Protecting Jazz

by Susan Hayes

  “Oh god.” He groaned at the thought of his coworkers hearing about his love life.

  “Welcome to my pain.” Sin was laughing as he slapped a hand down on Jase’s shoulder as they both watched Val exit the room. “Now, did you want to hear about our plans or not?”

  They had waited for a whole ten minutes before the questions had started. Where had Jase taken her for dinner? Did he behave himself? How had she survived his driving? Jazz had answered most of the questions with good humor and deflected the ones that felt too personal. There were only a handful of them in the training room, all women. It felt a bit like a hen party in the making, if hen parties had fewer cocktails and more sparring matches.

  She was helping Michelle with her stance when the other woman spoke, softly enough no one else could hear her, “Will you see him again when this is all over?”

  She answered without even considering it. “I hope so.”

  “Good.” Michelle flashed an approving smile. “He needs someone to take him in hand.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  Tara glanced over at them as they both burst into a fit of giggles that lasted until both of them were short of breath. As they managed to get themselves back under control, Tara crossed the mats and stopped just in front of them, a question in her hazel eyes.

  “May I read you, Jazz?”

  “Uh, yes, I guess you could.” She wasn’t sure what she’d just agreed to, but suddenly the other women went quiet.

  Tara took her hand and held it lightly as she drew in a slow breath. Her eyes fluttered closed, and a gentle, steady pressure enclosed Jazz’s head. Her dark half stirred at the sensation, and she rushed to mentally soothe the creature. The full moon was coming, and the wolf was close to the surface.

  “It’s all right.” Tara’s voice was in her head, and she felt the woman exude a sense of calm that washed over her. The wolf grumbled once before fading into the background of her awareness. The strange pressure receded, and Tara’s eyes slowly opened. She had a look of awe on her face.

  “Thank you. I’ve never touched a mind quite like yours before.”

  “What did you do to the wolf?” Jazz wanted to know how she’d soothed it so easily.

  “I just calmed you down a bit, that’s all.” Tara tipped her head to one side, and her eyes widened in understanding. “You think of it as its own separate entity?”

  “Of course I do. That’s what it is. What I am. Two minds, one body.” She forgot they had an audience as she struggled to explain the nature of her affliction.

  “Now I understand. I could sense the duality, but I didn’t realize what it meant.” Tara squeezed her hand and then let it go. “You’re wrong, though. You’re fighting yourself more than the wolf. It’s part of who you are.”

  “That’s what Jase said, too. Sort of.”

  “Then Jase is smarter than we gave him credit for.” Michelle’s voice was full of wry humor.

  “It can’t be true, though. I know there’s a monster inside me. I can feel it!” Jazz insisted. Her hands were shaking, and she glanced around at the concerned faces standing near her. “That thing is the one that hurts people, not me.”

  “I didn’t feel anything like that. It felt more like you were torn in two, fighting yourself.”

  “I know how that is,” Val chimed in. “Good girls are not supposed to beat up the boys. They’re supposed to cook for them and keep their house clean. At least that’s what my parents kept telling me. I was always conflicted between what my family wanted and what I wanted for myself. “

  “I think that’s it.” Tara nodded to herself. “What you call your wolf is really just human nature at its most primal level. Yours is stronger than most people’s, which isn’t surprising given what you are. It’s like the werewolf taps into your instincts and primitive mind. If you stopped fighting it, I bet it would be easier to control.”

  “I—don’t—hurt—people.” She stressed each word carefully. “The wolf is the dangerous one, not me.”

  “Says the woman who has earned a black belt,” Val pointed out with a lopsided grin.

  “Yeah, okay. I’m not helpless.” Her head was whirling so she sat down on the floor. “But I learned to defend myself as a human so I wouldn’t ever need to turn into the monster. And the mental discipline helps me with my focus. It’s hard to even consider the idea, that thing and I are one and the same. Two days ago, my world was nice and simple. Me good, wolf bad.” She sighed and scrubbed a hand over her face. “If you’re right, and I’m not saying you are, what do I do about it?”

