by Jess Haines
I burrowed under the covers and groaned as I thought about facing the day. More unwanted mystery and avoiding unknown monsters out to make my life miserable did not sound like a good time. Neither did finding out how much further the “rumors” about my being a “leech’s pet” had spread.
Soon enough, hunger and a desire to find out what the heck had happened to Chaz were enough of a goad to get me to leave the bed. I didn’t bother to shower. Instead, I grabbed a T-shirt and jeans out of the lone bag to survive our little “visit” yesterday, the bag that held the scant remains of my wardrobe. I got dressed, slipped on my shoes and track jacket, and headed outside, shading my eyes with a hand as I scanned the surroundings.
The sun was well over the horizon, the sky a flawless blue, not a single cloud to hint at rain or fog. Birds chirped merrily in the underbrush, and the air smelled clean and fresh. It was warmer than yesterday, but the grass and dirt paths were still damp and a bit muddy. If I still went out for a walk in the woods with Nick and Sean, I’d have to wear my hiking boots instead of sneakers. Fortunately, they’d survived the rampage.
I took a deep breath, enjoying the crisp mountain air as I walked the longer trail up to the lodge. A couple sharing a cup of coffee on the step in front of their cabin waved and smiled as I passed. I could tell by the amount of hair visible on their arms and the backs of their hands, as well as the thick stubble on the guy’s face, that they were Weres. Maybe word about my ties to Royce hadn’t spread to the entire pack after all. I wasn’t sure who else was staying here, but I had seen people who weren’t part of the pack in the dining hall. It was good to know that some of the other people here didn’t have a problem with the Sunstrikers, because that would’ve made the rest of this trip positively intolerable.
Feeling a little better, I continued with more of a spring in my step. There were some people making a ruckus in the game room, but the dining hall was practically deserted. Mrs. Cassidy was clearing away a few dishes from a table, but she gave me a friendly smile and a nod when she saw me take a seat by one of the windows.
I wondered where everybody was. There was a skinny, geeky-looking guy munching on some toast as he read a paperback off by himself in the corner. Not part of the Sunstrikers, though I’d seen him in here with a couple other guys yesterday. There was another stranger reading a newspaper at the far end of the room. George and Daisy the bartender were sitting together, heads close, and I could see the light touches to each other’s hands and gentle smiles they were giving each other. They made an incongruous couple, what with his bulk and her diminutive stature, but they seemed happy. I couldn’t tell if the girl was human, but I was sure George was Were of some flavor or another. Judging by his size and the ponderous way he moved, somehow I didn’t think it was wolf. No, it was something else. Something bigger. Bear, maybe.
Mrs. Cassidy came by a few minutes later, a mug and coffee pot in hand. “Your young man has his hands full with that poor boy who’s turning for the first time this month. He said you might come by looking for him.”
I lifted a brow, cradling my hands around the mug for the warmth as she poured coffee for me. “Oh, is that where he is? All right.”
“Mmhm. In the meantime, what can I get you? We’ve got some fresh-made blueberry pancakes.”
“That sounds great, thanks.”
“Okay, I’ll have that out to you in a jiffy. Don’t you worry about your boy, now. He’ll be along once the new blood’s settled down a bit.”
I hadn’t been particularly worried, but her repeated reassurance made me wonder if I should be. At my absent nod, she whisked off, deftly weaving between the tables to refill the coffee mugs for George and his girl, then for the geek in the corner. Everything was quiet except for the muted whispers of the lovers, and as I tasted the coffee, bitter from sitting on the burner too long, I pondered what to do about all the problems that had cropped up.
Someone was behind it all. Someone was whispering bad things in the ears of the pack, stirring them up, pissing them off. Somebody didn’t want me here or was angry at Chaz, and was willing to do some bad things to drive us away. Why?
As convenient as it would be to blame Alec Royce, I didn’t think my being bound by blood to him for a whopping twelve days was enough to piss off the Sunstrikers. They knew I had a connection to him after that deal with the Dominari Focus, and that I had saved the vamp as well as Were packs in New York City from enslavement by a crazy sorcerer. Shouldn’t that be enough to balance out the ugliness of being bound for a few measly days?
