Page 18

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Jasmine was helping me straighten the mess in the apartment when someone knocked on the door. I didn’t sense anyone paranormal and grimaced, having an inkling of who it was before I opened it. Yes, Dubois stood outside.

She started to speak, but her gaze snagged on the living room behind me, the painted message visible from the door now that we’d righted the couch and coffee table. We hadn’t yet swept up the broken plates and the rest of the carnage.

“Someone vandalized your apartment?” Dubois asked.

“While robbing it, yes. I’m missing—” I broke off, realizing grenades probably weren’t items one should admit to a police officer that one had. Even a sword might be considered an odd thing for a property manager to own. “A valuable family heirloom is missing.”

Surely, that sword had been some family’s heirloom.

“I’m sorry,” Dubois said, more sympathetic than I expected. “This place is quite the magnet for crime, isn’t it?”

Her gaze didn’t seem suspicious, not of me, when she met my eyes. That made me feel guilty. She suspected Rue, not I, was at the center of everything. How could I set the record straight without landing myself in jail?

“Lately, some weird stuff has been happening, yes,” I said.

“I’ll see if I can get an unmarked patrol car down here to stake out the apartment complex for a while.” Dubois waved toward the street beyond the parking lot.

“To stop robberies or to catch Rue when she comes back?”

“Maybe both.” She smiled as she lifted a hand and departed.

Poor Rue. She never should have moved from her apartment in Seattle. All she’d had to deal with there were bible-toting grannies who’d called her a heathen while leaving graffiti on her door.

Even as I had the thoughts, I hoped she would return. As vile as her concoction had tasted, I could use a potion to help me find Radomir and Abrams. Of course, I didn’t have any of their cells or essences to give to her.

“Too bad I didn’t get a chance to bite them in their asses,” I muttered, though I doubted Rue could collect a blood sample from my canines weeks after the fact. “Alas.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Jasmine knelt by the wall, picking up shards of broken plates.

“Fine.” I was about to step inside when the phone rang, Bolin’s number popping up. Before answering, I checked to make sure the police officer had disappeared around the corner. “Hello?”

“Hi, Luna. I’ve made or acquired a few items that you may find useful.”

“Great. I’ll take whatever they are as soon as possible. I’m hoping to use them before long.”

“Are you planning to infiltrate a fortress of evil?”

“As soon as I can find it.”

While I stood with the door open, a salt-and-pepper-furred wolf trotted between two rhododendrons and toward my apartment. Duncan had returned .

He sniffed the air and looked in both directions along the walkway before changing back into his human form.

I leaned into my apartment to grab his clothes. “Did you learn anything useful about those men?”

“One doesn’t shower regularly and left the scent of his powerful body odor on every grass blade between here and the street four blocks that way.”

“Does that mean you found him, pounced on him, and forced him to say he would never bother me again?” Under other circumstances, I might have admired Duncan’s physique as he pointed off toward the neighborhood, but I offered him his clothes, not wanting the female officer—or any officer—to return while he stood naked on my threshold.

“I followed the men to that street, but cars picked them up, and I wasn’t able to track them farther.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“One had slashed a Z into a tree trunk near where they were picked up. I’ll assume that means they’re the ones who took the sword.”

“A Z? Did he think he was Zorro?”

Duncan spread his arms, then accepted his underwear and bent to put it on. Three apartments down, a door opened, and one of the tenants stepped out, a twenty-something woman with a couple of canvas grocery totes in her hand. She glanced in our direction, gaped at Duncan’s bare ass, and stepped back into her apartment, shutting the door firmly.

As I handed him his T-shirt, I wondered if naked Duncan was a more alarming thing to find on the walkway than furry Duncan.

“Guess I should have brought you inside before asking you to dress,” I said.

He glanced over his shoulder, but the woman hadn’t reappeared. Unless she was peering out her window.

“This won’t take long.” He took his trousers from me. “And then… I’m yours insofar as seeking out crime goes. Or anything you wish really.” After tugging up his trousers, he bowed deeply. “I’m here to lend my support in any capacity.”

“Your fly is down.”

“As I said, I’m here to lend my support in any capacity.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.

I wished we could enjoy a night together—the moon knew I could use a release, and I would also be entertained by pillow talk with him afterward, I suspected.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to visit my mother?” I asked instead of inviting him inside.

“Er, that’s not the kind of support I imagined giving you. Don’t you want to go after the sword thieves? You said you have a potion, right?”

The thought of swallowing another elixir prompted me to make a sour face. If I’d dwelled on the taste longer, I might have gagged.

“I need to talk to my mother, and I was hoping you could try opening that case to see… to see if the artifact inside could help her.”

“I don’t believe I have the power to open it.”

“I’m fairly sure the taller, furrier version of you does.”

His skeptical expression said he was less sure about that. “It might have been the poisoned sword that prompted the lid to release.”

“I don’t think so. Anyway, this will be a chance to experiment.”

“I’ll go, but you had better also bring a rattlesnake incase the bipedfuris isn’t enough.”

“Sure, we’ll stop at the pet store in Monroe along the way.”

