Page 17 of Werewolves Don't Howl
“Now you’re going to hide?” He looked slightly put out.
I gave him a sheepish smile and edged away until I was out of the room, then I turned and darted for the back door as fast as I could go. All day, I couldn’t hold still, even to knit. My spells were as tangled as my yarn, and that night, I couldn’t sleep. Who had killed Ridley if I didn’t? I didn’t, did I? And what beast had bigger claws than mine? I looked at my nails while I lay in my bed in the moonlight, the civilized nail beds that hid the monster just waiting under my skin to claim me and the Senator. My mouth watered at the thought of his pretty eyes. That’s what worried me more than anything.
I couldn’t keep hiding here, because it put my host at risk. Of course not. My stalker was dead. My life wasn’t at risk. There was no reason for him to keep me here other than the Alta Manada nonsense. If I hurt someone who opened his home to me, I’d be a monster that truly deserved death. I’d leave first thing in the morning. Well, after I baked some cookies. I had to get on with my life and let the senator get on with his.
In the morning, I got up, showered, and dressed in my black skirt and vest that were a little tight, which is why they’d been in the back of my closet where Ridley’s mark hadn’t penetrated.
I was going to work and face reality, not hide in the Senator’s mansion and pretend I was on vacation. Monsters didn’t get vacations. I had to walk a few blocks away from the Senator’s street to get to a bus stop. I wasn’t nervous, just resigned to fate. I’d had a nice long run, but I never should have survived turning in the first place. Maybe the werewolves would execute me. Maybe they’d mate me to someone, and I’d kill him, and then I’d be executed. Either way, Senator Silverton wouldn’t need to worry about me. The senator didn’t need his name mixed with a werewolf who shouldn’t have gotten angry and ripped Ridley apart in the first place. A civilized person would have reported him, but I wasn’t civilized, however much I looked like it.
When I got to work, I went through security and then took the elevator up to the sixth floor, where Singer was located. The doors opened, and I went straight to my boss’s office.
“Come in, Delphi!” Nanette smiled and waved at me, dark eyes twinkling while her hair swirled around her even more magically than usual. With her mermaid blood, her hair was always glorious. Her extra cheer meant that she wanted me to take someone else’s assignment. Usually, I was game, but today was not one of those days.
“Hey. I need to—” I started, but she cut me off.
“You remember Moss.” Nanette gestured to the goblin girl in the corner who claimed to be fifteen so she could legally work four hours a day. I had my doubts. She was small, but wily.
“Of course. Hi Moss.” Her full name was Sludgemoss, but for some reason, it didn’t quite seem like the thing to call a young woman.
She flashed me a bright smile filled with sharp teeth.
Nanette continued. “I want the two of you to work as a team to cover for Loren while she’s out of town. She had a family emergency. I’m sure between the two of you, you can make short work of it.”
I stared at her. “Loren had a family emergency?” Loren covered sensational crime, such as a baseball star being found ripped apart in a back alley. She was extremely good at uncovering the shocking truth. She’d rather lose her right eye than a story like Ridley’s murder. She’d spin it and spin it for weeks.
“Yes, she left this morning in a rush. I believe she had to leave the country.” Nanette’s bright eyes beamed out of her warm skin, wavy hair reminding me of tentacles. She was like tentacles, wrapping around you and sucking you into whatever she needed you to do. That’s why the paper was such a success.
I took a step away from her. “I was actually going to ask for a leave of absence.”
Nanette laughed. “Oh, Delphi. Such a joker. Don’t worry, I have your vacation time scheduled for your sister’s wedding.”
“Brother.”
“Whatever. But right now, I need you on this investigation. I checked and your social calendar is scant this week. I need you to focus on this baseball player’s death. Find a new angle no one else has. Interview the wolves. They all love you. Everyone loves you.” She wrinkled her nose. “You actually smell like them.”
I winced and sniffed my arm. “From the baseball interview? They put their arms around my shoulders so their armpits…” I shuddered melodramatically and Moss giggled.
“Yeah, that stench will stay for weeks unless you soak in tomato juice or something. Werewolf sweat is worse than skunk spray.”
Which wasn’t true at all, but stories like that tended to stick. Werewolf urine was much worse than their sweat.
“Loren didn’t write up anything on the Ridley murder?” I asked.
Nanette grinned at me. “I love the way you immediately jumped to calling it murder. Sounds sensational. I don’t know. I imagine she called me from the airport and didn’t hear anything before that, because we both know that she would drop her family for a murder every day of the week. It’s good she’s taking time for family. Heaven knows she needs it, but right now, what we need is this story.”
I opened my mouth to say that I really wasn’t going to make it, but it was too weird for Loren to run off like that. “Do you have her home address? I’ll go over there and check for notes.”
Nanette grinned. “Sure. I’ll text it to you along with her email and password. Moss can open the door for you.”
Moss’s eyes widened. “Are you suggesting something?”
“Never. You probably won’t even have to pick locks, because Delphi will just look sweet and adorable, and the doorman will let her in.”
Moss sighed in disappointment. “That’s probably true. You’re too adorable.”
I wrinkled my brows. “Thanks?” Neither of them had seen my beast. And that’s how it was going to stay. Which is what I’d thought the very night I’d ended up showing my beast to my landlord. I nodded at the goblin. “Let’s go. We’ll go through her desk first to check her email and see if she left any notes before we hit her apartment.”
“Or you could go directly to the crime scene,” Nanette said.
