He was bothered by their deaths, the grief plain on his face. It was in the downward tug of his eyebrows, the sadness in his eyes. But that was all he gave away. Any anger or fear at seeing his name in Caro’s blood on the door, he’d stamped that down and locked it away.
Lennox was grateful for it.
“They knew the moment they stepped out of the car.”
“And they didn’t fight you to go in?” Dade’s voice said she didn’t believe it; Lennox really didn’t give a lion’s ass.
“No.” She slammed the full weight of her attention down on the wolfhound, expecting another stare down, but the Hound’s gaze flicked automatically away. Dade’s jaw tensed, realizing it a split second too late and she tried to jerk her gaze back up. To force a stare, but Lennox had already turned away.
Lennox let them in. The sunny paint seemed dreary under the weight of the scent of death. She led them into the kitchen, straight for Caro. They scented the whole way, but Lennox knew they’d find nothing that she hadn’t wanted them too. And there’d been nothing that would lead them to the real killer. The thought twisted in her gut.
She let them walk past her, standing clear of Caro’s body. While she’d cleaned up magickally, she’d checked the woman over for any clues. Nothing. Carolyn Hale had been disemboweled while alive, her throat slashed open by a huge paw while she’d lain bleeding on the floor. If she’d put up a fight, the only sign of it was a knocked over kitchen chair.
And that was hardly evidence.
With Tristan, he’d been ripped open the whole way as he’d ran down the alley. But he hadn’t fought. In the corner where he’d died and had finally turned to face his attacker, it looked as if invisible arms had bound him tight. There were no skin scrapings under their nails, nothing in their teeth, no shifting...
They’d never had the chance to fight back.
Lennox waited, careful not to touch anything while they finished inspecting the scene. Walker’s shoulders slumped and he turned to her. “Anything?”
Pretending to go over the body, Lennox double checked everything, knowing what she’d find. “No.”
“Damn.”
Lines etched around his eyes, Hennessy looked beaten. Defeated. As if this were the only scene here. Bracing her hands on her knees, Lennox pushed up from her crouch. “Perimeter check?”
“Shit. Didn’t even...”
Yeah. She’d gathered that. With a wave of her hand she gestured them out, following. She shut the front door softly behind them. Lennox tilted her head towards Tegan and Kanon—the pair of them still leaning against her car—in a silent order to stay. Then with a shimmer of magick down her skin she shifted.
The dog poured out easily. One blink she’d stood on two feet, the next on four paws. Her clothes vanished beneath the rich, red fur of her Rhodesian ridgeback. Droopy hound ears pricked forward, Lennox headed for the woods, head low. She circled through the pines at a trot.
Nothing.
Except, Lennox paused, head tilted towards the road, one paw lifted. Oil. She padded towards the edge of the road and stumbled on a small clearing in the trees, just off the dirt shoulder. Fresh tracks and oil.
Masculine, her nose told her, but anything else was gone. With a frustrated whine she tilted her head back and yipped twice for the Hounds still up by the house. Walker came striding through the trees, hands in his pockets, a large brindle wolfhound at his heels.
Dade curled back her lips, revealing fangs. A growl split from her throat. Walker reached for her a split second too late. The brown and gold burnished dog leapt at her, jaws opened wide. Instinct took over. Lennox dodged, darting underneath the larger dog and jumping up. Her teeth snared over wiry fur and nipped flesh. Not hard enough to draw blood. Yet.
Where Dade’s inhibitions were gone, her dog driving, Lennox kept hers firmly in the passenger seat. She needed the form, the body, the senses... Not the wanting to go roll in dead squirrels and eat cat poop. She needed her human-half’s reasoning abilities, something Dade was now running amuck without. Dogs didn’t think like cops any more than they thought like fighters in a boxing ring.
It was a lesson Dade would have to learn the hard way.
