Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
If Zander knew anything that might mean a loup-garou wanted him dead, then he didn’t know he knew. He did, however, know a great deal about dildos, which meant Zee and Zander bonded over dicks and bubble tea.
After that apparently necessary conversation reached its climax, we discussed taking Zander back to the No Tel Motel with us, but decided he was probably safer with the vet. At least until we figured out if he had been the intended target.
“You guys really are great,” Zander said. He’d scooted up, making room for Zee on the other end of the snug couch. Both of them had brightly colored bubble tea that they fished around in with fat straws. “I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t been there. Or what I’d do now. How can I repay you?”
I waved him off. “It’s fine.” We might have been Heroes of the City, but that definitely did not make us good guys.
“This is what Adam does,” Zee said around a mouthful of bubbles he’d just sucked up his straw. He gulped, and added, “Saves Lost Ones. It’s his thing. He doesn’t get that it’s his thing, but the rest of us do.”
“That true?” Zander asked me. “You save Lost Ones?”
The praise made me squirm in the chair and I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s not really like that. I don’t plan to save people, it just sort of happens. Most of the time I’m in the wrong place at the right time.”
“You guys could have left as soon as they dropped Cameron’s body on you. Just ridden outtah town. Not many people would have stayed after being accused of murder, especially if you really didn’t do it. So why are you here... really?”
“Adam’s on the run, and because we love him we’re on the run too.” Zee said it so matter-of-factly I almost missed how he’d just neatly voiced the one thing I’d been trying not to mention.
“Wow, you guys seem pretty tough.” Zander slurped bubbles up his straw. “What’s so bad that you gotta run from it?”
“Meh.” Zee shrugged, still fishing for bubbles. “Whatever it is, we’ll end it. We’re actually pretty good at this hero schtick.” He flicked his gaze up to see if I was paying attention. Just like Victor, he’d always known this vacation was a smokescreen, but unlike Victor, he’d decided to play along.
I gave Zee my thankful smile, hurting a little bit inside because of the lies he’d seen through.
A phone rang on the little side table next to the couch. Zander scooped it up and tucked it under his chin. “Oh, right... Okay, yeah, thank you. Yeah, they’re still here. Okay. Thanks, Mia.” He hung up, and his gaze shot straight to the front window. “Duke’s here.”
I got to my feet and took cover against the front wall beside the window, then peeked outside. “There’s a beat-up old pickup across the street, outside the vet’s. It wasn’t there earlier.”
“That’s gotta be Duke’s,” Zander confirmed.
Zee poofed beside me, peeking from the opposite side of the window. “What the fuck... did the mist follow him here?”
He was right. The sun had vanished and a bank of mist had rolled in, thickening as we watched, obscuring our view of the truck and the street.
“Does it usually get misty like this here too?” I glanced back at Zander.
“No idea. I don’t come up this way much.” He tried to sit up and winced. With his broken limbs and bandages, he wasn’t going anywhere on his own. “I have not had enough drugs for this.”
Zee’s glare turned serious, and when he spoke, he’d lost all his bouncy, easygoing vibe. “The loop-guru ain’t getting through us a second time.”
“Loup-garou,” I corrected.
“Whatever, Victor .”
I almost laughed, and caught his quirking lips.
“Do you think it’s him then... Duke?” Zander asked, pulling his blanket under his chin. “Is it Duke doing all this?”
“He’s been frosty toward us the whole time we’ve been here,” Zee said.
“And he didn’t much like Galbraith asking us to help out,” I added. But it still didn’t explain why Duke would murder Cameron and then go after Zander. Where was the connection? Maybe there wasn’t a reason. Some people did crazy things for reasons known only to them. And Duke did eat the local wildlife, so maybe he’d escalated to people?
“Maybe I should go talk with him,” I suggested to Zee.
He dead-eyed me. “You wanna walk into that creepy mist and go talk to the murder guru? Uhm, let me think.” Reaching across the window, he booped my nose and grinned. “Not fuckin’ happening. We’re staying here until that mist fucks off.”
“You know, I could just eat him?”
“Pfft, you can’t eat every problem, Kitten.”
