Page 4 of Blood & Ice

“I have a suspect in Portland… whom I cannot approach without conflict.”

“And?”

“And you were once an officer of the law there. So, I need you to follow a paper trail for me. And I need you to visit or stakeout the address I was able to scry.”

“Considering this is completely out of my jurisdiction, whyin the world would I take this case on?” I demanded, narrowing my eyes at her. “As I said before—I’m not a detective for hire.”

Aurea looked at me and quirked an already arched brow even higher. “I need you on the case.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Maybe this will—if you succeed in solving the murder, I hand this dagger over and you can destroy it before Janara realizes I had it stolen from her vault.”

I stared at her. Did she have a death wish? Or was she confident that I would defend her against my Aunt Janara on principle? Normally, I would do exactly that, no matter how much I personally disliked Aurea. But that had been before she invaded my house and threatened me with a knife made from bits of my mother’s corpse.

“When she finds out what you did, she’ll kill you,” I said.

“I know. I don’t care.”

“Why me?” I demanded, gripping the table’s edge so hard it cracked.

“Because I believe Blood Rose is in danger.”

“You have a way of avoiding direct questions.”

She swallowed hard. “Your interference in my affairs saved lives and I recognize that your… skills are exactly what I need.” It seemed to pain her to say as much. “I need your help, and I’m willing to force your hand to get it.”

“Who says I give a shit about that knife? If anything, it’s disgusting and I don’t want it anywhere near me.”

She shook her head. “This dagger is designed to kill you. Not just that, but it curses those you call your family for the rest of their natural lives. It won’t kill them, but it will certainly make them miserable. I’m sure you’d want to avoid that fate for your children.”

My vision went white with rage. The bitch wasn’t content with threatening my life. She was ready to damn my kids for hervendetta, too. When I could see again, I found the table coated in a thick frost. Aurea glittered like fresh snow, coated in a thin layer of the stuff as well. When I spoke again, I realized I was only a few inches from her nose, spitting my rage right into her face.

“I’ll kill you,” I hissed. “I swear to fucking God that if you hurt my kids, you will not have long to regret it.”

Aurea stood, reducing the frost to tepid rain with a muttered spell. She wrung herself out calmly before pocketing the knife. Then she turned on one heel and marched for the door. “I’ll have a courier deliver the relevant case files,” she said mildly before she turned back to face me once more. “I want this kept between us. Bring in the warlock if you have to, but no one else. This can’t get out… for obvious reasons.”

She turned the corner and made a beeline for my bathroom. By the time I caught up with her, the only evidence she’d been inside my house was a slight ripple in the full-length mirror.

I didn’t give a damn about bad luck. I ripped the mirror from the wall and smashed the glass into a million glittering shards with an incoherent sound of rage. By the time I was through, the floor was a mess of silver shards and sluices of blood.

Aurea Grimsbane was going to pay for this. I didn’t know when or how, but she’d get what was due her. She’d crossed a line and there was no going back.

But for now, I had a werewolf to catch.

Chapter Three

Maverick

“And there’s a dent in my fucking car,” Taliyah muttered under her breath. “That’s just perfect. As if there isn’t already enough to deal with.”

We’d been fighting a werewolf and an amphibious water monster for the better part of the night, speeding down highways with the lights and sirens blaring, sometimes taking the cruiser off-roading to follow one or both through fields if the terrain allowed. Even after the pair had been successfully apprehended, there was still the problem of loading them up and transporting them to the precinct. The tentacle monster was a lost cause and had to be transported across the country to Jinx Junction, where he could be properly processed and booked.

The werewolf, however, was fair game, and Tally had slammed him into the hood with enough force to leave an impression of his head in the metal. Technically, the dent was her fault, but no force on the planet would compel me to say as much within earshot of her. The next person to piss her off was going to be freeze-dried, packaged, and put in the ground without question.

I sank a little lower into my seat, running over our last conversation, trying to figure out what I’d done to earn this amount of ire. Something was clearly bothering her, and when it came to women, I was usually the common denominator in that equation. We’d been ribbing each other, as usual, when she’d suddenly turned cold and hung up without warning. I couldn’t puzzle out which part of the conversation had set her off.

I opened my mouth to ask and shut it just as quickly. No. Down that path lay disaster. If I confronted her about it now, she’d get defensive or hostile, and I didn’t want that. Tally was only the second good thing in my life to last, and I didn’t want toadd her name to my depressingly long list of failed relationships. Time was the key. If I gave her time, she’d have to calm down eventually and then I could apologize for whatever boneheaded stunt I’d pulled.

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