“So what the hell happened out there?” Diego demanded. “The guy was there, and then he wasn’t. Tell me the truth. Did one of you kill him?”
Eric gave a short laugh. “You’d have found a torn-up corpse if I had, and I’d look a hell of a lot worse than this. These Collars are a bitch.”
“Then what happened to him?”
“Good question,” Eric said.
Cassidy shivered. What she’d smelled among the rocks had been a whiff of acrid smoke with a bite of mint. Not good.
“Cassidy?”
She liked the way Diego said her name. He sounded the way a dusky wine tasted.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess he had an escape route.”
“I was watching through the scope,” Diego said. “He didn’t run. His heat signature went off the scale and then he was gone. Like he’d exploded. Silently.”
Cassidy did her best not to look at Eric. She felt his legs tense in her lap, though he lounged as negligently as ever, eyes half closed.
“I didn’t see anything like that,” Eric said. “Like Cassidy said, he must have had an escape route. Maybe he torched something in his way.”
“Leaving no fire, smoke, or ash,” Diego said. “There wasn’t anything inside that rock cave, not even footprints.”
“Neat trick,” Xavier put in.
Eric let his eyes close all the way, as though he was going to nap no matter who was in his living room. “Yeah, well. He’s gone.”
“Cassidy.” Diego got to his feet, his face unmoving. “Talk to me?”
Eric cracked his eyes open as Cassidy slipped from under his legs. There was warning in the look, but Cassidy didn’t need to be told not to reveal to the human police what the hunter might have been.
Xavier remained in the living room, sipping coffee and looking nonchalant. He and Eric were going to compete in the who-can-look-like-he’s-the-most-at-ease-when-he’s-not contest.
Diego walked out through the kitchen door to the backyard like he owned the place. Cassidy followed him.
The yard wasn’t fenced, as so many yards in Las Vegas were. Shifters didn’t like fences, so all houses opened to a common strip of land where kids roamed and played, and where adults held informal cookouts or formal rituals. Shane and some others were building the bonfire that would be used in the public ritual to honor Donovan. Cassidy looked away, fighting pain, torn between the past and present.
Diego moved down the common, away from the activity. Nell lifted the curtain of her kitchen window and looked out at them as they walked by.
When they stopped, Diego took a small white business card out of his pocket. “Whenever you and Eric are ready to stop bullshitting me,” he said, tucking the card into the neckline of Cassidy’s shirt, “you call me.”
Diego’s fingers didn’t touch Cassidy’s skin, but the swift heat of his hand, the scrape of the thin card, made her mouth go dry.
“Diego, believe me when I say that I’m as confused about what’s going on as you are.”
“Maybe, but you’re not telling me everything. I want to know what you know, and even more than that, I want you to stay the hell home and don’t leave again. Finish your probation. Understand?”
The alpha tendencies in him stirred the dominant in her. Cassidy was second in command of Shiftertown, not only because she was in Eric’s family, but because she was that high in the dominance order. Jace was plenty old enough to be Eric’s second, but he was third, conceding second to Cassidy. Jace didn’t seem to mind always letting Cassidy know that, as third, he had her back.
Cassidy poked a gentle finger at Diego’s chest. “I don’t take orders from anyone but Eric, policeman.”
Diego’s eyes got warmer, and she could feel the rise of his body heat. “Right now, you have to take a few orders from me,” he said. “My price for not arresting your ass again.”
His mouth was firm. Cassidy imagined it against hers, the hot pressure of his lips. Would he open her mouth right away, or would he linger at her lips? Kiss her softly or slant his mouth across hers, demanding access? Their bodies were nearly together now, except for a small sliver of space between them.
“Seriously, Cassidy, be careful.” Diego’s voice dropped to its velvet tones, and she thought of wine again.
“I will.” She slid her arms around his waist, flowing to him.
Diego stiffened. “What are you doing?”
“Saying good-bye.”
“This is good-bye?” He looked surprised. “I thought it was come up to my place and see me sometime.”
Cassidy grinned. “You’re already at my place. This is how Shifters take leave of each other. I won’t hurt you, Lieutenant Escobar.”
“You hurting me wasn’t what I was afraid of. And anyway, I’m staying. Your brother asked me to watch whatever ritual you’re going to do.”
“He did?” Eric hadn’t mentioned this. Shifter rituals were very private, meaning that humans weren’t welcome.
Then again, perhaps Cassidy did want Diego there. She wanted him to see what losing a Shifter meant to them, and the things Shifters went through.
“All right, then,” she said. She took both Diego’s hands in hers and raised them to her lips. Then she skimmed her touch to his shoulders and put her arms all the way around him. “This means, The blessing of the Goddess be with you.”
Diego came against her without resistance. His breath touched her face as he let her pull him close, and his unshaved whiskers brushed her cheek.
Diego drew back after a minute, but his eyes were darker than ever as he looked down at her. “Thank you. What am I supposed to say back?”
“You can say, May the Father God watch over you. Or you can say nothing and just nuzzle me.”
Diego leaned down, brushing his nose across her hairline. Cassidy felt his breath, his warmth, which both confused and elated her. “I can see why Shifters like their religion.”
“You’re an unusual man, Diego. Humans don’t always acknowledge that we have a religion. They say we follow primitive rituals without really knowing what they mean.”
Diego’s hands on her back were strong. “I’m Roman Catholic. We have a lot of rituals that people don’t understand either. Some of them were borrowed from the Celtic pagans, which is where I bet you got yours too.”
“You’re saying we have something in common?”