Niles met Sean’s and Innes’s eyes, but both men looked suitably blank. Leigh, on the other hand, hugged herself and moved back and forth as if deciding on her next move.
“I won’t be explaining anything to you, blood eater,” Niles said. “Just remember: do not pit yourself against any of us.” He gave him a shove that should have landed him on the ground, but Saul kept his footing.
“I am not your enemy,” Saul said. “As I told you, I seek an alliance and it would serve all of us well. You asked if I would be any part of the plan to abduct and use humans. Such things are behind me. Being a doctor is not without its benefits for one such as I. Medicine is my chosen profession. Whole blood that is out of date for transfusion is my bread. That is more than you deserve to know about me.”
Niles studied the man, the confrontational lift of his striking face. “Very well,” he said. “I had no way of knowing. Yours must be a lonely life.”
“No. It is a useful life,” Saul argued. “But you have things to decide about, perhaps to act upon, but not alone. I can help you and you will need me.”
Innes couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. “We don’t need him,” he burst out.
“I think we do,” Niles told him. “At least until he proves to be a liar.”
Saul’s nod showed he accepted and understood the comment.
“Someone is going to take people away to criminals like that man Colin?” Leigh said. “He—he raped a woman. We can’t let this go on.”
So her memory was returning more clearly. Too bad.
Out of respect for Saul he merely squeezed Leigh’s hand but didn’t say anything to her.
“It will be more than difficult to stop this,” Saul said.
“Why do you care about humans or hounds or any of us?” Sean questioned angrily.
“I have told you all you need to know about me.” Saul’s pale face became expressionless once more. “We all follow our different paths. “Brande’s wolves were offered a portion of the humans Tarhazian’s minions collected.”
Leigh choked and coughed. Niles pulled her against him.
“Why?” Niles demanded, and his two hounds moved closer to him.
“I don’t know. But they said they had no need of them because they are working on mutating humans into creatures they can control without turning them. They apparently don’t want more wolves, only humans to perform some service. And the wolves want to dominate the team, but perhaps you guessed that.”
Suddenly Saul’s demeanor changed, tensed. “I must go,” he said. He braced himself against a tree.
“You’re ill?” Niles asked.
Saul shook his head. “It’s time for me to leave. She is the one most at risk.” He indicated Leigh. “They believe she could ruin every plan they’ve made. There will be a great reward for the one who delivers her.”
And with that, Saul left, gone almost before they heard him move.
“I’m going home,” Leigh said. She tried to pull her hands away. “I’m not what I thought I was. I’ll have to find a way to protect myself and not get anyone else hurt.”
“Leigh, you’re not alone.” Niles kissed her again, hard, and thrust her to the others, who held her fast. They made sure she didn’t see him change; there must be time before that happened. But when he wanted to move fast and unseen, his hound body made the most sense.
His pack brothers swung Leigh onto his back, and he felt her clutch at his fur. They took off, dodging obstacles until they flew, skimming the treetops.
chapter TWENTY-NINE
THE BODY BENEATH the russet fur Leigh clung to gave off enough heat to keep her from freezing. They flew through the snow-laden clouds that huddled around the tops of trees. Rushing wind and frozen flakes blasted her ears until she heard nothing at all.
What did she want? To be with this man-creature? She could never think of Niles as any kind of hound.
She knew what she wanted: Niles the man. And in time, perhaps that would overcome the animal he could become.
Could she make that happen for him? He wanted only humanity, he had already made that clear.
Streaming downward, the ground seemed to rise too fast. Suddenly they were on the porch at Two Chimneys. Leigh stayed, pressed against him, rubbed her face and hands as close as she could get to the skin. The fur was too thick to let her in very far. She felt perfectly peaceful.
As he was, he could not speak aloud to her but he would understand her. He had communicated directly with her mind, and she wished he would talk to her now. “When I’m with you, I feel completely safe,” she said. “Nothing can touch me.”
Carefully, he settled on his stomach as if he liked the feel of her clinging to him.
Leigh rubbed his neck and he put his head on his paws.
“Will we be allowed to be together?” she said, more musing than asking. “There are so many forces I never thought existed. I still can’t believe it all. If they are as strong and evil as they seem, how can we have a life?”
He looked at her over his shoulder, his eyes sharp and more definitely blue than the last time she had seen him like this.
“A man called me at Gabriel’s,” she said. “I don’t think I know him but he knows about you, about us. He asked me to tell the police about you so you and the team would be stopped. I hung up on him. If he calls again, I’ll tell you.”
Niles stared at her, his eyes narrowed to slits. Then he closed them completely, as if in thought.
Leigh glanced around. “What time is it? It can’t be getting dark again.” But it was. Light faded early at this time of year.
Niles, of course, didn’t answer.
She sat beside him, cross-legged, leaning into the heat of him. “I don’t want to leave you.” It didn’t seem appropriate to take him into the cottage as this massive hound. True, Blue had come many times, but that was different.
Why was it different?
Niles watched her face again.
