Nine Lives of an Urban Panther (5 page)

“And now its officially creepy.”

Chaz looked to Tucker over my shoulder. “There haven't been any other break-ins in this neighborhood, have there?”

“No.” Tucker was being suspiciously still. I think he was taking my cue. This was Chaz's call, his scene. We were just there to help.

Chaz ran his fingers through his hair, then put his hands on his hips. “What were they after?”

“The grimoire?” I suggested. That book could destroy the planet, one destructive spell at a time. It was worth trying to burgle.

“The one that's missing?” Tucker asked.

I nodded. “It's a scary book to go missing, but it's even more scary that they knew where to look for it.”

Chaz gestured that we go back out to the living room. “Too bad they didn't steal the TV,” he joked.

In our relationship, jokes were good. If he was joking, everything was going to be fine. I looked over at the bulky twenty-year-old TV set. “That really is a shame.”

I was just about to offer that we could make it disappear when my phone rang. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and frowned. It was my neighbor.

“Miss Finn? Is something wrong?”

“Your dog keeps barking.”

My dog? Shadow? Why was Shadow at the house?

“I'll get home right away, Miss Finn.” I hung up. “Shadow's barking at my house.”

“I thought you installed a . . .” Tucker was going to say doggie door. We'd actually cut a hole in the wall for a nice doggie door so Shadow and, ironically, Nash could get into my house any time they needed. “Shit. This is a false flag. The guy's at your place.”

I'd never moved so fast in my entire life for Chaz's car. I yelled an order to Tucker across the front yard. “Go watch Jessa.”

C
HAZ'S
C
HALLENGER COULDN'T
go fast enough for my taste.

“Are they back? Did they reorganize now that Carlisle is gone? Was this an isolated attack? What kind of Wanderer leaves a trail like that?”

“Is this how your mind works?” Chaz asked, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. “All loud and constant?”

“Yes.”

“How do you stay sane?”

“Who said I was sane?”

Chaz cracked a smile, which again was my goal.

“I'm sorry it broke into your house.”

“It's not an
it
, Violet. It's a being. And I'm sure he has a name and when I figure out what it is, I will not stop until I find him.”

“Is that how your mind works? All loud and vendetta-y?”

Chaz snorted as we pulled up to my house. I stepped out of the car and Shadow came running up to me. His energy was manic as he jumped and pointed with his cute black nose and ran around me.

“I know. There was someone in the house.”

I started walking toward the door and Shadow blocked my path. “Shadow, if he's still in there, I promise to leave a little for you to stomp on too.”

I stepped over him and tried for the door one more time.

Shadow growled and bared his teeth. In the waxing moonlight, I saw something dangling from his white teeth.

I knelt down and reached out for the strip of cloth hanging out of his mouth.

“What is it?” Chaz walked up behind me.

I stood up and faced Chaz. “Apparently, Shadow got a piece of our intruder.”

His eyes flashed golden in the streetlights. He was just itching to use his power to go off and find the guy.

“Now, now, Action Boy,” I took the cloth from Shadow and held it behind my back. “Let's check our house before you go gallivanting off.”

“But the fresher the cloth the easier it is for me to track them.”

I walked toward the door. “And when you haven't slept in three days when you finally catch him, and he . . .”

There were scratch marks on my front door. Long, deep grooves into the red paint. I traced the imprint of a boot into the wood. He was strong, but not strong enough to break through the wards that kept out evil intentions.

“Is that a . . .” Chaz ran his fingers across the impression.

“Going to rethink chasing after it?”

Chaz nodded. “Let's just get inside.”

I knew we weren't done with the conversation. I knew I was going to have to burn this piece of cloth to keep Chaz from hunting down the thing that broke into his house, but as he gently ushered me through my front door, I knew that I had until sunrise to convince him to not go alone.

 

Chapter Five

F
IRE ROSE AND
licked the ceiling of the warehouse. The tall aisles of product only created more defined pathways for the fire to follow. The girl ran, and ran hard. Every turn she took only landed her face to face with the fire.

She took a left and then another left and was met with the wall of flames that seemed to be toying with her.

“What do you want?” She screamed out as she pressed against the wooden pallets.

A face appeared in the fire, a beautiful face with dark wide eyes. The curl of the flames formed into lips that seemed to smile as they spoke, the voice pressing down on her like the flames that surrounded her.

“I want you to pay for what your kind did.”

“We did nothing,” the girl screamed back.

“She's dead because of you.”

“We didn't kill her.”

The flames rose higher and burned hotter. Her sharp canines pressed down against her dried lips as she tried to find another way out.

A figure walked out of the flames. A woman with dark hair and dark skin, who carried the flames with her in her eyes. “The Prima is dead. Someone will pay.”

The flames encircled both of them and as the vampire girl screamed, the woman with the dark skin simply held her there until the girl was nothing but a handful of ash.

I
WOKE UP
with sweat across my brow. I'd gotten close to no sleep but this dream was dark and real and my fingers itched to write it down. Chaz's head weighed seventeen more pounds as I pulled out from under it. It would just have to be another “coffee with a side of coffee” kind of day.

