"Hey, Reggie!" Lucy greeted the receptionist who was closing up for the night.
Reggie popped his head up from the T-shirt merchandise counter.
"Catch!" Lucy deftly tossed the book across the room and into Reggie's grasp.
His face lit up when he realized what he was holding. He opened the front cover and read the inscription aloud, "To Reggie, keep living La Vida Loba! Lucy Lowell."
"You stole my line!" Xochitl swatted Lucy's arm.
Reggie closed the book and held it to his chest. "Oh Miss Lowell," Reggie's voice cracked. "You don't know what this means to me."
"It's just Lucy." Lucy rubbed her triceps, looking pleased with herself.
Once again, Reggie squealed that his friend Marcus was "gonna kick himself."
After tonight, Marcus is gonna be pretty black and blue.
Lucy raised an eyebrow at Xochitl. "So?"
"Fine. I stand corrected," she grumbled and walked past Lucy toward the main gym.
Xochitl halted in her tracks, her eyes bugging out from their sockets.
Standing in the center of the cube-shaped arena amidst the deafening music was her brother in tight black leather pants and a tight black wolf-face T-shirt. His muscled arms were folded across his chest, and the Cruz twins were suggestively wrapped around his legs.
He looks taller.
A photographer was shouting out instructions to "smile," "don't smile," "look sexy," "look angry" while his flash kept going off. It was all too surreal for Xochi, seeing her baby brother looking like a man.
"Your brother looks hot." Lucy sounded shocked.
"Shut up." Xochitl elbowed her friend but mumbled to herself, "When did that happen?"
As if he'd heard their exchange, Miguel, a cocky grin plastered on his face, turned toward Xochitl and Lucy.
Lefty waved them over. He signaled the photographer's assistant to cut the music. The hipster kid dropped his light reflector and hit a switch. The music died.
"Oh, thank God." Xochitl sighed.
"What the hell, Brad!" The photographer spun on the kid. "I'm in the middle of my process!"
"Sorry, Dominic." Lefty stepped up to the edge of the ring. "We need to call it a night."
The Were twin Alondra's head shot up. She sniffed the air and darted out of the cage. Her sister Andresa followed close behind, shouting, "Kai! Kai!" The models sped toward the teen Were, nearly tackling him to the ground. They showered him with kisses. Kai looked intrigued.
Xochi cringed. "That's just wrong."
"Um, Lefty?" Lucy wrinkled her nose.
"Girls! Girls!" Lefty clapped his hands at the giggling pair. "Let the boy up for air."
Alondra whined and looked to her sister.
"But he's so...um, how you say... yummy!" Andresa purred as the girls continued to pet Kai.
"Okay," Lucy pulled Kai to her, "that's enough." She pushed the teen toward Lefty.
"Come on, kid," Lefty said, messing Kai's hair. "You wanna check out the gym equipment in back? You're gonna dig the hanging rings, homes."
Kai bounced after Lefty.
"Good thing the kid's easily distracted," Xochi said. "I'm not ready for that just yet."
"Hey." Lucy tipped her head slightly toward the steel double doors. "Miguel's leaving."
"Miguel, wait!" Xochitl called out.
Miguel glanced at her but didn't stop. He pushed through the doors. They shut behind him with a bang.
Xochitl slapped her thigh. "That's it! I'm done with this bullshit!"
"Take it easy," Lucy said.
Xochitl gave a curt wave to her friend and stormed off.
As soon as she reached the private entrance, Xochi was wracked with anxiety, her hands clammy and trembling. A wave of nausea rose from the pit of her stomach into the back of her throat. The darkness. The smell of urine. The taste of blood. All fresh in her mind.
None of that matters. I gotta make this right.
Xochi inhaled and exhaled long and slow. She pushed the doors open and walked into — a fully renovated stylish apartment.
Miguel stood in the middle of the room, his back to Xochitl, staring at a glass wall behind an L-shaped couch. Beyond the wall was a mini gym — complete with hanging heavy bag, speed bag and wooden martial art training dummy.
"Why can't you just stay away?" Miguel's voice was flat.
"What's your problem?" Xochitl tossed the bag of pastries on a marble kitchen island. "I've done nothing but try and help you!"
"Help me?" A dark laugh bellowed from her brother. "No one can help me."
