11. Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
LUCA
Aiden and Sage looked like they’d been through some things when they dropped onto stools at the bar. Alwin had already been warming a stool, though he’d opted for root beer over his usual. Aiden glanced at the drink in question and raised an eyebrow at his brother before ordering something stronger for himself.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Alwin asked.
“Seeing that from the other side brought back memories I’d rather forget,” Aiden muttered. “Bastian and Lachlan have the little one. It’s fine.”
Both men smelled faintly aroused thanks to Zane’s magic being used to distract Elliot. But while they weren't remotely interested in anyone coming near them, that scent had still drawn the eyes of a few shifters in the bar. I settled their drinks in front of them and planted my hands on the bartop, sending a warning glare at those curious eyes in case anyone got ideas about approaching.
The gazes quickly averted and while Aiden and Sage were too human to realize their scent was attracting attention, Alwin was sharp enough to have caught the threat and he dipped his chin in thanks.
Declan took the stool on Alwin’s other side with a huff. “Barkeep, make me something strong.”
“How strong?” I asked.
I’d learned that human strong wasn’t the same as non-human strong and while technically Declan was non-human, his body was basically the same as a human’s. Plus, he smelled like he’d already been drinking.
“Wipe the hard drive, but I’d still like to wake up tomorrow.”
Alwin shot me a look and while there was absolutely no expression there at all, I assumed it was some kind of warning not to kill the man. I threw together something that was fairly popular when I bartended in college and slid an Adios Motherfucker in front of the man as requested.
Declan chugged a large portion of the drink and shot me a thumbs up before propping his head on his fist and taking in Alwin. “What’re you so anxious about? Something happen?”
Aiden had been chatting with Sage, but he stopped talking mid-sentence and turned to give Delan a strange look before examining his brother’s face. I looked as well and there was absolutely nothing on that cool and aloof face to indicate that the man was in any way ruffled.
Alwin didn’t react to the question, but Aiden did.
“What are you talking about? He’s not anxious.”
Declan’s head tipped, considering the man as he chugged more of his drink. If he kept drinking that fast, Alwin was going to kill me when he had to scoop him up off the floor.
“Maybe anxious isn’t the right word. But he’s definitely more tense than usual.”
Aiden frowned and examined at his brother again. “Tell me exactly what it is you’re seeing that makes you think that,” he demanded.
Declan shot Aiden a strange look. “How can you not see it?” He grabbed Alwin by the shoulders and squeezed, taking us all by surprise. “Look how stiff he is.”
Aiden’s jaw dropped and I half expected Alwin to drop his glamour and take off Declan’s hands with that sword he carried.
It wasn’t that Alwin wasn’t a good guy, it was just that he was so cold and flawless and untouchable like all elves were, that to just grab him like that seemed so… disrespectful. You didn’t mess with elves. But Alwin just watched the sorcerer impassively, completely ignoring the shock of everyone else in the room.
Declan cupped Alwin’s jaw and got right up in his face. “It’s right there. Look.” His thumb stroked over the elf’s jaw and again, I was a little shocked he got to keep the digit.
“No one can see anything when your face is an inch from his,” Sage said. “You’re drunk and you’re lucky Alwin hasn’t killed you yet.”
Only then did Declan seem to realize his nose was practically touching Alwin’s and he dropped back onto his stool. “Al won’t kill me. Tell them I’m right,” he insisted.
The rest of us had pretty much written off Declan’s antics as the ramblings of a drunk man when Alwin finally spoke.
“It is Aiden’s first trip out of the house with the child. I am merely keeping my guard up to ensure their safety.”
Aiden stared at Declan for a long time before addressing his brother. “Bastian and Lachlan have them, it’s fine.”
Alwin dipped his chin in acknowledgement, not commenting further. It seemed Aiden didn’t want to trouble his brother and he left after one drink just as Nikko came to take over the bar again.
“Thanks so much! Ah, geez, Declan’s hammered again?”
“Only gave him one drink, but he was drinking before he got here. Ollie will probably be here for the night so he can sleep on the couch upstairs.”
