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  I clapped my hands together, getting everyone’s attention and stepping back over towards Damon. “Well, now that you’re here why don’t you tell me how everything went with the werewolves?”

  “Oh, yes the werewolves.” Tariq looked around, realizing the only seat still available was the spot on the couch right next to Cara. He did a good job of not looking embarrassed when he sat down, but I didn’t miss the faint hint of color on his cheeks when she shuffled closer to him. “The meeting went quite well, at first I wasn’t sure that they would agree to help us but after a short break they agreed to send their full force to meet us.”

  “Good,” I said, eyes widening in shock. “Great! How soon can they be ready?”

  “They said that they can be ready to go in the next four hours, as soon as that time passes we can call them and they’ll come running.”

  “Call them?” I asked, “How do we do that? Is there a spell or a ritual or something?”

  Tariq laughed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a beaten-up flip phone. “We can call them on this, even the paranormal don’t turn their noses up at technology you know.”

  I shook my head, taking the phone from him. “I don’t know why I didn’t just think of that instead, though the idea of a werewolf waiting in line to get a prepaid plan is absolutely hilarious.”

  “Don’t worry, I struggled not to laugh too.” Tabitha rubbed the back of her neck, a blush of embarrassment dusting her cheeks. “What a disaster that was…”

  “I told you they were going to flirt with you, can’t say I didn’t warn you.” Tariq leaned forward, giving her an encouraging pat on the knee. “But at least they weren’t too overt with it, no awkward serenades or embarrassing mating rituals.”

  “Is that something that happens?” She gasped, hand covering her mouth. “Oh my god I really did get lucky!”

  “Now, as to your Vincent problem I did some more reading on the ritual, and it’s actually much easier than I thought it would be…”

  “Wait, hold up,” Cara said, looking between us. “What Vincent problem? What happened?”

  None of the others said anything, not feeling like it was their business to say anything if I wanted it to be kept private. While I was thankful for the concern, it would have been nice if I wasn’t the one who had to recite every godawful piece of trivia that seemed to make up half my life nowadays.

  “Vincent was almost killed at the first meeting we held, Tariq and Tabitha put him in basically purgatory so that he could recover. The only problem is that we’ve got to sacrifice someone to get him out, and we decided that it would be best to use the person who’s been the cause of all this trouble anyway.” I took a deep breath, chuckling at Cara’s look of absolute disbelief. “I told you, it’s been a busy few days.”

  “Oh my god I’m… I’m so sorry Amy.” Cara flapped her mouth open and closed, searching for something that she could possibly say in the face of learning something like that. “God, to think that I came over here because I was sad that I broke up with mine… compared to what you’ve gone through I don’t have any problems at all do I?”

  “I don’t want to speak for Amy, but I think she would agree when I say that one having problems does not invalidate everyone else’s problems,” Tariq spoke slowly like he was working out the true meaning of the words for himself at the same time. “You are both going through feelings of loss, and while her’s may be more severe that does not mean you have no right to feel saddened.”

  “Honestly I just broke up with a guy that I wasn’t even really that into, but thank you anyway,” She giggled, “You’re such a sweetheart!”

  Tariq almost sputtered when she slapped his arm, regaining enough control over himself to simply smile and take it as a simple compliment. Yep, there was definitely something starting up between them, at this rate they were going to be married in a week.

  “Anyway, I was looking through the books that we had while we were waiting for the werewolves were convening among themselves, and something stuck out to me that could help solve the problem that you have with the police force.”

  “Oh?” Now my interest was even more peaked, I was already in when I heard it was the way to bring Vincent back to us, but if it could solve all our problems in one fell swoop… that was definitely something that I needed to hear about. “How is it going to do that? Does the ritual send out a beam that just shouts my innocence to the heavens?”

  He laughed, “Nothing quite so ridiculous as that, it simply takes the soul of the offering, leaving behind an empty but otherwise normal looking body. Without a suspect to show this case of yours could conceivably go on forever and those innocent men could be convicted, but even with a dead body you should be able to prove the innocence of everyone involved, including yourself.”

  It was an idea so simple and so brilliant that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it myself, I’d just assumed that the entirety of Alvin would be zapped out of existence and replaced with Vincent in a blink of an eye. If there was a body left behind… that would solve everything, maybe there would still be questions that would be asked of me but I could absolutely just chalk those up as minor details compared to stopping the crime. The rest of the team would be so angry that I’d brought them their killer that they wouldn’t even think to question me too much on what had happened, and even if they did I could say that I was chasing some independent leads. Sure, I might get a reprimand, maybe even suspended again, but I’d like to see them fire the person who had prevented five wrongful convictions and brought a serial killer to justice.

  Part of me even hoped that they tried.

  “Tariq, have I told you how happy I am that you’re on my side?”

  “I believe you have, but I won’t mind if you want to say it again.” He grinned, opening his arms and welcoming the embrace that I threw around him, squeezing tightly around his shoulders to try and get him to see how much I appreciated his help. “We are friends Amy, I will always look out for a friend.”

