by Ashlyn Chase
Morgaine shrugged one shoulder. “I have a feeling there’s more Reginald wants to tell me, but he would rather talk to me alone. The only problem with that is not having a witness. And I’m not sure he trusts me completely yet. Now that Chad said something, I think my clothes and makeup might have intimidated him.”
“It’s possible.”
Morgaine hesitated. It seemed as if she wanted to tell her something else, so Roz gave her the time to put her thoughts into words.
“Yeah. It’s more than that. I…I have a mild case of agoraphobia. I hate to leave the building alone. At least if someone I trust is with me and I have a panic attack, I’m sure they’ll help.”
“Of course I’ll help! I had no idea.”
“No, I’m pretty sure nobody does, except Gwyneth, of course. She does all our errands. If we need something she can’t find locally, I order it online.”
“That must be inconvenient at times. I have a car. If you ever need a ride somewhere…”
Morgaine gave her a grateful smile. “That’s sweet of you. I have to really, really need something badly to accept a ride anywhere. My grandmother died last year and my uncle had to come all the way up from Maryland to drive me to the funeral.”
“I understand.” She didn’t really know much about agoraphobia, but she’d look it up on Wikipedia later. Roz took a deep breath and smelled something earthy and sweet. “What’s that scent you’re wearing?”
“Patchouli.”
“What is that? Some kind of Italian designer perfume?
Morgaine laughed. “No. It’s an essential oil. Witches wear it to attract money, and I need some. Our phone-sex business is drying up, since Dottie put the kibosh on loud noises. Some of the guys like us to sound like we’re, um, enjoying ourselves too.”
“Then you need to solve the art museum case.”
“Exactly. If I can help recover the stolen artwork, I could make millions. I’d be set for life.”
Roz understood the stakes a little better. “So you think your gothic style is interfering with your mediumship? Reginald’s from a different era. Does he seem easily intimidated?”
“Judging from his reaction to Konrad, I’d say he has limits.”
“What reaction to Konrad?”
“Oh, he hasn’t told you yet?”
“Told me what?”
Morgaine covered her mouth and stood. “I’m sorry. I’ve said too much. I should go.”
“Wait. What are you saying? What didn’t Konrad tell me?
Morgaine started toward the door.
“No, don’t leave yet.” Maybe I can get it out of her during our girl time.
“No, I really, really have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Roz looked at her askance. “Promise?”
“I promise. It’s not like we live miles apart.”
Roz rose and walked Morgaine to the door. “Okay. I think I understand. Whatever it is would be better coming from him, right?”
Morgaine let out a deep breath and looked relieved. “Yes. I’ll just be upstairs if you need me.”
Need her? What’s he going to do? Break my heart?
***
“What aren’t you telling me?” Roz demanded, standing opposite Konrad in the hallway outside his door.
He pulled on his jacket and wondered who had told her. “It’s nothing, Roz. Well, let me amend that. Yes, there’s something I have to tell you. It’s just that now’s not the time.”
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Do you have any illegitimate kids?”
“No.”
“Insanity in the family?”
“Not per se, but some might argue that point.”
“Why can’t you tell me? I don’t have to go to work for another hour, and you’re not working at all right now.”
“An hour isn’t enough time. That is, unless we do something else and save the talk for later.” He grinned and hoped she’d catch his drift without his having to wiggle his eyebrows.
“Oh, no, you don’t. No sleazing out of it with sex.”
“Sex isn’t sleazy between consenting adults who care for each other.”
“That’s something we need to talk about. It’s fine if you care about me, but you don’t have to take care of me. It’s very sweet of you to want to, but I’m a grown woman, and I can take care of myself.”
Konrad cupped her cheek. “I wasn’t talking about taking care of you. I was talking about loving you.”
Roz’s eyes rounded, and Konrad watched as she experienced a suspended moment in stunned silence. At last she was able to respond. “Oh!”
He expected her to say something more, and he waited and waited. “Roz? Did you hear what I said?”
“Yeah,” she murmured, seeming completely distracted.
Maybe she needed it spelled out a little more. He cupped both her cheeks and waited until she was gazing into his eyes. “I’m telling you I love you, Roz.”
“I…I love you too. I think.”
“You think?” Konrad dropped his hands and took a step back.
“It’s just that I know there’s something you’re not telling me. I need to know what it is, or at least why you can’t tell me right now.” She stepped forward and rested her hands against his chest. His arms automatically extended to her waist while she continued. “Before, we hadn’t known each other very long at all, but we’ve been on several dates now, and…I should know what the big secret is before we go any further.”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “Trust me, there’s a right time and place to talk about this, and I’ll do my best to find them.”
She narrowed her eyes and scrutinized him. “Soon?”
“As soon as I can.”
Eventually she sighed. “Okay.” She stepped into his space and raised her face to his for a kiss.
Thank God. He kissed her tenderly at first and then the inevitable fire sprang up and so did part of his anatomy.
After kissing her thoroughly, he asked, “Are you sure you’re not in the mood for a quickie?”
She rested her head against his chest and mumbled, “You’re incorrigible.”
“But you love me.”