He wiggled his fingers to dismiss my sarcasm. “I’m willing to do anything that might help your mother, but I want to remind you that I am more susceptible to the call of the control device when I’m in that form. After coming all the way back down here on foot, I would hate to be called away again when you need me.”

“Maybe I can put a leash on you, and then you can lead me to them if they call.” I’d meant it as a joke, but as soon as the words came out, I realized I could find Radomir if I could follow Duncan back when the control device summoned him.

“A leash?” He drew back in horror. “I’m not a pet poodle.”

“No, the bipedfuris might not appreciate being constrained either.” I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “What we really need is a GPS tracking collar.”

“You’re being serious.”

“Actually, yeah. I might be able to follow you if I shifted into my lupine form, but if I had a tracking device, I could stay human and bring the truck. Or even your van. My truck had a little mishap and needs repairs.”

Duncan lifted a hand to his neck, as if imagining the indignity of wearing a collar.

“They’re not that bad,” I offered. “I’ve seen them on hunting dogs. Other than the radio antenna sticking out like a black flag, they hardly look any different from normal collars.” Never mind that the collar I’d seen had been fluorescent orange.

Duncan propped his fists on his hips. “I see what you’re getting at, that you think following me back to Radomir would be a good idea—I don’t agree with that, by the way—but my dignity as a man and a wolf will not allow me to wear a collar . How ignoble.”

“Sacrifices must be made for true love.” I smiled winsomely at him. Maybe this would be the time to promise him an invitation to my bedroom if he complied, but I would prefer our first time having sex not have any strings—or bargains—attached to it. Besides, I didn’t want to manipulate him. This was just… important.

“Can you imagine how I’d feel if I led you to them, and you ended up shot? Fatally? ”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.” I almost told him that I wanted to steal the device but hesitated, again worried that he would either feel compelled to warn them or that they would get the gist of his thoughts through it and learn about my plans.

“Does it involve druid concoctions again?”

“It might. We need every advantage we can get.”

“I’ll go with you to see if we can help your mother, but I’m going collar-free.” Duncan squinted at me.

“Are you absolutely positive? You’d look good in fluorescent orange. There’s a Walmart in Monroe. Maybe they sell them.”

“From what I’ve seen, they’re hundreds of dollars. Is that in your budget?”

I grimaced. “No.”

I took out my phone to research the collars and see if he was right. Looking a little smug, or at least satisfied, he folded his arms over his chest.

When the price came up on the collars, I grimaced again. “I’ll just turn into a wolf to follow you.”

“I thought you might decide on that.”

“Will you let me?” I looked into his eyes, again debating whether to tell him everything. If he knew what I intended and that I would bring some potions and whatever else I could find to help, he might have more faith that I could handle Radomir and his thugs.

“ I won’t attempt to thwart you.” Duncan flattened his hand on his chest. “I’m less certain about the bipedfuris. In that form, well, it’s like in the wolf form. Sometimes, other instincts come into play, and he may see you as a threat if you’re trailing along at his heels.”

“I’ll take my chances.” I would follow from a distance, tracking by scent. If there was one thing I could be sure of, it was that the bipedfuris wouldn’t have a pickup car waiting for him, at least not until he reached Radomir. And even if Radomir had the control device, I doubted he would pat the seat and invite an eight-foot-tall clawed and fanged werewolf to hop in next to him.

“As you wish, my lady.” Duncan looked wistfully in the direction he’d tracked the men, looking like he would prefer to help me with my local problem instead of dealing with Radomir.

Too bad. I needed him to be free of control before I could fully trust him. I also needed to make sure those guys wouldn’t harass my mother—or worse—anymore.

“If you don’t need anything else tonight,” Duncan said, “I’ll reestablish my relationship with my van and my bed.”

I sniffed. “Maybe reestablish a relationship with a shower too. You’ve been in the woods a long time.”

Duncan pointed his nose toward his armpit. “Hm. Yes.”

As he headed off, Bolin’s voice came from my phone. “Luna?”

“Sorry.” I lifted it to my mouth. “I didn’t realize you were still on the line.”

“I’m packing up your druid supplies to drop off.”

I lowered my voice. “Can you find me an inexpensive GPS tracker too? Like something that could be used to find a car?”

Or a werewolf, I thought, but kept to myself.

“I don’t have a spell book for GPS trackers,” Bolin said dryly.

“I’m sure you can get one at a store on the way. I’ll pay you back.”

“Okay, fine. When do you need me to drop everything off?”

“You could come along with us once you’ve got the everything.” I didn’t know how I was going to manage this, but if I had to shift into wolf form to follow Duncan, I wouldn’t be able to carry potions and grenades. Hell, I might have to wear the GPS tracker.

“You want me to come with you to a huge fortress of evil?”

“It might only be a small compound of dubious intent.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Jasmine is going.”

“I’ll go,” Bolin said. “When are we leaving? ”

In the living room, Jasmine arched her eyebrows.

“Can you be here at dawn?” I was tempted to head out that very night, but Duncan needed some sleep.

“My phone says that’s 7:56 am tomorrow.”

In the winter, it was hard to get an early jumpstart on villains. “Yeah, work usually starts at eight, so it shouldn’t be that hard for you to make it then, right?”

“I’ll bring extra coffee.”

“Good. I think we’ll need it.”