Black Bird (Nevermore Duet #1)

CHAPTER 31

LINES OF BATTLE

It was getting late now, and most of the employees at EverLife had gone home. Athan held Sarah’s hand as they watched the last one lock up for the night. She had been brilliant. So lethal and vicious that it took everything in him not to become aroused just by the sound of her voice when she’d handled Specter in that house. As much as it excited him to know that her vampirism seemed to be taking a greater hold on her, making them much more equal in strength and in companionship … he couldn’t help but wonder if that taste of his blood from earlier had anything to do with the sudden dark change in her. Nick sat deadly quiet in the back seat as they watched the last car leave the campus. Athan turned to look at her and her eyes followed that lone car until the taillights disappeared down the street.

“You can’t give it all in one night. You know that, right?” He eased his tone into endearment, making sure she knew he wasn’t trying to talk her out of it. It would be pointless anyway. No one would stop her from going after Wren. No one would convince her of another way to stray the coven, either. Her idea was sound, and more clever than he wanted to give her credit for. But it was also risky and would be taxing on her still human body.

“I know. But we can’t wait long. Every day she spends with whoever has her is a risk I’m not willing to take.” She never looked over as she watched the busy street outside the gate to the campus. “Why haven’t they reached out?”

“Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes their silence is a ransom letter enough.”

Sarah sighed through her nose. “It doesn’t make sense. She left two bodies to taunt us. She wrote those digs at you in blood . If she’s trying to get us to come to her … then why is she so quiet now?”

“You make a valid point. Ever since she caught wind of the effects of your blood, she hasn’t requested I come talk to her about EverLife’s supply, either.”

“She knows what happened to the supply. She’s the one that orchestrated it.”

Athan ground his teeth and nodded. “Yeah, but … to my knowledge, she doesn’t know that I know.”

“Are you sure she’s the one that has your friend?” Specter asked from the back seat. Sarah glanced at him then, right before she turned around to look at the man who’d betrayed her.

“Who the fuck asked you?” That primal edge to her voice came back with malice .

“Just hear me out, will you? I don’t know what you’re about to ask me to do, but if what you just said was true … I can think of a couple of reasons why you haven’t heard anything from her. If I don’t have any other choice but to play along, I can at least offer you another theory.”

Athan met eyes with her briefly, and Sarah rolled them, shaking her head and hanging it. “Fine. Let’s hear it.”

“Well,” Nick shifted in the seat leaning closer to the center console than Athan preferred. “If I had gone out of my way to make sure that you knew it was me that left those bodies, then I certainly wouldn’t be hiding the fact that I’d taken something so precious to you.”

“Thank you, Captain fucking Obvious … that’s what we just got finished saying,” Sarah spat, fingering the trigger on the gun in her lap.

“Wait, wait … let me finish. Now, if I had successfully sabotaged my own blood supply that I was funding, made all the necessary threats, and still managed to kidnap someone in the hopes that it would draw you out? I’d sure as hell be boastful about it. As that’s not the case, I feel like for someone that went those lengths not to be that way, something big must have happened … or she doesn’t have your comrade at all. Maybe you’re suspecting the wrong one?”

Athan had to admit he had a point. As if they’d both come to the same conclusion at the same time, both he and Sarah’s heads jerked toward each other, wide-eyed. “There’s no way he has the balls to do that,” Sarah breathed, seemingly in disbelief.

“I dunno, love … you’d be surprised how big men’s balls can get when they’re desperate. Didn’t Brent say that his mother was in her last days?”

“Are you talking about Conrad?” Nick asked, intrigued. “Is that the reason he’s put me through all this? To save his wife?”

“Put you through this?” Sarah exaggerated, turning to look at Specter, who winced at her glare. “I honestly want to hang myself for ever having busted my ass to work for you. You’re just as selfish as the rest of them.” Nick eased himself back in his seat, wisely deciding to shut his mouth.

“Maybe Rhaena really did catch something earlier when we were at Wren’s apartment,” Athan offered, reflecting on their conversation outside the coffee shop. Sarah’s attention focused on him. “Stratford’s whole demeanor changed at the end of that conversation.”

“You’re saying you think he already suspects Conrad?”

“Maybe … and if he did, he sure as fuck didn’t tell you that.” If they were right, he’d fillet that fucking prick. Especially after making promises to kill him if anything happened to Wren.

“Alright, look …” Sarah unbuckled her seatbelt and took her key card out of her bag. “If he’s the one that took her, then we’ll make him pay for it. But regardless, we still have to take Dahlia down. Let’s go get this over with and get up with Rhaena.” She opened the door and forced Nick out. Athan followed her to the front doors.

