“Name?” she asked, turning the computer sitting in the corner of her desk. She poised her hands over the keyboard, ready to type.
“Theirs.” I put the grin on again. “I…don’t actually know his name, exactly. His dad is the owner, though.”
“We have to ask him some questions,” Jed said, very seriously, with a nod of his head.
The woman gave him a skeptical look, then went to me. She didn't say anything, but I took her intense gaze to mean something like Amish? What?
The woman looked from me to Jed. “You must mean Eric Nelson.”
“That’s it,” I said, snapping my fingers. “Is he here?”
“If he’s not on his lunch break,” she said, getting to her feet. She crossed to the back of the little office to the door and stuck her head out into the hall.
“Eric?” she called. “There are some people here to see you.”
“Honestly, I’m surprised she just gave us that information,” I said under my breath to Jed.
His brow furrowed. “Why? You were so polite when you asked.”
“I’m a complete stranger,” I said. “For all she knows, I could be a murderer. Or maybe a jealous ex-girlfriend, out for revenge.”
Jed looked confused. “But you aren’t.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I’m not. But she doesn’t know —”
She took her seat back at her desk, smiling up at us. “He's coming.”
Sure enough, a man with a short beard and short, dark hair strode into the office, looking down at the tablet in his hands. He was tall, just like the waitress said, with long, gangly legs.
“It’s him,” Jed said, shaking my arm. “Hey, you! Stop right there!”
He glanced up from the tablet and when his eyes fell on Jed and I, he froze. His face drained of all color and he dashed back into the hall and out of sight.
“Eric!” the woman at the desk shouted after him. “What the...?”
Jed took off after him, pushing through the doors from the waiting room and into the long hallway.
I just watched for another second, my reflexes not exactly dog-like in their speed, not for something like this. Which wasn’t exactly how I imagined all of this ending up.
Still, running was the international sign of guilt. Even the Amish kid seemed to recognize that. I spurred myself into motion, hurrying after Jed and down the hall after the fleeing Eric.
Chapter 25
I nearly collided with a nurse in scrubs as I pounded down the hall at top speed. She leapt out of the way just in time, letting out a string of curses as she almost dropped the chart she was carrying.
“Sorry,” I said over my shoulder as I ran. “It’s a werewolf thing.” I blinked as I realized what I'd just said. “I mean...it's a...you know what? Never mind.” There was no way I was going to explain away the werewolf comment. Not on a flat-out run after an Amish man through a medical clinic.
I rounded the corner where a nervous looking doctor was pressed up against the wall, staring horrified down the hall after Jed's retreating, suspendered back. The emergency exit ahead was just swinging shut. Now that I was on a straightaway, I picked up speed.
The thing about knowing supernatural people is that they were always faster than me. Especially since I didn’t do track in high school. Or soccer. Or tennis. Or any sport that involved running in shape or form.
Or sports at all. Period. Or cardio.
Spending my time running from vampires had toned me a little and then adding the training with my vampire boyfriend and I’d actually started to build up some stamina. Not nearly enough, I reflected as I huffed, bursting out of the exit into the burning daylight. Paranormal creatures would always be faster than me and probably in better shape thanks to their natural gifts. Well, that and my hatred of running.
The bright sunshine made me squint my eyes in pain as I stumbled onto a grassy patch of dirt between the clinic and the building beside it. The humidity was just oppressive, like an over-aggressive cologne wearer. I whirled around in time to see the last bit of Jed’s transformation into a full-blown werewolf. His limbs extended and bent backward the wrong way, his snout getting long and fur sprouting from his skin like a chia pet.
I did a double take, because he was still wearing all his clothes. The pants around his narrow, elongated waist were hiked halfway up his back, the bottom cuffs at his knees. The shirt was still neatly buttoned, though it was clinging tightly.
