Tempting the Enemy (29 page)

“He had a pack of rapists at the ready.” She’d put nothing past a man like that.

“He wouldn’t be the first. Strange things happen when nature gets screwed with.” Which only proved her point. His mouth quirked, conceding. “I don’t think so.

There’s the fact that he’s a Wolf. Wolves don’t fly.

Besides, wouldn’t you have seen the power in him? Or that black signature you talked about? Wouldn’t it have been all over the morgue, following him like slime?”

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True, but she wasn’t willing to give in just yet. This killer had already done the impossible. Maybe he knew how to mask his signature. The memory of that inky black stain seeping into her flesh streaked through her. “Who knows what he could do with it? That signature was sentient, like yours.”

“So were the ones in the morgue that took you over.”

Why couldn’t any of their information be definitive?

She suddenly understood why Pale’s computer looked so bedraggled. Kicking it a few times right now was bound to make her feel better. “I’ve never even
heard
of a male Rouge before this and I’ve never seen anyone with gifts that weren’t their own.”

“Rysen!” The captain called from somewhere behind Jade’s back. She turned to see him standing just outside his office door. He didn’t look happy. “A moment?” An uneasy glance her way before he added, “Alone.”

She turned to Pale. No, he didn’t like that idea at all.

His mouth looked hard, his jaw working as he stared at the man who was his superior as if he could crush him effortlessly. What bothered her was the likelihood that he would.

“I’ll wait right here,” she offered, hoping to appease him. Pale didn’t respond. “Look, you can leave me alone in a squad room for five minutes. Most of the men are more interested in their paperwork than me and the rest are afraid of at least one of us. Nothing’s going to happen.”

It took a while, but he finally stood up. When his gaze fell on her, it was implacable. “Go
nowhere
.”

“Yes, your lord mightiness.”

Dee Tenorio

255

He moved around the desk. He could have gone around the next desk too, but he made it a point to brush against her as he passed behind her chair.

She reached for his leg, grasping the inside of his thigh before he fully moved away. She looked up, happy to find him reassured by the contact. “Don’t kill him. I’m pretty sure you’d get fired for that.”

The frown came back, but he coupled it with a tug on her braid through the hood. Then he was gone.

Jade waited all of a minute to get up and get behind his desk to see his screen. She’d waited years to touch a computer and now was the best chance she’d get.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to look at. Text, text and more text. The down arrow scrolled the screen to the bottom of the file, she discovered with a glee even she knew was childish. Crime description, dates, evidence record numbers, noted investigators… Beria-Scarlet was the last name added to the list.

Jade hadn’t known her well. Beria was several years older. Quiet, even for a well-trained scarlet. But something in her jolted in primal recognition at the name.

She’d been one of the ghosts in the morgue.

She clicked the left pointing arrow button Pale had been punishing, pleased again when it switched to another file, and searched for the names of the other women.

Women she hadn’t even known were missing from the enclave. Did anyone, other than Jalla? The Sibile weren’t exactly a warm people, but someone should have noticed these women were gone.
Someone
should have been worried.

In each of the other open files, the scarlets were the last to be listed. Kinne-Scarlet. Dane-Scarlet. Torma-Scarlet. More. Some she’d never known.

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When she looked at her fingers again, she realized the name above the scarlet’s on the last file was one she recognized—Mitch Kroft. Checking to see if Pale was coming back yet, she flipped back through the other files.

Kroft was noted on two of the more recent cases. But another name caught her attention. One that broke her out in a cold sweat, stealing any of the pleasure she’d had in learning something new.

She glanced at the captain’s office door. Fifteen feet away. Pale would be angry that she’d moved but it had to be done. Even now, the hair on the back of her neck was tingling, warning of danger in a way she had almost forgotten. Trusting it, she rose slowly and started walking.

There wasn’t time to worry about his temper. Ten feet.

Five. She had her hand raised to knock when a voice whispered behind her. So close she had the suspicion it had actually been in her mind.

“I’ve always thought nothing was as beautiful as a scarlet’s robe.”

