I listened to Lucien’s proclamation that he was the last of the thirteenth clan. That he was a dragon. Then I burst out laughing. Not just a little laugh, either, but a complete belly laugh that I couldn’t stop. It went on for almost fifteen seconds. Not even the fact that I was trapped in the office of a crime lord with him kept me from finding it ridiculous.
Lucien’s expression remained even. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t find this to be a laughing matter.”
“Dragons aren’t real!” I said, staring at him. “Certainly, weredragons aren’t real! I mean, I would have heard of them.”
He stared at her. “Are dragons really that much more difficult to believe in than werewolves and vampires?”
“Yes!” I said, unhesitatingly. “Because I’ve met werewolves and vampires. They are real. Dragons are—”
Lucien’s eyes began to glow, then his mouth with an infernal light. He proceeded to turn his head to one side and breathed out a torrent of flame that caused his desk to catch fire. It burned in a fiery blaze as the office smoke detector went off.
Lucien walked past me to the closet and pulled out a fire extinguisher before blowing the blaze out while I stood there, dumbfounded.
My eyes widened. “Um, okay. You can breathe fire.”
“Yes,” Lucien said, simply.
“Huh,” I said, blown away by this new revelation about the world I lived in.
“If it’s any consolation, we’re not that different from other shifters. We’re werecrocodiles and only those of my line have the power to breathe fire. Some of us could also grow to great lengths and heights. It’s just that stories of both abilities grew exaggerated over time.”
I shook my head. “Listen, this is amazing. Really, it is, but it doesn’t explain how Victoria went from being your apprentice to getting murdered.”
“Tenacious,” Lucien said, picking up the picture of him and Agent Timmons off the floor where it had fallen. “Victoria wanted more than just to master magic. She wanted power and wanted it quickly. Victoria also started teaching her abilities to her friends, your brother included, which I had forbidden. Then she said it was possible to perform a genuine miracle. Something we could use to make the entire world believe the shifters were creatures of God rather than monsters.”
“This is starting to sound like crap again,” I said.
“She said she could raise the dead,” Lucien said, not improving my opinion of his information. “It just required the sacrificial dagger.”
“Raise the dead,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Is that possible?”
“No,” Lucien said. “But the spirits in the Lodge may have said otherwise. The Manitou includes both good and bad spirits. Very often depending on what side of their wrath you are.”
Manitou was the Algonquian name for the life force of the universe and the spirits that inhabited this life force. In truth, there wasn’t that much of a difference between spirits in North America, Japan, or anywhere else in the universe. I didn’t know what this Lodge was, but I guessed it was the place the previous generations of Bright Falls had used to visit the Great Woods. It was hard to believe Victoria had somehow made herself a priestess of ancient animist gods, but the entirety of this case was one weird revelation after another.
“You turned her down for it,” I said, thinking back to my vision. “Not very forcibly, though.”
“I was tempted,” Lucien said. “I have people I’d like back myself.”
“We all do,” I said, thinking of three people I’d lost. “But I bet it’s easier for a murderer.”
Lucien didn’t respond.
“So who is responsible?” I said, finally ready to crack the case.
“I have not the slightest idea,” Lucien said. “Sorry.”
“Oh come on!”
Lucien stretched out his arms as if in surrender. “If you’re actually looking for a mundane killer behind these murders, then I think you’re looking in the wrong direction. Victoria found something out in the woods and it made increasing demands of her. Demands that ultimately destroyed her and those who invoked it.”
I took a deep breath. “So let me get this straight: you think the crimes were committed by the Devil.”
“Or something as close to it as to not make a difference, yes,” Lucien said, shrugging. “Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes!” I snapped at him. “Yes, it is! It is more ridiculous than Agent Timmons learning a fictional martial art from Doctor Who.”
“It’s the Doctor, not Doctor Who. Doctor Who is the show.” Lucien paused. “And no, my foster brother is completely insane. It’s just an insanity reality finds infectious.”
“I prefer differently rational,” Agent Alex Timmons said from the doorway, causing me to jump backwards and even Lucien do to do a double take. He was standing next to Deana, who was at his side muttering as Alex held by her by the arm.
“Nice of you to drop in while you’re in town,” Lucien said dryly. “I would have preferred for you to call ahead, but clearly you’re here to greet your beloved sibling.”
“I might have made time to visit if not for the fact I’m trying to solve the murder of a girl connected to you,” Alex said, his voice not having any of its usual amusement. “I had to request this assignment personally.”
“Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Lucien asked.
Alex narrowed his eyes. “The director of the FBI is an appointee of the new administration. He doesn’t care about threats to shifters. I do.”
Ouch.
