Poisonous Desires (4 page)

He didn’t want to admit it, but as much as he loved staying with his brother, he hated that he didn’t have his own space and bed. There were other drawbacks as well; he couldn’t use
Torger’s
kitchen with his brother growling at him to put things back the way he’d found them. Both of them could eat their weight and then some in food, and he cringed to think about the food bills that they were both racking up. He also felt the grind of fast food taking its toll on his body. He moved slower and felt more tired than usual. His mind was sluggish, and he was drinking far too much coffee and beer for his liking.

“Great, now I’m going to move here,” he mumbled.

Urban liked
Draven’s
Crossing, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted to make it his home base when he had a place in Virginia. Two homes would be too much, and he couldn’t afford it on his salary. Not unless he quit and went into the private sector, and he didn’t want to do that yet. He wanted to make it to retirement age.
Fuck, I’m truly fucked
. His mind wandered. He was avoiding the real issue: making sure the werewolves behaved themselves toward Nadia. It wasn’t too hard so long as insults weren’t traded and the women were on their best behavior, especially with all the young available unmated male werewolves about.
Hormones.
Not to mention his own frustration. Urban ran a hand over his face.
Yup, I’m fucked.

Chapter Two

Several tiring hours later, Nadia arrived in
Draven’s
Crossing worn out and ready to hit the hay. She headed straight for her condo to take a shower and wash the grime of travel off her weary body, put on her PJs, and crawl into her queen-sized Sleep Number bed. A night of deep sleep would do wonders. With her guard down and her body bone weary, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into
Urban’s
arms and fall asleep feeling safe and wanted. She couldn’t do that, especially when she didn’t know where he was. Nor did she want to depend on him for that sensation of security. It unnerved her that thoughts like that kept popping up with more frequency over the past few weeks. Yet she couldn’t stop those notions if she tried. No matter how hard she pushed them away, they kept coming back. Rather than fight it, she accepted it, but didn’t act on the urge to call, e-mail, or text him.
Have to focus
, she ordered herself as she checked the windows on the first floor.

She made her way through the loft area as she went over the facts that
Zerik
had given her. It wasn’t much to go on, but she’d worked on less. Someone had been coming into
Draven’s
Crossing on the weekends, selling
Katnip
. Victims ended up in the hospital on Monday morning in batches of two or three at the max. The DCPD had been notified, but so far they hadn’t acted or investigated as far as
Zerik
knew; just one more reason to send someone to take care of it in-house rather than distract
Torger
with a nonpolitical problem or emergency. Besides, the DCPD could control how to handle the
perps
, whoever they were.
Zerik
suspected there were at least two people involved in the operation. One person acting alone didn’t sound right.
Zerik
didn’t know how the drug was administered, and the families of the victims all said the same thing: “They weren’t drug takers, unless it was prescribed by a doctor or it was aspirin.”

The police wouldn’t have believed the victims, but only about five percent of the feline-shifter population in the USA had some sort of substance abuse problem. The drugs of choice mostly dealt with antidepressants, with only one percent going for the hard stuff such as morphine, heroin, or opium.
Zerik
had been slowly dealing with the drug problem by attacking it directly: cleaning out neighborhoods, moving jobs into the area, paying for health care until the families and victims could pay for it themselves, and making sure that local politicians actually tried to make inroads with the feline communities. In Nadia’s opinion it wasn’t enough, but it worked.
For now.

There was no feline community liaison in
Draven’s
Crossing, and they hadn’t asked for one. If she stayed, she’d consider making an appointment with
Draven
to apply for or create the position herself. It would be a headache, but traveling around the world had begun to get old. She wanted stability, to create a home. Nadia had a condo and knew the area well, but not the people. She had no clue
who
her neighbors were except for their names, relationship status, and whether they had security systems in their houses. There was a security booth to get past and a guard that would patrol the streets to make sure no trouble was on the prowl. It made her feel better, but not completely at ease. This whole area was a part of feline territory. Some werewolves did live in the condos, but they mostly kept to themselves.

