by Lisa M Airey
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“When?”
“After the incident on the mountain on Saturday?”
“And tell you what? That, gee, some man grabbed my wrist and wouldn’t let it go? I’ve been beaten to nearly an inch of my life on multiple occasions and never breathed a word of it. After 20 years of silence, I’m supposed to suddenly run to the police and tell them that I’ve got a bruise?”
“Exactly my point.”
Julie cocked her head. “Meaning what?” Her tone was a little hostile.
“Meaning that the bruised wrist is nothing to you, so why are you so shattered?”
She frowned. “I was hunted and accosted, isn’t that enough?”
“No, Julie. No, it’s not. You have survived much more than a bruised wrist in your life. I’ve seen the goddamned x-rays.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve seen eyes like yours. Eyes change when they grapple with a horror that they can’t process or accommodate or understand. What have you seen?” he asked.
She looked up at him, her eyes a tumultuous sea-green.
“What did you see?” he asked again.
“I saw Lync.”
Dan reached for her hands. They were ice.
“Julie,” he said softly. “I can only help you if you let me. I can only protect you if I know what you’re up against.”
She was silent a moment. “He grabbed my wrist. He grabbed it hard and squeezed. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to react. I didn’t even drop the picnic basket. In fact, I clung onto the picnic basket.” She shuddered violently. “It was his eyes. He looked at me as if…” She tried to form the thought, but it wouldn’t come. It hovered on the edge of her consciousness just out of reach, just out of touch.
“As if?” Dan prodded.
“As if I was…” She shivered again. “I thought he…” She worked very hard to still her emotions. He watched her fight the terror. “Was going to…” She swallowed and turned away.
“Rape you?” he finished for her.
Her eyes flew to his. They were as rough and tumble as the surf. She shook her head vehemently. “No. No.” She shuddered again. “I thought he was going to eat me. Alive.” She swallowed.
Dan’s stomach turned.
“He looked at me as if I were prey.”
32
It was Gray’s birthday. She pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex and began to unload her packages and goodies.
Gray spoke of ‘forever’, yet hadn’t even shared his birth date with her. This irked her a little. It was Ben Half Moon who had called to inform her and she couldn’t hide the hurt she felt during their brief conversation.
“Gray’s quiet,” said Ben Half Moon, by way of explanation. “He doesn’t like attention. I just thought you’d like to know so you could wish him well on that day.”
She had thought a lot about Ben’s comments over the course of her workweek, and each time, her stomach would pitch and roll because it wasn’t the truth. Gray needed lots of attention. Gray needed love.
Unfortunately, his birthday clashed with her last scheduled singing gig with the Copper Pigs. She couldn’t cancel, although the thought had crossed her mind. She was expecting the band to lay a pretty heavy guilt trip on her tonight as it was. Each of them was bringing in an extra three thousand dollars a month with her as lead singer. Her desire to quit had not gone over well.
Her strained relationship with Dan wasn’t helping matters any either. The police were a family and she was distancing herself from one of their own. They made her feel like a traitor. She slid her key into Gray’s lock and entered.
Glazed pecans from River Street Sweets went into a bowl on the coffee table in his living room. Gray loved this southern treat. A rich and heady Hungarian goulash went into a crock pot in the kitchen. She set the unit on low. She placed a loaf of homemade sourdough bread nearby on the counter with a crock of Irish butter. Her prized Kentucky Rum cake was set in an exquisite glass cake plate and a nice card adorned it.
There was a bread stuffed with ham and cheese and honey mustard for late-night snacking and a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies for a midnight munch. A berry cobbler went into the refrigerator for breakfast. Labels and bows were on every item.
She placed a vase of fresh flowers on his bureau and two gift videos on the TV. They were tied in a white ribbon with red hearts.
She had just finished her handiwork when her cell phone rang. “Hey!” she said, waiting for Elliott to answer the silence. Caller ID was a wonderful thing.
