Angie’s house was a small place two blocks from work. If this doctor was the guy following her, he would’ve found that easily. I didn’t know where Donna lived but doubted they would go there. They would’ve gone to a place they knew was safe and protected. Angie was an MD, but she hung out with police officers. Mike said her instincts were as good as he’d seen in seasoned veterans on the force.
“Whose bodies did the demon dump?” I asked aloud. “Or were there ever bodies to dump?”
“Could’ve been fake too.” Wretch still stared at the papers.
Patrick’s color was completely gone. “Look, I know I’m weird, but could you stop staring at my DNA results. I’m feeling a little sick.” Sweat beaded up on his brow, his lips were turning blue, and when I touched him, his skin was clammy.
I leaned close to him and took a deep breath tasting the air as it passed through my nostrils. His smelled had changed. “Decay.”
He fell over struggling to breathe. I pinned him down on his back and removed his shirt. I couldn’t see any constriction that would prevent his lungs from filling with air. I rolled him onto his side and checked his back. There wasn’t a mark on him. Next, I checked his neck and just below his right ear was a puncture mark from the needle last night. Wretch jumped on his chest and started CPR. Each push expelled air, but he didn’t take any in. I tried to breathe air into his lungs between chest compressions, but his lungs wouldn’t expand. It was like trying to breath down a blocked pipe. The smell of decay got stronger each time Wretch pushed down.
He let out a sound medical personnel call the death rattle. He died within minutes, and we stared at him. Death was part of my job with the Court, but this was too much.
“If Angie’s still alive, we need her to test him and find out what the doctor gave him.” Wretch pretended he wasn’t thinking what I was. That she could’ve been given the same shot last night.
There was always a backup plan for people we loved. “Where did you tell her to go if it got ugly? Like you and I couldn’t save her, ugly?”
He gave everyone in his life a safe place. Somewhere that he promised to look in case they went missing. “My security room.”
“The room you didn’t go into today because the heads were more interesting than checking your surveillance tapes.” I reminded him.
He vanished. I hoped he would come back with a pair of frightened, but alive, women. The minutes dragged by as we waited.
George and Greg took Patrick’s body outside. They buried him in the marsh and called his parents. Their faces showed a fear I understood. They now felt hunted. As large animals, it was rare to feel vulnerable.
Adam and I sat there waiting for Wretch to return. The alpha’s leg bounced on the floor nervously.
“If she’s not there he’ll lose it,” he said. “If I have to, I’ll knock him out. We can give him a few hours rest to calm down before he tries to help us. You know, I never forget his family is psychotic, but this is the first time I’ve seen glimpses of it in his eyes.”
“I know.” I hadn’t seen this in four centuries.
“Do we have to worry about Greg and George dying like that?” He looked like he couldn’t take anymore today.
So, I lied. “I doubt it. I’m sure this was from the injection Patrick got at his place last night. It looks like the doctor was trying to kill anyone who found out about his experiments. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out he doesn’t know they survived into adulthood.”
George and Greg came back inside and we all waited for Wretch to return. Ten minutes later, he showed up and Angie and Donna were with him. Exhausted, dehydrated, but alive and smiling.
“Patrick?” Donna looked around the room.
“I’m sorry dear.” Mike stood up walking toward them. “Whatever his doctor gave him last night was his last injection.”
She let go of Wretch and hugged the Chief. He pulled her into a bear hug until her tears slowed down. Her grip on him was so strong, I saw him wriggle to adjust.
“Angie, we thought you were dead.” I winked at her.
The tear fell down without warning. I didn’t bother to wipe it away. It was time people in my life, other than Wretch, knew how much they meant to me.
She smiled through flowing tears of relief. “I heard. Seems my creepy demon ex-lover forgot to check the one place he always checks when shit happens.” She poked Wretch in the side. “He brought us up to date. Just for the record, I would like to remain officially dead as long as possible. It seems to be the safest route.”
“Your lab is available, Angie,” Mike said over Donnas’ head.
“Mike, I don’t feel safe there. Not right now. I’ll return to work after Mardi Gras. I don’t want to do this testing in that place.”
The ordeal of the past twenty-four hours showed on her face. She wouldn’t give into it and let it run her but she was a smart woman and if a more private lab with less public contact was what she desired, we could support that.
“You make a good point.” Mike conceded.
“You can have the basement here, Angie. If you want it.” I offered. “George cleaned it up, and we know it’s secure.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Cim. I hoped you would say that. It’s a quiet neighborhood. I would be able to work in peace. I’m going to move out of my apartment as well.”
“You could move in here,” I said without thinking. I was out of bedrooms.
