Secret of the Wolf (3 page)

She’d love to feel those hands on her skin.

Dante must have felt her gaze on him, because he lifted his head and looked right at her. Sexual interest flared in his brown eyes before he turned back to the man beside him.

“Uh, Tori?”

She jerked back to awareness and looked at Knox.

“You okay?” the vampire asked. Blue eyes stared at her with a mixture of concern and bewilderment. “You’re just standing there, in the middle of the lot, staring…” His gaze drifted to Dante and he gave a soft grunt. “Ah. Never mind.”

Tori felt her cheeks heat. She’d been caught gawking at Dante like a teenager. It was mortifying. She cleared her throat and deliberately turned her back so she wouldn’t be tempted to start watching him again. “So, what did your guy have to say? What was he doing here?”

“Picking up a bottle of red wine.” Knox pointed toward a broken bottle and the spill of wine near the front door. “He said your wolf-boy attacked him without provocation.”

“Oh, come on.” She put one hand on her hip. “Barry may be a little impetuous, but even he wouldn’t go around jumping vampires without cause. Your guy definitely provoked him.”

Knox shrugged lazily. “Eh. A few words about a car. If your wolf got all riled up over a guy with a big mouth, well…” His gaze dared her to defend that. “Besides, wolfie’s the one who injured the human.”

“You’re sure about that?” Tori glanced over at the van to where Barry sat slumped on the seat, blanket still modestly covering his privates. He met her gaze for a second and then looked away. Tori faced Knox again. “It could have been your vamp.”

Knox shook his head. “Nope. Wolf-boy is the one who took the human down in his hurry to get to the vampire. Who, by the way, kept his fangs to himself.”

Tori sighed and rubbed her forehead. This did not bode well for Barry. “All right. Hopefully, Barry didn’t release any pret essence when he hurt the guy. That’ll make things easier for him.”

“Hmm.” Knox glanced over her shoulder. “Heads up. Here comes your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my…” Tori scowled at Knox’s easy grin. “Shut up. What are you, like, twelve?”

“Four hundred and sixty-seven, actually.”

“Well, you’re acting like a twelve-year-old.” She put a smile on her face and turned to greet Dante. “How’s it going? Any word on the vic?” She couldn’t keep her eyes from drifting down the lean length of his body. This close, his scent was stronger, more enticing.

“Not yet.” His smile was slow and lazy. “You’re lookin’ good.”

As usual, Dante was charming and flirtatious, completely impossible to ignore and utterly not serious about her. But she could flirt with the best of them, especially when he so easily revved her engine. “You’re looking mighty fine yourself.” Her voice came out throaty. She couldn’t help it. He did look fine. More than fine. Any finer and she might jump his bones.

Dante winked at her, then glanced at the vampire liaison. “Knox, you look well, too. Rested. Have a nice vacation?”

Knox grimaced. “I was reassigned to Yuma, MacMillan, not spending a week in Paris.” He muttered something that sounded like “Teach me not to get on Caladh’s bad side again.”

Tori pressed her lips together against a grin. Caladh was a seal shapeshifter and one of the more powerful members of the council. “Yuma’s the third largest city outside of Phoenix and Tucson,” Tori defended. “It’s got the territorial prison. That’s kinda cool.”

Knox just looked at her.

She liked Yuma, personally, but the fact that Knox, the consummate urban dweller, had been assigned there tickled her to no end. She couldn’t resist giving him a few verbal jabs. “It’s right next to California. You could go dune bashing in the Imperial Sand Dunes. And San Diego’s not that far away. You can go whale watching,” she offered. “Or check out the sea lions in La Jolla.”

The vampire’s look went even drier.

“Give it up, Tori.” Dante never lost his grin. “I think Knox here is a city boy through and through.” He lifted a brow. “It must be torture for you to be here with us instead of L.A. or New York.”

“Tell me about it,” Knox muttered.

“So, what’d you do to get stuck here?” Tori asked. She knew he’d been assigned to one of the Los Angeles quadrants a few years ago, and she also knew he’d never have left L.A. voluntarily.

The vampire’s lips tightened. “Never mind.” His gaze flicked to over her shoulder. “Here comes the poster girl for comic book heroines.”

