by Jeff Hale
I did the math in my head. “That makes you sixty one.”
He gave me a slow nod but his eyes didn’t quite meet mine. “That sounds about right.”
So much for Mom’s two year limit on how much a boyfriend could be older than me.
“And Matt is how old?” Kris asked.
“Matt,” Matt said, smiling, “is a lot older than Darien, let’s just leave it at that for now.” He turned his gaze on me. “And you two, I would guess, are what, around sixteen?”
I shook my head. “I’ll be nineteen this next month, Kris has a couple more weeks till she’s eighteen.” I was silent a moment, thinking that one day I might look like I was still in my twenties while I was in my sixties, when I heard the familiar noise of my cell phone ringing. I recognized the tone.
“Dammit, that’s my mom. Gimme a sec.” I scooped the cell phone off of the coffee table. “Yeah, Mom?”
“I need you and Kris to head back here early today, sweetie, so you have time to spend with Grandma and Grandpa before we go.” She sounded tired, but there was an elevated note to her voice.
“We’re heading home?” I knew my voice sounded a bit whiny, but I didn’t like the idea of being separated from Darien any sooner than I had to.
“In the morning, yes, after the banks open. They’re going to loan me the money and we need to get back before Gary does, so we can pack and move out. Then I can confront him on my own ground, with things already in place.” I could hear her apprehension.
“S’okay, Mom I understand.” It didn’t mean I was happy about it. “When did you want us back?”
“As soon as you can. I want us to go to bed early so we can leave as early as possible. I’m already calling to line up a van. Gran and Granddad want to take us out again this evening.
I sighed. “I guess. We’ll be back in half an hour or so, that sound okay?”
“Thank you, honey. Don’t take too long, love you.” She hung up.
I snapped the phone shut and grumbled under my breath.
“What’s going on, Kat?” Kris asked me.
“We’re heading back bright and early tomorrow morning to get everything packed up and moved out before Gary gets back. She sounded a little relieved over the idea of being able to move out while he’s gone, something about not having to confront him in his own home.” I gave Darien a wistful look. “Anyway, soon as my pants are done, which they should be any time now, we need to go.”
I headed back to the laundry room and sure enough, my pants were mostly dry, the stains gone or hidden, and I pulled them on. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain to my mother where my jacket had disappeared to, or about the cuts and bruises on my face for that matter, but I could tell her that I forgot it or misplaced it. On my way back through the dining room I pulled my shoes out from under the bed, then headed back out to the living room to put them on, trying not to cry.
I gathered up my purse when I was done. Kris had already gotten ready. I was silent the whole time, feeling all of their eyes on me. I wasn’t sure what the protocol here was so I gave Alex a hug, Matt a wan smile, and Darien a longing look before we headed to the door.
Darien followed us outside. In typical Tillamook weather, the sky was overcast, threatening rain. I knew how it felt. The slight chill to the air didn’t seem to bother Darien. Kris gave me a nod, then walked down to the sidewalk, giving Darien and me as much privacy as she could.
Darien tapped my purse, where he had seen me put my phone. “Get that thing out, I have a couple numbers you are going to need.” He must have seen my surprised reaction. “You honestly didn’t think you were going to walk away and never see or hear from me again, did you? Silly girl.” He grinned at me.
“Okay, first number is mine.” He gave me the number, double checking to make sure I had it right. “Second number is Alex’s, we aren’t always together and if you can’t get hold of me, then you can get hold of him.” He waited while I entered the number he gave me. “Last number is Matt’s, if all else fails, then call him.” He rattled off Matt’s number, once again making sure I had it correct. “I know that seems like a lot, but I want to make sure you can get hold of any of us if you need us.” He took the phone from me, pressed the button that made it display the number to reach it. I saw his mouth move as he said the number to himself a few times, committing it to memory, then handed it to me. “Now, and just as important, where exactly is home at?”
The part of me that had been worried that I would, indeed, walk away and never hear from him or see him again was elated that he wanted the information to be able to find me. “Richland, Washington. Do you know where that is?” I gave him the street address as well.
“That’s near where they have those hydroplane races every year, yeah, I know where that is.” He chuckled.
“What about when I… change?” I asked, suddenly fearful. I didn’t want to go through something like that alone.
“You’ve got a few weeks at least. Don’t worry, I’ll be there, but I have some things I need to take care of first, and you’ve got to be there now for your mom,” Darien assured me.
Then his face sobered as he realized it was time for me to go. He pulled me to him, crushing me against him, and I felt the bare skin of his chest against my face. I took a deep breath, pulling the smell of him deep into my nostrils and lungs, trying to embed the memory if I could. I felt him pull away, then lean down to kiss me. Not the same burning kiss from earlier, but one that was light on my lips, that not only said goodbye, but that there’s more to come. With a sigh he drew away. We just stared into each other’s eyes for several seconds, then I gave him a brief nod, turned and walked away before he could see me cry.
SIX
Alex
“So what the hell was that all about earlier?”
“Hmm?” The door had closed behind Darien and I pulled my gaze away from it to look at Matt. “Which thing earlier?”