Once they were inside, Sarah led them to her workspace and got several sterile blood bags and a cart. Nick watched with suspicion, but surprisingly kept quiet. Sarah pinched between her eyes as if in pain and Athan stepped forward, taking her arm gently.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, just a splitting headache.” Her pupils were dilated and jumped erratically when she tried to focus them on his.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” he urged, taking her waist and noticing how she lightly trembled. “Something doesn’t seem right.”

“No,” she said, turning and busying herself with the cart. “I’m doing it.” She finally finished and turned towards Specter, who suddenly seemed horrified. “Ready to redeem yourself, Nick?” Athan noticed him glance to the counter where Sarah had placed his gun.

“Oh, do it …” Athan grinned. “Give me a fucking reason, Specter.”

“What are you gonna do to me? What help is my blood gonna be?” Nick was visibly shaking and swallowing loud enough to be annoying. Sarah scoffed.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t want, nor do I need your blood. What I need is for you to draw mine and replicate it. I need enough for several people. I know you can do it. I’ve read files in this lab.”

“You want me to what ? Sarah, I’d need more than one pint to make that work, and it would take almost a week. How much blood are we talking about here?” Nick asked, moving his shoulders and forgetting he was still in handcuffs.

“I need enough for a whole coven.” Her tone was flat … final.

“You can’t be serious.”

“What about this situation makes you think I’m not? I need it. And I need you to get it to me quicker than a week. How much would you need to rush it?”

Nick blew out a frustrated breath and looked around the room. “At least three pints. That’s not safe to give at once. We’d have to spread it out over at least two days between—”

“No, you’re taking it all tonight. I can handle it.” Sarah slid herself into the chair and opened an alcohol swab.

“Sarah … absolutely not.” Athan growled, stalking up to the chair.

Nick stepped forward. “That’s too much blood volume in one sitting. You could go into hypovolemic shock. I shouldn’t have to tell you that. You lose that much blood you might as well be killing yourself, St. James.”

“You can do this, or I can go back and explain to your wife and kid why they’re gonna have to plan your fucking funeral, Nick. Athan, get him outta those cuffs.”

“Kane, please man … talk some sense into her. I ain’t killing anybody. This is insane.”

Athan ignored him and knelt down beside Sarah who cleaned the skin on the bend of her inner arm. She wouldn’t look at him, and he knew why.

You’re not telling me something.

Her arms trembled, and her hands shook while she opened a clean needle and started prepping it for an IV. He placed a hand on her knee .

Sarah, look at me.

She slowed, finally sliding her eyes towards him until they were sharing one of those infamous stares he could never look away from. It laid her bare, and his chest ached.

You’re turning … aren’t you?

She took a long time, but finally started to nod slowly.

Yeah … yeah, I think so. I didn’t think I’d care until it dawned on me that it might change my blood. What if my turning causes the blood not to work like this anymore? What if this is all I have left and I’m running out of time to change the minds of those people, and lose our best chance of turning them against her? I can’t risk that, Athan. I have to do this … please let me do this. Before it’s too late.

He sighed deeply and took her hand, squeezing it and swallowing hard.

We can find another way. What if this kills you?

She huffed through her nose, smirking at him and shaking her head.

You did that already. And I’m still here, aren’t I? It’ll be fine. If it gets hairy … turn me properly. Feed me your blood. Don’t you let him stop that IV until he has enough. I don’t give a shit what happens.

Athan hung his head until it rested on her knee, and she smoothed a hand through his hair.

I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. It shouldn’t be this way.

Sarah pulled his head up by his hair and leaned in, pressing a hard kiss to his mouth. He almost lost himself in it. She whispered softly into his mouth.

“Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn …”

He couldn’t do anything to stop the way she had him completely surrendering his soul. She knew it. Knew exactly what to say to still time and bring him to his knees for her. He kissed her again.

“It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore …” he whispered back, sliding his hand around her throat. “A rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”

They came very close to giving Specter a show, and had she not gripped his shirt to stop him, he would have. She was asking him to trust her. He had no choice but to do so. It was either be here, and become a part of this, or she’d make him leave, and do it anyway. He pulled away to stand up and face Nick, who looked on in utter confusion.

“Turn around.” Athan gestured with his finger.

“Kane, come on. She’ll die!”

