“Behave yourself!” He jabbed me harder. “Change here. Now. For him and for me.”
“No.”
His sigh revealed his impatience. “There are two ways to ascertain he departs and does not return. Your way, or mine. Choose.”
Edward’s way was death—always had been. Mine? Easy. If I showed Nic my true nature, he would run. He’d live—there was my reward. But best of all, if he told anyone what he’d seen, they wouldn’t believe him.
A win-win situation. Edward’s specialty.
I glanced at Nic from beneath the curtain of my hair. His expression reflected both fury and confusion. He had no idea what he’d stepped into when he’d insisted on accompanying me to Fairhaven. If he stayed he’d be in danger from every monster, alive or dead, if they found out I loved him. I really didn’t have much choice.
I moved into the silver glow from the sky. Spreading my arms wide, I threw back my head. Opening my mind, I welcomed the moon.
The power was a blinding white light pouring through me. I heard things no man could hear, saw worlds beyond imagination, caught the scent of wolves that couldn’t be real, heard them, too, like a ghostly pack circling through the sky.
The moon filled me, caressed me, changed me. The bedspread fell away as I became a wolf. Strength, speed, agility were mine.
“The perfect animal,” Edward continued. “People brain, wolf body. They are very hard to kill.”
I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was Nic. He’d fallen to the ground. His chest was heaving, and I feared he’d gotten sick, but he was merely trying to catch some air so he wouldn’t faint.
I couldn’t blame him. Not every day do you see a woman become a wolf. He took it pretty well.
“How?” he managed, then lifted his head.
I’d crept closer, and when he looked up, his nose nearly brushed my snout. He cringed, confusion flowing over his face.
“Sign of a werewolf.” Edward’s voice was far too jolly. “Human eyes. Makes the phrase ‘never shoot until you see the whites’ actually mean something, jawohl?”
I snarled in his direction and Edward laughed. Nic skittered backward and to his feet. His hand reached for a gun that wasn’t there, and my heart cracked just a little. I hadn’t realized until that moment I’d been hoping he could see the true me and not care. His arm fell to his side.
“Jager-Suchers don’t hunt rabid wolves at all,” he said.
“Nein.”
“Then what?”
“Werewolves. Among other things.”
For Nic, curiosity seemed to have taken the place of concern. However, I wanted to be a sideshow freak even less than I wanted to be a demon-possessed horror.
“She’s a werewolf.”
“Elise is a special case. The only—”
I woofed once.
“Oh, him.” Edward shrugged, his expression reflecting his lack of enthusiasm in the matter. “Elise and Damien are the only werewolves in their division.”
“Damien,” Nic murmured. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“Neither did Leigh.” Edward’s tone was no longer amused. “It was most disturbing.”
“I’ll bet. What did you mean by ‘other things’?”
“Different monsters, different needs, different divisions.”
“Different monsters?” Nic’s face appeared a little green.
I whimpered.
“I’m okay,” he said. “What kind of monsters?”
“Anything that you can imagine and many that you cannot.”
“You’re sure you’re not in the FBI?” Nic asked. “X-file division?”
“What is this ‘X-file’ I am always hearing about?” Edward glanced at me, but I was in no condition to explain.
“Television show,” Nic said absently. “You probably wouldn’t like it.”
“No doubt. Television is an immense waste of time.” Edward’s sources of amusement were few—guns, bullets, and death. What a life.
Mine hadn’t been much better. Serums, antidotes, and werewolves.
Oh, my.
“Why are you telling me this?’ Nic asked. “You planning to kill me?”
“Of course not, Agent Franklin.”
Both Nic and I let out a long sigh of relief, which ended with Edward’s next words.
“I plan to let her do it.”
Silence settled over the yard, lengthening uncomfortably.
Edward laughed. “Just kidding.”
I emitted a low, rumbling growl, and his expression became one of mock surprise. “But you are always telling me I need to grow a sense of humor.”
