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  He grabbed his own burger from the bag. “Yeah, I know. Are you still refusing to tell me what happened while you were in Romania?”

  I’d only given him and Merick the Cliffs Notes version, leaving out that Levi was the king. I told them enough to get them off my back: that I’d kind of lost my control and killed about a hundred blood-starved vampires and done a spell that helped the king crack the case open a bit more. Of course, they both knew that wasn’t the complete story.

  “I gave you my story, and I’m sticking to it.” I took a bite of the burger. “Everything else I’m sworn to secrecy. It’s all part of playing with the vampire king.”

  He sighed. “I just worry about you Abby, Levi doesn’t normally let you get that close to politics.”

  “Yeah, Levi didn’t have a choice in the matter.” Mostly because he didn’t trust my Uncle enough to do the spell, that and the vampire they were after tried to kill me. You know, the normal things that force hands.” You can’t really turn down the vampire king.”

  Simon bobbed his head from side to side as if debating. “I guess, but you’re a witch; he doesn’t hold any control over you.”

  Except he did, but again I wasn’t allowed to share that with Simon. “It’s no big deal. I came back in one piece, and my magic is perfectly under control.” It was time for a change of subject. If he wanted to talk about uncomfortable things, I could play that game too. “How’s the pack doing? There still a rift?”

  “Yeah, we’re slowly working on closing it. I don’t think anyone likes it when we’re divided. Especially when things like a few months ago happen.”

  Three months ago, right before I went to help Levi, I solved a case of someone skinning werewolves. I had learned a lot more about wolves than I wanted to know, and Simon damn near lost his second-in-command. With the pack divided it made the situation a bit harder to solve since both sides were against the other.

  An awkward silence fell over the room, and I turned to my computer. “What do you know about shifters?”

  “That they think they are better than lycans because they aren’t tied to the moon, and it’s not a virus that gives them their ability.” His words were a little harsh.

  Well okay then. “I have a dead shifter, possibly two. I’ve seen Agent Grace in action, so I know they can move a bit quicker than humans and have a little bit more strength.”

  “Yep, all the perks with none of the curse.” He shrugged. “Do you think people are targeting shifters?”

  I finished the last couple bites of my burger. “I don’t know yet, too soon to make an assumption or even a theory.”

  I logged into my computer before shoving some fries in my mouth. “The bar doing okay?” I mumbled around the food.

  “Yeah, Travis assures me that the businesses are doing well. I’ve been up at the pack land most of the time helping the pups over the last couple months. Only taking a break for the few nights I’ve come to see you.”

  And now I was on a big case, so those couple nights here and there were probably going to turn into nothing for a bit. “They keep you busy. I’m glad you stopped by for lunch.”

  He let out a sigh and threw his crumpled wrapper in the bag. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  I didn’t like the tone in his voice. I met his gaze, turning away from the computer screen in front of me. “Yes?”

  “Levi called me last night. Told me that I needed to back off because he realizes this isn’t going to work. He says he found a suitor for you.”

  I blinked at him a few times. “Levi’s trying to play matchmaker again, is he?”

  “You didn’t know then? I was going to ask you how you felt about it. All the time he spent trying to get us together, and suddenly he’s asking me to back off.”

  It probably had to do with the whole Levi being king and me being aware that I was technically a princess. The little rebel part of me wanted to start dating Simon again just to spite Levi, the other part of me knew that I wasn’t going to allow someone to court me. Simon had tried that once, and I declined every invitation of going out until we became friends and let things happen naturally.

  “If it’s one thing we both know, it’s that Levi really doesn’t control my love life. So don’t let him scare you away. I rather like having you around as a friend and as good company. If life slows down a tiny bit, I wouldn’t even mind giving the dating thing a try again.”

  His eyes lit up a bit. “What about tonight?”

  “I can’t, Levi requested me at the mansion tonight, but now I know why. So I appreciate the heads up. Why not dinner on Friday?”

  He nodded. “I’ll pick you up about seven?”

  “Sounds great.” I smiled, and I knew that my face had brightened a bit too. Maybe I craved normality more than I realized. A date with Simon without werewolf politics or PIB issues would be great.

  He grabbed my trash and stuffed it into the bag and then tossed it into the can by my desk. “Okay then. Good luck with Levi tonight.”

  I stood and gave him a hug. His warm body felt great against me as he squeezed me.

  He let go of me and walked out. I leaned against my desk and questioned my rationality. Was I doing this because I wanted to piss Levi off, or because I thought we could both try a little harder to make it work?

  I shook my head and turned back to my computer. It didn’t matter. Right now I needed to look at the information I could gather for our current murders.

  I typed in the name I’d gotten from the moms’ group and waited for something to show up in the searches. Shifters weren’t required to register with packs, so I had no idea if something would show up in PIB. Some of them gave the information voluntarily, and they would be in the database. Unfortunately, my luck wasn’t that good. Nothing showed up in the database.

  However, the internet search engine did pull something up. Carl Tortania had made headlines in New York for some brave act, claiming him as a local hero of Syracuse. I opened the article and scanned it. He’d rescued a child from an apartment building fire. It wasn’t his kid, but someone had left the pre-teen home alone.

