Amanda Carlson - Hot Blooded

I glanced at Danny and asked, “Did you happen to show him anything more last night when you two were alone?”

“Nope,” Danny answered. “I threatened his life repeatedly, but I had no idea you wanted him to accept us. I figured the less he knew before we killed him the better.”

Ray shot us both a searing look. If he’d his gun, he would’ve shot us without hesitation. “It doesn’t matter what you try to show me. I’m not buying it. You’ve been goofy for years, Hannon, but monsters don’t exist and I’m not joining your cult.”

I narrowed my eyes, letting them spark deeply. “I know you believe it deep down, Ray, you know why? Because I can smell it.” I took in a deep breath to accentuate my point. “You’re just being stubborn and making this excruciatingly hard on all of us.” I sighed. “Unfortunately I don’t have the time for hard. If you can believe it, I actually don’t want to kill you. I really don’t. You’re all kinds of painful, but I believe you deserve to live. The pledge I took to protect when I joined the police force was sincere. But time is running out. My conditions for not killing you are as follows—and they’re nonnegotiable.” He glared at me, but remained quiet. “One: you will swear a Blood Oath of fealty to our Pack. This binds you to us. If you betray the oath, you die. Once you do this, you become an

Essential to our Pack—you bring value by your position on the force and we protect you. It’s a fair trade. Two: you take a voluntary year hiatus to assimilate to our ways, starting immediately. Your excuse will be stress related, and everyone will buy it. After a year in the north woods recuperating in peace, you’ll be good as new and no one will be the wiser.”

Rage vibrated off of Ray in short, angry waves. “I don’t care what you say. I’m not swearing some kind of ritual oath to anyone. You and your little cult of misfits can—”

I reached over and yanked his gag back up quicker than he could track. It shocked him into silence.

He was such a thorn in my ass.

“Looks like he’s not willing to compromise, then,” Danny said. “Though, it was a rather sweet deal if you bothered to ask me. I would’ve agreed to it in a heartbeat.”

Ray started to struggle and, in a moment of weakness, I considered killing him. It would be so much easier. But unfortunately easy had never been my style. “Dammit, Ray, why are you such a stubborn idiot!” I shot off my seat and kicked my folding chair. The wall exploded and the chair clattered to the ground in pieces, accompanied by a snowfall of white dust.

“Listen, Jess.” Danny stood in front of me. “You can’t beat yourself up about this.” He placed his hands carefully on my shoulders, glancing at me quickly before averting his eyes. My status was above his and prolonged eye contact in a stressful situation was hard. “I can see the mortality decisions are going to bloody tear you apart, because you’re still seeing the world as a human does.

But I can assure you this bloke isn’t worth your frustration.” He gestured idly at Ray, who’d shut up and stopped moving after my tirade. “We’ve much more important things on the agenda tonight, like setting out to find your man.” Danny was joining me as a Selective on this trip, which basically meant he was my muscle-for-hire, along with my twin brother, Tyler. “Dusk will be here shortly. I know you haven’t had much experience killing yet, so I’ll be happy to finish this up for you. It can be over and done with in a jiffy.”

“Yet” was the operative word in that sentence. Killing innocent people shouldn’t be a snap. Just because I was a wolf now was no excuse. I’d spent twenty-six-years as a human. I couldn’t kill the bastard that easily.

He was going to have to work for it.

I sighed. “We’re not killing him, Danny.”

“Come again?” He cocked his head in question.

“He lives. For now.”

I glanced down at Ray, and his eyes narrowed, sensing a trick.

This was the point where he was hoping to gloat while I admitted this was just a weird cult after all. But unfortunately for him there was no Kool-Aid to dispense. This was the real deal. “That’s right, Ray.” I exhaled a long, tired breath. “You’re going to live to see another day. You’re a complete fool, but I guess you’re my fool now.”

“Um, Jessica?” Danny asked. “I don’t think your father is going to be quite as willing to let him—”

“It’s already settled. If I couldn’t convince Ray to swallow the quiet pill and swear a Blood Oath, I

had to take ownership of him. If he stays here without me, he dies. Nobody in Pack is willing to babysit him.” I could’ve asked Marcy or Nick to do it, but it was too risky. If Ray somehow escaped and exposed us, they would end up paying for it with their lives. “I’m choosing to decide his fate. He’s mine.”

Danny’s face showed his confusion as he tried in vain to process my foolish ways. “Yours?”

“He’s coming with us,” I assured him.

“You must be joking.” Danny laughed, his face incredulous. “Surely we’ll be trekking where no human can follow. He’s bound to end up killed or worse. Not that there’s actually anything worse than dead, but it could definitely hurt more.”

I shrugged. “Then he’ll die. But I’m not killing him right here in cold blood.”

Danny’s expression switched to a sardonic grin in an instant. “Whatever you say. You’re the boss.”

I took a sharp breath. “You have to be careful, Danny,” I scolded. “Why do you always tread so close to the hairy edge? Someday your mouth is going to spin you into trouble and no amount of sweet talking is going to get you out.” Referring to me like that so boldly could cause waves where none should be, especially when the real boss was still in the building.

He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “It’s an addiction, naturally. What fun is the world when everything is so safe and tidy? Everything in its proper place?”

He had a point.

I moved toward the door. “Take Ray to his house and pack a bag. If his house is under any surveillance, regroup. Meet me back at my apartment when you’re done. We’ll be out at full dark; the vamps will be there shortly after. Be ready.”

As I left, I heard Danny say to Ray. “No need to look so glum, Detective Hart. The vampires won’t kill you instantly. They like to play with their prey first. That means you and I will have a lot more happy fun time together. Won’t that be smashing?”

I headed back into the main offices of Hannon & Michaels, the P.I. firm I shared with my partner,

Nick Michaels. Nick was a werefox who’d been raised on the Compound with me, my father having taken him in as a child. Because of the fact that male werewolves didn’t play well with one another,

we’d been inseparable ever since.

Marcy, our fearless secretary and resident spell caster, stood from her desk as I walked in, reading me accurately with her sharp, intelligent eyes. Marcy was a sassy, curvy, redheaded witch whom I

secretly adored. She hated overt emotional interactions, so I tended to heap it on whenever possible.

“What’s up?” she asked. “Cop chat didn’t go well? You look a little haggard.”

“I feel haggard. Do we have any food left?”

“Nope, you and your compadres scarfed everything down an hour ago, and there were at least twenty takeout bags in the lunchroom. What is it with you guys? Who can possibly keep up with all these constant hunger demands? It’s unnatural.”

“What can I say? Wolves like to eat.” I chuckled to myself, even though eating massive amounts of food in order to feed my new, faster metabolism was becoming a serious adjustment.