It was different because she wasn’t in love with Sean the man and she could separate him from Blue. She couldn’t, she realized with a shock, completely separate Niles from this beautiful animal.
“Hello?” a tentative voice said.
She jumped but Niles moved his head languidly, almost with disinterest.
The tiny man from that dreadful house, Percy, hopped onto the end of the porch. “Just a little visit,” he said, shifting from foot to foot in his agitation. He waited for a response and when he didn’t get one, started wringing his hands.
Leigh couldn’t make herself speak to him.
“I’m a friend,” Percy said. “I know I… well, I didn’t do anything to help you when you got to Colin’s house. But now you have more information and you understand how oppressed we underlings are by the powerful ones.”
Niles sat on his haunches, his muzzle lifted as if he sniffed the air.
Percy really agonized now. He hopped and twisted and wrung his hands. “I have come alone. By my life, there is no one following me and no one knows where I am.”
Niles grunted.
“What do you want?” Leigh said, finally finding some voice.
“To apologize.” Percy swept off his skullcap and knelt. “I am your servant and I am sorry for my transgressions.”
Leigh and Niles waited.
“I want to be your eyes and ears in the enemy camp,” Percy said, standing again, his cap held in both hands and a serious frown drawing together the place where his eyebrows would have been if he had any.
Leigh believed in mercy but this miserable little man had left her to be molested. “Why would you change sides?” she said.
“I’m done with those stinking, selfish… disgusting… Done with them. If I could just stay in your woodshed, I would be eternally grateful and eternally at your service.”
Leigh stared at him. “You’ve been kicked out of that horrible house, haven’t you?”
“That doesn’t matter.” He crossed his arms. “I can take many forms so I
can come and go among them without discovery. Then I can report back to you.”
Niles side moved and she glanced at him. She thought he might be laughing.
Percy stood as tall as a very short creature could stand. “I chose to leave, but I must belong to someone. If I could live in your woodshed and you could send me out as a scout from time to time?”
Leigh raised a questioning brow.
“And throw me a little food from time to time.” Percy kicked at the boards of the porch. “I can get into just about anywhere or anything, you know. I can be useful.”
Since she didn’t know what to say and Niles wasn’t being helpful, Leigh nodded.
“Thank you,” Percy cried. “You won’t regret this.” And he darted away around Two Chimneys.
“We might as well know where he is,” Leigh said. “Or he will either become someone else’s sneak or constantly get into the cottage and steal.”
For longer than she had to, Leigh remained, leaning against Niles and soaking up some peace. She didn’t dwell on the weird twists her life had taken, or the strange events that definitely waited ahead.
She got up, found her key, and unlocked the door. Only then did she remember that she’d left Jazzy and Skillywidden at Gabriel’s.
“Sally will care for them till tomorrow.”
For a second time, she jumped. Niles had decided to read her mind and respond.
“I’m going to get changed,” she said, not feeling secure enough to try to communicate with him the same way. “You wait here. I won’t be long.”
Niles sat very still.
Leigh sighed, contented just to run her fingers through his fur. She kissed him between the ears. “You are a beautiful hound, you know. But you’re an even more beautiful man. And I worry about you being around like this. Remember how afraid you were of Blue getting shot?”
He watched her face steadily. There were no more messages in her mind.
She scratched his head and neck and realized how fond she was of him like this. “I’ll have to be careful or Jazzy will get jealous.”
Flopping down once more, Niles rested his great head and closed his eyes. He gave a heavy sigh.
“Okay,” she said brightly, and hurried inside, leaving the door ajar.
She soon stepped back outside. “I might have known it. Look at this.” Skillywidden had landed on her shoulder, who knew from where?
Niles had left the porch and in no more than seconds was nowhere to be seen.
chapter THIRTY
WHAT’S UP with you?” Sean said. He stood not far from Niles’s front door. “You aren’t even hearing what I’m saying. We’ve got an opportunity to strengthen the team with more members.”
Niles braced himself in the doorway to the kitchen and let his head drop forward. Why wouldn’t Sean go away? Why had he come, tonight of all nights?
“The others are waiting for your opinion,” Sean said. “It could be a good thing to accept these two werehounds from Europe. We’re interested in their petition. From what we can tell so far it sounds like a good fit and we could use them in our ranks. We would have to examine their histories carefully but we would visit them there first. There would be no added jeopardy brought here.”
“Not now,” Niles said.
“It’s Leigh again, isn’t it? She’s safe up there. We’ve got the place covered on all sides and Sally’s cat is on telephonic duty.”
“Good.”
“What should I tell the others? They’re eager for the possibility of new blood. We’ve never needed to pull on all the strength we can find as much as we do now. We all know what Saul told us is going on.”
“I don’t need you to tell me the obvious. The fae will always be an irritation. Mixing it up is a pastime for them. It’s Brande and his ilk we face. They have no conscience, which means they intend to go after what they’ve decided they want and they don’t expect to die in the attempt.”
“But we don’t have a plan,” Sean said, raising one brow.
