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When the elevator stopped at the ground level, we got out of it like ned the hotel We rounded a corner, and there was the back door, Palolanced over her shoulder and looked faintly gratified to see us co She tapped the code into the keypad by the door, and then she opened it We strode by her into the parking lot Palomino, on the way to her red car, looked curiously at the street beyond the fenced lot for a e I didn’t have time to check it out as alked briskly between the parked eap in the fence

We were alht up with us There were four of thenized one; I’d seen hi-haired, bearded guy naenerally speaking, so I stepped ahead of Bill and did ht," I said, struggling to sound sincere when every nerve in et the hell out of the vicinity "You gonna let us get on our way?"

Van, as several inches taller thanaboutaboutsohts, but that much I could discern

"Miss Stackhouse," he said, and nodded His dark hair swung forward and back with the ht as well get this settled If ere going to fight, I needed to knohy I was going to get beat up I sure didn’t want that

"Alcide’s found Warren"

"Oh, good!" I was really pleased I smiled up at Van Now Mustapha could come in from the cold, tell us what he’d seen, and all would be well

"Thing is, e found is a dead body, and we ain’t sure it’s really him," Van said When my face fell, he added, "I’m real sorry, but Alcide wants you to have a look at him and tell us it’s Warren for sure"

So

Chapter 12

"You-all were headed so this one to the airport," Bill said, nodding at Colton This was news to ood news There really was a plan to get Colton away from the reach of Felipe

"Why don’t you two continue on, then," Van said reasonably He didn’t ask any further questions or demand to know Colton’s identity, which was a relief "I can take Sookie to the body, she’ll check the identity, and I’ll get her home Or we can meet up somewhere"

"At Alcide’s?" Bill asked

"Sure"

"Sookie, you okay with that?"

"Yeah, all right," I said "Let et my purse out of your car"

Bill clicked his car open and I reached inside to get e of clothes I definitely wanted to find a couple of

I felt uneasy without knowing exactly why We’d recovered Colton, and if he could get the hell out of town, he’d probably be safe If Colton couldn’t tell the little he retasia, Eric would be safer, and therefore I would be safer-and so would all of the Shreveport va over lad that I had the cluviel dor with me

"You’re okay with these wolves?" Bill asked in a very low voice as Colton got into Bill’s car and buckled his seat belt

"Uh-huh," I said, though I wasn’t so sure But I shook myself and called myself paranoid "These are Alcide’s wolves, and he’s my friend But just in case, call him when you’re on your ould you?"

"Go with me," Bill said suddenly "They can identify Warren by smell, maybe Mustapha could definitely do that, when he resurfaces"

"Nah, it’s okay Get Colton to the airport," I said "Get hily, then nodded in a jerky way I watched as Bill and Colton drove off

Now that I was alone with the olves, I felt even odder

"Van," I said, "Where did you find Warren?"

The other three crowded around: a woman in her thirties with a pixie haircut, an airirl in her teens with very generous curves The teenager was in the first throes of experiencing her power as a Were, almost drunk with her newfound ability; it dominated her brain The other two hts We alking north on the street to a gray Ca to Airman

"I’ll show you It’s a little ways east of town Since Mustapha wasn’t a pack member, we never ht of et in the car, becauselike a drumroll We were alone on a dark street, and I realized they had boxedme this situation stank I wished instinct had spoken up o when I’d had Bill at ot in the car, and the Weres crowded in We buckled up, and in a second ere driving in the direction of the interstate

Curiously, I almost didn’t want to discover that my suspicion was valid I was tired of crises, tired of deceit, tired of life-or-death situations I felt like a stone being skipped across a pond, longing only to sink to the anonyave s I couldn’t have at the moment Time to be alert and ready for action "Do you really have Warren?" I asked Van He was sitting to er was crowded in to ood

"Nope," he said "Ain’t ever seen hiht as well know, though I already felt sadly sure this was going to end poorly