"Pam and Chow have hidden Eric at my house, and I have to get back before dark to take care of him. And Jason is missing. I don't know who took him or where he is or if he's..." Alive. But I couldn't say the word.
Alcide's deep breath escaped in a whoosh, and he sat staring at me, the phone in his hand. He couldn't decide whom to call first. I didn't blame him.
"I don't like Eric being at your house," he said. "It puts you in danger."
I was touched that his first thought was for my safety. "Jason asked for a lot of money for doing it, and Pam and Chow agreed," I said, embarrassed.
"But Jason isn't there to take the heat, and you are."
Unanswerably true. But to give Jason credit, he certainly hadn't planned it that way. I told Alcide about the blood on the dock. "Might be a red herring," he said. "If the type matches Jason's, then you can worry." He took a sip of his coffee, his eyes focused inward. "I've got to make some calls," he said.
"Alcide, are you the packmaster for Shreveport?"
"No, no, I'm nowhere near important enough."
That didn't seem possible to me, and I said as much. He took my hand.
"Packmasters are usually older than me," he said. "And you have to be really tough. Really, really tough."
"Do you have to fight to get to be packmaster?"
"No, you get elected, but the candidates have to be very strong and clever. There's a sort of - well, you have a test you have to take."
"Written? Oral?" Alcide looked relieved when he saw I was smiling. "More like an endurance test?" I said.
He nodded. "More like."
"Don't you think your packmaster should know about this?"
"Yes. What else?"
"Why would they be doing this? Why pick on Shreveport? If they have that much going for them, the vampire blood and the will to do really bad things, why not set up shop in a more prosperous city?"
"That's a real good question." Alcide was thinking hard. His green eyes squinted when he thought. "I've never heard of a witch having this much power. I never heard of a witch being a shifter. I tend to think it's the first time this has ever happened."
"The first time?"
"That a witch has ever tried to take control of a city, tried to take away the assets of the city's supernatural community," he said.
"How do witches stand in the supernatural pecking order?"
"Well, they're humans who stay human." He shrugged. "Usually, the Supes feel like witches are just wanna-bes. The kind you have to keep an eye on, since they practice magic and we're magical creatures, but still..."
"Not a big threat?"
"Right. Looks like we might have to rethink that. Their leader takes vampire blood. Does she drain them herself?" He punched in a number and held the phone to his ear.
"I don't know."
"And what does she shift into?" Shape-shifters had a choice, but there was one animal each shifter had an affinity for, her habitual animal. A shape-shifter could call herself a "were-lynx" or a "were-bat," if she was out of hearing range of a werewolf. Werewolves objected very strenuously to any other two-natured creatures who termed themselves "Were."
"Well, she's... like you," I said. The Weres considered themselves the kings of the two-natured community. They only changed into one animal, and it was the best. The rest of the two-natured community responded by calling the wolves thugs.
"Oh, no." Alcide was appalled. At that moment, his packmaster answered the phone.
"Hello, this is Alcide." A silence. "I'm sorry to bother you when you were busy in the yard. Something important's come up. I need to see you as soon as possible." Another silence. "Yes, sir. With your permission, I'll bring someone with me." After a second or two, Alcide pressed a button to end the conversation. "Surely Bill knows where Pam and Chow live?" he asked me.
"I'm sure he does, but he's not here to tell me about it." If he would.