Chapter 19
I spent several hours at the station, going over the evidence we had on Sven’s death, and looking through the photos Ryder uploaded to the database. There wasn’t a lot I could draw out of the photos of Jame that I hadn’t already known by being there.
It was a vampire attack. The bite made that clear. The bloody ichor techne seemed to back it up. I didn’t know how powerful a vampire had to be to take down Jame and kidnap Ben. Maybe it was more than one vampire. Maybe it had been vampires and other creatures working together.
Since it had happened outside of Ordinary, it could have even been a god who jumped them, though most gods saw our town and all those who lived within it as pretty much beneath their notice.
Until they went on vacation.
“Anything?” Myra asked from her desk. We’d sent Jean to the hospital to tell us when Jame was conscious enough to be able to speak. Hadn’t heard from her yet.
I picked up my cup and made a face at the contents. When had I poured myself water?
“You’ve been drinking coffee like it’s air,” Myra said. “Hydrate before you get an ulcer or kidney stones.”
I took a sip of the water, then drained half the cup because she wasn’t wrong.
“I keep coming back to this ring.” I gulped down more water, then shuffled through the pictures. “It looks square on top, right?”
Myra stood, and groaned as she stretched. I grinned at her. “You okay there?”
“Still sore from practice.” The fanatic glow in her eyes meant she wasn’t at all sorry about that. “Bertie cornered me earlier today.”
“About the Cake and Skate?” I pushed the extra chair by my desk out with my foot, indicating she could sit.
She nodded and walked over. “I wasn’t going to compete.”
“Hold the hamburgers. She talked you into skating?”
Myra levered down into the chair. “You know how she is.”
“Yes. I do. And you do too. You never fall for her Valkyrie ways.”
“She was very convincing.”
“Blackmail?”
“Worse. Revenge. Petty revenge. I am a sucker and fell for it.”
I made clucking noises with my tongue. “You? Myra. It must be good if you’re listening to the devil on your shoulder. It wouldn’t involve a certain Rebecca Carver, would it?”
“I ran into her at Athena’s tea shop.”
“Picking up some of that fresh oolong from that tea farm outside Salem?”
“Yes. She was there complaining about the selection and the candles and the weather and the town.”
“Did you have to stop Athena from breaking her nose?”
“No, she was reading a magazine and ignoring her. Which is what I should have done.”
“What did Rebecca do? Tell you your tea sucks?” I was sort of fascinated to find out what had made Myra angry. Not that she didn’t get mad, but out of all of us Reed girls, she was the best at keeping a level head.
“She told me she liked how my uniform made me look like I was in shape.”
“You want revenge because she said you were fat?”
Myra was curvier than me or Jean, and tougher than both of us put together.
“No. I don’t care if she thinks I’m fat. I’m in good shape for this job, and for myself. But then she went on about how sad it is that everyone from small, backward towns like ours are fat and uneducated. She said she had only agreed to compete in the fundraiser because she was sure that anyone from town who volunteered would have a heart attack, and how embarrassing that would be for them. A heart attack. Embarrassing! I sort of lost it.”
“Did you yell at her?”
“No. I challenged her. Head-to-head. Skate off. Loser matches the funds the winner raises.”
I shook my head, but I was smiling. “You are going to own her and make rent doing it.”
That got a small smile out of her. “Maybe. She’s built like a marathon runner under her Gucci pantsuit. I haven’t been back on skates all that long.”
“When is the event?”
“Tomorrow.”
“You should get some sleep.”
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I’d rather be working than wasting my energy on an old feud. Talk to me about the ring.”
I handed her the picture and pulled it up on my screen too. “Man’s hand. Not a wedding ring. Flat on top, maybe square? I think I’ve seen it somewhere.”
“A lot of men’s rings are square.”
“I know.”
“So where would you have been that you would take the time to note someone’s ring?”
“Everywhere?”
“That’s not exactly narrowing it down. Mithra? The casino?”
I thought back. “No. Maybe the diner?”
“Were Ben or Jame wearing a ring?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Lot of people at the Blue Owl.”
I sighed. “I know.”
“Maybe it will come to you.”
“Yeah, like my luck’s running hot right now.” I glanced at the time on my computer. “It’s getting late. I’ll forward the phones to my cell. Let’s both try to get some sleep.”
“You don’t want to talk about Ryder?”
I rubbed at one eye. “No. I can’t believe he said yes to Mithra. He doesn’t even believe in gods.”
“That’s probably why he said yes. I looked through the books. Dad’s books.”
“And?” I stood, took my coffee cup back to the small sink tucked into the hall and dumped out the water.