It was a wolf in Amish clothing. I stared for a second longer than I needed to, really, or maybe not long enough. The suspenders had trapped his clothes in place and he bounded off, leaving his hat and shoes just outside the door. I debated grabbing them for a half second, then passed on it. Stooping to pick them up would just slow me down when I was already behind. So I just took off after the two of them.
Jed bounded after Eric, who had taken off down a side street into a housing development. I could see them as I rounded the clinic's corner, the wolf pursuing a man in blue scrubs. There weren’t a lot of cars around, which I was suddenly grateful for. What would people think, seeing a giant wolf wearing Amish clothing chasing after a dude in scrubs? I'd have to do a double take and there was zero chance I'd ever mention it to anyone I knew for fear they'd think I'd relapsed on the lying.
Eric turned down another side street, running across the crosswalk. Jed close behind him. A growl escaped the werewolf and Eric tossed a fearful look back at him.
The houses in the development were big, right on top of each other and seemingly empty. Most of the residents must have been at work, which was good for us. Less people to see us chasing after Eric, less of a reason to call the police out of fear.
Eric skirted around a large, blue recycling bin and swung out his arms as he passed it, knocking it over into Jed’s path.
Jed leapt, clearing the bin easily, with a rumbling bark that sounded like a cocky laugh, something only a few degrees off what the human version of him might have done in a similar situation.
Making a sharp turn, Eric darted off between two houses. When I turned the corner, I saw Jed dive between some trees in the small forest that started behind the houses.
I groaned, trying to keep up. My chest now hurt with every breath I drew and my legs were begging me to stop, screaming in pain. The muscles in my back and side were seizing and I was sweating like a beast. Though that was nothing new. I kept an eye on Jed through the trees, his white shirt stark against the yellow-green of the forest.
I had to slow my frantic pace, not wanting to catch the tip of my toes on any roots that were snaking out of the ground. The last thing I needed was to break my ankle or something. Jed, however, was dodging and weaving around the trees like a pro. He caught Eric coming around a tree, burying his teeth in the man's ankle. Eric let out a cry as Jed ripped him off his feet and tossed him to the ground, baring his fangs.
I stumbled to a stop, my hands on my knees, panting, sweating, gasping for breath. “Wait…” I managed to say. “Jed.”
Jed had flipped him over with his nose and was standing over him, paws pinning him to the ground. His teeth were bared and there was a deep, low rumbling growl. Eric, for his part, was wide-eyed and staring straight up into Jed's face.
I knelt next to them, gave Jed a pat and heard his growl lighten a little. I gave him a sideways look; he really did sound like a big puppy, especially since I'd apparently petted him.
“Who…who are you?” Eric asked, looking back and forth between us.
“We were going to ask you the same thing,” I said, still pulling in deep gulps of air. “Now. What do you know about Thomas Bauer?”
Chapter 26
I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Eric, lying there prostrate on the ground beneath an enormous, hulking beast. Jed’s nose wasn’t far from Eric's and he was growling low and deep in his chest, his lip curling.
I also hoped, for Eric’s sake, that Jed remembered to brush his teeth that morning.
He was squi
rming beneath those big paws, eyes squinted shut. Eric turned his head back and forth, dragging his hair against the ground, trying to put every centimeter possible between himself and Jed's fangs.
“What’s the matter, Mr. Nelson?” I asked, leaning on Jed’s back with my elbow, half to look completely at ease, half because my legs were jelly from the run and I needed to sit down. “I thought you were used to running with wolves.”
“I —” His eyes were wide, staring up into Jed’s. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, please,” I said. I stroked Jed’s back, which caused him to growl even more, though lower. “I know a liar when I see one. So don’t even try it.” I smirked. “Besides, if you weren't familiar with werewolves, you’d be freaking out a lot more about my friend, here.”
Jed gave a satisfying snarl in agreement.
Eric gasped for breath, looking around wildly.
“We know that you’ve been helping Thomas Bauer,” I said. “We need to know where he is right now.”