Tori turned to see the quadrant’s new human liaison, Piper Peterson, coming their way. The young woman had a lilt in her step, her eyes covered by round, dark sunglasses, her mouth curved in its customary smile. She always seemed perky, and with a name like Piper Peterson…well, Tori understood how a guy like Knox could be a little snide about her. She just hoped he wouldn’t give Piper a hard time to her face.

The human liaison stopped next to Dante and pushed the sunglasses up on top of her blonde head. Ignoring Knox, an action that interested Tori greatly, she looked at Dante and Tori and said, “So, I just got word that the guy who was hurt is going to be all right. He wasn’t, ah, enhanced in any way.”

Tori blew out a sigh. Barry was still in trouble, just not as much. She’d go break the news to him. “I’ll be right back,” she said and headed toward the police van where Barry still waited.

As she approached, he looked up and then stiffened. “What? You found something out?” he asked, his voice holding a slight tremble.

“The vic wasn’t turned. You’re off the hook, for that at least.” Tori glanced around the parking lot and saw some of the crowd had dissipated.

Barry gave a nod and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Staring down at his hands, he murmured, “I really messed up this time, didn’t I?”

She wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything for him. “Yeah, you did. But they’ll go easier on you since you didn’t accidentally turn the guy.” She kept one ear on the conversation going on behind her and heard Piper talking about another case involving a distant relative of hers. A car pulling into the lot caught Tori’s eye. She recognized the two council guards who got out. “Looks like your ride is here,” she told Barry.

He exhaled and climbed out of the van, keeping the blanket securely around him. He paused and looked at Tori. “Thanks.”

She tipped her chin. “Take care of yourself.”

“Right.” He walked toward the guards and got into the back of the car.

As the vehicle pulled out of the lot, Tori returned to Dante and the other two liaisons.

“If anything,” Piper was saying, “I think the council treated him more harshly because of me.”

“Oh, no doubt,” Knox said. “Family members of liaisons are supposed to conduct themselves with the utmost comportment.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “There aren’t too many prets that I know of who can manage to comport themselves utmostly.” She made quote marks in the air, and her glance at Knox suggested he had little room to talk about proper behavior.

Tori frowned. Man, she must have missed something between these two. The tension was almost to the point of animosity.

The vampire scowled. “I’m done here,” he stated and walked off.

With another roll of her eyes, Piper said, “Good riddance to bad garbage.”

“I heard that,” Knox called out.

Piper shrugged. “It’s not anything I wouldn’t have said to his face.” When Tori started to say something, Piper waved a hand with a muttered, “I’d really rather not talk about it.” She looked at Dante. “So, I saw Nix last night, and she told me to tell you hello the next time I saw you. So…hello.”

Dante’s face softened with concern for Nix de la Fuente, the former human liaison. Well, Nix Caine now, since Nix and Tobias had gotten married a few months ago. Tori knew Nix and Dante had worked together for a short time but had formed a solid friendship, one that Tori would never admit out loud had made her envious.

Dante said, “I haven’t talked to her in a couple of weeks. She doing okay?”

“I think she’s having a harder time acclimating to being a vampire than she wants to admit. Plus her mom…” Piper shook her head and frowned. “Her mom isn’t exactly thrilled to have a vampire daughter. And of course she blames Tobias.”

“But Tobias had to turn her to keep her from dying.” Tori planted one hand on her hip. “What, her mom has a problem with not having a dead daughter?”

“Apparently she has a real thing about vamps. You know how demons are.” Dante hooked his thumbs over his belt, large hands framing his silver belt buckle.

That little action drew Tori’s gaze to his midsection, then lower. He caught her looking, of course, his smirk knowing. She met his eyes and held them, challenging him. The man knew exactly what he was doing. So if he wanted her to look, she’d look. She deliberately dropped her gaze and saw the faintest twitch behind the placket of his zipper.

He cleared his throat and pulled his jacket closed, fastening one of the buttons. “So, I’ll just take a look around the scene, do my job.”

“I’m going to head over to the hospital and talk to the victim,” Piper said. “I’ll keep you two posted.”

Tori murmured a good-bye to her and turned with Dante as he walked the parking lot. “So, how about a cup of coffee?” She rested one hand on his upper arm, able to feel the firmness of his biceps beneath the layers of clothing. “My treat.”

The muscles beneath her fingers tensed. His tongue swept out to wet his lips, drawing her gaze to that sexy mouth. “I’d like to, Tori. I would. It’s just…” He gestured with one arm. “I have a ton of cases right now. I should finish up here and get back to the station.” Dislodging her hand, Dante rubbed the back of his neck. He looked as uncomfortable as a dog that had just gotten skunked.

