I TRIED TO shrug out of his hold, but Nathan jerked my arm, his grip tightening. "That's enough. We're going to sit in the car until Liam concludes his business. I'll drag you out of here if I have to." Nathan's tone left no room for argument, the fun-loving, laid-back guy of before, gone.
He escorted me the rest of the way in silence, his anger a live thing around us. Guess he really wasn't happy about the manner in which I'd ditched him.
He put me in the car and climbed in after me, forcing me to scoot to the other side or be sat on. Nathan pressed a button in the key fob he held and all the locks in the car clicked on.
"That's a little much, don't you think?" I said, fixing him with a narrow-eyed stare.
He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Is it? Given your tendency to run, I think it's best to be cautious."
"You're mad at me," I stated.
He fixed me with a flat stare. "That would imply I care about you one way or another."
Yup, definitely mad.
I sighed, trying to decide if I wanted to attempt to fix this or not. While Nathan's loyalty lay with Liam, he had proven a valuable ally in the past and keeping on good terms could help me in the long run.
We sat in silence for several minutes, each consumed by our own thoughts.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry I set the harpies on you." And I was. Sort of. Not because I wouldn't have done it again, but because it had been necessary.
The leather seat creaked as Nathan shifted, facing me more fully. "Do you have any idea the hot water you've put us both in? Liam's not happy. Don't let his little routine in there fool you. There will be repercussions—not just for you but for me too. I haven't failed a mission. Ever."
"Is that what you're upset about? The fact that I showed you up in front of your boss?" I could sympathize with that as I hated when the same happened to me. No one wanted to look like a fool in front of someone they respected.
"Never mind. You'll understand soon." Nathan sat back and faced forward. His hard expression made it clear he was done talking.
The quiet between us was not an easy one. It was uncomfortable and full of the weight of unsaid things. It was the sort of quiet that came when there was a regard for one another—the sort I usually only had to worry about with the people I cared for. Not the sort of thing I associated with Nathan. We weren't friends, nor were we likely to become friends given he drank gladly from the vampire Kool-Aid, while I tried to get as far from it as possible.
The driver and front passenger doors opened, saving me from any further awkwardness.
"Get what you needed?" Nathan asked.
I pressed my lips tight together to keep from asking if Peter had given Liam a way to track Caroline, knowing they were unlikely to share, and not sure I wanted the answer.
"We got a piece. Evidently, it’ll take time to create the rest." Liam didn’t sound happy about that.
Eric started the car and pulled away from the office building, one that blended in with the rest of this side of town. Nothing marked it as anything unusual. Nothing that shouted ‘sorcerer's stronghold here’. As with so much of the spook world, it was as nondescript and ordinary as everything else in the area. It was no wonder humans never suspected the presence of the supernatural. How could they when we blended almost seamlessly into the everyday world?
"You're quiet, Aileen," Liam said. "I expected a lot of questions about what we got from the sorcerer."
Precisely why I hadn't bombarded him with those questions, since I knew he'd withhold the answers just to aggravate me.
"Just thinking about my next move," I said.
"There will be no next move. After your little escapade with the harpies, you're on lockdown. You're not going anywhere but the mansion, where you will stay until your friend has been located." His words had a note of finality to them.
That he thought things would work out that way was downright hysterical. He should know by now that the more he tried to put me under his thumb, the harder I'd try to escape.
"You know I'm not a prisoner, right?" I asked. "Certain law enforcement types would frown on this attempted kidnapping."
His chuckle was warm and brushed against me with the feel of a fur-lined glove. "There’s no attempt about it. You’re caught, my dear. Resign yourself to your fate."
I was quiet for a long moment as I faced forward.
"What did you think to accomplish by this?" Liam asked. "You must have known we'd track you down eventually."
I shrugged. Yes, but I thought I'd have longer before that happened.
"What did you plan to do with Caroline when you found her?" Liam looked over at me, his eyes somber. "With your current lack of power, it's likely she would kill you the first time you upset her."
"Whatever you say, however you try to convince me, I'm not going to believe she's lost hold of herself," I said, meeting his eyes. "She's still Caroline."
"As you are still Aileen?" he asked, no judgment in his voice. My face darkened as I got his reference.
I looked away without answering, folding my arms and watching the city pass outside the window. His sigh was heavy before the leather creaked as he turned to face forward again.
Now what? I was caught, and by the sounds of it, they didn't plan to give me the chance to repeat my little excursion. Whoever they put on me would be twice as guarded against any attempt to escape. How was I to help my friend if I couldn't even look for her without bringing the vampires, and by extension, the wolves down on her?
