A few moments later, she called out, “This is the Nocturne Falls Sheriff’s Department. Make yourself known.” When there was no answer, she repeated herself.
Titus kept his eyes on the front door. Minutes ticked by. Was she okay? No sounds came from the house, and his hearing was excellent. No sounds was a good thing, wasn’t it?
A few more minutes went by. The front door opened, and Jenna came out, weapon holstered. “House is clear, but the smell of gas is stronger in here. Strong enough I can smell it. You want to bring your meter in and see if you can find out where it’s coming from?”
“Yep.” He went up the steps. The stink of rotten eggs hit him hard as he walked into the house. His nose wrinkled. “Methanethiol.”
“What’s that?”
“The stuff they add to natural gas to make it smell bad. Also known as mercaptan.”
“Which they add because natural gas has no smell, right?”
“Right.” He checked the meter, which showed that gas was still only faintly present. “Weird.”
“What is?”
“For as much methanethiol as I smell, the meter isn’t reading the equivalent amount of gas present.”
Jenna’s brow furrowed. “Why would that be?”
“Not sure yet. You’ve searched the whole house?”
“Yes.”
“Is the smell any stronger anywhere else?”
“Not that I noticed.”
He looked around. “Is there a basement?”
“Off the kitchen. You want to start your sweep there?”
“Yes, although natural gas is lighter than air, which means it should rise, making the smell stronger up here, but there are usually plenty of pipes to check in a basement.”
She tipped her head toward the back of the house as she holstered her weapon. “Let’s go have a look.”
He held his hand out. “After you.”
Jenna opened the door to the basement, turned on the light, and headed down with Titus right behind her.
She wasn’t about to admit it to anyone, but there was something kind of sexy about Titus when he was in fire chief mode and not trying to tell her how they were going to organize the race. Not just because she had a thing for men in uniform. Particularly firemen. He wasn’t hard to look at either.
Not with that slightly feral thing he had going on. Reminded her of the valkyrie’s male counterpart, the berserker, which was exactly who she would have been paired with in an arranged marriage if not for the extra two years of service that she’d taken on.
Berserkers were wild warrior men with an unmatched fierceness. All the shifters seemed to have that same look about them, some more than others.
Titus had it in spades, especially when he was passionate about something. Like the race. Or his job. He’d probably look that way about his mate too. Although she hadn’t known him to date since his breakup.
She could only imagine what it would be like to be the focus of that feral energy.
She blew out a breath at the sudden rush of heat that went through her. She really shouldn’t be thinking about him like that. Not when he was two feet behind her and smelled like the forest after a hard rain.
Which was a much better smell than the stink of rotten eggs filling this place.
“You okay? You’re not feeling lightheaded, are you?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m fine.”
He shrugged. “Well, the way you exhaled, I thought the fumes were getting to you.”
She narrowed her eyes before turning her head back around. “I’m a valkyrie, wolf. I’m not affected by such things.”
“That’s probably because your sense of smell isn’t as keen as mine.”
She snorted as her feet hit the basement floor. She twisted to face him. He was still a couple of stairs up. “Right. Also, keen? Really?”
“‘Keen’ is a perfectly good word.” He joined her and held the meter out, scanning the basement.
She watched him, maybe admiring the muscles in his forearms just a little. “You sound like my sister. And she’s a librarian.”
“You have something against librarians?”
“Nothing at all. But those kinds of words coming out of a fire chief?”
“Would you prefer I growl my words? Maybe grunt a little?”
She laughed, not meaning to.
He smiled.
And her insides clenched. She inhaled, suddenly needing the air. There was something magical about that smile. Which was stupid. Because smiles were just the muscles of the face contracting. Nothing more.
He shook his head. “You’ve been working for my brother for too long.”
“Maybe.” She needed to get back on track. “What’s your meter say?”
“That there’s no gas leak down—”
Something thunked on the floor above them. Well above them. The sound was followed by what had to be footsteps.
“Crap,” she whispered. “The attic. There’s a set of pulldown steps in the garage, but I didn’t check up there.”
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll be your backup. You lead. You’ve got the gun, after all.”
Just like that, they were back to the task at hand. That’s how it was with them. Being a first responder meant the job took priority. But Jenna kind of enjoyed how easily they went from banter to business.
With a nod, she took out her weapon and went back upstairs. Titus stayed close behind.
She nudged the basement door open and assessed the room beyond. “All clear,” she said softly.
She went toward the garage, cautiously, clearing each room as they went through until they got to the door at the end of the hall that led out. She stopped there, taking up position as she prepared to go through. “Stay behind me.”
She expected a thousand different smart remarks, but he just nodded.
She breached the door, her gun leading the way. The garage, like the rest of the house, was empty. She flipped on the light. The access was right above where a car would have been parked. It was closed, just like it had been earlier. But the cord that hung down to open the panel swung slightly.
She glanced at Titus and put a finger to her ear, then pointed up.
He listened for a moment, then shook his head. “You?”
She shook her head as well. She hadn’t heard a sound, but it was stranger that Titus wasn’t picking up anything. Werewolves had sensitive enough hearing that, at this range, he should be able to home in on a heartbeat.
