“New Nebraska can be a dangerous place…” I didn’t know how else to respond. If I dwelled too long on her horrible experiences here, my animal was sure to take over in ways that wouldn’t make a good impression or be good for anyone.
We fell into silence and walked for a few more minutes, enjoying star glints and river spray.
Then, staring up at me, her eyelids fluttered for a second before she averted her gaze. “You’re a jaguar in a man’s form, aren’t you?” she asked, a little shy.
“Not exactly. It’s complicated. He’s part of me. I’m part of him. It’s hard to explain the feeling to a non-shifter. But yes, together we are one being, one creature.”
“So, you’re part cat.” Her posture loosened as she swung a smile my way. “Lucky for you, I like cats.”
I lowered my head, feeling my night vision sharpen even further as the jaguar’s yellow eyes briefly flared in my sockets. Just short of whispering distance, I allowed my animal to reply with a throaty grumble. “See? No doubt there.”
She exhaled hard and hid her reddening cheeks with a brush of her loose jacket sleeve. I had a feeling she liked the animal noises I could make. And those were just the ones with my clothes on.
“Look, I know you’re being a bit maverick taking me on this detour, and it’s sweet of you, but did you even intend to go to the police station? You know poor Bryce will be—”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “PoorBryce could buy off every police station in New Nebraska and barely dent his bank balance. His condition aside, I’m not breaking out any violins for silver spoon billionaires.”
“But he’ll be waiting out there for nothing. I got the impression there might be a lot of… altercations in and around the station. He’ll be standing—”
I patted her slender hands as they remained wrapped around my arm. “He’ll be sitting. Once he’s told we’ve not arrived, he’ll wait in that armored limo with the doors securely locked, and you’d need an anti-tank missile to make a hole in that Benz, I can assure you. He’s no fool, he’ll realize I’ve taken you on a… police-related excursion, and he’ll leave. He didn’t get that rich by being stu—”
The red berries clinging to a nearby bush shimmied, and I whipped the flashlight that direction, nudging Serenity behind me.It’d become a highly uncommon occurrence, but there were psychos crazy enough to try and take me on. They were just extremely rare.
Or dead.
Reaching around, I ran a reassuring palm down her arm. “Just a precaution. Don’t worry.”
Waving the beam back and forth across the bushes, I said calmly, “Police. Detective Pierce, to be exact. Step into the light. If you don’t give me any shit, you can go about your business in peace.”
“Ain’t gonna give nobody no shit, Dagger. Just mindin’ my own business,” rasped a voice from between the berry clumps.
I chuckled. Not a psycho, just an old man. My jaguar grumbled, curling up and closing its eyes.
“Jacob, why don’t you come on out? Come on, nobody’s gonna cart you off.”
“I gotcha word?”
“You got my word.” Shaking my head, I gazed down at Serenity who’d moved back around and was now tucked tightly at my side again. I said quietly, “My word is my bond. It’s a big thing on the streets for us cops, especially detectives. You’re nothing if you don’t keep your word.”
She flapped her hand for me to lean down, and her whisper coursed tingles across my scalp, earning me a yowl and internal claw scrape from my jaguar. “Kind of like promising you’re going to take a girl one place and…” She looked around with a wry smile, her eyes teasing.
I shrugged. “Well, cop code forty-nine dash E says that sacred bonds can be ignored if you’re trying to impress a beautiful—”
A stocky figure tumbled through the bushes, cursing as he wiped leaves and twigs from his grubby dark jacket and lumberjack hat. He shielded his eyes as he stepped into the flashlight’s glare with mud-streaked gloves, their truncated wool revealing white and black marbled fingertips that reflected prisms of light like a gemstone.Letting out a sigh and lowering the flashlight, I reached back and clasped Serenity’s hand. “It’s okay. He’s harmless.”
Jacob was a rock elemental, a species with less than two hundred left in known existence. That made him pretty damn special. Not that he cared. Not since some freak virus had turned his wife and son to solid rock salt over a decade ago. I saw the pipe poking out his sleeve and nodded toward it, my hand outstretched. “Let me see the pipe, Jacob.”
“Aww come on, Dagger, you said no bullshit for you, no bullshit for me. You gave your word, man.”
I nodded. “Agreed. And I’ll keep it too. I won’t confiscate anything, I just want to confirm something real quick,” I said, clicking my fingers. “Come on, it’ll take five seconds.”
Jacob reluctantly handed over his palm-sized pipe. If you could call it that. The masking tape joining the charred bowl and the rusting tube was frayed, peeling off. Yet Jacob looked at the pipe like I’d just taken his gold Rolex.
I sniffed the drugs inside the bowl, just to be doubly sure. As I suspected, it wasn’t the stuff I was investigating. It was a rock elemental’s usual intoxicant choice of powdered mineral ore. I didn’t know the science behind it, but it acted like a sedative. The bowl was partly packed and ready to light up.
Jacob eyed it nervously as I examined the pipe in my hand. Personal possession for purposes of intoxication was a misdemeanor. I should have tipped the bowl out, but I mean it was only mineral ore for fuck’s sake. It didn’t make users violent or prone to committing crime. The poor old guy wasn’t hurting anyone.
Sighing, I put the pipe back into Jacob’s palm. Unlike some cops, my word was my bond. “Aww thank you, boss. You all right. I don’t care if anyone says you’re just an asshole cop that licks his own balls.”
