Page 45 of Bitter Discord

We hung up at the same time. I scrambled to get my keys and wallet, wiping my eyes as I left my bedroom. I knocked hard on Zuri’s door. When I got no reply, I opened it.

“What?” Zuri was sitting up, her confusion evident. “We just talked. What’s going on?”

“The BSA just called. They have a mystery body. They don’t know if it’s one of ours or even if it’s supernatural.”

“Let me get dressed, and I’ll meet you at the car. Please find any source of caffeine.”

17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Ten minutes later, Zuri and I were in my car, each with a cup of instant coffee. I wasn’t sure why instant coffee was even in the mansion since my shopping list had called for expensive stuff across the board. I found it in the pantry and decided it was the best I could do with the time we had.

“A body… how did we end up with a body?” Zuri was still grappling with disbelief.

“I don’t know. The Director said it was an anonymous tip, but it was really odd, so he called me.” I was inclined to believe it, but I was used to things going wrong in unexpected ways. “I hope it’s not one of my werewolves or one of our guests. If it’s just a witch or a human… well, it’s still a problem but less of ours.”

“A body dropping on the first night we have fourteen werecats in the city is highly unlikely to be unrelated to us,” Zuri countered. “I’m asking who, why, when. How did we end up with this body on this night, and who decided it was something that needed to happen? Murder is motivated. The key is discovering the motivation.”

“Have you solved many murders?” I asked, aiming for brevity.

“Not particularly. That’s why Jabari went to Seattle and not me. He’s more experienced with these things. It’s too late to switch siblings, though. You have me.”

“I don’t have much experience with solving murders, either,” I reminded her.

“There’s nothing we can’t do if we put our minds to it.”

The rest of the drive was silent, with me considering what Zuri had said. She was certain this had something to do with us, and I was inclined to agree. It lined up. It still left the question of whether it was a werewolf or werecat. If it was a werewolf, I had to give Heath a hell of a talking to. The location of the body was in Dallas, not in my territory. That meant a werewolf left my territory or was taken from it.

A horrifying thought because no one had texted me back.

If it was a werecat, one of my guests, we would have different troubles. I could already see how it would play out. The immediate blame would be on my werewolves, Zuri, and me.

“This could go so wrong,” I whispered to myself as I parked next to half a dozen other vehicles.

“I’ve reached the same conclusion,” Zuri said, getting out before me.

I needed a moment to collect myself, to steel my nerves, then I was out of the car, locking it before I walked with her to a large tent. We were in a city park, with lots of trees, but the grass was cut. The paths varied between concrete and natural stone, depending on where in the park you were.

I know this park. It’s the one with the cute stone bridge over the stream.

I didn’t explore Dallas, so I couldn’t remember its name. I only recognized it from pictures.

As we entered the tent, Director Rhodes looked up from what he was reading and waved us closer. Agents and other staff from the BSA gave us a wide berth. I looked around for Bethany but didn’t see her. There was a chance we’d beaten her here. I knew she lived in Tyler to be close to me, so her drive would have been a lot longer than mine.

“We need to see the body,” I told the Director. “Everything else can wait.”

“Of course.” He put down whatever he was holding and looked at a man in a suit. With a simple nod, the agent left. “He’s going to make sure our people have been following the line we’ve kept. I know you’ll do a lot through scent like the werewolves.”

“Have you worked with the werewolves on a murder before?” Zuri asked as he led us at a crisp pace.

“I have, back in the nineties. My local pack told us they believed there was a serial killer on the loose, another werewolf they were hoping to catch. Human organizations kept getting to the bodies before they could, contaminating the scenes, making it impossible for them to track. We were all still getting used to this new system, and no one in the FBI considered that our newly discovered werewolves could be potential suspects. He was killing as a human, not a wolf, so…”

“Understandable. Tensions were high when werewolves went public. No one wanted to point fingers.”

“Yeah. You know a lot about it?”

“I wasn’t involved, clearly, but I was alive, and every supernatural in the world was watching to see how humans would react to the werewolves. Considering they’re our cousins, we werecats paid extra close attention. We were planning to go public on our own, but then my sister here got too friendly with a werewolf, and another gave up too much information… Here we are.” Zuri was trying to be light, teasing me a little in the process to keep anyone from knowing just how stressed this was making her. I could smell it. I was right there with her, a bundle of anxiety and fear about what we were going to find.

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