“I think…”
Konrad gazed at the ceiling and asked for strength. Now wasn’t the time to push for a commitment, either.
He kissed the top of her head. “At least you know I love you. I’m glad I said it.”
She tipped her face up, and her eyes sparkled. “I’m glad you did too.”
Chapter 10
Konrad returned to the Gardner Museum to think. The place was ideal for that. Not only was it an art museum, but also the whole building surrounded a courtyard rich with verdant plants and flowering shrubs. Gray stone benches had been strategically placed throughout the courtyard to allow visitors to appreciate the subtly fresh-scented air and quiet surroundings.
Too preoccupied to appreciate the beauty all around him, he paced and obsessed about his impossible predicament. Now that he’d told Roz he was in love with her and knew she was in love with him too, despite reservations, he had to tell her the truth. Trust was an important ingredient in a mature, loving relationship.
But how do you tell the woman you love you’re a werewolf and you want to be mated for life? How do you admit you lied to your lawyer and committed the crime you were accused of? How do you keep pretending you’re unemployed and expect to pay the rent?
Konrad sank onto a bench and slumped over with his head in his hands. The last thing he expected was for anybody to come over and talk to him about it. People in the city didn’t talk to strangers. If you were on fire, they might stop to put you out, but they might also walk right past you, glaring at you for having the nerve to disrupt their thoughts. That’s why he jumped, startled, when he felt a touch on the back of his head. As he whipped around to see who was standing behind him, he felt a sharp prick of pain in his scalp. A few of his hairs had been yanked out by a toddler.
The child’s mother rushed over, pushing an empty stroller. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I thought it was safe to let him walk off a little energy here.”
Konrad smiled, relieved that no one wanted to chat his ear off and simply wanted to pull his hair. The boy clutched a few long strands of blond hair in his chubby fist.
“Oh, he got some of your hair!”
“Don’t worry. It’s no big deal.” He patted the little tyke on his head.
The boy drew the strands toward his mouth. The woman yanked his fist away and worked the hair out of his hand. She dropped the strands on the path and said, “No, dirty.” She shook her head vigorously and enunciated, “Dirrr-tey.”
I washed my hair this morning. Even as much as he understood a toddler needed simple explanations, Konrad couldn’t help being slightly offended.
The woman didn’t say another word. She simply plucked the boy up off the ground before he went after the fallen hair and wrestled him into his stroller while he squirmed and whined. Eventually she pushed the screaming child away.
So much for peace and quiet to think.
***
Finally I have some of this freak’s DNA, and I know right where to put it, Reginald said to himself later that evening.
The long strands of hair appeared to float on an invisible wind, through the dark gallery and down to the basement.
They didn’t have that type of testing back in my day. They didn’t even fully understand fingerprinting back then. Of course, they did in the ’90s, but the real thieves wore gloves, so they didn’t leave any prints.
As the hairs disappeared behind some shelving, they attached themselves to a piece of duct tape that had been left behind when one of the bound security guards was cut loose after the robbery.
***
Konrad strolled along the wide sidewalk with his twin brother, Nick. Their broad shoulders seemed to span the whole width, and a passerby walked into the gutter to avoid the two men.
“Now that you’ve ignored my advice and gotten involved with this human lawyer, you want my advice again? Isn’t that a little ironic, bro?”
Nick hadn’t used the concept of irony properly, but Konrad wasn’t about to correct him. He needed his compassion, and Nick was sensitive to criticism, no matter how well intended.
“How should I tell her?”
Nick shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I’ve never had to fess up to a woman before. I just love ’em and leave ’em. It’s what we do.”
“I’ve never liked that part.”
“Yeah? Well, you should try it. Much less messy.”
“How would you know that?”
Nick gave his brother a sidelong glance. “Because it is. Look at you. You’re a wreck. I’ve never seen you this insecure!”
“She’s worth whatever pain I have to go through.”
“You mean, ‘It’s better to have loved and lost,’ and all that?”
“Maybe, but I’m hoping not to lose her at all. How can I manage that? I mean the stakes are ridiculous. I just don’t know if she trusts me enough, yet.”
“You should have stuck to our own kind. They know the ropes. Speaking of ropes, you could test her trust.”
Konrad raised his brows. “How?”
“Ask if she’ll let you tie her up.”
He laughed. “I guess letting me do that might be a sign of trust. Or how kinky she is.”
Nick looked over at him. “By the way, that doctor you sent my way? What a freak!”
“Oh, shit. Sorry, bro. I didn’t realize.”
Nick laughed again. “I mean freaky in a good way! She was all over me like an octopus on caffeine.”
Konrad laughed out loud with his booming voice. “Must have been a fun night.”
“The best.”
“Aren’t you tempted to call her again?”
“Nope.”
“So, that’s it? You’re just going to dump her and let her wonder why?”
Nick raised an eyebrow. “What would you suggest? Date her for a month, have lots more great sex, fall head over heels in love, and then tell her I’m a werewolf? Oh, no wait. That’s what you’d do.”
Konrad let out a long sigh. “It’s more than that.” Taking a deep breath, he told his twin the rest. “Rosalyn is my soul mate.”
Nick stopped walking. “Your what?”
