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That was not completely true. Yes, he had come to question her, to possibly bring her back to talk to Detective Jackson or Sergeant Giovanni if he could. But he’d come armed to the teeth and expecting a trap. The moment she attacked him, he considered that evidence enough to kill her.
The tall, handsome Fae colonel with the scars knew what Peter Teague was. She saw no evidence in the wolf’s mind that he knew his colonel wasn’t human, but memories of the officer shielding him from the consequences of hunting Other predators were clear. The colonel covered for him in the past, even when he’d killed with claw and fang. The red wolf felt confident the colonel would cover for whatever Peter Teague had to do to stop a spider-kin from killing his soldiers.
So, the Fae colonel protected him. Let him hunt who he chose. Then all the colonel had to do was ask when he needed someone killed.
Sneaky.
Also brilliant.
The longer Liliana studied the wolf-kin, the more deeply his soul tinged sickly green with fear.
Behind his back where he thought she couldn’t see, he twisted his wrists, struggling to reach one of his knives or the Taser in his belt. He conversed to keep her distracted, but each passing moment brought him closer to despair as her webs refused to budge.
Liliana was not an intimidating person. She knew this. She was dangerous, sure, but she was not all that frightening.
You are one of the strongest of beast-kin. Why do you fear me?
She saw the images of the soldier victims in his mind, and her fourth eyes followed them back in time against her will to the moment of their death. Death was hard to see around or past. It always overwhelmed her fourth vision.
“It is a horrible death.” Liliana shuddered. “Dissolved slowly from the inside while still alive, screaming silently because damaged vocal cords cannot force out sound.” Liliana squeezed closed all her eyes to shut out the horror, but it was too late. She would see the poor soldiers’ desiccated faces frozen in silent screams in new nightmares now. The one thing Liliana could never do was unsee.
Peter Teague swallowed hard enough for her to hear.
Focusing on the red wolf, she opened her eyes again, all of them. Sweat beaded on his upper lip. His pulse raced even faster. His breath fogged in small pants in the cold, damp night air. The greenish-yellow tinge of terror overwhelmed his noble soul, giving him a ghostly aura.
To a man who worked on criminal investigations, too much knowledge of a crime was evidence of guilt. Liliana’s detailed description of the manner of the victim’s death cemented her guilt in his mind. The fact that she immobilized him with her web made the wolf-kin’s heart race.
He believed her to be the killer.
And he would be the next victim to die screaming silently.
She touched his cheek. “If I must kill you, it will be quick and clean. Not like that.”
The wolf’s lips twisted in an ironic grin, but he still glowed with fear. “Thanks, I guess.”
She’d failed to reassure him. She didn’t know how to communicate that she didn’t want to kill someone whose inner face shone with love and courage, even if he was the same kind of beast-kin that killed her family. He had not killed them, and she was not going to judge this man by the actions of his kin.
With all her eyes open, the shining soul she saw washed away the memory of ugly death. “You are…beautiful.”
“Um…oookay.” His mind stumbled in confusion at what seemed to him like a complete non sequitur. He jumped through possible motivations for her comment. She glimpsed images in his mind of serial killers who developed twisted sexual fascination with their victims.
Liliana sighed in frustration. When she planned this trap, the spider-kin believed she would have to kill the red wolf. He knew what Liliana was. If she let him go, she would never be safe again in Fayetteville, or probably anywhere in North Carolina.
But she didn’t want to kill him.
Liliana rubbed her arms to ease the chill. Now what would she do?
Killing the brave wolf-kin just because he was inconvenient was not an option. She was ashamed of herself for having thought that way.
There was only one choice. She would have to give up her comfortable home, leave her clients, and begin a new life somewhere else. Perhaps she could tolerate living with a circus again for a time, especially if she could settle in one place, perform in front of holovid cameras instead of staring eyes.
The freedom of flying on the high trapeze and dancing in the sky held only by silken sashes was something she missed. And the cats. Liliana’s father and brothers were lion-kin, and her second mother was jaguar-kin, so big cats were like extended family. When her father died, her second mother, Ixchel, carried on the animal tamer act with Liliana’s brothers, Jason and Petros. Liliana had often snuck into the cages at night to sleep beside the true lions when nightmares plagued her. The huge, lazy cats always seemed to recognize her as family, cuddling with the strange little spider girl and guarding her sleep as if she were one of their cubs.
Circus life wasn’t all bad. Being around big cats again would be like visiting old friends.
She tapped her chin. What should she do with the red wolf? He still believed her to be a killer, so she couldn’t let him go until she was far away and safe.
“Are you going to let me go?” the wolf-kin asked, hopefully, as she stood lost in thought.
