Netherworld II: Blood Potion No. 9 (21 page)

I had just made up my mind to take a
peek when the big, black wolf finally appeared, a great skulking
shadow that slipped around the side of the warehouse. He whined
questioningly at me as I trotted over from my cover of
pallets.

“Hiding from Hazel. He and his goons
left a few minutes ago. Jeez, Bane,” I complained as he shifted
back to human, the reversal every bit as amazing as the first
go-round, “That took long enough.”

He wasn’t all the way back to his
manlier aspect when he started putting on his clothes, but he was
close enough to it to speak understandably. “Yeah, well it was in a
heavily warded area. It took me awhile to figure out the right
counterspell to get to them. As it was, I got a little fried. And
the name is Levi.”

He pointed to one of his curved ears,
the part of him that never went back to being human. I hissed to
see the tip of it was singed, some of the dark fur missing and
crispy-curled where it reappeared.

“Holy cow, Bane – I mean Levi. I hope
it was worth it.”

He grinned, the effect savage in his
still animal face. “It was, and we’re looking at a whole new can of
worms. C.K. and Hazel are distributing the tainted blood, not
bringing it in. There are crates of Blood Potion going out up and
down the eastern seaboard as well as overseas. I’d bet they’re
transporting more by rail and truck. They are the source,
Brandilynn. Fulton Falls is Ground Zero for this
nightmare.”

“How can that be?”

“They’ve set up a distributorship right
here. The blood is bottled then sent to this warehouse under the
name Philhap Industries, the listed owner of which is Annalisa
Capp. Better known in local circles as ‘Bottle’.”

“C.K.’s property. Bottle Capp … so
that’s where her nickname came from,” I mused. “Pretty
stupid.”

“Keep up, sweetheart. We thought
Philhap Industries was a dummy subsidiary of Campbell-Laughton
Enterprises. We had no idea it was an active company that actually
did something. How the hell we missed this holding of theirs is
beyond me.”

“I’m not following you.”

He grinned, pure triumph on his wolfie
face. “Campbell-Laughton. As in Mitchell Campbell, a.k.a. ‘C.K.’;
and Stanley Laughton, a.k.a. ‘Hazel’. They use their corporation to
hide all sorts of nefarious dealings under a lot of different
names, but we thought it was just money laundering.”

I was beginning to get the picture. “So
they own this legit blood distribution business under Bottle’s
name. From here, it’s shipped out all over the world.”

“Perfect opportunity to taint the
supplies.”

I gaped at him, electrified by his
discovery. “Okay, I can see how with Hazel’s witchy skills they
could get the bad stuff into the sealed pouches and bottles. But
they’d have to have a dragon to make that happen, to actually
poison the blood. Unless they’re shipping dragon’s blood in from
overseas to put into the commercial stuff?”

“You need to keep up with current
events, sweetheart. Even if they could bypass the no-ship laws on
dragon’s blood and smuggle it in, the stuff still goes solid within
an hour of leaving a dragon’s body, and nothing liquefies it again.
The only way to keep it fresh is if it’s mixed in with something
that keeps it liquid … like human blood.”

I should have known that. My favorite
jewelry always seems to include dragon’s blood gemstones. I could
have smacked my own head over its thickness.

Instead, I considered the situation
some more. I frowned. “You do realize what you’re saying, right?
That C.K. and Hazel have gotten their hands on an actual dragon?
Where are you going to hide a barge-sized, fire-breathing, flying
lizard in Fulton Falls?”

Bane was dressed again, and almost
faded back to normal. Well, normal for a wolfman. He solicitously
indicated I could ride wolfie-back and spare my poor tired feet,
and I took him up on it. He loped towards the gate entrance,
seemingly not affected by the added weight that was Fizz’s
body.

As he galloped along, he answered my
question. “I don’t know, but we need to find the thing. And soon
too, before this goes any further.”

Within minutes we were back at the
bike. We mounted up and sped off into the night.

