“You’re not okay, mate,” Rob said. “We’ll take care of you.”
“I’m sure you will.” I commanded my legs to move, but they refused. I looked around for some sort of friendly face, but most of the ones there only had mocking expressions. I’d stumbled into a den of Young Bloods, and I suspected I’d be carried out if something didn’t change soon. But what did they want to do to me? Hold me hostage until they got access to the Institute?
“Drugging and kidnapping me isn’t going to make me sympathetic to your cause,” I said to Alice.
“No one said anything about kidnapping. We’re just going to bring you back to our flat to sleep it off.”
A dark figure made its way into the pub, its hat pulled low over its brow to shade its face. It wore a large jacket and tan pants. No one looked directly at it, but all got out of its way. When it paused at our table, Jade didn’t look at it, but she stirred her drink with such speed an ice cube flopped over the side of the glass, and Rob pulled his collar up around his neck.
“Did it get cold in here?” he asked.
Alice looked around. “It’s just another pub ghost. You’re too sensitive.”
“You say you want a sensitive bloke you can talk to, but I’m too sensitive.” He spoke rapidly and rubbed his neck.
A blast of cold air down the back of my shirt made me jump to my feet, and this time my legs worked.
“Thank you for your hospitality and the drink,” I said, “but I need to get going.”
I followed the ghost out of the pub, and it vanished once we stepped into the cool night air. I walked a block and leaned against the wall of another bar, listening for sounds of pursuit. The staccato click of Alice’s boots came to my ears, and I ducked into a doorway that was deep enough to keep me hidden.
“What the fuck was that?” she asked someone, presumably Rob. “How did you let him get away?”
“Didn’t you feel it?”
They continued to argue as they passed me, and I slumped against the door, wishing I hadn’t worn a white sweater. They didn’t see me, however, and passed on. Something like static thrummed in my chest, and I recognized they probably felt the same tension. Encounters with a ghost could do that to you, and I wished I’d seen my savior’s face. Perhaps it had been my father, but he had never produced such a feeling when he appeared to me before. Could it be whatever they’d laced my drink with?
Speaking of which, I needed to move on, but now that the crisis had mostly passed, my adrenaline reduced. Although my brain worked and ticked through my strategy, my knees went soft, and I couldn’t feel my tongue. I feared someone would find me passed out in a doorway like a common drunk, and what would that do to my hope of becoming a full Council member? Our politics were not so different than humans’ after all, except that we excused less bad behavior since an out-of-control lycanthrope could cause more damage.
The door opened behind me, and I fell backwards, landing on my arse with a disgusting splat.
“Gabriel?” Selene asked and looked down on me with wide eyes. Whether they shone with fear or surprise, I couldn’t tell, because that was when I blacked out.
15
The smell of strong coffee woke me, and I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling of draped cloth. I found myself in a canopy bed that was, in a word, girly, and it brought to mind an incident from my childhood when I’d slept over at a friend’s house and woke to find myself the victim of his sister and friends’ cosmetic attention. A hand over my face revealed I wore no makeup, but I also had no clothing on other than my underwear.
“Your outer garments were filthy,” a female voice said. “You landed in a puddle of vomit when you fell. You’re lucky it didn’t soak through, although your white sweater might never be the same.”
I raised myself on one elbow and saw a dark-haired beauty wearing a silk kimono-style robe sitting at the dressing table. She didn’t hold any of the cosmetics, just looked at them wistfully, from what I could tell from her reflection in the mirror. The bedroom was old-fashioned with wardrobe, dresser, and the bed and dressing table. Although the furniture was likely antique, the clothing strewn about was modern, but not on a scale large enough to fit the voluptuous woman who spoke to me.
“Who are you?” I asked. “And where am I?”
“That redheaded girl brought you home. She lives here. As for me, I’m only a shadow of what’s gone before. Someone wanted me to check on you, so now that I have, I can be off. Good luck, young man. You’ve gotten yourself into a real mess, and not just your clothing.” With a wink to me in the mirror, she disappeared.
“Lovely,” I said and covered my face with my hands. “More ghosts.”
“More what?” asked Selene as she opened the door. She carried a tray with an American-style breakfast of bacon, eggs and biscuits. My nose also picked up coffee, and I scooted up to a sitting position.
“Ghosts,” I said. “Did you realize you had one?”
The color drained from Selene’s face, and she looked around. “Not that I’ve ever seen, thank goodness. I heard this place was haunted. It’s how I was able to get it so inexpensively. You’d think you Scots with your haunted as hell country would be used to them. I never will be, though.”
“You’re babbling. Don’t worry, she’s gone.”
A lovely shell pink flush came to her cheeks when she saw my tented boxers, and I pulled the sheets over my lap. Surely she wasn’t so innocent she didn’t realize what happened to men first thing in the morning? Not that I could blame my body’s current state solely on morning wood. The collar of her cream-colored shirt draped low and caressed the tops of her breasts before the folds of fabric gave way to a fitted center and then a skirt that hugged her curves and long legs. She placed the tray on my lap gently.
“Is that, uh, comfortable?” she asked and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“I’m fine physically but a bit uncomfortable mentally. How did I get here? Where are my clothes?”