Had whoever’d been in the attic fled?
He leaned in, putting him so close she could feel his body heat. Wolves ran warm, she reminded herself. Like that fact was going to distract her from his sudden proximity. “I’ll pull down the steps. You keep the opening in your sights.”
“Okay. On my signal.” She went through the door, training her gun on the attic access as she moved into position below.
He followed and grabbed the cord but kept his eyes on her. They were across from each other, separated by a few feet. She nodded, and he yanked the panel down.
The stairs stayed folded up against the panel, and the hinge creaked with disuse. How had neither of them heard the creaking before? The space above was dark, and there was no sign of movement.
She stood there, gun aimed, body tensed for action. “Nocturne Falls Sheriff’s Department. Show yourself now.”
Nothing. No movement, no sound. With her eyes still on the space, she spoke to Titus. “Can you get the light on up there?”
He tried a few switches. The third one did the trick. Light blazed from the rectangle in the ceiling, and she could clearly see the trusses holding up the roof. No signs of life, though.
“Stairs?” he asked.
She nodded and moved so she was at a forty-five-degree angle from the opening.
He was tall enough to reach the bottom rung easily and pull down the steps.
Once he secured them, she moved forward. “I’m going up.”
“Are you
sure?”
She frowned at him. “It’s my job.”
“Right.”
But she wasn’t just going to climb those steps and make herself a target. Instead, she put both hands on her weapon to secure it, then jumped, landing neatly at the top of the expanded steps. With great speed, she cleared both sides of the attic. “No one up here. But there is a vent on the far wall that could be removed and used for access if the person was small enough.”
She moved to see past one of the trusses. “There’s also a small box sitting in the middle of the open space on the left side where the floor is finished. And the smell is pretty strong up here.”
“How small?”
“About twelve by twelve.” She glanced down at him. “I think we’ve been pranked.”
“How?”
“This box might be a homemade stink bomb.”
He frowned. “Great.”
She lifted one shoulder. “It’s almost summer. The kids are wound up from being in school all year. The summer crazies have begun. Or we might have some fledgling witches practicing their spells, that kind of thing. You never know.”
“That’s just perfect.” He rolled his eyes. “The good news is I have a containment bag in my truck.”
She made a face at him as she put her gun away. “For real?”
“For real. It’s not really for stink bombs, but I’m sure it’ll work. We had a skunk incident once.” He grimaced and shook his head. “Don’t ask.”
She laughed. “Oh, I’m going to ask, but later. You want to grab it?”
“Sure. Be right back.” He disappeared from view.
A second later, she heard the garage door going up, and natural light filled the space below. He came back in a couple of minutes with a large canvas contraption that was half bag, half box.
He climbed the steps to join her. She moved out of the way to let him go by, although there was so little area in the attic that he still brushed against her.
The nearness let her get a whiff of him again. Definitely a better smell than rotten eggs.
He opened the bag. “You want to hold this open while I lift the box in?”
“Sure.” She took the bag from him, keeping the mouth wide.
He put a hand on one of the trusses as he went under it but yanked his hand back suddenly. “Son of a—there must be a nail sticking up.”
His palm was bleeding from a long scratch. She frowned. “You caught yourself?”
He nodded. “I’ll be fine. Wolves heal fast. Let’s just get this thing and get out of here.” He reached for the box, but as soon as he picked it up, it started ticking. Eyes wide, he looked at her. “Run.”
He dropped the box as they both started to move, but before it hit the floor, it exploded in a shower of white powder and glittering particles.
They coughed and wheezed. Jenna tried to hold her breath, but she’d already inhaled some. It covered them and filled the air.
She was already feeling lightheaded. “We have to get out of here.”
He nodded and reached for his radio. “We need help too.”
She made it to the stairs, but she was in no condition to jump. Her vision had gone double. She turned around and got one foot on the first rung. Her hands were clammy, and her heart was racing. She squeezed the sides of the steps harder.
The floor below tilted and shifted like a carnival ride.
A thud and a low growl brought her head up.
An enormous wolf lay on his side next to the remains of the box. Titus had shifted. And apparently before he’d gotten to call for help, because she hadn’t heard anything, and his radio lay a foot away from him now.
She knew that transforming was a natural response for a lot of shifters when they were hurt. Had the explosion done more to him than cover him in dust and glitter?
She pulled herself back up the steps to the attic floor. “Titus, are you okay? Do you need help?”
The attic light went oddly dim, and the entire space turned sideways.
No, it wasn’t the attic moving. She’d fallen. She was too numb to get up. Her entire body was pins and needles and nonresponsive.
At least she could still breathe. The air was thick with the scent of wolf. Maybe because she was only inches from Titus. His fur looked so soft. If she’d been able to move, she would have reached out and touched it. His paws were huge. So were his teeth.
“The better to eat you with,” she whispered. Then she giggled, loopy from whatever she’d inhaled.
A second later, the light that remained went completely out.
