The music pulsed loudly and the lights flashed annoyingly when I went back inside the Roost.
Moving to the second-floor railing, I looked down at the dancers. They were all having a great time, completely ignorant of the man screaming outside. Or maybe they had great hearing, like Oanen, but didn’t care. Probably the latter. And that made life seem just a little too messed up, even for a seventeen-year-old fury. Granted, my life had never been “normal,” but I longed to know what “normal” felt like now more than I ever had in the past.
My gaze locked on Fenris and his group of girls, who danced in the middle of the crowded floor. He looked bored and completely miserable. Maybe normal, or at least our version of normal, wasn’t that great anyway. His would improve, though, if he would just walk away from his groupies.
Shaking off my reverie, I made my way down the stairs and skirted around the dancers. A few people nodded to me, but I didn’t slow. I wanted to get outside and check for that siren.
Eliana waited for me at the back table right where I’d left her and stood as soon as she saw me.
“About time,” she said. “What happened?
“We’ll talk about it outside.”
She slipped her hand into mine, and we both moved toward the door.
Fenris called my name, and I stopped to look back at him. He motioned for us to come join them. His gaze pleaded with me. I shook my head and nodded toward the front door. He gave a playful frown but waved us off. Behind him, Aubrey gave us her usual evil glare.
Ignoring her, I tugged Eliana out the door. The man who had tried giving drugs to the siren still leaned against the car, his face pressed to the roof as quiet sobs shook his shoulders. Eliana gave him a puzzled look.
I released her hand, letting my emotions flood me again, and motioned for her to stay there. The knowledge of the man’s damage to himself didn’t reduce the incredible amount of anger I felt for him. However, it did allow a very human amount of pity.
I walked toward the man, my bare feet not making a sound on the pavement.
“Do you want me to open the door for you?”
The sound of my voice made him jump, which made him groan and gasp while frantically nodding his head. I reached between him and the car and pulled on the handle. He cried out as he fell to the sidewalk, clutching at his groin.
Having freed him, I no longer felt pity, only disgust. I turned and walked back to Eliana.
“What the hell was that about?” she asked, still staring at the man.
“That was a drug deal gone wrong. A siren took his money and made him slam his dick in the car door.”
Eliana winced.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. The guy’s an asshole, but the punishment seemed a bit cruel. Ready?”
“Shouldn’t we tell someone about him?”
“Oanen flew to tell his parents. I’m sure someone’s on their way, and that guy’s not going anywhere.”
She tore her pitying gaze from him and nodded at me. But, before we made it more than a step, a shimmering hole appeared before us. Adira stepped through and gave us both a warm smile.
“I’m very proud of you, Eliana. I think you dressed beautifully tonight. Any luck?” she asked.
“Luck?” Eliana said. Then a flush covered her cheeks. “Not really. I wasn’t trying for that. Baby steps, right? I have a very succubus style dress on.”
Adira reached out and gave Eliana’s arm a gentle squeeze.
“You’ve done very well. Progress is good; just make sure to keep moving forward.”
“What are you going to do to him?” I asked, tilting my head toward the man behind us.
She looked down at the man, and her expression hardened.
“He is going to have his memory wiped and be removed from Uttira. There are other human towns he can terrorize instead of ours.”
“Do you need help with him?” I asked.
“No, you two are free to continue your evening. I will see you on Monday, Megan. We can talk about your report regarding your week-long break in town.”
I nodded, hiding my disappointment. At the end of each day this week, I’d fulfilled her request and had sent an email with names and conjectured reasons about why those people might have ticked me off. Each email had ended with a request to do the same thing the next day. Adira hadn’t answered today’s email, and I’d already guessed she wanted me back in class before she’d just confirmed it.
Adira stepped past us, and Eliana and I quickly moved to her car. I got in with a sigh of relief.
“Well?” Eliana said as she started the car. “What happened? Why were you gone so long?”
“Adira’s been telling me to evaluate why someone is making me angry, right? There are two people in this town who have made me angry since day one. The first is Aubrey. She’s a bitch, and she’s underage. So, she is obviously not the killer. The other person is Trammer.
“Oanen flew me to Trammer’s house so I could try to get a sense of why I might be so angry with him, like Adira keeps suggesting I do. Only, we get there, and Trammer’s super sweet to Ashlyn and making dinner and all concerned about her. Doesn’t seem like someone who’s wicked, does it?”
“Not really,” she agrees.
“And not only is he super sweet to his niece, he’s got a grudge against anyone not human, which according to Oanen makes Trammer a perfect liaison. Now, if the bodies that keep showing up were creatures like us, I could totally see Trammer as a suspect. But, they’re human. Trammer has no reason to kill humans.”
“Well, maybe Jesse but not Camil,” Eliana said.
“What do you mean?”
“Jessie was a human trafficker, right? Human. But, he didn’t know we weren’t human.”
“So you think Trammer would want to kill Jesse because of human trafficking?”
