He’d never seen anything like this, but he knew he couldn’t let it happen. No matter how he felt about Sal.
“We have to stop them. Scare them away.” Liam grabbed his pot and moved to intercept the two canines, but Jace and Kaya both held him back.
“What the hell, Jace? Let me go, damn you.”
“This is one of those moments where you just need to trust me, brother. Let them go. Those spirits answer to a higher authority than the cops. If they want him, we need to let them take him.”
“Those aren’t spirits, Jace.” Had he gone crazy? “They’re wild animals. It’s worse than murder if we let him die like that.”
“They won’t kill him,” Kaya said. “At least, I don’t think they will.”
“You’re agreeing with Jace?” Liam said weakly. “Has everyone lost their minds tonight?”
Kaya was rubbing her arms as if warding off a chill. “I’m as surprised as you are, but he’s right. We can’t interfere. He’ll get what he deserves, no more and no less. And we forget this ever happened.”
“I don’t know if I can forget seeing two wild dogs drag a man into the desert,” Bailey said quietly.
Liam turned to her. “Finally, someone is making sense.”
“But he deserves whatever he gets for hurting Dani,” she finished mutinously. “I hope they fuckin’ eat him.”
What was going on around here? He turned back to Kaya. “I respect your beliefs but there is a limit to—”
“Look.” Dani reached for his arm and Liam was so grateful for the contact, he obeyed.
The wolf was still dragging the unconscious Sal into the brush that framed the restaurant. Into the damn desert. The coyote had paused at the edge of the parking lot.
It was staring at Liam when the air around it started to shimmer.
“Oh my God.” Liam dropped onto the graveled parking lot hard, feeling the jar of it from his tailbone to his teeth, but he couldn’t react. He could barely believe what he was seeing.
Stax was standing there. At the edge of the parking lot, where the coyote had been only seconds before. Stax. The man who’d been in his bed last night. The man who’d given him Dani, who’d shared her with him. “Did someone drug me?”, he asked no one in particular. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sight, couldn’t blink.
“That’s what I thought the first time I saw it,” Dani said quietly.
“I should have fucking known,” Jace muttered.
The dark-haired man bowed to Liam and the others respectfully, then Liam heard a voice in his head.
I told Dani you were marked. That I’d be watching if she needed me. Stax smiled. Don’t worry, I promise we won’t eat him.
Liam grabbed his head, looking around to see if anyone else was hearing Stax talk without moving his lips.
Dani was. He could tell by her expression.
You are the only ones, my friends. We are connected now, we three. Know that this isn’t just for Dani’s safety. The man is a spirit thief with a black soul. He steals lives. He killed before he met her. He came home to her with blood on his hands. He planned to kill her tonight, money or not, so now he will learn. No one will come looking for him. No one will miss him. And when we’re through with him, he will understand his crimes. It may take a long time. But I am Istaqa. I have all the time in the world.
With that, Stax winked at Kaya, then disappeared around the corner.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. This man had come into his house. Advised him. Shared Dani’s body. Who—what was he?
Dani beat him to it. “Istaqa? What does that mean?”
“Coyote spirit.” Kaya’s voice was shaken. Liam noticed Jace take a step closer to her in response. “He brings messages and knowledge. And occasionally he delivers the guilty for judgment. I knew there was something about him.” She turned to Jace. “Does Nick know about him? What he is?”
Jace held up his hands. “No idea.”
Kaya glared but he held firm. “What? You tell me I don’t know anything all the time. This time it’s true. I literally know nothing. But I’m damn sure finding out as soon as possible.”
Liam ran a hand through his hair looking back into the darkness where Stax had disappeared. “This can’t really be happening. Things like this don’t really happen.”
But if Stax was right, that Sal was planning on killing Dani tonight? A hundred years of torture was nothing compared to what he would have done if he’d taken Dani away from him.
“Well, I need to get drunk. What do you say we forget about Dani putting her life in danger and Liam being a lying Richie Rich for the moment so we can head over to their place for some hard drinking? Who’s with me?” Bailey sounded thoroughly shaken. Liam didn’t blame her at all.