Chapter 12

O ne look from Carter convinced my siblings they didn’t want to stick around for the next part, the actual reason she had come to visit. I would have expected them to kick up a fuss about me working another of the 514’s cases, even if it involved one of my clients, but they left without making a peep.

Either they were tired of me ignoring their advice, which had never prevented them from sharing it, or learning the worst had already happened, that I had died, put them at ease.

“We located tracks leading from a point between the trees to the SUV where you found the body and back again, but there’s nothing beyond that.” Carter sat on the armrest of the couch. “The paw prints are the size of my head.”

Cradling Badb, the brat, Kierce and I talked it out with Carter. “No tracks at either of the other vehicles?”

“None.” She tugged at her collar. “I could almost believe that aliens did lift these women in a cone of light off the highway then lower them into the middle of the woods when they were finished.”

“The creature who ate the second victim doesn’t fit.” I attempted to place Badb on a pillow beside me, but her beady black eyes pierced me, and I settled back in with her. “Has the autopsy been done yet?”

There was always the very, very, very slim chance a cougar had been at fault for the gory scene.

“We put a rush on it,” Carter confided, “but it’ll be tomorrow at the earliest.”

A familiar expression lit her face, and I spotted her angle before she mustered up the courage to ask.

“You’re hoping I’ll swing by the morgue,” I guessed, and she proved me right with a grin.

“I wasn’t going to suggest it,” she hedged, “but since you offered, that would be a great help.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“The bones are another matter.” Kierce, who had been staring off, deep in thought, tuned in to us again. “Three distinct irregularities confined to a five-mile radius. There must be a connection between them.”

Disappearing women and vehicles. Obvious predation. And the surfeit of bones.

“I can’t see one yet,” Carter admitted, “but I agree.”

“A predator that size would have been noticed.” I couldn’t move past that point. “The amount of meat it required would be massive. Either more people would have gone missing, or the deer population would have dipped low enough hunters grumbled about it.”

“Perhaps it’s a shifter.”

Carter and I whipped our heads toward Kierce as his theory solidified into possibility.

“That could explain why there hasn’t been a noticeable hit to the local ecosystem,” Carter said. “If we’re dealing with a beast who’s human part of the time, it could be filling the bulk of its dietary requirements at a grocery store or butcher shop.”

“The disappearing paw prints could be a result of shifting,” I allowed. “When did you find them?”

“Long after the area had been good and trampled.” She flipped her gaze up to the ceiling. “This case has the chief bouncing on his tiptoes. He’s been wanting to forge stronger relationships with South Carolina. This gives him the opportunity to spread his vision and, potentially, extend the 514’s reach.”

“Too much growth too fast will bite him on the butt eventually,” I warned. “He has enough on his plate if he expects to stand against the Society, as well as the local shifter packs, covens, and clans. Their leaders will ignore yet another governing body until the 514 targets one of their own. Then it’ll get bloody. Fast. Without the proper infrastructure, the 514 will buckle the first time pressure is applied.”

Paranormal factions governed themselves for a reason, but the problem with self-government within an ecosystem of predators was they often only policed themselves for crimes against each other. Not other factions. Certainly not humans, who many viewed as food. Leer had taken on a big job with a big dream, but if he wasn’t careful to manage his people and his resources, he would have a big flop on his hands.

“I agree with you, but he’s optimistic.” She fluttered her hand. “That’s politics, and I don’t care about big pictures the way he does. I care about the work and the people we put in the field. One of the reasons it works so well between him and me is he rarely leaves his office. He prefers wading through bureaucracy to weeds.”

The thumps coming from above our heads convinced me Matty and Josie were dancing an Irish jig.

“I’m not great with subtlety,” Carter confessed, “but I’m starting to think the stomping is my cue.”

“You might be right.” I rose to walk her out the door. “Do you mind if Kierce and I head back for another look around?”

“As long as you wear your lanyards, you’ve got access to the scene.” She touched her pocket. “I had one of the guys fetch me a new phone, so if anyone gives you trouble, you tell them to call me. If they won’t, you call me. After I’m done with them, they’ll be too busy rocking in a corner to give you more grief.”

“I’m so glad you’re on my side.”

“What can I say?” Her gaze drifted up again. “I’m a sucker for troublemakers.”

