The Heat (25 page)

One of them was getting louder. Drawing nearer.

“Miss St.Claire?”

Lily looked up, almost making the mistake of taking off her sunglasses as she did so. She’d put the shades on when she’d realized that she didn’t, as of yet, have the expertise in werewolf powers to make the glow in her eyes subside. And Daniel wasn’t there to help her learn. Luckily, the sun was in that uber annoying and bright place on the horizon that practically screamed for sunglasses.

A man stood beside the table, a hard back book in one of his hands, a sleeved paper cup of coffee in the other. He had short brown-black hair and blue gray eyes. Lily recognized him at once.

She’d gone to high school with him eons ago and now he was a cop who worked with Daniel. He was currently out of uniform, but she vaguely recalled that he’d been one of the men seated in the marked car that had been posted in front of Daniel’s house a few days ago.

“Yes?” she said, shifting in her seat. “Officer…” She searched her recollection for his name.
Allan
something.

He smiled an understanding smile and flushed slightly. “I’m sorry. I forget when I’m not wearing my name tag. You probably don’t remember me from high school either – ”

“Yes, actually, I do.” She gently insisted. “Allan, right?”

He blinked. And then he, too smiled, appearing for all the world like a young Anthony Michael Hall who’d just learned that the prom queen knew he existed. “Yeah, that’s right. Allan Jennings.” He put his coffee down on the table beside them and extended his hand in a friendly gesture. She shook his hand and cocked her head to one side.

“Jennings – you know, if I recall correctly,” she said, “you were quite the genius in school. Weren’t you captain of the debate team and didn’t you graduate with all kinds of honors?”

He blushed and held up his hand, as if to spare her from saying anything further. “I did okay.”

Lily had to smile at that. He was modest.
But he must be very nervous
, she thought. It was strange to her how hard his heart was beating. “So… I thought you’d be a lawyer or a politician. Or, maybe accountant to the stars,” she told him, flashing a perfect white smile. “What’s the deal with the law enforcement gig?”

He picked up his coffee and took a sip, flinching when it was too hot. Then he shrugged. “You know how it goes. The geeks really just want to play football.”

Lily laughed. He was quite charming. He’d grown since high school; he must have shot up half a foot and he’d filled out nicely. She glanced at his ring finger, which she had a horrible habit of doing when meeting a half-way decent man. No ring.

And, as she also had the horrible habit of doing, she then wondered why.

“I take it this is your day off?” she asked, knowing that it must be or he would be mired in the murder muck that Daniel was currently trapped in.

When he nodded, she gestured to the seat across from her. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but would you care to join me? I’ve been snubbed by both my best friend and my boyfriend and I could use the company.” She desperately wanted to take off her sunglasses, as she’d always considered it rude to talk to someone while wearing shades. But, she wasn’t sure whether she could chance Jennings – or anyone else, for that matter – noticing the odd brightness to her now gold eyes.

Jennings shrugged, nodded, and sat down as he again attempted a sip from his cup of coffee. He put his book on the table and leaned back in the chair. “You know, you weren’t a C student in school either, as I recall. You did pretty well. I heard you became a social worker.”

Lily nodded. “I guess my own parents weren’t messed up enough for me to get my fill of family problems. Had to absorb everyone else’s too.”

At this, he shook his head. “Actually, it fits you. You were always the one who stood up for the little guy. Even stood up for
me
, once.”

Lily blinked. “You’re kidding.” She didn’t remember that. But the truth was, he was right; she’d defended a lot of people in school, from kindergarten on up. She didn’t remember their names, just the anger she felt at seeing them picked on. It had always colored her vision red, and she’d always jumped headlong into the fray.

“Nope,” Jennings smiled. “Not kidding. Remember Rosella Barrios and her boyfriend?”

Lily nodded. “Oh yeah. I remember her.
And
him.” Did she ever. Rosella and Tabitha had been arch enemies in school. Barrios had done everything from smear Vaseline onto Tabitha’s locker combination – to set the entire locker on fire. Her brute of a boy friend was no better. “I heard Martin Gomez was doing time these days,” Lily said.

