only because you’re good for keeping the assholes in line.”
“Which assholes are we talking about?” Paige asked with a grin.
“You’re new around here, girlie,” she shouted as she poked a garishly painted finger at Paige. “You don’t get to strut around like you own this place. Not even Gerald got to do that! If you want to strut in this town, you’re gonna have to pay your dues. Otherwise, I’ll gather up a few of my bitches and burn you out of here.” Steph’s eyes darted back and forth between Paige and Cole. Up close, those eyes looked green with a violet tint. “How many of us do you think you could get before we killed you?” Steph asked. “Two? Three?”
“Maybe I could just get one,” Paige said. “But it would be you. And when I got through, not even the kids at the goth store in the mall where you got those shitty clothes would recognize you.”
Before Steph could respond to that, Ace stepped in to pull her back.
“We took Racquel away from those lunatics and let her go safe and sound,” Paige continued. “As for your girl Wendy, she killed a man right out on the street for everyone to see. You know damn well that Gerald or any other Skinner on this planet would have killed her after that, but neither one of us even laid a finger on her. Some freak ripped her chest open and ate the spore attached to her heart. When the hell have you ever heard of a Skinner doing that?”
Although Steph needed a few seconds to simmer down, the anger in her eyes faded away. She nodded to Ace and ran her tongue along her lower lip before admitting, “You’re right. Still, you should’ve waited until we could introduce you around a bit before you started playing up the new sheriff in town thing. We have a certain standing in the Nymar community. Gerald must have told you.”
Paige nodded, but she didn’t look impressed. “Yeah, he told me some things. Can we move on?”
Steph and Ace looked at each other and then settled the matter with a silent nod.
“Wendy drifted over to Misonyk and lost touch with us,” Ace said. “The way she talked about him, it seemed the last thing he would do is hurt her. We heard about how she died, but lately just about every death’s been blamed on that freak. We wanted to look in your eyes when we asked about her just to be safe.” Glancing sideways at Steph, he added, “The ones who pointed the finger at you were in Misonyk’s pocket anyway.”
Rolling her eyes, Steph asked, “Have you heard of Misonyk?”
“Yeah,” Cole replied, so he could be something more than a casual amusement in the room. “We’ve heard of Henry too.”
“Good. What you need to know is that most Nymar don’t give a shit about what Misonyk has to say. He’s got the support of one coven at the very least, which comes to a dozen or so Nymar scattered through the city who buy into all of his bullshit about drinking souls. They’re the ones breaking the rules by killing humans and feeding in public. That sort of shit just cuts into our profits.”
“What’s he say about drinking souls?” Paige asked.
Ace leaned against a wall and ran his fingers along the symbol shaved into his scalp. “He says that if you drink someone to death, you get their soul. When you get enough souls, you get to tap into the Spirit World. When you tap into the Spirit World, you can project your own spirit into someone else and then tap it for even more power.”
“Nothing but a psychic pyramid scheme,” Steph said.
As bad as his first impression of the redhead had been, Cole couldn’t help but laugh at that one.
Paige wasn’t as amused. “Does any of this spirit drinking actually work?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Ace replied. “His followers have gotten into a few heads, but most of ’em have been human. He’s the only one that’s been gettin’ into Nymar brains. I wouldn’t have believed it until he pulled it on me. He tried getting me to tell all my employees to sign up with him. I almost did it too, if it hadn’t been for Steph.”
The redhead smiled proudly and stood up straight, as if she’d just gotten a perfect score on her report card. “He tried whispering into my brain when Ace kicked him out of his,” she announced. “I’d rather take my chances giving Henry a ride before I’d tell any of my girls to follow some infeeding asshole like Misonyk.”
“Nymar are feeding on each other?” Paige asked.
Both Ace and Steph nodded. “It always happens every now and then,” Ace said, “but Misonyk is really pushing it. Normally, the covens would do something about it themselves, but Henry’s torn apart anyone who’s made a move against him.”