She could see
Urban
living in the area. It was quiet enough to feel safe and comfortable but had enough cafes, movie theaters, and restaurants to allow for date nights. Nadia paused in perusing security footage.
Urban move in with her?
Live with her? She gave herself a mental shake. That was going too far. For all she knew, he didn’t want to live in
Draven’s
Crossing.
Stop it.
She forced her thoughts away and returned back to her mission. She didn’t want to call
Isy
right away.
Shower and laundry first, then dinner and connecting with
Isy
.
Once she reviewed the security footage, she got up and repeated the walkthrough process to make sure.

It was a habit she’d gotten into since the night she’d left Little Creek,
Asswipe
Nowhere,
USA
. So long as her father couldn’t find her, it was all good, and she doubted that he’d want to go looking for her.
Zerik
had made it very clear what would happen if
Ephram
did stray away from his home. There was still the issue of
Milena
. She wanted
Milena
to move in with her, but getting her sister to do anything was like herding cats, literally. She’d make a plan, change it at the last minute, or agree to something but then change the day she was doing it, or she’d flake out completely. Nadia wasn’t sure what to think of it all. She had to call her sister and check in, maybe get her to
Draven’s
Crossing and convince her to stay. There was one thing that the town had going for it: lots of eligible bachelors. There was still the overdose incident that needed to be discussed, but Nadia avoided that subject like a kid and cherry cough syrup.
Milly
had escaped their father with drugs and alcohol, but that wouldn’t help their mutual problems.

If Nadia believed in any gods, she’d have razed them to the ground for her family problems. Instead, she channeled her anger through her way of living: as a courier for the Feline Quorum and various other organizations that wanted to make life better for all paranormals in general. Some of her assignments weren’t legal and required her to enter places without an invitation, and sometimes she’d have to gain an advantage with photos or recordings. Sometimes she had to steal things, and that led to a huge mess. In the end, it was her life. She’d chosen to work for
Zerik
, and it had perks, like a new life, enough money to buy herself an island and never have to work again, and the protection of never having to deal with her father again. Her sister was another matter.
Maybe I can convince
Zerik
to hire her
. The US branch of the Feline Quorum always needed new hires. She needed to talk to
Zerik
about that. There might be a place in
Draven’s
Crossing for the F.Q.

She couldn’t think about that at the moment; maybe later once everything was tied up. Nadia had a whole new problem: giving
Isy
an excuse that was believable and closer to the truth. The last thing she and the Feline Quorum needed was for a reporter’s instincts to be aroused and have
Isy
go poking around. Goddess knew that
Isy
could be too nosy for her own good. Despite their friendship,
Zerik
wouldn’t hesitate to take care of a problem as he saw fit. Nadia wanted to protect what few people she’d let into her life, and that included Urban. Once her security check routine was complete she headed to her shower, turned it on, got undressed, and stepped inside. The hot water hit all the right places, loosening muscles and allowing her to breathe easy and relax. She allowed her thoughts to float free, even though they all went to the same place: Urban. She wished that she didn’t have this distraction, but knew that she’d have to work it out on her own until she saw him again. Rather than think about that, she thought of all she’d missed while trapped in
Zerik’s
Dungeon of
Unlove
.

It was too bad that Nadia missed the action with the serial killer. She would’ve loved to have been in the thick of things; it would’ve been a wonderful distraction, and it would’ve gotten her home sooner. It was also too bad she’d lied to
Isy
when she’d called. Nadia told
Isy
that she’d had some sort of drunken ménage, when in reality she’d knocked out several security goons to get some dirty pictures back for a high-ranking Feline Quorum member. That had earned her five figures and a debt that she intended to call in
in
the future. All of that led to her missing out on helping
Isy
, making brownie points with
Torger
, and getting the scoop on
Isy’s
relationship with the alpha werewolf.

