“You think I don’t already?” I asked, trying to make my voice light, a joke. He’d told me once that no matter how fond I was of saying it, I couldn’t hate him.
He didn’t smile. Maybe he didn’t even hear.
“So what do you—” I cut off, my body going stiff. Tilting my head, I breathed deep. “Do you smell that?”
I know that scent. I breathed in again. The clanless. I’d encountered the clanless shifter several times during my hunt for the rogues, but I hadn’t seen him since. Why am I catching his scent now? Here? I looked around, trying to decide which direction the scent was coming from before my nose gave out.
I crossed to the windows, but the scent grew fainter as I moved. I crept back, moving to a door that led deeper into the house. Nathanial followed, his steps silent behind me.
The scent was stronger in the hall, and I crept all the way to the end. Was the scent here earlier? As I reached for the doorknob, Nathanial grabbed my wrist. He pressed a finger over his lips and stepped around me before flinging open the door.
The room beyond was dark. Dust sheets covered the minimal furniture, but the air wasn’t stale. A light breeze made the drapes flutter. An open window? In the middle of winter? In a vampire’s secret house?
Not likely.
Nathanial crossed the room in less than a heartbeat. When my eyes caught up with him, he was jerking something out from behind a gray sheet. No, not something. Someone.
Nathanial lifted the much larger man by the front of his coat and slammed the man’s back into the wall hard enough to send two framed photos crashing to the floor. Nathanial drew his head back, his fangs glimmering in the street light filtering through the grimy window. His mouth descended on the man’s neck.
“Nathanial, don’t!” I dashed across the room. Nathanial fed on criminals and this man certainly qualified, having just broken into Nathanial’s house. But he wasn’t just some random burglar. I knew him.
My good hand landed on Nathanial’s shoulder. He’d already broken skin, I could smell the blood. But under my fingers, I felt the tension leak out of him. He lifted his head, glaring at the man he still held against the wall.
The clanless smelled of sweat and fear, and the thrum of energy spilling in the air betrayed the fact his wolf was close to the surface. But he smiled at Nathanial, one side of his mouth lopsided from the scars branded into his right cheek.
“I recognize you,” he said as his hand lifted to his throat, which bore no mark—Nathanial had sealed the bite. “This might explain a lot.” His gaze moved to me. “Ah, my Dyre enigma. I should have guessed I’d find you here.” He tilted his head forward, though being pinned to a wall limited his ability to pantomime lifting an imaginary hat.
“Clanless,” I said, the word sour on my tongue.
His lopsided smile froze. “Degan.”
“What?”
“My name. It’s Degan.” He didn’t identify what clan he’d once been part of—not that I would have expected him to.
Hell, I hadn’t expected him to tell me his name at all. He hadn’t offered it any of the last three times we’d run across each other.
I hesitated, but finally said, “Kita.” Then I turned to Nathanial. “What do we do with him?”
The clanless—Degan—had tried to subdue me for reasons unknown the first two times I’d met him, but the last, we’d had the common goal of wanting a murderous rogue captured. We also had a mutual distrust of each other. During my battle with Bryant and Tyler he’d backed off, giving me a chance to deal with the rogues myself, but threatening that he’d deal with them and me if I failed. I’d dealt with them.
Nathanial lowered the clanless to his feet but didn’t back off. Degan was taller, but Nathanial gave off more menace.
“Why are you here?”
Degan ran his hands down the front of his worn coat. The movement was nonchalant, but his nostrils flared. He’s buying time to sift through scents?
I switched my weight. If he lunged, he wouldn’t get past Nathanial, but my good hand curled into a fist anyway.
He seemed to reach some decision, because his shoulders rolled back, and he shoved his hands in his pockets. I tensed, ready for him to pull out that damned silver chain he carried, but he just leaned against the wall—a mockery of calmness his racing pulse disputed.
“I picked up a strange scent. But it isn’t either of you.”
“Do you break into houses every time you smell something you don’t recognize?” I asked, letting my skepticism show in my voice. All my life I’d heard that the clanless were not to be trusted but Degan had kept his word the last time I’d met him. From what I understood, he hunted rogues and investigated suspicious deaths in Haven, mostly just to keep the hunters from sniffing around what he considered his territory. But, regardless of his reason, he appeared to be one of the good guys. Not that I’d turn my back on him.
“Do I break into houses to track strange scents?” He gave me an incredulous look. “When it is the same scent I found on a headless corpse? Yes. I do.”
