Almost instantly his flesh began to ripple and pulsate as his body fought to heal his bones. I raised the brick and said, “Stop that now, or I’ll break more than your fucking leg.”
He stopped the shift and glared up at me balefully, anger mingling with pain in his eyes. Then he lunged sideways at me, his hand grasping for my ankle. I leapt backward, a gasp surging up my throat but not quite reaching my lips, then brought the brick down, smashing it against his hand, trapping it between the brick and the concrete. He howled a second time.
“Move again, and I’ll break every bone in your hand.”
Sweat trickled down his twisted face. “What do you want?”
“I want your name and the name of your boss. I want to know why you’re after me.” They might have said my father was the reason I was being hunted, but it never hurt to be certain.
“My name is Graham Turner.” He hesitated, and something flickered in his eyes. “I can’t tell you who my boss is.”
I pressed all my weight down onto the brick, and he screamed again. I eased up, then said, “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true,” he all but spat. Pain and fury were etched deep into his expression. Maybe it was just as well the Directorate had a kill policy, because otherwise my life would not have been worth much. “Marcus is the only one who knows how to contact him. I’ve only ever heard his voice over the phone.”
“Marcus is the human who was with you at the parking lot?”
“Yes.”
“His last name?”
He hesitated, and I leaned a little on the brick. “For fuck’s sake,” he said, licking the sweat from his lips. “It’s Handberry. Marcus Handberry.”
I eased up again. “And where might I find this Marcus Handberry?”
“He’s at the club most nights after eleven.”
“What club?”
“The Phoenix. He owns it. Has an office out the back. Jesus, woman, let me go. I’ve given you everything you want.”
“You haven’t told me why you were assigned to me in the first place.”
“Marc had to get some information out of you, that’s all.”
“What sort of information?”
“About your father. I don’t know any more than that—honest.”
I didn’t believe him. Or maybe I didn’t want to believe him. “And then you intended to kill me afterward.”
“No—”
I didn’t let him finish the lie, just rammed the brick down a little harder. The part of me that wasn’t comfortable with violence didn’t seem to be making an appearance right now.
“Okay, okay, yes,” he yelled. “We were to determine your father’s whereabouts, then get rid of you. I don’t know why and I don’t really care. It was just part of the job.”
How come everyone seemed to be aware of what he was doing but me? And if they were so aware of his actions, why the hell where they even after me? Surely they’d know he hadn’t contacted me.
“Why go after Ilianna?”
The dog shifter stared at me with wild eyes. “Who?”
“Ilianna. The mare.”
“Oh, she was just bait. To get you, like.”
Bait they were going to shoot. Bait they were going to kill. Bastards, I thought, and resisted the urge to crush his hand once again.
“How did you know she’d be here, at this time?”
He snorted. “How do you think? Decent scanners are a dime a dozen these days.”
Great. They were monitoring our phone calls. Which meant that until we found the person behind all this, we were going to have to be very careful about what plans we made over the phone.
Footsteps echoed behind us and I glanced around sharply. Uncle Rhoan was running toward me, his red hair glowing like a fire in the wan afternoon light. When our gazes met, he slowed, obviously realizing I was in little danger.
He looked from me to the shifter then back again to me, and a slow grin stretched his lips. “It appears we’ve trained you well.”
I nodded and rose. “Have you talked to Riley yet?”
He nodded. “I was on the way to talk to the owners of the black Toyota when I got your call.” He nudged the shifter with his foot, his expression hard and cold. What Aunt Riley called his guardian face. Seeing it for the first time had chills running down my spine. “I’ll take care of these two. You get yourself home.”
I hesitated, but I knew that tone well enough to realize there was no arguing with him. “You’ll let me know if you get anything else out of him?”
He glanced at me, gray eyes hard. “Yes, but let us take care of this, Ris. This is our area of expertise, not yours. Okay?”
I nodded.
But if he thought I was about to drop it, he had another thing coming.
