Mike was stubborn, but Sofia sensed that his resolve was wavering. She said, “Cathy needs help. Please let me help her. There’s a lot going on here. We need to find out what these bastards were up to. Let me get into Cathy’s mind.”
“She doesn’t have a mind right—”
“We came here to rescue her,” Sid said, stepping in front of Mike. “My vote is to take her home.”
“I second Sid’s vote,” Laurent put in.
“This is werewolf business,” Mike said.
“Your kin is affiliated with the Wolf Clan,” Antonia pointed out. “We do not rule werewolf kind, but our Matri has some say in advising your kin. This is a complicated situation. I think you need Lady Juanita to mediate it.”
Harry morphed into human and put a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “They’re right, bro. You know they are.”
Mike stared at Cathy for a moment before his hard expression cracked into one of utter pain. “All right,” he said. “Let’s get her out of here.”
Chapter Thirty-four
Y ou’ll be all right?” Jason asked.
“I’ll be all right,” Sofia replied.
“You will be all right. I’m trying to reassure myself more than you, you know.”
“I know. Trust me.”
Jason sighed, brushed his lips across hers, then stepped back and closed the metal door. It was covered with gouges and scratch marks.
Sofia locked the door and looked around. The walls of the windowless room were thickly padded. She’d been told it was soundproofed as well. The room was in the rear of the Bleythin office building, and it was where Cathy was kept during the days she was in wolf form during the full moon.
The wolf Cathy was curled up in one corner. Her head rested on her front paws and her eyes were half closed. Sofia was pretty sure Jason’s mental influence was the reason Cathy wasn’t currently raging around like a maniac.
“You look tired,” Sofia told her. She stretched aching muscles. “I sure am.”
Cathy had emptied large bowls of water and raw meat before lying down.
Sofia looked at the empty dishes and said, “You know, I can’t remember when I ate last, or slept.” She settled slowly onto the floor and leaned her back against the door. She kept her gaze on her cousin. “It’s been a rough couple of days, hasn’t it?”
Cathy lifted her head and showed a mouth full of fangs. A snarl rumbled low in her throat.
Sofia scratched her earlobe and fought off a yawn. “I’m too tired to be scared.” Cathy’s head dropped back to her paws. “You, too, huh? I’d like to be able to trust you not to attack, and leave you alone. Maybe with time you could figure the change out on your own. But your boyfriend is off consulting with his superiors, and I’m told that some vampire queen wants to have a talk with us. So, let’s get to work proving that we Hunyara are a viable addition to the werewolf community.”
She knew it was dangerous, but Sofia had to close her eyes to concentrate.
She heard Cathy move and shouted, Stop!
Cathy whimpered as Sofia invaded her mind. The action sent a wave of pain through both their heads, but Sofia didn’t flinch away from what she had to do.
Cousin, we’re going to make this up as we go along, but I promise you we’re going to be okay.
If she was going to succeed, she couldn’t doubt this for a moment herself.
“You have to trust her,” Sid said. She pulled a chair up beside Jason’s in the hall across from Cathy’s room.
“I do trust her.” He didn’t look away from the door. “I also worry about her.”
Sid took a seat and passed a steaming mug of coffee to Jason. He took a deep gulp. Only then did he look at her. She appreciated his blue eyes and sharp cheekbones, in an aesthetic way.
His eyes narrowed. “Just what are you thinking, daughter of the Wolf Clan?”
She took the mug out of his hand and took a drink. Jason’s eyebrow shot up. She laughed. “I know sharing liquids has great symbolism among our kind, Prime of the Caegs, but mostly I wanted a hit of caffeine.”
“Mostly?”
“It’s complicated. Why is it that suddenly everything to do with werefolk is complicated?”
“What the werefolk didn’t know about for several generations hasn’t done them any harm,” he said. “No, that isn’t true. The Hunyaras and the mortals trying to use them have been a ticking bomb. But I think your concern is very personal—and not just because Cathy Carter is your friend. You’re not here to sit vigil, are you?”
