Chapter Twenty-Three

The night sky was pitch black when Python finally got back, his damp hair and change of clothes indicating he'd showered, and he was wrinkling his nose. Cyrus had jumped up the moment he appeared, and Python seemed more than happy to fall into his arms. "The stink, babe. The absolute stink. How do the cleaners deal with that shit?"

"It's why they get called in so soon after a kill," Cyrus said gently. Pax had an aww moment the way the wolf hybrid cradled his mate, who was only slightly bigger than he was, in his arms. "Bodies don't stink up a place the moment they die. That takes time. Now come on, sit down, and don't keep us in suspense. You've been gone over an hour, and you said you'd only be five minutes."

"Yes, well. I had to make sure I got the right place for a start," Python said grimly. "No offense, pixie, but that place is a dump."

Pax was stung. He wasn't the world's best housekeeper, but his place was comfortable. "It's not that bad. Maybe a few clothes on the floor, and okay, so I don't make my bed every time I get out of it, but that just saves having to untuck it when I fall into it at night. It's not dirty, just not that tidy."

"Pixie, that might have been what it looked like it when you were abducted that day, but that place is completely trashed now. And that's without the two dead bodies propped up on your couch."

"Two bodies?" Flint asked, as Pax gasped.

"My things. What about my things?" He didn't have much, but Pax had picked up a few treasures from the times he liked to wander the markets.

Python was shaking his head. "What's not covered in blood and brain matter has been smashed, slashed, or cracked. If there were clothes on the floor, they're rags now, and you don't want to know what happened to your bed. I'm sorry, little one. You've got nothing to go back for."

"The two bodies," Storm said urgently. "From what you're saying, it sounds like they were staged for someone to find. Were they crocodile shifters?"

"No, although the stench of unwashed crocodiles was rife throughout the apartment. It was more that the bodies were left as a warning for our young pixie here. A sort of ‘this is what will happen to you if you don't comply,' type shit, which is ridiculous, because anyone seeing that mess would either go to the authorities or move out of state."

"Babe, you could've seen all that in five minutes easily and still get back well before you did. Where else did you go?"

"I wanted to see if anyone was watching the apartment, and I was also keen to chat to the Marybelle on the phone. So, I zapped back out. Changed. Walked in, and yes there was a leather clad dude on a badly tuned motorcycle riding past really slowly as I went into the lobby. I don't know if someone is watching our pixie's last known address full time or if they are doing a random drive by. There were no lights on in Pax's apartment, so I guess if they saw light there, then they'd know someone, likely Pax, had come home."

"More likely to see if the police had been called." Pax wasn't sure how he was feeling. Admittedly, it wasn't that he had a strong attachment to his couch, although it was his. It hadn't come with the apartment. But bodies?

"There's that too. That's what any normal person would do, but that would indicate to the crocodile misfits that you had found the bodies they left you as a present," Python agreed. "Anyhow, I walked up to the apartment – no elevator, ugh – and I knocked on your door really loudly. You can smell something nasty coming from under the door, by the way."

"I'm more interested in finding out whose bodies were left on my couch." Pax wrapped his arms around his middle, suddenly chilled. Storm immediately picked him up, setting him onto his lap, wrapping his arms around Pax, too.

"We're getting to that," Python said.

"Hey, you're saying this has all taken place in an apartment block," Devon said. "Surely someone from another apartment would've heard the noise if things were smashed like you said. Apartments are the worst for nosy neighbors butting in when you're trying to do your job."

"Hence the knocking on the pixie's door." Python pointed at Devon. "If anyone heard anything at all, you're going to bet they want to say something to someone. I even wore casual clothes, so I'd be approachable."

"Marybelle would've liked that." Pax felt another shiver run down his spine. Suddenly his death seemed even more imminent than when he'd been taken by the killer bear, and he wanted to melt into Storm's chest.

