fate of the alpha - episode 2 (15 page)

“At least it was over fast,” Ainsley said.

“Actually,” Julian said. “For maximum effect, she would have been kept alive until the very last drop was gone.”

Grace went pale and sucked in a breath.

Ainsley elbowed Julian, hard enough to leave a bruise.

“Sorry,” he said. “At any rate, this is bad.”

“No shit,” Ainsley replied, gesturing to the desiccated corpse.

“No,” he explained. “It means that the creature inside will be stronger now. It’s been fed,”

They all looked back at the grooves in the floor.

Ainsley sniffed the air.

“Charley and Garrett have been here,” she informed them. “Recently.”

“It looks like they tried to open the tomb,” Julian said. “But failed without the key.”

“So they still don’t have it,” Ainsley said.

“It would appear not,” Julian said. “Why did they think you had it in the first place, Ainsley?”

“Beats me,” Ainsley shrugged.

Grace shook her head and her features returned to their usual expression of calm concentration.

“What do we know about them?” she asked in her policewoman voice, sending a shiver down Julian’s spine.

“Charley has been fooling us our whole lives,” Ainsley said. “He’s good. He won’t be sloppy.”

“What about Garrett?” Julian asked.

“He’s new in town,” said Grace. “I heard him say he was sent to speed things up when Charley wasn’t getting results. He’s had contact with two people. One of them is dead. He got what he wanted from her.”

She looked back at Lilliana’s body, hunched in the corner.

“They other is in a coma,” Grace continued, really hitting her stride. “He said the incident with Sadie was ‘unfortunate’.”

“So he didn’t mean to do it. He lost his temper,” Julian said.

“That could help us later,” Ainsley noted, already scouting his weaknesses for when she faced him again.

How different she was from the prim girl he’d met in the coffee shop barely two months ago. That Ainsley couldn’t bear to sit at a table until all the crumbs had been cleared. This one was actively plotting to kill a man that had wronged her.

“So, Sadie had something he wanted,” Grace said. “Could she have had the key?”

“And he got angry when she wouldn’t give it to him,” Julian added.

“Where would Sadie keep a key?” Ainsley asked. “All she cares about is her garden and...”

“
Her dog!”
Ainsley and Grace said together.

“Yes,” Grace continued, picking up the thread expertly. She was a joy to see in action. “Camilla Parker Bowles must be part of it. Could the key be hidden on her? Maybe on her collar?”

“It would be too big for that,” Julian interjected.

“
In
her?” Ainsley offered.

“It’s...possible,” Julian said.

“Poor Camilla Parker Bowles is lucky Garrett didn’t come after her with that cane,” said Grace.

“Let’s go get the dog and take her to Volker for an X-ray,” Ainsley said.

“No, you do that, Ainsley,” Grace said. “Julian and I are going back to the hospital. I know what’s wrong with Sadie.”

CHAPTER 22

E
rik was back in his room, staring at the glow stars on the ceiling, and seriously thinking about grabbing one of Jake’s romance novels just for something to distract him from his nervous energy, when he heard the front door bang shut.

“Ezekiel! Are you still playing on that idiot box! Turn it off!” LeeAnn’s voice cut through the house about an octave higher than he’d heard it before.

“Yes, ma’am,” he heard the boy say.

“Mary! Why is there no dinner?” she yelled, her voice sounded almost triumphant.

Erik heard Mary sigh dramatically in the room next to his, then the creak of her mattress as she dragged herself out of bed and down the stairs.

Erik hopped up too. He was pretty sure LeeAnn didn’t have anything to holler at him about, but he didn’t want to take any chances. And besides, he was excited about her new-found energy.

When he reached the foot of the stairs, he saw Mary lolling in the kitchen doorway, Zeke peering around her. The twins, Ruth and Rachel, worked to untie the bright orange belts from around their white karate uniforms. Erik heard the banging and smashing of utensils and pans.

“This town has got to get back to business as usual,” LeeAnn was saying. “Just because something bad happened doesn’t mean we can sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Mary! Get me the beans!”

Mary scrambled into the kitchen and opened a cupboard.

“Here, Mom,” she said, handing over the can.

“Well, open it! You know what to do,” LeeAnn said. “I’m making cowboy dinner, Zeke, how’s that?”