“You still do,” Nic said.
“And therein lies the trouble. Humor is so subjective.”
I considered knocking Edward to the ground and sitting on his chest—werewolf humor. However, he’d be more likely to blow my head off with silver than laugh. Humor certainly was subjective.
“I do not plan to kill you. As Elise has pointed out on several occasions, killing people who annoy me can be more trouble than it’s worth. A dead FBI agent would be the height of trouble, I think.”
“Then why are you telling me this?” Nic repeated.
“No one will believe you.”
“They will if I—”
“What? Bring them Elise? You’d subject her to the questions, the government, the press? What about the tests, the injections, the blood work?”
Nic muttered, “Bastard,” so low only I could hear. Then his head tilted, as if he’d caught a whiff of something interesting. I could almost see the idea popping up in his head like a lightbulb as he turned to me.
“What were you up to in that secret compound, Dr. Frankenstein?”
He believed I was manufacturing monsters? I was suddenly tired of the questions, the secrets, the lies. Edward wanted Nic to know everything? Let Edward tell him.
The forest called to me, and I answered, loping toward the trees, leaving Edward, Nic, the world behind.
“Find Jessie and Will,” my boss shouted. “They went searching for the sheriff far to the north, and they have been gone too long.”
He had said I needed to prove I was still his instrument and not evil, but being told to fetch like a dog annoyed me. Better annoyed than dead, I suppose.
In a tiny corner of my mind, I remembered the talisman had been in the pocket of my sweats and not in my hand when I shifted faster than a speeding bullet. What did that mean? Was I losing control of my beast? If so, then why did I feel more in control, more powerful, more right than I had ever felt in my life?
Werewolves might have a people brain, but it was still hard to concentrate on the mystery of the instantaneous change with the sensory overload of a new forest surrounding me. The desire to run was all-consuming. If I wanted, I could travel over a hundred miles in a day, chase a herd for five or six miles, then accelerate. Werewolves don’t need superhuman abilities when just being a wolf makes them more than a man, or in my case, a woman.
I headed north, trying to catch a familiar scent but having very little luck. The moon pulled at my soul; a howl pressed at the base of my throat. I lifted my nose just as a crow swooped low and cawed, startling me so much that I yelped instead. Several others sat in a nearby tree. At my glance, they rose, like great black bats and followed the first. They were trying to show me something.
A whiff of water reached me long before I stumbled across the creek. Splashing in, I dipped my muzzle to the bottom and let the chilly liquid ease the buzzing from my brain. I drank until the burning thirst faded, but it wouldn’t go away completely. Because the thirst wasn’t just for water.
The full moon was coming, and unless I made more serum, I was going to crave blood.
Edward and I needed to have a discussion. Where was my research? Had he retrieved it? And if not, why not?
The crows circled above me. No, they circled above something else—over there.
As I shook my coat, I could have sworn I caught the scent of werewolf. But when I tested th
e air, I smelled nothing but trees. Nevertheless, I could no more have gone back to the cabin then than I could have ridden a bicycle, so I followed the crows to a clearing surrounded by towering evergreens.
In the center lay a body—the sheriff’s, from the appearance of the uniform. However, there was no werewolf but me, no wolf at all, no human left alive.
The crows were gone, not a trace of them in the sky. Had they led me here to help or hurt me? Hard to say with crows.
I should check on the sheriff. Though I smelled death, maybe I was wrong.
Hey, maybe I wasn’t a werewolf. Maybe this was all a dream and I’d wake up at Stanford in Nic’s arms. A fantasy I’d tried on a hundred times before. I knew better.
So I circled the body, hoping for a hint of movement and finding none. Creeping closer and closer, belly to the ground, I stretched my neck, longer and longer, until it cracked with the strain, then I sniffed his hand.
And someone pumped a shotgun next to my head.
