Chapter 29 #2
A pit formed in my stomach, acid roiling.
I wouldn’t have a hot cop to heal me afterwards, either.
I’d end up in a hospital in even more debt and wasn’t that just my luck.
I’d survived one werewolf encounter this week; I refused to let a second one kill me.
There had to be a way out of the situation.
“He’s awake,” someone said.
Swinging my head up, I assessed my situation.
I was tied to a chair, my bag on the ground a few dozen feet away.
We weren’t in a body shop, which meant this whole encounter wasn’t because Malik was tired of waiting.
In fact, based on the lighting and the meat hooks swinging from the ceiling, we were in cold storage.
Two werewolves were playing cards on a table across from me and a third was standing at the door. He’d been the one who spoke and was listening to whoever was on the other end of the white earbud in his ear.
“She’s coming down,” he said to the two werewolves playing poker.
They dropped the cards, scrambling to put them into their box, and then lifted the table and brought it closer to me.
One pulled out two cases, spreading a series of tools out on the table.
Medical scissors, a bone saw, a meat cleaver, a few screwdrivers and pliers, some others that looked like sex toys I didn’t want to play with.
It was not shaping up to be my afternoon.
The door to the cold room opened and the three wolves straightened, doing the wolf dance of submission without fur. It was a weird contortion of the neck, as though they wanted to bow, but knew that wasn’t right either.
The woman who entered was shorter than all three of them.
She had warm bronze skin like Laurel, but that was where the similarities ended.
Her hair was a curled brown tangle down her back and her eyes were dark brown, almost blending into her pupils.
Turning, she murmured to the man with the earpiece.
Without wolf hearing, I couldn’t make anything out.
She had a loose tank top on, and I could see a tattoo similar to the one Dieter’s girlfriend had.
Only hers was larger, taking over her whole back with the shape of it.
The tattoo itself seemed to move, and I wasn’t sure if it was the head injury or her abilities, but it looked like it was about to leap off her and bite me.
When she turned to look at me, her mouth was sharp with carnivorous teeth.
I blinked, and they were normal human teeth, but now I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t seen the predator lurking under her skin.
“Who was your next target?” she asked.
Shaking my head, I said, “Who are you?”
Her lips went flat. “I’m asking the questions.”
For a second her nostrils flared and then she spat on the floor. The two wolves without the earpiece flinched back. She stalked towards me, leaning in close and dragging her nose up my cheek.
I could smell brimstone on her breath. My stomach dropped. I wasn’t talking to some high ranked member of Five Dragons. I was talking to the highest member. One of the dragons the pack was named after. My heartrate must have skyrocketed because she smirked at me.
“Your kind hasn’t wanted war with mine for some time,” she said. “What court would send you to incite it?”
By the glance the other wolves shared, she usually didn’t talk like a fae. Her words, though, were court language, which made me wonder how old she was. The fae had been hands-off the human world for over two hundred years. Had she known them back when they made war with San Amaro?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I know Dieter convinced you I’m killing werewolves in San Amaro, but I’m not.”
At a wave of her hand, one of the wolves went scurrying for a chair almost identical to mine. He brought it for her and she sat, leaning forward and grabbing my chin.
Her eyes shifted gold, the pupil a narrow yellow slit as she examined me. “You won’t fool me.”
“I’m not trying to fool you. I’m trying to convince you not to kill me because I didn’t kill any wolves.”
“Fae, you can’t lie to a dragon,” she said. “I smell your fear.”
Behind her, the wolves stiffened. I understood better than most how people were so afraid of the fae, they believed even the most ridiculous of rumors. Fae could send you into an endless slumber, fae could trick your heart into stopping.
Maybe some of it was true, but I knew I couldn’t do any of it.
“No lies,” I said. “What do you think I did?”
“You killed the wolves to start a war between the packs so you could make us slaves in the old ways. But we’ve freed ourselves, we’re not going be the fae’s pets.”
“Well, good,” I said. “Because as far as I know, no one in the Far Realm wants to deal with the whole slavery thing.”
The dragon laughed, a trail of smoke curling from between her lips. “And what would you know? You’re a pawn some monarch is using. None of your kind has even shown up to save you.”
“Why would they? They don’t know I’m here.”
“You admit to acting alone,” she crowed. “I will enjoy your death.”
“I said they don’t know I’m here, not that I killed the werewolves,” I said.
“And why would I trust you?”
“Because if you kill me,” I said, “there will be war. And all you’ll have left of your pack is corpses.”