4. Julian
Chapter four
Julian
I should have stayed back at the academy. I had mountains of papers to grade, and I was supposed to meet my new partner for the academy mission today.
When President Fleming told me he was going to give me a new partner, I was adamantly against it. I didn’t need someone else to go off on their own and mess with what Jack and I had already started.
Now, seeing her here standing in the alleyway with the werewolf — Tate — I was pissed all over again.
After everything we’d been through together. All the hunts. All the missions. Our recent night together. I’d thought we trusted one another and then she did something stupid like running off on her own and almost getting killed.
If we weren’t surrounded by other hunters and her godfather, I had half a mind to throw her over my lap and spank her ass red until she learned she didn’t have to do everything on her own.
By not telling me about the note, it felt like she didn’t trust me to have her back. Though, I knew that wasn’t true. Jack had her own issues the same way I had mine. Except her issues were going to get her killed. I couldn’t handle that.
Now, though, with the way she was looking at me, with such despair in her eyes, I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and never let her go.
“Durand,” President Fleming stepped forward, blocking her slightly from my view. “Glad to see you out of the house, even if it’s going against the rules of your suspension.”
I shifted to see her better, my eyes darting to Tate, who simply watched me from his place beside her. I gritted my teeth at the arm possessively wrapped around her shoulders.
Jack scowled, her nose wrinkling in that cute manner that it did sometimes. “Seeing as the rules are stupid, I don’t know how you expect me to follow them, anyway.”
“Jackie…” President Fleming sighed, his expression softening. “We’re just trying to protect you.”
Ignoring her godfather’s words, Jack turned to the scene behind her. “Caucasian female, vampire. Likely local. The body is too torn up to get an I.D. on her or to get any other forensics out here in the field.” Her tone was all business, her shoulders drawn back and stiff.
Even Tate noticed the mood shift and responded by dropping his arm and stepping to the side, as if he didn’t want to be in the line of fire of her ire.
The vampire’s blood stung my nose, overwhelming enough that it mostly covered up a faint underlying smell. A familiar smell.
My eyes narrowed on Tate.
They were hiding something.
The other hunters went about their business, pretending to secure the area while they activated a witch’s charm to dissuade any humans from coming near the area. Any of them who happened to come through the barrier would get confused and find themselves walking the other way.
If there were any witnesses to the actual crime, then we’d have a much bigger issue on our hands.
“Did anyone see anything?” I asked, not waiting for President Fleming to start asking questions. If we didn’t move this along, we’d be here all night. President Fleming was great at his job, but his soft spot for Jack made it impossible to get anything done in a timely manner.
Jack shot an indiscernible look over her shoulder. “A human woman said she saw someone drag the vampire into the alley.”
Tate shifted nearby, his tongue pulling on his lip ring. When I glanced his way, he immediately stopped and shot me a wide-toothed grin, throwing a thumbs-up my way.
“Any description?” I pressed, noting the strange behavior of the werewolf.
They were definitely not telling the whole story.
“Nothing helpful.” She shrugged. “Pale. Dark hair. The usual generic features.”
I nodded my head toward the hunter next to me, who was taking notes on their phone.
“And what were you doing when the murder happened?” I inquired, glancing between the two of them.
Jack twisted around from the scene, her hands on her hips as she glared at me. “For your information, we were on a date.”
A date. Had Jack and I ever actually been out on a date before?
Not unless you counted teaming up for hunts before I became her commanding officer. Which I didn’t think she or anyone else would.
For not the first time, I was envious of the werewolf. So easily able to show his affection to Jack without letting anything else get in the way.
How had he just brushed past her almost dying on us? I couldn’t do it. Maybe it was because he thought this was normal for her? Part of her job.
Since I was a hunter too, I knew it wasn’t true, and it just made the whole situation even worse. She wasn’t being careful. She wasn’t following protocol. I was not so easy going that I could ignore all that. If I let it go, then she would never learn and then I’d lose her. Again.
I arched a brow. “And you just happened to be in the area?”
“Yep,” Tate popped the letter, throwing his arm around Jack’s shoulders and pressing her against his side. “We were on a date and happened to smell the blood.”
“Uh-huh,” I drew out, not believing them for a second.
Knowing Jack, Tate likely brought her out here for a date, and she then ran off to investigate on her own, sticking her nose into business that wasn’t hers to deal with anymore.
Then there was the faint scent of the attacker. Which they were lucky no one but me had been near Kyren enough to recognize. Where was the vampire in question? Why wasn’t Jack screaming from the room tops it was him that had did this?
The hunter part of me wanted to report the familiar scent. But the part of me that didn’t want to hurt Jack any more than she had already been, held back. If she wasn’t going to tell them then she must have a reason, didn’t she?
“What’s with the third degree?” Jack snapped, staring daggers at me. “You can’t possibly think I had anything to do with this.” She waved a hand at the pile of what no longer resembled a person, only blood, flesh, and bones.
Something in my gut told me she knew more than she was letting on, and maybe it was because I was still mad at her for not trusting me to help her before. Or maybe I was just a jealous bastard that Tate could touch her now and I couldn’t, but I kept pushing.