“No, thank you.” She buried her head in Wretch’s chest.
“What? You don’t want to live in a haunted Victorian mansion with fake heads on the porch?” I asked sarcastically.
She walked over to me, sat in my lap, kissing me hard on the lips, and then punching me in the chest. “I love you, too.”
The relief at seeing her alive hit me, and I pulled her in for a tight hug. We cried together, and when I peeked up even Wretch wiped tears from his eyes. “Wretch, we need to find a way to make her immortal.”
“I’m already on it.”
“Wait, what?” She got up and walked over to him. “What if I don’t want to live forever? Let me think about it. Remember, there is a reason we don’t date anymore.” She looked right at his crotch. It did get around.
He looked hurt.
“You can be an obnoxious fucking prick some days,” she said kissing him back. “Is everyone safe?”
“Yes, and I’ve sent Grace to her parents.” I stood up feeling relieved for the first time that day. “Donna, you need to leave town, too. I hope that the doctor thinks you are dead, and you can start over there. But it won’t be safe here for you.”
Donna nodded still clasped in Mike’s arms. He got up and took her to his car. We knew he would make sure she got out of New Orleans safe. His position as Police Chief for the human force meant there were large segments of the paranormal population who didn’t know he was a werewolf. Visitors wouldn’t know it at all, even if they were arrested.
Adam stood up. “I need to get back to the pack meeting. Greg, you stay here until this is resolved. You are freed from your bodyguard duties to me. I’d recommend you guard Cim or Wretch, but they won’t have it. Just stay close by. I’ll have Dale by my side in case anything shows up at my place.”
Greg stood to his full height. “I have to follow my Alpha. I’ll stick by the two of you even if you threaten to kill me.”
“I want you next to Angie while she works.” Wretch dodged the bodyguard. “That leaves us free to roam the streets.”
She rolled her eyes at him.
George walked over to her. “I’m coming with you. Angie, I want you to test my DNA. I don’t think I started as a shifter.”
The argument I wanted to make stopped short. He wanted to find the man who made him into a shifter. If it had been me, I’d have left here the second Patrick died and taken off after him. The amount of patience and calm in this man surprised and impressed me. I needed to research lowland gorillas for personality traits.
“Would you go back to human?” Greg asked.
“Not a chance.” He pounded his chest.
“What equipment do you need, Angie? I’m not sure we can get all of it from the coroner’s office without being noticed,” I asked.
“Mike will help. I’m a little beat and won’t be able to start until morning anyway.” She looked half-asleep already. “It’s only until Mardi Gras is over and you two figure things out. The last couple of days changed me. I don’t know how much longer I’ll stay here.”
“You came back from the dead, sure, take a night off.” I joked.
She and Wretch vanished.
“What if I started out human?” George wondered.
“Then Obsidian’s actual goal is to change humans into paranormals. Ambitious, but it seems doable.” And plausible. She may have succeeded with Patrick. We’d have to wait for Angie’s tests to find out.
“My parents will be thrilled that the doctor they loved was doing this to me.” Greg stared at his phone.
“You don’t have to tell them.” I offered.
He put it back in his pocket. “Never thought of leaving them out of the loop. This time it might be best.”
“We need to open the club tomorrow. It’s our best source of information. Most demons don’t know I own it. They know I’m there a lot, but that’s why they walk in and brag.” We counted on this phenomena.
George agreed. “I’ll handle it, boss. I don’t have cat hearing, but these fools have been yelling. If anyone talks about the doctor, I’ll call you.”
“You won’t be alone. Wretch and I will be upstairs. Angie hates us being around when she works so we can’t be here tomorrow.” Moving back to the club put it in danger. But we’d passed that line twice in the last few days. Information was crucial.
“She runs you two?” Greg laughed.
I smiled. “On occasion.”
“You like it.” He asserted.
“We love her. She’s the feistiest female we’ve met.” Human female, anyway.
“You need to get out more, Boss.” George joined in with my relieved laughter. “So is this typical for you guys? Death everywhere, demons plotting to take over the world, dinner, and bed?”
“This is more than normal. The plots to take over the world are old and had become cliché over the last century. No demon wants to give up cell phones, electricity, or any of the other gadgets humans created. I’m not sure Obsidian wants to rule the whole world either. But I’m sure she’d create her own personal army or even a country.” We had to stop her.
We sat right there until we fell asleep. Sometime during the night, I woke up to find George had already gone upstairs, and Greg had left. I locked up the house checking the porches and yards to make sure there weren’t any gifts left outside. I wanted to wake up the next day with the world the same as I went to bed.