Chase waited till they finished, respecting the tradition, and then he gently passed around pictures of the elf. “I’m sorry to ask this, but first, do any of you have any idea of who this man was? He was caught in the blast, too, but we haven’t been able to put an ID to him yet.”
One by one they studied the picture, tears streaming, and shook their heads. Marion held it last, staring long and hard.
“I think he might have come into the café the other day, but I’m not sure. It was a slow day and I seem to remember…yes, Trixie was there, she was talking to him. But I don’t know his name.” She handed it back. “Who did this?”
“We don’t know yet.” Chase let out a long breath. “I’m sorry, but the sooner we ask you some questions, the sooner we’ll be able to catch whoever it is that did this.” He glanced around at the silent, tear-stained faces.
After a moment, Claudia Reed spoke up. “Ask your questions, Detective. We’ll do all we can to help.” She looked at the others, and they nodded their assent. Apparently, Exo’s wife was tougher than I had first thought.
“Thank you. I know this is a rotten time to ask, but it might help.” Chase shuffled a few papers and flipped open his notebook, pen poised over the paper.
“Have any of your loved ones mentioned anything out of the ordinary—any enemies? Anybody who might have been making threats? Anybody unhappy with them?”
He settled back in his chair while Nerissa unobtrusively passed out tissues, patted shoulders, and brought a blanket for Marion, who was shivering. I wanted to go over, put my arms around her shoulders, whisper that it was all okay, that it was a mistake and her sister was still alive and well.
Claudia shrugged. “Exo has…had…he’s made a number of enemies, definitely. Anybody turned away from the hotel could be out to get him. And there are a few members in the werewolf packs who don’t like the fact that he’s made such a public name for himself.”
I glanced at Chase, who gave me an imperceptible nod. “Do you know if any sorcerers have been hanging around the hotel?” If Van and Jaycee were part of this, chances were they had brought more of their kind over from the Sub-Realms.
The werewolf flinched, her eyes gleaming in the dim room. “Sorcerers? Crap—I didn’t know sorcery was involved.” Most werewolves didn’t care for outright magic.
Marion cleared her throat. “Delilah, can I speak to you in private?”
I led her out of the room, to an empty one next door. “Yes?”
“Could this have anything to do with the Koyanni? You cleared out a lot of them, but some got away. You know I’d have told you if I knew where they were, but it’s well known among the coyote shifters that you are connected with the Supe Community Council. And a strike at the organization you help run would be a strike at you.”
I cleared my throat. “You might be right. We’ve talked about this already. Which means I’m going to have to talk openly about the Koyanni. I know your people have kept them a secret all these years, but let’s face it, that barn door was left standing wide open and the horses are long gone.”
She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall. “I suppose it is.”
“When they attacked Luke’s sister, they forfeited their secrecy. Eventually, everything is going to come out in the open. We can’t keep a lid on old legends when they prove to be true and still deadly. And if the Koyanni are involved in this, we’ve got a huge problem on our hands. Would you like me to tell the others, or do you want to? You know their history better.”
Mario bit her lip. “I broke my vow of secrecy when I first mentioned them to you and your sisters. I guess…now it’s moot. And if the Elders can’t understand why I’m speaking up, then that’s their problem. We can’t keep them a secret when they may be terrorizing the entire Supe Community. Especially if they had anything to do with my sister’s death. And if they did, then I will hunt every last one of them down and slit their throats.”
“You don’t think they targeted Trixie because they knew you were the one who originally told us about them, do you?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, then covered her eyes with her hand as tears slowly rolled down her face. Her voice throaty with tears, she added, “Whoever did it, I just want them dead.”
I swept the gaunt, lean woman into my arms and hugged her. She was so creative and nurturing in her restaurant; it was a shock to hear her talk so harshly. Grief was like that, though. It could make killers out of ordinary men and women. Heading back into the other room, I gave Marion a moment to compose herself. I motioned for everyone’s attention and glanced at Chase, who nodded for me to go ahead. He trusted us. We did our best not to abuse that trust.
