Wolf Ties (A Rue Darrow Novel Book 2) (3 page)

“I am his friend,” Violet said. “But I’m a cop first, and if he’s broken the law, he will pay. I want to help him, but my hands are tied. He was found on the scene with Dalton’s blood on him and in possession of a short sword.”

“A sword

Violet nodded. “Silver. I’m sure you know what that means.”

I did know, having learned it in the last month. Wanting to know my natural weaknesses, I had asked Bill, and thinking of my crazy friend, I had asked about werewolves, too. Funny enough, silver weakened both vampires and werewolves. Too much of it, and both could be killed.

I rubbed my forehead, trying to work out why Nathan would even risk handling a silver sword. None of it made sense to me, and from watching Nathan and Dalton together, I had believed they were like brothers. Why would Nathan hurt him? I refused to accept it. “So the police think Nathan stabbed Dalton with this sword?”

“Chopped off his head.”

I gagged. “W-what?”

“An act that violent is hate, revenge, or…a werewolf’s rage.”

I knew in an instant it wasn’t looking good for Nathan. Violet drew into the police station’s parking lot. There were few cars around us, but the lights blazed inside the building. I peered out the window and spotted something crouching on the roof. When I jerked the car door open to climb out and get a better view, the thing was gone.

“Forget it,” Violet said.

I looked at her. “What?”

“It was a demon.”

I frowned at her back as she started toward the building and then followed. “Why don’t you go after it? That’s your job, isn’t it?”

She stopped walking and spun to face me. “No, it’s not. Listen, there are demons everywhere. They’re like an infestation, not usually visible, but sometimes they appear in the physical realm. You get a glimpse and nothing else. What I’m talking about is the lower level one. They’re primary purpose of existence seems to be to screw with humans. My job, as you seem eager to define it, is to protect humans from other humans. Sometimes I might have to protect them from nonhumans.”

“The demons, right.”

“No, the lower demons can influence humans, but it’s still up to the humans to give in to it. Therefore, the humans are punished for their crimes.” Violet pointed a thumb over her shoulder. “This is the place where the humans come who won’t resist. Needless to say, the demons that messed with their heads join them, hoping to continue their fun. So you’ll see a demon on the roof, an imp in a cell, whatever. It’s normal.”

I rubbed imagined goose bumps on my arms. “That’s gross.”

“Yeah, but it’s life. The humans don’t see them a fraction as much as we do, but thank goodness, it’s not all the time.”

“You chose this field.”

“That’s right.” She rested her hand on the gun at her hip. “And I love it. I won’t risk it for Nathan.”

I shrugged. “That’s the difference between you and me, Violet. I would risk everything for those I care for.”

I won no points in friendship with that piece of heroism, and she spun away again. We entered the police station, and I followed her to the stairs leading to the homicide division. A large room with various desks presented itself, all flat surfaces cluttered with papers, folders, and most containing computers. A few spots were occupied with policemen, most on the phone. One leaned back in his chair, feet on the desk, eyes closed. Violet approached this man and shoved his feet on the floor. He jerked awake.

“Violet, what did you do that for?”

Baby blues met mine for an instant and then slid to Violet. His heartbeat quickened. Human and attracted to Violet. I looked at her. She seemed not to care or didn’t know.

“Give me the keys. I’m going to the back.”

“To visit that guy again?” The man scrubbed a hand over a jawline with a five o’clock shadow. “No use. You’re not going to get anything out of him.”

She pounded a heavy hand on his desk and leaned toward him. “Let me be the judge of that.”

He grinned. “Have I told you how beautiful you are when you’re angry, Violet?”

She grumbled.

“Anyway, he’s been moved.”

“What? Who moved him? Where?”

The man named a facility I hadn’t heard of. “He’ll get a psych eval, but probably not until some time next week. They’re backed up, but with they way he was found and being out of control, they’ll probably get permission to keep him a while.”

My mouth fell open. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “What is ‘a while’? Where is this facility?”

The man looked at me. “Who’s your cute friend, Violet?”

“Never mind. Come on, Rue. We’re leaving.”

Before long, we were back in her vehicle, but she didn’t start the car right away. I faced her. “He can’t stay locked up, Violet.”

She ground her teeth, cutting her eyes over at me. “You’re trying to tell a werewolf about my own kind? He would go insane locked away. We must have time to run, and the full moon is coming in a few days. Nathan won’t be able to resist turning. In fact, it’s a miracle he hasn’t turned already. I think he’s hanging on by a thread.”