He gestured towards the laundry room.
“Oh, that. That… she’s a pretty girl, Matt, I don’t know.” I closed my eyes, rubbing at my forehead with my thumb. “Kat is attractive to me the same way she is to Darien, okay? The only thing that he finds more attractive about her is that she is so like Sasha, otherwise, I feel it too.”
“Need I warn you that he has a claim on her now?”
“No, no you don’t, he made that quite abundantly clear earlier and he isn’t going to have to worry about anything. He’s my best mate, I would never do anything behind his back. Besides, Kat really likes him, so the point is moot anyway.”
“And if she didn’t?”
“If she didn’t? Then I reckon things would be a bit different, but it would still come down to her choice. But she does, so just drop it, please?”
“Alright, alright, just saying.” Matt raised his hands in surrender. “So what’s going to happen now?”
“I don’t know, Darien will let me know when he comes back in, I guess. We still have to figure out this whole thing with the shooting, I mean, that wasn’t random, so someone around here either has it in for Darien, or for shifters, but we can’t just let it slide.”
Matt looked thoughtful and worried at his bottom lip with a tooth. There was something about the expression on his face that made me think that he knew something that I didn’t.
“What? What is it, Matt?”
“Nothing, why?”
“Give over. You know something, or think you do. What is it?”
He let a breath out slowly, his mouth twitching to the side a bit. “I don’t think that it was Darien who was the target, I think it might have been Kat.”
“What? Why?”
“I have my reasons, and I’m not willing, can’t, share them with you right now, just take my word for it that I am pretty sure that Kat was the target. Whether or not she’s still in danger, or if it was a one-time deal, I’ve no clue.”
The front door opened and Darien came back in. His face was unreadable, which meant he was dealing
with emotions that he didn’t want anyone else to see. He shut the door and leaned back against it, tilting his head back to rest against the wood, his eyes closed.
“Darien, Matt thinks that Kat was the target for the shooting, not you.” I knew it was going to be a jolt dumping the information on him like that, but he had to know.
It got his attention. His head snapped up and he fixed Matt with a stare. “Why? Why her?”
“I’m pretty sure she was, and I can’t tell you why I think so, at least not at this time,” Matt answered tightly, throwing me an irritated glance.
Darien laughed humorlessly. “Vampire politics. Of course. Still it would be helpful to know if she’s still in danger, Matt.”
“I honestly don’t know.”
A surge of anger and frustration welled up in me. We, Darien and I, had known Matt for a long time, Darien even longer than me, although only Darien had known him before he became a vampire. Sometimes it was hard to deal with the little secrets and political gaming that went on in the vampire world. I knew that Matt felt his loyalties torn at times, but it was things like the comment about Kat being the target and not being able to tell us why, even though we both knew that he had a pretty good idea, that made us angry.
He must have sensed the change in my mood, or seen the play of emotions cross my face because he leaned toward me, his own eyes showing a bit of helplessness. “Look, I know you guys hate this, you think I don’t? I wasn’t always a vampire, I was one of you once. But you have to realize the position I am in here. Once I make a few calls, talk to a few higher ups, then hopefully I can tell you more.”
Darien pushed himself away from the door and I could tell that although we both knew Matt could only tell us so much, it didn’t make Darien feel any better. He took the few steps to the couch and sat down heavily. He was stressed and looking a bit pale. The gunshot wounds that he had healed had drained him of energy and now that Kat wasn’t here to buoy him, he was beginning to flag.
Matt was just as aware as I that Darien was weakening, and concern showed on his face. He leaned forward until he was kneeling in front of Darien. He put his hands on Darien’s knees. “Look at me, Darien.”
Darien sighed, but made deliberate eye contact.
“We are pack, you and I, no matter what other events have happened to change my life,” Matt continued. “I know you are concerned for Kat, I am too. But I need more information, I need to talk to a few people and see just how much this is going to affect her, if it even will. Once I get a few answers, I’ll give you the answers you want. Fair enough?”
Darien stared into his eyes for a few moments longer before giving Matt a brief nod. “Fair enough. But you call me the second you find anything out, understand?”
Matt sighed and smiled. “Understood. Now,” and he turned and gave me a reproachful look, “you need to take him,” and he jerked his head in Darien’s direction, “out hunting before he collapses.”
“Yup.”
Darien’s head snapped up and he shuddered briefly. The toll the healing had taken on him was making it harder for him to control himself and the visual that had probably entered his head when he heard the word ‘hunting’ was bringing instincts to the fore.
He stood and headed to the converted dining room and I followed him. He searched through his small leather pack for a clean shirt, sighing as he drew his vest out of the pack. I’d wrapped it in plastic but it was ruined, the entire left side of the leather shredded and the patches on the back covered with blood.
“Your trench is in worse shape so Matt and I garbaged it. But we figured you would want to keep your cut, ruined or not,” I told him.