“He got past everyone and I can’t move,” Deana said, looking over at Lucien. “I used to be better at this.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lucien said, not even looking in her direction. “I’m sure you’ll get a chance to wash away your sins.”
“Ha-ha,” Deana said. “No puns in front of the whitetail. We might be here all day.”
“Weredeer do not need to do puns!” I snapped. “That is a vicious lie!”
“Right,” Alex said. “Your text to me said you were hoofing it here. You also added that you were going to lick Lucien’s organization and any injuries you’d suffer would just be grazes.”
“That was an accident!” I said, horrified at what I texted when not paying attention. “I have no idea how that happened.”
“Deer puns?” Lucien said. “I’m not a fawn of them.”
“Your sister and companion are down in the back lot,” Alex said, thankfully getting us away from our present topic. “Sheriff O’Henry is down there as well. If you don’t mind, Lucien, and even if you do, I’ll be escorting Ms. Doe down there.”
“She broke in,” Deana said. “Assaulted me.”
“And he’s a criminal!” I snapped, pointing at the closet behind me. “Look at all the…”
I trailed off as I noticed that the closet appeared empty. All of the shelves looked like they contained nothing, let alone a bunch of magic and drugs.
Lucien smiled.
How the hell had he pulled that off? Was it an illusion? “Dammit.”
“We’ll be going now,” Alex said.
“The Lodge is the real danger here,” Lucien said, staring at him. “You know it and I know it.”
Alex didn’t answer but let go of Deana’s arm.
I stared at him. “I’m not coming with you until I get this resolved.”
“Now can I waterboard her?” Deana asked.
“I’ve told you all I know,” Lucien said, his voice soft. “Now leave.”
I glared at him and debated going after Deana before I realized I had probably gotten everything I was going to get out of this trip. I didn’t like Lucien. He’d turned my brother into a drug dealer and was neck-deep in all of this. Still, I had to admit he’d been remarkably cooperative to an amateur detective who’d broken several laws in the process of trying to prove he was a murderer.
“All right,” I said, walking to Alex. I wondered how much trouble I was in for all of this.
Probably a lot. I didn’t care, though. I was going to solve this.
As I walked past Lucien, he said, “By the way, your sister is fired.”
Dammit.
“I had him,” I muttered, looking at Alex. “It may not have looked like it, but I had—”
“I agree,” Alex interrupted. “You did an excellent job infiltrating his sanctum and I appreciate that you called me in for backup.”
“Wait, what?” I said, confused.
“May I ask what you found out?” Alex said, sounding completely non-ironic.
Blinking, I gave him a short rundown. “He thinks Victoria made herself into a werewolf with the gods of the forest and now they’re coming after her. He was her mentor as a mage and she passed on what she learned to her drug-dealing friends, which included my brother.”
“Interesting,” Alex said, frowning. “And the sacrificial dagger?”
Wait, he knew about that? “He had one, but it wasn’t used in the murders or any other murders I can guess. How much do you know, actually?”
“More than most, less than some,” Alex said, reaching the elevator with me. “My original theory was that Victoria was a Judas Goat for Marcus O’Henry. A tool for him to break the curse on his bloodline as well as properties. I don’t know if I believe a Manitou was involved, but the possibility of it possessing someone and being behind the murders is entirely possible, especially if it was summoned in a ritual gone wrong.”
I stared forward. “You are really not what I expected from an FBI agent.”
“Thank you,” Alex said, smiling.
“Uh, is my brother in trouble for drug dealing?” I asked, worried.
“Hopefully not,” Alex said, putting a comforting arm on my shoulder. It made me want to lean up and kiss him. “I’m here to solve a murder, not investigate vice. Your brother may be in danger, though, if he really has been involved in demonology.”
I thought about that. “Yeah, no kidding. I need to go back to the sheriff’s office and beat some answers out of him.”
“Don’t you mean bleat some answers out of him?”
I glared then used the keycard to summon the elevator. “Not funny. Deer puns are a sensitive subject with me.”
“My apologies,” Alex said.
“So, if it’s not too much of an imposition, may I ask what the deal between you and Lucien is?”
“I think you already know.”
“He’s really your foster brother?” I asked.
The elevator opened up and the two of us stepped inside as I swiped the card to take us downstairs.
“Yes,” Alex said. “The Drake family—”
“Seriously?” I said, wondering why they’d take the Latin name for dragons. You know, ignoring all hypocrisy on my part. “Is it just a shifter thing?”
Alex shrugged. “I didn’t name them. They were, however, the most second powerful clan of shifters in North America. Lucien’s cousins still control Florida’s shifters in defiance of the werewolves’ control in the continent.”
“But Marcus O’Henry killed all the ones in this town?” I asked, wondering how Marcus had killed all of the dragons in town without anyone noticing.