I froze. My pulse rushed in my ears. In what felt like slow motion, I turned toward Nathanial. His back betrayed his tension. He’d gone into statue mode.
He had to breathe to speak and his draw of air was sharp in the stillness. “You found a decapitated body? Where?”
Degan shrugged, but the movement was stiff. “Let me sniff out the source here, and maybe I’ll lead you to the body.”
Nathanial shook his head. “No.”
I touched Nathanial’s arm, drawing his attention to me.
“Let him look. If there is a scent here that is unusual and similar to the body…” I could only think of one scent that would lead Degan to this house, and I was guessing his nose would lead him to the tub I woke in.
Nathanial’s brows knit together, but he didn’t say anything as he studied my face. I tried to show confidence and curiosity in my expression but my stomach twisted at the idea of a clanless in my territory—even a temporary territory such as Nathanial’s secret home. Well, not quite as secret now.
Still, I wanted to know. If the scent I thought had led him here truly had… I shivered, remembering the numbness sinking into my body as Akane’s poison spread. A connection between the snake woman and a headless body would be valuable information and my father always said information put the bearer in a powerful bargaining position. Nathanial and I could use some bargaining power on our side.
Nathanial’s lips thinned as his eyes swept over my face, but he nodded and stepped back. “Fine. Search out the scent.”
Degan’s gaze moved between Nathanial and me as he pushed himself away from the wall. I cringed as he stepped forward, and he paused, his weight shifting back, becoming more defensive.
I forced my muscles to relax, and he responded in kind.
Backing up, I gave him a wide berth to pass me. He slipped almost silently out of the room. I tried to trail behind him, but Nathanial stopped me, motioned me behind him. Right. I needed my vampire meat shield. I rolled my eyes but didn’t hesitate to let him in front of me.
Degan stood in the center of the hall, his body leaning forward, intent. He tipped his head back, his nose working.
Then he took a few steps and repeated the exercise. I tried to catch the misplaced scent, but all I could smell was the old house, the dusty books sitting on the bookcases distributed at even points in the wide hall, and the prickly scent of Degan, a wolf-in-human-skin, pacing between the doors.
In front of a blank patch of wall, Degan stopped, pressing his nose to the paint. Moving again, he walked to the next door and stuck his head inside. After a moment, he doubled back and tried the door on the other side of the patch of wall which seemed to interest him. That door he slammed, stalking back to the wall. He ran his fingers along the dark paint, his features bunched in concentration.
His fists clenched, and heated energy bled through the room. He’s going to shift? I found myself stumbling back a step, but Degan’s skin didn’t slip. Instead, the front of his face elongated, and his nose widened, becoming thicker, shinier.
I stared. He’d changed his nose into a wolf’s nose. Just his nose. Like I can change just my hands into claws. I’d seen both my father and the Torin for one of the bear clans extend claws in human form, but I’d never before seen a shifter change their nose without going through a full shift.
Degan pressed his new, hyper-sensitive nose against the wall. He sniffed. Walked a step. Sniffed again.
“There is another room here.” It wasn’t a question, more like he was thinking aloud.
In front of me, Nathanial tensed.
I knew why. Somewhere along that wall would be a passage to the lightproof portion of the house. It wasn’t exactly a public area. Considering I fell asleep just before dawn and didn’t wake again until after full dark no matter what happened, I certainly wasn’t thrilled with the idea that a potential enemy would know where I spent my most vulnerable hours.
Degan looked up, and Nathanial shrugged. “There are only three doors on this wall,” the vampire said.
Degan huffed. “Three?” Then he drew in a surprised breath, and I bit my tongue to keep from showing my shock.
There were indeed three doors on the wall now. Nathanial had created an illusion. He must have. It was the only way to explain the door’s sudden appearance. Illusion or not, as he walked over and twisted the knob on a door that wasn’t there, I couldn’t tell the difference.
The door opened to a dark hall I recognized from earlier.
Degan scowled as he stepped through the threshold, but he didn’t question it. I followed, and in the darkness, I caught the faint hint of dried, sour blood. My fingers tapped nervously against my thigh as I walked. I was sure I knew exactly what had drawn Degan here, but I needed him to confirm my theory.
Degan raced down the hall like a dog on a fresh trail. He threw open the bathroom door, and by the time Nathanial and I reached the room, he was already leaning over the tub where I’d woken. He pressed a finger to the base of the tub and lifted it to his nose.