The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) (5 page)

She didn’t understand how the boy
she had loved so much—had gone so wrong.

No. She didn’t want to deal with
the bartender—or her partner. What she wanted was to finally track
down Justice—and get some answers.

Her partner was also giving her
dark looks, but not with the intensity of the barkeep. His glances
were born from a different source, and she knew it. He was
concerned; he didn’t understand her obsession with this
case.

A case that the rest of the
department considered cold—as in dead, as in the leads had all
dried up and blown away a long time ago.

She straddled the stool, set down
her beer, and gave her full attention to her partner. “Okay, out
with it,” she said, though she was in no mood to hear
it.

The only thing that was on her mind
tonight was Justice; and the feelings he invoked in her were
stronger than ever.

“
What are we really doing here?”
He nodded toward the bartender. “He has had it out for you since we
walked in here.”

Jes looked at the bartender,
swallowed, and looked away. She was surprised he hadn’t come over
and told her to leave.

She looked at her partner. He
wanted answers—answers she wasn’t willing to give. And the time for
dodging questions had long since passed. He had reached his limit
with her obsession.

Her partner’s name was Jared. He
was more than six feet tall, and packed with a lot of hard muscle.
He had dark hair and midnight-blue eyes. Women fell all over
themselves to get his attention wherever he went, as they had been
doing here all night since they’d first walked in, but he generally
ignored them. And he did so now.

He was serious when it was called
for and funny when he was relaxed. He was anything but relaxed now.
He’d been her partner for more than five years now. But lately,
he’d become more and more irritated with her—witnessing her work
turn into an obsession with the back-alley slasher. He didn’t
understand it, and she’d never enlightened him. She knew if she
didn’t do so, and soon, he was going to ask for a different
partner.

He was losing faith in
her.

She looked up into his
midnight-blue eyes. She knew he was sweet on her. Just as they both
knew they could never allow that to go anywhere.

“
Jared, I have been searching a
long time for this guy,” she started out, then scowled. Even she
knew she was off to a bad start.”

“
Why?” His tone was harsh. He
wasn’t taking any half-truths, or half-baked stories.

She’d waited too long to give him
something—to give him anything short of the truth. And he wasn’t
going to believe the truth.

Who would?

She glanced at the bartender. She
wanted another beer, but he didn’t look inclined to help her out.
She turned her head fully and glared back at him. He threw down his
towel and, hands on hips, met her glare for glare.

She glanced back at Jared, who was
clearly watching—and waiting for an explanation.

This wasn’t the place for
this.

She glanced at the bartender, who
wasn’t bothering to look away at all now. Looking back at her
partner, she knew he wasn’t going to wait another minute to hear
something—anything—about what they were doing here, or why she’d
been so obsessed: more than usual, lately, and her usual was
obsessed enough.

“
Okay,” she held up a hand of
surrender.

He crossed his arms, leaning back
on his stool, not letting up for a second.

She glared one more time at the
bartender, then stammered out, “You know the kid in the picture?”
She didn’t bother to explain which kid—or even which picture. He’d
caught her staring at the picture hundreds of times over the
years.

He raised a brow. “The kid that
lived through some crazed back-alley slasher that day. You
mean
that kid
?”

Hmmm, it sounded as if her partner
had some suspicions of his own. “Yes. That kid.” She took a deep
breath. Well, she couldn’t hold back now. “He
is
the slasher
,”
she blurted out.

His brow shot up. It took a lot to
surprise him. But he clearly was waiting for the punch line. When
she gave him a purely serious look, a look of priceless surprise
crossed his eyes, and he first sputtered, then started laughing.
“You’re serious!”

Her brows shot up, daring him to
continue laughing at her.

He tried to school his features, to
rein in his laughter, but failed and laughed out loud. It was clear
that he was trying to picture a fourteen-year-old boy slashing
through one of Chicago’s most fearsome gangs.

She glared at him.

Finally, he sobered. He pinched in
his lips, trying to contain his amusement long enough to ask, “Why
on earth, Jes, would you, of all people, have bought into that
theory?” Then he sobered at his own words.

He stared at her.

She stared back.

He shook his head. He knew
she
wouldn’t
believe this—not without a damn good reason. But what on
earth could that reason be? She watched him run the gambit, his
gaze finally settling on her when he came up empty for anything
that could possibly tell him how she’d drawn this outrageous
conclusion.

And he knew—she would have some
kind of rationale for this—and a good one.

But damned if he knew what it
was.

When she saw that he was clearly
out of arguments—and better yet, clearly out of any explanations as
to why she’d just said something so crazy—she knew she now had his
full attention, and she began speaking very carefully, in a quiet
undertone, “He is a rogue member of an ancient race called the
Jaguar People.”

Now, he had true surprise showing
on his face—as he tried, and failed, to follow her explanation. He
looked at her, clearly waiting for her to give an explanation—any
explanation. After a long moment of complete silence, he said, “I
don’t know what shocks me more: finding out that the most
level-headed woman I’ve ever known is really crazy—or finding out
that my partner is willing to come up with such a stupid story to
cover her own ass.”

With that, he got up from his stool
and went out the back door of the tavern.

