The Wolf Within (28 page)

“
We’re
paying you.” Dan didn’t look sympathetic.

“Yes, but I’ll need other clients once this is over.” I didn’t want to think about how long that might be. My clients would cut me some slack for a few weeks, maybe a month but after that, they’d go hunting for a new bean counter.

“Tell them there’s been a death in the family.”

Bad choice of words. I winced, glancing at Bug reflexively. Her expression said ‘let it go’ and I sighed. “I give up, c’mon Aunty.”

“Esme and Agent Stevens have to go with you.”

Across the room, Esme looked up and my heart sank. I didn’t want to hang out with weres, I wanted a nice peaceful lunch with my Aunt. But then, where could I go that was safe? “Oh, bite me,” I snapped at Dan.

“Been there, done that,” he snarled back.

My jaw dropped open. Whatever the Taskforce had hired him for, it really hadn’t been tact and diplomacy. And possibly not for brains either. “You really want to remind me of that right now?” I glared at him, ignoring the fact that everyone in the room had given up any pretense of working and were just listening to us fight. Jase was smiling.

Dan just stared down at me and I knew I had to leave before I slugged him. I stalked over to Jase.

“You’re coming with me. Put all our current files on a hard drive and grab the hard copies.”

“Where will you be?” Dan asked loudly.

“Home.” He looked almost relieved. “I’ll be here for a while with all this.”

“Good,” I said. “I wasn’t planning on making you dinner anyway."

He took a step toward me then seemed to change his mind. He straightened then walked back out into reception. I headed into the back room to help Jase with the files. “Tonight,” I said to him as soon as we were alone. “We talk to Lord Marco
tonight
.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Lord Marco’s house didn’t look nearly so appealing by moonlight. In fact, it looked downright creepy. The vines threw nasty snaky shadows everywhere and I was all too aware that once I walked through the front door I’d be surrounded by vampires.

“Are you absolutely sure about this?” Jase asked as we walked toward the front door.

I summoned a very fake smile, ignoring the fact my thundering heartbeat made it perfectly plain how scared I was. “Absolutely. If anyone knows anything about Tate then I want to know.”

“And if Marco doesn’t want to tell you?”

I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I was counting on the fact Marco seemed to like me and had offered to help. I didn’t know what I’d do if he’d changed his mind.

The door swung open as we approached and I jumped backwards. Jase put his hand on my back. “Easy.”

“You take it easy,” I muttered back. “That was spooky.”

“I prefer to think of it as efficient, Signorina Keenan.” Marco appeared in the doorway.

Heat flooded my cheeks. Way to go, Ashley. Insult the vampire before you ask him for a favor.

I decided to ignore my gaffe altogether as he ushered us into the entryway. “Lord Marco, thank you for seeing me.”

“I am always happy for beautiful women to come and see me,” he said with a grin that revealed his fangs. In the warm yellow light of the hall, his eyes looked a much darker shade of green than I remembered. “Regardless of whether they find me
spooky
.”

Was he teasing me or making a point? His face revealed nothing. Note to self. Never play poker with an Old One. I decided to play things safe and stick close to Jase. Marco led us to the same room where he had removed Tate’s thrall from me. I didn’t particularly want to remember the last time I’d been here but it was unavoidable once Marco gestured for me to sit on the same sofa as I had before.

I was grateful when he took the opposite sofa rather than sitting beside me. Jase waited until Marco was seated before taking the empty space on my sofa. Our backs were to the door which made my spine tingle uneasily.

I tried to ignore the feeling, focusing on Jase instead. It didn’t help, Jase looked nervous. Not for the first time, I wondered whether I should’ve brought more back-up. Jase and I had given Esme and Agent Stevens the slip but it would’ve been nice to have more firepower on our side. But I could hardly have asked Dan.

I jumped when someone knocked on the door and opened it. Torn between playing it cool and staying alive, I chose staying alive, and twisted around to see who’d walked in.

A woman—vampire I assumed—stood by the door, holding a tray with glasses. Four glasses. Deep red liquid shimmered inside them and I frowned, wondering what exactly we were being offered. Then saw Marco watching me and smoothed my expression out. “I didn’t realize anyone would be joining us.”

