Never Cry Wolf (Night Watch #4)(58)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Brody’s hands fisted. “Watch it.”

Ah, right. Technically, Maya was dead. Well, undead. She would have died briefly before she was reborn as a vamp.

“Marie never raised the dead. She didn’t like to touch that power,” Maya spoke softly, as if mostly to herself. “She said you never knew what you’d bring back if you tried to raise the bodies of humans.”

Lucas didn’t seem fazed to hear that zombies had been around them the night before.

Piers ran a quick hand over his face. “There’s another who can raise them.”

Maya’s chin jerked up a notch. “No.”

“She can do it. You know she can.”

“Just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you will. Josette doesn’t use the power, she doesn’t—”

Piers started laughing then, but there was no humor in that hard, mocking sound. “Maya, you been playing house with your shifter too long, staying gone out of LA . . . you’re missing some news, baby.” He put his hands on his hips. “Guess life in . . . where is it—Maine?—has made you soft.”

The woman just looked angrier. “Nothing makes me soft. Don’t make that mistake.”

A faint grin still rode his lips. “Little Josie . . . she’s been playing with power. Not keeping those hands of hers clean anymore.”

Brody swore and Maya gave a hard shake of her head. “You’re wrong.”

“Am I?”

Maya spun away, her hand automatically reaching for Brody’s. “We have to go.”

Now she was running away?

No, not away. Running to something.

Probably to wherever this Josette/Josie was.

“The wolf is mine!” Lucas shouted after them. “Do you hear me, Maya? That kill is mine!”

It was Brody who stopped and looked back. “I let you have the last kill.” Suddenly, his teeth looked longer, the skin on his arms darker. “This one’s for Maya.”

“Not if I get to him first!”

But Brody had spun away. He and the vamp disappeared, no, not disappeared, they just moved fast.

“Shit.” Lucas’s eyes fixed on Sarah. “You okay?”

She nodded. Other than an aching knee from where she’d plowed into the ground, yes, she was fine.

She also still had Marie’s ring. Sarah’s fingers unfurled. The red of the ruby seemed so dark.

“Josette.” Lucas repeated the name, as if tasting it. “She’s Marie’s granddaughter. How the hell do you know anything about her and her power, Piers?”

“Cause the lady is sexy as sin, and she’s also taken to hanging out in the darker part of town.” Piers flashed a wolf’s grin. Too many teeth. Too sharp. Too much challenge. “How wouldn’t I know her?”

But Lucas stared at him and didn’t seem to buy that grin.

“You’re the one who knew where Marie was last night,” Dane spoke slowly, as if thinking his way through something.

Piers slanted him a measuring glance. “Because Lucas wants us to keep tabs on her. I do what the alpha wants.”

“You’re not looking into the Dark, are you, Piers?” The question was Lucas’s.

The Dark—dark magic.

But Piers just lifted one shoulder. “The Dark’s been looking at me for years. We all know it.” His grin faded. “There’s only so much time until it takes over.”

Because he thought he’d be one of the wolf shifters who crossed the line and became psychotic. She’d touched his mind, she knew the potential was there. But, then again, it was always there.

With man and beast.

“You been looking for a magic cure?” Lucas pressed.

There was no cure. Not unless . . .

“I’ve just been looking at a pretty lady. Where’s the crime in that?”

But Sarah was sure he was lying then, and she knew the others realized it, too.

Piers’s spine straightened. “Do you want me to take you to Josie or do you want to let the vamp get to her first?”

“Josette isn’t my prey. Her fight isn’t mine.”

The ring seemed heavier in Sarah’s hands. “I promised a trade to Marie.”

Was this the debt she’d pay? Marie had saved Lucas, now…

“Someone gave Caleb the Angel Dust.” Piers huffed out a hard breath. “And Josie . . . hell, if anyone knows how to make it in this town, it would be her.”

Sarah saw Lucas’s claws burst from his skin. “Why the hell didn’t you say so sooner?”

“Cause I didn’t want her marked for death.” Lines bracketed his mouth. “Cause I’m a selfish bastard, and, hell, yeah, I was hoping to use her.” Pain hollowed his eyes. “Every time I shift, I want the blood, I want it so bad . . .”

Lucas grabbed his shirt front and hauled Piers closer. “Then, from here on out, you don’t shift without me by your side, got it? Because I’m not losing another packmate.”

Piers’s gaze fell.

“Where is she?” Lucas barked. “Shit, if Maya and her man get to her first, they’ll take her away and we won’t find out a damn thing about the Dust.”

“They won’t get there first.” Piers swallowed. “Maya doesn’t know how far the angel fell, not yet.”

Lucas’s stare bored into him. “But you do?”

“Let’s just say I know what it’s like to fall, and I know where the Fallen go.”

Yes, Sarah bet he did.

At a little past noon, the bar on Brinks Street should have been empty. And if it had been a regular joint, the place probably would have been closed up tight.

But it wasn’t your typical hole-in-the-wall bar. Not by a long shot.

Lucas eyed the entrance, noting the two men who slouched just outside the doors. He’d bet those guys were a lot more aware than they pretended to be.

“You sure she’s here?” he asked.

From what he remembered about Josette, the lady was pure class. She owned an art gallery, a real fancy place that he’d never even gotten within a mile of—except for the few times he’d been tracking her.

Josette had cut off contact with Marie a while back. It had looked like the woman had gone no-magic and hadn’t looked back.

So he’d stopped watching her.

And hadn’t seen her fall.

“She’s there.” Piers was certain. “She comes here for the blood.”

“Uh, the blood?” Sarah repeated, and there wasn’t really any fear in her voice. No, it sounded more like morbid curiosity.