“A big-assed one,” Ryan added.
That only made them fight harder, coming at him in a blur of claws and fangs. Kade fought back, trying not to inflict too much damage while protecting himself. Jessup was strangely absent from the melee, though Kade couldn’t take his eyes off the other two to find out what he was doing.
Time to finish this. He reached out with his clawed hand and touched Ryan’s forehead, hoping he had enough juice left to tase the both of them. He sent the magick through his fingers.
Ryan squeezed him in a bear hug. The taser’s force pounded through Kade, powerful even secondhand. The punch of power sent them both flying in opposite directions. A naked Ryan sprawled on the ground a short distance away. Kade searched for his dagger. It was on his arm, as inert as a regular tattoo.
Hell times two.
Dazed, and fatigued from the Change, he staggered to his feet. The cousin was staring at Kade. Smiling. Like he was about to see something really funny. Kade spun around in time to see Jessup swinging down on a rope from a tree, right at him.
A moment after his bare feet connected with Kade’s head, the world went dark.
8
As fast as the Augusts were driving, Violet caught up to them as they turned down their driveway. A group of them gathered near an outbuilding, and that’s where the truck she followed parked. The early evening light cast a warm glow over a dark scene. Butch was a big, brawny jerk. Not someone easily overcome. He was on his side, blood staining the ground. So much like Arlo’s death scene. Those last words punched her in the gut. Gods, was he really dead? Everything that had happened since that morning seemed surreal.
When she got out of her car, several people looked at her as though she’d Catalyzed into a chicken.
“What’re you doing here?” Larry called out, his voice tight.
Bren turned to them, hitching his thumb at her. “Vee here is going to get justice for us. She’s investigating the recent murders.”
She heard various mumbling in response, mostly suspicion or skepticism. “You’re not the only clan to lose a family member like this. Arlo…was murdered this morning.” She listed some of the other names on her fingers like Ernie had done. “Think about it. Something’s not right here. Why are Fringers suddenly killing one another in what looks like ambush murders? Somebody’s trying to incite us.”
“I say we take out the whole Spears clan like you did with the Garzas,” one August said.
“I didn’t do that.” She had nothing to do with it, being a kid at the time. She’d seen the bloody body of one of her cousins though, their only fatality in the skirmish. His mother had collapsed over it, sobbing so deeply that Violet had felt her own heart tear apart. “Let me figure this out before anyone goes on a rampage. Do we need to lose more of our people?”
Anger and the need for revenge sparked in their eyes, and yeah, she felt it too. For Arlo. Revenge and rage were in their blood. She’d promised herself she would do everything she could to stamp that out of her psyche, to be the level-headed one.
The Augusts were still grumbling, and she heard words like…kill them.
Time to use a different angle. “Kill the people or person behind this spree. Gut them, hang them from the tree. But kill the right person.”
That got their heads nodding, a few murmurs of agreement. She was less hopeful about the mutterers.
“Who is the right person?” the patriarch asked, his grief and shock evident in his eyes.
“I’m working on finding out.”
“Who was that guy you were with?” Bren asked. “Does he have anything to do with this?”
“He’s a private detective.” Close enough to the truth, though eventually someone was going to recognize him.
The patriarch arched his bushy eyebrow. “You involved an outsider in our business?”
“I involved him because he’s objective. For the very fact that he is an outsider.”
Bren said, “He wasn’t an outsider when you stuck your tongue down his throat.”
Well, I didn’t know what his story was going to be at the time. “He’s also a close friend.”
Butch’s wife collapsed in gut-wrenching wails. Several Augusts went to her side, while others drifted back to the death scene. Her grief brought Violet’s to the surface, and she blinked back tears as she searched the ground. They didn’t know the pattern of the murderer leaving a phony clue. She wanted to find the clue before they did.
“We already know it was those damned Spearses,” someone said. “They retaliated on our retaliation. Not only is that against the unwritten rules, it’s a declaration of war.”
She sighted something hanging from a branch. The full import of the alligator foot key ring being there hit her hard. No one had seen it. Yet. She edged closer, pretending to get a better look at the body as the family discussed the wounds. Keeping her gaze on them, she snatched the key ring out of the bush. Seeing the C stamped into the base of the foot felt like a thunderclap in her heart. The murderer left it here to set up her clan as responsible for Butch’s murder.
