Blood Revolution (God Wars, #3) (25 page)

* * *

Obediah Tanner studied the two werewolves before him. "Jennings is in Dallas, according to my source. With Winkler, or so I hear. Take Jennings out. If you happen to get Winkler, too, I’ll hand you a bonus."

Chapter 12
 

Breanne’s Journal

"Jayson, I’m sorry about your house," Bill said.

On the drive to the crime scene, Jayson, whose name was officially Matt, now, studied photographs on Bill’s tablet. Opal was coordinating the arson investigation with Bill’s agents on the West Coast while doing her best to guard Kathleen and Trina in Tahoe.

"We figure some type of accelerant was used, but it hasn’t been determined, yet."

"Fuck." Jayson wiped his face with a hand as he stared at the images of smoking rubble that used to be his house.

How much of this is my fault?
I sent to Bill.

Sweetheart, we don’t know that any of it is your fault. We did find Colbi Wayde’s body, though. We figure she was killed for information. The authorities are telling the news outlets that they’re searching for Jayson, but I’ve already talked to them, and they know he’s not involved. Since Jayson has disappeared, we’ll let the public believe what they want for a while, so the locals can track the real killer
.

"This is so messed up," I sighed. "I am so sorry about your house," I shook my head helplessly at Jayson. "And sorry about your cars, too."

"I may have to borrow your TinyCar," Jayson attempted a joke.

"You have a TinyCar?" Winkler lifted an eyebrow at me. Well, I didn't figure you'd ever find a werewolf in a TinyCar.

"Bree, a high wind could knock that thing off the Golden Gate Bridge and all the clowns would drop out," Bill smiled at me.

"Stop dissing my car," I sputtered. "Jayson, you can have my car if you want it, but I figure you'd just be too ashamed to be seen in it."

Yeah, somebody had explained to Gavin that Jayson was incognito, now, and that we knew one another. Jayson was still working on getting used to the new name, though. It didn't matter with us—everybody who was with him now would protect his identity. Still, I felt responsible for the fire at Jayson's house.

"Breanne, you must learn that things such as this are not your responsibility," Gavin broke in. I jerked my head around to stare at him. "There will always be those whose minds are warped, and at times they exert power over the weak. The truth, however, is the truth, and none can change that, no matter how much they’d prefer it otherwise."

"The truth is we need those pricks in jail," Winkler pointed out. "Along with whoever has moved into this area to make us sweat."

"Yeah," Trajan growled. He hadn’t said much up to now, and I was surprised to see him sitting next to Hank in the back of the van. How did knocking each other around form a bond of friendship with men? I failed to understand any of it.

I sat between Bill and Gavin in the second row of seats, with Jayson at the end. Trace drove, with Winkler in the passenger seat. Hank, Weldon and Trajan took up the back. Jayson handed Bill’s tablet back. "The house is insured," he mumbled. I knew he was upset more than he let on, though.

"We’re here," Trace announced as he maneuvered the van as close as possible to the crime scene. We were just outside an alley between brick buildings, and the air smelled strange the moment I exited the van.

"This smells weird," I whispered as Bill pulled out ID to show to the officer in charge of the crime scene. The officer nodded to Winkler, who stood beside Bill, so they knew one another.

"I notice this scent as well," Gavin said softly.

"Something’s not right," Trajan said. He and Hank came to stand beside us.

"Yeah," I agreed. My skin had begun to tingle and prescience kicked in. Gathering all the live bodies to me, I turned them to mist and hauled them from the scene, which exploded in a fireball behind us.

* * *

Gavin placed compulsion on six officers, who didn’t need to remember that they’d been floating invisibly for a few moments, instead of getting blown to bits in a Dallas alley.

Fire crews were on the scene and one of the buildings was still on fire—we watched a live feed on television while Gavin did his trick with unsuspecting human officers.

"Daddy?" A little girl, clutching a stuffed toy in her arms crept into Winkler’s study, where we’d gathered to discuss what had happened—and what had almost happened—to us.

"Baby, did we wake you?" Winkler held out his arms and four-year-old Wynter ran toward him.

"I had a bad dream, Daddy," she burrowed into his arms.

"Who’s that?" she pointed to me. "I want to see her, Daddy."

"That’s Breanne," Winkler soothed.

"Hey," I walked over to Winkler and smoothed dark hair away from Wynter’s face. "You’re too pretty to have bad dreams."

She smiled and hid her face against Winkler’s shoulder.

"Come on, let’s get you back in bed," Winkler said and walked out of his office. Wynter shyly waved at me as he carried her away.

"You said you noticed a smell when we arrived?" Bill said. He’d just gotten off the phone with the Dallas FBI office.

"Yeah, but it wasn’t something I recognized," I said. I’d
Looked
, too, and the cause of the smell—and the explosion—was blocked.

"Same here," Trajan agreed. "Nothing I’ve ever smelled before."

"I didn’t smell anything," Jayson said.

"You’re human," Trace and Trajan said at the same time.

"What about you, Hank? How’s your sense of smell?"

"Chimera shapeshifter," Hank growled. "Fire breather. Not native to this world, and supposedly extinct."

"What the hell?" Jayson had pulled up information on his cell and stared at an image of a chimera—according to Wikipedia.

"They don’t look like that—I just said they’re not native here," Hank said. "They have an ugly head that looks like a lion and a pug got friendly, and there are horns growing out of its spine, similar to those of a goat. Its tail does have a false head, to lure prey to it, looking for an easy meal."

"Does it cook before it eats?" Trace asked.

"Yes. It likes things crispy," Hank nodded.

"Do they fly?" I asked. "Do you think one of those things burned down Jayson’s house?"

