Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson #2)(43)

Zee had publicly acknowledged his heritage for a long time, so I nodded my head and took a bite of sandwich.

He took a gulp of water. "I've seen Hauptman, the werewolf, at your garage at least twice."

"He's my neighbor," I said. The sandwich was pretty good. I was betting they made their own bread. I'd had better soup, though, too much salt.

Tony frowned at me and said intensely. "You're the only one who always knows who I am, no matter what disguise I wear." Tony was an undercover cop with a talent for changing his appearance. We'd become acquainted after I'd recognized him and almost blown his cover.

" Mmm?" My mouth was full on purpose because I didn't want to say anything more until he got to his point.

"The fae are supposed to be able to change their appearance. Is that how you always know me?"

"I'm not fae, Tony," I told him after I swallowed. "Zee is. The fae change their appearance by magic-glamour, they call it. I'm not entirely sure that the fae can see through each other's glamour-I certainly can't."

There was a short silence as Tony adjusted what he had been going to say.

"But you know something about the fae. And you know something about the werewolves?"

"Because Hauptman is my neighbor?"

"Because you were dating him. A friend of mine saw you at a restaurant with him."

I looked at him and then pointedly around the restaurant.

He got it. "He said it looked like you two were pretty hot and heavy."

Defeated, I conceded. "I went out with him a couple of times."

"Are you still?"

"No." I'd put too much emphasis on it.

I'd made a point to stay out of Adam's way since I'd almost made out with him in his garage. Remembering that made me feel like a coward. I didn't want to talk about Adam if I could help it. Truth was, I didn't know what to do about him.

"I'm not fae." I decided not to eat the rest of the soup, but I opened the crackers and munched on them. "I'm not a werewolf."

He looked like he didn't want to believe me, but he chose not to confront my answer directly. "But you know some of them. Some fae and some werewolves."

"Yes."

Tony set down his spoon and gripped the edge of the table with both hands. "Look, Mercy. Violent crime always goes up in the summer. The heat makes tempers shorter. We know that. But I've never seen anything like this. It started with that murder-suicide in the Paseo hotel a few weeks ago, but it didn't stop there. We're working double shifts trying to handle the load. Last night I took in a guy I've known for years. He has three kids and a wife who adores him. Yesterday he came home from work and tried to beat her to death. This just isn't normal, not even in the middle of a heat wave."

I shrugged, feeling as helpless as I doubtless looked. I knew things were bad, but I hadn't realized how bad.

"I'll ask Zee, but I don't think it's anything the fae are doing." I had to quash any hint of that-it might be dangerous for Tony if he started poking around. The fae don't like the police prying into their business. "The last thing they want is to frighten the general population. If one of them were doing something like this, the whole community would search them out and take care of it."

I hadn't talked to Zee for a few days. Maybe I ought to call him and suggest that the police were looking toward them for answers to the outbreak in violence-without using Tony's name. I didn't know what they could do against a vampire who was also a sorcerer. The fae weren't very organized, and tended to ignore other people's problems. They knew about Littleton  -  because Zee knew-but they seemed to be content to let the vampires and wolves search him out. But if the situation started to put a little pressure on them, maybe they'd help find him-Warren and Stefan hadn't been making much headway. The trick would be to make certain that the fae applied their efforts against the villain, and not against the police.

"What?" asked Tony sharply. "What were you thinking?"

Whoops. "I thought that it might be a good idea to let Zee know what you just told me. Just in case there's something they can do about it." I can lie, but living among werewolves, many of whom can smell a falsehood, had made me pretty adept at using the truth to my advantage.

"And the werewolves?"

I shook my head. "Werewolves are pretty simple creatures-that's why they make good soldiers. If there were a rogue werewolf out here, there might be dead"-I found a hasty substitute for bodies  -  " animals, but not regular people going berserk for no good reason. The wolves aren't magical like the fae are."

I slapped my hands lightly on my thighs and leaned forward. "Listen, I am happy to help you with what little I know about fae and werewolves. I will make a point of talking to Zee-but, as you said, we're in the middle of a heat wave. We've been in the three digits for a long time with no sign of cooler weather. It's enough to make anyone crazy."

He shook his head. "Not Mike. He didn't lose his temper when his wife wrecked his '57 T-Bird. I tell you I know this guy. I played basketball in high school with him. He doesn't have a temper to lose. He wouldn't just lose it and beat up his wife because his AC frizzed out."

I hate guilt. Hate it worse when I know that I have nothing to feel guilty about. I was not responsible for Littleton.