Perched in a newly selected tree, Li Khuli watched the two tiny puppies playing on the lawn. The male and female shifters who she assumed were their parents were there too, alternating between human and wolf form as they played with the pups. She knew the puppies were shifters as well, having seen each of them shift in the previous few days, but for the time being they were both choosing to stay in wolf form.
Being careful not to reveal herself, Li Khuli eased her weight higher, sliding onto a branch a fraction above the one she’d been sitting on. The pups were slowly meandering further and further north, and if they kept going, she was going to lose sight of them if she didn’t move a bit.
A fresh breeze came sweeping across the forest, swaying her tree, and Li Khuli turned her face into the wind, enjoying the cool air. Her current perch was as close to the manor as she could get without actually crossing the wall, and despite her best efforts, she still hadn’t managed to figure out how to do that without being detected. Thorough didn’t begin to cover the efforts these creatures had gone to in protecting their home.
Over the past week, she’d seen Drew once more. He’d called the inn and left a message for her, asking her to come to dinner with him. He’d chosen a quiet restaurant in Penrith, with wholesome local food and some artisan beers that Lee had loved, and charmed her silly with witty stories of articles he’d written and unusual people he’d met over the years. But at the end of the evening, he hadn’t repeated his suggestion that she join him in bed, and Lee wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that.
John, too, she’d seen again. He’d come looking for her, just as curious as ever, telling her about horrors from his childhood, while she shared stories of her own. But at the end of the visit, he’d once more left her with cryptic comments to the effect that she was never going to kill Miller, or any of the other wolves, for that matter. But he carefully avoided addressing the issue directly, so she never had the chance to outright deny his assertions.
But Li Khuli did not care what a shifter thought, she reminded herself sternly. She would kill her targets when she found a way to complete both assignments without revealing herself, and when she had a better idea of what to expect from that annoying assassin. A Satva Khuli did not rush in unprepared. She’d watched his workouts on the lawn, watched him teaching some of the other shifters to fight, and given time, she would get a detailed enough idea of his style, his strengths and weaknesses, to be able to best him.
A faint yip got her attention, and she turned back to look at the pups again. One of them had grabbed hold of the woman’s sleeve and was tugging as hard as he could. The woman graciously allowed herself to be pulled forward, eventually falling face first onto the grass, while the pup barked and bounced in glee.
The first time she’d seen the two puppies playing, she’d felt a burst of rage so great it had taken all of her energy not to swing down out of her tree, march over to the two little fur balls and slit both their throats then and there. How dare they? They were soft and helpless, tiny, mewling things that had no right to exist, no place in a world as harsh and brutal as the one that Li Khuli inhabited. Even now, she felt a strong resentment towards the two little creatures. Their play was so pointless, so infantile and silly. Not like her own play as a child. Play, where Li Khuli came from, consisted of trying to walk along the stone wall that stretched around the compound and not have her feet cut by the dull knives the other children carried. Or sometimes she had been on the opposite side, trying her hardest to stab the feet of the children who were balancing on the wall. Play was trying to steal food from her neighbour’s plate at dinnertime without being seen, while inhaling her own food so fast that no one else had the chance to steal it. Play had been drawing pictures of the best way to kill a potential target, with rewards handed out for the sneakiest or the most vicious ideas.
And yet here was this fumbling little creature on four legs, trying to bite his sister’s tail, yet so incompetent that all he succeeded in doing was tripping over his own feet.
The most irritating part, Li Khuli thought, as she craned her neck a little higher to keep watching the pups, was that this little one would grow up to become a powerful adult wolf, one of the world’s most effective predators, and with his pack, one of the most tight-knit communities in the animal kingdom.
This was stupid, she told herself sharply. As soon as she worked out how to get onto the estate, the pups were going to die anyway, so there was no point getting angry about them now. Even if she didn’t kill them herself, the Noturatii would, once she told them the location of this property. She just had to kill her own two marks first, unwilling to delegate that duty to mere foot soldiers.
She looked around, seeing that the light was beginning to fade for the afternoon, and decided it was time for her to head back to her hotel. It had been nearly a week since she’d checked in with her master, sending the usual short, encrypted message that was all the information anyone cared about: Mission Incomplete. Hypothetically, if she took too long she could be called off the mission and it would be reassigned, but it had only been three or four months that she’d been tracking the elusive pack. Given that the British division of the Noturatii had been trying to do the same thing for a few hundred years, she didn’t think anyone was going to get upset about the time it was taking.
