Skin Deep (16 page)

He'd need to have a Walker on his side. We had a traitor in our midst.

***

Evan twitched a finger. Sensations tingled into his body as the world came back to him a little at a time. He lay supine on a surface unexpectedly and tolerably comfortable. The thought caught him by surprise. Why would it be unusual? He was a bit fuzzy on the details.

The only thing he was certain of was his last memory. The club.

He backtracked, struggling with a hazy memory of the events of the day. Then he remembered leaving Club Wylde with Anita. Yes pretty Anita with the generous boobs and the pouty red lips. Being away from home was wild. Club Wylde was way wilder. But he didn't feel so wild right now. His body ached, and his arms no better than limp pasta. His eyes….

He opened them, blinking away the gritty dry coating. The neon-red club lenses stuck tight to his eyeballs, made him blink automatically as his eyes trying to generate some moisture. Lifting his hand to shove the thing around his eye to work up some wetness, he found said hand firmly attached to the metal rails on the right side of the bed. The other hand had met with equally ignominious fate.

He surveyed the small room, enough space on either side of the bed for his Aunt Zelda to fit her generous hips. But that was it. A teensy window high up on one wall, way too high to jump to. Even if he changed. And maybe that wasn't a good idea either.

He lay on the bed, listening for movement, any sound that told him someone was around. The thought he might be all alone was scarier than wondering who had tied him to the bed and what they wanted with him, and he strained to hear the slightest noise. He allowed the change to condense his eardrums, lifted his ears a bit - borrowing some of his wolfish hearing might do the trick.

***

Evan didn't need his wolf senses. He didn't need to fear he was all alone. His captor was just down the
hall. He'd be visiting Evan soon enough. Something the boy was better off not knowing.

***

Club Wylde was an enormous abandoned factory. We entered onto a balcony, immediately bombarded with a full view of the gyrating dance floor. A living, breathing sea of dance. The crowd heaved and pulsed with the grinding rhythm. Music crushed my lungs, hammered my eardrums. Bass throbbed through my veins, reaching greedy fingers for my heart. I blinked, drunk with sound.

We descended the wide staircase and plunged into the melee. Bodies crushed me, swayed me to their seductive rhythm. Hands and hips gyrating, hypnotized by the
beat. Colored lights flashed. On. Off. Swirling, turning, dizzying. Faces, smiles. Here. Gone.

Before I'd entered, I'd worried I was a bit under-dressed. So wrong. All black knee-high boots, black leather mini, sequined racer back tee. Compared to the girls with tiny shorts and pearlized bras
, I was the over-dressed one.

Lily jabbed Anjelo in the ribs, giving him a dirty look. He'd paid the price for ogling a girl while his beloved
was standing right next to him.

Only Anjelo.

He strode up to a nearby bouncer and spoke a few words to him. The guys face remained expressionless as he nodded and headed for the stairs to tell his boss he had guests.

Only m
oments later, the guard returned and signaled for another nearby bouncer, all beefy muscles and emotionless eyes.

A strong hand closed over my right arm, digging cruelly into the soft flesh. I shrugged the hand off a little and the grip loosened. These bouncer types were not the most hospitable guys around. While my first instinct was to resist, spin around and knock each of them flat on their sorry asses, I paused. I needed to get Sully on our side, and as much as I would take pleasure in turning these two turkeys into stuffing, I went quietly.

I followed Anjelo as they led us up a second metal staircase on the furthest end of the heaving dance floor. Meanwhile, hips swirled and booty's undulated in a mess of suggestive sensuality, to the pounding bass blasting from a hundred speakers.

Lily followed a few paces behind us, a salivating gleam in her eye as she stared into the crowd. I assumed the dance-floor called but she gave it
a regretful glance and fell into step beside me, curiously unhindered.

I scanned the club, ascending the stairs, counting the exits. Four in total - each flanked by a pair of guards, burly, surly fellows who surely pumped iron all day and ate little kittens for breakfast.

The double doors opened onto a large room extending the whole back end of the building, with picture windows providing a view of the dance floor. Done in dark tones of black and navy with a touch of white, the room was elegant and ominous at the same time.

"Greetings, my friends."

I searched for a voice. The single occupant of the room was draped over an ice-white leather sofa, lazily swirling a bright green liquid in a highball. A black beanie covered his head stopping short of his generous eyebrows, black silk trousers matched a black silk shirt, out of place in this room and in the club filled with preening, predatory males flaunting their goods. Relaxed in his icy throne, he had the air of a feline, seconds before it pounced. Leopard Walker. I shared a glance with Anjelo, whose look of recognition confirmed he now knew Sully's species.

The air was spicy with fear, and I registered the scents rolling off the bouncers in great waves. Even his own men were terrified of him.

Great way to keep 'em in line, Boss.

"Sully, I take it?" Take this bull by his horns.

"And who do I have the pleasure of addressing, my sweet?" His voice was oily, so dark, and I swallowed the slime suddenly coating my mouth.

His eyes glittered. Black coals stripped me bare, cutting right through me, and I would’ve choked had I not been feeding the nexus of vengeance lying beneath my heart. Now more than ever I wanted to catch this killer. This murderer preying on Walkers. And I needed to be strong to deal with the likes of Sully.

"Kailin Odel." He rose, his drink now forgotten while this pretty new gem caught his attention. He sniffed. "Alpha Kailin Odel."

When he stopped before me, taking my chin within his steel fingers, I knew with utter certainty he was capable of snapping my neck with a twist of those brutal paws. And as I stood so close to him, I breathed in his cloying cologne and his Leopard Walker fragrance with it. My Panther clawed to get out.

His reaction was so sudden, so strong I was left standing immobilized with shock.

