Nik paced the living room for several minutes before directing his attention to me.
“You said there were eight of them? And you left them all alive?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Some are wounded, but nothing fatal.”
“Is there any chance there are more agents here in Fairbanks?”
I nodded. “If their radio communications are anything to go by, I’d say yes.”
“And they could call in more from out of state.” He rubbed his face. “It’s clear they know about supernaturals and they are targeting us. We’re going to have to be extra cautious from now on.”
“And warn people,” Kariann added.
A resigned look came over his face. “I believe you’re right. Get Aniya and tell her what happened. The two of you need to start calling our people. Tell them they need to keep a low profile and avoid anyone who isn’t an established local.”
She hopped up. “I’m on it, boss.”
“As for you three,” he addressed Yvonne and her family. “It’s best you stay here for now.”
None of them argued. In fact, I could sense their relief.
“Melena.” Nik looked at me. “Are you sure they don’t know it’s you and Cori who attacked them?”
“Our faces were covered and we avoided talking within earshot of them. We should be fine, but if not…there are always ways to make them forget.”
“Considering we don’t know what kind of resources they have, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. If this O’Connell agent you know returns to the shop, see if you can’t find out anything else without drawing his suspicion. We need to figure out what they’re up to.”
“That was my thinking,” I agreed.
The front door opened. With the living room directly across from the foyer, I could see the replacement guard letting Cori inside. I glanced at the clock on the wall and realized we’d been talking for almost two hours. There’d been a lot to discuss.
Cori came bearing two pizzas. The scent of pepperoni permeated the air as soon as she entered the room. I’d been hungry when I went out, but now my stomach couldn’t handle the thought of food. At least the teens would have plenty to eat.
Emily nabbed the boxes from Cori and set them on a nearby table usually used to play chess. Hunter joined her. They asked Patrick if he wanted any, but he passed saying he’d already eaten. That was all they needed to know before digging in.
It was almost cute watching them together. Emily got some sauce on her chin and Hunter gently cleaned it off with a napkin. They smiled at each other and chatted as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
I hadn’t experienced love at their age. Between my adoptive parents dying when I was fifteen and my sensor mentor, Wanda, keeping a close eye on me after that there wasn’t a chance. Then Lucas murdered her and I was too afraid to get too close to anyone. It wasn’t until recently I found out he’d done it to protect me. She’d planned to sell me off soon to a group of supernaturals.
Our love was forged on a battlefield of lies, chaos, and death. There was nothing cute or sweet about it. Even now we had to work past our personal prejudices and dark pasts to make our relationship work. I doubted we’d ever look at each other with the same naive hopefulness Hunter and Emily did, but what we had was strong and it had the potential to be timeless.
Assuming the situation with Micah didn’t tear us apart.
“Leave a few slices for Kerbasi,” I said, pushing my dark thoughts away. “I don’t want to hear him complaining of starvation later.”
They made mumbles of agreement.
Cori took the seat next to me where Emily had been. “So what did I miss?”
I gave her a quick recap.
“You know…” She shook her head slowly. “I’ve been wondering if something like this might happen. You gotta think with technology these days the government was going to figure things out sooner or later no matter how much you all tried to cover it up.”
“The thought’s occurred to me before, too.” I leaned back and rested my head against the couch.
I felt drained to the point I wanted to pass out and sleep for days.
She gave me a concerned look. “Is there something I can do to help?”
“Not yet, but you might want to stay at my place until we know if any of this is going to blow back on us. I can give you a ride to work, too, since your car’s broken down.”
“Sounds good. I’ll need you to run me by my place to pick up some things, but other than that I’m all set for sticking with you. I have a feeling tonight was only the beginning and this is going to get worse before it gets better.” Her tone sounded ominous.
Unfortunately I couldn’t disagree.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day Felisha let me off work early. It might have had something to do with my passing out over a box of herbs I was supposed to be unpacking. I’d refused to leave at first, but Cori stopped over from her neighboring tattoo shop and backed her up. She’d assured me she’d get a ride from Felisha to my place later. There was no arguing with them after that.
Clutching the mail I’d picked up from the post office along the way, I got out of the Jeep. Kerbasi walked alongside me as if he planned to come into the house as well. I looked over at him.
“I think it’s time you worked on another essay.”
He tensed. “These essays are pointless. I do not understand why you insist on them.”
“This one will be shorter than the others.” I patted his shoulder. “All you have to do is write two pages about why friends help each other when they’re in danger.”
“I do not have friends,” he said, keeping his face diverted. “How would I know the answer to such a thing?”
I gave him a patient look. “Last night Cori jumped into the middle of a fight to help me while you sat and watched. Think about that for a second. Why would she risk herself like that? And what would it take for you to do something similar for another person?”
“She was a fool and she was lucky she did not get herself killed.” He shook his head. “I cannot imagine any reason I would do such a thing unless it was my duty.”
“Don’t you wish someone cared enough that they’d risk their life for yours?”
He worked his jaw before answering. “I don’t need anyone.”
“Really? I’ll remember that the next time you want pizza or new shoes. Now go write your report.”
Walking stiffly, he headed around the house toward the back.
If it was the last thing I did, I was going to force humanity on that guardian. I didn’t know what they taught his kind after they came into existence, but Kerbasi must have missed the most important lessons. Did the lack of interaction with humans make him more detached or was he simply born with less empathy and compassion?
