Blade Song - By J.C. Daniels Page 0,38

Linc?”

“Tortured him, poor kid,” the cop said, his voice heavy and tired. “How can you tell he’s not a cat? Our tests haven’t come back yet.”

I shrugged. “I just can.”

“You’re certain?” Lincoln asked.

Rubbing my temple, I sighed. “Certain? No. Not one hundred percent, but…”

“He’s a wolf,” Damon said from behind me.

Lincoln looked at him, then at me.

I shrugged. “Meet my bodyguard. One of the cat shifters. My gut says this is a wolf, but his nose would know for certain.”

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. “Bodyguard, huh? Who exactly did you piss off enough to need a bodyguard?”

“You know me.” I rose and startled to circle around, studying the boy’s body. Spying a box of gloves on the table, I snapped a pair on and reached for his hand, eying it closely.

“Yeah. I know you. So the better question would be who haven’t you pissed off.”

I glanced up at him and saw the concern in his eyes. I shrugged. I wasn’t about to go into detail here and there wasn’t really any point anyway. How did I explain that I was working an impossible case where I was making people angry and the bodyguard was both my ball-and-chain and my life preserver? Linc would be worried enough to ask questions and those kind of questions wouldn’t help him, or me.

He’d probably be safe since he was human, but I wasn’t taking a chance. I liked Linc. He was nice to me and unlike a lot of humans, he didn’t treat the NHs of the world like shit. He was decent.

“Look at his hands,” I murmured. The tips of the kid’s fingers were raw, the nails nothing but nubs, bloodied and dirtied.

“They had him trapped somewhere,” Lincoln said. He pulled on a pair of gloves himself and moved to the opposite side of the body, lifting the hand and showing me those fingertips were in the same condition. “He tried to climb out. For a long, long while.”

Just thinking about that made me quake. It wasn’t a good thing to think about right now, so I decided to handle it in the most mature way possible. Denial.

Conscientiously, I continued to study the boy’s fingers, the scraped and bloodied raw tips. “He should have healed, though.”

“Not if they were starving him.” Damon came to stand beside me. A muscle jerked in his jaw. “It would be hard to say if he had gone through his first change or not, but if he had spiked or was going through the first few changes, he’d have to eat more than twice what a shapeshifter normally eats—building up reserves. And we eat a lot.”

Lincoln glanced up, then back down, keeping his attention focused either on the kid’s lifeless body or me for the most part. “So they probably had him a while.” He nodded. “Narrows the victim list down some.”

“The wolves will know who he is,” Damon pointed out. “Contact them. They are probably looking for him.”

I curled my lip. “Not everybody cares when their kids are missing or abused,” I said.

Weakling…your mother should have strangled you with your cord when she had you…

I twitched as the voice of my grandmother whispered through my mind. Damn it. I usually managed to avoid thinking about her—sheer determination on my part, but something about this case was plucking at those memories.

Screw her. I am my mother’s daughter—my heart is strong. My heart is strong—

“Shifters take more care with their kids,” Damon said, that familiar snarl in his voice.

“Uh-huh. You saw a lot of care down in Wolf Haven, didn’t you?” I could have pointed out that I’d seen what a lovely parental unit Doyle’s aunt appeared to be. Definitely all full of sunny smiles and hugs, that one. But I decided not to bother.

Making another pass around the body, I studied his hair, his feet, noticing the shredded skin of his soles, the scrapes and bruises on his hands and legs. None of it told me anything. At least not yet. Just part of the puzzle for now.

Stripping off the gloves, I looked at Linc. “You going to call the wolf pack?”

“Planned on doing it after you left.” He smiled lazily. “I fumbled my way to that conclusion after you said wolf. I trust your instincts, Kitty girl.”

I heard the sarcasm in his voice, although I’m not entirely sure if Damon did.

“I assume their people will take it over?”

Linc shrugged. “That’s up to them. The body was found on common ground, outside of the wolf pack’s registered territory. But