A phone rang, the sound splitting the quiet.
Liam fished it out of his pocket, hitting the button and holding it to his ear. "Go."
I could hear Makoto as he gave his report. "Boss, there's been another incident. This time it's bad. There are bodies."
"Where?"
"Off Third Street in German Village. I've already sent two enforcers over there to secure the scene, but you said you wanted to be apprised of anything to do with our little problem."
"Are they ours?" Liam asked.
There was a hesitation before a softly voiced, "Yes."
"Okay, I'm on my way." He hung up and set the phone down before letting out a soft curse. "Looks like you're going to get a crash course in exactly what your friend is capable of."
My skin turned cold at the implication. I bit back my protest, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference. They were already convinced Caroline was responsible for these deaths. It would take proof to convince them otherwise.
Eric turned the SUV, pointing it towards German Village where the site awaited. It wasn't too far from our original destination, just a few blocks south of downtown Columbus. This area was one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. It was partially settled in the 1800s by German immigrants, giving rise to the name German Village. It was also probably why Columbus had such a strong German influence, stemming back to the city's founding. It was now a coveted area of town for couples. The historical houses, wrought iron fences and carefully cultivated lots were a hipster's dream property. The area was also walkable and home to many of the unique features that made Columbus an interesting place to live.
Eric turned down a street not far from the Book Haven and its secret bookstore that catered to spooks. He navigated slowly down the brick streets, careful not to scrape the sides of the SUV on the surrounding buildings. This area was not built with modern conveniences in mind. The streets were narrow and from a time when your own two feet were your primary mode of transportation. They were a real bitch to clear during winter.
Eric parked several streets over, and we disembarked, Nathan taking his place at my elbow in case I got it into my head to bolt again.
We turned down the street, following Eric as he led the way to the site. It announced itself through smell first, the stench of human bowels and dead meat greeting me before I'd rounded the corner. Under it were the delicate notes of blood that even now, sated from the blood I'd drunk this morning and feeling slightly sick at the sight of the bodies before me, called to me with a siren's temptation.
The scene was enough to turn even the strongest of stomachs. It looked like a slaughterhouse but without the organization or purpose. The closest I'd come to anything like it was in Afghanistan when a soldier walked over an IED and set it off. The force of the blast had ripped him to pieces before he'd even known what was happening. That had haunted me for months. If I was being truthful, it haunted me still. This new scene would join it in my nightmares.
Whatever did this had ripped its victim to pieces just as effectively as that IED. Judging by the fact there were too many arms and legs in the small alley, I was guessing there’d been more than one victim. One was a little more intact than the other, but that wasn't saying much. The torso and head were still attached as they leaned against the brick wall, but the person's arms had been ripped off and strewn across the ground in several pieces.
I moved closer, careful not to step in the blood pooling around the torso. I thought I recognized the person. It was difficult to tell with the face frozen in a rictus of terror, but she was familiar. Her long blond hair had turned almost pink from all the blood, and her heart-shaped features were missing the sweetness from our first meeting.
Catherine. I wasn't sure, but I thought it might be.
My stomach turned as I noticed a bone that had been largely stripped of flesh.
"Are those teeth marks?" I asked, my voice weak.
"Yes." Liam crouched near one of the pieces, lifting a ribbon of flesh away to get a better look at it.
It looked like some animal had chewed on the bone, cracking it and then sucking out the marrow. Behavior typical of a dog or wolf, but abhorrent when you thought of the person that bone used to belong to.
The other person would need DNA testing to be definitively identified. Their body was unrecognizable. Like the other, it had been ripped apart, but whatever had done this had demolished it. The torso was in two pieces, the spine visible, and what was left of the intestines on the other side of the alley. There weren't enough pieces, which meant the attacker had probably eaten part of them.
"The head's missing," I said in a low voice, looking around. It could be hidden under some of the other pieces or further down the alley. I stayed where I was, not willing to disturb the scene any more than we already had. The brick alleyway was slick with blood, as if someone had poured a vat of it all over the place.
“The head’s not missing,” Liam said, his voice grim as he stared down at the ground in front of him. An odd shaped blob rested on the cobblestone, bone peeking out with what might be blood-matted hair mixed into the mess. It had been crushed so that it was virtually unrecognizable.
"What's she doing here?" Anton snarled, advancing on me.
I took a step back, the sight of an angry vampire distracting me from the scene. Nathan pushed me behind him, stepping to meet Anton.
