Dangerous Things

“Devon, put Kane down and get your ass in a chair,” Warren rumbled. “We’ll finish the discussion about Trevor later.”

Nick, Devon, and Kat all looked at Warren with wide eyes. If the average person didn’t know Warren, they would have missed it. Warren was excited about the prospect of a new shifter in the area and he wanted to learn more about the unknown breed.

Devon put Kane back on his feet and stomped back over to his chair next to Warren. The doors opened and Kriss walked in with Tabatha latched onto his arm. Devon let a slow smile grace his lips as he glared toward the blond vampire. He might not be able to put Kane in his place, but the man that just walked in could and he knew Kriss had no love for the reformed vampire.

“Are we late?” Tabatha asked happy that she’d won the argument with Kriss to come to the meeting. Some times Kriss could be just a touch over protective… a hard touch.

“No, you’re right on time,” Envy said. “We haven’t even really started yet.”

Tabatha joined the women at the bar and took a seat while Kriss stopped near Chad.

Kane’s heart leapt into his throat when Tabatha walked in and he had to fight the urge to grab her up in his arms and take her away from here. He stepped back further into the shadows so that only his silhouette could barely be seen. His eyes drifted toward the fallen and he inwardly cringed at the glare he was getting from the man.

“We need to learn more about this demon that’s been trapped in the cemetery,” Warren continued. “We need to know what it looks like and since Dean’s absent, Kane is the only one here who's seen it.”

Kane had taken out a cigarette and flipped open his lighter. The light illuminated his face for a moment so they could see how troubled his eyes were.

Tabatha forgot to breathe as her gaze jerked toward the small flame and saw Kane. His perfect lips were curved slightly as he lit the cigarette and his eyes were shadowed by dark lashes. Shadowed or not, she could feel his gaze touch her the same as if it were his hands caressing her skin. Feeling the distraction of something brush her arm, she looked around to find Kriss now standing right beside her.

“Her name is Misery,” Kane said after a moment. “The problem is… I’m not really sure what she looks like.”

“How could you not know what she looks like?” Kriss demanded with a deep frown on his face. “You were down there with Dean for who knows how long.”

“Can you let me finish, Feathers?” Kane asked in a sarcastic tone.

Kriss narrowed his gaze resenting the insult.

“Good,” Kane retorted. “The reason I don’t truly know what she looks like is she kept changing her appearance. One moment she was a pretty little girl with one creepy as hell personality, the next a rotting corpse, a cloud of black smoke, and the last was a beautiful woman. Those seem to be her favorite forms to take. She’s extremely powerful if she could hold two fallen in that chamber at the same time.”

Kriss took a deep breath and nodded, “Some demons have been known to have that kind of power.”

“We have a demon specialist coming in right now.” Zachary said finally. “Her flight should be arriving in the next couple of hours or so. When she gets here, it would be best if everyone just leaves Misery to her.”

Kane cocked an eyebrow, “Her?”

“Yeah,” Trevor said. “Her name’s Angelica. She’s got information on just about every legend, myth, and fairytale in the world. If there’s any kind of story about Misery, then she’ll have it in her flash drive.”

Alicia sighed in frustration, “Fine, she can have the demon. I want to know what we’re going to do about finding Micah.”

“Micah can take care of himself,” Quinn informed her.

The truth was that during that last argument between him and Micah, he’d ordered Micah to stand down but his brother hadn’t obeyed and that could only mean one thing… they now had two alpha males within the cougar clan and that had never been heard of. In the past, it had always caused a fight to the death.

Quinn loved Micah and was proud of him for being so strong willed. The last thing he wanted was for one of their arguments to get out of control.

“But he doesn’t know anything that’s happened,” Alicia exclaimed reaching for any reason she could to make them find him. “What if he runs into Misery and gets hurt… or killed? Gone or not, he’s part of the clan.”

“You can’t argue with her logic old boy,” Kane prompted having read Quinn’s thoughts.

Alicia glanced at him in the shadows and blushed before looking away. It felt good to hear someone verbally take her side for once. What Alicia didn’t know was that her entire family had been thinking about Micah and the last time they’d really seen him; right after the fight he’d gotten into with Anthony.

Kane returned her smile though she couldn’t see it. Apparently, she was the only one in the group that had any spunk.

