A London Werewolf in America

by A London Werewolf in America (lit)

  “Who, me? Just because I’m holding a dragon with separation issues who could go inferno any second?”

  “No, no, not you. Roderick. The werewolf. He’s still convinced somebody’s out to get him.”

  “Oh, right. Mr. Sexy British Accent. So how’s the whole bodyguard thing working out? You gone to bed with him yet?”

  “No!” Damn pixies. Bring in a man and they tunnel-vision. “I’m not going to, either. It’s a business relationship and that’s it.”

  Peri giggled. “Business, right. That’s how it starts.”

  “If you had wings, I’d pull them off. Now listen. There may be something to this. The Duquesne pack’s had a couple close shaves. That’s the pack Roderick’s marrying into. Someone may be hunting weres in general, and it may be a human. Any word on the street?”

  Peri sobered instantly. “I haven’t heard anything. I’ll ask the vamps. You know them. Biggest gossips on the planet. Can I put Norman down now? He’s heavy.”

  “If he isn’t smoking, sure. I’ll try to find time to stop in.” Roderick, once more at her side, growled an objection. “Stop it. You don’t own me. Not you, the wolf.”

  “You want backup? June can watch the store. I’ll just tie everything down.”

  “Thanks, but I think we’re good. Have you heard from Paul? Sometimes he knows when I’m in trouble before I do.”

  “He hasn’t called here.” Darinda could hear Peri’s pout through the phone. “I still think your werewolf’s overeacting. He just wanted to get you up to his den so he could have his way with you. You should let him. Have some fun for once. I’ll pay cash money for details. I’ll bet werewolf hickeys are—”

  “Good night, Peri.”

  Maybe she ought to revise her assessment, Darinda thought as she returned her phone to her pocket. Maybe she and Roderick weren’t as well off as she figured. She had a sense of menace at her back. And that jogger up ahead at one of the picnic tables had passed her twice already. He wasn’t too good of a jogger. He made lots of puffing and painful grunts and had no form whatsoever. As a muscle man, however, he’d be more than sufficient. Darinda didn’t like that a bit.

  She also didn’t like the way Roderick kept glancing behind them and growling over his shoulder. She sent a probe that way and hit a malevolence so sharp it stopped her dead. Not human. The presence left a sensation of fur on her tongue. Canine. A were.

  Well, that answered that. “There’s a were behind us,” she murmured.

  By the cowboy statue? That’s what I thought. I knew I felt eyes on me.

  She squinted, but couldn’t spot anything, were or otherwise. “Anyone you know?”

  I couldn’t get a clear enough scent. Too much auto exhaust. It doesn’t feel like a wolf, though. This is different. Thinner, somehow.

  “A jackal?” Darinda wondered. At least one clan of jackals had established a den outside Germantown. One of them worked in the coroner’s office. Charlie had told her about him. “Let’s turn around and head back. Stick close to me. Pretend you don’t know he’s there. Let’s see what he does.”

  They reversed direction and retraced their steps in a casual amble. Instantly the “jogger” hopped up from his seat and made long, loud strides to catch up with them. At the same moment two men at another picnic table, whom she’d taken for a gay couple, suddenly abandoned both the table and their assumed interest in each other and started toward her, shoulder to shoulder.

  The humans had them cut off in front and behind. The were held Kelly Drive. That left a dash across the grass and a dive into the Schuylkill, a perilous act in itself. “I know,” she answered Roderick’s snarl. “Watch this.”

  She murmured her spell. Just like the teens earlier, the two men slowed, then moved to sidestep. They stopped and shook their heads with mumbled curses in Jersey accents. They kept on coming.

  Watch what? Roderick grumbled in her head.

  Ohhhh crap. They must be shielded. Darinda halted. Roderick halted. The pair advancing on her halted. At her back the “jogger” halted and wheezed for breath.

  “Okay,” she said, “we all know what’s what here. Are there any more of you? No? Then tell me what it is you want.”

