by Gina LaManna
“He had a key to your place?”
“Yes, though we never lived together. I was away often, and I sometimes had to leave in the middle of the night for work,” I explained, “so it only made sense. The night everything went wrong, Trenton had beat me to my apartment. He was in the shower when I walked in early, and I startled him so badly he left a little spell behind.”
“An illegal spell?”
“His newly created Residual Remover,” I said. “He left the potion in a bottle next to my shampoo. There were incriminating Residuals on the bottle. He’d washed them from his hands, but he’d run out of time to hide the rest of the evidence.”
“He was the one messing with the spells on the market?” Grey asked.
“Yes,” I said with a sigh. “He must have realized it about the same time I did. I had pulled back the shower curtain to go for my Comm as soon as I found the Residuals, and I found him waiting there for me with a knife. He knew he’d made a mistake.”
Grey bit his lip, a surge of anger appearing behind his expression. His gaze frothed with it, giving off a twinkling, deadly gleam in those sapphire gems.
“I didn’t mean to kill him,” I said. “I was defenseless in the shower—naked, exposed.”
“Dani.” Grey said my name for the first time since we arrived, and it sent a shudder through me. “In a battle between your life and his, it was right to choose yours. It’s pure instinct.”
“We were supposed to be in love.”
“It wasn’t love. It was never love, and you know that now—it was an illusion. You can’t fault yourself.”
“That makes it worse!” I said. “They say love blinds. But if I wasn’t in love, then what was it? Plain old blind?”
“That’s not what I meant, Dani—stop!”
I stood and began to pace, but Grey reached out and put a hand on my wrist. He pulled me toward him, and his strength was so startling I snapped to his chest like a rubber band and landed there, pressed against him. His breath came down hot on my neck, and his shirt smelled of spearmint and spice in an appealing woodsy combination.
“Sorry,” he said gruffly, letting me go and backing away. “I shouldn’t have touched you.”
“No, it’s fine.” I took a few deep breaths to compose myself. “I was hyperventilating and getting unreasonable. I needed some sense slapped into me.”
“No, Dani—”
“I didn’t mean literally. I trust you, Grey, and I don’t know why. I always knew you hadn’t killed Lorraine, and I don’t know why I was so sure of that either.”
“That vamp of yours didn’t seem so sure.”
“His name is Matthew,” I said. “And your species are sworn enemies. He is built to not trust you. For that matter, he doesn’t trust anyone.”
“He trusts you.”
“I earned it.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, just like everyone else he trusts,” I snapped, but as I returned to my seat at the table and poured another dose of coffee into my mug, I considered.
When I’d first met Matthew, we’d been unsure of one another, like any strangers. Worse because we were both suspicious, cynical cops. I’d known the captain—lieutenant at the time—had never assumed things, nor did he trust anyone. But for some reason, I now realized, he’d taken an exception in me.
Grey smiled when I looked up at him.
“Shut up,” I said. “Don’t be a know-it-all.”
“One could say love blinded the vamp.”
“One could say shut your pie hole and use his real name.”
“Sorry.” Grey raised his hands. “It’s all in good humor. I respect your vamp—Matthew.”
I rolled my eyes, but if nothing else, it’d helped dispel the tears that had threatened to fall. The tenderness of the moment was gone, replaced by the reality of my life. Caught between a wolf and a vampire—and nowhere to go.
“I’m not his mortal enemy,” Grey said. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly a werewolf.”
“What are you?”
“That’s a story for another day,” he said. “Why don’t we finish yours?”
“What’s there to tell?”
“How did he die?”
I shivered. I had worked hard for months to repress the memories from that night, and now Grey was asking me to allow them all to come flooding back. I wasn’t pleased, but somehow, I couldn’t help but talk. “I never wanted him to die,” I repeated. “I tried to talk to him. Told him I would help him, that I loved him, whatever I could think to say. I’m not sure all that was said—I actually don’t remember entire parts of that conversation.”
“Again, that’s normal. Nobody should have to fight to the death with the one they love.”
“It wasn’t love,” I said again. Subconsciously, my hand played at the top of my white tank top over which I wore a leather jacket. “He stabbed me first.”
Grey’s eyes went down to my collarbone area, but the wound wasn’t visible. I reached lower, where my jeans met my shirt, and I gently peeled the fabric upward. An ugly pink gash ran just below my ribs.
Though he didn’t audibly react, the frothy fury that had burned in Grey’s eyes returned in spades. It leaked into his expression, infused into his words. “Lucky thing you killed the bastard, or I would’ve done it for you,” he said with venom. “And I sure as hell wouldn’t have made it easy for him to die.”
“No,” I said with the shake of my head. “You wouldn’t have been able to kill him. Matthew would have beat you to it.”
Grey gave a grudgingly respectful bob of his head. “I’m sure you’re right. Finally, I agree on something with the vamp.”
“As you can imagine, I fought back against Trenton. It wasn’t pretty, that’s for sure. At one point I had him in cuffs, but he’d taken some sort of strengthening spell before he’d attacked me and broke right through them.”