BOTH ILIANNA AND TAO WERE WAITING FOR ME when I got home.
As the door slid open, Ilianna collapsed into my arms and hugged me fiercely. “Thank the earth,” she whispered. “You’re all right.”
I returned her hug briefly, then pulled away and held her at arm’s length. “Are you okay? The bullet didn’t get you, did it?”
She shook her head, her gaze searching my face then dropping, coming to rest on the scratches around my throat. “You need some ointment on those.”
She spun and strode toward her bathroom, a woman on a mission. I threw off my coat and bag and walked across the room. Tao handed me a coffee and a burger.
I took the coffee—my stomach still churned far too much to eat anything solid right now—and wrapped my fingers around the mug in an effort to warm the chill from them. A chill that came from shock more than the cold.
Tao leaned his jean-clad butt against the glass dining table and crossed his arms. Like most werewolves, he was slender in build, but he worked out daily and it showed in the way his T-shirt strained across his muscular shoulders and forearms.
“So,” he said, his warm brown eyes studying me intently. “What happened? Ilianna wasn’t exactly in a state to give proper explanations.”
“You wouldn’t have been, either, if you’d just been shot at.” She came out of the bathroom and strode toward us, a potion bottle and cloth in hand. “And don’t you be giving us any of that hero bullshit, either. You wouldn’t have hung about to help any more than I did.”
He glanced at her, a flicker of pain showing in his expressive eyes. “That happened a long time ago, Ilianna,” he said softly. “If you think I’d abandon either of you now, you are seriously mistaken.”
I touched his arm, squeezing gently. He glanced at me, the dimples in his cheeks barely showing thanks to the tightness of his smile. He knew that despite our closeness, despite the fact that the three of us would do anything for one another, Ilianna had never entirely forgiven him for what had happened to her sister.
And she never would.
Not when her sister still bore the scars of that night.
In truth, what had happened to Kandra wasn’t really Tao’s fault. He’d been little more than sixteen and besotted with the older shifter. She should have known better than to tease a kid five years younger, but even then he’d had that special something—the twinkle in his eyes, the promise of sensuality on his lips. A way of walking that was loose-limbed and yet seductive.
They’d gone to a bar and Kandra, being a mare in her prime, had flirted with a few too many men. Men who had followed them when they’d left. Tao had done his best to protect them both, but at that age his fire-starting skills had been raw. When his fire failed, he’d run.
But not very far, and not for very long.
Still, by the time he’d come back, the damage had been done. Kandra had fought them, forcing them to reach for weapons. The knife that gutted her had been silver, and they’d left it in her as they’d faced Tao’s onslaught. The silver had damaged several internal organs beyond repair.
Tao was still paying for her medical expenses. Because of the guilt, because of the self-loathing he felt about his actions, he always would.
>
Ilianna stopped in front of me and undid the bottle’s cap. Sage and a peculiar sweetish smell that vaguely reminded me of licorice stung the air.
“Why was Ilianna attacked?” Tao asked as she dabbed some of the antiseptic onto the cloth and began to wipe my throat. It stung like a bitch and I had to resist the urge to jerk away. “And if you were aware of the impending attack, why didn’t you just call and tell her not to leave the house?”
“I tried, but I couldn’t get through.”
Ilianna grimaced, her gaze on my neck as she continued to wipe it with the cream. “I turned the phone off. Mom’s been hassling me to have dinner with them again.”
Tao snorted. “Another prospective stallion in the offering, I gather?”
“I guess.” She shrugged—like it wasn’t the huge hassle we all knew it was.
“You should tell them, Ilianna,” he said gently. “They love you. They’ll understand.”
It was Ilianna’s turn to snort. “All my life I’ve heard my father go on and on about how he looks forward to having lots of little foals under his feet once we come of age. And now that Kandra can’t—”
She stopped, but not before a flash of guilt ran across Tao’s expression.
“I can’t disappoint them,” Ilianna said eventually.
