Tales Of The Sazi 05 - Moon's Fury (32 page)

Adam shook his head, tiny little movements that spoke his astonishment. Call after call, layer upon layer of planning
,
just in the space of a few hours. "You've done
all
that shit while I was out cold last night? Jesus, I feel like a
slacker!”

Finally, Lucas laughed. "Yeah, well, some nights it sucks being the top dog. And I'd love to say I was going to be getting sleep any time soon. I'd be lying, though. But—" and a sly smile turned his lips, "I wasn't hit by a truck yesterday, either, so I could get by on a few hours.”

David and Tommy chuckled lightly while Adam felt his face burn. "Yeah …well fuck you all. So, how many days do I have to get things together?”

"Oh, you and Tommy's family are going
now.
I'd suggest going and talking to your captain in the next hour or so. By the time I get to headquarters, Vanessa should already have the tickets. She was marked for death, too, by the way, and is still a little panicked about it. She's sticking close to people she can trust—i.e., others on the list. She's a good secretary, but if you want her to go down, too, it might not be a bad idea. She's a low-level alpha and probably wouldn't mind being out of ranking battles for a time. But no…with things heating up down there, I want you and Tommy where you'll do the most good. And I want the girls guarded until we can track down everybody involved in this scheme. If Cara hasn't told her pack yet, then do it together. You are the Alpha Male of Texas, as of now. At least, until you hear otherwise.”

"And if it doesn't work? What then?" Adam knew the answer really didn't matter. He would be expected to make it work. So, Lucas's response came as a surprise.

"Then you'll come back here and Tommy will be the Alpha down there. Your personalities are nearly opposites. If one doesn't work, the other just might. And I don't deny that the pack here will follow you and …well, Cara, too— if it turns out you're mated. I'm going to have my work cut out for me trying to find a replacement up here. There might be some more shuffling from other packs eventually. We'll just have to see.”

If you're mated.
Uffda. What if he was? Worse still, what if Cara was alpha enough that some of the others from Minnesota mated to her as well? If she went into heat…he closed his eyes, trying not to think about what might happen. The fluttering in his stomach told him that even if he wasn't mated to her, he was getting way too attached.

22

The windshield wipers smeared the dusty rain into a chalky coating that would take a scrubber to get off. Cara stared into the distance almost hypnotically, watching for some sign of an approaching vehicle, pausing every few minutes to squirt another stream of cleaner with a flick of her finger. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel in time to Clint Black's latest on the radio and wondered again whether to put the truck in gear and head toward town instead of sitting here at the entrance to the back road to Rosa's house.

They said ten o'clock. Didn't they say ten?
Her eyes flicked to her arm, only to remember her watch was still missing, so she checked the dashboard instead. Ten fifteen—but the rain might have slowed them down. The clouds looked darker in the distance and the roads always got horribly slick in the first rain after a long dry spell. All that oil in the roadbase was great in the winter…kept the roads free of ice, but a film built up in the summer that was every bit as treacherous as black ice. She couldn't believe she was allowing this to happen. A known killer was on his way here and she was going to waltz him into her sister's house to interview a child. Although, in reality, Ziri was turning out to be far from a child. She was very much a woman in her own culture. And wow, was Rosa loving having her stay with them! Ziri was an amazing cook …good enough that Rosa struggled a little to keep up, but was taking down recipes as fast as she could write. Gloria had taken to the Mayan girl like a long-lost sister. Of course, it helped that Ziri was massively creative, and had a helpful, sunny personality that more than made up for her lack of Spanish and English. She was teaching Gloria how to braid tiny strands of rope with beads into sandals, and had offered to make an authentic waxed flower headdress for the Quince. Apparently, the name of the celebration crossed languages and cultures. Once she showed her skill at dipping fresh flowers in paraffin, Gloria decided on it over the rhinestone tiara.

"Omigawd, Tia Cara!" she remembered the girl saying last night, holding up a drawing of the planned crown of blooms, "Isn't this
gorgeous?
Mary is going to be absolutely
green!”

