Night Howls (12 page)

When I go back out to my room, Alex is waiting fully dressed. He is wearing jeans that match the dark blue shade of mine and a tight black t-shirt. I am pretty sure every one of his muscle ripples is visible. Sometimes when I look at my beaus, I think the third part of me is part cat because I always feel like purring.

“And I think I am a gorilla when I see you because I just want to bang on my chest. Then the caveman part kicks in and I cannot wait to drag you back to my cave,” Alex replies to my unspoken words.

“Yeah, you look kind of like a monkey. Let's go get me fed. I assume Clyde has already been taken care of since I didn't wake up to sulfur breath,” I say leading the way out of the bedroom.

“I know we didn't have Clyde long before we found Walt, but I will be forever grateful that he followed you guys home. If you had to take care of all that dog's needs, we would never get any alone time.” Now that is a true statement. Clyde likes a lot of attention and spoiling him rotten hasn't done me any favors. He is warming up to the guards a little bit these days, which gives me even more free time.

When we enter the kitchen, Clyde is sitting by the stove doing his best good dog impression. As soon as I see him sitting like that, I want to scream it is an act and people should not be fooled. Walt is scrambling up some eggs and frying bacon. I speculate how many pieces of bacon have “accidentally” fallen on the floor. Judging by Clyde’s grin, it has been more than a couple.

“How is my baby this morning?” I ask walking over to give Clyde a little kiss on the top of his head. He smiles at the gesture. It is sad that I barely have to bend down to complete the task.

“He is being very well-behaved, as usual,” Walt replies. I have come to believe that it isn't only mine and Walt's similar DNA that makes the Hellhound like him. I think Clyde sees him as a kindred spirit of sorts. I don't know enough about Walt to know why that is, but that is the vibe I pick up. It could also just be all the table scraps the man gives him. It is no wonder the Hellhound is getting huge.

“Jonas went downstairs to check out some disturbance and Jake is in the shower,” Walt says bringing us up to date on everyone’s location.

I can hear Jake in the shower, so it isn't exactly a news flash. I hope that he has been in there for a while because the boy likes to play in the water. Two weeks ago, he took a shower that I swear lasted forty-five minutes. What was really going on in there, I don’t want to know, but it was mind-numbing waiting around for him to finish.

“Any ideas on what the disturbance was?” I ask stealing a slice of bacon real quick from the done pile. We get at least one Collective agent sneaking around once or twice a week, so I am not too worried.

“The guard that called it in said it was of the human variety. We figured one of the movie people got curious about the high security around this place and tried to sneak a peek.” I was hoping we were far enough away that we wouldn’t get a lot of foot traffic from them.

“No such luck,” Jonas says dragging a very annoyed looking Will in with him. We don't allow many people in the penthouse, so I am surprised he is allowing it. Phee had to be scanned in every system Alex had before she was allowed the pleasure of seeing where I slept. It was mentioned that they did background checks on all the crew, but I didn’t think even that would get one of them through my door.

“You don't have to be so rough,” Will says extracting himself from the bigger man's grasp. I won't point out to him that it looked like Jonas was being a kitten compared to his usual manhandling. I am not seeing any dislocated shoulders, so he is lucky. “I would have called, but I didn't have your number. There was another crew member killed last night and I thought you would like to know about it before those other paranorms you were fighting with yesterday found out.” I guess he missed my number on my building when he visited yesterday. I will have to look into making it bigger and maybe adding some flashing lights.

“Has the body been moved?” I ask excited about this new development. Without Stacy's body, I was going to have problems tracking down the culprit, but now I should be able to pick up the trail. I can usually pick up something from the scene of a crime, it isn’t a total guarantee, but I like my chances.

“No, we left it where it was and tried to keep people away. Only a few of us know about it, so far, and we were trying to keep it that way for you. The dead guy was one of the sound crew. Not many people knew him well, but we hung out a few times. He was liked a lot more than Stacy, so there may be more of a ruckus about this death.”

“Do you know if the body looks the same as Stacy's?” I ask grabbing a couple more slices of bacon. It doesn't look like I will be hanging out at the apartment doing research after all.