“I know,” Cole replied. “We’ve seen it.”
“And that’s what I wanted to tell you,” Steph said as she stepped forward and slid her fingers down Cole’s chest. “If there’s one thing you Skinners can do, it’s kill freaks. You kill Henry, and there’s a reward in it for you. All the covens have pitched enough money into the kitty for you to set yourselves up somewhere nicer than this dump. You might even be able to buy a neat new stick and trash can lid.” Smirking at Cole’s glare, Steph turned away from him like he no longer existed. “Don’t look at me like that, stud. My kitty doesn’t have the money in it, but I could do a little somethin’ somethin’ if you take care of Henry.”
“You’ll owe us plenty,” Paige said. “But money’s not all we had in mind.”
Ace grinned and tapped Steph’s shoulder to send her back a few steps. “Henry’s head is worth the money and plenty of favors down the stretch. Don’t worry about that. Just be quick, because Misonyk is doing damage every day, and it ain’t just here.”
“Where else does he go?” Paige asked.
Steph tagged herself back in. “He drives up north. Sometimes he goes into Indiana, but mostly he’s a cheddar head. Misonyk covers his tracks pretty well, but Henry don’t exactly fit in a car. He runs and jumps like a…”
As Steph searched for an appropriate analogy, Cole asked, “Like a Full Blood?”
Paige got ready to smooth over Cole’s comment, but was surprised when she saw Steph nod and smile.
“This one here is sharp,” Ace said while looking at Cole. “A bit loose in the head, but I like him.”
“Loose, huh?” Cole asked. “Am I the pot or the kettle here?”
“I’ve never seen a Full Blood,” Steph admitted, “but everything I heard about the big doggies say they can run fast enough and jump high enough to go from one end of the state to the other in record time. You may be on to something…what was your name?”
“Cole,” Ace said.
Steph smiled as if she’d become absorbed in the act of rolling his name along the back of her throat.
“So how much reward money are we talking about?” Cole asked.
Before either of the two Nymar could answer, Paige overruled his question with one of her own. “Where can we find Misonyk?”
“There’s a meeting between Misonyk and one of the Milwaukee covens taking place at a diner right off the highway,” Ace replied. “Wendy was feeding us some information to keep in our good graces, but it looks like Misonyk found out about that and sicced Henry on her. I can give you directions to the place.”
“Is there anything else you can do on your end?” Paige asked. “Any way you could possibly get us any more information about Henry? He may have shapeshifter blood, but he’s no Full Blood.”
Steph shifted her eyes over to Paige and said, “I guess a Skinner would know that better than anybody.”
“Are there any more informants we should know about?”
“I wouldn’t count on anyone else in Misonyk’s little group to be of any help after what happened to Wendy,” Ace replied. “Once he’s gone, the rest should fall back into line. The rest of us don’t have time to spy. We’re either leaving Chicago for somewhere outside of Misonyk’s stomping grounds or trying to keep an eye out for Henry.”
“You guys always know when to hide, huh?” Paige asked.
There was an angry flash in Steph’s eye, but she couldn’t exactly refute the accusation. “Here’s the place where that meeting’s being held,” she snapped as she produced a small folded piece of paper from her skirt pocket. “That’s all we’ve got for ya, girlie.” With that, she raised her arm until Ace walked up and put himself beneath it. As they stepped outside, both of them let out overly dramatic cries of pain about the rising sun. Even as the door swung shut, Steph’s laughter could be heard echoing throughout the restaurant.
“All right,” Cole said as he whipped around to look at Paige. “Why didn’t you tell me vampires aren’t afraid of sunlight?”
“Who ever said that sunlight bullshit was real anyway? In fact, even in the movies, why
“I don’t know. It’s just…
“Well, now that your training can officially start, I’ll fill you in on one thing.” Paige lowered her voice to a whisper and said, “Sunlight doesn’t bother vampires. If it did, they’d all explode on their own sooner or later and we
