Chapter Twenty

The bloody trail left on the cobbles by the werewolf was long gone, even to a vampire's finely tuned senses. Lukas scanned the road and his nostrils flared, but I knew from his studied focus that there was nothing left to detect. I also knew from the glimpses of wide-eyed faces appearing at the windows above us that his presence here was causing a stir. I wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing, but I had to admit that I felt safer having him around. I wasn't planning to tell him that, though.

‘There,' I said finally, after we'd rounded the corner and I recognised the door. ‘That was the house where I found them arguing.' I straightened my shoulders. ‘It's time to see if anyone's home.'

I walked up and rapped sharply on the door. Lukas hung back. I knew that he was trying to give me the lead so that I could assert my authority as he'd suggested. I wasn't sure whether that knowledge troubled me or warmed me. The idea that he might want me to stick around in Supe Squad was not one I wanted to think about too closely.

Fortunately, someone was indeed home. We didn't have long to wait before there were heavy footsteps inside and the sound of the door being unlocked. It opened and a man peered out – the same man who'd transformed from a wolf in front of my very eyes just a couple of days earlier. His clothes were unkempt, and he had a scraggy beard that hadn't been there last time I'd seen him. I glanced over his grubby T-shirt, the blue tag pinned to his left arm and his bare feet caked in dirt. This was not someone who'd been taking care of himself.

When he saw me, he stumbled backwards. ‘It wasn't me!' he blurted out. ‘I know it might look that way, but I didn't do anything to her!'

I glanced at Lukas, whose expression was dark and forbidding. ‘Perhaps it's better if we come inside to discuss it,' I said,

He shook his head and moved further back. Given that he hadn't actually denied me access and the door remained open, I stepped across the threshold. Lukas followed. The man noticed him belatedly, his eyes widening as he recognised the vampire Lord.

The wide hallway still bore traces of the fight. The wallpaper was ripped in several places and had tattered scraps hanging down, and there were scars gouged into the carpet where the wolves' claws had dug into it. I could still smell the faint tang of spilled blood clinging to the air. The evidence outside might have been washed away but, as far as the house was concerned, the fight had only just occurred. I took it all in. He'd obviously made no effort to tidy up.

‘Do you have somewhere we can sit?' I asked kindly. Despite Lukas's advice, I didn't think this was the time for a show of aggression. From the looks of him, this werewolf was already well and truly cowed.

He sighed heavily and gestured to the door on his right. I walked into a small living room. Crumpled tissues littered the floor, and there was a bottle of vodka with less than an inch of liquid in it on the table next to the sofa.

‘I'm not drunk,' the werewolf said defensively. ‘I had that yesterday. And anyway, it was already almost empty.'

‘We're not here to judge,' I told him. I sat down gingerly and waited for Lukas and the wolf to do the same.

‘Why is he here?' the wolf demanded, sitting as far away from Lukas as possible. ‘I already spoke to Lady Sullivan yesterday.'

‘Yesterday?' I prompted. The fight I'd witnessed had been days ago.

‘Yeah. She came to question me about Becca.'

‘Becca is the woman who's gone missing?'

He gave me a blank look. ‘No. Her sister. The one who attacked me.'

I frowned. Hang on a minute. Something about that didn't compute.

‘What's your name?' Lukas asked.

The werewolf didn't answer immediately.

‘We're not going to use it against you,' Lukas said gently. ‘We just want to get to the bottom of all this.'

The werewolf's head fell further. A bulbous drop of green snot slid from his left nostril, but he made no move to wipe it away. ‘I don't care any more,' he whispered. ‘I don't care what you do.' He lifted his head. ‘My name is Gregory. And, yes, that's my real name. Do with it what you will.'

I watched him carefully. So this name business really was about far more than tradition. ‘Why don't you start at the beginning, Gregory? Tell us what happened, and don't leave anything out.'

