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“I want you a block over. We don’t want him to catch our scents and make a run for it.”
With a heavy frown, Blaise plugged the miniature radio into his ear and tested it. “I don’t know why I can’t just push thoughts.”
“I like having a back up.” I got out and stretched, checked my watch and nodded. “It’s time.”
Before we reached Jimmy’s apartment, I spotted a man fitting his description on the other side of the street, heading away from where we were standing. He disappeared around a corner.
“You take the next street over. Don’t lose him.” I took off at a controlled jog, eager to close the distance before I lost the werewolf.
I slipped through the streets, dodging yellowed streetlights and hugging the shadows of buildings as I ran a parallel course from my target, one street over. “You have Jimmy?” I whispered into my headset.
Yeah. Blaise’s warm tones invaded my head sans the headset, sending shivers of awareness across my skin. Twenty yards ahead, moving slowly.
Pushing aside the toe-curling lust his voice induced, I focused on the task at hand. “Stay far enough back he doesn’t get wind of you.”
One of Manhattan’s young werewolves, Jimmy Raggio, had better olfactory nerves than I did and could smell a demon within a fifty-foot radius. Farther, if the wind was blowing his way. Although, this kid’s senses might be dulled by the amount of drugs he’d been snorting or shooting. His habit had pushed him over the line into selling to support his drug needs.
That’s where Blaise and I came in. When otherkin ran amuck, we were called in to clean up the mess. Tracking Jimmy to his source should be a slam dunk. Nab Jimmy, nab his contact and we’d have two less scumbags trashing the New York City underworld.
A month ago, I’d have laughed in anyone’s face who tried to tell me creatures that weren’t human roamed our city streets.
All that had changed in a matter of days, when NYPD recruited me to their special taskforce—the Paranormal Investigative Team—lovingly referred to as the PIT crew.
He just turned into an alley, headed back your way. Blaise’s thoughts cut through my musings.
The alley I assumed he was referring to loomed half a block ahead of me like a dark maw, the streetlights barely penetrating the entrance. I held back, ducked behind a huge trash bin and waited, giving the young werewolf time to emerge. As I crouched there, the stench from the trash overpowered my senses.
A really long minute went by.
“See him?” Blaise asked.
“No.” I gave it another half of a minute and left my hiding place and the smell, moving toward the alley entrance. I eased the night vision goggles over my eyes, careful not to look back and be blinded by the streetlight a block behind me. Werewolves and some demons, like my partner, could see at night. Humans, not so much.
I paused at the corner of the building, my Glock drawn, thumbing off the safety switch.
Voices echoed off the brick walls, the actual words garbled by distance.
Squatting low, I peeked around the corner. Through my night vision goggles, three figures appeared in the alley, two standing, one carrying a limp form, glowing just as green as the others. A warm body, possibly alive for now.
Damn. A simple drug run was turning into more.
The green glowing figures stepped toward her, their voices low, intense, as if they were arguing in whispers.
Don’t move on them until I get around to where you are, Blaise warned me.
I slipped back around the side of the building, pushing the goggles to the top of my head. “They’re heading my way. Don’t try to come up behind them. The wind’s coming from that direction.”
“Hide and wait.”
As quickly as I could, I moved half a block back to the trash bin, sliding between it and the building.
As footsteps clumped toward the alley entrance, I could make out their words.
“If ya know what’s good for ya, you’ll ditch the bitch.”
“Can’t. She’s my cousin. My ma’ll kill me if I leave her there.”
“When Nic finds out you took her, he’ll do the job and make it hurt as you go down. He likes to make examples of anyone else who takes what’s his.”
“He wasn’t there when I took her.”
“That demon has eyes and ears everywhere. He’ll know.”
“Look, Jimmy, I can’t leave her.”
“You’re on your own, Mario.” Jimmy emerged from the alley, leading the way. He glanced right and left before cutting across the street.
“He’s on the move,” I said into my microphone. Before Blaise could respond, a hand clamped over my mouth, another around my waist pinning one of my arms to my side. I was hauled up against a solid wall of muscle.
Chapter Two
My heartbeat stuttered then raced. Instinct kicked in and I jabbed my free elbow into my attacker’s gut.
A muffled oomph sounded behind me, but the hand over my mouth didn’t loosen. Then a voice whispered, “Katya, it’s me.”
My pulse slowed and I dragged in a deep breath.
Blaise’s hand dropped from my mouth to my shoulder.
“Damn it, Blaise. You could warn me next time.” His fingers warmed me, even through the fabric of my black leather jacket.
“I will, next time.” He nodded toward the young thugs. “I’ll take Jimmy. You go after the guy carrying the girl.”
“Why don’t I go after Jimmy and you take the others?” I pushed away from the brick wall and crept to the corner of the trash bin.
“You know I can move faster, and Jimmy’s on the run now.”
The sound of footsteps pounding through the alley reached me. “Fine. But don’t do anything until you see him make the sell.”
Blaise saluted me. “Be careful. Just because he’s carrying someone doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”
I nodded. “Same to ya. I don’t want to train a new partner.”
He chuckled softly, pressed a kiss to my lips and disappeared, moving so fast, he’d crossed the street before I could tell him how unprofessional it was to kiss your partner on duty.
Instead I shook my head. I couldn’t tell that demon anything.
Blaise did whatever the hell he wanted. Though he worked with the PIT crew, he wasn’t on the payroll and he came and went as he pleased.
I was glad he was on our side—not that I’d tell him that. The demon had a big head to begin with, thinking he was better than anybody else.