“It looks like it was attacked by a wild animal, so I would assume they are similar. Big claw marks are pretty apparent on it.”

“Did the two deceased have any connection that you know of?”

“I doubt it. Justin was a bit below Stacy's radar. She has been sleeping with a lot of higher up people to get where she is, so I doubt she would let Justin have a taste. I don't think they had ever talked in any other capacity either.”

“Great, let's go,” I say running to grab Clyde's leash.  I do that a lot. “Mommy will give you three steaks later if you don't complain about not getting more breakfast.” I know he is not going to be very willing to just leave, so I am forced to try bribery. At his size, it is hard for me to make him do anything. I thought he was supposed to obey his mistress, but that doesn't seem to be the case. If he didn’t reply to many of my words with his actions, I would think he only understood demonese.

“I am bringing the bacon with us,” Walt says wrapping the paper towels up and chasing after us. “That should keep him happy.”

Clyde gets a move on it when he hears that. “What's going on?” Jake asks walking out of his room, thankfully already dressed.

“We got a corpse to examine. Move it or lose it,” I tell him as I pass.

The whirlwind swirling around me seems to capture them all and they fall into line like good soldiers. When I get to the Suburban, I yell, “Lead the way,” to Will. I doubt he walked all the way here, so he has to have a car somewhere.

I pull out of the garage and see a bright red sports car, of the Ferrari variety, waiting for us to join it. Boys and their toys. Maybe I should point out to him that it is a well-known fact that the more zeroes in the price of a car, the smaller the penis. I am pretty sure there are studies on it.

For now that will wait. I have my first lead in getting Jake off the Collective's radar, so my mind needs to get in the game. With any luck, I might be able to solve this thing before I have to pretend to be an actress. I just make a mental note to find an article about one of those studies, so I can email it to Will later. I am sure he will find it a thrilling read.

Chapter 15

Standard issue werewolf attack

Will drives us past the main set area and to a trailer on the west edge of the human camp. I hadn’t realized just how far they were spread out. They might as well annex this part of town and give it its own name. I have quite a few ideas for names, but I don’t think I will share them at this moment. We park our cars and I get out. I wonder if the annex could get a dome put over it to keep all the stinky air to themselves. Why my mind thinks up these things, I will never know.

“Walt, do you mind keeping Demon Dog?” I ask. “I would prefer to keep him away from another dead body. The look of glee in his eyes when he sees them is really creepy.” Earnestly, one of these days I am not going to be able to stop him from jumping in and treating a body like a new chew toy.

“Sure, we are good back here for a little while. I still have some bacon left.” Maybe he should have also brought a cow with him. I will try to make this quick because a few slices of bacon won’t hold him for long.

Alex, Jonas, and Jake join me following Will into the trailer.

“I am glad you are here,” Gene says in way of greeting. “When it was just Stacy, I wasn’t really worried, but Justin will be missed. He was good people and was well liked on the set.” Well liked, but not exactly well-known if Will’s earlier comment is to be believed.

“There is also the issue of more of us potentially being killed,” Will adds. “Did you round up any witnesses while I was gone?” The idea of a witness excites me.

“I am pretty sure Millie saw something, but you know how she is. When I asked her, she got a weird look in her eyes before shaking her head no.”

“Well, it is a start for Nyx. It probably won’t help that much, though. The body is in the bedroom back here,” Will says moving us towards a curtain.

Behind the curtain, I find a body of a young man. His face is still in good shape and I would put him around thirty. His neck is ripped open and he has claw marks along his torso. It isn’t anywhere near the worse thing I have seen, in fact I would call it mild.

“Since there aren’t a lot of other kinds of animal shifters in this part of town, I believe you are looking at a werewolf attack.” I say just for fun. It is obvious what happened here and I doubt the humans are even aware of the other kinds of shifters out there.

“And there is no chance he will survive and just become a werewolf?” Gene asks. Okay, so the humans don’t know anything about shifters at all.

