“No you won’t.” Leona stood at the foot of the stairs dressed in her formfitting uniform, hair pulled back in a tight bun. She was ready fast and was efficient with her time. Something else he could admire. “If you disappear, I’ll never clear your name.” She set her hand on the butt of her gun.
“I think we’re beyond that. I could show up with someone ready to confess and Homeland would insist I used mental powers to make them think they did it.” Pallas threw his arms in the air. No matter what, he couldn’t win. They had decided he was guilty the moment someone said vampire.
Leona crossed her arms still on the stairs and blocking the only exit. “Can you do that?”
“What? Make someone believe they committed murder? No.”
“Then what can you do?”
He massaged the bridge of his nose. Vampire powers differed from person to person but his clan held the strongest abilities. They didn’t like him divulging their secrets. Sometimes when people believed they were all powerful was what saved them. “It’s complicated.”
“Anything worth knowing usually is.” She leaned against the wall, clearly not moving out of his way.
“If I explain things in detail, it puts you in danger. It’s not something I’m willing to do.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“No doubt.” He drew closer and brushed the back of his fingers over her cheek, remembering the first night they’d met. Such courage and fighting skill spoke to his soul. It was love at first punch. “But not against this. Trust me, I can’t make someone believe they’ve killed. I would if I could. I’m that much of a monster.”
“I don’t think you’re a monster,” she whispered.
“Yes, I am. Just don’t forget that I’m your monster.” He pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, resisting the urge to let down her hair. With great regret, he pulled free. “Once I find a safe haven, I can send for you.”
She broke eye contact and he knew deep down she had strong ties to this town. Stronger than those to him.
“That’s not fair of me to ask you to leave here.” He retreated from her allure.
Before he was out of her reach, she gripped his wrist. “Damn straight, that’s not fair. We have other options. We need to prove your innocence with evidence. Pure scientific, undeniable facts.”
He mirrored her stance. “How? I don’t know these things.” She stated these words as if he should understand but she didn’t know that he’d been asleep for a very long time. He’d left the world when horses were the fastest transportation and had awoken to jet planes. He tried to learn but he had only been awake a couple of years.
Leona tapped the metal badge on her chest. “You’re lucky. I do this for a living.”
“Prove people’s innocence. I thought you went after the guilty.”
She smirked and released his wrists. “It’s complicated.”
“Anything worth knowing usually is.” His unbeating heart sank though. “I still need to save my wolves. They are the only family I have left.” How could he explain how much he cared about those bumbling idiots? That while his manor had been on fire, and he was trapped inside, the pack had done everything to control the flames so he wouldn’t burn. They’d only been there a few days, yet they considered his life worth saving. A lot of things had changed that night and an unbreakable bond had been formed. “I won’t let any of them die at the hands of Homeland.” An image of Jake curled up in a ball, shoved against a corner, came unbidden to his mind. “Not again.” As he recalled the burnt corpses of his old pack ages ago.
The misfit werewolf pack thought he was trying to kill them with his training tactics. None of them had died though. A few close calls, but they’d been saved. Such things built character and friendships.
This was different. Human hunters wanted them dead and he bet they carried silver bullets in those guns.
“Homeland pulled out a lot of weapons from your home.” Leona would see through any lie. “What do you and your pack do on your property?”
“Nothing illegal. Nothing that would hurt your kind or this town. If anything, it’s supposed to eventually help.”
She signaled him for more information with an elegant quirk of her eyebrow.
“I make warriors. It’s what I do. What I’m best at. Some of these wolves, the best of them will become a task force.” He could see the spark of concern in her eyes. “Not a bad one. They—they’re supposed to help…things.” Daedalus explained this better. Pallas didn’t have use for words.
“Things? Like rob banks? Assassinate people?”
He pressed his lips together, not amused by her joke. “There’s trouble brewing in the packs. The shifters are not what they should be and my warriors are part of the solution.” A slow smile spread across his lips as an idea donned. “Think of them as police for their kind.”
“Oh.” Her brow drew downwards. “Humankind polices them.”
“You try, but it’s not enough.” He sighed. “Look, we don’t have time for this debate.” Pallas pointed in the direction of his home. “The state troopers will eventually stumble across my wolves and blood on both sides will be spilled. We can’t afford that. Will turning myself in stop the hunt?”
From what he had read, the truce between humankind and shifters had been shaky since it had begun. They were one massacre away from all-out war. His elite team was supposed to stop things like this from happening. Not be the source.
Leona shook her head slowly. “We’re beyond that. Homeland reinforcements arrived. They have a point to prove. How long do you think your wolves can evade the search party?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know where they are.” He had a few guesses and hoped they had changed to wolf form to keep moving.
“Just have to hope you trained them well. The only way out of this is to solve the crime. We need to make a list of people who would want to frame you. You have any enemies?”
