Page 14 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

Neith

I nod, “Yeah, I think we need to. The Voices seemed to think that it was a good idea and that tends to mean that it’s something I need to do.”

“That makes sense,” River nods. “We can talk to Ty and let him know that we will be working on it.”

“It’s not like we have any real leads with the Blue Fucker, at least not that I’m aware of. I’m sure that Ty would have mentioned it before now if there were any,” Ransom says.

“That’s a good point. I mean to be honest, this is probably the best lead that we have had considering he tried to get the wolves to kill us, but Derek is dead, and he said that the Blue Fucker had cut all ties, so he most likely wouldn’t have been able to give us any information anyway,” Griff says with a slight frown.

“There might have been something in that mess of an office that could have at least helped us to get in contact with the Blue Fucker, but Merrikh did his fire awesomeness and turned everything into ash,” River adds with a grin.

“I checked Derek before I burned him, and he didn’t have a phone or anything on him, so he must have had his phone in the house somewhere,” I say.

“Good thinking,” Reed compliments.

“There could have been something in the house, or on his phone, but there isn’t anything that we can do about that now. We will get him, but we’ve known for a while that he’s going to be a long game kind of thing, not a quick fix,” Ransom points out.

“Exactly. We can fix the wolves being sold, and it should be something that we can do fairly quickly,” River says, anger crossing his expression. “If Rana remembers being there since she was a kid, then that means that it's been going on for thirty-plus years, and that they take children as well.”

“Fuck, why had that occurred to me?” Van frowns. “I definitely think that it’s the right thing to do. We can work everything else out around it. I don’t see why Ty would have a problem with it.”

“We are going to have to be really careful about the Blue Fucker, and HID. It’s really concerning that he set up a watch here,” Griff points out.

“Yeah, we are. If he set up a watch here, is it possible that he’s set up a watch at other places where Neith has been seen?” Coen asks with a worried and pissed off expression.

He’s never taken it very well when I’ve been under threat. Not that anyone would, but Coen, and Dimitri even more so actually, took it to an entirely different level.

“Shit, I should call Sully and get him to check around the bar and see if there’s anything suspicious around. I see him a lot, especially since the whole HID thing. We’ve gone there recently too,” I say, already pulling out my phone from my pocket.

“It’s probably a good idea to give him a heads up anyway, just in case,” River suggests.

“Do you think that the Blue Fucker would be stupid enough to go near Sully’s place knowing that people there will recognize him, and will most likely kill him on sight?” Reed asks.

“I have no idea,” I reply as I wait for Sully to pick up, “I mean, I would hope not.”

“Neith,” Sully answers warmly, “I didn’t expect you to call tonight, or rather this morning, has something happened?”

“Of course it has, it’s me, but that’s not why I’m calling,” I reply, and he chuckles.

He is not going to be happy about what I say next, but then again, he’s not going to be happy about several things that I need to tell him. Murray being the biggest thing. I can’t tell him about that now though, the line might not be secure, and she could be with him. No, that needs to wait.

“What’s up?” Sully asks, sounding intrigued.

“The Blue Fucker hired the wolves in the pack next to the compound to kill the guys and take me,” I quickly run through what happened and then add, “so I need you to check your staff and the bar in case either of them is compromised.”

“He wouldn’t fucking dare!” Sully bellows down the phone, and I pull it away from my ear so that I don’t lose all hearing in that ear.

The guys gazes all turn to look at me, hearing the shout even though the phone isn’t on speaker. It is never a good idea to piss off a troll, especially not one like Sully.

“I know, Sully,” I reply. “That’s what we all said.”

Sully sighs, and after a few moments of reining in his temper, he replies, “It is better to be safe, especially since you come here, and I don’t want to give up my visits.

I will question the staff under oath, have the area swept, and put more bouncers on the door.

It will be better, but it’s not going to stop him if he really wants to send someone in here. ”

“I know, just be careful.” I say with a sigh, “There’s something else that I need to talk to you about, but that’s probably not best discussed over the phone.”

“Okay,” Sully replies. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe for you to come here. If it looks like it’s going to be iffy, then we will have to work something else out.”