“No problem,” she said easily. “Tomorrow’s Saturday. We could meet for breakfast.”

His tongue swept across his lower lip, a gesture of nervousness that on him managed to look sexy. He gave a little wince and said, “Sorry. Weekends I’m tied up with my horses.”

“I understand.” But she didn’t. Not really. He flirted, he teased, and then he turned skittish and shut down any time she made an approach. One of these days maybe she’d get it through her head that he just wasn’t into her, and give up.

“Rain check?” he asked, his voice as polite as the expression on his face, though his eyes were awash with swirling emotions she had a hard time deciphering. Indecision crossed his face before his lids drooped, hiding his feelings even more.

“Of course.” She should go back home and fiddle with that device, since Dante wasn’t going to let her fiddle with him. Maybe she’d discover something new and see if she could reconnect with a brother who blew as hot and cold as a certain Special Case detective.

D
ante forced himself to focus on the job and not on how fresh and enticing Tori smelled, or how sexy she looked. He swore those damned jeans she wore were sprayed on, and the flimsy blouse accentuated the enticing curve of her breasts. But between building his career and taking care of a sister recovering from the double whammy of breast cancer and a divorce, he didn’t have time for a relationship. So while he might flirt with Tori, because she was a beautiful woman even if she did go furry at least once a month, he wasn’t ready for anything serious. Especially not with a pret. Not because he was prejudiced, but because simply being a pret meant she lived in a world even more dangerous than the one he did. Every day he fought back fear that he’d lose his sister to the cancer that had tried to ravage her body; he wasn’t ready to go through a loss with someone else he cared for. If he had anything more with Tori than a working relationship, his admiration for her intelligence and abilities and, yes, his attraction to her would deepen to something he wasn’t ready for. Because if he fell in love with her and lost her…

He blew out a breath and tracked bloody footprints across the pavement, stopping next to a torn denim jacket lying a few feet away from the entrance to the now-closed grocery store. “This belong to the vic?” he asked her.

“I guess so.” She glanced around. “The crime scene specialists are running late on this one.”

Her sultry voice wrapped around him, tightening his gut and other parts that had no business getting tight on the job. He cleared his throat. “The CSS unit doesn’t have the same sense of urgency for nonfatal incidents.” He hunkered down and looked over the torn and stained jacket, careful not to disturb it. Criminalists would need to photograph it before anyone could move it. “From what I can see, there are holes in the shoulder area.” He tilted his head to look closer. Parts of the jacket were shredded, he guessed from the werewolf’s claws, but several holes had been punctured in the jacket as well. “More than two, which would support the supposition that it was the werewolf who bit the guy, not the vamp.”

“Yes, well, until we get test results from the hospital, that part’s still up for grabs as far as I’m concerned.” Disgust dried Tori’s tones. “I still wouldn’t put it past that bloodsucker to have been the one to bite the vic. You know, just a slight slip of the fang for a quick snack.”

Dante studied the ground around the jacket, noting the splashes of blood, then rose to his feet. “You got somethin’ against vamps?” He shot a glance at her from the corner of his eye.

“Not at all.” She raised her shoulders in a shrug. “Hey, some of my best friends are vampires. I just didn’t like the looks of the guy Knox was talking to.” She blew out a sigh hard enough to ruffle her bangs. “Though it probably was Barry who bit our vic. Poor guy.”

“You talkin’ about the vic or Barry?” Dante grinned, just a little, at the disgruntled look that crossed her face.

“Both, I suppose.” She shoved her fingers into the back pockets of her jeans, an action that thrust out her breasts. She seemed completely unaware of her posture.

Dante was more conscious of it than he should have been.

“At some point I should head over to the council office to put in a good word or two…or three or four or five, for Barry.” Defensiveness lit her gaze. “He’s not a bad guy, you know.”

Where’d that come from? He held up one hand in appeasement. “I didn’t say he was.”

Her sensual lips curved down. “Yeah, well, he attacked a human. I’d think in your book that’d make him a bad guy.” Her arch look challenged him.

“In
my
book?”

She nodded. “In that how-to-be-a-by-the-book-detective handbook of yours.”

“Me? A by-the-book guy?” His brows shot up. “I believe you have me confused with someone else. Maybe Tobias Caine?”