"What do you think I've been doing for the past two years? Taking road trips for the hell of it?" Xochi took a step toward him. "Everything I've done, I've done for you. I've been busting my ass trying to find a way to save you!"
"Save me!" Miguel spun on Xochi, his eyes glowing amber. He raised his hands — sharp protracted claws turned toward her like a sacrificial offering. "Look at me. I'm not human. I'm a shitty, horrible thing. A monster. I can't be saved!"
Xochitl ran to Miguel and threw her arms around him. He tried to push her away. She hung on tighter. "You're my brother...I love you."
"You should hate me!" Miguel tugged at his hair violently. "I hate me!...For…For killing those kids...For what I did to you!"
As if a wrecking ball had slammed into his gut, he doubled over and dropped to his knees. "Why don't you hate me?" He rocked back and forth, weeping.
Xochi took her brother's face in her hands and looked him in the eye.
"You didn't do anything to me. You hear me? You didn't do this." She touched the scars on her neck. "Memo did. Memo did all of this to you…To me…To those kids. Not you."
Miguel wrapped his powerful arms around Xochitl and folded her into him.
She felt as if her soul had been wrenched from the Inferno. Reprieved from eternal judgment.
Xochitl unleashed a guttural moan.
Two years of anguish, torment — emptiness — flowed down her cheeks. Her body shivered uncontrollably. She flashed on snapshots of her life. Her bar burning down. Memo torturing her. Miguel missing. The pound. The road. With each memory she released, her body relaxed. With each tear she shed, her pain drained away.
She had her Miguel back.
"I'm so sorry for what I said earlier." Xochi dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve. "I would never—"
"Xo," Miguel clasped her hand, "you'd do what you had to. And if it came down to it, I'd want you to."
"It'll never come to that!" The words rushed from Xochi's mouth.
Please God, don't let it come to that.
"Okay." Miguel smiled weakly and averted his eyes.
"What?" She searched her brother's face. "Dígame."
"Xochitl." Miguel pulled away. "I didn't want Lefty to call you because I didn't want you to know Memo's out." He blinked away tears.
Xochitl sat back, stunned.
Memo's free?
"Out? How?"
"I don't know." Miguel's voice cracked. "He was ringside...you know...at the fight that got me my pro gig. Xochi, he smiled at me!"
Oh, God! Memo's free!
Xochitl's jaw clenched, and her hands balled into tight fists — the nails digging deep into her skin.
Oh God. He knows Miguel lives here.
"I wanted to rip his head off," Miguel growled. "But he was too well guarded. Like he was some sort of big shot."
If Memo hurts Miguel, I'll kill him.
"Mijo," Xochi whispered. "I'm glad you didn't go after Memo. Don't worry. When the time's right, we'll get him and make him pay."
Miguel's eyes blazed fiery amber, and his lip turned up into a fang-filled grin.
I could get used to that smile.
Xochitl pulled Miguel into a tight hug. She felt the hole in her heart fill.
"I'm proud of you," she said, nestling her head under his chin.
"You are?" Miguel sounded surprised.
"Of course!" Xochi chuckled. "You sure turned things around fo
r yourself. Your own gym. A pro fighter." She scanned the apartment. "And look at this place. Not what you'd expect for a Were and a Marine…But it's nice."
"Yeah." Miguel waved his hand around the room. "Bob's people did it when he invested in the business."
"Oh." Xochitl smiled up at her baby brother. "Well, I like it."
Miguel sniffed the air. "What's that?" He hopped up and darted to the pastries.
"Just like a Magaña." Xochitl giggled, rising to her feet. "Always thinking with his stomach."
Like a kid on Christmas morning, Miguel's face lit up as he dug into the paper bag.
"Your favorite."
"With the baked-in sugar sprinkles?" He pulled out one pink pan dulce.
"Of course."
In a flash, Kai rushed into the apartment, threw his arms around Miguel and Xochitl and bent down, snatching the pastry from Miguel's hand with his mouth.
"Who wants pizza?" Lefty shouted as he and Lucy entered the kitchen.
All four of them raised their hands in the air.
Xochitl's belly was bloated from the half pepperoni she'd devoured, and she felt at any moment a pizza monster would burst forth from her stomach cavity like in one of the horror films she and Miguel loved to watch when they were kids.