  Val chimed in, “Well, for starters, we could rename the monster something like Fluffy. That should pull some of its teeth.” The room filled with soft guffaws, and she realized that none of them really understood.

  “I think maybe you all need to see something.” She got to her feet and nodded toward the door. “Does that door lock?”

  Michelle arched a brow in query as she crossed the floor and snapped the lock into place. “What do we need to see?”

  “I showed Jase last night because I wanted him to understand what I really am. If you’re going to be protecting me, you need to understand it, too. None of you seem to realize how serious this is. What exactly you’ll be facing out there. I’m just like the ones that are after me. We’re dangerous, terrible monsters and no nickname is going to change that.”

  Jazz tore off her top before she could talk herself out of it, determined to make her point. She took in one short breath and braced herself for the pain as she dropped the shields that kept the creature caged inside her. She channeled her focus into the right form, willing the wolf to appear and not the hybrid. The change came on fast, faster than she could remember any voluntary transformation ever happening. Despite the speed, the pain was intense. Liquid fire coursed through her as her body tore itself apart and reformed as something else. Beyond her own soft sounds of pain, she heard the gasps of the others, but her newly formed nose could not scent a trace of fear. Why aren’t they afraid of me? They should be.

  As the riptide of pain receded, she got to her feet and shook herself, working out the last kinks in her radically altered body. Something bound her back legs, and she realized she hadn’t taken the time to strip completely. She swung her head around to bite at the waistband and heard Val laughing.

  “Hey, Fluffy, need a hand?” Val crouched down beside her and started working at her somewhat mangled wardrobe. The others joined in, and soon she was free of the last of her clothing, standing there waiting for one of them to react as she had expected.

  “So, can you talk?” Michelle asked.

  Jazz shook her head and growled slightly.

  “I guess not.”

  Hands stroked down her flank, and she turned to stare at Tara, who just smiled back at her. “You have the softest fur. I couldn’t resist.”

  Jazz uttered another rumbling growl and chuffed at Tara. This wasn’t the reaction she had expected. They had to understand she was a dangerous monster and not something to be petted.

  “So what did Jase do when you wolfed out on him?” Val asked and then groaned. “Right, you can’t answer me. Well, that’s something to remember tonight. The guys hunting you won’t be able to communicate with each other when they’re not in human form.”

  Tara’s voice sounded inside her mind, startling her. “Can you hear me when you’re like this? I can send, but not receive. So if you can hear me, bark once.”

  Jazz yipped once, and Tara beamed.

  “Cool.”

  This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to. She snarled with frustration and was met with nothing but smiles and laughter.

  “Give it up already. We’re not going to run screaming, Jazz. We know it’s still you in there.” Michelle’s comment struck a chord, and Jazz realized they really were accepting her, fur, fangs, and all. She sighed heavily, drawing another round of laughter from them all.

  “So, while we’ve got you in this form, why don�
��t you show us what we might be facing tonight?” Val stood up and walked over to another set of mats. “C’mon, girl, show me what you’ve got.”

  Yes! This was something she could do. A way she could help them. Jazz threw herself at Val without warning, using all her speed. She knew she’d be nothing but a blur to anyone watching. She could show them the dangers, help them prepare. If they were going to fight monsters for her, at least they’d understand what the monsters were capable of.

  She hit Val square in the chest with her forelegs, her weight and momentum sending them both to the mat, Val pinned squarely beneath her.

  “Holy shit.” Tara breathed the curse softly as the others stared and Val tried to suck some air back into her newly emptied lungs.

  Jazz opened her jaws and gently lay her teeth on either side of Val’s throat in a pointed gesture that none of them missed. Then she stepped off Val and laid a paw on the woman’s arm and whined, the closest she could come to an apology while in this form.

  “Someone make a note,” Val wheezed and sat up with a rueful grin for Jazz. “Anyone working Jazz’s protection detail wears body armor.”

  “Are they all that fast?” someone asked.

  It was Michelle who answered, “According to Jazz, the others are faster, and stronger, too.”