Nadia needed to send
Isy
a gift basket or some kind of expensive gift both as an apology and a bribe for gossip. It wouldn’t make up for not being able to help
Isy
, but at least she was here now. And maybe
Isy
could help her with the
Katnip
issue.
Maybe.
With the Council race,
Evanson’s
death, and the Werewolf Summit, the news station must be in
frantics
right now. No time to talk about real issues like a possible drug problem in
Draven’s
Crossing’s
feline-shifter community, as it should be, at least in this case, until they could nip the problem in the bud before it became an epidemic.

This assignment was a lot better than the last few she’d gotten.
Zerik
had had her running around picking things up and dropping things off, not that exciting. She suspected that it had something to do with the new laws the Council had been trying to press upon feline-shifters. The feline community had wanted to be treated as equal to werewolves. Feline-shifters lacked some of the basic fundamental rights that werewolves had. Since the public had more familiarity with werewolves they gave them more leeway, more freedom. Feline-shifters were given a wide berth, labeled as dangerous and unstable, and were often frisked and arrested for doing nothing more than standing on a corner.
Zerik
was doing everything in his power to try to change that perception. Whether he was winning was based on the deals he managed to make, not on public perception.

How police identified a feline-shifter was still a mystery; they had no outer markings that indicated shifter status and looked very much normal in human form, but more of her kind were in the system than werewolves. Throw
Katnip
into the mix, and things could get dangerous. The drug was something new. It had been on the market for over five years. For humans, it had been originally used as a way to soothe patients who suffered from stress-related issues. How it had landed into the hands of the feline-shifters, no one knew, but she’d seen the fallout firsthand. Her sister
Milena
had ended up in rehab, but not before she’d almost died after taking a small dose.
Milly
was allergic to gluten; the drug had been cut with flour. Now she had her chance to stop more people from dying. Nadia needed to check in on her little sister. This case was already starting to rip at the seams of the carefully constructed walls around Nadia’s emotions and life.

She felt buried anger and helplessness welling up in her psychic and emotional wounds. Phantom pain shadowed her body in pangs and echoes of past trips to the hospital. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. Nadia refused to cry over what her father had done. The one thing her childhood had going for it was that her cat
pard
had tried to interfere time and again and protect Nadia and her sister, but her mother refused their offers of sanctuary and seeing how
Ephram
had been head of the
pard
, it put them all in a difficult position, but
Zerik
had made sure that
Ephram’s
power was limited in what he could and could not do. And soon the
pard
would be choosing a new leader, thankfully. Her family and the
pard
had suffered enough under his rule.

She sucked in a deep breath and exhaled. Nadia could feel the pressure building up inside of her again. Nadia couldn’t indulge a sexual outlet, the physical release she needed, or a way to ground
herself
. There didn’t seem to be any time for it. She needed to get in and out of
Draven’s
Crossing without riling
Torger
. Her gut clenched in need, and her sex heated.
Not now
. With a frustrated growl, she tried to scrub away the desire. It didn’t help; the sensations wound around her body like rope.

Urban.
His name ghosted through her mind. She ignored it and continued to run the
loofah
over her breasts. Her nipples were already hardened nubs, with each brush sparks were set off that traveled straight to her womb. No, she resisted the urge to relieve the pulsing need between her thighs. Tingles raced along her inner thighs, the base of her back, and along her labia. Nadia whimpered as tears of frustration combined with the heaviness in her chest.

Urban
.
Again his name whispered through her mind. Checking on him would be a distraction that she couldn’t afford right now.
Zerik
didn’t know about Urban; at least she hoped he didn’t. Just thinking about
Zerik
finding out about Urban threw some cold water on her. All desire but also all emotional turmoil fizzled to nothing. Her body wasn’t her own; fatigue had her worn down and opened her to attack. Being locked up for at least two weeks had taken its toll on her mind and body.