I nodded. Nathan had once told me as the waxing moon drew nearer, it became harder to contain their beast nature. He, more than many of them, had a harder time. Nathan had lost countless jobs because he lost his temper at the boss and with his coworkers. Before he started helping me with occasional jobs, he had been desperate for work. At the time, the most he could depend on was the fact that he had a roof over his head, mostly financed by his friend, who was now dead.

“Rue, I’m going to do what I can, but this situation is more serious than whether Nathan will go to prison.”

“How so?”

“Because of who, or rather what, Dalton was.”

“A werewolf.”

“Not just any werewolf, an alpha.” When I didn’t respond to this, she explained. “An alpha is the leader of a pack. He was the head of the most prominent werewolf pack in New Orleans.”

“Are you serious? That guy?”

She glared. “Yes, that guy, and killing him could have dire consequences.”

“Like?”

She started the car. “Like more deaths. The werewolves won’t stand for the murder of one of their own, least of all the leader.”

I tried my best to grasp the magnitude of what she told me. I was still learning to embrace all aspects of this new world. “They want to kill Nathan in retribution.”

“It’s true they want to kill the person responsible.”

“So you find this person, give him to the wolves, and we can be done with it.” In my mind, this was a simple matter as long as they left Nathan out of the equation. If the wolves declared they would kill him in retribution, they would have a fight on their hands with one determined vampire.

Violet gave a good imitation of a wolf’s growl. Then again, it wasn’t an imitation. “Would you listen to what I’m telling you? I’m not just being dramatic, Rue! I have my hands full trying to keep the wolves away from the crime scene. I need to investigate, but I can’t do that if I’m dealing with them.”

“Can’t you just talk to them and ask them to give you some time to figure out what really happened?” I was being thick on purpose. I didn’t yet know why she dragged me into werewolf business. I protected humans, and I would do everything I could to protect Nathan. Violet’s unbending from her dislike of me to ask for help had me wondering.

“They won’t listen to me.” Her voice went from anger-filled to sad. “I’m not pack.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. Neither is Nathan, but he had the respect of the others through Dalton. With him gone, who knows.”

“Well, I don’t know how you think they’ll talk to me. I’m not pack nor werewolf.”

She pulled to a stop at a red light and faced me, desperation in her gaze. “You’ve made friends among them. Right now, they’re questioning whether the man they’ve known all these years could have done what it’s said he did. They’re antsy, but we’ve kept the details covered up.”

“You mean about cutting off his head with the silver sword?”

“No, the claw marks.”

I blinked. “What claw marks, and what will happen if the wolves discover them?”

“Cat shifter and…war.”

Chapter Three

Violet and I arrived at a small, unassuming house in the ninth ward. When I stepped out of the car, something struck me as odd about the place, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Perhaps it was because my mind swirled with what she had shared on the way over here.

There existed another pack of shifters in New Orleans, but they weren’t called a pack. They were called something else. What had she said? Oh yes, a clowder. Apparently, a group of cats has this name, and this particular group was people who could shape-shift into panthers.

I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Sure, the rivalry made sense. Dogs and cats as enemies was an age-old fact. So, Violet had said, the werewolves couldn’t learn that the police had found claw marks of a werecat. Of course, the humans didn’t know they were the markings of this creature, but Violet knew their scent because she had smelled it before.

“I want to find the one that killed Dalton,” Violet said, walking up next to me. “My gut tells me one of them was acting on his own. The two groups hate each other, and all they need is an excuse to fight, but up until now, the cats have kept their distance. They know we’re superior in strength and skill.”

I raised an eyebrow at the boasting, and she blushed.

“If I can prove it was one alone, maybe the wolves won’t attack.”

“Why should you care if they fight it out? You said yourself, you’re not pack.”

Violet was giving me that look again, one that said I was an ignoramus. I resented it. “If the wolves fight, Rue, it will be a bloodbath.”

“Again, what do you care? A few cats…”

“During the time of a full moon? They will smell blood and go on a rampage. It’s likely after all the cats are dead, the wolves’ rage will continue. Who do you think the next target will be? I’ll tell you. Humans. Once humans are involved, it will be impossible to keep our existence quiet, and there will be a hunt for all werewolves. Not to mention, the cat carcasses will be found, and humans will begin to speculate what other creatures exist.”

“Okay, I get it.” My command from my sire had said I must protect humans at all costs—all except to cover vampire existence. This possible war might mean failing in both those edicts. I had no choice but to do what I could. “I’m with you.”

“Good. Let’s go in.”

We strode closer to the house, but then she grabbed my arm to hold me back. “What?”

“Could you try to…” Violet scratched her head. “Do you smell anything here that’s not human? Do you detect anything from inside the house?”