“You don’t care for refreshments?” he asked with another easy smile.

One I didn’t trust. We were playing a game and this time I was the one asking for a favor. The hairs on the back of my neck lifted as the woman approached. Whoever she was, my instincts didn’t like her.

Plus I wasn’t sure what was in the glasses and I didn’t want to offend by refusing if it was only wine. “She’s not a servant.” I nodded toward the strange vamp. She wore a simply cut black dress but I didn’t make the mistake of assuming that meant it was cheap. She had long dark curly hair, much as I imagined Marco’s might be if he let it grow long, and her lips were painted a deep red. I hoped it was lipstick.

Marco raised a dark eyebrow as he leaned back against the sofa, adjusting his brilliant white cuffs. “No? What makes you so sure?”

Dark green stones the size of quail’s eggs gleamed in his cufflinks. Emeralds? If they were, he was wearing a small fortune on his wrists. Then again, he’d had centuries to pay them off.

“There are four glasses on the tray.”

He laughed and the woman shot me a startled glance, bent and placed a glass before each of us. She took one for herself and knelt at the edge of the low table separating the sofas.

“You did not tell me she was clever, Lord Marco,” she said. Her voice sounded American but something felt odd about it.

“Many humans are,
bella
,” Marco replied, eyes twinkling. “Ashley, this is Leah.”

I nodded then waited, assuming there was more of the explanation coming. The name wasn’t one I recognized.

“Leah works for Esteban.”

“Lord Esteban,” Leah said softly. There was just a hint of an edge to the tone. Like she wanted to be nastier but didn’t want to upset Marco. I knew the feeling.

Marco inclined his head, acknowledging the correction. From what I understood of vamp politics, as the ruling Old One in the city, he didn’t have to give anyone the courtesy of a title. That he chose to do so meant he was playing nice.

With Esteban; of all people. I certainly recognized
that
name. Esteban was famous. Or infamous. He owned many of Seattle’s dark clubs and didn’t necessarily keep those who enjoyed them on a tight leash. He wasn’t as enthusiastic about sticking to human rules as some of the other Old Ones.

Though the courts had yet to find that he was implicated in any of the more extravagant excesses that occurred in his premises from time to time.

Yet being the operative word.

“And what is Lord Esteban’s interest in this?” I asked delicately, trying not to scrunch away from Leah. Her long arms could reach me without her even moving. I didn’t like the proximity. She smelled of something heady and exotic, the spice and musk almost overpowering. But it didn’t completely mask the fact she also smelled of blood. I eyed the liquid in the glasses with renewed distrust.

“Let’s just say that all the Old Ones are interested in Tate ceasing to plague us,” Marco said.

I glanced from him to Leah. She sat utterly still, watching me with dark brown eyes. I didn’t meet her gaze directly but I didn’t look away. She bared her fangs at me.

I kept my gaze steady. After all, I was a werewolf now. She probably couldn’t do too much damage to me. If I was lucky, that was. I’d been a wolf for less than a week and I guessed she’d had a bit more practice than that at being a bloodsucker.

A bloodsucker who worked for one of the bad guys.

But in terms of the lesser of two evils, when it came to choosing Leah—and therefore Lord Esteban—or Tate, it was a no-brainer. Still, I wouldn’t be going down any dark alleys with Leah any time soon.

“Careful,
bella
,” Marco said. “Wolves have teeth. And we are here because of mutual interests. Why don’t we drink to that?”

I looked down at the glass in front of me. Leah’s scent was so strong that I couldn’t smell whether it held blood or something more innocent. Jase picked up his glass and sniffed it with evident pleasure. Did that mean it
was
blood? My stomach flipped as I picked up the glass, feeling distinctly queasy.

“Don’t look so worried, Ashley,” Marco said as he lifted his own glass. “Yours is wine.”

Mine
was wine? Was that supposed to make me feel better? That I was sitting with three people who drank blood willingly? I was used to Jase and his travel cup, but this was something else altogether. My fingers tightened around the delicate stem of the glass. How the hell had my life gotten so complicated, this fast?

I was meant to be an accountant.

Staid.