How'd we eat almost seven pizzas?
She moaned and glared at her laptop on the coffee table next to a box of leftover slices. Lefty, the so-called computer wiz, had abandoned her, having given up after an hour of searching the net about permanent Werebeast transformations. She'd found a few random accounts of someone's husband or wife not returning to human form, but nothing detailing why or when these Beasts stopped changing.
Bet those pinche Choteros squashed the information.
As a last resort, Xochitl had once again clicked on the bizarre Kyon Knows website. In between training Hounds and Ferals at the ranch, she'd scoured the internet for any data that would shed light on the Were apocalypse and the new world order. But to Xochi's dismay, only Kyon Knows seemed to have any concrete information — usually in the form of mathematical equations that she'd email to Vern.
For the past half hour, she'd stared glassy-eyed at her computer screen as the Kyon Knows site alternated between tiny dots of blue and gyroscope-like swirls of purple. Although Kyon Knows was never quite straightforward with how he/she administered his/her information, Xochitl could at least glean some piece of the KV puzzle from him/her. But as of late, he/she had taken to transforming his/her site into both a study of Neo-impressionistic design, the likes of which would make Seurat and Lichtenstein jealous, and cryptic messages. "They are corrupted where the soul begins." "Only the worthy can see." And today's doozy, "It all ends not with a whimper but a howl!"
Xochitl slid her computer away and sighed. "Well that was useful."
Her gaze wandered to her brother and Kai wrestling on the mat floor of the glassed-in mini gym. Newly energized with a pizza buzz, the boys had been going at it for over an hour. Xochitl shook her head still shocked to see in place of her baby brother, a man.
He'll be twenty soon...¡Híjole! I'm gonna be thirty-one!
The thought made Xochi's head spin.
Where'd the time go? Oh right, chasing down Werebeasts and getting into diner fights.
Xochitl's abuelita had said it was a good omen to have one child born of the summer solstice and the other of the winter — that the children would balance each other, and bring peace to the family. Her grandmother Magaña, for whom Xochitl had been named, was a staunch believer in the spiritual and tethered to what Xochitl's father used to call "the old Indian ways." And up until this moment, Xochitl had thought her grandmother's wisdom was slightly askew. But as she looked around the room at Miguel, Kai, Lefty and Lucy, she realized her abuelita was right. Balance and peace were only found within the family.
Not on a ranch or in a bar.
Shortly after Miguel was born, her grandmother had passed away peacefully in her sleep at the wonderful age of ninety-three.
"No joy?" Lefty nodded, his hand tucked behind his back.
"Nada," she said, noticing the cat-who-ate-the-canary-grin on his face. "What did you do?"
"Me?" Lefty feigned innocence.
"¡Dáme!" Xochitl snapped her fingers then held out her hand for whatever Lefty was hiding.
Lefty twisted his arm from around his back, presenting a serving tray with several bottles of beer, four small shot glasses, a fifth of tequila and a bank deposit bag.
His one-armed dexterity never ceased to amaze Xochitl.
"You know what happened the last time I drank tequila." She raised her right arm and displayed her La Güera tattoo.
"Looks good on you though." He expertly set the tray down on the coffee table and sat on the end of the couch.
"Kid's a beast!" Miguel plopped next to Xochitl.
Kai stopped short in the middle of the room. His head darted back and forth, seemingly torn between bouncing over to the kitchen where Lucy was locked in a phone call with Hanna or devouring the last of the pizza. He opted for the latter.
"¡Te chilla la ardilla!" Xochi pinched her nose and scooted away from Miguel. "You stink!"
"Smell my manliness!" Miguel exposed his armpit and waved his scent toward Xochitl.
"Gross!" She pushed Miguel away.
"Oh, that reminds me," Lefty said.
"Why would that," Xochi pointed toward her brother, "remind you of anything?"
Miguel shoved Xochitl playfully.
"Ow!" She rubbed her arm. "Did you see what your boy just did?"
Lefty rolled his eyes and pulled a rubber-banded wad of bills from the moneybag. "Here you go, kid." He tossed the cash to Kai who was glued to Xochitl's laptop.
With a piece of pizza sticking out of his mouth, Kai caught the money mid-flight and stuffed it in the pocket of his new Los Lobos Luchadores hoodie — all without ever looking up from the computer screen.
