Smoke Bitten

by Patricia Briggs

  Adam responded almost immediately.

  Do you need help?

  To which Darryl said: No. Might be an attempt to move resources. Auriele has sent out a general warning to pack.

  Adam responded: Okay. Keep me updated.

  Watching my face, Tad asked, “What’s up?”

  “Auriele was right,” I said. “The invading wolves have begun their game.”

  Tad grabbed my phone and read the texts. “Who is Ogden?”

  “One of our wolves,” I said. “He is quiet. Keeps to himself and doesn’t cause trouble. He’s a contracts lawyer.”

  Ogden was one of the less dominant wolves. He showed up for the moon hunts and enough of the pack breakfasts that Darryl or Warren didn’t appear at his door and haul him over. I had maybe spoken four words to him since I’d joined the pack. But he was well-liked and respected by the pack mates who knew him.

  “Do you need an escort home?” asked Zee.

  I thought about it. “Maybe a good idea—but let’s get those two cars done first. That way I might have enough money to pay you for today.”

  “I am not worried,” said Zee serenely. “People always pay me one way or the other.”

  He was joking—a little. But not really.

  * * *

  • • •

  Adam stopped by to escort me home just as we were finishing the last of the cars for the day.

  We all looked at him when he walked into the office, but it was Tad who asked, “Did you hear from Darryl? Is everyone okay?”

  Adam snorted. “What do you do here all day besides gossip?” He grinned at Tad. “They’re fine. No bodies on either side.”

  He seemed in a better mood than I’d seen him in for a long time. I thought of why that might be—and managed, finally, not to blush.

  “So what happened?” I asked.

  “Darryl and Auriele found two of Harolford’s pack hiding in Ogden’s backyard, both in wolf form. There was a fight, but it was brief because the others had obviously been told not to engage. We aren’t sure if they ran because they didn’t expect to face Darryl and Auriele, too, or if they had never intended to do anything more than scare Ogden.”

  Adam grinned suddenly. “Ogden called me to tell me the whole story and he could not have sounded more exhilarated if they had killed all six of the invading army. To celebrate their victory, the three of them are on their way to our house with pizza.” He glanced at Tad and Zee. “There will be enough to feed you, if you’d like to join us.”

  “No,” said Tad. “I’ve been enlisted to take Jesse and her friends to the roller-skating arena. I can’t figure out if she asked me to go because she knows you won’t let her go without a bodyguard until the strange-wolf thing clears up. Or if she’s trying to play matchmaker with the girl who keeps trying to talk to me but can’t make herself say a word. Or trying to prove to that girl that I’m the last person in the world she should have a crush on.” He gave Adam a droll look. “I have decided to be amused by the whole thing.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Adam followed my battered but recovering Jetta in his new SUV. The old SUV had been hit by a semi driven by vampires—this one looked black and shiny, just like the old one except that it was newer. He had resisted my attempt to get him to buy something more daring—like dark gray.

  I had the thought that this journey homeward was symbolic of our lives right now. He in his fortress of solitude, me in my battered vehicle that was doing pretty good just getting down the road. Together, but apart. Adam protecting me as best he could from any outside force that might try to hurt me, but not letting me in.

  * * *

  • • •

  Darryl, Auriele, and Ogden stormed into the house bearing pizza and the remnants of battle. Mostly, by that point, those remnants were dirt and torn clothing that was stained with the blood of wounds that had already closed—and the battle-born adrenaline high of a successful fight. They brought a wave of laughter and chatter as they revisited moments from the fight, their beasts in their eyes.

  “I called,” announced Ogden to the whole household. “I drove to my house on the way home from work and there was something not right.” He gave Adam a shy look. “Minding what you said, sir, I did not stop. I drove to the Uptown Mall and called Darryl.”

  “And we,” purred Auriele, as happy as I had seen her in months, “found a couple of strays in Ogden’s backyard. Wolf form—so we don’t know which ones. Sent them home with their tails between their legs.”