“Something’s going on with him lately,” Nikko grumbled.
I nodded and Alwin waved us off. “I will ensure he gets home.”
Sage and I left the tavern together and headed in the direction of our neighborhood. We’d carpooled with Silas at the beginning of the night, but the weather was nice enough to enjoy a walk home instead of bothering with a ride.
“It was a weird night,” Sage finally said after a stretch of comfortable silence.
“At least nothing got blown up.”
“Only because Ollie was stuck on the sidelines for the whole fight,” he laughed.
“I cannot believe she tried to work through having a baby.”
He shook his head. “It’s Ollie.”
As if that was all the explanation needed. To be honest, I wasn’t so sure Sage would have been any different if the roles were reversed. He seemed to have just as many issues sitting on the sidelines when things were going down, no matter how much he should let someone else handle it.
We cut down a street lined with brick buildings filled with small offices of dentists and accountants and other businesses that had long since closed, leaving the noise of the main street behind. Which made it all the more obvious when not all of the noise was left behind. Someone was following at a bit of a distance, but when I looked back, they weren’t in view. If someone was simply taking the same route home, they’d have no reason to hide.
Sage tensed a moment later, though he shouldn’t have been able to sense anything at this distance.
“Act natural, someone’s following us.”
When he didn’t answer, I glanced at his face, seeing his eyes darkening.
“Sage?”
He blinked and his eyes cleared in an instant. “Hm?”
“Did you hear me?”
“Sorry, I spaced. What was that?”
I took his hand and guided our pace a little faster. If they caught us here in the open, there wasn’t much I could do. We needed some cover from any passing eyes.
Sage seemed surprised by my actions, but he was sharp and caught on quick. He squeezed my hand. “How many?”
“One.”
“Human?”
“Mm.”
He relaxed a little at that and followed my lead. “Do you know who it is?”
“Not anyone I’ve met since turning, but that doesn’t narrow it down much.”
“The question is, are they after you or me? Only way to find out would be to split up.”
I shot a look of warning Sage’s way out of the corner of my eye. “Not necessarily,” I argued, pulling us into a narrow alley between buildings and stopping. “I'll just ask him.”
It was late and the businesses on this street were certainly closed, but Silas warned me not to expose my vampire side unless it was truly an emergency. The world was filled with scents and sounds, and it was too easy to miss something mixed among them, especially when we were distracted.
While I was certain this human was following us, I couldn’t guarantee their intentions and exposing myself as a vampire wasn’t an option. Which meant I couldn’t simply rush out in a flash and wring their neck until he spat out why he was following us, though the urge was there. Those dark thoughts had plagued me since the day I died, and while normally they disgusted me, this time the urge to protect Sage meant I didn’t wholly disagree with that side of myself I normally hated.
The human had no choice but to step into the open to check the alley I was hiding in. He paused at the corner, barely breathing as he inched forward. I didn’t give him the chance to take a look before stepping out and dragging him back the way he came.
“Are you looking for me?” I asked conversationally as I pulled him away from Sage in the direction of the main street and the tavern.
His gun clattered to the ground with just the right amount of pressure on his wrist, and he sucked in a breath when he realized he was screwed. I kicked the gun away toward the main street and dragged him along after it.
“You’re definitely not a cop,” I said, getting a good look at his face. “Do you have a permit for that firearm? Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing out here in the middle of the night following people with a gun drawn?”
The man refused to speak as I steered him out of the alley and pressed him up against a building to search him. I patted him down, using my sleeve covered hand to pull out a few more weapons and set them on the sidewalk alongside the gun he’d dropped earlier. A tiny carved dagger sat among the weapons, emanating a thick scent I recognized. It was coated in dark magic and I wrinkled my nose at the cloying stench.
“I see. You must have some interesting friends. Why are you following me? What is it you’re supposed to find out?”
A car pulled up to the curb behind me and a man stepped out of the car. Frustrated with the interruption, I glanced over my shoulder to find a coyote shifter I’d served earlier in the night ambling over. He’d been pretty interested in the Eastbend community when I served him and I’d assumed he was considering a move, but this was a precarious situation he definitely shouldn’t be involved in.
