by Rae Foxx
“Scarlet, come sit down. Let’s not stir dirty water under the bridge.”
My chest uncurled from the knot it had been in and I walked toward her, releasing my tension. Well, most of it. I sat in the chair across from her and she poured me a cup of coffee. She sloshed in so much sugar and cream that it was more like a meal than a drink.
I looked down at the swirling cup while I figured out something to say. Something to repair the ripped fabric that was once an okay relationship with my aunt.
“Poetry, I wasn’t myself. I lost Owen and I don’t...it was all I had left to feel. Rage was the only thing left inside me. It was like without being angry, I was hollow…” I stumbled over my words; each garbled sentence punctuated with a sob. She got up and I shook my head, undeserving of what her open arms promised me.
“Come here, Scarlet.” I stood on wobbling legs while she brought me against her in a warming embrace that I knew felt like my mother’s when I was a child. “I know, my dear. I know all too well the sheer pain and anguish of losing a mate.” She held me until my own tears stopped and we both sat down. For the first time since losing Owen I didn’t feel like I’d been cut off and burned at both ends.
“Is that how you ended up here in Cummings Cove? Did you, um, lose your mate?”
My aunt laughed and pushed back her salt and pepper braids, her bracelets clanging with the motion.
“You mean did I murder my mate? No, I didn’t.” She looked to the side as though the memories were there, in her cup of coffee. “I lost him. Some would say I was better off this way.”
Her sadness quickly turned into the anger, the evolution in her features made it more than apparent.
“Can you tell me what happened?” I asked, leaning forward to put my hand on her knee. She patted my hand with hers and I cringed at the scratches there. They were already healing but the proof of my rage was right in front of me.
Her eyes pierced me like she was putting up a shield, but then they softened, the crinkles around the corners becoming deeper.
“You are so much like your mother. My sister is a fiery one who never relents in going after what she wants.”
I felt my brow furrow. She wasn’t answering the question. “So what happened to your mate?”
She sighed again and picked at something invisible on her skirts. She opened her mouth but was interrupted by Evan and Travis tromping down the stairs. They both paused at the bottom and grabbed cups of their own coffee and kisses from me before going to sit by the glass penis chess game. Evan slurped on his coffee and winked at me while Travis set up the game. I realized, looking at Travis’ back, that I would need to make more than one apology today.
“I’ve always been a weird duck, so to speak,” Poetry began, looking a little like she did when she got one of those visions. “No one wanted to be my friend and the rest of the pack littles didn’t play with me. But there was one who did. He was the son of the Alpha at the time. The wolf that haunted my dreams and showed up in my window at night, wanting to run together in the woods. He was so powerful. I remember the strength in his hold. He is probably Alpha by now and has a whole pack of kids running around.”
Tingles spindled down my face and arms as I suddenly realized exactly who she was talking about. Fuck the glass, I’d murdered Poetry’s mate.
“Lym,” I choked out and then righted myself, kind of. “Lym is the man you’re talking about.” Glancing out the window, I faintly recalled seeing him there, arms folded, that cross smirk on his face.
“Yes, Lym. It was like his body was made for mine. Every touch enflamed me, heart and soul.”
I put my hand over my mouth and nodded in all the right places, listening but also dying inside. I’d killed him.
“So what happened?” I managed to croak out as I heard both Evan and Travis yawning in the background.
“He pursued me for years. He kept me safe from other males. He protected me at all costs. Loved me. I thought we were mates. No, I knew we were mates. Then, one day he began running around with other females, but he still came back to me night after night. He said I was special and valuable to him. He asked so many questions that most times we ended up talking most of the night.”
“Why didn’t you end up together?” I asked, feeling like a kindergartener who didn’t understand why the big bad wolf was so bad.
“Your mother accused Lym of using me. And she told me over and over that I was a fool for not being able to see what was right in front of me. Of course, I brushed it all off. I told her she was misinterpreting and was being silly. Lym loved me. I’d convinced myself that he did.”
My mother had been an ass since way back, apparently.
“How did you lose him?” I was afraid to ask, already knowing that my mother and her tattle-talking ass probably was at the root of the event. Poetry’s face grew more somber.
“Jessica told the Alpha that I was plotting to kill Lym. That I was scheming with another pack to end him, and join the two packs together because I didn’t like the rules. She produced all of these forged papers and some bogus witnesses she’d paid to tell them that I had approached them about killing my Lym.” Her eyes became glassy again. “My Lym. I would’ve never killed him. They believed her, of course. Jessica was always a dramatic thing, could make herself cry at the drop of a hat. Everyone believed her, even Lym. He just stood there while they dragged me away. He didn’t even speak up for me. There was nothing in his eyes that night they banished me.”
I swallowed against the emotion clogging my throat. “That’s the saddest love story I’ve ever heard.” I was angry at my mother for doing this to Poetry. Angry at myself for accusing her of something she clearly didn’t do. However, now was not the time to grieve for events long past. Taking a breath, I asked, “I wonder who else has sad stories. What about Iris?”
Poetry sipped on her coffee. “It’s not polite to ask other people how they came to Cummings Cove, Scarlet. That’s why I have no idea about how Dawn came to be here. She never offered the information, and I never asked. It’s not how we do things around here.”
