by Marc Daniel
Sheila pondered the question a moment before replying, “Unless Blackstone lied to us. Maybe he was the one who visited Katia in September. Maybe she asked him to do something for her, smuggle something perhaps. If he refused, that would explain his firing and Katia hiring another lawyer, a much younger, much less experienced lawyer. One she could more easily manipulate or pay off to do something illegal. Maybe Hernandez was murdered to stop her from revealing what she did or even refused to do for Katia.”
“Those are interesting points to consider,” said Michael thoughtfully.
He grabbed his cell phone and dialed Detective Lewis’ number while Sheila resumed her online snooping.
She could hear Michael’s voice in the background but paid no attention to what was being said; she was too focused on the task at hand. After hours of digging she’d finally hit the jackpot.
Replacing his cell phone in his pocket, Michael announced, “I’m going to meet Detective Lewis at the prison. She got me a meeting with the warden. If I’m lucky, I might even see Katia in person.”
“If you do, ask her if the two million were well-spent,” said Sheila, turning her computer screen towards Michael.
He stepped closer to have a look at what she was pointing to. A withdrawal of two million dollars dated October 15th of the previous year. “This is Katia’s account?” he asked.
“Technically, the account belongs to an LLC with a business address in the Cayman Islands, what’s known as a shell corporation. There are about half a dozen shell corporations between this particular account and a person of interest in our investigation.”
“Katia?”
“No. David Starks. Except that David Starks is dead, as you well know. Upon his passing, his interest in the company was transferred to yet another corporation.”
“In the Cayman Islands, I suppose?”
“No. This one is in Wyoming. A state popular to incorporate in if one wants to remain anonymous. But not good enough. I was able to find out who owns this particular company.”
“Katia Olveda?”
“In the flesh.”
Michael kissed Sheila on the lips. “You’re amazing!”
He grabbed his car keys and was heading for the door when his cell phone rang. Seeing the call was from Daka, he answered.
“What’s going on, Daka?”
“The Western Covenant is on the move, Michael.”
Daka told Michael the same thing he’d told Olivia an instant earlier.
“I’m in Houston. I doubt I could make it back by this evening.”
“We’ll handle it, Michael, don’t worry. We’ll take care of the vamps before they get a chance to hook up with anyone else.”
“Be careful, Daka. These are experienced killers. They’ll probably be armed. They usually pack heavy, not like last time.”
“I know, Michael. Talking about last time; there’s something you need to know.”
“What is it?”
“It’s about Lucy. I saw her yesterday. She’s one of them now.”
“That’s impossible!”
Daka recounted the events of the previous evening in detail.
“So the ashes we spread over the canyon came from—”
“An empty coffin. Yes, Michael.”
He couldn’t believe it. And now Lucy was a daywalker on top of it all. But how could this be? She’d been bitten by a plain vampire, there hadn’t been any magic involved during the battle. So how? He suspected he wouldn’t be able to answer that question anytime soon. Regardless of the how, this meant that at least two daywalkers were currently roaming around Yellowstone. The thought of the mayhem that could create made him nauseous.
“What are you going to do about Lucy, Michael?”
“I don’t know. I need to think about it.”
“I haven’t said a word to the pack yet. And I wasn’t supposed to talk to you either. If Olivia learns I told you, she will kill me. Possibly literally.”
“I won’t say a word to anyone until I figure out what to do about it. As long as Olivia keeps an eye on Lucy, nothing bad should happen.”
“I hadn’t even recognized her at first. If Olivia hadn’t told me it was Lucy—”
“What do you mean,” interrupted Michael. “How can she look different already?”
“She dyed her hair black.”
Michael thanked Daka for the heads-up and hung up. He’d just sat behind the wheel of his rental car and was thinking back on the conversation when the realization hit him. Things were starting to make a lot more sense. Now if he could only figure out why these vampires were immune to sunlight.
Chapter 85
A.D. 1679
Michael’s bear swatted at a vampire harassing the bear shifter nearest him but missed. The bastards were fast. Michael had already dispatched two vampires, but there were still plenty to fight. His vision had acclimated to the cave’s darkness. He was now able to see the enemy more clearly, but not nearly as clearly as they were seeing him. The vampires’ night vision was significantly better than his.
At least one of the bears had already succumbed to the bloodsuckers and Michael worried about the outcome of the encounter. But his biggest concern was still Wawetseka. She was safely waiting outside the tunnel for their return, but the sun would soon be setting. Once that happened, the outside wouldn’t be any safer than the inside.
Michael dodged an incoming attack and closed his teeth on the wrist of another bloodsucker. An instant later, the skinwalker closest to Michael was mauling the vampire’s heart. A third bear joined the fun and started chewing at the bloodsucker’s neck while the undead used his free hand to deliver blows strong enough to shatter the bear’s bones. In the end three bears were more than a match for the vamp and Michael felt his jaws suddenly closing shut as the bloodsucker’s wrist evaporated into thin air.