Chapter 18
At first I thought it was Edward, and I knew I was dead. Then I saw the shoes next to my paws. Tennies, not combat boots. Girl feet. Jessie. That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to blow my brains out, but she might give me a chance to explain first.
If only I could talk.
“We were looking for Sheriff Stephenson,” she said. “Guess we found him.”
“Or what’s left of him.”
Will. Thank God, a voice of reason.
I whimpered and lifted my head.
He shined a flashlight into my eyes and blurted, “Elise?”
“Where?”
The shotgun barrel tapped my skull. I wanted to shout: “Be careful with that thing!” Instead I growled.
“Shut up. I’ll deal with you in a minute.”
“That’s Elise,” Will said. “The wolf you’re about to kill.”
“What?”
At least she uncocked the gun, and I breathed a little easier. But she kept the barrel tilted in my direction. I could smell the silver shot inside. I really wished she’d aim that thing anywhere but at me.
I glanced up and she started. “People eyes always creep me out. Change back, Doc, you bother me.”
I nudged the gun away with my head.
“Oh, sorry.” She lifted the weapon and held it in a cradle carry across her chest. “What are you doing out here?”
Her attention went to the dead sheriff, then swiftly returned to me. Her hands tightened on the gun.
I didn’t do it! I wanted to shout, but I could only shake my head.
“Right. Sure. Dead guy. Werewolf. You be the judge.”
I looked at Will and he shrugged. I don’t think he believed me, either. I needed words. But to speak, I had to shift, and then I’d be naked.
I’d never been easy with nudity. I always kept clothes in the forest when I changed. But tonight I hadn’t had the time or the wherewithal to prepare.
Huffing, I paced, worried the ground with a paw, then glanced at Jessie mournfully.
“Take a hike, Slick."
“What? Why?”
“She’s gonna be buck naked after she changes. Get my extra set of clothes and the blanket from the car.”
“How about if I get the stuff, and then she changes?”
Jessie lifted a bland gaze to his. “How about I shoot you, too, if you don’t move your ass?”
“Jealous?”
“You don’t need to see all you’re missing.”
“I don’t see anyone but you. Haven’t for a long time now.”
I snorted, and Jessie said, “Yeah, that was hokey, wasn’t it?”
“I’d just like to see the change, is that too much to ask? I’m a scholar. It would be interesting.”
“I bet.”
“Elise would understand. Wouldn’t you?”
I lifted my upper lip and showed him my teeth.
“I don’t think she would.” Jessie made a shooing motion. “Get going, Cadotte. I need to talk to the doc, and I’d like her on two feet when I do it.”
“All right, all right.” He stomped off in what I presumed was the direction of the car. “I never get to see anything good. Never get to have any fun. Never get to shoot anything, either.”
“You don’t like guns,” Jessie shouted after him. “And you’re too much of a pansy to kill anything.”
“I might make an exception with you.”
She laughed as he disappeared into the trees. His flashlight bobbed for a few seconds, then faded. For an instant I worried about whatever might be out there hiding, until I sniffed the breeze and got nothing but a whiff of dead sheriff, Jessie, and Will.
“He really is kind of sweet,” Jessie said. “Never thought I’d go for a pretty boy with a gentle soul, but it takes all kinds.”
She was talking to me like a friend, which was strange considering I was all fanged and furry. Maybe it was easier for her to connect when she didn’t actually have to... connect.
As if realizing what she’d done, Jessie made a self-derisive sound, then yanked a smaller flashlight from her coat pocket and turned the beam in my direction. “You’ve got some explaining to do, Doc.”
I’d told her to call me “Elise,” but I was starting to like the way she sneered “Doc.” Almost like I was one of the girls.
Will returned more quickly than I would have thought since I hadn’t heard a car approach earlier. But I’d been a little distracted by the dead body.
Jessie yanked the blanket from his hands and held it like a curtain. “Get going.” She peeked over the top. “We don’t have all night.”