She sat on the bed and exhaled, obviously relieved for the change of subject. “They said dry clean only, so I had to send them out. Trust me, you didn’t want to wear them in that nice car of yours.”
I picked up a piece of bacon and took a nibble. When my stomach didn’t object, I assembled a bacon-egg biscuit. “And the means of my arrival?”
“I was out with some friends last night. They helped me bring you here.”
“What friends?” Not a gentleman friend, who would likely have objected to me sleeping in her bed and not on the couch. The idea relieved me. Dammit, I did not need to become attached to this woman even if her damsel-in-distress demeanor activated every single one of my rescue tendencies, both man and canine.
“No one you would know. They’re fellow Americans. Why were you in the club door? It’s supposedly a secret speakeasy.”
I chewed a big bite of biscuit and considered how I should answer her. The truth seemed paranoid in the light of morning, especially since I didn’t seem to have any adverse effects from the night before. If anything, I felt like I’d slept solidly, but not drugged.
“What time is it?” I asked, hoping to put her off her question.
“About one in the afternoon.”
I dropped the biscuit. So much for no adverse effects. I reassembled what was left of it and tried to piece together the night while I chewed. “Why did you let me sleep so long?”
“I tried to wake you several times, but you were solidly out.” A door opened and slammed shut somewhere outside the room, and she stood, her expression dismayed. “Oh, no. Not now.”
“What?” I shoved the tray aside, and coffee sloshed over the side of the mug and pooled on the white napkin beside it in a spreading stain.
“Get dressed,” she whispered. “Here.” She pulled a man’s checked shirt, T-shirt, and jeans out of the closet and handed the garments to me along with a ball cap.
“I would never have picked you for a cross dresser,” I said.
“They’re my brother
’s. Luckily he likes his clothing big, so it should fit you. Go in the bathroom and pretend you’re messing around under the sink like a plumber.”
“All right.”
“Oh, and no matter what happens, don’t come out. You have no idea what’s at risk by you being here.”
With those cryptic words, she walked out of the bedroom, and I got dressed in the borrowed clothing, which were snug but fit adequately aside from the jeans making my underwear crawl up my arse. I wondered if I should pull them down to show some crack, but the T-shirt and over shirt were too long to milk that effect. I knelt in front of the sink and opened the cabinet doors underneath.
Why did she bring me here if it was too dangerous? She knows where I live.
With eyes closed, I activated my lycanthrope hearing.
“Did you think you wouldn’t be followed? Watched? Where is he?”
My skin prickled. It was the scar-faced Englishman. I wondered if he had his big friend with him.
“He’d obviously had too much to drink,” Selene said. “I couldn’t just leave him passed out there. Besides, helping him might get me brownie points with the Council. That’s what you want me to do, isn’t it?”
“Not if it pisses off the boss. He doesn’t want another man in your bed.”
In a second, I was on my feet, but Selene’s words kept me from doing anything. “What does he mean, ‘another’?”
“Don’t forget what’s at stake here.”
“Curtis wouldn’t want to put me in danger, and he certainly wouldn’t want me to whore myself out to a monster.” Her voice broke on monster, and my heart cracked along with it and her quiet sobbing.
“One misstep, Selene. That’s all it will take for you to lose everything.” The door opened and shut, and I dashed into the living room. She stood with her back to me, and both hands were middle finger up toward the door.
“Watch this, you bastard,” she said through her tears.
“Good girl,” I said. “I haven’t a clue who he was or why he upset you, but good for you.”
She turned, and her tear-streaked face compelled me to cross the room in two big strides and take her into my arms. She buried her face on my shoulder, and every sob pressed her closer to me.
“There, there,” I said and stroked her hair while mentally kicking myself. What sort of thing was that to say? I sounded like someone’s nanny, and the woman in my arms was definitely not a child. She was in some sort of trouble, yet she’d risked her good will, if that was what it could be called, with the scarfaced gentleman’s leader and then lied for me. The question was, why? I doubted she wanted “brownie points” with the Council, as she called them, or that wasn’t all she wanted.
As for our current situation, my own plumbing had certainly taken notice of Selene’s soft curves pressed against me, and I feared she would notice.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when she seemed to quiet down. “Who was that guy?”
She sniffled and pulled back. “Someone who appears when I least want him to.” She walked to the love seat and lowered herself to one side of it, her hands clasped in her lap. I sat on the other cushion close enough to put an arm around her shoulder, so I did. She didn’t pull away.
“That’s not really an answer. You’re in some sort of trouble. How can I help?”
“No one can help me,” she said. “I need to figure this out on my own. Besides, you have enough on your plate with Otis’s and the security guards’ murders.”
“You never know how things are connected,” I told her. “As for Otis and the security guards, you’ve been keeping something from me.”
She looked out of the window. “I’ve been keeping lots of somethings from you, Gabriel, as much as I don’t want to.”
I scooted closer and leaned toward her. “Like what?” I murmured in her ear.
She turned, which brought her lips mere centimeters away from mine. “Like how this is dangerous for both of us, but I want it.”