I watched Eric’s face contort as I looked over Jed’s wolfish shoulder. I touched Jed’s back again and another growl rumbled out.
“Okay,” Eric said, barely keeping it together. “Okay. Whatever you want.”
“How do you know Thomas?” I asked. “Let’s start there.”
“Can – can the wolf back off a little?” he asked looking at me, but having a hard time keeping his eyes off Jed.
The fur on Jed’s back stood up straight and he snapped at the air near Eric’s nose, causing Eric to twitch.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” I asked. “I'm not chasing you again. The wolf stays. Right, Jed?” He barked and I patted his back again. “That's right. Who's a good boy?”
Jed looked at me sideways and made a low whimper, quietly, as if to say, Stop embarrassing me in front of him! I backed off the patting a little and we both looked back down at Eric, who seemed oblivious to our interplay.
“Look, it’s not like I'm loyal to Thomas or anything,” Eric said. “He’s – he’s crazy, man. I felt kinda sorry for him at first, with his wife leaving him and losing his kid. But now? He’s totally lost his mind.”
“Interesting,” I said. “Go on.”
Half of Eric’s face was pressed into the sandy dirt beneath him as he tried to gaze up at me, cheek rubbing against the sand, wolf saliva dripping down in the occasional dribs and drabs off Jed's open lips. I couldn’t imagine he was very comfortable.
Good. That was what he got for trying to run away from me and making me do cardio.
“Thomas and I have been friends since he left the ordnung,” Eric said. “We went to college together. We kind of drifted apart a little when we got older, but we'd get together whenever we got the chance. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, stuff like that.” He shifted, wincing in pain. “Seriously, if you could just get the wolf off of me—”
I looked right at Jed. “I'm not buying it. You?” Jed barked and shook his head, his comically exaggerated snout waving in a very un-doglike manner. “Deal with your discomfort by talking faster,” I said.
“Okay, fine,” Eric said as another drop of wolf drool caught him just above the eye. “Ew. He came to me a few years ago and told me his secret. I didn’t believe him at first, but he showed me some wounds he'd gotten after disappearing for a weekend. Needless to say, he found ways to convince me and so I agreed to help take care of him. He was my friend, you know? And it wasn’t like he could go to a hospital or anything. They’d ask too many questions he wouldn’t be able to answer without exposing himself.”
“Been there, done that,” I said flatly.
He gave me a quizzical look.
“I hang out with vampires. Also fight them. And kill them,” I said.
“V – vampires?” Eric said, sputtering. “What?”
“Focus, Mr. Nelson,” I said, snapping my fingers.
Eric’s brow furrowed, but he swallowed his questions. “Anyway, I started taking care of him when he was in trouble. It used to only be about once a month. The full moon, you know. The rest of the time, he was fine. Didn’t even transform if he didn’t have to. Mind you, I don’t really know what he did most of the time. I assumed he was home, being a good dog or whatever—”
Jed snarled.
Eric winced. “Sorry! No offense.”
I gave Jed a pat on the back. His hackles came down a little.
“But last week…” Eric said, “Last week he came to my house in the middle of the night. He was a bloody mess and he was…murderous. He said he tried to go and see Corinna – that’s his wife —”
“We know the family,” I said. “Just go on.”
“He tried to go see her and their son and she called the cops on him. She told him she was going to get a restraining order. Well, he didn’t like that. He was pissed because it was starting to look like Corinna was probably going to get full custody. It didn’t really help that he was a flake, couldn’t hold a job to save his life. She’s always been the bread winner.”
This matched almost exactly with what Derrick told me, which was a relief. It meant that so far, Eric had decided to tell us the truth.
“What happened last night?” I asked. “We know you were with him.”
Eric paled. “Y – Yeah, okay, I was with him. And he —” He swallowed nervously. “I don’t know, man. He looked like my friend, but he was all beast.”