“Turn around, Specter. Do what she says. And you better keep it quick and clean. If she hurts even the slightest bit because of you, I’ll kill you myself.” He unlocked the cuffs, freeing Nick’s wrists.

“The quicker that blood leaves her, the worse she’s gonna feel. This is gonna be a lengthy process, Kane. We gotta move slow, or it could backfire on us quicker than anything.” Nick ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm his nerves. “Go grab that monitor off the shelf. I need to keep an eye on her vitals while we do this … fuck . ”

“I’m glad you’re finally seeing things my way,” Sarah winked, offering her arm and taking a stress ball in her hand. Nick rolled a stool over, gloving up and taking the sterile needle.

“Give it a squeeze.” Athan watched Sarah pump her small fingers around the stress ball a couple times, finally gripping it tight as Nick carefully slid the needle into her vein and taped over it. “Put those legs up.” Once the bag started filling and the monitor was hooked onto her, Nick stood and turned towards him.

“Going somewhere?” Athan asked, carefully watching him.

“There’s warm blankets a level up, in the donor lab. She’ll need them. Take this, and grab several.” Nick handed him Sarah’s key card. “Third door on the left.”

Athan glanced at Sarah who nodded her approval to be left alone with him. He plucked the gun from the counter and set it in her lap. “Try one stupid thing, Specter.”

“I know … you’ll gut me. As if this isn’t stupid enough. Go. I’ve got her.”

Gretchen sat straight in the leather armchair by the fireplace, sipping from her whiskey glass and watching him pace through his home office. While the girl’s occasional screaming was very faint, he could still hear them. Conrad lit a cigar.

“What are you gonna do about that?” Gretchen asked, looking at the door.

“I don’t think gagging her would do much good. Maybe I can sedate her, or something. Don’t ask me. This is my first time holding somebody hostage.” He did notice the sarcastic look she gave him at that last bit. “Don’t look at me like that, Gretchen. It wasn’t all bad for you.”

“Maybe not at first. That changes a lot when you blackmail someone, Conrad.”

“Well, you just keep doing your job, and you won’t have to worry about it in a few days, yeah?” He took a puff from the cigar.

“What’s your next move?” she asked, taking another sip. “Are you gonna tell her that you’ve got the girl?”

Conrad thought about that for a moment. He could tell Dahlia about the prisoner in his basement … or he could wait to show his hand. The cards had to be played right. He was finally ahead of the vampire queen … for once.

“Not yet,” he replied, turning toward the window and putting a hand in his pocket. “You said they know?”

Gretchen was quiet for a moment before finally answering. “Yeah, they had some unfamiliar faces at Vintorri’s apartment.”

“Was the good captain with them?”

“No. ”

“I feel like he’s gonna be a problem. Hearing him at Brent’s makes me think he’s a bit too eager to stick his nose in my business. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Captain Foley.”

Gretchen shifted in her chair. “You’re not thinking—”

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking.” Conrad turned on his heel and faced her. “Unfortunately, Gretchen … you can’t open a can of worms without them crawling all over the place.”

“He’s a decorated veteran, Conrad.”

“And?” he scoffed. “He’s a decorated veteran with no wife. No kids. No one to miss him. More importantly, he’s an obstacle I need out of the way. I don’t have time to think about it. Patricia could die any moment.”

“And what about your son?”

Conrad stared at the fireplace. “I think Brent hates me enough to stay away at this point. Let him tend to his mother. He’s already lost everything else he thought was important to him. He won’t leave her.”

“And if he does?”

“He won’t.” He gave her a hard glare. “Go find me something to shut her ass up.”

“Yes, sir.” Gretchen slowly raised from her chair, sitting her glass down on the end table and stepping out of his office.

There was a split-second of coherence when he’d stepped into the room to meet nurses who sympathetically looked at him as they checked his mother’s vitals. Pat had looked at him through heavy-lidded eyes and an oxygen mask that they had slowly taken off her face as Brent neared closer.

“Not long now, Mr. Stratford. I’m so very sorry,” the younger nurse said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I think she was waiting for you.”

Brent swallowed loudly and blinked back tears. “Has my father been told?”

“No, sir … her instructions were very clear. Only you.”

He glanced up at the older nurse that was unhooking everything but the monitor and tried to bite back his desperation for them to let him have her for just a little bit longer. She didn’t want that. She was ready to go home. The nurse looked at him and sadly smiled. “We’ll give you some time alone. Take as much as you need … you know … after.”

“Thank you,” Brent choked out as they quietly left the room, closing the door softly behind them. He took in every pale inch of his mother’s face and knelt by the bed to take her hand into his. “I’m here, Mom. Can you hear me?”

