13. Crypt Keeper
CRYPT KEEPER
The ride back to the clubhouse was quiet, and I didn’t necessarily mean because we couldn’t talk much on the back of my bike. Everything around us seemed still. It was like the swamp itself was holding its breath and watching to see what was next.
The energy between us was still as well. Not awkward. Yet, not completely peaceful either.
Katalina sat behind me on the bike, her body pressed against my back as we cut through the Louisiana dark, her arms around my waist like she belonged there. So much so that I could barely remember what it felt like to ride alone.
That was the problem. My wolf thought she did. Every instinct inside me had shifted since I unlocked that cage.
Protective. Possessive. Restless.
And no matter how many times I tried to remind myself she was dangerous, trained by a man tied to whatever the hell was happening with Zara—my body kept betraying me. Because the second she touched me, something in me settled.
As if it recognized her. Like it always had. I didn’t like that. Didn’t trust it. But I couldn’t deny it anymore either.
The clubhouse came into view through the trees, lights glowing warm against the swamp darkness. I slowed the bike, rolling through the gate as a couple of prospects glanced up from perimeter duty.
Thing One and Thing Two. Their eyes widened slightly at the sight of Katalina on the back of my bike. If I could read their minds, I was pretty sure they were thinking that Boomslang wasn’t going to like this.
Yeah. That conversation was going to suck.
Boomslang was already waiting when we walked inside. Of course he was. Our president leaned against the bar, arms crossed over his chest, expression flat.
Mako stood nearby with Lyra tucked against his side, while Zeus and Bronx hovered closer to the pool table, pretending not to stare.
Hack didn’t even pretend. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
“Well,” Zeus muttered. “That’s new.”
Katalina sneered slightly at the vampires in the room but stayed close enough to me that our shoulders brushed. Vampires and demons always had a kind of love/hate relationship. I never knew exactly why, and I’d never asked.
Boomslang’s gaze dropped to the warded cuffs hanging loose from my hand. Then to Katalina. Then back to me. “You gonna explain this?” he asked calmly.
“No,” I replied.
Zeus barked a laugh.
Boomslang looked deeply unimpressed.
Knowing this wasn’t going to be fun, I sighed. “She’s helping.”
That made everyone go still. Even Katalina looked mildly surprised I’d said it out loud.
Mako’s brow lifted slowly. “You trust her?”
“No,” I honestly replied.
Katalina smirked faintly, and I wanted to swat her cute little ass.
“But she knows more than we do,” I continued. “And whatever’s happening with Zara connects back to people she’s crossed paths with.”
Boomslang’s expression sharpened instantly. “Church,” he grimly ordered.
“What about her?” Mako asked as he stared a hole through Katalina.
Because I noticed everything, I saw the way Lyra’s hand tightened around his waist, either in warning or as a subtle grounding effort.
You could’ve heard a pin drop ten miles away as everyone seemed to hold their breath. Outsiders were never allowed in the chapel. It was sacred and for members only.
“She comes too,” Boomslang practically growled as he stalked to his office. “Thirty minutes. No one better be late.”
An hour later, the entire table was covered in maps, files, photographs, and enough caffeine to kill a human. Hack had gone over all of his findings with everyone, and needless to say, my brothers were shocked.
Katalina sat beside me, posture deceptively relaxed, while every pair of eyes in the room constantly strayed her way. You could practically smell the distrust. She ignored it beautifully.
“I don’t know much,” she murmured for what was probably the fifth time.
Boomslang leaned back in his chair. “How about if you tell us what you do know.”
Katalina exhaled slowly.
“I overheard Rafael talking once,” she admitted. “Years ago. Him and another demon.”
“Who exactly is Rafael?” I asked, because she’d never really said. Was he her lover? That thought sent fury racing through my veins the way fire would lick along a trail of dry forest kindling.
“He was my trainer. My mentor. My handler, if you will,” she explained, but I wasn’t exactly satisfied with that, and a low rumbling growl followed.
“Talking about?” Hack pressed, shooting me a look that told me to get my shit together.
“Experiments,” she elaborated. “Breeding. Genetics. Seeing what supernatural species could interbreed.”
Zeus frowned immediately. “That’s impossible.”
“Yes,” Katalina replied. “That’s what everyone believed.”
Believed.
Past tense. I didn’t miss it.
“I also started noticing rumors,” she continued. “Missing supernaturals. Strange disappearances. But it wasn’t my focus.”
“You thought it was bullshit,” Bronx chimed in.
“I thought it was exaggeration,” she coolly corrected. “Supernaturals disappear all the time.”
Fair.
“What changed your mind?” Mako asked.
Her eyes slid briefly toward me. “Zara.”
Silence settled heavily over the room.