“Well? Did you?”
“Hey, now.” President Fleming stepped in. “We aren’t saying that at all, Durand. We’re just trying to get all the facts straight.” He shot me a warning look before turning to the graffiti on the wall. “Leave her alone. Who do you think that could be about?”
“I don’t know,” Jack quickly responded, crossing her arms. “Probably a message from whoever killed her to her people.”
“The question is who is she and who are her people?” President Fleming asked, then gestured to the wall. “Make sure you get pictures of this and get a body bag in here. The sooner we identify the victim, the sooner we can figure out who this message is for.”
He paused and then stepped over to Jack, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You did a good thing calling this in. Now, go home and let us take it from here.”
The purse of her lips said she wanted to argue, but then Tate squeezed her shoulder and she relented. “Fine. Tate, let’s go.”
“Whatever you say, princess.” Tate smirked and winked at me as they walked past.
Once they were out of earshot, I glanced at the message on the wall and then to President Fleming. “She let that go easy.”
“Too easily,” the president murmured, his eyes on where Jack had left. “Look, I’ve got this if you want to go after her. Fix whatever bug you two have up your asses.”
“No, I’m good. She made it clear she doesn’t trust me to have her back, so I’m giving her what she wants.”
“Fawley…” He sighed and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Julian. I say this not as your president, but as your friend. Don’t let your pride get in the way, or you’ll live to regret it.”
Bobbing my head, I jerked my chin toward the crime scene. “I appreciate it, but we have work to do.”
He dropped his hand from my shoulder, giving me one more pitying look that I hated with all my being before he addressed the other hunters. As he gave out orders, it was clear he was putting this whole thing with Jack aside for now.
I wished I could do that. Flip a switch and focus on the job. However, my time collaborating with Jack at the academy, watching her fall for the vampire and werewolf while I stood idly by as her hands-off professor, was much harder than expected.
It took about an hour to get the area cleaned up and the body bagged before we were out of there and back at headquarters. I started to follow the body to the examination room, but President Saito stopped me.
Usually out in the field on more dangerous missions, President Saito was the complete opposite of President Fleming. While he was all smiles and back slaps, she barely had to say anything to get her point across.
Long black hair slicked up into a tight pony tail, she looked as if she’d stepped right out of a monster hunting movie. Her body encased in leather, twin katanas strapped to her back, and an inability to smile as long as I’ve known her.
“Fawley,” she said then turned on her heel without saying anything else.
I frowned, glanced at her and then at the other hunters before chasing after the stoic president. Knowing I wasn’t going to get anything out of her by asking questions, I followed silently until we entered the barracks.
She finally stopped at a bunk bed where a single man sat on the bottom bunk. He glanced up at our approach, his hair as pale as his skin and eyes hidden behind a thick pair of glasses.
“Fawley, Weaver.” President Saito gestured between us. “Don’t fuck this up.”
Without any further explanation, she walked away leaving us with just those four words. Sighing, I went to push my glasses up but forgot I wasn’t wearing them. I’d gotten so used to wearing them at the school that it felt strange to be without them now.
“I’m to assume you’re my new partner?” I peered down at the younger man.
I’d seen him around the base but had never had the pleasure of working with him.
He seemed to be more of the analytical type than the hands-on in the field type.
Which must have been why President Saito had paired us up together.
“Yes, that’s me. Weaver.” He stood and swiped his hand on his pants before offering it to me. “I look forward to working with you on this mission. I’ve heard only great things about your leadership.”
I shook his hand, not knowing how else to respond.
“So, I’ve been looking over the mission and what you’ve gathered so far, and I think we are going about this the wrong way.” He pulled out a tablet and started tapping the screen, overly eager to show me what he’d come up with.
“I think if we cross-reference the student body with those that have known affiliations with supernaturals that have been most vocal against the new ways of the council, and then make a data base of all their known associates around the academy, we can narrow down our field of search greatly.”
Peering down at the screen in his hands, I could see the beginnings of a list of names already. “So… you’re not going to enroll in the school?”
Weaver’s brows furrowed as he pushed his glasses up on his face. “I don’t see any reason to. I can do all of this without ever once stepping foot on campus. And any data I can’t get online, you can look into since you’ve already established an identity among the students and faculty.”
I nodded, unsure on how to respond to how prepared and logical he was being about all this. It wasn’t something I was used to when working with Jack. She was the ‘stab first, ask questions’ later type. Something I loved as much as I hated it because it always ended with me worrying about her.
“Then I will send you a link to the shared database, and you can look it over and let me know if there are any names that stick out.” Weaver grinned and held his fist out to me. “We’ll have these fuckers in the bag by the end of the week.”
I glanced at his fist then back to him before walking away.
Weaver might be more analytical and put together than Jack was, but that didn’t mean that I had to interact with him any more than I had to. Sure, Weaver was the better partner for this mission on paper, and yet all I could think about was that I wouldn’t see Jack’s face every single day.
I hated it.