Everything inside me went cold and still. That was where I’d seen the ring. On Jake’s hand. Holy shit. Ryder’s boss had been the one holding up Sven.
Was he the murderer? A human? Vampires were so much stronger and faster, it was hard for me to accept one man could take them down. Was the Department of Paranormal Protection a front for killers?
Jame panted for a bit, as if those words had been pulled out by the root, exhausting him. But his gaze held mine, burning, angry.
I waited for him to catch his breath.
“The vampire...the vampire. Stank like death. Red eyes. Silver hair. Old. Old. He took...he took...Ben.” The last word came out in a keening whine. Every muscle in Jame’s body tightened, the cords of his neck popping, sweat covering his skin as he fought the wolf inside of him that was hurting for his mate.
Granny Wolfe squeezed his shoulder. “Jame. See me now. Only me.”
His gaze lifted to hers and his muscles relaxed, his breathing evened out.
“Tell her the rest, but you stay here with me, now. I protect you. Protect my own. I protect your mate. Nothing else for you to worry about.”
Jame lifted his chin, exposing the side of his neck, eyes sliding away from her.
“Good now. Good.” Granny squeezed his shoulder again, gently.
“They wanted Old Rossi. Said they’d leave a path of blood to his d-door s-step. And Ben...he smelled Ben. He knew. Ben. He knew Rossi. Knew he made him. Made Ben.”
Everything that was cold inside me flash hot. “Did they kill him?”
“He fought...we fought.”
Silence filled the room, Jame swallowing and swallowing as he choked on memories.
“They took him. They took him. They took him, they took him, took him...” His voice broke into ragged whispers, a mantra of grief repeating pain.
Tears slipped hot down my face, and I wiped them angrily away with the heels of my palms. “We’ll find him. We will. We’ll bring him back. We’ll bring him home to you.”
I didn’t know if he heard me, caught as he was in overwhelming pain and sorrow.
Granny Wolfe heard me. Finally turned my way, her hand shifting from Jame’s shoulder to his head. She stroked his hair back off his forehead over and over, soothing as if he were a child.
“He’s still not healed,” she said. “They pumped him full of drugs. His sorrow’s gonna be rage in the morning. We’ll be hunting. We’ll still be hunting.”
“Has he said anything else?”
“Just that Ben’s still alive. Old vampire has him. Don’t know which way they went. Beat him black and blue to death’s doorway. Used Ben’s blood to leave that message. Message to the strigoi.”
“We’ll find him,” I said again.
“Don’t want him found,” Granny turned her gaze back to Jame, who was staring blankly into the middle distance, unmoving as she stroked his hair. “Just want him dead.”
~~~
I sent Jean home to get some sleep, knowing the Wolfes would keep Jame safe in the hospital, as would all the other creatures and humans who worked there.
I was still trying to process what Jame had said. There was a vampire, an old vampire who wanted Rossi’s attention. Ben was kidnapped, still alive, and Rossi had been given two blood messages, one on Sven’s dead body, one on Jame’s beaten body.
What did the messages say?
As dawn crept up over the eastern sky, pulling long shadows away from the town, I found myself sitting outside Rossi’s house. He probably wasn’t in. Probably was still hunting, just like the rest of the Wolfe family was out hunting.
Just like every vampire in Ordinary was out hunting.
But I needed to talk with him. Needed to know what those messages meant.
I got out of the Jeep, knocked on the door.
The house was dark.
No one answered. No one was home. Something about that felt oddly final, as if without Rossi, the old place went from home to mausoleum.
I drove. I wanted to stop for coffee, but it was early enough that even the drive-thrus were still closed.
I didn’t know where Jake was staying, but Ryder would.
I knocked on his door, and the sound of footsteps reached me through the door. There was a pause, which I figured was him looking out through the peephole. Then the door opened.
“Hey, Delaney, come on in.” Ryder looked like he hadn’t slept all night, and from the spots of mud at his jeans’ hem, was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday. “Coffee?”
“Gods, yes.”
He headed into the kitchen and I followed him. “You get any sleep last night?”
He shook his head and reached into the cupboard to get out a mug. “Jake’s missing.”
I sighed and sat on the barstool at the island. “How do you know?”
“His phone won’t pick up. I drove over to the Nordic, and he wasn’t there. Said he checked out yesterday morning.”
“Why were you looking for Jake?”
He poured coffee into the mug, then into another mug that was already on the counter. Turned with both in his hands, offered me one.
“After finding Jame in all that blood. Seeing him shifted...He’s a werewolf, right?”
I nodded, drank. The coffee was thick and hot. I wanted to crawl into the cup and pretend the world didn’t exist.
“I needed to update him. Tell him about Jame. About werewolves being in town.”
“Were you going to tell him about the gods?”
“I don’t know. No?” He shrugged at my look. “I’m still not sure I believe that they’re here, that they’re real. Until I know, really know, I probably won’t bring it up.”
“Being fetch-boy to a god isn’t enough?”
“That was...Yeah, that was weird. But what proof do I have that he’s really a god? He could just be something else.”
“Like what?”
“A wizard? A kobold? A siren?”
“That’s...there’s a lot of difference between those things.”
“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t met any of them.” He gave me a hopeful look. “Have I?”
“Probably. But that doesn’t matter. Mithra is a god, and I’m sure he’ll make that plain to you when you least want him to. Don’t ever underestimate him, Ryder. Or Jake.”
“Jake?”
“Jame said Jake was there when he and Ben were attacked.”
Ryder paused with his mug halfway to his mouth, then placed it on the counter beside him. “Was he a prisoner?”
“No. Jame said he set up the meeting.”
“With whom?”
“Ben and Jame and a very old vampire.”
Ryder crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze shifted off to the wall behind me.
Spud, his mutt of a dog, trotted into the kitchen, then yawned and stretched as he wagged his tail. He gave me a sniff, I rubbed his head, then he nosed his way across the floor and folded down at Ryder’s feet with a groan.
Looked like nobody in the house had gotten any sleep last night.
“Did you know about the meeting?” I asked.
“No.”
“He’s your boss in the DoPP, right?”
“Yes. But Ordinary is my territory. He shouldn’t have done anything, made any agreements between citizens of Ordinary without contacting me.”
“He’s working with a killer, Ryder.”
“Or he was trying to broker a conversation, a meeting that went horribly out of his control.”
“I noticed his ring on his right hand. White gold or titanium?”