The two vampires he’d slain himself hadn’t evaporated, however. They were still littering the ground a few feet away. This confirmed what Michael had been suspecting since their last encounter with the undead. Only those killed by the skinwalkers evaporated after their death. The Potawatomi shifters had a special gift when it came to vampires. Not only were they naturally talented to handle the bloodsuckers, they also didn’t have to worry about cleaning up after themselves. The skinwalkers’ magic extended to their victims in death and erased all traces of the vampire’s existence. How convenient.
Michael was about to assist one of the bears in delivering the final blow to a particularly feisty bloodsucking specimen when a pungent smell assaulted his nostrils. One he’d encountered before… One who called herself Irini, if Michael’s memory could be trusted after all these centuries. She’d been a fierce adversary then and had probably grown stronger still. Things were about to become interesting.
Where had she been hiding, and why hadn’t he detected her scent earlier? A masking spell, maybe. His reasoning didn’t go any further. Out of the darkness, the elder jumped onto a bear’s back and broke his neck as easily as if it’d been a rabbit. But unlike Michael, the skinwalker wouldn’t be recovering from this. He was dead for good.
Before Irini had a chance to make another victim, Michael was on her. But she was extremely fast and he failed to grab her before she moved out of reach. He was still wondering where she’d gone when he felt her hands grabbing his bear’s head and twisting in an attempt to repeat her recent success. Michael was no skinwalker, however, and his neck muscles didn’t budge under the vampire’s pull. Instead, he reached out over his shoulder using his right paw and tore at the vampire’s face. Her flesh offered no more resistance to his razor-sharp claws than soft butter would have.
The elder screeched in pain and jumped off Michael’s back before disappearing into the darkness. Michael scanned the underground chamber in search of his enemy but found no trace of the woman. Worse still, her scent was getting fainter. He realized the implication too late: Irini was heading for the exit. Using his bear as a battering ram, he cleared a path to t
he tunnel leading to the entryway and started sprinting down the narrow corridor. He reached the improvised well shaft through which they’d entered the cave and spent four excruciating seconds to regain his human form. Staring at the stars above his head, he cursed himself for not realizing earlier that night had fallen while they were fighting inside the cave.
When he was finally agile enough to pull himself out of the pit, he scanned the area nervously, afraid of what he would find. “Wawetseka!” he yelled. But the only answer he received was a laugh devoid of any human emotion. Irini’s laugh. She was bent over Wawetseka’s lifeless corpse, her fangs deep in the young woman’s throat.
Pain and hatred took over Michael’s body. He was back in his bear form by the time he reached Wawetseka, but the elder hadn’t waited for him. She was gone, absorbed by the moonless night.
His eyes turned to the lifeless face of his old hide and seek companion, memories of the little girl she had been surging back in waves that threatened to drown him.
That’s when her eyes opened up to meet his gaze.
Chapter 86
There was one stop Michael needed to make before heading to Huntsville State Penitentiary located an hour north of the city. A stop that had only just become necessary. Now that he had the proof Katia Olveda was behind it all, it was time to start playing offense.
He knocked on the door of a shabby-looking house located in Houston’s southeast side. The door opened an instant later on Gwendoline, wizard of the fourth circle. “Hello, Michael, long time no see.”
“Gwendoline,” he said, nodding slightly. “Always a pleasure.”
“Do you have time to come in?”
“I’m afraid not. I need to be in Huntsville in precisely fifty-five minutes. Do you know why I’m here?”
“Ez called me thirty minutes ago. You’re lucky I had all the ingredients on hand. That’s not the type of potion I brew very often. I’m not even sure it’s strictly allowed for me to give you this, but since Ez requested it, my ass is covered as they say.”
She handed him a small syringe-looking vial containing a silver liquid. The whole thing didn’t measure more than an inch in length and a quarter inch in diameter. It looked tiny in the palm of Michael’s hand.
“Stay away from the pointy part,” added Gwendoline, a twinkle in her beautiful and only eye.
“Will it pass through a metal detector?”
“It will. Ez mentioned your special requirements. The charm I placed on it also makes it invisible to human eyes. But if you plan on waving it in front of anything praeternatural or supernatural, don’t! They’d see it just like you and me.”
Michael thanked the wizard and got back in his car. He would need to be liberal with speed limits in order to get to his appointment on time.
*****
The warden’s office was a lot nicer-looking than Michael had imagined. The walls were a pale shade of yellow that would have fit a nursery or a daycare, but that didn’t surprise him. He understood the need someone doing a job like this would have to be surrounded with happy colors.
“Please have a seat,” said the warden, indicating the two chairs on the other side of his desk.
“Thank you for receiving us on such short notice,” said Samantha Lewis.
“Always a pleasure, Detective,” replied the warden with a smile that was probably meant to be charming, but that Michael found goofy. He was starting to understand how Samantha had been able to convince the warden to see him. The man had a thing for the detective.