The door opened, Pale lurching in surprise to find her standing there. Before she could say anything, a meaty hand slid around her throat. Jade clawed at it, Pale already reaching for her, when the world disintegrated in front of her.

An eternity passed before it returned, but not as she’d left it. She now faced a muddy mirror in a dark, musty room. In the reflection, a ghostly, grisly smile reflected back at her.

“Yours will be my tenth.”

Dee Tenorio

257

Kennison spent two whole minutes on fake small talk.

Had Pale slept well? Had he enjoyed his personal time away?

Yes, yes he had. But hell if he was saying as much to Kennison.

“Mitch Kroft mentioned the Sibile found a break in the case,” Kennison fished, finally coming to the point.

“He did, huh?”
Bastard
.

“Right before she had a freakout and burst his eardrum screaming.” Kennison watched Pale like a bug under glass.

He could look all he wanted. Pale only allowed himself a small grin at Kroft’s expense. It hit a new low, blaming Jade for his injuries. They’d be gone in a day or so, though his jaw might never hang quite right again. All in all, he had really only hurt the coroner’s pride. “When did you talk to Kroft?”

“When I was looking for you, since you didn’t seem interested in answering your damn phone.”

Pale waited to see if the other man would burst a blood vessel if not kowtowed to.

It only took another minute. “You and that Sibile just took off—”

“She has a name.” A reminder the man would be wise to heed.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about her name, Rysen. The city is on alert. The chief and the mayor are both up my ass for a status report and you take the one person they expect to hear from and disappear into the fucking night with her. And don’t think I don’t know what you two were doing either. I haven’t heard shit from you, damn it.

Where are you with the case?”

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Nowhere Kennison wanted to know about. “I called in. Check with dispatch. Jade overloaded. She lost consciousness and had to wait for moonrise for the next step. Which is what
you’re
interrupting.”

Kennison’s scowl would have made a lesser Wolf envious. “What step is that? And before you give me any of your shit, it better be good. Something with some answers.”

“Believe me, you don’t want these answers.”

Incensed eyes squinted at Pale, the flat line of the other man’s mouth clamped so tight he could double for a steel trap. Then he nodded, almost absently, though his cheeks were still mottling. “All right. I’m game.
Why
don’t I want your answers?”

Pale considered his options. Most of them put Jade in a bad position with her Order. So he went with the truth as it pertained to Kennison. “Because I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be the one explaining to the mayor that the victims are all Sibile. Or that there’s a good chance the Woodsman has his hands in police files to track them down.”

Silence like a brick wall descended.

Well, one thing was sure. The captain wasn’t the killer. If he’d punched him, Pale didn’t think the captain could have been more horrified.

“Told you you didn’t want to know.”

“You’re sure?” Kennison finally asked, his voice betraying a slight shake beneath the authoritative tone.

Probably wet himself, but otherwise, not bad. In that instant, Pale could almost feel for the guy. No one wanted to find themselves in mortal peril with the Sibile. If Dee Tenorio

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Kennison knew what Jade had told Pale, he’d do more than stain the furniture.

“I’m working on it.” Pale waited for the dismissal, but Kennison was lost in his thoughts. He didn’t have time to wait. Jade was out there, virtually exposed. God only knew what kind of trouble she’d get into if left to her own devices much longer. But while he was here…

“Since the jurisdiction on this case has changed—” to put it politely, “—how about you tell me the truth of what’s going on with the Sibile.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, Kennison. I just want to know if they’re getting tagged. Because someone is keeping track of them, that much is clear. Keeping notes on who did what and what each of those women can do. If our guy is using those files to pick Sibile to kill and chop up into little bits, don’t you think the Order is going to be more than a little pissed off about it?”

Kennison’s mottle returned.

“I just like to know where I stand, that’s all. So when one of those Sibile bigwigs asks why their girls are turning up like shark bait, I know whose office to point them to.”

At Kennison’s continued silence, Pale shrugged and pulled open the door, stunned to find Jade standing there, her slim hand stretching out to him from under the cape.