“Julie, I’ve made a horrible mistake,” he said. “We’re on at eight o’clock tonight, not nine.”
“Okay,” she said slowly.
“And it’s not a casual local hangout. It’s a glamour night tonight. We’re at a hotel. I need to come get you in an hour.”
“An hour?” Her head started to whirl, but she stilled the panic. “It’s okay, Elliott. I just picked up the copper dress from the dry cleaners and I have my emergency heels in the car. I can be ready in time, but you’ll have to pick me up at Gray’s. It’s his birthday today and I just dropped off his cake. I’ll change here. Pick me up at 34 Keswick Lane, Apartment 405.”
She hung up the phone, raced back to the car, grabbed her shoes and dry cleaning and flew back to Gray’s apartment to shower and change, her heart hammering heavy in her ears.
Gray entered his own apartment to unexpected smells. There was a flood of scents – flowers, food, hot water, soap and Julie. He ushered his two guests into the living room and called out.
“Julie?”
“It’s me, Gray,” came the anxious reply. “I am so sorry to impose. I know that you have company coming this evening, but I stopped by to drop off some birthday surprises and while I was in the midst of it, Elliott called to say that he’d gotten confused and that I needed to be ready an hour earlier for pick up. He’s coming here to get me. I didn’t have time to go home and change. I hope that’s okay.”
“Of course,” said Gray. “Where are you tonight?” He motioned for his guests to take seats in the living room, spied the pecans and opened the package, gesturing for them to partake.
“That’s just it. Elliott told me it was the Rusty Nail in Cottonwood. It’s not. It’s some hotel gig in Rapid City.”
“That’s quite a switch.” He picked up the two gift videos, read their titles and smiled. Bull Durham, his all-time favorite, and P.S. I Love You, a movie he’d never seen, but he appreciated the message.
“Don’t I know it! Elliott is damn lucky I keep an emergency pair of heels in the car. I had just picked up my dry cleaning, so I’m in copper tonight.”
Gray closed his eyes and groaned.
“I’ll be fine,” she said sternly, as if she had seen his face. “Why don’t you pop into your kitchen and run inventory? I think you’ll be pleased.”
A few minutes later, Gray tapped lightly on the bathroom door. The water had long stopped running. “Julie, you’ll need more than a towel when you exit the bathroom.”
There was a moment of silence. “Why?”
He smiled. “My guests are already here.”
“All right then,” she said.
“Julie?”
“Yeah?”
“My guests are like me.”
“Sioux?”
“Wolf.” She cracked open the bathroom door. “With very keen ears.” She blushed and he kissed her nose, then mouthed, “Follow my lead.”
She applied some make-up, slipped down the hallway into the bedroom and donned her dress and heels. The copper dress shone brightly against her tanned body. The summer sun had bronzed her. This was, by far, the sexiest outfit she had in her closet. When she moved, the dress undulated like a field of ripe grain in the wind.
She stepped into the living room, her eyes hunting for Gray. He was standing, waiting, like a groom at the altar. She walked immediately to his side, grabbed the hand he offered her, pecked him sweetly on the lips, then turned
for introductions.
Gray’s strong arm lassoed her waist in a firm grip and he splayed a big hand possessively over her abdomen. His very body language said, ‘mine.’ He didn’t need to make the verbal statement.
Two men stood to greet her, both were Nordic looking, both with flawless milk-white skin. They were every bit as big and wide as Gray and just as muscled. She gazed into their blue eyes, mesmerized by their handsome faces and beautiful bodies. They were light to Gray’s darkness.
She had assumed that all werewolves would be dark-eyed and dark-skinned. Obviously, she had assumed wrong. The two strangers reminded her of snow and tundra and winter cold. She turned to Gray and just looked at him. He was deep, dark forest loam and autumn leaves. And absolutely frightening.
“Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to Ms. Julie Hastings.” Gray nodded to the first man. “This is Hayden,” said Gray. “He is the leader of the North American lycanthrope community.”