Jennings nodded. “But long before his days of auto theft and breaking and entering, his pastime mostly involved making my life miserable. One Tuesday morning, he ripped my guitar out of my hand and ran across the school with it.” He pinned her with a frankly admiring gaze. “You chased him down and took it back.”

Lily stared at Allan through her sunglasses. Then she couldn’t help herself when she took them off and stared at him some more. “Oh my God, I
do
remember that. Only, I had no idea it was your guitar. I just knew it wasn’t
his
.” She’d cornered Gomez against the wire fence on the opposite end of the parking lot and he’d laughed at her crazy "gringa chica" tenacity and handed the guitar over while he shook his head. She’d walked back with the instrument, but by that time, the bell had rung and no one was left in the halls. So she’d turned it into the office.

Well, now she knew. Apparently, it had been Allan’s. Lily shook her head and laughed softly. “I hope it didn’t get hurt in the chase.”

“No,” Allan assured her. “Not that you’d have been able to tell. I couldn’t play worth a damn.” He sighed and scooted his chair out, standing slowly. “It’s been great catching up, Miss St.Claire – ”

“Please, call me Lily.”

He smiled and nodded. “Lily, it’s truly been a pleasure. I’m afraid I have to be somewhere else right now, but I’m sure I’ll see you around. You know, hanging out with underdog runts and riding off on stolen motorcycles.”

Lily blushed and covered her face with her hands.

He laughed. “Catch you later.”

She nodded and shooed him away. When she looked up, she saw him climb into a silver Dodge Challenger parked at the curb several cars down the street. He started it up and pulled away. Lily watched him go, wondering quietly, why his heart had been beating so hard and so fast. And she was fairly new at this scent thing, so she couldn’t be sure, but she could have sworn that, quite suddenly, he had smelled like…
anger
.

She shrugged it off and finished her coffee. Then she popped a breath mint, chewed it up, and threw her cup in the trash.

The air was quite thick with moisture this morning and she could smell a storm on the way. She’d been able to do that while human; now it was almost certain. It may be clear as a bell at the moment, but by two p.m., there would be thunder and lightning.

She smiled. She left the Starbucks patio and began to stroll up Bluebonnet toward the Mall of Louisiana, where her car was parked.

By
the time she got to it, the wind was already picking up. Lily looked up at the sky as she unlocked her door. In the distance, a rolling black storm cloud was riding toward the city. She slid into her seat just as the faintest sound of thunder reached her ears. She wondered whether she was the only one at the Mall of Louisiana who could hear that particular thunder clap.

And then she froze. For, beneath the sound of the thunder rode another sound. Fast and hard, like a drum.

Before she could fully realize that it was the sound of a heart beating, the owner of that heart rose up in the back seat and wrapped one strong arm around her neck, yanking her unsuspecting body hard against her seat. His other hand held a gun, and screwed onto the end of that gun was a silencer.

Without pause, he shoved the barrel of the gun against her ribcage and pulled the trigger. Once, twice – three, four, five times. Again and again, he emptied the rounds into her chest, until the 9mm was empty and seventeen bullet holes fought to close in Lily’s unconscious form.

Allan Jennings opened the passenger-side door to Lily’s car, got out, and then shut the door again, glancing around quickly as he did so. No one was paying any attention. Then he got back into the car on the driver’s side, shoving Lily’s body into the passenger seat to make room. Blood oozed from her wounds, drenching her clothes and the cloth material of the seats beneath her.

Jennings wasted no time, moving with efficient speed as he pulled a set of handcuffs from his back pocket and positioned Lily’s wrists so that they were gathered at her back. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you to check the back seat of your car before getting in, Lily?” He snapped the cuffs on her wrists and then pulled a second pair from the waistband of his jeans beneath his t-shirt. Both sets of these particular handcuffs were made, not for humans, but for werewolves, so they expanded to a larger size than the standard police-issues. And Lily had small ankles. He was able to ensnare her legs easily.

