Chapter Thirty-Four – Carter

 

God, I hoped I was right. Because, if I wasn’t, I was about to scare the shit out of someone for no good reason.

My hands tightened on the shotgun, my finger laying itself along the receiver after I flicked off the safety. I swung out from my spot along the wall, reared back and lifted my leg, planted my heel right beside the door’s handle, and kicked it open.

Silence and darkness in the front room, one of those open-area office places with desks peppered throughout. Nothing else, though. Only the distant sound of traffic on the highway.

I took a step into the building, my shotgun held at my hip, swiveling with me at every turn as its barrel followed my eyes on my rightward sweep.

Just office stuff. Like everyone had been given the week off, and forced to leave their work exactly where it was. The smell of stale coffee, the sound of paper rustling in the draft from the open door. Nothing. No smell of Lucy. No cries from Amber, nor tears. They weren’t here. Neither of them was here.

The fetid stench of rat shifter drifted to my nose, filling my senses.

My nose twitched. But someone else was here.

Immediately, I heard a woman’s familiar voice off to my left, from somewhere in the shadows. But not Lucy’s or Amber’s.

“Took you long en—”

I swung around and, with a long enough look to make sure it was who I believed it to be, pulled the trigger. The dual blast from the barrels of my shotgun silenced her words midstream, replacing them with a scream of agony as two loads of rock salt burrowed into her flesh. The silhouette of a woman dropped like a sack of bricks to the office’s carpeted floor, right behind one of the abandoned desks.

I recognized that yell, though. Zoey Mattis.

Rock salt shells like I’d just used on her weren’t meant for shifters, and they wouldn’t do anything special like they would for a ghost or a demon. But, just like with a human, it was going to burn like hell and keep her down on the ground for a minute or two.

“Goddamn it, Carter!” she yelled from where she was writhing on the floor on the other side of a desk. “I just wanted to fucking talk! To offer you help, you son of a fucking bitch!”

“Where is she?” I growled as I breached the barrel and began to pluck out the spent shells, stuffing them away in my coat pocket. I thumbed two new ones into the barrel, snapped it shut as I came around the desk. “Where’s Lucy? Where’s Amber?”

Zoey glared up at me, her face drawn beneath her mass of mussed, spiked blonde hair, her breath ragged. I couldn’t see a firearm on her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t armed. Or not still dangerous. “What the hell was that?” She asked between pained gasps, a wince clear on her face. “Silver?”

“Rock salt,” I said, keeping my distance as I brought both barrels to bear on her. “Now talk! Or we’ll play show and tell about how bad two more loads of it hurt.”

She grimaced and tried to catch her breath as she put a hand out in front of her, the other still grasping at her bloodied chest. “Okay, okay. Look, I know where they took her. Winters left me behind here because of the bullets you put in my chest last night. Said he wouldn’t get me any help till after the job was done, and Lazarus had to stay behind or he’d ruin our name. Make sure no one does business with us ever again. So we have to stay in Shamrock till he’s got it.”

“Got it? The phoenix egg, huh?”

She winced again as she gave me a little nod.

“Why’re you giving him up, then? Huh? Lazarus team up with Winters to try and sell you out or something?”

A confused look on her face, her eyebrows scrunched tightly together. “What?” She shook her head. “Fuck, no! Lazarus and I want out. Gone. This…you, aren’t what we signed up for. Not killing kids, either, or going head to head with a fucking bear shifter. Little above our pay grade. Shit, we’re just poachers, Carter. I kill fucking unicorns for a living, not paramilitary!”

Something deep inside me said she was telling the truth. That, even though I had her covered on the floor with a shotgun full of salt, and my sidearm was loaded with silver, she genuinely just wanted to help me find Lucy and Amber. And, more importantly, leave her the hell alone.

“How can I trust you? How do I know this isn’t a trap?”

“Lazarus said he shot two bullets in your Jeep, back at the wreck. That he put them into the door, instead of your head like Winters ordered him to. Don’t tell me you don’t remember smelling the powder when you woke up.”

I frowned. I did remember smelling it. The acrid smell of burnt chemicals. Unmistakable when you’ve spent your life working with firearms. I gave her a nod.

“Good. Why would we set a trap for you if Lazarus could have just killed you a couple hours ago? That make any sense?”

I sighed, flicked on the safety, clasped a hand around the barrel of the sawed off shotgun, and brought it down to my side. I offered her my other hand.

She clasped her hand into mine, letting me pull her to her feet. “Knew you were smarter than you looked.”

“Still got two barrels with your name on them,” I said.

