Amanda Carlson - Hot Blooded

I stifled a smile, and instead turned my attention to my immediate concern, Raymond Hart. “Okay,

Ray. It’s time for us to settle this.” I lifted a folding chair and set it squarely in front of him,

straddling it. “It seems you’ve finally uncovered what you’ve been dying to find out for years. Why I

could track criminals so quickly, why I was so fast on my feet, why I had the best instincts on the force. But, as you can plainly see, I’m not a crackhead.” I spread my arms wide in front of me and leaned forward—part intimidation, partly because I could. “The truth is, I was born into a family of wolves. Yes, real-life wolves. And recently I’ve become one. But, honestly, if we’re playing fair, none of this was any of your business to find out. You should’ve left well enough alone. But you didn’t.

And now you’re in so deep you have one choice left. If you choose not to take it, your life ends here.”

I swept my finger down toward the floor. Interrogation took mad dramatic skills. None of which Ray was buying into. He was completely unimpressed.

His eyes narrowed and his scent changed, going from steady fear to an acidic flare of anger in the space of a heartbeat.

The man had gigantic balls.

His normal steel-colored flattop had drooped and there were dark bags under his eyes. It was doubtful he’d slept a wink last night. No surprises there. You’d think after all he’d seen and gone through in the last forty-eight hours, he’d be ready to acquiesce. Anything to try and get out of this mess. Instead he was ready for a fight.

And I was just the gal to give him one.

I leaned into his space to accentuate my control. I had to make him believe he had only one option left, and not to take it meant his death. “The solitary choice you have remaining, after everything you’ve seen, is to join us,” I stated calmly. “Do you understand what I’m saying? There’s a place in my world for humans. But you have to be willing to come on your own. There’s no in-between.”

Ray spat something from between his gag. It was muddled, but I heard it clear enough.

“It doesn’t matter if you think I’m a bitch, Ray. We’re way beyond that. What we’re here to discuss is you keeping your life. My awesome personality traits are not on the table.”

Danny slid his chair a little closer to the action, scraping it along the worn linoleum, grinning like he’d just won front-row tickets to a WWE match. He perched on the edge of his seat, elbows resting comfortably on his knees. After a moment he said, “This is a nice twist, isn’t it? And here, Mr. Hart, I didn’t think you had a chance of seeing another sunrise. Listen to the nice lady, because she’s not making this bit up. Even though we enjoyed our chat last night, I won’t hesitate to kill you today.

That’s how it works. It’s nothing personal, you understand. It’s purely business.”

Ray thrashed for a moment in his seat.

I wasn’t interested in watching his struggle, so I reached over and yanked the towel off his mouth in one motion. “Hannon,” he gasped immediately, taking in a big breath. “You’re never going to get away with this!” He’d only ever known me as Molly Hannon, my alias for the past seven years. “You can’t kill me. Everyone on the force will know—”

“Ray,” I interrupted. “Don’t delude yourself. We’ll get away with anything we want. We excel in covering things up we don’t want anyone else to see.” He didn’t have to know that my killing him would lead to more headaches than it was worth. “After hundreds of years of experience, you kind of nail it down.”

“If anything happens to me, they will track it back you. Your case is all over my desk.” His face was turning beet red from all the strain and anger. “If you kill me, a second grader with a finger up ass could figure it out. And you’ll end up paying for this with life behind bars.”

“I won’t be paying for anything, Ray.” I leaned in closer, my face inches from his, my voice dropping to just above a whisper. “And when we’re done with you there will no trace. There will be nothing left to identify. It will be like you disappeared into thin air.” I snapped my fingers right next to his ear. Had to keep up the show.

He froze. “They’ll find my body,” he stammered slightly. “I’m a police detective, for chrissake.

They won’t stop until the case is solved.”

A slow smile spread across my lips. “Will they?” He was going to make me do it the hard way,

naturally. My irises sparked violet. It wasn’t a hard thing to do, since I still had more than enough emotion flowing through my veins from this morning. My wolf was at the edge and she was tired of waiting.

He gasped and started thrashing again, struggling against his bonds.

“Think about it, Ray,” I continued as if nothing was amiss. “If we actually exist, what else do you think is out there? You can’t believe we’re the only ones. Joining us will give you a huge advantage.

Imagine all the crazy shit you’ll be able to learn and how many crimes you can solve with our help.”

Ray was intelligent enough to follow what I was saying.

He stopped moving.

“That’s right, Ray. Vamps, witches, demons, goblins, you name it—all true. Fairy tales exist.

Think of all the things you can learn, all the cases that were never solved because they were Other .

You’ll make chief with our help. But if you don’t accept my proposal now, I’ll be forced to have my pal spell your body. That means you won’t be you. Well, that is, until you’re in the ground and buried.

But before the spell wears off, you’re John Fucking Doe and nobody will ever know what happened to

Raymond Hart. No physical body, no evidence, no case. End of story.” I had absolutely no idea if

Marcy, who happened to be my secretary, a witch, and best pal, could even do something like that—

but it sounded good so I was going with it. I ended with a dramatic hand slash toward the floor.

Ray didn’t so much as blink.

Danny reached over and cuffed his shoulder so hard the chair nearly upended. “Spells are a backup plan for me, mate. Not the route I’d go. See, I’m more of a concrete blocks and heavy weights guy. Or maybe a nice wood chipper. I’ve never had the pleasure of using one before, but they look fairly interesting and easy to operate, and my garden could use a good fertilizing this time of year.”

Ray’s face turned a coronary red. “I don’t believe you,” he. “Everything you’re saying can’t possibly be true. You’re making this up because you want me to join your crazy cult, but I’m not drinking the goddamn Kool-Aid! Do you hear me? I’m not drinking it!”

I closed my eyes, but refrained from pinching the bridge of my nose. I spoke quietly. “Ray, you saw Danny for yourself. How do you explain away a human shifting into a wolf right before your very eyes? You weren’t on any Kool-Aid then—or were you? I didn’t peg you for the using type, but maybe

I’m wrong. Were you high when you saw Danny shift?”

“ What? ” Ray shouted with enough outrage infused in his voice to make a small child cry real tears.

“I’ve never taken a drug in my life!” Then he shuddered. It was the first real fear he’d shown thus far.

“When he… changed… that… that was just some sort of trick you played on me. He caught me by surprise, fooled me somehow.” He stammered some more. This was a typical human reaction to something they couldn’t explain away. Finally. Ray, it seemed, had already filed it into a neat place in his mind, coming up with a justifiable story his brain could handle. He sputtered, “I came in… and there was a strange animal… and it shocked me, so I fainted…”