I grabbed my dream journal from the dresser and slid into my slippers. I'd slept in my clothes just in case our little visitor decided to try again. I grabbed my robe off my door and went downstairs. There was something brewing in the air. Something more than coffee.

I looked out the glass window to the purple morning sky and wished I could read the clouds like I read all those novels. This was the beginning of something. Something big. Something planned.

Crap.

I heard keys in the front door and Tucker ducked in. It made me look at the clock. Six a.m.

“Wanted to make sure you were okay?” he said softly, walking quickly past Shadow sleeping on the couch.

“We're fine. Anything at Jessa's?”

Tucker shook his head. “Talked with the doorman, nothing strange. They were just targeting you and Chaz.”

I sighed as I hit the “on” button on the coffeemaker. I didn't have the energy to make a latté. “You should probably go home, get some sleep.”

“I'll sleep when you sleep, Prima.”

I could have fought him, impose my will, but that would just take too much energy. So instead I made him coffee. Tucker took off his utility belt so that he could sit at the dining-room table.

I put his coffee before him, some of the liquid sloshing out with my rough delivery and sat next to him. “You look awesome, by the way. All geared up and policey again. How does it feel after almost six months off?”

Despite what was going on around us, Tucker smiled and his brown eyes twinkled. But what I saw wasn't anything compared to what I felt. His joy reverberated through the ties that bound us together, like someone doing double-dutch in my chest. “Really good.”

“I know I should have asked sooner, but what did happen with the IA investigation?”

Tucker shrugged. “They couldn't find any real evidence against me. Just hearsay. I'm completely bottom rung again but I'm working.”

“Good.”

“And I'll keep an ear out for any of our kind of trouble.”

I frowned. “I want to take the high ground here and tell you that's how you got in trouble before, but after last night, I think I'm going to need that contact.”

“I'm not letting any of us get hurt anymore, Violet.” There was a particular growl in his words.

“I know, Tucker.” I looked down at the coffee. Something was missing. “We've got an appointment with Delmont this morning if you want to come.”

“We?”

“Chaz and I? But since it's pack business, you should come too.”

Tucker nodded. “I'm going to sniff around Chaz's place a little more and see if anyone else got a visit last night.”

“Who? The entire pack?”

“If I need to.”

I looked down at the black coffee. I was so tired that I'd forgotten milk. Screw it, I needed the caffeine. “Take Nash. He wants more training time.”

“He upstairs?”

“No, actually. No one was here last night.” I sat up. Where were they? Kandice had taken over the guest bedroom and Nash was usually on my couch. If it wasn't for Tucker's snicker, I would have called them that instant.

“What's that for?”

Tucker was smiling into his coffee. “Come on, Violet. He just rescued Kandice and she's probably really, really grateful. You're the storyteller, you write it.”

When his meaning sunk it, I grimaced. “No. Not Nash.”

Tucker laughed and he took a long swig of the hot coffee.

Now the images of Nash and Kandice were firmly planted into my brain, I desperately needed to change the subject. “What's this?” I pointed to something on his belt.

“Taser.”

I pulled the bright yellow plastic gun from the holster on the opposite side of his gun and turned it over in my hands. It looked like it should have NERF written across its plastic handle. “So the needle thingies shoot out and send the electricity through wires?”

Tucker took the Taser from my inexperienced hand. “Yes, when you pull the trigger, the prongs shoot out at one hundred thirty-five feet per second and conduct a five-thousand-volt shock.” Then, he smiled. “What they don't tell you is that you can just use it as a stun gun when you take off the cartridge.”

“Really?”

Tucker pulled off the plastic cartridge at the end of the barrel and flipped a button on the side. He pointed it up to the ceiling and pulled the trigger.

A white-hot stream of electricity crackled between two silver prongs at the end of the open barrel. It was pretty and the snap of the pulse make my hairs stand on end.

I was mesmerized by the violet sizzle.

“It's enough voltage to take down a grown man. And can be used several times.”

“What about a grown animal?”

Tucker frowned. “Is there something you're not telling me?”

“No, never. Just . . .” I looked down at the table as he set down the Taser. “I know I'm not the biggest fish in the fish bowl and I want to make sure that if I have to get into it again, I . . .”

“A Taser will reduce the use of deadly force.”

“Exactly.”

Tucker took in a deep breath as he holstered his weapon. “You can't blame yourself for her death, Violet. Of any of us, Cristina knew what she was doing.”

“But I didn't. That's what got her killed. How can you put so much faith in someone who—”

Tucker grabbed my hand and slammed it down on the table, squeezing it so hard my knuckles cracked. My eyes locked with his as my Legacy burned around us at the sudden pain. “Yes. She died. But she died free. She didn't choose you because you were the most powerful or the best at strategy. She chose you, we chose you because you gave us the freedom to. People die and it hurts like hell and it reminds us how much we've got worth living for.”

Tears of exhaustion and pain streaked down my cheeks. Tucker was slowly but surely absorbing my way with words, possibly through magical osmosis.