I nod, even though he can’t see me, “Yeah, we can do that. Let me know if you find anything.”

“I will. Stay safe,” Sully says and then hangs up.

“Are you going to tell him about Murray?” Coen asks.

I nod, “Yeah, I need to know what she knows about the more recent developments. I also need to know where she is. We need to question her, and Sully is the best person to know that.”

“Plus, he needs to know that she isn’t to be trusted,” Doc points out. Frowning, he adds, “Yeah, we probably need to find a way to tell him sooner rather than later.”

I nod, “We’ll give him a couple of days to question his staff and put more security measures in place. Then we will figure out a way to talk to him, maybe even at SID, that’s pretty fucking safe, and I highly doubt that the Blue Fucker will attempt anything there.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Van agrees, although there’s still a hint of worry in his expression.

“I think it might be a good idea to get that update from Ty sooner rather than later,” Doc suggests.

“Especially now that we’re going to be looking into the wolves.

Ty did say when I went to pick up Coen’s card that he hadn’t heard anything from HID yet, but that doesn’t really mean that they’ve backed off. ”

Van sighs, “I think you’re probably right. How long did we last?”

“A couple of days,” Coen grins. “But we don’t actually have to go back to work yet. We need the update, but we can’t do anything on the wolves case until we’ve got the information from Rana.”

“That’s true,” Reed grins.

“I’m counting that as a win for us then,” I grin.

“We’ve still got time to do the things that we need to do before we officially go back to work,” River adds.

“That’s good, I’ve still got to work on the wards for us when we go out, and I’m working on a couple of other things as well,” Ransom says thoughtfully.

“I need to figure this whole Pete thing out and get a handle on my magic,” I say with a slight frown. Both of those things make me slightly nervous.

“Yeah, we need to find out what all your different colored fire means,” River grins, bouncing in his seat. “That was fucking awesome by the way, and so hot.”

I grin, “Well, I have always loved fire. Do you think they all do different things then?”

Raiden nods, “Yeah, I would think so. It is definitely interesting that it has different colors. I wonder if you’re going to have something new on every shift?”

“That would be pretty cool,” I admit. “Did you see my nails? They were claws! I think they would be pretty deadly in a fight actually. I want to practice with them.” My smile is sharp, “They’d be good for ripping someone's throat out.”

The guys all grin at me.

“We can definitely do that,” Reed says. “I think it’s a good idea to practice while shifted.”

“Me too,” I reply. “I’m already getting fed up with hiding who I am. I mean, I’m doing it because some really old supernaturals have told me that I should. I know that I’m rare, and I know that rare normally means trouble, but I would rather be really well-trained and just be who I am. No hiding.”

The Voices stir, muttering their agreement, and I know that I’m on to something. I have never been good at being told what to do.

The guys share a look.

“You make a good point. Hiding who you really are hasn’t historically worked out well for many people,” Raiden agrees, his brow furrowed.

“It would increase the risk, but I think that you may be right,” Coen says. “We don’t know anything about the Elders, and that concerns me. You are in control, and if you want to do it this way, then we will do it this way.”

“Well said,” Griff agrees.

I nod, “Yeah, I do. I think, unless my instincts tell me otherwise, I want to be able to shift and use my wings if I need to. Which actually would mean that I still wouldn’t have used them at all today.”

“That makes sense,” Ransom nods.

“I’m not going to just walk around fully shifted, or anything like that, but if we’re in a fight and I need to use my wings or something, then I’m going to use them. I probably won’t shift completely, I’ll just trust my instincts.”

“Your instincts haven’t been wrong yet.”

I grin, “Nope, between them and the Voices, they’re rarely wrong, if ever.”

“I can’t help but notice that you haven’t turned them off,” Raiden says curiously.

I shrug, “After I panicked that first time that I wouldn’t be able to get them back, I realized that they’re too much a part of me to just stop them, and actually since then they’ve been going quiet themselves, chiming in when they have an opinion on something or want me to know something, and then settling back down into such a quiet murmur that most of the time I don’t hear them. ”

Raiden smiles, “I thought it might be something like that.”