  There was another incident that night. Four wolves tried to blindside Warren as he drove to his house. Kyle came out with a loaded rifle and shot one in the hip. The rest retreated.

  “I expect,” said Warren on the phone, “that Kyle and I will get another letter from the HOA. We’ve been looking at moving somewhere with fewer neighbors, but Kyle doesn’t want to leave Dick and Jane behind.”

  Dick and Jane were two life-sized naked statues in Kyle’s foyer. They’d been in the house when Kyle bought it. He took great joy in finding outrageous outfits to dress them in. Last time I’d seen them, Jane was wearing a grass skirt and nothing else, and Dick was sporting a squirrel puppet on his manly bits.

  “Statues can be moved,” I commented.

  Adam was the one on the phone, but we were all listening in.

  “Kyle’s stubborn,” Warren said. “And when Mr. Francis, our old contentious neighbor, died, it deflated the HOA’s sails. They are a little afraid of Kyle because he’s a lawyer.”

  “And because they’ve met Kyle,” said Ogden; the aftereffects of successfully defending his home had left him chattier than usual. It was said in a low tone, though, so I don’t think Warren was supposed to hear it—but he did.

  “And because they’ve met Kyle,” Warren agreed cheerfully. “I don’t know whether they are more afraid of his shark reputation in his chosen field or that if they push him he’ll find some horrible thing to do—like fly a giant penis kite over the house—that is not against the HOA agreement.”

  “Could you tell which four wolves?” I asked.

  “The two Palsics were in human form,” said Warren. “The other two were wolves and I don’t know which ones. Kyle shot the bigger of the two. He’ll recover—it wasn’t silver ammunition—but it will take him a while. That rifle isn’t as big as Mercy’s .444 Marlin but it was a .30-06 and that has a lot of stopping power. They had to carry him off.”

  “Were you injured?” asked Adam.

  “No, boss,” said Warren. “Kyle kept the big bad wolves from hurting me. Even though I told him to stay inside and call you.”

  “Four to one,” said Kyle clearly. “They didn’t have a chance.” He lied, but he didn’t intend anyone to believe it. “But how many times am I going to get an opportunity to shoot someone without consequences?”

  Warren made a noise. I couldn’t tell if it was a growl or a purr. “Got to go, boss. Gotta talk sense into someone.”

  * * *

  • • •

  I tried to call Stefan twice that night. The second time I left a message on his phone. He didn’t return my call.

  7

  I got home late from work on Saturday. Lucia had saved me dinner, which I ate by myself. That’s not to say that I was alone.

  We were keeping an extra werewolf at the pack home because of the various threats—though since the night Kyle had shot one of the wolves, we had seen neither hide nor hair of the outsiders be they werewolves, smoke beasts, or vampires. Tonight our extra werewolf was Ben. He sat at the kitchen table opposite me while I ate and told me an incident in the ongoing efforts of the subversive IT personnel (which included computer programmers, system operators, and database administrators) to play mind games with the unfortunate corporate minions who were supposed to be in charge.

  In this episode they’d (I was pretty sure t
hat the unnamed perpetrator of most of these was Ben himself) adjusted the e-mail of one of the most disliked executives so that every e-mail he sent out also sent a copy to his wife and his boss. These e-mails included X-rated love letters between the executive and one of the HR people. Ben assured me—with example encounters as proof—that it couldn’t happen to a nicer pair of people. Since this had just happened today, the final outcome was yet to be determined.

  He made me laugh, which was the point, I think, before he left me to go do some work he’d brought with him.

  Jesse had some friends over and, after Ben left, they twice made forays into the kitchen for sustenance. They made popcorn and had to come back for it. On both incursions, Jesse’s friend Izzy kept giving me oddly apologetic looks. But I was too distracted by my own growing misery to worry about what Izzy had to apologize for.

  Despite my initial victory, Adam had resumed his efforts to stay out until after I had to go to bed. He’d slept in the guest room the last few nights so as not to wake me up. My misery was complicated by my absolute conviction that if Adam didn’t want to make an effort, it didn’t matter what I did. A relationship was a two-way street. I would fight—but he had to fight, too.

