Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(65)
Did he sense that she was under threat?
She wouldn’t go down without a battle, but she would make sure Feenix was taken care of if the unimaginable happened and she lost.
“Everything’s fine.” She smiled to give the words a ring of truth. Reaching over to the counter, she pulled open a drawer in her cabinet and took out a foot-long stainless steel cooking spoon she’d found in a garbage can and sterilized. “Here ya go, sweetie.”
When she pushed the spoon under his nose he bit it, flipping the handle out of her hand. “Go back and keep the boys company. I’ll be in there in a minute. Okay?”
Feenix tottered away, licking the spoon he now held in one hand and dragging his stuffed animal clutched in his other four fingers.
She carried a small plastic tray with a bottle of Powerade, Z’s mug of beer and Quinn’s mixed drink into her living room. One day she’d have a television and stereo system in here, but her laptop in the bedroom and boom box in the kitchen would suffice for now.
“Get the table, Feenix.” Evalle carried the drink tray to where he pushed a cardboard box into position to act as a coffee table Tzader and Quinn could reach. “Thanks, baby.”
Feenix clapped his hands and went back to playing with his alligator.
She cracked the plastic cap on the Powerade bottle and took a swig. “Ready to catch up while the pizzas are cooking?”
Tzader sat up, rubbing his eyes, then lifted the mug and looked at the top of the beer. “Impressive. Where’d you learn how to draw the four-leaf clover in the foam?”
“Internet. There’s a YouTube video on everything.” She didn’t have to ask if Quinn’s drink was okay. He had a look of euphoria after taking a sip. “Why don’t you two tell me what you found out in North Carolina, and I’ll fill you in on the Tribunal and what Trey didn’t know about the demons, since I figure you caught up with him by now.”
Tzader’s eyes simmered with building fury, but he nodded.
“We did speak with him.” Quinn sat back. “I’ll give you what I know, then Tzader can tell you about the informant. The Alterant that was caught in North Carolina two months ago was thought to be in his late teens or early twenties, according to Nightstalkers there. He was a thief, breaking into businesses, stole a couple cars, robbed a convenience store, but nothing major.”
Evalle tapped her fingers on her knee, thinking. “Was he ever arrested?”
“No. He had an unnatural speed, like Trey’s ability, which we suspect he may have inherited as a Belador trait. The police just thought he was a professional criminal. No fingerprints, and they never caught his face on a security video. It took me a while to come up with a common denominator in the crimes until I started thinking about your aversion to the sun.”
“Was he a freak living like a vampire, too?” Evalle joked. She walked over and kicked the beanbag closer to the cardboard coffee table, then sat down on a poof of air.
“You know how I hate it when you call yourself a freak,” Quinn admonished. “But, no, he wasn’t nocturnal. The police set up a trap, thinking an unlocked car with a camera bag in the back would be an easy heist if left alone during three days of rain. The male Alterant stole the car on day four in bright sunshine. We discovered that all of his crimes were committed only when it was daylight and not raining. A Belador on the police force who started following this case realized the perpetrator might be a preternatural being, so he asked to work the stakeout. When the Alterant stole the car, the Belador cop followed, sure he’d located something nonhuman, so he called in support.”
Evalle nodded. “That’s how nine male Beladors cornered him, right?”
“Yes. During the six hours they pursued him, the weather began changing from partly cloudy to an approaching weather front. Four of them cornered him at the back of a school on a Sunday, and the other five Beladors came when called telepathically. Before the thief realized they weren’t human cops he could outrun, he jumped out of his car to flee just as it started raining. The Beladors had linked by now. The thief was like any other panicked criminal until he got wet, then he screamed as if hit with acid. He shifted at that point, turning into a beast that ripped the head off one Belador before they realized what he was and had a chance to unlink.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, sick at the loss of life. The families whose father, husband, brother or son hadn’t come home. “How’d you find out all that when VIPER couldn’t get anything the first two weeks?”
“Another Belador in the area heard their call for help when the Alterant started shifting and showed up after the killings, but before any law enforcement got there. He had the good sense to pull the video out of the police cars and call for Brina, who brought in Sen to clean up the mess and teleport the Alterant to a secure location. Brina told the local Belador to hold onto the video until Tzader and I showed up, since this was more a Belador issue in her mind than a VIPER issue.”
Evalle cocked an eyebrow at that. “Brina just wants to keep the dirty laundry under wraps.”
Tzader uttered a gritty noise. “Don’t get started, Eve. Brina’s first responsibility is to our tribe, which includes you.”
“Even a mutt gets a bone once in a while.” But Brina had spoken up for her today.
Quinn stood up and glanced down at Tzader. “Why don’t you pick up from here, and I’ll refresh our drinks.”