Leaving Jes too stunned by his
attack to move for several, long seconds. When she finally came to
her senses, she ran after him. But by now, it was mostly out of
fear of the direction he had just taken—because she had just
received the clear feeling that Justice was out there
waiting.

When she reached the alley, she had
the distinct feeling she was too late. She raced down the darkened
back street in the direction where she felt Justice waiting. She
had never felt anyone’s presence so clearly and she couldn’t
breathe through her fear. It may already be too late.

He would kill her partner. And she
would be too late.

She realized she had no more
secrets to hide. She had to keep Justice from killing her partner.
In a flash she transformed, and was now racing at lightning speed.
When she came around the corner, it was to find her partner backed
against the wall—and a large, male jaguar snarling and pacing in
front of him. She could clearly see that her partner was more
terrified than she had ever seen; in fact, she’d never seen him
show any fear before.

And he didn’t look too happy to see
a second jaguar, albeit a smaller one, coming from the
alley.

Justice turned and, upon seeing
her, he was so shocked that he transformed back to his human-like
form. “What the hell?” he snarled.

She transformed back, too. Brushing
herself off, she strode toward the naked man, as naked as he was,
completely aware of that fact, and too angry to care.

“
It’s one thing,” she snarled at
him, “to think you are the Ancient One, to think you are
actually
supposed
to kill—
murderer
.”
She waved her arm wildly and then
pointed at her partner, who was white as chalk. “But what
explanation do you have for trying to
kill
a cop
?”

Justice only stared at her. He was
staring at
her,
staring at her fully naked form, taking her all in, and made
no bones about it, which only enraged her further. “Are you going
to just stand there ogling me, or are you going to explain
yourself!”

He actually grinned. “Well, I’m too
surprised to actually see… you again. Then, to see you, my mate—in
the form of our people, and now—beautifully naked… so I think, for
now, I’ll stick to ogling: it makes sense, somehow.”

She was standing directly in front
of him now. And even as angry as she was, it was a dangerous place
to put herself; but she was still surprised by the power between
them. It shocked her into silence. The power that had been between
them as children—which had grown stronger as they became teens, as
they reached puberty—was now amplified a hundredfold.

For a long moment she looked into
the eyes of a killer—and what she felt was anything
but
disgust—or even
fear. She began to tremble. She fought back at what she felt, and
failed. She turned to look at her partner. He was staring at the
two of them as if he’d just seen a UFO or something—and was now
staring at a pair of aliens.

“
Oh, come on,” she growled. “Of
all the times for you not to keep your usual, stoic behavior—now
is
not the time
.”

She looked back at Justice, who
had turned away. “Where do you think you’re going? You’re not
going
anywhere
!”

He had reached a car and opened the
door. He turned back and grinned at her still-naked form. The
vision of him—gloriously naked and proud—would be forever branded
into her head. She wanted to hide her eyes—but she could only
stare.

“
What are you going to do? Stop
me?” He gestured at her naked form. “With what? Your pistol—or your
handcuffs?”

Jes flushed. She promised herself
she would feel mortified later if only she could fight down what
she was really feeling right now. She knew she
would
be mortified later—when she
was home—safe in her bed—remembering that her partner had been
watching the two of them—naked—arguing.

And she couldn’t even
arrest
the killer
!

As if she could
ever
arrest him. What on
Earth had made her think she could ever arrest him? Did she think
she was stronger—more powerful? It was obvious he was too powerful
for her to handle alone.

And who
exactly
did she think she was going
to call in to help?

Her partner?

She nearly snorted out loud—staring
at Justice.

He gave her a mock salute and got
in his car. She heard the quiet purr of the engine a second later,
and he drove away—just like that.

She stared after him.

Then tore her gaze away and looked
back at her partner.

It was going to be a long
night.

Chapter Four

War

They were settled into a
booth,
sipping on Cokes and eating burgers
before she trusted herself enough to speak. Jared was clearly
poleaxed. He hadn’t said a word, not even when he’d stood there and
watched her pick up her ripped clothes from the middle of the alley
and put them back on—or what was left of them.

Under any other conditions, she
would have been furious. But not a single expression had crossed
his face. He was watching her, but it was like nothing was
registering. So she hadn’t said a word. He’d simply stood there,
watching her. His mind had appeared somewhere else—watching, but
seeing nothing.

She would have been concerned that
he was traumatized—but he seemed more introspective than anything
else. He’d proven this when they’d made their way to their booth at
the café. He’d been able to speak, ‘cause he gave the waitress his
order. And he seemed calm.

Far
too
calm.

And it freaked her out, more than
just a bit. It freaked her out—because it seemed to her that if any
other human had seen what he’d seen tonight—they’d be going bananas
right now.

And she’d be sitting here trying to
pick up the pieces—and hold together what was left of their
world.

Why wasn’t he feeling like his
whole world was an illusion?

He should be feeling like
everything he’d known—was a lie. Maybe even questioning if his own
government knew—which they did… well, at least they knew they were
not alone on this planet. She was unsure of what else they
knew.

But he should be questioning
everything right now—not sitting here quietly drinking a
Coke.

She had come face-to-face with
Justice. Yeah… She was more than a little bit freaked out herself.
And here she was trying to fix things with her partner—when all she
wanted to do was go after Justice.