As I stretched off my long nap, I brushed paper in my rear pants pocket and remembered the brochure I found in Pink Panic. I almost mentioned it to Carter, but it didn’t mean anything yet. I should Google before I got her hopes up it was a clue and not a parking lot handout Tameka had yet to toss.

After she left, I turned to find Kierce tracing my outline with a softness in his eyes that turned my heart to goo. “What are you thinking?”

“That the next time we kiss, I hope it’s not under the influence of lust dirt.”

There was no hesitation. No momentary pause. He hadn’t considered withholding his answer.

“The next time?” I pretended to appraise him. “You seem confident I’ll come back for more.”

Rather than the flush I expected on him, he held my gaze, his gone silver. “You will.”

The sudden urge to rub my thighs together at the command in his tone made me second-guess the type of man who was waking up in Kierce. I was a sucker for the low growl in his voice, the possessive edge in his tone. He was still my sweet little weirdo, but he was developing a dark edge whose gleam invited me to linger, to test myself against his sharpness.

A ping drew my attention to my phone. Fifi Dern had texted me.

I know you’re not contacting me about a problem with the spell on your wagon. It’s flawless. So, what brings you to my inbox?

Leaving out details on the victims, I explained the situation then waited while she processed the details.

Magic can do just about anything in the right hands, but I’ve never heard of an auto theft ring using it to pluck vehicles they want right off the road. Let alone with people inside. That would edge into human trafficking, right?

I understood why her thoughts would veer toward auto theft ring , but I doubted that was the case here.

Got any other ideas?

Got any more details?

I’m not at liberty to share.

Okay. Hmm. Some fae steal to cause mischief, but that much iron? Only a gremlin could handle it, and they tend to steal for parts. They like taking things apart then putting them back together in new configurations. They’re inventors, tinkerers, project junkies.

Gremlins like the missing Ezells, for instance.

Thanks for the help.

With the brochure fresh on my mind, I plugged the GWC into the search bar on my phone.

Aside from their nationwide meeting schedule, each chapter operating out of a local community center, they didn’t offer much information to lure in prospective members. I checked the time. It was too late to hope for more than an informative voicemailbox, but I might as well try.

Much to my surprise, a woman answered the phone on the fifth ring in a voice as soothing as aloe after a day at the beach without sunscreen. “Grandview Women’s Club. This is Cora. How can I help you?”

“A friend gave me one of your brochures.”

“Do you need help?”

“What kind of help?”

Silence filled the connection before Cora lost the gentle tone. “You said a friend gave you a brochure?”

Scrunching up my face, I forced out, “Yes.”

“Then you know what kind of assistance GWC offers our members.”

“I think I made a mistake in calling.”

“Speak to your friend.” Her voice softened a bit. “Maybe come to a meeting?”

“Yeah.” I examined the brochure for an indication of what services they provided, but the photos only showed happy women engaging in a variety of activities, and the text wasn’t helpful either. “Maybe.”

“There’s one tomorrow night. Seven o’clock at the Talahi Island community center.”

“Talahi Island?” A ringing started in my ears. “Thanks.”

A commotion outside the door ended with a shriek and a thump, and I shot out onto the landing.

“Franie,” Matty slurred behind me. “You’f always been…my favrit smister.”

“Oh God.” I sniffed his breath and recoiled from the stink. “How much did you two drink?”

“Giddyup,” Josie cheered from somewhere below us. “Ride ’em, cowgirl.” She giggled. “It’s me. I’m the cowgirl. Yeehaw!”

Peering over the railing, I spotted her riding Carter piggyback. That explained the thump. Josie had leapt onto my back more than once using the stairs to give her a boost. The redcap carried her with ease to her pickup and dumped her, not in the cab, but in the bed of the truck.

“They have homebrew in Matty’s bathtub,” Carter called out the warning. “I heard strawberry wine and something about watermelon sugar.”

“Pretty sure those are both song titles,” I yelled back, “but I’ll drain it, whatever it is.”

When I checked on Matty, he had slumped over Kierce’s shoulder and was drooling down his back.

All in all, I was impressed with Carter and Kierce. They handled drunken Marys almost as well as I did.

Powerful spotlights illuminated the god bones where they rested in a pit deep enough for me to stand in without the top of my head giving me away. The scene was very Jurassic Park , with the massive bones in their mostly half-buried state. The techs had left sometime during my nap, but a few guards remained to keep away the curious.