Jed’s paw scraped at the ground beside Eric’s head. I knew that Jed and the rest of the Amish werewolves had strong feelings about werewolves who were not part of the pack any longer. Thomas had thrown away his lifelong beliefs, turned his back on his family, gone rogue.
“Why do you keep agreeing to help him if he scares you so much?” I asked.
Eric averted his eyes. “I – well, you see —” He looked up at me. “A guy’s gotta feed his family, you know? And my dad’s been cutting my hours at the clinic. I figured if he was willing to pay me for my services, then —”
“So you were taking a bribe,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“It’s not like that,” Eric said. “I gotta make ends meet.”
“You're playing veterinarian and chauffeur to a dangerous werewolf who's stalking his wife and child,” I said, laughing. “That’s exactly what it’s like.”
“You don’t know anything,” Eric said. “Maybe it was about money for a little while. But then he started to threaten me, threaten my wife, my daughter —”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “Fine, you're under duress. So, what happened last night?”
“Well, Thomas was furious.” Eric's eyes were wide, flitting back and forth between Jed's teeth and me. “He was looking to take his anger out on something. Or someone. And after going around in circles for a while, like – chasing his own tail—”
“Har har,” I said.
“—he decided that all of this was his dad’s fault.” Eric's gaze settled on me. “All of it. That if he hadn't made Thomas a werewolf, none of this would have happened. Not the divorce, not the estrangement from Derrick...none of it.” Eric licked his lips.
“Yeah, I'm sure it's all the wolf that's making him a dickhead,” I said.
“I know, he's always kind of been that way,” Eric said. “But not as much. And once he started talking about it – man, he’s so proud of being a werewolf. Like...it's a big deal to him, a major part of who he is and there are traditions and stuff he's really into.” Eric was just going now, no need to even prompt him with threats of Jed. “But he's so angry about his life going to crap that he was just looking for someone to blame. So he dragged me along to go show his dad that he was the stronger of the two of them. And that even though he was cursed, that he was still...I don't know, the alpha or something.”
“Power struggle like whoa,” I said.
Eric nodded. “And then, after we left – I couldn’t bear to watch – he was on a high. He kept saying how his son was going to be strong, too. He kept talking about finding him, about passing on hi
s legacy.”
My face started to burn. “He’s been chasing Derrick for days. Stalking him, really. He’s relentless.”
“Well, yeah. And he isn’t going to stop until he gets what he wants,” Eric said.
“Which is…?” I asked.
Eric blinked up at me. “You…you don’t know why Thomas is after Derrick?”
“I heard the legacy talk from him,” I said. “I have a suspicion. But I want to hear you say it.”
“It's exactly what you think,” Eric said, his eyes wide. “He wants to win him back in a way that will make sure he can’t ever, ever go back to his mom, really. To put a block between them that she'll never be able to conquer because he’ll always understand his dad better after he’s been turned.”
I closed my eyes for a second. There it was, the word I'd been dreading.
“He wants to make a man out of him,” Eric said and my heart skipped a beat. “He wants to turn Derrick into a werewolf.”
Chapter 27
I had to literally drag Jed off the top of Eric. Drool was dripping down, covering his eyes and the growls were frantic and loud. Jed wasn’t happy with me, but I put my arms around his neck and pulled and pulled and he didn't resist too much.
“Thank you,” Eric said, wiping his face with a hairy wrist. It didn't do much good, but he did it again a moment later because what else could he wipe it with? His scrubs were short sleeved. “Please just…get Thomas some help, will you? He may be completely insane right now, but…he’s my friend. I don’t want to see him suffering like this.”
Jed snarled and I gave him a dangerous look. He didn't quail away, but it looked like he was mostly in control of himself. He kept both eyes on Eric, though.
“I’ll do what I can,” I said. “But I can’t promise anything. My first priority is protecting Derrick. You know that, right?”
Heir of the Dog (Liars and Vampires Book 6) Page 12