* * * *

The moment we entered his trailer, Bane
headed for the bedroom. “Come on back.”

I stood at the end of the hall watching
him walk away, my hands parked on my hips. “Yeah,
right.”

He paused in the bedroom doorway to
look at me. He snorted, as if he had never in a million years found
me attractive enough to want to grope. “I said I’d keep my paws to
myself. I want to show you something on my computer.”

I relaxed a little. Took a couple of
steps towards him. “One false move, and I’m handing you over to
Fizz.”

He rolled his eyes at me and went into
the bedroom without another word. Okay then, I guess we were clear.
I went in and found him sitting at the foot of the bed booting up
his laptop.

He said, “You’re already neck deep in
this anyway, and I could use some fresh perspective.” I sat down
and looked over his shoulder as the computer came to life. A bunch
of files appeared on the desktop. Bane pointed to one. “Under this
folder labeled ‘Fave porn’? There are a bunch of files filled with
porn stories.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well
thanks for sharing, but I’m more of a Mark Twain and Margaret
Mitchell kind of reader.”

“Cute.” He clicked one of the files.
“This file named ‘Riding Racquel’ has C.K. and Hazel’s dossiers.
Here’s a listing of the real estate properties they own or
rent.”

I scanned the list, noting the
addresses and locations. “A couple of storage units … a garage …
undeveloped commercial pieces on the south end of Fulton Falls … a
couple of small rental units in Old Town … Hazel’s house a mile
away from the Beasts’ club … C.K.’s place out on Highway
82.”

Bane scowled at the computer screen.
“I’ve already checked out the rental units, garage and the houses.
The structures aren’t big enough to house even a juvenile
dragon.”

Well, that left another option. “A
baby?” I squirmed to think of a baby anything, even a dragon, in
Hazel’s ungentle hands.

“Sure, but how did they get it into the
country? Baby dragons are feral, running completely on instinct
until they reach six years of age. No way you’d smuggle one in a
ship or plane without everyone finding out about it, especially if
it’d been taken from its parents. You can’t offer one a piece of
candy and say, ‘Come with me’.”

I realized he was right. An angry or
upset baby dragon can set off an inferno that would consume an
airplane or ship within minutes. Good luck trying to rein in
that.

“You saw no evidence of one at the
docks?” I asked.

“It would get noticed there, no doubt.
It must be someplace we don’t have a record of.” Bane sighed and
shut the computer down.

A memory tugged at me, one I hadn’t
given much thought to considering. The one time I’d been up close
and personal with the witch, I’d been concentrating on the threat
and pain factors. “I noticed Hazel smells like he’s been around
charcoal. Something burnt, anyway.”

Bane nodded. “Until tonight, I simply
figured he was around people smoking at the club. Now that we know
he and C.K. are behind this whole tainted blood thing, it’s not a
stretch to realize that could be indicative of being in the
presence of a dragon.”

My mind was flying along at a furious
clip. They were shipping the stuff out now. Vampires all over the
world were going to die. “It would be too obvious if you were to
track Hazel, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t see much choice. We’ve got to
find that dragon.”

“What about your fellow
agents?”

A wry smile crossed his face. “Most of
them are embedded with other chapters of the gang around the
country. We’re badly understaffed and the norms don’t like helping
out the paras.”

I stared at him. “Even within the
agency?”

“Too scared of contracting the
virus.”

Jeez, even the government didn’t abide
by the anti-discrimination laws it had enacted. I was reminded yet
again how marginalized the shifters were.

I shoved my sympathy aside, sure Bane
didn’t want to hear it. He needed solid help, not a shoulder to cry
on. “Tristan’s got a bunch of shifters working for him. They could
track Hazel’s movements, maybe find out where he’s hiding a
dragon.”

The were shook his head. “That would
screw up my case.”

“Not if they were to simply act as
informants. Tristan tells you he’s got info on the whereabouts of
this dragon, and you act on it. Right?”