  “Then is going to be fun.” Val got to her feet and looked at Jazz. “What else you got, Fluffy?”

  They were still at it when a heavy knock at the door finally reminded them they’d locked themselves in.

  “They’re probably dying to know what we’re up to in here,” Michelle quipped as she unlocked the door and opened it just enough to peek out.

  “Why’s the door locked?” Jase’s voice was strained, and Jazz felt a pang of guilt. How long had they been sparring?

  “Because the entire staff didn’t need to see us practicing werewolf maneuvers, Jase.”

  “What!” His voice pitched to a roar, and he pushed the door out of her hands and stormed past her.

  “Jasmine Masters, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Oh wow, he’s got it bad,” Tara whispered to Val, and they both snickered.

  Unable to speak, Jazz just cocked her head and waited for someone else to explain.

  “She’s been showing us how to deal with the guys after her. I had no idea how fast or powerful they were going to be.” Val pointed to Jazz. “We’re going to be much better prepared now, thanks to her.”

  Jase wasn’t a bit mollified. “Did she tell you that transforming is exhausting for her? Did she tell you how much it hurts?” He dropped to his knees and put his hands on Jazz’s head, looking her square in the eye. “You. Change back. Right now.”

  Resenting the way he was ordering her around, Jazz just growled at him, unmoving.

  “And don’t you backtalk me, either.”

  “She didn’t tell us, Jase. She was trying to make us understand how dangerous she is and things sort of evolved from there.” Michelle cast a worried look at Jazz. “How tired will she be?”

  “Very. It’s a side effect of the transformation. It only kicks in when they revert to human form. Apparently, it’s way worse if they go hybrid. But she’s going to need to sleep.”

  He glanced around and spotted her clothes in the corner. “Bring me her clothes, will you? Sin’s keeping the other guys back, but they’d like the use of the gym soon, and I would rather they not see Jazz before she’s changed back and dressed.”

  Feeling like a scolded child, Jazz turned her head and licked Jase’s wrist.

  “Yeah, you should be sorry,” he grizzled at her, his hands gentle as they cupped her head. “I went looking for you and no one knew where you were. It’s been more than two hours, and none of these yahoos were answering their cell phones.”

  Michelle and the others looked slightly chagrined as they brought over her clothes.

  “Better change back, Fluffy.” Val handed Jase the shirt Jazz had been wearing. “We’ll do this again sometime.”

  Jazz bobbed her head and yipped softly before settling herself down on the mat-covered floor. She would have rather not done this in front of Jase, but he was clearly not giving her a choice. She closed her eyes and visualized her human form, hanging onto it with all her mental focus as the pain swept over her and the transformation began.

  Jase was helping her back into her clothes before she had even opened her eyes. His touch was tender, and she let him fuss over her. She was too tired to do anything else. As he lifted her into his arms, she opened her eyes and smiled up at him.

  “Thank you. I wasn’t sure you’d still be here after you saw that.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. I’m not done yelling at you for disappearing on me or turning into a wolf and tiring yourself out. And will you quit expecting me to run out on you? It’s not happening.”

  “You’re kinda cute when you’re all bossy like this,” she murmured and then glanced over to where her friends were standing. Every single one of them was trying unsuccessfully to hide their amusement at Jase’s behavior.

  “She’s right, you know, Jase.” Michelle snickered, and the rest starting laughing hard. “You’re a regular mother hen.”

  “All of you fuck off.” He snarled and cradled Jazz close to his chest. “Before I have to get all superior and pull rank.”

  “Yep, you’re adorable like this.” Jazz nuzzled his neck and closed her eyes again, feeling utterly drained. The last thing she heard as Jase carried her down the hall was the sound of three women, all laughing hard.

  She’d transformed into her wolf for them. Jase wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not. It meant she was getting comfortable with the other members of the Guardians, but he didn’t like the idea of her sharing her secrets. At least not with anyone but him.

