Night Howls

by Amber Lynn

  “And there is no chance he will survive and just become a werewolf?” Gene asks. Okay, so the humans don’t know anything about shifters at all.

  Alex chuckles under his breath. I cannot hold back a full laugh. “Maybe someone should think about providing the humans with accurate information about the people living in the town next door. No, he will not turn into a werewolf. That isn’t possible. Those with the gene are born with it.”

  “Would you happen to have that particular gene?” Will questions.

  “That is still none of your business,” I reply getting closer to the body to see if I can find out anything more from it.

  It looks like a pretty standard attack. No unique marks with the teeth or claws. The strong scent of cologne is overpowering most of the other smells in the room. I pick up lavender and vanilla, but I don’t really have a way of knowing whom they belong to. I can see wolf hairs on the bed that would be useful if we had a database of werewolf DNA just sitting around waiting for us at home. Sadly, only the Collective has something like that and I doubt they have every single werewolf in it. That isn’t a database you want to be listed in.

  “You picking up anything useful?” Alex asks taking a closer look himself.

  “Not really. I want to talk to the witness and see what she has to say. There are hairs around that the Collective might be able to get something on, but will be of no use to us.”

  “Jonas, will you go ahead and bag them anyway?” Alex asks and Jonas quickly takes out a baggy and a set of tweezers from somewhere. I didn't see where they came from and I am surprised that is something he just carries around with him.

  “I have been to crime scenes before, Princess. Being around you has just increased the frequency of those delightful moments.” Evidently, enough for him to carry around evidence baggies in his pocket. I think something is wrong with this picture.

  “So, this is something you guys do all of the time?” Will was at my place of business just yesterday, so I don't know why he has to ask. Maybe he didn't believe there was really a crossbow aimed at his testicles. I will have to remember to give him a demonstration later, I think and hear myself laughing manically in my mind.

  “I am a private investigator, what do you think I do all day? I can assure you I don't go around taking pictures of cheating spouses or rescuing kittens from trees.”

  “Don't you have a police force or something that looks into crimes like this?”

  “I sure as Hell wouldn't classify them as what you consider police, but the Grand Collective does look into this type of thing,” I say using the official title for the bastards that lied to me all my life and work hard to make others’ lives miserable. You could say I am still bitter over that, just a tad.

  “The guys that were in your office yesterday? They didn't exactly seem to be that friendly with you. Did you kick their puppy or something?” he asks continuing to be annoying. I know it is just a saying, but it is a really stupid one to use in a town full of werewolves. Has he noticed I am the only one in this entire town that has a pet? Even the witches, who people would think would have a familiar or some silly cats running around, don't keep pets in this town. They tend to be treated as appetizers.

  “No, the man that came in to talk was my foster father growing up. You could say we have issues.”

  “Where is your other boyfriend at? You haven't brought him back here since that first day. Do you alternate weeks between the two of them or something?” How is knowing where Sebastian is or how our love triangle works going to help this situation? It's not and I would appreciate it if he didn’t wander off topic.

  “Calm down just a little. I really don’t think you blowing holes in the humans is a good idea right now,” Alex says trying to keep me from bursting.

  “Nice try, but this guy is too big of an ass to not put him in his place. You know, he kind of reminds me of you when we first met,” I reply and cut off mental communication to ignite the fireworks display.

  “What is wrong with you humans? We are standing over a dead body of someone you said you didn't despise and you want to know more about my dating life. Where my other mate is, is none of your business. Now, take me to this witness, so I can hurry up and find the killer before he decides large, ignorant jerk is on the menu,” I say and start pushing my way out of the room. It is moments like this that I just don't understand people.

  “Hold on a second,” Will says catching up. “I am sorry about that, you just are a really intriguing person and you had said something about your father, so I thought maybe you were opening up on a personal level and it just seemed like a chance to ask some of the questions that have been bugging me.” Great. Now he is rambling.

  “Let me explain this to you, in smaller words since I don't think you got it the first time we met. I am not human, you are. That means there is nothing about me that should interest you. We ain't ever going to happen, not even on the big screen, so you need to forget about it. My personal relationship with anyone is no one's business.” There. I know there might have been a couple of words he couldn't understand in there, but he should get the underlying meaning. If he doesn't, I am sure Alex's fist will explain it even better.

  “Hard to get. Got it. How about I walk you over to Millie's. Like I said earlier, I don't think you will get much help from her,” he says and opens the trailer door to let me out. If I wasn’t in the middle of something, I would be banging my head on the nearest wall for his comment about me playing hard to get. The far off planet without men is sounding better all the time.

  I vacate the building and then fall in step behind him as he leads me to the closest trailer. “Why do you think Millie isn't going to be very helpful? If she saw the guy, like Gene seemed to indicate, it could be a crucial break in the case.”

  “Millie may be the best makeup artist in the industry, but she is also deaf. She cannot hear or speak at all, so your conversation is going to be full of a lot of hand gestures that not many people understand,” he says as he knocks on the door.