Granted, I’d never fully work him out of my system after what had happened. You could say the same of Max Carlyle. If the guy was in close enough proximity, he could call me back to his side. I didn’t think Royce would tolerate Max’s coming back to New York for any reason, and if the police caught wind of his return, his butt would fry in the sun in no time. He’d tried to pin the mass murders he’d committed on Royce, and while it had been proven conclusively that Max was the one responsible, it had still tarnished Royce’s relatively good name. There were questions of his involvement and, now and again, mine as well. Could it be that someone was upset about the murders and was trying to turn everyone against me?
No. No, the “flavor” of the pranks of the last few days seemed too personal. It wasn’t just an attempt to turn Others against me for something as nebulous as my possible involvement in the massacres of a month ago. Actually, it probably wasn’t even because I had some kind of connection to Royce. Whatever it might be, it had something to do with my relationship with Chaz.
You don’t burn someone’s clothes and shoes unless you’ve got a special beef. The rumors and handwritten notes didn’t seem like the handiwork of the same person. You don’t leap from weird, somewhat childish notes to violence on this scale without some serious provocation, and I wasn’t sure that Chaz or I could’ve managed to piss somebody off this badly in so short a period. For that matter, was it me or Chaz they were targeting? Both? Did that mean that the same person was mad at us for different reasons, or that two different people were simultaneously taking out their frustrations on one or both of us?
I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair, concentrating on piecing together what was going on with the clues I had. Sara would be laughing her ass off at me right now. Sitting around drinking coffee, hiding inside when I should be hunting down the root of the problem and confronting it. Whatever. I’d take care of the problem on my own time. Aside from which, I doubted whoever it was would be raising his or her hand and conveniently saying, “Oh yes, that was me!” when I started asking around to scare up some clues.
“Here you go, sweetie. You just call me over if you need anything else.”
I cracked an eye open as Mrs. Cassidy set the plate down. Just looking at the mile-high stack of blueberry pancakes dripping with butter was enough to give me heart palpitations.
“Thank you,” I said with a grateful smile, tugging the cloth napkin out from under my silverware and putting it across my lap. She settled a dish with extra butter and a trencher of warm syrup down in front of me, giving me a light, friendly pat on the shoulder. I dug in, giving a blissful moan of pleasure at the first bite. The soft, fluffy pancakes were fantastic, practically melting on my tongue.
I stuffed myself, taking some time about it after the first few hurried bites. After all, I didn’t have anywhere to be today, and I wasn’t going to go traipsing around in the woods by myself. If I was going to go hiking later, it would be with Nick and Sean, but I had the feeling they were most likely busy helping Chaz deal with Ethan if the new werewolf was having a rough time with the change.
I downed the last of my coffee and rose, stretching languorously as I considered what to do. Maybe the geek didn’t have such a bad idea with that paperback. I thought I might have stuffed some cheesy romance novel in my remaining duffel before I left, just in case of emergencies—like now. Still, I didn’t feel like reading; I wanted to do something. Hanging around the garde
n, or maybe catching some sun by the creek should be safe enough.
The man with the newspaper folded the pages down, revealing his features. His sharp hazel eyes were locked on me, watching my every move, and I inwardly cursed my lack of attentiveness.
Jim Pradiz was getting up to join me. I thought about making a run for it, but there wasn’t anywhere for me to go unless I wanted to stay locked in my cabin for the rest of the trip.
He gave me a blindingly white smile, extending his hand as he approached. “Ms. Waynest, good to see you again.”
I ignored the offered hand. He let it drop without comment, and without losing that ingratiating grin. “J.P. I assume you’re the one who was following us the night before last?”
“Why, yes. I hope I didn’t alarm you. Want to tell me what made you choose this establishment for your little outing?”