Her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open again. She used whatever strength remained to weakly tighten her fingers around his. Brent wondered then, if giving her Sarah’s blood now would have been enough to bring her back from how far she’d fallen towards Death’s open arms. Wondered if she’d been close enough to it throughout the day to see whatever Annie was seeing when they’d saved her life. He prayed to God that whatever his mother was seeing now wasn’t that terrifying darkness that Annie had said was reaching for Athan Kane and cowering from Sarah St. James. He hoped that wherever she was right now was somewhere happy … peaceful. He leaned down and pressed his lips against the back of her hand, closing his eyes.

“It’s okay, Mom. You can go. I promise, I’ll be alright. You did an amazing job.”

There was a gentle squeeze of her fingers, as if that was all she could manage as a reply. He held tight to it, never looking up or moving his lips from her hand. As her grip slowly slackened, something warm flowed through him. Something infinitely deep … perfect. It broke something within him, and he sobbed—hard and silent—like there wasn’t enough breath in his lungs to free the devastation that was wrecking his heart … his soul. Somehow, he knew it then. She was gone. It was like the world itself knew what the most innermost parts of him felt in that moment. Thunder rolled outside the window, and rain thrashed against the glass. Pain … and rage, but also something like comfort and solitude that he needed so he could allow himself to accept the loss he’d just suffered.

He didn’t know how long he’d cried against her lifeless hand. When he finally had the strength enough to look up at her, his cries became louder. Brent covered his mouth with his free hand.

A soft smile was left on her mouth. One he’d never forget … for as long as he lived on without her.

Rhaena paced through her apartment. Jenkins hadn’t made it back yet but had phoned that he was at the precinct assisting on Wren’s disappearance and would come stay if she wanted him to, whenever he could get himself out of there. She’d told him to stay put, and put everything he had into it, since she and Kane obviously couldn’t do more than what the tight leash of their suspension would allow. She must have gone over that short video on her phone a dozen times to look for anything she could have missed during her walkthrough. So far, she was coming up empty, save for the obvious, and it was probably because of how close this hit to home. Denver seemed on edge ever since she’d brought him back here, looking in every room for his companion. She’d never seen this animal so active. If only they could speak.

A knock sounded on her door, and she jumped. Maybe the cat wasn’t the only one on edge. She unlocked the door, expecting Athan or Sarah, but dropped her mouth open when she met her unexpected visitor.

“Captain?” she acknowledged quietly.

“Sorry to disturb you, detective. Jenkins said you’d be here. Mind if I come in?” Foley’s expression was hard for her to read. The last time she’d spoken to him, she could have frozen to death by his coldness toward her. Not that she could blame him, but it did make her wonder why he was at her door when he’d made it clear that seeing her was the last thing he wanted after hearing how badly she’d let him down.

“Yeah, of course.” Rhaena stood aside and waved him in, and he entered, taking in his surroundings.

“How bad was it?” he asked, putting his hands into his pockets.

“Hmm?” Rhaena looked around, suddenly realizing what he meant. “Oh … um. It was—honestly, it was a bit much. Still makes very little sense to me. But we managed to get it together.”

“We?” Foley lifted his brows.

“Jenkins and I … Athan isn’t home.”

Foley nodded slowly and looked down at the floor in the foyer. “I apologize, Gloves. For the mess, and for the way I acted at the precinct.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Rhaena crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. “Sir, you’re the last person that should be apologizing after what we’ve put you through.”

“Don’t do that. Look, I’m not here as your boss. I’m not even here as a fellow upholder of the law. I’m here as a friend, Northwood. I’ve been briefed on the disappearance of your roommate. I understand why you did what you did. I really do. I’m sorry it’s come down to this.”

“I swear to you, sir … I never meant to leave a bad taste in your mouth about—”

“I know all that. And I’m sorry for my temper. I thought a lot about what you asked me after you left. And then that girl went missing. If I’m being honest, I don’t think Detective Kane is a bad person. But I can’t just pretend that what he said isn’t serious. Twelve murders by his own hand? What the hell am I supposed to do with that, Gloves?”

“I—” Rhaena paused, not sure if she should say what she was thinking. Foley caught her stare.

“Safe space, detective. Whatever it is, I promise it won’t leave this room.”

