Page 34 of Kissed the Mark
The glass clunked heartily against the tableas the waitress set it down. God, it even had an orange wedge onit. I’d be surprised if they weren’t just rubbing the labels offdirectly from the name brand.
“I know Patricia approached and threatenedyou. We are all under the assumption that you and Leandra aretogether romantically—I can tell as much in person, now, so that’sconfirmed for me,” Matt said. I didn’t have anything to say tothat. “I wanted you to know what you’re getting into and also topropose you a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” I sipped at the beer.If anyone tasted this blind next to a Blue Moon, there would be nodifference. At least it was the best option in this shithole.
“Let me explain first—Leandra went to theChicago vampire community and tried to persuade them to help herattain true, unkillable immortality.” He gauged my reaction asthough expecting surprise. I swallowed. “The supernaturalcommunities are closer up there. They sent someone who could gethere the fastest—naturally, a werewolf during the full moon, toinform someone here what was going on so we could do somethingabout it. That werewolf went to me, seeing as Patricia is justabout unreachable if you’re not high ranking with us. And he toldme her plan, and then he showed up dead, and we are completely surethat Leandra killed him. She was sighted nearby.”
“I stumbled upon his body myself and sheshowed up after,” I said. “Listen, Mateo, I have to tell yousomething.”
“Is it important?”
I rolled my eyes. “This is why I don’t likevampires. Of course it’s important, you numbskull. Leandraapproached witches here first about the immortality thing and got ano, and that’s why she went to Chicago. She came back and a witchagreed to do it under false pretenses and actually created a golemthat looked like her and acted like her to some extent. And thenthat golem turned into a goose and back into some feathers.”
A muscle worked in Matt Rivera’s jaw. “Areyou having a stroke?”
“No,” I said. “Just, don’t worry about thatpart. The witch is pretty sure the golem killed the werewolf.”
“If that was true, we would need to chargethe witch. The werewolf had Leandra’s true scent all over him.There’s almost no mistaking it. You smell like it now,” headded.
“I’m done hearing about how I smell today.”My stomach churned. “We can’t prove it was her if no one saw ithappen.”
“We can, the way we do things,” Mateo said.Somewhere along the line he had drained his entire glass of Witch’sWillow; he summoned the waitress to get him another. “That’s whyPatricia needs her back. And why she’ll have you executed if youdon’t give her what she wants.”
“Whoa, there. Executed? I was told my jobwould be sabotaged, not that I’d be executed. Where the fuck isthat coming from?”
Mateo laughed darkly. “You’re a fool,Olympia Carter. Patricia doesn’t care if you are employed or not.She can’t outright threaten to murder you in front of people, butbelieve me, she would have you killed for less. And she will, ifyou don’t do what she wants.”
“Is it so bad to want to be immortal?” Iasked in a small voice.
“We outlawed doing things like that tobypass our natural deaths by staking, beheading, fire, sunlight,”he said. “It makes a vampire too powerful. Leandra’s talked a bigtalk for a long time about being upset with our system. I suspectthat she’d like to kill Patricia and take her place.”
I was dizzy, though I wasn’t sure if thatwas from drinking on an empty stomach or from the directcontradiction to everything Leandra had told me about her motives.“What can I do?”
“I want you to question the new werewolfthat got turned.”
“Seriously? Does she have information?” Iasked in surprise.
“She should.” Mateo cleared his throat.“Actually…well. Apparently she was attacked by Leandra. The onlyway that Bill knew how to heal her after Leandra attacked her wasto turn her into a werewolf under the full moon. They heal soquickly in the moonlight, you know. And she did survive.”
“How many people know about this? Why didthe mayoral council approve a bounty for the werewolf if he didn’thurt anyone?”
“I don’t know how many know, only that Iwant my name out of it and won’t be sharing it myself. And neitherwill you.”
“Let me get this straight. Leandra went toChicago and raised some red flags. They sent a werewolf down totalk to our vampire society, which notoriously hates werewolves.Leandra went and attacked a human, something that would destroy herreputation and ranking here which she has worked hard on for almosta century. The werewolf saved the human by turning her, and thenLeandra killed him for having information.”
“Well, when you put it like that, it doessound unreasonable. But yes.”
“She easily could’ve killed the newly-turnedwerewolf, too, if she wanted to.” It made sense why those vampireshad come down from Chicago and attacked Leandra and I withoutconsequences; Mateo and Patricia, maybe separately and maybetogether, had been investigating Leandra. If the vamp community upthere knew their messenger had shown up dead, they would want totake things into their own hands, and they had tried. Very possiblywith Patricia’s blessing, hence the cover-up and the apathy I facedwith the council.
“Word is that that new werewolf is very wellprotected by the pack right now,” Mateo said, halfway through hisnext stout. The chatter around us was dimming; even the latest oflate-nighters thought 11 AM was too much, like 4 AM for a diurnalbeing. “So she would have a very hard time getting in there.”
“But wouldn’t the werewolf girl have toldpeople if she had information?” I asked.
“Probably, she has. But the packs wouldn’tshare it if they knew it would cause trouble, like with us,” hesaid. “I need you to go in there and just ask her some questions,at least confirm her story about who attacked her and possibly whosaved her. And I need you to keep playing along with Leandra, butappease Patricia’s people if they approach you.”
“So I’m double-agenting this.”
“If you get your rocks off looking at itthat way,” Mateo said. “We will all win here. I just need the newwerewolf to testify against Leandra in court so we can be rid ofher.”
