Unnatural Allies

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

“Now what?” Sand grumbled. He rolled over, trying to find the phone on the nightstand. His hand closed over it and he answered while he mentally cursed to damnation whatever i***t was calling him at the crack of dawn on a Sunday.

“Your brother is dead, Sandalio. Murdered.”

Sand shot upright, the phone pressed tightly to his ear. “Murdered?”

“Yes. On his way back to the pack after visiting the city. Because it was the full moon, he was in his werewolf form.”

“Weren’t we all, last night,” Sand said under his breath before he asked, “Who killed him, Dimas?”

“We don’t know. When he hadn’t returned by the time the moon went down, we went searching for him. He was found on a path through the woods, dead and, obviously, in his human form at that point. There was one puncture wound in his back going directly into his heart, but whoever did it took the weapon with them.”

“A knife?” Sand frowned. He didn’t see how anyone could have approached his brother while he was a werewolf and stabbed him.

Dimas implied as much when he replied, “My guess would be some sort of projectile, but not a silver bullet. A bullet would still be in the body.”

“You’re certain he wasn’t killed by a hunter?”

“Damn, Sand, you should know better than to even suggest that. He would have sensed a human anywhere close enough to shoot him and made certain to get out of range.”

“Or kill him,” Sand said under his breath. He didn’t know how he felt about his brother’s death. They had never been close, to put it mildly. In fact, they hated each other. On the other hand, Raúl was family, for what that was worth. Not much in his opinion. Sand had been kicked out of the pack because he wasn’t willing to mate with any of the females. Something that was mandatory as far as their father, who had been the pack’s Alpha, was concerned. When their father had died, Raúl had fought and beaten all the contenders to become the new Alpha. Soon after, he had made it a point to find out where Sand was living. He visited, only once, to tell him in no uncertain terms that he was not welcome back into the pack unless he changed his ways. My profligate ways, to hear him tell it. Not as if I had a choice. I’m gay, I knew that long before I turned twenty-one. It’s in my genes, or DNA, or something.

“Is there any clue to who murdered him?” Sand asked Dimas.

“Nothing. By the time his body was discovered any scents of his killer were long gone, if there had been any to begin with.”

Sand knew what that meant and said, “If there weren’t, and since Raúl apparently wasn’t aware anyone was in the vicinity, it had to have been a vampire.”

“That’s our feeling,” Dimas agreed.

“Why him?”

“If we knew, and we might, it would go a long way to determining which vampire it was.”

Sand read something into what Dimas hadn’t said. “Did Raúl have plans to attack one of them? If so, and they found out, they might have dealt with him accordingly.”

“Oh, he had a plan all right,” Dimas said grimly. “One that was so insane he wasn’t able to get anyone in the pack to go along with it, no matter how much he threatened. All right, I take that back. A couple of his extremely loyal Betas were on his side, but that was it.”

Which you weren’t, but then you’re one of the smart ones. “Knowing my brother, he did do his best to threaten all of the Betas, if not the rest of the males, to agree to his plan.”

Dimas’s laugh was sour as he replied, “You know it.”

“What was this insane idea?”

“You’ve heard of The Crimson Cathedral?”

“Yeah. It’s a fancy club owned by a vampire, and a feeding ground used by his cronies to cull human customers to feed from—or so rumor has it.”

“Yes. Raúl wanted to attack it, targeting the vampires. He thought if it looked like a mass shooting, and the cops and the humans who were there saw that the people who were shot didn’t die, and healed rapidly, it would prove that vampires do exist. Then the humans would hunt them down and eliminate them.”

“Was he out of his f*****g mind?” Sand spat out.

“We are talking about Raúl,” Dimas replied. Sand could visualize him rolling his eyes in disgust.

“Enough said. Okay, if you’re right and it was a vampire who killed him, then somehow one or more of them learned of Raúl’s plan and decided to stop the attack by stopping him, permanently.”

“Now all we have to do is find out who it was.”

“Have fun,” Sand replied dryly.

“Well…” There was a long pause on Dimas’s end.

“Oh, no. No way, no how. Get that out of your head now!”

“You’re not connected with the pack, and he was your brother.”

“Dimas, it’s not happening. I suppose I’m sorry he’s dead but that’s it. I hold no loyalty to him or the pack. If you want his killer dealt with, that’s up to you and the other Betas—or the new Alpha once one of you takes over the position.”

“It won’t be me,” Dimas replied. “I have no desire to fight for it, literally as well as figuratively.”

“Can’t blame you for that.”

Dimas snickered. “You could always come back and try. After all, it is your right as the second son.”

“Not happening. I’m quite happy leading a normal life without all the politics and tensions that would be involved if I did win, which you know as well as I isn’t likely to happen.”

“True, I suppose. All right, I’ve passed on the news. If you change your mind…”

“Thanks for letting me know, and I won’t.”

They hung up; Sand returned the phone to the nightstand, and then laid back, hands behind his head as he stared off into space.

Do I want to avenge Raúl’s death? For damned sure he wouldn’t avenge mine, if the situation was reversed. He’d figure I got what I deserved. On the other hand, if he was killed by a vampire then I owe it to every werewolf in existence to deal with him, or her I suppose, before they strike again. The bastards have no honor. They don’t think they need a reason, a real one, to try to kill us. They never have. Yeah, there’s supposed to be a truce of some sort, after the last war decimated our populations almost a hundred years ago. More honored in the breach than the observance now, or something like that.

He sat up again and got out of bed, deciding since he was awake and unlikely to go back to sleep, he might as well shower, get dressed, and face the day. For the moment, he pushed all thoughts of his brother’s murder to the deep recesses of his mind. When he was ready to face them again, he would. And maybe decide if I want to do anything about it? It would be hard since Dimas said there were no clues at the site that even suggested it might have been a vampire. Still…No, stop thinking about it. Breakfast, a run, then figure out how to kill the rest of the day. That was easy enough, he discovered, since there was an all-day street fair downtown to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend. By the time he returned home that evening he was ready to take a long shower to wash off the sweat. He did, and then decided to skip supper as he’d eaten his way through the fair’s many food booths. He flopped down on the sofa to watch a movie he hadn’t seen before, and then headed to bed.

* * * *

“You’re what?” Sand said in dismay Monday morning, soon after he arrived at the security firm where he worked weekdays from eleven to seven—even on holidays like today, which was Memorial Day.

“Moving you to nights, at least for the foreseeable future,” his boss replied. “John’s kid is due any day now and he asked for time off until it gets here and then a month’s paternal leave afterward.”

Sand resisted sighing. He liked John, but damn…“Okay, as long as it’s not permanent.”

His boss chuckled. “It’s going to cut into your nightlife, isn’t it?”

“If I say yes, will you reconsider and put someone else on that shift?” Sand looked hopefully at him.

All he got in reply was a laugh, a shake of the head, and “You’ll start tonight, so take the rest of the day off.”

“If I didn’t like this job,” he muttered. He did perk up a bit when his boss told him the new hours also came with a dollar-an-hour pay raise for the duration.