"Marybelle was a surprise," Python admitted with a chuckle. "She stormed out of her apartment, hair all done up in those curler things, a long cigarette in a holder held between her fingers, her robe flapping around her body, which was something I was not prepared to see. She started screeching as soon as she saw me. ‘He's not here. Who are you? Do you know what the hell is going on around here? Where's Pax? Can you smell that stink? Is he dead? Is he dead?' I literally had to take a step back she came up to me so fast."

"She never understood much about personal space." Pax felt a lump in his throat. Marybelle was a self-described straight talker. Pax could never remember her ever saying anything nice about him, but she cared enough to worry that he might be dead. Storm's arm tightened around his shoulder, and Pax gave him a grateful smile.

"I acted the klutz," Python said. "Told her that I just remembered you'd said that you were going on a trip back home to your family for a few weeks. That irritated her, because you hadn't been texting her, but I pointed out you could've lost your phone, which she agreed was the sort of dumbass thing you would do."

Pax nodded. The lump in his throat was getting bigger.

"Hey," Storm said quietly. "You're not dead, okay. You can see her again. We just have to work out what to do about the bodies in your apartment."

"Marybelle was all for calling the police about the smell, but I said it was more likely there was a dead rat in the walls or something. She had an awful lot to say about that, as coincidentally that sort of thing had happened before, and the building supervisor never did anything about it. But I've bought us a few days before we have to do something. We can't let our little pixie be questioned for murder."

"Murder? But I never did anything." Pax's heart started racing double time.

"Yet there are two dead wolf shifters in your apartment." Python held up his phone showing his screen.

Pax slapped his hand over his mouth as the grilled ribs from earlier and even the donuts he'd had for breakfast threatened to make an appearance. "You can't think I had anything to do with that," he said, tears in his eyes. "I know them, yes, but that would be the first time they've ever been in my apartment. How did this happen? Why?"

"Python!" Storm hissed. "Pax didn't need to see that shit."

"You want to take him on jobs, I think he needs to see how messy they can be." Unrepentant, Python looked at the screen himself, shaking his head. "Damn amateurs always make a mess."

"Hey, Pax," Flint said gently. "Did you say you knew the dead wolf shifters? Did you date them?"

"Nobody dated me." Pax sniffed. "Those two were cock buddies in my phone as Wolfie9 and Wolfie6. They came…" Pax did his best to pull himself together. "They came from a small pack just outside of Bozeman. Both bond mated to women, both looking for no strings. Clearly I had ‘no strings available' tattooed on my forehead so only wolves could see it, but that's all they were. I don't even think they knew the other one was calling me, too. I don't get it. I don't understand any of this."

"Perhaps they did come looking for you and were just at the apartment at the wrong time," Storm suggested. "Cyrus, given that they were shifters, won't the Paranormal Council want to clean this up?"

Cyrus nodded. "It's clearly a paranormal-on-paranormal crime scene so they will clean it up. Their cleaners have the skills to make sure no one can see them even entering the place, and once it's cleaned, no one will ever know what happened there. As for us…" He paused as his phone dinged. Pulling it out of his pocket he glanced at the screen and nodded again.

"Yep. Our mission has been stepped up. The powers that be say the wolf shifters were innocent and the crocodiles have overstepped the boundaries of good behavior big time. They all have to be taken out...tonight. I've got the coordinates of where they are, we leave in ten minutes. Pax, I genuinely think it would be best if you stayed home. No one will find you here and at least we would all know you were safe."

"No." Storm flinched as Pax shouted but in that moment he couldn't worry about crocodile ears. "They did this to me. They were sending a warning to me. There're not enough donuts in the world that would convince me to stay home tonight. What's more, when the crocodiles are dead, and I know Storm is safe, I'm going to take on my uncle and find out why the hell he wants me dead now. I have to know, don't you understand? I have to see this through."

There was a moment's silence and then Levi lifted his can in salute. "Then it's just as well you have assassin friends, little pixie. Sounds like you're going to need them."

"Thank you," Pax muttered, his face heated in embarrassment as one by one, his new friends raised their own cans in agreement. It didn't stop him noticing his mate was the last one to join in.