Bold Mercy by Laken Cane

Chapter Thirteen

I climbed into the driver’s seat of my car, raising an eyebrow when Eli got into the passenger seat without a word. “I thought you’d insist on driving,” I told him. “I expected an argument.”

“Not at all,” he said, smiling smugly. “You drive, we watch for danger. If we see something suspicious, we’ll jump out and take care of business while you tend to the steering and braking and such.”

He laughed when I glared at him.

The city was in disarray, but it would get worse before it got better. Cops were stopping people, strongly encouraging them to go home and stay off the streets after the sun set. Some people listened, and some didn’t. Some couldn’t, for various reasons. More people died.

Eli read news articles to me as I drove through the city, taking backroads and side streets whenever possible to avoid police.

Apparently the homeless were safe. The vampires ravaging the city left them alone—probably their blood wasn’t quite rich and tasty enough and with the bounty of the city at their disposal, the vampires were going for healthier choices.

There were fights. Shootings. Killings. People began to take advantage of the chaos by looting and burning.

And because it was November, spirits and demons joined the fun. I saw them. I would need to control as many of them as I could, because the vampires weren’t the only threats to human safety.

How long before the military was brought in? How long before they formed a perimeter around the city and refused to let anyone leave? Maybe they’d drop a bomb on us, hoping to contain the problem. Who the hell knew? I certainly didn’t.

All I knew was that we needed to neutralize Avis and her people before it came to that.

I was late getting to Rick’s house, but he didn’t complain when he opened the door to let me in. He glanced at the four people behind me. “You have a key, Kait.”

I shrugged. “I’m not using that key if you’re home to open the door for me.” I looked at Eli. “I’ll be right back.”

He nodded and he and the others spread out on the porch, watchful and patient.

I followed the detective into the living room, and he gestured at my blade and the laminated ID badge on the coffee table. He’d put the badge on a black lanyard, and I checked it out before dropping it over my head. “Where’d you get the picture?”

He grinned, and for a second, his amusement lit his face and chased away the shadows. “Internet.”

My stare lingered on his face, memorizing that expression. I knew I wouldn’t see it often. “There are pictures of me online?” I gripped the handle of my blade, enjoying its familiar warmth before sliding it into its sheath at my hip.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Quite a few pictures of you, Kait.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you being so sly and amused about, Detective?”

“It’s not me,” he said, not quite grinning. “It’s the teenager inside me.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I said, but he wouldn’t tell me. Fine. When I got a chance, I’d search my name and see what came up. Better yet, I’d ask Max. I was sure he’d already Googled the hell out of me.

“I have my old ID in my glovebox,” I told him. “You didn’t have to get me a new one.”

“The red line at the edge of the card,” he said, “is not a quality error. It’ll tell any cop who stops you that you’re working with us and for the mayor. It was Louis’s idea. He has people watching out for you, you know.”

I nodded. Ever since I’d led the police to their son, the mayor and his wife made sure I was taken care of. “Thank him for me, will you?”

“I will. You’ll be hearing from him soon. He wants to speak with you.”

For some reason, that made my stomach tighten. Mayor Hedrick was going to need something I wasn’t sure I was ready to give. “How’s Beth?” I asked, changing the subject. The house had an empty feel to it, as though Rick weren’t enough by himself to bring life to it.

“Better,” he answered. “She has good people around her. She…”

“What?” I prompted, when he stopped.

“She’s not coming home. She’s going back to Colorado. Her parents are there.” He shrugged, trying for casual, but he didn’t look at me. “She told me half an hour ago.”

I reached out to squeeze his arm. “I’m sorry, Rick.” I hesitated, then, “Not because of…?”

“No. It had nothing to do with you or what she heard. She knew it wasn’t true. This has been a long time coming. People like her shouldn’t be with people like me.” Finally, he met my stare, and I wasn’t surprised to see that his was blank. “I have to get to work.”

“Me too.” I started to tell him to be careful as he walked me to the door, but that seemed to upset people. “Thanks for taking care of my blade,” I said instead.

“You can trust me, Kait.”

The words were abrupt and unexpected, heavy with seriousness and a feeling of urgency, and I stopped walking to face him. “I know.”

He studied me for a few seconds. “Do you? Do you really trust anybody?”

I swallowed. “When I can.”

He nodded. “Call me if you need me. Be careful out there.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “You too, Detective.”

He didn’t mention the serial killer and I knew he would have if there’d been any new developments, so I didn’t waste time questioning him. He stood on the porch watching me and the four wolves walk back to my car. I was sure he’d like to have questioned me about them, as well, but it was not a night to ask questions.

I stopped when I reached my car, goosebumps rising suddenly on my skin. I lifted my face to the cold, fresh air, closing my eyes as I inhaled. None of the wolves said a word, just stood quiet and ready.

“She’s close,” I told them, finally. I was suddenly glad for the protective vest my contact had sent me. I hadn’t forgotten the troll in the tunnels. The dog-turned-vampire had been right up there with some of the most horrible things I’d ever seen. I hadn’t told another soul about that dog. And now that I’d learned that some of the vampires were able to withstand a waning sun, I had a new item to add to the junk drawer of horror in my mind.

And though I had yet to see her, Avis Vine was in that drawer. Avis Vine, who was standing in the shadows of the night, watching me. I felt her there, the bitch, her and her evil intent. She was on a mission to destroy not only me and those I loved, but the city and the vampires. She was going to die, but in her misery, perhaps she didn’t care. Most vampires feared their waiting afterlife more than anything else in existence.

She had to know I was going to send her to that afterlife.

“Where is she?” Eli murmured. He didn’t search the shadows, didn’t make it obvious that we knew she was there, but it didn’t matter. She was taunting us as surely as if she’d been standing in the middle of the street with a dead human in her arms.

The detective’s street, a quiet residential street to begin with, was completely silent. His neighbors were mostly older professionals, and they took the law seriously—as well as the danger lurking outside their doors. They’d blockaded themselves in their homes, pulled their blinds, and wouldn’t have answered a knock on their door no matter what.

Smart people.

Rick left the porch and headed for his car, surprised that I lingered. “Kait?”

For a few seconds, I was frozen with terror, imagining Avis watching him, licking her lips with eager, greedy hunger, dreaming of making me watch as she tore him to pieces.

“Rick,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Get in your car.”

He pulled his gun immediately and crouched slightly, turning in a half circle to check the area. “Where, Kait?”

Shit. Everyone wanted to know where she was. I didn’t know. She was every-fucking-where. Her scent wafted to me from behind me and down the street, from the hedge at the front of the house across the way, from the roof of the detective’s house.

She’d rushed around, leaving her scent to confuse me, and I could not pinpoint exactly where she now stood.

“Eli, get Rick,” I said, my voice calm even as my heart thumped like an out-of-control drum. And only when the wolves surrounded the detective and brought him into the safety of our circle could I force myself to relax enough to think. “Give me a second,” I said, before anyone could speak.

And there in the eerie quiet of the cold street, I went to get my wolf.