The last time, changing back had taken longer than changing forward. This time, I lifted my nose to the sky, and the next instant the breeze fluttered hair instead of fur.
“What the hell?” Jessie gasped. “No one can shift that fast.”
“Where’s the icon?” Will asked.
“Haven’t got it on me.”
“Obviously.”
I snickered.
Her eyes widened as she handed me a spare set of jeans and yet another T-shirt. “What’s with you? You aren’t exactly a laugh-o-rama most days.”
And I shouldn’t be feeling so lively now with a dead man at my feet and a shotgun filled with silver so close to my heart, not to mention Nic no doubt breaking land speed records as he drove as far away from me as he could get.
However, the strength and power I’d experienced while running as a wolf remained. For the first time, I missed being what I was, and I wanted to be that way again.
Jessie’s gaze returned to the dead sheriff. “Thought you didn’t need human blood.”
“Wasn’t me.”
“Like I haven’t heard that a thousand times before.”
Suddenly I was staring down the barrel of a shotgun again.
“If you’re going to keep threatening to kill me, we’ll never get anywhere.”
“If you’re going to keep lying, I don’t have much choice.”
“Edward sent me to find you.”
“I haven’t needed a babysitter for a long time now.”
“It was more of a test.” I sighed. “For me.”
“What happened that Mandenauer felt the need to test you?”
I didn’t want to tell them, but better me than Edward.
Quickly I related the events of a few hours past—glossing over the experience with Nic as best I could.
“So you gave it up, huh?” Jessie smirked. “G-man any good?”
“Jess. Not your business.”
Jessie ignored Will and lifted a brow; I couldn’t help but smile.
“That’s what I thought,” she said. “Guys like him almost make getting blown to hell by a silver bullet worthwhile.”
A tug of camaraderie surprised me. One minute I was tempted to become a werewolf and run with the pack. The next I was pulled toward the sort of friendship I’d always longed for and never had. My dual nature had never before seemed so divided.
�
��How did the sheriff die?” Jessie flicked her flashlight over the body.
I guess bonding time was over.
“I didn’t get a good look,” I said.
“Seemed like you were looking pretty closely when we got here.”
“Smelling.”
“Gag,” Jessie muttered.
“For a rough-and-tough, kick-ass Jager-Sucher, you’re awfully squeamish about details.”
“Sue me.” Jessie moved the beam to the sheriff’s neck. “I’m not a medical examiner, but I’m pretty sure that was sliced neatly instead of torn by teeth.”
I considered the mess. “That’s neat?”
“For this kind of murder, yeah. Knife wound. Which leaves you off the hook.”
“I could have thrown the weapon into the bushes.”
“With your paws? Besides, a wound like that, you’d be covered in blood.”
“Ew.”
“Now who’s squeamish?”
“You’re saying we got a plain, old, everyday murderer on the loose?” I asked. “No funny stuff?”
“Seems that way.”
“Which means there’s no reason for us to stay.” Although where I was going to go, I had no idea.
Jessie’s cell phone rang and she answered.
“Jessie.”
I heard Edward’s voice clearly, even though the phone was pressed to Jessie’s ear. My transformation ability wasn’t the only thing that was getting better.
“Is Elise with you?”
“Yes.”
“Has she exhibited any odd behavior?”
“Not unless you count changing from werewolf to woman in the blink of an eye.”
I stuck out my tongue, and she grinned. But her smile faded as Edward continued to speak. “There is a serious werewolf outbreak I need you to attend to.”
She paced to the far side of the clearing, and though I tried to hear what Edward was telling her, I no longer could.
“Where?” she asked. “Okay. But we’ve got a little problem with Sheriff Stephenson. He’s dead.” Pause. “Throat slit.”
A garbled stream of words, most likely curses, erupted, but I couldn’t make any sense of them.
“Tell Basil.” Jessie sighed. “Fine. Have him bring the ME.”
“Who’s Basil?” I asked when she’d disconnected the call.
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