"She shouldn't be here," Anton spat, his eyes finding me over Nathan's shoulder. The black in them seeming to bleed over into the white as his fangs dropped down.
"Anton, that's enough," Liam's voice cracked through the air. He straightened from where he crouched, his eyes doing that eerie glowing thing as he stared at the other vampire.
"Her meddling caused this," Anton responded, his voice heated.
"That's enough, my friend." The Viking from game night stepped forward, taking Anton by the shoulder and steering him away. "Why don't you take a breather?"
Anton sent another snarl my way before stalking off into the night.
Viking turned back to us, his eyes flicking over me in derision before he turned his attention to Liam. "Forgive him. His companion is among the dead."
Liam nodded, his face grim.
"What was Makoto thinking sending him here to stand guard?" Nathan muttered.
Viking flipped him a dark glance. "Perhaps he had no choice seeing as three of our own were forced to track down the yearling. Again. We’re understaffed since we also have to provide security for the master."
"Enough. This situation is bad enough without fighting amongst ourselves," Liam said, his voice brooking no argument. "Daniel, tell me what you know so far."
Daniel and Nathan stared each other down for a moment longer before Nathan's body relaxed, and he stepped beside me instead of in front. Daniel's gaze moved over me, something in his eyes making it clear that he held no more love for me than Anton.
It was a significant change from last night when there had almost been a camaraderie building. I didn't want to admit it, to them or myself, but the loss of that hurt. More than I thought it would. I missed being part of a team. I missed the jokes and the teasing and the sense that there was someone who'd guard your back no matter what came.
I had no one but myself to blame. I'd even gone so far as to make sure there would be no chance that I could build it into something better, but it stung just the same.
"From what Anton shared, Catherine said she was tired of being cooped up and wanted some fresh air. She likes the cream puff pastries from Schmidt’s and had planned a short excursion for one."
Damn. I was right.
My heart clenched in sympathy. No wonder Anton wanted my head. I hadn't known her well but from what I'd seen of her with him, the two had seemed like they'd had real feelings for another.
"Theo volunteered to go with her. We think he's the other victim."
Theo? I looked at the other body with sad eyes. The man had struck me as shy but nice and the thought of him lying dead and unrecognizable was more depressing than I wanted to think about while standing among those who now viewed me as an enemy.
"Have Makoto run his DNA through the system and compare it to the body. I want a firm confirmation."
Daniel nodded and walked away without glancing in my direction.
Liam crossed the alley over to my side. "This is why we're so hard on our newly turned."
"You still don't have anything proving it was Caroline," I said in a soft voice. “Why would she come after the same companions from last night? She hasn’t been a wolf long, and I doubt she knows who any of the other spooks are.”
I certainly hadn’t when I’d first been turned.
“Vampires have a distinctive smell to a wolf’s nose,” Liam said, his eyes thoughtful as he stared at the bodies. “Perhaps her wolf became confused and thought they presented a threat.”
Maybe. Or perhaps her wolf thought it was me, then lost control when the companions had no doubt panicked.
“I still don’t believe it,” I said.
"You can lie to yourself all you want, but you and I both know she's the only one who would do this."
I didn't know what I believed anymore. This scene looked like the site of an animal attack. While there were many spooks that could have caused a similar scene, the chances were very small. It would have to be a pretty big coincidence for some unknown spook to attack these two in the same way a werewolf would.
I didn't want to doubt my friend, but the two victims had punctured a gaping hole in my defenses.
"Brax will be here soon. He'll be able to tell if Caroline was present." Liam's face was grim. "If she's responsible, it could have grave repercussions."
"What do you mean?"
Liam looked down the alley, his gaze distant as if he wasn't seeing the bodies, but something else. Something worse.
"Brax will not want to give up one of his own. He is many things, but he'll protect his wolves to his last breath," Liam finally said. "Thomas is new to his position, and the murder of a companion cannot go unanswered. Not if he wants a stable power base. He'll want to make an example. Your friend makes the perfect sacrifice."
I took a deep breath and released it.
His touch whispered across my shoulder as he gave me an enigmatic glance before moving away to give me privacy and time with my thoughts.
"Caroline, what have you gotten yourself into?" I whispered, staring at the macabre scene before me.
I didn't know if I was going to be able to protect her from what was coming. Worse, I didn't know if I should. The friend I remembered wouldn't have been capable of this. Not in a million years.