A large man with platinum silver hair extended his hand. Her small hand was lost in his big palm as they shook in formal greeting.
“Finn is his second in command,” said Gray.
The other man, a rusty blond, offered his hand in turn. She shook it as well, feeling the muscle and the strength in the firm squeeze he delivered.
The strangers watched her as she took a chair. Her dress sighed in a slippery glide of fabric and Gray’s guests canted their heads as if listening to something only they could hear. She crossed her legs, her bare legs sliding against one another in another whisper of sound. Hayden and Finn were mesmerized by her every gesture.
She swallowed hard and looked to Gray in silent question. “You sound good, Julie,” he explained. “There is a smooth and natural rhythm to the way you move. It’s hypnotic, like ocean waves.”
“You tell me this now?”
Hayden chuckled and reached for a handful of pecans. “How much have you told her?” he asked, chewing the sweet treats with unabashed enjoyment.
“A lot,” said Julie.
“Not much,” said Gray.
Hayden smiled and the devil danced within the ice blue fire of his eyes. “I see.” He continued to watch Julie with focused attention, and she met his level gaze with one of her own. Hayden unsettled her, but she refused to be cowed. She put her hand on Gray’s thigh and was pleased when he placed a hand on top of hers. It was impossible to feel fear with him by her side.
“What do you do for a living, Julie?” asked Finn.
“I’m a veterinarian.”
“A healer?” asked Hayden. His eyes shifted to Gray. “You didn’t tell me.”
Gray did not respond.
“She has all the signs of a lycant, a powerful one.”
Hayden looked at her in a way that made her squirm.
“Lycant?” Julie asked.
“Part wolf,” said Finn.
“Why would you think such a thing?”
Hayden took a deep breath and hummed. The sound was a deep-throated rumble. “Only our sons carry the lycanthrope gene forward. Our daughters are human, but they are innate healers. They are born with a natural talent to cure the sick and mend broken bodies.”
Julie processed that. “Okay. But what does this have to do with me?”
“You’re a vet,” said Finn.
“So, because I’m a vet, you think I’m part wolf?” she asked incredulously. She was trying to follow the logic and missing the direct-connect.
“There is a little more to it than that,” said Gray softly. “Remember when I told you that you pull me to you?”
“Yes.”
“It could be that you have that kind of pull on every lycanthrope, Julie. That’s what Hayden meant by lycant. Lycanthropes are naturally attracted to the female of our kind, like bears to honey. No matter how weak the lineage. You see, the truly gifted healers can do more than fix broken bones. They can ease broken hearts too. They can literally pull the emotional poison from a person’s soul.”
“I can’t do that,” she said with a firm shake of the head.
“Lycants have other gifts too,” said Finn. “Their body is music. It calms the beast in all of us.”
“No truth there,” said Julie. “I seem to introduce havoc into everybody’s lives. Just ask the local police force.”
No one said a word and the silence stretched long and tight between them. Julie could hear the soft ticking of Gray’s kitchen clock, the faint sound of a small dog barking in the apartment below, a vacuum cleaner running down the hall.
“Do you know why I’m here?” It was Hayden again. Julie looked from Gray to Finn, but both of them sat very still.
“No,” she answered, her voice soft and unsure.
“Gray has requested a ‘kill permit,’” Hayden paused, watching her register his words. “Since we are so few in number, this type of decision requires very careful deliberation.”
Julie was too stunned to respond.
“We understand that there have been a series of attacks?” said Finn.
Julie nodded, her mind numb.
“A wolf goes ‘rogue’ on occasion,” said Hayden. “It happens when a man fails to knit the two sides of himself together as a whole. Eventually, one half ends up destroying the other by action or deed. Or the consequences of actions and deeds.”
She nodded again, canting her nose toward Gray. The men went on to discuss the events of the last few months in great detail. She sat quietly and listened to the hum of their voices, her thoughts quite far away.