Sensible.

Wearer of navy suits.

No drinking of bodily fluids involved.

I waited until everyone had drunk, then took a careful mouthful and put my glass down. The wine was slightly sweet and fruity. Italian maybe? “So, have you heard anything more about Tate?” I asked.

Marco shrugged, a fluid boneless movement. “We are still investigating, like your own Taskforce.”

Was that a no? Or an ‘I’ll tell you when I’m ready’?

“Was there something in particular you wanted to know?” Leah asked. Her voice, like Marco’s, was low and musical. There was definitely a faintly odd twist to her accent. Something that told me that English wasn’t her only language. I wondered how old she was.

Marco seemed to trust her. Or respect her, at least. Which suggested she might be quite old. Vampires get more powerful with age. Perfect. I tried to stay casual. “It’s just with these murders and—” I cut off, not sure how much I should say about my missing files.

“And?” Marco prompted. He raised his glass and sipped again.

Oh, what the hell
. Dan was going to be furious regardless of what I did or didn’t tell Marco. So I might as well be honest. “Someone hacked into my system and wiped the information I had on Tate,” I admitted. “So you can understand my urgency.”

“I understand,” Marco said. He leaned forward a little. The light reflecting through the liquid in his glass cast a reddish glow over his hands. “But I do not yet understand what you are willing to give us in exchange for this information?”

“
Give
you? You said before that you would help us.”

“I said we would seek out Tate and deal with him. But you are coming to me with another specific request now.”

I looked at Jase, seeking guidance. “You didn’t say anything about this.”

“I didn’t know he would ask,” Jase said.

Marco chuckled and my head snapped back to him.

His eyes bored into mine. “Young Jason is not a player in our politics. He stays in your world. How should he know?”

Because I paid him very good money to make my life run smoothly, not to lead me into vampire traps. And what about his other abilities? Hadn’t he had any inkling that Marco might want something in return? Did he not care . . . or, another less pleasant thought occurred to me, were those very abilities the reason that Jase didn’t want to get involved in the vamp world too deeply?

“What exactly are you asking for?” I said. Might as well find out the worst.

Marco blinked slowly. Perhaps he wasn’t used to the direct approach.

“Well,
cara
, there is always the usual. . . .”

“He means a blood offering,” Jase whispered.

I stiffened. “Not going to happen.” One vampire biting me was enough for this lifetime. And any other lifetimes I might have. I had zero interest in being thralled again and I definitely wasn’t going to volunteer for the pain of being bitten.

One corner of Marco’s mouth curled up. “I do not often drink wolf blood, anyway.”

“Lord Esteban does not share your distaste,” Leah offered.

I turned my gaze to hers. “Read my lips.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
”

She bared her fangs again. I smelled blood on her breath and flinched.

“Then what do you offer to us?” she asked.

“Information?”

Marco rubbed a finger round the rim of his glass, making it sing. The sound hurt my ears as I focused on him.

He tilted his head at me with a small smile as he lifted the finger. “I believe we know everything you know already. Your Taskforce has not gotten very far, has it?”

“We’re doing okay.” I said, stung. Since I’d been rescued, we’d started to close in on a few of the aliases Tate had been using. But we had a long way to go.

“You are like children, hunting for the monster with a flashlight, pretending you are not scared of the dark,” Leah said scornfully.

Oh no, I knew I was scared of the dark. “What are you hunting for him with?”

She smiled nastily. “Torches. Many, many torches.”

I couldn’t help smiling back. It wasn’t a nice image. But hey, I didn’t want Tate to die easily. I wanted him to
suffer
. A much as inhumanly possible. If the vamps found him first and tore him to pieces then I didn’t think I’d be all that upset.

Dan, however, would be.

Jase put down the glass he’d been toying with. “We may have other information.”

Startled, I swiveled my head in his direction. “What other information.”

“Don’t worry,” he said and I suddenly knew. He was going to tell Marco about his psychic abilities.

Bad idea. Bad, bad idea. I had no desire for Jase to become a pawn in vampire power games. It tended to be a world of vamp eat vamp where only the strong survived. Darwin would’ve loved it.

I doubted Jase would.