If she did somehow do this, it meant that Anton was right. My actions caused this, and I played a part in innocent deaths. Something I had sworn I would not let happen. Emotion tightened my throat and a burning started behind my eyes. I couldn't deal with this now. Maybe later in the dark of night when I was alone. But not now.
I owed it to Catherine and Theo to find their killer and deal with them. Friend or not.
Liam and Nathan gave me the time to come to terms with this new development, discussing the scene in quiet voices as we waited for the wolves' arrival. While we lingered, I forced myself out of the dark morass of emotion that threatened to overtake me and studied the scene. I wasn't a crime scene investigator and most of what I knew came from watching detective shows or reading books. That didn't mean I couldn't notice something the others had overlooked. I might not know what it meant now, but knowledge was power, and observation was something I was good at.
What were they doing in this alley? If they'd been going to Schmidt's, they'd parked a fair way past it. Granted, parking in this area around dinner time was a bit tricky, but there would have been many better places to park closer to the restaurant. Also, I didn't see their car.
Could they have been chased down this alley? If so, why would they have turned away from the more populated parts of the city? If it was me, and I was being chased by a monster, I would have made a beeline for the biggest number of humans in the area. At least, when I’d been human I would have.
That sounds callous, but most people have a strong will to survive. The recriminations and self-hatred would come later, after the threat had passed. During the threat—it's every man or woman for themselves.
"Woo, she's a messy eater," Clay said from my side. I controlled my jump, knowing that's what Brax's beta wanted. A tall, lean man, with short blond hair and pretty blue eyes, Clay looked over the scene with an amused grimace. As beta to Brax, Clay was number two in the pack. I hadn't had many dealings with him, but he'd struck me as easygoing but competent in his job. He took care of the things Brax didn't want to, or didn't have time for.
Brax stood by Liam's side, Sondra at his back. The alpha and Liam acknowledged each other with a nod before Brax moved into the alley, his eyes scanning the scene.
"It's possible this wasn't Caroline," I said.
"Nose doesn't lie, babe." Clay tapped his nose as he stepped forward, uncaring of the blood as it squelched under his shoes. He crouched next to Catherine, placing one hand on the brick to steady himself and then leaned close, inhaling deeply, his eyes shifting to the ice blue of his wolf. He straightened, his eyes changing back to their normal blue. "Yup, our girl was here."
I stared, unseeing at the scene. The news freezing my insides. I'd hoped. I'd prayed that we'd been wrong, that by some miraculous turn of events, Caroline hadn't been part of this.
"Could the smell have been faked?" Liam asked, his face emotionless.
"Anything can be faked," Clay said, standing. "I doubt it, though. I spent some time with the girl after her turn. This is definitely her."
"Then you're sure Caroline Bradley is the one responsible for these deaths?" Liam asked.
Clay glanced at his alpha, turning the responsibility over to him.
Brax picked up one of the limbs with his gloved hands and examined it closely. "These bite marks are inconsistent with her bite."
"What does that mean?" I asked, afraid to hope.
He handed the bone off to Clay before moving onto the next piece.
"It's possible her bite has changed. The demon taint has affected her and made her transformation unstable. Her wolf is not as static as ours. It can be larger following some changes and smaller others," Clay said.
"But this is different than her bite in the past," I said.
Clay frowned and hesitated, as if he didn't want to confirm that. "Yes, it's different."
"It's still likely that she's the one responsible," Sondra said from the mouth of the alley. Her eyes were sad as they took in the scene.
"But not definite." I could work with that. This changed nothing. I still needed to find her, talk to her and get her side of the story before deciding what needed to be done.
"Even it isn't her, it's only a matter of time before she loses her grip," Brax said. "The full moon is in two days. The chances of her surviving a change with her sanity intact with no support from the pack are very small."
"Why is the pack's support so important?" I asked.
"In the first years after welcoming our wolf, it can be difficult to maintain a sense of “self” through the change and after. We're pack animals. We need that social bond to be healthy. We're stronger with the others around us. With a pack, you can rely on the older members to guide the change and safeguard your identity when you might be too weak to do so for yourself," Sondra said. "Without a pack, most wolves, especially in the beginning, go mad. Some never come out of their first change. It's why we're so diligent in hunting down those who might have been bitten in an attack or by accident, so we can bring them into the pack before it's too late."
"Aileen, we need to know where she is," Brax said.
"I can't help you because I don't know." It was the truth. I really didn't know. "She called me a few days ago and apologized for getting me involved. When I tried to get her to meet with me or at least consider some kind of compromise that would involve contact with the pack, she flipped out and hung up."