I wrinkled my nose. “No, nothing. There’s your scent and some humans, a bit of an herby scent…”

She nodded. “I use someone occasionally to ‘contain’ a scene.”

“Contain?”

“Yes, a witch.”

“Interesting. So there’s a witch in New Orleans, too?”

Violet smirked. “It’s New Orleans.”

Even I had heard, living in my small town, of the city’s reputation. New Orleans held a concentration of magic users and such.

“So the witch casts a spell to keep scents inside?”

“Yes. Right now, the werewolves can’t track Dalton here. They don’t know where he died, so they won’t come here and discover the connection to the cats. Once we go in, I want you to get the scent fast. You have to take in everything you see because that’s the last you’ll see of it.”

“You’re going to destroy the crime scene? I thought you told Silvano you abide by the law.”

“No. What I said was I do so as long as it doesn’t threaten our existence. I’m not going to destroy the property. I’m going to obliterate the scent and remove the claw marks. We’ve already processed the scene. There’s no reason we need to come back here. I kept it intact for you.”

“All right. Let’s go in.”

We walked to the front door, and as we moved, Violet pulled a small vial from her pocket. I assumed it was something the witch had given her. With a key she pulled from another pocket, she unlocked the door and entered ahead of me. I hesitated, and Violet looked over her shoulder at me.

“It’s okay. No one lives here, so you won’t be barred.”

I nodded and stepped forward, but a barrier did spring up. Not one I couldn’t break, though. As I gave a little mental push, I felt it beginning to give. This must be the witch’s seal. She hadn’t made it too strong for me. In fact, as my foot crossed the threshold, I sensed the spell dissolve.

“Better move,” I said. “It’s down.”

One of my greatest appreciations as a vampire came in the form of my speed. I adored it, and “catching the wind,” as I had named it, meant everything to me; it meant freedom.

Violet standing in the entryway to the house became a blur as I scoured the structure. No furniture, just walls and little squares for rooms, nothing at all special. I looked because I wanted to be sure. The scent, now released, was coming from the second floor, blood so strong it filled my nostrils and seduced my hunger. I figured a lot had been spilled.

The master bedroom and the bathroom off of it were both empty, but blood had pooled and was now dried halfway between the two. My fangs descended, but I ignored them for now. Dalton’s scent filled my nose, as well as Nathan’s. There was another as well, something nonhuman, and I filed it away in my memory as the scent of the cat shifter. The panther’s smell wasn’t much different from a house cat, but there was more to it. Something in its makeup that said shifter, and specifically this person. If I came into contact with him, I would remember.

“Do you see it?”

I spun around to find Violet standing in the doorway. Her eyes reflected what little illumination shined through the window. Neither of us had turned on the house lights, if the electricity was even running. I sensed her increase in temper and heard the pounding of her heart. My teeth ached.

“Get out,” I growled.

“I need to wipe it. Hurry up!”

I took a step toward her, but she pointed past me. When I looked, I saw what she referred to, the shredded wallpaper at the base of the wall. This was where the fight had begun between the two weres. No, not a fight, a murder. There hadn’t been much of a struggle from the appearance of one set of claw marks. I wanted to get a closer look, but I didn’t dare, not with the blood beside the scratches. That I had recorded the scent was enough.

“Do it,” I said and retreated to the first floor. Not until I stood on the front walk did I manage to retract my fangs. Some minutes later, all scents were gone. The house might have been just constructed for all the atmosphere it gave off.

Curious, I dared to enter and glanced around at the empty rooms. I headed to the second floor and blinked in surprise when I found that the blood spill was still there. Now it might as well be red paint as blood because there was no scent. Even leaning down to it, produced nothing in me.

“That’s incredible,” I said as Violet busied herself cutting a square around the scratched wallpaper and the sheetrock beneath. “If the liquid actually cleaned up the blood along with removing the smell, the witch would have a fortune on her hands. I know more than one woman who would love to get her hands on it for cleaning her house.”

Violet grunted in answer to this. I supposed she wasn’t the type for domestic chores. “Did you get the scent, Rue?”

“Yes, I got it. I remember.” On one of my first jobs, I had kept an object containing my target scent with me because I wasn’t too confident. Previous experience and success made me sure I didn’t need such a crutch.

“Good. Now you can question the cats.”

“Excuse me? I thought you were leaving the wolves to me.”

Violet stood. “You aren’t afraid, are you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I was a bit nervous, but I had been with the werewolves as well. “Isn’t questioning suspects your job?”

“Sure, and I bet I’ll get plenty of cooperation from them.” The sarcasm was not lost on me.