  “Doesn't she travel with an interpreter? I would think if she is as big as you claim, then she would have some assistance with her day-to-day tasks.”

  “Since another member of the crew knew sign language they didn't think it was necessary to bring someone else in,” he says knocking louder. If the woman inside cannot hear, I wonder what he thinks he is going to accomplish.

  “You said 'knew' in the past tense. I am guessing the body I was just looking at was your interpreter.” I highly doubt Stacy had the patience, or mental aptitude, to learn sign language. From what I have heard, she thought her hands were needed for more interesting purposes.

  “That's right. The two of them were pretty close, since he was the only one she could successfully communicate with,” he says pounding harder on the door. “Come on.”

  “She cannot hear, why do you think she will answer the door?” I ask tired of watching him look ridiculous.

  “She can feel the vibration,” he replies as a woman finally opens the door. By now, everyone else in my posse has joined us and it looks like Gene is tagging along. I guess it is time to see if those mime school classes are finally going to pay off. It’s a joke, in case the other people in my head didn’t figure that one out. You won’t find me stuck anytime soon in an invisible box.

  Chapter 16

  Gestures and me don’t mix

  We are allowed into a trailer that is very similar to the one I just came from. Neither of them is very special. Standard kitchenette, comfortable looking couch facing a small television, and a curtain door leading off into a bedroom area.

  It is nowhere near big enough for our large group, but we make do. It seems no one is willing to wait outside while I question the witness. I don’t think I am that interesting to watch, but I must have missed a memo saying otherwise.

  I sit Millie down on the couch and place myself next to her so we are facing each other. I am not even sure where to start my questioning. I know wha
t I would ask her if it was a normal conversation, but how to ask her if she saw a werewolf attack her friend with hand gestures, might be a little beyond my repertoire.

  I go with something basic and point to her, then my eyes and finish by making my scariest face. I get my fangs to drop just to add to the effect. Thankfully, everyone else in the room is behind me, making it so they cannot see my antics. I don’t think I even want to see the contortions going on in my face region.

  She shakes her head adamantly and starts moving her hands frantically. I have no clue what she is saying. This is going to take all of my patience. Even if she were to slow down the movements, I would still be lost.

  “She says it wasn't a vampire,” Walt says from the back of our group. I thought he was supposed to be in the car. “I heard you guys talking about not having someone who understood sign language and thought I would come offer my services.”

  “I didn't know you knew sign language,” I say as the guys let him move forward. He is pulling Clyde along, who is having fun trying to smell every fiber of carpet on the floor. The things that amuse that dog still astonish me.

  “You saw the town I was living in not that long ago. How do you think I kept myself from going crazy?” He draws Millie's attention and starts signing to her. He is moving pretty fast, so I can tell this wasn't just a passing fad for him. The town he referenced, Ghost Town, only has about a hundred residents and even running the town saloon must have gotten pretty boring for him.

  “She says she saw a young man, most likely not even twenty, shift into a big gray wolf and then start attacking Justin. She got scared and ran away. When he came out of the trailer as a humanoid, he was carrying a book of some sort. He did some weird ritual where he held the book up towards the sky and then kissed it after saying something. It was still dark out and she didn't get a look at his features,” Jonas relays. She has been more help than she knows just mentioning the book.

  “Tell her thank you for her time. I have everything I need to know.” I wait while he does a gesture with his hands. She quickly gestures something back to him.

  “She wants to know how you can be out in the daylight. I take it you showed your fangs while you were doing your werewolf impression.”

  “You can either tell her I am not a vampire or I am a special variety. Both are somewhat true.” I stand to leave trying to decide how to go about finding the particular person behind this.

  “It looks like you are planning to run off. Can I get you to run through your scenes real quick before you do?” Gene asks when he catches up with me outside. “There may be some other witnesses we can round up that could provide you with a better description.”

  I doubt it and it wouldn't really matter because it is highly unlikely the same person killed both humans. The book ritual means the guy had just finished his initiation into a group that calls themselves The Enlightened. It is a group of whacked out werewolves that believe we are on this earth to be true monsters. They target humans every chance they get and rarely leave their victims alive. I have had to execute many of their ranks and would love to find a way to eradicate them all.

  Not that I am particularly fond of humans. They annoy the crap out of me and give me rashes, but I am not some all-knowing being that can pick who deserves to live and die. I leave that for the shit disturbers upstairs and try to worry about making it through a day without pissing every single person I come in contact with off. I don’t ever succeed, but it keeps me busy enough to not go around killing random people.

  “I don't need any other witnesses. I already know who is behind this and I just need to come up with a plan to bring them to justice.” Finding a giant sledgehammer able to crush their building comes to mind as a great plan.

  “Does that mean you aren't going to work with us? I know you didn't sign anything, but you said I could have you for eight hours.”

