by Juniper Hart
“It’s very possible. That’s why I’m here.”
Audrey paused suddenly, as if she remembered something, and Hudson waited for her to speak again. She didn’t, though, and Hudson knew he had to think of something fast before Audrey bolted out the door and entrenched herself with security.
“Audrey, surely you must have noticed some changes in your body. You were only twenty when you were turned eight years ago, but you must have shifted in that time.”
She didn’t respond. Even though her lips moved to make words, nothing came out.
“Did something happen to you back then, where you had a blackout, or—?” Audrey whipped her hand up to stop him from speaking.
“This is insane. You’re insane! Why are you tormenting me?” she wailed. “Just leave me alone!” She spun to leave, but Hudson called out to stop her.
“I can’t leave you alone,” he told her, a note of sadness in his tone. He wished it was that simple, that he could be dismissed from this burden that had been placed upon his shoulders, but that wasn’t an option anymore.
Why did I take this on so willingly? he wondered. As he watched Audrey’s passionate face twist, he knew he would have done it again and again. What is it about her? She’s magnetic, that’s what. No wonder everyone falls in love with her onscreen. Her aura is vibrant.
“You better leave me alone,” Audrey growled at him, the vulnerability she had seen before vanishing to be replaced with something harder. “If you don’t want trouble.”
“Audrey,” Hudson groaned. “Please don’t make this difficult. I’m here to help you. It’s not that I don’t want to honor your desire to be left alone, but I can’t. You’re my responsibility.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry. But it’s the way it is.”
Audrey didn’t seem to know what to make of such a statement and opted for the offensive as a response.
“You have no power over me,” she hissed. “And if you don’t leave me alone, I’ll… I’ll—”
“You don’t need to threaten me,” Hudson grumbled, losing his patience slowly. “There isn’t anything you can do to keep me away from you.”
“Hudson Fowler!” He whipped his head toward the doorway and watched as three uniformed officers and two plain-clothed bodyguards stormed into the cafeteria. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Audrey flee the room, though not without a last look toward him.
“On your feet and show us your hands!” one of the federal policemen ordered. Hudson shook his head and sighed, complying with their orders. There was no point in making a scene now. All he would be doing was exposing himself to mortals if he shifted, and it wouldn’t do anything to put Audrey’s mind at ease. No, he had to accept his arrest, despite the indignation sprouting inside him.
“You are under arrest for illicit stalking,” he was told.
“Do you know who I am?” Hudson asked. It wasn’t asked in a particularly cocky way. He truly wondered how much they really knew about him.
“You have a right to a counselor. If you refuse said right, you might get one anyway.” Hudson swallowed a smile at the poor translation, but he got the gist. He may not have been sent to protect mortals turned wolves before, but he’d been arrested in more countries than he could count.
And I always get out, he thought.
“Do you understand these rights?” the officer demanded.
“More or less,” Hudson said and allowed a pair of silver bracelets to slip around his wrists before being led out of the cafeteria. The few people who had walked in during his conversation with Audrey gaped at him, taking pictures and videos with their cells. Hudson longed for the good old days.
How far we’ve come in two centuries, he thought with amused sadness. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
When Hudson was steered from the hospital, Audrey was conspicuously absent, but he didn’t need to see her to know she was nearby. He had her in his senses now. She was in his sights.
7
After Hudson was arrested, the feeling of doom surrounding Audrey became a suffocating blanket, and her bodyguards only made matters worse. She wanted nothing more than to run away from them, even though she knew that would be dangerous and reckless.
Not that they did anything to stop that lunatic from finding me before, she thought. That wasn’t fair, she reminded herself. She had ordered them to stay by Carrie’s room. And she wasn’t sure she regretted meeting Hudson Fowler.
“Ms. Crane, you really should get some rest,” Julian suggested, and she scoffed at him rudely, hating herself for being so rude. The more stressed out she became, the more biting her words became.
“Where should I do that, Julian? At the hotel where my stalker has a room? Here at the hospital next to my shot assistant? Or should I just hop on a plane and go home and get myself blackballed for not finishing my contract? Which option do you think is the best one? Hm?”
Julian stared at her dumbly, and she grimaced. “That’s what I thought.”
“Maybe we can see about making you other arrangements,” he hemmed slowly, and she grunted again, waving her hand impatiently.
“It’s fine. He’s arrested now, isn’t he? There’s nothing to worry about. I’m going to say goodbye to Carrie, and I’ll head back to the hotel.”
Julian seemed relieved that she was taking his advice, but she wasn’t happy about it in the least. How could she be? Audrey wasn’t convinced she’d done the right thing by having Hudson arrested.
Of course you did, she thought furiously. Did you hear how he was talking? About werewolves and people turning people into werewolves? He’s gorgeous, rich, and mentally insane. She blamed all the fairy tales of her youth for her split mindset at that moment. No man with such intelligent eyes could be insane, could be capable of writing those sick emails, could he? He’s not a werewolf. There’s no such thing! He got into your head in less than ten minutes.
But she thought about everything he’d said, the missing time he’d mentioned, the changes in her body. How could he have known about that if he didn’t know something she didn’t?