The boy smiled guardedly, but didn’t move out of the doorway. Erik figured he didn’t know what to make of his mom’s newfound energy.

“So the talk with Patty went well?” Erik ventured.

“Oh, yeah. I am so glad you suggested it! We’ve got a plan and I’m putting it in motion tonight. We’re going to organize the Copper Creek Halloween Parade - life goes on.”

“Yes!” Zeke yelled.

“Girls,” LeeAnn hollered, “Don’t you get those uniforms dirty. Put them back in the bag on the dining room table where they belong, then go get dressed for supper.”

Ruth and Rachel answered with a stampede of miniature footsteps and tiny giggles.

“What a great idea,” Erik said. “The parade, I mean.”

“Ezekiel, honey, you can help with that. We’re gonna decorate the house tonight to get everyone into the spirit of it. Everyone’s looking to us. If our family can celebrate, others will do the same. Can you and Dr. Jensen get the decorations out of the attic?”

“Yup,” Zeke said.

“Ezekiel Miller.”

“I meant yes, Ma’am,” he returned.

“That’s better,” LeeAnn said. “Oh, and kids, what costumes do you want? Patty and I are going shopping tomorrow to get supplies and fabric if we need it.”

“A ninja,” Zeke said enthusiastically.

“You were a ninja last year,” Mary said.

“But this year, I’m gonna be a ZOMBIE ninja! Get lots of fake blood, Mom. Like, lots.”

“I wanna be Batman,” came a high-pitched voice from the dining room. Erik thought it was Ruth, but he wasn’t a hundred percent sure.

“Bat-
girl
!” the other, even higher voice corrected.

“No! Bat
MAN
I said. Batgirl is stupid.”

“Batgirl,” came the sing-song reply. “Batgirl, batgirl, batgiiiiiiiiirl.”

“Mom!” The tiny footsteps thundered up the stairs without waiting for an answer.

“What about you, Mary?” LeeAnn asked, nonplussed.

“Oh, I can’t decide!” Mary began excitedly. She looked around the room, her lips pursed in concentration. Until she noticed Erik. The excitement on her face disappeared like a door had closed.

“Actually,” she said in a serious tone. “I think I’m getting kinda old for this stuff. I’m not going to dress up this year.”

Erik hoped she wasn’t trying to impress him. But he had just talked with her about her new, grown-up responsibilities. He’d have to find a way to let her know it was okay to dress up.

While he was thinking, Zeke grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the stairs.

“Come on, doc, let’s get the decorations! The spider goes on
my
door this year! Well, your door, I guess.”

Erik climbed up the pull-down steps and ventured all the way into the attic.

“Did you find ‘em?” Zeke asked eagerly.

“Oh, sure. Here, can you carry these?” Erik asked, handing the boy a clear plastic bin labeled
GRAVESTONES AND BONES
.

“Yup!” Zeke grabbed it and clambered back down the ladder.

Erik looked back for the next box. Behind the space he’d just cleared, something caught his eye. A chest. Definitely an antique. Wood with sulfur inlays. And not coated with a layer of dust like everything else in the attic seemed to be.

Which meant it was used often.

He’d seen this type of chest before. Erik searched his memory and was hit with an unexpected pang of sadness. It looked an awful lot like the one at Ainsley’s house.

He tried to open it but it was locked.

Shoot.

Erik froze and tried to get into Jake’s mind.
I hide a chest and I lock it. I have a small house and two curious kids. Where do I put the key?

He looked around for an answer.

The edge of something peeked over the side of the massive rafter above his head. Not daring to believe that luck might be with him, he held his breath and reached up.

Snap!

“Ouch!”

Oh, sweet god, that hurt!

“You okay up there?” he heard LeeAnn holler.

“I’m fine,” he yelled back through clenched teeth. “Found your mouse trap!”

He shook his hand, then pulled himself up to check for more traps.

Next to the spent mouse trap sat an old, brass key.

Smart, Jake, smart.

“Hey, doc, I’m ready for the next one!” Zeke piped up from the second floor landing.

“Okay,” Erik said, absentmindedly scanning the attic for another Halloween box. A small box labeled SPIDER RINGS caught his eye and he handed it down the ladder to where Zeke was waiting.

