Page 31 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

Dwayne was in a black button-up shirt that was extra snug over his biceps and shoulders, making Jonathan wonder what happened. His wife, Marjorie, handled dressing him, and normally, everything fit properly. “Who the hell do I need to talk to about when our workdays start? Keeping vampire hours sucks.”

He shot Jonathan a knowing look.

That gained him a few more laughs.

“Want to tell me where you’ve been and why you’re late?” asked Jonathan. Tension filled the conference room.

“Anyone else worried that the guy in charge looks like he’d rather be home playing Nintendo 64 than here, running this joint?” asked Leo, clearly trying to diffuse the situation.

Dwayne shrugged. “Nah. You get used to him. Besides, this is dressed up for him. See, he has on a jacket.”

Jonathan grinned.

“And he’s got a fancy watch,” said one of the other men in attendance.

Leo glanced toward Jonathan. “That’s not fancy compared to his pocket watch.”

Jonathan avoided commenting. Instead, he focused on Dwayne.

“I’ve been working hard to keep the tension from the local shifters and the local hunters from reaching a boiling point,” said Dwayne.

Jonathan nodded, aware that Dwayne had been speaking daily with the heads of the shifter packs. “And?”

Dwayne glanced around the room. “And they swear up and down they didn’t attack any of you. That they were called to the warehouse where the fights went down and that they thought we’d summoned them. But when they got there, they found a bunch of our guys dead. They claim they’re who called it in to us anonymously.”

“Bullshit,” spat one of the other Van Helsings. “They’re lying to protect themselves. I say we do a culling like the good ol’ days.”

Jonathan locked gazes with the man, daring him to say something else.

Wisely, the man shut his mouth.

Dwayne glared at him and the man and then cleared his throat. “Listen, the shifters had some more info they wanted to share with us.”

“Voluntarily?” asked Reggie.

Dwayne shrugged. “Yeah. Apparently, they don’t want this pointing to them and are willing to open lines of communication if it keeps the heat off them.”

“And what information did they want to share?” asked Leo.

“The human incident we came up on two weeks back,” said Dwayne, casting a knowing look toward Leo and Jonathan. “They’re claiming those human males are known to run with hunters. That the humans involved have been implicated in supernatural deaths in the past, but they’d never had enough proof to bring to us.”

“So why bother telling us now?” asked Reggie.

“Because those humans were released on bail already, and they’ve gone missing,” said Dwayne as he looked straight at Jonathan.

“Did you…?” Leo started but stopped.

Jonathan shook his head. “I was to be notified if they were released. No call came.”

“So you didn’t hunt them and eat them?” asked Leo. “Not that I’m judging. Frankly, I think they had it coming if you did. Preying on young women is sick and wrong.”

“I didn’t, but I would have,” admitted Jonathan, unconcerned with what that made him look like. “And I’d very much like to know where they are because if they’re still drawing in air, I plan to rectify that—painfully and slowly.”

Jonathan meant every word he said. He wanted to hunt each of the men involved and make their deaths as painful as possible.

“Yeah, a total badass,” whispered one of the other men.

Reggie lifted a hand. “I can see if I can find any leads on them. I’m pretty tight with the local police. They’ll share info if I ask.”

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