  “Still, I appreciate it anyway.” I gestured for Tabitha to join us. “Come on over, I know that you helped this be a thing as well.”

  “Oh, I don’t… whatever,” She said, shuffling over and letting me wrap my arm around her shoulder. “We still need to do the actual ritual, but this is nice for now.”

  “I’m sorry, what ritual?” Cara asked, leaning back into the couch. “I know it’s for bringing Vincent back but… what were you saying about a body being left behind?”

  I suddenly realized how all of this would sound to someone who wasn’t directly involved with everything each step of the way, or especially to one who had only just learned about the situation not five minutes before. How was I supposed to explain that I would have to kill someone to bring Vincent back, even someone as completely vile as Alvin? Cara knew what my beliefs were, she’d stuck by me for years and listened to me rail against the corruption and the disgust I felt when cops betrayed their oaths and thought themselves better than the law.

  I was still coming to terms with it myself, how could I expect her to be able to reconcile something so shocking with the situation that I faced? Sure, she might accept it, maybe even support me, but what would it do to the idea that she had of me, the way that our friendship would be affected?

  “I’m… sorry, Cara, I know this isn’t what you want to hear but… I think it might be best if you don’t know any more about it.” I shook my head, already seeing her start to protest. I leaned forward and took her hand, waiting until she was looking in my eyes before I continued, “It’s not that I don’t think you would be able to handle it, or even that I don’t trust you with it, far from that… I just don’t think I’m ready to tell you about it just yet, on a personal level you know? I don’t have the strength to do that now, do you understand that?”

  “You don’t want to keep it a secret from me… you just don’t want to say it out loud to anyone who doesn’t already know?” She hummed, looking down at our joined hand
s. “Well… that is different than keeping an intentional secret from me, even if it is one of the weirdest reasons I’ve been told not to know something.”

  “I would tell you, and one day I probably will, but right now I just can’t.” I closed my eyes, bowing my head to her in apology. “I’m sorry Cara, I just really need you to know that I’m not telling you this because of me, not because I don’t think you’re strong enough. This is what almost ended our friendship in the first place.”

  “It wasn’t that, I just thought that you didn’t trust me because you were refusing to tell me anything straight up, at least now you’re giving me a reason why and I can support that.” She smiled, squeezing our hands together and bringing me in for a hug. “Keep your secrets, for now, girl, I know that you’ll tell me when the time is right. Our relationship is stronger now and it can take a little secrecy.”

  I let out a breath that I didn’t even know I’d been holding, from the exhale behind me Damon had done the exact same thing. He’d seen how torn up I was about Cara being angry at me previously, he knows what it would do to me if that happened again.

  “Well, this is a very good news night isn’t it?” He said, clapping his hands and standing up. “I know we’ve all got very important things to do, but surely we have enough time for one drink? Just enough to take the edge off.”

  I still needed to check with Faye on the progress of the box, maybe scope out the location of the fight to make sure that all of our bases were covered, but a simple glance at the other three guests was all the reason I needed to find my answer.

  “Yeah,” I said, “There’s enough time for one drink.”

  Chapter 4

  I kept myself to just one drink, though it was so tempting just to sit back and enjoy what time there was with the four of them, Cara already almost draping herself over Tariq’s shoulder while he told stories of when he was young. Damon looked happy to sit and sip on his own drink and let everyone else do the talking, the cold of the bottle soothing the pain in his temple from one hit too many. Tabitha sat off to the side, not rushing to include herself but not shying away when someone asked a question. I guess she was just shy, nothing wrong with that.

  But even still, I had a timetable to keep to, there were still at least three or four hours until everyone else was able to mobilize, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t things that I needed to take care of. I had to make sure that progress on the cage was going well, drop by and confirm with the vampires that they were absolutely prepared and that there were no misunderstandings. Then maybe I could come back here and lay down with my boyfriend, have one final moment of things not being insane before we went out to drag my… other boyfriend out of purgatory.

  A rich, full night was ahead of me, that was for sure.

  “Amy, Amy! Tell them about that night that we hit the town to celebrate you joining the force!” Cara leaned over, too lucid to be drunk but far too giggly to be sober. “Tell them about how you had to rescue me from that evil bush that was going to swallow me whole!”

  “Where to start?” I said, “Should I begin with you dropping your drink all over the top of your date’s head when he got too handsy? Or should it start with you somehow losing your underwear in the literal three seconds that I wasn’t watching you?”

  “Three seconds, really?” Damon asked, raising an eyebrow at Cara’s giggling nod. “Wow, you really are a disaster, aren’t you?”

  “Yep! But it was such a fun night!” She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug that was far tighter than I was expecting, resting her head against my neck and breathing deeply. “I’m glad that we’re back together, I missed having my best friend.”