  She was more asleep than awake by the time he got her back to her room, and they’d garnered more than few odd looks as other staff members had seen him carrying her limp body down the hallway. He figured he had less than an hour before Remington knew what had happened. “I hope he’s in an open-minded mood. I don’t think ‘werewolf maneuvers’ was part of his training plan for White Knight or the Guardians.”

  “Was my idea,” Jazz muttered softly, and he realized he’d spoken aloud. “Wanted them to know…know I was a monster.” She cuddled closer, her lips brushing his neck. “They don’t think so, though…kept calling me Fluffy!”

  She sounded so incensed Jase had to bite back a chuckle. Maybe it had been a good thing after all. Maybe now Jazz would stop thinking of herself as nothing more than a monster.

  He lowered her carefully to the bed and drew one of the blankets over her, smoothing the waves of her hair away from her face. There were dark shadows under her eyes, and her normally golden complexion was pale. She needed sleep. There’d be time enough for him to brief her on the plan when she woke up. They intended to have her back to her home by late afternoon. He was going to keep her safe, and once this night was over, they’d go after the creatures who were hunting her.

  Chapter 11

  He let her sleep for as long as he could, nearly two hours. By the time he woke her, the first team was almost done setting up the security cameras and creating an electronic command-center that the second team would use when they arrived. No one was sure if there would be an attempt to get to Jazz tonight. According to her research, all werewolves took to their hybrid form at midnight on the night of the full moon. Given the fact that there hadn’t been a moon-related crime wave in the city, they were assuming that the group hunting her was locking themselves away before they transformed.

  He’d brought her up to speed as they grabbed lunch with the rest of the team assigned to guard her that night. The plan was fairly simple. He, Tara, and Val would drive Jazz back to her house in one of White Knight’s SUVs. Once she was safe inside, they’d join up with the team already there and lock down the property. An hour before midnight, he and Jazz would head down to her vault and secure her until t
he following morning.

  It bothered Jase that they had to leave now that they knew the wolves were watching them, but there wasn’t any choice. There was no place in their headquarters secure enough to hold Jazz in her hybrid state, and they couldn’t risk her getting out. She’d never forgive herself if she hurt anyone again.

  The sun was setting as they drove out the gate. The lack of light made it nearly impossible to see through the tinted windows and into the vehicle, but Jazz kept her head down until they were well clear, just in case. Security hadn’t spotted any sign of surveillance, but they weren’t taking any chances. There is always a chance we’re wrong and they are coming for her tonight.

  Val drove and Tara was in the passenger seat. The empath had her eyes closed, and Jase knew she was trying her best to scan as they moved, which was a nearly impossible task. He was grateful she was trying anyway. His nerves were on edge, and his instincts were telling him that something was going to happen. He just wished like hell he knew what it was. Jazz slipped her hand into his, and he squeezed her fingers. Her skin was warm and so soft he couldn’t help stroking his thumb over her wrist. Her pulse jumped slightly under his touch, and he shot her a grin. She flushed and ducked her eyes, and it was all he could do to resist the temptation to unbuckle her seat belt and drag her into his lap.

  From the front seat, Tara coughed slightly, and he realized she was sensing his emotions. “Tomorrow I’ll start practicing my mental shields, I promise.”

  Val chortled, and Tara turned around to glance at them both. “Teach Jazz, too. Between the two of you, I’m getting seriously overheated up here.”

  “Sorry,” Jazz apologized, looking only slightly sheepish.

  “Don’t be. I think it’s swee—” Tara stopped midsentence, and her eyes went wide. “They’re here!”

  Those were the last words Jase heard before his world exploded into a whirling place filled with light and noise. The first thing he heard besides the ringing in his ears was a low groan of pain. It took him a few seconds to realize the voice was his own. Every part of him ached, and he felt off balance. Even his thoughts were coming to him slowly, too slowly. He opened his eyes and realized the problem. The SUV was on its side. His seat belt was cutting into him, and he knew he needed to get free of it. Jazz was just below him, her face splattered with blood. When another droplet hit her cheek, he realized she wasn’t the one bleeding, he was.