"I'm on the Special Case squad assigned to her district." Dante could tell by his demeanor that Randall really wasn't interested, but if he wanted to put on a good face for his sister, Dante was willing to oblige. "We work cases together when there's a werewolf involved."
"How nice for you.h="1 Sforllin Randall dropped his arms against his sides and drummed the fingers of one hand against his leg. "Are you a wannabe?"
"Sorry?" What the hell was the kid talking about now?
"Do you want to be a preternatural when you grow up?" A pronounced sneer lifted Randall's upper lip.
"Rand." Tori's voice was hard.
Dante frowned. "Not particularly," he said in answer to her brother's question.
The sneer turned to a scowl and Randall's brows drew down over darkening eyes. "So you think you're too good to be one of us?"
"That's not what I said." The guy was apparently itching for a fight, and under other circumstances Dante might be willing to get into it with him. But not with Tori looking like she wanted the floor to swallow her whole. Dante glanced at his watch again and said to her, "Listen, I really have to be going." To Randall, he said, "It was nice to meet you."
"Yeah, nice to meet you, too," Randall muttered, his tone suggesting he felt the exact opposite of his words. He pushed past his sister. "I'm going to bed."
"I was surprised you weren't here when I got home," Tori said. Her brother stopped and turned toward her. She added, "You weren't interested in going out earlier."
His blue eyes narrowed slightly. "I didn't want to go out with you. There's a difference."
Dante saw the hurt flare in Tori's eyes while embarrassment colored her cheeks. He wasn't going to stand by and let Randall talk to her like that, even if the little pip-squeak was her brother. "What's your problem, buddy?"
Randall scrubbed his hand over the top of his head. With the rebellious streak the young wolf had, Dante was surprised at the military cut of his hair. He would have expected a longer style and a cigarette hanging out of one side of his mouth, especially since shapeshifters' bodies healed too fast for them to be bothered with pesky diseases like those from which humans suffered. Lung cancer would be of no concern to him.
"My problem, buddy, is that you think you're too good to be one of us, but it's apparently all right for you to screw my sister." Her brother's eyes went from blue to wolf-amber in the span of a heartbeat.
"Rand!" Tori put a hand on his chest when he started toward Dante. "That's enough. He's not … we haven't … " Anger was beginning to flare in her voice and on her face, but he could tell she was more embarrassed than anything. "And, anyway, it's none of your business if we were."
Randall's lips curled back, revealing canines that looked remarkably long. And sharp.
Dante broadened his stance, preparing for a fight. He'd never duked it out with a werewolf so he wasn't so sure how he'd fare, but he wasn't going to back down just because the guy was a pret.
"Rand, stop it, right now." Tori put herself between the two of them, her hands on their chests. When she glanced toward Dante, he saw her eyes held the same amber glow as her brother's. "You, too, Dante."
He raised his brows. "I'm only defendin' myself."
"I know what you're doing. Stupid, macho … " Her mutters trailed off as she glared at her brother. "And you … you should know better."
"I'm just trying to look out for you."
The look on Tori's face told Dante she knew that wasn't exactly true. It was clear he had a thing about humans. When her brother didn't budge, she let out a low growl that raised the hair on the back of Dante's neck.
Randall threw up his hands. "Fine. Whatever. You do whatever the hell you want to. You always do. I can see where your loyalties lie." Wi Ses s hth one final glower at Dante, her brother turned and went to his room, slamming the door behind him.
"What is he, fourteen?" Dante glanced at Tori, glad to see her eyes slowly return to normal. That growl she'd given had been like something out of a movie. Deep, gravelly, and a clear warning of danger. He was damned happy it hadn't been directed at him.
She sighed and lifted her shoulders. "I'm so sorry about that. I guess it's his way of protecting me." Her expression lightened for a moment and she seemed pleased by her assessment. "He's always been a little … high-strung. He'll get over it."