Audrey stopped outside Carrie’s room and saw there was no change in her friend’s state. Silently, she willed the woman to wake up, to tell her that Hudson had nothing to do with what had happened. Yet Audrey didn’t need that. Somehow, she knew he didn’t.
And you still let the cops take him, she recalled. You just slunk into the background and didn’t say a word. Guilt flooded her in a torrent, and she turned toward Julian and Tom, who escorted her outside of the hospital to her rented car. So what? He’s obviously not right in the head, even if he’s not your email stalker. They’ll assess him at the station and get him the help he needs.
She felt the dull throb starting in her gums and immediately shoved the thought out of her head. Just because her gums hurt didn’t mean she was a werewolf.
“You might be right about changing hotels,” Julian said. “Maybe we can see about making other arrangements.”
Audrey didn’t answer, mostly because she didn’t hear him as her mind wandered back to the conversation she’d had with Hudson. He wasn’t impassioned about what he was saying. He just spoke so matter-of-factly, like he believed everything that came out of his mouth. Could he be telling the truth?
The desire to be rational was quickly being outweighed by what she had seen in Hudson’s face, and as the BMW pulled out of the hospital, Audrey’s phone rang, shattering her reverie.
If this is Alex again, so help me God… She looked at the phone in her hand and sighed deeply. It was even worse. Is this day ever going to end?
“What’s up?” she muttered.
“We need to reshoot the scenes at the reserve,” Mike grunted. “The dawn shoot went to shit, as to be expected. We’ll have to do it again.”
“You’ll need to get a permit for that,” Audrey reminded him. “We can’t just swoop in there with all the gear without permission.”
“Gee, thanks, Aud
rey,” Mike snapped sarcastically. “What would I ever do without you?”
“Then why are you calling me?” she barked back, not in the mood for his condescending tone.
“I’m just letting you know that shooting’s been extended another week.”
Her spine stiffened, and she sat straight up in her seat.
“What?” she growled. “No way! I need to get home. I need to get Carrie home!”
“Carrie has the best doctors taking care of her. She’s better off here than she is in the States.”
“She’ll heal better in a familiar environment!” Audrey protested, but she knew she was fighting as much for herself as she was for her assistant. She wanted to get out of Germany and leave the memory of everything that had happened behind her.
Even Hudson? She shoved the notion of the built blond out of her mind and tried to focus on fighting with Mike.
“Mike, I didn’t sign up for this,” she said. “There’s too much stress, and I have to rest before I start filming Body’s Desire. I can’t jump from one shoot into another.”
“Well, if you and Alex hadn’t screwed up the scene so much, we wouldn’t have to stick around,” Mike reminded her. “And because we need those permits that you so candidly observed, we need to hang around an extra week.”
“Shit!” Audrey fumed.
“You’re telling me! Do you have any idea how much over budget we’ve gone? The board is going to have my ass for breakfast when we get back.”
“You were over budget before this,” she retorted, though she knew there was no point in arguing with him. She’d come there to do a job, despite all the mishaps. It wasn’t news, falling behind, running over budget. It was all typical for a film, but Greenfable Mountain was beginning to feel cursed somehow.
There are no such things as curses or werewolves, Audrey. Get it together, or you’re the one who’s going to end up in the psych ward.
“Did you hear me?” Mike yelled in her ear.
“Fine,” she relented. “Anything else?”
“Call Alex and tell him the good news,” Mike grunted before disconnecting in her ear. She didn’t even have a chance to protest before he was gone.
“Oh, come on!” she snapped aloud, and both guards looked at her with arched eyebrows. Why should she have to call Alex on top of everything else that was going on?
“Is something wrong, Ms. Crane?” Again, she ignored them and looked at her cell phone, knowing that she had little choice but to make the call. It wasn’t fair to leave Alex hanging, even if she really didn’t feel like talking to him again, not when she’d already brushed him off. She grunted again, and she was beginning to feel like that was her new favorite form of expression.
The sunlight faded into a glorious sunset as the car twined up the roads, toward the center of the city, but Audrey couldn’t appreciate any of the beauty in the day—not when there was so much going on. She eyed the screen, thinking of anything except calling Alex as she tossed the phone from one hand to another.
What are they doing with Hudson right now at the station? It was a question weighing heavily on her mind, and she twiddled with the phone in her hand, pondering what to do next.
“Go to the police station,” she heard herself say to Tom. His head whipped up, and he gaped at her through the rear-view. He looked perplexed, like he hadn’t heard her properly.
“What?”
“I don’t want to go back to the hotel. Take me to the police station.”
“I-I don’t even know which one to go to,” Tom complained, shooting Julian a look. Julian wisely stared straight ahead, as if he realized that engaging was a bad idea.
He’s a faster learner than Tom. Audrey wasn’t listening, and she dug into her purse, finding the card that Detektiv Schultz had given her when they had first met. She was glad she had held onto it.
“Police Station 53,” she told Tom, reading the address on the card. “Pull out Google maps.”