She’d been bearing this secret alone for several years. She didn’t want to be alone with it anymore. Besides, if anyone deserved an explanation for what she was about to ask, it was Jason Cage. There wasn’t a Bleythin in the building, and Laurent had gone home to his wife and child. Sid felt safe enough to talk.
“No,” she answered him. “I have been looking for an opportunity to talk to you alone. I think you’re the only one in our world who could understand.” His eyebrow canted questioningly once again. “I know what you did back in the forties, and why, and I don’t think you were wrong.”
Pain and regret flashed in his eyes. “I intruded into a mortal’s mind and made him do things against his will. How is anything I did right?”
“You were trying to serve the greater good. To help mortals you loved.”
He waved her words away. “Excuses.”
“Reasons. Good ones.” Sid took a deep breath and plunged on. “I would have done the same. I have done the same.”
She waited for his reaction, but all Jason Cage did was look at her and wait.
Sid put the mug on the floor and twisted her hands together in her lap. She hated the guilt and nervousness coursing through her. She was a person who worked hard to get what she wanted, for Goddess’s sake! She was strong, independent. She shouldn’t feel like a child in need of comfort and absolution.
“It’s a long story,” she said. “I need your promise to keep it to yourself.”
“I’m not a Clan Prime,” he reminded her. “It’s not up to me to judge you. You have my silence,” he added. “You’re in love with a werewolf, aren’t you?” he asked before she could blurt it out. “Which one? Harry?”
“Of course not! Harry’s happily married to a mortal—a vet, actually. And please, no jokes about having a doctor in the family, because we’ve made them all already. I’m babbling, aren’t I?”
“Yes. Young Joe Bleythin, then.”
Sid closed her eyes until she got the naked longing under control. “Yes.”
She’d just admitted to falling in love with a male who was not a Prime. It was the most dangerous thing a vampire female could do, and she waited with her breath held to see how the Prime would take it.
“You could get him killed.”
She let out her breath. “I know.” The fear gnawed at her every day. “He doesn’t know. He’s never going to know. I’ve seen to that, for his own good.”
Jason’s hands landed hard on her shoulders and he brought them both to their feet. “What have you done?”
His urgency ripped into her. “I—”
“Is there a bond between you? Is that possible?”
“No!” Not exactly. Some things were too private, too dangerous to share. “I messed with his mind, that’s all.” She gave a bitter laugh. “That’s bad enough, even though I did it for his safety. When I realized how attracted we were to each other, I knew it had to be stopped. Werewolves disapprove of their people mating with mortals, though they don’t outright forbid it. Harry’s been ostracized by just about everyone but his brothers since he married Marj. I don’t want Joe to have to choose between his people and me. Besides—”
“Your Clan Primes would kill him if he dared to touch you.”
“Yes.” She felt the familiar wave of dread for Joe’s safety. “At least, they’d kill him if they knew I wasn’t interested in mating with anyone else.”
“And you would lose your freedom if they found out about
this love.”
“Whatever I feel, I keep to myself,” she told him. “I’ve made Joe believe that neither of us can be interested in being more than friends, that our species are too different to be attracted. I psychically brainwashed him, going against what the Clans stand for, but I did it for the right reasons.”
“That was my defense six decades ago, and they put me in prison anyway. Of course, I was also sixteen and stupid. You’re neither. Why are you really telling me about this?”
Chapter Thirty-five
S ofia continued thrusting her consciousness into her cousin’s trapped mind.
Talk to me. Come on, I know you’re in here somewhere. I’m getting tired of telepathically stomping around in a head filled with insanity and vicious cravings. I refuse to believe you really prefer dripping entrails to chocolate cheesecake.
Stop snarling at me, Catherine Sigornie Carter, or you’ll have to put up with my rant about Great Expectations again. Even worse, I’ll start dissecting The DaVinci Code. When I posted about it on my blog, we argued about it for a month. Come on—wake up and argue with me again. Help me find your brain. Once you find your brain, you can find your way back to your human body. You made yourself into a wolf. Now take the next step—come back to yourself. Come back to me.
