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“I’m just looking for someone with information about whatever is going on,” I told him.
Two hours of cruising through the area, and I found a few people who knew where to stay away from. I told Cora the street names and location descriptions as I got them, and we ended up on roads Google doesn’t know about.
“Stop,” I told Cora when I picked up on multiple minds that felt rancid. We were surrounded by woods with no homes in sight, but clearly, something was close.
I scanned one of the minds and got our answer, sickening as it was.
“Meth cookers, creating lore to keep people away. Fuckers killed a wild pig to start, and left the pieces that aren’t good eating all around, then they got the idea to kill some dogs. Used dull knives to make the wide claw mark slashes, and they have the lower jaw from a bear — that’s how they made the bite marks.”
“Humans?” Ryan asked.
“Yes.” Shapeshifters won’t touch meth, but I understood him wanting to verify and not assume.
“Do they use what they cook?” he asked.
“Oh yeah.”
Time for some real talk. “I have to report this to the Concilio, and they will ask why I didn’t kill the fuckers while I was here. When I explain I rode down with a slayer, they’ll send me back to do it.”
He sighed. “I know. I kill beings who prey on humans, and these fuckers might not be supernatural, but they absolutely prey on humans. Thing is, people are going to buy meth whether we kill these assholes or not. You can’t stop the drug trade.”
“My goal tonight is to stop people from thinking a wolf-man is rampaging through these woods and killing animals and pets, and is possibly a danger to humans,” Cora told Ryan. “I can go in there and kill the men, or Marco can fry their brains from here and make it look like something went wrong with a batch and they killed themselves with it, assuming they’re all high.”
“All but one is,” I told them. “I can melt the brains of the others, and then force him to kill himself. He has a loaded gun. Piece of cake.”
Ryan sighed. “Okay. Yeah. I don’t like it, but I don’t have a better solution, and you’re right that we don’t need the rumors of a wolf-man to take hold.”
I gave the men who were high brain damage — enough they’d die within the next couple of hours, if not immediately, and then forced the other man to pick up the gun, put it in his mouth pointing up, and pull the trigger.
We all heard the weapon go off, and Cora put the vehicle in drive and pulled forward. I was using an old smartphone with a hacked SMS card. I hadn’t turned it on until we were past the battlefield, and I turned it off and put it in a signal blocking bag as soon as we navigated back to the main road that would take us back through the battlefield. I’d incinerate it later, bag and all.
“There are two others that were in on it,” I told them. “They’re in Atlanta buying supplies. Sounds like one of the gangs there has an ephedrine source.”
Ryan glanced at me and looked forward again. “Get me any names you have and I’ll get it to law enforcement, so maybe they can stop that pipeline. I assume you’ll return and handle the final two?”
“I will.”
“Thanks for the assist,” Cora said. “I’d have spent a few nights surveilling before I made the kills. Having you around is kinda handy.”
“My responsibility. You’d have been alerted because of the wolf thing, but it was humans in my territory creating supernatural gossip no one wants propagated, and the Concilio would hold me responsible for, if it got too far. No need to thank me.”
“The two of you aren’t like other ruling couples,” Ryan noted.
We weren’t, and that was a sore point with me, but I didn’t want the slayer to know that. “We work as we are. She’s over the wolves, I’m over the vampires. The ruling couples you’re thinking of rule the vampires as one, but the female in those cases isn’t over a shifter group. Becca rules by Kendric’s side, and Blade rules with Augustus, but it’s different. Cora has her own responsibilities.”
In truth, I wanted us to merge our people at least somewhat, but we haven’t had something huge to meld us together into that unit I hoped we could become. We’d kind of accidentally done so, but it hadn’t been stable, and since Cora didn’t want it to remain, it hadn’t.
The truth is, I think those who considered testing my mettle in the beginning backed off because of Kirsten. No one wants her as an enemy, and attacking Cora means attacking Kirsten. Once they realized coming after me likely meant involving the Harlequin, it was my belief they’d all decided to find easier prey.
Or maybe we’d just been so brutal with the three Master Vampires who were planning a coup, no one else dared. Could go either way.
“You’re careful to spend less than half your time at Homewood, so it isn’t your primary residence,” Ryan noted.
I was considering the most diplomatic way to tell Ryan he was about to piss me off with his personal questions when Cora asked, “What are you beating around the bush to ask, slayer?”
“Nothing specific, and I apologize if I’ve offended either of you, but isn’t it understandable I’d want to get a better handle on how the two of you will deal with an outside attack, or a fight between your people?”
No, that wasn’t where he was headed, because he’d seen us handle both of those things. He was trying to figure out if, or when, we were going to join our people more fully. Rather than answer his inquiry, I pointed out he already knew the answers. “The two of us have interceded in disagreements between our people on many occasions. As for an attack, I trust Cora to protect all of our people if someone attacks when I’m down for the day, or when I’m out of town. I believe I have the same trust from her, if she happens to be out of town. Cora and Etta can work together, and I can work with Ranger. We’ve covered our bases as well as I believe is possible.”