“It’s not what you think. Kane didn’t kill random people off the street. He doesn’t feed on humans if he can possibly help it. He’s got a supply of blood from EverLife.” Her captain looked as if he’d choke on vomit at the thought. “He doesn’t even need that anymore. The twelve that he’s responsible for … they’re horrible people. He picked them out for that reason. All of them were tried, convicted, and doing time for unspeakable things.”

“How the hell did he manage that?”

Rhaena shrugged. “Athan keeps a file with possible candidates. The worst of the worst. When he feels like that hunger will take him over, he heads for the prison. Sarah was really bad timing. Or really good timing, however you wanna look at it.” She found his next expression even harder to read than the first.

“Be that as it may, murder is murder. If a convicted inmate serving time can get more years added to his sentence for an in-house killing, then how can I let somebody like Kane pass? ”

Rhaena straightened and pursed her lips as she dropped her gaze down to her feet. “Somebody like him?”

“Yes. Somebody like him. Somebody like the man that stood next to you and took the same oath we all take. What he’s done goes against everything we vowed as officers, Rhaena.”

Rhaena … he never called her by her first name.

She thought long and hard about what he’d just said, knowing he was right, but also knowing that it was something Athan couldn’t help. He mourned those criminals just like he’d mourned every other life he’d taken. Bad people or not, a life was a life. Those inmates still had loved ones that cared for them, no matter what they had done. People that loved them. People that they had still sworn to protect and serve. The captain wasn’t wrong.

“I understand, sir.”

The captain was quiet for several minutes before turning towards the living room and taking notice of the cat that finally perched on the arm of the couch, watching him with his large green eyes. “When did you get a cat?”

Rhaena huffed a laugh, “I—” she snapped her mouth shut, staring at the back of his head and drawing her brows together. “I … don’t remember you ever being here before, Cap. How did you know that I’ve never had a pet before?”

Foley turned back, hands still in his pockets, though he looked a bit caught off guard by her question. “Foster had mentioned that you had a pet. You always told me you didn’t. I told her she had to be wrong, but she insisted that she saw pet hair and claw marks in your apartment when they came through.” He shrugged.

“It’s Wren’s,” Rhaena said, carefully considering what he’d just admitted. “She uh … really paid a lot of attention to pointless detail, huh?”

“Apparently.” The captain glanced up at her and gestured to the couch. “Do you mind if I sit? There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Rhaena nodded and followed him into the living room, taking a seat across from him in the armchair. She watched him gently pet Denver, who instantly took a liking to him and eased into his lap. “He’s fidgety today. He’s been looking all over for her. Please tell me this talk isn’t about some bad news that Jenkins can’t bring himself to tell me.”

Foley shook his head. “Sadly, no. We haven’t got much of a lead on what happened, yet. I felt like I owed you a real answer to your question in the observation room.”

“Sir?”

“When you asked me why I didn’t seem surprised to find out Kane is what he is.”

Rhaena suddenly felt every hair stand on end, and a nervous flutter in her gut. “Okay …” she started, leaning her elbows onto her knees and resting her chin on her palms.

“Lindsey Trainor,” Foley began, his dark complexion suddenly growing taut just by the uttering of her name. “She was an excellent cop. So talented with weapons, and a fierce right hook.” His mouth turned up in the corner as he stared at Denver, scratching behind his ears. “She might have been the only person I can say I ever loved, but she was married. Happily married, actually, and she had a kid. She never had any interest in me that way, but her affection for me was different. We were partnered up, and thick as thieves. Sixteen years ago … I—” he paused, swallowing and sucking through his teeth. “We got a call for a peculiar homicide that was almost out of our jurisdiction. Practically on the line. We’d never seen anything like it before. Forensics team had told us the body had to have been out there for at least twelve hours, and it was mangled. I’d seen bodies that were bad off before, but nothing like that.”

“Psycho?” Rhaena asked, leaning forward with intrigue.

“No …” Foley’s voice lowered into something like dread. “They classified it as animal, but … something just never added up to me. Didn’t sit right with Linds, either. A few nights later—the night after Thanksgiving—we got another call that whatever it was that may have attacked that vic may have been spotted in that area. So, naturally … we went to go check it out. It was cold as hell that night. Lindsay’s flashlight took a shit about halfway through the woods. I offered her mine, but she said she wanted to go back to the car. I knew her well enough to know that she was spooked, but we were cops. We didn’t have room for fear, especially when it involved our case. Finding whatever this thing was would get us to the top of the list for promotion, and I wanted it. I wanted it so bad. I couldn’t have her. The only other thing I could get my hands on would be a foot in the door. So, I convinced her to keep looking.”

