Chapter 22
Dagger
“Stick close to me. Hold on tight.”
Serenity gave me a playful smack across my imitation-leather sleeve. “Any closer and we’d be cuddling.”
I rubbed my chin in mock thought, nodding. “That might not be a bad idea, for safety’s sake only, of course. Just be aware if anyone asks, with me officially on duty, I’ll have to claim sexual harassment on your part.”
She snorted and wagged a slow, chiding index finger. “Something tells me you’re too used to girls falling at your feet, Detective Bad Boy. Now, come on, be honest, why are we here instead of at your official police station with Bryce?”
Shrugging, I stopped and tapped the flashlight on my palm a couple of times, meeting her gaze.
“Like I said, just a little educational detour. I’m gonna take you on an exclusive night tour among the”—I deepened my voice to a gravelly whisper—“ghosts and goblins. And then there’s a bench at the top of the boulevard—see there, next to the bridge—with some very interesting history attached to it you might like to hear.
” I scraped away some glass bottle shards from the path with my boot.
I shone the small beam a fraction downward.
“Just be mindful where you step. There are sometimes worse things than broken glass strewn around here.”
Snug against me, making my jaguar purr, she lifted sheepish eyes.
“The water’s really lovely, but… isn’t this kind of a dangerous area to enjoy a refreshing riverside stroll, or educational tour, or whatever this is?
” She glanced toward the buildings across the road, dilapidated and crumbling.
“You’re joking about the ghosts and goblins, right? ”
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve milked that naivety dry, just to break their balls about it after.
I paid my mate the respect she deserved though.
“No ghosts, no goblins. And anyway, you’re with me.
It’s safe.” I rubbed her slender shoulder, but she tensed beneath my palm.
I retracted the touch quickly, but she still leaned away under pretense of shooting me a stiff smile, making the waterproof material of her jacket crinkle.
“Just don’t ever come down here without me. Especially at night. I’m serious.”
She nodded and kept the distance she’d added between us. No shoulder touching. Understood.
I didn’t linger on why. The thought riled my jaguar too much.
She was still clutching my arm with both of hers as we walked, which pleased my animal way too much.
Serenity seemed to be thinking about something and finally said, “So, not safe here on my own. Got it.” She gave a sigh that morphed into a chuckle that lacked any real humor.
“Kinda like my experience of being in New Nebraska in general.”
“New Nebraska can be a dangerous place…” I didn’t know how else to respond. If I dwelled too long on her horrible experiences here, my animal was sure to take over in ways that wouldn’t make a good impression or be good for anyone.
We fell into silence and walked for a few more minutes, enjoying star glints and river spray.
Then, staring up at me, her eyelids fluttered for a second before she averted her gaze. “You’re a jaguar in a man’s form, aren’t you?” she asked, a little shy.
“Not exactly. It’s complicated. He’s part of me. I’m part of him. It’s hard to explain the feeling to a non-shifter. But yes, together we are one being, one creature.”
“So, you’re part cat.” Her posture loosened as she swung a smile my way. “Lucky for you, I like cats.”
I lowered my head, feeling my night vision sharpen even further as the jaguar’s yellow eyes briefly flared in my sockets. Just short of whispering distance, I allowed my animal to reply with a throaty grumble. “See? No doubt there.”
She exhaled hard and hid her reddening cheeks with a brush of her loose jacket sleeve. I had a feeling she liked the animal noises I could make. And those were just the ones with my clothes on.
“Look, I know you’re being a bit maverick taking me on this detour, and it’s sweet of you, but did you even intend to go to the police station? You know poor Bryce will be—”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Poor Bryce could buy off every police station in New Nebraska and barely dent his bank balance. His condition aside, I’m not breaking out any violins for silver spoon billionaires.”
“But he’ll be waiting out there for nothing. I got the impression there might be a lot of… altercations in and around the station. He’ll be standing—”
I patted her slender hands as they remained wrapped around my arm.
“He’ll be sitting. Once he’s told we’ve not arrived, he’ll wait in that armored limo with the doors securely locked, and you’d need an anti-tank missile to make a hole in that Benz, I can assure you.