“When it comes to the rules, sure, you don’t always follow ’em. But when it comes to bad guys, you’re pretty much black and white on who’s bad and who’s not.” Keeping her hands in her back pockets, she wiggled her elbows back and forth and sent him a look that was as dry as autumn leaves. “And, believe me, no one could confuse you for Tobias.”

He wasn’t sure whether he should be insulted or not. “And why would that be?”

She grinned. Her expression softened with sensuality. “While you’re both tall, dark, and handsome,” she nearly purred as she stroked one slender finger down the middle of his chest, “Tobias has a bigger bite behind his bark.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Dante eased back a step, putting himself out of her reach. Even that light, teasing touch fired his blood. He came into contact with his fair share of shapeshifters on the job, and one thing he’d noticed was that they all seemed to possess this earthy carnality that was impossible to ignore. Tori called to him on such a primal level it was all he could do to keep his distance. But she deserved respect from him even if all he wanted to do was take her with the raw fury of an animal.

He, at least, didn’t go furry once a month. He was human. He had to remain true to himself, or what would he be left with?

He heard a couple of car doors slam and turned to see one of the crime scene vans parked nearby. “CSSU’s here.”

“’Bout time,” Tori muttered, sounding a little cranky. Even so, her voice still held those dulcet tones that made everything male within him sit up and take notice.

Dante started toward the van, glancing around the gathered crowd out of habit. One man in particular caught his eye and Dante stopped, trying to get a better look.

Tori plowed into him, giving a little grunt of surprise, and he turned to grab her. He wrapped his fingers around her upper arms to steady her, and the feel of the firm muscles beneath his fingers—her strength wrapped in softness—scattered his thoughts.

“You need to give a gal some warning.” She looked up at him, her gaze grass green in the sunlight. Her lips parted and those incredible eyes fixed on his mouth.

Before he could stop himself, Dante found his hand curled around her jaw, his thumb stroking over that provocative bottom lip. “Sorry,” he rasped through a throat tight with desire. His chest constricted, his blood fired as need pulsed through him with every beat of his heart. “I thought I saw…” He dropped his hand and looked toward the crowd again. The man he’d thought he’d seen—Natchook, Tobias Caine’s nemesis and the son of a bitch who was the reason his friend Nix was now a vampire—was gone.

“Thought you saw…” Tori prompted, her voice as husky as his had been.

“The bastard who attacked Nix and did his best to kill me and Tobias while he was at it.”

She glanced around the scene. “Do you think he’d still be hanging around Scottsdale after what happened to Nix?”

Dante clenched his jaw. “Who knows? He’s a crazy son of a bitch.”

Again those luscious lips tightened before she murmured, “You’re probably right, but still, I’d hardly think he’d take the chance of getting caught by staying in town.”

Dante hooked his thumbs over his belt and rocked back on his heels. “Well, I know I’ll feel a lot safer once he’s behind bars.”

“But he won’t be behind bars, will he?” As she stared up at him, her eyes darkened. “Preternatural law is clear and concise on this matter. He drained Nix, knowing Tobias would turn her in order to save her. In doing so, the attacker has forfeited his life.”

“Even though Tobias was the one who actually made Nix a vampire?” Dante almost added something along the lines of “and he killed other prets” but remembered at the last second that Tori didn’t know everything that transpired before that fateful day. She wasn’t aware that Tobias had taken the rift device from the vampire who’d attacked Nix.

“Tobias carries no blame in this. He did what he had to in order to save her life.” Her lips tightened a moment. “The responsibility lies with the vampire who attacked her.”

For a second Dante mused about how much like the Old West the laws of the other dimension seemed, at least those he’d heard about. An eye for an eye. Deal fairly with other men and you’d have no worries. But cross someone and you’d have more trouble than you could safely navigate.

He looked at Tori. One of the things he liked so much about her was her strength of character. Her confidence. She was full steam ahead, no holds barred. He knew she’d be the same way in bed.

His cock jerked. Damn it. He had to get his mind off of sex and on the job. “I think I’m going to head back to the station and file my report.”

“Okay.” Tori took her hands out of her pockets. “I should probably head on over to the council and make my own report.” A smile tipped up her lips. “I’ll see you later.”

He watched her leave, her hips swinging with long strides that really shouldn’t look as feminine as they did, but there it was. Tori was a compilation of contradictions, soft yet strong, feminine yet brutally wild.

