Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
I t took me a fraction of a second to react. I lurched towards Thane and knocked him to the ground as another shot rang out. Fortunately this one hit the wall rather than our far more vulnerable bodies.
I rolled. I had more than enough experience to know the trajectory of the bullet that had hit Quack: the shooter, whoever they were, was situated up to the right, probably less than fifty metres away.
As soon as I knew I was shielded from any further hits, I reached for Thane and yanked him next to me. His nostrils flared and I felt the thud of his heart, but other than that he displayed no signs of panic.
He stretched out his hand to grab Quack but I shook my head. ‘She’s already dead,’ I said grimly. I didn’t need to check her pulse to know that because the bullet had struck her directly in the heart. Even if it weren’t silver, she had already passed out of this life. Not even a werewolf could escape such a hit.
Thane’s jaw tightened but he nodded. He pointed upwards and raised an eyebrow. I indicated agreement; we couldn’t allow whoever had fired that shot to get away.
He knelt and made a foothold for me with his cupped hands, then lifted me so I could scale the wall and reach the rooftop. I paused for a moment, taking the time to look around and double-check we weren’t about to be shot again.
When I saw the back of a black-clad figure sprinting over the nearby rooftops, I reached down and extended a hand to Thane to help him up. As soon as he saw the shooter, he took off in pursuit.
I started to follow but stopped when the killer sailed across a wide gap that no normal person could cross. It might have been a temporary magic spell or naturally enchanted ability, but either way we wouldn’t catch the assassin without a little enhancement of our own.
I turned back and spotted the tabby, still in the same position and still with the same frank curiosity in his gaze. The shot had startled him but he was brave enough to hold his ground.
‘Sorry about this, mate,’ I said. I strode over and plucked a tuft of fur from his side. He gave a startled miaow and blinked at me. ‘I appreciate it,’ I told him. ‘Come visit me in Danksville and I’ll repay you.’ The cat emitted a brief purr.
There was no time to waste. Both Thane and Quack’s killer were already some distance away so I swallowed the clump of fur and waited for the painful magic to take hold. Mercifully, the transformation was swift and within seconds, now in feline form, I was springing forward in their wake. I was quite some distance behind them but in this body I could catch them up; I might be small, but I had the power and the ability to jump a long way without fear of falling. I could do this.
My claws skittered across the roof tiles and I leapt to the next building. I veered around a narrow chimney stack and startled a bird pecking at something in a gutter. I paid it no attention as it squawked in surprise but maintained my momentum, flashing forward with far more grace and poise than I could ever produce in my human body.
Thankfully I was soon nipping at Thane’s heels on the flat roof of what appeared to be a supermarket. He was breathing hard and leaving a vetiver-scented cloud behind him – but then he came to a stuttering halt.
The fleeing assassin was closer now but the gap between this roof and the next one was vast.
I miaowed. Thane jerked and stared down, his brow furrowing as he gazed at me. His features appeared different as I looked at him through cat eyes. I hadn’t told him how I’d witnessed Quack’s attempt at poisoning Alexander MacTire or that I possessed this special ability but now he understood.
‘Interesting,’ he murmured as he recovered from his surprise. ‘Can you make that jump?’
Unable to smile, I blinked instead. Watch me. Then I took off, sailing easily across the gap and leaving Thane behind me. I put him out of my mind: I had to reach that killer. Feline endurance was not limitless and if I was going to catch up, I had to do it soon.
I gathered more speed and strength and powered ahead. The rooftops here were trickier to traverse, many of them dotted with cemented shards of broken glass designed to deter would-be thieves, skulking vampires or parkour runners. Such elaborate forms of discouragement would slow my quarry but they caused me few problems.
I danced through the jagged glass, jumped to the next rooftop and scaled the angled tiles. With each building, I was moving upwards – and the next rooftop was four storeys high.