  “Me too Cara,” I said, running my hand up and down her back as best I could. “Me too. But you might be crushing my rib cage right now.”

  “Too bad,” She mumbled, “That’s the price you pay.”

  Instead of trying to convince her to let go I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed down even harder, having gone so long without her and coming so close to losing her I didn’t want to think that I almost wouldn’t have been able to do this ever again. From the brief look I shared with Damon I could tell that he understood fully, he’d been there beside me enough nights when I’d woken up from a nightmare, so certain that I’d lost her to something else, or that I hadn’t been able to save her in time. Too many nights to count, too many where I was lying awake too scared to fall asleep without knowing she was ok but feeling too guilty to just pick up the phone and talk to her.

  But now with her here in my arms, breathing so softly and shuffling against me just to feel that little bit more of my warmth, I could tell that we were in this together from now on, I didn’t feel like I had to keep secrets from her, and she was fine not knowing some things about my life. Maybe I’m biased, but I always considered that true friendship wasn’t telling each other everything, that would be far too much and could get uncomfortable very quickly but knowing when it was ok to not know. She’d wanted to know about the specifics of the plan at first and seemed set on arguing when she thought I was freezing her out, but with one simple explanation all of that protest died and was replaced with understanding.

  That to me showed more than anything how much closer we had become, a few months ago I would have done everything except explained my reasons, and she would have hounded me for answers until one of us shut out the other. Thank god we were past all of that, I don’t know if either of us could take that high school level drama on top of everything else that we had going on in our personal lives.

  “Alright, come on now, I need to actually go and do some work.” I pulled back reluctantly, smoothing a few strands of hair behind her ear. “You can stay here if you want, someone needs to make sure that Damon doesn’t get into any more trouble after all.”

  “What?” He said, putting his hands out to his sides in an offended gesture. “When am I ever getting in trouble?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re right, you got that bruise on your temple by being a good boy, didn’t you?”

  “I was very good thank you very much.” He sat back, taking a sip of his beer and nodding at Cara. “You can tell me all the embarrassing things that Amy refuses to tell me, no matter how much I bother her about it.”

  “Oh, that sounds like fun!” She grinned at me, laughing at the borderline venomous glare I was fixing on Damon, determined to at the very least make him uncomfortable, considering that I couldn’t actually burn a hole into him with my eyes. At least, as far as I knew anyway.

  “We have business of our own to take care of as well,” Tariq said, standing and offering his hand to Tabitha. “If you are leaving Amy we’ll walk out with you.”

  “Aw really?” Cara tried to sound nonchalant but it was obvious to everyone there that she was disappointed. “That’s a shame, I was enjoying this…”

  “So was I,” Tariq said, lifting her hand to his lips and placing a single kiss upon it. Both of them blushed bright and moved away from each other quickly, yep they were definitely a match made in heaven. “I… hope to see you again soon.”

  “Yeah… yeah, that’d be nice.” She smiled, grabbing a pen off the table and pulling an old receipt from her pocket. “Here, if you want to get to know me a little bit more.”

  Tariq took the number with a smile, his grin growing wider as he looked over each digit. “I’ll definitely do that, thank you very much.” He looked up at me, nodding before saying, “We will wait outside for you while you say your goodbyes.”

  “Bye Cara! It was nice to meet you!” Tabitha pets her on the shoulder, skipping outside with Tariq and leaving me alone with Cara and Damon. None of us moved for a moment, wanting to prolong this time we had as long as possible, but soon enough I stood up from my seat in front of them, brushing off the front of my pants and shrugging.

  “Well that’s that, got to get going now.” I winked at Cara. “Make sure that he stays out of trouble, I don’t want him getting
any more hurt than he already is. If he tries to leave kick him in the ankle.”

  “No,” Damon drawled, “My one weakness.”

  “And you,” I said, leaning into his ear and whispering, “You find out as much as you can about what she thinks about Tariq, I have a really good feeling about this one!”

  “Will do.” He leaned up and kissed me, running a hand gently through my hair before smiling. “Go kick whoever’s ass needs kicking, I’ll be here if you need me.”

  “I don’t need to kick anyone’s ass.” I stopped, considering the range of people I was going to have to organize tonight. “Well, not yet at least. The night is still very young.”

  I stepped out, closing the door behind me but not before hearing Damon lean in and say, “Alright, so what’s the deal with you and Tariq huh?”

  I smirked to myself, subtlety wasn’t exactly a strong suit for him. For any of us really, I guess that’s why we all got along.

  * * *

  “Amy,” Tariq said, leaning against the wall when I walked through the door. “Can we speak for a minute?”

  “Sure,” I replied, “What’s up?”

  “It’s about our plan to get Vincent back, there were a few things that I needed to tell you that I couldn’t with Cara around.” He shrugged. “She is a lovely woman and I’m sure she would understand, but I’ll respect you not wanting her to be involved.”

  “Thank you, I’ll tell her someday but… now just isn’t the right time. Should we have a seat?”