“Save ’em,” she replied. “We still got Winters to worry about.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of ammo.” I licked my parched lips and frowned a little. “Besides, still haven’t entirely decided if I trust you.”

“Don’t need you to trust me. Just to believe me. They’re worlds apart, in my book.”

“Where did they take the women, anyways?” I asked as she leaned back against the desk, her arms still tenderly touching her chest.

There was more dried blood there from the rock salt, but nothing bleeding excessively like when I’d gotten her with the silver. “Condemned building Draco owns not too far from here, a big factory from the fifties or sixties. Open space, deserted. Winters, or whoever was advising him, said it would be perfect for the harvesting.”

“So he’s got a copy of the spell, then?”

“Know about it?” she asked, but shook her head like she was remembering something. “Forgot. You got a witch back home. Yeah, he’s gonna do that one at midnight.”

“Got a few hours yet, then,” I said with a nod. “Can get the women out, hightail it down to St. Louis, get Tabitha working on it.”

She nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Easy.” She coughed wetly, and I lifted a hand, almost touched her shoulder. She waved me off, though, as the cough continued. “Don’t need your damn help. Helped enough putting these extra air holes in me, as it is. Got a doc just waiting for me to come in.” She grinned at me, a faint sheen of red covering her teeth.

I glanced away. “Yeah. All right, you got help when you need it. Good.”

Zoey looked at me a little nervously, like she wanted to say something, but didn’t know quite how to broach the matter.

“Well?” I finally asked.

“Heard you’re not with the Research Board anymore. That true?”

I sniffed. “Still hunting, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Well, Lazarus and I help you with this, with bringing down Winters, I mean, we want a pass.” She and I locked eyes, and I could see the fear there. That, after this was all said and done, I’d turn on her.

In the PRB, I’d been a killer. We all had been. We were ex-military, after all, and most of the time you had to shoot first and ask questions later. Especially with what we dealt with. I glanced down at the shotgun in my hand, remembered how quickly I’d pulled the trigger when the firearm was pointed at her.

Maybe I still was one? Maybe I still was a killer?

“Lazarus and I, we’re willing to help you put Winters down. He’s a piece of work, that one, and we screwed the fucking pooch by taking up with him. We admit it, okay?”

I grunted. “You did.”

“Let us walk, then. We didn’t hurt anyone while we were in town.”

“You took some shots at us. At me.”

“Only before we knew what was going on.” She coughed again. Her face grew paler, and I saw the blood splattered on the back of her hand.

“You should really—”

She held up her bloodied hand. “No. Not yet. I’m fine. Been worse off before.” She looked back at me, her eyes seeming to grow in intensity. “I took those shots at you because I thought you were here to kill me. That’s what Lazarus and I both thought. That’s why we took the car and hid it from the cops, pretended to be detectives and did everything to track Lucy Skinner down, because we knew she was with you. And if we could hit you first, maybe we could make this an easier job.”

“So you want to help me because I’m working for Full Moon now?”

She smiled a little. “Heard your buddy did some good work down south, freeing some town from a vampire. Figured you couldn’t be all bad if you were working with people like that. Not anymore. Look, we’re just poachers. Sure, you could throw us in prison, maybe. If you could get someone to believe you about us hunting nightmares and gorgons. But kill us? I’ve never killed an innocent person in my life.”

I sighed, glanced away. I don’t know how, but I could see she was telling the truth. Some kind of sixth sense, or maybe just my sense of smell, was backing her up. I nodded my head. “Okay. You and your partner get a pass. But, so help me God, I run into you again after this, we’ll have some words. All right?”

“Yeah. Got it.” She pushed herself off from the desk. “Here, find me a pen so I can get the address for you.”

“Just the address?” I asked her back as she headed off towards one of the side offices. “You’re not coming with me?”

“Why the hell would I do that? My chest looks like fucking salted Swiss cheese. Feels worse!”

“Well, even I know I can’t go in there, guns blazing. You said this was a condemned building, a factory. Big place like that, I need someone who can give me the layout.”

“What if I drew a floor plan?”

I shook my head. “Nope. You’re going in right alongside me. You and Lazarus can bug out from there.”

“Now—”

“Zoey,” I said, my voice cold and even, “let’s be clear here. Winters has the woman I love, is holding her hostage while he prepares to rip a fucking egg out of another young woman’s chest. An innocent woman’s chest. I want those women safe, which means I need you alongside me.”

She swallowed hard, her throat bobbing a little.

“And, as far as your free pass goes, I know people from my previous life. People who owe me favors, Zoey. I can do the exact opposite of what you’re asking. People who can make your life difficult no matter where you go, even if I don’t kill you.”

She sighed, a dejected sound. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Great. Lead the way.”