"How much is that?" Xochi asked.
"About a grand." Lefty grabbed a bottle of beer, twisted off the cap and handed it to Xochitl.
"¡Híjole!" Xochitl took a sip of beer.
"Kid earned it." Lefty pointed a bottle at Xochitl. "After your little family spat," he handed the beer to Miguel, "turned out to be a pretty good night."
Xochi snapped her fingers in Kai's face. The boy remained unfazed, determined to play his computer game. Shrugging, she swigged her beer and contemplated grabbing the last piece of pizza from the box. Her pizza monster reminded her to think better of it.
"So what's a good night?" Xochitl gulped down the last of her drink.
"Thirty K." Lefty smiled and reached his bottle across the table, meeting Miguel's in the middle with a clink.
"Holy crap!" Xochi choked. "Lucy, we're in the wrong business!"
Miguel and Lefty nodded smugly to each other.
"What's that?" Lucy tossed her new smartphone on the coffee table.
That's not a good sign.
She slapped the last piece of pepperoni pizza onto a napkin, grabbed a beer and plopped down in an oversized club chair.
"So what's with the Cruz twins?" Xochi asked her brother, not wanting to kill her beer buzz by asking Lucy what Hanna had said.
"They're on loan." Miguel took another beer.
"Yeah," Lefty chimed in. "From Señor Neves. He wants to promote Miguel as the newest rising star of the World Were Mixed Martial Arts Federation."
The boys clinked their bottles together again.
Lucy folded the pizza in half and chomped down. "Neves. Why do I know that name?" she asked, her words muffled and mushed together. She chased the pizza with a sip of beer.
"Maybe because he's the richest man in Colombia?" Miguel offered.
"Right." Lucy rubbed her forehead.
Yep, definitely not a good sign.
"He's also on the narcotics watch list," Lucy said, matter-of-fact.
"What?" Xochitl turned to Miguel.
"Hey!" Miguel put his hands up in surrend
er. "It's no secret he's not a saint. But he happens to run the pro circuit and owns the WWMMAF. The fastest growing sport—"
"In the nation," Xochi interrupted. "Yeah, yeah."
"Relax, Xoch." Lefty patted her hand. "You know I'm looking out for our boy."
She slumped back into the couch. "I know."
Miguel cocked an eyebrow.
"I knoooowwwww. Anyway, who am I to tell you what you can and cannot do with your life?"
"Wait. What?" Miguel cupped his hand to his ear. "Could you repeat that? I didn't quite hear you."
"¡Cállate!" Xochitl punched her brother's shoulder.
"Ow!" Miguel pinched her arm.
"I can still put you over my lap and spank the sass out of you!" she squeaked out the words rapidly, their roughhousing devolving into slap-fighting.
Lucy sighed. "So, that was Hanna."
"And?" Xochi giggled, fending off Miguel's tickle-attack. She quickly glanced at Lucy.
"Hanna said things are too hot in Empyrean right now. We can't go back there." Lucy crossed her legs Indian-style and rested her head on her hand.
She looks tired.
Xochitl's cell vibrated inside her vest pocket. She ignored it and pushed Miguel off her.
"She also said," Lucy continued, "we should lie low with some friends of hers up north."
"Why not stay here?" Miguel asked. "We have plenty of room, right?" Miguel looked to Lefty.
"Yeah!" Lefty flashed a bright smile.
"Can we stay? Huh? Huh? Can we? Can we? Pahleeeezzzzzz?" Xochi eagerly clapped her hands together. She loved the idea of spending more time with her brother.
Lucy shrugged her shoulders. "I guess it doesn't matter where we lie low—"
"YAY!" Xochitl and the boys shouted just as another buzz vibrated against her side. "Jeez." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and read a Twitter push notice on the home screen.
@KyonKnows751k has mentioned you in a tweet.
So what? Punk Girl Megan does that all the time.
Xochitl slapped her phone down on the coffee table.
Kai whooped. His face lit up, and his eyes glowed gold. He feverishly typed away on the laptop.
A wolf howl bellowed from the computer speakers.
"What the hell?" Lefty turned the computer toward him. "He hacked the Kyon Knows site! How did he do that?"
The Werewolf Whisperer (The Werewolf Whisperer Series Book 1) Page 37