I heard a loud oomph as the assassin only just cleared the distance and scrambled for purchase. Then he turned, revealing his face: not a werewolf but quite possibly a druid judging from the blue tattoo on his left cheekbone. Was this the same druid ‘friend’ who’d given Quack the poison? I’d find out soon enough.
He smiled as he registered how far behind Thane was but he didn’t notice me. In that instant I knew I had him, even though he turned and quickly disappeared from my view.
I bunched my muscles and jumped again, this time landing on a narrow windowsill below where I wanted to be. I took a breath, warier of this next leap – one wrong paw and I’d tumble to the street below. I’d survive the fall but Quack’s killer would get away and I was determined that wouldn’t happen.
I eyed the side of the building. With just the right amount of power and well-placed steps, I’d do it. I gulped in air then launched myself upwards, bouncing twice against the stone on my way up. Two seconds later, my four paws were safely on the solid roof.
The assassin was only ten feet away. I padded forward, taking care not to make any sudden movements. He checked over his shoulder, yet again glancing towards Thane who was still trapped on the rooftop far behind us. He could have dropped to the ground to track the man from the ground but Thane was smart; he was doing everything he could to lull the shooter into a false sense of security and give me the space and time I needed.
The assassin chuckled and muttered, ‘Stupid wolf wanker.’ He turned left and I realised he was planning to switch direction to make it even harder for Thane to follow him. If he crossed the next gap, he’d be out of sight and could head anywhere he wanted. Thane had never gotten close enough to get a decent whiff of the man’s scent so he’d lose him for good in minutes. But I was here and I was ready.
I braced myself and started to hawk up the hairball. It wasn’t a quiet process and I knew I’d alert my target; I just had to hope that he wasn’t switched on enough to work out what was happening until it was too late.
I spat out the hairball and felt the familiar twist and crack as I reverted to human form. As I sprang up, I glimpsed the assassin’s gaping mouth and shocked eyes. I slid out the sharp blade that had been strapped against my skin and had therefore made the transformation with me, and I smiled slowly.
The man reached inside his jacket, doubtless for the gun with which he’d killed Quack. I ran at him, grabbed hold of his wrist and wrenched it hard. He gave a high-pitched moan and dropped his weapon. I kicked it away and smiled again. Sometimes all you needed was to appear confident that you were stronger, faster and better and your target would cave. I was banking on that happening now.
His expression twisted and the blue tattoo scrunched up. The way his muscles bunched and his body leaned forward broadcast his plans almost as if he’d shouted them on a loudspeaker: he was going to make another run for it.
I moved to block his path and he stared at me empty-eyed before twisting and jumping off the roof. He didn’t try and land on the next rooftop. He plummeted straight to the ground.
I blinked. I hadn’t been expecting that . I darted to the edge of the roof and peered after him. He was lying on his back, his leg at an angle that suggested it had been broken in at least two different places.
He looked up at me and reached into his jacket again. I expected him to aim another gun at me, but he pulled out a little glass vial. He raised it in my direction as if toasting me and I realised what he was intending to do. I shouted, my voice bouncing uselessly down to him, as he used his teeth to extricate the cork stopper and gulped down the vial’s contents.
He blinked up at me and smiled beatifically. ‘I shall be rewarded in the next life,’ he said. ‘My sacrifice will not be forgotten.’
Whatever he’d taken, it was fast acting; he’d barely finished speaking when his body started to convulse. Thane, who had realised that the assassin was on the ground, was by his side in seconds but he was too late.
Whatever secrets the assassin had, and whatever his dealings had been with Quack, he was taking them to his grave.
I took my time returning to the ground. By the time I reached Thane and the dead assassin, he had already rummaged through the man’s pockets. ‘Nothing. No ID. No wallet. No written orders.’
I wasn’t surprised; anyone who was prepared to kill themselves rather than get caught wasn’t going to make the rookie error of leaving tell-tale information on their corpse. I hunkered down by the man’s ankles, before pulling off his right shoe and sock.
‘What are you doing?’ Thane demanded.