She took one last look at the group on the lawn, checking that no one was within range to see her climb out of the tree, and noticed that another man had joined them. This one had ginger hair, his back to her for the moment, but Li Khuli paused, as there seemed to be something oddly familiar about him. She hadn’t been keeping any particular head count on the shifters she’d seen, focusing specifically on her targets and the bodyguards who were likely to get in her way, but she was fairly sure she hadn’t seen this one before. So why did he seem so -
Li Khuli nearly fell out of her tree as the man turned around, her hand flying to her mouth, a cry of disbelief strangled in her throat before a wayward sound could escape. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t... it wasn’t possible. There was no way in the world she had... Holy mother of God, that was...
Drew.
And then, in case she needed any further proof, Drew shifted, right there on the lawn, bending down to greet the pups, tail wagging as they licked his muzzle.
Drew was a shape shifter. She deliberately thought each word clearly and emphatically as she tried to get her mind around the shocking idea. Drew, her perfect, normal, not-part-of-her-crazy-violent-world, handsome, charming gentleman suitor, was a fucking wolf.
Without another thought, Li Khuli dropped out of the tree, heedless of anyone who might be around to see her, and took off through the trees, heart pounding as she ran for her bike. Don’t think, she told herself fiercely as she dragged the thing out of hiding and back onto the road. Just get back to the hotel, don’t crash on the way, you fucking moronic girl, don’t think about it! Oh god, she was hunting Drew’s family and now she was going to have to kill him as well, don’t think about it, just ride, don’t hit the potholes. Here’s your turning coming up, go left, mind the car coming the other way and in the name of all that was holy, why was she supposed to hate the wolves so much?
Steven Chu knocked on the door of the small, non-descript flat. When there was no reply, he checked the address he’d written down. This was the place. He knocked again, then heard a muffled reply from behind the door.
“Coming, coming. I’m getting there. I’m not as young as I used to be.” He heard the rattle of keys in the lock, then the door swung open, slamming into the end of the safety chain with a thud. “Hello?” a wrinkled face said, peering through the gap. “Who are you?”
“Detective Lim, ma’am,” Steven said, holding out his fake police badge. “Are you Nancy? I called earlier. You said you had some information about Jack Miller.”
“I know what I said,” Nancy told him abruptly. “I’m old. I’m not senile. Wait a minute.” She closed the door and the chain rattled some more, then the door finally opened properly. “Come in. Would you like some tea?”
“No, thank you,” Steven told her. He was champing at the bit to find out what she knew, thrilled at the prospect of finally coming up with some real information. But as he followed her slow, shuffling gait back to the living room, he was quickly realising he was going to have to be patient.
“No tea? All right then, suit yourself. Now then, that horrible man on the news. Well, I suppose you’d better sit down.” Steven did, trying not to look too uncomfortable on the stiff lounge. Nancy did likewise, not so much sitting as falling backwards into an armchair. “I always watch the five o’clock news, right before I have my dinner,” she said, her voice thin, but her eyes clear and sharp. “And I was watching it last week and saw that man’s face, and I didn’t think much of it. But then I saw him the other night! And I wasn’t sure at first, but then I got my grandson to come over. He’s good with computers. All the kids are these days. And he looked up the photograph on the computer, and it was the man on the news. So I thought right-o, here we go, and called the phone number.”
“Excellent, well done,” Steven said encouragingly, jotting down notes as she rambled on. “And where exactly did you see him?”
“Well, here, of course. I don’t go very far these days.”
“Here? In this building?”
“What? No, no, not in the building. Don’t know what I’d have done if he was inside. I’m only an old lady, you know. I can’t defend myself. The neighbours check in on me now and then. You have to get to know your neighbours when you’re my age. Not like these young people who don’t care who they’re living next to. We old folks have to look after each other.”
Steven nodded, forcing himself not to interrupt her. “So where exactly did you see him?”
