"Is..." Faith wasn't even sure what she was trying to ask.
"I can scent the wolves on him. And significantly more worrying, I can also scent blighthounds." Aldric took another deep breath and peered harder into the gloom. “Shit.”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed a number. After a moment he spoke again. "Marc. We have a problem. A very messy, very complicated problem."
10
Aldric left Faith talking to Steve, their human clanmate in the police. She was officially filing a missing person report on her sister, and given the state of the vampire's corpse here in the road– and her cabin when they sent a patrol car there to check– the police were taking it seriously.
Unfortunately, with this mauling, the human police might well get in the way of his own investigation. As the head of security for the Frostwalker Clan, Aldric considered himself to be the equivalent of the sheriff with jurisdiction over the paranormal residents in the area. Ordinarily it wasn't a difficult task, to oversee the safety and wellbeing of his community, but this...
"Mr. Donnelly, I'm awful sorry that you and the lady had to get mixed up in this. At least it was you found this body and not someone who would be prone to panic," the detective said with somewhat forced friendliness. They didn't have a large police force here in town, but there were enough tourists coming through that there was a small station that maintained several patrol officers– like Steve– and two actual detectives who mostly handled thefts and the occasional mugging or lost kid.
"It's not often we see a wild animal attack like this. And something this large..." the detective– Kenneth Lincoln – shook his head and glanced at Aldric as though waiting for information.
"Indeed," Aldric simply agreed.
Not that he would mention it to the detective, but itt was clear to Aldric that the rogue werewolf had been killed by blighthounds, a creature often used by vampire covens as hunting dogs. The fact that the dead man was the source of one of the scents that he had caught in town, and at the cabin earlier, was only adding to the confusion. Aldric could detect several other wolves under the prevailing blood and death scents
"And there were those dogs loose in Miss Latham's cabin. Seems someone maybe brought them into the area?" Detective Lincoln's voice again held a note of inquiry that Aldric ignored.
"I hope that Faith's sister is not also mixed up in this, as you put it. Faith and her niece are upset enough, but to imagine a family member being put through something like this..." Aldric clenched his jaw and called on all his available restraint not to allow his vampire side out. As it was, he could feel his fangs dropping, so he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself.
"Well, I hope you're right.” The detective eyed Aldric speculatively. "Whatever did this isn't something to mess around with, to my mind. I wish you’d let me put you and your niece up in a police safe house, Miss Latham.“ He sounded like he was forcing himself to sound friendly, as if good cop wasn’t his normal role.
“Thank you, but we’re perfectly safe with Aldric and Marc. I’m not worried,” Faith said.
Aldric nodded. "And any assistance we may provide..." he left the offer open-ended. He didn't think that telling Detective Lincoln that he intended to gut the person that did this would go over terribly well. All he could think was that if he had not been in the right place, it might have been Faith or Kaylee here, cold and on the ground, surrounded by county medical staff and being zipped into a plastic bag for transport to the morgue.
"Did you say something?" the detective glanced back at him again.
"No," Aldric denied the growl that had escaped him. A hand gently brushed his arm and he turned to find Faith looking up at him with exhausted worry in her eyes.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"No," Aldric said, drawing in a deep breath while trying to focus on Faith’s scent and not the smells of the crime scene. He looked around at the people working to move the body into the van and to collect any possible evidence they could find in the now dark road. He turned back to face her.
"I am angry that this happened. I am furious that your sister appears to have been taken by the sort of people who would do this. I am livid that they threatened and frightened you and Kaylee. I don't even have words available to me, in any of the languages I speak, to express my rage that they have done all this here, in my home, and that I have not already laid hands on them."
Aldric closed his eyes again, afraid that they were turning red as his emotions threatened to sweep away his good sense, and took another deep breath. Counting backward from ten was not helping enough, so he started over at fifty.
He drew comfort and warmth from Faith's hand, still resting on his arm. Another hand landed on his opposite shoulder and he opened his eyes to see Detective Lincoln warily watching their interaction. He seemed to be barely restraining a scowl, and Aldric vaguely wondered what that was about.
“If you’re quite sure about police protection at a secure location, Miss Latham, you should probably go get some rest. We'll get the word out about your sister, miss, and we'll be in touch. I'll come by tomorrow to touch base." And with one last pat to Faith’s shoulder, the detective turned and headed over to speak to the coroner before he left.
"Come on, Aldric. I'll drive if you're too distracted," Faith