“We have a situation that started back in October. Whether or not it relates to the bombing tonight, we’re not sure yet. But I think it best if we tell you about it in case the events spark off any connections…anything that might help us locate who killed your family members. Again, as Chief Johnson said, we’re sorry to have to put you through this tonight—we understand how hard it is. But the sooner we can gather clues, the sooner we can begin looking for the perpetrators.”
The word perpetrator felt odd on my tongue. To my mind, they were murderers, but the inflammatory tone of the word might further sidetrack the family members, who were reeling as it was.
Marion quietly joined us again. She slipped into her seat. I glanced at her, and she gave me a resigned look. I smiled at her and continued.
“Last October, some of you may remember hearing of several killings that happened among the werewolf community. We were investigating the case of several werewolves who were murdered—”
“I remember that,” the weredog said. “I’m Shane Creia. Thomas was my little brother. He was only a couple of years out of high school. He’s got a wife and twin boys.” He pinched his nose, the tears glistening in his eyes. “What kind of people do this?”
The other man—a werewolf—cleared his throat. I could tell his nerves were raw. Weres were readable; we were like open books at times thanks to our heightened body language. “Geraldo Tienes…Salvatore’s uncle. Word about the murders filtered down into Arizona, though there wasn’t much information released. Do you think those killings were connected with the explosion tonight?” He straightened, his nose twitching.
I nodded. “Right, we didn’t release a lot of information, and with good reason. We’re walking on treacherous ground here. There are things going on that we just can’t talk about right now. When those murders happened, we caught a number of the perps…but some got away. We think they may be back—not necessarily for their original reason, but to wreak revenge on the Supe Community. Maybe on Marion, or me or…who knows. The murders were connected with Wolf Briar—”
“Wolf Briar! Wolf Briar is loose in the community?” Geraldo’s eyes glittered with fear.
“Yeah, it is. We think we destroyed most of it, but we can’t be sure, so be cautious. And we know for a fact it was being made by a couple of sorcerers and a group of Koyanni.”
Doing my best to skirt the whole spirit seal–demonic invasion theme, I kept it to “sorcerers” and left out the Tregart part, then hashed the rest of the information together in a way that made sense.
“Koyanni?” Salvatore glanced up. “Who are they?”
I was about to defer to Marion, but Geraldo spoke up.
“Coyote scum, that’s who.” He pressed his lips together, the bridge of his nose turning unnaturally white.
“Oh, hell.” Claudia shifted in her seat. “Exo mentioned that he thought the Koyanni were in the area. He had trouble with them when he was on a special ops assignment for his unit, years ago, down in South America. He told me that they were a vicious breed of coyote shifters…” She turned to study Marion for a moment. “Does she know anything about this?” Shaking an accusing finger at the café owner, the werewolf slammed her chair back.
Marion slowly stood, meeting Claudia’s angry gaze. “Do not confuse me with the Lost Ones
. They walk to their own vision, and any coyote shifter who follows the true path of the Great Trickster will have nothing to do with them. The Koyanni are dangerous and a tribe unto themselves. They left the old ways behind eons ago and are considered outcasts.”
Before fists—or fur—could fly, I stepped in. “Stop and sit down, both of you. Marion has nothing to do with the Koyanni. I see that you’re familiar with them, so for now we’ll forgo discussion of their past. Marion’s just as much a victim as the rest of you. Her sister was caught in the explosion.”
Claudia mumbled an apology and returned to her seat. Marion shrugged and slouched in her chair again.
Trying to ignore the scent of pheromones in the air—the energy was thick and volatile—I quickly laid out a highly edited version of what had happened last fall.
“What you need to know is this: Several Koyanni joined in with a couple of sorcerers to produce Wolf Briar. They were capturing werewolves from the area, beta males, and hyping them up on steroids in order to kill them, to harvest their pituitary glands and adrenals. We managed to put a stop to the operation and captured several of the main players, but the sorcerers—Van and Jaycee by name—got away. As did some of the Koyanni.”