Alex chuckles under his breath. I cannot hold back a full laugh. “Maybe someone should think about providing the humans with accurate information about the people living in the town next door. No, he will not turn into a werewolf. That isn’t possible. Those with the gene are born with it.”

“Would you happen to have that particular gene?” Will questions.

“That is still none of your business,” I reply getting closer to the body to see if I can find out anything more from it.

It looks like a pretty standard attack. No unique marks with the teeth or claws. The strong scent of cologne is overpowering most of the other smells in the room. I pick up lavender and vanilla, but I don’t really have a way of knowing whom they belong to. I can see wolf hairs on the bed that would be useful if we had a database of werewolf DNA just sitting around waiting for us at home. Sadly, only the Collective has something like that and I doubt they have every single werewolf in it. That isn’t a database you want to be listed in.

“You picking up anything useful?” Alex asks taking a closer look himself.

“Not really. I want to talk to the witness and see what she has to say. There are hairs around that the Collective might be able to get something on, but will be of no use to us.”

“Jonas, will you go ahead and bag them anyway?” Alex asks and Jonas quickly takes out a baggy and a set of tweezers from somewhere. I didn't see where they came from and I am surprised that is something he just carries around with him.

“I have been to crime scenes before, Princess. Being around you has just increased the frequency of those delightful moments.” Evidently, enough for him to carry around evidence baggies in his pocket. I think something is wrong with this picture.

“So, this is something you guys do all of the time?” Will was at my place of business just yesterday, so I don't know why he has to ask. Maybe he didn't believe there was really a crossbow aimed at his testicles. I will have to remember to give him a demonstration later, I think and hear myself laughing manically in my mind.

“I am a private investigator, what do you think I do all day? I can assure you I don't go around taking pictures of cheating spouses or rescuing kittens from trees.”

“Don't you have a police force or something that looks into crimes like this?”

“I sure as Hell wouldn't classify them as what you consider police, but the Grand Collective does look into this type of thing,” I say using the official title for the bastards that lied to me all my life and work hard to make others’ lives miserable. You could say I am still bitter over that, just a tad.

“The guys that were in your office yesterday? They didn't exactly seem to be that friendly with you. Did you kick their puppy or something?” he asks continuing to be annoying. I know it is just a saying, but it is a really stupid one to use in a town full of werewolves. Has he noticed I am the only one in this entire town that has a pet? Even the witches, who people would think would have a familiar or some silly cats running around, don't keep pets in this town. They tend to be treated as appetizers.

“No, the man that came in to talk was my foster father growing up. You could say we have issues.”

“Where is your other boyfriend at? You haven't brought him back here since that first day. Do you alternate weeks between the two of them or something?” How is knowing where Sebastian is or how our love triangle works going to help this situation? It's not and I would appreciate it if he didn’t wander off topic.

“Calm down just a little. I really don’t think you blowing holes in the humans is a good idea right now,”
Alex says trying to keep me from bursting.

“Nice try, but this guy is too big of an ass to not put him in his place. You know, he kind of reminds me of you when we first met,”
I reply and cut off mental communication to ignite the fireworks display.

“What is wrong with you humans? We are standing over a dead body of someone you said you didn't despise and you want to know more about my dating life. Where my other mate is, is none of your business. Now, take me to this witness, so I can hurry up and find the killer before he decides large, ignorant jerk is on the menu,” I say and start pushing my way out of the room. It is moments like this that I just don't understand people.

“Hold on a second,” Will says catching up. “I am sorry about that, you just are a really intriguing person and you had said something about your father, so I thought maybe you were opening up on a personal level and it just seemed like a chance to ask some of the questions that have been bugging me.” Great. Now he is rambling.

“Let me explain this to you, in smaller words since I don't think you got it the first time we met. I am not human, you are. That means there is nothing about me that should interest you. We ain't ever going to happen, not even on the big screen, so you need to forget about it. My personal relationship with anyone is no one's business.” There. I know there might have been a couple of words he couldn't understand in there, but he should get the underlying meaning. If he doesn't, I am sure Alex's fist will explain it even better.