Blue Moon Rising (The Patroness) (11 page)

Jean threw his arms up.
“Of course they d
id. They were suspicious of him
because he knew so much about the beat’s behavior and weaknesses. Jean and his two sons had been hunting magical creatures for nearly all their lives. They’d been successful keeping it quiet, at least until La Bête du Gévaudan. First their knowledge was welcome,” he shook his head, “but after the deaths had finally stopped the people stopped fearing and hiding, since the evil was taken care of. They began to demand explanations, and so Jean and his sons became scapegoats.”

“Was it a werewolf?”

He shook his head, “A werehyena. After the first deaths Jean took it personally. The beast was terrorizing his home, the province where he grew up. He got obsessed with it but he never found out how it had gotten there.”

I mulled it over in my head. It was weird but somehow logical. Welcome to my world. I believed him. There was just one thing left…

“And why did you step into their shoes?”

“It’s not just me. It’s been that way ever since. All the sons of my family were hunters. I’m a bounty hunter. Humans or magical, I don’t care, but my specialty are shapeshifters.”

I leaned forward, pricking my ears. The memory of him shooting Kylian in the back was still fresh in my mind. “In general or just the rogues?”

“All that attack humans.”

“I see.” And I did, given his quick and false interpretation regarding the situation wit
h Kylian tonight
I was pretty sure he’d killed a couple of shapeshifters that hadn’t gone rogue at all. “Why did you come to Paris?”

“Well, as a hunter you have to keep your eyes and ears open, and rumor has it there’s a tough rogue in town.”

Believing his story was one thing, but trusting him was quite another.

Kylian moaned then and I went over to him, grateful for a little time to think. I removed the freezer packs and saw thin pieces of silver already sticking out of his skin. Since the silver had hardened, his body would be able to shed them. I pulled my sleeping powder out of my pockets and blew it onto his face, chanting under my breath. It would put him in a healing sleep. That way he would sleep deeper and not awake from any pain. Kind of a sleeping pill and pain killer in one.

“How did you make a bullet containing magically enhanced, liquid silver, by the way?” I looked up at Chastel.

He winked at me. “That’s a family secret.” Then he frowned and continued with something kin to respect in his voice, “But I can assure you that normally one bullet is enough to take out one of those permanently.”

That I didn’t doubt. But Kylian was one of the strongest shapeshifters, and the most dominant, I was pretty sure. Well, if it were otherwise he would never have become the Council’s assassin. After pulling the blanket up to his shoulders again I stood. I was exhausted from the day, from my reactions to Kylian, our kiss. God, that kiss. Stop, Maiwenn, don’t think about it now.

I rubbed a hand over my forehead. “Sorry, but I had quite a day. Time to go to sleep. Wait a sec.” Then I went into my room to gather another blanket and a pillow. Jean had followed me and stood in the doorw
ay. He gave me a dazzling smile.
“Since the couch is already taken, may I sleep with you?”

I returned my best try-and-I-feed-you-your-nuts smile, pushed the bedding in his hands and shut the door in his face.

The sun hadn’t been up for long yet, as I found myself crouching beside Pauline in the middle of a sea of flowers on the rooftop. Their fresh, sweet scent filled the air, and a strong and bright morning sun warmed our backs. Both of us were armed with a small rake and a hoe, but no gloves,
and Pauline was softly singing
with a clear and surprisingly powerful voice. I liked the feel of the cool earth on my skin, and listened to the hum of the bees that were eagerly flying from blossom to blossom, and stopped briefly to watch a couple of colorful butterflies flutter wildly and aimlessly as if undecided over their next stop.

Pauline asked, “So who’s this Chastel guy? Can we trust him?”

I sighed.
“Not ye
t, but we’ll keep an eye on him
and we’ll see. Apart from that, I believe him to be what he said he is. A bounty hunter.”

“But he’s just a human, right? Nothing else in his blood?”