I scoffed. “That’s kind of stupid. There should be a registry or some information taken when new shifters come here. No wonder no one here can solve a murder. There could be a serial killer among us and we’d have no fucking clue.”
She smiled while she put her cup down. “Oh, my dear, there is a registry. Certainly someone in charge had to have cross-referenced it with all of the uproar in the town.” She glanced at Travis as though he were the one in charge. The one who should’ve told me about said registry.
“I did already,” Travis chimed in, his voice sleepy. “There were no red flags.”
Travis wouldn’t know a red flag if I raised it to full mast and shoved it up his ass.
I whirled on him, pissed that he hadn’t told me about the registry. I was supposed to be his partner in crime. Err, his partner in solving crime.
“Scarlet, no can do. You cannot break in during the night and steal the information.”
Poetry recrossed her legs. “Doesn’t matter if she broke in. That snake would do anything to keep that information private.”
The snake? That’s right, the mayor was a python. Yeah, now I knew where it was. That motherfucker had it.
Travis sighed and palm-slapped his forehead.
He should know better.
Can’t hide shit from me and get away with it.
5
“Please,” I tried, doing my very best Strawberry Shortcake impression, even going so far as to swish my hips back and forth while clasping my hands in a begging motion.
“No.”
“For your mate?” I asked, my eyelids fluttering as I flirted.
“Nope.” Travis popped the ‘P’ and kept on eating his peanut butter and jelly on white. He’d even brought it in a brown paper sack like he was in the fourth grade.
“Please.” This time I ground out the plea with my jaw set and added a stomp for good measure. He finall
y looked up and slowly bit into a corner of his, cut in triangles I might add, sandwich. He chewed for a bit and looked away for a moment. He was thinking about it. Maybe I’d worn him down. Maybe he would…
“Nope.”
Fucker. Chief of all the Motherfuckers. That’s what he was.
And an asshole to boot.
“Travis!” I screamed, and took out his sandwich with one swift bat of my hand. He looked at it on the ground and shrugged before taking another one from the bag.
“Scarlet, listen to me. The information in the registry is privileged and private. Besides, I’ve been in it and trust me, there’s nothing there. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“First of all,” I said, putting my hand on my hip. “I’m not a dog. No barking. Second, I’m like a bonafide detective. You said so yourself. Doesn’t that position come with some kind of security clearance?”
I looked around, half-expecting Owen to come in and make a joke about me accidentally saying Boner-Fide. My heart sank as I realized for the one hundredth time that he wasn’t here.
He snorted. “It’s not the fucking CIA, Scarlet. It’s the Cummings Cove Mayor’s office. And honorary doesn’t mean you get access to anything.”
“Scarlet, shush now. That’s enough,” Poetry said and tried to give me some tea. She was so tired of hearing me whine about the registry that she was probably giving me something to make me pass out.
Finished for the time being with bugging the hell out of Travis and knowing that it would get me nowhere, I walked over to sit with Evan. He was tossing tarot cards into some kind of top hat.
“I have an idea,” I whispered to him and he offered me one of the cards from his stack. I picked up the top one and flitted it toward the hat, but it decided midway to flutter to the other side of the chair instead.
He turned to me, the wear and tear on his face evident as I took in his sunken eyes and the dark crescents hung underneath them.
“Does this idea of yours happen to have anything to do with, oh, I don’t know, breaking into the mayor’s office so you can snoop in that registry?”
I cleared my throat and gave him my slyest smile. I probably looked like the Cheshire Cat. “Um, yes. How in the world did you know?”
He turned to me and I had half-expected some retort. Instead, his face remained stern and staunch as though no amount of mischief, even from me could make him break his seriousness. “Scar, we’ve known each other for nearly eight years. I know all your mischievous plans. I’ll help you, kitten. You know I will. That place probably has clues and I’ll do anything to find Owen.”
He leaned over and put his head on my shoulder. He wouldn’t be the same until Owen came back to us, and apparently I had to make that happen. Travis had been interviewing people in the town for three days while Wulf just did his pseudo-bouncer thing where he stood by the window, burly arms crossed over his chest, huffing at people as they passed but not really doing much of anything.
As usual, it was up to me to get this shit done.
Ninja Scarlet and all that to the rescue.
Evan stayed solemn all through dinner. Wulf refused to eat, choosing instead to look out the window because that had helped so much thus far. Evan and I mostly picked at our meals before going to bed early. We had a plan in place and pretending to go to sleep was part of it. We lay there, side by side, probably both thinking about Owen, expecting Travis or Wulf to walk through at any moment. They tended to show up lately and be our security force even though both of us were well-versed in kicking ass and taking names.
Hours must’ve passed before Evan turned to me, resting his face on his palm.
“It looks like they’re not coming. It’s now or never, Scarlet. Ready to get into some trouble?” He waggled his eyebrows and for a split second I got to see my old Evan. I wanted all of him back and knew that the only way to make that happen was to get my Owen back.
“Hell yes. Let’s go.”
“Two legs or four?” He said, pausing with his fingers gripping the hem of his t-shirt.