“My mate. The one. The love of my life.”
“Shit, how do you know that?”
“We’re able to communicate telepathically.”
Nick’s jaw dropped. “Get the fuck out. Did you just say you can hear her thoughts? And worse…she can hear yours?”
“Yeah. It’s been a challenge, believe me.”
“How the hell…” Nick clasped his brother’s shoulder. “I hate to say this, big guy, but you are so fucked.”
“Thanks, Nick. You’ve been a big help.”
***
Sly stretched out on Konrad’s sofa. His long arms spanned the back of it. He crossed one ankle over his knee.
“What’s so urgent?” he asked.
“Nothing’s urgent.” Konrad settled into the adjacent chair. “Can’t I just want to spend some time with my buddy?”
Sly lifted one eyebrow.
“Okay, okay. I have a dilemma. I thought you might be able to give me some advice, since you went through it recently.”
Sly cocked his head. “I did? What are you talking about?”
Konrad smiled. “I know you told Merry about your being a vampire. Now I have to tell her best friend I’m a werewolf.”
“And then, if I weren’t her father and she weren’t married, we could double date?” Sly mocked.
Konrad reeled. “What the? Incestuous visual aside, that’s…oh, you’re kidding again.”
Sly laughed. “Of course I am. I just couldn’t resist yanking your chain. You sound like an adolescent talking to his older, more experienced friend about girls.”
Konrad’s lips thinned.
“I’m sorry. You had a dilemma. I shouldn’t have poked fun, but you have to admit, it broke the ice.”
Konrad leaned against the back of the chair and blew out a long breath as he stared at the ceiling.
Sly said, “Come on. Give me a break. It’s not an easy subject to discuss. I tend to joke around instead of getting overly serious.”
Konrad bent forward with his elbows on his knees. “Tell me about it.”
Sly’s voice softened. “Naturally I was afraid of what she’d say. Or do. But Merry’s not like other girls. She has the heart of a lion, but the compassion of Mother Teresa. And she’s open-minded. I know she had doubts, even so.”
“I think because you and I had saved her from that rapist, she was predisposed to trusting you.”
“That probably didn’t hurt. She did feel indebted to both of us. But when I expressed my concern about her relationship with Falco, she showed me what she was made of.” Sly shook his head wistfully. “Just like her mother.”
“How did you tell her?”
“I didn’t. Nathan did. All I had to do was tell her he was right and try to dispel the myths.”
“Shit. I’m not about to let Nathan tell Roz for me. He’d scare her to death and laugh about it.”
“No, I wouldn’t recommend that. I didn’t ask him to tell Merry. He just blurted it out. Apparently she wanted to bake a dessert to thank us for coming to her rescue. When she asked Nathan where I lived, he couldn’t resist telling her my lair was in the basement and I was on an all-liquid diet.”
Konrad chuckled. “Sorry, man. I can just imagine what she must have thought.”
“Yeah, she thought Nathan was psycho, not me. Not that he isn’t…”
Konrad shook his head. “Man, that must have been bizarre for poor Merry.”
“I’m sure it was. I’m glad she didn’t take his word for it and came to me instead.”
“Yeah, but you had to tell her it was true. What did she do then?”
Sly shrugged. “She listened. I think she
might have been too stunned to speak, so I took advantage of the silence and poured out my whole story.”
“And she believed you? Just like that?”
Sly shook his head. “Not ‘just like that.’ I had to give her details no one but her biological father would know, and then she added things up. My strength, her birth surname being the same as mine, my watching over her…But her ability to smell blood a mile away was what finally made a believer out of her. She’d never been able to explain that, except to say it predisposed her to becoming a nurse.”
“I see, so you actually had to persuade her of two things. Not just your vampirism, but also your being her only living—let me amend that—her only blood relative.”
Sly smiled. “Yeah.” He adjusted himself in his seat. “I’m afraid I don’t know your Roz at all. I’ve seen her, but we’ve never met. I don’t know what she’s like or what you should do. I’m sorry.”
Konrad sighed. “It seems like a recurring theme. I’m the one who knows her, and I have to decide how to tell her. I get that. The only problem is she’s the type who needs proof. She wants to see or experience everything herself.”
Sly shook his head. “I don’t envy you. Do it wrong, and you’re screwed, man…so screwed.”
***
Roz dragged herself home from work the next afternoon, completely fried. Some of the sociopaths she had to defend were extremely intelligent, fooling even the savviest judge, and some, like the idiot she got today, were stupid enough to shoot themselves in the foot, literally.
The guy then had the nerve to say it wasn’t his gun. He was “holding it for a friend” when it went off in the convenience store. She had told him not to open his mouth. So, why didn’t the dumbass just sit dumbly and let her do the talking?
She fiddled with her keys and let out a huge sigh when the door opened in front of her. Nathan was exiting the building and held the door open for her.
“Thanks. I don’t know if I would have had the strength to open the damn thing if you hadn’t come along.”
He stared at her. “Were you hit by a truck?”
She chuckled. “No, I just feel like I was.”
“You look like you were, too.”
Oh, nice. “Thanks, Nathan.”
“Where are you coming from?