“What a cute house,” Jez commented as she perused the houses with real estate signs on the front lawn. “This looks like a great place to live. So cozy.”
“Yeah, well, it used to be. It’s growing a little too fast for my tastes, but it’s still home.”
The last thing I wanted to see my little town turn into was a city with a condo on every block. They were already beginning to make an appearance on the outer edges of town where the land had been sold for development. We were just minutes away from two cities, was it necessary that we be one?
A town like Stony is perfect for new Weres. Put one in the busy city center on their first full moon and see what happens. Not pretty. As long as I have the field out my back door linking me to the forest, everything is all good. If they developed it into a Starbucks and a shopping center, I was moving to a rural location on the double.
I turned into The Glens, the neighborhood with the street that ran adjacent to mine off the field. We still saw no sign of Zoey anywhere. When I got out, to get up close and personal with the area, I could sense the remnants of the hybrid energy that Arys had tuned me into, but it was long faded.
She hadn’t been here recently, and I couldn’t tell where she’d gone since. I growled in frustration and scanned the field from this angle. I tried to picture Shaz and I as both Zoey and Arys might have seen us, but I couldn’t do it.
“That’s a pretty negative energy, even for a hybrid,” Jez said, following my gaze to the empty field.
As a full-blooded Were, she could feel supernatural energy stronger than the average shifter though she wasn’t adept at manipulating it.
“You known a lot of hybrids in your time, Jez?” I slid a sidelong glance at her, curious now.
“A couple.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I didn’t know either of them very well, but I can safely say they weren’t the happiest of people.” Her gaze drew distant. “A suicide and an accidental overdose. I guess it’s not the easiest existence.”
An image of Belle’s brutalized corpse flashed behind my eyes, and any sympathy that I might have felt for Zoey vanished. Her personal vendetta with Raoul was strikingly similar to my own, but I wasn’t willing to murder over it. She had no excuse.
“That’s terrible.” I breathed. “I almost wonder if Zoey is doing all of this so that someone will take her out and end her misery.”
Jez studied me. I met her cat eyes evenly. “Do you think it’s a good idea for you to be so wrapped up in this? I mean, a hunt shouldn’t be personal. You know?” Her tone was carefully neutral, but I bristled at her judgment anyway.
“No, I guess I could just go home in time to catch some good late night TV and paint my toenails. That would take care of everything.” The sarcasm in my tone came out far heavier than I’d intended. I had to bite back a further snappy remark that came unbidden, dancing on the tip of my tongue. “I’m sorry, Jez. I’m stressing out. This growing damn vampire bloodlust doesn’t make it any easier.” I tried for an apologetic smile and lifted my hands in surrender. “That’s no reason to be a bitch, I know. Pun intended.”
“You are so lucky that I don’t just kick your ass right here.” Her crossed arms and narrowed eyes betrayed the joking tone she forced into her words. If she’d been leopard right then, that gold and black tail would have been twitching like mad.
“I know.” Even though I said it, we both knew that a real fight between us would be a pretty tight match that would never happen. Sure, we had faced off for fun, but we never went beyond sparring, thankfully. I couldn’t imagine anything really causing us to stand against each other in a true fight to the finish.
When my phone rang, we both jumped. A bad feeling settled into the pit of my stomach, and I went cold. My palms were damp when I flipped open my phone.
Arys was on the line rather than Kylarai. Adrenaline coursed through me when he said calmly, “Alexa, you better come to Squires Sports Bar. Kylarai’s been stabbed, and Raoul’s half breed is on the run.”
“What happened? Is Ky ok?”
Jez and I dropped our minor bitch session. I turned back toward the car, and Jez was already a step ahead of me.
“Just get over here.”
The phone went dead in my ear as Arys hung up. I had the car on the road in seconds with a screech of tires.
“Kylarai’s hurt. They found Zoey.” I mumbled to Jez who nodded as if she already knew. “I don’t know how bad it is.”
Squires Sports Bar is a billiards bar near the highway. It’s a place to catch the latest hockey game and consume pizza and wings. It definitely wasn’t a regular part of my evening experiences.
“I didn’t think she would turn up in public so obviously. She must be asking for it.”