Titus hadn’t meant to shift. He’d been about to call for assistance on his radio when the wolf had taken over, the urge driven by whatever had been in that dirty bomb. So he’d shifted, dropping the radio in the process, and then lost his ability to stand.
Now he lay sprawled on the attic floor in wolf form, paralyzed by the same cocktail of substances that had caused him to shift. He watched helplessly as Jenna came toward him and fell.
She ended up close enough to touch, but he was powerless to do anything for her. A little noise that almost sounded like laughter escaped from her, then she went utterly still.
He couldn’t move, and his vision was getting blurry. He couldn’t do anything but lie there and growl. Lot of help that was. After a few more seconds, he wasn’t sure he’d even be able to do that anymore.
Everything wavered like it was caught in ripples of overheated air. For a moment, he panicked, thinking there was a fire, but he didn’t smell smoke.
Then, in the shadows beyond the reach of the attic bulb, something moved. A trick of the light? Or maybe just him seeing things. That was more likely. He tried to lift his head for a better look, but his body wasn’t responding to the signals his brain was sending out.
The shape came closer but remained a murky figure, impossible to see clearly. Except for a pair of eyes that glowed like live embers. As it drew near, Titus noted the form was generally human but so dark, it was almost like a shadow come to life. The edges ebbed and flowed as it bent near Jenna.
A hand shape snaked out toward her.
Titus’s instinct kicked in. Jenna was in danger. With every ounce of energy and determination he had left, he snarled.
The shadow leaped back, staring at him. Scared? Surprised? Titus wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t letting up. His snarl deepened into the most menacing growl he could manage. The shadow creature snarled back, eyes blazing like a fire that had been stoked.
Then it disintegrated into little black threads of ether that disappeared like mist into the dark recesses of the attic.
Titus went quiet, breathing with his muzzle open. The spend of energy had exhausted him. But Jenna was safe. Or as safe as she could be with whatever toxins they’d ingested coursing through her.
They needed help. Hopefully, someone would notice them missing soon, because he could feel the contaminants in his system starting to win the battle.
As strong as his wolf was, he wasn’t invincible. His eyes drifted closed. He forced them back open, but a moment later, the urge to sleep overwhelmed him again. He clawed against it, desperate not to lose consciousness, but whatever he’d inhaled was too strong.
He blacked out again even as he was thinking that he was failing Jenna somehow by not protecting her and how ridiculous she would think that was because she’d be the first to tell him she didn’t need protecting.
The thing that stuck with him as he drifted into oblivion was the sense that her not needing protection was no longer true.
Titus awoke to Deputy Alex Cruz standing over him. At least he thought the person was Deputy Cruz. Hard to tell through the hazmat suit. He turned his head to check on Jenna. Good to know he could move again. She was still out, still lying beside him.
“Jenna,” he whispered, throat dry.
“Don’t move, Chief Merrow.”
Yep. That was Cruz all right. “Why?” Titus asked. Hmm. Speaking meant he wasn’t a wolf anymore. His body must hav
e processed the toxins in the bomb faster than Jenna’s. Or had he ingested less of it? That didn’t seem possible, since he’d been closer to the bomb. Or…something else he couldn’t think of.
“You’re injured. There’s blood on your palm.”
“No, I cut myself on a nail.” He flexed his hand. The wound was gone, but it still hurt a little. Nothing major.
“Can you tell me what happened up here?”
“Thought it was a prank. A stink bomb. But then the thing exploded, and whatever was inside knocked us out. Is Deputy Blythe all right?”
Cruz nodded. “Her vitals have been checked and they’re fine, but we’re hoping she regains consciousness soon.”
“Me, too.” Titus stared up at him, not quite ready to get to his feet yet. “Why are you in a hazmat suit?”
“There’s a chemical smell in the air and a lot of white powder on the pulldown stairs and the garage floor. Standard operating procedure in a situation like this.”
“Smart.”
“Can you give me a few more details?”
“I responded with Jenna on a report of a gas leak, but there wasn’t one. Just the smell of sulfur, probably so we’d think there was a leak. My meter picked up a trace of gas, but not enough to justify the smell. We heard a noise up here, came to check it out, and found the box. When I picked it up, it started ticking. A second later, it blew up, covering us with powder. We only lasted a few seconds after that.”
“Okay, thanks.” Cruz glanced toward the opening to the attic. “EMS is here. They’re going to transport you to the hospital for further examination, but they can’t exactly bring a gurney up here.”
Titus bristled at the idea that he needed any kind of help. Even though he knew he did. “I don’t need a gurney.”
Jenna stirred and let out a soft exhale.
That was all the motivation Titus needed to move. He turned onto his side and pushed himself upright. A little wave of dizziness hit him, but he ignored it, just like he ignored feeling like he’d been turned inside out. “Jenna, are you awake?”
She didn’t immediately respond.
Titus looked at Cruz. “We don’t need EMS as much as we need someone who can analyze whatever we were dosed with. There was magic involved in this. Or witchcraft. Or both. Anyone who can take down a valkyrie, and keep her down, knows what they’re doing.”
The Werewolf Dates the Deputy Page 2
