Freemont sat up, smiling at the pretty redhead. “I’d be happy to keep you company.”
Phineas nudged him with an elbow. “Lara is married to Jack, one of the best swordsmen in the vampire world.”
Freemont huffed with disappointment. “Are all the babes here married?”
“Very happily married,” Phineas grumbled.
“Have you seen LaToya lately?” Lara asked him.
He groaned inwardly. “No.”
“Oh.” Lara’s smile faded. “I thought you might have gone to New Orleans for her birthday. I sent her a card last week, but I haven’t heard back from her.”
Phineas sighed. LaToya had never told him her birth date. Probably because she didn’t want a present from him. Hell, who was he kidding? She’d never wanted anything from him.
“Who are you talking about?” Freemont asked.
“LaToya Lafayette,” Lara replied. “We were roommates when we both worked for the NYPD. More than roommates, actually. Best friends. But she’s never been able to accept the fact that I married a Vamp.”
“Bummer,” Freemont mumbled.
“Yes.” Lara heaved a big sigh. “I miss her. She moved back to New Orleans, and joined the police force there. You went to see her at Christmastime, didn’t you, Phineas?”
He nodded.
Freemont eyed him curiously. “You have a girlfriend?”
“No.” Not unless there was a new tradition for mistletoe that involved a girlfriend threatening to shoot off her boyfriend’s head. “We don’t get along very well.”
“I’m sorry it hasn’t worked out for you,” Lara said, then shook her head sadly. “I tried so many times to tell her what a nice guy you are, but—”
“It’s okay,” Phineas interrupted her. “She just doesn’t like Vamps.”
“Exactly,” Lara agreed. “So you shouldn’t take it personally. She would have rejected any—”
“I know.” Phineas gritted his teeth. “It’s no big deal.”
Lara gave him a dubious look, then thankfully turned her attention to Freemont. “I don’t mean to pry, but I heard you talking about MacKay S and I. Are you going to work with us?”
“I’d like to.” Freemont glanced at Phineas. “It would be buck.”
“Don’t forget you need to finish college,” Phineas murmured.
Freemont rolled his eyes. “I can do both. I’m free for the rest of this summer. And I could take night classes from now on.” He made a face. “I’m just afraid I blew my chance. The old dude’s not going to want me now. I screwed up his last mission.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Lara insisted. “Vampires and shifters are stronger than us—”
“Shifters?” Freemont’s eyes widened. “What the hell is a shifter?”
“Oops,” Lara whispered.
Phineas winced. “I didn’t quite tell you everything.”
Freemont sat back. “What do you mean? There’s more spooky shit?”
“Yeah. Some of the people you’ll meet tonight aren’t vampires. They’re not exactly human, either.”
“They’re aliens?”
“No, they’re from Earth.”
“Oh, good.” Freemont exhaled with relief. “Those aliens really freak me out. I mean, why do they travel a jillion light-years just to stick a probe up someone’s ass?”
“They’re not aliens,” Phineas muttered, aware that the ladies in the room were snickering. “They’re shifters.”
“So how do they shift? Do they phase from one alternate reality to another?”
Phineas scoffed. “What kind of crap have you been watching? There is no alternate reality.”
“So you say.” Freemont’s gaze darted suspiciously around the room. “But how can you be sure?”
“Because this is it! Has anyone in the entire history of our planet ever found a portal to another dimension?”
Freemont lifted a finger to make a point. “If they stepped through, then they’re not here to tell us about it.”
Lara chuckled. “That’s a good point.”
“Don’t encourage him,” Phineas muttered.
“So how does the shifting thing work?” Freemont’s eyes lit up. “I know! They ascend into a more advanced, spiritual form, one that goes beyond the restraints of a physical body, so they exist as pure transcendent energy—”
“They’re animals.”
“Huh?”
“They shift into animals,” Phineas repeated. “Like wolves.”
“You mean werewolves?” Freemont stiffened, his expression tinged with panic. “You’re messing with me, right? I mean, vampires are bad enough, but I figure they like to pick on the pretty ladies, so I’m safe. But werewolves! They’ll chew on anything. They’re big! And bad!”
“And they’ll blow your house down.” Phineas’s smile quickly faded as the same old vision flitted through his mind. Pale blue eyes the color of a summer sky. Why did the most beautiful woman on Earth have to belong to the canine family? Stop thinking about her! Brynley was all wrong. And she hated Vamps even more than LaToya.
Why couldn’t he do like most of the Vamp guys and fall for a nice mortal girl? A mortal girl would be safe. And logical.
Maybe Freemont was right, and he needed to go to a psychiatric hospital. He had to be crazy to have a female shifter constantly invading his thoughts. And not just any hairy old shifter, but a rich princess wolf who enjoyed snarling and growling at him. And that was when she was in human form.