“Ah, right. You’re werewolf.”

“Exactly. The badge doesn’t mean much to them, but they might give it a tiny bit of respect. That respect drops to zero with me being wolf.”

“I’ll give it a try. Any idea where I can find them?”

She gave me an address to a garage.

“Will do.”

I was about to descend the stairs again, grateful I didn’t have to ride in the car, when I got the feeling something or someone watched me. At first thought, I worried we hadn’t been fast enough and the wolves were upon us. Then I realized I wasn’t smelling wolf. I smelled lightning.

Strolling along the hall toward the back two bedrooms, I strained my ears to pick up any movement, but got nothing. “Hello? Anyone here?”

Great. I was doing what they did in movies that got you killed. Oh right, I was already dead. I sniffed the air. The lightning scent came from the smallest bedroom, with a concentration in the closet. A memory flashed through my mind of me hiding from sunlight in a closet. This wasn’t a vampire though. Of that, I was sure.

“Come out,” I commanded. “Now.”

I watched the doorknob, expecting it to turn. Instead, the wood appeared to alter its state, as if going from solid to liquid. Then all of a sudden I knew what I was dealing with. A head appeared, then shoulders, finally the trim figure of a woman, blond shoulder-length hair and wide green eyes.

She clutched her hands together in front of her. I thought I saw a tremor in her body. We stood face to face, about the same height. She might have had me by an inch and a half. I reached five foot three and one hundred fifteen pounds if I were alive. The living part had to do with muscle composition and blood. My guess is I weighed a lot more as a vampire, but that was pure conjecture.

This ghost woman probably didn’t make the scale move at all. “Please don’t banish me,” she pleaded.

Banishment. Now that took me back to the past. You might recall I said vampires could banish ghosts, and this one like the ones in the hospital, assumed I would do so to her. She couldn’t know either that I didn’t know the chant.

“I’m not going to banish you, so you can relax.” I turned away to leave, and she followed. A glare sent her scurrying toward the closet. I descended to the first floor. Once I was outside, I realized the night had passed too quickly and being exposed to the blood on the floor had given me an appetite. Even if it was werewolf blood, which I couldn’t consume, it still gave me a craving. I needed to hunt. Time was of the essence if I was to help Nathan, but I couldn’t see the cats at my weakest, near dawn. That would be asking for trouble. Instead, I would feed, sleep, and then head over to the garage as soon as I woke.

* * * *

The first crimp in my plan came when I opened my eyes to find a stupid ghost hovering above my bed. Was this how my son Jake felt when I had watched him in my ghostly form? Of course he wouldn’t have felt anything because he didn’t know back then that I did it. Either way, I was annoyed to find the woman in my apartment.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, sitting up. “Aren’t you tethered to the house where I found you?”

She wrung her hands as she had done the night before, but it looked weirder since she floated. “Not any more. The werewolf cleansed the house, so I’m not stuck.”

“Hm, that makes sense, but why would you follow the vampire?”

“She looked angry.”

I circled my face with a finger. “And this looks happy?”

She smiled and drifted closer. I waved a hand to shoo the fly away, but my arm passed through her. There was no chill but a stark awareness of her. I wasn’t sure what she felt if anything.

“You seem nice,” she chirped. “And you didn’t banish me.”

“Yes, I spared your life. Or…whatever. Now go away.”

Instead of dissipating, the woman took a turn about the tiny apartment, flitting here and there, peeking into various items. “I can stay here with you. I’m Lily, by the way. What’s your name? I won’t take up any room. I don’t require food. We would get along great. I just know it.”

“I won’t be haunted by a ghost,” I snapped. At this point, I wasn’t sure if my anger came from an instinctual dislike of ghosts because Ian had told me ghosts and vampires were enemies. My annoyance might have arisen from the simple fact that I had no power or knowledge of how to get rid of her. As soon as she realized this, all my options disappeared, and I would be stuck with her from now on.

Lily hung her head. “You can’t imagine the loneliness I feel. It’s like I’m neither alive nor dead, and I don’t belong on either side. You’re immortal, and even if you can’t walk in the sunlight, you can go out at night and meet friends, even other vampires. I’ve always been stuck at that house with no one to care.”

She brightened.

“Then you came along—what did you say your name is?”

“Rue,” I said grudgingly.

“Rue, that’s beautiful. You came along, Rue, and set me free.”

“Let’s not make the vampire into a savior. You do know I’m cursed, right?”

“Yes.” She grinned. I wondered if she died as a result of her own foolishness, which was possible given what I had seen so far. I didn’t want to ask for details in case she misconstrued it to be concern.