He’s no fool, he’ll realize I’ve taken you on a…
police-related excursion, and he’ll leave. He didn’t get that rich by being stu—”
The red berries clinging to a nearby bush shimmied, and I whipped the flashlight that direction, nudging Serenity behind me. It’d become a highly uncommon occurrence, but there were psychos crazy enough to try and take me on. They were just extremely rare.
Or dead.
Reaching around, I ran a reassuring palm down her arm. “Just a precaution. Don’t worry.”
Waving the beam back and forth across the bushes, I said calmly, “Police. Detective Pierce, to be exact. Step into the light. If you don’t give me any shit, you can go about your business in peace.”
“Ain’t gonna give nobody no shit, Dagger. Just mindin’ my own business,” rasped a voice from between the berry clumps.
I chuckled. Not a psycho, just an old man. My jaguar grumbled, curling up and closing its eyes.
“Jacob, why don’t you come on out? Come on, nobody’s gonna cart you off.”
“I gotcha word?”
“You got my word.” Shaking my head, I gazed down at Serenity who’d moved back around and was now tucked tightly at my side again. I said quietly, “My word is my bond. It’s a big thing on the streets for us cops, especially detectives. You’re nothing if you don’t keep your word.”
She flapped her hand for me to lean down, and her whisper coursed tingles across my scalp, earning me a yowl and internal claw scrape from my jaguar. “Kind of like promising you’re going to take a girl one place and…” She looked around with a wry smile, her eyes teasing.
I shrugged. “Well, cop code forty-nine dash E says that sacred bonds can be ignored if you’re trying to impress a beautiful—”
A stocky figure tumbled through the bushes, cursing as he wiped leaves and twigs from his grubby dark jacket and lumberjack hat.
He shielded his eyes as he stepped into the flashlight’s glare with mud-streaked gloves, their truncated wool revealing white and black marbled fingertips that reflected prisms of light like a gemstone.
Letting out a sigh and lowering the flashlight, I reached back and clasped Serenity’s hand. “It’s okay. He’s harmless.”
Jacob was a rock elemental, a species with less than two hundred left in known existence.
That made him pretty damn special. Not that he cared.
Not since some freak virus had turned his wife and son to solid rock salt over a decade ago.
I saw the pipe poking out his sleeve and nodded toward it, my hand outstretched. “Let me see the pipe, Jacob.”
“Aww come on, Dagger, you said no bullshit for you, no bullshit for me. You gave your word, man.”
I nodded. “Agreed. And I’ll keep it too. I won’t confiscate anything, I just want to confirm something real quick,” I said, clicking my fingers. “Come on, it’ll take five seconds.”
Jacob reluctantly handed over his palm-sized pipe. If you could call it that. The masking tape joining the charred bowl and the rusting tube was frayed, peeling off. Yet Jacob looked at the pipe like I’d just taken his gold Rolex.
I sniffed the drugs inside the bowl, just to be doubly sure.
As I suspected, it wasn’t the stuff I was investigating.
It was a rock elemental’s usual intoxicant choice of powdered mineral ore.
I didn’t know the science behind it, but it acted like a sedative.
The bowl was partly packed and ready to light up.
Jacob eyed it nervously as I examined the pipe in my hand.
Personal possession for purposes of intoxication was a misdemeanor.
I should have tipped the bowl out, but I mean it was only mineral ore for fuck’s sake.
It didn’t make users violent or prone to committing crime. The poor old guy wasn’t hurting anyone.
Sighing, I put the pipe back into Jacob’s palm. Unlike some cops, my word was my bond. “Aww thank you, boss. You all right. I don’t care if anyone says you’re just an asshole cop that licks his own balls.”
I laughed and Serenity stifled a giggle. “Pfft! Let them say it behind my back.” I waved a hand. “Cause they damn sure wouldn’t say it to my fa—Hey, speaking of hiding things, why were you sitting in the bushes? There’s nobody round here doesn’t know you. Nobody’s gonna rob you.”
Clasping the pipe like it was a solid platinum bar and slipping it into his coat pocket, he looked nervously over his shoulder before stepping closer. “Worse things can happen than bein’ robbed,” he said in hushed tones. “Ya feel me? Like creepy shit happening to ya.”
Serenity huddled into my side and I resisted the instinct to wrap an arm around her. “What kind of creepy shit?”
He flicked his hand in dismissal, the marbled fingertips glinting under the moonlight. “Ah just creepy shit. People up to no good. Maybe black magic shit, who knows?”
