Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (26 page)

Rhett did his
best to give him a questioning look, but he could feel the need to sleep pulling
at him.

‘You were shot
at … twice … you’re lucky you didn’t get one through the heart. There’s no
coming back from that.’

Rhett rested his
head on his good front paw and allowed the gentle rocking of the car to send
him to sleep. Even if he’d been human, he wouldn’t have known what to say. He
didn’t do that mushy shit—especially not with B.

It was the slamming of a door that
roused Rhett from his sleep. Cold air rushed into the car and B was there
staring down at him.

‘Fuck,’ B
hissed, studying the wound. Brax turned back to the house. ‘I need some help
out here!’ he yelled. ‘It’s going to be okay, Rhett.’

Rhett could
barely keep his eyes open anymore. There was another rush of cold air, and
Rhett knew that Vaile was there.

‘What happened?’
Vaile barked at Brax.

‘He was shot
at.’

Hot fingers
touched his forepaw—poking and prodding—but there was no pain. ‘The silver is
setting in too quickly. The flesh around the wound has already died. We need to
get him into surgery now,’ Vaile said.

Rhett was sucked
into the black seas of unconsciousness, only waking again when something sharp
pierced the muscles in his shoulder. Slowly, he blinked the room into focus. He
was lying on the metal slab in the makeshift operating theatre they had set up
in one corner of the barn. A large bright light was positioned over his body
while metal hitting metal assaulted his ears.

‘He’s coming
round,’ someone said.

‘Rhett?’ Vaile’s
face appeared in front of his eyes. ‘We need to get the round out. It’s going
to hurt.’

‘Are you going
to sedate him?’ Brax asked. Rhett’s eyes shifted a little to the right where he
saw his best friend covered in blood. His blood.

‘Can’t. It
doesn’t work on us. He’s just going to have to deal.’

Vaile picked up
a pair of forceps. ‘Hold him down,’ he rumbled. Three sets of hands came down
onto Rhett: one on his hind legs, one on his back and another on his shoulders
and head. Rhett growled, feeling his hold slipping on his wolf’s baser
instincts. It wanted to fight them off, but Rhett knew he had to keep it under
control.

Vaile grasped
his forepaw in his hand, putting more pressure on it than he needed to. Rhett
tried to pull away, but Vaile shot him a look. ‘I need to do this Rhett, or the
silver will poison your blood even more and you’ll die.’ Vaile’s tone was cold
and direct. Rhett stopped fighting.

The forceps dug
into Rhett’s skin, but he was blissfully unaware of the pain which was a bad
thing. Silver killed living tissue in lycanthropes. There was a wet noise and
then a metallic
chink
as Vaile dropped one of the balls from the round
into a metal bowl. Rhett’s body writhed suddenly; the hands on his body
clamping down to stop him moving. His vision fuzzed out to black. He came back
around again, unaware of where he was for a second. He tried to get up, but the
same hands as before held him down. Vaile appeared in front of him with a
bandage in his hands.

‘Relax. We got
it all out. Your radius and ulna were shattered and you’ll need to rest to heal
them. I’ve just given you something to help reverse the effects of the silver.’
Vaile looked up. ‘Brax, help me get him back to his room.’

Rhett was hauled
up between his beta and best friend. The barn door creaked open, and a rush of
cold air swirled around them.

‘What the hell
happened to you two?’ Vaile asked.

‘We went to
check out the cabin Sabel saw last time he did recon. We found Eaton. She was
there, but Rhett was caught looking through the window at Eaton. One of the
Dragos wolves shot him in the leg.’

Vaile growled.
‘What’s the fucker’s name?’

‘It was Clay,
but you don’t have to worry about him anymore.’

‘You killed
him?’ Rhett was sure he heard respect in his beta’s voice.

‘Nobody shoots
at my boy without repercussions,’ B replied, smug.

‘How did Eaton
look?’

‘Rhett saw her,
but he says she looked bad. We’ve got to get her out. I think that’s what he
was trying to do. He went back even after he was shot at to find a way in, but
another half a dozen Dragos wolves came in as reinforcements. We had to get out
of there while we still could.’

Rhett could feel
Vaile’s eyes on him. ‘We’ll get her back.’

‘What the hell
happened?’ Antain’s voice boomed when they stepped back into the farmhouse.