“Sweet!” Zeke chortled as he headed down.

A moment later, Erik heard a small crash and Zeke’s cry of despair.

“Well, pick them all up!” LeeAnn said.

Maybe the spilled plastic spider rings would buy him enough time to check out the chest. He slid the key into the lock and it opened easily.

Books filled the inside. Mostly romance novels, like Mary had told him were up here. But the two books on top stood out from the rest. He grabbed them both for a closer look.

Native American Symbols and Meanings
and
Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Folklore
.

He opened
Native American Symbols and Meanings
and began to skim it. Hastily scrawled notes filled the margins. They were numbers, not words. Some had symbols too. One showed two arrows pointing at each other. Another looked like a mask with two antennae on top and fuzzy antlers on the side. Erik had never seen anything like it. He turned the book sideways and it looked a little like pac-man with feet.

Erik closed the book and picked up the
Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Folklore.
A piece of folded notebook paper acted as a bookmark near the middle of the volume. He opened to the saved page.

Eastern European Myths. The entry was titled
Moroi
.

Moroi: From the Romanian word ‘mort’ meaning ‘dead’ or the Slavic word meaning ‘nightmare’

Why would Jake be interested in that?

He’d have to study them more later. Maybe Bonnie at the library could help him shed some light on it.

He was about to return the folded paper that had been holding the spot when he noticed it had writing on it. A drawing of some kind.

He opened the paper and his heart turned to ice. The notepaper held a sketch of a complicated, interwoven symbol.

The symbol on the trap that took his wolf.

Erik’s eyes got lost in the patterns on the paper. The runes writhed and twisted into the shape of the snake. Ainsley screamed his name as the dripping, silver fangs sunk into his back.

Erik.

“Erik?”

A hand touched his back in the exact spot where he still carried the scar. Erik jumped slightly.

“Dr. Jensen, is everything okay?”

Mary.

He hadn’t even noticed her come up. Stupid human hearing.

“I’m fine, Mary, just lost in my own head for a minute,” he tried to smile casually and worried that he probably looked like a serial killer.

“Are those the books you were looking for?” she asked, her eyes wide behind the glasses.

“These?” he asked, tucking the paper back inside. “They’re just some overdue library books. I’ll run them back in the morning.”

He handed her a cardboard box with the word PUNKINS written on it in sharpie, then grabbed a bin of orange lights for himself.

As Mary headed down before him, he opened the book and stole one last glance at the notebook paper.

What the hell was going on in Copper Creek?

CHAPTER 23

C 
harley Coslaw sat on the wooden bench in the middle of Triangle Park, Garrett Sanderson storming and pacing around him.

Charley found if he concentrated he could tune the other man out enough to enjoy the view of the sky, bordered by the brilliant yellow of the trees that formed a perimeter around the park.

Too soon, Garrett’s tone took a sharper pitch and Charley had to tune back in.

“--so why the hell did you hesitate?” Garrett was asking, “We could have finished them off!”

Charley took a deep breath.

“Garrett, you’re too impulsive.” He spoke in calm, measured tones. “Our Order has waited hundreds of years for this. Your temper is not going to ruin it now. You already screwed up with the old woman”

“She is of no consequence,” Garrett said, flicking his hand like he was shooing away a pesky fly.

It made Charley mad. He knew she was one of the pack, but there was no need to treat Sadie Epstein-Walker like she wasn’t worth anything. Charley had learned long ago that everything held value to someone.

“
Plus,
you told me the cop wasn’t a threat.” Charley said. “If I’d known she had that much power, I wouldn’t have given her the chance to act. What was it you called her? A ‘two-bit palm reader?’”

“I’ll deal with her,” Garrett shot back. “We need to concentrate on the alpha bitch. Once she’s out of the way, we’ll have access to search for the key at our leisure”

“Did it ever occur to you that it’s not that simple?” Charley asked. “There is no way her friends and her pack are going to just let us get away with that. We’d have to kill half the town to do it your way.”

“Once the Elder is released, the town is doomed anyway,” Sanderson said lightly.

“Not if we don’t find the key first,” Charley reminded him, “He will emerge too weak, even after the sacrifice we provided. We need the key, so we can release him on our terms, without interference from the pack. We need to find it, fast.”