Dante walked over to his heavy-duty pickup and climbed behind the wheel. As he started up the diesel engine, he noticed the fuel gauge hovered near the empty indicator. Damn. While he needed this truck to haul his horse trailer, he really should drive something else for work. And it wasn’t as if the department offered unmarked vehicles for their Special Case detectives. The city felt it was the council’s place to provide cars and the council had decided it wasn’t, since the Special Case squad was made up of human detectives.

Meantime, said human detectives were left to their own devices. He could feed the citizenry of a small country with what he paid in gas every week. Mileage reimbursement from the department helped, but that still allowed him to recoup only half of his fuel expenditures.

Maybe it was time to buy that sweet little ride he’d had his eye on. He really couldn’t afford it, but he couldn’t afford to keep driving his truck, either. The car he was looking at needed some TLC, but once he fixed what needed fixing, put a modified engine in it so he’d get decent gas mileage, and got a new coat of paint on it, that ’69 Charger would be ready to go.

He eyed Tori’s small vehicle as she pulled away from the scene. He sure as hell wasn’t going to drive a little matchbox car like she did. He wanted something with room, preferably a backseat.

Of course, thinking of Tori and a backseat led to thoughts of Tori
in
his backseat and sent his libido into overdrive. His randy cock flexed, aching for relief. “Down, boy,” he muttered, and pulled out of the lot. By the time he reached the Downtown District’s station, an inner recitation of the department’s ten-codes had alleviated his problem.

As he walked into the patrol squad room he slipped his keys into his pocket. He headed toward the smaller room where the Special Case team was housed, only to be stopped by his boss.

“MacMillan. In my office.” Captain Scott beckoned him with the waggle of two fingers.

“Whatcha do this time?” one of the uniforms muttered.

Dante shrugged and changed direction. He’d worked with Captain Scott for five years now, from the time he’d made detective. When Scott had volunteered to have the newly minted Special Case squad housed under him, he’d pushed for Dante to join the team. Now, as Dante walked into the captain’s office, Scott motioned for him to close the door.

“Have a seat,” the older man said as he sat down in his swivel chair.

Dante dropped into one of the god-awful straight-backed chairs in front of his boss’s desk and clasped his hands over his stomach. “What’s up?”

“You just come from the grocery store?”

Dante nodded. “Not much to report. Vic wasn’t turned, and while it looks like it was the werewolf who attacked him and not the vamp, we won’t know until the hospital files its final report with the pret council.”

Captain Scott leaned back, the resulting squeaking an ominous indication of the rickety chair’s ability to hold up his weight. He appeared to be considering something, working it over in his mind. Dante had seen him do this countless times before, and it usually meant whatever his captain was debating on telling him was nothing good. Finally Scott asked, “You hear about the pret attacks up in District Four?”

“No.” Dante frowned. “What about ’em?”

“I just got word this morning. We’ve got some freak changing humans into werewolves.” Scott shook his head and drilled the tip of one stubby finger onto his desk. “Like it’s not bad enough that in another four months the Moore-Creasy-Devon comet is going to open a rift between dimensions and we’re going to be hit with another influx of these damned EDs.” His eyes held poorly disguised fear that Dante had seen in the general populace. No one was immune from being taken over by a preternatural when they came through the rift in December. Human scientists had yet to find a way to keep the rift from happening to begin with. They had no clue how to stop alien beings from squatting in their fellow men and women.

It was a bit unsettling to think you could be going about your business and then—
wham!
—you’re no longer in control of your own body, rather, you had to share it with someone else, someone whose personality gets melded with yours.

All the prets he knew insisted that the soul or spirit, whatever you wanted to call it, of the human remained intact. The fact that the squatter had its host’s memories seemed to support that, but Dante wasn’t so sure. How could there possibly be room for more than one consciousness without the brain going into overload? And since there didn’t seem to be a prevalent number of schizophrenic prets running around…

And what happened if he and Tori got involved and then he got taken over by a pret who hated her kind? What then? Would he have loved her only to lose her, as he feared?

He shook himself free from the anxiety that tickled his gut. Instead of worrying about something that might never happen, he should focus on his job. “What do you want me to do?” Dante asked.

Scott leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desk. “Keep your eyes and ears open. Nobody on the council seems to know anything about this, but I’d wager a month’s salary they have an idea who’s behind it. They either don’t care or…”