“Ms. Crane, maybe you should just call the detective if you have something to add to what you want to tell him. I don’t think you should go to the station. I mean, what if you run into the guy, or if—?”
“Listen,” Audrey said sharply. “I hired you guys to keep watch over me, and I appreciate your presence, I do. But if I need a voice of reason, that is way out of your paygrade. Will you please just take me where I want to go?” She could see she’d annoyed them with her snotty reply, but Audrey knew that sometimes, she needed to be strong-willed to get her point across.
To her relief, however, they did as she had instructed and headed toward the station, but not without casting her occasional scathing looks.
What are you going to do when you get there? Audrey asked herself. Speak on his behalf? Ask to see him? She had no idea how the German legal system worked, but it was a democratic country, and they probably all worked the same… right?
Audrey couldn’t think of a time when she had been more confused, and the lack of control was driving her crazy.
The car finally stopped outside a surprisingly large building, which housed the 53rd precinct, and Audrey was slightly taken aback by the otherwise non-descript brown structure. It was charming in an official way but much bigger than she had expected.
Everything is surprising me these days; people, buildings, werewolves. Again, she glanced at the card in her hand, wishing that her German was better. She was able to recognize the fourth floor, and she instructed the men to wait in the car.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Julian offered before he could stop himself. She didn’t pay him any mind. After all, it was a police station. There was probably no safer place in the world.
Of course, she reminded herself. You thought the same thing at the hospital.
“I’ll be back soon,” she told her bodyguards, having no idea how true that was.
“Ms. Crane…”
“Thanks, boys.” She flashed them a charming smile before slamming the car door and rushing toward the entranceway.
At the reception, Audrey was instructed to the fourth floor, where she would hopefully find Schultz if he was there. She forsook the elevators, and when she got to the fourth floor, she realized it apparently housed the cybercrimes unit.
But it’s not a cybercrime, is it? I don’t even know what they’re holding him on. Idly, she wished she’d consulted a lawyer. A lawyer for Hudson or for me? I’m sure he has a pack of lawyers kicking around on retainer. He doesn’t need my help. What am I doing here?
Audrey had no answer for her own question. Whatever Hudson Fowler had done, she was almost a hundred percent certain that he hadn’t sent the emails she’d received. His mannerisms, his way of speaking, none of that sounded like the creep who had been on her for months. What about the Gabriel he had mentioned, though? Maybe she should talk to Schultz about him… except she had no idea who he was, either.
Audrey loathed that she was seriously considering what Hudson had told her, but it was impossible to dismiss. The story was ludicrous, and yet…
How would he have known about the missing time, the blackout? she questioned herself. How could he know that my body is doing weird things without rhyme or reason?
The changes had started after the mysterious blackout that had occurred one night in LA. Audrey had returned home from a costume fitting, and that was all she remembered before waking up again—in her own bed. She hadn’t been drinking, she’d been alone. Nothing about the missing twelve hours had ever made any sense to her. She’d been worried that someone had tried to rob her, or worse, but nothing had been missing, nor was there a mark on her body. In some ways, she considered the lack of evidence worse than what she was thinking.
It had scared her at the time, but like any young, healthy woman, she had ignored it, thinking it was a fluke. Nothing like that had ever happened before or since, so she had prolonged the visit to the doctor until she’d all but forgotten about it.
Until then.
As if on cue, her gums b
egan to throb, and she ran her tongue over them, feeling the odd protruding over her eyeteeth. She stopped as she understood their implication.
Are they fangs?
“Kann ich ihnen helfen?” Audrey looked as a uniformed policewoman peered at her speculatively. She grinned apologetically.
“Do you speak English?” she asked hopefully, and the woman nodded curtly.
“Ja. May I help you?”
“I’m looking for Detektiv Schultz. He arrested a man today.” A thin smile appeared on the cop’s mouth.
“Ja? He does that,” she agreed, and Audrey couldn’t help but return her smile at the dry comment.
“Is he here? Detektiv Schultz?”
“Please take a seat. I will see if he is available. What is your name?”
“Audrey Crane.” The woman’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she gaped at Audrey in disbelief.
“I knew it! I thought to myself, ‘she looks like the actress!’ It is an honor, Fräulein Crane! You are in Germany to shoot a movie?”
“For a couple of weeks, yes,” Audrey replied, steeling her impatience. She was used to the endless fawning, but she didn’t really want to deal with it at that moment.
“I will take your signature before you go,” the cop announced. To Audrey’s glee, she moved further inside the station, presumably to find Schultz.
Audrey turned to look for a place to sit, but before she could make a move, a shrill alarm reverberated through the floor, causing her to jump. Suddenly, the area was in chaos, and loud voices echoed back and forth excitedly, speaking far too quickly for Audrey to understand.
“What is going on?” she demanded to a wide-eyed man at his desk. The man only shook his head, looking dumbfounded. “What is that alarm?” Audrey insisted, and the man turned to look at her in disbelief.
“A prisoner has escaped,” he mumbled, sinking back into his chair as if he longed to disappear.
But Audrey didn’t need to ask anything else. She had no doubt in her mind that it was Hudson Fowler who had flown the coop.