The light in the car dimmed as we left town.
“If you were a human adult trying to protect a human niece, wouldn’t you?”
I frowned.
“You’re right. Jesse’s death makes more sense than Camil’s. But, why kill Jesse if his mind was wiped, and Trammer had orders to remove him? Removing him from Uttira would have removed the threat from his niece.”
“True.”
Yeah. True, but something about Trammer still pissed me off. And, until I knew what, could I afford to make any assumptions of innocence when my anger was telling me otherwise?
I took my phone out and sent Oanen a text.
I think we need to follow Trammer when he takes the guy out of town.
I’ll be at your place in 10.
“What are you thinking about?” Eliana asked.
“I’m not sure. I just think there’s a reason I’m angry at Trammer, and I shouldn’t give up on finding out why. I’ve asked Oanen to help me follow Trammer when he leaves town with the guy from tonight.”
She slowed and pulled into my driveway.
“If Oanen’s going to come to get you in a little while, I might as well go home.” She parked by the back door. “Call me when you’re done, though, okay?”
“I will.”
I ran inside and up the stairs. Riding a griffin in a dress once had been enough for me. Stripping from my dress, I kicked it aside and quickly put on jeans and a dark, long-sleeved shirt, which I layered with a hoodie for warmth.
Jogging back downstairs, I pulled my hair into a ponytail and drank down a glass of water. When Oanen landed in my backyard, I was outside and ready.
“I hope you know where to go,” I said, climbing on his back.
He launched himself into the air, his wings beating hard to gain altitude. Once we soared well above my house, he took off south toward the barrier.
“Just don’t run into the thing,” I shouted.
A booming cry answered me.
He circled over a section of road twice then started to descend. Just before we dipped below the trees, I caught a glimpse of approaching headlights. Oanen set down near the tree line beside the road. I quickly hopped off his back and ducked behind a tree. Oanen shifted to his skin and moved behind me.
“We should have brought you clothes,” I said softly, not taking my eyes off the road.
“I don’t feel the temperature unless it’s really cold.”
“I wasn’t worried about you. I was worried about me.”
He chuckled, and I blushed.
Trammer’s police car sped past and kept going down the road through the barrier.
“I wish we could follow him through that,” I said.
“Me, too.”
The faint smell of burnt hair reminded me not to think too hard about leaving Uttira. With Oanen standing behind me, I didn’t feel the least bit cold. I did, however, feel very nervous. Why hadn’t I thought to grab the pants he’d left at my house?
“You looked nice tonight,” Oanen said.
My fading blush re-ignited.
“Thank you.”
“I wish I would have been there when you arrived. I would have liked to dance.”
Heat flared in my middle.
“We need to focus,” I said.
“I am focused.”
“On watching for Trammer,” I clarified.
“I don’t think he’ll be back anytime soon. The nearest town is a twenty-five minute drive from here. There and back? That’s close to an hour. So we have time to pick up our conversation from the roof.”
“Huh?”
“The conversation where you were trying to tell me you don’t date.”
My throat burned, and sweat beaded my forehead as my pulse jumped into hyper speed.
“Are you serious right now?” I asked.
The bark of the tree bit into my palms as I pressed harder against it.
Oanen’s hand settled on my shoulders.
“I have excellent hearing, Megan. You need to calm down. We’re talking. You’re not angry, which means I’m not doing anything wrong.”
The approach of headlights from the south saved me from saying anything. With increasing anger, I watched the maroon car speed through the barrier and blinked at the driver.
“Wasn’t that—”
“Yeah. Trammer. Hop on.” The fallen leaves rustled behind me. When I turned, Oanen dipped his feathered shoulder for me to climb onto his back.
I gripped him tightly as he took off in a rush. Why had Trammer switched cars?
Oanen coasted on the currents, following the car from high above. Trammer signaled on the last left before my house and followed the meandering backroad to its end, not more than two miles from my back door. There he pulled over and killed the engine.
“We need to get closer,” I said softly.
Oanen started to descend. Landing quietly on the top of one of the towering pines, he gave us the perfect vantage point to watch Trammer. The man climbed out of his car and looked around as he walked to the trunk. The sight of him tormented me with the need to cause him pain. The intensity of my need to hurt him had increased since the last time I saw him. Why?
I had the answer when he opened his trunk. A long, lumpy form wrapped in black garbage bags lay within the dark interior. Trammer bent forward and tugged the plastic encased body from the trunk, letting it drop right to the ground. He squatted down and cut away the black material. The moonlight cast a pale glow on the drug dealer’s lifeless face.
“But why?” I said quietly.
Oanen turned his head and nipped at my jeans with his beak. Yeah, I’d be quiet. For now.
We watched Trammer stuff the plastic back into the trunk then turn toward a nearby tree. He pulled a knife from the bark and squatted by the body once more.
Pressing my face into Oanen’s feathers, I didn’t watch what he did next. I stayed like that until the car started again, and Trammer drove away.
