uncomfortable questions would be asked.
I groomed for a little while, trying to put the thought of killing humans off my mind. I tried not to think about the mysterious killer out in the woods.
Then I thought of something.
Heath was good at making sure his feelings didn’t infiltrate his scent. I wasn’t sure how he did it, though I figured a certain amount of self-control was part of it.
What if a wolf—or four—figured out how to hide their scents completely?
I narrowed my eyes on my wolf, sleeping soundly across the small living room. I was already planning my round of questioning as the sun dipped, and the rays coming through the windows began to disappear.
When I felt he’d slept long enough, I walked over to him and nosed his side, then jumped back as he woke up. A yawn revealed impressive canines and a clean, dangerous row of white teeth. I could have thought mine were nicer, but the reality was, wolves survived because their fangs made sense. Ancient sabertooth felines had a niche bite that might have contributed to their extinction. His impressive set was more useful and versatile than mine.
“Is it nightfall already?” he asked, his voice sleepy in my head. I’d never heard him tired before, and it had a husky quality that I immediately wanted to hear more of.
“Yeah. So, I was thinking—”
“I can’t wait to hear this,” he teased, something akin to a smile showing up on his face. His voice still had that huskiness I liked.
“I noticed a lot of the time, I can’t scent your emotions on you. What if the wolves learned how to remain unscented?”
“I have a large amount of self-control over my feelings, and even then, you can still smell me,” he explained. “There’s no way to turn off the body’s functions that produce scent. I’m alive, therefore, I smell. My emotions, however, can remain private if I can control myself.”
I jerked my head up.
He’s alive.
“No. Oh, shit, I’m so stupid,” I hissed into his head, making the same sound for his ears. “Alive! Everything alive had a scent, Heath.”
“Yes?”
“But have you ever caught the scent of a vampire?” I asked, growling. “Probably not, because they’re frozen. Their bodies don’t function the ways ours do. They don’t produce a scent! That was Hasan's first lesson on vampires! Fuck me! We might have vampires in the fucking mountains!”
“I never noticed that,” he said softly as if he was cursing himself the same as I was pissed off for not remembering that lesson sooner. “The only time I see them is in company. I always assumed they smelled like humans.”
“No…” I groaned mentally. “Oh fuck, it makes sense in terms of the murders.”
“Explain.”
“Hasan told me that vampires rarely want to deal with a werecat because we’re strong. Werewolves are slightly easier targets, but vampires generally stay in their nests and hunt their food source, humans, down without getting into anyone’s way.”
“It’s easy to ignore them as long as they aren’t killing people. I know it’s an addictive rush for them when they do.”
“Yeah, so we ignore them, and they want to be ignored. Do you know what creature on Earth has the best chance of pointing out a vampire in the crowd? Humans. They innately sense something is off with the thing wearing their face.”
“Then how did they hide from Gaia and Titan?”
“They didn’t. I’ve never personally felt it, but Hasan once told me vampires are hard to pinpoint once they’re in your territory. They’re slippery, elusive, there one minute and gone the next. He said he thought it was because of their closeness to humanity and the blood they drink.”
“And their shadow magics could help if they’re powerful enough to use them,” Heath added. “I’m making a wild guess here, but they must have confused the werecats, and slipped in when their defenses were down.”
“I think we’re right. I don’t remember shit about their magics if Hasan taught it to me. I never really gave them any thought because he made it sound like they would just…never be a problem. A vampire isn’t strong enough to kill us in this form, me or you, not alone, but they can easily kill us in our human form. They normally aren’t stupid enough to.”
“They can…” Heath stood up, then sat back on his haunches. “So, what do we do? We’re stuck in this house until daybreak if that’s the case.”
“Good thing we decided to hunker down. We would be easy prey if we were