The sounds of his shift were nearly nonexistent as his wolf eased forward – a hard task to master. I nodded my understanding of his silent declaration. Rather than continuing to make Scott uncomfortable in his agitated state, Zade would stay and guard the scene until I could get back to begin the investigation.
~*~
The forest was still unnaturally quiet when I led my team back through the woods a little over two hours later.
"Where the hellishe?" Snake hissed in my ear as we approached the crime scene. It was untouched, but also appeared abandoned.
"He's here, somewhere," I replied absently. I knew too much about Zade's service record – had made it my business to learn as much as my security clearance allowed – to even consider that he might have wandered off. Or that he could have been overpowered without adding to the body count. Fool me once, and all that.
I lifted my nose and scented the air, but before I could isolate his scent from the foul stench of the carnage around us, something bounced to the ground and rolled to a stop against my boot.
A tennis ball.
I chuckled and bent to pick it up, tossing it back up into the foliage above me. As expected, when it came back down, it was resting in the gleaming teeth of a striking blue-roan wolf.
"Hey, man."
Zade spat the ball out onto the ground and threw himself into his morph.
"Hey. Is Harley okay?"
"Levi tucked them both into bed and called a doctor."
"Good." Zade glanced at the line of shifters that had followed me from the path. "They made good time."
"They were only about thirty minutes behind Clint and me," I explained, watching as Bane and Snake took control of the site, stretching the crime scene tape from tree to tree around the perimeter. I reached into the interior pocket of my jacket and pulled out a folded paper. "It seems that COPSD is already carrying a full load in this area, so the council asked us to take point on the investigation, so they'll start cataloging the evidence here while we move on to the building."
Zade nipped the paper from my fingers and unfolded it. Scanning it, he looked up with a thoughtful frown. "It does belong to Blue Ridge, huh?"
I shrugged. "According to the county documents, your official territory extends an additional ten acres past that building. I pulled a warrant anyway, just to be sure."
Zade nodded and began to pull on his clothes. "I'm ready when you are."
The building ended up being further away than it looked, and by the time we reached the edge of the trees that bordered it, the sun was high in the sky there were no shadows left for us to use to disguise our approach.
The clapboard building was larger than it had appeared from the distance, two stories plus what looked to be a half-floor attic with dormer windows poking out. Most of the paint had peeled off, leaving the wood a weathered gray that was only occasionally interrupted by slivers of white paint. Several of the windows were boarded over and pieces of roofing fluttered in the breeze. A small cupola jutted up against the sky, colored glass gleaming in the light despite the layers of grime coating them.
A church.
It was a fucking church.
"It looks empty," Jackal observed quietly.
Our lead tracker, Stahl raised his face to the wind and closed his eyes. We waited for several long moments before he shook his head. "There's nothing inside." He grimaced slightly. "Nothing alive, anyway."
With that warning ringing in our ears, I stepped free of the trees and marched to the door. It swung open easily, no surprise when I saw that the wooden frame was splintered from the door having been kicked in.
Reaching behind me, I pulled my Barretta from the back waistband of my jeans. It wasn't something any of us needed often, but every member of the COPSD packed heat on the job. Even Vlad had started to, I thought with a grin, remembering his struggles to unholster his tiny .22 from the strap around his inner thigh during target practice. After all, a waist holster would have interrupted the flow of his caftans, he'd explained loftily when his husband had teased him about it.
Flipping off the safety, I motioned for Zade – the only being not carrying a weapon - to stay behind me and I stepped over the threshold and into what could only be called Hell on earth. It wasn't until we reached an inner room and Zade began to shuffle through the papers scattered on the counter that we realized Harley was still in danger.. and we were too far away to do a single god damned thing about it.
"Call Levi," Zade yelled, throwing himself into his shift without bothering to remove his clothing. He sprang out the door and hit the trail like the devil himself was on his heels.