I made my way into the house, locking the door behind me. The kids wouldn’t be home from school until around four. I’d have total peace and quiet for the rest of the morning and afternoon.
I flipped through the bills. All of them had been paid in advance—and not by me. No matter how many times I told Lucas to stop doing that, he didn’t listen. For him it wasn’t about taking over my debts as much as pushing his opinion on my career choice.
He wanted me to quit my job and find something more distinguished. Removing my money problems was his way of freeing me from that obstacle. But I liked my flexible hours and working near Emily’s school where I could keep an eye on her. He didn’t get that, leaving us at a stalemate.
Sable trotted up to me from the living room in her lynx form and meowed, rubbing against my leg. I tossed the envelopes on the dining room table and picked her up. She purred contentedly as I rubbed her head and scratched her ears. Carrying her upstairs to my room, I set her down on my bed.
There was something oddly comforting about having a cat around who loved you just for you. She settled on the middle of the mattress and waited for me to get undressed and join her. It wasn’t five minutes later before I passed out with her warming my side.
The sound of my cell phone ringing woke me sometime later. I glanced at the clock on my dresser and cursed when I realized it was already past three in the afternoon. It had been almost four hours since I’d fallen asleep—longer than I’d planned. I fumbled around my nightstand looking for the phone and managed to mumble a greeting after I found it.
“Melena, we’ve got a problem.” It was Kariann. Her voice was gruff as if she’d just woken up, too.
“What is it?”
I turned my head and came face to face with Sable. She was staring at me as if I was some sort of odd specimen she’d discovered. How was it that cats could make a person feel like the most beloved person in the world one minute and something rather distasteful the next? I might not have been a dog person, but at least they were consistent in their devotion.
“Werewolves are here. Use your senses,” Kariann urged.
Speaking of dogs.
I sat up and pushed away my grogginess to check my radar. She was right. A group of werewolves were concentrated outside Nik’s house with more heading that way. I jumped off the bed and grabbed my pants, pulling them on.
“What do they want?”
“Not sure yet, but I can’t imagine they’re hanging out on the lawn to get a suntan.”
“Shouldn’t Nadine be guarding the front door?” I asked, stuffing my feet into a pair of boots.
Kariann snorted. “She didn’t show up this morning. Yvonne volunteered to take the first shift and when the next guy didn’t show up for his Diane and her son took over. Nik and I were passed out and had no idea. Without the werewolves we’re seriously shorthanded on daylight guards.”
“They were planning this,” I said.
“That’s what we think,” Kariann agreed. “At first we’d thought something might have happened, especially after the thing with Yvonne and her family. But when none of the werewolves answered their phones we knew it had to be something else.”
“The bastards are trying to blindside us.” I finished lacing my boots. “Expect more of them to show in the next couple of minutes, but I’ll get over there as fast as I can.”
“Don’t do anything crazy. We’ve got to play this smart.”
“I’ll be careful,” I replied before hanging up.
I raced down the stairs with Sable following closely behind. My body didn’t feel as sluggish and weak anymore. Aside from a vague ache in my stomach where the bullet had hit the night before I was doing a lot better. Maybe it was a good thing I’d napped as long as I had.
I opened up the storage closet and shoved Hunter’s bags aside to get to the weapons safe. After pressing my finger to the scanner and entering the code, it opened up. I loaded my Sig .45 and grabbed a few extra clips, along with a machete.
Kariann had been working with me on how to use it. We’d found the blade to be a nice alternative for when we wanted to carry something a little less unwieldy than a sword. If the watermelons we trained on were anything to go by, it was rather effective. I pulled on a belt and shoved the machete into its scabbard before locking the safe back up.
Kerbasi was wandering around when I stepped out of the house. It wasn’t all that unusual to find him doing that. He’d had a thing for studying animals and plant life ever since he’d come from Purgatory. He looked at me curiously as I rushed past him. Sable growled her greeting at him and stayed by my side.
“Where are you going?” he called out.
“Werewolf problem at Nik’s place,” I said over my shoulder.
“Oh, good.” He raced to catch up. “I was getting bored.”
“Did you finish your report?”
“It is…nearly done,” he answered in a half-lie.
I was guessing he’d probably written one paragraph before giving up and going outside.
“If you’re going to just stand around watching again you might as well get back to working on your report.”
He kept pace alongside me. “I don’t know what you expect me to do. None of them would be stupid enough to attack me and I cannot harm them otherwise.”
“It didn’t stop those trolls when you challenged them at the fae city. If you used a little creativity, I’m sure you could come up with some way to provoke them.”
Kerbasi grunted his reply.
I paused when we got close and checked the wind. There wasn’t much of a breeze. It took a moment before I could figure out which way it was coming from—south. Perfect. We’d be downwind of the werewolves. Slowly, we crept closer until the side of Nik’s house came into view about a hundred and fifty meters away.
Through the trees I caught sight of the werewolves pacing around the front lawn. The new arrivals were just walking up, but Derrick and Nadine weren’t there. Only some of the low and mid-level members had come—about ten of them. They all carried blades in their hands and they looked ready to fight. Did the alpha know his people were staging a rebellion?
I backed away until I was sure I was out of earshot and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. Kariann was right. We had to play this smart. I called Lucas, hoping he could help resolve this. His voicemail picked up after the first ring. Dammit. The werewolves would be attacking the house any minute and I couldn’t wait. I left a quick message explaining the situation and hung up.