“And you think they’re the ones who blew up the community hall?” Claudia bit her lip.
“The explosion was caused by a sorcerer with ingredients from Otherworld, as far as we can tell.” Chase cleared his throat. “Which means it’s going to be hard to trace. What we need from you—and I know this is asking a lot—is that you comb through every memory you have. We need any clues…anything that might be of help. Any strangers who your loved ones mentioned, anything that seemed off—I don’t care if it seems minute, it might be an important clue.”
Claudia frowned. “It’s so hard to think…”
I could feel the weariness flowing from her. She—and the others—were all close to breaking down. And when Weres broke down, it was never pretty. I motioned Chase to follow me. Meanwhile, Nerissa passed out coffee and cookies, speaking in soothing low tones while we slipped out of the room.
I leaned against the wall.
“Chase, we can’t push them. Trust me, unless you want a couple wolves, a coyote, and a dog in there—probably at each others’ throats since emotions are so heightened—then I advise you to let them think it over for the night. We’re not going to learn anything right now.”
He crossed his arms. “I’d like to fight you on this one, but I know you’re right. All right, we’ll give them the night, though I really want to get on top of this. But the fire marshal probably won’t be done until tomorrow anyway, and since we know it was a magical signature, we’re not going to be finding much in the way of typical evidence. Even if we do, I doubt if it will be useful.”
I nodded. “Give them the night and by tomorrow, they’ll be able to focus more. Right now the shock is playing havoc with their emotions.”
“I know, I know.” He shook his head, scuffing his foot on the floor. “I just don’t want to deal with the aftermath if the investigation takes us a while. The pressure’s going to be coming from all sides in the Supe Community to find out who did this. And what if we’re wrong and we find out some wacko hate group executed this whole rotten plan? We’re going to be looking at another whole can of worms.”
I bit my lip. Tensions had been growing between a vocal minority of society and the Supe Community. “You really think a hate group would go to these lengths?”
Chase flashed me a sad smile. “They’d go a lot further. Look at my history—at the history of mortals. Look what we’ve done to each other in the name of religion, in the name of moral superiority, in the pursuit of money. I fully believe some crackpot group like Freedom’s Angels or the Church of the Earthborn Brethren would toss a bomb into the mix.”
“You’ve changed a lot since we first met you.” I studied him. “You’ve gone from being…well…an arrogant and totally by-the-book detective with a stick up his ass to someone who digs in deep. Who isn’t afraid to get his hands muddy.”
“I’ve changed.” He lowered his gaze away from mine. “I’ve changed a lot. Especially since Karvanak got hold of me. I’ve never told anybody what happened. Chances are, I never will. But it made me realize what we’re facing—how you and your sisters are right. Sometimes you have to skirt the rules.” He paused, then added, “Everything shifted again when you gave me the Nectar of Life. Sometimes I feel like there’s so much going on inside me that I’m caught in a whirlpool. Or like I’m in the center of a tornado, spinning out of control, and I have no clue where I’m going to land.”
He gave me a long look and I could see the flurry of emotions battling within him. I reached out, put my hand on his shoulder, and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
“I’m sorry. We really haven’t had much of a chance to sit and talk about your transformation, but we need to. Chase, Camille and Menolly and I really want to discuss the changes you’re going through. Sharah can help you learn to cope with the changes you’re undergoing, but…”
“Yeah, I know. You don’t have to say it. Now that she and I are dating, she might not be unbiased enough to pick up on potential problems. Trust me, I’ve been mulling this over for a long time and the incident with the Elder Fae—the spider freak—sealed the deal. I know things are happening to me that I can’t figure out. Hell, I can barely explain them. That’s why I asked Camille to make me an appointment with the Triple Threat. I took their tests and am waiting for them to contact me with some answers.”