After seeing the paw prints for myself, I had to ask, “Do you think it’s possible the gods missed one?”

“An Alcheyvāhā?” Kierce crouched, caressing the nearest bone with his fingertips. “The one certainty in this world is there are no certainties.”

“It struck me one might have been left behind to guard the others’ remains.” I squatted next to him. “It’s crazy to think the other gods left all this power up for grabs with no one to watch over it.” A zing raced up my arm. “They’re still humming with energy.” I slung out the sensation. “They must have been fierce once.”

“Yes.” A frown gathered across his forehead. “I think they must have been.”

“Who would have known about this place?” I rubbed the tingles from my fingers. “Only god adjacents?”

“No one outside the gods should be aware this place exists. Master spoke freely because the site had been discovered and requires divine intervention to ensure none of the bones are stolen and misused.”

That, and he wiped Kierce’s mind like tissue when the mood struck him.

“Master.” I let the word sit there between us. “I’ve heard you call him that before, and I get that you’re bound in his service, but it still makes me want to claw out his eyes then feed them to Badb.”

“No one has taken issue with his treatment of me.” His mouth curved slowly. “Until you.”

This man kept spreading fissures through my heart as I learned more about him. A living legend. A myth. A demigod or the next best thing. Yet he was kept like a pet in a cage and only released when his master required him to flit out into the human world and perform tasks for him like he was a carrier pigeon and not the Viduus. No. Not even that. Like he wasn’t a person with his own thoughts and feelings.

Except, when I met him, he hadn’t had much of either. Dis Pater had wrung Kierce dry of individuality.

“Yeah, well.” I ignored the heat blooming in my cheeks. “Someone has to look out for you.”

Kind enough to give me a moment to allow my face to cool, Kierce returned his attention to the bones. “We need to determine whether any have been taken.”

“These appear to be intact skeletons.” As if they had all gathered here to curl up and die. “The small bones, those are the tricky ones.”

I wasn’t saying Vi and I had spent time digging up skeletons, for reasons, but I wasn’t not saying it either.

Kierce raised his eyebrows, but I pretended not to notice, figuring he had done his share of skeletal reconstructions too. Though, I had to admit, likely not for the same purpose.

Prior experience in grave robbing— borrowing —convinced me magic had done the heavy lifting in excavating these remains. The sides of the pit were smooth and square without a hint of shovel or pickaxe marks.

“There’s a simple way to check.” He indicated a nearby skull. “Place your palm on the crown.”

Full contact zapped energy up my arm like a static shock on steroids, and I fell on my butt.

Good thing I had plenty of cushion. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

“Are you all right?” Kierce seized my wrist. “What happened?”

“The residual magic.” I scrubbed my fingertips on my pants. “It’s intense.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so sensitive to it.” His gaze held apology. “How about you observe?”

“No.” I slipped out of his hold and slung feeling back into my hand. “I’m ready for it this time.”

A flicker of hesitation stirred doubt within me, but he read my resolve to master my new powers.

Matty and Josie knew what I was, Carter too, and they supported me. I had to be ready to support them right back if another god came knocking. To do that, I had to master my new talents. And fast.

“Place your hand on the bone,” he said again. “Then shut your eyes.”

Hissing through my teeth, I did as he asked then gasped when light flickered behind my lids. “Weird.”

“Focus on the skull,” he murmured. “Let your energy radiate down through its spine, straight to its tail.”

The light show blinked on and off, but as I stroked the bone with my thumb, grounding me to the beast, I saw a hazy outline form. It wasn’t a diagram, exactly, so much as a knowing. There was a visual element. I could picture…something…but a rush of information tingled through my skin, and I knew. “It’s intact.”

“Good.” Pride shone through his voice. “You’re correct.”

“That’s what you were doing earlier.” I opened my eyes. “You were checking for missing pieces.”

Maybe he had a hint of osteokinetic in him. And, I suppose, that meant I did too.

“I wanted to know the answer before I put you to the test.” He indicated the next skull. “Knowledge and memory reside within the skulls. You can’t ask any other bone, or it can only tell you about itself.” He let a sigh part his lips. “There are more than a dozen skeletons here.”

“We better get started then.”