Headlights in the distance brought her out of her mulling. Yep, it was Adam's black truck all right. She took a deep breath, turned off the radio, and waited as it approached. It was a day later than planned, but even the Weather Channel hadn't predicted this storm system would be so violent. The airports had been shut down for a whole day. Even this morning, flash floods in several surrounding counties had closed roads. It was lucky they'd made it here at all.

She opened her window as the truck pulled alongside her. Bobby's smile was a pleasure to see again. It had been a long time, but he still looked the same—a narrow, angular face, short kinky hair and that ever-present row of brilliant white teeth, ready to appear at a moment's notice. A bright citrus scent burst into her nose when he opened his window and she heard both men laughing.

"Well, Cara Salinas! Look at you—sheriff of the whole county and you managed to make it into Wolven, too!”

She smiled and met his eyes. Well, actually she met his
contacts,
because his natural eyes were red with slitted pupils. She always wondered what he'd done before colored contacts were invented. She knew he was old, even in Sazi terms. Maybe she'd ask him one day.

"Good to see you again, Agent Mbutu. This your partner?" She couldn't keep her voice from flattening, but the other man in the truck's cab didn't seem to mind. He smiled at her and she realized he was actually quite handsome, in a guy-next-door sort of way. But the intelligence that flowed through his blue eyes was what took her by surprise. This was no brutish thug, which made him all the more dangerous.

"Yep, although he's not really my partner—he's actually my replacement. Tony Giambrocco, say hello to Cara Salinas.”

He nodded politely and spoke in a medium baritone with no particular accent. "A pleasure, Sheriff. Nice county you've got here. Texas isn't at all what I expected. There are a lot more trees, and the wild flowers are amazing. It looked like a damn jungle when we landed in San Antonio. I'd always heard it was flat and sandy here, more like a desert.”

She acknowledged that with a pleased nod. Most every newcomer thought that the whole state looked like the panhandle. "Parts are. But this is the hill country, which is a lot more fertile. Glad you like it." A short silence followed, where the only sound was the flipping wiper blades on the trucks. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned off the switch and heard her voice go flat and sad. "So anyway, we might as well get this over with, huh?”

Bobby laughed. "Don't play the dirge tune yet, Cara. Really, there's nothing to it. You probably won't even notice it happening. Tony's getting pretty good at this.”

The other man rolled his eyes and held up gloved hands. "Sheer self-defense. If I didn't get a handle on it pretty quick, my
gift
was going to send me and Sue to the nuthouse.”

Bobby motioned to his friend with the fingers resting on the wheel, keeping his eyes toward Cara.

"Tony's double-mated to a full human. Weirdest damned thing—she sees what he sees unless he blocks her out.”

"And some of the shit I see in this job, I wouldn't inflict on an
enemy,
much less my wife.”

He was
mated
—married to a human who shared his magic? "Wow! That's …well, that's pretty amazing. I've never heard of that.”

Tony laughed, and it softened his whole face. Despite her better judgment, she was finding him almost…charming, not at all what she expected from Adam's description. "That's me—one of a kind. But yeah, let's get moving. I'd really like to find a bathroom pretty soon. This maniac behind the wheel must have a five quart bladder. We haven't stopped the damn truck since we left the airport lot.”

"Okay, let me turn around and then you can follow me." She paused and then looked at them both, willing them to understand—despite whatever orders they had. "But, even though my niece and nephew are in school right now,
please
remember that my sister is human and so is the girl.”

Tony looked at her seriously with what seemed to border on
compassion.
She actually had to take a sniff to believe it. "I understand, and you don't have to worry. I come from a long line of humans. I'm an attack victim, Sheriff. I do okay in this world, but it hasn't been so long yet that I don't remember how to play with real people.”

Cara had to pick up her dropped jaw. She'd never met an attack victim before. She'd heard of it happening certainly…it was one the reasons why Wolven existed. But very few survived the first change.

"Oh. I…I didn't know. Sorry.”

He shrugged. "Like I said, I get by. Fortunately, I've had some people help me get through it—

even if they do have five quart bladders." The words came out deadpan, which made Cara laugh that much louder.