“What about the kid?” Spook asked.
Hack and I glanced at each other. My jaw clenched, and then I gave him the go-ahead to fill everyone in. I knew he had told Boomslang and maybe Killswitch.
“Well, at first, we wondered if maybe she was Crypt’s. I sent him to a small and discreet clinic and lab I trust. I also asked them to look into her specifically. Crypt thinks Madame L might’ve sent her to him because she’s not just a wolf shifter. He thinks she might be a Rougarou.”
There was a lot of mumbling that went on before Boom slammed the gavel. “Let Hack finish!”
The room went quiet, and all eyes went to Hack. “The child has certain genetic markers that don’t make sense.”
“So is it your kid?” Clutch asked me.
My teeth clenched as I could feel my jaw muscle ticking.
“That’s what doesn’t make sense,” Hack continued. “She could be, but it seems like there’s not enough of a percentage for her to be Crypt’s child.”
“Maybe his dad’s kid?” Spook asked.
“Not according to the genetic testing,” Hack replied.
“His brother’s?” Zeus offered, his thick brows pinching in the center.
“No.” Hack ran a hand through his hair. “It’s like it’s Crypt’s kid, but yet, it’s not.”
“What the fuck?” Dexter muttered.
Killswitch dragged a hand down his face. “Jesus. Yeah. That kid changes a lot of things.”
Boomslang’s fingers drummed slowly against the table. “So we find the facilities.”
“Not easy,” Hack warned. “Whoever runs them keeps them deliberately well hidden. Layers of shell operations. Black sites. There were a few people that I found who mentioned believing these places existed. Every single one of them disappeared trying to find them.”
Bugsy grunted. “Sounds familiar.”
We all knew he was referring to the Crimson Auction. The few people that believed they were in operation again vanished after trying to track them down. We had been able to save Lily and some of the others from the last one, but we knew we hadn’t shut it down.
I leaned back slightly, mind already moving ahead. “We split up.”
Boomslang looked at me immediately. “How?”
“Katalina talks to her contact.”
Her gaze snapped toward me. “I don’t have a contact,” she denied.
“You have better access than we do,” I corrected. “Someone tied to your old channels. Someone who hears things.”
She hesitated. That was answer enough.
Boomslang noticed too.
“You got someone?” he asked.
Katalina softly sighed.
“There’s a broker in the Quarter,” she admitted. “He trades information. Mostly supernatural black-market movement. But to my knowledge, it’s things for supernaturals, not the supernaturals themselves.”
“Maybe because you weren’t in the market for supernaturals,” Mako quietly observed.
“What’s his name?” Zeus asked.
“Marrow.”
Of course it was.
“Marrow’s dead,” I flatly informed her.
Shock flashed in her gaze before it was quickly extinguished. “What?”
My brow furrowed. “You knew him?”
Katalina stared at me for a second too long.
“I used him years ago,” she murmured. “Dirty laundry extraordinaire. He always knew where bodies were buried. Metaphorically and sometimes literally.”
“Not anymore,” Mako muttered with a huff.
Her expression hardened. “How?”
A brief shadow crossed Mako’s face.
“Long story.”
Something flickered in her eyes. Not grief exactly. Disappointment. Calculation. Because whatever she’d planned to ask Marrow… that door had just slammed shut.
Silence stretched around the table.
Then Katalina slowly leaned back. Nails tapping on the arm of her chair, she appeared to be debating something with herself. “I… There may be someone else.”
Every eye in the room shifted toward her.
“I said may. But he won’t talk to bikers,” she continued. “Especially not vampires.”
Mako dramatically slapped a hand over his heart and looked offended. “That hurts.”
She ignored him.
Boomslang crossed his arms. “Who?”
Katalina hesitated. Finally, she said, “Dorian Veyne.”
Zeus frowned immediately. “That sounds fake.”
“Unfortunately,” Katalina muttered, “he’s very real.”
Hack looked up from his laptop. “Who is he?” For Hack not to know who he was, the man must lie extremely low.
“An information broker,” she explained. “Secrets, artifacts, black-market movement, identities. If something forbidden exists in the Quarter, Dorian usually hears about it before everyone else. Sometimes, he’s right in the thick of it.”
Mako narrowed his eyes. “And you trust him?”
Katalina gave him a look of disdain. “Absolutely not. But we’ve had… dealings in the past, so there’s a possibility that he’ll talk to me. I can at least try.”
Though I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that, I nodded once. “Okay.”
Boomslang frowned slightly. “And while she’s doing that?”
“We start tracking the shell companies I uncovered,” Hack chimed in immediately. “Medical supply movement. Land purchases. Underground power grids.”
“Anything isolated enough for experiments,” I added.