This boldness was so in contrast to the innocent and guileless Selene I knew that I had to stop myself, but millimeter by millimeter our lips grew closer. She closed her eyes, and I saw the dark mascara at the tips of her copper-colored lashes, more makeup than I’d seen her wear at the Institute, and it was early to be ready for our date.
The cosmetics and clothing clicked into place—she had laid her own trap for me, and it occurred to me that her confrontation with the scarfaced gentleman had been staged. I placed a hand on her chest and stopped her.
Her eyes fluttered open with surprise, and I wanted to think her mouth formed an O of disappointment partially because of the missed kiss, but I knew better.
“Let’s save it for our date tonight,” I said. “I can’t do this while wearing your brother’s clothes.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Good point. That would be weird. I’ll take you to your car.”
We parted with an agreement that I’d pick her up at six as we’d originally planned, and my clothing would be back from the cleaners by then, so I could get that as well. I grabbed a cup of tea at a shop and headed home to shower and catch a quick nap. Whatever they had given me at the pub the night before hadn’t quite worn off yet in spite of my long nap, and the effects came over me in intermittent waves.
My cell phone battery had died sometime during the night, which was odd since it had a full charge when I left to meet Jade. When I put it on the charger in the car, it buzzed with several missed calls and voicemails. The first was from Garou asking how my conversations with the Campbells had gone and offering to update me on his attempts to reach the leaders of the Young Bloods, who had so far not returned his calls. Then Lonna had called with “a question, but nothing urgent” about Selene. Finally, Laura from the office had left a frantic message asking where I was and why hadn’t I come in today because she’d typed up my notes and Morena wanted to talk to me, and she’d tried my house several times, and why wasn’t I picking up? When I scrolled through my missed calls, the ones from my office were by far the most numerous. She wasn’t usually one to be flustered. My phone wasn’t charged enough for a call, so instead of going straight home, I headed toward Lycan Castle, where I’d see what was going on and switch my phone out in case the dead battery meant someone had done something to mine.
“What the hell are you wearing?” asked David when I ran into him in the entrance hall. I’d forgotten about my borrowed clothing in my rush. The last time I’d appeared that grubbily at Lycan Castle was in the middle of the eighties when a water pipe had burst in the middle of the night and we all had to scramble to save documents and records. That had also been one of the few times I’d seen Morena out of her normal prim and proper state. Her slightly less gray hair had stuck out at all angles from her head. I still brought that mental picture to mind sometimes when I needed to remind myself she had a human side. David had been on the Continent, but his office hadn’t seen any damage.
“And is that a baseball cap in your hand?”
“Yes, I suppose I must have grabbed it in the car.” I put it on my head. At least now if I wanted to remove a hat, I could.
“What does the A stand for?” David asked. “And were you undercover?”
“You can say I was.” Or at least under the covers. It was a pity nothing interesting had happened, but at least I’d learned I needed to be extra cautious around Selene and her friends. Part of me still wanted to protect her, but I told my chivalry to shove it. She was an adult and could make her own decisions, and if she’d gotten involved in sketchy company, I couldn’t do anything about it except try to have her removed from the Institute before she did any damage.
David followed me up to my office, and in spite of his girth, he didn’t get winded on the stairs. I supposed he had his own kind of disguise, particularly in this version of modern society where people attached more and more judgments to body size.
“Do you need something?” I asked when we were alone on the twisting tower stairs.
“No
, I just thought I’d follow you to see Laura’s reaction.”
I turned to see him grinning. “You need to get out more.”
“Hey, it takes a lot to shock her. It’ll be fun to see her flustered. She’s pretty when she blushes.”
I knew Laura was one of us, but David’s behavior made me wonder if they’d shared something in the past or if he wanted to in the future. Not that it was a good idea to sleep with staff, your own or a colleague’s.
He wasn’t disappointed when I walked into the office with him close behind, and Laura looked up, squinted, and then let out a little shriek.
“Gabriel? You look like a plumber.”
“His arse isn’t voluptuous enough for that,” David said with a snicker, and Laura blushed.
“As he is my boss, I don’t want to consider his rear end. Stop being one,” she snapped at him, but the look in her eyes wasn’t angry.
Another thing to think about, albeit a minor one. “What did you need me for?” I asked. “You called me ten times and left me a frantic voicemail.”
“You were supposed to meet with Morena at ten this morning so you could talk about what she found during her visit yesterday. She waited for an hour.”
“Oh, you’re in trouble, lad.” David grinned. “I might have to wait around for this one. Knowing Morena, she’ll be on you as soon as she finds out you’re back. She has a sixth sense for when someone she’s mad at appears at the Castle.”
“Her ‘sixth sense’ is more likely a network of staff people who tattle,” I grumbled. I rubbed my temple, where a slight throb threatened to bloom into a full migraine headache. Thank goodness Selene had fed me a decent breakfast so my stomach didn’t react.
The phone rang, and all three of us looked at it.
“Investigator’s office,” Laura answered. “Oh, hello, Morena.”
I waved my arms to tell her to put Morena off, but it didn’t work.
“Yes, he’s here. I’ll tell him you’re on your way.”
Lycanthropy Files Box Set: Books 1-3 Plus Novella Page 67