Free Blood of the Pride by Sheryl Nantus

be enough of that around here.”
    “Thanks.” Bran clapped a hand on the pseudo-military uniform shoulder. “I knew I could count on you.”
    The veteran let out a rumbling chuckle through the moustache. “For you, Mr. Hanover, anything.” His cool gray eyes searched my face. “Been awhile since you brought a lady friend home. Wish you’d do that more often. Be a pleasant sight for these old eyes.” Dan threw me a sly wink, invoking a smile in return.
    “Reminds me of an old English sheepdog.” I flagged down a cab as we stood outside the condominium on King Street. “Sweet old man.”
    “Sweet enough to disarm three punks last summer who were looking to do some break and enters.” Bran chuckled. “Underestimate him at your peril.”
    The streets were now dark, the majority of commuters having fled the downtown core for the supposedly safer suburbs. I opened the back door of the cab and slid in across the broken vinyl seats, sticking a bit on the duct tape crisscrossing the well-used cushion.
    Bran sat beside me “Where to now?”
    “The crime scene.” I directed the cabbie to drop us off a block away from where Janey Winters’s body had been found, settling back for the short drive. “Best place to go right now.”
    The bunched-up envelope dug into my side where it had been crammed into the small inner pocket of my leather jacket. I had the original photo, but it wasn’t going to undo the damage to Janey’s reputation or the danger to the group.
    The cab came to a shuddering stop, the brakes screeching their annoyance. I passed the driver a twenty and got out of the car. Bran followed, scrambling to keep up with me.
    The walk down the street to the alleyway was well lit and filled with pedestrians making their way to the small cafés and bars littering the area. A streetcar rumbled by, stopping at a cyber café to take on a handful of students swinging fat backpacks. This was hardly an area to grab a woman off the streets to drag her into an alleyway. She hadn’t been tackled and pulled into darkness. She’d walked in with her eyes wide open.
    “Hey.” Brandon caught up to me, tugging on the back of my jacket. “What are you looking for? The cops probably went over this place with a fine-tooth comb.”
    I pulled up short, seeing a flash of yellow tape fluttering in the wind. “They might have missed something.”
    Something to do with the Felis.
    The yellow crime tape had been stretched from one end of the entrance to the alley to the other, originally crisscrossing in a giant X but now ripped down and flying free. I stepped over the threshold into almost total darkness.
    The alley was barely large enough for two people to walk down side by side. The brick walls were scratched and dented. A small trail of liquid trickled down past me into the street, stinking of urine, bleach and other things I couldn’t identify.
    “How can you see anything?” A bright light flashed behind me, momentarily blinding me. Bran held up a small flashlight. “God, this place reeks.”
    “Turn that off.” It wasn’t a request. As the light faded my eyes readjusted to the darkness. A scattered trail of rotting tomatoes and lettuce was spread across the concrete floor.
    I knelt down, trying to recreate the scene in my mind.
    Janey had ended up here, her feet pointed toward the street. I looked at the bricks on each side and the ground. It was a mess. Scratches, deep scratches. Felis nails had done those, not human. She had fought him to the end, trying to use the walls for leverage.
    “How can you see anything?” Bran repeated and crouched down, resting his back against the wall.
    I picked up Janey’s scent easily. There had been enough of it back at the Winters house that it was impossible not to notice. But there was another one there, one I didn’t know.
    It wasn’t Dennis. I could put Jess’s theory to rest on that part. There was another Felis signature here and it was solid. It was strong, male and so