He had reason to think that. I’d seen him practically rip a man apart, limb for limb. The guy deserved it, but the incident reminded me that my partner had superhuman strength and speed.
Must be nice.
I was stuck with being a five-feet-two-inch female cop with big boobs and no respect. Well, at least no respect until I flattened a guy on the way to the locker room for pinching my ass. Since then, all of the cops of the Fifth Precinct had steered clear of me. Had I known that was all it took, I would have decked someone earlier.
I didn’t have time to put up with dumbass men who thought small meant weak. I’d been a cop a lot longer than some of them and didn’t put up with much. I could drop a perp with a bullet or tackle them and put the fear of God in them with hand-to-hand combat. Mostly because they didn’t expect a girl to be tough.
I’d learned to stick up for myself the day my dad walked off and left me, my brother and mother to fend for ourselves in the not-so-great neighborhoods of Chicago.
Manhattan was a cakewalk compared to some of the places I’d cut my teeth on. Or so I thought, until I discovered people I thought were human...well...weren’t.
Mario had turned to the right and headed the opposite direction from me, stooped under the weight of the body he carried.
I followed at a safe distance, wondering where he’d take the woman, knowing I wouldn’t let them get far. If he was involved in drug trafficking with Jimmy, I needed to question him, put the screws to him and see if he knew who was supplying his partner.
As I moved closer to Mario, my nostrils picked up a canine and cologne combination that confirmed my suspicion. Mario, like Jimmy, was a werewolf. Even the girl he carried put off the same kind of odor.
Gun drawn, I closed the distance, running lightly across the uneven sidewalk.
“Look, if you’re gonna shoot, pull the damned trigger.” Mario ground to a halt, his back to me.
“Don’t tempt me.” I trained the weapon, loaded with silver bullets, on the werewolf, having been warned of their strength when in wolf form. “I have a gun pointed at you. Turn around slowly.” For all I knew Mario could be calling on his inner beast, or whatever werewolves did to go from human to wolf.
Mario turned, his young face haggard, dark circles beneath his eyes. “I’m too tired to fight. You want my wallet. It’s in my back pocket. Although there isn’t much in it.”
“I don’t want your wallet or your money.”
His arms tightened around the woman. “If Nicolae sent you, you can’t have her. She’s family.”
“I’m not with Nicolae. I’m with the NYPD. I want some answers.”
His eyes narrowed. “Sorry. Unless you got a reason to arrest me, I have nothing to say.” Mario nodded toward the gun. “And I’m guessing you won’t shoot someone you only wanted to question.” He spun and walked away.
Damn.
I hurried to keep up, but he made it to the next corner before I did and disappeared.
I hesitated. If the man didn’t want to talk, I had nothing on him that I could hold over his head. I had to let him go. Question was, whether to follow or go back and see if Blaise needed help with our real target, Jimmy.
I’d turned back and had taken all of two steps when the blast of gunfire ricocheted off the walls of the street Mario had turned onto.
Adrenaline spiked in my system and I raced to the end of the building.
Mario lay on the ground, light glinting off the circle of blood spreading from the hole in the side of his head. Several men, make that werewolves—by the smell of them—stood in a semicircle around the downed man. One of them waved another forward. “Get the girl. Nicolae will want his property returned.”
The man’s words made my blood boil. Before I could think through the odds, I stepped forward.
One five-feet-two-inch female cop against seven burly male werewolves.
Yeah. I could be stupid when passion kicked in.
A woman in jeopardy —human or werewolf—got my ire up and I didn’t back down. I held my weapon steady, aimed at the man who’d given the orders. With my finger, I pointed at the man hefting the woman onto his shoulder like she was an insignificant bag of potatoes.”Put the girl down.”
“You gonna make me?”
“NYPD.” I dug my credentials out of my breast pocket and flipped them open with my empty hand, my gun-bearing hand steady on the leader. “You are all under arrest for the murder of this man.”
The man carrying the woman sneered. “You’re gonna arrest all of us?” He laughed out loud.
I fired at his feet.
The man jumped, a scowl bearing down on his forehead.
The leader stepped forward. “You got enough bullets to take us all out?”
“I have plenty, they’re silver, and I’m starting with you.” I held my position. “Put the woman down.”
Their leader jerked his head to his partner. “Put her down, like the she-cop said.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“On the contrary. I see this as an opportunity we can’t resist.” The leader’s hand went to the front of his jeans and he cupped his package. “We can all have a little fun with the little she-cop before we deliver the goods to the boss.”
“He said get the job done and get back.”
“Think, dumbass. How will he know how long it took us?” The leader’s mouth pulled up in a sneer. “In the meantime. I get her first.”
“Did you miss the fact I’m holding a gun?” I pointed the weapon at his chest.
“Nah, but I’m banking on you shooting him first.” He thrust the man standing next to him in between him and me. I shot the man in the knee, he went down. Without blinking, I took the leader out with a shot in the knee as well.
“Did I mention, I was top of my class on the firing range?” I pointed at the man carrying the woman. “Now put her down and leave before I take you out as well.”
The werewolf slid the woman to the ground and ran, taking the other four weres with him, abandoning the two with the injured knees.
As they clutched at their wounds, cursing me, I divested them of their weapons and crouched beside the woman.
She moaned and stared up at me, her eyes glazed, but open.
“Nicolae will kill you.”
“Not today, honey. Not today.” I tapped on my headset. “Blaise, you out there?”
Static rumbled in my ear. Not good. I’d have to find a phone or get back to our vehicle to call this one in.
The woman gripped my arm, her fingernails digging into my skin.