Vaile and Brax
told him everything that had happened, and Rhett could feel his alpha’s power
rushing over his body. His uncle’s warm hand came down on his neck. Rhett’s
eyes cracked open.

‘Good job, son,’
he murmured. ‘Get some rest.’

Vaile had just spent that last hour
with Antain trying to figure out how and when to get Eaton back now that they
knew where she was. But the glaringly obvious problem was that without knowing
whether Marcus had brought in permanent back up, or whether she was still
actually at the cabin Rhett and Brax had found, they had done very little
planning. What they needed was fresher Intel, which meant they needed Leona.

He was now
sitting in the kitchen trying to mentally work through the mutilation murder
cases. They’d hit a dead end. Vaile still thought it was a vampire case, and he
had to find out who was behind it and why, as soon as he could. With any luck
they’d be able to pump a few vamps for information tonight.

His mind drifted
which was exactly what he hadn’t wanted to happen. It seemed as soon as his mind
was idle, he went back to thinking about Grey in that black silk negligee. As
soon as he acknowledged the thought, his cock gave him a standing ovation. He’d
wanted her right then and there, and he’d only just managed to stop himself from
reaching for her.

‘Are you ready
to go?’ Colton asked Vaile, breaking his concentration.

‘Yeah, I’m
ready.’

‘Driving or
running?’

Running. He
hadn’t done that in so long. He could feel his wolf stir restlessly beneath his
skin at the mention of it. ‘Drive.’ He stood up, grabbing his car keys from the
sideboard where he’d left them last.

Thankfully,
Colton kept his hole shut for the half hour drive into Buxton. Vaile wasn’t
really that surprised though. Even he could feel the
don’t-fucking-talk-to-me
vibes he was giving off. He parked in a backstreet close to a usual vamp
haunt and got out of the car. His breath froze in the air as it left his mouth;
stinging his lungs as he drew in a fresh wave of frigid air.

‘Where do we
start, boss?’ Colton asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. Vaile inhaled
deeply, closing his eyes. They were in Hell—the dankest, vilest place anyone
could live in Buxton. The sting of a meth lab cooking hit his nostrils. The
stench of ammonia was coming from behind the door of a warehouse to his right,
but he wasn’t here to bust a couple of meth cooks.

Just then a guy
came around the corner. His eyes were wide and glassy, his pupils dilated so
much that Vaile could barely see the rim of blue around the outside. He didn’t
have a jacket on, and was sweating heavily. The guy was picking at his skin,
pulling up fresh scabs. He seemed to notice Colton and Vaile then; his eyes
narrowing suspiciously. The fucking meth fiend was tweaking out.

‘Whatareyoulookingat?’
he screamed, marching up to Vaile. The guy came up to the middle of Vaile’s
chest, which meant that the twitchy fucker had to crank his neck back to look
him in the eye. Vaile let his wolf out and the guy took a step back.

‘Turn around and
leave now,’ Vaile said in a cool, hard voice.

The guy
twitched.

‘Areyoufollowingme?Whyareyoufollowingme?’
he asked too quickly, his eyes sliding from side to side like monsters were
going to come out from the shadows and eat him.

Vaile let his
wolf growl, low and steady. The guy twitched, scratching at his other arm this
time. He looked around nervously, scratching.

‘Leave.’

The tweaker
looked up at Vaile again, sizing him up before lunging for an iron bar resting
against the building. He swung at Vaile, but Vaile was faster, dodging the
strike, ducking under the guy’s arms and driving him into the opposite wall.
His fingers cranked into the guy’s wind pipe, cutting off his air supply
quickly.

The fiend’s
scabby, scarred fingers scrambled against Vaile’s fingers, until his eyes began
rolling around in his skull. When he was out, Vaile lowered him to the ground.
‘Let’s go,’ he told Colton over his shoulder.

‘Where are we
going anyway?’

‘I need to find
immara
.
They have no loyalty to any master, so they might be more willing to give us
information.’

They set off
towards the rear car park of The Imp. This was usually where the vamps brought
their humans. Murmured voices caught both their attention. Vaile gestured for
Colton to go one way while he went the other, ducking behind cars and moving in
with stealth. Vaile stalked closer and closer to the sound of voices. He
crouched down beside a parked car where he was close enough to see two
immara
.

