Cold Blooded

I grinned as I climbed into the driver’s seat. “The battle was intense and it wasn’t very pretty.” Rourke growled his agreement as he settled in next to Nick. Selene had eviscerated him, intent on doing the greatest possible damage to us both. Images started to invade my psyche and my wolf huffed. Time to change the scenery. “Nick, after we find Marcy, the next priority will be to prepare for New Orleans.” We were due at the Vampire Queen’s to provide guard duty services in three weeks and we couldn’t go in unprepared. “I refuse to let Eudoxia gain the upper hand.”

Tally slid into the front seat and slammed the door. She raised her eyebrow at me but stayed silent. Our business wasn’t hers, and with a small nod, she acknowledged it.

The Vamp Queen’s request for us to guard her was ridiculous at best, but I had sworn a binding oath, meaning that if I didn’t deliver, bad things would happen. There was no doubt she had ulterior motives for wanting me on her home turf, so we had to prepare. I needed to know everything about vampires and how they worked. Having Naomi on my team was my ace in the hole, and between her and Nick, I hoped we could gather enough information to stay at least one step ahead.

I’d been a wolf for only a short time, but my on-the-job training had brought my skill level up exponentially in the last few weeks. I was fairly confident I could get Marcy back and survive my time with the Vamp Queen.

If not, life was about to become extremely interesting.

I turned the diesel engine over and the beast roared to life.

“By the way, where’s Ray?” Nick asked, leaning forward. Raymond Hart, the detective who’d been the bane of my existence for a very long time, had accompanied us on the journey to find Rourke. As I’d fought Selene, he’d been brutally attacked by a vampire and, right this minute, I had no idea if he was dead or alive.

“Ray is in … transition,” I said, settling on an ambiguous word. I glanced sideways at Tally. “It requires some explaining.”

I’d left Ray in the capable hands of Naomi, our vamp guide, who through an unexpected blood exchange, had not only become bonded to me, but also had become my friend and ally. Ray’s wounds may have been too severe for any kind of transformation, but I’d given her the okay to try. I’d felt I owed Ray that much. In my opinion he had the right to choose his own death. Eamon, Naomi’s brother, had ravaged him cruelly and it had been an awful way to die.

Nick nodded once without question. He knew me well enough to catch on; whether he liked the idea or not was hard to tell. He sat back in his seat, his face pensive. Ray was a tough human being, not necessarily someone you’d choose to become a supe. It’s true Ray was rough around the edges and cranky, but Nick hadn’t witnessed what he’d been capable of on the journey, as I had. In the end Ray had defended me and there had been a grudging respect growing between us. I desperately hoped, as a supe, he would come around to seeing our side of things.

If not, it was going to be a tough road. But there was no going back now.

I pulled away from the curb. “Where to?”

2

Tally directed me around a chain of lakes inside the city. Halfway around Lake of the Isles, she pointed to a huge mansion perched on the tip of a peninsula. One I’d seen a thousand times. “Pull around back,” she ordered. “The gate knows it’s me.”

I wasn’t going to question the gate’s prowess.

The long driveway disappeared as it wrapped behind the house. Once the vehicle crossed the boundary line from the street, a current of energy pulsed through my body. Strong wards were up, and if they hadn’t liked us, they would’ve slapped us back, like a flyswatter eliminating a pesky problem.

Once we were through the main gate, the backyard opened up. I followed the driveway as it curved to the left. Tall shrubs ran around the perimeter of the yard. It was completely private from any curious onlookers. Up ahead was a huge garage with three stalls. Tally snapped her wrist at the windshield, and feathery lines, almost undetectable, shot out from her fingertips.

The third garage door on the right opened.

“Drive in there.”

I maneuvered the beast into the stall with only inches to spare on either side. The moment I tugged it into park, the ground beneath us jerked and rattled and the vehicle began to sink. “I’m assuming we’re on a lift.” I angled my head at Tally, laying it on the headrest. “Either that or earthquakes have finally found the upper Midwest.”

Nick tried to roll his window down, but it was locked into place. “It’s an underground lair.” There was a hint of awe in his voice and I knew he was refraining from making a Batman joke. We didn’t have anything cool like this up in the north woods where I grew up. No need for underground lairs when you had a thousand acres separating you from the world.

“Of course the entrance is underground,” Tally said. “This is a Coven, one of the largest in the country. We protect ourselves well.”

The hydraulic lift squeaked as it came to a stop and the Humvee bounced on its gigantic tires as it settled.

The room was well lit and, unsurprisingly, held a dozen witches.

Shifters and witches were not friendly, but they weren’t exactly enemies either. Tally had already indicated she’d known who my father was before she allowed her niece to work for me, so it was not out of the question to think these witches also knew who I was. It irritated me, because for the past seven years I’d been under the assumption I’d created the perfect cover. No one had seemed to lift an eyebrow or question me at all. I’d believed my alias had been foolproof. But I’d been mistaken.

The supernatural community had indeed been onto me, possibly from the beginning. I knew this for certain, because the day after I’d become the first female wolf on the planet, I’d been brutally attacked. The rogue attack had been planned, and if that wasn’t enough, I’d found out my building super had been a supe himself. We were still trying to figure out who he was and who he’d worked for, but it had been no accident he’d been chosen for the job.

“We’re not getting out to a roomful of hostiles,” Rourke said, his voice low, broaching no arguments.

“Cool your jets.” Tally opened her door. “They’re harmless unless I tell them otherwise.”

“I can taste their power from here,” he said. “And it’s far from harmless. They’re primed and ready to go. Tell them to stand down or we don’t move.”