"Could be. Their fire continues to burn—you can’t put it out with water," Hank explained. "They don’t fly, though. They walk or run, like most animals. Remember, this is a shapeshifter, so he or she will appear human most of the time. Their scent may give them away, unless they’re shielded."

"So we may have more than one of those things, then, unless somebody is transporting them around," I said.

"Possibly, but we have to ask how an extinct species is here to start with," Hank pointed out.

"Same thing with the Sirenali," I nodded. "They’re supposed to be extinct, too."

"Where can we start looking? There aren’t any witnesses, and the bodies we went to examine are nothing but ash."

"Why isn’t there more information on the vehicle registration?" Gavin asked as he shouldered his way into the room. "There should be an address, at least."

"We feel the information was removed afterward, and was likely false to begin with. It was designed to worry us," Trajan said. "The clerk was interviewed, and she doesn’t recall the registration."

"Security cameras?" Jayson asked.

"Went fuzzy," Winkler walked back in the room. "Same thing with the cameras on a building outside the tag agency."

"Previous owner?"

"Found dead in his garage—some kind of poisonous snake bite, but there’s no information on the type of snake responsible. They only found the bite marks. He died quickly, according to the M.E." Bill was worried, I could tell. I didn’t want to worry him further, but if we had a lion snake shapeshifter in addition to a chimera, a Sirenali and who knew what else, we could be in a lot of trouble.

"Have they isolated the poison yet?" Trajan asked.

"Having trouble identifying it," Bill said.

"The snake may not have been local," I sighed.

"What do you mean?" Bill and Winkler both turned to me, but Bill was the one speaking.

"She means the snake may be a shapeshifter as well, and there is one type so deadly, it will kill you in seconds," Hank said. "You don’t want to tangle with a lion snake shapeshifter."

"This just gets better and better," Trajan tossed up a hand in frustration. "What the hell do they want from all this?"

"They want everything," Hank said simply.

* * *

Lissa’s Journal

"Norian, when did I say you could come back?" I lifted my eyes to watch him as he stood in front of my desk.

"You didn’t. I need your help, breah-mul."

"With what?" Too many things made me grumpy of late, and Norian showing up unannounced and asking for help made it worse.

"You know I’ve kept tabs on Reedy all these years."

"Your murdering asshole brother, Yaredolak?" I asked sweetly.

"That’s the one," Norian said.

"What about him?" I went back to studying the comp-vid in my hand—or at least pretending to study it. "He hasn’t sold any more of his siblings, has he? Or his own kids, maybe?" I’d met Norian’s brother once. It was once too many, in my opinion.

"He’s disappeared. My parents contacted me three days ago, and said he met with two men he claimed were old friends a week before he disappeared. Everything seemed fine afterward, until he left for the fields one morning and never made it to the work site. His vehicle was found abandoned halfway there, and there’s no sign of a struggle."

"And they’re all missing the endearing little fucker, aren’t they?" I asked.

"They are. I’m just worried his old friends are the kind who kidnaps kids to sell or exploit," Norian snapped. "I’m worried that Reedy is getting his hands dirty again. I just can’t find any trace of him."

"I told you he’d never be anything other than a criminal," I said.

"Can you help me find him? What if heads of state start dropping dead? I wouldn’t put anything past my brother."

"Norian, I know you suspect that power has been employed somehow in his disappearance, so stop beating about the bush and just say so."

"Beating about the bush?"

"Never mind. Stop wasting our time and say what you really mean."

"I borrowed one of Gavril’s warlocks to investigate around the abandoned vehicle. Astralan said the place stinks with power, but it’s nothing he’s ever come in contact with before. I’m asking you as nicely as I can, and I’ll even grovel if you want me to, but you have to come look, Lissa. I don’t know who else to ask."

"Fine, Norian," I huffed. "Let me find Gavin or somebody else to go with us, and we’ll go."

"Thank you," Norian sounded relieved.

"Nori, there’s no guarantee I’ll have any better information than Astralan," I said.

"But I need to know that," Norian sighed. "If you can’t tell me, then we’ll know it’s worse than we thought."

"You think it’s worse already, don’t you?" I frowned at Norian.

"Like you don’t? Ildevar is practically jumping at shadows, and if he’s jumpy, then something big and dangerous is going on. Isn’t it?"

"Norian, this is complicated, and there’s no rule book for any of this," I said. "Honestly, the less most people know, the happier they’ll be."

"Lissa, you frighten me at times," Norian said.

"Most people don’t know when to be frightened," I snapped back.

* * *

"Bill, we have problems," Opal said, pulling back a curtain slightly with the barrel of her pistol and peering out a window of Kathleen’s Tahoe home. "There are three vehicles outside; they pulled up together and they’re just sitting there, now."

"What happened to the guards at the end of the drive?" Bill asked.

"I can’t reach them," Opal breathed. "I know they were there earlier—we checked in." Opal held her cell in one hand, the gun in the other. Kathleen and Trina were locked in an inside bathroom near the center of the house.

"Any movement from the vehicles?" Bill asked. "Bree is next door; we may be able to get her to," Bill began.

"Bill, we have movement, a door is opening. One man is getting out. He’s tall. Ugly. Wait, he’s changing. He’s a shifter, Bill! I’ve never seen anything like this."

Just before her phone went dead, Opal heard Bill shouting for Breanne.

* * *

Breanne’s Journal

Images blazed through my brain and I heard Bill shouting my name in a fog. He’d stepped into another room to take a call, and I knew now that Opal, Kathleen and Trina were in trouble.

Without wasting time, I gathered everybody into my mist and folded to Tahoe. We landed in a heap, almost, right behind Opal, who had a gun drawn while watching a creature approach the house. I could see him through the narrow space Opal allowed between curtain and window. I was thankful the sun had set already in Tahoe, or Gavin would have fried on the spot.