“As I told you on the phone, we suspect that Katia Olveda is attempting to extend her influence outside the walls of your establishment and we’d be grateful if you could help us by answering a few questions we have.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
“How would you describe her as an inmate?”
“I’d say she’s been a model inmate. Never caused any problems. At this rate she’ll probably be out on parole in a few years.”
“You never suspected her of any illegal activity? She was never in any fights?” asked Samantha.
“Nothing illegal was brought to my attention. No fights either.”
Michael sighed more loudly than he’d intended.
“Of course, there was the shower incident. But we were never able to directly link her to it.”
“Could you elaborate? What’s this incident about?” asked Samantha.
“Well, it was more than an incident really. A triple homicide as a matter of fact.”
Michael and Samantha looked at each other as the man continued. “It happened shortly after Katia’s arrival. We found three inmates dead in the showers. The apparent cause of death was broken necks. We never found out who did it, but we know for a fact that Katia was in the area shortly before the bodies were discovered. We have some video footage showing Miss Olveda leaving the showers only a few minutes before another inmate found the women dead.”
“Was Katia interrogated?” asked Lewis.
“Of course. She claims the three women were perfectly healthy when she left the shower area and that she saw nobody coming in on her way out. We still have no idea who’s responsible for the women’s death, but it can’t be Miss Olveda. Those three were thugs of the worse kind and it would have taken several attackers to kill all three at once. Miss Olveda doesn’t have the physical strength necessary to carry out such a crime.”
Michael strongly disagreed, but he kept it to himself. He could tell based on the look Samantha Lewis was giving him that she’d also connected the dots. Lewis was an initiate and knew a few things about praeternaturals. Enough to know that this information answered a question they’d both had for a long time. Katia Olveda was indeed a werewolf.
“We understand that Katia met with two different lawyers in the past few months. Do you have any footage of these two attorneys by chance? We’re wondering if one of them may have been able to pass on or receive some information during their meeting with Katia.”
“I can assure you that the only information that could have been exchanged would have been oral. Everyone is searched prior to meeting with inmates. But if you care to see for yourself, I’ll happily let you have a look at our video footage. Meetings with lawyers aren’t recorded since the law forbids it, but we will have footage of them coming in and out of the interview room.”
“We would appreciate this very much,” said Lewis, flashing a smile at the man.
The warden had little more to offer in the way of useful information, and they quickly found themselves in a control room equipped with several dozen TV screens. The correctional officers in charge of monitoring the inmates were being most helpful.
“And that’s him exiting the room after his meeting with the inmate,” said the officer, pointing at one of the screens where Blackstone was seen walking along a brightly lit corridor. The man looked in all points like the lawyer Michael had met a few hours earlier, but he was certain he was staring at the chameleon.
“Could we see the footage of the female lawyer?” asked Lewis.
The officer obliged and they were soon watching a beautiful woman walking along the same corridor. With her long luscious black hair and tall, curvy figure Andrea Hernandez was definitely gorgeous, even though it wasn’t actually her on the video but the chameleon pulling another trick.
Michael had finally understood the need for the lawyer switch and expected his theory to be proven correct in the days to come. With the curve-hugging dress the fake Hernandez was wearing, she wouldn’t have been able to hide a paper clip without it being noticed. Of course, Michael knew that there were ways to dissimulate things to human eyes.
After reviewing video footage ad nauseam, Michael and Lewis were shown to an interview room and told that Katia Olveda would be brought in shortly.
“What do you plan on asking her?” said Lewis once they were alone.
He didn’t have a chance to respond before Katia entered the room accompanied by a female of
ficer. The ex-assistant DA sat down on the side of the small table opposite her visitors while the correctional officer went to stand in a corner of the room.
Katia was sporting an arrogant smile but remained silent when Michael started interrogating her. The more questions he asked, the wider her smile got.
“Sheila wanted you to know that she found your account in the Caymans,” he said finally, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Even with the two million that were recently spent on your second-grade hitmen clowns, there’s still enough left for us to enjoy life.”
The remark wiped the smile off Katia’s face: a fact which pleased Michael greatly.
“I wish to return to my cell,” said Katia, getting up.
But before the correctional officer could react, Michael tapped Katia on the shoulder, injecting the content of his invisible vial at the same time.
“You’re not allowed to touch the inmate,” intervened the officer.
The shock on Katia’s face was priceless as Michael leaned to whisper in her ear, “Do you remember the wolfsbane extract?”
As they exited the room Michael turned to have a last look at his enemy. The worry on her face had disappeared. She was looking at him, a smile on her lips.
Now that his suspicion had been confirmed he only needed to figure out one more thing: who.
Chapter 87
Olivia and Lucy were sitting on a bench in the small park located at the heart of Jackson: a park famous for its massive elk-antler arches. They’d spent the whole day in the small town, seduced by its old-West charisma. The atmosphere was similar to that of West Yellowstone but on a much grander scale. Unlike the small Montana town, Jackson had money to spare.