Oanen’s unexpected launch into the air startled a squeak from me. He beat his wings hard, gaining altitude enough that I could see Trammer’s headlights. Oanen silently tailed him. At the end of the road, Trammer signaled right, retracing his route.
“Wait,” I said when Oanen started to do the same.
“There’s no point in following him. We need to go back to that clearing.”
None of what we saw was making any sense. Why would Trammer kill a human for trying to deal drugs to a siren? He didn’t like any of the creatures in Uttira. And why take the man out of Uttira only to bring him back in? Why not just kill the guy and leave him in a ditch outside the barrier?
Oanen landed not far from the body. I slid off his back and tried to understand Trammer’s motive for gutting the guy. Blood and innards spilled out onto the grass. The scent of death tainted the air.
“Why are we here, Megan? We need to report this to the Council.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” I said. I turned and looked at the tree where the knife was once again embedded. “Why have a knife here, waiting? How could Trammer have premeditated this when no one knew we’d report this guy?”
“Trammer and the Council always know when a human enters the barrier.”
“They do?”
Oanen nodded.
“Most humans avoid Uttira. Well, the decent ones do. The Council keeps an eye on them all, though, to make sure that any human who happens to find their way into Uttira doesn’t discover anything they’re not supposed to.”
I recalled the way Trammer had conveniently appeared at my front door the day the cable and TV delivery men had shown up.
“Okay. So the Council and Trammer knew about him. That would mean Trammer could have come out here and put a knife in the tree in anticipation of having to remove the guy. But why would Trammer kill him for trying to sell drugs to a siren? Trammer couldn’t care less about any of us.”
Oanen shrugged. “This guy had been delivering drugs to Camil every week for months. He’d never done more than stop at her house and leave again, though. Since the Council was aware of the deliveries and the man caused no trouble, Trammer’s orders were to leave him alone.”
“It’s just not adding up for me. How many times has Trammer had to remove this level of scum from Uttira?”
“At least a dozen.”
“But no deaths until I showed up, right?” I paced around the body, studying it. “Why kill this guy tonight then? Why slice him open like this but not remove anything like Camil in the alley?”
I stopped pacing.
“The other bodies were eaten. Trammer wouldn’t eat them.” I looked down again at the way he’d cut the man open and let his insides spill out. The scent of blood filled my nose.
“This is bait,” I said with shocked realization.
Oanen immediately shifted and dipped his shoulder.
“We need to know who or what Trammer’s baiting,” I said. “We need to watch.”
He nipped at my jeans until I gave in and climbed on. Instead of taking me home, like I’d thought, he flew us back up to the tree.
“Good,” I said, running a hand down the feathers of his neck. “I want answers.”
We sat in the tree for the next several hours in silence. When my eyes started to stay closed between blinks, he nipped at my pants again.
“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, holding tighter. “I won’t fall off.”
He tipped forward, falling out of the tree and catching an updraft with his wings. My heart thudded in my chest from the scare.
“You could have warned me,” I said.
Laying my head against his back, I held on as he flew the short distance to my house and enjoyed the warmth radiating from his feathers. Even with my eyes closed, I could feel it the moment he started descending. He reared back slightly as he landed, and he began to shift beneath me. Startled, I grappled for a new hold on bare shoulders as I slid off his back. He twisted and pulled me up into his arms. I blinked up at him.
“You’re not going to throw me on my bed again, are you?”
His lips tilted up at the corners.
“No. Not this time.”
He set me on my feet but didn’t release me. His thumbs moved over my shirt on my biceps.
“I’d like to stay again, tonight.”
Warning bells went off in my head, but given what was going on just a few miles from my house, I wasn’t stupid enough to say no.
“Yeah, that’s fine. I wouldn’t want to be alone if Trammer showed up, anyway. I don’t know that I’d be able to stop myself from going after him.”
Oanen shook his head slightly and nodded toward the house.
I turned and led the way inside. While I opened the fridge to use the door as a shield to keep my gaze from wandering, he grabbed his clothes from the chair in the kitchen and ducked into the bathroom. I glanced at the clock. Just after midnight. Despite seeing a dead body, I considered making us a snack since I already had the fridge open.
Pounding on the front door interrupted my thoughts. I moved to answer it. Oanen stepped out of the bathroom and blocked my path.
“I’ll get it,” he said.
He turned away from me, and my gaze swept over the jeans riding low on his hips and the t-shirt hugging his back.
I made a little face of longing before shaking myself from my mental cloud. Maybe I needed to tell him to hit the roof.
He pulled open the door, and my temper flared at the sight of Aubrey.
“He’s not here,” Oanen said before she could speak. “And I’ve been with Megan since she left the club, so there’s no need for threats, either.”
She snarled and turned away, marching down the porch steps as he closed the door.
“That girl needs a leash,” I said as tires squealed on the road.
“Or maybe Fenris does,” he said, frowning. “How many times has Fenris been missing just before a body is found?”