“Now, as your Riko, I should be giving you the ‘buck up and deal with it' speech because you've got others who need your help. Others who might need a firmer hand to make sure they make better choices than they did before. But as your friend, I know you can't even think about risking another person's life. That you doubt yourself, which I'm again going to remind you is one of the reasons I trust you. You will never let the Legacy go to your head. You will put others first even if that means not sleeping and not eating.”

I sniffed and wiped my tears on the sleeve of my robe. “You really are good at those pep talks.”

“Here's another. You need some sleep and you need to eat.”

“Can't. Have to go become a millionaire today.”

He released my hand and leaned back in the chair. “Fine, I'll sleep when you sleep,” he repeated, like it was some sort of gauntlet tossed out on the table.

“You have no idea the number of all-nighters I pulled in LA.”

“And you have no idea how many nights I was out partying and then had to be on duty the next day.”

“Touché, Mr. Briggs.”

As I sniffed again, I took in a whiff of Tucker's scent, a steady, dark chocolatey espresso blend. The first time I'd really sensed his good guy potential, he'd smelled like coffee, the one staple in all the incarnations of my life. It wasn't until now that I realized what that meant: he was the rock. He was the constant and the North Star. Where Chaz was my heart and would catch me when I fell, Tucker would stand beside me loyally because I had set him free and he chose to be by my side.

Tucker tapped his knuckles on the table. “Violet, you okay? Your eyes went a little glassy there for a second.”

I chuckled, pushing the under-caffeinated and overly philosophical thoughts aside. “Peachy. Just need a little more coffee.”

D
ELMONT WAS NOT
happy to be there on a Saturday. He had to come down to the front of the building to let us in and the silence in the elevator was only made worse by a horrible rendition of
In Your Eyes
.

But I didn't care. Fresh coffee in hand, I was ready to become a millionaire. Maybe I could get some sleep then.

He showed us into an immaculate office complete with fake plants and textbooks (again, got to love that super smell, not a real printed page in the room) and we sat at a massive mahogany desk. Compensating much?

“I had my secretary mark all the places you'll need to sign. And you'll need a witness.”

I watched him as he placed the documents before us and pulled a pen from the desk drawer. It slipped from his finger when he handed it to me. His movements were stiff, nervous almost. It wasn't the grace I expected based on our last encounter.

“Guys, can I talk to Delmont alone for a moment?”

Chaz frowned and looked at Delmont and back at me. “We'll be right outside.”

Tucker's furrow wasn't any less deep but he followed Chaz out into the waiting room.

Delmont sat down across from me. “Can I help you, Miss Jordan?”

“Something's wrong.”

“It's Saturday.”

“This is hardly your first Saturday at work, Delmont. You'd have to work a lot of Saturdays to get this office. What is it?”

Delmont looked down at his long pale fingers. “I've been contacted by several people this week about Haverty's estate.”

“Did they miss the memo about me taking over the Pride?”

His crisp blue eyes darted up to mine. “No. They heard you only have the majority by one. They are trying to loose that one.”

“You?” I gasped.

“Others are willing to pay handsomely for my services.”

I frowned. “Then why am I still sitting here?”

His voice was louder than I'd expected, a tone that made my hackles and power rise around me. “Because for the first time ever, I'm sticking with my choice. And I'd appreciate a little faith and less snark.”

I had to watch my grip on my plastic to-go mug. My hand shook at the scolding. People don't yell at their Prima. More flies with honey, I repeated to myself.

I let out a soothing breath. “Who called you?”

Delmont shook his head. “You don't have to worry, Miss Jordan.”

“Of course I have to worry. If they are contacting you, they are contacting the others.”

“I have put a stop to that.”

I gulped. “How?”

He scratched his sideburns wearily and I watched as he carefully crafted his sentence. “I offered a truce on your behalf.”

“Oh really? Do anything else on my behalf I should have been contacted first about?” Our connection twisted just beneath my breastbone. He was holding something back that he wanted to tell me. It was almost like he wanted me to pull it out of him, but he'd locked his jaw so tight nothing was getting through.

I took a deep breath and set my coffee mug on his desk. In a swift movement, he grabbed what I thought was just a crystal paperweight and put it under the mug.

“God, you're just like . . .” I was going to say Devin. My fabulous best friend had a thing about coasters that I will never understand. But Delmont was nothing like Devin. Devin was good and trusting and human. I wasn't sure Delmont was any of those things.

“A truce with whom?” I kept calm, watched my tone, and looked straight into his blue eyes.

“I was right when I told you that the elementals would elect an Akasha. Her emissary contacted me for a meeting. ”

“Which one is it?” There had been some talk as we white-boarded what was left of the Wanderers in Dallas, trying to figure out what would happen to the rest of them now that the Pride was destroyed but our pack was still intact.

“Inez Walker. A fire elemental.”

I closed my eyes and tried to see the fight in the ballroom of Forest Farms. Looking back six weeks ago made the battle scene fuzzy, but I did remember there being fire, something on fire whizzing past my head.

“She wanted to know the numbers. See if there could be a division of assets. The others did too. The Clade Leader, the Coven Mistress. All of them have contacted me.”

“Why didn't they contact me?”

Peter was silent and simply lined up a few pens at the top of the paperwork.