“They have immense self-healing abilities, so you can hurt one over and over and still keep it alive for years.”
“Hurtone? How does that power magic?” Mira asked.
“Pain, baby girl,” Rome muttered as he raked a hand through his short hair. “After a witch makes a covenant with something Diabolical, she can use pain as her power supply, and what better source than a creature that can infinitely heal itself?”
“Well, so long as you don’t overdose them with wolfsbane, silver, or mercury,” I added, “or give them too many lethal injuries at once.”
“Did you ever supply her with a young she-wolf?” Hank interrupted before I could explain further. “Half-Japanese and maybe two years younger than you?”
“Why?”
“Just tell me!”
“I did not.” I narrowed my eyes, wondering what was going on. “I only ever brought her monsters. The ones whosewolf halves were feral or their human halves were insane or both. They were destined for the executioner, anyway. I just got there before the werewolf king sent the Angel of Death to end them.”
“There’s a werewolf king?” Mira’s eyes bugged out.
“Yeah. Julian Hemming. He has an alliance with the Council,” I told her before Hank could.
“And he has anAngel of Death?”
“He’s not arealangel. He’s a were named Angelo del Vecchio who goes by the name Angelo della Morte when he’s hunting monsters—”
“Go back to the half-Japanese she-wolf!” Hank barked, cutting me off. “Did you sell her to Bennie?”
“I don’t know what all this is about,” I glared at him as my temper spiked, “but I never sold a she-wolf period! To Bennie or anyone else!”
“Then whatdidyou do to her?”
“I didn’t do anything to her!” I snarled. “I never met a half-Japanese she-wolf in my life!”
“Sorry. I was just excited that we might have found answers for her family.” Hank raised both hands, palms up and toward me, probably sensing how close I was to the edge.
“Why is she important, Hank?” Rome asked as I tried to rein my temper back in.
“A newborn half-Japanese she-wolf was stolen from her crib at the hospital on the day she was supposed to go home with her parents. None of the wolves could smell anyone or find any trail. All they had was a photo from the security camera, and it led nowhere. Until now. This is a photo from the hospital almost eighteen years ago.” He turned his phone to me again, and I recognized her right away, but waited until he slid his thumb across the screen to bring up the next image. “And this is from yesterday.”
“Well, that ain’t good foranyone, never mind a baby werewolf,” I muttered. “She’s Bennie’s, uh, special friend. She’s a neph, a Third and a messenger. If she ’ported in the parking lot, yeah, no one, not even a wolf’s nose, is going to be able to follow her trail.”
“What about her scent in the hospital?” Gigi asked with a frown. “I know the cleaning smells are strong, but surely a wolf would have been able to scent her among them.”
“Lots of different things she could have done,” Hank said with a sigh. “An amulet or talisman. A spell from her ‘special friend’ Bennie. Who knows?”
“What’s her name, Kerry?” Gina took Hank’s phone to study the photo. “I don’t recognize her, but maybe I’ve heard of her.”
“Runa, but don’t ask me her last name.” I scrubbed my hand over the back of my neck as I dug into my memories. “I wasn’t in the best condition whenever I had to go to Bennie’s, but I remember her stinking of corruption. Oh, and she has a heavy Spanish accent.”
“I don’t know that name, but I’ll see what I can dig up.” Gina held up both hands when I cut my eyes at her. “Discreetly, of course. No one will track me, I promise you that.”
“Speaking of tracking,” Jax said and pointed at Hank’s phone, “is that your Sanctuary-issued one? You know it can be tracked if it is.”
Hank and I rolled our eyes at the same time. My warden was no dummy, and this was far from his first rodeo.
“This is a burner I picked up a couple of days ago,” Hank told him.
“Start at the beginning, please, Hank,” Rome rumbled. “And is the dark witch’s name really Bennie?”
“Yeah. Short for Talia Ben Elihud.” I nodded. “She’s not very nice. You won’t like her one bit. Part of me is grateful to her,but the rest of me wants to scrape all her skin off and drop her in rubbing alcohol.”
