Blown Away (Rogues Shifter Series Book 4) (13 page)

He walked to me gracefully and held out his hand. When our hands touched, I could feel him nudge at my mental wall and then smile when he saw how strong it was. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jacqueline. I’ve heard so much about you and I must say that I’m not disappointed.”

I smiled back pleasantly, all the while sending to Br/E.
“Don’t
touch him.
”

"He is far below Angel's level,"
she sent. "
However, he thinks very highly of his own abilities. Arrogance without the ability to back it up is a fatal weakness.
"

I spoke out loud,
nervous but managing to keep my cool. “Please call me Jackie. As you know we're here on business, so could you come by the house this afternoon for an interview? Or I could ask a few questions now. I didn't have a chance to mention to Katrina that we still need to interview your father, and also Jake and Sharon. Maybe you could let them know that they should also come by this afternoon. We want to get all of the interviews out of the way before the meeting tonight.”

He laughed. “You don’t need to interview my father. He has nothing to do with the boy’s disappearances. He hired you to find out where they are and who took them. Why would he do that if he was involved?’ He looked relaxed, but every hair on my arms was stan
ding at attention as his chaotic energy bounced off the walls in the room. He was trying to use Influence on me, but my shields were stronger than his magic.

“
We've wondered that ourselves.” He was annoyed but not surprised that I was able to ignore his magical push. Without thought, I pulled in my own brand of ley line energy in case there was serious trouble. Br/E didn’t need to actually pull in energy because the fae were magical beings. If they needed it, the power would instantly be there. Still, I was starting to think that coming here wasn’t such a smart idea.

Br/E sensed my anxiety and sent back to me,
“I am here. A sorcerer with raw potential is no match for a fae well trained as a warrior and a magic user. And you are more than capable
of kicking his skinny ass.”

I managed to keep myself from
rolling my eyes. That may be true, but I wanted those kids found. A magical fight with the alpha’s son would definitely put a crimp in our ability to investigate. Still, I was relieved to see Ethan’s dazzling grin decorating her face as she seemed to be enjoying our little stalemate with Gabriel. I relaxed, realizing that the situation was almost funny. Almost.

Switching his attention to Br/E, Karl smiled again as he held out
his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Ethan.” Oh yeah. He already knew that this wasn’t Ethan.

I interrupted before my companion tested the waters and shook Karl’s hand. “So Karl, do you know who took the boys or where they are now? “

Karl arched an eyebrow looking a little surprised and lowered himself into one of the arm chairs. “Are you conducting your interview right now?”

“No time like the present.”

“No, Jackie, I don’t know who took the boys or where they are.” His aura didn’t darken, which was the usual tell, but there was a tiny bit of blurring which was good enough for me. Here was an experienced liar who was pretty good at using the lines, but not good enough to hide the truth from a fae or from me. I looked at his features again in shock. He actually looked like both of his parents, which meant that Katrina had been able to carry him the full nine months without shifting.
“Tell me I’m nuts but I think that Karl is Katrina and Quentin’s natural son.”

“I deduced the same
. The alpha’s clan has many levels of power and it appears that they do not hesitate to use it to control their pack or even their guests. Still this young wolf has a higher opinion of himself than his magical talent merits.”

I was dying to learn more, but instead of taking any more chances, I decided that the interviews were over for today.

“Well, then I guess we’ll be going. Thanks for your cooperation.” There was no reason to prolong the agony since Karl was never going to give us any useful information. My chance at getting Katrina to talk was a total bust, since Gabriel had whisked her away. I really needed to talk to her someplace away from her mate and her sons. I stood up and Br/E and I both started toward the door.

Karl followed quickly behind us, reaching for the door just as we got there. He didn’t open it, but instead turned to us, blocking the way. “The boys might have a better chance of survival, Mr
s. Cuvier, if you do what you’ve been hired to do. Digging into pack business will only cause you and your team problems.”

He was
threatening to harm my team if we dug too deeply.
My Team
. Karl had no idea how angry that made me. “We'll bring those boys back to their families, alive and unharmed. That’s what we were hired to do, Karl, and we’ll do whatever we need to do to accomplish that goal.”

There was a moment when we both stared at each other, neither one of us backing down. He nodded, speaking softly. “Then we understand each other.”

“Perfectly.”  He opened the door and Br/E and I walked down the stairs and made a left onto the sidewalk.

When we’d walked far enough
away from the house, Brina sent to me, “
We cannot underestimate what he might do to protect himself, especially if he is using the children's blood in dark spells. His mother seemed afraid of him, as did his brother, but we don't know how much support he actually has within the pack. We need to discuss this with Liam and Garrett. Perhaps we should have waited to meet with Katrina and her sons until tonight.”

I sighed
. “No kidding.”
The best laid plans…well, you know the rest.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Garrett and the
vampire crew arrived at 5:45 PM. I asked everyone to meet in the living room so I could tell them about my afternoon adventure with Brina. When I’d finished speaking, I glanced at Liam, watching him glare daggers at Brina. She flinched as he mentally reamed her out. Keara looked amused.

Garrett didn’t take it as badly as I thought he might. After what had happened with my trip to the Demon Realm, I guess he was just grateful that I'd taken someone along who was capable of protecting me. “A sorcerer. This is even more unexpected than the witch. Did he look like his mother?”

“Yes, and his father, too. He’s their natural son.”

“Liam, what’s your take?”

“The Brownlow pack alpha, Fred, was born of a witch who’d been bitten but was able to carry the child to term without changing for the entire nine months. This seems to be the same situation. Karl must have also inherited Katrina’s genes to give him his sorcerer’s power on top of his werewolf abilities. Quite unusual. I’m looking forward to seeing him for myself tonight.” Liam sent to me,
“Because of safety concerns, Brina won’t be accompanying you on any more walks. You should have been honest with me.”