“That’s none of your damn business,” I snarled, though I toned it down and forced the tension out of my shoulders as everyone, including the kid with the paperback, dropped what he or she was doing to stare curiously at us. “I’m on vacation, okay? Aren’t there rules about leaving people on vacation alone? Go crawl back to the city and find someone else to harass.”
“I’m hardly harassing you, Ms. Waynest. Just looking for a story. Funny that I always find one when I spend enough time following you.”
“Jim, please don’t do this to me. I’m trying to have a relaxing getaway—this isn’t helping.”
That smile of his never wavered. It bugged the hell out of me. “I’ll be watching, but you won’t see much of me. I’m not staying here, just swinging by to see what the Sunstriker pack is up to so far from the city. You’re not the only story I followed up here. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it discreet. If you change your mind about giving a statement later, you know how to reach me.”
He afforded me a nod, waving the paper at me in what might have been mockery or threat as he breezed by. No doubt he’d find someplace to hole up and watch us, taking photos of whatever he thought might sell to the tabloids. I wasn’t happy about it, but it had become depressingly commonplace lately. Anything that connected me with Others was newsworthy these days; it was part of why I was on this vacation in the first place. Sara had been taking on more of the footwork that I normally did since too many people now recognized me on the street.
My good mood gone, I stalked out of the dining hall and headed outside, pausing on the trail to enjoy the cool breeze that rustled the grasses and herbs, letting the sensations wash over me and ease the edge off of my agitation. The heady scent of lemongrass was drowning out the more subtle smells. Someone had cut a swath through it recently, maybe for something Mrs. Cassidy was whipping up in the kitchen tonight.
Breathing in the sour-sweet smell, I turned off the main path and walked into the garden, following the less-packed dirt trail that led through the herbs and vegetables. There wasn’t much still growing this late in the year, and much of what was left had been harvested already, but a few of the hardier plants were still going strong. I brushed my fingers through the rosemary and basil, liking how their dusky scents clung to my skin. There was peppermint out here, too. I could smell it, but they must have had it hidden in pots away from the rest of the plants to keep it from taking over the garden.
There were no benches or gardening tools that I could see, and I wasn’t sure Mr. Cassidy would take too kindly to my digging around in his garden anyway. I used to love gardening growing up, but apartment living wasn’t exactly conducive to growing my own produce. After sampling the amazing food they served here, I was starting to regret that a little.
Wanting to sit down, forget about Jim Pradiz, and just enjoy the sun for a while, I ambled my way out of the garden and toward the creek. After the rain, it was swollen with runoff from the peaks around us. I found a good-sized rock a little way off the path to sit on, dipping my fingers in the icy cold water and turning my face up to the sun. It was pleasant, doing nothing, just enjoying the sounds of birds calling to each other in the trees and a couple of kids running around nearby. Probably Billy and one or two of the other Weres’ kids.
Out here relaxing in the sun and fresh air was nice, but at this rate I knew I’d be bouncing off the cabin walls to go home by Sunday at the latest. I sorely hoped Ethan wouldn’t keep everyone for too long, and that he hadn’t hurt himself or anybody else. It bugged me that nobody was around, that it was so quiet, and that there wasn’t much to do since I couldn’t go walking or hiking by myself.
Actually, it was really quiet.
Now that my attention was on it, I opened my eyes and looked around. There were no people walking around. The kids had stopped yelling and carrying on. Even the birds singing in the trees had quieted.
Uneasy, I rose to my feet, wiping my wet hands off on my jeans. I took a look around but didn’t see anyone hiding in the greenery. The woods grew thick near the bank of the creek not that far off the trail, and somebody could theoretically be hiding in the tree line. The sun was bright and high in the sky, but the bushes were dense and rife with deep shadows.
I carefully moved up the bank to the grass, rubbing some of the mud off my sneakers before taking the path over the creek and toward the cabins. I hoped I could find Kimberly, but I wasn’t sure where she was staying, and there was the added worry that she and Paula seemed to be good friends. Kimberly hadn’t been rude to me like Paula, but I wasn’t sure how she felt about me after hearing the news I’d been Royce’s little pet blood doll.
