“This, the thing where you always think it’s you versus the world. I know that foxes are fiercely independent, but it’s time for you to get it through your thick skull that you don’t have to do everything yourself. We—all of us here—we’re in this with you. All the way.”
When she saysall of us, it makes me take another look around the room. An obvious detail hits me. “Oliver, Parker, Rook, Terrance. But aren’t you all…you’re all in the Nora Jacobs deal thing.”
Terrance puffs his chest out. “You mean her clan? Don’t forget Wulf, Illren, Charlie, Ren, and Enzo.”
“All of you?”
Nodding solemnly, Charlie makes a shrewd but inaccurate interpretation of my response. “It’s okay to be overwhelmed. The odds of this many good-looking men congregating in one place is simply staggering. It’s unnatural.”
“Yeah, it’s not that. I’m actually just surprised that you all left your queen’s side for more than two seconds.”
“Oh, but they didn’t,” says a wry voice at the front door. Nora Jacobs pushes a fur-lined hood back from her face and smirks at me. “Heaven forbid I should step foot outside our house without nine escorts.”
The moment is surreal. I’ve seen Nora Jacobs before, plenty of times, but I’m pretty sure she has never seen me. Never looked at me, I mean. Now that she is—now that we’re staring awkwardly at each other—I’m finding it difficult to remember why I’ve made such a habit of disliking her. She’s strikingly beautiful, but not in a threatening way. She doesn’t seem to own it, or flaunt it. In fact, her hair is mussed from the jacket hood, and her lips are badly chapped. Her left shoe is untied, there’s a hole in her jeans. And yet, she radiates an easy self-confidence.
I suddenly feel unworthy somehow. I made a crack about her being a queen, but now I’m remembering that the fey wanted her to literally be their queen. And I totally get it now. Wait, am I supposed to bow or some shit?
Her eyes go from mirthful to soft and caring. “Hi, I’m Nora. I hope it’s okay that I’m here.”
I don’t know what to say to that. In fact, the whole room has gone silent, as if we’re all waiting with bated breath for her words. Actually, notas if. That’s exactly what I’m doing.
In the quick moment she takes to compose her thoughts, I see a flicker of pain in her eyes. “Agent Davies, we’ve never met, sadly. And I don’t know Detective Brenner, but I was told about him. About what happened in his past. That themonstershe hunts are the same monsters I’ve been hunting.”
I steal a glance at Parker. He was adamant that none of this be passed on to Nora. Surprisingly, he now gives me the green light with a nod of his head. “Well, maybe not technically,” I stammer. “They’re revenants, which means they’re actually just demons that are using old bodies. And look, we can’t even be sure they’re the same vampires who…who attacked your…”
She narrows her eyes in thought. “Blond hair and a pencil mustache, like an old movie star? Couple of goons—one tall and thin, older, and the other just a kid with long, greasy hair?”
“Oh. Then I guess they are the same guys.”
“I’m also told you killed one of them last night?”
“That’s right. Tall, thin guy.”
Her eyes gleam with the pleasure of revenge. “I don’t care if it is just his body and not the soul of the monster who killed my mom. I just hope you wiped the smug grin off that son-of-a-bitch’s face.”
I’m taken aback. Do queens talk like that? I don’t know, but if this one does, then hell yeah, I pledge my allegiance. “That son-of-a-bitch’s face won’t be grinning from the bottom of Detroit River with an ash wood pick in his neck.”
“Good. Now here’s what we’re going to do,” she orders. “We’re going to get Detective Brenner back, and then we’re going to finish the job.”
A surge of hope seems to lift my shoulders. I swear I just grew two inches taller. But I’m flustered. Too many thoughts rushing into a bottleneck at my throat. “Okay, but…Jay, he already claimed the movie star guy for himself. We gotta give him that.”
She flashes a devilish grin. “I see why you like him.”
I can’t hold back any longer. Nobody else in the history of the world has ever flipped their opinion of somebody so quickly. I throw my arms around her neck and squeeze for dear life. I sense a nervous shuffle among her men. Geez, overprotective much?
After waving them off, she hugs me back and goes, “Oh, wow.”
I quickly back away, releasing her. “Sorry. I’m sorry. We just met, and I’m like, waaaah! Jumping on you.”
“No, it’s just, I can feel…”
“Oh! I forgot about your…thing. Right? You can feel other people’s emotions?”
“Something like that. And let me tell you, there’sa lotto feel in you. It’s incredible.”
I feel myself blushing. “I know, I know, I’ve always been a crazy person. Really, just ask him.” I point to Nolan. “I even take meds for it—”
She stops me with a shake of her head. “You’re not crazy. You have a gift. You have a depth of feeling that I’ve only ever felt in one other person, and that’sme. The only difference is, I’ve spread my love out equally to several other hearts, and you have concentrated all of it—the whole thing—on just one.” She pauses while Charlie and Ren hold hands and goawww. “This is perfect,” she continues. “Meeting you tells me that Detective Brenner is definitely still out there, and he’s very much alive.”
My heart hammers with anticipation. “What do you mean? How do you know?”
She gives me a knowing grin. “Because, look around, Shayne. The world hasn’t ended.”
And with that—that line right there—I smile at the recognition of a kindred spirit and the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
A friendship that’s so totally going to kick some serious ass.
TO BE CONCLUDED IN...