He sniffed loudly and the snot droplet disappeared into his nose again. ‘I bumped into Anna, Becca's sister, inside Crystal on Saturday night. She was out with Becca and a few of her mates. One thing led to another and we ended up here. Anna didn't want to go to her place because she lives with Becca and she's a real ball-breaker.' He looked at me. ‘Anna's words. Not mine.'

‘Are those their real names?' I asked. ‘Anna and Becca?'

‘Yeah.' He gave me a defiant glare. ‘But even if I was strong enough to use someone's name to dominate them, I couldn't have. I didn't find out either of their real names until after all this shit happened.'

I glanced over at Lukas to see if that rang true. He nodded.

‘Who's more dominant?' Lukas inquired. ‘You or Anna?'

‘Me.' He sniffed again. It was hard to imagine Gregory being more dominant than anyone. I supposed it was a wolf thing. ‘But if you're going to ask whose more dominant between me and Becca, then it's definitely Becca.'

Given what I'd witnessed of their fight, I could attest to that. ‘So you had sex with Anna?'

‘Didn't I just say that?' His eyes flashed. That was good to see; maybe he wasn't completely cowed after all. ‘And it was good sex, too. Nothing kinky. No ropes or handcuffs or smacking or anything. It was vanilla.'

I leaned forward. ‘Do you prefer it kinky, Gregory?'

He met my eyes. ‘Sometimes. Not always. I don't go into for waterplay or cross-action, but I don't mind a bit of role play or furry handcuffs from time to time.'

My brow furrowed slightly. Lukas glanced my way and murmured, ‘Cross-play is when one partner is in their normal form while the other is wolf.'

I blinked.

‘Water play is when—'

‘That one I know,' I said drily. ‘But thanks.'

Lukas raised his eyebrows at Gregory. ‘What about Anna? Was she inclined towards those sorts of sexual games?'

‘I don't know. We only had sex once, and we were both pretty drunk. It was vanilla, like I said. When I woke up in the morning, she'd already gone.'

‘And this was Sunday morning?' I asked.

He nodded. ‘That's the last time anyone saw her,' he whispered. ‘But no matter what you think, I didn't hurt her. I don't know what happened to her. I didn't realise anything was wrong until later that day when her sister came at me.'

He ran a hand through his hair. ‘Becca wouldn't believe that I had nothing to do with Anna's disappearance. She kept on and on at me, then she attacked me in the middle of the street. I was passing her house and she came bounding out and threw herself at me. I got away, ran back here and she followed.' He nodded at me. ‘That's when you showed up.'

‘There's been no sign of Anna since then?'

‘No.'

‘So what happened to Becca? What did Lady Sullivan tell you yesterday?'

‘Whatever Becca did,' he said, without listening to my question, ‘she did to herself. It wasn't me. It wasn't my fault.' He started to wring his hands, turning them over and over in his lap. From where I was sitting, it appeared that he was rocking. That didn't bode well.

I put as much steel into my voice as I could. ‘Gregory,' I said, ‘what has happened to Becca?'

His head snapped up. ‘She killed herself. Yesterday morning.' He sank into himself. ‘Becca committed suicide.'

***

I was seething. Once Lukas and I were back outside Gregory's house, I let rip. ‘Why didn't Lady Sullivan tell us about Becca? Or Anna? You can't seriously tell me that it's normal for werewolves to vanish, or for young women to kill themselves! In the context of what happened to Tony, she was being incredibly reckless by not revealing that information!'

‘I doubt she thought it was relevant,' Lukas said.

‘Could a more dominant supe with a lot of power have used Becca's name and compelled her to commit suicide?' I asked, horrified at the thought.

Lukas shook his head. ‘Not a chance. Compulsion will go a long way but, regardless of how much power you might have, you can't use it to fight against another person's inner soul and true nature. Think of it like hypnosis: you couldn't hypnotise someone to kill themselves. It doesn't work when someone is wholly set on a different path.'

I was only slightly mollified. ‘That's good to know, but Lady Sullivan should have informed us about both women.'

‘I'm not disagreeing with you,' he said gently. ‘It would have been better if she'd told us, especially considering that Brown's last movements involved breaking up the fight between Becca and Gregory.'