“Outside in the alley. Come over here, I’ll show you.” She got up, a slow process given the depth of her armchair, and Steven tried not to fidget while she messed about with her cane. She hobbled over to the window, turning a rusty key and thumping on the frame a couple of times until it opened with a groan. “Here, look down there.” She shuffled out of the way, and Steven craned his neck to peer out the narrow gap. Three storeys below them was an alley, dimly lit by a half-hearted street lamp.
“Does this open any further?” he asked, wary of either breaking the window or accidentally jamming it open.
“It does,” Nancy said, “but it’s a bit stiff. And I don’t like the cold air. Just a bit of fresh air now and then, but I don’t leave it open all night. Don’t want to get burgled.”
“Of course not, no,” Steven agreed automatically. Not much chance she was going to get burgled via a window at this height. He shoved the window open a couple more inches, getting a better view of the alley. “So he was down in the alley?”
“That’s right. With a couple of other men. Tattoos, leather jackets. Rough sorts. Up to no good, I’m sure. The young ones these days have no respect. Not like you,” she said, beaming at him. “You’re one of the good ones. Found a nice, respectable job. Pay the bills. Do you have a wife yet?”
“Not yet, no,” Steven replied, forcing a smile.
“Well, you’d better fix that up quick smart,” she told him, thumping her cane on the floor. “All the nice ones get snapped up young, and then you’re left with the ones no one else wants. Take my advice, find yourself a nice young lady, a proper one, not one of these ones who expose their buttocks to everyone all over their computers.”
Steven smiled and nodded. “I’m sure I’ll find the right one soon,” he said, hoping that agreeing with her would avoid a protracted discussion on the topic. “Now, you said he was down in the alley. What time of day was this?”
“Eight o’clock in the evening,” Nancy told him firmly. “They were having an argument. That’s why I noticed. It started off as just a conversation, but then they started yelling.”
“And what were they yelling about?”
“There was a big man there. He had a beard. He was telling the other one off about having broken the rules. He said there would be consequences. He didn’t threaten him with anything specific, but by gum, he was angry. He said the one on the news... what did you say his name was? James?”
“Jack Miller,” Steven supplied.
“Jack. Right. Well, the one with the beard was telling Jack that he’d put their entire operation at risk, and he would have to toe the line, or he’d be out.”
“Uh huh. Excellent, excellent. Did he happen to mention anything about what this ‘operation’ was?”
Nancy shrugged and went to pull the window closed. She couldn’t quite manage, so Steven did it for her. “No. Just a lot of swearing and telling him he’d done his job wrong. In my day, you didn’t need to swear like that to make a point. Youths these days are getting less and less respect for their elders. I think it’s quite sad, really.”
“For what it’s worth, I totally agree,” Steven told her. “We could all be a lot more civil to each other. I do have just one concern, though. You said it was eight o’clock at night. So it would have been dark, correct?”
“Well, naturally.”
“And you were looking through a small gap in your window, into a dim alley three storeys below. I don’t mean any offence, but how certain are you that it was really Miller you saw and not another man who looked a bit like him?”
Nancy pursed her lips, reminding Steven of a school principal he’d once had, a fierce woman who hadn’t taken any nonsense from anyone. “My legs don’t work so well anymore,” Nancy told him sharply, “but there’s nothing wrong with my eyes. Here, take this,” she said, picking up a newspaper that was sitting on a low table beside her armchair. “Go and stand over by the wall and open it to any page you like. Then hold it up for me to see.”
Feeling slightly baffled, Steven went and did just that. “Member of Parliament in Expenses Rort,” she read, picking the headline off the top of the page. “Winner of the Evensly Art Awards Announced,” she continued, picking the next one down, and then at the bottom of the page, “Local Library to Cancel Story Hour. You see? Nothing wrong with my eyesight. I saw Jack Miller, standing in my alleyway. Wasn’t sure at first, but then the other man gave him a shove at one point, and he ended up standing right beneath the street light. Didn’t stay there long, but that was enough. I know who I saw, young man, and if you want to catch this criminal, you’d best take heed of it.”
Steven felt a rush of excitement that was hard to contain. “You’re right, ma’am,” he said, genuinely impressed as he folded the newspaper and set it down. “There’s nothing wrong with your eyesight. And you’ve done us a great service by calling and telling us about this. I only wish there were more people in the world as diligent as you.”