“Where exactly is this creepy shit going on?
Jacob creaked in a semi-circle, pointing up to a clump of derelict houses on the hill above the boulevard’s end. “Old lab building. Same one been there since forever.”
My forehead and cheeks went engine hot, knowing I’d have to admit a few fibs.
“Jacob, you know damn well this whole area, for eight, ten blocks around”—I coughed, avoiding Serenity’s gaze—“is perfectly safe. Only thing that happens around here anymore is petty teenage shit and few drunk homeless people pissing on their fire drums.”
Serenity cleared her own throat, looking at me with an arched eyebrow. “That so, hmm, detective?” Her grasp on me slackened as she straightened and quit using me as a shield against nonexistent shady characters.
I shrugged, disgruntled by a twinge of sheepish guilt sloshing around my gut. “I was trying to make it exciting for you. How’s it going to be exciting if I say the place is basically crime-free and deserted?”
The situation wasn’t helped by Jacob’s wheezy old man laughter.
She nodded and stroked my cheek with a soft palm. “Fair point. Just no more facades, okay? I can only willingly suspend my disbelief so much.”
I took her free hand and turned her fully toward me. “No more facades,” I said, my gaze delving deep into her eyes. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Smiling, she chirped, “Fine. Now, Jacob. Do you have somewhere safe to sleep tonight?”
Oh, shit. That was something I could do for the earthy widower. I pulled my wallet out, plucked a twenty-bill, and held it raised slightly out of his reach. “What does this go toward?”
Jacob pursed his lips unhappily then grumbled, “Something to eat, bed at the hostel.”
“You sure on that?”
He nodded, sighing. “I’m sure.”
I handed him the money. “That’s good, cause if I hear you spent it on ore, I’m hauling your ass in next time. Deal?”
“Deal, detective. Fair deal. And you’ve got a lovely lady friend.
” He straightened up his hat, tying the flaps at the bottom and tipping his head at us.
“Thanks for the help. Be nice to sleep in a bed tonight.” Looking back up the hill, he gulped.
“Don’t know what’s going on at that old lab but if I was you, I’d either stay away or call for back up. ”
Jacob lumbered off down the boulevard, in the direction of my bike, and I pondered what he’d said about ‘black magic shit.’ Jacob was a scatter-brained and addicted earthy, but he was no fool.
Scrutinizing the old drug lab, which was actually an abandoned seven-bedroom house with a sizeable wine cellar, I couldn’t see anything but boarded up windows and graff—oh, hold on.
My jaguar’s vision had caught something a lesser eye might have missed.
Just the merest sliver peeking from between brickwork and grimy plyboard on the first floor, but it was there: light.
I turned to Serenity, feeling pretty foolish. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I just wanted to spend a special time with you and”—humility was hard for me—“impress you.”
She shook her head softly. “Detective Bad Boy,” she said around a chuckle. “What am I going to do with you?”
I stood tall, a boyish grin broad on my face. “Well, one or two things spring to—”
“HELP!” A glass-shattering scream rang out from the old lab on the hill.
I drew my Colt 45, checked the clip was full, slammed it back in and chambered a round of hollow point silver. Fuck. I had really fucked this all up. I’d brought a civilian—and my mate—to a potentially violent altercation.
I got on my cell phone and called it in. The cavalry was on its way. Just had to—
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Fuck!” I screamed into the now slightly chilly night sky. “There’s no time, Serenity. Stay right behind me, okay?”
Alarm spread across her face. “Okay, I just hope you weren’t bullshitting about being the baddest cop in the city too.”
I looked back as we scuttled up the hill’s patchy, dying grass. “That was all true, I give you my word. Now stay close and keep an eye out. Seriously, this time.” I clicked off the flashlight, so as not to give away my approach, and handed it to Serenity.
“Damn, it’s heavy. You could brain someone with this,” she said, grasping the light like a club.
“That’s exactly what you do if any creep sneaks up on us from behind.”
She gulped but nodded, and we continued up the hill. I trained my gun on the old lab’s nearest door, my jaguar raging, snarling to get out and kill anyone deserving, before they dared to do any harm to his mate.
The scream rang out again and I charged fast toward the old lab with Serenity in close pursuit.
Goddamnit, I should’ve just taken her to Moonbucks.