That was the short story.
The long version was that Kansas City had been handed over to the group of shapeshifters that helped rid the city of its werewolf infestation. Mongrels were a long way from human, but they were easier to deal with than Half Breeds, and not as powerful as Full Bloods. Paige was supposed to check in on them to make sure they were settling in and not tearing through anything on two legs. Mongrels seemed to prefer living underground, which was why Cole hadn’t flinched at the story about something digging up a yard or two. As for Paige’s injury, he tried not to think about that. Doing so only made him feel like an ass for tooling around in a rental car while his partner was on the mend. Then again, Paige wouldn’t have responded well to coddling.
Now that her things were packed, Abby sipped some tea and swirled the ice cubes in her glass. “So how was Seattle? Did you get that sweet deal you were after? The one with your new game idea?”
“Yeah, I picked up a royalty check. Caught up with a friend of mine. Got fired.”
Abby froze with the edge of the glass perched on her lip. “Did you say fired?”
Thanks to the echo effect the glass gave to her voice, the F word didn’t seem so bad. “More or less. I’ll still get royalties, though, and Jason will probably throw some freelance work my way.”
Setting down her glass, Abby studied him for a moment and then said, “You don’t sound too broken up about it.”
“You know something? I’m really not. I drove all around Seattle, hitting the old spots…”
“I do that when I go home to Michigan,” Abby told him. “I call it taking the tour.”
“On my way out there, I thought it would be this nice, welcoming thing. Like maybe Seattle would just reach out for me and make me feel at home again.” Cole used his spoon to shove a chunk of potato around to clear a path through his watery gravy and nudged a few peas out of the way. When he bumped against the slab of white bread, he set his fork down. “But I just felt like I didn’t belong there.”
“You don’t. You’ve moved on. Don’t you live in Chicago now?”
“Yeah.”
“And don’t you have a new job?” Lowering her chin and raising her eyebrows, she whispered, “A much more exciting job?”
“It’s not just Seattle. It’s everything. All of it felt like it was just from…before.”
“Before?”
Before he was attacked by a Full Blood. Before he was introduced to Paige Strobel. Before he knew monsters were real. Before “Skinner” was something other than a name in a psychology textbook. But he didn’t want to say all of that in the restaurant, so he settled on, “It’s not part of me anymore.”
Abby scooted even closer, wrapped an arm around Cole’s shoulders and softly told him, “I heard about what you did in KC and read about lots of other stuff you did
Cole looked over to her and got a quick nod along with a tight-lipped smile. More than anything, he wanted to kiss her. The only thing holding him back was the fact that they were still technically in the early stages of their first real meeting. And before he could think of another excuse of why he shouldn’t do something, he just did it.
Abby’s lips were rigid and hesitant at first, but she quickly leaned into him and relaxed. Just as Cole pulled away, he felt a little breath escape from her mouth. She’d only just closed her eyes, but quickly opened them amid a flutter of naturally long lashes. Before he could get much of a look at those eyes, she pointed them in another direction.
“When you’re done with that, I’ve got some business to take care of,” she quickly announced.
“I wasn’t quite done, but…oh, you mean the food.” Pushing the plate away, Cole said, “I’m done with that.”
“Then take it outside,” Santa grumbled.
When Cole started to fish his wallet from his pocket, Abby stopped him with a hand that lingered a bit longer than necessary upon his wrist. “If you’re willing to help me with my business, then lunch is on MEG.”
“What kind of business are you talking about?”
“You ever hear of a Chupacabra?”
Less than half an hour later Cole was once again in his car. Instead of being led by Romana, he followed the taillights of a cute redhead with thick glasses while holding his cell phone. He poked the newly redesignated second speed-dial button and waited to hear an answer from a contact that had become only slightly less important than his parents.
It took twice the normal amount of rings, but the call was eventually answered.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Paige. I think I might have found a Chupacabra!”
“Are you at a truck stop, Cole? Is this going to be a repeat of the Jackalope incident?”
“No,” he said. “This isn’t about a fake trophy mounted next to a fire hydrant. I’m talking about a real Chupacabra.”
“Just call them Chupes,” Paige said. “That’s how I’ll know when you’re talking about the real ones.”
“You feel like taking a drive up to Minnesota to track one down?”
She let out a strained sigh. “No, Cole. I’m busy.”
“Still in Kansas City with Officer Stanze?”
“No,” she snapped. “That’s done.”
“Done? Why? What happened?”
“It just is. I’m back in Chicago and I don’t feel like going anywhere else.”
“How’s your arm?”
When Paige didn’t answer right away, he knew he’d hit a nerve. A few seconds later she grumbled, “It’s the same as it was. Maybe it’d be better if I cut the fucking thing off.”
“Don’t talk like—”
“You’ve got your MEG girl there with you?”
“I’m following her to the spot where this Chupacabra is supposed to be.”
“Damn it. MEG’s supposed to stay away from the real things and keep chasing their ghosts around. If just one of them gets killed, the rest will be too scared to answer our calls.”
Rather than stick up for Abby, Stu, or the rest of MEG, Cole chalked up Paige’s words to a foul mood and a whole lot of pain from a wound that had been inflicted by one of her own concoctions. “They’ve investigated other things way before we met them,” he reminded her.
“Sure, but crop circles and Bigfoot tracks don’t bite back.” After struggling to open a noisy bag of chips, she asked, “Are you sure this is even a real Chupe lead? MEG jumps at just about everything. But if you’re just trying to get her alone in a field somewhere…”
“She says she’s got a lead. Supposedly, several people from the same area have called in about a strange monster killing pets and other animals. MEG was out here to photograph an apparition in another house when the team decided to check on the pet attacks. Abby says they only found pieces of a few dogs and cats.”
“And you’re sure it’s not a Half Breed?”
“Yeah. All the witness accounts say it’s hairless, runs on two legs, and has hands. The evidence matched bits and pieces from some other Chupe case files, including a few from Rico and my own little triumph in Indiana not too long ago.”
“You flushed out one little heel-biter and chased it for three hours. That’s different than fighting a big one toe- to-toe.” She finally got the chip bag open with a frustrated grunt. When she spoke again, Paige sounded as if she’d jogged a mile since her last sentence. “You’ll find two kinds of Chupacabras in most witness accounts. There’s a two-legged little asshole from a bad movie, and a four-legged one that looks like a dog or some mangy cat.”
“Which is the real one?”
“They’re both the same thing. The younger ones run on all fours, and sometimes the older ones run that way to change their tracks, but they normally walk upright. They can climb. They can bite. They can scratch and they can
“Are they dangerous?”
“Those dogs and cats probably didn’t fall apart on their own.”
“Got any advice?” Cole asked.
“They’re not usually pack animals, but Chupes are fast enough to hit you like a small group, and they’ve made
