juxtaposition would be enough to jar him out of his emotional state.
“Mike! Snap out of it!”
His eyes caught mine and locked, the irises already spinning into feline mode.
“Do not do this. In public? You remember the rules.” I glanced around. The street was empty but that could change at any minute. “Would Janey want you to get into a fight with me? With kin? Would Janey want you to help me find her killer or not?”
Evoking her name stopped him. Suddenly he blinked once, twice, the pupils returning to normal. I remained in his face as the light hairs retracted and he drew deep, gasping breaths as a full human again. He stepped away from me, surrendering the space, letting me win.
“I’m sorry.” He sagged against the front door and for a second I thought he would faint. I grabbed his arm and pushed him upright.
“Don’t worry. Perfectly understandable.” I forced a smile, hoping to reassure him. “I was out of line. I apologize.”
“No, no.” He waved me off. “You have to ask these types of questions, I know. It just caught me off guard, that’s all.” Taking deep breaths, he stared at his hands. “Close one there.”
“You have no idea.” I rubbed his back in small circles, feeling the muscles relax. “I hated asking that, you know.” Clearing my throat I turned the conversation back to more important topics. “I’ll be in touch if I find out anything. Just don’t leave the country, ’kay?” I smiled, encouraging him to return it with a chuckle. “Hey, it’s a classic line. Can’t blame me for using it.”
Mike stared down at his shoes for a second, shuffling the pristine sneakers back and forth on the thick woven floor mat. “You think you can find out who did this?”
“I’ll try my best.” That much wasn’t a lie. “We take care of our own.”
While I walked back to the car I rubbed my stomach, trying to quell the nausea threatening to burst out and have me recycle the coffee and donuts. Even if it had been a random killing, which I didn’t believe, it definitely stuck a giant pin in the bubble of security the Pride had built around themselves. Ourselves. We had been told from birth that we were special, a whole world apart from the rest of society. That we had to stay separate and secret in small packs around the world. Now in a single swoop, that secrecy had been stripped away. Either we had become so weak a regular criminal could stalk, trap and kill us or there was a killer inside the family. Either was unacceptable.
I would probably end up screwed no matter what happened. If Mike had attacked me I’d have been down in a second under those claws and teeth. He had forgotten but I hadn’t. I couldn’t.
Chapter 4
As I unlocked my front door my nose started to twitch at the blood scent, still strong even though I had double and triple-bagged the damned foot. I slammed the door behind me, picked up the stack of mail from the floor and headed upstairs into my living space, flipping through the envelopes. An offer for a magazine subscription, an offer for a book club and an offer for cheap cell phone service. But no offers to take this mess off my hands or hand me the answer in three easy payments.
My computer was an old beast, so while it went through the ancient ceremony of booting up I wandered back downstairs.
I picked up the television remote, flipping around the dial while mentally cataloguing the contents of my pantry. The channel stopped on the Food Network. Bad idea. My stomach let out a growl at seeing a display of obscenely large hamburgers.
“Yep, Ramen noodles it is.” The cupboards offered up a package of instant noodles caught between a few cans of vegetable soup and three cans of tuna. Within a minute I had the water waiting to boil in the small pot and had turned my attention back to the television set.
The local all-news channel had moved on from Janey’s death, giving it a quick sound bite about the investigation continuing, which was a
“Mike! Snap out of it!”
His eyes caught mine and locked, the irises already spinning into feline mode.
“Do not do this. In public? You remember the rules.” I glanced around. The street was empty but that could change at any minute. “Would Janey want you to get into a fight with me? With kin? Would Janey want you to help me find her killer or not?”
Evoking her name stopped him. Suddenly he blinked once, twice, the pupils returning to normal. I remained in his face as the light hairs retracted and he drew deep, gasping breaths as a full human again. He stepped away from me, surrendering the space, letting me win.
“I’m sorry.” He sagged against the front door and for a second I thought he would faint. I grabbed his arm and pushed him upright.
“Don’t worry. Perfectly understandable.” I forced a smile, hoping to reassure him. “I was out of line. I apologize.”
“No, no.” He waved me off. “You have to ask these types of questions, I know. It just caught me off guard, that’s all.” Taking deep breaths, he stared at his hands. “Close one there.”
“You have no idea.” I rubbed his back in small circles, feeling the muscles relax. “I hated asking that, you know.” Clearing my throat I turned the conversation back to more important topics. “I’ll be in touch if I find out anything. Just don’t leave the country, ’kay?” I smiled, encouraging him to return it with a chuckle. “Hey, it’s a classic line. Can’t blame me for using it.”
Mike stared down at his shoes for a second, shuffling the pristine sneakers back and forth on the thick woven floor mat. “You think you can find out who did this?”
“I’ll try my best.” That much wasn’t a lie. “We take care of our own.”
While I walked back to the car I rubbed my stomach, trying to quell the nausea threatening to burst out and have me recycle the coffee and donuts. Even if it had been a random killing, which I didn’t believe, it definitely stuck a giant pin in the bubble of security the Pride had built around themselves. Ourselves. We had been told from birth that we were special, a whole world apart from the rest of society. That we had to stay separate and secret in small packs around the world. Now in a single swoop, that secrecy had been stripped away. Either we had become so weak a regular criminal could stalk, trap and kill us or there was a killer inside the family. Either was unacceptable.
I would probably end up screwed no matter what happened. If Mike had attacked me I’d have been down in a second under those claws and teeth. He had forgotten but I hadn’t. I couldn’t.
Chapter 4
As I unlocked my front door my nose started to twitch at the blood scent, still strong even though I had double and triple-bagged the damned foot. I slammed the door behind me, picked up the stack of mail from the floor and headed upstairs into my living space, flipping through the envelopes. An offer for a magazine subscription, an offer for a book club and an offer for cheap cell phone service. But no offers to take this mess off my hands or hand me the answer in three easy payments.
My computer was an old beast, so while it went through the ancient ceremony of booting up I wandered back downstairs.
I picked up the television remote, flipping around the dial while mentally cataloguing the contents of my pantry. The channel stopped on the Food Network. Bad idea. My stomach let out a growl at seeing a display of obscenely large hamburgers.
“Yep, Ramen noodles it is.” The cupboards offered up a package of instant noodles caught between a few cans of vegetable soup and three cans of tuna. Within a minute I had the water waiting to boil in the small pot and had turned my attention back to the television set.
The local all-news channel had moved on from Janey’s death, giving it a quick sound bite about the investigation continuing, which was a
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