“Hi, Tala!” Shelley called from the front desk. Even though she was on the other side of the foyer, I could clearly read the name plaque in front of her.
Now, the sharpened eyesight from my impending shift I didn’t mind, but the never-ending onslaught of smells? That I could do without.
Loosening a breath, I greeted Shelley when she came around her desk and handed over a bag with my cell phone. “Commander Klebus said you may want this since you’re no longer at a safe house.”
“Oh my gods, yes.” I lunged for the bag. My turquoise cell phone case flashed in the light, but the second I pulled it out, my excitement vanished. My phone was dead, not surprising since I hadn’t used it in weeks, but I itched to call Prisha. I hadn’t spoken to her since going into hiding, and our only communication had been through old-fashioned letters that the SF had delivered.
The energy of a sudden presence looming behind me, along with the scent of citrus and cedar lacing it, told me that Mr. Silent Hunter was at my back, finally joining me.
Shelley’s eyes widened, no doubt taking in the hunter’s glare and haggard appearance. He hated this place about as much as one hated chlamydia.
“I’ll take you back to meet with the commander.” Shelley ushered us down the hall, bumping into her desk along the way before she resumed her brisk footsteps.
When we reached the back offices, Commander Klebus stood from behind her desk as Shelley waved us through the door. As usual, the vampire commander’s blue eyes looked bright and astute, and her golden complexion—paled from her vampire transformation—shone in the overhead lights.
Klebus waved at the two chairs in front of her desk. “I was hoping you two would arrive shortly.”
Neither Kaillen nor I replied as we sat.
The commander’s expression turned grave after she’d settled back onto her seat. “I’m sorry to hear about what happened in Oak Trembler. I’ve spoken with your father.” She inclined her head toward the hunter. “Paxton’s dealing with those who betrayed Tala.”
The hunter didn’t reply, but his nostrils flared and that sharp metallic scent wafted up again. That scent had to be anger.
Despite Commander Klebus’s assurances that Cameron was being dealt with, I knew the hunter planned to deal with his oldest brother on his own. Kaillen had promised to kill him, although, I didn’t know if he would actually go so far as eliminating his brother.
That threat had been made right after Kaillen had rescued me. He’d said it in the heat of the moment. But werewolf law would justify the hunter murdering his own brother. Because of Cameron, I’d nearly become enslaved to Jakub, and an atrocity like that against a wolf’s mate was abhorrent. Pack law, and even the supernatural court’s laws, would allow the hunter his retribution—if he chose to claim it.
I shuddered at the thought.
“Where are you staying now?” the commander asked me.
Her direct question snapped me back to our conversation. “With him.” I hooked a thumb in Kaillen’s direction.
She quirked an eyebrow. “Which is where?”
“None of your business,” Kaillen replied smoothly. “You now have my phone number. That’s all you need to reach us.”
Oh, so he’d shared his digits with the SF commander? That was a first. But that also explained how she’d called him while I’d been showering.
The commander’s icy eyes narrowed. “Twice in two weeks, Tala has nearly been abducted. For her safety, the SF needs to know her whereabouts.”
“No, you don’t,” the hunter replied on a low growl. “I’ll keep her safe.”
The two stared at one another, the battle of wills commencing.
I rolled my eyes. “I was told you wanted to see us about Jakub. So, can we, like, get to that?” I was so not in the mood for their pissing contest.
The commander’s lips pursed, but she broke eye contact with Kaillen and opened her drawer. “Very well.” She extracted her magical crystal used for creating digital debriefs. “You know what to do.”
I placed my hand on the crystal globe and let its magic tug at my mind, siphoning out the memories of my kidnapping, Cameron’s betrayal, the two sorcerers commissioned to abduct me, the Philadelphia location, and finally, Maybe-Jakub.
The details flowed across the commander’s tablet, as if being typed by invisible ghostly hands. Pictures appeared too, perfect 3D renditions of Jakub’s face along with illustrations of other details—his vehicle, the blue cuffs he’d intended to put on the hunter, the spell he’d begun to weave that was frightening in its intensity, and of course, my head-butting.
Kaillen’s lips curved when he watched that tidbit as the magical apparatus replayed it before us. The look of surprise on Maybe-Jakub’s face during the replay, when I’d knocked him flat on his ass, filled me with dark satisfaction.
“It’s almost as if you learned head-butting from someone,” the hunter said under his breath.
“Really?” I replied just as dryly. “I wonder who that could possibly be.”
His smile grew, a sparkle appearing in his amber eyes. A new sharp scent suddenly rolled through his natural citrus and cedar. It smelled of pineapple and sunshine. I had no idea what that new emotion was, but with a start, I realized that Kaillen and I had just spoken to each other as we used to . . . again. That made twice in one morning that we’d joked. It was as though I’d forgotten how much this man had betrayed me and hurt me.
I killed my smile even though inside, it felt so good to act as we once had. But I needed to remember what he’d done.
The pineapple and sunshine fragrance vanished from the hunter, and his expression wiped itself clean.
“All done,” I said a second later and removed my hand from the crystal. The one thing I hadn’t shared when my memories had been plundered was the colossal strength of my powers that had smashed through the binding and gag spells despite the magic-blocking cuffs. Call me crazy, but I was still hoping the extent of my powers wasn’t common knowledge. A girl could hope.
Commander Klebus put the crystal sphere away, then picked up her tablet, studying the new report and mugshots that were more accurate than anything Chicago PD could ever come up with.
“So this is who Jakub possibly is.” She stroked her chin as she stared at Maybe-Jakub’s photo.
“Unless he was glamored,” Kaillen said.
“Of course.” She swiped to the sorcerers’ photos, studying them too.
“Don’t you have their bodies?” I asked, since she was spending just as much time studying the sorcerers’ faces as she had Jakub’s.
“No, only bloodstains.”
I balked. “But we left them there, dead on the street.”
The commander’s sapphire eyes cut to mine, her dark hair brushing her shoulders. “As I’ve been informed. However, by the time we arrived, the scene had already been cleaned. But it had obviously been done in a hurry, since their blood remained.”
I frowned at the hunter.
He shook his head. “I notified them within twenty minutes of our escape.”
Commander Klebus nodded grimly, and a startling sense of the power Jakub’s organization wielded made me shiver. How many people did he have on his payroll that he could have bodies removed that quickly? Before the SF even had a chance to arrive?
“Is there human security footage of the area?” I asked hopefully. Not that it would help. Our fighting had been cloaked under illusion spells, but maybe, just maybe, Jakub’s cleanup crew had been sloppy. Perhaps forgetting to initiate an illusion spell or creating one too weak to hide all activity.