Page 9 of An Unexpected Claim

I shrugged even though she couldn’t see it, but Tanner chuckled, his shifter hearing picking up on the whole conversation. “If it ever happens, I’ll be sure to text you so you can call and hear me answer with—never mind.” I cut myself off because the idea of me experiencing “glee” was ridiculous. “Moving on, what’s happening?”

“Another body came in this afternoon, a woman. Same MO as the last four, and right on schedule. I’m officially labeling this guy a serial killer.”

Dana had called me four months ago, concerned about a potential pattern after a third murder victim had shown up with the same wounds and within a similar window of time—four to six weeks between each. They were all shifters and they’d all been clawed so deeply that even their enhanced healing hadn’t been able to save them before they bled out.

Their sexual organs had been particularly mangled—though this was done postmortem—and their other wounds had matched as well; tongues removed, clothes discarded, and while there was never any sign of sexual assault, they’d found semen on the bodies—both the men’s and women’s. Despite the excess of evidence, they couldn’t match the DNA to anyone in the system, so all we knew about the killer was his gender.

The only reason she had hesitated to label him a serial killer prior to this murder was because she hadn’t seen a pattern in the victims’ appearances. But after the first five, it became clear that there was in fact a connection. All of the women were blonde, and the men were brunettes. They were all mid-thirties and extremely healthy. However, these links still didn’t shed enough light on the killer’s motivation or any other clues that would give us a place to start digging into his possible background and identity.

Because the targets had all been shifters, I’d agreed to give her access to some KBO resources, but without more to go on, and no decent hackers on my payroll, there hadn’t been much we could do. We needed to collect more data, so we’d started digging into the victim’s lives, looking for connections between them, but we hadn’t found any more threads that tied them all together.

I hated that the motherfucker had struck again because I hadn’t been able to stop him.“Send me everything you have on her and the location where she was found.”

“Already done,” she replied. “I was just calling to give you a heads up.”

“Thanks.” We hung up and I tossed my phone down with an angry snarl. I hated when things were beyond my control.

“You think your chess buddy would help us out?” Tanner asked suddenly.

I considered his question, then shook my head. “He’s dealing with enough bullshit in his part of the universe.”

Tanner ran a hand through his hair and raised his eyes to the ceiling as he thought for a moment before returning his gaze to my face. “What about the witch?”

I frowned, thinking about Sapphire, the confusing witch who talked in riddles and seemed to live in the clouds. One of my old friends, Jean-Marc de la Croix—a spy and member of the French vampire royal family, theMonarchie du Sang—had had dealings with her in the past. He did his best to stay away from her because she drove him fucking crazy. However, I’d met her when Marc teamed up with Makayla, a member of my pack who used to work for KBO before going freelance, to help him rescue Sapphire. I’d understood his frustration with the blue-haired witch immediately.

Before I could answer Tanner, my doorbell rang, and I scowled at being interrupted yet again. Grumbling, I stalked to the front door and yanked it open.

“Well, speak of the she-devil,” I drawled at my unexpected visitor.

Chapter Five

Nathan

When I opened the door, I had to look down,way down, to see the pixie of a woman with long, flowing blue hair and a dreamy expression on her face standing on my porch.

“Sapphire.”

“Hmm?” She blinked big blue eyes at me that were the same color of her hair. Then she tilted her head to the side, her expression one of wonder. “Oh, right.” She shook her head. “Two seconds early. How strange. I should learn to count better. Or maybe your steps are… too long.” She glanced down, then shrugged. “But yes, yes, I’ll come in,” she said airily as she slipped between me and the doorway to step inside.

Narrowing my eyes in annoyance, I shored up my reserves of patience, which were always necessary when dealing with a woman who lived in her own universe and spoke in riddles. I shut the door and followed her as she wandered into my living room. She made herself comfortable in my favorite recliner and I chose to stand by the large fireplace across from her.

“Isn’t this a twist of fate?” I drawled, slipping into my native Russian, aware that she could understand it and about a dozen other languages. I used the phrase aboutfateto needle her because as a seer, Sapphire knew a great deal about the future—and had a penchant for meddling in it. Something my oldest friend, Dimitri Ivanov, muttered about from time to time when we spoke.

It was my understanding that they had struck a deal, though I didn’t know the particulars. Just that he was using her to help with his plan to regain his rightful place as the king of the Royal Vampire Dynasty—which ruled over the vampires in Eastern Europe. I’d only interacted with her a handful of times, but it didn’t take more than a few words from this enigma to understand Dimitri’s and Marc’s frustration with the little witch.

“Twist of fate?” She considered the term. “I prefer to consider them crossed, not twisted. Although your fate might be a little unexpected. Rawr.”

I frowned, unhappy with her implication. My voice was low and dark when I growled, “Don’t even think about—”

She interjected with a tsk. “You’re the one who brought up fate, Alpha. Such a foolish thing to say to a foreseer, hmm? But the crossing isn’t related to you. Someone like you, perhaps. Stubborn. Strong. Although I do think you handle news quite differently.” Her gaze took on a faraway gleam as she nodded. “Yes, differently indeed. By the way, how do you feel about children?”

I ignored her question as I knew better than to encourage her predictions. I simply crossed my arms over my chest and stared at her, patiently waiting for her to get to the purpose for her visit. If I knew anything about this little witch, it was that she took her own damn time coming to a point and no one else’s.

She smiled after a beat. “Yes, I do believe you’ll be fine.” She fished in one pocket of her dress, then another, then a third before her expression lit up with triumph. She held up an amulet with a large, dark red stone in the center. “For you.”

Raising an eyebrow, I leaned back against the mantel, then grunted, “Not really my style.” Neither was the one with the topaz stone that I kept locked in a safe at the Council HQ and very rarely used. They opened up a network of portals throughout our universe, as well as ones that would take the wearer to another realm—the one my chess set had likely disappeared into.

A tinkling of laughter drifted from her mouth. It reminded me of a wind-chime, pretty and a little bewitching. “Consider it a good-luck token for your next game of chess. You’re going to need it to save your Bishop.”

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