Grey shook his head again in anger, his lips sealing tightly against his reaction.
“I lived in a different apartment then, not the one I’m in now. I had space on Floor 276.” I hesitated, letting the picture of that night seep in for the briefest moment before I once again pushed it away. “He came after me while I had my back to the window. I dodged out of the way; he crashed through.”
“You hardly killed him, Dani. He took a dive through the window.”
“I could have saved him,” I said, though I wasn’t certain if that were actually true. Maybe, possibly. “I didn’t try.”
“What good would saving him have done? He would have come back after you. You wouldn’t have been safe while he was alive.”
“I know, I know,” I said. “But my job isn’t to kill, it’s to protect. To bring justice to the dead.”
“And for some, justice is death.” Grey eyed me cautiously, waiting for my reaction.
“That’s not the oath I took.”
“It’s the oath I live by,” he said. “And I don’t think you did anything wrong, Dani. Nobody believes any of it was your fault.”
“His doctored spells murdered two people.” I raised a hand to my face and wiped away the tear that’d sprouted. “If only I’d recognized him sooner for the monster that he was. One of them was a young elf, a girl, who had just started high school. She was an accident, but a casualty nonetheless of Trenton’s work. The other was an older man, a father to four, and his death was cold-blooded murder. He was a security guard at the lab who’d sniffed out Trenton’s work—and was silenced because of it.”
“They’re not your fault.”
“It was my case. I should have known.”
“Why today?” Grey asked, changing the subject. “Why bring this up now, after you’ve been dealing with it for months?”
“In the marketplace, I ran into...” I hesitated, picturing the shriveled old woman. She hadn’t been like that when Trenton was alive. “I ran into his mother. The last time I saw her, we were dating. After he died—I never apologized. I never...I should have go
ne over to her and explained. Or done something.”
Grey waited.
“I always liked her. If anything, I was sadder to lose her during the breakup than Trenton.” I gave a hoarse laugh. “Twisted, isn’t it?”
“No,” he said easily.
“But—”
“She could have come to you, as well,” Grey said. “It was her son who gave you that wound across your belly. And while it’s not her fault, she had to know you were hurting too.”
“I killed her son.”
“You didn’t kill him.” Grey took a breath, exhaled slowly. “I think both of you needed time to heal—you and his mother. Alone. When the time is right, you can go talk to her. It’s not too late.”
A morbid thought flickered through my mind, making me wonder how long she’d last at the rate she’d been deteriorating. Eloisa, single mother, retired school teacher, mother of a murderer.
“You never answered my earlier question: Was he working alone on his doctored spells?”
“He died before I could ask him,” I said. “We never found out who else was involved, if anyone, or why Trenton was doing it in the first place.”
“He was tampering with spells,” Grey said thoughtfully. “He had to have a reason. Maybe he was getting paid off?”
“He had money flowing in, but we couldn’t determine where it came from.”
“There has to be another. Someone he worked for.”
“Well if you can find him or her, be my guest,” I said, standing. “Because we had the whole precinct looking into the case and came up dry. Work your magic, wolf.”
He frowned at the name.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean it. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Doesn’t bother me,” he said distractedly. “I’m just thinking—why would he have done it? That makes no sense. It had to be worth his while.”
“I’m going to leave you to ponder while I clean up the dishes,” I said. “Thank you for brunch.”
Grey followed behind, not bothering to argue as I set to work. As I washed, he grabbed a rag and dried until the kitchen was sparkling clean.
“I should get back,” I said. “I have more work to do—and frankly, I can’t tell how much time has passed since we left the borough.”
He grinned. “Good. Did it help at all?”
“A lot. Thank you.”
“Promise you’ll try to put this behind you,” Grey said. “It won’t do any good to keep blaming yourself for something that wasn’t your fault.”
I nearly argued, but something held me back. “I’ll try.”
With a firm nod, he headed toward the door. “I assume you’d prefer to ride back?”
“I have a question first.”
He stopped in the doorway, his tall, bold figure silhouetted by the sunlight from behind. “Anything.”
“This whole business about finding one true mate,” I said, feeling uneasy. “Is it true that you share that trait with the vampires, even though you’re not a werewolf?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know when you’ve found your other half?”
Grey gave a relaxed, easy smile that split his face into a rugged gorgeousness that caught my breath. “Are you worried for yourself or for someone else?”
“I’m just curious. It doesn’t work that way for witches—not for me, at least.”
“Or you just haven’t found it yet,” Grey said reasonably. “Like me.”
“You haven’t?”
He shook his head. “I certainly have not. But I know many who have.”
“Matthew says that vampires just know it. The second they look at someone. Or smell them, or whatever the hell they do,” I said, still uncomfortable with the topic of discussion. But I needed to put my curiosity at rest. “I suppose that means I’m not his mate. I was just wondering...”
“I don’t know,” Grey said thoughtfully. “Why do you think that?”
“If he knew, factually, then wouldn’t he fight harder for us to be together? He’s the one that broke things off in the first place.”
“Love, when not freely given, doesn’t mean much.”
