what do you want?” Colt looked over at Andrew, and he could tell from the DA’s face that he was hearing everything.
Andrew nodded his approval of Colt’s handling of the call and motioned for him to keep going, as if he needed feedback.
“I want you to meet me in the woods tomorrow night. I’ll text you the coordinates. Bring Christopher West alive.”
Colt frowned. “The Councilman?”
“That’s what I said,” the other ghoul chirped. “Meet me at midnight.”
“Wait,” Colt said, panicked. “I need to talk to Jason. For all I know, he’s already dead.”
The changeling sighed. “You know, mistrust is a terrible way to mend bridges.”
“If you want Christopher, you have to give me something. Put him on.”
“Fiiiiine.”
Colt waited for a few seconds, unable to hear anything other than his own pulse, before Jason’s terrified voice came through. “Colt?” he cried.
The fear in Jason’s voice cut Colt like a knife. “I’m here. Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”
“No, I—I don’t understand,” Jason said shakily. “He looks like a child, but he’s not. I’ve seen him change, his teeth—”
“I know,” Colt interrupted. “I know, but I need you to listen carefully. That thing is not a child. It’s not even human, but it’s gonna be okay. I’m gonna give it what it wants, and it will give you back, but you have to stay calm and do exactly what it says.”
“I—I’ll try. Colt, Richie is here. I’ve heard him in another cell, I—”
Colt heard Jason scream before the sound was muffled and the changeling’s voice came back on the phone. “I like him much better when he’s gagged. Midnight, Colt. Don’t be late!”
“Wait,” Colt snarled. The changeling hung up on him.
He looked up at Andrew, and once his shock had finally worn off, he asked, “I trust you got all that?”
“Enough,” Andrew said, his tan skin turned ashen. “You said you were handling this shit.”
“This is more complicated than a ghoul on a flesh bender,” Colt growled, walking toward the stairs.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No offense, but the last thing I need is a slab of walking, talking beef as my sidekick.”
“I know Christopher West,” said Andrew. “I can help you get him.”
That made Colt stop. He turned to Andrew. “If you’re bluffing—”
“I’m not. When you said there were ghouls at every level of authority, I took you seriously, and I started digging deeper into Carver’s research. He’d developed quite a list of New England-based suspects over the years, and I started doing my own research on each one. Some turned out to be dead ends, but once I knew what I was looking for, it got easier to spot the ghouls. You have a flair for the pretentious and ostentatious.”
“I’ve noticed,” Colt muttered. “Just because you know West doesn’t mean you can get to him better than I can. You’re not a ghoul.”
“No, but I started reaching out to develop relationships with the ghouls I suspected of being at the highest levels of operation in your…Kinship,” he said, grimacing. “Imagine my surprise when I found out I already knew one. West is one of them. He happens to be a partner at a law firm in Connecticut, and he went to the same fraternity as my father. I summered with his children once or twice.”
“Whadd’ya know? The benefits of being a rich kid.”
“You need my help,” Andrew said, sweeping past Colt on the stairs. “If you want to see Jason again, I suggest you take it.”
Colt scowled, but he followed Andrew out to the parking lot. “You get me in to see West, I’ll take care of the rest. The only reason I’m agreeing to this is because he’s not going to be as suspicious of you as he would be of the Providence Alpha calling him out of the blue.”
“Fair enough. We’ll take my car. Your monster truck doesn’t exactly look like it belongs in a country club parking lot.”
“Country club? Seriously?”
“He may be a ghoul, but West and I come from the same world. Just trust me on this.”
Andrew was just about the last person Colt wanted to trust. It ate at him that he still trusted Andrew more than Susan and Stan at the moment.
“So, if West is a Councilman, does that mean he’s an Alpha like you?”
“No,” Colt said, staring out the window. “No Alpha is permitted to sit on the Council or hold power over a regional branch of the Kinship. Kind of like how the queen can’t vote.”
“So many rules of civility for things that eat