Walker reached for her again but Dade dodged him, lunging. Lennox dipped her shoulder and twisted cleanly away. She jerked her head back and clamped teeth down across Dade’s thigh. The wolfhound yelped, her lean body whipping around but Lennox let her go, snapping at her face as she slipped out of range.
Dade went to lunge again when a roar shuddered through the forest. Pine needles skittered over the ground, and a low bellowing growl followed the sound like an aftershock of thunder. Kanon and Tegan both stood at the edge of the clearing. Their bodies locked straight, stiff, their focus solely on Dade.
Walker caught Dade by the back of her neck, fingers digging into her skin. “Shift.”
If Dade had thought for a second that she’d be able to take Hennessy’s rank later, she was wrong. Lennox caught the whiff of his power as it rocked through the wolfhound. The brindle dog flinched, whimpering as Dade tucked her tail. Magick shimmered over her and Dade was suddenly crouched under Walker’s grip, her face pink.
Lennox didn’t give him a chance to command her. Drawing in a slow breath, the dog sank back into her. A tingle of magick washed up her spine and she shook off the change, dusting her jeans off as she rose. One glance to Kanon and Tegan and they’d tucked whatever issue they had with Dade away, arms crossed over their chests, they held themselves in control. Their anger in check. Good.
“All I got was male and that he had an oil leak.”
Walker’s lips thinned.
“If you don’t like it, shift yourself.”
“Thank you for your time.”
Dismissed. Damn. Just like that? Had he found something? Lennox fought the urge to glance around the forest. What had she missed? She’d double checked the whole perimeter before coming back to this scent. There’d been nothing.
Unwilling to let fear show, she tucked her reservations away. They’d come back later. Without Hennessy and his troublesome Hound. “Let’s go then. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
Practice made her smile polite. Downright pleasant, when she’d have rather he shoved his head up his ass until he choked. Lennox turned towards the pair of men leaning against an old oak at the side of the clearing. “Let’s get out of here then.” She tossed Walker another of her sickly sweet smiles. “Assuming of course, you’ve dropped the charges?”
“For now.” He shrugged. “Nothing to link them, alibi...”
So whatever he’d found, he couldn’t pin it on Kanon. That was good enough for her right now. She waved for the boys to follow her and headed for her car.
Tegan caught her from behind. “Want one of us to drive?”
Since she’d almost passed out earlier? Probably wise. She tossed him the keys. Half curled up on the back seat, she barely noticed when Kanon joined her. At least until he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her up against him. The effort from all the magick she’d worked caught up to her in a rush and Lennox slumped into his embrace, thankful for the support.
The car rumbled to life and Tegan backed it down the drive. “Where we going?”
“Not far. We’re coming back tonight. From a different angle. Hennessy found something and he’s not playing nice.”
“Nor was his bitch,” Kanon muttered, drawing a soft smile to her face.
“Big tough lions scared her though.”
That drew a laugh from both of them. Dade had jumped like a rabbit spurred from her hole. Kanon slid a hand against her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. “You didn’t even flinch.”
“I eat men like you for dinner.”
“Really?” Tegan glanced at her through the rearview mirror, the look in his eyes wicked. “You turn skittish the moment we start flirting.”
“Shush. Both of you.” She slapped Kanon lightly in the chest, but she didn’t pull away. Ridgeback or not, lions or not, she kind of liked them. In that, they were annoying and wicked as sin sort of appeal.
Bad boy chic or some shit like that.
It was a change from her normal style of men. Obedient, good little boys, who ran like hell when she snarled. It was nice. She wondered when the craziness would wear off and life would go back to normal.
Lennox was half asleep when Kanon stretched out his legs, lifting her up so she could sit on his lap while he took over the back seat. His rubbed her hair between his fingers. “Someone wants to blame this on me.”
Whatever sadness he’d felt over the Hales was gone, just a tired, soft regret in his voice now. Lennox hated the sound. She tilted her head back so she could see his face. “Enemies?”
