I nodded. “He’s an eyewitness. The only certain link between clan and creatures.”
“Beyo has responsibility here,” Connor said. “But he’s not responsible for everything. Cash takes Beyo out, and he’s got a very tidy answer to his very thorny problem.”
“Blame it on the spellseller and the bad egg,” Theo agreed. “And everything’s hunky-dory until the hybrids come back.”
“Short term,” Connor said again. “He’s just arrogant enough to think that if he can solve the immediate problem, he’ll have plenty of time to address the rest of it.”
“A fucking disgrace,” Georgia said, gaze narrowing at the lodge. “This clan has become a fucking disgrace.”
“Unfortunately,” Connor said, “I’m inclined to agree.” And he watched warily as Maeve approached us. She was alone this time, and the obvious malice in her eyes was gone. Her expression was blank, so it didn’t give me any idea of what she was actually thinking.
She nodded at Georgia, then turned to Connor. “That was quite a story you told.”
“Not a story,” he said. “The absolute truth.”
She looked pained, but nodded. “I don’t want to believe it, but I know Zane and the others. They’re arrogant, sometimes stupid, and always complaining about the elders.”
“Do you know anything specific about the creatures?” I asked.
She shook her head. “We weren’t friends. Just acquaintances. It’s not the kind of thing they’d have talked to me about.” She looked away, then back at me. “Could we talk?”
I lifted my brows. “About?”
“You’re going to make me say it aloud in front of everyone?”
I watched her for a moment. “Could you give us a minute?” I asked Connor.
He watched Maeve just as I’d done, considering, then nodded. “All right. Meet us back at the cabin.”
“Sure.” I waited until they’d walked away, then lifted my brows. “Well?” I asked Maeve.
Her eyes flashed, but this time I thought I saw respect in them. “You’re a hard-ass—you know that?”
“I’m a vampire.” I gave her a toothy smile. “So that’s a compliment.”
“Fair enough.” She cleared her throat and didn’t make eye contact for a long moment. “Miranda was rude about the Connor thing. I thought she had information about you—knew something about you using him. I don’t know you very well—”
“You don’t know me at all,” I said.
“That’s fair,” she said after a moment. “I only know what I saw in the media, and what I’ve heard.”
“From Miranda.”
“From sources,” she said. “There were rumors this was just a game for you. And I took those rumors for fact, because I didn’t take the time to, you know, talk to you about my concerns. To be up-front. I just assumed and accused and was wrong, so now I look like the asshole. Because it’s pretty obvious that you aren’t using him.”
“Finally, something we can agree on.”
A corner of her mouth quirked. “I don’t like you, but I kind of like you.”
“I’d say the feeling’s mutual.”
She offered a hand. “Truce?”
I watched her for a moment. This hadn’t been my fight. But we were going to need all the allies we could get. “Truce,” I said, and we shook on it.
* * *
* * *
Georgia asked around the resort, and no one had seen Marcus, John, or Zane in a few days. And no one had any idea where to find them. Apparently, the comings and goings of twenty-something shifters weren’t monitored.
With no trails to track the beasts and no more leads until we talked to Beyo, we gathered in the cabin. Lulu sat on the patio, using a white pencil to sketch the landscape on dark paper. I cleaned my sword while Theo worked remotely on his screen. Connor lay on the couch, eyes on the ceiling, frowning as he considered, evaluated, debated.
There was a knock at the back door, and we all looked warily at it. “I’ll get it,” Connor said, rising. “Elisa has a tendency to threaten people with her sword.”
“It’s not a tendency,” I said, sliding a piece of rice paper down the length of the blade. “It’s training.”
Alexei was preceded by the smell of meat and sauce, and he walked into the kitchen, holding a tower of pizza boxes. “I ordered dinner.”
“There are only five of us,” I said as Lulu came inside, apparently drawn by the scents. “How much pizza do you think we’re going to eat?”
Alexei placed the pizza on the island, began to spread out the boxes, and shrugged. “One of us is a vampire.”
“All right,” I said, holding up my hands. “We need to clear up this vampire eating thing.”
“The thing where you eat everything in sight?” Lulu asked, peeking beneath a lid.
“I literally do not do that. I’m very discerning.”
“Picky,” Lulu mouthed.
“So not constantly voracious,” I said. “I’m not going to eat an entire pizza, and I don’t think anyone else in here is, either.”
“Speak for yourself,” Theo and Connor said simultaneously, then looked at each other, nodded fraternally.
“This is not a war you will win,” Lulu said, putting an arm around me. “So let’s just eat and be merry and wait for someone to tell us where the bad guys are.”
“Aw,” I said, leaning into her. “You’ve been paying attention.”
“As minimally as possible. Where’s the pepperoni?” She flipped up a lid. “Bingo,” she said, and grabbed a slice, began eating from the point.
“I also have beverages,” Alexei said, pulling a bottle of honey-colored liquid from his jacket.
“I wouldn’t say no to some mind erasing,” I said. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards. Alcohol didn’t work the same way for vampires as it did for humans; I could relax, enjoy a pleasant buzz. But that was usually the end of it.
“What is it?” Connor asked, and Alexei passed over the bottle. “Hell’s Glen Fifteen,” he said, then looked approvingly at Alexei. “Good choice.”
Theo whistled. “That’s quality.”
Connor nodded, looked at me. “This will be good for your training.”