Page 11 of Curse of the Wolf
“As sea life showing off the latest fashions so often are.”
“Indeed. Since, however, I do take those risks… Well, just in case, I’d like to see the sword back in your hands before my passing.”
Glum, I continued to gaze at him. The barbells of certainty thumped down on my shoulders. Hedidbelieve he would die. And not in some vague years-off future but soon. Because of the device I’d destroyed.
Tears welled in my eyes. I looked away so he wouldn’t see them. “Duncan…”
The door to the police car thumped shut, and he didn’t respond. Officer Dubois had been in the replacement vehicle, and she jogged toward us, a partner I hadn’t met before remaining in the passenger seat. She’d lost herlastpartner in the parking lot the night Duncan and I had turned into wolves to defend the property from thugs. Dubois had seen me shift, but she hadn’t brought it up, other than to say she owed me. I wouldn’t assume there were no stipulations on her secrecy, butseeing her didn’t make me wince and want to run in the other direction anymore.
Her pace remaining brisk, she headed straight toward us. “We’ve had a report of a robbery and need to leave to offer backup over at Rocket Coffee.”
“Uh-oh. That’s my intern’s favorite spot.”
“Big guys on motorcycles is what I heard.” Dubois looked grimly at me. “Your place won’t be covered until we return. I wanted to warn you.”
“Let me know if you see any familiar brutish faces over there.” I lifted a hand since she was already turning to jog back to her car. I hadn’t expected the police to provide 24-7 coverage of Sylvan Serenity anyway.
“You miss them?” Dubois called over her shoulder.
“Like a rash on my ass, yeah.”
She waved an acknowledgment, then slid back into her car and took off.
“If itisthe same guys,” I told Duncan, who was watching me curiously, “including the one Rue’s potion is linked to, I could take it, and we could follow them to their hideout.”
I had no idea if theyhada hideout. Maybe the thugs all had their own apartments. Even if that was the case, the one we’d gotten the blood sample from might know where his buddies had stashed the sword.
“We could go to the coffee shop, turn into wolves, and trail them to their hideout the old-fashioned way.” Duncan tapped his nose.
“As I recall, you tried that before and were stymied when they got into a getaway car and drove away.”
“I wasn’t stymied. I lost the scent.”
“Thus stymying you.” I didn’t blame him. I would have had even more trouble following their trail through the city.
“It’s impossible to track an automobile far.”
“Unless a potion that burns your esophagus like a hell-born inferno magically guides you in the right direction.”
“I’ve not had that experience, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“You can drink the next potion if you want to endure it yourself.”
“To retrieve the sword, I would.”
I waved away his offer. As awful as the potion was, I wouldn’t wish the side effects on anyone else. “I’ll do it.”
And I would. I owed it to him to find the sword he’d given me. But I was a lot more worried about Duncan’s life force and what Radomir and Abrams were up to with their offer on Sylvan Serenity.
4
Perched on a ladder,I was fixing a tenant’s broken window seal, worrying about Duncan and waiting to see if Dubois would call, when Bolin returned. He wasn’t with his parents—or their prospective buyers—this time, but he held a newspaper under one arm, so I wasn’t relieved. The last time he’d shared a story with me, it hadn’t been anything good. It had highlighted the deaths—murders, as the reporter had called them—in our parking lot and speculated that a wolf had been involved.
“What?” I asked warily, climbing down from the ladder.
“I spotted a story that might interest you.”
“For a Gen Z’er, you spend a lot of time scouring physical newspapers.” I accepted the offering, a short article halfway down the page circled.