“Probably plenty of people, but no one who hated me this much. Not enough to kill Tristan and Caro, at least. Or so I thought.” A smile tugged over his lips, but it wasn’t happy. “Isn’t that always how it goes?”
Yeah, yeah it was.
He growled from his place under the shadowy overhang of an old pair of oak trees. The Hounds had gone, fools all of them. They hadn’t even taped off the house. They’d slapped the body on a tray and wheeled it out. But he’d been watching. He’d seen her shaking from magick overuse after she’d wiped the place clean.
Protecting those
beasts
.
Rage pounded in his temples, unwilling to be denied. She’d cradled them, loved on them. He turned, pacing. He needed a new plan. One that would really show her the kind of monsters she was dealing with.
It felt like hours as he paced, short choppy strides jerking him back and forth between two aged oaks. He didn’t realize the sun had set and the temperature had cooled. Not until a car passed, slowing before the drive way and then speeding away once it had passed the house. He froze, head tilted. Had they seen him?
No. He was too far back from the road, night had already crept in. But he waited. Listening. He couldn’t risk someone discovering him now. Fingers flexing he stood paused in the darkness, his ears tuned to every movement in the forest around him. He’d spooked all the birds away earlier, annoyed with their babble, but as night had fallen he’d heard their return, settling down to sleep among the trees.
He even tolerated the crickets and their growing evening song as he waited. Finally, he heard the pad of heavy paws moving through the forest. Multiple animals, his ears told him and he turned his head, focusing in the direction they were coming.
Behind the house?
He strained his ears, rousing the damned dog inside him until the beast crouched up under his skin, lending the strength of its ears to his. Big heavy footfalls, catlike. A lighter set, ridgeback. He stiffened. Three of them.
She’d come back with her lions. He checked the air, but it was calm tonight. Blowing his way, not theirs. Wrapping magick around him, he wiped his scent from the forest in clean, quick jerks of his hand. The crickets stilled but he roused them again with gentle prodding.
They couldn’t know he was here. He didn’t want to kill her lions yet. They were still needed. Monstrous beasts that they were, he still had use for them yet. And she needed to learn her lesson. They padded across the forest until the two lions plunked down in front of the house. Large, shaggy black and brown manes draped over their gold coats. Moonlight silvered the edges, making them freakish. Ugly beasts.
He swallowed back a growl.
Where they rested like sloths, she danced through the woods on fast paws. Her nose low, scouring, and he waited, wondering what she’d find. She doubled back, again and again, checking the perimeter. He hadn’t left anything for her or the other Hounds to find.
He was too careful for that.
Finally she trotted back to the lions resting in front of the house, her tail low but not tucked. No, never tucked. She knew better than to show defeat. Her head twisted over her shoulder, looking, almost longingly. What had she thought she’d find?
She rounded the beasts up and led them back into the woods. He watched until the three of them faded into shadows before he let himself move. He dragged the dog out, Shifting, and ran along the perimeter, using his magick to wipe any trail of his scent as it worked. So, it seemed, had she.
After the fourth circle of the property he hit the same dead end. Angry, he snarled, shoving the dog deep inside him as he strode for his car. He’d parked it farther down this time, stashed in the woods along a four wheeler trail. They’d gotten too close earlier, finding where he’d parked and all. But still, they knew nothing.
Not yet, at least.
He pulled out the lined papers that would have cleared Kanon from his first charges and snarled. She’d almost had him there, if she hadn’t gotten sloppy at the bar that night. He shook his head. That didn’t bear thinking about. She’d messed up.
But soon he’d show her that her real mistake was in helping those monsters. Once she saw their real side she’d understand the truth.
A dark smile curved his lips. Predatory.
He was going to watch her destroy them.
***
Tegan lay stretched over the hotel room bed, downright comfortable. Kanon was propped up amongst the pillows on the other, looking every bit as relaxed as they watched Lennox pace. She was a thing to watch. All tense muscle and come hither grace. Restless energy. Energy Tegan could think of plenty of better ways to expend.