Chaz, followed closely by Simon and Dillon, was ambling up the path toward me. Whatever was in the brush hightailed it, making quite a lot of noise as it rushed off on their approach. Chaz frowned when he reached me, staring off into the bushes even as he gave me a quick hug.
“Hey, love. Hope you weren’t too bored without me.”
“Nah,” I replied, getting up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Heard the new guy was giving you trouble. Everything okay?”
Simon and Dillon exchanged a look I couldn’t read. Chaz’s brows arched in surprise, but his smile eased my worry I’d said something wrong.
“Ethan will be fine. He’s having a rough transition. I left a couple of the guys with him. As for you”—I squealed when he picked me up, laughing as he spun around to face the woods and cabins before setting me back down on my feet; the other two Weres were rolling their eyes, but I didn’t care—“I’m not letting anything get in the way of our afternoon together.”
Chapter 9
At my pleading look, Chaz dismissed Simon and Dillon. The two breathed very obvious sighs of relief and rushed off, not giving Chaz a chance to change his mind. Though I could tell he was annoyed, he quickly lost track of his irritation once I slid my arm around his waist and pressed up against his side.
“So, what did you have in mind for this afternoon?” I asked.
He soon replaced the irritation with playfulness, grinning down at me while his fingers toyed with the bra strap peeking out of my shirt collar. “It’s a surprise.”
My eyebrows arched at that, as I worked my hand under his shirt to rub against the smooth plane of hard muscle on his back. My smile grew wider when he flexed, responding so readily to my touch. He urged me to move, and it was with a mixture of disappointment and curiosity that I noted he wasn’t leading me to our cabin—we were headed somewhere into the woods.
“Where are we going?”
“No questions yet. You’ll see,” he said.
I kept my mouth shut, but both of us explored the bounds of our self-imposed chastity by letting our hands wander and pressing against each other as we walked. The trees were soon close around us, limbs lightly slapping against our arms and legs as we walked, giving us that much greater an excuse to hold each other close as we followed some half-formed path through the underbrush. I barely noticed. He laughed when I stumbled over a root in the mulch, tightening his grip on me in a way I didn’t mind at all.
I’m not sure how long we walked. I was too distracted to
notice where we were going until Chaz halted, and the sound of running water drew my attention to my surroundings.
It looked like something out of a fairy tale. The path led to a stream fed by a small waterfall trickling down over mossy rocks. Birds occasionally darted out to snap up a bug and bullfrogs sang their rough songs from the pool at the base of the falls. Someone had long ago dragged a stone bench out here and set it in a grassy clearing looking over the water; the wilds no doubt would have reclaimed it save that someone had cut back the worst of the brush, leaving the bench barely visible in the field of waving green stalks. The trail curved to follow the stream, and I could see where it picked up on the other side, just beyond some large stepping stones cutting a path through the water.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful,” I breathed, settling back against Chaz’s chest as he wrapped his arms around me.
We stayed like that for a while, him holding me while I drank in the beauty of the place. The heavy scent of pine wasn’t as thick here; instead, there was an odd smell, reminiscent of parsnips, which Chaz told me was the scent of the huge hemlock growing near the base of the waterfall.
Hand in hand, we waded through the thick grass to the edge of the water, avoiding the wavering hemlock clusters that would bloom with white or green flowers come springtime. I pulled a cattail that still had the brown, densely packed seeds on the top, using it to stir the water near the edge. We settled down in the grass, laughing and grabbing at each other for balance as the cold water soaked through our jeans.
He helped me take off my shoes and roll up my pants to my knees, then I set aside my cattail and did the same for him. We stuck our bare feet in the water, and he chuckled at my gasp of shock. We scooted closer on the shore, twining our legs together as we wiggled our toes against the chill. He held me against him, and we watched the frogs and salamanders and fish gradually build up the courage to return to this invaded slice of their haven.
