“Did he tell you anything?”
Kael emerged from another room, a cell phone in his hand. He held it up. “Contacts are in here. He’s one of them.”
“You’re sure?”
He nodded and hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Go look. We didn’t even need Callie telling us he was to know.”
She walked back into the room he’d emerged from. A laptop stood open on a desk. She bent over and looked at it. The screen showed his e-mail, which was open to a message dated yesterday.
Whoever had sent the e-mail was confirming that both the carver and the silversmith were dead.
No witnesses.
Apparently Fat Boy’s a liar as well as a killer. He’s covering his ass about us seeing him.
They spent the better part of an hour there, going through Gunther’s contacts and cross-checking them to the information they obtained from the carver’s phone book and information they’d retrieved from the silversmith’s house. Several of the contacts in his book were also in the carver’s phone book, only this guy had updated information.
Lina pulled a chair up in front of him and ripped the duct tape off his mouth. “Why can’t you assholes just give up and live in peace?”
He spit in her face.
Before Lina or any of the men could react, Callie punched him squarely in the nose, hard. His head rocked back. “That’s why,” she said as she wiped his blood off her knuckles onto his shirt. “Because they are animals. Worse than animals.”
Lina wiped the spittle off her cheek with a wet cloth Zack brought her. “Why hasn’t he shifted yet?” Lina asked. If she was perfectly honest with herself, she was hoping he would so she could try firebombing his feathered ass.
“He’s a younglin’,” Andel said.
“Fuck you!” Gunther yelled.
Callie decked him again.
“Cockatrice,” Andel continued as if not interrupted, “aren’t like the rest of us shifters. Every other shifter, as long as nothing has prevented their shifting, start when they’re adolescents. Late teens at the most, usually. Cockatrice have to be mature to start shifting, at least fifty or sixty years old, usually. He might not ever be able to shift if his genes are weak. A lot of their kind can’t shift anymore, even though they have other abilities.”
Gunther started coming around again. This time, Lina punched him.
Callie high-fived her. “See? It’s fun, isn’t it?”
Lina shook out her fist. “Yeah, it sort of is.”
“Can we kill him now?” Callie asked Daniel.
“Not yet, my bloodthirsty little mate,” he said.
Kael walked over and slapped Gunther so hard his head rocked back again. Kael started questioning him in something that sounded like rapid-fire German. Lina realized she could understand a little of it, but Kael was speaking far too fast for her to understand it all.
Gunther sneered at Kael.
Before she realized what he was doing, Kael reached out and grabbed the man by the throat. A blank, unreadable expression on his face, Kael squeezed harder and harder until Gunther’s eyes bugged and he tried struggling in the chair against his bonds.
Then, with a sickening pop, Kael’s fingers punched through the man’s throat. Gunther’s shoes beat a quick, staccato beat on the hardwood floor for just a moment before he went limp. Blood flowed down his neck from the wounds, where Kael’s fingers impaled him.
Kael’s cold expression nearly frightened Lina. He let go of the cockatrice and wiped the blood and gore off his hand on the dead man’s shirt. Without a word, he left the room. They heard the sound of water running, followed by the unmistakable sound of retching, followed by Kael’s gut-wrenching sobs.
“I’m on it,” Zack said, a grim look on his face as he hurried after him.
“I suggest,” Andel said, “that we grab his computer and any other information we can and get out of here.”
Daniel nodded. “Yep.” He went after Zack and returned a moment later. “I gave him the car keys. Let’s let them have some time. They’ll come back later. We can all fit in the van.”
Quietly, they all returned to the van with the gathered items and drove back to the hotel, where they assembled in Lina’s suite to go over everything. As far as they could tell, neither the carver nor the silversmith were cockatrice. They were, however, longtime associates of theirs, paid well for their work. Now with Edgar and Lenny both dead, and with the other shifters races out for vengeance, the cockatrice were cutting their losses to protect their nest.
Zack and Kael returned an hour later. “Where are we at?” Kael quietly asked.
“Actually,” Jan said, “we think we have another lead on the nest. They’re running drugs.”
Zack snorted. “Doesn’t surprise me.”
“I have an idea,” Callie said. She looked at Daniel. “I need Sir’s permission, though.”
He looked at her oddly, but nodded.
She smiled. Before Lina could blink, Gunther stood before them. “How’s this?” Callie asked, but it was Gunther’s voice that came out.
Wally’s eyes widened. “Fuckin’ brilliant!”
Using Gunther’s cell phone, Callie placed a few calls and arranged a meeting with some of Gunther’s cohorts later that night. With the calls complete, she sat back and they were once again staring at Callie.
Daniel grinned and walked over to her. “And who says you’re not a shape-shifter?” he said with a laugh.
She arched an eyebrow at him. “I never said that. I’m not a wolf.”
“I couldn’t care less if you’re a damn drunken fruit bat,” Wally said, “that was amazing.”
She shrugged. “Perk of the rank.”
Chapter Six
Despite Daniel’s reservations, he let Callie, disguised as Gunther, go in with Wally, who she passed off as an American supplier. Andel and Jocko had called in reinforcements. They had two dozen wolves and dragons awaiting the signal to attack. The meeting was being held at a warehouse in an industrial section of town that would be nearly deserted that time of night.
As Lina sat in the shadows of a nearby shipping container, she closed her eyes. She found herself in Baba Yaga’s kitchen.
Apparently expecting her, Baba Yaga stood there in her matron form. She slid a mug of coffee, already prepared, over to Lina.
“Here you go, dear.”
“I can’t be here right now. I need to be ready.”
“You will be, don’t worry. Drink your coffee.”
Lina took a sip. Perfect, of course. “Tell me we’re doing the right thing?”
Baba Yaga shrugged. “I will not usurp free will.”
“Zack told me they’re like cockroaches crossed with mobsters.”
The matron smiled. “That is not an inaccurate description.”
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to kill innocent people.”
“Like the three children and the man’s wife killed at the silversmith’s house? They weren’t involved in his dealings, yet the cockatrice, or their accomplice, didn’t hesitate to kill them.”
“I know.”
“Your parents?”
Lina clamped down on the seething rage that threatened to overwhelm her. “Yeah.” She took another sip of coffee.
“There are others. Believe me. You said you wanted to see how your parents died so you wouldn’t ever forget what the cockatrice are capable of,” Baba Yaga reminded her. “Remember that?”
Lina grimly nodded. “Yeah.” She took another sip of coffee and set her mug down. “Thank you.”
She opened her eyes to find Zack looking at her. “So, how is Baba Yaga tonight?”
“Helpful.”
Zack smiled. “Good. About damn time.”
Daniel stood up from his hiding place closer to the front entrance and waved his hand. Around the building, the signal was passed and everyone advanced. Lina pushed her way to the front of the attacking force despite Zack’s best efforts to grab and hold her back. She shouldered Daniel out of the way and charged through the door first.