Gray ran his thumb across the back of her hand in a slow and rhythmic motion. Kill permit? She looked at the two men sitting across from her and swallowed. They could have just as easily been discussing the Sunday football game or ice fishing or…
“Julie?”
She looked up to find Gray gazing at her with gentle eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “Have I missed something?”
“We’re going to go wolf for a few days,” said Gray softly. “See if we can track him. Lync. Are you okay with this?”
Julie nodded. She knew what he meant. “Of course,” she said. “I trust you implicitly.”
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He didn’t say “good” or “thanks” or “high noon.” He simply nudged her nose and whispered, “I’m thinking that you just might have a little goose in you, Julie.”
“A few minutes ago, you were thinking that I was part wolf.”
“The two are not mutually exclusive.”
She locked eyes with his just as Elliott knocked at the door. “My escort,” she said, pulling back and standing up.
“Do we need to have a conversation about confidentiality?” asked Hayden.
“Of course not,” said Julie and Gray simultaneously.
Julie nodded at the two men in farewell, her face grave, her eyes wary. She looked up at Gray.
“When?”
“We’ll leave in the morning.”
“Be right there, Elliott,” she shouted.
“I have my cake, Julie,” he said, nodding toward the kitchen. “But I want to eat it too. It’s my birthday after all. Will you come back after you sing?”
“It will be late,” she said, cautiously.
“And I will be waiting,” said Gray.
Julie bolted out of Gray’s apartment. Her heels clicked against the flooring like machine gun fire. Elliott followed behind her, his eyes following the swing of her hips and a lot of copper tassel. He couldn’t keep up. She was wearing freaking FMPs, and he couldn’t keep up.
“Why are we running?” Elliott asked.
“I thought we were in a hurry,” said Julie, not breaking stride.
“I don’t want you to break a stiletto. Or punch a hole through the floor. I’ll put a bubble on the roof. Slow down, Jules.”
She slowed then stopped, her shoulders set, her back to him. When he was abreast of her, she sighed. He bumped her gently with his shoulder. She bumped him gently in response.
“Who was all that muscle in
Gray’s apartment?”
She shrugged.
“Anything Fallston should worry about?”
“You are such a cop, Elliott.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“No. You have nothing to worry about. Believe it or not, Gray is actually a good guy and he associates with very good people.”
“Who are you trying to convince?” asked Elliott.
“You.” She looked him dead on. “Someone. Anyone. Dan does not believe a word I say.”
“Untrue,” said Elliott. “He believes what you’ve told him.”
“Really?” she asked. The relief was so evident, that Elliott smiled.
“He just wants to hear the parts you leave out.”
She looked up at Elliott, her eyes a dark and serious green. “I told Cole,” she said softly. “We talked it over. And he helped me, gave me some good advice. I’m better now. It really was a personal issue, not a police issue.”
Elliott nodded and wrapped a brotherly arm around her shoulders. “I’ll tell Dan to back off, but as for the Copper Pigs, you will have to fend for yourself. I expect them to gang up on you tonight. They won’t let you quit.”
“They cannot hog-tie me to a microphone, Elliott.”
“That was one of the plans. There were a few others.”
“Such as?”
“Well, we’ve got this holding pen back at the station.”
“Oh, good grief. I don’t want to hear anymore.”
Elliott chuckled. “Julie?”
“Yeah?”
“I won’t let you quit either.”
“Could I maybe have a little break, then? A couple of weeks? I’ve had a rough go of it lately.”
“I think we can manage a little sabbatical. The guys and I will use the time to learn a few new songs. Any requests?”
“Please Release Me, Let me Go?”
“Nah. We’re not going to learn that one. How about Stay?”
She exhaled forcefully. “Okay. You win.”
“Yippee.”
They played until eleven. The tension that filled the air when Julie first arrived dissipated quickly, but then Elliott had boomed, “She’s back on board, men” as soon as they had entered the room. She made her humble apologies and got bear-hugs in return.