“You’re saying I might be—” I hesitated, hating the word—“his?”
“I’m just saying that even if you were—if you didn’t want to be with him, he wouldn’t force himself on you. The vampire is admittedly not a friend of mine, but even I respect him enough to say so.”
“And the same goes for you?”
“For us, it’s different,” he said. “for the wolves—I’m similar enough to werewolves in this way—it’s a slower process. Usually, when we discover our mate, it’s someone we’ve known for quite some time. We believe it takes a certain level of comfort before those feelings make themselves known.”
“So you might already know your soulmate,” I said, “and you just haven’t realized it yet?”
A change came over Grey’s face. One that seemed to rattle him. “It’s possible.”
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have pried.”
“I’m going to head outside and change,” he murmured. “I think it’s time we get you home.”
Chapter 5
The journey back seemed longer, though it could’ve been the result of traveling with my eyes open the whole way, instead of squeezing them shut for half of it. The only other time I’d traveled so fast was when I’d been dating Matthew.
For two almost sworn enemies, Matthew and Grey sure had a lot in common, I thought, as Grey set me down just inside the edge of The Depth. He’d barely broken a sweat. His T-shirt was just a hint damp around the neckline when he emerged from a dense patch of woods after transforming back into a man. A tall man, one who made heads turn as we walked through the streets of the borough.
“No wonder you keep to yourself,” I said. “Everyone stares at you when we walk.”
“I’m tall,” he said simply.
I figured it was more the rugged good looks and the alarming male aura he oozed with every breath, but I wasn’t prepared to say that to his face. “Sure, you’re tall,” I drawled. “That’s it.”
He gave me a wink. “Oh, they’re not looking at me.”
I rolled my eyes as we came to a stop in front of DeMarco’s Pizza. “Grey, I just wanted to say thanks again. I didn’t know I needed to get away, but I had a really nice afternoon with you.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
I waited for him to say goodbye, but it never came. I gave a half-hearted shrug. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Sure.” I let myself inside the pizzeria before the situation grew more awkward outside. A few steps into the place, and something felt off. That’s when I realized the door had never closed behind me.
Glancing back, I found Grey swooping through the entrance. I had frozen in the way, so he gently put his hand on my hip and guided me to the side so he could pass. Then he marched right up to the counter and gave Willa the most winning smile.
“Can I get a pepperoni pizza?” he asked. “Dine-in, please.”
Willa gave me a glance of alarm over his shoulder. “Um, sure?”
She asked the question to me, but all I could do was widen my eyes in a desperately confused expression.
“If that’s okay with the boss?” He leaned on the counter, grinning over at me. “I worked up an appetite this afternoon.”
My face flushed red, as did Willa’s. “It’s not—” I lowered my voice, moved closer to the counter. “It’s not like that!” I hissed to Willa. Then I gave Grey’s arm a hard smack, which worked about as well as punching a solid brick wall. “Don’t say things like that or people are going to get the wrong idea about us.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He dug in his pocket, pulled out some coins, and slid them onto the counter. “If it makes you uncomfortable, I can take the pizza elsewhere, or I can grab a SandWitch before I head home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I swiped the coins from the counter and p
ut them back in his hand. “You’re not buying your own pizza after you just fed me an amazing meal.”
Willa was busy chopping behind the counter, but if her eyebrows inched any higher, they’d be lost on top of her head.
“Come over here.” I grabbed Grey’s sleeve and tried to pull him, but he didn’t budge. Eventually, I went and sat down in a corner booth until he joined me. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Grey shrugged. “I’m starving.”
“Right.”
He laughed, sat back in the chair. “What do you want me to say? I have a feeling you wouldn’t like it if I said I wanted to spend more time with you.”
My back went rigid at his confession. “You wanted to—”
“I was having a great afternoon,” he said easily. “But changing in and out of my other form requires loads of energy. I’m starving, Detective, I just need some calories before I hit the road again—I swear. You can forget the lecture about us being just friends because I get it.”
The lecture—though I wouldn’t call it a lecture—had been on the tip of my tongue. I was a bit embarrassed to realize that he’d sensed it. “It wasn’t a lecture.”
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Grey, I really like you,” he mimicked gently, “but I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Look—I get it, okay? Trust me on this.”
My jaw dropped open.
“Can we move on now?” he asked with that amused grin playing over his features. “I’m not trying to start anything. I’m hungry and I enjoy your company. It’s that simple.”
“Nothing’s ever that simple.”
“I am.” Grey leaned further forward until our heads were bowed together over the table. “I’m not a liar, Detective. If I tell you something, I mean it.”
“Will you please call me Dani?”
He gave a light laugh. “Do we have ourselves a deal, Dani?”
“Erhm—”
“Detective,” Willa interrupted, sliding a piping hot pizza onto the table. “Can I speak with you a moment in private?”
I gave a longing glance at the pizza, suddenly hungrier than I expected. “Sure,” I said mournfully. I stood and followed Willa into the kitchen. I waited as she flipped her hair and paced back and forth, working up the courage to say what she wanted to say.