“Good morning,” He answered. “How did you sleep?”
“Once I got to sleep, I felt great. I’m pretty sure the exhaustion just completely set in,” Lana said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Fine,” Nick lied. “Are you hungry?”
“Ravenous,” she answered.
Me too, Nick thought, licking his lips and looking at her.
Mentally shaking himself, he stood up and said, “I’m going to make some breakfast. There is nothing in the world like bacon and pancakes.”
Nodding, Lana looked out the window. “I’m going to go for a short walk, unless you need help cooking.”
“I’ve got this. You should be safe enough. This is a busy neighborhood and it’s daytime. Stay close, though,” Nick said.
Nick reluctantly watched her leave the house. He was torn between the idea that she was in danger and the knowledge that she was a grown lion shifter who could hold her own in a battle. She knew there was danger, so she would be alert and prepared for anything.
It seemed like an eternity, though, before she returned. He couldn’t help but think of all the terrible things that could happen to her. He was worse than a mother hen.
He breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he heard the door open and her footsteps across the floor.
“You have perfect timing. I just finished cooking the last of the pancakes,” he said.
She seemed to inhale the food. It seemed that she ate her three pancakes and four pieces of bacon without taking a breath. She was especially fond of the bacon.
She was definitely no fainting miss. Lana didn’t let the chaos and danger ruin her appetite.
“Bacon seems to be one of the most popular foods in the human world,” Nick said. “Be careful, or you might just grow to like this world a lot and find it hard to go home.”
“Nah. I can have the best of both worlds,” she told him. “I know where to find bacon. I’ll come here for the bacon and take it home with me.”
Nick was just about to reply when his phone began ringing. It was a call from the manager of the hotel where Lana had been staying.
“You have to come quick. I got a phone call this morning telling me to look in the room. The man calling said that it was a message for Lana. I went up and checked. There is a dead body in the room. The police are on their way,” he said, frantically, his voice rising to a high pitch in his panic. He was talking so fast that Nick had a difficult time understanding what he was saying.
“We’re coming,” he said.
He hung up in time for his phone to ring again. It was his lieutenant. “We’ve had another murder. It’s at the Regional Hotel, room 314.”
“In route,” Nick replied.
They hastily threw their dishes in the dishwasher. Nick grabbed his gun and badge. They were headed back over to the hotel in less than five minutes.
Lana sat silently in the passenger seat. She was wringing her hands and bouncing her leg until he thought she was going to rip off her hands and vibrate herself right out of the vehicle.
He couldn’t think of a single thing that he could say to her that would put her at ease.
“I don’t understand what his hang-up is about me. I’ve never met the man. I wasn’t a part of the people who took over his leader’s lands. I don’t have anything to do with him,” Lana said. She didn’t sound bitter. She was simply musing as to why Dizag had made her a main target.
“I think there are a couple of reasons,” Nick answered. “First, he is married to your sister. He probably thinks that it is a game to get both sisters as his captives. Second, you are hunting him. That likely either amuses him, making him think he is playing a game, or annoys him, since he hates women so much. Third, you are the daughter of nobles in the shifter world. He’s got some kind of plan. We don’t know what that plan is, and it might not even make sense to us, but it makes sense to him. That makes him dangerous.”
There was a huge crowd of onlookers and reporters outside of the hotel. Holding Lana’s hand tightly, he pushed through the crowd. After he showed his badge to the officers manning the crime scene boundary, they hurried up the stairs.
If possible, the scene was even worse than the night before. It was evident that the victim had been tormented. The walls were covered in a spray of blood.
The victim was lying in a heap on the pile of clothes that Dizag had burned the night before. She had deep gashes all over her body. Her eyes were wide with terror and her mouth was open in a silent scream.
One of the other detectives at the scene said, “She has been identified as Brandy Jones. She was last seen at a local club. Her friends said she left alone around one in the morning.”
Nick recognized her. She was a cat shifter. She had a full-time job as a waitress and was going to school to become a nurse.
He closed his eyes for a nano-second, as though he could erase the crime. However, when he opened his eyes again, the body was still there.
Lana was staring at Brandy’s body, wide-eyed, without blinking. All of the blood had drained out of her face and she was as white as a ghost.
Nick thought that she was in shock at seeing the body.
He gently touched her arm. “Are you okay?”
Lana nodded. “Why didn’t anyone hear her last night?” she asked.
“That’s a good question. Just like no one heard him when he was tearing up the room yesterday. It’s baffling,” Nick said.
Finally, Lana was able to tear her eyes away from the poor woman. Tears rolled down her face.
“He killed her because he couldn’t get to me,” she said. “It’s my fault that