Darien had been a member of an all shifter motorcycle club since before I’d met him, but he was part of their nomad charter. The mother charter was in California and was small, an entire pack, and while the Alpha of that pack called on Darien occasionally for favors, Darien tended to keep his distance. Darien wouldn’t talk about it, but I got the idea that he knew the pack Alpha from his youth. I’d only met the pack once, and they had offered me a Prospect cut that I had turned down; it just wasn’t me. The sun and the waves, and a surfboard in my hand, that was me. It had been far too long since I’d put a board in the water, and I missed it, but I hated using rentals and all my gear was at Darien’s house down in Florida.
Darien tucked the plastic wrapped vest back into his pack. “Thanks.” He pulled a shirt out and put it on.
“You going to get a new one?”
He shrugged. “Eventually. Right now though, it’s one less thing to scare off Kat.”
“You’re probably right.” I wasn’t sure I entirely agreed; if Kat could handle the fact that he was a shifter, I doubted the biker aspect would bother her too much. But it was Darien’s call to make, not mine.
Darien’s bike had been pretty much unfixable, at least in any decent amount of time, so Matt had called for a tow truck to come pick it up and take it to the nearest shop. I figured Darien would probably just sell it to the shop for parts. He was well off, and the price of a new bike wouldn’t even faze him. But that left us without a ride so we headed down to the local car dealership in Matt’s SUV. It wasn’t a huge dealership, it was a small town after all, but they had a nice selection of motorcycles despite that.
It took Darien about half an hour to settle on a new one, another Harley Davidson that was just a newer model of his old one, red and silver. He paid for it with plastic, then he followed me back to Matt’s so I could drop off the SUV. We’d salvaged the saddlebags from the old bike and it only took a few minutes to attach them before we headed out of town.
We had been traveling together for years, and while there were times when we both needed our space, the pack mentality was what kept us together. We were pack brothers and best mates, but that was all there was to it. Other shifters, at least the kind who tended to run in packs, or groups, or whatever their particular animal species called it, understood. Those who didn’t, well, there had been many times when Darien and I had been perceived as a couple, with all that went along with it.
The wind felt good against my face as the motorcycle zipped along. Neither of us wore helmets, despite it being the law in most states. It would have been too confining. Despite his weakened condition, Darien deftly controlled the machine, steering it effortlessly around the many winding curves as we headed north up the highway and into the mountains. We had a particular spot we were fond of to go hunting in when we visited Matt, and it was several miles up the highway, then off the road on a barely worn trail back into the deeper woods.
This particular part of the state had many well wooded mountainous areas, but a good deal of them were in logging territories and the larger game tended to avoid those parts. Not that we wanted to chance running into a logging crew, or a human hunter. We all knew, especially myself, what could happen with stupid humans who were hunting.
It took almost two hours to get to our spot. Once off the main road, Darien had taken the trail slowly so as not to damage the bike, but also to keep our presence as hidden as possible. When we reached our destination, we parked the bike deep within the underbrush, covering what could still be seen, then both of us stripped down naked and hid our clothes with the bike.
For me, changing was always something akin to ecstasy, and I was pretty sure that it was the same for Darien. I stood there, feeling the air caress my skin, the warmth of the sunlight touching me where it managed to leak in through the tree canopy. My skin buzzed with built up energy and every sound, every scent, every sight became increasingly clear. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, reaching into the core of myself and tapping the wildness that was always there, always within us, just under the surface, and I gave it free rein.
The buzzing under my skin turned to a throbbing hum as I felt the essence of the beast surge forward, filling my veins, stretching my muscles. My skin didn’t tear or explode, as movies would have you believe, but instead stretched and rippled as bones sh
ifted and muscles thickened. I felt my face elongate, and my teeth lengthen, the almost unbearable itch of hair growing from my follicles until with a last almost orgasmic surge, there was no longer a human, but instead a good sized dingo. Yeah, a bloody dingo. It was still a canine.
Darien stood a few feet from me, completely transformed as well. He was somewhat larger than I, but he was larger in human form as well. We had three forms; human, beast, and Aspect. Our Aspect form was what most people thought of when they thought of werecreatures; a blend between man and beast, larger than either, and the form we were our strongest and most dangerous in.
Darien’s wolf was a solid midnight black. I had once envied him his coloration, but had become quite content with my own light ginger color over the years. After once voicing my wish that I was some cool dark color like his, Darien had pointed out to me that there were far more werewolves than weredingos and I should appreciate my uniqueness. Easy to say for him. He didn’t turn into a damned dog.
I gave a few experimental shakes, then voiced a yip at Darien. Contrary to popular belief, we retained our senses, our intelligence, our knowledge while in animal form. Sure, the beast was closer to the surface and it was much easier to lose control, but we were still us.
Darien gave a guttural reply back, turned and leapt into the heavily overgrown greenery. I followed right behind. In the distance, I could hear the gurgle of a creek and Darien headed us in that direction.
It didn’t take long to stir up some wildlife. A startled raccoon was the first to come into view. Luckily for the small creature, neither of us particularly cared for raccoon and we passed it by, leaving it frozen behind us. Chipmunks ran squeaking away, birds launched themselves toward the sky, and a skunk stared us down with tail upraised. We ceded the skunk its territory, and soon came upon what we were looking for; a small group of unsuspecting elk.