All right, I’m going to say it, even if I really don’t like the guy—come back to Mike. Come back for Mike. The two of you need to have a long talk. Maybe what you need is a good fight. Or to screw. But you can’t do anything with him until you show him you’re just as much a werewolf as he is. He may be the Tracker, but you’re Hunyara, and that’s just as good. Maybe even better. Definitely better. He doesn’t deserve you.
Does…
You said something! Sofia responded to the faint, faraway whispered word. Thank God! Do you know how sick I am of hearing my own voice, even if it is all in your head? Say something else.
Sofia was answered by the usual snarl and growl from the beast dominating Cathy’s mind. Well, if you have a weapon, use it.
Mike sucks, Sofia stated.
Does not, Cathy countered, the thought faint but adamant from behind the beast’s fury.
Cathy, come back, Sofia called. Come back…
To Mike? For Mike?
A faint trace of hope reached Sofia.
For you. You have to do it for you. Face Mike as an equal. Love him as all you are.
“Good point,” Cathy said with a human voice, a human woman once more.
Sofia sighed in utter weariness. Her shoulders rested against the padded wall, and Cathy’s head rested heavily on her shoulder. It took all of Sofia’s energy to raise her hand and stroke her cousin’s cheek, which was wet with tears. Sofia realized that her cheeks were wet, as well. Tears, or sweat?
“I’m human,” Cathy said. “How did you do that?”
“We did it together. From now on, you can do it on your own. Right?”
“Yeah,” Cathy said after a long pause. “I think I can.”
“Good. I need to sleep now.”
“Me, too. Does your head hurt, too?”
“God, yes.”
“Try meditating.”
Sofia thought a bottle of aspirin might work better, but she didn’t have the strength to move. “How does one meditate?”
“Open your mind,” Cathy said. “Don’t think.”
That sounded easy enough. Go blank. Go to silence.
Jason…
Jason dreaded whatever was coming, but he had to ask, “Why are you really telling me about this?”
“I owe my Clan children,” Sid answered. “My Matri wanted me to have a child with David Berus, but I wasn’t interested. Imagine my relief when he and my mother hooked up.”
He knew Sidonie Wolf was different than other vampire females, but her attitude shocked him deeply. “You don’t want to have children?”
“Of course I do!”
Her outrage pleased him. “But—”
“I accept my duty to my Clan and to my species. More than that, I very much look forward to being a mother. But I have a very big problem when it comes to the biological mechanism required for getting pregnant.”
“You’re infertile?”
“No. I simply can’t bear the thought of having sex with a Prime. It would be wrong.”
“So you’re bonded to Joe.”
“Only a little, and that’s not the point. It’s really very simple,” Sid said. “I want you to father my child.”
“But—you said you couldn’t have sex with a Prime. I’m a Prime.”
“Sex is not necessary for what I have in mind.”
Chapter Thirty-six
T he door across the hall flew open before Jason could say another word. He didn’t know how to react to Sid’s outrageous proposal, anyway.
“Jason?”
Sofia staggered out into the hall and he forgot all about Sid, scooping Sofia up in his arms. He kissed her forehead, then gently touched his lips to hers.
“You look terrible,” he told her.
Her arms came around his neck. “I smell, too.”
“I wasn’t going to mention that. Come on, sweetheart, let me take you away from all this.”
“Somewhere with a bed, I hope.”
“Excuse me.” Sid eased past them and went into Cathy’s den. Jason ignored the look she gave him before she closed the door.
The mattress was wonderfully comfortable. The sheets were smooth and soft, and smelled of vanilla and lavender. The blanket felt like velvet. She had to be dreaming, because this couldn’t be the bed in her motel room. A warm body lay along the length of her back and thighs, making her feel safe and comforted. She’d had lots of dreams. The shadows of dark and fantastical images still spun inside her brain, but all was well while they were side by side.