Bobby let out a low chuckle and threw up his hands. "Okay, okay, I get the point. Lead the way,
Agent
Salinas. Let's find Tony a bathroom and then we'll see what we can do about tracking down your flock of birds."

"You're really moving to
Texas?
I mean, I know you put in your notice, but I always thought…um, wow!" Reggie Marquez, his partner for over three years, stared incredulously at him from the chair next to Adam's computer station while he cleaned out his desk. Lucas had been dead on the money, once again—even though he'd been a day late. Captain Larkin had received the report, but he took a day to verify the findings. God only knows how that was managed. But the report, whatever it said—and hopefully nobody would ever show it to him—released him from active duty. He was on medical leave for the rest of his time with the department. He just tried not to think about what the black mark on his record would do to his career. But it would let him travel to Texas again, as soon as Nessa could rebook the flights that the storm cancelled.

He'd still suited up in uniform for today, just in case the Wolven chief wound up wrong. Fat chance. He glanced at his partner as he sorted through a drawer. "It all happened pretty suddenly, Reg. It's sort of hard for me to believe, too. But there was a position open, and it seems like a really good fit for me. Do you know I was there a whole
day
and the only siren I heard was the fire department testing the engines?”

"I guess I didn't realize the pressure was getting to you here, amigo. I mean, I know that last neglect case really tore you up, but jeez—you're
good
at this. Even the gang-bangers got respect for you. Are you sure you wanna leave it all behind?”

It was a good thing Reggie wasn't Sazi. He couldn't smell the lie that easily slid through his lips.

"Not wanna, Reg.
Gotta.
I put it off as long as I could. But everything in Texas—" he paused, allowing his friend to see warm memories of Cara, and Santa Helena's drowning deep starred sky, play across his face. "Man, it's like nothing you can imagine down there. Like Mayberry RFD come to life, don'tcha know.”

Reggie pushed his cap farther back on his head and raised his brows. "Yah, well call me cynical, but I think there's more to it than that. I think you met someone—a sweet little
chica
that makes you not care for nothing but her next smile.”

Close. Closer than he probably knew, but Adam shrugged it off with a wave of a picture frame bearing his mother's photo, before stowing it away in the box. He still needed to stop by Mom's house to bring her up-to-date about yesterday's happenings. "I was only there for two days, Reg. Get real.”

The slender Latino snorted into his mustache. "Yeah, and I saw Inez for ten minutes in the fucking
grocery store
and knew." He snapped his fingers, causing Charlie at the next desk to raise his eyes from his phone call. "Like that! I chased her all over the neighborhood for two weeks before she'd go out with me. But one look and I was a goner. You saw me, I was like a goddamned Romeo, singing outside her window with my guitar—even writing love songs to her.”

"Really
bad
love songs, if I remember. Nothing rhymes with
orange,
Reg…not even
so rang,
no matter how weird you say it. Hell, it didn't even make
sense!”

He tapped the gold band on his finger before handing Adam the white cardboard cover for the file box that was now stuffed full—full of a past he'd really believed in. Could he believe in anything this much again, down there?

"Love
don't
make sense. That's my point. Shit changes when you find the right one." Reggie paused and said meaningfully, "Shit like becoming a fucking truant officer in backwater Texas after a whole life as a city cop, for example. That's what a woman will do to you, amigo. Make your whole head change. Look at me. Three years ago when we partnered, would either of us have thunk I'd be about to sign a mortgage that would choke a racehorse and be spending my Saturdays shopping for baby strollers

— and do you know how much those damned things
cost?”

Adam wanted to say it had nothing to do with Cara. He wanted to tell Reggie that he was being forced to go down by a council of shapeshifters that didn't give a damn what he wanted. But the truth was, even if he stayed…he'd asked her to come up. Didn't that say everything? He sighed in resignation and sat down heavily. "Her name's Carlotta—Cara Salinas. She's the sheriff down there.”

Reggie held up one finger and shook it in victory. "Ah ha! I knew it!" Then he lowered his voice and winked. "She's Latina, eh? Well, I always knew you had good taste. But you gotta watch out for them, amigo. They're tough, and they've got tempers on 'em.”