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***
Two eye-blurringly long hours later, our screens began to ring simultaneously. I got to mine first.nac pack hq. cpd needs assist.
My first reaction was concern about whether Connor was okay. Which Roger anticipated.
connor not involved. no injuries—yet.
That was something. But I had a feeling I knew exactly who was causing the problems.
SIXTEEN
Theo and I drove to Ukrainian Village; Petra would stay at the office and keep working on the demon. Alexei was with Lulu, so I sent Connor a message en route:where are you?
helping with a delivery,he said. driver forgot a pan of beans. where are you?
Catering parties in Chicago was a big part of the Pack’s food business. And it meant Connor wasn’t involved in whatever was going on, which was a relief. Although probably not to him.
on way to nac pack, I messaged.ombuds got call from cpd needing assist. situation unknown.
There was a pause that made me think he was swearing, turning a vehicle around, or hustling to get the job done.twenty minutes, he promised.
It took nearly thirty for us to reach the headquarters building, and we hit a standstill two blocks away. We could hear the noise from there, and found its source to be a two-block-long morass of shifters and magic leading back to HQ.
We don’t have time for this, I thought, fury rising, and knew Connor was being played. Again.
“The fuck?” Theo said.
“Demon influence?”
“I don’t think they need it,” I said.
Two CPD officers approached. We held out our badges.
“Thanks for getting here fast,” said the one on the left. “Officer Padwicky. That’s Officer Jones.”
“Sullivan and Martin,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“Anger, as far as I can tell. It started at the NAC Industries building,” Jones said. A rookie, I guessed, as he was brimming with nervous energy.
“Fight started inside, spilled onto the sidewalk, then the streets, then... this,” Padwicky said, gesturing. “Neighbors got nervous when the fighting started. And they’ve been chanting.”
“Chanting?”
“Honestly, it sounds like conspiracy theory–type stuff? A lot of ‘Tell the truth’ and ‘Release the Apex.’ ”
Theo climbed onto the bed of a truck parked beside us, looked over the crowd. “Eighty or so shifters. Couple circles of fighting.” He narrowed his gaze. “And you’ll never guess who’s leading the party.”
“The interlopers,” I said, anger rising again.
“Your eyes are a little silvery,” Padwicky said in the same tone a trusted friend would let you know you had lipstick on your teeth.
I nodded, blew out a breath, tried to calm down. Escalation wasn’t going to help.
Theo jumped down from the truck. “Didn’t you stop a Pack fight recently?”
“Yeah. I got a shifter the opportunity to help Connor work on his bike,” I said.
“That’s not going to help here,” Theo said.