He cleared his throat. “There a problem here, son?”
I planted a hand between the stalker’s shoulder blades but didn’t dare take my attention off of him while I addressed the coyote. “Sir, please return to your car. This situation is not safe.”
“I can see that. Mind telling me why you’re pinning this gentleman to a wall in the middle of the night?”
What the hell? A shifter couldn’t possibly be working with the hunters, could he? I finally turned to address the man and my eye immediately went to the glint of a badge on his hip. Shit. The flannel jacket he wore covered the plain work shirt and his jeans certainly hadn’t screamed law enforcement, but that was probably the idea for a man stopping for a meal before heading home.
“Sheriff,” I finally realized. And to a shifter who could absolutely smell that I was a vampire pinning a human to a building, this probably looked really bad.
“Didn’t catch your name, son.”
Fuck. “Luca Marquez. I’m a former police officer and this gentleman was just sneaking down the alley with a gun drawn. I was just questioning him on why he was following me.”
“Former? Then this seems like something the local police should handle, don’t you think?”
Not when it was most likely them who had him tailing me.
“This man attacked me!” the human shrieked, sensing an opportunity. “I was just walking home and he came out of nowhere and tried to kill me!”
And while I certainly would have been fucked if the man standing before me was human, there were two things wrong with the human’s claim. One, if I’d wanted the man dead, it would have taken no effort for a vampire to kill him and the sheriff was well aware of that. Two, the man would have been better off keeping his mouth shut because the blatant lie exposed him more than his silence would have.
“Sir, I’m happy to discuss my reasons for handling this situation this way once this man has been dealt with. He was carrying several weapons in addition to the gun, and I’d like to know his intentions.”
The Sheriff’s eyes snagged on the dagger and his nose twitched. “I hate to tell you this, son, but that’s not something I can let a civilian do.” He stepped in and took the man from me, cuffing him and stuffing him into the back of a car I now saw had Sheriff plastered across the door.
Dammit! How was I supposed to get answers now?
Once the human was settled in the back, the older man stepped closer to address me quietly. “You know I should be taking you in as well, considering the position I found you in.”
“Is that what you intend to do?”
“As an ex-cop, you know what should have been done in that situation. Why didn’t you contact the police instead of taking matters into your own hands?”
Given the situation, I had no choice but to trust this man. Though I really should have discussed it with the others first, I took a chance and told him the truth.
“Because the Eastbend Police Department has been infiltrated by a hunter faction and there is a good possibility that they are the ones who hired that man to come after me.”
“Is that speculation or fact?”
“It's a fact, sir. I was not aware of the situation when I worked for the department, but after a hunter associated with the same group killed me and the community here saved my life, I became aware of many things I hadn’t known as a human.”
The sheriff sighed. “I’ll do my best to get some information out of him, but because of the way you handled this, any case against him will likely be thrown out before it even makes it to court.”
I hadn’t expected any kind of arrest or trial when I stopped the man in the first place, that was why I needed to get answers out of him. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have pulled him out of the alley, but I was preoccupied with getting him away from Sage just in case his target hadn’t been me.
“I understand. If you learn anything that involves me or the safety of others in this town, I’d appreciate if you passed that information on.”
He didn’t agree to share information with me, but he didn’t refuse either. He gathered up the weapons in an evidence bag and returned to his car.
“I’ll be in touch, Mr.Marquez. Have a feeling I’ll have more questions for you when this is over.”
“Yes, sir.”
The car pulled away from the curb and I headed back to Sage, finding it a little strange that he hadn’t come after me despite my demand that he stay put. Since when did Sage listen to anyone?
I wasn’t even halfway back to where I’d left him when the smell of blood made my mouth water. Warm and far too tempting. Sage’s blood, but someone else’s as well. A lot of it.
Sage wasn’t where I left him, but the alluring scent led me forward. And the sight that greeted me when I finally found him made my own blood run cold.