?”

  “They’re all missing women who disappeared within the last few weeks. Twelve of them.”

  “That seems like a large number. Is it?”

  Chris nodded and sent the picture back to Joey and Harding with a note, then turned his attention back to the ritual taking place around the coffee table. After a few minutes, he yawned and eyed one of the empty chairs left behind.

  “This could take a while,” Amber said. “You should probably get some more rest while you can.”

  Chris sighed and rubbed his eyes, unaccustomed to such persistent fatigue. Even a long day of rehearsal didn’t leave him this drained. Then there was the matter of his wolf, so quiet, so passive that Chris could barely sense him at all. He hadn’t told Joey about it, not wanting to worry her. But he’d told Cathy—and Amber—about it on the way to the safe house. Cathy had assured him that it was just temporary, that the way his mystical energy was leaking she wasn’t surprised it weakened his wolf too. But as far back as he could remember, his wolf had always been there. The only time he’d ever been cut off from him was when he stepped onto the astral plane.

  “Probably a good idea,” Chris replied, but he made no immediate move to do so. His mind kept chewing over the situation he found himself in, turning it over and over but finding nothing but more worry reflected in each facet of the problem.

  The second time he caught his chin dipping toward his chest, he decided enough was enough. Amber helped him find an empty room, where he toed off his shoes and flopped onto the mattress, face down. A soft
chuckle reached his ears, and he turned his head in time to see Amber drawing the door closed.

  “Leave it open,” he said. “Partly, at least.”

  She nodded and released the handle, turning to go.

  “Wait.”

  “Hm?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

  “Why do you wear gloves all the time?” The question had been dogging him ever since they’d met.

  Her blue eyes shuttered, and she shook her head. “It’s a long story. You should get some rest.”

  Chris let her go at that, but the question lingered with him as he let his eyes drift closed. Were her hands horribly burned? Strange birthmarks? Webbed fingers? His thoughts grew sillier and sillier until he drifted off, embracing the oblivion of sleep as the escape from reality it was.

  17

  It was just after 10 p.m. when Joey finally turned into the driveway in Granite Falls. Her headlights cut a bright swath through the darkness, illuminating the cars parked out front. A smile brightened her face at the sight of Adam’s familiar sedan. She parked beside it while Quinn, who’d been following her from Cathy’s house, parked his SUV on the other side of her car before joining her to approach the house.

  Quinn gave her a side-eye. “You look pretty chipper for a woman who just left her wounded mate in a witch’s den.”

  The big guy sure did have a knack for bubble bursting. “It’s the best place for him right now,” she said, more for herself than for his benefit. As far as she was concerned, she didn’t have anything to prove to him. “Come on, slowpoke.”

  She trotted up the stairs and let herself into the house, calling out, “Honey, I’m home! Where’s my favorite little hacker?”

  The living room was disappointingly empty, but a smiling Jenny poked her head out of the kitchen a moment later. She paused at the sight of the big unfamiliar wolf behind Joey, and her friendly expression took on a more cautious cast.

  Chuckling, Joey crossed the room and ruffled the girl’s hair. “He doesn’t bite. Or at least he hasn’t yet.” Linking arms with the timid beta, she drew her into the kitchen, finding Adam and Dawn at the kitchen table along with Itsuo, Vince, and Ben. An array of snacks littered the table. All eyes lifted to take in Joey and her hulking companion as they came in.