Page 125 of Shifter Situations

Hyde’s expression morphed into a grimace. “It took me a couple days of looking into the people closest to the Kings, but yeah. I figured it out. Hildi E. Commons is an anagram for Dominic Holmes.”

Blaire sat up quickly, glancing from Novak to Sloane. “That doesn’t add up. You said that Taylor Caplin called Kadence Moore in front of you. She’s the one who compelled him to shoot you.”

“That doesn’t mean that the gun came from Kade; just that it touched her hands at some point.” Novak furrowed his brow as he worked through his thoughts.

“It doesn’t not add up,” Lo murmured, her eyes far away as she pieced the information together.

“Kade was pushing the drug. She’s dead now, and there’s still an issue with rogues in Baton Rouge. The numbers should have dwindled, but they haven’t. At best, they’re steady. At worst, they’re climbing. And Dominic’s mind has been filled with static, so he either knows who else is behind it or it’s him.”

“Okay,” Blaire drawled, nodding her head. “I’ll look into it when we leave here.”

“Franklin is pretty positive that the death at the pharmaceutical company tied into Kade and the Moore family too. He has copies of her finances, and there was a significant withdrawal that corresponds with a deposit from one of the employees.”

Sloane peeked at the fae before picking back up. “Susan Harris confessed to David Preston’s murder last week, so she’s in jail. But there’s no physical way she could have torn his body apart. He’d been ripped, limb from limb, not cut up.”

Novak gagged. “I can not wash my hands enough to get that scene out of my head.”

“That bad?” Dolyn asked, genuinely concerned.

“You have no idea.”

Vaughn scoffed. “He’s not having flashbacks of the blood and gore. He touched the dick.”

The vampire groaned, his whole body shivering. “I fucking hate you right now.”

The fae ignored him. “So Susan Harris confessed? She’s an alcoholic, but I can’t imagine her being able to do something so brutal.”

“Whoa. Back up,” Blaire interjected. “You can’t just skip over something like that. What do mean by he touched the dick? You touched a dead man’s dick, Novak?”

“What? No. I mean, not intentionally. Godsdamnit, Vaughn.” He ran his fingers through his hair, glaring at the smug fae.

“Franklin told us to grab his cell phone, and the poor guy’s dismembered dick was on top of it. When I tried to pick it up—the phone, not the dick—yeah. Not my proudest moment.”

Vaughn cupped his hands around his mouth, stage-whispering to Blaire across the fire, “He squealed. It was fucking amazing. Read my mind.”

While Blaire wheezed through her laughter, Jack glanced around us, studying the outside of the cloudy gray dome.

“Lo?”

“Hmm,” she responded, blinking herself out of her wandering thoughts.

“Where are the hellhounds and Pete? I know you brought them, but I haven’t seen them in a few days.”

“I was worried they wouldn’t handle the challenges well, and I didn’t want them to interfere. So I asked Franklin to take them home on Thursday while he was here.”

The hellsteed stood, moving closer to Sloane before he collapsed onto the ground beside her.

“I haven’t been able to find any summer fae, but I did hear back from my mer friend. He’s heading to the druid’s realm later this week to look for some family members. The mer and some of the other species in the fae realm have been hiding with the druids.”

“I bet it’s chaos there. My mom is probably loving it,” I muttered to myself.

Jack gazed thoughtfully into the flames, muttering, “Also, I realized something the other day, and it’s probably not the best time to bring it up... But I think you’ve been using my powers. For as long as I can remember, we’ve both used that black smoke.

“That’s not just a demonic power. That’s a hellsteed trait, and I don’t know why it never occurred to me. You use it all the time, without even thinking about it. It’s not like shadow jumping. Maybe a few other types have something similar, but I haven’t seen any.”

Vaughn leaned over me to speak to Sloane and Jack.

“I noticed something the other day, too, and I’ve been wondering if you’ve ever seen it.”