Humans for Humanity is a radical hate group who believe that all non-humans are the scourge of the earth and the root of all evil. They’re National Socialist Party wannabes, and completely whack-a-doodle. Like their Nazi counterparts, they believe in a supreme race and that anyone unlike them is a form of pollution that deserves to be eradicated. To Humans for Humanity, vampires, werewolves, and all the other varied non-mundanes are the same as the Jews and homosexuals are to the Nazis.
Without thinking, I sank down on the edge of the couch, fighting to breathe through the panic burning in my chest. Johnson had left no doubt in my mind that he wanted me dead, but I’d never have guessed that he was involved with the group of racist nut jobs. Setting aside the flyer, I flipped through some of the other papers on the table, many of them filled with venomous anti-supes propaganda. The sheer unadulterated hatred these people felt for me and my kind was sickening. As I rifled through the clutter spread across the coffee table, I uncovered an ashtray, filled to the brim with cigarette butts, and grew even more certain that Shoup had been involved with Johnson somehow.
“What the hell is Johnson into?” I muttered aloud, dropping another offensive flyer on the table. Had he been a member of Humans for Humanity all along, or had his wife’s adultery driven him to join their crazed ranks?
Behind me, Holbrook continued to issue commands to whoever was on the other end of the line, and I figured it was likely to be my only chance to get a look at the woman who had presumably been working with Johnson. I rose from the couch, and crept to the bedroom doorway on silent feet.
Cheap metal blinds hung in the room’s single window, coated in a layer of dust so thick that they looked grey rather than white. They didn’t do much to keep the light out, leaving the room bathed in cold light. I don’t know if it was the light, or the way that she was splayed so carelessly on the bed, but I had to admit that I felt a stab of sympathy for her.
She had been pretty, in a plain Jane kind of way, with straight dark hair cut into an asymmetrical bob that framed a slightly rounded face. Eyes the color of bittersweet chocolate stared unseeing up at the ceiling. Faint red marks on either side of the bridge of her nose indicated that she wore glasses, but I didn’t see them anywhere on the bed. Her throat had been slit, a ragged slash bisecting the pale skin of her neck. An arc of blood colored the ceiling and the wall behind the bed, while a large pool of blood had soaked into the rumpled sheets beneath her, looking dry and stiff. I was guessing she’d been dead for a while.
It was quick at least, I supposed, though I doubted that Shoup would see that as a saving grace considering she was dead either way.
There were no lingering traces of cigarette smoke in the bedroom, making me think that it was unlikely Johnson had killed her himself.
Figures the bastard wouldn’t have the balls to do the deed himself.
Which meant that there were other people involved in this mess. People that would be all too happy to see me dead. The list of people who wanted to kill me was getting longer by the minute. If I was lucky, maybe they’d duke it out over who got the honors and take each other out.
Nah, I’d never be that lucky.
Chapter 29
IT ONLY TOOK fifteen minutes for the apartment to be overrun by EMTs, police officers, FBI agents, and one harried animal control officer decked out in fire retardant gloves. I wasn’t sure what he was anticipating, but I thought the gloves were overkill until I saw the way the little ball of fluff transformed into a whirlwind of slashing claws and needle-like teeth. At that moment even the wolf didn’t want to be within ten feet of that furious creature.
Officer Beefcake was a familiar face amongst the throng of uniformed officials, and he did not seem at all pleased to see me.
“Well Ms. Cray. You seem to have a nose for trouble, don’t you?” he said as he sidled up to me, his thumbs hooked through his belt, framing his washboard abs. It should be against some kind of cosmic law for someone so hot to be such a humungous tool.
My shoulder’s stiffened at his jibe, but I chose to take the high road and let it slide.
Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
“Just lucky I guess.”
“Uh huh.”
I sighed in relief when one of the other officers caught his attention, waving him over.
“I’m watching you, Cray,” he warned, extending a finger in my direction before turning and stalking away like a ticked off peacock. Lucky for me his angry strut highlighted the toned curve of his ass, giving me a rather nice view as he stalked across the apartment.
Things were getting just a little too tense for my liking in the confines of Shoup’s tiny apartment so I ducked out into the hallway and slouched against the wall. Away from the frenetic flurry of activity, I let my head roll back and my eyes slide shut, relishing the relative quiet of the hallway. I was finally healing faster than a human, but it was still painfully slow compared to typical were standards.
“Cray. What a surprise.”
My entire body tensed in recognition of the rich, velvety purr that sounded far too close for comfort.
What the hell?