‘Checking.’ I peered at a large and somewhat hairy big toe. ‘EEL assassins are marked discreetly so they can be identified if they’re killed during the course of a job. Everyone, without exception, has a temporary magicked tattoo on a hidden part of their body.’
‘Their toe?’
I flipped the body over, lifted up the man’s shirt and yanked down his trousers. ‘Sometimes the buttocks or small of the back. This guy is clean – he’s not EEL.’
I gave him a little dignity and returned his clothes to where they’d been then stared at his hands. His fingertips were stained with something red: it wasn’t blood but paint, perhaps. I frowned, then I spotted the gold watch around his wrist. I gave it a closer look then undid the clasp and slid it off. The dead assassin wasn’t as clever as he thought he’d been.
‘So we know who he isn’t,’ Thane said. ‘But we’re no closer to knowing who he is. In fact, all we’ve succeeded in doing is causing the deaths of two people. We haven’t gained any new information at all.’
That was where he was wrong. ‘This guy is a druid, or at least he appears to be. He voluntarily went to his death muttering something about a sacrifice that would be rewarded, which suggests some sort of warped religion or cult.’
‘That doesn’t narrow things down. Not in this city.’
‘Perhaps not. But we can still learn more from him. He’s got very small feet, which don’t match the imprints left in the rug in Nick’s living room. This isn’t the person who took Nick but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved.’ I held up the watch. ‘They’re not separate crimes because the last time I saw this it was around Nick’s wrist.’
Thane sucked in a breath and stared at it. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Yep.’ I pocketed it. ‘Our killer definitely had something to do with what’s happened to Nick. If it weren’t for the attacks on you and Lorna, I’d assume that the MacTires are the main target but we need to look at these crimes from a different angle.’
‘Go on.’
I stood up. ‘Nick is the target because he’s a lone wolf like you. The people who wanted Alexander MacTire dead – and by extension Quack – are the people who kidnapped Nick. We both know that if MacTire discovers his nephew has been abducted, he’ll turn this city upside down to find him and the whole of Coldstream will suffer as a result. Somebody wants to stop that from happening by killing MacTire first and sending his pack into disarray. Everyone would forget about Nick in the chaos.’
I paused. ‘We’re looking for a team of people, not a lone predator who saw Nick as an easy target. This team think he is important enough to risk provoking the anger of the most powerful werewolf pack in the city and their recent actions suggest they’ll do almost anything to ensure Nick isn’t found. Which strongly suggests that he is still alive.’
Thane’s eyes widened. ‘In that case, it begs the question of whether we go to MacTire and tell him what’s happened. He’s going to find out eventually – that’s his dead werewolf back there.’ He nodded towards the place where Quack had died. ‘He’s going to miss her sooner or later.’
I didn’t see how Alexander MacTire could help us at this stage and I was sure we’d have more chance of finding Nick if we sneaked around on our own. Thane and I could keep our investigation clandestine but Alexander MacTire didn’t do sneaking; I didn’t have to read the man’s secret diary to know that much about him.
‘I think we should give it another twenty-four hours,’ I suggested. ‘If we’ve not found Nick by then we’ll have to tell MacTire, but let’s hold off for now and continue with our own investigation. There’s something else we can try first.’
Thane raised an eyebrow. ‘What?’
I met his gaze. ‘Nick’s dead parents. You said that you don’t believe it’s a coincidence that they died last month. If we seek them out, maybe they can help us pinpoint who’s taken Nick.’
This was the first time I’d genuinely shocked him. He took a step back and held up his hands. ‘Seek them out? I want to save Nick and find answers as much as you do, Kit, but necromancy is a step too far. I can’t go there and neither should you.’
‘I’m not talking about necromancy,’ I said. ‘I have another plan. It’s a long shot but it might work. Let’s get these bodies out of the way so nobody finds them for a day or two, then we need to go back to my house.’
For this, I was going to require the services of She Who Loves Sunbeams.