Bane sat there and thought about it. I
took the opportunity to study his face, caught permanently between
man and wolf. I wondered what he had looked like before the Zoo Flu
and realized I couldn’t imagine him without that slightly pushed
out nose and jaw that was the beginnings of a muzzle, those dark
markings, or the furred ears on top of his head.

I wondered what the virus had taken
from him, if it had included people he loved who couldn’t handle
the changes it had forced upon him. Family? Friends? Maybe a wife
and kids? The thought startled me.

Bane finally spoke, reminding me we had
a problem of more immediacy. “Okay. If Tristan’s people can do some
snooping, that would help a lot. But he and they can’t move against
the Beasts,” he warned. “Tristan Keith can’t go hero on this and
foul it up.”

I waved off his concerns. “Leave that
to me.”

Bane eyed me as carefully as I had him
just a moment ago. “You have that much clout with the vampire?
Seems to me he likes to get right in the middle of
things.”

I grinned. “I can be very persuasive
where Tristan is considered.”

“I bet you can.” Bane leaned close, his
hand stroking my arm, his breath warm against my cheek, making me
all goose-pimply. With a mental sigh, I stood and took a few steps
away.

“Fizz needs to take her medicine so I
can go talk to Tristan.”

Bane looked at me, those golden eyes
taking me in. I wondered for an instant what color they’d been
before the Zoo Flu, and then I realized I really didn’t want to
know after all. Gosh, he was beautiful as a werewolf.

He finally sighed and said the exact
opposite. “I wish I’d had the chance to know you when you were
alive.”

Oh yeah, he would have been real
impressed with a high-end prostitute. “You wouldn’t have liked me
much,” I consoled him.

“Somehow I doubt that. Not liking you
seems pretty impossible.” Another long, warm gaze that made my
insides bubble. A look that said he could forgive anything in my
past, that all he saw was the here-and-now woman. Boy, I could have
jumped him in that instant. He was so certain about me, and it made
me feel good about myself.

He got up and left the room for Fizz’s
sleeping pills, leaving me with a case of depressed arousal. Sure I
loved Dan and Tristan, but Bane was worming his way into the
feelings department with his hot, tragic self. It was driving me
crazy.

Time to stop being stupid over a man I
shouldn’t want and get the still quiet and traumatized Fizz ready
for her nap. I kicked off the heels and flopped down on the bed,
making sure to hide under the covers so Bane wouldn’t be tempted to
get snuggly. So I wouldn’t be tempted either.

Chapter 12

I arrived at Para Central and saw that
the whole gang minus Dan was gathered, clustered around Tristan’s
desk. Busy, busy, busy bunch here. One look at the dry erase board
on the back wall told me what had everyone excitedly talking over
each other: Representative Diaz’s soon-to-be-vacant seat. Tristan
was definitely thinking a run at the state legislature then.
Ambitious vampire. Only two states had para politicians in their
legislatures. Maine had a gargoyle governor. No paras in
Congress.

America does not love her supernatural
citizens. It made me think of Bane and his lack of backup in the
ATF.

His back was to me, but Augustus seemed
to know I was there almost immediately. He turned to me, his wings
fluttering a little as if excited about my appearance. “Beloved
invader, how empty the world yawns without your
presence.”

“Hi Augustus, how have you been?” I
hugged the griffin, enjoying the privilege as always. His scent was
warm and earthy.

“The centuries pass and I remain as
though only a second has drifted by.”

His speaking to me had caught
everyone’s attention. Tristan peered at the wondrous creature, his
eyes black as night. “One of our ghosts?”

Lana’s upswept Shirley Temple curls
bobbed as she nodded, her eyes closed. “Brandilynn. Hi
sweetie!”

I released Augustus and skipped to
Lana’s side to kiss her fuchsia blushed cheek. One of these days,
she and I are going to have a sit down about her excessive makeup
and bad wardrobe choices. I loved her dearly, but her fixation on
polyester makes me itch.