Sofia sighed and came fully awake. She didn’t recognize the room when she opened her eyes, but she’d never been anywhere so luxurious before.
“Jason?”
When she sat up and looked at the body beside her, she was disappointed to discover that George and Gracie were the ones keeping her company in the king-size bed.
“Jason?” she called again, and heard the sound of running water from a nearby bathroom. Naked, she got up and padded through the ankle-deep carpet toward the bathroom door.
The door opened before she reached it and Jason stood there wearing a plush black robe. He looked good in black, and she liked the way the robe gapped open to show his ripped chest and abdomen.
“Hello, beautiful,” he said.
She was too aware of aches and pains all over to feel beautiful, but her body still reacted to his burning gaze. Heat flooded her insides and her nipples stiffened. He stepped forward to brush his thumbs across the hard peaks.
“What you do to me,” she murmured.
“Just wait,” Jason said. Then he glanced over her shoulder. “Excuse me.” He crossed the room and opened a patio door that faced a courtyard garden. “Out,” he ordered the wolves. “And don’t do anything to embarrass me,” he added as the animals ran outside. Jason closed the door and drew a curtain across it. “Alone at last,” he said, turning back to her.
“Where are we?” she asked. “And how’d we get here? Vampire magic?”
“I drove,” he said. “You fell asleep on the way over.”
She blinked. “Yeah. I sort of remember that.”
“We are guests of Lady Juanita at the Citadel of the Wolf Clan. Actually, it’s a mansion in La Jolla.”
“Lady Juanita’s the vampire queen?”
“Not mine,” he answered. “She’s the head of the Wolf Clan. I’m a Family Prime. She isn’t my Matri, but I do have to defer to her in her territory.”
Sofia listened to this and rubbed her forehead. “I guess I have a lot to learn about vampire and werewolf social structures.”
“You’ll have a chance to learn this evening. We’ve been invited to the Council of Elrond after supper.”
“The book or movie
version?” she asked. “The council is actually my favorite part of The Lord of the Rings.”
“Mine, too,” he answered. “I was never fond of Tolkien’s antitechnology stance, but I love his world-building and the history and mythology—”
“Keep talking sexy to me like that, and I’m going to throw you on the bed and have my way with you.” She grinned.
“I’m all in favor of ravishing and being ravished.” Jason gestured toward the bathroom. “But first I’ve run you a hot bath.”
She sighed gratefully. “I can certainly use one.”
Jason took her hand and led her into the huge bathroom, which was bigger than her entire apartment. It was all pale marble and glass bricks, highlighted with indirectly lit mirrors and matte chrome, and furnished with stacks of thick, royal blue towels.
She stared at the bathtub. “Does this thing come with a lifeguard?”
“I’m your lifeguard.” He lifted her and eased her into the wonderful warm water. She leaned her head back against the marble rim and watched appreciatively as Jason shed his robe. What a magnificent body the man had!
“Yes, I’m hot,” he said with an ironic smile. When he climbed into the water with her he added, “It’s a wonder it doesn’t sizzle and steam.”
Sofia held her arms out to him. “I think I’m in charge of doing that.” But even as he came close and their lips touched, her concerns began to surface.
Take this time for yourself, he whispered in her mind. For us. His hands moved through the water and over her.
His thoughts eased her and his touch stimulated; the combination sent her into a blissful haze. “I can’t remember how many days it’s been since we met,” she said.
“Does it matter?” he asked.
His mouth came down on hers and nothing mattered but sensation for a long time after that. At some point her tongue brushed across the sharp points of his teeth, and they shared the heady taste of a drop of blood.
He drew away from her then, even though she whimpered and tried to pull him back.
He chuckled and said, “I like you this way, Wolf Tamer, all needy and hungry.” She bared her teeth and Jason laughed. He picked up a sponge and a bottle of bath gel. “Lean back and relax. If I can bathe tigers, I think I can manage one grubby wolf tamer.”
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