Looking relieved, he nodded. Ivy could find anyone, given time. She had been retrieving abducted vamps and humans from illegal blood houses and jealous exes since leaving the I.S. It made my familiar rescues look vapid, but we each had our own talents.

My motions shifting the stiff barstool back and forth slowed. Since I was here, I ought to see about taking the focus home with me. Anyone who cared to look it up would know that I belonged to David’s pack. Being a loner and trained to react to violence, David was a hard target. Anyone he worked with, though…

“Oh, shit,” I said, then put a hand to my mouth, realizing I’d said it aloud. Both Kisten and David stared at me. “Uh, David, did you tell your dates about the focus?”

His confusion turned to a soft anger. “No,” he said forcefully.

Kisten glowered at the smaller man. “You mean to tell me you nipped six women in six weeks, and you never showed them the focus to impress them?”

David’s jaw clenched. “I don’t need to lure women to my bed. I ask them, and if they’re willing, they come. Showing them wouldn’t have impressed them anyway. They’re human.”

I pulled my elbows off the counter, my face warming in indignation. “You date humans? You won’t date a witch because you don’t believe in mixed-species parings, but you’ll sleep around with humans? You big fat hypocrite!”

David pleaded with me with his eyes. “If I dated a Were woman, she’d want to be a part of my pack. We’ve been over this before. And since Weres originally came from humans—”

My eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I got it,” I said, not liking it. Weres came from humans same as vamps, but, unlike becoming a vamp, the only way to become a Were was to be born one.

Usually.

My thoughts zinged back to yesterday morning and being woken by a demon tearing my church apart looking for the focus. Oh-h-h-h, shit, I thought, remembering to keep my mouth shut this time. Missing girlfriends. Three unidentified bodies in the morgue: athletic, professional, and all with a similar look. They were brought in as Weres, but if what I thought happened had happened, they wouldn’t be in the Were database but the human. Suicides from last month’s full moon.

“David, I’m so sorry,” I whispered, and Kisten and David stared at me.

“What?” David said, wary, not distraught.

I looked helplessly at him. “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I shouldn’t have given it to you. I didn’t know all you had to do was have it in your possession. I never would have given it to you if I did.” He looked blank at me, and, feeling nauseous, I added, “I think I know where your girlfriends are. It’s my fault, not yours.”