Page 34 of Blood Lost

“A little of both, I think. He owns the Dixon Corporation. For a while, the hunters were operating under that. I think the secret stuff is kept somewhere else, though.” I watched in fascination as Eli’s fingers went to work again, typing in search boxes and coding.

“Okay, I can start with his company and we’ll go from there. Luckily, I expected to have to do something like this. I had Scott bring my little helper just in case.” Eli pointed at a flash drive that was plugged into the computer. I didn’t remember seeing it before. He must have grabbed it when he stormed off. A few more minutes of his speed typing passed and then he looked up at me. “We’re in.”

“Already? Wow, man, that was fast! I expected it to take way longer.” He smirked at me and I knew that he’d probably been researching Kayden and his company since they realized I knew him. “You’ve been working on this for a while, haven’t you?”

Eli laughed. “Yeah, since the connection came out. I figured knowing what we’re up against would help. But I’m glad you decided to help. I’ll take whatever intel you can give me about how they operate.”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t a Hunter, just some human kid who followed them around until I figured out how to become as strong and fast as they were. I wasn’t exactly included in anything they were doing. I just got good at hiding and tailing them.”

“That’s the key. You know where they go to train, what they do, how they do it, and basically everything else. I don’t think you realize how much you know.” Eli’s encouragement eased the weight in my chest. Maybe I did know something that would help us figure out what they knew.

“Tell me what you need.” Eli and I spent the next two hours researching the hunters and going over what I knew. I hated to admit it, but Eli was right. All those years spent watching my friend while he was training finally paid off. I knew where and how they trained. I knew the procedures for their cases. I even helped figure out what Kayden’s password for his email was. Once Eli had access to that, we had everything the hunters had.

“Honestly, they don’t have much. A vague description of Vik and Delilah. I’m surprised they don’t have anything on either of us.” Eli sounded offended that the witness had only noticed the other two.

“Isn’t that good, though. They think it’s a Bonnie and Clyde thing. The hunters aren’t looking for us. We could come out of hiding if we needed to. We’d just have to keep Vik and Delilah separated so no one realized that they were the ones the witness saw.” The idea made sense in my head, but Eli’s face shot it down instantly.

“We can’t do that. We’ve got people who look similar to us popping up in random places to make it look like we’re traveling for business. If we just show up at home, it’ll look suspicious.” He explained. It made sense, but I hated being caged. This was feeling more and more like a prison sentence all the time.

“I guess I’m just going stir crazy. You’re right, we need to stay here and keep Delilah safe. But will we ever be able to go back to our lives?” As important as Delilah was, I missed my friends and my life. I would never put her in danger, though. We would stay hidden as long as it took to clear her name.

“I get it. Trust me, I am too. I hate not being able to go out. And Vik is dying to hit up a fancy restaurant. But we’re still coming up empty on who the new kingpin is and what they have against our girl. That has to be the priority.”

Chapter 40

Eli

While I understood why Declan wanted to get out of here, it wasn’t practical. We didn’t have enough info from the hunters to ensure they didn’t know who Delilah was. I tried a few weeks ago to explain to him the plan Vik and I had in place to make it seem like each of us was in a different location weekly. I thought he’d understood that we’d included him in that too. Once I made sure he knew just how important staying put was, I went to work on breaking into Kayden’s files.

Within just a few hours, I knew his full name, address, and all his personal information. I even managed access to his bank account. It didn’t do much good since he didn’t have any records that helped us. Still, I felt better knowing who I was up against. I didn’t want to go up against the hunters without some inside info.

“So this is where they train. Where do they live?” I pointed to the map as I spoke. Declan nodded and pointed to another area near the training grounds.

“Here. Or at least they did when I was there. The community is fairly small. Gunnar Trion was in charge of the Shadowtail Hunters when I was young. From what Kayden told me, Shadowtail was the wolf pack in charge of the area. They were charged with policing the other packs and evolved into wolf hunters instead of just shifters. I didn’t understand that part when he tried to explain it.”

Dec paused and put his fingers on three other spots near the first one. “As far as I know, there are four packs who live in this area. Sablecrest is here, Crimsonfang over there, Darkmaw—that’s Kayden’s pack—here, and the one nearest us is Shadowtail. Most of the wolves use the pack name as their surname, but the ones who come into the city regularly have adopted more humanized surnames.”

“That’s pretty good. All of that can help us if we have to fight. I’m hoping it doesn’t come down to that. So, Shadowtail hunts wolves? Is that how the hunters we know came about? Do you know anything about that?” I was fascinated by the hierarchy of wolves and wanted to know more.

“Kind of. The Council approached Shadowtail to hunt down out-of-line vamps. Gunnar turned them down. He swore that he was only going to keep his people in line. A handful of wolves from the other three packs got together and formed a group to help the Council,” Declan shrugged.

“Did you get to know any of them besides Kayden?” I felt like I was interrogating him, but Dec seemed happy that he could help.

He shook his head and looked at the floor. “Not really. I was young and tried too hard. They didn’t want a human following them around. Red would talk to me, but the others avoided me.”

“Who’s Red?” Finally, we might be onto something.

“She’s Gunnar’s daughter. He’s grooming her to take over Shadowtail at some point. Or at least he was when we were kids.” Dec ran a hand through his hair and groaned. We’d been at this for hours. Luckily, Vik was still keeping Delilah busy.

“Okay, let’s take a break. I’ve got some searches going and could use something to eat. Maybe a walk to clear my head.” I could have kept questioning him for hours, but he didn’t need to know that. We’d break for a while, then come back at it with clear heads.

Relief washed through Dec. It was strange to feel other people’s emotions, but I was good at hiding my reaction. He was getting frustrated with himself for not knowing more. There was really no way he could have known unless he’d joined the hunters. From what he told me, he’d wanted to, but they refused him for not being a wolf. Bastards had no idea what they’d lost out on. He was a good ally.

I grabbed a blood bag and stepped outside in the darkness of the night. The sun would come up soon and I would need to sleep. It wouldn’t come easy or last long enough. I’d been running on four hours a day since we got here. If anyone noticed, they weren’t saying anything. I finished the bag and tucked it into my pocket to dispose of when I got back from my walk. I was going to do a perimeter check and make sure we were still hidden.

It didn’t take me long to figure out I was being tracked. I wasn’t sure who it was, but someone was following me. I sniffed at the air slowly. There was no reason to let them know that I knew. Declan. But something else was there too. So, Dec was following me and someone was following him. I ducked around a tree and waited. A moment later, a shadow walked past. I grabbed him and threw him against the tree with my hand covering his mouth.

“Shh. You’re being followed. I don’t know who else is out there. We have to be quiet and careful. Can’t lead them to her.” I whispered with my mouth against his ear. He nodded slightly and I removed my hand.

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