“She mentioned you’d come to her.” Some odd magical connection had sprung up between Chase and Camille. She’d noticed the bond developing and mentioned it to the rest of us. Whether it was just the magical energy or something deeper, we weren’t sure.
“So you really think you might be able to help me? Once I know more?”
“We’ll do everything we can to try.” I paused, not knowing whether to say something that had been lurking in my thoughts. Chase and I hadn’t really spoken about our breakup, either. It was almost as though—once it happened—we’d pretended like it was over and done with, a blip on the map. And though I was happy now, and we’d made the right decision, I wanted to be able to talk about our time together, without recriminations, without regrets.
“Chase…”
He gave me a look that said he knew where I was going and wasn’t ready to go there himself. “Yes?”
I paused again, then shook my head. “Nothing. Let’s get back inside.”
We headed back in, and I slid into my chair again while Chase made a show of straightening his papers. He folded his hands on the table and leaned forward.
“We know this is a rough time for all of you, so we’ll be in touch. Please, think about what we asked. Delilah and I will be dropping over to your homes tomorrow to see if you’ve remembered anything that might help us. Meanwhile, if you’d like, we’ll have an officer escort you home.”
Marion and Claudia stayed, but Geraldo and Shane were up and out the door before Chase could say another word.
Claudia stared at her hands, spread out on the table. “Before I go…I just remembered Exo said that he had a meeting with a new client who was interested in booking the hotel for a convention, but that he’d declined. He said something felt off about the man.”
“When did this happen?” I leaned forward as Chase jotted down the information.
“A week…five days ago? Sometime the past week. I know because when Exo told me he turned away a convention, we got in an argument. I said it was foolish to turn down that kind of money. He told me they weren’t good people. I…I…”
She swallowed, hard, and stared at us like a deer caught in headlights far too bright and blinding. “I told him he didn’t love his family, that he was always putting his ethics ahead of our welfare. Exo tried to talk things out, but I pushed him away and made him sleep on the sofa. Yesterday he brought me roses before he went to work and told me he loved me. I wasn’t o
ver being mad yet—I didn’t say it back! And now…and now I’ll never have the chance. He died thinking I stopped loving him.”
As Claudia crumbled before our eyes, Nerissa was beside her, arms around the woman’s shoulders, whispering something in her ear.
I glanced at Chase. This was too intimate—we were witnessing a private breakdown, a moment of grief and regret to which no one should be privy. As Nerissa cradled the fragile woman, we quietly walked out of the room with Marion, who was shouldering her own trauma.
“At least Trixie and I parted on good terms. The last time I saw her, we were discussing plans for her upcoming trip to Europe. She’ll never make it now.” Marion shrugged in that resigned sort of way that tells you someone’s given up hope. “When I heard about the explosion on the radio…I knew. She was going to help plan out the spring dance and had gone down to the hall to meet some of the organizers.”
The spring dance—Viva la Primavera—was scheduled to take place on the weekend right after the equinox, but those plans had been blown sky high. I draped my arm around Marion’s shoulders.
“How about you? You need a ride home?” I stopped her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Coyote shifters were gaunt; they were lean and always had a hungry look in their eyes, even when well fed. But now, Marion just looked tired.
She shook her head. “My husband’s on the way. I’ll go through Trixie’s stuff tonight, to see if I can find anything that might indicate the Koyanni or Van and Jaycee are around. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep very well. Tomorrow, I’ll call you if you don’t reach me first.”
And with that, she pushed her way through the cubicles. As we watched her hurry out of headquarters, toward the main doors, I had an uneasy feeling that she might vanish into the night—a victim of whatever phantom we were facing.
Exhausted, I followed Chase into the visitor’s room, where Shade was waiting. I’d given the keys to my Jeep to Camille so they could drive home in comfort, rather than everybody squeezing into her car. Now I dropped into a chair, wondering how the hell we were going to get back home, but then I saw Bruce’s driver standing by the door. He gave us a little bow.