so much time around the Nymar, Henry discovered the lie that we’ve all been told, and he shouted it into the minds of every shapeshifter for hundreds of miles in every direction. By now all of them may know.”
“What lie?”
Her eyes narrowed as if she was looking at him in a new way. “My kind should thank Henry for what he’s told us. We should all just pray that no Full Bloods were around to hear it.” Turning away from him, Jackie headed for the window. “There’s a lot of Nymar in Henry’s scent, so maybe that part of him will overpower the rest.”
Feeling his urgency growing now that Jackie had already made it to the window, Cole snapped, “What lie? You want to tell me these things, then start making sense!”
“I’ve told you plenty. Bring this to one of your partners and they’ll know what it means. Even if Misonyk was using some sort of mental link to control Henry, those thoughts are being screamed out to the rest of us. We know what Henry’s capable of. Sooner or later he’ll break free. When that happens…” She pulled the window open with a hand that had already begun to grow claws. “All I wanted to do was let the Skinners know what they’re up against. You’re the ones who do the fighting, so use the weapon I gave you. I have to go. Henry will be able to smell me long before I can smell him, and that wouldn’t be good for either of us.”
Jackie turned her back to him and lifted one leg through the open window. Cole started to follow her and said, “Maybe you should tell Paige about this. I may not remember all of it.”
“You’d better remember,” Jackie replied. “’Cause I’m done. I owed Brad a big favor, but I’ve done more than enough to see it through. Best of luck to you, Cole. Maybe I’ll look in on you again.” Lowering her line of sight below his waist, she added, “You’ve definitely got some promise.”
Cole adjusted the sheet in his hand to cover himself up. Before he could say or do anything else, Jackie had shifted into her black and gray animal form. Her body simply flowed from one shape to another as if she had smoke for flesh and water for bones. With one effortless leap, she jumped out the window and was gone.
He didn’t bother looking outside to see where she went. He started losing sight of Jackie the moment her fur had fully sprouted. He lunged for one of his phones and dialed the number for Rasa Hill. Paige picked up on the third ring, and he explained what had happened as she yawned on the other end. When he was done, Cole expected something drastic from Paige. What he got were a few simple words.
“Get some sleep,” she told him.
“Isn’t this important?”
“Yes, but we both need a few hours sleep. Besides, I’m waiting to hear from a couple different sources and we’re not going anywhere until I do. Just come back here early in the morning.”
“What about my wound?”
“It’s just a scratch?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Sleep it off.”
“These things are tracking me, Paige,” Cole snarled. “Gerald was right. At least one of ’em’s got my scent, and I don’t like it.”
“Yeah, that’s never fun,” Paige yawned.
“I won’t be able to shake them, will I?”
After a bit of a pause she told him, “There’s a few options, but nothing’s guaranteed.”
“What’s this lie Jackie mentioned? Is that something you know about?”
“All Nymar lie,” she replied simply. “We can sift through it all later. Stop talking so much and get some rest.”
Cole ran his fingers along the scratches on his shoulder and felt his stomach clench. A while ago getting back to a normal life seemed possible. He could always settle back in and try to forget about the weirdness he’d seen. Now, the weirdness hadn’t just beaten him up a few times, but had followed him across national borders and shared a fairly intimate moment with him. There was no easy way to forget about that.
“I want in, Paige,” he said. “Since this shit is just going to follow me around, I might as well do something more than wait for it to find me. It’s either become a Skinner or spend the next bunch of years looking over my shoulder waiting for the next thing to track me down.”
Paige’s voice was still tired, but it was also soft and comforting. “You really need to sleep on it, Cole. We’ll talk about it more tomorrow. Are you all right where you’re at?”
“Sure,” he replied as he looked over at the window that was still hanging from its broken bracket. “I think I can kiss my deposit good-bye, though. Do you think they’ll come after me again?”
“Sounds to me like she could’ve killed you already if she wanted. You’re welcome to stay here, you know.”
Cole looked around at the shredded mattress and messy room. “I’ll think of something. See you in the morning, Paige.”
Since Jackie had tracked him all the way from Canada, going to another hotel didn’t seem like it would do much good. He also didn’t want to head back to Rasa Hill. After all the shapely female bodies he’d seen that night, he needed some quiet time.
Chapter 12
The sun was making its first appearance for the day when Cole left the hotel. Rather than try to get comfortable on a bed that had been ripped apart, he’d wrapped himself in the comforter and fallen asleep in a chair. After a quick and very cold shower, he climbed down a set of stairs so he didn’t have to walk past the front desk on his way outside. He simply didn’t want his free breakfast enough to take the chance of being forced to make up a reason for all the noise that had come from his room the night before. After circling the building, he walked down the street and found a cab parked in front of a little drive-through coffee place.
Cole bought a large Colombian blend and a bagel, hopped into the cab and gave the address for Rasa Hill. When the cab pulled up to the abandoned restaurant, he spotted another car parked just outside the front door. The early morning sun was obscured by a thick patch of clouds, making it difficult for him to see much of the car’s details. Ditching the rest of his bagel and swigging the remaining coffee, he bolted from the cab and rushed toward the restaurant.
The cabbie was quick to grab a chipped baseball bat from under his seat and take off after him. He ran a few paces before letting out a hacking cough that had been fermenting in his lungs since he’d first started smoking nonfiltered cigarettes and shouted, “Get yer ass back here! You owe me money, goddammit!”
Cole approached the front of the restaurant, pulled on the front door and found it locked. Without so much as glancing back at the angry cabbie, he circled around to the side of the building.
“Hey!” the cabbie yelled. “I’ll kick yer ass!”
The cabbie ran as fast as his legs would carry him, keeping his bat cocked near his head and ready to swing as he approached the restaurant. When he cleared the front, he could see Cole around the next corner farther along the building. Then, from the shadows surrounding a stack of empty crates, a pale redhead stepped up and placed her hand around the cabbie’s throat.
The redhead wasn’t much shorter than the cabbie, but she looked to be at least fifty pounds lighter. Her arms and legs were covered in black nylon. Whatever curves were present on her skinny figure were accentuated by a dark purple miniskirt and matching tube top. Darkly painted lips curled into a smile as she tightened her grip upon the cabbie’s throat and absorbed a blow from the bat without so much as a flinch.
“What’s the matter, cutie?” the redhead asked as she smiled to reveal one set of short, thin fangs that curled down to brush against the side of her tongue. “You’d get a lot more action if you didn’t swing your little bat around like that.”
As Cole rushed around the building, he looked for anything he could use as a weapon. The first thing he grabbed was a stick. He replaced that with a rock a few seconds later. By the time he got within sight of the restaurant’s back door, he threw the rock away and replaced it with a piece of lumber from a broken pallet. There was a bunch of trash cans next to the back door, but he didn’t take one of those. He did grab something else that seemed useful and then pulled at the door before he had enough time to think better of it.
The door opened into a dark and quiet storeroom. He stomped in to try and draw as much attention as he