“The last time we saw Micah, he’d gotten into a huge shouting match with Anthony Valachi and threw him out of the club,” Steven said softly. “That was right before he vanished.”

“The werewolf?” Trevor asked with a tilt of his head.

“Yeah, and on top of that, Steven mated with Anthony’s fiancé.” Quinn informed him and anyone else that hadn’t heard.

Jewel frowned realizing Steven had been telling her the truth about the ties maybe linking his missing brother to Anthony. She bit her lip, silently wondering if that was the only reason Steven had helped her. No, that was wrong. When Steven took her from the church, he hadn’t even known Anthony was her fiancé.

She heard the unspoken accusation in Quinn’s voice and squared her shoulders. A protective instinct welled up inside of her and she had to voice it.

“Steven didn’t know who my fiancé was and I didn’t have a clue Anthony was a werewolf,” Jewel stated in a firm voice. “It wasn’t until we mated that I told him about Anthony. So, if you’re going to blame anyone for that, blame me.”

Quinn had the courtesy to look slightly chastised and Kat gave her a discrete thumbs-up.

Jewel leaned back against the bar and started chewing on her bottom lip again. Standing up to Steven’s older brother, the alpha of the cougar tribe, had given her a little bit of a scare.

She looked over at Steven and relaxed when she saw the pride shining in his eyes for her. Something inside of her softened and she fought like hell to build the protective wall back up around it. Her heart beat faster and she wondered if she was falling in love with him.

“Anthony Valachi has been under suspicion for a while now,” Chad spoke up. “The police force has reason to believe he’s involved in not only human smuggling, but slavery as well. Rumor has it that his men have been picking up prostitutes, kidnapping them and selling them as sex slaves, too.”

“Why haven’t the police done anything about it then?” Kat asked.

“We were told to stay out of it because the FBI had taken control of the investigation.” Chad answered. “Unfortunately, when the FBI shows up, we have no jurisdiction and can’t do anything but stay out of their way unless we want to wind up in jail beside the bad guys.”

Steven nodded figuring it was time to tell them all of it. “Jewel’s father was investigated by the FBI here a while back. It was the reason Jewel was engaged to Anthony in the first place.” He gave Jewel a soft smile before turning back to the group.

“Her father was the manager of the Palm Springs Resort and Anthony wasn’t happy about the search warrant they had or that Arthur allowed them to roam the property. Realizing his mistake, Arthur killed the agent and was arrested for murder. In order for Arthur to save his own skin, he handed Jewel over to Anthony as payment for getting him out of the murder wrap.”

“He’s the one that killed my father. I’m sure of it,” Jewel said clenching her fist at her side. “So, when can we go after him?”

“We don’t have to go after him,” Chad informed her. “We will form a plan, and then make it known that you are under the Wilder’s protection. When he makes a move… we’ll get him.”

“I think this may be a bit above the law,” Trevor corrected. “Keep Jewel a secret for a couple more days and let me and Zackary make sure the FBI doesn’t come in and turn everything into a clusterfuck.”

“Why would they interfere?” Kat asked. “You’re part of that paranormal organization… aren’t they above the FBI?”

“Only in certain areas,” Trevor answered. “Most of the FBI hasn’t a clue we even exist. Hell, the president of the United States doesn’t even know about us. We go way above their heads, and for that, we have to have proof that something paranormal is going on.”

“Does that mean that at least a part of the government knows about us?” Nick asked not liking the uneasy feeling that came with the knowledge.

Trevor shook his head, “Not specifically each one of you… but they are aware of the more… unusual. You are protected the same as the humans are… maybe even more so and with more lenient rules and by a small but powerful government within and above the government.” He scratched his head hoping everyone could follow that vague version of the truth.

“My worry is the FBI digging more into it and finding out too late that they’re dealing with werewolves, not humans,” Chad frowned understanding and not liking what Trevor had just said. Was he to understand the paranormal had more rights then the humans? Maybe he was a bit biased but he was one of those lesser humans.

Trevor shook his head, “The mob isn’t going to go all furry and attack the FBI. Besides, if the world found out about werewolves, they’d be next in line to become extinct and the werewolves know that. The last time they outed themselves, they were almost hunted to extinction.”