  Had I not gotten the phone number from the women, I wouldn’t have any contact information. The internet and the database were unusually empty, meaning I had no idea what I was walking into.

  I dialed the number and waited. The phone rang a couple times before a click was heard and finally a voice.

  “Hello?”

  “This is Agent Collins with the Southern Colorado PIB, may I please speak to Mr. Carl Tortania?”

  “This is him. What’s this in regards to, Agent Collins? I swear if my ex-wife is trying to get me in trouble with something, I promise you that I’m in compliance with all possible laws.”

  Wow, what had that woman tried to do for him to think that I was after him. “I’m actually calling to inform you that Lark was murdered.”

  “Oh, shit.”

  That wasn’t really the response I was expecting. “Oh shit?”

  He muttered something I couldn’t understand. “It was that bastard warlock; I swear it was.”

  “Does this warlock have a name? She never mentioned one to her moms’ group.”

  “He does. Oliver Macintosh.”

  I about passed out at the name. He had to be kidding me. I mentally calculated the math in my head. Oliver was younger than my mother, which meant that he could in theory not be too old. “Were they dating?”

  “Not that I’m aware, she was just interested in something about his abilities.” That was a relief, but now my uncle was a suspect. The room still spun a bit at the news. My uncle was a lot of things, but a murderer wasn’t one that I pegged him for.

  “You sounded so sure that it was him; how did you know that the death was paranormal?”

  “You’re PIB, she’s not a known shifter, at least she wasn’t. I figured it had to have some other aspect to it. Look, I have to go, if you have any other questions, call after dinner time.”

  The phon
e went dead in my hand. I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath. I knew the next step, but I really didn’t want to call my uncle and ask him about a murder.

  Two hours later, I still hadn’t called my uncle to talk to him. I know I needed too, but I’d done everything else but. I’d gone through more internet searches on the victim, I’d rearranged my desk, I even debated on going for a walk, but really I was just avoiding it. Oliver had a special kind of talent when it came to manipulating situations. He knew what would give him the best outcome, how to benefit from each choice someone else made. He was good at it, and he had his reasons for everything. I’m sure there was a reason he was making friends with a shifter that was probably ten years younger than him.

  I reached for my phone, and his name flashed on the screen before I could even unlock it.

  “I was just getting ready to call you,” I said by way of a greeting. “An interesting development in my most recent case has fingers pointed at you.”

  He was silent for a moment. “I didn’t kill the woman, Abigail. In fact, I just filed a restraining order against her last week.”

  That wasn’t like my uncle. Doing something like that meant he was scared of something. Scared of the woman. Or, he was covering his tracks. Oliver wasn’t a crime of passion kind of man; he was more of a premeditated type of person. “Why did you have to file one?”

  “Because I needed a paper trail.”

  “Oh, yes that makes you sound so innocent in all of this. Also, I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop bugging my phone.” I stood up and started pacing my office. “You don’t do anything without a purpose. If not to prove your innocence what was the purpose of the paper trail?”

  Shuffling pages echoed over the receiver, almost as if they were brushing right up against the phone. He didn’t answer me.

  “Oliver?” I prompted.

  “Because I was tracking something and she was too. That’s how she found me. She thought I was the culprit, and she became obsessed with proving that I was.”

  What the hell was he talking about? “What were you tracking?”

  “Come over and I’ll show you everything. Do not tell Levi.”

  “I can’t come over tonight. I have to be at the mansion; Levi needs something from me.”

  Oliver cursed. “The fucking vampire doesn’t own you.”

  “Look, I can be up there in a couple hours, but you don’t own me either. I’m going because honestly, I think Levi has enough trouble on his plate and doesn’t need me acting like a child on top of that. You…you’re up to something. I’ll come over first thing in the morning to figure out what that something is.”

  “I’ll make sure to put some coffee on then.” He hung up.

  I wasn’t exactly sure what Oliver did on his free time. I knew that he occasionally worked as a consultant for the king of vampires. I knew he was a tech guru, and like me, he was an elemental. He, of course, was not listed as such in the PIB database because he somehow managed to erase it, making him almost like a ghost.

  I reached for the keyboard and started to type his name, but at the last minute, I backspaced as an uneasy feeling slid through me. I could trust Oliver with my life. He trusted me to make my own choices in my career and anything magic-wise, but this was different. He was a suspect in the case.

  The rest of my afternoon was uneventful. Jason hadn’t called about either of the bodies, and Mason hadn’t called to tell me there was another murder. Until I talked to my uncle, I was kind of at a dead end. Five o’clock rolled around, and I was running out the door and down the stairs to avoid anyone that might stop me. I needed to make it to Levi’s before sundown, though part of me wanted to drag my feet until I was late. I wasn’t sure what to expect except for Simon’s warning about a new suitor. I was hoping Mario wasn’t there because I didn’t want to play nice. I hadn’t talked to him much since Levi’s secret came out, but when I did see him, he mostly muttered under his breath and glared at me.

