Helly climbed out of the car without using the door. It was only then that Sorcha realized exactly how tiny the imp was. Probably four-nine or so. She definitely didn’t come close to five feet. “Those are the powers he doesn’t talk about. He has a lot of them.” She opened the door for Sorcha. “C’mon. This is always fun.”
Was it?
More like scary, given the company she was with.
Sorcha got out of the car and followed Helly into the gray building to find Luke waiting in the tiny lobby for them. It might not really have been small. Just the overwhelming size of him filled it.
“The detective’s coming,” Luke said.
Helly grinned. “Which one?”
“David.”
Jumping with glee, she clapped her hands together. “He’s my favorite!”
Sorcha wasn’t sure what to make of the imp’s enthusiasm. Helly was oddly fun and extremely exuberant over very little. How Sorcha wished she could be that way, too. And it seemed strange behavior for a Hell imp.
Then again, what would she know about how such creatures behaved? Unlike Luke, she hadn’t been assigned an imp at birth. Which really seemed unusual given that Helly appeared younger than he did.
Or maybe that was the size difference between them. Because Helly was so small, it was easy to think of her as a kid. Except the imp had exceptionally large breasts. Something Sorcha didn’t want to focus on, as she’d always been self-conscious about how small hers were in comparison to others.
That thought was still in her mind a few seconds later when a well-muscled bald man came through the door on her left. He cracked a huge smile as soon as he saw Luke and Helly. “Good to see you two. What have you been up to?”
Luke didn’t hesitate with his answer. “Trouble. Always.”
“Of course, you have.” David glanced to Sorcha before he spoke again to Luke. “Another new partner?”
Luke nodded. “Yeah. I ate the last one. He got on my nerves so much that it became a moral imperative. This one seems a little more tolerable. And if not, I hope she’s tastier.”
Sorcha felt her eyes go wide as David laughed. I really hope that’s a joke. With Luke, she couldn’t quite tell.
Without another comment, David handed a folder over to Luke. “As you can see, Redwine Road is where the sightings first started, then they moved to Peachtree City proper, and it has decided this is where it likes to play. It’s a giant white wolf that usually comes out around midnight and terrorizes the villagers. It seems like every night someone calls, and we’ve had two officers catch sight of it over by the Avenue around ten. I’m hoping it just wants Starbucks and not one of the workers leaving to go home.”
With a noncommittal humph, Luke opened the folder and thumbed through reports. When he came across a photo, he paused. “Ring camera?”
“Yeah. That was over on Sweetwater Oaks. One of the houses on the lake. Came right up to their porch. I think it even smiled at the camera.”
Snorting, Luke handed the printout to Sorcha.
Her jaw went slack as she saw the neolithic-sized wolf that was maybe four or five feet from the front door of a white brick house. The beast’s shoulders were far more developed than other wolves she’d seen pictures of. But that made her curious. “Are there wolves in Peachtree City?”
David shook his head. “There aren’t many in Georgia. Period. At least not in any significant number. The handful we have are gray and red wolves, and they’re either hiding up in the mountains or down in the Okefenokee. Not that I knew that a week ago. I checked with park services and they said that even in those known areas, they rarely if ever have someone report a wolf sighting. We’ve had twelve of them in the last month.” He pointed to the picture she held. “All of them describe that.”
Luke nodded. “All right. We’ll get started and I’ll let you know what we find. Hopefully, this will be a regular wolf and not something we have to move on.”
He inclined his head to Luke. “Thanks.”
They headed out of the building, back to Luke’s vintage car.
Sorcha waited until they were all in before she turned toward her new partner. “Does David know who you are?”
He shook his head. “Only Infernal Affairs needs to know. Others aren’t so receptive and I don’t need the peasants revolting.”
“Excuse me?”
“Humans are terrified by the truth. Easier to deny it than believe it. If they know I’m Lucifer’s son, it means Hell is real and they have accountability for their actions. Which in turn means religion isn’t some myth they can sneer at and dismiss. Once they realize that, they panic. Panicky people are extremely dangerous, especially in large numbers, and they do very stupid things. Not to me, because they can’t do anything to harm me. I’m currently Teflon. But to the rest of you…it just gets unnecessarily messy.”
“Meaning?”