“There hasn’t been a warden in Ordinary since mid-last century. Some woman named Duchess. Apparently, even with Mithra’s powers behind her, no one listened to her.”
“Well, that sucks.”
“It means Mithra has been dying to get a new warden in place ever since then.”
“I wish he’d just take a vacation and loosen up. Did the books say we have to obey everything the warden says?”
“It’s a little vague on the details, though there are some notes that suggest the warden should act as jury over the town, while the Reeds act as judge.”
“That sounds better. I’d be his boss.”
“There are also some notes that say the warden, being set into place under the power of a god outside Ordinary, doesn’t have to follow any of Ordinary’s rules and can be judge, jury, and executioner.”
“Let’s go back to the part where I don’t want to throw Ryder out of town.”
“That’s the last thing.”
I shrugged into my coat and glanced out the window while Myra set the security system. The night was cloudy and clear, no rain.
“What?” I asked.
“There’s a question of whether or not any one god’s power can directly affect Ordinary’s laws set in place over the other gods.”
Time worked in Ordinary. So did life, death, love, war, poetry, harvest, and all the many other aspects of life that gods ruled over. But gods generally did not like to be beholden to any other god. That was the whole reason why the Reed family had been set into place as guardians and law-keepers.
We were an unbiased party.
“Huh. So maybe Mithra is all noise, no substance?”
“It was pretty obvious that the gods at least noticed Ryder was the warden. Old Rossi and Granny Wolfe seemed to listen to him. Maybe it’s one of those jobs that will be defined by the person who holds it.”
I thought about that. Wondered what role Ryder would want to play in this town now that its secrets were being revealed. Wondered if it would get in the way of whatever welcome-wagon spy thing he was doing for the DoPP.
“We’ll figure it out.” We walked to the parking lot. “Get some sleep, My. You have a race to win.”
“You too. Nice job with the powers, by the way. Can’t believe Odin took them so easily, and Crow didn’t argue about leaving town.”
“Two tricksters behaving themselves? Maybe our luck is finally warming up.”
She laughed as she got in the cruiser. Yeah, I didn’t believe that, either.
~~~
I woke too quickly, sweat from restless dreams cold against my skin in the darkness. My cell phone rang again. I pulled it to me, not bothering to look at the caller before answering.
“Hey, Delaney,” Jean’s voice was thick with sleep, or the lack of it. “Jame’s conscious. He can answer questions. Come on down?”
I rubbed at my eyes and shivered in the cool of my house. “I’ll be right there.”
I thumbed off the call, then glanced at the clock. Four a.m.
At least the roads would be quiet.
I dressed in jeans, flannel and boots, grabbing my official jacket on the way out. Just like I had since last May, I scanned the staircase and gravel dead end for shadows or people before I started down the stairs.
Someday I’d get over being jumped and shot in my own driveway. Today was not that day.
It took under three minutes to get to the hospital, the roads empty, the puddles having shrunk a bit from the break in rain.
Before I had a chance to ask where Jame was roomed, the receptionist pointed me down the hall and told me the number.
I was just now awake enough that I wished I’d taken some time to brew coffee before coming here.
Too late for that now. I knocked quietly, then let myself in.
There were five people in the room. Two of the Wolfe boys standing on either side of the door, twin columns of muscle and anger posted there as guards; Jean sitting in the chair at the right of his bed; and Granny Wolfe standing at the head of his bed on the left, her hand on Jame’s shoulder.
Jame was more human than I’d last seen him, cleaned up, pale with a bandage on his neck. He was wearing a hospital gown, so I couldn’t see any other wrappings or stitches, but there also didn’t appear to be any other heavy-duty gizmos or equipment attached to him to indicate more serious wound care.
“Hey,” I said quietly. “You’re looking better.”
Jame blinked slowly, his eyes going gold for a moment before returning to a more human shade.
I stopped beside Granny Wolfe who didn’t take her eyes off Jame. “Can I ask you some questions?”
Jame swallowed. “Yes.”
I winced at the gravel in his voice. He sounded like he’d been strangled or had screamed for hours on end. It made me angry that both things might actually be possible.
I wasn’t going to go through the long and tedious line of questioning that would build a good court case, and tell me exactly every step of everything Jame and Ben had gone through. Not yet, anyway.
We needed to find Ben and catch a killer. The details could wait.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Contact. Jake Monroy. Government agency. Had information. On Sven. W-wanted info on vampires. R-rossi.”
Everything inside me went cold and still. That was where I’d seen the ring. On Jake’s hand. Holy shit. Ryder’s boss had been the one holding up Sven.
Was he the murderer? A human? Vampires were so much stronger and faster, it was hard for me to accept one man could take them down. Was the Department of Paranormal Protection a front for killers?