“It’s worked pretty well so far.”
“Imma make us all more bubble tea,” Zee said, probably to keep Zander calm. He turned to him and asked, “What’s your favorite flavor?”
With Zee and Zander chatting, I kept my eye on the swirling mist. The street had vanished beneath its folds, making it seem as though this little house was the only one in Whiteacre Falls.
Could loup-garous control the weather? That seemed like something Victor would have mentioned. A Wilson’s Guide would have been useful right about now. “Hey, Zander, do you know if Mia has a Wilson’s Guide ?”
“Maybe. It’ll be in the next room over, on the bookshelf.” He pointed across the short hall into the other room.
I headed toward the dining room but stopped short when a blur passed by the window. Or was it just the bush outside, shifting in the breeze? I hadn’t heard anything, though... The mist had made me jumpy.
From the window, I checked the yard and found just a whole lot of mist trying to push in. And the bush wasn’t moving... Not a breath of wind.
“Adam Vex,” a growling voice rumbled from outside. I peered closer into the gray gloom and spotted a bulky figure emerging... Duke.
I moved toward the front door.
“Don’t go out there,” Zee warned as he left the kitchen, fresh drinks in both hands.
“I’m just going to talk with him.”
“From the doorway.” Zee’s smiles had gone.
“Yup, right here.” Opening the door revealed swathes of churning gray mist, but no Duke. “Huh.” Well, that was... weird. “You heard him, right?”
“Yeah...” Zee peered over my shoulder. “That’s a big nope to the murder mist.”
“He was right there.” Unless... it hadn’t been Duke at all. Victor had said the loup-garou was a shapeshifter that could make itself look like almost anything humanoid. Or anyone?
“Meh, he’s gone now. Bubble tea?” Zee shoved a glass into my hand and turned toward Zander on the couch.
“Zee, something weird is going on.”
“I know. I couldn’t find the peach flavoring, so you’ve got a mix of cranberry and blueberry. It’ll work.” He handed the second glass to a beaming Zander.
We had more to worry about than bubble-tea flavoring. I sipped the tea... although it did taste good.
An arm looped around my waist and yanked me backward through the door. A snap of wet-cold wrapped around my body, and by the time I realized I was no longer standing in the house, the mist had swallowed everything recognizable.
The steel-hard arm spun me, then flung me down, face first into the dirt.
Knees or paws—I couldn’t be sure which—pinned me to the ground, and a thunderous growl touched the back of my neck.
“You know...” I wheezed, trying to breathe around the crushing weight. “This is a really bad idea.”
The growls continued.
“I may not... look it... but I’m actually... a badass.” All that was difficult to say with a mouth full of grass. If I could just get my hands under me, I could shove whoever was on me off.
“Adam!” The rolling mist made Zee’s cry come from all over. I couldn’t see anything much beyond the grass I was face down in.
“Stay out of pack business,” the growly voice said, more animal than man.
“Can’t do that...” I wheezed, trying to pry my hands under my chest wiggle by wiggle. “Made a vow.”
A huge hand slammed into the back of my head and the beast’s hot breath blasted my cheek. “Break it.”
“That’s enough!” I bucked, flung my head back, and threw the beast off, then flipped around to get a look at my attacker. But it was fast and had already vanished into the mist again, leaving smoky gray swirls behind.
“Adam?!”
“Stay there!” I told Zee. “I’ve got this!” This beast had beaten Victor badly. If anyone was going to get hurt again, it had to be me. I could shake off cuts and broken bones, but Zee wasn’t as robust.
I flicked out my hands, freeing long black claws, and let some of the dragon filter through my sweet, innocent camouflage. “Hello, boys.” Two could play the shifter game. But mine were bigger.
“I’m not sitting this out, Kitten!” The location of Zee’s voice had moved, coming from the bank on my left, not ahead of me like it had moments ago.
I couldn’t look out for him and track the beast. “Zee, I’ve got this! Stay with Zander!”
“You really got this?”
The direction his voice came from had moved again. He was either searching for me, or the mist was playing tricks on all of us.
“Yeah!”