She couldn’t give them children, either. Not the way they expected her to—by allowing herself to be claimed and branded by a stallion and producing his offspring. And with Mirri beginning to make noises about meeting her family, the secret would be out sooner rather than later.
I shared a glance with Tao. He shrugged and grimaced. We’d both tried convincing her to out herself to her parents for years, but to little avail. Obviously, the status quo wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
Ilianna finished wiping my neck, then stepped back. “You’ll need to use this after every shower, just to ensure it doesn’t get infected. You never know what sort of germs men like that are carrying.”
A smile curved Tao’s lips, bringing his dimples to full bloom. “I think the germs they were carrying would have been the last thing on her mind at the time.”
“I guess.” She put the lotion on the table, then propped her butt besides Tao’s. “So, explain.”
I sipped some coffee and winced a little. After all these years, you’d think Tao would remember I liked my coffee sweet. The sweeter the better.
He must have seen my grimace, because he pushed away from the table with a grin and loped over to the kitchen, fetching the sugar bowl and bringing it back. He held it while I scooped three spoonfuls in, then shoved it on the table.
“It’s a long story,” I said as I stirred in the sugar.
“It’s not going to get any shorter unless you start talking,” Tao commented, the dimples flashing again.
So once again I repeated the tale of the day, from the reaper’s appearance to the attack in the parking lot, then my discussion with Riley, and finally my mad dash through traffic to get to Ilianna.
She frowned once I’d finished. “But how did they even know I’d be heading toward Mike’s office?”
“Scanner, no doubt,” Tao said. “I’ll contact Stane and see if he can grab us some scramblers. Until then, we’d better stay off our phones.”
Stane Neale was Tao’s cousin, a wolf who ran a small electronics business down in Clifton Hill. He was also something of a wiz when it came to computers—which just might come in handy if I needed information. Uncle Rhoan, as much as I loved him, obviously wasn’t about to let me investigate this, but it wasn’t in me to sit back and let others solve my problems.
Although that would obviously be the wise thing to do.
“They also placed a tracker on my bike, so it’ll be worth checking your cars before going anywhere.”
Ilianna snorted. “Like me checking is going to do any good. I wouldn’t know a tracking device if it slapped me in the face.”
I grinned. “I’ll do it. In the meantime, you’d better start preparing some repelling potions. You just might need them.”
“I always carry a bottle or two when I’m out. I just didn’t get the chance to use them this time, because you were screaming at me to run.” She crossed her arms and studied me with concern. “What are you going to do?”
“Well, first off I have a date—”
“Date?” Tao said, surprise evident in his expression. “Wasn’t it yesterday you were moaning about the dearth of eligible men in your life?”
“It was,” I agreed, “but this one stepped in to help me against the shifters who attacked Ilianna.”
“I do believe you skipped that little detail,” she said, her voice cross but a twinkle in her eyes. “What have I told you about skipping the important bits?”
“He’s tall, broad-shouldered, golden-haired, and handsome enough to tempt even you.” My grin grew as she snorted. “He’s also an Aedh.”
“Aedh? I didn’t think there were any left in the city.” Tao hesitated. “That’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? I mean, all these men after your father, and you getting rescued by an Aedh.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that.” It wasn’t like I’d actually had a whole lot of time to think during the attack. And afterward, my hormones had well and truly been in control.
Damn it, I wanted the date to be real, wanted it to be based on mutual attraction, not some subversive desire to mine information about a father I’d neither seen nor met.
But now that the seed had been planted, I couldn’t ignore it. Tonight’s date suddenly lost some of its shine, and that was a shame.
“I could be wrong,” Tao said, touching my arm lightly.
I smiled and squeezed his fingers. “You might, but you might not. It’s better that I’m alert and aware rather than lost in attraction.”
“Wolves,” Ilianna commented drily. “All hormones and no common sense.”
Tao laughed and threw an arm around her shoulder. “And you mares are positively virginal by comparison, aren’t you?”