A loud growl ripped the air, soft
ened only by the thunderous bass of the music still pounding in my ears and quivering my heart with every beat. We stood there, face to face, a hands-breadth apart, his canines bared, the corded muscles in his neck bunching.

I sensed his anger, and this only spurred on my own rage. But I tamped the Panther down first. Now we both knew who we were dealing with.

"Look, we don't have time for a territorial pissing contest. I'm not interested."

My directness elicited a reaction both unexpected and surprising.

He laughed. Full and hearty.

I blinked.

"You're one tough chick you know that."

"Been through enough shit in the last few days. I don't have time to play games while Walkers are dying out on those streets." I hadn't meant to be so vehement, but rage reared its vengeful head and snapped in Sully's face.

That caught his attention. His double-take was as painful to watch as his expression was comical.

"Dying?"

"Obviously you're not as well informed as you thought you were." I shot the burly guard next to me a satisfied look as his neck bloomed a pretty rose. Someone was in for it. "There's a killer out there who's been preying on Walkers. We were hoping you would be able to help us."

"I'm not really sure how I can help you. What is it you need?" Sully sat back, crossed his legs and stared at me, one foot swinging back and forth like a pendulum, ticking off my time.

"We’re looking for a boy. From what we know, he was last seen here in this club." My gaze didn't waiver.

"Lots of boys come to this club. In fact, hundreds of boys come to this club." The foot swung and his eyes remained on mine. "I don't see how I can be of any help."

His cold, hard expression convinced me we weren't going to get much out of him.

I plucked my phone from my pocket and brought up the image of Evan that Byron had sent over. "We're looking for him."

Sully peered at the phone, pursed his lips and shook his head. "Nope, never seen him before.

"Could we at least have a look around? Talk to the bouncers, maybe?" I asked, my tone lowering a few degrees. I wasn't in the mood for niceties.

"Feel free as long as you don't disturb my guests." He grinned, a cheery, pleasant smile that was completely false.

***

We circulated the club, walking through each of the three floors trying to pretend we belonged. No surprise when we came up with nothing. No surprise when none of the bouncers recognized Evan. I sighed. What were we looking for? We had no idea. We certainly weren't going to find the missing boy in the middle of the dance floor.

But we were Walkers to begin with. Walkers with incredible tracking skills. I dug into
my little purse for my phone and made a quick call to Byron. Thankfully he was still occupied with his distraught daughter and agreed to send Spencer with some of Evans garments.

We didn't have to wait long; we met Spencer outside the club a mere half hour later. He drew alongside the curb, and rolled the window down. His steely
gray eyes regarded me with curiosity and a large dose of scorn. Of course, I didn't expect anything less.

Without a word he handed over a jacket, and drove off before I could even say thank you.

"What's his deal?" asked Anjelo staring off into the darkness at the disappearing taillights.

"Wolves."

"Right," he answered with a delicate shudder.

I studied the brown leather jacket that belonged to the missing boy, then raised an eyebrow at Anjelo. "You want to go sniff?"

Behind him, Lily's face darkened, her anger blooming her cheeks, but all Anjelo did was laugh. "Sure, not often I get to exercise the old muscles." And in a breath and a blink, Anjelo's nostrils flared and widened.

He reached for the garment and held it close to his nose, breathing the scent of the boy in, noting each nuance of odor in the fibers. Then he nodded and stepped back.

Wolves would no doubt be better at this than us, and I wondered why Spencer hadn't offered his services. Maybe Byron needed him.

Anjelo backtracked to the entrance to Club Wylde, then stiffened and took a deep breath. He was onto something but I daren't ask him anything, very afraid he may lose the boys scent. I hadn't planned on letting Anjelo do the job alone anyway, so I allowed my nose to transform and took a deep breath of the garment myself.

I followed Anjelo, followed the scent too. As faded as it was, the wolfiness of the odor still wafted strong on the sidewalk, on the door he must have held on to. We followed the scent one step at a time taking the corner and moving only two car lengths down the road.

And there we lost the trail.

"What happened?" Anjelo asked, frowning.

"If we assume someone is after Walkers, then we can easily assume that he may have been tossed into a car or something." I glanced up and down the street, the lack of lighting making it difficult to see much more than shadowed shapes. "Would've been easy. We can barely see anything ourselves, even with our cat-vision."

Anjelo clicked his tongue, just as annoyed as I was.

Our investigations hadn't gone as planned. One, Sully was not going to be of much assistance. And two, we needed help.

I knew just the person for the job. Even if I had to battle my inner demons.

Or desires.

***

Back home after our club visit, my mind was in turmoil as I punched in a text message to Logan. I'd been ready to dial when my clock dinged - after two in the morning. The little card Logan had given me was a crumpled, unrecognizable blob of red. I'd asked nicely if he could come over when he got the chance. Then had to constantly convince myself it was the right decision.

But now, fear, worry and helplessness warred. I worried it
was wrong to ask for Logan's help, especially when he had no idea what world he would be entering. But then again what exactly was it that he worked in? Strange and unusual?

The knocking at my door broke into my thoughts. Who would be popping over at this hour? Dread iced my veins over. Not another missing walker.

I opened the door to reveal a rumpled and sleepy-looking Logan Westin. My heart thudded against my ribs. Rumpled and adorable.

I barely heard his greeting above the thundering in my head. Great. My timing had so sucked. I should’ve thought before texting him. Should’ve known he'd think it was urgent and run right over. I'd pulled him from slumber at two am in the morning. I had good reason – Evan—but it felt wrong. Wrong to expect his help when he had no idea what we were. No idea he was stepping into seriously dangerous territory. Wrong to lie to him. Wrong to even think of revealing to a Human. And, my strange attraction to him helped not at all.