Out of habit, she placed her hands against the steering wheel, closed her eyes and let the magick rouse up under her skin. It filtered her out through her fingertips and Melody shifted in her seat, suddenly wary, as Lennox let the magick eased through the car. They’d taken Mel’s car, as she drove through the neighborhood regularly and it wouldn’t be out of place, so technically it definitely shouldn’t have a tracker on it. But Lennox wasn’t risking technicalities anymore.
Technically
they should have been safe at Mel’s, but that had obviously backfired. The car came back clean and Lennox eased back into the seat, her gaze still locked on the scene in front of her.
“You need to get out and have a look around?”
There were bystanders hovering the scene, but a ridgeback would stick out to another Hound, easily. And she had a face that was easily recognizable. One that might also be on the Hound hit list. Bree had called her so many times she’d shut off her phone so she didn’t have to face her boss. She didn’t have the slightest clue what to say.
“No. Can’t risk it.”
“Would it help if I went?”
Lennox thought about it for a moment. Mel was a dog-shifter, but she was a saluki and not trained Hound. She wouldn’t hit their radar, and she’d be a familiar face to the neighbors. Except, she’d also been living with Kanon and Tegan for a few weeks now. Lennox shook her head. “No. You smell like lion.”
And with a scene looking like a lion murderer...those Hounds would be all over her in a heartbeat.
“Oh. Damn. Didn’t think of that.” Mel scrunched up her nose and flopped back. “So, reconnaissance bust?”
Lennox shook her head. There was something else she wanted to try. “No.”
She drove them around the block, parked the car on the curb and hopped out. Mel followed, eyebrows raised skeptically, right until she felt the flush of Lennox’s magick spinning out. Then her friend flinched back, wary again. Lennox knew the emotion, for the same reason her dog-half cowered every time she drudged up the Hound magick.
It wasn’t natural and their animal halves knew it.
But it was necessary.
“What are you looking for?”
“Not sure yet.” But she’d know it when she found it.
Lennox kept her probing gentle, just brushes against the world around her, nothing that would advertise to the Hounds a block over that someone was working magick. But there had to be
something
left behind. No one could be this perfect.
They circled the crime scene, keeping a one block distance from it at all times. The school the kids had been on their way home from was a block south of the attack, a small forest, followed by a baseball field separating the row of houses they’d been slaughtered in front of and the school they’d been leaving. Curious, Lennox padded down towards the woods. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled the sharp scent of pine. There were so many different scents in the forest she couldn’t know for sure which were the kids she was stalking...so could the witch?
Lennox froze.
A witch wouldn’t be able to smell.
She should have known. A gruff laugh tore from her, ripe with betrayal. Back at the killings in Idaho, the witch had been able to wipe a scene clean, leaving the forest around Caro’s house still smelling like a forest, but hiding his scent. Only a Hound could do that. That narrowed her suspect pool quite a bit; there were very few Hounds with that level of magick. Torres and her, maybe Bree, and a handful of other Hounds scattered across the country.
Relief made her heart pick up speed. This was the first real lead she’d had since this had all begun. Lennox glanced around the woods, jaw tense as she took in the picnic table propped up against a tree, the empty chip bags, cups, and condom wrappers on the ground. It had teen hang-out written all over it—both visually and in the ripe layer of scents left behind.
“Lennie,” Mel whispered, voice taut with fear and every hair down Lennox’s neck lifted. She heard the soft shift of weight against the leaf litter and had to fight not to snarl.
She turned slowly on her heel, ready for a fight. A black nozzle was pressed against Mel’s temple, the gun no doubt carrying silver. Her gaze followed the darkly tanned skin up a muscled arm and felt her heart squeeze, even when her mind couldn’t quite grasp it.
It made no sense.
“Torres...”
He tilted his head towards the backside of the little forest, towards the little white car parked in the circle drive just out of view of the crime scene. The gun gave a sharp nudge into Mel’s head and she whimpered, stepping forward obediently. Lennox turned and led the way, mind reeling. It made no sense.
Her chest squeezing tight with betrayal she looked her partner and pack leader in the eye. Were both her bosses in on this? “Does Bree know?”
God, did
anyone
know?
“No,” Caesar Torres said. “Now hurry up. Let’s go.”
She felt the pulse of his Hound magick, covering their tracks and Lennox had to fight to hold hers back, to keep it from helping him. She refused to help him.
She wanted him weak.
She reached the car first and for a split second she tried to come up with a better plan. But the click of the safety coming off froze any thoughts on that.
“It’s unlocked,” he said.
Lennox glanced up and met her partner’s gaze. For the first time, she saw the hardness and determination as something other than a hard ass partner. It was the same look as a killer. And she hadn’t known.
Lennox opened the door, biting back a cry. Of all the people, she should have been able to tell.
And she hadn’t had a clue.
Something was
wrong
. Unease prickled down his forearms, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. The air felt damn near electric, dangerous. They’d been gone two fucking hours to make a ten minute drive over to a crime scene they wouldn’t even able to get near. It shouldn’t have taken even half this long.
Kanon blew out a frustrated breath, his gaze locked on the bay window overlooking Mel’s porch and the quiet neighborhood she lived in. A boy bounced a basketball in the driveway across the street. So fucking normal and all he wanted to do was go roaring down the street.
“Easy,” Tegan said, but he sounded every bit as much on edge as Kanon felt.
Two hours. Two hours to do something that should have taken thirty, forty five minutes tops. Maybe an hour, but that was pushing it. Kanon shoved a hand through his black hair, the ear length strands cascading back down to skim his temples. A few brushed his chin. Longer than they should have been in this body.
He was damn close to losing it and sprouting claws.