The female was
tall and willowy with more than half a dozen bite marks along her neck and
wrists. She was wearing a tank top and leather pants. The male was brawny;
built thick through the neck and shoulders. As the male twisted his neck
around, Vaile caught sight of a tattoo on his neck. He was a
mara
. He
wouldn’t be able to see who he belonged to until he got a little closer.

‘How much for a
suck?’ the male asked the female, eyeing her neck. From what Vaile understood,
vamps could sell their blood for cash, or go for an even swap.

‘Equal trade,’
the female said.

The
mara
growled. ‘I go first then, blood whore.’ He grabbed her by the throat and
dragged her against his huge body. With his other hand on her head, he bent the
female’s head into a painful angle to expose her neck to him.

His fangs
plunged into her skin roughly, drawing a gasp from the female. His huge
shoulders rolled forward, caging the female in place. Her eyes slid shut and
Vaile saw his opportunity.

Taking the vamp
by the shoulders, he threw it from the female, but not before his fangs could
tear huge gashes in her skin. Blood flowed freely as she screamed; the noise
cut off suddenly when Colton gagged her under Vaile’s silent order.

Vaile hauled the
mara
up by his throat, pinning him to the wall. Colton tossed him a
dagger which he held over the vamp’s heart. The male snapped its blood-stained
teeth at him, but all Vaile was interested in was who its master was. With his
hand on its jaw, Vaile yanked the
mara’s
head around to peer at the side
of its neck. Vaile’s mind rifled through his memory trying to place the brand.

‘Who is your
sire?’ he snarled.

‘Fuck you,
Wolf,’ the vamp spat, still gnashing its teeth together.

‘We’re not here
for a cleanup. We’re here for information,’ Vaile lied. The vamp tried to push
out from under Vaile’s grip, but that only made the blade sink into his skin.
The male screamed.

‘Sacred blades,
fuck face,’ Colton drawled. The female
immara
whimpered.

‘Tell me what I
need to know, and I’ll let you go,’ Vaile said reasonably.

The vamp’s eyes
narrowed. ‘What is it that you need to know?’

Vaile smiled
malevolently. ‘Have you seen any of Eirawen’s Sicarii around here?’

The vamp barked
a laugh. ‘Even if I had, why would I tell you?’

Vaile slammed
the
mara
against the wall, its head connecting with the unmistakeable
sound of bone on brick. ‘Because next time I won’t be so lenient,’ Vaile hissed
into its ear.

The vampire
growled before answering Vaile’s question. ‘My sire has said that Eirawen is on
the warpath. She wants the head of whoever killed her mate.’

‘Who’s your
sire?’

The vamp
resisted until Vaile shoved the blade into his skin a little further.

‘Aneira!’ he
screamed. ‘It’s Aneira! I’ve answered your questions, now let me go.’

‘Not yet. What
do you know about the murders that have occurred at The Imp?’

‘Nothing,’ he
spat. ‘I don’t know anything about some Goddamn human murders. Why would I?’

‘Because
Eirawen’s rune has been carved into their chests.’

‘Like I said, I
don’t know anything about the human murders.’

Vaile’s eyes
narrowed. ‘Wrong answer.’ He drove the blade into the vampire’s heart, letting
the body drop to the frozen ground. The
immara
screamed high and long.
Vaile wheeled around to the female. Colton cuffed her across the cheek to shut
her up, and she whimpered.

‘
Immara
,
have you heard anything about the murders?’ Female vampires were deceptively
beautiful. This one seemed to be quite fragile, but Vaile knew that could
change. The need to survive is ingrained into every living thing—even vamps. If
she had the opportunity, she would have no problem killing them both.   

‘I don’t know
anything, Wolf,’ she replied softly. ‘I just needed a little blood. The male
approached me at The Imp. I was hungry. I’m just a blood whore. Nobody tells me
anything.’

Vaile squeezed
the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. The whole fucking
exercise had been for nothing. Although all the signs pointed to a vampire
attack, there was something at the back of his head telling him he was looking
for answers in the wrong place.

‘Kill her,’ he
told Colton. Vaile turned back to the
mara
, removing his head with one
swift downward swing of Colton’s knife. Cleaning the blade, he handed it back
to his pack mate handle first.