‘He didn't break up the fight,' I said, curling my fingers into fists and damning Lady Sullivan to hell. ‘I did.'

‘Mm.' Lukas's black eyes seared into me. ‘That's not the only thing you've done. Did you feel it when you said his name?'

‘What?'

‘The thrum of power,' he said. ‘Did you feel it?'

I gave him a blank look. ‘I have no idea what you're talking about.'

‘Gregory is a delta – or at least he was a delta. He doesn't look like he'll be retaining that position for much longer.'

‘I'll repeat what I just said. I have no idea what you're talking about.'

Lukas's expression was patient. ‘Lady Sullivan is the clan alpha.'

‘Yep. Got that.'

‘Beneath her are a dozen betas.'

‘Okay.'

‘Then there are selsas, who rank below the betas. Below the selsas are the deltas. Then the gammas, who are the betas of the deltas, followed by epsilons, zetas and iotas. Iotas are the pups. That's not including the omegas, those wolves who are on the periphery of the clan and outside the usual hierarchy for a variety of reasons.'

I stared at him. ‘Are you even speaking English?'

Lukas let out a short laugh. ‘I gave you the condensed version. It's not difficult. I thought everyone knew about the wolves' hierarchy.'

‘I knew there was a hierarchy,' I muttered. ‘I didn't know it was so complicated or that it was going to sound like an American college fraternity.'

He reached across and patted my arm. Again I felt my skin burn where he touched me. ‘You're an innocent, D'Artagnan.'

I tried not to take offence. ‘Getting back to the point,' I said, ‘Gregory is a delta.'

‘Yes. I'm assuming you didn't notice the blue tag on his shirt.'

‘Actually, I did. But I didn't know what it was for.'

‘Blue is for delta,'

‘I get that now. So he's what? In the middle of the pack?'

Lukas pursed his lips. ‘Essentially. You still have to be reasonably powerful to reach that point. Gregory was speaking the truth. He would never be strong enough to use another's name against them. I'm sure I've already told you that only a handful of supes can use given names to achieve dominance. In theory, the only people who can use a werewolf's name to such effect are those who rank far above them.'

‘And in practice?' I inquired.

‘In practice, a non-ranking trainee, with no power and no practical knowledge of anything supernatural, used Gregory's name to calm him down and ensure he answered her questions.' Lukas paused. ‘It will be interesting to discover what rank Becca held, given that you also broke up their fight presumably without using her name to enhance your authority. You have more power within you than I'd realised.'

I wrinkled my nose. ‘I might technically be a trainee, but I'm a mere smidge away from becoming a qualified police detective. There's authority and power in that.'

He snorted. ‘That means nothing in the supernatural world. Brown certainly couldn't have done what you did.' He gazed into my eyes. ‘So the question remains: what on earth are you, D'Artagnan?'

His scrutiny was making me uneasy – and so was his question. ‘Lucky,' I shrugged, making light of the situation. ‘Just lucky.'

‘You don't believe that any more than I do. Who are your parents? What do they do?'

Discomfort tightened the muscles in my shoulders. ‘They don't do anything. They're dead.'

Lukas drew in a breath. ‘I'm sorry.'

I looked away. ‘They died a long time ago.' I shook myself. Whatever I was, I couldn't see how it had any bearing on our investigation. I was convinced what had happened was nothing more than an unnatural by-product. I knew I was too afraid to delve deeper into myself – but I also knew that right now we had more important things to do. ‘Lady Sullivan,' I said firmly. ‘We need to talk to her.'

Lukas continued to watch me intently.

‘Lukas!' I snapped. ‘Lady Sullivan! We need to find out what the hell happened to Becca and why Lady Sullivan didn't tell us about it.'

He stepped away from me. ‘Yes.' He pointed down the road. ‘Her residence is this way.'

I began striding in that direction. Lukas followed. I didn't need to turn around to know that his eyes were burning into my back the entire way.