He could see the beginnings of his name on her red lips, then a hand seemed to materialize around her neck.

Pale blinked, trying to focus. A whole man stood behind her… But
nothing
was behind her. He could see through the figure, its features indistinct, like a shadow come to terrifying life.

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“Jade!” But even before he got her name out, they were gone.

Gone.

His mate, vanished before his eyes.

“Jade!” Not a yell. A roar, burst out of him with a growl no one could mistake for human. He surged out of the office, but nothing was there. No woman seated in front of his desk. No red shroud. Only the fading traces of her scent…laced with terror…laced with ash. He yelled her name again, turning in a circle to find her, but there was no mistaking the truth. She’d disappeared into thin air.

The room went silent around him. A few people got to their feet, all of them watching him, but he barely noticed. Rage, desperation, clawed from inside, demanding he find her. Track her. Save her.
Protect.

“She was just…there.” Victor said, staring at the air in front of him, oblivious to the intervening silence. He seemed less concerned about Pale than he was that a woman had just disintegrated in their midst.

“What happened?” Pale demanded, but of the roomful of detectives, only the kid had paid attention to the woman in the flaming red cloak.

“She was at your desk, using your computer. She walked to the captain’s door and…I thought—” His gaze met Pale’s, confusion all over him. “There was someone behind her, but…there wasn’t.”

Pale couldn’t explain to the boy what he himself didn’t understand. A shadow had formed around her like a cloud and taken her. Even with his knowledge that darker beings than himself lurked in the world, he had trouble believing what he’d seen.

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261

Find her. Protect.

His entire being struggled to shift, to listen to the Instinct and locate her scent. Bring her back to him. But he needed the rational mind of a man to find her. To save her. He rushed to his desk. She’d been on the computer.

He noticed immediately that the files had been rearranged.

All scrolled down to the roster. She must have seen something there. A pattern he’d missed, not that he’d had much time to look. Where? What did she see?

He flipped files, one after another. Kroft? Yes, but he’d only been around a little over a year. These cases went further back than that. Then he saw it. Jorgensen.

Again and again and again.

He turned, already testing the air for the cologned smell he hated. The scent, like Jade’s, was fading. The seat where the cocky detective worked, empty. He stared at it, unable to believe the killer he’d hunted had been staring at his own back for months. But it was true.

“Where’s Jorgensen? Where does he live?” he asked over his shoulder.

No one answered. Men he’d have trusted with his life just yesterday were staring at him as if he’d grown a new head. Belatedly, he felt the sharp fangs in his mouth and looked down to see that his fingers had shifted into black, menacing claws. A glance around the room showed him only expressions of fear. He didn’t care. All that mattered was Jade.

Pale moved to Jorgensen’s desk. It looked the same as most others. Computer. Stacks of reports and forms.

Blotter with notes scribbled, picture of the smug bastard on a boat holding a fish still on the line. Pale yanked the center drawer, snapping the lock in two. Inside was the 262

Tempting the Enemy

same standard deal as above—pens, paper, staples, velvet necklace box.

He only hesitated a second. Pulling out the box, he handed it to Victor. He’d give the kid credit, Victor didn’t flinch at brushing Wolf claws. But he almost threw up when he opened it.

“What is it? What did you find?” Kennison asked, the only one moving in the squad room. He walked up to the desk, frowning.

Victor put the box on top of Jorgensen’s desk and backed away, still gagging. Inside, a piece of skin, cured into leather, lay stretched and mounted. The red tattoo, dark brown now, could have been a snake, given the horror it produced. The others didn’t know what the tattoo meant, but they all recognized the triangular shape.

Pale glared pitilessly at the captain. “We just found the Woodsman.”

Kennison looked down, then closed his eyes, dread aging him in a heartbeat.

“He has my mate.” Let them decide what they thought of that on their own. Even humans, for all their prejudice and purposeful blindness, knew the danger of coming between a Wolf and his mate. And every man there knew what the Woodsman had planned for her.