  I pulled up to the mansion and threw my car in park. I got out just as the sun finished setting behind the mountain. Placing my hand on the scanner, I briefly wondered if Levi had any problems with random intruders like I often did.

  The tumbler clicked open, and I walked in. The silence of the mansion wrapped around me. It used to be this was the only other place that felt like home to me. Lately, it didn’t seem like that. With all the recent lies it felt like I was walking into a trap each time I came through the doors.

  “Hello?”

  Levi didn’t always sleep through the day; sometimes he woke a few hours before dusk.

  “I’m in the kitchen.” Came Levi’s voice. As usual, there was a slight accent to it that I couldn’t place. I assumed it was from him speaking so many different languages throughout his long life.

  I walked in, unsure what I would find. The only reason the mansion had a kitchen was for me to keep food when I lived here. Levi never used it since he required blood to keep going. He stepped away from the counter, a tie draped around his neck on top of a white button-up shirt, and a black suit jacket was laying on the counter.

  “A bit fancy for me visiting, isn’t it?”

  He looked me up and down. “Work clothes, I told you to dress nice.”

  “No, you suggested that I dress nice. I came straight from work because you also told me not to be late. You can’t have both when I live on the opposite side of town.” I put my hands on my hips. “And since you haven’t told me what any of this is about, I didn’t think it was that important that I dressed up.”

  He considered me for a moment. “There’s a black dress in your room, go get changed.”

  Still no explanation. “Why?”

  “Abigail, please.” It was the tone he used when he was trying to keep me out of vampire business, but he’d dragged my ass into vampire business three months ago.

  “If you’re going to make me wear a dress, I want to know why.” I crossed my arms and met his gaze. “Is this a king thing? Or is this a weird father-ly thing?”

  His eyes flickered to something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mario standing there. Mario’s olive skin stood out against the red shirt he wore. It was tucked into a pair of black dress pants that fell over shiny shoes. I raised a brow. “Hello, Mario.”

  “Princess.” He kept his word short, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Can we please drop the title?”

  Levi shook his head. “No, not tonight. Tonight you’ll need that title. We have a situation we have to deal with.”

  “But no one is supposed to know who you are or who I am. Remember? That’s what started all this crap.”

  Mario chuckled. “We’re dealing with the advisory council tonight.”

  Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting to hear, not after Simon’s warning. “You have an advisory council?” They both nodded. “And what exactly is the topic of the night?”

  They exchanged looks, but Mario was the one that spoke. “There’s a vampire who’s out of control, but it’s out of PIB’s jurisdiction.”

  “Nothing is really out of our jurisdiction.”

  Levi motioned to the door. “Go get ready, and we’ll get going to the meeting. I’m going to take Mason’s approach on this and not cloud your judgment.”

  That didn’t bode well. I spun on my heels and went to move past Mario. “Move.”

  “Manners get you a long way, princess.” Mario chided.

  I forced a sweet smile. “Move please, asshole.”

  “Abigail,” Levi warned.

  I rolled my eyes and motioned with my hand. “Will you please move?”

  Mario bowed his head and stepped to the side. “You and I are going to have to learn to get along.”

  I ignored him and continued down the hall to my room. I stepped in and closed the door. I wasn’t expecting this tonight; there hadn’t been any real changes in my routine and life since Levi announced me officially as the princess. I pushed off the door and went to find the on
e black dress I kept at the mansion. The rest of my clothes were work clothes because that’s all I really needed.

  I took the time to shower before changing. I ran some goop through my curls and let them settle however they wanted. I normally kept my hair up, but this was a fancy occasion apparently, and I didn’t think a ponytail or a bun was going to be appropriate.

  I pulled on the tight black dress and smoothed out the wrinkles. I wasn’t sure why I had this dress. The slit was too high for comfort, coming up close to my thigh, but at least it allowed me to move. I looked over at my guns on the bed and knew that I wasn’t going to be able to take them with me. Vampire politics and all that. What I did make sure I had was my mother’s pentagram. I normally kept it in my bag, but tonight I wanted the extra protection in case I was walking into something deadly. Paranoia at its best.

  I walked back into the kitchen, bouncing on one barefoot as I tried to put my shoe on the other foot. Once I was successful, I switched to leaning on the wall to put the other shoe on.

  I looked up to see Mario staring at me. “What?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so…put together.”

  What the hell was that supposed to mean? “Seriously, I look put together in my work clothes.”

  He walked over to me and made a hm noise. Reaching up, he pinched one of my curls and pulled it down, so it bounced up. “I’m trying to compliment you. You clean up nice.”

  I stepped back. “I’d prefer if you didn’t touch me. Where’s Levi?”

  “He’s finishing getting ready.” Mario stepped away as Levi came around the corner and joined us. “Looks like he’s done.”

  There was a new flush to Levi’s cheeks, and I assumed he’d fed. “Abigail, there are somethings you need to know about tonight.”

  I raised a brow. “Other than you have an advisory council?”

  “We’re going in to discuss the topic of a child vampire.”

  I tried to keep the shock off my face. “Is that even possible?”