Jame panted for a bit, as if those words had been pulled out by the root, exhausting him. But his gaze held mine, burning, angry.
I waited for him to catch his breath.
“The vampire...the vampire. Stank like death. Red eyes. Silver hair. Old. Old. He took...he took...Ben.” The last word came out in a keening whine. Every muscle in Jame’s body tightened, the cords of his neck popping, sweat covering his skin as he fought the wolf inside of him that was hurting for his mate.
Granny Wolfe squeezed his shoulder. “Jame. See me now. Only me.”
His gaze lifted to hers and his muscles relaxed, his breathing evened out.
“Tell her the rest, but you stay here with me, now. I protect you. Protect my own. I protect your mate. Nothing else for you to worry about.”
Jame lifted his chin, exposing the side of his neck, eyes sliding away from her.
“Good now. Good.” Granny squeezed his shoulder again, gently.
“They wanted Old Rossi. Said they’d leave a path of blood to his d-door s-step. And Ben...he smelled Ben. He knew. Ben. He knew Rossi. Knew he made him. Made Ben.”
Everything that was cold inside me flash hot. “Did they kill him?”
“He fought...we fought.”
Silence filled the room, Jame swallowing and swallowing as he choked on memories.
“They took him. They took him. They took him, they took him, took him...” His voice broke into ragged whispers, a mantra of grief repeating pain.
Tears slipped hot down my face, and I wiped them angrily away with the heels of my palms. “We’ll find him. We will. We’ll bring him back. We’ll bring him home to you.”
I didn’t know if he heard me, caught as he was in overwhelming pain and sorrow.
Granny Wolfe heard me. Finally turned my way, her hand shifting from Jame’s shoulder to his head. She stroked his hair back off his forehead over and over, soothing as if he were a child.
“He’s still not healed,” she said. “They pumped him full of drugs. His sorrow’s gonna be rage in the morning. We’ll be hunting. We’ll still be hunting.”
“Has he said anything else?”
“Just that Ben’s still alive. Old vampire has him. Don’t know which way they went. Beat him black and blue to death’s doorway. Used Ben’s blood to leave that message. Message to the strigoi.”
“We’ll find him,” I said again.
“Don’t want him found,” Granny turned her gaze back to Jame, who was staring blankly into the middle distance, unmoving as she stroked his hair. “Just want him dead.”
~~~
I sent Jean home to get some sleep, knowing the Wolfes would keep Jame safe in the hospital, as would all the other creatures and humans who worked there.
I was still trying to process what Jame had said. There was a vampire, an old vampire who wanted Rossi’s attention. Ben was kidnapped, still alive, and Rossi had been given two blood messages, one on Sven’s dead body, one on Jame’s beaten body.
What did the messages say?
As dawn crept up over the eastern sky, pulling long shadows away from the town, I found myself sitting outside Rossi’s house. He probably wasn’t in. Probably was still hunting, just like the rest of the Wolfe family was out hunting.
Just like every vampire in Ordinary was out hunting.
But I needed to talk with him. Needed to know what those messages meant.
I got out of the Jeep, knocked on the door.
The house was dark.
No one answered. No one was home. Something about that felt oddly final, as if without Rossi, the old place went from home to mausoleum.
I drove. I wanted to stop for coffee, but it was early enough that even the drive-thrus were still closed.
I didn’t know where Jake was staying, but Ryder would.
I knocked on his door, and the sound of footsteps reached me through the door. There was a pause, which I figured was him looking out through the peephole. Then the door opened.
“Hey, Delaney, come on in.” Ryder looked like he hadn’t slept all night, and from the spots of mud at his jeans’ hem, was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. “Coffee?”
“Gods, yes.”
He headed into the kitchen and I followed him. “You get any sleep last night?”
He shook his head and reached into the cupboard to get out a mug. “Jake’s missing.”
I sighed and sat on the barstool at the island. “How do you know?”
“His phone won’t pick up. I drove over to the Nordic, and he wasn’t there. Said he checked out yesterday morning.”
“Why were you looking for Jake?”
He poured coffee into the mug, then into another mug that was already on the counter. Turned with both in his hands, offered me one.
“After finding Jame in all that blood. Seeing him shifted...He’s a werewolf, right?”
I nodded, drank. The coffee was thick and hot. I wanted to crawl into the cup and pretend the world didn’t exist.
“I needed to update him. Tell him about Jame. About werewolves being in town.”
“Were you going to tell him about the gods?”
“I don’t know. No?” He shrugged at my look. “I’m still not sure I believe that they’re here, that they’re real. Until I know, really know, I probably won’t bring it up.”