  I doubt he has any actual legal standing and I really don't want to be any part of their movie, but I cannot in good conscience let them move forward with the sappy script they have. The scenes I am in are easy enough and shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. The wolves I need to talk to probably aren't up anyway.

  “You can have me until dusk today. That should take care of any scenes I need to be in. We do need to have a little discussion about that last one, though. I don't think it is wise to have me in even a pretend sex scene.”

  “Why not? I was looking forward to showing you what I have to offer,” Will claims. Now, I want a giant sledgehammer to hit him in the head with.

  “Believe me, I have relationships with a werewolf and a vampire, anything you got is going to pale in comparison. Plus, I doubt even your best airbrush person would be able to fix this,” I say and turn around to show them my back. There is no way they can argue with the proof before their eyes.

  “Holy cow. What happened to you and is the person still breathing because you don't figure they would be with your personality,” Will says and I can feel him getting closer to me. I bet he wants to touch it and that ain't happening.

  I put my shirt back down and turn around. I end up nose to chest with the idiot so I take a colossal step backwards. “I wasn't always able to defend myself like I can today. If someone tried to do anything remotely similar now, I would actually let my dog eat their carcass after I played with them first. As far as the person that did it, sadly, the asshole is still breathing, but it is a temporary state of being for him. I have more scars you should consider as far as the movie goes. Specifically, a nasty one running up my leg that might make wearing anything other than pants difficult.”

  “I would say we could get you a body double, but I don't know how we are going to find one with so little time. We could try to have one of the makeup people cover it up, but that would take too long. We could write the scars into the script, but we would have to make them look a little newer.”' Gene keeps coming up with ideas and shooting them down himself. I hate being nice, but I think I will let him off the hook. My idea will brighten someone else’s day, so maybe it will be worth it.

  “If I could get you a stand in, what exactly would she need to do? I have someone that could be confused with me from the back and she might be okay doing those shots.” She might also kill us all with her enthusiasm, but I keep that bit to myself.

  “Hmm,” Gene hums thinking about it. “If she could go through the scenes where you are standing up, then we could splice her into any of the scenes where your scars are visible. We would want you to still act through them all and just use her for the two or so times your back is in the shot.” I got the idea from his first sentence. It wasn’t necessary for him to say more or less the same thing twice.

  “Are you that important in the paranorm world that you have to have a body double available to you?” Will asks again fishing for information.

  “Of course. How else would I be allowed to have two mates?” I answer his asinine question with one of my own. “So, I would still be the one hopping in bed pretending to be enjoying Will having sex with me.” Gene said it twice; I might as well say it too.

  Will's face lights up at the idea. I guess he doesn't realize it wasn't a compliment.

  “I would prefer that it be you. Your face will be shown and the covers will cover anything that might be an issue,” Gene supplies.

  Fine. We can do the whole pretend sex thing, but you better believe I am going to be thinking about Alex the entire time, seeing as he is my mate present.

  “Don't worry; I will talk you through it. I am pretty sure we can make it enjoyable for you,” Alex assures me. Having pseudo sex doesn't seem that bad when you have someone you wouldn't mind having wild, hot monkey sex with talking you through it.

  “Okay, the scene can take place, but we have to have clothing in between us down below. I am not that worried about my top half because as you can see there is nothing there, but I don't want his dick actually touching my nether regions.”

  “We don't tend to shoot people nake
d, unless they have to actually do the act to make them seem believable. I am hoping you can come off as though you are really into the sex because otherwise we would need the real thing.” Seriously, if a girl cannot fake it, they make them do it for real? That is just wrong.

  “Believe me, no one is going to find my performance lacking in any way. Let me call my double and see if she is willing to help out. She may have a conflict of interest, or something.” I take out my phone and wonder if Sam will make an issue out of Phee taking her clothes off. He is a bit protective of the girl, but if she really wants to do it, I doubt he could tell her no. I have taught her so well.

  Chapter 17

  The things I do to make it through a day

  “I cannot believe I get to be in a movie,” Phee squeals as she runs over to wrap me in a hug. Sam follows close behind to pry her arms off me. Since I allowed him out of his jail cell and he and Phee have moved into an apartment at my place, he has tried to keep Phee reined in around me as much as possible.

  “You did understand that they will only be shooting your back and you won't actually be talking, right?” I ask as Sam finally gets a hold on her.

  “I know, but my name will be in the credits, yes?” she queries still hopping around.

  “I suppose. I think they are going to do my talking scenes first and then you will come in for the last scene. You are all good with this, right, Sam?” It wouldn't serve us to have him rush into a scene trying to cover her up.

  “Have you ever tried to tell her no?”

  “Yes, and I tend to be successful when I do.”

  “Then you are the only person in the universe that she listens to. I tried to get her to discuss it with me and she couldn't move me out of the way to get down here fast enough.” That sounds like my little Phee.

  “So, she is your sister. No wonder you have a double running around,” Will says joining our group.