Coward.
I didn’t understand him sometimes. He’d kill for her but wouldn’t talk to her. Made no sense whatsoever.
With Kyren gone, we were left alone with the pile of meat that had once been alive and a bloody message on the wall.
“What does that say?”
“Hey, didn’t you want to call this in?” I reminded her, my fingertips brushing against her arm.
Jack waved me off when I tried to distract her from the result of Kyren’s temper. “Later.”
We both approached the wall, careful not to step in the blood splattered across the ground. My eyes lifted from Jack to the message written out in the woman’s blood, clear as day.
Leave her alone.
I sighed, knowing exactly who this message was for. Kyren had mentioned being approached by some younglings about getting revenge on the Durands, but I had brushed it off as college kids just looking for trouble. Apparently, they hadn’t taken Kyren’s no seriously and, by how violent the woman’s death was, she must have run her mouth more than she should have.
Jack turned back to me with an expression mixed with concern and confusion. “He’s not talking about me, do you think?”
I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her forehead. “We shouldn’t linger here. Someone is bound to notice this sooner or —”
“Freeze!”
“Later.”
Crap.
Jack and I slowly turned around to face the two officers standing in the entrance to the alley. Several people stood behind them, trying to peek over their shoulders. Humans. Always so nosy. We were lucky they didn’t have their phones out and pointed toward us.
“Look, officers,” I began, holding my hands up to show them I meant no harm. “This is all a big misunderstanding.”
One of the officers turned to a woman near him. “Is this the man you saw?”
The woman in question leaned around the officer and looked me up and down, lingering on my body for a lot longer than necessary before shaking her head.
“No, the guy was shorter and was super pale. There was something demonic about him, like he was sucking all the light from the world.” She shuddered and stepped back into the embrace of her friends.
Great. Not only did humans discover Kyren’s temper tantrum, but they’d seen him using his powers. Just as I was pondering how the hell we were going to explain this one away, Jack stepped around me and walked slowly toward them, holding something up in a rectangular leather badge holder.
“Princess, what are you doing?” I hissed, trying to grab for her. If Jack ended up arrested while out on a date with me, not only were Kyren and Julian going to kick my ass, but I couldn’t even imagine what her parents would do to me.
“Officers, Jaquelynn Durand, badge number six-two-five-one, part of the shadow division.” She stopped before the two officers and let the one who had spoken before take what I could only assume was a badge.
The officer looked it over and handed it back to her. “Sorry, ma’am, we didn’t know this was part of your jurisdiction. We were just responding to a call.”
Jack nodded, far more calm and collected than I would have been in this situation. “Not a problem. I need to call this in.” She pulled a business card out of her badge and handed it to them. “If your superiors need to follow up, they can contact mine.”
“Thank you, we will.” The officer nodded, and then both turned to the growing crowd. “Nothing to see here, folks. This is police business, go about your evening.”
When they were gone, I stepped over to Jack as she put her phone to her ear. “Princess, what’s going on?”
She held up a finger before speaking into her phone. “Hey, Reynolds, this is Jack. I have a code twenty in Addison, downtown in the alley between…” She stepped out of the alley and glanced back and forth. “Loca Moca and… Vegan Pet Supplies…”
The male voice on the other line chuckled. “Vegan pets? What will they come up with next?”
“Yeah, I know, right?” She shook her head and stepped back into the alley. “Anyway, we need a clean-up crew and probably a dissuasion charm. One too many eyes, if you know what I mean.”
“Got it. Human or supe?”