Once he had her firmly secured, he sat back up and gazed down at her. The point-blank gun shots wouldn’t kill her, but had knocked her out almost instantly, just as he had known they would. They always did.

Lily now lay with her eyes closed, her head resting against the door. The way she was cuffed caused her shoulders to roll back, and her collarbone and breasts were more pronounced.

Jennings’ crotch ached.

Her hair looked like spun-gold in the early morning light, despite the spatters of blood that marred its shining smoothness. Her peach-gold skin was flawless. But then, as far as he was concerned, it always had been.

His blue-gray gaze fell on the scarf around her neck and with slow determination he unknotted the silken material and pulled it off of her, exposing the vampire-like bite marks beneath.

His gaze darkened, his jaw setting. His expression turned hard. With that, he faced front once more, slipped a new clip into his Glock, and laid the gun across his lap. Then he turned the key in the ignition and pulled the stick shift out of the parking lot.

Chapter Eighteen: Deep Cover

“She must have been on foot, but her scent just disappears.” Jonathan Kane turned his face toward the wind, which was really beginning to pick up speed. Miniscule droplets of rain misted the side of his face. Beside him, James Valentine was scenting the air and listening at the same time. They were in front of Tabitha’s house and Lily was gone.

“Can you sense her?” Tabitha asked softly.

Valentine gazed steadily down at her. His expression was unreadable. He shook his head and left it at that.

Just then a marked police car rode up, drawing flush with the curb. Tabitha recognized the driver as one of the men who had been stationed out in front of her brother’s house a few days ago. She remembered that his name was Mayfield. She nodded at him and he nodded back, getting out of the car. As he approached, his expression turned pained. “Don’t tell me she’s gone,” he said, his tone just about hopeless.

Tabitha nodded. “I think she must have left before sunrise.”

Mayfield held up his hand as if to tell her to stop and then pinched the bridge of his nose with his other hand. “I told you not to tell me she was gone,” he muttered. “The Chief is going to have me canned.”

Tabitha ran a hand through her long blue-black hair and thought hard.
People don’t just teleport
, she told herself.
If her scent disappears, then it’s because she stopped walking.
She blinked and almost slapped her forehead.
Duh! She got a ride.
“I don’t think she would have gone very far on foot, so I’m guessing she got a ride, Officer Mayfield. Can you run a check with the taxi services around here?”

Jonathan Kane turned and looked down at his granddaughter with stark pride. Tabitha found herself blushing a little. Beside her, James was watching and listening carefully as Mayfield pulled a radio off of his belt and began communicating with someone on the other end.

A few minutes later, they had the name of the taxi company that Lily had used – and they had a destination. James immediately headed toward his black sedan, and Tabitha and her grandfather followed closely behind. Mayfield moved to his patrol car as well.

Once everyone was seated, the two cars pulled out into traffic, Mayfield leading the way. Now Tabitha just had to call her brother back. He’d left her a message to call him and she had yet to even tell him that Lily was gone. Probably, it was nothing to be too concerned about, but James said that he couldn’t sense her. And she wasn’t sure what that meant. She couldn’t imagine a Guardian not being able to sense his charge. Was he lying to her? And if he was – then
why
?

Then again, Tabitha had never known a Guardian before; it was a right not given out lightly, since the granting of it came with a good amount of extra power. It was possible that Lily was just out gallivanting about town in her new werewolf body, enjoying the freedom that came with her transformation and that she was simply too far out of range for James to feel.

Yep. Tabitha was going with that. Because the alternative was just too terrible to think about.

Either way, Daniel deserved to know. So, Tabitha pulled her cell phone out of her purse and prepared to apologize, once more, for ever turning it off. She pushed a speed dial number and waited.

“We’re headed toward Bluebonnet and the Mall of Louisiana area.” She tried to put as much nonchalance in her voice as possible. “Looks like Lily decided to do some shopping.”

There was a brief but heavy pause. And then Daniel said, “I’ll meet you there.”