CHAPTER 43

*I have your friend. You want him? Come find him.*

The text came on the heels of the photo. What the hell had happened? Darius had gone to Newcomb. He must have found trouble there. I zoomed in on the photo, trying to determine if he was dead, because it really looked like he was.

*Who the hell are you?*

*I'm devastated that you don't remember me. And we had so much in common, too.*

"Let's go," Micheal placed a hand on my back, lifting it slightly when a vicious rumbling growl left my lips. He hadn't seen the text and I didn't intend on showing it to him. Or anyone else for that matter. They were not likely to see my reasoning anyway.

*I'll be sure to memorize your face as I'm smashing it into tiny bits*.

*Oooh. A fighter. I like that. Bring it. Better hurry, he doesn't have long left.*

A notification popped up. He'd sent me a pin. Someone had beat the crap out of Darius and was sending me a pin.

I was going to break every single bone in his body.

But first, I had to lose my entourage.

"Fine," I told Micheal, putting my phone back in my pocket. "There doesn't seem to be much choice, but you," I stabbed a finger at him, "are not in my good books any longer."

He looked down at my finger and shrugged, but he didn't take his gun off of me.

"If you don't want your car interior ruined you'll let me use the bathroom first, I haven't peed since we made that stop in Roxbury."

"You think I'm stupid?"

"A little, this whole thing is stupid, but I really do have to pee."

"Not happening, I know what you're up to. As soon as you're out of sight you'll be out the window."

"There are no windows in the diner's bathrooms. You can send Alice in with me. What exactly is your plan? To not allow me to use the bathroom all night?"

He hesitated, knowing he couldn't trust me, but realizing I was right.

"Fine," he growled at last. "I'll be outside the door, Alice will go in with you and if there's any sign of trouble I'm coming in, don't be stupid, Raven."

Alice scurried from her place near the door where she'd been twisting her hands together. Wanting to support me but driven to support the alpha too. Poor thing.
I made a show of stomping to the bathroom, muttering curses all the way. Micheal followed me, leaving Chase and Leon to stand in the empty room completely unsure of what to do.

"I'm sorry Alice," I told the woman before striking her hard along the side of the neck, right where the cartoid sinus would be. I'd done it a few times, working for Rob, when he wanted someone incapacitated but not for long. It required precision and dexterity both of which I excelled at. I used it now because it was silent and was the only thing I would think of that wouldn't kill Alice, just leave her unconscious. Basically it stunned the caroid nerves and tricked them into believing a person's blood pressure had skyrocketed. The body then shut this down by a massive drop in blood pressure leading to unconsciousness.

Alice slumped immediately, and I caught her, on the way down, laying her peacefully in front of the door. Then I climbed up onto the sink and reached for a loose tile I had noticed when I first started coming to the diner. At that time I'd been worried Alice had a problem with peeping toms, or something, but it turned out that there was an access panel behind the false, dropped ceiling that allowed one to get to the plumbing if needed. It would also give me a way out, through the plumbing shaft and onto the roof where the ventilation let out.

"Raven?" Micheal's suspicious voice came through the door.

"Yes, Micheal?" I replied sweetly, "do you need a report on my bathroom habits?"

I set the tiles gently on the counter and jumped, pulling myself up into the plumbing shaft, and then climbing upward. I had to be quick, because Alice wouldn't be out for long, a minute at the most, and then all hell would break loose.

Furious energy drove me, part due to Anthony's audacity and part because all I could see, every time I closed my eyes, was Darius' ravaged body. I made it to the roof of the building without a problem and pushed my way through the vent there. It was rusted and screwed closed so I made more noise than I'd wanted to, spurring a shout of alarm from below.

Well, the secret was out now. I pounded the cover open and pulled myself through, just as Micheal poked his head into the bottom of the shaft, his dark hair lit from the light of the bathroom behind him.

"Fuck," he cursed, his wolf growling into the space.

I'd made someone very mad.

I gave him a little wave and took off, sliding down the roof's slope and into the alley where the kitchen boy, who was busy taking out the garbage, yelped in surprise.

My wolf was already in stealth mode and we used our speed to our advantage too. I could hear the men burst through the diner doors and into the alley behind me, hear them scrambling to keep up, and then I was around the corner and gone.

Getting to Newcomb was my next challenge. I'd lost my things, again, because taking my backpack to the bathroom would have set off Micheal's suspicion even more than it was. I'd opted to leave it on the bench where I'd been sitting in the hopes of it alleviating some of his concern. So now I was running through the streets of Boston with only my phone and the few twenties I had to my name shoved in my pocket, and the Makarov which was holstered at my side. I took a round about route, always keeping my senses on the boys, who were falling farther and farther behind. I had my wolf watching for the scent of the vampires too, because they'd had plenty of time to catch up while I was at the diner. For a group that had seemed so determined to end me they were suspiciously absent. Maybe it took them time to find the woman I'd peeled off the car. Or maybe they didn't heal like wolves did. Maybe...

There were too many maybes to deal with at the moment so I focused on the present. I didn't really have time to dress for Sally's but sometimes one had to make due with what you had. I gave myself a giant head start and then called a nearby uber.

An older Honda Accord pulled up five minutes later. The driver was a younger human man, with shoulder length hair and grimy looking clothes, but an immaculate car interior. I gave him the address and we whisked off into the night.

I felt the seat beside me, it was soft and completely stain free, like it was brand new. In a ten year old car, especially one used for ride sharing, that was something of a miracle.

"What do you use to clean the seats?" I asked.

The kid perked up.

"It's called Xactoshine, it works really well for the vinyl, but they've got a fabric cleaner too. That and a microfiber cloth and the seats come out looking like they've never been used."

We spent the rest of the ride debating the merits of seat cleaning and I walked away with the name of his car detailer as well. Not that I had a car. But one day...

I pushed through the door and found myself immersed in bodies. Sally's was extra busy tonight, with the scents of human and wolves combined. I elbowed my way to the bar.

"Hey, Raven, your usual?" The skinny man behind the bar asked. Sal was on the other side serving a line of customers, the skinny guy was her nephew, Joey. We'd met a few times in passing and he'd manned the bar here for several months a few years back. I guess Sally had to pull him in due to the crowd.

"Yeah," I looked around. "What's going on?"

"Pit fights," he nodded to the television in the corner, where most of the attention of the room was directed. On the screen two men faced off, both looked like mean sons a bitches. "They got a new contender," Joey explained farther.

I watched as the man on the right, built like a tank with a multitude of scars running down his back swerved around his opponent, faster than any man that size had a right to be. He grabbed the second man by the back of the head and smashed it downward into the floor. I flinched when it bounced, the man's body twisting unnaturally.

"Bobby still cheating the pants off people in the back room?" I asked when he passed my drink, I didn't take a sip, I remembered the last time.

"Sure, that guy's slicker than a snake in butter, but one day someone's going to catch on and..." he made an explosion with his fingers, "...goodbye Bobby."

"You could always kick him out," I told him.

"Eh, he pays good rent. Make more money from that than a storage room, ya know? Unless you're here to kill him?"

Why did everyone think I had it out for Bobby?

"Nah," I told him. "I just need a ride."