Page 33 of Fanged Desire
I ran through the list of names in my head, snagging on the next possible target. “What about Catherine Raine? Apparently she runs some sort of forensics lab here in the city.”
Catherine Raine was another name on the list that had stuck out, although aside from her title as head of forensics, not even Maxine had been able to find much information on her. An elusive elf woman with a low profile was certainly worth looking into.
I feigned despondency and nudged Addison to play along. “We tried to get a meeting with her but she’s a rather difficult woman to pin down.”
Esmerelde’s expression didn’t change, but there was a flicker of something – recognition, maybe annoyance – behind her polite exterior.
“Cathy has no taste.” She said it lightly, as if discussing a distant cousin she could barely tolerate. “Unlike me, she prefers to waste her time observing the riff-raff of the city. But yes, I know her. She runs a forensic lab in the upper city. Quiet woman, keeps to herself. You won’t have any luck convincing her to work with you.”
I exchanged a quick glance with Addison, my mind clicking through possibilities.
“Thanks for the tip,” I said smoothly, masking my interest with a blasé shrug. “Though perhaps you could introduce us sometime. We’d love to branch out if this partnership goes well.”
Esmerelde waved a dismissive hand, already losing interest in our little charade. “Cathy and I aren’t on speaking termscurrently. Although she does come by the spa on occasion, maybe you’ll run into her.”
“Not on speaking terms?” I raised a brow, peppering my words with snobbish intrigue. “Old flame perhaps?”
Esmerelde, however, was clearly done talking, snuffing out the idle chit-chat with a nasal exhale. “Forgive my bluntness, but that is really none of your business. Now – I am a busy woman, and I have clients to see to...”
She cast a glance towards the door – a subtle cue for us to get the fuck out of her office.
“Right, right. We’ll leave you to it then.” I hauled myself to my feet, offering an exaggerated bow as Addison followed suit. “I assume we can chat to your secretary about securing that second meeting?”
“Yes, Laura will arrange it.” Esmerelde’s tone was as sharp as her cheekbones. “But lie to my secretary again and I’ll have you banned from every establishment this side of the city.”
“Well.”
When we reached the car, I slid behind the wheel and glanced over at Addison who was dutifully chewing a hole through her bottom lip. "That went well."
Addison folded her arms, sinking into the passenger seat in a huff. "I’m still lost on what you were hoping to accomplish with that whole rigmarole.”
She wasn’t the only one feeling confused.
I couldn’t figure out why I was still there, driving her home when I should’ve walked away after the first night we met. It wasn’t just the pull of her presence – though that was certainly part of it. Addison had this way of making me feel... almostcomfortable, like it was okay to let my guard down. To be the Hunter I had been before Selene.
And that was dangerous, for her health and for my heart.
But I couldn’t exactly say any of that out loud. Instead, I stuck to the task at hand – tracking down Penelope and the mystery woman who may have taken her. At first, I thought Esmerelde was our most likely target. But Esmerelde didn’t quite fit. She seemed way too proud of her reputation to get involved in something like kidnapping. Catherine Raine, on the other hand? Quiet, loner, frequenter of Micere with a keen interest in the ‘riff-raff’ of the city? Much more likely.
“You wanted a lead, and now we have one. Esmerelde doesn’t seem the type to skulk around Micere, but she knows someone who does.” I glanced over at Addison, hiding my hopeless internal crisis under a casual grin. “We’re tracking down her dear friend Cathy next.”
Addison was watching me with a fatigued sheen in her eyes. For someone who put on a corset and heels every night and wooed her clientele to high heaven, undercover work seemed to drain her of something, like she struggled to pretend to be anything other than who she was.
Who she was currently was a worn-out, albeit beautiful woman, in frayed jeans and an oversized flannel slipping ever so slightly from her left shoulder. Her damp hair was escaping her hairband, loose strands framing her face and dangling over dark chocolate eyes. But there was a determination behind the exhaustion, the surgeon ready and waiting to tackle whatever tragedy came her way. It was an inspiring kind of fire, but it was worrying too.
It was more than just ease I felt around Addison. There was also that nagging sense of responsibility I hadn’t been able to shake. Doctor or not, she was just a human, dead set on getting herself tangled up in supernatural affairs way beyond herunderstanding. She was stubborn, determined, and smart as hell – but still human.
If Penelope had been taken by elves, then Addison was in hot water. And the longer I stayed, the more I felt like it was on me to keep her from drowning in it.
“So I have to come up with some claptrap massage therapy, get on Esmerelde’s good side so she’ll let me stick around, and hope that this Catherine Raine shows up at the spa?” Addison rubbed her temples. “Sounds like a longshot to me.”
“It is.” I flicked the turn signal, dodging through traffic and probably earning a speeding ticket for my efforts. “But aside from the club, it’s the best shot we’ve got right now.”
The hard truth was, I liked being around Addison. I liked the way she met my flirting head-on, the way she didn’t flinch when things got messy. I liked her stubborn determination and the warmth she carried under all that grit. And maybe that was the problem. Because liking someone meant wanting more, and wanting more meant everything could fall apart.
Still, I couldn’t let her walk blindly into this without knowing what she was up against.
“There’s something else you should know,” I started casually but carefully, keeping my eyes on the road. "The woman we’re looking for – I’m pretty certain she’s… not human."