Dante could almost hear her unspoken "I hope." He worried that he might have made things worse between the two siblings. That was the last thing he wanted to do, to make Tori choose between her brother and him.
He had a hard time believing the guy was a werewolf, as juvenile as he seemed. He came across as hostile but harmless. Plus, with all the fidgeting, Dante sensed that Randall was nervous and not at all confident like his sister. "What he said … " Dante held her gaze. "It's not true. I don't think I'm better than you."
"Oh, I know that. And despite what Rand may have led you to believe, being a pret is not a be-all-to-end-all. We have issues, too."
No kidding. Dante ran into plenty of issue-laden preternaturals on his job. All the time. But right now specifically …
"Like brothers who are ungrateful little bastards, right?" Dante looked down the hallway toward the bedrooms.
He wanted to teach the little runt a lesson. Something he'd probably never get the chance to do. Besides, Tori was a grown woman. It was her decision on the direction she wanted her relationship with her brother to go. If she wanted Randall to stay with her badly enough, which Dante suspected was the case, she'd probably end up taking more crap from him than she'd ever take from anyone else on the planet.
Including Dante.
That was a sobering thought, and yet another reason why the timing wasn't right. For either of them.
He drew in a breath and exhaled. "So, for the third time, I'll see you later."
She nodded. "Drive safe." Her green eyes were big and dark, serious.
He bent closer and whispered as low as he could, "Find a better hiding place," and then pressed a kiss against her satiny cheek, hesitating, wanting more than anything to move his mouth just an inch or so to those luscious lips. But he restrained himself and instead drew in a breath, holding her scent in his lungs for a brief moment. "Good night," he murmured and turned away.
As he walked to his truck he thought about her brother and that hot temper he had. Little shit. Tori was a saint to put up with all of that snark. The guy needed an att
itude adjustment and Dante wished he was able to give it to him, but he knew once Randall brought out the fangs and claws, Dante's chances of adjusting anything would be slim to none. Even having a gun loaded with silver bullets.
Not that he wanted to shoot Tori's brother. Doing that would ruin the friendship they had built and do a hell of a job putting the brakes on anything romantic between them.
Damn it. Things got complicated way too fast around here.
Chapter Nine
Tori felt like she'd just gotten to sleep when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it from the nightstand and peered at the screen, her vision blurry. The time display read five thirty. "Hello," she answered.
"It's Ash." The gravelly voice of the werewolf liaison from District Four ca Vld a outh jume over the line. "Sorry to wake you, I thought you'd be up already."
"It's okay. What's going on?" She rubbed her eyes, trying to wipe away the remnants of slumber.
"There's been another attack up here. I thought you'd want to know."
She struggled to a sitting position. "When?"
"The ME estimates TOD around midnight. The crime scene techs just opened the scene, so I'm doing my initial walk-through."
"He killed this one instead of turning him?" That didn't make sense. "Maybe it's a different attacker."
"How likely is it that we have two rogue werewolves attacking people?" His voice went dry. "Besides, there were two victims. The man was killed; the woman survived and most likely was turned. We'll know for sure in another couple of hours."
"Any clues at the scene?"
He sighed. She could picture the frustrated look on his face. "No, damn it. He's a clever bastard. Same MO, bleach used on the bodies so there's no DNA. There were a couple tufts of fur left at the scene, but they're soaked in bleach and ammonia, too, so no help there. It's like he's a fucking ghost. Pardon my language."
"That's okay," she responded absently. She'd heard worse every day on the job. Hell, she'd used worse. "Are you any closer to figuring out why he's doing this?"
"Uh-uh. It could be that he's just a crazy son of a bitch."
"Could be, but most people, including the crazy ones, have a reason for what they're doing … even if that reason doesn't make sense to the rest of us." Tori plumped the pillow behind her back. "Tell me what I can do to help."
"That's what I like about you, kid. Always willing to jump in and lend a hand." He sighed. "There's nothing, really, other than keeping your ear to the ground. Let me know if you hear anything that seems pertinent."