Kanon clenched both hands into fists and took a deep breath, the knot in his stomach only coiling tighter. Tegan stepped up behind him, hip bumping his. “We don’t know for sure that it’s the same guy.”
Kanon shot him a look. They didn’t know for sure? Fuck that. They knew. There couldn’t be that many witches running loose, killing people, and framing lions all the while hiding their tracks well enough that Hounds couldn’t trace them. Tegan winced under the glare.
“She should have been back by now.”
Tegan shrugged. He was trying for calm, but one look at his partner, and Kanon knew Tegan was faking it. The other man’s hands trembled a little as he shoved them in his pockets. “Maybe, maybe they found something. A clue. Had to investigate.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
But that’s not what it
felt
like. His gut screamed at him that there was something wrong. That they needed to go, find her, help her. Damn it. He didn’t like sitting in a house waiting for the okay. Everything about this had been Lennox taking care of them, Lennox playing heroine, Lennox saving their asses.
Kanon was sick and tired of it.
He wasn’t helpless, damn it.
Sharp pointed nails nicked his palms and he forced his hands to unclench. Breath hissed out of between his teeth as he fought down the beast scrabbling for control inside him. If he let the lion loose, whoever was framing him wouldn’t have to work so damn hard anymore. And everything Lennox had done so far would mean squat.
He wasn’t about to fuck that up. Kanon closed his eyes and sucked in another breath, shaky, and he leaned into Tegan. “Maybe.”
“She’ll be okay. We have to trust her enough for that. Lennox, fuck.” Tegan shook his head and gave a short laugh. A wicked glint in his amber eyes that warmed Kanon a little. Yeah. There weren’t words out there to describe Lennox Donnelly. But she could definitely take care of herself.
“Why isn’t she back?” Kanon groaned, his head tilted back to stare at the drop ceiling. “Why is this driving me nuts?”
“Because you, hell,
we
care about her.” Tegan wrapped his arms around Kanon’s waist and held him. His thumb played over the ridge of his jeans, burrowing under his shirt until it found skin. Kanon gave a small shiver. “Because she drives us both wild, nuts. Because we want her to stick around. Correct me if I slip off base.”
He felt Tegan’s lips quirk into a smile against his neck and Kanon felt himself grin too. Nah. Tegan was spot on. “Don’t really see her in our kitchen though.”
“No kidding.” Tegan pressed his forehead into the back of Kanon’s neck and shuddered. “I want to go find her, but we’d be stupid to leave this house.”
Kanon nodded. He’d thought about it, several times in the past half hour. Just driving out, looking...but if a Hound spotted them. They just couldn’t. “She’d whoop our asses.”
But if anything happened to her...
Kanon didn’t want to think about it. In just three weeks, Lennox had become permanent. Tegan sighed against his neck. “I’d been hoping that all this was over. It’d been a few weeks, no news back in Idaho, nothing here, and nothing back home...”
Kanon nodded. He’d been hoping so too. Had planned on starting to talk Lennox into heading back so they could pick up the pieces of their lives. Hell, Tegan and him were probably already up on violations for abandoning their pride and turning rogue again. Shifter Town Enforcement demanded rogues give a standing address or belong to a pride.
They had to be in violation of that by now.
Not that it mattered now. At this rate, they’d be in hiding for forever.
“I’m gonna call her again.” Kanon untangled himself from Tegan’s arms and fished out his phone, dialing Lennox out of sheer habit. Nothing. Damn it. He tried Mel, but bile already touched the back of his tongue. His nerves were frayed. His hand tightened over his phone.
Nothing
. Damn it. Kanon cursed low under his breath, the words fast turning to snarls and he felt the prickle of the shift start to touch him and shoved the lion back down deep under his skin. That was the last thing they needed. Something was wrong.
And there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it.
***
Lennox woke groggy, the muscles in her shoulders aching painfully. Her fingers were numb and it took her a second to realize her hands were tied behind her back, snugged tight to her ankles. No wonder she hurt. She shook her head, trying to erase the lingering tug of magick. Normally Torres wouldn’t have been able to knock her out, but with a gun to Mel’s head, she’d damn near helped him.
Mel.
Oh God. Lennox blinked into the darkness, straining. She turned her head and felt the weight of a blindfold skim her nose. Damn. Flexing her hands to keep the blood flowing through her fingers, Lennox inhaled, scenting. Blood. Male. Lion. Lots of blood. Her heart slammed against her chest, like a rabbit’s hiding low in the grasses.
She breathed it in deeper and relief hugged her close. She didn’t recognize the man behind it. But whoever it was, he was a lion-shifter and he was hurt bad. She could smell the silver poisoning in his blood. He was dying.
Lennox tilted her head and scented again. Mel was somewhere off to her right, scared. The heavy scent of sweat against her skin told Lennox as much, but she didn’t smell injured. “Mel?”
No answer. She was probably still under then. Lennox twisted her head back around in the direction of the lion. “Hello?”
A low, pained grunt answered her. The sound tugged at her heart. She could so easily picture Kanon or Tegan in his place. Bleeding out, silver eating up their veins... Lennox had to fight back the whimper in her throat. “We’re gonna get out of here,” she whispered.
His breath wheezed out in answer.
Lennox stretched back, trying to get her fingers on the rope. She needed to feel the knot, see if she could work out of it. The itch of silver against her skin told her what she’d already suspected; Torres had wrapped silver wire through it to keep her from shifting. He wouldn’t underestimate her.
She struggled, wiggling her hands against the rope for any sign of slack. The ropes tightened over her skin. Damn. Lennox let out a frustrated growl and she heard something scuff against the wooden floor.
“You won’t be able to get out...” The voice was low, broken. A smoker’s cough racked the end of his words and she flinched against the sound. “He tied you up good.”