This time it was my turn to wince.
“Don’t be mad. She was in control of the situation. She’s an excellent guard.”
Liam gave me a
look.
“Sorry.”
  I knew there was no point in arguing with him about it now.

Meanwhile, Sinc was still in a huff. “How could I not
have picked up on any of this?”

“You were fifteen. His entire pack is in the dark. According to Katrina, only the immediate family knows that she'
s a witch, but there must be others who know.”

Sinc sat up suddenly. “Do you think Quentin kicked me out so fast bec
ause shifters are a little more sensitive to magic? Did he think I might have figured out that something was up?”

Garrett nodded. “I think that’s extremely likely. It also explains why Katrina and Quentin were so adamant about your parents not contacting you.”

“Don’t they have dealings with non-weres on a regular basis?” Kyle’s face was scrunched up in thought. “And why do they feel they have to hide it?"

“Quentin’s pack policy has always been that only weres are allowed to be a part of the community. He enforces it without restraint. I know that a few of my friends dated humans and vamps and as soon as Katrina or Quentin found out, they were told to break up immediately. Make no mistake, this is a dictatorship. Quentin is the leader and Katrina is his true second in command. My dad is the enforcer, but Katrina has her mate’s ear.”

“Maybe he’s—maybe he’s being Influenced by his mate and his sorcerer son, Karl. Influenced in a magical way. Coerced. Can an alpha be glamoured?” Will was deep in thought.

“I think we’ll know more tonight after observing what goes on at the pack meeting.”

We discussed the results of the forensic evidence, which only showed that there was a struggle and that there were werewolves in wolf form in the area of each disappearance. No help there. Garrett stood. “Let’s take a break for a couple of hours. You’ve all been working really hard.”

Garrett
wrapped an arm around my waist. “Feel up to a drive?” He was smiling, and my curiosity got the better of me. “Sure...where to?”

“I thought maybe we could stop by Clarissa Bernard and Eric Gwynne’s homes. Liam interviewed them
, so we’ll take Kaera or Brina with us. " We turned to look at the fae sisters, “whoever would like to come.” Kaera and Brina laughed.

Keara stood, “She is easily bored. Please get her out of my path
. I’ll contact father with a report.” Keara headed in the direction of her bedroom.

“Should I stay as myself or would you like Ethan again?” Brina’s eyes were gleaming with anticipation.

Garrett smiled. “How about Sasha?”

“Fun.”  Her blonde hair shortened and her purple eyes became a clear light blue as her facial structure changed from heart-shaped with soft lines to oval with sharper planes. Her body elongated and grew muscle, turning into our familiar 6’2” gorgeous vampire, dressed exactly as he had been while we had our meeting. Br/S stretched her arms over her head, trying to settle into her new body as the real Sasha walked in through the kitchen.

“What the f...?”  He grinned as he walked around Br/S. “So who’s this good looking guy? My evil twin?” He took his time checking himself out. “This is pretty good, but are you sure you got me exactly right?”

Br/S spoke back in Sasha’s own voice. “I wondered what you were overcompensating for with your attitude. Now I know.”

Sasha grinned at her, or at himself. “Very funny. I’ll be happy to clear up any issues regarding my proportions privately when you get back.”

“Do you have a Narcissus complex?” She reached out and took his hand to pull him closer and he played right along, grinning and grabbing her (his) waist “Would you like to kiss yourself n
ow, or do you prefer to wait?”

I was laughing so hard at this point that I was clutching my stomach, tears flowing down my cheeks. Garrett was chuckling and even Sasha was laughing loudly. He pus
hed her (him) away. “Yeah, yeah, go have fun children. Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, Brina.”

“I believe you’ve just told me to do anything I want, Sasha.”

“Later, Bri.” He turned on the flat screen and settled in to watch a baseball game, still smiling. It could never be said that Sasha couldn’t laugh at himself. Literally.

“Later Sash.” She answered in his rich voice with the very slight hint of a Russian accent, matching his perfectly.  I was still wiping tears from my face and blowing my
nose when we got into the borrowed car and Garrett turned on the GPS.

“Brina, you and your sister are like night and day. Do you
have anything in common?"

“She is more subdued.
As the older sibling and the heir, she must take her responsibilities very seriously. I enjoy a laugh and Sasha is so easy to mock. Where we are alike is on the battlefield. Very few of the male teams in Faerie can win against us when we pair up.” I’d seen Brina take down wolves at lightening speed so I didn’t doubt her word. "We are both attracted to the best male warriors, and often share."

A
little too much information for my taste. My face heated up as Garrett sent,
"You
asked, my love."
There was laughter in his eyes. The bum.

Unfortunately, no one was home at either location, which was probably all for the best since we were being followed by a black Jeep. The driver behind the tinted windows wasn’t even trying to stay hidden, as if Quentin sent him to let us to know that ‘big brother’ was watching. When they saw that we were headed back to the house they took off, and Brina chose t
o switch back to her true form.

Garrett suggested that we stop at a diner where Brina and I could eat something while Garrett had his usual black coffee. There were a lot of families with small children sitting nearby and while Brina made faces and mumbled comments regarding undisciplined rug rats, Garrett smiled and laughed when one of them would say something cute or pull his sister’s hair. We picked up pizza for the rest of the crew, figuring that they’d all be hungry, and we definitely wanted everyone in good shape for the meeting in two hours.

When we got back, Garrett and I shared a shower and then dressed in comfortable but professional clothes, not wanting the wolves to think that we were disrespecting them or taking this meeting lightly. We were all a little bit keyed up as we drove to the meeting hall.