  The tag team deferred to the man behind her. He, in turn, glanced across the street. Darinda followed that glance to The Cowboy. She spotted the eyes first, glowing gold within the gloom of the trees. The rest of the were skulked out to crouch beside the statue’s base. A were, but not a wolf. Not as big or solidly-built as Roderick. Longer legs and muzzle, narrower tail, lean to the point of scrawny. Very much like the animal that had darted in front of their car on Meadowlands Drive. If not the same one, then a littermate.

  Roderick chuffed and looked up at her, as perplexed as she.

  “We want the wolf,” the big man said. “You can go.”

  Darinda flexed her fingers, summoning power. “Can’t do that.”

  The were lolled his tongue. She reached for his mind and hit psychic static. Warded against mental invasion. Somehow they’d learned Roderick had hired a witch and come prepared. How had they found her out so fast?

  The were barked sharply, and his human pack moved in.

  No time to run, or place to run to. Roderick planted himself at her side and snarled at first the pair, then the big man. Darinda held up her hands. “Stop,” she ordered, “or I’ll scream.”

  One of the tag team chuckled. “Go ahead, honey. See what it gets you.”

  If you insist. She hauled in air until she thought her lungs would burst. She shrieked.

  The sonic blast hit both of the pair and knocked them back a full three yards. Lucky for her they’d stuck close together. They fell to the ground, writhing and clutching at their ears. Car alarms went off like sirens in a nearby parking area, and one unfortunate passing motorist had his car windows shattered.

  And Peri’d called her nuts when she’d decided to take singing lessons from a banshee.

  With the tag team out of commission, Darinda whirled and slammed hard air at the big man. He staggered, but didn’t go down. Instead he pulled out a knife. Its blade caught the light with a wink that warned of silver and magic. He sliced downward. Darinda felt her air spell part like soft margarine. The muscle man lumbered toward her.

  “Run!” she ordered Roderick. “He’s got silver!”

  Roderick barked to indicate he’d heard. Then he charged the man with the knife.

  Stupid. Stupid, pig-headed male. How was she supposed to fire off a defensive spell with him in the way?

  Roderick leaped, shifting in midair Instead of sinking his dagger up to the hilt in a wolf’s neck, the big man found his fighting arm caught in the steely grip of another man’s powerful hand. Roderick’s fist found the knife-wielder’s chin. Knife-wielder dropped like a stone.

  Okay, maybe not so stupid. Still a pig-headed male.

  Something hit her in the back of the leg. She stumbled to one knee. Bright teeth flashed before her eyes, and rancid breath slapped her in the nose. She’d forgotten the were. His jaws darted at her throat but slid aside at the last second. That much of her “untouchable” spell still operated. He shut his jaws on her hair instead and yanked with all his strength. Sharp flashes of agony knifed in front of her eyes. Darinda cried out. No banshee shriek this time, only a wail of pure pain.

  Roderick, once more wolf, leaped on top of them. The were let her go, his jaws needed to defend himself. The battle was fierce, decidedly one-sided, and over in seconds. The were broke free and streaked across the grass. Roderick raced after him. The enemy were darted across Kelly Drive. Screeching brakes and yells from drivers put an end to the pursuit. Roderick turned and loped back to Darinda.

  She sat up, rubbing her head. Roderick pawed her shoulder. The paw turned into a hand. “Are you hurt?”

  “That depends. Is my scalp still attached to me?”

  “Seems to be. No blood, at any rate.”

  “Then I’m not hurt.” She scrambled up. “Come on, we have t
o get out of here.”

  “Not just yet. Not without answers.”

  The tag team was unconscious and therefore useless to them, so Roderick stalked over to the knife-wielder. He hooked his fingers into the man’s jacket and hauled their dazed, would-be assassin upright. “Start talking, ape. Who sent you after me?”

  “Huh ruh?”

  Roderick shook him violently, like a dog with a doll. He thrust his face, and his bared teeth, right up against the man’s blank expression. “Want to do this the messy way, eh?”

  “Nobody’s getting messy.” Darinda shouldered her way up beside him and laid her palm flat on the big man’s forehead. She shut her eyes. The man’s eyes closed. Darinda’s opened. “His name’s Pete Koslavski. He’s from Trenton. Local muscle, odd-job man. Somebody hired him and his buddies. He’s thinking ‘a stinkin’ mutt.’ He was supposed to kill ‘some limey wolf’ and rough up anyone with him.”

