Silence fell over the cabin, heavy and full of magic. Traeger’s: nervy and uncertain. Connor’s: barely banked anger.
“And you think Zane killed him.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you help?”
“What? No. Of course I didn’t help.”
“There were four creatures at the Stone farm, Traeger. Four of them. That means Zane isn’t working alone.”
“I’m not one of them,” Traeger said, bitterness in his voice. “I mean, I’m one of his friends, but not his only friend. I wasn’t included in the plan.”
“Who was?” Connor asked.
Traeger swallowed hard, as if working past the guilt of betraying his friends. “He was closest to John, Beyo, Marcus. He’s supposedly got some human friends in town who sell to him when he wants to get high, but I don’t know their names.”
“And he didn’t give you any details about how they were doing it? What they were changing into?”
“Not really. He’s been cagey about it.”
“You were friends enough that you think he might have killed Loren because Loren hurt your girlfriend,” I said. “But he didn’t invite you to play with him? He didn’t tell you how he was going to do it?”
“Because of Georgia,” Alexei said quietly, and Traeger nodded.
Connor sat back, watched Traeger. “They weren’t sure if you were trustworthy.”
“Yeah,” Traeger said bitterly, a flush rising on his cheeks.
“Then give us your best guess,” I said.
“I don’t know. I haven’t even seen the creatures. Just heard about them.” He seemed shamed by that, too. That he hadn’t been included even that much, and even though he’d helped spark their behavior. “Zane told me he figured out a way to get even with Loren, to scare him into telling the truth. Something that would make them strong.”
“Magic?” I asked.
“He didn’t say. I assumed so, because you could tell their magic was . . . different . . . when they came back.”
“Did any of them know how to do magic?” I asked.
“Do magic?” Traeger asked, and his face seemed earnestly blank. “Like spells and stuff? No. We aren’t sorcerers.” He shifted his gaze to Connor, as if looking for help in explaining what shifters are to a noob.
“It’s rare,” Connor said. “But there are shifters who can work spells. Not very well.”
“No shit?” Traeger looked genuinely surprised. “Huh. I don’t think Zane knew anything about that. He just said something about how they’d be able to reach their full potential. At first, I thought he was full of shit, that maybe he’d found some kind of energy drink. But then Beth was attacked, and Loren was dead, and the Stone farm, and then the shutters. And I haven’t seen them in a few days.”
“Why did they attack Beth?” Connor asked.
Traeger rubbed his arm. “They were coming out of the woods and thought she saw them. They were going to knock her unconscious, hope someone would just think she tripped or something, and wouldn’t believe her if she remembered anything.”
“She didn’t get a good look,” Connor said. “So they hit her for no reason.”
Traeger just lifted a shoulder.
“Do you know why they attacked the Stone farm?” I asked.
Traeger shook his head. “Probably because the humans were always crossing into our territory. Cash didn’t care ’cause Carlie’s practically family, but Zane didn’t like that they hadn’t been punished.”
“And they tried to remove the shutters because I’d changed a human without permission—a human under the protection of the clan—and I hadn’t been immediately punished.”
He dropped his gaze again. “That would be my guess, yeah.”
So they were playing vigilante—meting out justice to trespassers who they felt hadn’t gotten what they’d deserved.
“Where do we find them?” Connor asked.
“Zane lives with his mom and sister. Jude and Evelyn. They’re in one of the houses at the edge of the resort, close to the road. Beyo, Marcus, and John share a cabin. Other side of the road from Zane’s. You can’t miss it—there’s a couch on the front porch. I went by—none of them are there.”
“Do you know where else they’d be?”
“I think they have another place—some kind of clubhouse.”
“At the resort?” Alexei asked, pushing off the wall and moving closer as he prepared for action.
“No, in the woods somewhere. They were always muddy when they came back.”
Connor pushed back his chair and stood. “Go to Georgia’s and stay there. Don’t leave until we come back, and don’t try to find them.”
Traeger lifted his brows. “Why?”
“Because you have knowledge,” Connor said. “Which you just passed on to outsiders. And Zane and his friends seem to like executing their own judgments.”
Traeger’s face went pale.
“You did the right thing,” Connor said, replacing his chair. “It may not feel like that right now, but you did the right thing—telling us. You might have saved a life tonight. That’s what you should think about.”
EIGHTEEN
We watched Traeger walk back to Georgia’s, made sure he went inside and the door was closed behind him.
“So,” Connor said as he worked on a bottle of water that had been squeezed into the fridge between the bottles of blood, “Traeger planted this seed about Loren harassing Paisley, and the clan won’t do anything about it. Zane decides he’ll do something about it, rounds up three friends. But instead of confronting Cash and the others, or contacting the Pack for help, they make themselves ‘stronger’ with some secret magic and start playing vigilante.”
“And not very well,” Alexei said darkly. He stood beside Connor at the island, chewing the heads off gummi bears before eating their bodies a handful at a time. “Ironic since you let Cash claim Obsideo.”
Connor gave him a look. “I didn’t let Cash claim anything. I made him show his cards, because he was going to do it even if he put Elisa through the clan’s ‘process’ first.”
Alexei chewed, considered. “Probably. Miranda’s idea?”
“Probably,” Connor said, then glanced at me. “Anything from Theo?”