Chapter 15
Whatever I expected from a group of werewolves, it wasn’t at all what they were.
No Hollywood glamour, no tragic loners brooding in the moonlight.
These were predators—the kind that made your hindbrain scream run before you’d even registered the claws.
The ones in wolf form stood taller than Kerry at full stretch, their fur a living map of scars and strange colors.
Storm-cloud gray, rust-streaked brown, one pitch-black with ghostly stripes like a tiger’s shadow.
The bipedal ones were worse. Not quite wolfmen, but wrong in ways you couldn’t unsee.
Jaws too pronounced, hair shaggier than an eighties rock band, pupils glowing amber in too-narrow eyes, and nails like dagger tips.
The leader, a hulking male with salt-and-pepper hair and muscles to rival any cartoon superhero, sniffed the air. His gaze landed briefly on me, and if Angel hadn’t been right behind me, I might have taken a step back.
His gaze flipped to Angel. “Mate.”
“He can tell from way over there?” I asked. “Is there some supernatural arrow pointing at us?”
The big man chuckled. “Smell like cum and cat.”
I blinked and gazed wide-eyed at Angel. “We haven’t done anything all week, and I’ve showered. A lot.”
Angel sighed heavily. “Rook,” he held out his hand. “Glad to have you as backup today. Can one of your people look at the other transport?”
The big man accepted Angel’s handshake and nodded at the other truck. “Gnomes?”
“Gnomes,” Angel agreed.
“Fucking beasts,” Rook spat. “Mose and Bark will fix.”
“Thanks.” Angel pointed to the apartment building. “Do you know who cleared that?”
“Vampires,” Rook said, his gaze landing on Victor, who kept to our backs as if he didn’t want to get closer to the werewolves.
Bobby groaned.
“Why is that bad?” I whispered to Bobby.
“Vampires don’t care much for mortals,” Victor said from his spot beside the door.
“We’ll need to sweep the building,” Wade said, popping out behind us. “There are notes from the clearing team that make me think there still might be regular humans in there.”
Angel sighed.
“We guard back,” Rook said. He waved his giant paw at the building. “You search for tinies.” He grinned at me, revealing very canine-like teeth. “You like tiny.”
“Hey now,” I said. “I’ll have you know I’m perfectly average sized.”
“Most men don’t advertise that,” Kerry snickered. Bobby laughed. Wade hid his chuckle against his shoulder.
“At least he’s not embellishing,” Ezra grumbled.
“You’re all assholes,” I told them.
“I do like tiny,” Angel agreed, giving me a wink.
“Rude! I’m not tiny.”
“Let’s split into three teams. Rook’s team on backup. Jude and I can have two of your people for backup. Victor and Wade, who do you want on your team?”
Victor chose Kerry and Tank. Wade put Bobby and Remi on his team, leaving Ezra to sputter about staying with the werewolves.
I wondered what that was all about. Remi had gone really quiet all week, though his fever had finally waned, and the mark remained.
My irritation with him over the flirting had long since vanished, turning to worry.
The fae variant offered occasional tips on shielding but hadn’t tried again to get close. He also avoided Ezra like the plague.
“They’re your bloodline,” Bobby said. “Be friendly. Get to know them.”
Ezra growled. “They are no more my bloodline than Victor is yours.”
“Right, Bobby. You gonna introduce us to your long-lost vamp daddy? Victor, you have something to tell us?” Kerry teased.
Bobby flipped her off. “At least my bloodline doesn’t shed on the furniture.”
The giant bipedal wolf with rusty hair chuffed and bared his teeth. “Neither do ours. We’re house-trained.”
“Mostly,” Rook agreed.
I swallowed back a laugh. “Maybe now that we’ve established everyone’s pedigree, can we focus on the murder building behind us, please?”
“Murder building?” Wade asked, his gaze on a scanner that seemed to be on the fritz. “Why do you say that? We didn’t have human casualties from the Veil expansion.”
Why did I say that? As I looked up the long tower of dark windows, absent of any sort of flickering ghost aura I’d become used to, I couldn’t help but sense something. A deep and dull ache of wrongness, not unlike the corpses I’d tried to interview that turned up blank. Devoid of life?
“Tiny death mage sees the death we smell,” Rook said.
I blinked at him in horror. He smelled death? Way out here?
“Fuck,” Wade cursed. “Those vampire assholes left people for dead?” He glanced at Victor. “Sorry. Not talking about you.”
Victor sighed. “If they were already dead, the bodies would have been left. My people are nothing if not… efficient? Following the agreement to the letter? They’d have escorted out anyone alive. But already dead?” He shrugged.
Not their problem. I sighed, already butting heads with some of the changes from PD Homicide to SED. Angel rubbed the small of my back in comfort, as if he knew how much I grappled with the idea of leaving anyone behind. Even remains, as they might have family looking for them.
“We’ll have to clear it ourselves, then,” I said as a cold gust swept through the parking lot, carrying the scent of damp concrete and something faintly coppery.
The werewolves shifted, ears pricked, their gazes locked on the building.
My gaze lifted upward to Cassidy’s window, expecting to see him there again, only it was nothing but a gaping black hole, taunting, waiting.