“Countless. What kind of question is that?” There were times where even his friends wanted to stake him.
She tossed her head back and pleaded with the ceiling. “Can’t anything be easy with you?” She daggered him with a glare and paced the room. “So, motive could be multiple reasons. The bite wound was fake so we can cross out other vampires.”
That fact kicked him in the gut. This wasn’t a territory issue with another vampire like he had first assumed. “A human wants Homeland to kill me.”
“That’s what I think.” She spoke with such authority and acted as if he would follow her order without question.
What was truly interesting was that he did.
“I need more to go on than this. Without the bite, everything else is circumstantial but not enough to clear your charges. Homeland can still take you away.”
“And I bet I would never reach their headquarters alive.” Not after his escape. Not after all the crazy misinformation he’d given them during the interrogation. “You mentioned we should look at where the murder took place.”
“Yes! The crime scene should still be intact.” She led him upstairs where she dressed in her winter gear.
“I thought about it while you were in the shower. My senses are more acute than humans’. Maybe I’ll see something you might have taken for granted, like the bite mark. If I had seen it, I would have been able to tell that it was faked. Was there any blood at the scene?”
“Nothing we could see, but it snowed.” She zipped her jacket and exited her cabin.
He silently followed her down the icy hill leading away from her house. The cruiser was parked at a strange angle at the base.
“The car is stuck on the ice. Can you give her a push?” Leona pulled off her gloves and searched her pockets.
With one hand, he shoved the vehicle back a few feet.
She halted, keys in hand. “You could have waited until I took it out of park.” She eyed him warily as she climbed behind the steering wheel.
Pallas joined her in the front seat on the passenger side. From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed her finger tapping on the steering wheel. “You can go.”
“Seatbelt.”
With a growl, he belted in. “You witnessed my car crash. I was thrown through the windshield and survived. I don’t need these things.” He yanked at the chest restraint, not liking the confinement.
“You wouldn’t have been thrown if you’d been wearing one.” She drove to his land, using unfamiliar back roads and avoiding any witnesses.
“You know the area well.” Better than he. Very impressive. His concentration had been focused mapping the wild areas surrounding his home when all this time he really should have been watching the humans.
“Of course I do. I’m the sheriff.”
They pulled onto the land easement that bordered Pallas’ property where Bob’s body had been found. The crime scene tape was still intact and the area was abandoned. Most likely everyone had been assigned search duty. She kept the headlights on since the woods were pitch black. Pallas might have night vision but she didn’t. She wouldn’t tempt fate by taking a chance of breaking a leg on the ice.
Pallas glared out the window in silence, probably stewing in his worries. His affection for the young werewolves was commendable…and surprising. Leona never understood why the pack had chosen to live with the vampire. Now, all her original questions were answered and seeded new ones. Like where did he come from? How old was he? She eyed his thick biceps, straining the sleeve of his T-shirt. Wasn’t he cold? And how strong was he? Pallas had shoved her car like a toy. Dangerous. He was so very dangerous.
Her teeth chattered and she pulled her hood over her head. She hated winter. Loved the snow, hated the cold. Unfortunately, she couldn’t have one without the other.
Pallas was out of the car before her and opening her door in a blink of an eye. “Show me where he was found.”
The snow crunched under her boots. Temperatures had dropped significantly since yesterday, leaving everything crisper and hard. Much like the vampire next to her. She ducked under the tape.
He passed her and she let him examine the area while she tried to find a spot shielded from the wind. He was right. He didn’t search like humans did. He sniffed at things, climbed the trees, and even dug into the snow. Whatever he found would be difficult to admit in court but might lead them to more clues.
Shoulders slumped, he strode back. “I can’t smell any blood, even when I dug up the snow where Bob’s body had laid.”
“Why is that important?”
“If the body was drained here, there would have been something. A drop. Blood is messy. It’s worse than water to work with. There should be some kind of frozen puddle. Snow loves to keep blood.”
“You sure know a lot about blood.”
The corner of his lush mouth turned upwards.
She cleared her throat. “He could have been drained off-site and dumped here.”
Pallas stiffened and shoved her behind his back as he faced the dark woods.
“What the fuck?” She couldn’t see what startled him but pulled out her gun and took aim anyway.
“Something is moving behind those trees.” Pallas pointed and set his hand on her revolver, forcing it down. “Careful, don’t shoot your foot.”
She ground her teeth and clicked the safety back on. He was too strong to fight. Seriously, shoot her foot?
Behind the trees trotted the biggest wolf she had ever seen. Well, he was the first she had ever seen in person, but she had watched a lot of documentaries since the shifters had moved into town, and on-screen, they didn’t look this big. He could have licked her face, without stretching, while on four legs.
From what she had read, werewolves could stand on their hind legs as well. He would clear seven feet if he did.
Pallas knelt and scratched behind the wolf’s ear, a huge grin on his face. “Ian.”