“Nope. Human, as far as I know. Why do you ask?”

She shrugged-
“It’s …I don’t know. It kinda surprised me that he was able to knock out Kylian like that. I thought he must be something other. But since he’s not…Kylian should have heard or smelled him. I mean Kylian’s a frigging shapeshifter, and that’s what they normally do.”

She had a point. I cleared my throat. “Well, he was kind of distracted.”

Pauline looked up at me, and then cocked her head to the side and as her questioning violet eyes narrowed I actually blushed. She laughed and wiggled her eyebrows excitedly, “Ooh, tell me.”

“We kissed.”

“That’s my girl. And how was it?”

My memory promptly catapulted me back to that blissful and too short moment, leaving me brainless and grinning.

“That good, uh?”

I bit my lip and nodded. “But I don’t know what to do about him. Sometimes I can’t even decide whether to strangle or to kiss him. He…he confuses me.”

“Well, I think that’s perfectly normal. It would have surprised me if it had been otherwise. You’re the Patroness of Paris. You’ve been trained to be a strong, capable and independent woman all of your life. I bet you haven’t met a lot of men stronger than you, have you?”

I just shrugged and stayed quiet, wanting to know where she’d be going with this.

“Well, Kylian is strong. And you know it. He would have you flat on your back in seconds if he really wanted to. So on one hand you’re scared, not only of losing your independence, but mostly of being seen as weak and not as an equal.”

I swallowed.
“Wow.” I was puzzled, and strangely enough I felt naked.

Pauline grinned. “Oh, I can be clever when I want to.” Then
she laid a hand on my shoulder.
“And compassionate. So here’s my advice. Whenever you’re unsure, just follow your heart, Maiwenn.”

“Since I don’t want to end up as the next notch on his bedpost, I’d rather not listen to it at all. It’s been not exactly rational lately.”

“Duh! Sweetie, it’s your heart, of course, it isn’t.”

“But it’s been before.”

“Only because you’d been either ignoring it or, like I said before and where’d I put my money on, it’s the first time you m
et a fine dominant ass like him
being able to get under your skin.”

Though there was an incredible and unsettling logic behind her words, I didn’t give in. “I’d prefer worms crawling there.”

She shook her head at me and smiled mysteriously as if she knew something that I didn’t. Then her gaze caught at a point over my shoulder and she stood, “Good morning, Kylian.”

“Morning.”

She turned to me, “I’ll go downstairs and start making breakfast.” And off she was, leaving me alone with the Killer.

I finally stood up, too, and turned around. There he was. In his faded jeans and a black shirt, which I had asked Chastel to borrow him.

He crossed his arms over his chest. His eyes were blue, and looking very unhappy and rather sullen as he came towards me. Like a predator. Hmm…after-effect of the silver or had I pissed him off? That was the question.

“So, care to explain how the guy who shot me in the back, which he only managed since you were distracting me with your mouth by the way, ended up staying the night?”

Okay then, pissed off it was.

I stood my ground and folded my arms over my chest, mimicking his gesture. In no way scared by his flexing muscles, my lips curved into a sweet smile. “Good morning to you, too. To answer your question, kind of the same way an oh-so-mighty shapeshifter ends up knocked out after a few shots – under extraordinary circumstances.”

“I mean it Maiwenn, I want an explanation,” he barked, now fueling my own anger.

“Okay, listen tomcat, this is my house and I decide who is welcome here and who’s not. Besides, seeing your extra pounds he was at least kind enough to help me carry you.” Kind of. “This way I could see to your wounds before the silver crawled painfully through your every vein, which, I hate to remind you, would have resulted in your death. So, thanks to him, thanks to me, you’re still alive and bitching around.”

Kylian growled low in his throat, the sound so feral it gave me goose bumps. “Thanks to him? That guy was the one who shut me in the first place!”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby. He thought you were attacking me.”