Then I realized there was only one time he could have done it. A week when every single shifter was hiding in their homes or the woods, terrified of a massive purge of their families by the government. It had been a period when there’d been riots across the country and plenty of old scores settled as the old order among supernaturals collapsed. Dad had taken me, Jeanine, and Jeremy to Grandpa Jacob’s cabin while Mom had tried to prepare all the other shifters for the change in our society.
“Yes,” Alex said, seeing my reaction. “A purge occurred during the Reveal. My mother, also an FBI agent, was called to investigate the murders, but discovered Lucien hiding in the woods by himself. A scared fourteen year old who had witnessed the slaughter of his family by human mercenaries armed with silver ammunition.”
“Then why isn’t he in jail?” I asked.
“The US government pardoned him and other leaders of the supernatural community as part of the bailout following the 2008 financial collapse,” Alex said, disgusted. “In the end, after a car meant to drive Lucien to the airport was blown up, my mother took him into our home. He stayed with us until I went to join the FBI myself and he decided he wanted to get revenge.”
I looked at him. “Wait, he’s a crime boss because he wants to kill Marcus O’Henry?”
“Not just Marcus,” Alex said, his voice disappointed. “He wants to take everything from the O’Henrys. I was hoping for better for him.”
“But you don’t think he killed Victoria?” I asked the obvious question.
“No,” Alex said. “Do you?”
“No.”
Neither of us said anything as the elevator moved down.
“Now you owe me some insights,” Alex said, interrupting the silence.
“What?”
“Quid pro quo,” Alex said, smiling. “I’ve shared my past and now you have to share yours.”
I frowned. “I don’t have anything interesting about me. Hell, you probably can learn everything about me just by looking at me. I’ve lived here my entire life. I attend community college. I’m really not that interesting. I mean, unless you’re a weirdo who finds weredeer inherently exotic, in which case I consider you really culturally insensitive.”
Alex chuckled. “Jane, you were asked to investigate the death of your worst enemy. You not only have done so, you forced the medical examiner to confess his involvement with the victim and then ran to interrogate a known drug dealer. You are many things, interesting being at the top of the list.”
I blushed, flattered by his attention. “I dunno. It’s not like…”
“You don’t have to tell me anything, Jane.” Alex turned away.
I closed my eyes. “It’ll sound stupid.”
“I doubt that.”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to be inconsequential. I don’t want to be who I am. I want to be someone who matters. That requires being more than just a person who eats leaves three days a month.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You don’t understand,” I said, not expecting him to. “I grew up in a house where everything was judged before me. I was supposed to be a shaman like my mother. My grandfather was going to set me up with a weredeer husband to be a housewife. It was all stifling and I had plans to run away from it all.”
“Still plan to?” Alex asked.
I lowered my gaze. “No. I don’t. The Reveal occurred and now everyone knows shifters exist. That changed everything. I can’t go anywhere. I can be shot in any state but Michigan and Vermont. I’m going to have to list the fact I’m a weredeer on any employment form and I’ll be treated like I’m diseased everywhere but Bright Falls. My parents dropped the idea of forcing me into keeping the old traditions alive when Grandpa Jacob died, but now I’m more boxed in than before.”
“So you’ve jumped into solving a murder,” Alex said. “Regardless of the danger.”
“Yeah, it felt…exciting,” I said, ashamed of myself. “More important than anything else I’ve done. Did you know, last year, I asked my mom to test me to be a shaman? Something I never thought in my wildest dreams. I’d ask to do, but at least it was something.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t have any talent with magic,” I said, closing my eyes. “I can read objects and see the future, but it turns out everything else is beyond me. I don’t have any talent for spirit talking. I should but…I don’t. I’m more like my dad than my mom in that.”
“Not the best motive to fight crime.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, please don’t tell Emma. I should be doing this for Victoria’s sake. But, at most, I’m doing it for Emma’s sake.”
I had another secret. A terrible thing I did as a child, but I was over it. I’d made my peace with my actions. Honest. That really wasn’t any of Agent Timmons’s business, anyway.
Alex nodded. “I won’t tell Emma you want to be normal but in an exceptional way because being exceptional in a magical way bores you.”
“You make it sound silly,” I said.
“Speaking as the shaman FBI agent,” Alex paused. “It really is.”
I rolled my eyes before hiding a smile. He really was entertaining. “Why do you want to know all this personal information, anyway?”
“I want to deputize you.”
I blinked and turned to him. “What?”
The elevator door pinged and opened. A rush of hot air poured out and I was momentarily blinded by the crackle of flames.
Alex looked outside. “We should probably discuss this when we’re not in Hell.”