“Hey, I never said it was a bad thing.” She pressed into his embrace a little, but her gaze was sober when it met mine. “What do you plan to do about these men?”
“Well, as it happens, I managed to get the name of the man in charge. He owns a club called the Phoenix—”
“The Phoenix?” Disgust ran across Tao’s face. “That place is a cesspool.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And you know this because?”
“Because the premises are a few doors down from Stane’s, and there are all sorts of drunken misfits coming in and out. Stane had to put grilles on the windows because the bastards kept smashing them.”
“So, it’s not the sort of place someone like me—”
“Certainly not as you are,” he said, voice stern. “And certainly not alone. I’ll come with you.”
I hesitated, then nodded. Tao knew the place, and I didn’t. And although I didn’t want to drag him any deeper into the situation, I also wasn’t stupid enough to go alone. If I called either Rhoan or Riley, they’d simply forbid it.
I wanted—needed—to do this. To do something.
“Okay. The dog shifter told me he usually gets there after eleven, so we’ll head there tonight.”
Ilianna said, “What about your date?”
I looked at her. “What about it?”
“Well, weren’t you the one going on and on about the lack of shaggable men in this city? And now that you actually have a date, you’re ditching him early to go hunt bad men with Tao? That makes no sense.” She nudged Tao with her shoulder, then added with a grin, “Not that you’re bad company or anything less than shaggable, but you’re not Mr. Long Term. Not for Risa, anyway.”
“Oh yeah? Meaning you’ve seen Mr. Long Term?”
Her eyes twinkled. “You know I can’t divulge secrets like that.”
“In other words, she’s just yanking your chain.” Tao’s voice was dry as he pushed away from the table and glanced at his watch. “I??
?m off to the Blue Moon tonight. What time do I need to pick you up?”
“Eleven, at a restaurant called Wintergreen.” I hesitated. “Just how amenable would Stane be to a little detective work?”
“It would make his little hacker’s heart sing with glee,” Tao answered with a smile. “Especially if the request came with a bottle of chilled Bollinger. What do you need?”
“Anything and everything he can find on Marcus Handberry, the owner of the Phoenix.”
“I’ll contact him and ask. We can drop by tonight before we head to the club.”
“Doesn’t he ever close down?”
“Nope. He lives and breathes that shop, and only sleeps when he has to. You want to inspect the cars now, or later?”
“Now.” I drained the coffee and dropped it onto the table. “I need plenty of time to sleep so I’m fresh for tonight.”
He snorted softly. “Darling girl, all you have to do is suggestively bat those gorgeous eyes his way, and the man won’t care if you have monstrous bags underneath them.”
I rose on tippy-toes and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “You do say the nicest things.”
“That’s what best buds do.” He grinned and hooked his arm through mine. “Now, shall we go find bugs?”
We did—and we did.
Three, to be exact.
One on Tao’s Ferrari, one on my Toyota, and the final one on Ilianna’s battered Jeep. Obviously, they’d had no intention of losing any of us—which made me inspect my bike again, but we didn’t find any more. Maybe they’d run out of time. Or bugs.
“I’ll replant these later,” Tao said, placing them carefully into separate plastic bags. “But they’re obviously going to be watching us, so we’ll need to think of a way to stop them from following us tonight.”
We headed back up the stairs. “Can I just note here that your friend Rocky, and his mate Kiera, are about our heights and builds? Why don’t you invite them around for a movie night?”
He grinned and dropped a kiss on my cheek. “You’re so clever sometimes, it’s scary.”
Face-shifting wasn’t as easy as shifting into an alternate form. From what Mom said, donning your wolf form—or whatever other form of animal you might be—involved little more than reaching into that place inside where the beast roamed and releasing the shackles that bound her. This was a little more complicated. Not only did you have to fully imagine all the minute details of the face you wanted to copy, but you had to hold it firm in your thoughts while the magic swirled around and through your body. Easier said than done when the magic was designed to sweep away sensation and thought.