Page 6 of Reaper
“How many others?”Saint asked.
“How do you know they were all shifters?”Cindy jumped in.
I held up a hand to forestall any more questions.“Willy is the fourth victim.I can only confirm two of them as weres.The other two bodies were disposed of before I could get a look at them.But I spoke to the coroner this morning, and he said the other two John Does were found the same way—naked, in relatively populated areas, and with no apparent cause of death, even after an autopsy.They were in perfect health, except they were dead.”
Saint sat back in his chair.“None of our people are missing, so they aren’t pack, but that doesn’t make me feel much better.”
“How many unaffiliated shifters are there in Charlotte?”I asked.
Saint looked at me like I was an idiot.“How the fuck am I supposed to know, Harker?That’s what unaffiliated means.Shit, I don’t even know how many members are in the other packs, much less who might be walking around fuzzy three nights a month that don’t run with a crew.”
“Crap,” I said.Then an idea hit me.A possibly terrible idea, but it was the only one I had.“How friendly are you with the other Alphas?”
“We’re pretty territorial, but as long as nobody pisses on the wrong fire hydrant, we kinda have a live and let live arrangement.”
“Would they take your call?Maybe come to a meeting?”I asked.
Saint was shaking his head before I finished my sentence.“There’s no fucking way they’d meet here.They’ll talk to me, but if I asked them to a meet here, they’d come expecting an ambush.”
“What about on neutral territory?”Cindy asked.
I looked at her, and as I realized where she meant, my heart fell, bouncing off all my ribs and stomach on the way down.There was only one really neutral place for cryptids, fae, and other supernatural beings in Charlotte, and it was a place that Ireallydidn’t want to go back to.But it was probably the only place I could get all the Alphas together to try and figure out who was killing shifters in my city, and how.
Get the team together,I said over my mental link to Becks.We’re gonna have to go to Mort’s.
5
Oh,hellno!”the brown-skinned woman behind the bar said when I walked in.“Turn your narrow Anglican ass right back around and walk out that door, Quincy Harker!You weren’t welcome in here before the last time you trashed my place, and you sure as hell aren’t welcome in here now!Do you know how much it costs me every single time you show up at my bar?”
I didn’t have time for this bullshit.“Nothing, Mort.I know full well it doesn’t cost you a goddamned cent, because Luke pays for the damages.Every time.Now, I’ve played this game with you for years, because I think it’s kinda funny, and because I feel bad for getting Christy involved with my crap, but I don’t have time for it today.I’ve got half a dozen different packs of weres descending on this place for a meet, and I need at least a couple minutes to move tables around and get prepared.So let’s put the games on hold for a couple hours, and you can go back to hating me when the meeting is over.”
“Moot,” Saint said, walking in and immediately starting to rearrange chairs.
I turned to the big wolf.“What?”
“It’s not a meet, or a meeting, it’s a moot.”
“What are you, a fucking were-Ent now?”I asked.
“It’s an ancient term for a debate, which is what we’re going to be doing.We’re going to debate whether or not there’s someone hunting lycanthropes in Charlotte, and then we’re going to debate whether or not you’re to blame.And if we decide that you are, we’re going to debate who gets to rip your head off, and who can be the first to shit down your neck.”
“You’re welcome to try, big boy,” I said.“Bigger shifters than you have tried, and none of them ever howled at the moon again.Remember, I didn’t givemyselfthe nickname of Reaper.”
Saint dragged a four-top table across the floor with a spine-wrenchingscreeeeeech, then looked at me with a grin.“No, you didn’t.But I’m the Alpha of the baddest pack of shifters in North Carolina.You ever stared down anybody worse than that,Reaper?”
I usually can manage not to take the bait.I really have been working on my self-control, and it’s been almost a full year since I felt the need to participate in a dick-measuring contest, but I needed to make sure that in a room full of Alphas, they all understood that if they fucked with me, I’d be their goddamned Omega, and not in the smutty ebook way.So I walked over to where Saint had lifted another table, and I slapped it to the floor with one hand.
“Listen, furball,” I said, my jaw tight and my voice low, “I’ve gotten into a fistfight with an Archangel, told Oberon the King of Faerie to go fuck himself, and stared Lucifer himself right in the eye in the Ninth Circle of Hell.You think I give a single flying fuck at a rolling doughnut about you?Motherfucker, I’ve intimidated scarier things than you before breakfast, then went on to kick the shit out of a Reaver demon before lunch.So if you want to step to me, let’s get it the fuck over with so I can have this fucking moot with all your fine furry and feathered friends, and figure out who’s slaughtering shifters in my city.”
Saint shoved the table aside and took one step toward me, fists clenched at his side, before we registered the slow clapping coming from the door.Yeah, the old slow clap to take all the testosterone out of a room.I turned to see a gorgeous blonde with brilliant white wings and a David Bowie t-shirt standing in the doorway.Beside her, the one doing all the clapping, was a tall man with a sandy ponytail hanging over one shoulder.He wore a white suit with the sleeves rolled up twice, somehownotlooking like the worst Don Johnson cosplayer in history.Glory and Faustus, who was now really named Fautinir, although he threatened to smite me if I ever called him that.The angels had arrived.
“I thought you two were off on some Heavenly mission,” I said, not turning quite enough to leave Saint out of my sightline.
“Oh, we are,” Glory said.“But I’m still your Guardian Angel, and as amusing as it would be to watch you two idiots turn this place to a war zone, Luke asked me to pop in and see if I could save him a repair bill.So put the wieners away, zip up your shit, and let’s get this place ready for a good old-fashioned moot.”
“Okay, first—please don’t ever mention my wiener again.It’s bad enough having an angel watching over literally everything I do, but I really don’t want to know that you’ve ever thought about my junk.And second—language.”
“Fuck off, Harker,” Glory said as she walked past me to Saint.“I’ve seen your junk more times than anyone but you, and I’m still not interested.”She held out a hand to the Alpha.“I’m Glory.This is Faustus.We’re angels.Please don’t break Harker; he’s got important shit to do.”