“Which way do you like me best?” I asked, winking at him, trying to extend that little normal part of him that he’d gifted me.
“Every part. Now let’s go. I know you do your best sleuthing in fox form.”
He shifted while I watched. “That’s because she’s a fox. You know. Clever, sly, sleek, fast…” I could go on but realized I was kind of stalling. This wasn’t just a regular break in. This was the mayor’s office.
Evan nudged my leg with his cold nose. “Fine. Let’s go.”
While we walked, Evan had retreated to his silkier self, mewing here and there, the hair on the back of his neck raised the entire time. Cummings Cove was eerily quiet, even for night. I tried to nestle against Evan’s fur, but he snarled low and pissy-like.
We were back to sulky Evan. Yay. Didn’t blame him, though.
In no time, we reached the Municipal Building and walked around the back. Evan stopped under a window and nodded toward it. It smelled of river and rusted pennies so I knew the office must’ve belonged to the Mayor Stevenson.
Shit this was where Travis had put me and the twins in jail. I shuddered thinking about that night. Fuck, I really needed to get Travis some chains for his birthday. It would be a gift for both of us.
After using our paws to pry the window open, we jumped inside and shifted to our human bodies. Right on top of the Mayor’s desk was a leather-bound binder with ‘Registry’ stamped into the front. Nice, this should be easy.
I wasted no time opening the damned thing, but the pages had been removed. What the fuck? There was nothing but a cover.
“What’s this?” Evan asked, holding up a note, folded. I brought it to my nose and snarled, scenting Travis all over it. He couldn't hide anything he touched. The note was all marked with that smores and campfire smell.
What did I tell you about breaking and entering? T
“God damn him. That’s why he wasn’t guarding us tonight. Even if we broke in, he’s already stolen the good stuff.”
“There’s nothing else here, Scar. I’ve got a mind to rip that cop’s throat out.”
“Fine. Let’s just go.” I made one more visual scan of the room before we hopped out and shifted back to fox and sand cat. As we crossed the street and took the second block toward home, both of us stopped dead in our tracks at the sound of voices up ahead. We flushed our bodies against the nearest building and listened.
I thought about the voices from the night before and wondered if these were the same two people. If it was, they had clearly made a habit of talking shit at night in between buildings.
There were two voices. I recognized the female one as the same one from the night before. The male one was different, but something about the way he was saying his S’s….
I shifted to two legs and Evan followed my lead. We crept around the corner and followed the voices until we came to an alley.
“Oh my God, it’s Stacey,” I whispered.
“And the python,” Evan answered, grabbing me by the waist and pressing my back against his chest. This boy and his protection, I swear.
“Get back in your animal form. We don’t know what these two are up to,” Evan demanded and for once I agreed. We shifted back and looked around the corner.
The mayor leaned against one of the walls, pants around his ankles. The look on his face was flat, so far away and glassy, reminding me of Poetry when she got one of her visions. His hands were splayed out flat against the wall while he moaned like a zombie in heat.
“You’ve done such a good job for us, haven’t you, Lewis? You deserve something nice for all your trouble.” She reached out and wrapped her hand around his cock and stroked him while licking her lips. “You helped us snap up all of those businesses in no time. Everything is almost empty in Cummings Cove just like the master wanted it. Such a good boy, doing everything I asked you to do…”
She continued to stroke him while his skin grew grayish and al
most hollow.
“Now all that’s left is…” I moved to hear her better but just as she was about to finish her sentence—and the Mayor—a door slammed in the distance. Travis’ loud and ear-piercing whistle reached my ears, and Evan and I bolted out of there. We’d been caught, or almost been caught, by Stacey or Travis. At this point, I didn’t know which one was more dangerous.
We finally got home, both of us panting and wide-eyed. Evan was the first to speak while I just tried not to pass out. “Stacey’s a fucking succubus. She’s been killing them all.”
6
Evan and I stared at each other, absorbing what we’d just witnessed. Piecing together the implications.
Stacey’s mom...I mean Stacey, had a lot of things going on. In the library and apparently in the alley.
And who in the fuck was ‘the master’? I wanted to march back there and pin her by the throat to the nearest wall and choke her until she answered every one of my questions, because clearly the librarian knew a whole hell of a lot more than we did.
“No one is going to believe us.” Those were the first words out of Evan’s mouth once we caught our breaths. He was bent over, hands on his knees, huffing out breaths from running and from the sheer shock of what we’d just encountered.
I finally caught my breath and stood up straight. My fox was just underneath the surface, not giving two shits about Stacey. All she wanted was to bolt through the entire world until she found Owen. Nothing else was on her mind.
“We have to find some kind of proof. We can’t just walk into the police station and tell Travis, ‘Yo, library bitch is a succubus and she’s in cahoots with whoever is taking over the town. We have to stop her’.”
“The fuck is going on in this place? Some refuge this place is.” He looked around as though he were seeing Cummings Cove in a whole new light. “We have to find out what she meant about all that shit.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Well, walking up to her and asking her about it won’t work.”
“The library is her lair of sorts, right?” He asked, looking around with droplets of sweat pouring down his face.