Ace grinned and tapped Steph’s shoulder to send her back a few steps. “Henry’s head is worth the money and plenty of favors down the stretch. Don’t worry about that. Just be quick, because Misonyk is doing damage every day, and it ain’t just here.”
“Where else does he go?” Paige asked.
Steph tagged herself back in. “He drives up north. Sometimes he goes into Indiana, but mostly he’s a cheddar head. Misonyk covers his tracks pretty well, but Henry don’t exactly fit in a car. He runs and jumps like a…”
As Steph searched for an appropriate analogy, Cole asked, “Like a Full Blood?”
Paige got ready to smooth over Cole’s comment, but was surprised when she saw Steph nod and smile.
“This one here is sharp,” Ace said while looking at Cole. “A bit loose in the head, but I like him.”
“Loose, huh?” Cole asked. “Am I the pot or the kettle here?”
“I’ve never seen a Full Blood,” Steph admitted, “but everything I heard about the big doggies say they can run fast enough and jump high enough to go from one end of the state to the other in record time. You may be on to something…what was your name?”
“Cole,” Ace said.
Steph smiled as if she’d become absorbed in the act of rolling his name along the back of her throat.
“So how much reward money are we talking about?” Cole asked.
Before either of the two Nymar could answer, Paige overruled his question with one of her own. “Where can we find Misonyk?”
“There’s a meeting between Misonyk and one of the Milwaukee covens taking place at a diner right off the highway,” Ace replied. “Wendy was feeding us some information to keep in our good graces, but it looks like Misonyk found out about that and sicced Henry on her. I can give you directions to the place.”
“Is there anything else you can do on your end?” Paige asked. “Any way you could possibly get us any more information about Henry? He may have shapeshifter blood, but he’s no Full Blood.”
Steph shifted her eyes over to Paige and said, “I guess a Skinner would know that better than anybody.”
“Are there any more informants we should know about?”
“I wouldn’t count on anyone else in Misonyk’s little group to be of any help after what happened to Wendy,” Ace replied. “Once he’s gone, the rest should fall back into line. The rest of us don’t have time to spy. We’re either leaving Chicago for somewhere outside of Misonyk’s stomping grounds or trying to keep an eye out for Henry.”
“You guys always know when to hide, huh?” Paige asked.
There was an angry flash in Steph’s eye, but she couldn’t exactly refute the accusation. “Here’s the place where that meeting’s being held,” she snapped as she produced a small folded piece of paper from her skirt pocket. “That’s all we’ve got for ya, girlie.” With that, she raised her arm until Ace walked up and put himself beneath it. As they stepped outside, both of them let out overly dramatic cries of pain about the rising sun. Even as the door swung shut, Steph’s laughter could be heard echoing throughout the restaurant.
“All right,” Cole said as he whipped around to look at Paige. “Why didn’t you tell me vampires aren’t afraid of sunlight?”
“Who ever said that sunlight bullshit was real anyway? In fact, even in the movies, why would sunlight work on them?”
“I don’t know. It’s just…supposed to work!”
“Well, now that your training can officially start, I’ll fill you in on one thing.” Paige lowered her voice to a whisper and said, “Sunlight doesn’t bother vampires. If it did, they’d all explode on their own sooner or later and we wouldn’t have to put up with crap like that from assholes with clovers shaved into their heads.”
After letting out a sigh, Cole walked through the restaurant until he could take a look through the front window. Not only was the parked car no longer there, but the cab was gone as well. Since there wasn’t a dead cabbie in sight, he guessed Steph really had just paid the guy and sent him away. “Is there a handbook or something I’m supposed to get?” he asked as he let the shades fall back to cover the window. “Because all my years of researching monsters through comic books and TV haven’t done me any good.”
Paige laughed from the kitchen doorway. “Myths, legend, and folklore have been rotting kids’ brains way before television was invented, so don’t feel too bad. Come on in here and let me get a look at you. Last night, didn’t you say you were scratched?”
Cole followed her into the kitchen, and Paige began rooting through one of the many sets of cabinets. “Yeah, but it’s not bad.”
“Well, tell me what happened again while I get a look for myself.”
While he repeated everything about what Jackie had told him in his hotel room, Paige dabbed away the flecks of dried blood from his shoulder and examined the scratches. They weren’t even deep enough to need a bandage.
Upon reaching the end of his story, Cole asked, “So what’s a Mongrel?”
“I’ll tell you more about them later,” Paige replied. “Are you sure all you two did in that room was talk?”
There was no mistaking the intent in Paige’s eyes as she waited for Cole’s answer. The expression she wore was encouraging, but also a bit scary. Cole knew he wasn’t nearly a good enough liar to get one past her when she was looking at him like that. Fortunately, he didn’t have to lie when he told her, “That’s all we did, Paige. Although, it seemed like there could have been more if I was on my game. What is it with these things all being so damn horny?”
She shook her head and laughed under her breath as she put away the medical kit. “You know how everyone always talks about the oldest trick in the book? Well,” she said with an irresistible wrinkle of her nose, “when a woman is dealing with a guy like you, that’s it.”
“Oh,” Cole grumbled. “You don’t even sound surprised that Jackie tracked me down like that.”
“It’s not as miraculous as it sounds.” She walked to another bedroom that Cole hadn’t seen before. Even though there was only a cot and a few piles of clothes, the room had a distinctly feminine feel. Paige didn’t seem to mind those feminine things being on display as she sifted through them and selected some to be thrown into an old gym bag. “Once they track you to civilization, they just shift into their human forms and follow you the old-fashioned way. After she got here, she could let you get a bit farther away and still be able to sniff you out just fine. They’re all real good at that”
“How far away can they get and still keep tabs on me?” he asked.
Paige shrugged, sniffed a black halter top for freshness and said, “Maybe five or six miles. Some of them can get as far as ten or twelve without too much problem. It sort of depends on what they shift into. That’s why Mongrels are so tricky. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Cole. You’ve held up pretty well so far. Charging in here the way you did was very…” Pausing, she looked at him and smiled. “It was very noble.”
“I thought you were going to tell me it was stupid.”
“No. The thing with the trash can lid was stupid. And the part where you shoved Steph into the sunlight…well, that was cute.”
“Looks like you’re packing for a trip. I take it we’re headed into dairy country for a while?”
Paige zipped up the gym bag. “You got it. Things may get a little rough, so if you’re serious about joining up, you could start your training somewhere safer and learn another specialty. There’s tracking, research, investigations…”
“Refrigeration, veterinary medicine, gun repair,” Cole added. “I’ve seen the commercials. So what’s your specialty?”
“I like to get my hands dirty.”
“And if I leave for somewhere safer?”
“I’ll send you a postcard from Wisconsin,” Paige replied. “One of our own trackers spotted something that could be connected to Henry, so between that and the thing at the diner the asshole with the clover-shaped hair mentioned, I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”