  Roderick growled. “I don’t suppose he knows the mutt’s name.”

  Darinda murmured a question. The man grunted. “Alfie. I think that was him you just chased off. Does the name mean anything to you?”

  “Not a thing. Maybe he’ll remember more if I rip off his—”

  “No! No messy, no rippy. It sounds like that were was the brains. These men are just hired hands. I’ll probably get more from the knife than we will from them.” She bent and scooped their attacker’s weapon off the ground and thrust it into her back pocket. “Now let’s move. That were might have gone for his pack.”

  They had a more immediate problem as well in that they’d drawn an audience. The sounds of braking cars had increased, and the shouts and catcalls from their occupants had definitely changed in tone, particularly from the women. “What are you gawping at?” Roderick blasted at them.

  “What do you think?” Darinda said. There had to be a spell somewhere that would keep a were clothed once he switched from canine to human. She kept her own eyes fixed firmly on the dark flow of the Schuylkill while she grabbed for his hand. “We need to get you out of sight.”

  “Point well taken.” They raced off, to a chorus of boos and exhortations to get a room. Off in the distance, a siren added its piercing note to the urgency.

  They didn’t need to run far. Not too distant from The Cowboy the footpath curved around a solid rock wall that blocked them from sight of any motorists, as well as from the police car that whizzed by moments later. “You’d better change,” Darinda said. “Unless one of those cops is Charlie, they’re going to take a dim view of a naked guy out in public.”

  “That wasn’t a wolf.”

  “Or a jackal. I know. I’ve never seen a were like that.”

  “Those monkeys knew what I was. They were after me specifically, just like the others.”

  “They knew I’m a witch. They had defensive charms.”

  “They couldn’t have known I’d be down here unless—”

  “They couldn’t have known I’d be with you unless—”

  In chorus: “They’re watching the house.”

  “That dog I almost ran down,” Darinda said. “It looked just like the were that jumped us. There could be more than one.” She felt the blood drain from her face. “Aunt Letty.”

  She was talking to the rock. About a foot below her eye line Roderick barked and bolted up the path. Darinda raced after him. Slow! she shot at his mind. We don’t want to draw anybody’s attention.

  He snarled, but he slowed to a brisk trot and urged her on with gruff, insistent huffs. They moved as quickly as they dared. Another police cruiser shot by with lights flashing. The turnoff to Meadowlands loomed, and both forgot caution and ran for it. The few people out on the Drive paid no mind to them. In the rush to follow the cops and find out what was going on, the agitated woman and her big hairy dog barely rated a glance.

  * * * *

  Aunt Letty was waiting for them at the door. Roderick leapt over the threshold and promptly shifted. “Are you all right?” he demanded of her.

  “I was just about to ask you the same,” Aunt Letty said coolly. She took Darinda’s arm, guided her inside, and shut the door. “I’ve been hearing the most outrageous things. Dogs fighting down by the river, naked men—”

  “Already?” Darinda said. “Charlie called already?”

  “Oh, no. On the scanner, dear. I bought one when Charles joined the force. I know he’s grown and all, but a mother still worries.” She narrowed her eyes at Darinda. “Do I want to know about this?”

  “I think you’d better. You haven’t had any problems since we got back from the Duquesnes’?”

  “I’ll make sure we don’t.” Roderick stalked into the kitchen. Seconds later the door slammed.

  Aunt Letty shook her head. “It hasn’t even been a week. I’m going to run out of tea.”

  They sipped their tea at the kitchen table. While they waited for Roderick’s return, Darinda recounted this most recent incident. She gave as detailed a description of the strange were as she could remember. “I’m not sure exactly what he was,” she finished, “but I’m certain he wasn’t a wolf.”

  “No, it doesn’t sound like one of us. He might have been a coyote.”

  Darinda raised her brows. “A coyote? I didn’t know they lived around here.”

  “Oh, they’ve been moving East for decades, dear. Wissahickon Gorge pretty much belongs to them these days. But we’ve never had any trouble with them. I can’t imagine why one would want to attack you.”