“Being fetch-boy to a god isn’t enough?”
“That was...Yeah, that was weird. But what proof do I have that he’s really a god? He could just be something else.”
“Like what?”
“A wizard? A kobold? A siren?”
“That’s...there’s a lot of difference between those things.”
“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t met any of them.” He gave me a hopeful look. “Have I?”
“Probably. But that doesn’t matter. Mithra is a god, and I’m sure he’ll make that plain to you when you least want him to. Don’t ever underestimate him, Ryder. Or Jake.”
“Jake?”
“Jame said Jake was there when he and Ben were attacked.”
Ryder paused with his mug halfway to his mouth, then placed it on the counter beside him. “Was he a prisoner?”
“No. Jame said he set up the meeting.”
“With whom?”
“Ben and Jame and a very old vampire.”
Ryder crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze shifted off to the wall behind me.
Spud, his mutt of a dog, trotted into the kitchen, then yawned and stretched as he wagged his tail. He gave me a sniff, I rubbed his head, then he nosed his way across the floor and folded down at Ryder’s feet with a groan.
Looked like nobody in the house had gotten any sleep last night.
“Did you know about the meeting?” I asked.
“No.”
“He’s your boss in the DoPP, right?”
“Yes. But Ordinary is my territory. He shouldn’t have done anything, made any agreements between citizens of Ordinary without contacting me.”
“He’s working with a killer, Ryder.”
“Or he was trying to broker a conversation, a meeting that went horribly out of his control.”
“I noticed his ring on his right hand. White gold or titanium?”
“Pure silver.” His gaze ticked back to me, eyebrows dipping down. “Why?”
“That ring in the picture? The man who put his hand over Sven’s mouth?”
Ryder exhaled. “You think it’s him. You think he is strong enough to kill a vampire? To beat up a werewolf?”
“No. But I think he’s working for a vampire, and maybe other creatures who are strong enough to do those things. Maybe they all wear matching rings. Maybe he’s the leader of his own splinter group.”
“Jake’s not like that.”
“Do you trust him? Trust him enough to bet Ben’s life on it?” When he didn’t answer, I went on. “I saw him on your porch a few nights ago. You were arguing. What were you fighting about?”
“He wanted me to get him inside Old Rossi’s house. Wanted to meet Old Rossi. He thought he was a vampire. Thought he was the prime.”
“Putting aside the question as to how he would have assumed that, why were you arguing with him? I thought it was your job to roll out the welcome wagon to the creatures in town.”
“I didn’t like his approach. I grew up here. I’ve known Rossi all my life. It just seemed...rude and unnecessary. Like he was some kind of criminal hiding something and we were banging down his door. Whether he was or wasn’t a vampire didn’t mean we shouldn’t treat him with basic courtesy and respect. Just like anyone else in town.”
My chest warmed and the rest of me went a little gooey. Thinking of Old Rossi as a vampire, but still a person with rights and feelings said a lot about what kind of man Ryder was.
“But you took him out there anyway.”
“No. It was weird. Right after I’d told Jake to shove off because I wasn’t going to rig up some false pretenses as to why we should get into Old Rossi’s house, Old Rossi called. Had a remodel he wanted done for his studio. That’s what he said, anyway. I’m not sure if that’s the truth, or if he just wanted to put eyes on me and Jake because he suspected we were from the agency.”
“He suspected. He might also want the remodel. Do you have any idea where Jake might be? Who he might check in with? A boss, a co-worker, family?”
“No. And if...if it turns out he was a part of Sven’s death and the kidnapping. What they did to Jame...”
I waited. Wondered what he would do if, or more like when, we proved that Jake wasn’t playing on the right side of justice.
“There are a couple people I could call,” he said. “Agents he might get in touch with who might know where he is.”
“Can you contact them?”
“Yeah. I can. How’s Jame doing?”
“He’ll heal. But if we don’t find Ben...I don’t know.” I rubbed my eyes. “The vamps and weres have a pretty uncertain truce. If Ben dies, if Jame loses his mate, I just don’t know how we’re going to keep the situation under control.”
Ryder walked pretty quietly for a big guy. His hands pressed gently on my arms and stroked upward. “What can I do?”
“For what?” I muttered behind my hands.
“For you.”
I put my hands down and looked up at him. I was tired, broken-hearted over the visit with Jame. Worried. Very worried. Whatever wasn’t working between Ryder and me suddenly seemed inconsequential. “Just, maybe...hold me for a minute?”
He held his breath as if surprised at my answer, then shifted forward. I folded against his chest as his arms wrapped around my back, one wide hand cupping the back of my head.
And for a minute, maybe more, the world became only our heartbeats, our breathing, our warmth.