"How did you get that call?" Nathan asked. "We've been monitoring your phones."
That confirmed one suspicion and made all my precautions worth it. I didn't answer him, not wanting to give up my secrets so easily. They'd guess eventually but maybe not until after the next call.
"What did you do to her that scared her so badly she's willing to risk her sanity?" I asked. Because that was the real question. Caroline wasn't stupid. If they'd explained to her what they’d just told me, she never would have run. Her mom's grasp on mental health was shaky at best. I doubt Caroline would have done anything to risk hers.
Brax's attention focused on me, the great power that followed him around like a pet ratcheted up to nuclear intensity. "What makes you think we did something?"
"She wouldn't have just run like this. Not without a reason. Something happened to make her pull a disappearing act. I want to know what it is before I help you."
He cocked his head, the predator in him coming out. "So, you do have an idea?"
I shrugged. "A few."
Liam advanced on me. "The time for games is over. There are dead on the ground—people I swore to protect. Tell us what you know."
"Doesn't work like that," I said. "I won't hand her over—destroy our friendship—without knowing why she ran in the first place. If I do, this will just happen again, and next time she won't reach out to me first." They needed my help, whether they wanted to admit it or not. The only question was if they could get past their alpha-ness and superiority complexes to see that.
I might be a novice at the spook stuff, but I knew my friend and I knew how humans thought.
"There was an incident about a week before she ran," Sondra said, the shadows playing across her face sharpening and softening her edges as she walked into the alley. Her high-heeled sandals clicked against the brick, the shoes at odds with the otherworldly grace in her movements.
"What kind of incident?" Liam asked.
"The kind that shook her confidence and caused her to shut down," Sondra answered, holding Brax's eyes with a small, sad smile. "Until then, she seemed accepting of the wolf. She wasn't happy about having her life disrupted, but she was willing to learn and gain control."
"Her demon taint was stronger than expected," Clay explained. "One of our other new pups had difficulty controlling their wolf and attacked her. Caroline's wolf took over and defended her, but savaged the other wolf."
"We tried to make her understand that her response was self-defense, but her wolf’s reaction to a minor infraction was extreme. She didn't just subdue her attacker, she nearly ripped her head off."
"It is an understandable reaction for one of us," Brax said. "Our world is brutal and requires a certain amount of violence to survive. We didn't blame her or hold her at fault."
"I think she was afraid of the wolf within after that," Sondra explained in a soft voice.
"It didn't help that the demon taint has made her wolf a little different than the rest of the pups," Clay inserted. The violence around him didn't seem to bother him as he maintained his good ol' boy charm. It made me revise my assumptions. Anyone who could keep a smile on his face while surrounded by this much carnage was a lot more twisted than I’d thought.
"How so?" Nathan asked.
"She's bigger than the normal werewolf. Faster. Stronger. And I suspect her wolf's needs are slightly different than the norm as well," Clay said.
I wonder if they had told her all this. If it made her feel even more out of sync than she had before. She would have felt isolated, like a freak who didn't belong. It's hard to trust, when you're afraid the people who should be helping you are one bad mood from pronouncing you too much trouble.
"She left me a note," I said, choosing to trust that they'd told me the truth. Trust had to start somewhere and even if I found Caroline, I wasn't sure I could help her. This would take knowledge and finesse much greater than I possessed. I pulled the folded-up note from my pocket and handed it to Brax.
His brow furrowed as he read over it before handing it to Liam. "What does this mean?"
I shrugged. "I don't know, but she doesn't have a cat."
"No, she doesn't," Sondra said, peering over Clay's shoulder to read the note once Liam had passed it over. "It was one of the questions I asked when she first woke up. We usually foster any animals until the pup is ready to resume their life."
"Senior year, that's high school, right?" Nathan arched his eyebrows in question.
I forgot that as centuries old vampires they might not be up on current school lingo. "Yeah, it's high school."
"Would she go back to the school?" Brax asked.
I shook my head. "I doubt it. We both hated that place. Neither one of us could wait until it was time to get out of there."
"School's not in session. Might be a good place to hide, especially if you're familiar with the layout," Sondra said.
"Were there any places there that you guys liked to hang out?" Brax asked.
"Not really. Neither one of us were the type to skip class and any extracurriculars took place in the classrooms."
"I don't care. It's a lead. We need to send someone over there to check it out," Brax told Clay.
"On it, boss." Clay pulled out a cell phone, his voice hushed as he walked out of the alley for some privacy.