  Or Roderick, Darinda thought. He hadn’t been in the country long enough to make this many enemies. “Do you suppose—”

  She broke off when the large doggie door in the kitchen entrance swung upward and Roderick came in. He immediately rose up and switched. “Were stink all over the yard, as well as across the street,” he announced. “They’ve been hiding themselves among the dogs. No more feeding strays.”

  “Your aunt thinks it’s a coyote,” Darinda said.

  “Coyote?” He lifted his brows just as she had. “Those little yappy, stinky things? I thought they lived out West, with the cowboys and the Gila monsters and such.”

  “Not these days,” Aunt Letty said. “The world’s a different place from those books you used to read. Some of them even own businesses, if you can imagine that.”

  “No, I can’t. Do we have a coyote named Alfie angry with us for some reason?”

  “Alfie? I don’t recall anyone by that name, wolf or coyote. Perhaps it’s one of Eugene’s friends. He’s not as discrete as he could be. Darinda, dear, is something the matter?”

  Depended on your point of view, she thought. Roderick stood beside her chair with his hand on the back of it and his arm creating a possessive barrier around her. He was still were-naked, and his “rampant manhood,” as Peri’s paperback collection liked to term it, hung uncomfortably close to her face. “Hung” being the operative word. Keeping her eyes averted was becoming a definite chore.

  Letty snorted shrewdly. She frowned at her nephew’s face, then at the source of the problem. “Manners, Roddy. Miss Lowell is our guest.”

  It took a moment before he caught on. His upper lip rose. “Bloody monkey priggishness,” he muttered and stomped into the parlor. When he returned, he had an afghan wrapped around his middle. “You need to call Charlie,” he said to Aunt Letty. “Not in the morning. Right now. Get him in on the investigation. If coyotes are keeping us under surveillance he needs to know about it.”

  “So does Big Alex,” Darinda added. “This could be some kind of territorial takeover. Charlie will want to pass the word along.”

  “Yes,” Aunt Letty agreed. “I’ll tell Charles right now. Coyotes. I never would have believed it. Well, he’ll know how to handle it without involving humans. This must be kept within family.”

  She got up and went to the phone on the wall. Darinda also rose and quietly left the kitchen to grant her privacy. Roderick followed almost on her heels. Darinda took a seat on the sofa. She felt shakier than she cared to
admit. Fending off attacking humans, that she could do in her sleep. Weres were nightsiders like herself, and this one had been shielded to boot. She couldn’t forget how close the were’s teeth had come to her throat.

  Roderick took up position beside the sofa, just as he had in the kitchen. “Your scent’s spiking again.”

  “Reaction. I’ll be fine.”

  Aunt Letty’s voice reached them from the kitchen, browbeating some unfortunate desk sergeant. Yes, he jolly well could contact Officer Meadows. His mother had a family emergency. What part of that could he not comprehend?

  “Thanks for the save.”

  “Nonsense. You’re pack now. Packmates defend each other.”

  “I’m supposed to be protecting you.”

  “And you did admirably against the humans. The least I could do was reciprocate.”

  “So, other than just now, what have you done to tick off the local coyote population?

  “Haven’t the foggiest. I’ve never even met one, though I’ve heard of them. Mother’s had dealing with them in some our overseas ventures.” He snorted. “Ill-bred rubbish.”

  “With money and connections, if they could afford this.” She cocked her hip upwards and patted the bulge of the knife in her pocket. “Whatever witch spelled this is going to tell me who paid for it.”

  “Wouldn’t that be a violation of customer confidentiality? Betrayal of some kind of oath? You folk are keen on oaths, so you keep telling me.”

  “This violates our general oath to do no harm. As in threatening your life and mine. That witch will talk, trust me on that.”

  He surprised her with a smile full of deadly teeth. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d swear you were a wolf.”

  “You do know better, you don’t know me, so leave it alone.”

  He chuckled. He was standing entirely too close to her again, with only the afghan between her and his unashamed maleness. Drat were lack of modesty anyway. “This clears up one mystery,” she said. “If they’re local, and they’ve been keeping an eye on the house, that must be how they knew about me. I had no idea I was that well-known in the were community.”