“If you die, the trauma will destroy Fancy Fangs. Just sayin’!”
A rustling sounded behind me. Turning away from the sound of Zee’s voice, I zeroed in on it and stalked forward. “Not gonna die, Zee. I got this.”
Finally, Zee was quiet, leaving just me and the loup-garou out here. “What’s the time, Mr. Wolf...” I growled, letting more dragon rumble through my voice. I could hear the beast’s breathing, sense its closeness. It was watching me, waiting for a mistake that wouldn’t come.
“Come out and maybe I won’t eat you.” My true self had my voice now, turning it deeper than my sweet and innocent exterior could pull off. My words bubbled up, deep and dark and rich with threat.
The bush rustled some more.
It should be afraid.
Just under half of me wanted to tear into the beast, rip it limb from limb and devour all its best bits—it would solve our murder problem—but even as dragon, I could be reasonable. Maybe this loup-garou had a good reason for being mean? “Come out. Let’s talk. You get one chance.”
The bush the creature hid in was closer now, but the mist was so thick it obscured all detail. Time for some scare tactics. I freed a deep warning growl and sprang, slicing through the spiky brush at?—
“Zee!”
Zee screamed, and leaped out of the bush, wings and tail flapping. “Fucccccckk!” He eyed my savage claws and recoiled.
“I almost gutted you!” I yanked my hands back, hiding my claws behind my back.
He blinked. “Fuck, you’re scary.”
“I thought you were the loup-garou.” My claws retracted with a snick . I growled and turned on the spot. I’d been stalking Zee this whole time? Where was the beast now? “You’re supposed to be back there with Zander.”
“Yeah, but I don’t love him, do I? I fuckin’ love you.” He flicked his hair. “And there’s no way I’m leaving you out here alone with Mr. Murder Mittens.”
“Ugh...” Why didn’t they trust me to handle these things? Zee and Victor were the ones who needed protection, not me. “We need to get back to Zander.” I picked a direction and marched into the mist, hoping it took me to something familiar so I could find the way back.
“Are you mad at me?” Zee said, following a few steps behind.
“Yes.”
“Mad enough for make-up sex later?”
“No sex.”
“Ugh, you’re that mad?”
Stopping on a patch of asphalt—probably the road or someone’s front drive—I turned and glared at Zee, stopping him in his tracks. “I’m not a fragile ornament that’s going to break at the first sign of some bad guys.” The growls were out and difficult to rein in.
Zee pulled his wings in, and his shoulders slouched, making him smaller. “But, I?—”
“ You need protecting, Zee. Not me. You and Victor. I protect you, do you understand? I’m the dragon. This is my fault. I keep you safe. There are things out there worse than this loup-garou, Zee. They will chew you up and spit you out like a bug. When I say to stay back, you stay back!”
He swallowed and flipped his tail up, then wrung his hands around its lashing end. “I’m sorry?—”
“No, sorry is no good. You can’t say sorry when you’re dead.” I turned on my heel and plowed ahead again. My heart beat in my throat from fear, but I wasn’t afraid for me. Zee wasn’t immortal—he could die just like humans died—he just happened to be a little tougher to kill. And Victor claimed to be immortal, but he just lived a really long time. We’d killed two vampire queens, mostly by accident, proving even the highest of vampires could be killed.
I was a dragon. The only other thing we could encounter that was strong enough to kill me was another dragon. They had to understand that for what was coming.
“I won’t ever stop protecting you, Adam,” Zee called, falling behind.
His stubbornness was going to get him killed.
Zander’s temporary house emerged from the mist, and I marched inside to find him sitting nonchalantly on the couch, sipping his tea.
“Did you get him?” Zander asked.
“No, I lost him.”
Zee followed a few minutes later, sulking in silence. I told Zander we’d wait out the mist and leave when we were sure he was safe. A few hours later, the mist had faded, and Whiteacre Falls was back to normal, basking under weak sunlight.
Zee told Zander he’d organize a stay at our hotel, and with a few quick goodbyes, we climbed into the van, heading back toward the motel and bar where hopefully Victor would have some good news regarding Cameron’s body.
We drove all the way in silence.