“This is the plan,” Niles said. “Listen, follow the instructions you’ve been given. Storming Brande would get us nowhere—they’d know we were coming almost before I gave the word, and we’d be fighting our way out of an ambush. And keep it in mind that we don’t know how many vamps—of his own kind—Colin could call in. We’ve got to be smarter than Brande. And the next move is his. We will be ready.”
“Are we going to discuss this? Do you want to have the others here while we have this discussion?” Sean said.
“We don’t have time. I don’t have time.”
“It’s all about Leigh, isn’t it?” Sean said. “She’s front and center for you and it’s not going smoothly. What happened when the two of you came—”
“Get out of my house and make sure that cottage is so tight a tick couldn’t get in. If she makes a move, you move with her and you let me know.”
He didn’t watch Sean leave but he winced when the door slammed. Blood beat hard at his temples. Leigh had told him to wait on the porch—and he’d take any bet she didn’t realize what that had felt like for him.
Maybe it would be as well if he and Leigh didn’t see each other tonight. The kind of intensity building in him could be too much for either of them to handle.
“Coward,” he told himself quietly. “You’re afraid she won’t come. Maybe never again.”
He could go up there and say he’d come to meet her. Or he could call her. If he were honest with himself he’d admit he expected her several hours ago, that he had started for the door at every sound. If she weren’t deliberately staying away she’d be here by now. He didn’t want to push her more than she had already been pushed.
The dark blue shirt he wore was made of soft cotton. He hadn’t put on one of his comfortable old favorites. He had chosen this shirt because he wanted Leigh to like it. If he had ever done such a thing before it was too long ago for him to remember.
She wasn’t going to come.
Somehow she had sensed he was conflicted and would stay away until he made the next move.
Things needed to be put right with Sean. What had just happened between them was wrong. And they needed to discuss the call Leigh had talked about from some unknown man. Why hadn’t he raised that with Sean? Brande’s pack was becoming a bigger and bigger threat. Niles had no doubt it had been one of them who telephoned Leigh.
All he could think about for more than two seconds was Leigh. They had issues, big issues, and they wouldn’t be dealt with this way.
He rotated his shoulders, trying to loosen himself up, and went to the front door. Listening in to her mind wouldn’t be right but he was sure she was up at Two Chimneys thinking about him.
When he opened the door to leave, she stood there with knuckles raised to knock.
Niles caught hold of her wrist reflexively and swung her inside. One look at her wide eyes and he let go. “Sorry. You caught me off balance. I was coming to get you.”
“I thought you’d come a long time ago,” she said quietly. “But you left so quickly, I wasn’t sure what you wanted to do.”
“You left me. On the porch, remember?” he said.
“I came back out—it was only a minute or so later—and you’d left.”
A dog told to wait on the porch should do as he’s told. He was blaming her for nothing. She intended nothing—or had she?
“Let me take your coat,” he said.
“Are you sure you want—”
“I want to take off your coat. I want you with me and I never want to be apart from you again, ever.” This was not the moment to take her into his arms. He didn’t trust himself. “You belong with me. Things aren’t the way they must be yet, but we can change that. We don’t have any choice but to move forward, but we can’t afford to make mistakes.”
“Meaning?” she said.
“That call you got. The threatening one. Are you sure you didn’t recognize who it was?”
Leigh thought about it. “There was somethin
g familiar about the voice, but I don’t know who it was.”
“You heard what Saul said,” Niles told her. “We’re in a war—not you—us. You can help the most by not making me wonder what you’ll do next.”
She pointed her steepled fingers at him. “Niles, I… You change. You say different things and I don’t know what to believe.”
“I don’t change. I’m not always sure about you is all.”
Leigh shrugged out of her own coat and handed it to him. “What’s happened, Niles? Did I do something you don’t like? If I did, I don’t know what it was and there’s never an excuse to just get mad at someone for no reason.”
But he had a reason. “That’s true. Sit down by the fire and warm up.” He indicated the L-shaped gray couch. It was the most comfortable piece of furniture he owned. Not that he’d ever cared before.
Leigh remained standing, watching him.
“I’m scared,” Niles said, surprising himself. He smiled uncomfortably. “Scared of losing you, that is. I can’t make myself believe you’ve accepted me as I am—all of me. I know I’m asking you to do what should be impossible—”
“I love you,” Leigh said. “All of you. What do I have to do to make you believe me? If I didn’t love you I’d be gone. It’s too scary here but I’d fall apart if I was somewhere else without you.”
He glanced away. “You know how to destroy a man’s tough front,” he said. “I wish I could just carry you away and pretend I don’t have to keep the wolves from the door.”
“How will we stop them?” she asked quietly.
“They’re going to make a move and it’ll be soon. My people will be ready for them.” He looked her over, realized his lips were parted and he was staring. “I think the fire’s good,” he said, turning away. But he had to look at her again.
“What’s the matter?” she said.
“You’re so beautiful.”
She turned bright red with the patches of white that always formed around her freckles when she blushed. “This isn’t pretty,” she said, pressing her palms to her cheeks.
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