  Jesse’s friends went to their various homes. Jesse went to bed. And after a half an hour of internal debate, I gave up on Adam and followed her example.

  I don’t know what made me glance out the window as I was getting ready to go to bed.

  Wulfe was stretched out on the roof of my parts car. He’d placed small LED lanterns on the four corners of his chosen stage—all had been set to the night-vision-saving red light. The Rabbit was a small car, so Wulfe’s legs and bare feet dropped down the windshield.

  And there went any chance that I was going to sleep anytime soon.

  I was pretty sure he was naked, but it was hard to tell because the naughty bits were covered by a large piece of white cardboard. There was a picture drawn on the cardboard—a crudely drawn red flower with two leaves at the bottom of a long stem that looked remarkably like the pieces of anatomy that the cardboard was covering. Wulfe had died when he was still a teenager. His pale hair framed a face that would never grow old but also would never fulfill the promise of his not-quite-mature features. He looked younger than Jesse.

  I wasn’t sure of the effect that he’d intended his theatrical staging to have on me—but I was pretty sure he hadn’t intended to make me sad.

  The vampire saw me looking at him and blew me a kiss just as someone knocked on my door.

  “A minute,” I said, grabbing my robe and wrapping myself in it.

  It was Ben.

  “Mercy,” he said. “Is there any legitimate reason for Wulfe to be running around outside? I’m catching his scent all over.” Apparently, he hadn’t seen Wulfe’s passion play on my Rabbit.

  It was a sign of how much Wulfe bothered him that he didn’t use any swear words at all.

  “He’s stalking me,” I told him. I’d forgotten that Wulfe hadn’t been one of the threats Adam had presented to the pack.

  Ben’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “Excuse the fuck out of me? Could you repeat that?”

  And he was back to normal.

  “He told us that he is stalking me,” I said again, though I knew Ben had heard me perfectly well the first time.

  “Okay,” he said, then added a few sentences creatively spiced with expletives that boiled down to, “That would have been a good thing to let your security know in advance, don’t you think?”

  He was right, and I had thought about it. “Adam didn’t tell the pack,” I told him. “So I didn’t know if he wanted it to be kept secret or not, and he hasn’t been around to ask.”

  Ben tightened his lips and I decided without proof that he was upset with Adam, too. I knew that the pack was watching the two of us with concern. But Adam wasn’t the issue right now.

  “Wulfe hasn’t made any aggressive moves so far,” I told Ben—reminding myself at the same time. “In fact, he’s the one who dumped me in the river to break the smoke demon . . . smoke beast’s hold on me, which saved my life.” The last thing I wanted was Ben going out and picking a fight with Wulfe. Werewolves were tough, no doubt, but Ben was not in Wulfe’s weight class. So I said, lamely, “Maybe he doesn’t intend any harm.”

  “Saint Elmo’s hairy ass he doesn’t intend any harm,” Ben exploded. “If Wulfe is following you around, it’s not to sell you magazine subscriptions. Fucking hell, Mercy.”

  I shrugged, though I agreed wholeheartedly with his assessment. It just wasn’t useful to run around shrieking in fear. “So far, Ben, all that he’s done is save my life.”

  Ben opened his mouth, then frowned at the window. “Where’s that light coming from?” he muttered, and not to me. He pushed his way into the bedroom and stalked up to the window. He stared out for a few seconds and then pulled down the blinds. He gave me an unreadable look and pulled the blinds down on the other windows, too.

  He walked back to me and, in a very gentle voice, swore for a solid thirty seconds without repeating himself once.

  When he wound down, he said, “Mercy, he can walk right into this house because some damn fool brought him in when we thought he was dying.”

  “I think he might have been able to come in anyway,” I said. “Even if a vampire is unconscious, you have to invite them into your home or they can’t come. Ogden says he did not invite him in, not that he remembers, anyway.”

