I widened my eyes at her, and she shrugged as the cops walked away.
“My sister is the underqueen. I’ve dealt with the pack before, I’m still friends with a few witches, and Aubrey fought on our side recently, which is a connection to the light fae. One day soon, Detective Nelson is going to ask me to talk to someone for him or arrange a meeting. It’s worth it if it gets us what we need today.”
I nodded, and Nelson spoke to another cop, then jerked his head at us in a gesture that said we should follow him.
Kyla let out a vicious snarl. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Every human in the vicinity froze.
I swallowed. “He wasn’t calling you like a dog, Kyla,” I said, loudly enough for all the cops to hear. Nelson’s face was slowly draining of color. He obviously hadn’t meant to offend, but he was learning a quick lesson in dealing with werewolves. Even with everything Kyla had been through, she still managed to keep the worst of her wolf instincts buried. Most of the time.
And that was a good thing. Because if he’d caught the wrong werewolf on a bad day, Nelson might’ve had his throat ripped out. From the dawning realization in his eyes, he wouldn’t come close to making that mistake again.
He was smart enough to drop his gaze. Kyla stared at the cop for a long moment. Then, with a playful snap of her teeth, she trotted over to him. I glanced at Evie. She sighed.
“She’s working on it,” she told me. “Nelson didn’t piss his pants, so he’s got a solid pair of balls on him.”
Kyla glanced over at us, obviously listening to every word. I winked at her, and she blinked both eyes back at me.
“Uh, did she just try to wink in her wolf form?”
“Yeah. She’s determined to figure it out. So far, it just makes her look vaguely shell-shocked and a little stupid.”
Kyla showed us both her teeth and turned away, sniffing at the ground.
“I’m guessing too many people have been here for her nose to help us,” I murmured, and Evie nodded.
“Yeah, but we figured it was a good idea for Kyla to have a sniff around in wolf form anyway. She could pick something up.”
While Kyla examined the scene, ignoring the cops who gawked at her, Nelson handed us each a pile of photos, his face still pale. Next to him, Roberts was watching Kyla closely.
“You can keep them,” Nelson said to us. “We had them copied.”
I eyed him. “You were always going to share.”
He sent me an easy grin, green eyes twinkling. The grin fell from his face as he pointed at the photo at the top of the pile in Evie’s hand.
“Human,” he said. “They were all hiding in the bushes over there. One of the fae bodyguards dropped the ward and disappeared, leaving the rest as sitting ducks. One of them took a shot to the head—likely before the others realized what was happening. Another guard threw some kind of magical fireball in the direction of the shots and burned one of the human attackers to a crisp.” Nelson shook his head. “He was shot directly after. Now, I don’t know much about magic, but I would’ve thought he would’ve raised one of those magical shields first.”
Evie frowned. “Could be he wasn’t a good warder and his job was to attack in the event of an ambush. He might’ve been expecting one of the others to take over the ward. Or he may just have been on the inexperienced side. We can ask Nereus.”
I glanced down at the top picture in my own pile. My stomach swam, but I could feel Nelson’s gaze on me. I forced my expression to go blank as I glanced at him.
“This is the human who was killed.”
“Yup. The fae guard barbecued him. He was found over there.” Nelson pointed to the spot several hundred feet away on the side of the road where the body had been found.
“The ME ID’d him as Douglas Wills. They notified his mother, but she’s in the hospital in a coma after a car accident a few weeks ago.”
“Any other relatives?” I asked.
“A brother. We’re looking for him.”
I examined the scene, taking in the SUV, still with its doors open. Then I glanced down at the crime scene photos of the dead human who’d been found a hundred feet away. I flicked to the next pictures of the fae guards who’d been killed beside the car.
“These fae were supposed to be bodyguards?” Evie asked, and Nelson nodded. I understood her confusion. The fae had pulled the car over for some reason, then gottenoutof the vehicle. It was a stupid move. But perhaps the guard who’d betrayed them had been driving?
No. He may have stopped the car, but I couldn’t see the other guards leaving the vehicle. Most importantly, I couldn’t see them allowing the body they were guarding to get out of the car either.
“Something made them stop,” I said. “They got out of the car, and the fae guard dropped his ward and took off. The humans began shooting. The fae closest to the car managed to get a single shot off himself, but they were all killed. If the attackers were human, they must have had another car to transport Ilayda in.”