Rhaena could see where this was going. That nervous flutter in her belly turned into something that screamed at her in warning. She swallowed, trying to ignore it, and wondering why it felt so persistent. Her instincts told her some kind of danger was close by. Or some kind of darkness like it.

“The woods were silent. Eerily silent, and a little foggy. It made everything harder to see. Made my focus teeter between things I thought were real, and things that weren’t. Like being stuck in a horror movie—until …” His jaw set, feathering a little as he ground his teeth.

“Captain?”

“I’ll never forget the way she screamed, Gloves. I hear it all the time. In sleep … in passing. For no reason at all, I hear that scream. I didn’t realize I’d been walking faster than she could catch up, and I had the flashlight. She couldn’t find me and—it found her.”

Rhaena’s blood chilled. “ It? ”

Foley looked up from beneath his lowered brows. “There wasn’t any mistaking what I saw. She was gutted by a werewolf. I shot it. Three times I shot it, and it still came for me. I managed to fight the thing off, but she bled out before I could get to her. The last word she ever said was her daughter’s name.”

Something cold and unnerving settled into Rhaena’s body. A sweat just as chilling started to build on her skin. The beast that lay dormant within her cracked an eye open, and Rhaena did her best to man the lock on its cage. “I—I’m so sorry, sir. So, that’s why you have the flag in your office?”

“I never felt like I got her justice, Northwood. I loved her. She deserved better from me. Had I not been so fixed on being the best cop … I might have at least been a good one. And she died because of me.”

“So … you never caught it?”

Foley pressed his mouth into a thin line. “All my suspicions were right. But me and Lindsey were the only witnesses to it, and what’s the insane word of one cop with a dead partner when the truth is too crazy to tell?”

“I don’t understand,” Rhaena said, but almost immediately, she found herself understanding exactly …

“I chased the son-of-a-bitch. I followed every sound he made through the woods. He made for the road, trying to cross it, and got hit by a transfer truck.” Her throat hurt with the effort of keeping down the vomit. “By the time the guy got outta the cab to meet me in the front of the vehicle, what had been a wolf twice the size of me … was just a naked man. Dead as a doornail.”

Rhaena tried desperately not to react, but her constant swallowing caught his attention. “I’m really sorry. I completely understand why you reacted the way you did. How in the world did you explain something like that?”

“The same way you and Kane have all these years, detective. I covered it. By the time I had called in for help with Lindsey and made it back to her body … luck had been on my side. There was a black bear. I dunno if he had smelled her, or if he would have actually tried to pick her apart, but I shot it. I emptied my weapon into it, and they bought it.”

“I’m so sorry …” It was all she could think of to say. She couldn’t sit here and tell him that she knew who and what had killed his partner all those years ago. She couldn’t make him feel any more betrayed by her—telling him that her uncle had been the one to take her life. That the man who raised her … the man who didn’t have a hateful bone in his strange body … had done something like this to the woman he loved.

“I want you to promise me something, Northwood,” Foley said, sliding Denver off his lap, and slowly standing. Rhaena sat frozen in her chair and stared up at him. He pulled her badge and gun out of his pocket. “I want you to promise me you’ll be a better cop than I was. There aren’t a lot of people that I trust anymore. I want to trust you.” He stretched an arm toward her, handing her things over and Rhaena stood as she carefully took them. “If you know where she is … go get her. And if you need anything …” He narrowed his eyes at her, staring into her own so pointedly that she could have sworn he knew her secret. “I want to help you.”

“Yes, sir … I promise.”

“I haven’t made my final decisions about Kane just yet. You can decide for yourself if you want to tell him about your reinstatement. I need a bit longer with that whole ball field. I hope you understand.” She nodded, confirming her understanding, and watched him head for the door. Just as he opened it to leave, he slowly turned back towards her. “You know what still baffles me about Lindsey’s case?”

“What’s that, sir?”

“Everything I’ve ever known to be true about werewolves … it was a lie. Black Friday that year wasn’t a full moon. I must have researched it a thousand times. It was halfway through the cycle when she was killed. The murder was only days before hers. No full moon on either occasion … don’t you find that odd?”

Rhaena swallowed again, the awakened beast rattling the cage inside. She straightened her spine. “I wouldn’t know, sir.”

Foley continued to stare at her for a moment before nodding and closing the door behind him. She could hear the faint bell of the elevator down the hall, and her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Rhaena raced to her bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before everything she’d eaten filled the bowl.

The lines of battle had been drawn, and she wasn’t sure now what side her captain considered her to be on.