  Ben said, “I don’t know that I’m comfortable with you sleeping up here alone. Where is Adam?”

  “Darned if I know,” I told him. There must have been something in my voice because his face softened.

  “What is up with him?” Ben asked. “He has been a right bastard these past few weeks.”

  There was a sudden wary look in his eye at the tail end of his sentence—as if he had been thinking awhile about how to bring it up. But he hadn’t really expected to bring it up just now.

  “I know as much as he does,” I told Ben firmly. The pack didn’t need to know that neither of us really understood what was going on. “I’m not going to discuss it with anyone else.”

  “Private,” he said, with a nod. There was relief in his posture. It was enough for him that he believed that I knew what was wrong. “I get that. Do you want me to go drive the vampire off?”

  There was not a sparrow’s chance in hell that Ben’s going out to drive Wulfe away would end up with Wulfe leaving. But I could find a galaxy’s worth of scenarios where that ended in disaster.

  “No,” I said. “I think he’s just playing right now. Testing us, maybe. I don’t want to do anything that makes him think that we are taking him seriously.” And that gave me an idea.

  I pulled a blanket out of the hall closet—one of those fuzzy ones sold at Costco. This one was wine red, suitable for a vampire. I’d never had it on my bed. I think the last one to use it had been Christy, so it wouldn’t smell like me or Adam. Vampires have keen senses and I wanted to be very careful about the message I was sending with this blanket.

  “Here,” I said, shoving it at Ben. “Take this out to Wulfe. Tell him I . . . no. Tell him we don’t want him to get cold.”

  Ben took the blanket, but as I spoke, he’d frozen in place. He frowned at me a moment, then shook his head and finally grinned. “He doesn’t know who he is messing with.”

  That Ben thought I was a match for Wulfe was nice—but it might be dangerous for him to continue to hold that misapprehension.

  “He scares the socks off me,” I told Ben seriously. “He should scare the socks off you, too. Don’t underestimate him. Don’t let him lure you into thinking he is harmless. Or that Adam or I or even the Mistress of the vampire seethe can keep him from doing anything he decides to do. Take him the blanket, and get back into the house. If we keep him amused, then he won’t have to kill anyone out of sheer bore
dom.”

  His face grew sober. “I get that,” he said. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

  He left and I waited for him to return. I wanted to watch out the window, but I was afraid that if I gave him an audience, Wulfe might do something horrible. I’d seen him do horrible things before.

  Instead I went down to the kitchen and pulled out a bowl. I needed to get to sleep, but I wasn’t going to manage that for a while. I mixed up chocolate chip cookies. Just a double batch.

  I heard the murmur of Lucia’s voice in the suite she shared with Joel. There was no answering voice—Joel had not managed to shift to human for the past few days.

  Aiden’s fire had rekindled itself, but it wasn’t up to normal levels yet and he hadn’t been able to quiet the volcano spirit enough to allow Joel to emerge. That was a little disheartening because we’d been hoping that Joel had been gaining more control. Apparently, Aiden had been getting better at shutting Joel’s fire down instead. At least Joel had been able to stay in his presa Canario form so we didn’t have to worry about him burning down the house inadvertently.

  The sounds of me making food in the kitchen lured Medea out of whatever dark corner she’d been sleeping in. She hovered around my ankles because she knew that hopping on the counters was forbidden. I gave her a small dab of dough before I mixed in the chocolate chips and walnuts. She purred as she ate, and the sound soothed me. Cats are good company when you are sad or worried.

  Walnuts were a matter of contention in the pack, but I liked them and I was making these for me. I needed chocolate because Adam wasn’t here. And because it was taking a very long time for Ben to walk out and hand over a blanket.

  Adam’s SUV purred into our driveway about the same time that the back door opened and Ben walked in sans blanket.

  “What took so long?” I asked, trying not to listen to Adam’s door shut. Now that Adam was actually here, I was nervous. What if he was unhappy when he saw me? I didn’t want the sight of me to make Adam unhappy.