His voice deep and low, he leaned closer. “Well, he might have been right, it just depends on your definition of attacking. Without him, you wouldn’t have ended up carrying
me
home, I would have taken you there.”

A rush of heat went through me, burning me from the inside out. He dipped his head for a kiss but I took an unexpected step back. He cocked his head to the side and looked at me with those piercing blue eyes. Eyes that tugged at me, left me vulnerable and made me wonder whether I could keep a possible affair with him on a purely physical level. I doubted it. “I’m sorry. What happened yesterday between us...we should forget it and keep this professional.”

“You enjoyed it.”

Lying to him wasn’t an option. Not only would he have guessed it, but it also would have been immature and pointless. “Yes.”

“The I-drank-too-much excuse?”

“Did I mention the alcohol with any word?”

“Indeed you didn’t.” His lips curved into a mysterious smile, touched with a hint of triumph that made me uneasy.

“I mean it, Kylian.”

He straightened up, took a step back and put his hands into his pockets. “Okay then, professional it is.”

I really tried to ignore the unsaid ‘for now’ dangling clearly in the air between us.

“So, who the hell is the early-come-off anyway?”

I relaxed. “His name’s Jean Chastel. Ring any bells?”

Kylian frowned, and then nodded. “Killed a beast that terrorized southern France in the 18th century.”

Not bad. “He is, and I quote, ‘Jean Chastel’s great-, great-, whatever, -son’. And every guy in the family took over daddy’s business. Chastel says he’s a bounty hunter.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Yeah, but I don’t trust him. We should be careful with him and keep him close. Might be one of those who can’t, or won’t, make a difference between a rogue and a shapeshifter.”

“You don’t say.” Kylian ran a hand through his dark hair and continued, his voice a mix of disbelief and a little anger, “First that guy shoots me in the back. Then I can’t even rip his head off for it, since it was my own fault he came close enough, and you let him stay the night. To top it all of he has the audacity to ask me to give him the silver back. Guess what for? New bullets. He even told me so. I swear, this guy must be suicidal. He’s just begging us to help him and I’d really like to do him the favor. But you want to keep him close?”

“Well, yes.”

He rubbed a hand down his face.
“Damn. Okay. By the way, a boy and a ghost are downstairs.”

I smiled, as I thought of the unusual friendship. “Mathieu and Philippe.”

“Mathieu, I smelled him on the second crime scene.”

“Yes, Philippe was there, too, but of course you couldn’t smell him.”

“Right. And Mathieu is also the one you called yesterday?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

He nodded.
“And how do they fit the picture?”

“Let’s sit down a bit, okay?”

We walked along the paths towards the middle terrace, the island in the sea of flowers, where Viviane and I had installed some wooden garden furniture a few years back. Since she’d retired, she’d started spending a lot of time here.

We sat down on the bench, side by side. I tugged my legs up, resting my chin on my knees before I turned my head to look at him. “Three years ago a crazy vampire decided to take care of his personal needs by opening up his own blood bank. He snatched the people right of the streets. Humans, magical creatures, it didn’t matter. Then he stuffed them in his basement and slowly sucked them dry, though he tried to be careful not to kill them too quickly.” I took a deep breath as the memories and feelings came back, the desperation, urgency, the feeling of failure when I
strayed
without news or leads, and then I continued, “I noticed that there were a lot of missing persons. Relatives came to me, asking for help. So I went out every night trying to find out what had happened to them. Took me a goddamn week to find that basement. There were nineteen, six of them were already dead and Mathieu would probably have been the next. He had no one to turn to. His foster parents lived somewhere in the suburbs and they really didn’t get along. So Viviane
and
I took him in. When he found out that I was a private detective he wanted to pay me for saving him.” I shook my head, remembering. “Of course, I didn’t want to hear any of it. Shortly after that he got into University and he started to sneak out acid for me as soon as he realized I needed it on the job. Mathieu studies chemistry,” I added.