“You’re not punkin’ me?” Freemont asked.
“No,” Phineas said. “You’ll meet Phil. He’s a werewolf.” And twin brother to Big Bad Wolfie-Girl. Don’t think about her! If she knew how much he obsessed over her, she’d probably bite off one of his ears. While she was still in human form. God knows what she’d do to him as a wolf.
“There are other kinds of shifters, too,” Lara added. “Howard is a were-bear, and Rajiv’s a were-tiger. Caitlyn here is a were-panther.”
Caitlyn raised a hand in greeting. “Meow!”
Freemont gasped. “You’re a cat?”
“Not at the moment.” Caitlyn grinned. “The lack of fur is a major clue.”
Freemont’s gaze drifted down and then back up. “But you’re pregnant.”
Still smiling, she patted her big belly. “Twins.”
He gulped and shifted his gaze to Toni. “What are you?”
“The most awesome creature on the planet,” she replied with a wry look. “A human female.”
“You go, girl.” Lara gave her a high five.
Freemont gave Phineas an incredulous look. “Your life just gets weirder and weirder.”
The door swung open, and a group of MacKay employees filed in. Ian MacPhie and Jack di Venezia pulled up chairs to squeeze in next to their wives.
“Another cat?” Freemont whispered when Carlos Panterra sat next to Caitlyn.
Phineas nodded. “And that’s the werewolf taking the chair beside you.”
Freemont glanced warily at Phil, who gave him a wolfish grin.
At the foot of the table, Emma MacKay set Phineas’s wallet and cell phone on the table and slid them down to him. “One of the mortal prisoners had them.”
He pocketed them. “Thanks.”
Emma took a seat. “Angus will be here shortly to begin the meeting. Howard and J.L. are still at Corky’s place, scouring it for clues. Robby and Olivia are handling the mortals. Rajiv’s in the security office, keeping an eye on things, and we left Mikhail and Austin in the silver room to guard the Malcontent.”
Jack chuckled. “They piss him off the most. Dimitri hates Mikhail for being a Russian on our side, and he hates Austin because he’s immune to vampire mind control.”
“I wish you let me talk to him.” A newcomer strode into the room, talking with a thick Russian accent. “I would make him really mad.”
“Hey, Stan.” Phineas gave him a knuckle pound as the former Malcontent passed by.
“I’m sorry, Stanislav,” Emma said. “But we can’t let any Malcontents know you’re here, not with the bounty they’ve put on your head.”
Stan nodded, then sat next to Phineas. “That was good what you said in the interview. Maybe now my old friends not be so eager to kill me.”
“I liked yer interview.” Ian’s mouth twitched. “Especially the part about Angus being a rich old fart.”
Everyone chuckled, including Emma.
“And then, ye told him to go to hell,” Ian continued. “What was it ye called him?”
“An old turd.”
The laughter ended abruptly at the sound of Angus’s stern voice. He stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest as he glowered at Phineas.
Freemont gulped and gave Phineas a worried look.
“I was trying to sound convincing,” Phineas said.
Angus continued to stare at him.
“It was all an act, you know,” Phineas added.
Angus strode toward him, then grinned and slapped him on the back. “I was just playing with you, lad. Ye did verra well. Ye led us straight to our target.”
Phineas winced. “But she still got away.”
Freemont jumped to his feet. “It was my fault, sir. I apologize.”
Angus turned to regard him curiously. “Ye’re Phineas’s brother? Freemont, is it?”
“Yes, sir.” He squared his shoulders. “It was my fault Corky escaped.”
“No—” Phineas began.
“Why do ye say that?” Angus interrupted, focused on Freemont.
“My brother told me to lay low, and I didn’t—”
“Why?” Angus asked.
Freemont glanced at Phineas. “I couldn’t let him go into danger alone.”
“Och, so ye’re verra loyal to yer brother?” Angus narrowed his eyes. “Can ye be that loyal to his friends?”
Freemont nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Angus rested a hand on his shoulder. “Doona blame yerself for what happened. ’Tis no easy task to capture a vampire. It took us years to catch up with Casimir. We’ll get Corky, too.”
“Yes, sir.” Freemont looked relieved as he sat back down.
“Now, let’s get on with the briefing.” Angus strode to the head of the table and gripped the back of the chair. “So far, Dimitri has told us nothing.”
Jack shrugged. “He will once he gets hungry enough.”
“Aye,” Angus agreed. “But we willna know if he’s telling us the truth. Olivia’s lie-detecting skills only work on mortals. She’s verified our two mortal prisoners are telling the truth. They know nothing, other than the nonsense they were programmed to believe. They love Queen Corky and want to die for her.”
“What will we do with them, then?” Toni asked.